No wonder I dreamed of him all night. Of him climbing up to my window, and kissing me the moment I opened it to let him in. Of course there was more to the dream, but I’m gonna let you fill in the blanks. I woke up at eight-thirty to a cold bright morning, feeling like I’d slept ten hours straight, full of energy, in the best of moods and ready for whatever the day may throw at me.
Looking out while I got dressed, I had a flashback of my dream and chuckled, shaking my head. I really needed to tone down my body chemistry if I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. At the same time, everything I saw through my window seemed to call out to me. So I wore my jogging clothes and trotted down the stairs.
Amy was already in the kitchen, making breakfast. She looked happy and energetic too.
“Going out so early?” she asked, handing me a steamy mug.
“No, thanks. It’s too beautiful a morning to stay indoors. Wanna join me?&rdq
my eyes, narrowing his, and his face hardened in a calculating expression for a long moment. Until he set his jaw, breathed deep and finally rolled his eyes with a curt nod.“Okay, okay,” he grumbled.“Then get a shower and a bite and go to sleep,” said Amy. “We’ll be back at four.”Trisha and I had already put everything away, and headed to the front door after Amy in complete silence.Back to the Manor, Amy sent us both upstairs for a shower and stayed in the kitchen, instructing Susan about what we needed for lunch. I don’t know if it was because of our face-off the week before or because Amy was almost her age and gave orders like a five-star general, but Susan did as she said without any questions.I was startled when I heard Amy knock on my bathroom door to check on me. She seemed worried after seeing the state I was in when we’d finished the cleansing a while earlier.“Mind t
I sat up in bed, not sure what had just woken me. The next thud shook the whole house. I jumped out of bed and scampered to the hallway. There was only one reason why Kujo could be doing it: Brandon was too close to him. I was halfway down to the first floor when Amy ran out of her bedroom, calling out for me to stop. I didn’t, and I heard her hurry after me. I stormed into the kitchen, expecting to find him out the door or something like that. An icy chill ran down my back when I found the backdoor wide open. What the fuck?Then I saw the basement door open too, and heard Brandon’s voice from down there, calling Kujo out.“Show yourself, demon!” he cried at the top of his lungs.What was wrong with him? Was he crazy?“Brandon!” I called, sprinting to the basement doorway.The stairs were in complete darkness, and I was forced to slow down and put my hands on the walls to keep from missing a step. I could hear th
I didn’t feel cold down in the basement. The burns hurt nonstop, no matter how many painkillers I swallowed, so Kujo soon was able to keep me warm alright. I slept in the next morning, waking up only when Amy came down to bring me my meds, something to eat and check on us both. I took the pills, wolfed down the food, gulped up the water and went back to sleep. Trisha woke me up in the afternoon with another tray of meds/food/water. I noticed somebody had been down there cleaning while I was sleeping. Whatever. Just like before, I polished the tray and went back to sleep.I only left the corner to go up to the restroom by the kitchen. And on my way in and out of the basement, I would go up to the camera and give the finger to whoever was watching. Hopefully that Price son of a bitch.That night, Amy brought my phone along with dinner.“They’re worried about you,” she said softly. “Poor Joseph’s been here all day, unable to get
Like just witnessing the cleansing had drained me, as soon as Trisha and Isaac left the basement, I felt weak and tired. Amy saw me stagger and helped me sit back down. “You can’t stay here, Fran,” she said, concerned. “Tomorrow,” I mumbled, feeling around to sneak into my sleeping bag. “Promise.” She sighed to swallow what she would’ve wanted to reply and tucked me in. “Here’s your phone,” she said, slipping it in my hand. “Kujo and Joseph are here with you, but just dial me if you need anything.” I just nodded, eyes already closed. I fell asleep so fast, I didn’t even hear her leave. It could’ve been five minutes or a whole year later that the yelling woke me up, and Kujo’s growls kicked me wide awake. It was pitch black down in the basement, meaning it was night outside. And somebody was yelling at the top of their lungs in the garden, repeating the same word. “Price,” said Joseph. I crawled out of my sleeping bag a
A golden glow of morning light flooded the basement when I opened my eyes. Amy and Trisha were there, crouching down by my side.“Shit,” I grunted. “Already?”“You said sunrise, not us,” replied Trisha, showing off her bulletproof good mood even if she was dying to sleep three or four hours longer.“C’mon, you need to get as ready for this as you can,” said Amy.“Take care Fran.”“Thank you, my boy.”I followed them all the way up to the second floor. Amy had everything ready in her room. She’d gone to town the day before, to get the healing cream and all she needed to change my bandages, and that was the first thing we did after Trisha helped me wash from head to toe and get dressed with clean clothes. The burns still looked awful, but according to the pictures Trisha was taking from night one, they were a tiny bit better than the day before. They d
“Watch out!”Isaac’s shout shook me awake, and I found myself wrapped in Price’s arms as he staggered toward the front door. Trisha sprinted past us to open the door and drop the cameras on the grass, then came to help Price take me out of the guesthouse. Behind us, I heard weird noises overlapping Isaac’s and Amy’s voices, like fireworks cracking and something being sprayed.Brandon —yeah, it’s Brandon again, you know how this goes— reached the porch, panting and grunting, and made one last effort to get to the garden.“Call 911!” he cried, turning around toward the house.I was still too weak and hurt to stand on my feet. My knees just buckled and I fell to the grass, dragging him down with me. From where we were, I saw Isaac spray the blazing flames coming out of the fireplace with an extinguisher, while Amy rushed to move everything away from there and pick up her things.Trisha
I woke up to the gentlest voice I’d ever heard whisper my name. I blinked a couple of times before really opening my eyes, feeling the soft touch of warm fingertips brushing my hair off my face. It was dark outside, and the golden glow of the lamp behind me showed Brandon crouching down by the bed, no hat, his head tilted to meet my eyes, lips pursed in one of his warm smiles.*Memo to self: I wanted to wake up like this every day for the rest of my life.“How are you feeling?” he whispered, like trying to wake up the swarm of infernal butterflies as well.I frowned and scratched my messy hair, ‘cause that’s me: the queen of hot and sexy.“Fine,” I mumbled, and found my hand had left my hair to rest on his cheek. “You? How are you?”“I could sleep a whole week, especially like this afternoon.” His wink made me blush at the speed of light. “But we ain’t done yet. You up fo
I think I got to frown. I’m not quite sure. If I did, it lasted less than a heartbeat, because his lips brushing mine melted it —and me— away. My eyelids fell, erasing whatever surrounded us, and I stood on my tiptoes to reach his lips better.He broke our kiss a lot sooner than I would’ve wanted, and met my eyes with that warm smile that was my doom.“Tell me again who’s in the Manor right now?” he whispered, his thumb tracing my parted lips.A stray brain cell, sole survivor of his kiss, helped me answer. “The Blotters.”“Three, four of them?”“Six.”“Six, wow. And your two friends, and Isaac, right?”“Yes.”“And a demon in the garden.”“He’s not a demon.”“Well, your hellhound pet in the garden.”“Yes.”He tilted his head and I knew whatever he