“That was a short pee break,” Wanda smirked. “You took less time than Seth.”
“Hey!” Seth protested.
I…what? Staci reached for a soda so she could turn her wrist and covertly check her watch, and was shocked to discover she’d been gone less than five minutes. It had seemed like thirty, at least!
“I had to get back in time for the next movie,” she said, feeling breathless and cold. And just that moment, Sean came up behind her and slipped an arm around her. She managed not to jump and squeak.
“You’re going to love this one,” Sean promised. “Well, maybe not love, exactly, but it is a fantastic movie, and very well done. Definitely stands out from the others.”
They made their way back to their seats with gourmet popcorn and sodas, as the big screen began a countdown to warn everyone still at the buffet that the movie was about to start. She settled down into her seat with Sean, and did her best to relax, but she couldn’t stop her shoulders from tensing up. Sean pulled her closer as the movie started to roll.
It was brutal from the very beginning; extremely graphic violence punctuated the film every few minutes, and the characters’ fear seemed to filter through to the audience. There were more than a few screams whenever a monster jumped out of the shadows, or someone suffered an incredibly brutal death. Every time that happened, all that Staci could imagine was the boy she met after she had walked through the gazebo. All of the fake blood became his blood, the screams and cries his, the looks of terror on the actors’ faces were pale visions of his. She jumped constantly, shaking at certain points from the adrenaline and fear coursing through her. Sean was smiling for the entire film, keeping his arm wrapped around her and rubbing her shoulder or arm whenever she freaked out over a scene in the film.
When the credits finally rolled, there was clapping again, but it was much more muted. Most of the crowd were smiling at the “thrills” they had experienced watching the film, but Staci felt completely played out. Not just from the emotions the film raised in her, but from the running, the magic, and the trauma she had gone through before even sitting down to watch. As soon as she was able, she excused herself, citing that she was merely sleepy when she felt utterly wiped. Everyone said their goodbyes and goodnights to her, though she caught Wanda casting an odd glance at her several times during the process.
Once it was Sean’s turn, he seemed to be absolutely glowing, his smile wide and showing teeth. “I’m very glad that you were here with me tonight, Staci. I love spending time with you, and now your friends, too. I can see why you hang out with them. I can honestly say tonight wouldn’t have been the same without you.” He leaned down, bringing his lips to hers. The initial thrill that she felt quickly dissipated, and she felt even more run down. He was a good kisser, but she pulled away before it went on too long.
“Goodnight, Sean. I’ll see you in the morning.”
With that, she dragged herself back to the mansion and into her room. She didn’t even bother to change or clean up her makeup before she flopped onto the bed, fast asleep.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Staci slept late; a lot later than she had intended to. She had had more nightmares; she was back on the other side of the gazebo. This time, instead of finding her way back, she got lost, and the boy screamed endlessly for her to save him as she was being chased. She wished all of last night was just a nightmare, but no such luck. It was Wanda who came to wake her up rather than the other way around. And once she got down to breakfast, she felt as if she could devour the entire buffet.
The morning passed uneventfully, with the gang and about half of the cousins either playing in or spectating a water-polo game—a unique version that was a lot like tag-team wrestling, in that any of the players could “tag out” any of the spectators if they were dangling their legs in the water poolside. Wanda and Staci sat that out in one of the Jacuzzis; Wanda because she said that she’d lose her Goth card if she was caught playing anything with the word “polo” in it, and Staci because she was still feeling drained.
Lunch was the most amazing buffet of sandwich-makings that Staci had ever seen, and once again, she felt so hungry it was almost as if she hadn’t stuffed herself at breakfast. After lunch was more poolside lounging, swimming, and soaking in one of the Jacuzzis for some, while some of the rest of the cousins played some vicious tennis on the two tennis courts. Finn and Meaghan were two of the latter lot; they were playing mixed doubles and put just about everyone out without scoring.
But in late afternoon, it was time for the gang to go back home. They were all very grateful for being invited this time (not even Wanda was the least bit sarcastic), thanking Sean for the wonderful weekend and looking forward to seeing him—and in Seth’s case, the buffet lines—again. When the goodbyes and thank yous were all said, Wanda hung back from the group a little bit, giving Staci a long hug.
“Talk to you when we’re back in town,” she whispered into Staci’s ear, low enough that for a second Staci thought she had imagined it, until Wanda nodded her head as she rejoined the others. Something is going on with her. She couldn’t have seen anything like what I saw last night, not with the glamour stuff. Right? Staci had been sure to grab hold of her magical cell phone charm every now and again, playing at checking the time on her phone, just to make sure she wasn’t under the same sort of mind-fog spell she had been the first time she came here.
Then they were in the limo and heading back to grim, bleak Silence. And she was still here, for another three days, the princess in the enchanted castle.
Except the castle has monsters in the forest.…
But there was no sign of the monsters at dinner—which was another formal dinner, with all the fancy silverware and Bradan Blackthorne and his guests in attendance. Conversation was subdued—Finn didn’t speak at all except to ask a servant for something. And yet it wasn’t a depressed sort of subdued. It was much more as if everyone at the table was anticipating something, something they wanted, and thinking about it too hard to make any effort at talking.
All save for Sean, who looked like the proverbial cat that had caught the canary. Normally, when Finn was around, he was on edge; not tonight. He ate heartily, but looked as if he was already sated, and merely eating out of habit or simple sensuous enjoyment of the food.
After drinks and some light conversation around the table, the younger cousins retired to Sean’s poolside “palace” (and now that she thought about it, it really was palatial) and his living room. His living room was bigger than the entire house she lived in with her mom—all three floors, basement included. Though she had been spending days at the estate, she still found herself getting overwhelmed by the size and luxury that the Blackthornes were utterly accustomed to. She stayed close to Sean, which seemed to suit him just fine. The rest of the cousins quickly booted up the projector and a game system; it looked like they were in some sort of four-player, split-screen cooperative game.
She’d seen this before, the last time she was up here. It was some sort of medieval fantasy game, but one she had never heard of before—and Seth and Jake knew about a lot of games. It seemed to involve hunting something, using mounts that…well, they weren’t horses, though they were vaguely horse-shaped. And packs of huge, black, mastifflike dogs. She never really saw what was being hunted; by the time the hunters and dogs cleared away from their prey, it was already de-rezzed and dissolved. There seemed to be several sorts of territory to hunt in, but they were all confusing. Impenetrable forest, that you had to find the paths through, with things in there that would ambush you. Swamp, with weeds as high as the riders’ heads, and if you got off the path you were sucked to your doom. Mountainous desert, with quicksand and ambushes. Frozen wasteland, where you had to traverse crevices, frozen valleys and mountain paths, and you got ambushes, avalanches, and the possibility the path would break off beneath you and hurtle you a million feet to death. And caves. Caves with all of those perils. So it wasn’t as if the hunters had it all their ow
n way.
Still. Sean’s cousins were really, really good at this game. Sean himself didn’t seem interested in playing; instead he sat with her, watching the game and talking. It was all pleasant enough, save for how the dogs in the game reminded her of last night. She was still feeling drained, though, and soon excused herself to go to bed early. Sean escorted her back to her room, this time ending the evening right at her door with a very long, very soulful kiss, holding her so closely it felt as if he was holding her up. Maybe he was; she was so tired even her knees felt weak. It wasn’t long after shutting the door that she had brushed her teeth, changed into the silk nightie provided for her, and drifted off to a hopefully dreamless sleep.
* * *
Staci was having another dream, but this one was formless and terrifying instead of vivid and terrifying. Not much of an improvement in her mind. She was thankful when she woke up, but couldn’t shake the feeling that something had caused her to wake up. She checked the clock on her nightstand; it was almost a quarter past midnight, so she hadn’t been asleep for very long. She was about to lie back down and try to sleep again when she heard a noise; maybe somewhere outside of the mansion.
No, it wasn’t a noise; it was one, louder noise that had carried over the sounds of…well, it sounded like thudding, like feet on grass, and some snorting, and some watery sounds. The louder sound had been something like a squeal and something like a bleat, and something like a bark. Like an animal, but not like any animal she had ever heard before. A very big part of her wanted to hide under her covers and ignore it…but she had to look, to find out what it was. Carefully, she swung her feet over the edge of the bed, gingerly putting her weight on the floorboards. She felt ridiculous, creeping along the floor like a robber out of a cartoon as she made her way to the window. She was about to give up, and chalk it all up to her imagining things in a dark house…when she heard the noise again. She slowly pulled the edge of the curtains with her right hand, peering out of the exposed corner of the window.
What she saw made her blood freeze in her veins.
The “Hunter” she had seen last night was there on the lawn by the pool. There were others that looked almost identical to him, though he was the tallest of the lot. They were milling around, looking anxious. Most of them were astride equally giant horses of some type; all were jet black, and mean-looking, pawing at the ground with monstrous hooves. That was horrible enough, the sight of the Hunter, the others, and the mounts. What truly scared her were the dogs; they looked like mastiffs, only bigger. Several of them were lapping water from the pool; the underwater lights illuminated the water, and wherever the dogs were drinking from…the water looked pink.
Those are the dogs from last night…and that’s blood coming off of their mouths.
A group of four riders came from around a bend of the hedge maze. They were clad in similar leather garments as the Hunter, but weren’t nearly as tall or solidly muscled. At a guess, they were elves; some of the Blackthorne cousins, or maybe Bradan’s “guests.” She couldn’t see who it was clearly from the window. What she could see, however, was that each of them and their mounts had been spattered with blood, and quite a bit of it. She leaned in closer to the window, daring to lift the curtain a little bit higher. If she could just get a look at one of the riders…
Suddenly, the Hunter from last night looked directly at her window. She stifled a yelp, letting the curtain drop and quickly ducking down beneath the edge of the windowsill. Please say he didn’t see me, please say he didn’t see me…
Staci took a chance, using a single finger to lift up the barest edge of the curtain; the Hunter wasn’t looking at her window anymore. But one scare was enough for her; just in case, she wanted to be back in bed if anyone came up to investigate. She had to remember that, even as wonderful and pleasant as things were with Sean, she was still in “enemy” territory here. As quietly as she could manage, she slipped into bed. Before she could form a thought about what had just happened, she was asleep again.
She woke up. It was gray, gray dawn again, and once more, there was someone in the chair by the window. But this time she wasn’t afraid. She knew it was Sean, and she knew he would always make sure she was all right.
Last night…the horses, the Hunters…must have been a nightmare, caused by watching too much of that video game.
She must have moved, because the silhouette of Sean’s head moved. “Are you all right?” he said. “I was coming to see if you were awake and wanted breakfast and I heard you cry out. But when I came in here, I saw you were asleep.”
“Just a really, really weird nightmare,” she replied. “Nothing even happened, really, it was just nasty.” And even now, it was fading. She could scarcely remember why it had been so terrifying, much less what had happened. “I’m starving,” she said, “I’m glad you woke me up, I might have eaten my pillow in my sleep.”
Sean got up from his chair, and she could hear the smile in his voice even if she couldn’t see him smiling. “Then I’ll get out so you can get dressed. I’ll see you downstairs. About half the guests are gone, so the next couple days will be quieter,”
The next two days were a blur of more leisure and fine dining. She spent almost all of her waking hours with Sean; the more she was around him, the less and less she worried about what she had seen on horror movie night, or the night after. She’d take care of it when she got back down to Silence, but right now it didn’t seem nearly as important as looking into Sean’s eyes. She found him in her bedroom again on the last morning that she would be staying at the estate; it was comforting, knowing he was there, watching and protecting her. She still felt tired, more than a little drained, but didn’t care; probably just getting lazy and easing into actually relaxing for a change.
When she left at noon on Wednesday, she cast a single wistful glance back at the estate. Sean had seen her to the limo, giving her a final kiss and thanking her for everything over the week, saying how her being there had made the entire week for him. She glowed with every compliment, and wanted to stay, but of course she would have had to get permission all over again from Mom. And anyway, he said that they would have plenty of time together soon enough. With that, she was driven back to dreary, dead Silence. She felt as if she was going into exile; she didn’t belong in Silence, she belonged up here, in the sun with Sean.
It was with some irritation that she remembered that she had promised the gang to meet them at the bookstore that evening. She really didn’t want to, but a promise was a promise. More blah blah blah about games, I guess. Not that I can blame them too much; the games are the only excitement they have going for them. How sad was it, when the only thing worth doing in a town was getting together in a shabby old bookstore and playing fantasy games? Anywhere else, and she could so see all four of them doing amazing things. Jake and Riley could be going on real dates, to real clubs and things, like a real couple. Wanda would probably be at a magnet school doing art. And Seth—well Seth would be up to his eyes in computer equipment, and he’d probably already be in college with tech firms eyeballing him and salivating.
She put her clothing away—no need to do laundry for herself, the maids had laundered everything except the outfit she was wearing, and damned if she was going to do Mom’s. Mom had to do something for herself, and if she wanted clean clothes to wear, she could wash them herself. Then she got on the dialup and checked—as best she could—her Facebook page. Even though she’d been away from the net for a whole week, there were only three posts and none of them were even asking about her. She’d have slammed the lid of the laptop shut hard in a surge of anger, if she hadn’t felt too dull to really get any anger going.
Whatever.
She retrieved her bicycle and started the long pedal down to the bookstore, still remembering the feeling of the sun on her face and Sean’s hand in hers.
* * *
The minute she stepped through the door to the bookstore…something happened. It felt just like she’d had a col
d—that foggy, not-quite-focused feeling—and now it was lifting. She realized just how exhausted she had been feeling. Still was feeling, although at least she was thinking more clearly. She nodded to Tim, who had looked up as she came in, and was about to ask which coffees had been brewed today, when he spoke first.
“Hi there, Staci. I—” He stopped short for a moment, his eyes going wide before narrowing as he looked at her. There was something in his gaze, but it was gone before Staci could figure out what it had been; his eyes crinkled into a smile as he cleared his throat. “Sorry about that. Missed you around the shop, this last week. The rest of your crew seemed to have had a good time, though.”
“Well, it’s the Blackthorne Estate. They’ve got more money than anyone I’ve ever met and they don’t seem to mind spending it on parties,” Staci replied, feeling a bit…awkward.
“Right. Well. Coffee is on the house today. You look like you could use some java. Your friends are already in the back waiting for you.”
She could feel Tim’s eyes on her back as she walked past the counter towards the rear of the bookstore. What’s gotten into him?
Just as Tim had said, the rest of the group were already camped out in their usual space in the back. Staci said her hellos as she made her way to the coffee machine; the smell of freshly brewed coffee was already working to perk her up, and she was starting to feel like coming into the shop wasn’t such a waste of time after all. She fixed herself a large mug, turning to sit in her usual spot. She expected the gang to be embroiled in some discussion about a video game or movie, as per usual.
But Seth and Wanda were already deep in an agitated conversation, and Jake and Riley were sitting as tightly together as you could get, holding hands, and looking worried.
“Their car is gone,” Seth was saying, as if he was answering some question Wanda had answered. “It’s not like they just got beamed up to the Mothership or something. Their car is gone. So maybe they went for a joyride after the party and, I dunno, they’re wrecked, somewhere.”
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