Dark Heart of the Dragon

by Sophie Stern

  She smiles and nods toward a plate in the center of the counter, where a pile of chocolate chip cookies are cooling. Her grin is big when she notices my reaction.

  “Of course, dear. I can’t have my favorite granddaughter going hungry, now can I?”

  “I’m your only granddaughter,” I say with a mouthful of cookies, and she waves me away. A glass of milk appears in front of me and I down it quickly, then wipe my face with the back of my sleeve.

  “Just like when you were a girl,” Grandmother says, shaking her head in mock protest. “Some things never change.”

  Grandma picks up her knitting and asks me all about work and I quiz her on her quilting group. I want to know how Betty and Carrie and Mrs. Helsley are doing. They’re all alive and kicking, Grandma assures me, though Mrs. Helsley has been busy with new projects and hasn’t been to meetings in awhile.

  By 10:00, I’m exhausted, and I can’t hide my yawn.

  “Bedtime for you,” Grandma says, and I roll my eyes.

  “I guess we have an early morning,” I concede, and she just laughs.

  “You always were a stubborn one, little Red.” I kiss Grandma goodnight and head upstairs to my old room. Technically, it’s the guest room, but I lived there for four years in college, so I always think of it as mine.

  I brush my teeth and crawl into bed. At dawn, we’re heading out on a camping trip, just the two of us. It’s been awhile since we went up to her old hunting cabin, but I know it’s going to be a great week of relaxing and enjoying the wilderness together. We’re going to swim and eat and read. She’ll knit and I might work on a new art project.

  The possibilities are endless.

  As a girl, I always loved the woods and now, the chance to get out of Nellenston for a little while is much too tempting. There are too many weird things to deal with at work right now, too many strange problems and issues. I haven’t had a break since I started my job just after graduation and if I do say so myself, I think I’m well overdue for something like this.

  I snuggle up under the heavy handmade quilt and for once in my life, everything just feels right. Being at Gram’s feels like coming home. It’s the best feeling in the world and tomorrow, we’re going to have an amazing adventure.

  **

  The smell of coffee wakes me and I roll out of bed and yawn. I glance at the alarm clock blinking on the bedside table. 5:34am. Much too early for me to be awake. More importantly, why is Gram awake? She’s always been an early riser, but for her, that means 7:00. Not two hours before that.

  I wonder if she had a bad dream. Maybe she just wanted to get an early start. She didn’t mention it, so I didn’t bother to ask what time she wanted to leave. We’re both kind of casual when it comes to taking trips, so neither one of us ever stresses about leaving “on time.”

  I’m awake, so I might as well stay up. Plus, if Grandma is up, she might want help loading the car. We’ll probably take her SUV up to the woods, then hike the rest of the way to the cabin. Oh yeah, my ol’ Grams isn’t afraid of a good, old-fashioned hike. Not much scares her. It’s one of the things I love about her.

  I slowly open the bedroom door and pad down the hallway in my socks. Call if lazy, but I didn’t want to unpack my PJs last night. I’m still in my clothes from the day before: jeans and a tee, complete with my car keys still in my pocket. My hip is killing from where they were pressed against me all night. I shake my head at my own stupidity. I was so tired that I literally just crashed.

  Maybe I need this vacation more than I thought.

  I know Gram’s going to have a fit when she sees me, but I try not to worry as I quietly make my way down the stairs, careful to dodge the squeaky ones. I lived here far too long to be caught off guard by something as mundane as a squeaky stair. I finished making my way downstairs and round the corner into the living room. The lights are still off in the living room, the there’s a glow coming from the kitchen.

  And that smell.

  Coffee.

  I take a nice, long whiff. Okay, maybe being awake early isn’t such a bad thing. Not when there’s coffee to be had. I take a few steps forward, but then I stop. There’s something strange.

  Voices.

  I hear voices.

  Who could possibly be over at this time of day? It’s much too early for visitors, yet I hear Gram’s voice quietly murmuring in the kitchen. As I approach, something holds me back.

  I should burst in and demand to know who thought it was okay to bother a little old lady in the wee hours, but I don’t. I couldn’t say why, but there’s a growing feeling of dread in my stomach as I pause in the living room.

  Something is wrong.

  Instead of barging into the kitchen, I quietly walk over to the door and hesitate, waiting to hear what they’re saying. I wonder if I should run back upstairs and get my cell phone. Maybe I should call the cops. That might be a bit extreme, though. Maybe a neighbor just needed to borrow a cup of sugar or something…

  At 5:00 in the morning…

  “There’s no money,” Gram insists. Her voice sounds pained and weak. What the fuck? No one makes my Gram sound like that. “I haven’t gotten any here. You, of all people, should know I don’t keep cash on hand.”

  That’s true, I think to myself as she talks. Gram only keeps a small amount of cash on hand to pay her bills. She owns her house outright and invests most of the money she makes from her real estate properties. She doesn’t believe in having a jar of pennies hanging around. She’s very modern with her finances.

  But who wants money from her?

  A robber?

  A friend?

  A-

  “You know that’s not what I want, Grandmother,” the voice sneers, and I choke back a gasp. I know that voice.

  I could never forget that voice.

  My blood turns to ice as I freeze, waves of fear racing over my body as I realize who is standing in my grandmother’s kitchen, just feet from me.

  I haven’t seen my older brother in years, but I’ll never forget his parting words to me at our parents’ funeral.

  I’ll take everything.

  I didn’t know what it meant at the time. Not really. I was too young, too heartbroken to realize that he literally was going to take everything: and he did. He managed to become the trustee of the estate and I never saw a dime. Not that I wanted anything. I didn’t want a thing and Gram ensured all of my needs were met. She worked her ass off to care for me and she never complained.

  Jeffrey took everything my parents owned and ran off, and I haven’t seen him since.

  I haven’t missed him once.

  As a college student, I didn’t realize how good it was that he was away, that he was gone. I didn’t realize that it was great while it lasted, but that it would be a temporary reprieve. I didn’t realize that one day, my dear brother would come back.

  And that he would want to take even more from me.

  Jeffrey and I have never been close, we’ve never been friends, we’ve never gotten along. Why is he at Gram’s this early? Why is he asking her for money? What could he possibly need? Or want?

  He’s a few years older than me, so I barely even knew him when we were kids. He was always busy as a teenager, always caught up in his own world, and as soon as he was old enough, he left our family home to go do what he wanted. To fulfill his destiny, he said.

  Jeffrey lives with other people who are…like him. I’m not supposed to know that he’s only my half-brother, but it’s amazing how much you can learn about your family just by listening. Adults don’t watch what they say nearly as much as they should, and by the time I was 12, I’d figured out that Jeffrey was very, very different than me.

  Too different.

  “No,” Grandmother coughs three times, and I bite my lip. Three coughs. Her secret signal for get the hell out of here. I always thought she was paranoid and a bit weird with her little signals and secret codes, but now I wonder if she knows something I don’t.

  She has t
o be afraid for her life right now and I know for damn sure she doesn’t keep a gun hidden in the kitchen. She leaves all her guns at the cabin and now, for the life of me, I’m wondering why.

  She coughs once more and I bite my lip. Fear overtakes me, but I have to act. I have to do something. Anything. I have to get him away from her because if Jeffrey is here, it can only mean one thing: trouble.

  I can’t leave her alone with Jeffrey, not now.

  He obviously doesn’t know I’m here. I parked down the road, after all. There’s nothing that would let him know about my presence. My car keys are in my pocket. I could easily sneak out the front door and vanish into the morning. He’d never even know there was a witness.

  But something bad is about to happen and I’m not sure what to do.

  Why is he here giving Gram trouble?

  What does he need money for?

  “Listen,” Jeffrey says, and I hear him slinking around the kitchen. He can be absolutely silent when he wants to be, and he’s super fucking loud the rest of the time. Right now I wish he was on loud mode because I can’t tell exactly where he is in the room.

  Gram coughs again. Three distinct coughs. She’s practically begging me to leave, but I can’t. What if she needs me? What if I have to rush in there and save her?

  “I want the will. You change it now or Red dies.”

  What?

  The will?

  I know Gram has left some of her belongings and properties to me, but we both agreed she should donate most to charity. I don’t need much and there’s a lot of good that money could do in this world.

  Why would Jeffrey want her money now?

  He’s never been around: not since he ran off to live with a “pack.”

  “I will do no such thing,” Grandma says. “You’ll have to kill me first.”

  No.

  No, Gram.

  Of all the things she could have said: not that!

  Immediately, no longer scared for myself, I step into the doorway, but I’m too late. I’m just in time to see my brother’s hand shift into a big, furry paw with long, sharp claws.

  All the better to kill you with, my dear.

  He slices her throat and a scream dies in mine. My jaw drops open and obviously, the scent of fear fills the room because he whips around and sees me.

  “Just who I wanted to see,” he sneers. “Good morning, little sister. It’s been awhile.”

  I don’t let him finish speaking. He’s just killed my grandmother and as much as I want to call the cops, to yell, to fight, I know Jeffrey will kill me in a heartbeat because of what I saw.

  I grab the coffee pot from the stand and throw it at him, then race out of the kitchen, through the living room, and out the front door.

  His scream fills the house. The coffee probably burned, and I know the glass would have stung, but not long enough to hold him. I keep running to my car, start the engine, and drive off. He can’t chase me on foot. Not right now. I have a little bit of time to get away.

  But I don’t want to get away.

  I just want my Grams back.

  **

  Tears fill my vision as I drive rapidly down the road.

  I can’t go home. That’s the first place Jeffrey will look. If he’s looking for me, he’s probably found my cell phone upstairs, and it’s not like it would be hard to get my address from there. I can’t return. Not now. There’s no way I can risk something like that, so I decide to do the next best thing: go to the hunting cabin Grandma planned for us to spend the weekend at.

  When I reach the edge of the forest, I park my car. I stare at the entrance for what feels like an eternity. I should do this. I have to. I could always go hide at some fleabag motel or one of Gram’s real estate properties, I realize, but I’m too scared to do that. I can’t stand the idea of sitting around like a waiting duck, wondering who might see me or betray my location.

  In the forest, it’ll just be me and the wildlings.

  In the forest, no one can touch me.

  I can’t explain why I always feel safe there, but I do. Jeffrey won’t find me there and if he does, I can use one of Gram’s weapons she has squirreled away in the cabin. I’m no wilting flower. I’ll be okay.

  Before I run headfirst into the forest, though, I realize that I need to ditch my car. Even if he didn’t get a good look at it, Jeffrey has friends in high places. It wouldn’t take much for him to find out my license plate info.

  Hell, Jeffrey could even get the cops to start looking for me. Then what would I do? He’s older, smarter, and has more money than me. I don’t have a reputation or a record, but I also don’t have any friends on my side. And let’s be honest: little orphan Red is going to look a lot more like a liar than my brother.

  It’s just facts.

  He’ll play the concerned, well-meaning older sibling who just wants the best for his little sis. Then, as soon as he has me alone, it’s over.

  Done.

  I need to ditch the car.

  I pull back onto the road and drive a few miles down, then turn into a residential area. It’s not ideal, but I’m guessing someone isn’t going to report a random car parked on their street right away. It’s not like where if I park at a business or restaurant, the staff is going to complain about my car after a few hours and have it towed.

  Then he’ll find me right away.

  Since I hauled my duffel bag inside the house last night, I don’t have my clothes or anything of importance in the car. There’s a little bag of snacks, which I take, but Gram had planned to bring most of the food. I sling the backpack on my back and lock the car. I don’t know what to do with the keys, so I just pocket them and start walking back to the woods.

  The sun is finally starting to rise, but it’s stupid and pointless. I feel numb as I make my way back to the forest’s edge. I feel isolated. I feel empty. Gram is gone and there’s nothing I can do to change that.

  She’s gone.

  I try not to think about the hollow look in her eyes as her body slumped forward over the table. I try not to think about the blood. I try not to think about Jeffrey.

  But I can’t, and the tears start to fall.

  Pushing them back only works for so long, but by then, I’m at the edge of the woods. There’s no looking back now. I have to go on. If he finds me, that’s it. I pray and hope he doesn’t remember the hunting cabin. I don’t think Gram ever took him to it, so luck is on my side if I play my cards right.

  I only hesitate for a moment before heading down the familiar path. One last look at the quiet town behind me, then I'm gone. I have to be. I can't be at my apartment when Jeffrey arrives or I won't stand a fighting chance. He's bigger, stronger, and smarter than me. He's more vicious. He'll do anything if it means getting what he wants, no matter what the cost.

  And no one can stop him, not even the police.

  The cabin I plan to hide out in is a two-day hike from the forest’s edge. Grams and I planned to come through the north side of the forest, making it only a half-day hike, but I don’t want to spend any more time driving than I have to. If I drive around, Jeffrey or one of his minions will find me. That’s small town life for you.

  The cabin doesn't hold any magical powers or have a hefty stash of weapons or house a savior who can rip me out of this nightmare I've been living in. No, it doesn't have any of that. It's just a quiet place where my grandmother used to take me. It's a quiet haven that Jeffrey doesn't know about. He certainly doesn’t remember it. I try to remember if he’s ever been there. I don’t think he has. Grams always liked me more, which sounds mean, but is true. Jeffrey never really wanted a relationship with her, so she spent most of her time with me.

  And oh, how we loved that cabin.

  It's a place where I can be alone and I can be safe and I can hide until I figure out what to do.

  Right now, I have no idea how I'm going to survive the next few days or even the next few weeks. I know I'll have to return to Ashborne eventually. I'll have to g
o back and claim my inheritance someday, but I also know that doing so means I'm going to die a painful death at the hands of my brother. Right now, I'd rather be alone in the woods than dead over some stupid money.

  The path I'm walking is rugged and bumpy. I hold the electric lantern higher in my hands, wishing I had a real flashlight, but it's late and I’m in the middle of nowhere. It's not like there's a 24 hour supercenter here. I try not to think about creatures that could be lurking in the woods. I try not to think about all the bad things that could happen to me between here and the cabin. I can't.

  I just have to get there, then everything will be okay.

  It's not long before I'm shivering in the cold and I wish that I had something heavier than my red cloak, but I don't, so I cringe and keep going. The cloak is long and thick, but it's no match for the cool air. I just need to get as far as I can before Jeffrey shows up and starts searching the woods for me. Would he go that far? Maybe he’ll think I skipped town.

  Probably.

  There’s still the chance, though. There’s still the possibility that he’ll want to cover all of his bases.

  The police will argue that I was kidnapped or hurt, but he'll know I’m alive. He always knows.

  He’ll try to convince them to name him the heir, that despite being specifically excluded from my grandmother’s will, he should get the money. I know him. It’s the first thing he’ll do. Grandmother left very specific instructions, though, and had the best legal team in Ashborne prepare the documents she left behind. When he realizes he doesn’t stand a chance without my death certificate, he’ll do everything in his power to get it.

  I don’t know what I’m going to do when he finds me.

  My brother is the scariest man I’ve ever met, one of the worst villains I’ve ever encountered. The idea of him finding me, of torturing me, of killing me swiftly sends waves of nausea over my body. My stomach turns as I think about his dark sneer, about the blackness in his eyes. I shiver, wondering if I’m making the right choice, knowing full well that I’m not. He’s going to find me eventually. It’s really a matter of when.