When Trouble Comes: Twisted Book 5

by Ho, Jo

  Sighing, Marley opened it expecting to see the two cops again, only to be met with Paul’s panicked eyes.

  “Dad?” she said, shocked.

  Paul gave her a quick once-over before he grabbed her in a bear hug. “Your RA told me what happened. Why didn’t you call me, Marley? I’ve been worried sick!”

  “It all happened so fast. I haven’t really had time to,” Marley replied.

  “But you’re OK? They didn’t hurt you?” Paul couldn’t stop looking her over as if he might have missed an injury.

  “No. The others got there just in time,” Marley replied causing Paul to finally look at the other girls.

  “I’m so grateful to you girls for turning up when you did. Thank you,” he said simply, eyes shining bright with unshed tears.

  “We’re just relieved we got there in time,” Eve replied earning another grateful look from him.

  “I want you to stay with me tonight,” Paul said to Marley, his tone implying that he thought she would disagree. “I know you’re an adult, and I’m happy you have friends who care about you, but you are my only child and I need to know that you are safe tonight.”

  Marley didn’t even look at Cassie when she responded. “Actually, I’d like that, Dad. I can’t stay here tonight.” Though she left out the words “with her”, Marley’s intent was clear for the other girls to see.

  Cassie looked stricken as Marley gathered together some items. When she had everything she needed for the night, she put her hand on Eve’s shoulder. “Thanks for everything tonight,” she said simply, then turned and gave Tyler a smile too.

  “No problem,” Eve replied.

  Then, deliberately blanking Cassie, Marley left with Paul as Tyler went back to her own room.

  * * *

  Silence hung over the room like a dark cloud.

  Eve looked at Cassie, though it wasn’t with all the disgust she thought would be directed at her. In fact, Cassie thought she could see a hint of sympathy behind her black-rimmed eyes.

  “Aren’t you going to ignore me too?” Cassie asked, steeling herself for Eve’s response.

  “No. I think you’ve already gone through enough,” Eve said to Cassie’s surprise. She went to Marley’s bed, took a seat on it and started to remove her shoes.

  “You’re staying?” Cassie asked, not prepared for that at all.

  “Someone has to keep an eye on you since you can’t seem to stop getting yourself in trouble,” came Eve’s level reply. She kept herself focused on the job at hand, but there was another reason that she didn’t want to go home.

  She didn’t want to be faced with that yellow dress again.

  Si would be leaving for work soon. Suddenly, Eve realized that she had the car again even though it was Si’s shift with it now. Taking out her phone, she sent Si a message to let him know what had happened with Marley, explaining that she’d be staying with the girls tonight. She ended with an apology for still having the car, promising that she’d cover him for his Uber rides.

  As she suspected, Si messaged back immediately, letting her know that she wouldn’t have to do that. He just wanted to make sure they were all OK — in particular, that she was OK after what had transpired that morning. She promised that she was and that she’d be home the next day. Texts done, she looked over at Cassie, who sat at her vanity desk, not knowing what to do with herself.

  Eve felt a pang of sympathy for her. The girl was awkward and kind of messed up, but she knew instinctively that Cassie hadn’t meant for any harm to come to Marley.

  “You want some pizza?” Eve asked her as she moved to the table and opened one of the boxes. “We never got to eat earlier.”

  Cassie was so grateful at the question you’d think Eve had just suggested so much more. She joined Eve at the table as they ate together in silence.

  Chapter 15

  Marley lay on the bed in the room that Paul had kept for her, her eyes glued to the ceiling.

  Several boxes were stacked onto a table. A box marked with “Marley’s Room” in a neat cursive black pen had been started on but had never been finished, clothes spilling down one side. A full-sized mirror sat propped up against a wall, while a blanket had been flung over the window until curtains could be bought. Having only recently moved to the city, Paul hadn’t had time to do much to the place, but the decor was the least of Marley’s concerns.

  It hadn’t been more than an hour since she’d left her dorm. Marley had taken a long shower in a desperate bid to wash the stain of her attackers away. Standing under the pulsating water would normally have calmed her, but she felt vulnerable, even in her dad’s new apartment, away from the college.

  Of all the stupid, risky things Cassie could have done… not to mention the creepiest. Marley did not consider her actions flattering in the least, especially when she combined it with that whole-body scrutiny she had caught Cassie doing on many occasions. The entire thing creeped her out.

  Which was just great considering how they were indelibly tied together now.

  The sound of Paul watching a sports game on the TV in his room came from across the hall. He had always kept his door open at night so that he could listen out for Marley and the night terrors she had experienced ever since she was a child. It was a habit that he stuck with even now. She found it reassuring, even if things were a little strange between them.

  On the drive there, they had talked a little. Well, Paul had talked, Marley had mostly listened. Understanding that she wanted to put the attack behind her, Paul had chatted about work, and movies — just about everything other than what had happened today.

  He also avoided any mention of their last conversation and how that had ended.

  While she knew he would always have her back, that he was her person, there was now a small cloud of doubt that hung in the air, making unease flood her body.

  She lay on her back, an arm flung over her eyes to block out the stray beams of light that came through the gaps in the blanket on the window. Exhausted, she had lain there hoping for blissful oblivion… but sleep would not come.

  She wasn’t sure exactly how she knew she had company. There was no noise, no change that she could pinpoint or explain. The air just suddenly felt different. She froze, half in fear that her visitor would be Mary. Although she knew that the ghost had not only saved her life but was also her ancestor, she was still a feral spirit who terrified the crap out of her every time she appeared. If she was back, Marley needed to prepare herself for it.

  “Are you asleep?” Christian’s voice softly from the darkness.

  She turned to face him, found him standing by the window, his face hidden by shadows. “No.”

  He was silent for a moment until Marley began to wonder what he was doing there if he didn’t have anything to say. When he finally spoke again, there was a strain in his voice that she didn’t expect.

  “I’m sorry,” he apologized.

  Marley waited, expecting him to expand further but he didn’t say anything else. Propping herself up onto her elbow, she peered into the room, where she could just make out his silhouette.

  “Why?”

  “I’m a Guardian. I’m meant to protect people like you, but the only thing I could do today was to slap at a slice of pizza.” There was no humor in his voice, only anguish.

  “Wasn’t it precisely that action that got the girls to come and find me? You saved the day, Christian. That’s no mean feat.”

  “But I should’ve done more. I’m supposed to do more,” he said. Marley didn’t need to see his face to know how tortured he was by his perceived failure.

  She softened her voice. “I don’t know what more you can do, Christian. You are dead, after all.”

  He didn’t reply. She didn’t think he would. She knew her words might have sounded a little harsh, but she couldn’t have him blaming himself, especially when there was a prime suspect for that. As far as she was concerned, his actions helped to stop something even more terrible from happening. She
needed him to know that she was grateful, but she also needed him to realize his very real limitations.

  Christian stepped forward into a ray of moonlight. No hint of his usual sardonic manner remained. This Christian was humble, worried… Marley wasn’t sure but she thought she also caught the hint of fear in his eyes. Was he worried about her because it was his duty or was there something else driving his concern? He was a mystery, as ever.

  “You should rest,” he said to her.

  Marley was about to say that she wasn’t tired when a wave of exhaustion hit so hard that she had to stifle a yawn. Even as she tried to resist, her eyelids lowered of their own accord. As she spiraled into the depths of sleep, her last thought was how strange it was that she found Christian’s presence comforting.

  Christian knew the second she had fallen asleep. Her shoulders relaxed and the tension she had been holding onto all day finally seeped away.

  He wished he could get that same relief.

  In his mind, he saw Miles and Jason coming at her and instantly felt that awful, petrifying fear consume him once again. Having trained his entire life to fight evil, he could handle himself against most physical threats, and those two scumbags? He could have dealt with them so easily if he were still alive. Instead, he’d had to leave Marley there to fight them off by herself, knowing that they wanted more than a kiss.

  His stomach churned, round and round until he felt sick. His mind knew this was an impossible feat, yet his body hadn’t come to turns with this new state — and might never come to terms with it. Feeling conflicting emotions well up inside, he watched as Marley slept.

  Chapter 16

  Impatient knocking on the door woke Tyler.

  She staggered to the door, opening it to reveal Eve and Cassie, both already fully dressed. While Eve had tried her best to Goth up, Cassie’s box of tricks obviously didn’t cover much black, which meant Eve was revealing much more of her actual face than normal. She held a sheet of paper in her hands, barely able to conceal her impatience.

  “What on Earth are you two doing here so early?” Tyler asked hoarsely as she cleared her throat.

  Eve waved the sheet of paper at her. “With all the stuff that happened yesterday, we completely forgot about the research we were doing. Well, last night, I couldn’t sleep, so I started going through it all, and then something happened!”

  At the excitement in her voice, Tyler stood straighter, eager for some good news for a change. Eve went to the table, setting the sheet onto it as the others crowded around her. “I was going through the list when I suddenly felt this magic pull is the only way I can explain it. It happened when my hand was over this particular page of the list and it grew stronger and stronger until I put my finger on this entry.

  Tyler tried to blink the rest of her sleep away. “Saugus Iron Works? Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

  Eve shrugged. “I guess not, but it’s a historical site, known as the birthplace of America’s iron and steel industry. It’s a National Park now, only ten miles or so outside the city. I think we should investigate.”

  Tyler gaped at her, her mouth open. “What, now?”

  Finally taking in her glazed eyes, Eve softened her approach, taking pity on her. “Tyler, why don’t you grab a quick shower to wake up. Cassie can go pick up some breakfast for us all while I call Marley and update her…”

  Eve had already started steering Tyler away, neither of them paying Cassie any mind.

  “I’ll go get us some food then,” Cassie said to no one in particular before moving off down the hall, cutting a lonely figure.

  * * *

  A little later, they pulled into the communal parking lot for Paul’s building.

  What the apartment block lacked in interest, it made up for in newness. Neutral paint coated the walls with the only pop of color coming from the young plants spilling down from a handful of hanging baskets. This was one of those newly-built blocks that seemed to be popping up everywhere lately.

  Marley had agreed to come with them today — much to Eve’s surprise — but she’d needed a ride. Paul had offered, but the girls hadn’t wanted to clue him in on their plans. The fewer people they had to explain their actions to, the better. Having decided that they didn’t need to all go storming into Paul’s apartment, Tyler and Cassie had decided to wait in the car, leaving Eve to climb the two flights of stairs to his new home. He’d let her in with a warm smile and an offer of coffee, which she declined, and she sat now in Marley’s new room.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to sit this one out? We’d totally understand if you wanted to spend the day with your dad or something,” she offered understandingly.

  Marley shook her head. “No. I want to come. It’ll be good for me to get out of here, get some air.”

  Eve’s eyes turned bright with approval. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

  “I just need a few minutes to wash up, then I’ll be ready to go.”

  She seemed to be coping well. Eve watched as Marley opened her overnight bag, taking out clean underwear and tying her hair up into a knot, but Eve knew she was struggling inside. She saw it in the way Marley’s hands occasionally trembled, or how she stared at her own reflection in the mirror as if she were haunted by what she saw there. Eve wanted to comfort her, but truth was, there was nothing anyone could do. Marley would have to deal with this on her own and in her own time.

  Walking to the door, Marley suddenly stopped. “Oh hey, can you toss me over a towel? There should be a bunch of them inside that opened box on the table.”

  Since Eve was standing right next to the box, it made no difference to her. She reached inside for the towels when her hand froze mid-search.

  There, folded neatly on top of Marley’s clothes was her bloody, yellow dress.

  Fear constricted her throat even as her mind tried to reconcile what she was seeing. It was all in her head, she knew that, yet it didn’t make it any easier to accept. The dress had been destroyed, so there was no way it was there now, much less in this box, in Marley’s dad’s new apartment. All she had to do, was still her beating heart and carry on as usual.

  “What’s that?” Marley’s voice carried across the room cutting into the fog in her head. “I don’t own anything in yellow… it clashes with my skin tone.”

  The heart that had been beating now threatened to burst its way out of her chest. Marley could see it! But that would mean, it wasn’t in her head at all…

  It was real.

  Snatching a towel out of the box, Eve threw it across the room at Marley, then while her head was turned away, she shoved the dress into her bag, thankful she had thought to bring it with her.

  “Oh, it must be your dad’s then. Probably got put in with your things by mistake.”

  The lie rolled easily off her tongue. Thinking nothing of it, Marley left to go to the bathroom, closing the door behind her leaving Eve to stare at the dress so hard that her eyes began to water.

  What is happening around here?

  * * *

  Two hours later the girls found themselves pulling up to the historic park.

  On the banks of the Saugus River, acres of rolling green surrounded them. The park was big. Very big. Imposingly so. Climbing out of Eve’s car, Tyler made her way to a map, trying not to feel overwhelmed by the scope of what she saw there.

  “This place is nine acres, how on Earth are we going to cover all of that on foot — and in one day?” she asked, barely able to keep the incredulity from her voice. She reached into her bag almost as a reflex, taking out her trusty “water” bottle, quickly gulping down several big mouthfuls as Cassie quietly but noticeably watched her actions.

  Marley and Eve flanked her side, each of them studying the map.

  “We probably won’t have to cover the whole park,” Eve began, her eyes narrowing in on places of interest. She pointed to a row of buildings. “There are some forges here, with mills and a house. Then over here…” her finger moved across the
map, “are the waterwheels. I think we should try these first, considering the first seal was inside a building. It seems unlikely that it would be a tree or something.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Marley replied, if a little distantly. The entire car ride over, Eve had noticed that Marley hadn’t said much. She also hadn’t made any eye contact with Cassie, though as Cassie had sat on the backseat with Tyler, it hadn’t been too obvious that she was avoiding her. As if she knew Eve was thinking about her, Cassie flittered towards Marley hesitantly.

  “How are you feeling this morning?” she asked nervously.

  Marley looked at her but kept her voice and face neutral. “I’ve been better.”

  “Right,” Cassie replied, feeling terrible all over again. Marley noticed that Cassie’s eyes, which were usually made-up perfectly, were smudged today. There was a splotch of shadow on her cheek that had obviously dropped from her eyelids, but she hadn’t caught it. Even her lips seemed hastily dabbed in gloss that went over her lip line. All in all, if Marley didn’t know better she’d think that Cassie truly felt remorse over her actions.

  Yet just seeing her made Marley feel sick again.

  She wasn’t ready to deal with her just yet, couldn’t quite look her in the eyes. Turning away, she moved passed her, missing the compassionate look Eve shot Cassie.

  “Let’s head across to the other side of the park and work our way back to the car lot,” Tyler suggested, sounding suddenly energized. One minute she was falling asleep in the car, the next she was hopping around like the Energizer bunny. Eve couldn’t keep up with the girl. “What do you think, Cassie?” Eve asked, hoping to draw her out of that shell that she had retreated back into again. Cassie turned startled brown eyes at her, shocked that she would be asking for her opinion. She mumbled an answer back that Eve was just able to make out as her consent though it seemed actual words would take a little longer to surface.