by Dawn Gray
“Supposed to be with?” he questioned, and shook his head. “You were supposed to be coming home that day. There was something you needed to tell us.”
“What, Dad, what was I going to tell you?” I whispered, watching his eyes gaze over in a memory. “What was Samantha, you’re Sam, going to tell you?”
Don’t push too much, Sam, Zander warned and I nodded, knowing he was right.
I watched my father bite his lip, then scratch his head as his mouth tried to form the words he was looking for, but nothing seemed to come out. He quickly got up and headed to the stairs once again. I ran after him, Zander not too far behind, and listened to his footfalls as he hopped the last few stairs and moved down the hallway towards the second floor bedrooms.
I watched him slip into the bedroom at the end of the hallway, my bedroom, and I stepped in with Zander right behind me. My father stood at my dresser, his back to me and something in his hand, and then slowly he turned, holding a picture frame.
“We were so happy for you,” he whispered as he stepped closer to me. “Finally, our little girl had found just what she was looking for, somewhere she belonged.”
My heart skipped as he reached out, the picture extended towards me, and my hands shook as I fought with them to move and take his offering. The smooth black frame of the five by seven frame was cold against the warm skin of my palm and carefully I turned it towards me, to see the picture clearly. My heart fluttered in panic as the faces of two people, smiling, happy and very much in love, stared back at me.
I remembered the sweater that I wore, having lost it one sudden day in the winter around the time I was supposed to take the trip up to visit, and those silly black framed glasses that I wore were thrown in the trash just after Christmas when I had Lasik done to correct my near-sightedness. But it was the second face that made me fear my heart would stop. His big brown eyes flashed with love, and his hair fell in his eyes the way it did every time I looked at him. His strong arms were wrapped around the waist of the girl in the photograph and his chin rested on her shoulder.
Tears fell from my eyes as I stared and reached out, gliding my fingers down over the cheeks of the man in the picture. I looked up at my father, his eyes red with his tears, and I turned to look at the man who stood in the doorway, waiting for any type of reaction that I could give.
His face filled with concern, and his arms moved to his side as he uncrossed them and took a step forward.
“What is it, baby?” he whispered as my chin quivered and I flashed a quick smile at him.
“It’s you,” I replied, taking a deep breath as I glanced down at the photograph one more time. Zander stepped close enough to take the frame from my hands and I watched him look over it with as much confusion as I did when I first saw it. I turned to my father as I watched Zander sit on the bed. “Where is he, Dad?”
“I think she was going to tell us that they were engaged.” He smiled, full of a pride that I hadn’t ever seen when I was growing up. “He was ex-military, very smart and very good for her. She was so excited to be coming up, she was never excited to come home. We knew this place terrified her, but we had to stay to keep the portal from opening wide and taking over.”
“Dad, where is Zander?” I questioned, knowing that it was going to throw my Zander for a good loop. My father rested against the dresser, slumping as if all of the emotions were too much for him.
“They’re not together,” he answered.
“Not together?” I whispered. You were supposed to be with me, I thought to myself and shook my head. “Where is he?”
Zander stood, placing the picture down on the bed and he wrapped his arms around my shoulders, hugging my upper arms as he felt the heat growing in me. My father glanced at the sparks in my eyes and smiled.
“You have the same fire in you that she did, you know.” He smiled, and watched me shake my head, and I could hear Zander whispering to me as his pulse slowed the emotions that burned in me. “She could control it, but when she got angry, it flared up and almost burned down the woods behind the house.”
I thought about this for a moment and decided to change my direction of thinking. “Can you show me where?”
“Oh yes, it’s right outside the window here,” he said, walking over to point to the backyard.
I stepped out of Zander’s protective arms and walked over to the bay window in the back of the room. I knelt on the cushioned seat and leaned against the glass, looking over the forest that spread out from the back of the house. There, less than a thousand feet in, was a patch of trees that were burnt, leafless, and blackened. I turned my head to look at him.
“She didn’t get angry,” I whispered, my heart thumping in my chest. “She got scared.”
“What do you mean? I sent her out to get herbs and she came back angry, to prove it she set the woods on fire,” he said and shook his head. I turned on the seat and watched him walk over to the picture on the bed.
“Dad, she didn’t get angry. The night that you sent her out to get the herbs, the demon you had in the basement got loose. It came after her, and it hurt her. In order to get away the fire protected her, setting the ghoul on fire, helping her escape,” I explained as the scars on my back burned.
“She never told us,” he whispered.
“She was afraid,” I replied, pulling on my own emotions of the night to help me explain. “She thought that you wanted her to get hurt, so that the voices would stop, so that she would be normal. It’s the night they ended for you, wasn’t it? The night the voices stopped calling. But it didn’t stop for her, it turned to nightmares. Why do you think she went away?”
“My God, I never knew,” he whispered. “I didn’t even know the demon got loose. There was an electrical failure, nothing was registering, and I thought that was why he wasn’t in there.”
“She forgave you, Dad, you’re not at fault.” I sighed and stood. “There is one thing I absolutely need to know before we leave.”
“All these years, that was why she wouldn’t come home, why she left and never returned. I couldn’t have imagined the nightmares she was having in this house. I thought they had left her, just as they had left me. I thought I had saved my little girl from what I had to go through as an adult.” He sighed. “I was so wrong.”
“I need to know where Zander is, Dad.” I spoke in a calm voice, stepping up to the man before me. He was still staring at the picture of his Samantha, stroking her face with the tips of his fingers.
“I’m such a fool,” he said, breathing in deeply.
“DAD!” I shouted, and watched him finally look up at me. “If you don’t tell me what I need to know, than I’m going to join her. There is something after me, something evil and vindictive and out for revenge. If I don’t find the underlying cause of it, I’m going to be sitting in that graveyard next to her. So, I need you to tell me. Where is Zander Smith?”
“I don’t know,” he whispered in reply.
This stumped me and I heard Zander gasp as I rocked back on my feet. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“There was a fire, the car exploded. The only one they found was Samantha, but they knew that there were two people in the car,” he whispered, as if it were a secret. I sat down once again, and closed my eyes.
“Where was it, Dad, where did Sam die?” I asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
“On the lake road, they were coming in from Greenville,” he answered, his voice taking the tone of indifference
14
I stood up, kissed him quickly on the cheek, and left the room. I could hear Zander’s boots as they hit the stairs right behind me but I never glanced back, never even chanced a look into the living room to check on my mother before I sailed out the front door.
He grabbed my arm, stopping me mid-stride and turned me around. My eyes filled with tears and anger. I fought against his hold as I cried, but he pulled me to him, holding me gently but firmly in place as I sobbed. After a moment, I bro
ught my arms up and hooked my fingers onto his shoulders. His strong heart beat in my ear told me that he was real, standing there truly holding me. Because for a while, I almost forgot that I wasn’t really home, and that Zander hadn’t really died.
He moved me back, brushing the hair from my face that had fallen from the ponytail, and he kissed my forehead.
“Do you know what this means?” he whispered, looking deep into my eyes. I blinked, trying to clear away the tears and shook my head the best I could in his hold, and he placed his hands on my cheek. “This reality, this town or your own, we’re meant to be together, Sam.”
“You died,” I whispered as the aching feeling in my chest wouldn’t let me go and I closed my eyes tightly.
“I didn’t, Sam. I’m right here with you.” He took in a deep breath and placed his lips against mine. I could suddenly feel the tingle of his emotions in my mind as he broke through the heartache. Feel me, baby, know me, hear me. I’m here with you now! I’m not going to leave you. You’re not going to be alone. I love you.
I tilted my head up and looked into his brown eyes as they stared into mine, unsure of what I had just heard from him. His voice had been so sincere and so full of the emotion that I knew without a doubt that he was being truthful, but the shock had stirred my heart once again.
“What?” I asked quietly, my voice barely audible, and I watched a smile form across his face.
“It’s sudden, I know, but so is all that’s happened, don’t you think?” He grinned as he babbled. “I’ve never belonged to anything, never felt the way I do about you. The thought of being without you scares me, and every time I look into your eyes, my heart tells me the same thing. I love you, Sam.”
I moved my lips, trying to find the words, but all I got out was, “I…”
“No, don’t say anything, especially not that.” He sighed. “I don’t want you to say it yet even if that is truly how you feel towards me. I can’t hear it yet.”
“Why?” I questioned.
He smiled widely and shook his head. “Because I can feel it.”
His kiss was soft and loving, a gentle brush back and forth across my tear-stained lips, and he breathed against them, letting his warmth fill my heart. After a moment, he stepped away, taking my hand, and we walked away from the old house.
The walk up the driveway was done in silence, as I tucked my hands into my jacket pockets and kept my eyes to the ground. All that I had learned churned in my head and I felt empty inside, like a piece of me was gone. Another part of me soaring with the words that Zander had spoken, and I couldn’t resist the smile that formed on my face.
The crackling noise was quite annoying in my ear for a split second before Everett’s voice boomed over the transmitter. Zander looked at me, then adjusted the collar of his coat.
“Lieutenant,” the older man’s voice barked. “What’s your position?”
“On our way back, sir,” he answered. “Call in the troops. We have another location that may need some investigating.”
“Well done, Lieutenant,” Everett praised. Then, as if turned from the microphone, you could hear him state: “Bring them in. Walters, its time for lunch.”
I couldn’t suppress the laugh as the sound stopped and Zander took my hand, kissing my fingers as we walked.
“Are you going to be all right, Sam?” he asked quietly and I smiled at him, nodding. “Good, because I think we need a little time alone later.”
I watched him wink as we approached the SUV and I felt my face grow flush with heat as we stopped and watched the other three steps out of the woods. Without a word, we all piled into the vehicle and Daniels drove back to the small house we had occupied the night before.
I slipped passed the men as they all unloaded gear, grabbed a towel, and headed for the bathroom for a nice long shower. As the water sprayed on, I couldn’t help but think of Zander sitting in the living room.
I could join you if you really want. His voice tickled my mind.
No, because then they would know what we were doing. I was just thinking that it would be nice. I could feel the faint caress against my body as he pushed his emotions towards me.
Hurry out; the Captain wants pizza and a debriefing. He laughed.
Obviously, the Captain doesn’t have a lot of dealings with the fairer sex. Tell him I’ll be out when I damn well get out and he can order his pizza without me sitting there, holding his hand, I replied sarcastically and felt the humor from the young man in the other room.
Court marshaled, that’s what I’m getting! he said and broke the link with me, allowing me the privacy of my shower.
As I sat in my little chair in the corner, wrapped up in the blanket once again, I watched the men devour the party-sized pizza in front of them. My stomach turned as I witnessed them stuffing one piece after the other in their mouths and I closed my eyes. Zander’s gentle touch on my forehead made me look up and smile.
“You have to eat,” he whispered, and kissed me gently where his hand had just bed.
“Surprisingly, I’m not hungry.” I sighed and watched him sit down on the coffee table in front of me, and my eyes filled with tears as I tried to look away, but his hand took mine. “What exactly is this all about? We’re here and we can’t save the two people that we should be able to, ourselves.”
“We’re here to fix a problem, Sam.” He took a deep breath and played with the tip of my finger. “They’re not together, and they should be.”
I nodded, unable to reply to him, and watched as he kissed my fingers. He then turned to Everett to explain what exactly happened in the house on Miller’s Point. I closed my eyes and listened to his voice, not the words that came out. He stopped talking, maybe a half an hour later, and whispered in my ear once again.
“Come on, sweetheart,” he said, tugging on the blanket. My limbs were heavy, as if sleep had taken over my body, but my brain had stayed alert. I sat up to watch him take the warm comforter from me. “Sam.”
“I’m up,” I replied and followed him, half in a daze, as he led me out the door to the SUV. Walters sat in the driver seat as he and I slid into the back.
“Where too, sir?” The private questioned.
“You know where, Walters,” he replied, his voice harsh and flat. My heart jumped at the thought of being exposed to the lake road so soon after learning about the tragedy there. However, the SUV swerved down the back roads and up over the tracks to the middle of town, where he pulled into the small hotel we had stayed in the first night of our ‘quarantine’. Zander slid out, took my hand and helped me from the vehicle, then glanced at Walters. “Oh-nine-hundred, private.”
“Yes, sir!” The young man replied and the SUV drove away.
“What are we doing here, Zander?” I asked curiously.
“Helping you relax,” he answered as we walked into one of the rooms, after he slipped the keycard in his back pocket.
The room had one large bed in the center of it, a small refrigerator next to the table in the back, and from where I stood, it looked like a Jacuzzi in the bathroom. I turned and looked at Zander, smiling.
“You didn’t have to do this,” I whispered my voice barely recognizable.
“Yes, I did.” He smiled, and took his coat off. He settled it on the back of the desk chair and then moved over to the refrigerator and looked inside. “Oh look, shots!”
“Of what?” I inquired, as I placed my jacket near his and lay down on my stomach on the bed.
“Oh, the whole liquor store.” He laughed and closed the door. “You need to eat before you can drink, baby.”
“I need to sleep before I eat,” I replied, my eyes slowly closing as he knelt down on the floor and leaned on the bed with his elbows, staring into the blue he could see under my lids. “Want to come curl up with me?”
“You rest, I’m going to putter around here a bit.” He smiled, and moved the hair out of my face. I nodded, not much resistance left in me, and let the light sleep take over.
> When I came around, what felt like only a short while later, it was growing dark outside the window shades, and the television was on with the volume turned down to the minimum. I was stunned as I turned to watch it, to see Julie Andrews and Von Trap children dancing in a wide-open meadow.
“What the hell?” I questioned, sitting up fully. Zander laughed, as he sat over in a darkened corner, his eyes glued to the television. “Why are you watching ‘The Sound of Music’?”
“I wanted to see what you were ranting and raving about the other night, so I hopped across the street and grabbed a movie. So far, it’s very entertaining. Not ‘A Christmas Story’ good, but entertaining.” He laughed as if none of this was out of the ordinary. “Hungry yet?”
Just as he spoke the words, my stomach growled loudly. “Apparently.”
He pulled a brown bag from the next chair over, took out several wrapped grinders, and placed them on the table.
“Roast beef, ham and turkey. I didn’t know what you might like so I got all three.” I watched as he reached over, opened the refrigerator, and pulled out a can of soda. “Caffeine, just incase you needed that too.”
“What did you do, buy the whole store?” I laughed, slowly slipping off the bed, and that was when I noticed that I was no longer wearing the tight, black pants that I had fallen asleep in. I looked at him, down at my bare legs, and then back up at him once again. “Zander?”
“Oh, that. You were moving around in your sleep, and complaining about them, so I took them off,” he said and shrugged. “I didn’t think you would mind.”
“It’s fine,” I whispered and walked over to the table.
The roast beef grinder was delicious and I ate as if I hadn’t had any food in days. The soda seemed to pep me up, to the point where I wanted to jump on the bed, but Zander had other ideas.
“I’m going to take a shower, be good while you’re out here,” he ordered as I bounced at the edge of the bed.
I smiled, nodded, and watched him disappear in bathroom. Once the shower sprayed on, I let my mind wander to what I would do next, the hotel was fun, but I was too wound up to sit by and wait. The thought of spending time alone with the man in the next room curved my need to explore and the more I thought about him, the more fidgety I got.
