by Holly Hood
“He could kill us.” I sighed. “That’s not a small matter.”
“He could try.” Slade sat down, throwing his hands behind his head.
I rubbed my arm staring at the door, waiting for things to get worse.
And worse
“Is Slade shaved down there?” Karsen said from my bed where she was sifting through one of my magazines. I raised an eyebrow and capped my mascara. “Or is it more like a well-trimmed lawn?”
I still hadn’t said anything. “Or a jungle?” She closed the magazine and sighed. “I’m just saying I think pubes say a lot about a person.”
“He maintains his shit.” I hated to even have this debate.
“So you’re not picking pubes from your teeth when you go down on him?”
Now my cheeks were on fire. I started back on the mascara even though I had enough on. “That’s gross and not something I want to talk about with you.”
“Are you saying you haven’t had a mouthful of Slade?”
“I’m saying you are being highly inappropriate right now?” There wasn’t anything she was afraid to talk about.
“I’ve given Kidd so many blow jobs I have now developed jaw issues.” She smirked, sending me into an awkward smile. “It’s a real thing. That one doctor said so.”
“You’re telling me he said on national television too much oral sex gives you lock jaw?”
“Well not lock jaw, I think that comes from rusty nails or rabid squirrels,” she said. “I heard it somewhere.”
She rolled over staring up at my ceiling. “So how has your dad been? You know, ever since the words on the wall?”
I was glad to be talking about something other than giving my boyfriend blow jobs. “He’s okay. Kind of distant but for the most part I think he is doing alright.”
“What about Elliot and Easton?” She frowned at the thought of my brothers doing something so awful, something that not only upset my boyfriend but hers as well.
“When I did talk to them they didn’t have much to say. They denied being there. But I know that’s a lie. There are no other twins in Cherry.” I sighed. “I think it had something to do with Hutch. Maybe he got in their heads and turned them against Slade.”
Karsen bit down on her lip. “Because for some reason that guy is dead set on ruining your life.”
I nodded in agreement. “I have to talk to my dad. Need to see if he wants me to pick up dinner for tonight.”
Karsen nodded and went back to the magazine.
I went down the hallway to my dad’s room. I tapped lightly and waited for him to say it was okay to come in. But there was no answer.
I turned the knob and let myself in. But he wasn’t there like I expected. Normally I wasn’t a nosy person but the papers lying all over his bed drew me in.
I read the first one. “This has to do with the bus accident.” Why he would print off Slade’s bus accident I didn’t understand. I moved on to the next one. There was page after page about Evil kings of Ink, every accusation staring back at me in black and white.
I dropped the papers when he opened his door.
“What are you doing in my room?” He set his plate on the table abandoning his sandwich and chips to give me the third degree.
“I wanted to see if you wanted me to pick up groceries.” I swallowed down the sick feeling pooling in my stomach.
“I’m not incapable of cooking, Hope. I don’t need you holding my hand like I’m some kid.” He gathered up all the papers on the bed.
“What is all of this?” I asked, hoping he would give me an answer and not lie to me.
“This is research,” he insisted.
“Why do you have to research things like the bus accident and Henry Park?”
“I can’t be interested in who my daughter is dating?” He raised an eyebrow, his face started to take on a shade of red I only remembered seeing when I was younger and he was angry with me.
“I thought we were past all of this. I thought you liked Slade.” I brushed my hair out of my eyes. “I don’t get it.”
“Did you know that Slade’s parents were in jail various times in his life?” he asked me.
“We’ve talked about it briefly,” I said. “What does that have to do with anything?”
He didn’t offer an answer. “This new church has been a lot of help with everything going on right now. They’ve opened my eyes to some things I never would have thought about before.”
I shook my head. “You have got to be kidding me. You went back there?” I couldn’t even look at him.
“I think you have forgotten what happened to me. I was killed by some…god knows what and my daughter threw me in a trunk and off to Jersey she went with her boyfriend to bring me back to life.”
“I was trying to help you and the boys,” I argued.
“The old Hope wouldn’t have believed in this.”
“The old Hope would have let you die.” I drug a hand through my hair. “I saved you. Slade saved you. And now you are turning on him.”
“I want to know what is going on. Why are this guy and his friends constantly surrounded by dangerous things?” He looked at me. “Why did my daughter suddenly gain a tattoo and take on powers that can only be described as evil?”
“I don’t know the answer to that,” I said my voice wavering. “But he saved me.”
“He signed his soul over to something dark so he could live,” Dad said. “And now darkness is all around him. It’s all around you.”
I didn’t see it that way. “He’s a good person.”
“He might have been, but not anymore. You can’t be good and bad. That’s not how it works. You can’t be a part of something like this and be anything other than messed up.” He sat down on his bed and sighed.
“He’s nothing but good to me,” I argued. None of that mattered. I knew Slade.
“He used you to get what he wanted time and time again, nothing that has happened between you two has ever been good,” he said.
“I refuse to believe that.” I crossed my arms. “Half of your life was bad and it had nothing to do with magic. Your wife, my mother, cheated on you.” I didn’t stop and I didn’t care if anything I said hurt his feelings. “You are an alcoholic and that started way before we moved to Cherry. So what makes life before any better than life now?”
“Nobody is supposed to do these things. Why don’t you see that?” He stood up, and grabbed my arm. “You don’t get to cheat death, you don’t get to use magic. These things don’t happen and when they do bad things are right behind them.”
I pulled away. “You’re supposed to say thank you for saving my life.”
“You want me to thank you for making me feel more miserable than I was before all of this?” He backed me into the door. “You think my drinking is bad, you should see what I go through at night. I see things.”
“Dad, stop it.” I turned my head.
“I see people I don’t even know. They want things I can’t give them. They haunt my dreams. I question my sanity every second of every hour. So thank you for that.” He backed off.
I opened the door completely disturbed. Karsen was in the hallway with the same exact expression on her face.
“If there is something we can do to help you we will figure it out, Dad,” I promised.
“I don’t want any more help from you or your boyfriend. Let me be. You have done enough,” he said, his lips moving quickly as he tried to get it all out before the door slammed in my face.
I was numb.
Karsen touched my shoulder. “Give him some time.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, some time.”
Paper or plastic
Even if he was mad at me I still wanted to fill the refrigerator so they had some healthy food to eat. I traipsed through the store getting the usual in sort of a numb trance.
I moved down the cereal aisle at a snail’s pace, cell phone in one hand, steering the cart with the other. I was doing my best to reassure Karsen I wo
uld be okay. She knew as well as myself Dad was not in a good place. He never yelled at me. He never was angry. In fact, the last time I saw him angry was back when him and my mom fought.
I stopped in front of the fruit circles and sighed. It didn’t surprise me to know he was bothered by all that took place. Anyone normal would question life after being brought back from the dead. I wished he saw it as a good thing and a second chance.
I didn’t want him to think it only meant negativity and darkness coming his way.
I tossed two boxes of cereal in the cart. I hated that he felt my relationship with Slade was nothing but bad, because it wasn’t. And I would never feel that way. I hated that he felt that way.
I turned the corner stopping before I crashed into the pastor of Cherry’s cult, or church there was a very fine line.
“Hope. Nice to see you again,” Pastor Dillinger said.
“Hi.” Was all I offered. He was the last face I wanted to see at the moment now that I knew my dad handed over his faith to a bunch of bible toting freaks.
“I was just here picking up some steaks. I figured with the day off and such great weather I would cook out,” he said.
I kept moving.
“You could stop by,” he offered. I turned around and raised an eyebrow. “You know, you and your friends. And boyfriend.” He offered a smile. And backed off as if I was about to attack him.
“Thanks, but no thanks.”
“It’s okay I understand,” he said.
I nodded. “I’m sure you do. That’s what people like you do a lot of…understand.” I nodded to myself thinking about it. “Oh wait, this town doesn’t understand anything, they want to pretend they do while they sit and judge everyone who doesn’t fit the same mold.” An old lady muttered to herself and went around me in a huff and I didn’t care.
He scratched at his head. “I’m sorry you feel that way. I’m a little confused as to what you’re referring to. I’m not sure if I did something to offend you.”
This guy was really good at coming off all innocent and harmless. I reminded myself I met another guy just like him once—and he ended up almost killing me. “My father believes you’re helping him. And now he hates me almost as much as this town. So thanks for that.”
“Your father is having a hard time. We are glad to help him. Well, I know I am,” he said. “I understand you feel ostracized and treated unfairly by this place. But I swear I’m not like them.”
I bit my lip studying his perfect shirt and pants. “Maybe not now, but you will be.” Cherry was like a disease, eventually all who were too weak to fight it off succumbed to it as well.
I was vaccinated.
“I don’t associate with anything that has to do with Hutch. You’d be smart to stay away from him too,” I warned him. “I really need to go.”
I pushed my cart forward spotting some chips I suddenly wanted to devour in one sitting.
“Hutch seems to think he can help your father. The two of them get along well.” He called after me.
I stopped moving, steering my cart as far over as I could to get out of the way of customers. There were so many of them all of a sudden.
“Well he can’t help.” I stopped in front of him and stared him down to get my point acrossed. “Hutch only wants to ruin things for me and anyone I care about.”
I couldn’t tell if he believed me.
“I can’t say for certain what has happened with your father, but Hutch seems to really understand.” He nodded. “The guy believes he has the answer.”
“What answer?” I asked, crossing my arms. “What could he possibly know?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure. I didn’t really get it, something about your father being the answer to the problem. Strange right?”
My brain kicked into overdrive and I almost tripped over another old lady. “If you’re such a good guy do me a favour, Pastor Dillinger.”
“Call me Harvey. I hate when people my age call me that,” he insisted.
“Fine, Harvey. If you really care and are concerned about helping, I want you to call me if Hutch says anything else to you about my dad.” I raised an eyebrow. “Give me your phone.”
He handed it over and I punched my number in. “Day or night call me.”
“I will, absolutely.” He tucked his phone back in his pocket. “I would like to think things aren’t as bad as you think they are. I think your dad will be okay.”
“I’m sure you have heard all the rumors and stories about Cherry and me. Do you believe them?”
He rubbed at his chin pondering my question. “I like to keep an open mind but some things…I don’t know.”
I nodded. “Then things aren’t going to be okay. Because some things are a lot crazier than you could ever imagine.”
The weakest link
After taking the groceries to my dad’s house I headed back to Slade’s. I was tired from the mental breakdown I had after talking to my dad.
And running into Harvey didn’t help matters at all. So it was safe to say I was exhausted and the one thing I wanted was my boyfriend.
“Need any help?” Slade asked me when I came through the door.
I dropped the bag of groceries on the table and shook my head. “The only thing I want you to do is kiss me.”
He stood, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. And he kissed me, I closed my eyes letting his tongue and lips coax mine into participation. He pulled me against him, one hand in my hair the other one moving down my spine. He took his time giving me exactly what I asked for.
“That was perfect,” I told him when we broke apart. “Thank you for that.”
“You don’t have to thank me.” He brushed my bottom lip with his thumb. “You okay?” He could tell something was wrong. And I loved him for that.
“I really don’t want to talk about it right now.” I looked away. “Right now I just want to forget about it.”
Slade ran his nose against mine. “I can think of something we can do.”
I smiled, my finger stroking his hair. “I can think of a few things too.” I undid his pants, caressing his stomach muscles.
We took it to the bedroom. Slade gently kissed me, laying me down on the bed. His teeth grazed my jaw sending shivers down my body. He ran his lips down my throat, enjoying my skin with not just his mouth but his fingertips.
He took my clothes off piece by piece until I was naked and ready for him. Our kiss deepened, and he stroked my cheek, he was being so gentle, so caring.
He crawled between my legs pushing my legs open wider. I kissed him, and he slowly sunk into me. He kissed my neck easing in and out.
He did all he could to take away my sadness. So I could feel something besides complete darkness for even a little while.
I moaned against his mouth, moving with him, our bodies in sync with one another. He panted, picking up speed, getting lost in the moment as much as I was.
