I deleted his number from my phone and got in the car, heading straight to Mason’s street. I wasn’t going to wait around for Selena to surprise me. This needed to end, and it needed to end now.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Selena was standing out on the porch when I got there, her usual-style revealing vest paired with a short skirt today. She waved at me as I approached, then leaned over the railing to wait for my arrival. “Hey, Tina.”
“I did what you asked. Now it’s your turn to do me a favour.”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Oh, really?”
“Leave,” I told her.
She laughed. “And why would I do that? I’ve just settled in here, and besides, you didn’t hold up your side of the bargain. What are you trying to pull, little sister?”
So, she knew. Of course she did.
“I can have you arrested for supplying drugs to a minor,” I told her, watching her mask of confidence crack.
She stared at me for a few long moments before she straightened, her casual demeanour gone.
“There’s no evidence of that.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure you can still play with demons in lock down.”
“You’re all bark, Tina. And you’re going to regret sending my demon back to hell. I have others, and they’re all targeted at your friends now. They can’t all escape this.” She looked triumphant as she turned to go back into the house.
The door slammed in my face. The impulse to chase and restrain her came and went. I couldn’t manage that alone. We were too evenly matched, and I already knew she was a dirty fighter.
“Shit,” I cursed under my breath, looking to Mason’s house and trying to decide my best course of action. It wasn’t the time to let personal baggage get in the way. Not while the only person who could help me was right next door.
I moved quickly, cursing as I didn’t quite make it to his door before I collapsed. I was being pulled under, dragged into a dream. My evil twin was stopping me from getting help. I was on my own.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I was alone in the old woman’s house, wandering from room to room to find each one empty. I knew Selena was sending demons to attack my friends. It was going to get late fast and I was stuck here where I couldn’t help anyone. She trapped me, to stop me from sending her demons back to hell.
I felt useless, lost. Trying to sleep to wake up didn’t work. Clearly Mason had no clue where I was or he’d have woken me. The little old lady ghost seemed helpful. Maybe she would bring help.
I sighed as I lay sprawled out on the floor of the living room in the dusty old house, staring up at the yellowed ceiling. At least I knew this host was still alive. This old dreamscape would be gone if she wasn’t. A chill washed over me, wondering what happened if she didn’t survive while I was trapped here. Would I make it out, or would I perish in here?
“You would wake up,” a soft female voice told me, making me turn my head.
The woman standing in the doorway was wearing a restrained smile. She had long dark hair and dark eyes, and she looked exactly like my mother. I sat up quickly, staring. There were subtle differences between this woman and the pictures Gran had of her daughter. She hadn’t aged much, but there were definitely some lines around her mouth and eyes. I had to be imagining this.
“I’m really here,” she told me, coming over and offering her hand to help me to my feet.
I took it without thinking, still in shock as I rose to my feet and looked at the woman who walked out and left me with her mother when I was too young to remember it.
“How?” Was all I could think to ask.
“There’s a reason I haven’t been around,” she started, pressing her lips together tightly and hesitating before she went on. “I know an apology will never be enough. I don’t think there’s anything I can do that will be. So I’m going to settle for explanations.”
“I’m listening,” I heard myself say, wondering where all my anger was now that I was seeing her face to face like this. Even if it was a dreamscape. She was here. My mother. I couldn’t quite believe that.
“I was never a typical dream walker. I always exhibited other abilities. Those traits passed themselves along to your sister. I knew the moment you were born. I had to take her away, to try and train Selena, to get her abilities under control. I couldn’t let her influence you.” She sighed deeply. “I know how crazy this sounds, how desperate.”
“I don’t understand,” I told her, not willing to say more. I could already feel a lump swelling in my throat. She abandoned me because Selena was evil? Why couldn’t she just tell us what was going on?
“I was never exactly stable,” she said, concern in her gaze as she crossed her arms under her chest. “I didn’t make good decisions. Your father...”
I blinked at her. “What about him?”
“I’ll tell you about that later. I think it might be too much all at once right now.” She smiled tightly. “Your grandmother was a wonderful woman, but she didn’t like to reveal too many details. I know. She raised me.”
I didn’t respond. I was too busy trying to absorb everything she had told me so far. My grandmother had always told me we didn’t know who the father was. Was that a lie? I can’t believe she would have lied to me.
“I lied to her about your father,” my mother told me, as if she could read my mind. “She’d warned me away from him when we met. I acted like I hated him, but we rebelled in private. I told you. I made a lot of mistakes.” She sighed again. “I’m sorry that Selena found out about you. I did what I could to keep her from ever finding out, but she’s like me, Tina. She can read minds.”
“She can read minds,” I repeated, wondering how the hell I’m supposed to beat someone who has that kind of advantage over me. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” my mother said, shrugging.
“How do I stop her?” I asked, wondering if she can get me out of this old dreamscape.
“You don’t,” she told me, something stern in her expression. “That’s what I’m here for.”
“I’m stuck here.”
“You won’t be for much longer,” she told me. “A ghost just told your boyfriend you’re outside. He’s coming to wake you up.”
“Where are you?” I asked, frowning at her.
“I just got here,” she told me, smiling wryly.
“Will I see you again?”
“You want to?” The surprise in her eyes is the last thing I register before I wake up in the real world.
I hope she read my mind before it happened. Of course I want to see her again. Regardless of what happened in the past, she’s still my mother.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Mason’s worried gaze stayed on me as he helped me to my feet. “What happened? Are you okay?”
I nodded slowly. “Selena’s been living next door, and she’s about to send demons to attack everyone I love, but apparently my mother’s here to get her back under control.”
“Your mother’s here?” he asked, shock in his tone.
“I can’t really believe it either.” I took a slow breath. “Where’s Fergus?”
“He’s inside, playing that stupid game online. He’s grounded until this time next year.”
“Did you check his phone?”
He nodded. “If your mother doesn’t kill that sister of yours, I will.”
“I’m so sorry. It’s so messed up.”
“It’s not your fault,” he told me, his tone softening.
I missed him. It had only been a few days, but those days had been rough as hell.
I glanced over at the house to see my mother in the flesh, escorting my sister off the premises as if they were a cop and a perpetrator. I moved away from Mason, going to the car, where my mother was opening the back door and escorting my handcuffed twin into the back seat.
“Wait,” I called out as I rushed towards them.
My mother closed the door on Selena and looked back at me with a war
m smile.
“Tina,” she said. “I’ve got this under control now. Everything can get back to normal.”
“I need her phone,” I told her, determined to ensure an end to the horrible bully-flirting she’d been doing with Fergus. “And the stones.”
“Of course,” my mother said, opening the door.
“Phone,” she commanded, holding her hand out.
“My hands are behind my back, genius,” Selena snapped.
“Where is it?” my mother asked.
“In my bra,” Selena muttered.
My mother made a disgusted noise before she removed the phone and placed it into my hand. She smiled at me as she closed the door again. “If it’s alright, I’ll come back and visit once Selena’s settled in her new cell.”
“Sounds good,” I said, glad that she wasn’t just going to run away again. All the same it felt weird that she was leaving so soon. I just got her back.
“I promise, it’ll be soon.” She squeezed my hand.
“Wait,” I said, remembering the stones. “Selena was trapping demons. I need the stones she had. To release the hosts in that house and keep my friends safe.”
She takes a handful of dull grey stones from her back jeans pocket. “These stones?”
Nodding back to the house, she told me, “I undid what Selena did in there. Those people might not feel too good when they wake up, but they will wake up and it’ll be soon. This is what I do, Tina. Everything’s going to be okay, I promise.”
She looked for a moment as if she might attempt a hug, before she thought better of it. Too much, too soon. Mason put his arm around me as she got into the car. Selena stared out at me, a vicious smile on her face as the car drove away. Uneasy, I let Mason hold me as we watched them leave.
“It’s over,” he told me.
I wished it felt like it was.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I accepted Mason’s offer of dinner, needing to be close to him and wanting to keep an eye on Fergus too. It was silly. I should feel safe now. Everything was taken care of. So why did it feel like something still wasn’t right?
“Pizza okay?” he asked, checking his freezer.
“Sounds good,” I told him, not really caring.
“I need to go shopping,” he told me, with a slightly apologetic shrug.
“Pizza’s fine, Mason.”
“You think she did something, don’t you?”
I took a long slow breath before I nodded. “I don’t know what it is. Something is just really off about this whole thing.”
Maybe it’s my mother showing up out the blue, or that everything was taken care of so efficiently. Maybe that’s why this feels unfinished. Or maybe Selena did something our mother doesn’t know about, before she arrived to haul her evil ass out of town.
“Is there anything you want to check, or whatever?”
“I’ll go over and check on the hosts after dinner. Figure out if they’re really okay like my mother said. I don’t see why she’d lie, but considering who she is...” I trailed off, shrugging.
“We can go over now if you want?”
“We shouldn’t leave Fergus alone.” I was still worried about him. Probably paranoia. Still. He was just a kid, and Selena really could have hurt him with the shit she pulled.
He nodded. Busied himself putting the oven on. I could tell there was something on his mind, and if I had to guess it was probably the fact that things between us weren’t how he wanted. They weren’t how I wanted them to be either, but I had other concerns.
“What do you know about the woman who lives next door?”
He turned back to me, leaning against the kitchen cupboards. “I’m trying to remember.”
“You hadn’t seen her in a while?”
“She was always pretty reclusive,” he started, then shook his head. “I mean, after her kid died.”
“She had a kid?” I asked. The old toys stacked in the garden started to make sense. “What happened?”
“I don’t know exactly,” he told me. “It was around the time my mum was being sectioned. I think he was really ill. He never looked healthy.”
“That’s awful,” I said, starting to see how she could have gotten low enough for a demon to take hold. Grief does strange things to people, and hers must have been insurmountable. I couldn’t even imagine the pain of losing a child.
“Another neighbour told me,” Mason said. “When I asked about it, realising I hadn’t seen the kid out playing in the garden for a while.”
This was what made her different. She’d gone through something terrible. She wasn’t a lost cause, destined to be a demon magnet for the rest of her life. She’d been lost to grief. She’d get through that. “I should go over there.”
“I’ll wait,” he told me, smiling briefly. “To put the pizza on.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
He looked like there was more he wanted to say, but whatever it was he kept it to himself. I walked through the living room and out the front door, heading over to the house, halfway wishing I’d thought to bring a torch. It was dark outside and I knew there was no electricity inside.
The house looked dark, silent. I took my phone out and used the torch on that as I went inside. They may not be awake yet, and I’m sure once they are they’ll have questions. I didn’t have answers so I was going to have to wing this whole thing.
“Hello?” I called out as I headed towards the stairs. “Is anyone home?”
I headed up quickly, pointing my phone around. If there were still candles in the rooms, they’d gone out. The only light was coming in from the street through the open curtains of the small window in the landing.
“Hello?” I called out again, attempting to make it seem like I was just being a helpful neighbour, checking if things were okay considering the living room window was broken and the front door was ajar when I got here. I wouldn’t mention the fact that I broke the window. This place pretty much looked abandoned from the outside. No one was going to ask too many questions about how it got broken, especially considering nothing was stolen. I hoped. I couldn’t say for sure Selena wouldn’t do such a thing, when I thought of all the other things she’d done.
“Is anyone home?” I called out one last time as I approached the first of the rooms.
A stirring from the bed, a groaning, reassured me that someone was alive. I went inside, moving quickly to the side of the bed. The woman who lived here frowned as she blinked away, stifling a yawn and narrowing her eyes at me. I shifted the light from my phone so it wouldn’t hurt her eyes, and I crouched by the side of the bed.
“Are you okay?” I asked, concern in my voice.
“I’m fine,” she snapped. “Who are you and why are you in my house?”
“Your window was broken. The door was lying open so I had to make sure no one was hurt.”
“Oh, you had to, did you?” she asked, grumbling under her breath as she sat up. “Well, everything is fine so you can go now.”
I bit down on my lip. She probably didn’t know there were other people in her house. It might have been smarter to wake them first, but I couldn’t do anything about that now. So I stood back up, brushing imaginary fluff off of my jeans. “I think there’s been a power cut. Your lights wouldn’t go on. I stay next door. I can bring over candles if you don’t have any, and I’ll help you fix your window.”
She looked at me, and I could see how lost she was. “I don’t think there’s any electricity,” she told me, smoothing her hair. It hadn’t been brushed in forever and there are visible knots. She winced as she touched it, sighing. “You live next door?”
I nodded, feeling my face flush at the deception.
“I thought that woman only had sons.”
“I’m Mason’s girlfriend. He’s making dinner right now.” Suddenly, the right thing to do hits me, and I smile at how simple it is. “Come over and eat with us and we’ll sort the window out in a bit.”
She hesitated before nodding.
“That would be nice. Thank you.”
I helped her up and led her into the landing. So far, so good. She still didn’t smell like she’d bathed in a month, but it wasn’t as bad as the smells from the dreamscape.
“I need to probably pay a bill before they’ll put the electricity back on,” she told me as we started walking down the stairs. “I’ve not been myself lately.”
“That’s okay,” I told her, as she stopped to look at the broken window before picking up the stack of mail and keeping it in her hand.
“Do you mind if I open these at your house?” She asked. “And maybe use your phone?”
“Of course,” I said, as she picked up her handbag. I followed her out, closing the door behind us.
Chapter Thirty
Mason’s surprise when I returned with his neighbour in tow might have been funny in other circumstances. The way things were, I just shrugged at him.
“I need to go back and block up the broken window,” I told him, as the woman took a seat on the edge of the sofa and began opening her mail. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Mason was just about to put some pizza in the oven.”
I started to move back towards the front door when Mason smiled at us both. “Hi, Celia. Make yourself at home. I’ll put the kettle on. Tina, a word please in the kitchen.”
I considered telling him we’d speak once I got back, but considering I just came in and dumped a bedraggled woman on him, I thought better of that instinct and nodded.
He moved into the kitchen and I followed, closing the door behind me quietly.
“She woke up first,” I told him. “I have to get back over there and get the others out of her house. She thinks I came over because the window was broken.”
He nodded. “I’ll go. You stay.”
“Mason...”
“It’s late, Tina. And we don’t know how they’ll react. If you go over there you’re on your own. I at least have back up.” He tried to make it sound like a suggestion, rather than an order, but I know Mason and once his mind is made up it’s a done deal.
Quicksand Nightmares (Seven Deadly Demons Book 2) Page 8
