CHAPTER SIX
Once Maximus left, Dex and I settled into the room Will and Sarah had assigned for us. It was small but homely with a large queen bed and peeling periwinkle wallpaper. The rabbit-eared TV was on a handmade dresser, the same as the wardrobe and side tables and matched the gnarled-fence around the property. Turns out Will was quite the handyman and made most of the wood furnishings himself.
“I’ll call you for supper,” Will said before closing the door.
I looked at Dex. He was lying on the bed, arms behind his head, fingers tapping on the top of his skull. His face was unreadable.
“Not going to bother unpacking?” I asked and started to put my clothes away in the various drawers.
He didn’t say anything, just continued tapping. I didn’t like it when Dex was in silent mode, it made everything more awkward and sharing a room with him was already going to be awkward to the max.
I finished putting everything away and fixed myself up in the bathroom. It was quaint and clean with its claw-foot tub and old sink. This look would totally be in vogue in any bed and breakfast. I looked at myself in the mirror, my first look this whole day.
I looked tired, of course. There was a fine layer of dust on my hair and my lips and the skin around my nose were cracked beyond belief. I felt chagrined that I walked around all day looking like this, especially around Maximus. Not that I was thinking of pursuing him in any way (seriously, I wasn’t), I just hated to think I looked like crap around tall, handsome men. Even if they were gingers.
Then there was Dex. He was acting peculiar. I guess no more than usual, but I’ll admit I was disappointed that he hadn’t once asked if I was OK or expressed any interest in my well-being. Maybe it was the medication (and lack thereof), maybe it was Maximus, or maybe it was something else entirely.
After I slipped out of my sweaty, dirty clothes and plunked on light leggings and a flouncy jersey dress that I figured was flattering yet demure enough for a supposedly hardcore Christian couple, I stepped back into the room. Dex was still on the bed. He hadn’t moved an inch. He was staring at a blank spot on the wall, still tapping away to an imaginary beat.
“What are you drumming to?” I asked.
He didn’t look at me, just kept tapping away on his head. It was annoying, made even more so by the fact that I was trying to pick out the beat. It definitely wasn’t Slayer.
I sighed, loudly, and threw my dirty clothes across the room. They landed on the rocking chair in the corner, sending it to and fro with aged wooden squeaks. Still no response.
My next move was strangely impulsive.
I leaped onto the bed and straddled him. My arms took his out from behind his head and pinned them onto the bed.
“Hey!” I yelled in his face. “Hubby!”
He looked up at me, surprised and maybe a bit scared. I felt foolish for a second but ignored it and plowed on. I pressed his hands further into the pillow and looked straight into his wavering eyes.
“You’re going to pay attention to me now, OK? Like it or not, and I know we don’t like it, but I’m your fake wife and we’ve got a f*cking job to do so I would appreciate it if you could at least just acknowledge that I’m in the room with you. OK partner?”
The fear slowly seeped off his face until I saw an expression I knew all too well. Sarcastic smile tugging at his mouth, brow aloof, eyes blasé. Of course, this regression back to quintessential Dex made the fact that I was just inches from his face, and physically pinning him down on the bed, very intriguing. And potentially embarrassing. My face was red hot in an instant.
I shoved at his hands again before coming off of him and sat on the far side of the bed. I eyed his reaction warily.
He sat up slowly and let out a chuckle. He looked over at me and grinned. “So I guess there’s no question as to who wears the pants in this relationship, huh?”
I shrugged, exasperated. “Just trying to get your attention.”
He nodded, closing his eyes briefly. “Sorry if I’m a little spacey. It’s…”
He didn’t finish. He didn’t need to. But it still didn’t explain everything.
“You didn’t seem all that concerned with what happened to me in the barn,” I couldn’t help saying.
His eyes grew darker, like a thunder cloud had blocked out all light. He sat up straighter and leaned forward so he was closer to me. He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out, at first. He looked down at his hands and thought things through.
“I’m sorry,” he ended up saying.
That was it?
“There’s something else,” I said, prodding him.
He sighed so lightly that it barely registered.
“I don’t know what to say,” he said. “You really gave me a fright.”
I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “I gave you a fright? Dex, one minute I’m looking into a horse stall, the next minute I find my own hands around my neck. And meanwhile my partner just stares at me like I’m the devil.”
“I didn’t handle it very well, I know. I’m sorry. I just…I’m not really sure what’s going on with me at the moment. I don’t feel like I’m processing things like I should.”
“It’s cuz you aren’t on the pills, isn’t it?”
He looked at me sharply. I thought he was going to say something biting but he hesitated. His features relaxed.
“It would seem so.”
“How are you feeling?”
He shook his head. Not good enough. Why wouldn’t he open up to me?
“Talk to me,” I implored. His lips grew tighter. I leaned in closer.
“Please,” I said, trying to get him to relent. I peered at him hopefully. “I know we don’t know each other all that well. In fact, when I think I am finally getting to know you, you do something different and I feel like I have to start all over again. And that’s cool, I get it. I know I’m complicated too. But please, you have to start talking to me. Even if we aren’t friends, we’re at least partners. Business partners. This project, this show, it means a lot to me and I know it means a lot to you too and if it’s going to work at all, you’re going to have to start trusting me. And I’ll start trusting you. And that starts when we begin, you know, communicating with each other.”
I gestured to the room, the waning afternoon light leaving long shadows on the walls. “Look where we are. We’re playing house, with people we don’t know, in New Mexico. I’m nervous. I’m scared. I have bad vibes about this place, there’s a woman who doesn’t want us here, some Mexican who says I won’t last a day, I saw some scary f*cking shit in that barn, you’ve got your so-called ex-friend here who had to warn me about you–”
“Warn you?” he perked up, eyes blazing.
“And then I’ve got my partner, who I’m sharing a bed with, who I don’t actually know all that well, who is going through all sorts of problems of his own and not letting me in on any of them. If you can’t talk to me Dex, then I don’t know who you can talk to. Maybe your girlfriend, but she’s not here. I’m here. That says a lot, I think. I’m here and I need you to talk to me because this weekend is only going to get worse before it gets better. We both know it.”
I gulped in a bunch of air. It was exhausting saying all of this but I felt relieved. I watched him carefully, pleading internally for my spiel to work, for him to just say something to me so I could understand.
He was silent for a while, mulling things over, staring at the pattern on the duvet. Then he leaned in slightly, looking me straight in the eyes.
“My heart is racing. Constantly. I’ve got a bunch of irrational thoughts running through my head. I feel agitated. I feel impulsive and I’m worried I can’t control myself. I don’t know what I want to do exactly, but I’m afraid to find out. I want to scream, I want to run around. Everything is rubbing me the wrong way. I, too, have got a million bad feelings about this place that seem to quadruple by the minute. I want to get in the car and drive far away. I feel f*cked up. I mean, really f*cked up. But I also feel. See, I’m not used to that. And my mind is going a mile a minute but its f*cking brilliant at the same time because I’m getting ideas and these ideas want to make something out of this hellhole. I love it and I hate it. This is how I am feeling. I’m fighting it.”
I tried to take that all in. “Maybe you should just…go with the flow?”
He smiled sarcastically, more for himself than for me.
“I don’t think you’d like that.”
“How do you know?”
“Just a hunch. I…well, I don’t think you’re going to want to hear this but since I’ve said too much already…I’m a bit afraid of you.”
My heart stuttered a bit and I found my eyes narrowing involuntarily. It wasn’t as insulting to hear as you might think, though, probably because I was certain Dex had told me this before, back when we were investigating the lighthouse.
“Why is it,” I said calmly, looking away at the shadows on the wall, “that you always end up being afraid of me when there are other things to be afraid of?”
“I know it doesn’t make sense, I know you’re not…scary.”
I rolled my eyes. OK, I was starting to feel a little bit insulted.
“Well, Maximus doesn’t seem afraid of me,” I said haughtily.
Dex didn’t look amused. “I know. That’s because he wants to get in your pants.”
I can’t pretend the thought didn’t intrigue me and pick me up a bit. What I really wanted to say was “Really?” and pry him for information like a schoolgirl. But I didn’t.
“Very funny,” was my reply.
“Look, I don’t mean any disrespect by it. And I know that’s hard to believe coming from me. I think…I think that contrary to what you may think about me, I, in the end, actually don’t know much about you. That doesn’t help. I can see your brain going a mile a minute too. I know you’re thinking a bunch of different things and that I’m not going to be on the receiving end of any of those thoughts.”
Another intriguing thought. Did he want me thinking about him?
“I need you to talk to me too,” he finished.
“I am talking!” I exclaimed.
“Not right now. You expect me to talk, to ask you things but you don’t do the same thing in return. You’re such a typical female.”
“Excuse me!” I said, getting off the bed in a huff, arms crossed, trying to control my temper.
He smiled lazily. “Don’t just yell at me. Tell me how you’re really feeling.”
Was he just f*cking with me now? I felt myself snarling at him automatically. If he wanted to be afraid of me, fine. I’d give him something to really be afraid of.
“You see!” he said, getting out of bed and pointing his finger at me. “There you go, your mind is racing. You’re pissed off as f*ck, plotting all these things you’re going to do to me.” >
I would have chalked that up to paranoia, but he was right.
He walked around the bed towards me. A jolt of apprehension ran through me and down my spine. What was he going to do?
He came right up to me in the same manner that Miguel did but put both of his hands around the small of my waist. He looked down into my eyes, his face only inches from mine. I stiffened up awkwardly. Was he going to kiss me? That’s pretty much what had to happen.
I swallowed hard, my sides rigid against his warm hands that reached the small of my back. And I was supposed to be the scary one here. I thought I may just die of fright.
I tried to keep my eyes unemotional, my face blank as his languid eyes roamed all over my faces, making stops at my own eyes, at my cheek, at my lips. The corner of his mouth teetered, a smile appearing.
“So,” he said throatily. “Can you tell me what you’re thinking right now?”
No. I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell him that I all I wanted him to do was kiss me. I couldn’t tell him that he if didn’t let go of me in a few seconds, I’d be the one kissing him. I couldn’t tell him that all I could think about was how I never wanted anyone so badly in my entire life.
So I didn’t tell him that. I had to play it cool.
“I think you have the wrong idea, Dex,” I said carefully (suddenly worried about my breath).
He smiled and took his arms off of me. “Probably. Though I’m just doing what you did to me. This is what I get for being impulsive…this is me, going with the flow. You didn’t like that, did you?”
I stared into his eyes trying figure out if he liked it. All I got was maybe.
There was a knock at the door. We both jumped a bit and turned around. Will had opened the door and was peering in.
“Hello?”
He saw us by the wall and quickly looked away. “Oh, I am so sorry. I was calling you and I didn’t hear anything. So sorry…”
He started to close the door.
“Hey, Will,” Dex called after him. “Don’t worry about it, we were just discussing something. Come on in.”
Will looked sheepish. “Sorry. I should have waited. I forget what it’s like to be young and in love. Supper is ready. We would love it if you’d come down and join us.”
Dex nodded. “Of course, we’ll be right there.”
Will nodded, smiling to himself for thinking he had interrupted some hanky panky, and closed the door.
Dex looked back at me. The extra space between us was a relief.
“I know your deepest, secret fear,” he spontaneously sang to me in his baritone voice, then twirled around the bed over to his suitcase and started unpacking.
I had no idea what just happened. I stood there for a few seconds, not saying anything.
Then Dex started to take off his pants.
“Uh,” I stammered and started finding somewhere else in the room to rest my eyes.
“Oh come on wifey, I’m just in my boxers,” I heard him say. That didn’t make it any better. Still, I had to peek. They were blue with stars on them. “You’ve caught men with their pants down before, I hope.”
Not the same, I thought.
Then his shirt came off. I finally saw the rest of the tattoo that he had on his upper arm. It was a large, black fleur de lis. He also had cursive writing tattooed across his chest, though I couldn’t read it properly. I was surprised. And a bit turned on (yes, again). I wanted to get a better look at it, to ask him about it, about both his tattoos. But his lightly defined abs, were distracting me as well. I blushed despite myself. I had to get out of there before I said something stupid.
“I’ll see you downstairs,” I said quickly and exited the room. I didn’t want to face Sarah and the dinner table on my own but it was looking like the better option.
I gently closed the door on Dex and cautiously crept through the upper hallway towards the stairs. I wanted my presence minimized as I examined the hanging artwork and photos that adorned the walls. I found a lot of framed scripture, stereotypical phrases and prayers from the Bible, a few crosses and artwork, as well. Most had a desert theme. There was nothing native or Navajo at all. I guess they really had turned their back on their roots. Not that I was one to judge…I just found it odd. But really, the whole situation was odd.
I paused at the top of the stairs and took in a deep breath, preparing myself to deal with dinner with strangers.
“Come on down already,” Sarah’s voice echoed from downstairs.
How did she know I was standing there?
“I can smell you,” she said simply. That was kind of gross. Was she a mind reader too?
I made my way down the stairs and turned the corner into their rustic dining room. The table was long, maybe it was supposed to seat a huge farm family, but luckily she and Will were at opposite ends at the head of the table and quite a distance from the places she set up for Dex and I.
“Sorry,” I said. “I was waiting for Dex.”
Will gestured to my seat, nervous but warm. “Please sit down, Perry.”
I smiled and sat down. The food was already served on the plates. Corn niblets, gravy, chicken and stuffing. Glad I wasn’t a vegetarian.
“Dex,” Sarah sniffed. She was still wearing her frock, poised at the end of the table like she was putting on a show. “What kind of name is that anyway?”
“It’s short for Declan,” I told her.
She snorted acerbically, “It is not.”
I didn’t want to argue with her over his name, so I told her the only thing I knew. “Apparently his mom didn’t know how to pronounce it properly.”
“Didn’t know?”
I took my chance to make her feel bad, as shameless as it was. “Yes, she’s dead.”
The weight of my words made Will nod sadly but Sarah wouldn’t have any of it.
“Your mother-in-law is dead? You lucky thing,” she cackled. “That’s every wife’s dream.”
“Sarah!” Will admonished from the other end. “Have some respect.”
“Sorry,” she said looking at me (or not) with a saccharine smile. “I guess I have fantasies about Mrs. Lancaster going on her merry way.”
OK. This was definitely getting uncomfortable. Where the hell was Dex? Not that I wanted him to walk into a conversation about his dead mother but still.
“Ignore her,” Will said. “Dig in.”
I tasted some of the corn. So far, so good.
“So how long have you been doing your show?” Will asked.
“Oh, we just started,” I said slowly. I didn’t like talking without Dex, it made me think our stories were going to get crossed at some point.
“Oh? What were you two doing before?”
“I worked as a cameraman. Perry still works in advertising,” Dex said, appearing out of the foyer’s darkness. I wondered how long he had been standing there. Didn’t matter, I was relieved.
He sat down across from me. “Sorry, Jenn called.”
My eyes were this close to popping out of my head. A) the mention of Jenn sent my heart amok and B) there shouldn’t be a Jenn in this scenario, so my reaction had to be as cool as possible.
I looked at Will. “Jenn’s our production manager. She’s very uptight about how things get done.”
Some might say she’s a skinny-ass bitch, I wanted to add but I restrained myself.
I didn’t look at Dex in case that gave anything away but I could tell he was embarrassed by his slip-up. Pretending to be married was going to be hard.
Neither Lancaster picked up on anything being awry though and we were able to eat without much incident and with a lot of small talk.
In fact, aside from a few hostile interjections from Sarah, dinner was actually quite pleasant and by the end I felt a lot more at ease with the Lancasters and our situation. Well, that was until I heard more about our situation.
“It’s really the sheep I am worried about,” Will said, explaining the hauntings. “In a way, I can live with the stones being thrown at the windows and the animals running through the house. I just can’t afford to lose anymore sheep. We’re struggling enough as it is here. The government does nothing to help.”
“Um, animals running through the house?” I asked.
He shrugged. His weathered, jowly face looked nonchalant but he couldn’t hide the seriousness in his tone. “Something running through the house…sometimes it looks like people, sometimes it looks like animals…I can put up with it…”
I couldn’t help but chortle at the absurdity of that. “Yeah but you shouldn’t have to.”
“Well, Maximus couldn’t do anything to help me. If you guys can, I’d be much obliged.”
“Oh, like they would help you,” Sarah abruptly laughed. She had been silent this whole time except for the occasional disapproving stutter.
I exchanged a look across the table with Dex.
“William you are such the fool,” she continued. “They don’t want to help your problem, they want to profit from it.”
“To be fair,” I found myself saying, “he contacted us.”
“Because that damn redhead told him to,” she countered. “You’re just going to rape and pillage this farm and our lives all for the sake of a little notoriety. You don’t want to help us and you can’t. You’re nothing but a bunch of hacks.”
“So you think you do need help then,” I said, surprised at my balls.
She paused. My peripheral vision detected an uncomfortable glance between Will and Dex. The boys were staying out of it.
“I think my husband is losing it. I haven’t seen anything running through the halls. And no, it’s not because I’m blind. I can detect far more than you ever could with your eyes. But the sheep having been going missing and have been killed in, well, gruesome ways and if that isn’t enough to send a man and his bags packing for greener pastures of the mind, I don’t know what is.”
And with that she wiped her lips with her napkin and threw it on the table.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to bed. Having people in the house is tiring.”
Will pushed his chair back and was ready to get up but she whipped her cane up in his direction. “You stay. You know I’m fully capable. You don’t need to make a show in front of your guests.”
Will closed his eyes, muttered something to himself and sat back down as Sarah went upstairs.
“Again, sorry,” he said, fumbling for an explanation. “She just doesn’t deal with new people very well. And she doesn’t believe in ghosts or anything of the supernatural variety.”
“That’s OK,” Dex said reassuringly. “Most people don’t. Even we have a hard time with it.”
That was an understatement.
Will nodded. “Well, I’m glad then that you are here. I needed some proof that I wasn’t going crazy.”
I suddenly felt a flooding of warmth towards him. “You aren’t going crazy Mr. Lancaster. We won’t leave until we figure this whole thing out.”
“Please, call me Will. And thank you. It helps to hear that.”
“So, Will, what have you been seeing? And when did it start?” Dex prompted. “And do you mind if I get my video camera?”
I had totally forgotten about the filming. Somehow it just felt wrong at this moment. Will, however, just lifted his hand and nodded. “It’s fine. I understand.”
Dex left and quickly came back with his small camcorder in hand and some papers. Much less intrusive than the big number he had filmed me with before. He walked over to Will and plunked the papers in front of him.
“Just need you to sign this. Basically that you don’t object to being on camera…unless you do, which may make things a little trickier.”
Will nodded and signed them after a slight hesitation.
Dex smiled. “Perfect. We’ll see if we can get Bird and the others to sign off on them tomorrow as well. I’d like to interview them.”
See, this is why Dex was in charge. I had no idea about these waivers and whatnot.
Will looked skeptical. “I don’t know if Shan or Miguel will sign them but you’re welcome to try.”
“I got the feeling Miguel won’t be singing that,” I said.
“Oh, you met Miguel already?”
“Yeah,” Dex said as he sat down across from me and flipped on the camera. “Charming fellow.”
Will cleared his throat a few times. “He’s not easy to get along with but he works hard and he’s easy to afford. In better times, I wouldn’t have him here but, well, we don’t have much choice. He’s also had a tough life. It’s hard to judge him.”
Strange, it was easy for me to judge him. I gave Dex a quick look across the table but he was fiddling with the camera.
“And what is Shan’s deal?” Dex asked carefully without looking up.
“Shan?” Will sounded surprised. “Shan’s a good man. He’s been a friend of the family for many, many years. Grew up with Sarah, in town. Smart as whip. Doesn’t say much but he’s easy to get along with. He gets the job done.”
“OK,” Dex raised up the camera and pressed play. The red button stopped flashing. Thankfully, he turned the camera to Will and not to me.
Dex asked him a few questions, mainly about the working logistics of the ranch. How many sheep they had, if they had cattle, when they first started farming, how the economic climate has changed things, the government, the decline of Red Fox, etc. By the time the set-up questions were done, Will had relaxed considerably and I felt pretty empathetic for the guy. I thought I had it bad; I thought times were tough where I lived but seeing this grown man almost get weepy over the decline of his livelihood was something else. Being a native man, in this area of the country wasn’t easy and all the added turmoil was just the piss icing on a cake made of crap. >
Dex got down to business. He aimed the camera my way, which made me flinch considerably. My looks had certainly not improved since the last time I looked in the mirror, but I couldn’t be vain about it.
“Start asking questions,” he urged. “About what’s been going on…here…lately.”
You know, I had all day to prepare for what we were doing but somehow it never crossed my mind. Was it procrastination or just lack of attention? I hated how my bad habits were catching up with me.
I took a deep breath and put my faith in Dex’s editing skills. I turned to Will and put on my “investigative reporter” face.
“Tell me, Will, when did you first notice anything unusual happening?”
He sighed reluctantly before saying, “It was a few weeks ago. I was lying in bed and heard something growling. I thought it was a dream at first but the more I listened, the louder it got. It was coming from the door. I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t want to get up but if Sarah was down the hall, she might need my protection. I grabbed my old baseball bat and opened the door. The growling stopped. There was nothing there. I didn’t want to wake up Sarah if I didn’t need to but the next day she said she heard growling too. She also thought it was a dream. Then Bird came over and told us a few sheep had been…ripped to pieces. Three of them, up on the ridge. Heads, legs…all separated. But the sheep hadn’t been eaten at all. It’s like whoever did this, did it for fun.”
His story gave me the creeps. Didn’t help that the house suddenly felt so large and dark.
“Who do you think did it?”
“Obviously coyotes did. Or wolves, though they are rare in this area. But it just doesn’t make sense. They would have eaten the sheep. Especially before winter. Now is the time to fatten up.”
“You don’t think young punks or kids from town did it? People can be pretty f*cked up when it comes to animals,” I said, remembering a bunch of cat-killings we had in our neighborhood a few years ago.
He shook his head. “No. I know the kids in this town sometimes don’t have anything better to do, but they would never do anything like that.”
“You don’t have any enemies that would want to hurt the ranch?”
He shook his head. I believed him. He was a hard man to dislike.
“What about Sarah?” Dex asked carefully.
Will managed a smile. “Who would want to hurt a blind woman?”
I resisted the urge to exchange a sarcastic glance with Dex. This was on camera, after all.
Will continued on, “Also, a few days ago a bunch of kids were roaming the hills above here. Doing what, I don’t know. Sometimes they go looking for Navajo artifacts to sell. They said they were attacked by a pair of foxes.”
“Foxes?” I repeated. Cute little foxes?
“That’s what they say. I think they meant to say coyotes but even that is strange. Coyotes never attack people, unless it’s an infant and alone. Never heard anything like that before. I’m sure if you go to the pub, maybe not tonight but tomorrow night, you’ll find them. Ask around.”
“So, people and sheep have been attacked by canines, basically? And you heard one in the house…”
“And saw one in the house.”
“Right…” I didn’t really want to be staying in the house anymore.
“It was right before Maximus arrived to do the reading. I was sitting in the living room all night because of the rock throwing-”
“Rock throwing?”
Dex kicked me under the table. “He’ll get to it,” he hushed.
I glared at him though the camera was on Will. Dex motioned for him to continue.
“And I heard something creak on the upper step. I called out for Sarah, thinking it was her. Obviously. Who else would it be? No answer. And from the living room, I can’t see the stairs. But I heard a snuffling noise. Then the clack of nails on the floor. Then the shadow of an animal came around the corner.”
He pointed around the corner to where the dining room floor met the living room. I shivered.
“I couldn’t see it clearly but it certainly looked like a coyote. It wasn’t all that big but the hairs on its back were standing up a lot higher than normal. It was like its coat was about two feet long. I couldn’t see its eyes either. They didn’t glow. It was just blank. I thought maybe it didn’t even have eyes, just empty holes. I didn’t know what to do so I froze. The rock throwing continued all the while too but the animal didn’t notice. Finally, it went around to the kitchen and disappeared. Then the noise stopped. I must have sat there for ten minutes before I gathered enough strength to run up to Sarah and see if she was all right. She was fine. Asleep.”
“And the rock throwing…someone’s just throwing rocks at the house?” I asked.
“Yes, the house. Sometimes the barn. Sometimes the worker’s quarters. I know Miguel has heard it.”
“Where do they sleep by the way? I don’t think I saw it earlier.”
“There’s a small house behind the big barn. It’s hidden by some trees, privacy you know. Nothing fancy but they all get their own rooms. Well, Shan and Miguel. Bird lives in town.”
I nodded and looked at Dex for feedback. I had no idea if I was asking everything I should. He sensed my gaze and brought his eyes off the display screen to meet mine. Then he paused. His eyes shifted left, fixed on a point past my shoulder.
I immediately felt afraid. I opened my mouth to say something but he slowly shook his head, keeping his eyes on the spot. I turned my head and looked in to the dark kitchen behind me. I couldn’t make out anything but shadows.
I looked back at Dex and at Will. Will had his ear cocked, listening. Dex raised his finger and motioned for me to stay quiet. He picked up the camera and aimed it at the kitchen.
I looked again. Still, I saw nothing. So I listened. And then I heard it. A small tap at the kitchen window. Followed by another tap. I felt very uneasy.
It was as if someone stood outside the window and tapped a single finger on the pane. It was low, quick and sporadic. It could have almost been a tree branch bumping in the wind but there was no tree.
RATTLE.
We were surrounded by a wall of sound, the taps, clattering, rattling of rocks falling on the roof and flying at the windows. The sound was deafening.
“Holy shit!” exclaimed Dex. He jumped up and ran for the kitchen.
I looked at Will, confused and scared. “These are the rocks?”
His eyes were wide. “They’ve never been this loud.”
He got up and went after Dex. Naturally I couldn’t sit alone at the table while this storm of sonic violence engulfed the house, so I got up and ran over to join them in the kitchen.
Dex switched the night vision on the camera and was aiming it at the window, which was physically being shaken. You could see stones bouncing off the glass and ricocheting back into the darkness.
“This is unbelievable,” Dex said, barely audible, and beckoned for me to join him by the window. Though the rocks seemed to be coming harder, being beside him felt safer than hanging in the kitchen doorway with my back exposed to the depths of the lonely house, so I scuttled over and sandwiched myself between the two men.
Up close, you couldn’t see anything. It was a hailstorm of rocks. But only a few were actually hitting the window. It seemed like a cloud had opened up above the house with the roof taking the brunt of it.
“So this isn’t normal?” I yelled above the noise.
“No!” Will shouted back. “It’s never this bad.”
“We’ve made it angry by being here,” Dex said cryptically.
“It?!” I cried out. What the f*ck was “it?” A rock shower was not the work of a poltergeist. Opened cupboards were the work of a poltergeist. I didn’t know what the hell we were dealing with.
“I think you’re right,” Will said.
“This could just be a freaky science thing,” I tried to reason. “Sometimes frogs fall from the sky. I read it in a book.”
OK, I was really making myself sound stupid but it was true. In that Charles Burlitz’s World of Strange Phenomenon book, there were a ton of cases where things were sucked up somewhere and fell down somewhere else.
Dex nudged me in my side and pointed out at the moon which sat above the black mountaintops.
“Clear sky. The falling frogs, and the corn that fell in Colorado in the 1980’s, was usually linked to a weather pattern.”
The sound tapered off. The rocks on the roof became less and less. They ceased to hit the window. It looked like the stone storm was dying off. I slowly let out my breath, my ears still listening to the peculiar sounds.
I turned my head up at Will, “Is that-”
CRACK!
A huge rock hit the window, cracking it. I nearly shit myself. We all stepped backwards.
“That’s not good,” Will managed to say. Dex focused the camera on the window, but his eyes were jetting about nervously.
“Yeah, maybe we should-”
BAM! CRASH!
A rock went sailing through the window right for Dex and I. Without thinking, I leaped to my left, colliding into Will and felt the flying glass flicker against my skin.
Will caught me and steadied me. I saw the rock hit the ground and roll across the kitchen and against the fridge. Dex was to my right, crouched with the camera and his hand over his head for cover.
“We need to get out of here,” I croaked.
“I’ll go get Sarah,” Will said and hurried out of the kitchen.
I knelt down beside Dex and put my hand on his shoulder, just as another rock came crashing through at the spot where Will had just been.
“Jesus Christ!” I yelled and gripped Dex’s shoulder instinctively. “Are you OK?”
He nodded and took his arms off his head. His eyes were wide, panicked. I’m sure I looked the same.
“What now?” I said.
“We go outside,” he said. Determination settled on his jaw.
“What?”
He stayed crouched and grabbed my arm and shuffled us quickly out of the kitchen. Once in the dining room, we looked up the stairs. Neither Will or Sarah were there.
“We can’t go outside,” I hissed. “That’s where the rocks are coming from you moron.”
“Are they?” he asked.
I didn’t even know how to respond to that. “What about Will and Sarah?”
“They’ll be fine, we need to get this on camera.”
And with that, Dex was off and running out the front door, pulling me along with him. The outside air was like stepping into a freezer. Gone was the sweltering heat and blinding light of day. Now it was dark as hell and cold as the depths of a cave.
We ran a few feet away from the house and looked around us frantically. Shoes would have helped. A flashlight would have even better. I could still hear rocks hitting the side of the house but so far no more glass being broken.
“Run over there!” Dex yelled and gestured the camera to the side of the house where the kitchen was.
“Are you f*cking kidding me!? You go over there!”
“You’re the host!” he growled. Oh man, not this again. Last time we got into this dilemma I was practically dragged up the stairs of a lighthouse. “Man up!” he added. “I’ll be beside you the whole time, I just need to get you on camera.”
I shook my head but knew he was right. Why did I sign up for this?
I walked slowly over to the side of the house. I felt no urgency to surprise whatever the hell it was.
As we inched closer, I told him to turn on the camera light. Night vision didn’t help me in anyway.
The light flicked on and my path was illuminated, albeit poorly. My vision was filled with grain, but I could make out the kitchen window, its broken glass glistening, a faint light from the dining room shining through. A rock or two still bounced off the window. Dex moved the light to the origin of the rocks – my heart caught in my throat at what it might reveal – but there was nothing there. It was like the rocks were being thrown out of thin air. It was just…darkness.
“What’s going on?” a voice snaked out from behind me.
I yelped and we both spun around. Dex aimed the light showing Miguel a few feet behind us, wearing pajamas and holding a shotgun.
“Jesus!” I couldn’t help but swear again. I was a bit relieved it wasn’t some ghost but I can’t say Miguel with a gun made me feel any less scared.
“What the hell is going on?” he snarled. “I hear all these screams, glass breaking.”
“I was hoping you could tell us,” Dex said, filming him now.
“Get that thing out of my face, I’m not telling you anything. Where is Will?”
“Right here,” I heard Will say. He came out from around the front of the house, huffing and puffing. “Sarah’s OK, I think it stopped.”
It had stopped. Probably didn’t help that we were all standing right at the rock epicenter.
“What is it this time?” Miguel said. “I told you you’d never last a day here. I never screamed at some rocks.”
“You would this time, they came through the darn window,” Will said pointing at the broken window. “How am I going to replace that?”
“Dumb teenagers,” Miguel said. “We should set up video to catch them.”
“That’s kind of what this is,” Dex said.
“You think they are teenagers? No person could have done this,” I said forcefully, annoyed at Miguel’s assumptions. Wouldn’t last a day? Go f*ck yourself.
“She’s right,” Will agreed. “Miguel, I’ve never seen it so bad.” >
“You’re all loco. That’s what you are. Go to bed,” he snarled and started to walk back across the yard. “I’ll fix your window in the morning.”
Morning. The term never sounded so foreign to me. How the hell were we going to get through till morning?
Somehow though, we were on our way. After Miguel slinked off, we decided it might be time for us to all turn in. Will insisted in doing the dishes and cleaning up in the kitchen and I have to say I wasn’t one to protest. After what we just witnessed, the kitchen was the last place we wanted to be. I told Will to make sure to lock all the doors a million times too. I don’t know how he wasn’t going mental with all this crazy crap going on. I was already feeling frayed.
On the way down the upper hallway, Dex and I inched past Sarah’s room, careful not to be too loud. Apparently she had heard the rocks too but wasn’t scared, least not more than normal. Either she was a liar or very good at hiding things from her husband. There was no way in hell that she could just shrug off what just happened as a normal occurrence.
Once inside our room, I locked the door, turned on all the lights available and shut the blinds. The darkness outside was unnerving, even from a second story window.
Somehow with all the scariness and commotion, I had forgotten how awkward bedtime was going to be. Seemed like fear erased all sorts of non-issues like that one. In the bathroom, I got changed into PJ pants and a baggy concert tee (Mr. Bungle) and quickly washed my face and brushed my teeth. I didn’t like being alone, even with Dex outside the door. I did run the taps while I did my business, but the walls were too thin for any real privacy.
When I was done, Dex was already in bed and scribbling into a notebook. He was shirtless. Despite what you’d think, I hoped he was wearing pants of some sort underneath the covers.
He looked up at me and smiled. “So this is your sleeping attire. Classy.”
“I hope your sleeping attire consists of undergarments of some sort,” I replied dryly, getting into my side of the bed.
“Well, you’re just going to have to find out for yourself,” he said with a smirk. I gave him a look and settled underneath the covers. Now that I was actually in the bed, it felt immensely small. I couldn’t lie here without rubbing against his shoulder.
I eyed his chest, now that I had a closer look at it. The words tattooed across it said, “And with madness comes the light.”
He caught me looking. “Admiring my pecs or trying to figure out the tattoo?”
Both.
“The tattoo,” I said. “What does it mean?”
“Song lyric,” he said, his lips clamping together, signifying not to ask him anymore. So I didn’t. About that tattoo.
“And the arm? What’s the fleur de lis for?”
“I’m French.”
“I thought you were Irish.”
“I’m a mutt. Done with your questions?”
I shook my head and pulled my covers up closer. “What’s the point of tattoos if they aren’t a conversation starter?”
“We don’t need conversations starters, kiddo.”
We stared at each other for a few weird beats. We were too close to each other. I could see the tiny spirals of ebony in his etched brown irises.
“This is cozy,” I blurted out. I turned my face away from his.
“We could make it cozier,” he grinned, the bristles on his moustache sticking up. He seemed quite relaxed considering what had happened earlier and considering what he had been going through.
“You’re just begging for a pillow fight, aren’t you?”
He smiled even broader, showing his shiny white teeth. “Actually, I was hoping you might warm up my feet.”
Suddenly his feet surrounded mine, cold blocks of ice. I nearly screamed but caught myself. I flinched, my body turned rigid.
“Get away!” I hissed, hitting him on the arm.
He just smiled and stuck them further up my legs, getting under the pajama pant opening. The coldness jarred me and I had nowhere to go but off the actual bed. I started laughing and pushing him away.
“I’m serious,” I said and shoved him hard.
He turned over on his side, retracting his feet and grinned up at me. “But you’re so warm.”
“I’m a hot-blooded mammal. You’re a cold-blooded reptile. Do the math.”
“Reptiles need love too.”
I paused at that and gave him a curious look. He was still smiling at me, though his eyes were full of sarcasm.
I shook my head and then pulled the covers up over me.
“I hope you don’t snore,” I added.
“I only snore when my feet are cold.”
I sighed and rolled over, away from him. He still had the light on for his writing but it didn’t matter to me. I closed my eyes, drifting off to sleep. All the joking around had miraculously erased the fear from my body. I didn’t know if Dex planned it that way, but it worked. Despite everything that happened earlier, I felt safe knowing that my major annoyance at the moment was his cold feet
My eyes flickered open. Something had woken me. I froze and let my eyes adjust to the darkness. I was still on my side, facing the wall. I wasn’t sure of the time, or how long I had been asleep, but it must have been the middle of the night. I listened and heard Dex snoring lightly beside me. His back was to mine, his butt square against me. Good thing he was wearing pants after all.
Despite that warmth and contact, I felt scared. I often did when I woke up for no reason. I tried to remember the dreams I just had but they were flitting away from my memory. Something about an owl… Dex…rocks.
The rocks! I remembered what had happened earlier. Could rocks have woken me up? I listened again, harder. I couldn’t hear anything hitting the window or the roof.
Then I felt something brush up against my foot. My feet were underneath the covers but far away from Dex’s feet. My heart stopped. I felt icky. I had to roll over and see what it was but doing so was going to be the toughest, most terrifying thing ever.
I took a deep breath and slowly turned over.
I felt the life being sucked out of me.
There was an animal sitting at the foot of the bed, just six feet away, on top of my feet. As they turned over with the rest of me, I felt my toes jabbing up into his soft bottom.
It was a fox. I couldn’t see it clearly but I knew that’s what it was. A fox, about the size of a collie, sitting on its hindquarters, ears creating a pointy silhouette. It looked right at me. Its eyes were a hazel color but they didn’t glow like a normal animal. They locked with mine. It was like looking into the eyes of someone I knew.
Was this for real? Was this actually happening? I wanted to look at Dex but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. The more I stared into those knowing, harmful eyes, the more I felt entranced. My legs and arms were replaced by lead pipes. I still felt the animal’s weight on my feet, which meant what I was experiencing was real.
I don’t know if I was breathing; I didn’t think I was. My heart thumped loudly in my chest, but even that started to slow. It wasn’t like I was calming down in any way – in fact I could feel the terror slowly take hold of my body – but my heart still slowed until the thumps were further and further apart. My thoughts became sluggish. I needed to look away from those eyes.
Then the fox shifted onto its front feet, perfectly positioned between my legs. It moved closer now and our eye contact had not been broken. I felt like I was drowning internally, my lungs were without air and I was too weak to gasp for it. The room started to spin, with the fox still front and center.
It took a step forward, mouth open. Was it smiling at me? Its eyes said the opposite. They said I was dead.
I tried to talk, to scream but nothing came out. Either I was going to wake up in a second or something horrifying was about to happen. And I couldn’t do anything about it.
It took another step, its tail waving subtly. The eyes narrowed, as if it was glaring at me.
I felt Dex shift and a smattering of hope rushed through me. The fox didn’t break its stare but it paused, its red coat bristling.
Dex stirred again and rolled over. I couldn’t turn to look at him – the paralysis had taken hold of my bones –but I prayed for him to open his eyes.
I felt him shuffle back in the bed and then, stop.
“What the f*ck?!” he yelled.
Startled, the fox leaped off the bed and dashed towards the door, which had been open the whole time.
Dex leaped out of bed, dragging half the blanket with him, and hollered frantically, “Will! There’s an animal in here!”
He followed the fox out the door, then turned and ran back to me. I still couldn’t move, I still couldn’t breathe. My eyes and body were locked down.
“Hey!” He jumped on the bed and shook both my shoulders. “Perry, are you OK?”
I tried to answer but couldn’t.
“Answer me! Perry! What happened?”
He kept shaking me, then took my head in his hands and physically moved my face to the left until it was facing his. His eyes – as crazy and worried as they were – brought me a sense of reality. I felt my limbs coming back, hot flashes of nerves climbing up and down them.
My breath followed. I gasped loudly as if I had been underwater for the last five minutes. He held my face steady, hands warm but firm.
“You’re going to be OK.” His voice matched his grip.
There was a commotion in the hallway and Will appeared at the door. “What happened, is she OK?”
“She’s fine,” Dex said quickly and gestured with his head, “the animal went downstairs.”
Will nodded and took off down the hall, the walls shaking from his lumbering run.
Dex looked back at me, my wide eyes searching his as all the fear came rushing in.
“Hey, you’re fine,” he said. I started to shake and he brought his hands to my arms and held me there. “You’re going to be OK. But we need to go find out what that was.”
I shook my head violently. I was still unable to speak.
“We have to,” he said. “And I am not leaving you here by yourself. Will has his baseball bat. Whatever it was, was small, we’ll be OK.”
He climbed off the bed and walked around to my side. He looked down at me, smiled to himself, and picked me up in his arms.
I tried to protest but my mouth was still full of numbing cotton balls. Despite his slight frame and my rather dumpy one, he lifted me with ease. He carried me past the bed, stooping down to pick up his camera from the dresser and then we were out of the room and into the hall. Will’s door was open, as was Sarah’s.
We had made it to the bottom of the stairs when I felt fine enough to walk.
“Please put me down,” I croaked in a pathetic whisper.
He stopped and lowered me. My legs felt like jelly but at least they felt like my own again. He held the camera with one hand and gripped my hand with the other. We walked slowly through the downstairs area. The lights were all off.
“It was a fox,” I said, my tongue feeling unused and awkward. We peeked around into the empty living room.
“What the f*ck was it doing?” he asked.
I shook my head. I didn’t know, but I knew what it was going to do. Eat me alive.
We flicked on the lights and saw neither fox, nor Will, nor Sarah. A breeze rustled in through the holes in the kitchen window. The clock on the microwave glowed 3AM.
The front door was wide open, so we walked over to it and cautiously peered around the doorway. I couldn’t see them but I could hear Will, Sarah and Miguel all talking excitedly in the dark.
WHOOSH!
A huge white owl flapped in front of me, inches from my face.
I screamed and ducked as Dex stuck his arm out and thwacked it. He hit the owl square in the chest. I peered up, hands around my head. The owl squawked and flew off into the night. I looked up at Dex. He took back his clenched fist and let out a low breath. He was just as freaked out as I was. He looked down at me and offered his hand.
“What a hoot,” he joked but his voice was pinched with nerves.
Seconds later, Will, Sarah and Miguel came around the corner to see what happened. I explained as much as I could. The owl part of the story paled in comparison to the fox. It turns out that they hadn’t seen either creature. Out of all three of them, I knew Will was the one who believed me whole-heartedly. Sarah had only a few choice words and a couple of poignant sighs but for the most part she didn’t argue with what I said too much. I knew she didn’t want us there at all but I finally saw that she believed what was going on. And Miguel, well Miguel was a sneering, sniveling son of a bitch. But even he walked back to his quarters looking more wary than before.
And that was the end of the night for me. I wasn’t about to go to sleep again and neither was Dex. So we stayed up, sitting on top of the bed and playing games with a bunch of cards we found in one of the drawers. We stayed up until the sun began its quick rise above the mountaintops and the fears of the night were washed away by the desert light. Only then was I finally able to close my eyes for a few minutes.