Page 67 of Burn With Me

“Umm.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you have one before then. My mom loves us all wearing crazy sweaters.” Asher walked away smiling like we hadn’t just steered the conversation from his brother killing people to going to Christmas dinner. If that was not keeping me off-balance, then I don’t know what was.

Derek

I jerked awake and jumped up from the couch, ready for a fight. Light was pouring in the window, but that wasn’t what woke me up. There was soft tapping coming from outside on the wooden deck. My eyes narrowed as a shadow moved underneath the front door. Whoever was out there was heading toward the window in the kitchen, and I quietly slipped my way into the front hallway. Peering into the kitchen, I fixed my eyes on the window as I waited.

The only person that ever visited me was Dora before she died. Other than that, I’d get feed delivered for the cows, but that was it, and that guy was not due for another week. The shadow of a reflection on the glass moved closer. Just before the person would come into view through the glass, they turned, and the tapping of feet began to head back the way they’d come.

Listening closer, I realized it was like they were tap dancing or something. The rhythm was all wrong for someone just walking. Who the fuck comes out into the middle of nowhere and begins dancing on a random property?

I pulled the hunting knife from the sheath that sat at my back and spun the blade in my hand. Well, whoever it was had better have a good fucking reason for being on my property, or they were going to meet my burn barrel in little pieces.

Marching for the front door, I whipped it open just as the person was about to pass in front of it again. I was ready to spring out the door like a wild animal but froze as my eyes landed on the petite blonde. I knew her, sort of. This girl was the one that was friends with Mathers’s chick. The last time I saw her, she called me “The Dragon”. It was kind catchy.

She didn’t even pay attention to me as I glowered at her and leaned against the doorframe with a giant knife in my hand. Her feet made little tap, tap, tap sounds as she jumped from plank to plank on the wooden veranda while she softly sang a little tune that had no words I understood.

“Um…hello?”

Her big grey eyes rose to mine, and she smiled wide and then began to randomly giggle. She had one of those faces that, if you’d given her pigtails and a stuffed animal, she could’ve passed for a tall kid. The thing was, I’d seen her roasting marshmallows over a burning corpse. This girl had as many dark demons as I did and they’d manifested into…well whatever you called this state.

She pointed at me and squealed like she was seeing a rock star at a concert. My eyes went wide as she bounced on the balls of her feet, held her hands in front of her like she was a rabbit, and hopped toward me. All she needed was one of the Playboy Bunny outfits to complete the look.

“The Dragon, you’re the Dragon,” she said, like it was the most exciting thing to happen in her entire day. I inflicted many emotions on others, but excitement was not one of them.

“I am,” I said, playing along to whatever little movie she had going on inside her mind. “How did you find me?”

Glancing around, I expected Mathers to pop out of the bushes or some shit. The fucked up game of dark tag I remembered us playing was going to haunt me forever. All I could say was that man needed to bear his ass to the sun more often.

She scoffed like what I’d said was the stupidest question she’d ever heard. “You’re The Dragon,” she said, with more emphasis, her eyebrows rising like that should explain all.

“Right…okay, how did you get here?” I looked around again, and there was no car or motorcycle, and it didn’t look like anyone was on the road waiting for her.

“My vroom vroom,” she said, rocking back and forth on her feet with her hands clasped together in front of her.

Yup, this conversation was as strange as the first time I’d spoken to her.

“Okay, let’s try this. What’s your name,” I asked, just wanting to be done with whatever this was and then go shower.

I’d stayed in my car for two days waiting for Ms. Violet Clarke to come home, but her pretty roommate was the only person to come and go. Hungry and in need of good sleep, I’d come home to regroup and ended up passing out before I ever made it to the shower.

Now, I had to deal with this. Whatever this was.

She leaned forward and poked at the sharp point of my knife. “Ooh, pretty! I like shiny things. Can I have it?” Her eyes lit up as they focused on the sharp blade.

“What? No…look, what do you want? Did Mathers send you?”

I pulled the knife away from her finger before she could poke it again, then quickly tucked it into its sheath once more. It seemed like the safest place to have it right now was out of her line of sight.

The blonde’s eyes went as wide as saucers, her mouth dropping open in a comical display. This girl could be a caricature, and right now, she was imitating the guy from that “Scream” movie. She spun around and proceeded to look around like monsters were hiding in my cow pasture. Sadly, I found myself looking, too. This girl needed to go. My crazy didn’t need her crazy on top of it. That was way too much crazy, even for me.

“You know Mathers?” she said as she whipped around to face me again.

What the fuck kind of game was this? “Yes, I know Mathers, but who are you?”

She fluffed her hair and began to dance again. This time it looked like an Irish jig.

“I’m Ava,” she said and then stopped and clapped her hands together, making me jerk. “Do you have cookies?”