Page 64 of Shadowed With Fear

“You better run, little flower. The monsters might be catching up to you.”

As he says it, I can hear the sounds of footsteps racing across the wooden floor above us.

Shadow’s hand grabs mine and he navigates us out of the abandoned room through the darkness. I see the lights from outside pouring through a gap in the windows, shining some light around the rundown kitchen.

“They’ll be coming through here soon. Get in the back and follow them out.”

I nod as he releases my hand. When I turn toward him, he’s gone, but I can still feel his eyes on me. The heat of his gaze and the knowledge of what we had done causes a small tug at the corner of my lips.

“Oh my god! There you are! What the fuck?” Liz screeches coming down the staircase to my right. “I thought you were being flayed! Let’s get the fuck out of here!” She drags me behind her as she races through the kitchen to what I think is a small washroom.

She grasps blindly around the walls for a door, but she screams, jumping back against me as the lights flick on at the same time as a chainsaw right beside my ear.

I scream too, seeing that we’re cornered in the small room. Liz grabs on to me, still screaming, but my screams slowly turn into laughs. Full bodied, high on life, thriving laughs.

The wall behind us bursts open as we fall outside in a heap. I’m still laughing. Liz jumps up, ranting about how it can’t be legally okay for them to snatch me away like that, but it makes me laugh harder.

If only she knew.

Dahlia

I’m in desperate need of chocolate ice cream and comfort movie therapy. That math test…

That is a specific kind of hell and I apologize to whatever god I pissed off for making me go through that. It’s supposed to be easy college math, so why do I still want to rip my hair out and crawl in a cave to live as a hermit for the rest of my life?

Poor Liz. She has to take it next semester after she takes the college math prep class this semester. She’s not gonna make it. I give her two days of that class before she’ll be lying in my bed having a breakdown because she doesn’t know why X is that important to find.

She drops me off by the driveway, rambling an apology about having to get to work early so she doesn’t have to clean the bathrooms, and she’s speeding off down the cul-de-sac.

I look around the yard, taking in my sparse decorations and the image of the mountains finally in full color. Hues spanning from yellow to a deep red dot the tree line painting a priceless background for my cheap little Styrofoam graveyard, and Frank the Scarecrow sitting on our porch.

Frank’s kind of fucking creepy though, with his skeleton mask face. He looks so real sitting on the porch swing, the window blowing the swing slightly.

“Hey, Frank. Long day?” I blow a piece of hair from my face.

Silence responds.

“Yeah, man. Me too. Me too. Just having a hay day.” I snort to myself, pushing through the front door.

“B! You home, dickface?” I call through the house, dropping my bag and jacket by the front door.

The house is quiet, and he doesn’t respond. I grabbed my phone from my jacket dialing his number.

“Were you talking to Frank again?” He asks amused.

I scoff. “What did I tell you about creeping on me through the cameras?”

“It’s not my fault you set it off by talking to the scarecrow.”

I sigh. “Uh, huh. When are you getting home, and are you bringing food?” I move through the kitchen, plucking around in the papers Brahm has sitting on the island.

“I’ll be leaving in like two hours. Can you survive that long, or do I need to order pizza?”

“Pizza, please. Math test.” I mutter and Brahm sucks in a sharp breath.

“Ice cream too, got it.”

“Thanks, B.”