Part 7 (1/2)

The spider's eyes were as black as pitch, watching me eagerly as it took me and sucked me dry. Every ounce of vigor I owned was pulled out of me, slowly, like air leaving a leaky rubber tire.

By the end, or at least, I hoped it was the end; I was empty, lifeless, lying on a bed of night. No stars shown down at me in the sky. There was no beacon of hope that I could cling to in the dark. It was black and barren, like the spider's eyes as they pierced me, daring me to fight back from the abyss.

”Is she dead?” I heard someone ask, but it wasn't the spider. It was another creature in the room.

”I don't know,” the spider answered, its voice quivering, as if it actually had feelings.

”You can't keep doing this,” another voice, this one female, ”you go too far, take too much.”

”I'd rather she be dead, than turning,” yet another voice said. ”When they turn they can become dangerous to us.”

”Don't worry so much,” the spider said, ”We haven't lasted a millennia for nothing. We're stronger than they are, smarter. Nothing can take us down.”

”Well, if she's dead, let's dump her,” the female sighed.

There came a press of cold lips to my sunk-in cheek. ”Goodbye, sweet Salem.”

Then nothing.

Save for the silent scream in my head.

”Hey. Are you going to stand there all night?”

I jerked awake, my head pounding, my heart thumping hard against my ribs. Pain radiated from different parts of my body, mirroring what I'd experienced in my dream. I felt sick to my stomach. I was cold and wanted to curl up and snuggle into my bed covers. Except I wasn't in my bed. I was standing on a street corner.

Across the street from where I stood was a Super 8 Motel. I s.h.i.+vered.

”What's your problem girly?”

Startled, I glanced behind me. A middle-aged man in a wheelchair sat behind me, looking agitated and none too happy. His clothes were ratty, his long, dung-brown, hair greasy, flakes of dandruff sticking to the roots, and he smelled really bad.

I glanced down at myself and thanked the lord that I wasn't still in my pj's. However it happened, I guess I had the presence of mind to slide on a pair of black yoga pants and to put on my extremely worn-in black leather jacket.

”Where am I?”

He snorted. ”You're in Wonderland, Alice, and I'm the Mad Hatter.”

I glanced around the area, taking in my surroundings. It proved a bit difficult because the streetlamp above me was shattered. Pieces of plastic and gla.s.s lay scattered on the road. I didn't recognize the immediate area, but I did a few of the buildings a few blocks away. I was back downtown, not too far from where I'd been tossed into the dumpster days ago.

I looked at the motel again. This must've been where I'd been...

”Alice, why don't you give me some money? I'm hungry.”

I dug into my jacket pocket and came away with two crumpled dollar bills. I swung around and put the ball of money into his outstretched hand, careful not to touch his skin.

”Did you see me show up here?” I asked him, now that he had his reward.

Without looking at me, he smoothed out the bills, and nodded. ”You came from the shadows.” He motioned toward the really dark part of the street along the brick wall of an old building now boarded up and abandoned.

I s.h.i.+vered at his strange words. ”Are you sure I didn't drive here, or come on a bus?” Although I didn't see my mom's car anywhere. It was a POS but it would still stick out here like a sore thumb.

He shook his head. ”No buses, girly. Not at this time.”

Which was what I wondered. ”Do you know the time?”

He glanced up at the black sky. ”The witching hour, Alice. Don't you know about the witching hour?”

”Not really.”

”A time for the boogeyman. A time for those evil things that go b.u.mp in the night. The type of things that creep and slither through the shadows.” He looked at her then, and his gaze was fierce and penetrating. ”Like you.” He grinned, and I had an urge to back away. His two front teeth were missing, the rest were yellow and decayed. He looked maniacal as he grinned at me, his fingers constantly running the length of one of the dollar bills I'd given him.

I swallowed down the lump in my throat and jogged across the street, away from him and toward the comforting glow of another streetlamp. Once there, feeling a little more secure, I dug out my cell phone which thankfully had been in my jacket pocket. Again, I couldn't call my mom. She'd freak out big time.

I could call Chloe but feared that one of her parents would answer. She didn't have her own line, so there was that risk, and she'd busted her cell phone. The only person I had left to call was Jamie. I knew he slept with his cell phone. Why, I really didn't want to know. Sometimes he could be a sick and twisted individual.

Holding my breath, I quickly punched in his number. It rang. Then again. Then a third time.

Finally, he answered with a mumbled greeting. ”What?”

”It's Salem. I need your help.”

”What's the matter?”

”I need a ride back home.”

He paused, and I imagined he was probably looking at the digital clock sitting on his bed side table. ”It's three fifteen.”

”I know what time it is Jamie, I need you to come get me. I don't have my car, and I don't have any money for a cab.”

”Jesus, Salem.”

”Jamie, please, I'm in a bad area and I'm alone.”

He sighed. ”Fine. Where are you?”

”At the Super 8 Motel on State.” I swore I could hear the gears grinding in his skull as he tried to reason why I would be at a motel at three fifteen in the morning on a school night. ”Don't ask. Just come, okay?”

”I'll be there.”

I flipped my phone closed and shoved it into my pocket. I found a fairly clean piece of curb to sit on near the motel and waited. For the second time in my life, I felt like I was losing my mind and had no clue how to find it again.

Chapter 10.

”So, you're telling me you sleepwalked all the way from the North End?” Jamie asked over the din of speed metal blasting through the speakers.

I nodded while chewing my thumb nail. I was crammed into the pa.s.senger seat of Jamie's old beat-up Toyota Camry, my legs pulled up to my chest. There was no room on the floor for my feet. A mountain of trash, including MacDonald's hamburger bags, and empty Big Gulp cups, took up all the room.