Part 2 (1/2)
She screamed louder, fought more wildly, desperate now not just to save her life, but to still the cackling sounds that seemed to enter her very soul, wrapping around it, crus.h.i.+ng the life from it, as the hands upon her seemed to be doing with flesh.
She kicked, tried so hard to keep screaming, but she had no breath, no sound could come, no air could come...
Only the pulse, the thunder of her heart.
Fight, fight... even as a darkness deeper than night fell before her eyes. Kick, scratch, fight... claw at the hands...
Previous Top NextThe hands... that slipped as she dug her nails hard...
Screaming, still, the sound of screaming...
”Megan! Jesus, stop! Megan!”
Hands, again, on her shoulders, shaking her. She struck out, hard, desperately.
”Megan! d.a.m.n! Megan, wake up!”
She awoke, stunned, still hearing distant screams, but they were coming from her.
”Megan!”
Finn straddled over her then. His right hand was vised around her wrists; he was rubbing his jaw with his left. He stared down at her, his eyes as brilliant as twin knife blades, his face ashen.
”Megan! What the h.e.l.l is the matter with you?”
Abruptly, her screaming stopped.
She was drawn from the incredible reality of the world she had entered in her sleep to the true reality of life. And in real life, she was in a quiet bed and breakfast in a quiet, historical town that only went a bit crazy during the month of October.
”Finn! Oh, my G.o.d, Finn!”
She tried to pull her arms free.
”Are you going to sock me in the jaw again?”
”I didn't!”
”You did.”
”I'm so sorry... please!”
He eased his hold. She reached up, curled her arms around his neck, shaking, nearly sobbing.
A dream. It had been nothing but a dream.
He didn't push her away, but his shoulders were as stiff as boards. When she drew back, the look in his narrowed green eyes was wary, distant, and accusing.
”Megan, Jesus Christ, what the h.e.l.l was that all about?”
”I had the most awful nightmare.”
”A nightmare-and you had to scream like a thousand hounds were after you, here, now!”
He was interrupted by a hard banging on the door.
She bit her lower lip, wincing. Finn jumped up and reached for the terry bathrobe she had discarded before bed that lay upon the floor by their side.
He opened the door. From the darkness of the room, Megan could see the dimly lit hallway. Mr. Fallon, the groundskeeper and jack-of-all-trades at Huntington House, stood grimly in the doorway.
”What goes on here, Mr. Douglas?” he demanded sternly.
”I'm so sorry. It seems that Megan has had a nightmare,” Finn explained.
Mr. Fallon gave Finn an up and down glare that implied he didn't believe a word of it. In fact, it looked as if he were about to call the police, and see that Finn was charged with some form of domestic violence.
”Sounded like a b.l.o.o.d.y murder!” Fallon said.
Megan couldn't just hop up and explain herself. She was naked. She called out weakly from the bed. ”I'm fine, Mr. Fallon, really. I just had a horrible nightmare. I'm so, so sorry!”
”Well, then, it's a good thing you're in this wing of the house,” Fallon said brusquely. ”You'd be waking up the whole household, with such caterwaulin'! Do you have these nightmares often, young lady?”
”No, no... of course, not!” Megan called.
”As you can see,” Finn told Fallon irritably, ”everything is perfectly all right in here.”
”Actually, young man, there's not all that much I can see-since it's so darned dark and all. But we don't take kindly to folks fighting around here-not in Huntington House. We're a fine establishment with a good reputation.”
”Of course,” Finn said.
”The Merrills have a reputation in these parts, too,” he said, referring to Megan's family.
She wasn't sure if the reputation her family had garnered was good or bad.
”I'm honestly sorry, Mr. Fallon. There were too many tales filling my head when I fell asleep, I believe.”
”Humph!”
”I had a nightmare,” Megan said, her tone quiet but firm. She thought she resented Mr. Fallon. She was suddenly certain he didn't think much of the Merrill family at all.
”See that you keep it down,” Fallon said. ”There can be no more such outbursts-sir!” He had started speaking to Megan; he ended with a word of warning for Finn.
”Good night,” Finn said.
Fallon nodded, and moved off. Reluctantly, so it seemed.
Finn closed the door. Darkness descended with the night-lights gone from the hall. But a second later the room was flooded with light as Finn hit the switch at the side of the door. He leaned against the door, crossing his arms over his chest, staring at Megan.
”He thinks I was beating you.”
”Oh, Finn, surely not-”