Part 23 (2/2)

Then she shrugged with false carelessness and gave me a cup of rooibos tea.

”Anyway, your choice. Here, have some tea. I put extra honey in it. You look like you could use something sweet.”

My throat did burn after the vomiting and I was feeling a bit on the dizzy side. I took the hot cup in my hands and slowly sipped it. It tasted surprisingly sweet she went overboard with the honey.

My dad sat down on the bar stool beside me and placed his hairy hand on my arm.

”You're not alone in this, OK, sweetie?” he said. The tenderness in his voice, so rarely heard, made me want to cry. But I nodded and swallowed hot gulps of red tea to keep the emotions away. I was tired of losing it and afraid to let go.

And I really was tired, too. Like suddenly, irrevocably tired.

My head swayed and I pushed the cup of tea away from me.

”Whoa,” I said with a bit of effort.

I looked up at my parents. The room began to spin around them but they remained motionless, watching me very, very closely. My eyes glazed and unfocused.

”I...”

”Perry, you should go to bed,” my mother said quickly. She hurried over to me and tugged at my arm, trying to get me out of the bar stool. I awkwardly got to my feet and she immediately started leading me toward the stairs.

My feet felt like lead. What was going on?

”Mom?” I questioned, but it came out in a slur.

Suddenly my dad was beside me with a stranglehold on my other arm. ”Come on Perry, up to bed.”

It's 3p.m., I tried to say, but my mouth wouldn't move. It came out in a mumble.

They led me to my room and I fell onto the bed just as my feet lost all feeling.

”This is for your own good,” my mother said as she swiped the covers out from under and tucked me in.

”What, what's happening? Why do I...” feel weird. But I couldn't finish it. The room continued to spin. My dad came into the room with the tea I had been drinking and placed it on the table.

I looked at it with my heavy eyes and was. .h.i.t with two thoughts.

One was that I was reminded of being in Red Fox when Sarah had drugged the tea I was drinking with peyote.

The other was that I had been drugged, in general. That's why my parents didn't press the pills. They had been in the tea and I had drank all of it. They knew I'd be stubborn and protest. They tricked me. I couldn't even trust my own parents anymore.

”You,” I started to say but my mouth flapped shut. And my eyes closed. Somewhere far away I heard my mother whisper, ”Sorry.”

Another voice penetrated while the world dropped beneath me. It was Creepy Clown Lady saying, ”Don't let her trick you. She tricked me.”

I dreamed and dreamed and dreamed. I dreamed I was floating above my room, my back flat against the ceiling, watching myself sleep as long spider legs trickled out from underneath my bed. I dreamed I was in a forest again, naked and bleeding and surrounded by fireflies. I dreamed I was back on the roof and lost my footing. As I fell, several demon creatures flew out of the sky to catch me. But instead of catching me, they stung me with the hot blades on the tips of their wings, then they each took an arm and a leg and pulled me until my body tore apart down the middle like a serrated zipper.

A faint buzzing brought me out of my disturbing slumber. My side vibrated. I groaned and felt around beneath the covers. I was still in the clothes I had worn earlier, my Chucks on my feet. My phone was vibrating inside my jacket pocket. I fished it out with fat, clumsy fingers and pulled it out in front of me, raising my head a few inches to look at the screen, which made my shoulders and neck ache.

My room was dark as the moonless night outside, with the only light coming from the hallway, which spilled under my door in a neat little line. The clock on the phone read 10:42 p.m. and I had just missed a call from Maximus.

I closed my eyes, leaned back against the pillow and clutched my phone on top of my chest. Maximus was probably calling to check up on me. It didn't make me feel any better. With the way everyone around me was acting, I couldn't imagine him being any different. I knew he cared about me he did, right? and he was no stranger to the supernatural. But...I didn't want to trust him anymore. Maybe that was foolish of me. Maybe the dark forces inside were making me doubt him. But I couldn't help it. I felt powerless to move and it hurt to think. I needed help and there was no one to help me. My parents certainly couldn't help me. They wouldn't help me. And I couldn't even help myself.

Or could I? Maybe there was someone who I could reach out to, someone who might understand.

I scrolled through my phone for Rebecca's phone number, but of course I had lost that when I destroyed my old phone. I didn't even have her email address anymore, since I had gotten a new one. I thought it was something like or something like that.

I brought up the internet browser and went to my email account. It took a lot of control to keep my fingers from shaking as I pressed the screen and I hit a bunch of b.u.t.tons accidently. I had entered her email in the ”To” bar but it was auto-corrected to Becomeawino, which I would have thought funny in a lighter time. I tried to type it out again, not really sure what I'd even say to her in the message other than ”Help I'm losing myself” but paused when my bed lurched.

It was only a little bit of movement, like a garbage truck had trundled down the street or the house settled on its haunches. But I felt it.

I lowered the phone and kept absolutely still, waiting for another shake.

A low, menacing growl filled the room.

It sounded more guttural than a dog. Something deeper, raspier and slick with liquid.

It was coming from underneath my bed.

I held my breath, frozen under the sheets, and tried to figure out what to do. This wasn't in my head. This was here. There was something in my room, underneath my bed.

This was happening.

I eyed the window, wondering if it was quicker to go out that way or through the door. The window was closer, but it was closed and I'd lose precious seconds trying to jimmy it open. The door was farther, but easier to open.

The growling continued, growing louder, punctuated by random snaps and snarls.

I didn't want to even think of what was under there.

Three seconds, I thought to myself. I'm going in three seconds. If I don't, I'll be eaten alive. Three seconds.

One...

Two...

The bed suddenly shook again, nearly jolting me out of it as whatever was underneath began to emerge with a drooling roar.

Three!

I jumped out of bed and felt a swipe of pain at the back of my leg as whatever it was reached out for me but I kept going, reached the door and flung it open. I couldn't find my breath to scream so I just ran, straight for Ada's room.

I heard the smacking, s...o...b..ring snarls at my back as I pushed open her door and jumped into her room. I lost my footing in the dark and fell to the carpet in a heap, while Ada cried out, ”What the h.e.l.l?” in her half-asleep voice. I picked myself up and quickly ran back to her door and slammed it shut behind me.

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