Another man appears from behind a parked car in a strange mimicry of my attack on Maxx, buried inside the safety of a video game. But this … is not a game. And it’s not a dream.
What the fuck is going on?!
I skid on the pavement, stumbling as I do my best to avoid the second attacker, some rando dressed in black with a balaclava on his face. That’s never good. Never good at all. I’m up and running again before he grabs me, darting into the yard of the house with all the windchimes.
They’re swaying now, catching the breeze and adding melancholy notes to my dirge.
Just three feet from the front steps, I’m wrenched violently backward. I end up on my back, struggling to catch my breath as my hands search the ground for a weapon. Luck must be on my side because I find one right away, fingers clamping around the wooden handle of a small planting hoe. It’s half-buried in the grass, but it comes out easily enough when I tug on it.
Without thinking, I sit up and swing my right arm back, wincing as it makes contact.
My attacker lets out a grunt as I wrench the weapon forward, splattering blood across the walkway. But then he’s on me, using his bodyweight to push me into the cement.
I’m wrestled to the ground, the asshole kneeling on my back, and every instinct I have inside of me turns to fire. Never leave the first location: that’s self-defense rule number one. Except … all the fire in the world can’t push a two hundred plus pound man off my back. All the fire in the world can’t stop the sharp prick of a needle going into my neck. A small snarl escapes me just before everything goes black.
“Rest now,” the voice whispers, pressing an awful kiss to my cheek.
That’s the last thing I remember.
I come to with a gasp, my heart racing, sweat soaking my sheets. A quick glance around the room shows me that I’m back at Tess’ place, the view of Lake Washington taking up the far wall and reminding me that I forgot to close the curtains.
For several minutes, I just sit there, clutching my pajamas in one fist and struggling to control my breathing.
When I throw my blankets back, I expect to find dirty and bloodied feet. Only one of those things seems to be true. There are marks on the bottoms of my feet, small scrapes and cuts that clearly came from somewhere. That, and my back is sore as hell. On the other hand, I’m wearing the same pajamas that I went to bed in and there isn’t a speck of dirt or blood on them, not from my fall to the pavement, not from lying on my back on the damp forest floor.
Nothing.
“What the hell?” I murmur as my door swings open softly and a pale face appears in the blackness.
It’s Parrish.
“Where have you been?” he asks, sounding mildly annoyed. “Tess came looking for you, and I told her you were in the sauna.”
“The sauna?” I repeat, because I’m having trouble making sense of what just happened. There’s no way in hell that was a dream; I’m not stupid enough to believe it was. “I was most definitely not in the sauna,” I murmur, reaching up with both hands to rub at my face. Parrish leans his long body against the doorjamb, watching me with a quiet expression. If he’s responsible for what just happened to me, if he was in on the … prank or whatever it is, then he’s a beautiful liar because when I drop my hands to my lap and look at him, I don’t see any hint of subterfuge or cruel amusement. “I think I was in the woods?” There’s a question mark at the end of that sentence that Parrish raises an eyebrow at.
“You think you were in the woods?” he asks, blinking at me. He moves further into my room, and I feel that hot tightness in my chest again. There’s something about him that really gets to me, some deep core of emotion and self-sacrifice that I understand. We’re really two peas in a pod, me and my new stepbrother.
“Are there are any parks near here?” I ask, looking up at him and feeling along the side of my neck where I felt the needle enter my skin. Frankly, I should probably grab my phone and call the cops. Or at the very least, go wake Tess and Paul and tell them what happened. But how the fuck do I explain this without the both of them thinking that I’ve gone nuts? I’m the one that experienced it, and even still, I’m struggling to make sense of the whole thing. “Like, a playground/skatepark surrounded by woods perchance?”
