BEER GOGGLES AND RED COATS

By Angel Sentier and Lady Parsley

Chapter One

            Tessa knew the drill. It was down to her and the guy at the end of the bar who had been pounding shots all night. Shots that had come back to him from other girls with a polite, “no, thanks.” Now that it was just the two of them, soon he would look at her and think to himself, ‘Hey! At least she’s breathing,’ and he would send her a drink. The universal invitation for “Let’s me and you screw.”

            God, if it wasn’t for beer goggles, I’d never get laid, Tessa thought. Self-described as the official "cock-blocker" within her group of friends, she had two jobs when they went out. First and foremost, was to intercept all undesirable and unwanted advances by the mere mortal men who dared approach the trio of goddesses. She would send back drinks, or make idle chitchat with the men deemed “icky,” until they got fed up and walked away. Eventually, the Triumvirate would decide on some escorts for the evening and leave Tessa alone.

            Her second job was to make her friends look better by contrast. Her flat ash brown hair was usually pulled back into a simple ponytail. Her clothing was oversized and layered, adding more puff to her already pudgy figure. A round face that hardly ever saw make-up made her look younger than her twenty-nine years. Her mother had told her since she was six that she would have the looks of a 1940’s movie star, if she could just manage to lose thirty pounds, lose her glasses, and lose her smart mouth.

            The guy at the end of bar rose a bit unsteadily from his seat and, swaying a bit, walked toward a jukebox beaming multi-colored lights into the relative darkness of the room. Tessa watched the guy brace himself with his right hand on the jukebox and nearly press his nose against the selection window. He was like that for a long while; so long, in fact, that she suspected he might fall asleep that way.

            “If he starts to dance, I’m going home,” Tessa said, perhaps to the bartender, but more to the open air.

            “No shit. I might just follow your example,” the bartender said. “By the way, he said to give you another of whatever you were drinking. So...”

            “Sure,” Tessa said, almost absently. “An iced tea.”

            “Long Island?”

            “Lipton.”

            “Are you sure? He’s buying.”

            “After all the drinks he’s bought tonight, let’s save him the cash.”

            Her drink was brought to her and she turned to raise her glass to the guy. She found him still propped up against the jukebox, with his left hand this time, smiling at her. He wasn’t painful to look at. Dark brown hair in long neat waves, pulled back to the nape of his neck and fastened with a black rubber band. From fifteen feet away in the dark, she couldn’t discern the exact color of his eyes, but she could see the lust in his half-lidded gaze a mile away. At the unspoken suggestion, a giggle escaped her; until the music stopped her cold.

            A motorcycle engine revving became a driving drumbeat and a guitar joined in a moment later. Judging by the guy’s face, this was not his selection. This was even more clear when David Lee Roth screamed out, “Oh, yeah!” and the guy toppled backwards, falling to the floor. The rest of Hot For Teacher played on. Tessa laughed and made her way over to the guy.

            “Hi there,” she said, offering a hand down to him. “Need help?”

            “Uh, yeah, thanks,” he said, grabbing her hand and standing up. “My name’s Weylan.”

            “Ouch.” She winced. “Why did your parents hate you?”

            “Well, my friends call me by my middle name.”

            “Which is...?”

            “Jeffrey. Well, Jeff, actually.”

            “So, which is it? Weylan or Jeffrey or Jeff?”

            “Just Jeff.”

            “Okay, Just Jeff.” She smiled wryly. “Good choice.”

            “Yeah. So, your friends ditched you, huh?”

            “Look, they left with some other guys. No, you can’t have their numbers, and no, I won’t bring your number to them.” She rolled her eyes and turned to gather her purse and coat. If this asshole wasn’t going to at least put forth the effort to pretend to be interested, she wasn’t going to stick around. However, before she could get more than two feet away, he grabbed her hand.

            “Hey, don’t go. Look, I’m sorry. I just thought it was pretty shitty of them to leave you behind.”

            “Sure, you do.”

            “If I brought…”

            “Please, don’t say, ‘If I brought you, I wouldn’t leave you behind.’ It makes you a liar and me a charity case. If I’m going to talk to you, I’d like to do it without the cheap clichés. No offence.” She watched his reaction to her gentle chiding. At first, it seemed like he might get angry, stomp off, and sober up. Instead, he smiled.

            “Okay,” he said, as he laughed. “No cheap clichés. Could I get you a cup of coffee, or something?” She raised an eyebrow at him and he groaned. “That was a cliché, wasn’t it?”

            “I’ll let that one slide. You already bought me a drink,” she said as she motioned to the iced tea. The bartender was in the process of clearing it away and Tessa made no motion to stop him from doing so. She watched as a warm smile spread across Jeff’s face and found she couldn’t look away. A gathering heat spread in her chest, quickening her pulse as that heat began to pool in lower regions of her body. Despite her jaded defenses, she blushed.

            As the current song ended, he turned back to the jukebox, slipped in another quarter and punched two more buttons, all without letting go of her wrist. Tessa knew the song instantly; it was commonly referred to as I Want to Fuck You Like an Animal, although the actual title was Closer. An appropriate sub-title, as the beat mimicked the act. If there had been any doubts in her mind as to Jeff’s intentions, there were none now.

            His thumb stroked the inside of her wrist, quickly gaining her attention.

            “Dance?” he asked.

            “To this?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Not as a habit.”

            “Come on...”

            “Why? Are we at a wedding?”

            With one tug, he pulled her closer. Now she could see the color of his eyes, brownish-gold. He traced the contour of her face with the backs of his fingers.

            “Dance with me.” A direct command.

            Something turned her brain to mush. “...Okay.”

            He needed no further prompting. In one motion, he released her wrist and slid his arm around her waist; with his other hand, he tilted her hips to fit against his. Then he began to move.

            Though Tessa had said that she would leave if he started to dance, she was forced to silently retract that statement. While Jeff wasn’t a polished or accomplished dancer, he had one hell of a way of conveying what he wanted to do to her, were they anywhere private. As the song continued, she began to doubt whether the lack of privacy would deter him for much longer, considering the liberties he took.

            He tilted his head down, dragged his lips slowly back and forth across the place where her shoulder met her neck, then inhaled deeply. Tessa’s hand reflexively clenched in Jeff’s shirt.

            “At the risk of sounding... you know... Why don’t we get out of here?” His breath was heavy and warm on the back of her neck, a heady mix of tequila and clove cigarettes. Intoxicating, in its own right. Something about this guy was primal, animalistic, and kind of sexy.

            Don’t forget, he just wants you for tonight, said the constant voice of reality. Odds are you’ll be home in half an hour.

            “I’ll get my coat,” she nearly whispered, strangely out of breath, as she pulled away far enough to look him right in the eyes. Her heart began to race, not totally from excitement. Something about Jeff made her feel like a rabbit trapped by a wolf.

            “No, no. Let me get it. Which one is it?”

            “The puffy red one with the hood.” The statement sent an odd chill up her spine.

Chapter Three

            She dreamed of her grandmother, or rather her grandmother’s house; a warm, three-bedroom house in upstate New York that always seemed to smell of pumpkin pie and fresh baked bread. No neighbors for about a mile in any direction, and no distractions to confuse the mind; a place where you could just be. There was a path that led from the trees on the outskirts of her grandmother’s property to the house itself. Tessa dreamed herself just inside those woods, heading to her Grandmother’s. Three beautiful, but evil trees pulled at her clothes and threw her off the path and into a bar. Or was it a barn? Everyone in the barn was half human and half animal. There was Jeff, fangs dripping with saliva or blood; she couldn’t see too clearly from fifteen feet away in the darkness. She recognized his eyes, however; or rather, the way he stared at her.

            “Where are you going, little girl?” His gruff voice seemed to echo in the room.    She wanted to answer, “I’m going to grandma’s house,” but her voice froze in her throat.

            She wasn’t sure what woke her. She was laying beside him on her stomach in his king sized bed, under a blue and black bedspread. The room was large, white, and sparse. A huge black television, currently playing an episode of South Park on mute, dominated the wall at the foot of the bed. To the right was one of those personal gym things that looked like it saw more use as clothes dryer than a fitness machine. It sat next to a set of French doors with black curtains, partially drawn. With the rain outside, she couldn’t see out of the window panels, just black glass set in white frames, going nowhere, revealing nothing.

            He was already awake and watching her. From his relaxed posture, she had no idea exactly how long he had been doing so. He was looking at her with the same half-lidded gaze, but without the alcohol to cloud his eyes now. The intensity sent a shiver tripping along her spine.

            “Hello, beautiful,” he said. The growl was in his voice. He brushed her back with his large hand. It felt soft, warm... possessive.

            She chose to ignore his statement for the moment and closed her eyes, hoping she would just fall back asleep, that reality wouldn’t have to intrude for just five more minutes. Her eyes snapped open as she felt his raspy tongue stroke a path from the nape of her sensitive neck to her ear and she gasped audibly.

            He laughed softly. “Are you going to sleep forever?” he whispered against her skin.

            She sat up, pulling the bedspread around her protectively, eyes searching for her wayward clothing. “No... I should get going, anyway.”

            He moved too fast for her to react. In a moment, he had her pinned on her back, his hands held her wrists captive on either side of her head, and then slid upward to twine their fingers together.

            “Oh, no, you don’t,” he said, his mouth at her neck.

            She involuntarily closed her eyes at the sensation. Her senses seemed somehow magnified. “Jeff,” she managed to say. “I really should leave...”

            “You can’t leave. Not now.”

            “Jeff, don’t do this. You don’t have to.”

            He pulled away from her just enough so she could look him in the eyes. They looked more gold than brown now. “No, Tessa. I had to.”

            Somehow, it didn’t sound as though they were talking about the same thing, but she went on, trying to maintain her thought process under his continued physical assault.

            “You need to get up early for work, don’t you?”

            “No.” There was barely a pause in his action.

            “Or you have company coming for breakfast. You’ll call me some time; we could have lunch and get to know each other better.”

            “We’ll get to know each other now.” He loomed over her, lips dragging across her face as he spoke. “Because you aren’t leaving. Not now, not ever. You are mine.”

            He reached down and, with his teeth, pulled away the bed spread covering her body just a bit. He ran his tongue along the swell of her breast and there was a slight stinging sensation as he did so. Tessa tilted her head and saw what at first looked like a teenager’s hickey, but at a second glance looked more like an actual bite, like Jeff had bitten her.

            He smiled wolfishly when she looked back up at him. “Mine,” he said again.

Chapter Four

            Tessa woke, sitting bolt upright in her own bed, in her own apartment, alone.

            How did I get here? Did I dream the whole thing? Swinging her legs over the side of her bed, she winced as dull pain throbbed lightly in sensitive areas. Ow... Guess not. That still doesn’t explain...

            She threw on her bathrobe and glanced at her bedside clock. It was 11am. Shit! I’m late for work! The blinking of her answering machine, however, slowed her mad dash to the shower. Eight new messages? That answering machine got about as much action as she did. Why in hell did she have eight new messages?

            She hit the play button. “What the fuck, Tessa?” came a loud, slightly nasal voice. It was Ginger, the acknowledged leader of the Triumvirate. “Where the hell are you? You were supposed to pick us all up like, an hour ago!”

            Huh?

            “You’d better have a damn good reason when I get a hold of you!” Click.

            Tessa had no idea what Ginger meant. Pick them all up? They weren’t supposed to be going out again until that night... Did they suddenly get a breakfast date that Tessa didn’t know about?

            The next couple messages were from the other two goddesses, basically bitching at Tessa because she made them miss their table at the club since she never came to get them, which also made no sense.

            “You fucking idiots,” mumbled Tessa. “We’re not supposed to go out to the club until tomorrow.”

            The next message was from her boss. “Tessa, you have a perfect right to take a few sick days if you need to, but we’d appreciate it if you followed the protocol and called your supervisor if you’re going to do so. If you’re going to be gone for more than a few days, please call us as soon as possible so we can arrange a temp...”

            WHAT?

            While her boss rambled on, Tessa ran to the door and jerked it open, to pick up the newspaper from the stoop. According to the date in the corner, she’d apparently slept for two whole days!

            Oh, my God... She shoved the door closed and threw the periodical on the kitchen table before heading for the bathroom cabinet to get some painkillers. She could feel an enormous migraine coming on.

            The next message was from her mother, who tersely told Tessa that she shouldn’t have to lie to her boss about her being sick, asking why isn’t she at home, and have the sense to call in to work herself so her ‘emergency contact’ wouldn’t have to do it. Tessa rolled her eyes as she filled up a glass at the sink. She wouldn’t even have her mother as a contact, if her work didn’t require at least one family member on the paperwork...

            There were then two messages from her best friends, Chloe and Teri; Chloe upset about her ex-fiancé and wanting to know where Tessa was so they could eat ice cream, Teri upset about having to contact the Triumvirate for her whereabouts and that being a total bust anyway, where the hell was she?

            “Hello, beautiful.”

            The glass of water she had been raising to her lips stopped in its journey and the pills skittered across the linoleum floor. Jeff’s voice continued from the machine’s speaker.

            “Just calling to see how you’re feeling.”

            She couldn’t move. The same paralysis that had held her transfixed in the car grasped her again, and he wasn’t even present.

            “I’ll try you again later. Maybe if you’re up for it, we could meet for breakfast.” There was a slight pause. “I’d love to see you again.”

            It was almost as if he purred the words right next to her ear. No, not purred. Purring was too gentle a word. It was...

            The phone began to ring, but she didn’t even realize until the machine was picking up.

            “You’d better bandage that,” came Jeff’s voice again.

            She stared at the machine. What the fuck?

            “Your hand,” he clarified.

            She looked down and saw that she had gripped the glass of water so tightly, it had shattered. How had she not noticed that? The linoleum was now covered in water and pieces of glass and a growing pool of blood that oozed steadily from the gash across her palm.

            “CRAP!” She picked up the phone with her good hand and cradled it against her shoulder as she grabbed a dishtowel to staunch the bleeding. “Where the hell are you?”

            “Hello to you, too.” He laughed softly. “Look up.”

            She looked up and out the window over her sink. From across the street, she saw Jeff on a cell phone. He lifted a hand in greeting.

            “Are you stalking me?”

            “I hardly think two phone calls constitutes stalking. I hadn’t heard from you in two days. I was a little worried.”

            “Don’t try and confuse me with logic. How do you know where I live?”

            “You have a driver’s license with your address on it. I looked at it to take you home the other night.” He paused. “I didn’t know your last name was Woodsman.”

            “You’re changing the subject. Why are you here now?”

            “Breakfast? The message I left...”

            “Oh, yeah.”

            He began walking across the street towards her. He never looked one way or the other, but somehow, he knew when to stop to let a car go past. As if pulled by an invisible thread, Tessa found herself walking toward the window, her feet avoiding the broken glass on their own.

            “I know I came on strong two nights ago, but I couldn’t help myself. I want to know you better, Tessa.”

            “Yeah, right. If one of my friends had accepted the drinks you sent, you never would have invited me over.”

            “Tessa, I sent those drinks to you.”

            She blinked, momentarily taken aback. It sounded good, and she wanted to believe it. “Okay, sure. You’re a persistent one, aren’t you?”

            He stood before her then, with just the window between them. His gold-brown eyes never blinked as he looked at her. She couldn’t look away. Her heart pounded wildly in her throat. Her arms fell limply to her sides and the dishtowel flopped to the wet floor. She didn’t notice.

            “I saw what I wanted and I had to have it.” He lifted his free hand; if not for the pane between them, he would have touched her face. “Let me in.”

            Again, a direct command that fuzzied her brain. She slowly pressed her hand to the window to meet his...

            “FUCK!” she yelled, as red-hot pain lanced through her hand when the glass slivers embedded in her skin were pushed in further. She looked back up at Jeff, blinking back the tears. “How about you take me to the emergency room instead of breakfast, Jeff?”

            “I have to. Your car is still at my place.”

            “Crap...”

            He laughed again. “What a mouth.”

            “I’m kind of frustrated and in more than a little pain. I’ll say whatever I damn well please.”

            “I wasn’t talking about the cursing.” He smiled, watching her with that same half-lidded gaze.

            No! she thought, firmly. Do NOT get distracted by creepy sexy man... “Shut up and get in here before I bleed to death.”

            He closed his phone and saluted her, touching two fingers to his brow before walking around to the door. Tessa picked up a clean dish towel for her hand and went into the bedroom to change into some clothes before he could come in and offer to “help.” She had a feeling they’d never get to the hospital otherwise. They’d have to go pick up her car later, though... Right. She had a distinct feeling she wouldn’t be leaving until the next morning if Jeff had anything to say about it.

Chapter Six

            Where the fuck are my car keys? Tessa couldn’t even find the pocket she put them in. I know I had them when I went in the restaurant... I can’t go back in there to look for them! Did I lose them in the alley? Crap! All of a sudden, she realized... She was wearing a skirt. It didn’t have pockets. Shit!

She grabbed her purse to her chest and fumbled with the zipper. Her hands were shaking so badly, if the purse strap hadn’t been on her shoulder, she would have dropped it. After the zipper got stuck a couple times, she managed to get her car keys out, but not without dropping a pen, her wallet, and a tampon on the ground. Damn it! She bent and stuffed her things back in her bag, and in the process dropped her keys. She bent once more and picked them up, only to drop them again. They bounced under her car. “Fuck!” she exclaimed, kneeling down to reach under the vehicle and pick them up.

She remained kneeling as she tried to fit the key in the lock, having to use her left hand and the odd angle making the simple task difficult. While her right hand seemed to be healing at a remarkable rate, it still hurt like crazy. Her breath was coming very quickly, but she didn’t realize it was because she was sobbing, tears just pouring from her eyes and dripping onto her blouse.

An eternity later, the key finally managed to go into the lock... and it wouldn’t turn. After a moment of confusion and mounting panic, she realized that it wasn’t her car, just one that kind of looked like it.

A hysterical scream erupted all the way from her soul to echo around the cement parking lot. A few people looked her way, but she really didn’t care at the moment. She sat there on the ground and covered her face. She wasn’t sure how long she was like that before a pair of capable hands came down and helped her to her feet.

She turned and buried her wet face in Jeff’s apron. Rather than make a smart remark about him stalking her, he was exactly the person she needed at the moment.

“Jeff, I don’t understand what’s going on!” she wailed hysterically. “My hand’s better and it shouldn’t be. I growled at my friends! I don’t know how to growl! My hand still hurts like hell. I just ate a live cow, and I liked it! What is wrong with me? I couldn’t find my keys, and this isn’t my car... I’m confused and I want to know what’s happening, damn it!”

In the midst of the tirade, she was dimly aware of Jeff’s comforting “Shh... I know. I know. It’s all right...” but not totally conscious of it. He held her close and stroked her hair while her hysterics cried themselves out.

“Hey,” he said at last, when the sobbing had trickled down to heavy sniffling. “Why don’t I take you out tonight?”

She wiped her eyes with her left fist. “No offence, Jeff, but I really don’t feel like fucking tonight.”

He laughed softly and tilted her face up to gently brush away her tears with his apron. “No. I mean... let’s go on a date. We haven’t had one of those. Let’s go.”

She sniffled. “A date?”

“Yeah. I’ll take you out to dinner.”

“Where?”

“Well, I know a great French place...”

“You’re not taking me back to your work, you cheap bastard!”

He laughed again. “I thought that might get your attention. Don’t worry, we’ll go someplace nice. To a movie, for a drive, look at some stars. We’ll do something fun.” He ran his fingers through her hair, brushing it back from her face. “You look like you could use a distraction.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

He steered her to her car and unlocked the door for her. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”

“Seven,” she repeated as she climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Think you can make it home okay?”

“Yeah.” She smiled at him. “Thanks, Jeff.”

“No problem, beautiful.”

* * *

6:30pm

            “He is SO not worth this,” Tessa muttered to herself as she applied a good coat of mascara to her lashes. She yanked open her drawer of barely used cosmetics and scowled at her tray of lipsticks. “Okay. Burnt Ruby or Dusty Rose?... Crap, I have to decide what to wear first!”

6:40pm

            “Soooo not worth this,” she told herself as she debated over the blue dress or the red skirt and white blouse with the tie ensemble, picked from the enormous pile of clothing she’d thrown on her bed.

6:50pm

            “I cannot believe I am doing this,” she said to her reflection as she attempted to use a curling iron without burning herself. Setting the beauty implement down, she stared into the mirror. “Why am I doing this?” Unable to come up with an answer, she continued to primp.

            It was then a loud clang came from outside. She sighed and went to the door. A large raccoon was going through her garbage. Great, this is just what I need when I’m trying to get ready...

            As the light from the doorway spilled across the trashcans, the raccoon looked up and hissed at her. She took a step backward, not wanting a vicious raccoon on her hands... but then her mind fuzzed a bit, and that same deep rumble rolled up from her throat, her lips curling into a feral snarl.

            The animal froze, then ran off as though the devil was on its tail. Tessa clapped a hand over her mouth, shocked. I... I just growled... She ducked back inside and slammed the door.

            Leaning against the wall, her mind raced. When did I learn how to growl? Why is it that I never do it consciously? Shit, I really DID growl at Chloe and Teri at the restaurant... How do you apologize for growling when you didn’t even know you could? This was followed by an irrational curiosity to see what she looked like when she growled. She went to the bathroom and unsuccessfully tried to recreate her expression, before the doorbell rang.

            Thoughts of growling swept from her mind, she rushed to the door, then slowed. She patted her hair, smoothed her skirt, and swiped a finger across her teeth to check for lipstick. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she opened the door.

            “Hello, beautiful.”

            She could tell Jeff was trying to look sexy in his black button-up shirt, jacket, and dark blue jeans, but without that raw sexual energy she’d seen him display on several occasions now, he just managed to look cute. However, it looked like she wasn’t the only one who had put forth an effort. He held out a small pot of violets and, somewhat awkwardly, she took them. Who gives potted flowers?

            “I thought you could use some color and life in this vast wasteland of an apartment,” he said, by way of an explanation.

            Well, it was a strange gift, but apparently a thoughtful one. “Um... thanks. I guess you’re right. This really is little more than a place to sleep and keep my stuff. I’ll just put these on the sink.”

            As she placed them below the window he had come to just yesterday, she jumped slightly as his arms wrapped around her waist from behind. She hadn’t even heard him move. How did he get across the room so quietly? He tilted his head into her neck and inhaled deeply. The rush of cold air made her shiver.

            “I thought so,” he murmured.

            “What?”

            “You changed the scent you wear. You smell delicious.”

            “I, uh... just used a different soap,” she said, very surprised that he had noticed.

            He seemed pleased. “For me?”

            “No.”

            His head came up. “What?”

            “I get to enjoy it, too.”

            “Oh...” He sounded relieved. He smiled, took her hand, and spun her around to face him. “Shall we go?”

            She thought briefly about the raccoon, but decided against telling Jeff. It didn’t seem like the right moment to bring it up, when he was about to take her out to help her forget about weird things like that. “Sure.” She grabbed her red coat that had been draped over the back of a chair. “Do you want me to drive?”

            “No, no. Let me.”

            He even held the door open for her.

* * *

            True to his word, Jeff didn’t take her back to Le Chere Canard for dinner. Instead, they were seated inside a nice Chinese restaurant with dim lighting, a water view, and food served on a Lazy Susan.

            After they had ordered their dinner, he took one of her hands in his. It was starting to seem like he always needed to be touching her in some way.

            “So?” he asked.

            She smiled. “Nice.”

            “Glad you approve,” he said, returning it. “So, tell me more about yourself.”

            “You’ve seen my apartment, you’ve met my friends. There isn’t much more to tell.”

            “Come on,” he said. “Tell me about your childhood; brothers, sisters, parents...”

            She sighed lightly. “I’m the middle child of five. My youngest sister, Princess--”

            “Wait a second,” he said, almost choking on his iced tea. “Princess?”

            “That’s nothing,” she told him. “Want a real laugh? There’s Baron, Count, myself, Contessa, Duke, then Princess. Our mom has this weird thing for royalty.”

            He threw his head back and laughed. “So, that’s your full name? That’s absolutely horrible!”

            She raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? Why don’t you tell me about it, Weylan?”

            “Touché.”

            “What’s your last name, anyway?”

            He winced, as though perhaps he shouldn’t have said anything. “Uh... Bluthe.”

            “Weylan Jeffery Bluthe?” When he nodded, she howled with laughter. “Damn, when they were handing out names, you got yours from the bargain barrel, didn’t you?”

            “Try being the kid in kindergarten with that name. I was nearly put into therapy.”

            “I feel your pain. Does ‘Weylan’ have a special place in your parents’ hearts or something? Are you named after an unfortunate relative?”

            “My mother’s Gaelic. It’s an Irish name. It means ‘borne of the wolf.’”

            She raised an eyebrow. “It fits.”

            “I’ve been told. So, as you were saying...”

            She nodded. “Right... My younger sister Princess works at the same office building I do.”

            “What do you do?”

            “I’m an... administrative assistant.” She rolled her eyes. “Not that I really need to work too much. My grandmother left me a substantial amount of money when she passed away three years ago, as well as her house in New York.”

            “Why work at all, then?”

            She hesitated. “The truth? Who wants to live in a big empty house all by themselves? I’d turn into the psycho with twenty cats in three months. Not to mention that house has too many memories for me... It’d be sad to live there, now that Nana’s gone.”

            “Tell me more,” he said with a smile, stroking her palm with his fingers.

            With her free hand, she toyed with the straw in her drink. “She was the only one in my family who really cared about me. My parents and I aren’t on extremely friendly terms. I can’t do anything right for them, and it doesn’t help that Princess has a position above me at work.” The sensation Jeff’s fingers created turned her mind back to the subject and off the oncoming tirade. She was finding, though, that the words were coming easier to her. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m not really used to talking about my personal life.”

            “It’s okay,” he said. “Tell me whatever you want.”

            “Well, my ‘real job’ really consists of toting my sister and her pals around, from bar to bar, club to club, and acting as a sort of filter.”

            “Let me guess,” he said. “One of those girls you were with that night was your sister. The brunette?”

            “The blond.” She shook her head like an early 90s hair commercial. “Or should I say, the chemically blond.”

            “The mentally blond, from what I heard of her conversation.”

            Tessa laughed. “Nice. I’m going to use that.”

            “How did she get a position at work above you?”

            “Ginger. The statuesque Ann-Margret wannabe. She’s slept with just about every CEO in the company.”

            “Even the female ones?”

            “I wouldn’t put it past her. She gets whatever she wants. Chloe-- oh, one of the girls I was with today...”

            “I know Chloe and Teri. They’re always at the Canard.”

            She grinned. “Right. Well, Chloe works directly underneath the three of them as Ginger’s assistant, that’s how I met her. Teri works for the same company, but on a different account; her and Ginger are at about the same level. I heard through the company grapevine recently that they’re up for the same promotion. Fireworks are guaranteed to fly.” She released a breath. “Okay, I told you mine, now you tell me yours.”

            He smiled, somewhat self-depreciatively. “I had probably the singularly most unremarkable childhood possible. Take Leave It To Beaver, The Brady Bunch, and all those horrible family shows of that era, take out the brothers and sisters, mix well, and there’s my childhood.”

            “You’re an only child? You suck.”

            He nodded. “Yeah. There are only two ways a kid will turn out when there aren’t any siblings to soften the blow... Either extremely spoiled, or rebellious. I went the rebellious route.”

            Tessa snickered. “You? A bad boy? Sure... I can see it.”

            “Your sarcasm is blinding.”

            “Come on, Jeff! You’re way too cute to pull off that kind of image.”

            He grinned. “Thanks.”

            She rolled her eyes. “You’re welcome.”

            “Anyway, unable to stand all the prying and snooping any longer than I had to, I graduated from high school early and went directly to college, out of state. I had the time of my life, doing things I was never allowed to, or wouldn’t have dared to under my parents’ watchful eyes. I was the first person in that county to wink at the camera as my mug shot was being taken. I guess it was inevitable that the first woman I had any kind of serious relationship with couldn’t be normal either.”

            She tilted her head. “Not normal?”

            “She was one of my professors,” he hastened to explain.

            “Really? Are you going to tell me she came on to you?”

            “It was kind of mutual... But she did come on really strong. On our first night together she said I was hers.”

            Sounds familiar, she thought.

            “I was eighteen; I got scared and ran off for about a month. When I came back, I found out that she had been killed in an accident about a week before.”

            Tessa blinked. “Whoa... How did you take that?”

            “Not very well.” That seemed an unsatisfactory answer, but he went on before she could ask more about it. “I started hanging out with her friends, well, they became my friends, but they always saw me as a kind of outsider because of how young I am; a lone wolf, as it were... And here I am.”

            She paused a moment to let all of the information sink in. “That seems really...”

            “Lonely?” he offered. “Yeah. It is.”

            She wasn’t sure how to respond to that, but was once again saved by the arrival of their food.

* * *

            “Why is it we just ate a few hours ago and I’m hungry again?” Tessa asked as they were heading back to Jeff’s car after the movie.

            Jeff hesitated a moment. “Isn’t that the way it goes with Chinese?”

            “Hmm... I guess.”

            “We could get some burgers on the way back.”

            Nothing had ever sounded more delicious. “Mmm...”

            For some reason, Tessa fell quiet then. Something was... off. Not right. But what was it? The back of her neck prickled, raising her hackles... Wait, she didn’t have hackles. But still, she could sense that something was wrong. She looked to her left, in the direction of an alley by the side of the theater.

            “What is it?” he asked, but it didn’t sound like a real question. It was then she realized that Jeff had been rather quiet in that moment as well.

            “Something’s... down there,” she said as she started moving in that direction.

            “You probably saw a cat. Come on, let’s go back. That alley’s dark and creepy.”

            “You’re dark and creepy, and I like you.”

            “As flattering as that is, I really think we should go back to your place.”

            “Just a second, I want to find out what’s over there...”

            “But there’s garbage...”

            At the mouth of the alley, she turned to give him a look. “Jeff, wasn’t it you who screwed me in an alley five feet from a dumpster?” She turned back around.

            “Tessa, don’t go down there.” This time, it wasn’t a direct command, but more of a plead; please, don’t go down there.

            The smell hit her first and she wrinkled her nose, wondering what could possibly be making such a stench. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the alley, that’s when she saw it. It was only identifiable as a man because of the blood-soaked, tattered clothes that were still hanging off of it. The man’s throat had been completely torn out. His mouth, what she presumed was his mouth, was hanging open in a silent scream. He was missing one leg and both his arms, though a couple of his fingers lay a few feet away. As she watched, a scruffy cat darted out from behind a trashcan, picked one up, and made off with it. The soft tissue of the man’s abdomen had been torn into, leaving his ribcage partially exposed. Some of the bones were missing, as were most of the organs that should have been there. A pool of drying blood surrounded the body. More blood had sprayed in an arc on the alley wall and splashed onto the trashcans.

            Her heart thudded loudly in her ears as she took everything in. Her body heat seemed to be rising to an unbelievable fever pitch. She couldn’t think. She opened her mouth to scream, and everything she had eaten in the past week, it seemed like, violently poured forth. Just as she thought she might cease throwing up, suddenly, everything went white.

Chapter Seven

            Consciousness came slowly for Tessa. Her entire body was hot and sweaty, like she’d been thrown in the middle of a tropical jungle. She was laying on something soft, but to her it wasn’t very comfortable. The sheets surrounding her scratched her overly-sensitive skin and only added to the stifling feeling. She told her arm to move and shove some of the covers away, but it wouldn’t obey her. It felt like fifty pound bags of sugar had been strapped to every limb. What was wrong with her? How had she gotten sick? The last thing she remembered was...

            She struggled to keep her gorge down, but her stomach had nothing left in it to heave. That man in the alley... How long had he been there? It probably had only been a little while. Whatever did it to him might still have been around... But Tessa felt certain she would have known if that were true. How that would be possible, she had no idea.

            Fuzzily, voices started to intrude, as if someone was adjusting the tuning on an old radio; only in this case, the radio was her own head. She recognized Jeff’s voice right away, but the second voice, a female’s, she didn’t. She became aware that they had probably been speaking for a while, but her ears were only starting to receive sounds again.

            “You really fucked up this time, haven’t you, Weylan?” the woman was saying. “Don’t give me that look. If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have called me.”

            “I called because I don’t know why she’s so sick,” Jeff said.

            “Then you obviously don’t remember. That’s pretty typical.” The sound of a body shifting in a chair. Tessa smelled an unfamiliar cigarette brand. “You should have called me the first night if you had regrets.”

            “I don’t regret what I did.”

            “You obviously do. Or you would have taken care of this already. And if you really don’t regret it, you should know that leaving her in the dark is only going to confuse her more.”

            “I was told right away and it scared me shitless. I don’t want her to run from me. Anyway, this is my problem--”

            “That’s right, your problem, your fuck-up, your responsibility. God, whelp... Did you even think about what you were doing?”

            “Yes, I thought about it!” The annoyance in Jeff’s voice was rising. “Look, I saw her and I knew that she was meant for me--”

            “You talk like you were changed two weeks ago...”

            Tessa’s brows furrowed together. What did that mean? In fact, what did this whole conversation mean? It might have been the fever, but she was having trouble following what they were talking about. Maybe it would help if she saw what was going on... With a supreme effort, she began to pull herself to the edge of the bed.

            “You’ve got no right to lecture me about responsibilities, Abby,” Jeff was saying. “When are you going to take care of him?”

            A heavy sigh. “Hector says he’s doing it for our good.”

            “For our good?” Jeff repeated incredulously. “He’s killing innocent people!”

            Tessa almost fell off the side of the bed at that remark. What?! Her shaky legs felt like they wouldn’t hold her up, let alone carry her, so she got down on all fours and slowly crawled to the doorway.

            “We don’t know that they’re innocent,” Abby said.

            “Oh, really?” said Jeff. Papers rustled. “Just look at the newspapers! A mother of four... A college student... A man walking his dog through the park! There is something wrong with him, you know that. You need to take care of this; people are really starting to notice. Tessa found one of his leavings tonight.”

            Tessa froze. Whatever had killed that man in the alley was a person? And Jeff knew him? She managed the last few feet to the cracked open door and peeked out with one eye. Jeff was pacing across the room, holding a bunch of newspaper clippings in his hands and flipping through them rapidly. A grey haired woman was seated nearby, smoking a cigarette. She looked somewhat familiar... Tessa blinked and shook her clouded head.

            Nana? Why was Jeff talking to her grandmother? Her grandmother was dead; Tessa had gone to the open-casket funeral. But in her fevered mind, she was absolutely certain that the woman scolding Jeff was her Nana. Why would Nana make excuses for someone who’s killing people? And how does she know Jeff?

            “We can go around in circles like this all night, Weylan, but it won’t do any good.” Abby flicked her cigarette into a nearby ashtray. “You need to concentrate on your problem. What’s happening to her is happening because you were so damn selfish.”

            “I’m telling you, she was meant to be mine.”

            “Uh-huh. And you didn’t spare one thought for her feelings, did you?”

            “She was lonely, I could see that.”

            “Are you going to tell me that you did this because you were lonely? I know you were devastated about Maria, Weylan, we all were, but there are rules that we have to follow!”

            “I know.”

            “There are very few creatures on this earth that mate for life!” She counted on her fingers. “Tigers, penguins, swans--”

            “And us! I know!”

            “If you know, then how could you do something so royally stupid?”

            “This has nothing to do with Maria, Abby, no matter what you might think.”

            “Oh? Then you love this woman?”

            Tessa’s heart just about stopped beating... but Jeff didn’t answer. Instead, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

            “Weylan,” said Abby, her tone becoming more moderate. “You either need to take responsibility for your actions, or get rid of the problem.”

            He hesitated. “What would you do?”

            “If it were me?” She stood up and brushed her hands together briskly. “I’d get rid of her.”

            Tessa didn’t like the sound of that. The message was made all the more ominous when Jeff, again, didn’t answer. His eyes closed for a moment and he took a deep breath.

            “She’s awake,” she thought she heard him say. “You have to go.”

            Tessa didn’t watch Abby take her leave. Calling up every ounce of strength she could, she used the nearby dresser for leverage and pulled herself to her feet. She noticed then that she was no longer wearing her own clothes, but one of Jeff’s shirts. It was a little tight around her chest and the tails fell almost to her knees. But if he thought it would put her at a disadvantage, he had another thing coming!

            The door opened. He blinked, seeing her clutching the dresser and scowling at him. “Hello, beautiful... What are you doing out of bed?”

            “Don’t give me that concerned bullshit!” she said angrily, however, she was finding that it took a lot of energy to be angry. “Tell me what the fuck is going on!”

            “You’re sick,” he said, gently. “I’ll explain later.”

            “You will NOT fucking explain later! I want an explanation now!” She swayed slightly. Her head was not liking being upright for this long.

            He looked at her directly and said in that commanding tone, “Get into bed.”

            Her mind clouded over... but after a moment, clarity returned and she was angrier than ever. A scream of rage filled her chest and exploded at him.

            “Well,” he said, heaving a slight sigh as though her volcanic eruption hadn’t fazed him at all. “I can’t tell you anymore...” Without another word, he picked her up, slung her over his shoulder, and carried her to the bed, ignoring her very vocal protests. “You need rest. Stay in bed.”

            “I don’t want to stay in bed!” she yelled at him. “I want you to tell me what’s happening to me! How do you know the crazy guy who’s killing people? And why were you talking to my grandmother?” She could tell she was running out of steam. No! She wasn’t going to lose this way! He was going to tell her the truth, damn it! “I want answers, Jeff!” Fuck, her voice was getting softer. “Right... now!” And she was losing her breath. It seemed to be getting hotter in the room again.

            Jeff backed away from the bed. “Get some rest. I will explain things later, Tessa,” he said just before closing the door.

            “Fuck you!” she said, and picked up the bedside clock to throw it after him, but it was too heavy. “Damn it...” She collapsed on her back. That hadn’t gone well. The fifty pound bags of sugar were back, and two of them had attached themselves to her eyelids. Eventually, she could do nothing else but succumb to sleep.

* * *

            She had that dream again, about going to Nana’s, except this time, she actually made it up to the house. In the main hall, the woman named Abby was laying in a bed with a nightcap on her head and a floral quilt over her.

            “Is something the matter, Tessa?” she asked with a smile.

            It was then she realized that something was wrong. Surrounding the bed were several bodies, all in different states of disembowelment, a growing pool of blood seeping out from under the bed. One of the bodies wasn’t quite dead yet, and the man reached a pleading hand out to Tessa. She recoiled in disgust as his fingers fell off.

            She looked back at Abby, but suddenly it was Jeff in the bed, laughing. Horrified, she turned and ran for the door that seemed to get further and further away...

            When she woke, the clock she still clutched in one hand read 3:27am. She was freezing and her entire body was covered in cold sweat. In a corner of the room, she saw Jeff asleep in a chair, covered with a blanket, with his feet on his clothes dryer/workout machine.

            She could only think of one thing, Get out now.

            A quiet search yielded her skirt, her jacket, and her shoes, but no shirt. She realized he must have thrown it away because she’d thrown up on it. She grabbed her purse, but there were no car keys in it... He had driven them. Her keys were still at her place with her car. There was no way she was going to risk waking him up by calling a cab, so she jammed her feet into her shoes and left as quickly as stealth allowed.

            As she hurried down the street, she figured she could find a payphone somewhere, call a cab, and get home. She really hoped she wouldn’t have to walk all the way back to her apartment. However, the first phone booth she found had a broken phone, the second had gum stuck in the coin receiver, and the third had a couple who were screwing. They told her in no polite terms that they were not leaving anytime soon.

            She dug her fingers into her temples as she continued on. Her head was really starting to pound. At least her legs were doing better. In fact, they were walking faster. Wait, why was she walking faster? That prickly feeling was back. Something was wrong... Something was out here somewhere, and it was after her.

            Tessa hurried down the sidewalk. Her eyes cast about for a public place with lots of safe people milling about. No such luck at a quarter to four in the morning. It was well after last call. And no one was awake for the morning commute yet. The streets were deserted, dark, and foreboding. And the thing chasing her was getting closer.

            She wasn’t quite sure when the alley wall suddenly rushed up to meet her back, or when the rough hands had grabbed her to hold her there. One moment, she had been almost running down the street, the next, a strange man had shoved her into an alley. Looking at him, he was nothing like the psychopath she’d pictured. This man might have been from Wisconsin, with his light blond hair, blue eyes, and farmer boy build, but there was something about him that was just off. Tessa almost thought that he didn’t smell right, but that made no sense to her. She wasn’t sure how she knew, but this was the man Jeff and Abby had argued about; Hector. The one who had been killing all the innocent people.

            “So,” he said. “You’re the one Weylan’s been playing with.”

            No alcohol on his breath. He was completely sober. And yet Tessa knew something terrible was about to happen to her. Do something! But what? You’re going to get killed! Do something! She had been struggling, but he didn’t seem to notice. Trying to kick wasn’t working either. It was like he was anticipating her moves. She didn’t have anything she could use as a weapon...

            “The kid screwed up again. Leaving the rest of us to clean up his mess.”

            The hand that nearly spanned her neck was getting tighter, she was starting to feel his nails digging into her skin. Tessa! Fight back!

            He grinned obscenely at her. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

            Fight!

            Her vision went red. Her muscles wound up like a spring and her head darted forward, surprising him, and he lost his grip just for a moment. It was enough. She opened her mouth and bit down on his shoulder, near his neck. She bit hard. On her tongue, she tasted something copper and a trickle of blood dripped out of the side of her mouth, but she didn’t dare let go. In her rage, she didn’t hear him scream. All she heard was his heartbeat, loud and fast, and the deep rumble from her own throat.

            When he managed to pry her off of him, he threw her against the wall and staggered back a few paces. She’d barely felt the impact. From the ground, she spat out a mouthful of blood; his. Hector took a step back toward her, his lips curling away from his teeth in a vicious snarl. Why did his teeth suddenly look so much sharper than before?

            Before he could take another step, a figure ran into the alley and, without breaking stride, punched Hector in the jaw with a resounding crack. As he reeled back, Tessa registered that it was Jeff who had come to her rescue. But he looked... different.

            “Keep your hands off her,” Jeff said.

            Hector leaned against the alley wall and checked his jaw. “The bitch has teeth,” he said.

            “She’s mine. Not for you.”

            “Come on, Weylan... She’s the one you chose? She’s nothing!”

            “She’s mine!”

            The two men pounced on one another; violent attacks met head-on, no hesitation whatsoever. Jeff’s teeth looked longer, sharper, like Hector’s had looked. Their fists darted and slashed through the air at each other; Tessa thought briefly of knives, but a second look told her that wasn’t true. Instead, it looked as though the nails of their hands had elongated somehow, like claws.

            Jeff came from below and scored a vicious slug to the throat. As Hector fell with a thud to the ground, Jeff turned fluidly on his heel and picked Tessa up by her arms. He pulled her along with him at a dead run down the street. Normally, Tessa would have been out of breath after just a short jaunt. Maybe it was the adrenaline or the self-preservation kicking in, but she wasn’t having a problem keeping up with Jeff as they sprinted side by side. She chose not to question it.

            The ominous feeling hadn’t gone away. Hector was chasing them. But Jeff didn’t bother to look behind them, as if he knew that he had only bought them a little time. They took several wild turns, but it didn’t look like Jeff was trying to lose him, just gain a slight lead. He didn’t let go of Tessa’s arm as they ran.

            Suddenly, he stopped and she ran into him, but he seemed to catch her. He found her mouth with his and kissed her, hard and fast, desperately. As if he wasn’t sure he would be able to again. He pulled away from her, grasping her shoulders in both hands.

            “Run,” he told her, urgently.

            She couldn’t stop staring at the smear of blood on his lips from when he’d kissed her. “But--”

            “Run!” he said, giving her shoulders a shake. “Don’t stay at your place. Go somewhere, anywhere. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going. Run!”

            He shoved her behind him just as Hector came around the corner. Tessa didn’t stay to find out what happened. She ran.

* * *

            Hiiiii, you’ve reached the Princess! I’m not here, or I’m sleeping, or I just don’t want to talk to you, so leave a message and maybe I’ll get back to you, okay? Beeeeeep.

            “Princess, this is Tessa. Tell the boss I’m going to be out a little longer. I’m going up to Nana’s house for a while.” Click.

Chapter Nine

            If the seats in coach hadn’t been so narrow, Tessa would have sat on her hands to keep from wringing them. She had tried for half an hour to figure out how to turn the air vent above her off and eventually had to settle for pushing it as far to the right as she could. It felt freezing inside the airplane, but the blankets they provided were too scratchy to use. Her hands were white knuckled as she gripped her red coat tightly around her. The sitcom they were showing on the movie screen was so bright, even when she closed her eyes the light penetrated through. There was a child in back of her kicking the seat, and a man in front of her snoring like a jackhammer. The crackers the flight attendants served as a snack were cardboard in her mouth, they were out of Dr. Pepper, and she didn’t trust the water. She couldn’t get comfortable, no matter what she tried.

            One of her legs vibrated nervously up and down rapidly as she crossed and uncrossed her arms. She tapped her nails on the armrest then paused and looked at them. Since when was she able to grow nails? She’d never been able to grow anything but short, stubby things that were never long enough for a French manicure. Looking at them now, it looked as though she’d had a manicure every two weeks like clockwork since she was fourteen. She clicked them together. Strong! They wouldn’t even bend... She shoved her hands in her pockets, not wanting to look at them.

            She inwardly groaned as the man who had the seat next to hers sat back down after his trip to the facilities. Not only did he smell as though he’d bathed in the cheap crappy cologne with the sailboat on it, but his nose whistled and he didn’t appear to notice. She began bouncing her other leg, wishing that there had been some empty seats in business class, or even first. It figured that there would only be room in coach...

            “Nervous flyer?” the man asked.

            She glanced at him. Oh, God... Now he wanted to talk to her. “No. I’m... I’m fine. It’s just, um... Nothing. Really.”

            “My wife was like that.”

            Was. Past tense. Somehow she didn’t think he meant she was a nervous flyer. More like, she was his wife.

            “She used to pull the shade down and pretend we were on the ground.”

            Please, don’t turn me into your surrogate wife for this trip...

            “If that didn’t work, we would play cards. Would you like to play?”

            Can’t you see that I just want to be left alone?

            “I know Hearts, King’s Cross, Egyptian Rat’s Crew, War...”

            Do you know how to play Far, Far Away?

            “...Blackjack, Poker, Gin Rummy...”

            While he continued listing the disturbing amount of card games he knew, Tessa gritted her teeth. She knew he was trying to be helpful to someone he thought was a nervous flyer, but rather than take her mind off of anything, this complete stranger was just causing the empty pit inside of her to grow exponentially. She didn’t want to play cards, she didn’t want to talk to this man... I want Jeff!

            “...we could even take turns playing solitaire, if you want. Anything sound good?” He raised his bushy eyebrows expectantly.

            She turned to look at him and instantly regretted it. That smell head-on did nothing for her growing migraine. She looked away and pressed her fingers to her temples. “You know, I really don’t like to play cards... I think if I just try and get some sleep, I’ll be fine.”

            “Are you sure? You look like you might be sick. Should I call the stewardess?”

            “Flight attendant.”

            “Right, the flight attendant. I’ll call her...”

            No! I don’t want anyone else asking me stupid questions! I don’t even want to be here. I want to go home. I want my Jeff! He could be dead, lying somewhere hurt, with no one to help him, and it would be all my fault! Jeff, please don’t be dead!

            No, Tessa! Jeff is bad! Well, maybe not bad, but he’s bad news. Sure, he saved you from the psycho in the alley, but maybe that was just so he could kill you himself... You don’t want to go home; it’s the last thing you want!

            Then why do I feel so empty inside?

            “Can I help you, sir?” asked the busty blond with the 80s hairstyle.

            “Yes, can we get a few more barf bags over in this aisle?” he said, loudly, at least to Tessa’s ears. “She’s feeling like she might be sick.”

            “I see.” The woman smiled condescendingly at Tessa. “If you like, we can move you closer to the bathrooms, ma’am. There’s plenty of room on this flight, luckily.”

            The last thing she needed was to listen to the people joining the mile high club. Actually, the last thing she needed was people like this, assuming things about her when all she wanted was to be left alone. No, she didn’t want to be alone... But she didn’t want them. Couldn’t they see that? Wasn’t it obvious?

            Idiots... I’m surrounded by idiots. Whistling-nose-man with your glaring need for attention and prissy-bitch-flight-attendant with your attitude stuck up in the air, you have no idea what I need, do you? Can’t you leave me alone? I wasn’t bothering anyone...

            Just tell them.

            The commanding voice in her head was her own, but she’d never heard herself sound like that before. It startled her out of her mental tirade.

            Tell them, Tessa.

            She looked directly at the man sitting next to her, then at the flight attendant, her gaze narrowing to just the two of them.

            “Leave... me... alone.”

            The woman’s smile faded from her face. She turned immediately and went back to the galley. Simultaneously, the man unbuckled his seatbelt, got up, and moved to another seat.

            Tessa covered her mouth with one hand in shock. That commanding tone really had come from her, and it had really worked! She wasn’t sure whether to feel excited or scared. Does this mean I can get whatever I want? Wait, how did I do it?

            The child behind her kicked the seat again. Her lip curling, she looked between the crack in the seats and snarled at him. He gasped, snapping his legs back to his chest. She glared. Don’t let it happen again. Slowly, his legs went back to the floor.

            Tessa turned back around. Now I’m terrorizing children... Just what am I turning into?

            For the remainder of the flight, Tessa tried to get some sleep, but spent the majority just keeping her eyes closed. Sleep was about as elusive as comfort.

* * *

            Trepidation kept her stomach turning flip-flops as she forced herself up the walk to Nana’s house. With her red coat clutched around her, dragging her suitcase behind her, the scenario was way too familiar... She glanced at the three trees near the end of the drive and shuddered. Those would be cut down, or at least transplanted very far away as soon as possible.

            The house was now a shadow of its former cheerful self. The white paint was peeling and the blue shutters had faded. The bars Tessa had installed on the lower level windows right after Nana’s death gave the house a forbidding look. She always said that if she ever moved into the house, she’d have them removed, but while it was empty, they were needed to keep troublemakers out. The gardener she paid to visit once a month had kept the garden from growing over by mowing everything down, but it just made her feel sad, remembering how much Nana had loved her flowers.

            She sighed and somehow made it up the drive. She unlocked the door and wheeled her suitcase inside. The wheels rolled loudly across the hardwood floor. She flicked the switch near the door and the old chandelier above the main hall blinked to life. At least she’d had the foresight to call the electric company before leaving home. In a place as old as this, candles were a major fire hazard. Now she just had to call the water company and she could have a nice hot shower. Shit... She forgot to call the phone company. Well, she supposed a shower could wait until she could walk to the neighbors’ house to use their phone, about a mile away...

            The inside of the house looked nothing like the inviting place of her childhood memories. Every piece of furniture had been covered by huge white cloths, which were then covered by about three inches of dust. Large, dusty ghosts, lying forgotten in the giant mausoleum of a house. At least there weren’t any bodies... Tessa shook that thought away. She really didn’t need to remember that dream. Though it was actually kind of funny, looking back on it now. She wondered how her brain could have been so addled that she really had thought that the woman Jeff had been talking to was Nana. But she didn’t want to think about that conversation now, or that woman, or Jeff. Especially not Jeff. Thinking about Jeff made her ache.

            Looking at the sweeping staircase at the foot of the hall, she wondered how she could get her suitcase to one of the bedrooms without breaking her back. She decided to leave it for now, took the few perishable items she had bought at the airport out of her purse, and headed for the kitchen. As soon as she could, she’d head out to the grocery a couple of miles away and get some steaks. She was about ready to kill for some red meat... Bad choice of phrase... Although she’d have to call the gas company before she could cook them... Maybe...

            “You really shouldn’t have told your sister where you were going.”

            She stopped cold in the middle of the hallway. The Twinkies and box of crackers fell from her nerveless hands.

            “She told Chloe. And Chloe told me.”

            He’s alive! Her spirit soared as the gaping emptiness that had only been growing larger by the mile filled with a euphoric happiness and sheer relief. She began to run back to the main hall... then skidded to a halt. Shit... He’s here to kill me!

            “It’s a lonely, fucking existence, Tessa.”

            She looked behind her. The back door in the kitchen was closer than the front door. She made for the kitchen.

            “Right, who am I talking about, you or me? That’s how I knew.”

            She darted around the kitchen’s island and yanked on the back door’s handle.

            “I knew you’d understand. We could help each other.”

            Locked. And the door was one of those that required a key from both sides. She heard a creak and a distinct grunt echoing above her. He was climbing out of one of the beds upstairs. How the hell had he gotten here before her? And why wasn’t he down here, waiting for her, weapon of choice in hand? That doesn’t matter right now, Tessa. In case you’ve forgotten, he’s going to kill you!

            “Abby says you could prove a problem.”

            The mention of the woman who told him to get rid of her spurred her back into action. She dove into her coat pockets, her jeans pockets, looking for her keys. Empty.

            “God, I hate it when that bitch is right.”

            She’d left her keys in the front door when she came in. Fuck! She ran out of the kitchen.

            “But if people ask too many questions... I don’t know if I can help all I should, either.”

            She was halfway down the hall when she saw his shadow fall across the staircase. Her gaze flitted from the slow-moving shadow to the keys still dangling from the door. She couldn’t get the keys now, he’d see her. If he had a gun, she’d be walking right into the line of fire. What now?

            “You’re changing. I have to accept responsibility for that.”

            She backed down the hall. Locking herself inside a room wouldn’t do any good. These old doors could be easily kicked in.

            “You know that now. Change in appetite was a dead giveaway. Biting Hector, that took guts.”

            His shadow stopped halfway down the staircase as he began coughing. She paused. Was he sick? His arm was leaning on the banister. She didn’t realize she was moving closer to him. When he began moving again, she noticed his gait was not just slow, but uneven. He was limping, and rather badly.

            “The others won’t help. They won’t even deal with Hector. Or they can’t. So, now... Either take responsibility, or get rid of the problem.”

            It was then she heard the unmistakable sound of a bullet sliding into a chamber. Click. And the chamber flicking shut. Snap.

            What the FUCK am I DOING?

            She whirled around and ran back into the kitchen. Her eyes darted around. No knives, not even a rolling pin with which she could defend herself. Why would there be? No one had lived here in three years. Wait... There was always a spare key to the back door hidden somewhere... If she could just find it in time...

            “I took away your choice, Tessa. I’m sorry. When I saw how lonely you were, I just forced this on you. I didn’t stop to think about whether or not you wanted me, or a change of any kind. There’s only one way to stop it now.”

            Nothing in the drawers.

            “I can’t let you go through it alone. I won’t.”

            Nothing under the mat.

            “I won’t let you suffer like I did!”

            She reached up on her tip-toes and felt along the top moulding of the door. Nothing. But one small space had no dust. This was how he’d gotten in. He had the keys. And she was trapped.

            “So I was lonely. You were, too. Did you feel it again, Tessa? The loneliness. Hurts like hell, doesn’t it? Like you’re hollow inside.”

            She had to hide. Maybe it would buy her a little time. Maybe she could talk him into not killing her. Please, don’t kill me, Jeff... I love you?... I’m pregnant?... You’ll get blood all over my grandma’s floor and that’s such a bitch to clean?... Nothing sounded right. Or plausible.

            “I tried to think of another way, believe me. This isn’t an end I particularly relish, but it’s the only thing I can do now.”

            Maybe she’d be saved by a sudden burst of inspiration brought on by having a gun pointed at her head. She ducked inside the walk-in pantry just as Jeff limped into the kitchen. The white louver doors didn’t even have doorknobs on the inside, let alone a lock. No trapdoors here, no attic crawl-space... She was dead.

            Jeff’s shadows fell through the slats in the doors. He coughed again, but it might have been an attempt at a laugh. She braced her hands on the shelves behind her to keep her knees from giving out. She watched as his hand came up and reached for the knob of one of the doors.

            “Hello, beautiful.”

            She bit back her first instinct, which was to scream. It would have done her no good. However, she couldn’t think of anything to say except, “You look like shit.”

            There were cuts all over his hands and on his face. He had a black eye, his jaw was badly bruised, he was hunched over slightly, hinting at some rib damage, and he favored his left leg. His shirt was open at the collar and she could see the tops of four deep gashes across his chest. Granted, all of these looked as though they were healing, but he also looked to be in a great deal of pain. No wonder his monologue had sounded so disjointed. He was probably on a ton of painkillers just to be able to stand up.

            “There’s only one way stop the change, Tessa,” he said again, as if she hadn’t spoken. He shifted something grey and metallic from his left hand to his right.

            She tensed and squeezed her eyes shut, her hands curling into fists. This is it! Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry... Exactly how does one keep their composure when they’re about to be shot in their grandmother’s pantry?

            “Tessa.”

            She ventured one eye open and saw that he was extending the gun to her, handle first. He was handing it to her. Tentatively, she took it in one trembling hand. It was cold and surprisingly heavy.

            “You, personally, have to kill the one who did it to you.” He took hold of the barrel and centered it at his chest. “Aim for the heart, I’d rather this be quick.”

            She took a shuddering breath. Why was she hesitating? This was the answer. Sure, it sounded crazy, but the things she’d seen in the last few days would fall under that category, too. If what he was saying was true, she could just go back to her normal life and never have to worry about all this again.

            Her normal life. Living alone in her apartment, putting up with the three bitches on a daily basis, a dead-end job she hated, meaningless relationships with countless assholes... Sure, if she didn’t shoot him she’d still have to deal with most of that, but... She looked up from the gun to his face, his eyes. Those gold eyes, filled with such sadness. If she didn’t shoot, Jeff would be there with her. No more meaningless relationships. No more living alone.

            Craving raw meat. Snarling. Killing people...

            She tightened her grip on the gun. The price was probably too high. She was talking about changing her whole life. She knew herself, she couldn’t do it. She liked stability. There was comfort in monotony. It was safe, she knew it, was comfortable with it. But... She chanced a glance up at him again. Did she want comfort, or did she want Jeff?

            “I love you.”

            “CRAP!” She lowered the gun and scowled. “If you want me to kill you so bad, why did you have to say something like that?”

            “I just... thought you should know. And... I don’t really want to die.”

            She heaved an exasperated sigh. “Damn it, Jeff...”

            “I figured if you were taking that long to make a decision--”

            “Shut up, I still might kill you.”

            He waited. “Are you going to?”

            She pursed her lips. “No, damn it.” She snapped open the chamber and emptied it, then set the gun on the shelf. “You men are so egotistical. You think this is all about some change, or great sex? Did you ever stop to think that I might be lonely just without you?”

            “...No.”

            “Dumbass. All this time, you keep saying ‘you’re mine, you’re mine.’ Well, I’ve got news for you, Jeff. I may be yours, but you belong to me!”

            And although it must have really hurt his jaw, a huge goofy grin lit up his face as he wrapped his arms around her. She couldn’t help it; she snuggled warmly into his embrace... before remembering his injuries. She attempted to pull away.

            “I don’t want to hurt you...”

            He held her tighter. “It’s worth it. I’ll heal.”

            After a pause, she bit her lip. “This change... Will it hurt?”

            He cringed slightly. “...Yeah. There will be times when you’ll sleep for days, others when it’ll be all you can do to curl up in a ball and just maintain. You’ll think you’re losing your mind... and you may. But I’ll be with you. I’ll do what I can to help. We’ll have to go away somewhere. It’s going to take a while.”

            “I’ll have to quit my job?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Thank God.”

            “I’ll have to quit mine, too.”

            She wasn’t sure how long they held each other like that before she lifted her head again. “I just thought of something.”

            “What?”

            “I love you, too.”

            He laughed/coughed. “That’s a relief, because we’re going to be together for a very long time.”

            “Very few creatures on this earth who mate for life, huh?”

            “That’s right. Swans, tigers, penguins--”

            “And us?”

            “And us,” he repeated.

* * *

            This is Chloe. I’ve installed a new answering machine so people can’t call me at three-thirty in the morning anymore. In case you didn’t know, normal people sleep during this time, and leave their earth-shattering, soul-bending crises until a more decent hour. Leave a message. I’ll get back to you when I’m awake. Beeeeeeeep.

            “Very funny, Chloe. This is Tessa. I’m kind of going through some things, so I’m going away for a while. I’m not sure when I’ll be back. Don’t worry; I’ve got someone here with me. Please tell Teri for me, I couldn’t get a hold of her. Princess will find out soon enough; I quit my job. Sorry if you end up being the one who drives her and the others around while I’m gone. Call it payback for telling Jeff where I was. Thanks, by the way. I’ll call you when I get back.” Click.

THE END... for now.