Chapter Ten
That weird girl’s back! She’s standing just outside the property line again, staring towards the clubhouse like she wants something. I hate that she keeps coming back, but only when Autumn is here. That woman has more stalkers than she knows about.
“Whatcha looking at, Dollface?” Damien questions, coming up behind me without making a sound, scaring the bejesus out of me.
“Jesus, Sir Holes A lot, could you move any creepier? You about gave me a heart attack.”
He laughs. “Hard to have a heart attack when you don’t have a heart to begin with, Ice Queenie.”
Sticking my tongue out, I wiggle it at him. “Suck on this, asshole.”
He moves forward, ready to accept the challenge.
“Eww gross! I didn’t mean for you to actually go in for a kiss. I was joking.” I playfully push him away, trying to hide the fact that I rather enjoy his banter nowadays.
“So, whatcha looking at?”
“That girl.” My finger points outside, and his gaze follows it.
“Who’s she?”
“No idea. She’s been here every damn day since that bitch Autumn showed up. She doesn’t say a word, just stands there beyond the fence line watching the clubhouse.”
“Is she ghost or human?”
Shrugging, I move away from the window. “If I had to guess by the way her neck is bending at a very unnatural angle, she’s not living.
“Hmm, interesting. Maybe I should go introduce myself?” he states, but that wicked smile of his says he’s just saying it to get a rise out of me. It doesn’t.
“Go for it. Maybe it will scratch that ghostly itch you’ve been having lately.”
He smirks. “The only itch I have is to be near you, Dollface.”
Rolling my eyes, I ignore him, refocusing on the girl outside. “Do you think she’s looking for Autumn?”
“Maybe? Do you want me to go find out?”
The idea of him talking to another female ghost, hits a nerve I don’t expect. “No.”
His smile spreads even further. “Did I hear a bit of jealousy in that beautiful tone?”
“Absolutely not.”
His one good eyebrow moves upward. Obviously, he doesn’t believe me.
“Hmm, I feel like I should go talk to her…” he says, toying with me.
“Talk to her. Don’t talk to her; I don’t care.” But then I kinda glance at him over my shoulder, and am met with that charismatic half smile of his.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m serious. If you wanna talk to her, go talk to her.”
He takes a confident stride towards the wall. “I’m gonna do it,” he taunts.
“I don’t care,” I lie.
Then he winks. “Okay, then… I’m gonna go talk to her…
” He pauses, waiting for me to stop him, so when I don’t, he calls my bluff, disappearing through the wall with two confident strides.
The second he’s gone, my nose is pressed to that damn glass, wishing I had supersonic hearing, or could leave these walls to hear what they’re saying.
He's to the property line before I can blink, then does the casual Damien lean against the fence post, approaching the girl with a confidence only he can accomplish.
“What’s taking so long?” I mumble out loud, not expecting anyone to hear me.
“Admit it, you kinda like him,” Krueger accuses, sneaking up behind me without warning.
“If by like him you mean I would love for him to die and leave me alone for all eternity. Then yes. But he’s already dead and driving me insane, so that shit isn’t happening.”
Krueger just grins. “You two definitely have chemistry going whether you want to admit it or not.”
“The only chemistry he and I have are the kinds that go up in smoke and flame.”
“Fiery relationships are the best kind,” Krueger states, moving to the window so he can see what I’m looking at.
“Goddamn it,” he swears under his breath.
“What? Do you know her?”
“Unfortunately,” he grumbles. “She’s the girl responsible for splitting up my son and his wife.”
“Why would she be here?”
His jaw clenches. “If I had to guess, she’s trying to talk to Drac.”
“Look, Damien’s coming back,” I say, a little too happily. If the girl is a home-wrecker, the last thing she needs is to be near the clubhouse.
He walks through the door, but he’s not smiling. In fact, he looks angry. “I never thought I’d meet a girl more explosive than you, Eve, but that woman… she’s straight up evil.”
“What she say?”
“Besides calling me a low life degenerate that’s missing half his face?”
I giggle; I can’t help it.
“She said she wants to talk to Autumn, but Autumn keeps blocking her out.”
Krueger’s mouth slightly twitches. “As she should. The last thing that woman needs is Pippa blathering away in her ear.”
“Pippa? Do you know her or something?” Damien questions.
Krueger nods, but only once. “Unfortunately. She was a rotten human being when she was alive, and she’s even worse dead.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because the only reason she’d be chasing around Autumn is so that she can talk to Drac, and that’s the last thing he needs right now. Not with the club getting ready to go to war again.”
“War?” My head cocks slightly to the left. I’ve sat through countless meetings and not once have I heard anything about a war.
Krueger glares at me, his one eye telling me to back off. “The less you know, the better, Eve.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s no telling what you do if your boy gets hurt, and the last thing I need is for you to go off hurting someone and feeding those weird things in the shadows.” He looks warily to the darkest corner, those red eyes staring back at us with blank, blinking stares.
“You mean the Dark Ones?”
He nods. “Is that what Autumn calls them?”
“Yup.”
“Well, we don’t need them continuously waiting around here for something bad to happen. My suggestion is to keep calm as much as possible. You’ve already played with fire once, Eve, and they’ve tasted your soul; don’t give them a reason to keep feeding.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.”
Autumn, Drac, Voorhees, and Phantom all get up from the table they're sitting at. But it’s Krueger who’s looking at Autumn like he wants to talk to her.
“You look like you want to talk to her, Ghost Pappy.”
“I’m just thinking about warning her about Pippa. If Pippa actually gets a hold of Autumn, there’s no telling what chaos she’ll bring.” He turns to Damien. “Did she say what she wanted?”
Damien shakes his head. “Nope, she told me to fuck off, and that I was blocking her view of the clubhouse. She wouldn’t tell me anything about her. You actually know more about her than I do. I couldn’t even get her to tell me her name.”
Krueger’s mouth clenches again. “Fuck it. I’m going to warn them.
There’s no telling what she’ll do if she actually gets Autumn to talk to her.
She may be a possessor like him.” He points at Damien, who’s stupidly grinning again, that half crooked smile quirked in amusement, his one brown eye winking.
“You say it like it’s a bad thing, Krueger. When I possess people, it changes their lives.”
Krueger rolls his good eye before he marches straight over to where the livings are standing, immediately yapping Autumn’s ear off.
“We should get closer,” I suggest, moving in to hear more of the conversation. Damien obediently follows like the good little ghost dog he is. Maybe next time I’ll pat his head and tell him he’s a good boy.
“Your dad says someone from your past is trying to contact you.”
“She’s trying to get you to talk to her so she can get to him.”
“He says she wants to use me to get to you.”
Drac frowns. “It’s gotta be Pippa.”
“Who’s Pippa? Wait, do you mean Pippa Kiplinger from high school?” Autumn questions.
He nods. “That bitch plotted the breakup of me and Amber. Then she fucking crawled up on Rattlesnake Mountain and threatened to jump. I tried to save her, but she ended up falling to her death.”
“Sounds like my kind of girl,” I comment, laughing. “It’s that whole if I can’t have you no one will type of attitude. I love it.” My gaze immediately falls on Phantom, who’s standing way too close to Autumn for my liking.
Damien puts a friendly arm around my shoulders. “I think they’re falling in love,” he mocks, pretending to say it with emotion.
“I hate you,” I growl.
“Well, I adore you. Tell me how you really feel, Dollface.”
“It’s more like abhor, loathe, the constant urge of wanting to maim and stab you with an icepick. Not once, but multiple times, so you really get that Swiss cheese theme going.”
He laughs, but his arm remains. “You flatter me, hotcakes.”
“Gross, don’t call me that.”
“Would you prefer flapjack?”
My eyes narrow.
“What about fluffy butter biscuits?” He smirks, eyeing my behind with great appreciation. “You definitely got some nice cake going on back there.” He laughs moronically, especially when I swing on him and he does the disappearing thing again.
“Too slow, Dollface.”
“Will you two shut up!” Krueger bellows. “I’m trying to have a conversation, and you two are over here bickering over breakfast pet names.”
EAT SHIT, I mouth, but it doesn’t quell his need to smile.
Drac can’t hear anything we’re saying, so he just goes back to talking like nothing is wrong. “Honestly, Autumn, as much as it pains me to say this, I kinda want to know what she has to say. Maybe it will give her the closure she needs to cross over?”
Autumn frowns. “If this is the same girl from before, I honestly don’t know. She tried to overpower me before and got angry when I wouldn’t let her.”
“How can we talk to her without allowing her to do that?”
She nibbles her lip, looking apprehensive and worried. “A séance would be the best bet, but I try to stay away from them as much as possible. You could invite one spirit in, and then others take over.”
Damien smirks. “I think she’s referring to you, Dollface.”
“Bite me, Crater Face.”
“I swear, you two bicker like children sometimes.”
“It’s because she’s a little obsessed with me, Krueger; she just doesn’t know it yet.”
“I’d rather gnaw off my foot, suck out my bone marrow, and die a million times over, then ever be involved with someone like you. Let alone obsessed. Keep dreaming, Mr. Holes.”
Damien casually drops his hand around my shoulders before stopping so he can look me in the eye. “You have no idea what my dreams are capable of, Dollface. There are things going on in this mind that would make you squirm for weeks.”
“Gross! I didn’t need that image. Now will you fuck off? I want to hear more about this séance shit.”
But the conversation is already over, and whatever I was supposed to hear, Krueger doesn’t look too happy about it.
“He’s making a fucking mistake,” he grumbles, moving back to his normal booth. “You don’t invite someone like Pippa in. You let them wander and stay lost forever.”
A weird sensation quakes through me. Almost like an omen passing over my skin. For the first time since meeting him, I find myself agreeing with Krueger, because everything feels off and icky, and deep down, I know it’s because of the weird girl outside.