Chapter 14
Sebbie
I gently caressed Corbin’s chest, our skin pressed together. He’d cleaned us both up, and then he snuggled me close, his arm around me, my head on his chest. I could hear his heart beating, strong and steady, and his chest was rising and falling with each breath he took.
I should probably get up, or say something, because this felt… intimate. But my eyes were heavy, and I was so satisfied that I felt boneless.
He loved my “cute little dick.” I shivered in pleasure at the thought, and Corbin pulled me closer, using his other arm to grab a blanket from… somewhere, I don’t know where, to throw over us.
Okay then, I guess we were into snuggling. Zero complaints here. My head was still trying to float down from the clouds, and even if Corbin was snuggling in the hopes of getting a repeat in a little while, I wouldn’t complain.
I could totally do a repeat, because that had been amazing. But first… First, I could just close my eyes and rest for a moment. Corbin was so crazy warm, and despite all those sexy muscles, he was really comfy to lay on.
I was dreaming of the river again.
I was still wearing my dark cloak and carrying my dark staff, only I wasn’t in my boat.
Huh. That was new. I always started off the dream in my boat. Sometimes I was at the dock already, but I was always in my boat.
This time I was standing a ways away from the dock. I was where the crowd of people would usually gather, only there was no crowd.
I wondered if Corbin would show up again. That had been nice.
“Sebbie?” his voice said.
I turned around, and he was a few feet behind me. I smiled broadly, glad my subconscious had accommodated me. It seemed to be doing that a little less when it came to these dreams, but this time Corbin was even still wearing the sexy sweatpants that he’d answered the door in. Yay, subconscious!
“Corbin! I was just thinking of you! I’m glad you came. And I know you aren’t dead, because I’m sleeping on your chest!” I proudly proclaimed.
I realized when I said it that it didn’t make much sense, but Corbin just walked towards me, putting his arms on my shoulders and looking at me, as if checking to make sure I was alright.
Aww. It was kinda sweet and gave me warm fuzzies. But then Corbin was sweet in real life, so it made sense that dream Corbin would be sweet, too.
“Hey, are you gonna turn into a hellhound again? That happened the last time you were here with me,” I explained.
Corbin smiled and kissed my forehead before pulling back to answer. “Yeah, I tend to do that. I’ll try not to, but I think that’s probably up to you.”
I turned around so that my back was to his chest, and he obliged my unspoken need to be cuddled up by wrapping his arms around me.
“I love cuddles. And I didn’t want you to turn into a hellhound last time. I like dream Corbin. We could get up to all sorts of fun stuff,” I joked.
Corbin hummed thoughtfully behind me. “I think,” he said slowly, “that you ought to treat me like I’m real and not a dream.”
I turned around to look at him, raising my eyebrows.
“I am Corbin, and I’ll remember what you say even when we wake up.”
Hmm. That was interesting. Dream Corbin wanted to be real Corbin. I wondered if there was some hidden meaning there. Maybe my subconscious was telling me that I could trust real Corbin just as much as I trusted Dream Corbin?
I turned back around, letting him wrap me up in his arms again.
“Okay,” I answered simply. “I feel really comfortable with you in real life, so I don’t think that’ll be a problem. Maybe I’ll tell you about the dream when I wake up.”
Corbin squeezed me tightly for a moment. “I’m glad you feel comfortable with me.”
He may have been ready to say something else, but I suddenly had a strange feeling. I held up my staff, stepping out of his arms. He let me go willingly and remained quiet, following my lead.
Something was… off.
I heard a caw, and Crow flew in. I turned toward Corbin and watched as she landed on his shoulder. I nodded once at her, and she bobbed her head at me, making me grin in return. Corbin reached a hand up to absently scratch her neck.
I was glad she was here, but there was that weird feeling…
I turned back around, scanning my surroundings.
There was the dock with the river behind it, and then a clear area with grass and dirt where the people gathered.
Off in the distance there was forest, but I’d never much thought about it. It was just kind of in the background.
Now, though, it felt… I didn’t know. Ominous? Alive? It didn’t just feel like a background. I felt twitchy looking at it.
“I think something is in the forest,” I told Corbin.
Corbin stopped scratching Crow and looked at me, then he looked out at the forest. He looked vaguely surprised for a moment.
“Yes, there is. I couldn’t tell until you said something.”
“What is it?” I asked, although it was kind of a silly question because Corbin wouldn’t know.
Corbin looked at me, and he tilted his head.
The resemblance to Crow made me want to laugh, but the look of concern on his face stopped that.
Okay, maybe he did know what was out there.
Crow flew off his shoulder towards the woods, so I turned back around to look at them.
The trees were suddenly really not that far away. At all.
I wasn’t scared of the woods. I felt perfectly safe. But I didn’t like something in those woods.
I sighed, staring at Crow sitting on a branch on the tree closest to us. She was above a path, though I swear there hadn’t been one there before.
I had the urge to stamp my foot and pout, because I didn’t want to go down that path.
It felt like I was a little kid and I was gonna need to eat beets or something.
(No, not like a kid eating broccoli. I always liked broccoli, even as a kid.
I think it gets a bad rep. They’re little trees!
You can make a village in your mashed potatoes!
But beets? Eww. Because, I’m sorry, but beets are gross.
My grandma ate them pickled or something, and they smelled awful.
I tried one once and nearly threw up because they were so nasty.
The smell of them still gives me the ick.)
Corbin was still looking at me seriously, obviously unaware of my inner beet monologue. Interesting. The man in black always seemed to know what I was thinking, but obviously Dream Corbin didn’t. And despite how interesting that might have been, I knew I was just stalling.
“We have to go into the woods, don’t we?” I whined.
Corbin looked thoughtful. “I don’t think we have to. I think this is your place, and if you don’t want to, then you don’t have to. But whatever is in the woods… It isn’t… pleasant. I think it will be there until you deal with it.”
I huffed a sigh. Yeah, he was probably right. It didn’t feel pleasant. It felt like dark clouds and gloom, and even if I wanted to, I wasn’t sure I could make the sun shine right now. (It was usually overcast and a bit foggy here until I cleared up the weather. That was fine—fog was cool looking.)
I turned and walked into the forest, and Corbin and Crow followed behind.
We didn’t talk much as we walked, and following the path led me closer and closer to the icky feeling.
We walked in silence for a few minutes before we came upon a bend in the path.
There were large boulders a bit taller than Corbin blocking the way.
Whatever was icky was hiding behind the rocks.
Before I could stop him, Corbin stepped off the path and walked around the rocks, coming out on the other side perfectly fine.
“They’re encased inside. My guess is you’ve had them there since everything happened.
I don’t know if they’re waking up, or if you’re just ready to deal with them.
I’m not sure why we didn’t notice them before, because I can definitely smell the rot now.
You don’t carry them with you out in the world, so this must be an actual place and not just a part of your mind,” he said, staring at the stone.
“Huh?” I mumbled. What the fuck was he talking about? What was encased in the stone? And if it was rotten, why didn’t I smell it?
Corbin looked at me, explaining, “There’s someone very bad inside.
I think you can let them out. I should have realized that you reaped them, but I don’t know how any of this works.
If it works the way I think it does, there will be another stone encasing another person somewhere else in the forest.”
“If they’re very bad, why would I let them out?” I asked. After all, being trapped in stone seemed like a good place for someone who was “very bad.”
Corbin looked thoughtful, and Crow cawed. She flew up onto the stone and pecked at it. I had the urge to shoo her away from it, and I wasn’t even sure why.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But you came here for a reason.”
I looked back at the rocks. Yes, I supposed I had come here for a reason. I lifted my staff, but before I could do anything else, Corbin put a hand on my arm. I looked over at him.
“I think… I think once they’re free, I won’t be able to speak to you anymore. I know this is your place, but can you let me deal with them? Can you trust me to do the right thing?”
I looked at him, surprised. “Of course I trust you, Corbin. But I don’t want you to have to deal with… whatever this is.”
He smiled. “It’s my job, Little Reaper. All you have to do is give me permission.”
As if the words were some sort of signal, the stone began cracking.
I looked at it to see it falling away, and when I looked back, Corbin was gone and the hellhound was in his place.
It still kinda felt like Corbin, though.
He wagged his tail at me, then he looked back at the stone and growled. Flames spurted up along his back.
Well, that was kind of cool. They weren’t just red—it looked like one of those campfire things that made colors appear in the fire. The flames were small but beautiful and mesmerizing.
He growled again, and I looked back at the stone.
The boulders were gone, crumbled to the ground, and where they had been stood a man.
He was frozen in place, just like the son who’d been fighting with his dad.
I recognized him after just a moment. He was the man from the cult house—the one who’d died that day when I’d been kidnapped.
Corbin (the hellhound version) stopped growling and tilted his head, and Crow cawed.
“Oh,” I said, looking at the guy. “It’s the old guy from the cult house who was being held hostage with me.”
Although he didn’t exactly look like an old guy anymore. The man at the cult house had been wrinkled and shriveled, mere skin and bones. I’d been so mad at the time thinking how they must have tortured him, but he didn’t look so bad now. Yeah, he still looked old, but he looked healthy.
I looked down at Hellhound Corbin, and he looked up at me. His head tilted again and his tongue panted for a second, and I got the impression that this guy wasn’t what he was expecting.
“Huh. I thought it was a very bad person in there?” I asked. “This guy was being tortured by the very bad people.”
Corbin looked back at the figure and growled again, and the flames on his back spurted higher for a moment.
It was like a lightbulb went off in my head.
This was Aiden’s grandfather. This was the man who was apparently looking for him in order to kill him.
Or maybe he’d told Aiden’s brother to go kill him?
I couldn’t remember all the details—but I was pretty sure he was a bad man, despite what had happened to him.
I took a step forward, knowing Hellhound Corbin would come with me.
The man blinked his eyes, and he looked at me. He straightened up and sniffed disdainfully. He looked like he was someone who would wear cufflinks and a tie to breakfast, like he was kind of snooty. I felt an immediate dislike for him and stepped back.
“Where am I? You cannot hold me,” he stated, a sneer appearing on his face as he looked around.
“You’re dead,” I answered.
He laughed, and it wasn’t a nice sound. He sounded mean, like a bully. “I can’t die, boy.”
Corbin growled next to me. I kind of didn’t know what to say.
I finally settled on, “Everyone can die.”
“Not me. I killed my own brother to make sure of that.” He smiled, like he was proud of the fact, and I took another step back.
Hellhound Corbin growled again. Trust me, he’d said. It’s my job.
Corbin was right—he was a very bad man. I looked down at Hellhound Corbin and nodded. I trusted him.
He licked my hand, and little flames licked along my skin. I smiled because it kinda tickled. Then Hellhound Corbin was jumping forward toward the man.
I expected… I don’t know. A fight? An evil villain monologue? A mauling? Tons of blood? Nothing that dramatic happened, though. I mean, I guess it was dramatic, but it wasn’t bloody.
Hellhound Corbin latched his jaw onto the man’s arm, and then the man screamed.
I don’t even think Hellhound Corbin had time to break the skin, and the screaming only lasted a few seconds, because the man was totally engulfed in that cool flame that had tickled me a bit.
Only it definitely didn’t tickle him—it decimated him.
And… that was it. The screaming stopped, the guy collapsed, and his body burned away to nothing. Hellhound Corbin stepped back and sat down, looking at the spot where he’d been, almost like he was confused at how fast it had all happened.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” I announced.
Crow cawed, coming down to land on Hellhound Corbin’s back. I almost reached out to grab her, but of course she didn’t get burned by his flame either. Then human Corbin was standing in front of me once again.
“Oh! Hi! Fancy meeting you here!” I joked, grabbing onto Corbin’s hand.
The whole fiery hellhound thing was totally cool, but it was nice to be able to hold hands, especially after I dream-killed a very mean old man.