Chapter 18 Mason
Mason
Then I did it again. I fell asleep in the car on the way home from Lee’s parents’ house.
This time, though, I at least woke up enough that I didn’t need to be carried into the house.
We walked into the darkened house and dropped our things in the living room.
I started forward and almost ran into Lee, who stood frozen in the darkened room looking into the kitchen anxiously, a look of confusion on his face.
“What?” I asked, walking up from behind him, reaching out and wrapping my hands around his waist. He stood, strangely stiff under my touch.
“I just… I could have sworn I turned that light out when we left,” he whispered, gesturing to the light over the kitchen sink.
Fear choked me for a moment, and I froze, my eyes zipping around the room. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, desperately trying to push back the fear. God damn it, no. I wasn’t going to let Ricky and Dreyven have one more day of my life.
I looked around the room, trying to keep my face away from Lee so he wouldn’t see the fear I knew was hiding in my eyes.
I released him and backed up so I could examine the door to the house.
There didn’t seem to be any scratches on the lock or any visible damage to it but in the dim light I couldn’t be sure.
I looked around the room, but nothing looked out of place.
Of course, I hadn’t been in Lee’s home very long, I could be missing something that would be glaringly obvious to him.
I looked at the table where my laptop still sat, and my heart sped up. Were my folders lying next to it like that when we left? I couldn’t remember. I moved to the table and opened the laptop, typing in my password, unlocking the operating system. Nothing seemed amiss there.
“You okay?” I heard Lee ask.
I nodded sharply, and maybe a little too quickly.
“Anything missing?” he asked. I shook my head no.
As I stood there, I could feel the fear threatening to overwhelm me.
I couldn’t let it win. I. Would. Not. I stood there for a moment frozen but started using some of the coping skills my therapist had been teaching me diligently.
I forced the rigid muscles in my body to relax one by one, taking deep breaths between each relaxation.
After a moment, I looked up only to find Lee’s eyes caught on me with concern.
“Do you see anything missing?” I asked, looking around.
“No,” he whispered. “But stay here,” Lee kept his voice low.
He opened the closet behind the door and took something out.
At first, I thought it was a baseball bat.
Then I realized it was too narrow. It looked like a long stick?
I shrugged. Maybe he had walking sticks like hikers used.
He turned and began heading down the long hallway toward his office.
I started to follow him, but he held his hand up.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m going with you,” I surprised myself by saying.
Lee shook his head.
“No way, baby. I need you out here to be able to call for help if I need it,” he said, heading back down the hallway. Part of me knew he was trying to protect me, but there was no way I was letting him move through that house by himself.
He must have seen something on my face… Determination? Stupidity? Whatever it was, he decided he wasn’t going to argue with me.
We moved forward, our sneakers making no sound on the hardwood floors as we moved through the darkened hall.
The first door was the one leading to the guest bathroom.
I couldn’t help but admire the grace with which Lee moved.
He held the stick in his hands more like a baton than a baseball bat, occasionally whirling it in his fingers effortlessly in some kind of martial arts move.
If that had been me, I’d have been more like a toddler, boinking people on the head with it.
Lee moved into the bathroom quietly, his hands wrapped around the…
walking stick? I remembered him saying he used a cane from time to time.
Something about it looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
Fortunately, the shower curtain in that bathroom hadn’t been left closed, so a quick glance behind the door and we knew the room was clear. No Psycho surprise for us.
Next was Lee’s office. The door to the room stood partly open and we could see moonlight shining in the room as well as some light from the security light. We both froze as the sound of shuffling papers came from the room.
Lee froze, then held his hand up in a fist, then extended three fingers, then two, then one. I figured out it was a countdown, so I was ready when he charged forward and hit the lights.
I saw the lights flick on in Lee’s office as he ran in but just as suddenly as they came on, they went out as the door to his office slammed shut. I heard a loud thud, the sound of something crashing around in his office and a string of profanities exploding from Lee and a final thud.
I pounded on the door handle in panic, desperate to get it open.
When the latch almost immediately gave way under my hands, I stumbled and barged into his office.
The lights were on and for a moment I was blinded by their brightness after the dark of the hallway.
Lee lay on the ground, his body scarily still, the shelves collapsed on top of him, tiny robot pieces everywhere.
I heard a strange hissing noise and stumbled back into the hallway as a small, dark ball of fur raced toward me.
I wasn’t sure, but the evil beast seemed to swipe its little paw at me as if it was threatening me, but instead of attacking me, it ran past me into the living room.
I saw it turn right and head toward the open front door.
“What the fuck?” I yelled, rushing back into the office, only to see Lee still on the floor, his desk chair lying sideways and his form horribly still. My breath choked in my mouth. No. No! Goddammit! I couldn’t lose him.
“Lee?” I shouted in relief as I saw his chest heave but worry gripped me again as he started to shake convulsively. “Lee?” I said, terrified as I moved forward to help him, wracking my brain for anything I knew about people with seizures.
Then I saw his arm pull up in front of him and he began to push his body up from the floor and I realized, he was laughing. That goddamn, motherfucking son of a bitch was laughing!
“…If you tell Kaine and Bishop I was taken down by a raccoon, I will never forgive you,” he wheezed.
I was too angry to speak at first, so I stood there and glared down at him. He shifted around until he was seated on his ass, surrounded by papers and robot parts.
“C’mon,” he said, his grin spreading across his face as he noticed the thunder in my expression. “You have to admit it was, at least a little bit funny,” he said. He pulled a tiny robot arm out of his hair and waved it at me. “Little bit. Get it?”
I desperately tried to hold onto my anger because it made me feel strong, but the absurdity of the situation struck home as Lee waved the little robot hand at me and grinned.
I felt the twitch build in the corner of my mouth and the quiver turned into a smile.
The smile turned into a laugh, then the laugh burst into a fit of giggles.
“Oh my god! Who was that masked man? Rocky Raccoon?” I asked, snickering. “Or was it Rocket? Or Bandit?” I leaned over and gave him a hand up.
“Fuck you,” he said as he stood, brushing his pants off and laughing. Then he straightened and our eyes met. Suddenly, he was standing close. Too close.
I couldn’t stop myself from winking at him and whispering, “Maybe, someday.” He looked at me, eyes glittering dangerously as we locked eyes.
The air around us became charged, hot and electric. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, and I felt a bit light-headed as all my blood headed south
I didn’t know who moved first, but suddenly we were a mess of hot mouths and sweaty skin, our hands roaming each other’s bodies.
We caressed and stroked and sucked until we were both panting for breath.
I felt his hip brush my crotch where my erection was announcing its approval of attack raccoons.
I couldn’t stop myself from grinding against him, glorying in the feel of the rough fabric against my cock, his muscles and skin thrusting and gliding against my own.
Lee groaned against me, but paused. “The door… I have to shut the front door.”
I was a little lust-fogged, so it took me a minute to understand. I quirked an eyebrow at him.
“Is that a euphemism?” I asked. “Shut the front door?”
“What? No!” he said, laughing. “I mean, we left the front door wide open. I’m really hoping our little visitor ran out the door, and no more have decided to move in.”
“He did,” I assured him, shivering as his lips found my earlobe and sucked it between them. “How did he get in?” I asked.
Lee nodded toward the open window by his desk.
“The screen fell out of the window the last storm we had. I need to take it and get it repaired, but I just haven’t had the chance. I left the window open last night for some fresh air. Must have forgotten to close it this morning.”
I nodded, only half paying attention to him.
While I was relieved there was no more ominous reason for concern, all the adrenaline that had just poured into my blood stream was looking for a new outlet.
Feeling suddenly braver and more confident than I had been in ages, I stepped back from him. I knew what I wanted tonight.
Lee looked at me and it was his turn to look a little lust drunk, eyes wide, hair tousled. Well, almost tousled. Could you even tousle short hair? Was “tousle” even a word? I shook my head. Okay, maybe he wasn’t the only one a little lust-drunk.
His lips started to twitch as he grinned at me.
“So, that wasn’t the activity I was hoping for tonight,” he said, his hand coming up to massage the back of his neck.