82. Willow
WILLOW
TEN MINUTES PRIOR
Cool air runs along my body making me shiver and forcing my consciousness to become aware of the world around me. It’s late. The moon is the only source of light spilling into the room right now. I reach behind me feeling the bed and searching for Noah, but he's not here.
“Noah?” I whisper into the dark.
Only silence answers me.
“Noah?” I call out again as I sit up and glance through the open doorway into the bathroom.
He’s not in there. His phone isn’t on the nightstand, and the bedroom door is slightly cracked open. He did say he hardly ever sleeps. I wonder if he just went downstairs to get a drink or something.
You’re in my Hell now, and there’s no escaping me.
Why are those the words that seem to haunt my mind?
He felt so different this time…It was strange.
It felt like he was pleading for me to understand something he hadn’t shown me yet.
He asked me if I believed he would never hurt me.
He said my happiness and my life were his priority now.
Why would he say something like that if there wasn’t more going on?
Something he wants to tell me but is too afraid to… Could that be it?
Fuck. I need to know.
I glance in the dresser, finally finding a pair of Noah’s boxers and one of his black T-shirts that falls to my mid thigh. I wish I had my slippers. A pair of Noah’s socks will have to do for now because hardwood floors are always cold this time of year.
Holy shit. It’s almost Thanksgiving. Then it’ll be Christmas. I wonder if he'd want to go get a tree and decorate it. Maybe we can go and pick one out together.
The blaring sound of a car alarm somewhere off in the distance startles me, and I almost lose my footing on the staircase leading to the main floor. The house is completely silent. Maybe he fell asleep on the couch.
“Noah?” I whisper as I make my way through the house, searching for him, but all I hear is silence.
Moonlight fills the living room and kitchen. Shadows cling to the corners causing goosebumps to run up and down my arms. Something feels off. It’s too quiet down here.
I turn, making my way through the kitchen toward the dining room, when I hear a strange whistling sound. It’s low, but because the house is deathly silent, I can hear it. It sounds like wind is whistling through a cracked-open window.
I follow the sound and end up in the laundry room. There are no windows in here though. Maybe the vent isn’t sealed right?
I bend listening for the sound, but it gets quieter near the dryer. It’s so weird. Where the hell is it coming from? I place my ear close to the wall and follow along searching for it. It’s an old house. It could just have cracks in its foundation allowing the cold November air to seep inside.
As I’m about to give up and search the rest of the house for Noah, my fingers find a part of the wall that sticks out barely further than the rest of the wall.
“What's this?” I quietly ask myself and the darkness surrounding me.
The moonlight from the kitchen and hallway window barely reaches in here, just enough to allow me to see the outlines of everything in the room.
I press on the wall, and it pushes in slightly. When I remove my hand, the wall springs back and slowly pops out toward me. A small sliver of light can be seen along the panels illuminating the outline of what looks like a door.
Holy shit. A secret room? This is some serious horror movie shit.
I glance back into the hallway listening to hear if Noah is nearby, but just like before, there's nothing but silence.
That tiny voice in the back of my mind has returned. It’s currently screaming at me to go back up to bed and just ask him about it in the morning. But unfortunately, there’s an even louder voice currently demanding I go through the hidden door.
Curiosity killed the cat. I wonder what it’ll do to me?
I wedge my finger into the edge of the door and pull, letting more light spill into the laundry room. My eyes squint shut from the sudden brightness, and when I’m finally able to open them again, I’m stunned. It’s not a room, it’s a hidden staircase.
At the bottom is another door cracked open. My heart is racing, making it difficult to hear anything besides the thump, thump, thump inside my head. I swear I can hear voices down there.
“Noah?” I whisper again, but a bit louder this time.
There it is again. That’s definitely a voice, but is there two? Yes. There are definitely two voices.
Okay, Willow. Seriously. Just go back to bed. You don’t need to go down there. You don’t need to be so goddamn curious…
But I do.
I take the steps slowly, one by one. I watch my footing making sure not to step on anything since I’m only wearing a pair of socks. Now I really wish I had my slippers.
With each step further, I can hear the voices. It still isn’t enough to understand what they’re saying, but I know there are two and one is definitely Noah’s.
At the bottom of the steps is a halloween mask. It looks like a skeletal face. The white bone is split open and the eyes are black. The mouth is sewn shut and there are faded blood splatters covering the white of the skull. It looks creepy as fuck. Yep, this is definitely going to be how I die.
“Where is she?” a male’s voice demands. One that I don’t think I recognize. It’s not Jeremy’s.
I slowly let the bottom door swing the rest of the way open. A sickening, coppery smell hits me causing a wave of nausea to roll through my stomach. I quickly pull the T-shirt up over my mouth and nose, but it does little to help with the smell. Now the smell of Noah’s cologne is also mixed in.
As I close the door behind me and move forward, I realize I’m not in a normal hallway at all.
It’s more like a brick tunnel. Everything feels old and damp down here.
It feels wrong. I can hear the voices getting clearer.
Noah and someone else. I can’t shake this feeling of familiarity at the other man’s voice. It’s almost sickening.
“If you ever speak about her like that again, I’ll…”
“You’ll what, Killer? Kill me?”
That voice…
I know that voice. I’ve heard it in my nightmares.
No…There’s no fucking way.
I make my way further allowing my body to slink along the wall keeping tight to the shadows. I can hear them fully now. They must be just on the other side of this wall.
“Does she know?”
That haunting sound makes my body recoil in disgust.
“Know what?” Noah snarls.
“That you’re a killer?”
A killer? Noah? No.
“Not yet.”
What? What the fuck does he mean, not yet?
“Will you tell her the truth?”
“Yes. I plan on telling her everything.”
Everything? What more is there to tell? If you’re a killer, what is there to justify what you did?
My heart is racing. I should go back upstairs. Pack my shit and leave. Disappear. I can disappear again. I can…
“Are you sure about that, Killer? It could ruin everything.”
“It won't. She wants you dead, so that’s a start.”
I said that, didn’t I? I said I wanted to kill him. Did Noah go out and find him? Bring him here for me to kill? What the fuck? My heart is racing so fast and loud that I barely hear their conversation.
“Otherwise, you’re just a soulless killer with no real reason for killing.”
That’s the only thing I manage to catch as my heart starts to quiet in my chest.
“She is my reason. She didn’t deserve to grow up away from the people who truly loved her.
She didn’t deserve to have her mother ripped away from her at such a young age.
She doesn’t deserve to still have to watch over her shoulder, waiting to see if the fucking nightmare that you are is still haunting her.
I did it for her and every other victim out there who doesn’t have a voice or even fucking life anymore because of pieces of shit like you. ”
He's killed others. How many others?
“You think that’s a reason? Some vigilante justice?
Fucking pathetic. No, Noah. I want the real reason you’ve killed all these years.
Don’t try to make yourself look like the hero here.
I heard you after that fucker Rayes died.
You screamed in agony. Why? Was it because you didn’t get the rush from the chase?
Didn’t get to spill enough of his blood to satisfy that inner craving?
You’re a killer, Noah. A fucking monster.
And you know what? I think you like it. You like ending their lives.
You like watching the light fade from their eyes as they stare into the dark, soulless abyss.
You may kill me, boy, or she might do it, but mark my words, I will haunt you for the rest of your fucking life until you take your last breath.
I will still be the nightmare that lives in her mind.
But I’ll be right next to you, forever. She won’t be able to accept you, Killer.
She won’t ever be able to love the monster inside of you. ”
“Shut up!” Noah screams, causing my knees to buckle and my body to nearly drop to the floor.
I need to see him to know that this is real. That this isn’t just some fucked up dream. No, that’s it. I’m still upstairs in Noah’s bed. Asleep. I’m in the middle of a fucking nightmare because there’s no Goddamn way that he…
As I slowly step out from behind the wall, clinging to it just to hold myself up, I lock eyes with the monster that has haunted my nightmares for the last fifteen fucking years.
James Parker.
My father.
He looks so different now, and not only because it looks like Noah has been beating him for who knows how long.
His mouth twists into a sickening grin as he looks at me.
His eyes trail over my body as if he’s not sure if this is real or just a figment of his imagination.
A raspy, throaty laugh bubbles from inside him as he looks past Noah and straight into my soul.
Those eyes. Those fucking eyes that I would scan the crowds for, just praying he hadn’t found me. I will never forget those eyes.