Chapter 16 The Foreboding
The Foreboding
Idreamed about Karson.
His breath on my skin. His fingers grazing my nipples. My nails clawing his back. My thighs spread. His cock hard against my core. His lips soft and warm against my throat, a sharp sting as his teeth sunk into my neck.
I woke with a gasp, my underwear was wet, and my skin was damp with sweat.
It was just a dream. Pity. But finally, a dream I’d happily have again.
The sun streamed through my window, landing on the comforter.
I sat up and yawned, turning my head to outside.
My car was parked by the cabin. Karson had brought it back during the night.
I was quietly hoping he might return it this morning so I could see him again.
My mind flashed a vision of him standing outside, peering through the window, watching me sleep.
It was ridiculous—as if he would do something like that.
He wasn’t a psychopath. I stretched my arms up high, loosening the tightness between my shoulder blades, and jumped up with surprising vigor.
I got dressed and headed to the kitchen to make coffee.
I stopped dead, a chill whisking over my skin. On the bench was my car key beside a small white box.
He’s been inside my house while I slept.
The earlier thoughts of psychopath crowded my mind. Underneath the key was a note, and my heartbeat kicked up as I moved closer. The note said:
Amelia,
Lock your door!!!
I didn’t lock the door? I must’ve forgotten. Maybe he knocked and I was so tired I didn’t hear him and he came in to check on me, and left the note here. If he was a psychopath, he wouldn’t let me know he’d been in my house, after all. I picked up the box. It was heavy for something so small.
I opened it and there was a snow globe with a replica of the Eiffel Tower inside. On top of it lay a handwritten white card. I pulled it out, reading the black, calligraphy-style writing, which would put my messy scrawl to shame.
One day, if you will allow me, I would like to take you there. K.
Smiling like an idiot, I shook the globe, watching the snowflakes flutter over the tower and it felt as if those flakes danced inside me too, so bright and shimmering, it almost felt like hope.
A high-pitched voice from outside dragged my attention away. “Obi. Stop!”
I wandered to the porch, lifting a hand to my forehead, and squinting into a bright sun.
My eyes landed on the whirl of dust trailing up the gravel road.
A little bobble of blond hair was pedaling furiously in my direction, followed by another blond-haired figure sprinting behind, yelling, “Obi, come back! Mom said no, Obi!”
I popped the globe on the chair and sauntered down the stairs as Obi pulled up with a skid in a whirl of dust and laughter.
The little girl pulled to a stop a few moments later, placing her hands on her hips. “Obi, you’re in big trouble,” she declared.
They were the most gorgeous little kids I’d ever laid eyes upon.
Both had white hair full of bouncing curls.
Obi’s sat a little past his ears, the little girl’s cascaded over her shoulders.
Both children had olive skin and large-set eyes; they were a female and male carbon copy of each other, with the exception of their eye color.
Obi’s were blue, the little girl’s dark brown.
“Hello,” I said with a smile. “My name’s Amy. What’re your names?”
“Obi,” the boy said, puffing out his chest.
“Summer,” the little girl said between heavy breaths.
“Mom said you’re in big trouble, young man!” Summer scolded. “You know you are not allowed up here!”
Obi shrugged. “Oh, Summer—keep your pants on.”
I laughed. “How old are you both?”
“Four,” Obi said.
“And I’m six,” Summer replied.
“Well, Summer and Obi, how about I walk you back to your mom, so you don’t get in too much trouble?”
Obi used his legs to skate along the ground, pushing his bike around to face home.
He took off, curls bouncing, legs pedaling manically.
He made it about twenty feet and jammed the brakes on.
The bike came to a halt, skidding on the gravel.
Dust swirled into my field of vision, choking my lungs like a cloud of smoke.
“Oh, Obi, stop it,” Summer growled, scowling.
He turned, his pint-sized teeth flashing, and he swung back toward home and took off again.
Summer walked beside me, reaching across to take my hand in hers.
She began to chatter about everything and anything: how many dolls she had and their names, her mom and dad’s names—which I found out were Luke and Cindy Toronto, where she lived, the grade she was in, and on and on and on.
I’d yet to see their mother, but I had waved to Luke as I drove past once.
He was lean and tall, with jet black hair and tanned skin.
“I see you met the kids,” Albert Miller, my other neighbor, called out from his porch chair. Smoke drifted up from an ashtray, like a dark shadow. Albert gave an amused, knowing smile as we walked past.
The children’s mother came out as we got there. She was short and curvy, with ringlets of almost snow-white curls bouncing wildly as she rushed down the stairs.
“I’m so sorry,” Cindy said, wiping dough caked hands on her apron.
“It’s fine. They can come up anytime.”
“Obi, what have I told you!” She scolded, placing a hand on her hip.
Obi shrugged, and jumped off his bike, leaning it up by the house. “See-ya later, Amy,” he sang out, disappearing inside.
“There are cookies inside I just made, Summer. Go and grab one—Dad will be home soon,” Cindy said.
“Bye, Amy,” Summer said brightly, her denim skirt fluttering as she ran up the stairs.
“I’m Cindy,” she introduced herself, wiping the remnants of the cookie dough off her hand down her jeans and holding it out for me to shake.
I took it. “Amy.”
“I hear you work at the bar and for Bob at the bookstore.”
I chuckled. “News travels fast around here—I haven’t even started at the bookstore.”
She smiled. “It does. It took me a while to get used to it too.”
“Where are you from?”
“New York.”
“That’s quite the change.”
“We only come for a few months a year, and I love it, but that’s enough. Luke would live here full time, but I would go mad with boredom. How are you finding the bar?”
“Good. I worked in a bar back home, and they’re pretty much all the same.”
Cindy nodded and looked across the lake, watching an eagle soar on the other side as it searched for something to eat.
It tilted its head to a forty-five-degree angle and held it fixed, as if it had zeroed in on something.
In less than a heartbeat, its wings folded in, and it dropped, splitting the sky, as silent as a spirit.
When it came up, I grimaced, it held a small furry animal beneath its claws.
“Please just be a little careful, Amy.” She regarded me with what looked like concern. “This place gives you the illusion of safety, but not everything is always what it seems.”
I thought it a strange thing to say. Aside from the other side of the mountains, where I assumed the hikers went missing, what else was there to be concerned about? I opened my mouth to ask what or who she meant when a crashing noise came from inside, followed by a shattering of glass.
Summer yelled, “Obi! Now look what you’ve done. You’re such an idiot!”
“Am not.”
“Are.”
“Am not!”
“Ouch, don’t hit! MOM!”
Cindy excused herself with a sigh but turned back at the top of the stairs. “Come see us if you ever need anything, okay? Anything at all. Our door is always open.”
As I headed home, an unease clutched at my chest and wouldn’t let go.