6. Arlo
CHAPTER SIX
ARLO
“What the actual fuck just happened?” Micha shouts as I step away from the window, my heart drilling against my chest.
What did just happen?
I was fast asleep, and the next thing I know, I’m waking up to pink and green hair.
“It was her,” I whisper, sitting on the edge of the bed, and when I look up at Micha, he’s facing away from me. Only now do I remember I’m fully naked. Fuck it. It’s already been out and swinging; I see no point covering up now. “Look at me, Micha.”
He huffs and turns around, his folded arms making his biceps bulge, and my cock visibly twitches. Micha’s eyes are drawn to it. “You’re hard.”
“Piss off,” I grunt, reaching down to pick up my joggers from the floor. I ignore the fact he has a point; I was already hard. “It was her. From the circus.”
“I know. I saw her earlier,” he says when I’ve slipped the joggers over my hips.
“You did? When?”
He runs a hand back through his hair, frustratedly tugging on the strands. “She was following me. In the graveyard.”
I knew I recognised those green eyes in the alleyway yesterday.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to wake you.”
Ignore your heart swelling. He doesn’t care about you like you care about him.
“How did she get in here?”
“The window. I came out to get a drink and noticed it was open, so I came to see if you were up, and I found her—” He grits his teeth. “She was pulling down your quilt.”
There has got to be something seriously wrong with me to like the thought of that. I’ll blame it on the fact I’m touch starved.
“I don’t understand why she was here. How did she get into a window six stories high? And she jumped down like it was nothing. She just… disappeared.”
“She was touching you, Arlo. If I hadn’t come in—”
“Calm down,” I demand, cutting off his angry rambling and taking quick steps across the room to meet him.
“Calm down?” he scoffs, throwing out his arms. “She was touching—”
I reach up and grip his chin, taking him by surprise. “I heard you, Micha. She was touching me. She broke in. It was messed up.”
He isn’t used to me being in demand, and he visibly fights the urge to push me away. “Why aren’t you angry?”
“What, like you are?” I laugh, rolling my eyes. “What good would that do? I have more questions than simply finding out why she was touching me.”
“She didn’t look human. The eyes…”
I release his chin and step back before his presence becomes too much. “Bright green. And her skin?”
“Blue,” he mutters.
“What do we do? Do we, like, go to the police?” Not that I want to. I was obsessed with her before, and my messed-up brain doesn’t hate the fact she came to see us again.
That’s weird, Arlo.
“The police won’t do anything. They’d merely laugh.” He looks over my shoulder, staring at the window she escaped through. “But the circus is in town for another two weeks. We know where she’ll be.”
“You’re suggesting we go back? To see her?”
“Are you scared of her, Arlo?”
My laugh bellows out of me. “Erm, yeah? She has pointed teeth, dude.” Despite the fact I woke up with a hard cock and the sight of her on my bed, she is utterly terrifying.
He parts his lips to reply when we hear the sound of something being knocked over in the kitchen. He’s quicker than me, dashing out the door. There’s a flash of black as something small scurries across the floor, jumping remarkably high and flying out the open window.
“Was that a rat?”
Micha doesn’t seem to want to answer. “Shut the window, Pipsqueak.”
I raise an eyebrow but walk over and shut it anyway. I’m pretty creeped out right now. “A ‘please’ would be nice.”
“Only good boys deserve manners,” he whispers as he walks behind me, pressing against my back and pushing me into the window. “I saw your hard cock. You’re no good boy.”
“Get off me,” I grunt, pushing my hips back into him to throw him off, but he laughs in my ear.
“That’s right, rub your ass against my cock. I love it.”
“Dude, piss off.” He keeps laughing as I turn around and shove him away. “What is wrong with you?”
He looks down at my erection behind my joggers. “Nothing. I simply like playing with you. And it looks like you do too.”
My mouth opens and shuts as I try to think of a response, but I’m baffled by this man. “Are you kidding me?” I shriek, and his smile drops. “Do you know how un-fucking-fair that was, Micha? You rejected me, asshat. Why are you so intent on hurting me?”
Something flashes behind his eyes. Maybe remorse, maybe guilt. I don’t know, and I don’t care anymore. I’m exhausted. So when he steps forward, hand out like he wants to be kind, I step away.
“No, I’ve had enough, Micha. Enough of the hot and cold, the back and forth. I’ll sort this out and go to that damn circus by myself. Leave me alone.”
I stomp off and slam the door shut behind me, forcing back the tears as I slip into bed and try my hardest not to think about my stepbrother and the girl with glowing eyes.
Micha and I have barely spoken since our argument. It’s been two days of silence, but I think I needed the space away from him.
As I leave the apartment tonight, I have to brace myself to walk past him on the couch because of his night off. I feel his eyes on my back as I grab my coat and walk out, but I don’t dare look at him.
I have more pressing matters right now, like the fact I’m about to confront our intruder.
I’ve thought time and time again about what I might say or ask, how I should approach it, what tone I should take in my voice.
But what do you say to someone who broke into your home and touched you in your sleep after they stalked you?
I didn’t believe in the supernatural, but there’s no way that girl is human.
Just as I get onto the other side of the road, I hear loud impending footsteps, forcing me to freeze, panic in my chest. She’s found me first, hasn’t she?
“What are you waiting for?” Micha asks as he stops beside me, and my breath comes out of me in a rush. I thought I was about to die.
“Don’t sneak up on me like that.” I don’t know why he’s coming with me, but I ignore him and push on, briskly walking away. He doesn’t waste any time catching up.
“Considering the fact your fight or flight is to freeze, I think it’s a good idea I’m coming with you to talk to our deranged stalker, Pipsqueak.”
“She climbed up six stories and jumped out the window, Micha. If she wanted to kill me, my fight or flight won’t save me. And neither would yours.”
He huffs, but he knows I’m right.
The show should have finished now. I’m not well-versed on what circus acts do after they’ve finished, so I don’t have a clue what I’m walking into right now. I should probably be thankful Micha decided to tag along.
This part of town is filled with dark backstreets. The quickest way to get to the field where the circus is being held is through alleyways straight down the middle, but the darkness makes them feel so much creepier now. At any moment, I expect to see glowing green eyes, ready to strike.
“So, what do you think she is?”
I shrug because I don’t feel like speaking right now. My nerves are already on edge without Micha making it worse.
“Oh, is that how it is then? You won’t talk to me at all?”
“Just give it a rest,” I mutter.
“No, I don’t think I will.”
Groaning, I turn around and place a hand to his chest. He looks down at me, eyes shadowed, and I force myself to ignore the shiver that runs up my spine.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, and I nearly get whiplash from how hard I jerk my head back. The mood swings this man can go through in such a short span of time are remarkable. “You’re right. I’ve been unfair.”
“More like cruel.”
“But I am sorry, Arlo.” He sighs, gripping his hair like trying to be kind is giving him a migraine. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
I want to hold a grudge and snap at him over the way he’s made me feel, but Micha has been my closest and only friend since he moved in with me and my mum when I was fifteen.
He takes care of me behind the scenes, making the money so I don’t have to lift a finger.
He’s always been hot and cold, especially after what happened to our parents.
He’s never brought anyone home, never mentioned he’s seeing someone.
Hell, he doesn’t go out besides for his job at the graveyard. It’s just me and him.
“If you’re really sorry, you’ll stop toying with me. You know the way I feel about you.”
He swallows. Micha doesn’t like speaking about emotions. “I—”
A scream cuts him off.
“What was that?”
“It sounded like a woman.” He walks to the end of the alleyway, and I rush after him.
“Wait, Micha. Be careful.”
He makes the decision to turn right, and I’m hot on his heels, feeling like there are eyes on me under the shadows of night.
When the screaming starts again, lasting a second before abruptly cutting off, I latch onto Micha’s arm like a protective lifeline.
He looks down at me, eyebrow raised and smirk lifting, but I ignore him, focusing on my uneven breaths as we turn another corner.
The screams may have ceased, but there’s something else now, and Micha forces the both of us to a sharp stop as we turn a corner. The alleyway is nearly pitch black, but as I look down and my eyes start to adjust, I can see a moving silhouette. But it’s not that which scares me. It’s the noises.
Squelching. Snapping. Growling.
I’ve never heard noises so animalistic.
My feet are frozen on the spot, and I don’t have a clue as to what Micha and I should do here. Someone sounded in pain and scared, but that’s no human at the end of the alley.
Fear forces me to take a step back, slowly tugging Micha with me, but I stand on some sort of wrapper, and a loud crinkle fills the air. My whole body goes rigid; Micha’s does the same. The squelching and snapping and growling cuts off immediately.
Silence.
That’s worse.
Because that means we’ve been heard. And that thing knows we’re here.
“Do you see that?” Micha whispers, the noise muffled from barely moving his lips. At first, I can’t see anything, but when I narrow my eyes, I know exactly what he means.
Green. Distant and shadowed, but it’s growing slowly, closing in, the neon shine getting bigger.
And I’d remember that colour anywhere.
Oh shit.
Next comes the jingle of bells. Faint but memorable. Terrifying.
“Fuck this.” Micha quickly pulls out his phone, turning on the flashlight and shining it down the alley.
My heart drops to my feet.
There’s a dead body slumped against the wall, torn to pieces, with a face so marred it’s unrecognisable and shredded long dark hair. It’s a scene from a horror film. Blood and flesh litter the floor and walls.
And then there’s her.
On her hands and knees. Blood covers her face, dripping from her jagged bared teeth. Her black jumpsuit blends into the shadows, but her blue skin reflects with a shine.
Her nails scrape against the stone floor as she crawls forward, eyes focused on us with rapt, unwavering attention. A long, forked, pierced pink tongue creeps out her mouth, a hiss accompanying the jingles of bells as she stalks towards us.
There’s no warning before she darts forward at an inhumane speed. Micha grabs me by the shirt and drags me back as he turns to run, but I trip over the stone floor and land on my ass, eyes wide as I stare at the incoming threat.
“Arlo!” Micha’s scream fades to background noise as I scramble backwards, eyes never leaving her green ones. My back slams into a wall, and my heart bottoms out once again.
Trapped.
She keeps crawling forward, coming into the overhead light as she jumps forward to land directly in front of me, her knees at my feet.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared.
The bells jingle again as she tilts her head to the side. She reaches a hand forward, placing it on my leg, using it to pull herself closer, slithering up my body.
“Don’t move,” Micha warns quietly from somewhere down the alley, but I’m too transfixed on her eyes to listen as she inches closer until her face is directly in front of mine, the green glow burning to look at. They have white crosses instead of black pupils.
That tongue darts out again, the forked tip tracing atop her daggered teeth, still covered in blood.
It keeps moving out, getting longer and longer, reaching for my skin.
A scared whimper breaks free of my trembling mouth as she licks a slow trail up my cheek, the ridges of three silver tongue piercings dragging against my flesh, but my body betrays me.
My cock hardens at the feel of her tongue, an arousal I’ve never felt so potently overcoming my mind, and I can’t stop myself from groaning as she drags her tongue down my neck.
What the hell am I doing?
“You taste ssso good.” Her voice is a raspy whisper, and her long tongue vibrates when she speaks, like a snake. A pointed nail drags down my chest, slowly and tauntingly, circling the ridges of one of my pierced nipples through my shirt. “I want to eat you, Arlo.”
My name on her long tongue, the feel of her touching me—it shouldn’t be overpowering my fear. I should fight. Try to run. Try to get away.
Her nail drags lower, reaching the waistband of my trousers, and only then do her eyes, which have been entirely transfixed on my face, move to look down when her palm moves further, caressing my bulge.
“Fuck,” I cry, turning away to find Micha. His face is contorted in disturbance as he watches, hands out like he wants to jump in and help but doesn’t know how. When his eyes find mine, I scrunch them shut, hoping he can’t see the arousal painted on my face.
“You’re lucky,” she whispers, moving back up to put her lips to my ear. “Your hard cock sssaved you tonight, human. I will eat you alive next time I sssee you.”
She reaches back and flips over her body to land on her hands and knees again, turning to face Micha. She bears her teeth, hisses violently, and dives into the shadows, rushing away without another look.
My whole body slumps, fear forcing me to crash, my hand coming up to rest on my chest. My cock twitches behind my trousers, aching with the need for release, and I can’t begin to explain why I’m so turned on. It feels like I’ll die if I don’t relieve myself.
Micha’s staring at the empty space where she was only moments ago, his eyes as wide as they can go, his body as still as ice. He’s staring, unable to comprehend what he’s seen, and the sight of him makes my cock ache harder.
“Micha,” I groan, hand reaching to grab my dick, praying it’ll stop leaking precum if I can tame my arousal. Only when he hears me does he finally move. He crouches down beside me, face full of concern.
“Are you hurt?”
“Not hurt,” I pant, grabbing the collar of his shirt and dragging him down to meet me. “Horny. So fucking horny.”
He releases a shocked laugh. “Horny? Seriously?”
“It’s not funny. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Help me.”
“Okay, okay,” he whispers, eyes scanning my body. “What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know. I just want it to stop. I can’t take it. Please, Micha. I need to come.”