touch

“I didn’t look up that night,” Brian said behind me, startling me. I whirled to face him.

He didn’t look at me, but watched the house. He looked clean and amazingly composed. The sallow complexion and weight loss remained unchanged. He stood a few steps away, his hands empty and at his sides.

“What night?” I asked eyeing his bulky jacket wondering at the contents of his pockets. Did he have the gun? I blinked against the sting in my eyes.

“Of that party. When they take over,” he twitched when he said it, “you can’t see them.”

I remained quiet understanding what he said. He’d meant to shoot Ahgred.

“He still controls me or tries to. I figured how to keep him out,” he said with a pleased tone turning his flat look on me.

Shivering, I struggled to maintain eye contact.

“It’s you,” he whispered. “He can’t control me when I think of you, or watch you.”

My deal with Morik protected him, but not in the way I’d intended.

“I’m so sorry, Brian.”

He nodded absently and went back to watching the house. “Will that one come back?”

I turned away so he wouldn’t see the grief in my eyes. “I don’t think so.”

“I watched you with him,” he admitted. “The night before I shot him. You danced with him. Why?”

A slight rustle of material indicated he moved. I glanced back at him, worried, but he had only placed his hands in his pockets.

“He’s different than the other one,” I said cautiously. The vibrant colors of the sun cut through the evening clouds reminding me of the time. “I have to start walking back, Brian.”

He nodded, but didn’t move out of my way. “Not safe for you after dark, is it?”

The way he said it, froze my insides with fear. “Brian?”

“Tell me why, Tessa,” he insisted. “Why did you dance with him?”

Something within me let go. It didn’t matter anymore. This fear and uncertainty. I’d already determined my family would be fine without me. Sad, yes, but they would survive losing me.

A soft smile on my lips, I gave him the answer he wanted. The truth.

“I love him.”

Fire ignited on the surface of my skin, connecting the top of my head to the end of my mark in an instant. Instead of fading, the burn intensified sinking deeper into the tissue completing the link. I gasped in pain.

Brian watched me dispassionately, pulling something from his pocket.

“That’s what I thought,” he nodded to himself pushing me toward Morik’s house.

I stumbled along struggling to focus past the pain. Morik’s link. Completed. If he were dead, that shouldn’t be possible, should it? Excitement and hope bloomed. Brian’s hand, loosely holding a gun and reaching around me to indicate the door, killed my hope.

“Open it,” he directed. “Sun’s almost down. We’re safe in here.”

Numbly, I twisted the knob. The door swung open. A foul smell, rancid garbage, permeated the air. Dirty dishes mounded in the sink. I frowned at the sight remembering that we’d cleaned up after dinner.

“Ahgred can’t reach us in here. It’s the only place I’ve been able to sleep in weeks.”

His cleaned up state made more sense. I stepped inside and heard Brian enter behind me. “Now what?” I asked without turning.

“We wait just a minute. It won’t take long,” he promised, moving to walk around me. He positioned himself so I stood between him and the door.

We watched each other as the bold pink highlighting the sky faded to a dusky blue. A sound like a distant train approaching caught my attention. Before me, Brian quivered, his skin taking on a grey hue. His eyes did not waver from what he watched just behind me.

I turned to watch the door fearing the dark more than Brian’s gun. No lights turned on outside the house as the sun completely fell behind the horizon. Darkness consumed everything through the open doorway.

Two green lights blinked into existence outside, in the street. Behind me, Brian made a small, frightened noise. I blinked. Not lights. Ahgred.

“We need to close the door,” I gasped rushing forward. Brian caught me from behind.

“No,” he shrieked. “He’s been waiting for you. It’s time to end this, Tessa.”

I struggled, but Brian held me tight. Outside, Ahgred approached the house, his dark smoky form invisible until he reached the pool of light illuminating the area just before the front step.

Brian pushed me hard out the door. The threshold tripped me, and I fell to my knees on the stoop. Ahgred hesitated just a few feet away. He didn’t look at me, but instead focused on Brian. I risked a backward glance and saw Brian had the gun leveled at me. My heart thumped heavily.

“If you’re gone,” Brian whispered, “they have no reason to come back.”