Or I try to leave. Sure, I can open the door, but the view from the doorway glimmers like a mirage. Only this mirage is a solid barrier. The first time I try to get out the door, I whack my head on this invisible obstacle. Panic fuelling my body, I try again with my shoulder. This isn’t real. For a few minutes, I stand stupefied, watching cars drive down the street. Then I shout at the students passing on the opposite side of the road but no one hears me. I pull my phone from my pocket and dial Finn’s number. Okay, Alek told me Finn wanted to kill me; but as I doubt Alek’s mental state, Finn seems the best option in the current situation.
“Rose? Is everything okay? I came to find you, but Alek said you were asleep. Then he threatened me again…”
“I’m stuck, Finn! I can’t get out!” I attempt to keep my voice even but panic tinges my words.
“What? Have they locked you in and taken your key?”
I don’t stop to consider what a strange thing that is for Finn to say. “No! I can’t get out, like there’s something stopping me.” Silence. “Finn?”
“I’m coming over. You don’t need to panic,” he says slowly, “you can get out; you just think you can’t.”
“Don’t talk to me as if I’m mad! I can leave a house if I want to!”
“Just stay there.” He hangs up and I stare at the phone. Didn’t he listen? I’m trapped. Where does he think I’m going to go?
The world continues its business as I sit on the carpet inside the doorway and watch the cars go by for the next half hour. Nobody looks. Autumn rain drizzles from the sky; the dark clouds roll in. I call hello to a young woman pushing a stroller, bags hanging from the handles. She’s hunched over, brown hair hanging across her face, walking at a determined pace to escape the weather. She doesn’t see me. The young boy in the stroller gazes at me with surprised eyes. I wave. Doesn’t anyone care the door is wide open? Suddenly, Alek’s words hold more reality than they did.
Finn approaches, striding along the pavement and breaking into a run as he sees me in the doorway. He’s red-cheeked and his face is full of confusion, hair glistening with rain.
“Why are you just standing in the doorway?” he asks.
“I can’t get out!”
He cocks his head. “I want to help you, Rose. I don’t think you’re well.”
“I’m fine! I’m just stuck in this fucking house with a bunch of ghosts, a vampire, and a witch!”
Finn’s brow creases so deeply his eyes begin to disappear. “Okay, let’s get you out of there. Just step through the door.”
He’s cajoling me, as if I’m a child. Or a lunatic. Oh, my God, he thinks I’m mad. I lunge forward at the invisible barrier to prove I’m not and trip out of the doorway toward him.
Steadying myself on the door frame, I spin around and look at the door. “I don’t get it…” I cover my mouth with my hand and look at Finn. “Please, take me somewhere safe.”
Finn nods, a shadow of sadness briefly crossing his features. “I’ll keep you safe.”
I hear Alek saying the same words in my mind. The doctor was right. I need to speak to someone because I’m the one going insane.
I don’t want to be alone with any of them. Mad tales of vampires, witches, and ghosts fill my mind; tears of frustration and embarrassment push from my eyes. The rain falls harder and Finn hovers next to me.
“Now what?”
I shrug one shoulder, my mind turning over my options.
He indicates my rucksack on the carpet inside. “Were you leaving? Where are you going?” he asks. “Home to your parents?”
I shake my head vigorously. “No! I need my life back on track, not to run home. I’m old enough to look after myself.”
“Maybe, you aren’t ready yet? Your health isn’t great, I mean.”
“You think I’m mentally unstable, don’t you?”
Finn wrinkles his nose, looks at me with his concerned blue eyes. “No.”
“Liar.”
The heavens open and rain pours, sudden and heavy. I snort at the weather reflecting my mood. Finn looks upwards, the water trickling down his face.
He shakes the rain from his hair. “Getting soaked here. Can we go inside while we decide what to do?”
Every cell of my body screams at me not to go back inside the house, but if Finn is with me, I’ll be okay. Surely.
“Only until the rain stops, and then I’ll help you leave. If you want to stay at mine...” He pauses at my shocked expression. “Okay, wrong thing to suggest. Have you any friends you can go to?”
I bite inside my cheek. No friends. Not anymore.
We step into the house and walk into the kitchen. Finn takes his grey hoodie off and hangs it over the chair. I throw him a tea towel and he looks at me with a crooked smile. “Gee, thanks. That’ll dry about one inch of my body.”
His tattoo catches my eye as usual. I have an attraction to men’s arms, always have. The strength I can see in his toned muscles contrasts with his gentle role in life. Finn’s arms are more protective than dangerous. I blink. Why would I think that? When I shift to look at him, he’s watching me curiously, aware I’m checking him out. I’m not, am I?
I hastily turn away to retrieve mugs from a cupboard. “Coffee?”
“Yeah.”
Two steaming mugs of coffee prepared, I relax and sit with Finn. Mostly relax, I’m alert for someone else coming home, or whether he has a secret agenda to kill me like crazy Alek told me.
“So, what happened last night? Why did you disappear? I don’t understand why Alek was with you,” asks Finn.