My thoughts were drowned out by the sudden blast from the speakers and everyone besides me and Jenny burst into song as “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” played over the radio.
When we pulled up to Stephanie’s house, a familiar black truck was parked in the driveway.
Trish grinned. “Don’t forget to tell him to have a Merry Christmas.”
I flipped her a mostly friendly bird in reply, which she laughed at.
We piled out and Trish stuck the Victoria’s Secret bag in my hand. Everyone overeagerly said good-bye and watched me climb into the passenger seat of Adrian’s truck. I set my packages on the floor, the bright pink Victoria’s Secret logo screaming for attention. Adrian started the engine and backed out of the driveway, but glanced down occasionally at my feet.
“What’d you buy?” he said with the hint of a smile on his face.
I blushed. “Just some socks and an iron and a book.”
“I didn’t know Victoria’s Secret sold irons.”
I crossed my arms over my chest in a classic five-year-old move. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
To his credit, I think he tried his best to suppress a smile, but he didn’t quite succeed and it was enough to throw me over the edge.
“You wanna know what I got at Victoria’s Secret?” I asked, ripping at the bag. I pulled out the Green Thing and held it in his face. “This! I got this. No, I didn’t get this, they went behind my back and bought it for me! No!” I corrected myself again. “They bought it for you!”
“Caitlin,” Adrian said calmly, “I can’t see the road.”
I took the Green Thing out of his face and slumped in my seat, shell-shocked.
“I take it shopping was a bit stressful?”
I kept staring in horror at the road. “They wouldn’t stop talking about it. How am I supposed to answer those types of questions? You’re the hottest guy in Warren County and now they know I’m not sleeping with you. They’ve taken it upon themselves to get us laid.”
I heard something from my left and looked over. Adrian had one hand covering his mouth, trying not to laugh.
“You think this is funny?” I asked him in a low, dangerous voice.
He glanced over at me. “Cait, you gotta admit—”
“I had to try this on,” I said in the same low tone. “Do you know how hard it is to hook those tiny little infuriating hooks?” I didn’t wait for him to answer. “Really hard. And now they expect me to actually wear it. For. You.” He turned the corner into the ranch’s long driveway. “How am I going to get it into the house?” I whispered in horror.
“Look, I don’t care what you tell them. If it makes it easier, tell them that you wore it. Tell them that I liked it. Tell them whatever you want. In the meantime, you can put it in here.”
He parked and handed me a brown paper grocery bag. I stuffed the Green Thing in it and scrunched down the top so there was no chance of anyone looking inside.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, and opened the door.
“Oh, and Caitlin?”
I turned back to look at him. He grinned at me.
“Tell the girls I said ‘thank you.’”
11
’TWAS THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Someone was playing the drums. The slow, constant rhythm echoed in my head, beating along to the blood rushing through my veins. My brain felt sluggish, I couldn’t figure out where I was, and my limbs were like magnets weighted to the ground.
No—to the bed.
I was in a bed. The drums were in my head, behind my eyes. But it wasn’t a beat, it was a …
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
It was my pulse.
I wasn’t groggy anymore, I was wide-awake and somehow completely paralyzed.
The beep accelerated, sharp and high. I finally wrenched my eyes open.
“Ah, there’s our patient,” a familiar voice called from far away. But the voice was wrong, distorted. The darkness peeled back just enough for me to make out two figures coming toward me, one with burning white eyes.
It was Adrian—and my mother.
She wore a starched white nurse’s uniform from another era, and hung limply from Adrian’s arms, her eyes milky and dead.
“You wanted your mother back,” he explained. But it wasn’t Adrian’s voice. It was deeper, and echoed as if it were coming from far away. “Here she is.”
“I love you, Caitlin,” my mom whispered as the Adrian-thing laid her on my hospital bed, tucking her face gently against my neck.
I lay completely immobile, but the screams inside my head echoed the screams of my heart monitor.
“I want to come home, sweet pea.” I could feel her cold, slimy lips against my cheek. “Don’t you want me to come home?”
The shriek of the heart monitor abruptly stopped.
“I just need to build my strength, Caitlin. I need a way to come back. A little … snack.”
My lungs unlocked and I screamed just as her inhuman teeth ripped into my neck. She tore into my windpipe until I was breathing my own blood, drowning in it, watching her filmy eyes roll like marbles in her head.