“Didn’t want to scare him,” Quinn finished, throwing Alice a look before rising to peer out of the window. When he was satisfied that the street was quiet, he sat down again.
“You wouldn’t scare him. He’s a whole lot more mature than I give him credit for. It’s probably my fault he is that way.”
“I would say that’s an advantage now with how everything is. Things aren’t going to get back to normal for a long time. If ever.”
“Yeah,” Alice said, flipping her sling back and forth with a fingertip. He watched her for a moment, gauging whether or not to ask the question that had been in the back of his mind since the night before. He glanced at her left hand, and she caught him looking. “No, I’m not married,” she said, waggling her fingers. “Never was.”
“I thought he might’ve gotten lost in all this and you didn’t want to talk about it.”
Alice huffed and shook her head. “I hope so, wherever the bastard is.” Something told him to remain silent, so he did. After another drawn out pause, she spoke in a low monotone. “He was an exchange student from Spain, came our junior year of high school. He was going to be a pro soccer player, or ‘futbol’ as he always insisted. He was so cocky, so sure of himself, it was almost off-putting. But there was something else there beneath that fa?ade. He had a love for life I’d never seen before. He wanted to see the world, try new things. The way he was so open and honest and fearless, it was disarming. Charming even,” she said, stabbing a finger into the carpet.
“I got pregnant, and he left the next month. Never looked back, never answered any of my calls or emails. His parents vouched for him, always said he was ‘out’ or at a futbol tournament. I let them have it one day and told them that their son had gotten me pregnant and then ran away. They hung up on me and then changed their number.”
“Wow,” Quinn said.
“Yeah, wow’s putting it fucking lightly. Not that I need a man around to run things or take care of me, actually the opposite, but I would’ve at least liked for him to know he had a son, that he has his hair, and that he’s blind.”
Alice flipped the sling hard, and it made a little snapping sound in the silent room.
“Doesn’t sound like he was fearless,” Quinn finally said. “Sounds like he was a coward.”
Her hands quit flipping the sling and her lips opened as if she were going to make a rebuttal but a scream rang out from the street, cutting her off.
They stared at one another in the dancing light before Quinn lunged forward, scrambling with the doors and then twisting the gas valve off. The flames flickered then receded like snakes returning to their burrows. The room fell into complete darkness as another yell cut the night. Accompanying it came the deep resonance that was more of a vibration than a call.
Alice swung the sling she’d been toying with over her head and raced up the stairs, disappearing into the hall as Quinn made his way to the window. He drew the blanket aside but saw nothing moving. The scream came again. Human, definitely human.
“Quinn!” Alice hissed from the top of the stairs.
“Yeah?”
“Get up here.”
He hurried across the room, tripping on the first stair before launching himself up the carpeted treads. Alice was only an outline in the dark. Her hand brushed his chest and slid down his arm to his hand. A ripple of goose bumps flowed outward from where she’d touched him, but there was barely time to register the sensation before she led him soundlessly into the front bedroom where the drapes were drawn apart revealing a swath of cold light.