Rose petals?
Slowly she walked in, forcing her fuzzy eyes to focus.
It was rose petals all right. And they formed letters on the surface of the island.
I C U
Sloan didn’t stop to think. She ran up the stairs and slammed the bedroom door behind her, locking it. She fell against the door and tried her best to breathe. He’d been there. Sometime during the day, not only had whoever it was get the flowers from her trunk, but he’d gotten inside her house and had taken the time to fix them on her island.
This didn’t make any sense.
None.
Who had a key to her house?
And how could someone get in the truck of her car?
She paced the room and stumbled on a shoe she’d left on the floor, falling face down in her bed. She rose on her hands to get up, but they gave way.
Her bed felt so nice.
So soft.
So peaceful.
She was locked in.
No one could get her there.
Ray wouldn’t be there for a few minutes.
She could just rest her eyes.
Just for a few minutes.
And then she’d feel better.
She’d feel much…
“Sloan!” She shot up and looked around. Where was she?
Home. Okay. Home. What time was it?
The sun was going down. Almost night. How long had she been asleep?
“Sloan, are you in there?” Another voice. A woman. Her mother.
“Sloan! Unlock the door!” Ray. He sounded… worried. Frantic even.
She sat up enough to look at the clock. After seven! What?
“Coming.” She sounded so far away, like her voice was as blurry as her eyes. When had someone hit her with a sledge hammer?
And then it hit her.
The roses.
As quickly as she could, she stumbled to the door. “Did you see it? Did you see it?”
The three people staring at her stared harder. Her mom, Ray — and Aaron — yes, Aaron. She hadn’t expected him. He wasn’t supposed to be there.
“See what?” her mom asked worriedly.
“You look horrible,” Aaron added helpfully.
Ray elbowed him in the stomach. “I stopped by two hours ago, and I couldn’t get you to open the door. I called your house phone and your cellphone. Nothing. I freaked out and called your mom. I knew you were here because I saw your car. Are you okay?”
That was a good question. Was she? It wasn’t like she’d felt yet. She’d rolled out of the bed for goodness’ sake. “What time is it?”
That would be the first question she wanted answered.
Her mom looked at her strangely. “Honey, we already told you that. It’s after seven. The boys were worried about you so I rushed home.”
After seven. Wow. Wait, she saw that. On the clock, right? She wiped her eyes to get the fuzziness out of them, but it didn’t quite work. Falling back on the bed would be good.
“Sloan?” her mom said again, and she tried to shake the cobwebs out of her head.
“Yeah. I must have slept pretty hard.” She yawned and tried to focus.
“Need some coffee?” Aaron asked, pushing past Ray. He looked at her with an intensity she hadn’t seen in him before. Take that back. Well, yeah, she had seen it before. In his house yesterday when he thought she was taking some sort of illegal pill in his bathroom. He could just get over it because she hadn’t taken anything but aspirin. Jerk.
“No, I don’t need coffee. I need…” Wait. Wait! Food. The kitchen…
The roses.
“Did you see them?”
“See what?” Her mom must have thought she was totally weird. Sloan thought it was totally weird they didn’t see the big huge ICU on the island.
“The letters.”
Nothing. It didn’t even register with any of them.
“In the kitchen.”
Was she talking to the wall?
“What letters? There wasn’t any mail,” her mom said helpfully.
This couldn’t be happening. Sloan ran her fingers through her hair, frustrated with the entire day. “The flowers, Mom. The flowers! They spelled letters.”
Her mom shook her head and looked very worried. “Honey, there wasn’t anything in the kitchen.”
That wasn’t right. It couldn’t be. There was something there. She’d seen it.
In fact, that’s why she’d run into her room in the first place. To get away from whoever it was who’d put them in her house. “They were there.”
She pushed past them and barreled down the steps. She’d show them they were crazy. It wasn’t like she wanted her mom to know, but, oh well. She needed to know now.
Sloan rounded the corner of the stairs with the other three behind her. They couldn’t have been so blind that they hadn’t seen…
Nothing.
She looked again.
Nothing.
It was gone. Just. Gone.
“It was here.” She stumbled toward the island, catching herself on the side. “It was here. I saw it.”