by Leah Rhoades
As though reading my mind, he hoisted me up, curling my legs around his waist so I could feel his erection pressed against my center. I cried out and threw my head back, unimaginable pleasure rising within and ready to explode. When I looked down at him, Luke averted his face, and suddenly, I was on my feet, heaving for breath, and he was across the room.
It all happened so fast I couldn’t follow, and my mind clouded with confusion, even as my body ached and cried with loss at the detachment. “Luke?” I rasped.
“I’m sorry, I have to go,” he grated, his voice so low and deep I could barely understand him. “This is bad. I’m so sorry, Crystal.” With that, he slammed out the door, and I stood there, trying to catch my breath and regain my senses for a long time.
What happened? Had I done something wrong? I couldn’t even imagine what had gone awry, but I was devastated. Maybe it was stupid, after two dates, but his rejection tore something out of me, and I felt empty, like I had a ragged hole in my chest. I slid to the floor and sat there, hugging my knees, as the first tears I’d cried in years slid down my face. I’d been so stupid. I’d let my heart get too involved, and I should have known it was too good to be true.
I glanced at the table where the food sat, forgotten and left to grow cold. It seemed symbolic, and I cursed myself for overthinking that analogy and not using my brain when it came to Luke.
Then again, with my luck, if Luke had stayed around, I would have lost him somehow anyway. Just like everyone else.
***
Luke rushed out of the apartment and peeled out of the parking lot before he could rethink the situation. Something animalistic had come over him in there, and he knew he couldn’t continue this. Crystal was special, and he wanted to protect her, but it seemed that he needed to protect her from himself more than anything. The best thing to do was put as much space between them as possible.
At least, for now.
He couldn’t explain his reaction to her, and it frightened him. There were so many unknowns in his life, he hadn’t wanted another one clouding his thoughts. When he’d decided to chase his obsession – and his father was right, it had been an obsession – with Crystal, he hadn’t imagined the effect she could have on him.
He’d never been so up close and personal with anyone, and no one had ever made such emotional turmoil wash over him. When Crystal was near, he couldn’t focus on anything else, and his need for her grew with each passing moment. When she wasn’t, he was consumed with thoughts of the next time he would see her.
How could someone who had walked into his life just days ago have such control over him?
Then again, she’d been in his life in some capacity since he was a child.
He shook his head as he left the city behind and drove into the darkness past the lights, toward the countryside upstate. He rolled the windows down, needing the wind in his face to cool the heated rage that gathered within him.
In hindsight, Luke didn’t know if his rash actions had been the right ones. He’d probably hurt and confused Crystal by running out on her with no explanation. But he couldn’t explain something he didn’t have a grasp on himself. Luke was as baffled by his sudden need to get away as she likely was.
Something had gripped him, made him violent and angry and filled with a need to own and control her. Crystal didn’t deserve that sort of treatment. Hell, Luke wasn’t familiar with the reaction, either. He didn’t like how it felt, didn’t understand where it came from, and would not allow it to affect Crystal. He wanted to worship her, to make her feel wanted and loved and cherished. He had no desire to be overbearing and demanding of her.
He shoved a hand through his hair, wondering what could have drawn out such behavior, such an urgent and painful craving. He’d thought Crystal brought him peace, although his worry for her could incite a much deadlier instinct. At the apartment, though, there had been no threat to her safety.
Except for his own sudden urges.
Luke pulled over, his vision clouding with fury as the night sky took on a red tint. He couldn’t focus on the road and got out of the SUV, slamming the door and starting to pace back and forth on the blacktop. He needed to run, to let his aggression out with feet hitting the ground hard and fast, until he exhausted himself. It was the only way he could calm down. And maybe, by the time he ached and was ready to pass out, he’d be able to accept the fact that he had to let Crystal go.
Chapter 9
A knock at the door woke me, and I frowned, crawling out of bed and donning my black satin robe. I wrapped my arms around me against a chill, the temperature seeming to have dropped significantly in a short time, and I tiptoed to the door. I gasped as I looked through the peephole and found a familiar face I hadn’t expected to see again.
I flung the door open, and Luke stared at me with a feral expression, coupled with something else, maybe sorrow. “Crystal…” My name rasped from his throat, and I threaded my fingers behind his neck, pulling him inside as I devoured his mouth. He thrust his hands in my hair, pulling my head back as his lips and teeth traced down my throat. Uncoordinated steps moved us until the backs of my knees hit the couch and we tumbled over the arm together.
I felt the heat and pressing of his arousal against my hip, and I grinded against him wantonly. The need consumed me, and Luke seemed just as eager, just as fervent as he nibbled at my ear and cupped my breast in his hand, squeezing hard. A low growl emitted from his throat, and it echoed off the walls, sending chills down my spine.
Something wasn’t right.
I shoved at his shoulders as his teeth became more insistent, his hands rougher as they traced over my body. I started to panic when I couldn’t push him away, his attention fully distracted. “Luke!” I cried, and a roar swept me into a bout of terror. He raised his head, and I looked into glowing eyes and a mouth full of sharp teeth, saliva dripping from the corner.
I screamed and flailed, coming awake in a tangle of sheets and drenched in a thick sheen of sweat. My hair stuck to my face, and I slapped at it, feeling as though the monster from my past still pinned me down. I couldn’t breathe, and I had to force myself to calm and inhale deeply to stop my heart from beating right out of my chest.
I knew the source of my nightmare. I understood the psyche well enough to put it together. And I knew it meant I had to take action.
Between the rejection from Luke and my reintroduction to the place where I’d violently lost the last of my family, my PTSD had gone into overdrive. Of course I would relate the monster who’d taken my last comfort to the man who had just unknowingly dashed my fresh hopes.
I couldn’t let this overwhelm me.
Tomorrow, I was traveling to New Jersey for my first interview about supernatural encounters. But I would be home by early evening. I would go to the cabin, confront my fears, and face Luke. I would tell him to stay away from me from now on, that I didn’t need to be strung along and then pushed away.
Then, I would warn him about the woods and the creature in them, even if he thought I was crazy. I would come home afterward and wash my hands of it all, probably licking my wounds for a while. But I wouldn’t have any culpability after that. It would stop the nightmares before they took control of my subconscious and robbed me of the peaceful sleep I’d worked so hard to find.
***
I waited with the phone in front of me, facing up, surprised that Sheila Mason had allowed me to record the interview. She sat across from me and stared into a distant place, probably a haunting memory, gauging from the look on her weary face. I couldn’t imagine the horror, whether in her mind or actuality, she’d experienced, based on my research.
Her voice trembled as she began. “We were driving and singing along to the children’s tape we had playing in the dash. This was before CDs and all that new technology,” she qualified with a wave of her gnarled hand. She looked as though arthritis had ravaged her with age beyond her years. The nightmare she was speaking about probably didn’t help much in retaining her you
th.
“My son was nine, and my daughters were six and four. We blew a tire about ten miles from anywhere, right in the middle of the Pine Barrens, and I got out to change it, told the kids to stay in the car. But it took me a while, and the kids got restless. I didn’t realize just how dark it was till the batteries in the flashlight died. It was almost pitch black, and I could barely make out my kids’ silhouettes.” She swallowed and closed her eyes. “Everything was so quiet for a minute, like there weren’t even any creatures in the woods. No owls, no insects. There was nothing. And then, there was a scream, like nothing you’ve ever heard.”
“Can you describe it?” I asked quietly. I didn’t want to disturb the memory, wanted the whole story. I had goosebumps, and I could almost picture the setting in my mind.
She opened her eyes, and they were filled with anguish. “I don’t know how,” she grated, her voice breaking as she held back a sob. “It was like taking a wordless, angry cry with a horrible wail and blending it with something in pain, a dying animal. It was terrifying. It grated down my spine. It instantly made me tremble, and I told the kids to get in the car and lock the doors.”
Her lower lip trembled, and I suddenly felt guilty for pushing her to relive the worst moments of her life. “It was too late. Something like a living shadow fell from the trees overhead, slammed onto the roof of the car. I watched an arm, long like a tentacle on an octopus, lash out and strike my son across the back, and two more whipped my daughters. Its face…” She choked on a sob. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright,” I whispered. I considered stopping the interview there, but she recovered slightly, and I knew I had to have this part specifically for my paper. What few descriptions I’d found of the Jersey Devil were conflicting, and I could tell she had the face etched into her mind in fine detail, despite the lack of light.
With a deep, shuddering breath, she continued, “It had four of them, the tentacles, I think. It was hard to tell, it was so dark. Even the moon was behind some clouds. And its face…I caught a glimpse. It was ravaged, scars crisscrossing all over so you could barely see anything but wild eyes and the horns on its head.”
I inhaled sharply. Now we were getting somewhere. She gazed out the window for a moment before turning a hard expression to me. “They called it an animal attack, but why wasn’t I injured? This thing never touched me. They tried to blame me, as if I could do something so heinous, so abominable, to anyone, much less my own kids.” She shook her head. “My children’s bodies were arranged in a circle, what was left of them. They were gutted, and their faces were gone. It was like some sick ritual. Animals don’t have rituals. And it stood on two legs. Two human legs.” She shook her head. “I blacked out when it started eating my children alive. Their screams…”
“It must have been agonizing.” I ached for the woman. Even if it had been an animal, or a group of them, to watch your children die, to hear them scream…
I had watched the same with my grandmother, and that was bad enough. I couldn’t imagine the horror of witnessing my own offspring being devoured by any beast. For some reason, my mind flashed to my dream, to the beast Luke became with those familiar eyes, and I shivered involuntarily.
“You can’t imagine,” she told me. “They called me crazy when I insisted it wasn’t an animal. But I saw its face. That face was human, once. Or something like it. It was the Jersey Devil, and I promise I’m not insane. I’ve been cleared by the state facility, and I won’t go back.”
“No one’s going to send you back,” I assured her. “In fact, the point of my thesis is to possibly prove the existence of beasts like the one you encountered. Maybe you’ll get your vindication someday.”
She laughed mirthlessly. “It won’t bring back my children.”
“No. it won’t.” And it wouldn’t bring back my grandmother, either. Proof that these things existed and that we hadn’t made them up would never make amends for the losses we’d suffered.
And yet, I felt compelled to keep searching.
I turned off the recorder. “Thank you for speaking with me.”
“Thank you for listening to the ramblings of an old woman with nightmares.”
***
Luke couldn’t get her out of his head. No matter what he did, Crystal’s face burned in his mind, and he ached for her, the way she felt in his arms. The way she tasted and smelled. He should never have touched her, should have regarded his father with more respect. There were reasons the old man was jaded, and whether Everett and Luke’s mother had been soul mates or just madly in love, the danger had been the same. And it ended in heartache.
While he couldn’t exactly claim to have loved and lost as his father had, Luke knew his feelings for Crystal were far deeper than they should have been for such a short, whirlwind experience, but he still felt enough of the heartache to make it hard to breathe.
Last night, he’d been too tired when he’d gotten home to do anything but fall into the bed, and yet, she’d filled his dreams so he had barely rested. He’d woken in a foul mood and tried to wash it off, scrubbing himself in the shower. But the feel of her breasts in his hands drew carnal urges from him, and he’d had to turn the tap cold to keep from bursting into flames between his unsated need and his absolute rage.
He'd stalked around the house for the last two hours, looking for a nonexistent solution to his unease in the fridge, gazing out the window as if the answer would appear in the sky like a fucking miracle. He sat restlessly watching television with a blank, unseeing stare. But he couldn’t even sit still for more than two minutes without shifting violently.
He sighed and slouched lower on the couch, jumping as his father slammed a palm on the arm of his recliner. Luke stared at the old man’s irritated scowl in surprise. “Dammit, boy, what the hell is wrong with you? You’re driving me insane with that shit!”
Luke just grunted and crossed his arms, his brows furrowing as he turned his attention back to the TV. He didn’t feel like engaging in any sort of conversation and certainly had no intention of explaining himself to his father. A fight would be satisfying, but he couldn’t exactly brawl with a fragile old man.
But he couldn’t ignore the way the old man glowered at him, burning a hole right through him. “What, Dad?” he snapped.
When Everett didn’t answer, Luke chanced a glance in his direction, finding amusement in his squinty gaze. “It’s getting to you.”
“What is?” His father sometimes drove him nuts with half-statements that meant nothing. Of course, that was on the rare occasion he communicated at all beyond his utter hatred of life.
Everett blew out a long breath and scooted forward in his chair before hoisting himself to his feet with a loud groan. “Come on, kid. Let’s go.”
The abrupt change of direction as his father moved with stiffness but surprising swiftness across the room had Luke thrown. “Go where?”
As he hobbled to his bedroom, Luke’s father looked back over his shoulder with a twinkle in his eyes that Luke hadn’t seen in years. “It’s time to go hunting.”
Chapter 10
Maybe I hadn’t seen the Jersey Devil that night, but the thing that killed my grandmother was supernatural. I was completely convinced now. Hearing Sheila Mason’s tale assured me of it. Our experiences may have been vastly different, but the circumstances and elements rang true in both of them.
And too many of those details matched the various cryptid sightings I’d studied.
The interview shook me, and I nearly curled into bed and stayed there when I arrived home. I perished the thought of getting anywhere near the woods that held my own personal ghosts. But I felt a profound need to warn Luke, even if he wanted nothing else to do with me. Just by being in that cabin, I knew without doubt he and his father were in danger. Whatever malevolent force patrolled those woods would come for them, and they wouldn’t be prepared to defend themselves if I didn’t at least try to make them understand the truth behind my past.
As I
reluctantly drove toward the edges of the city, I thought about what would happen if they didn’t believe me. If Luke decided I was crazy, he would probably want to negate the lease agreement. I fought tears at the idea of losing him so completely, but he had already walked out on me. And at least if they left, they would be safe. I could live with that.
And if he believed me?
I’d never tested the theory that absolutely no one would listen to my story and take it with more than a grain of salt before. But what if Luke trusted me enough to at least consider there was credence to the idea of a supernatural creature lurking within the trees? He hadn’t scoffed at my line of study, but maybe he’d just wanted to impress me by validating me, especially when his father had laughed. Only kooks actually believed in cryptids, right?
If he really wanted to gain my favor, though, why had he run out on me?
My whirlwind of thoughts had me so distracted that the drive passed quickly, and before I knew it, I was closing in on the cabin with the moon high overhead. It hid behind a few wisps of cloud but shone brightly enough to give the cabin an eerie glow, the trees an ominous shimmer.
I wanted to turn around and go back, but I’d come all this way with a purpose, and I would follow through. I didn’t have to go into the forest. All I had to do was knock on the door, ask Luke to come out, and say what I needed to say. Then, I could drive back the way I’d come and never, ever return.
The SUV was in front of the house, and I steeled myself, squaring my shoulders as I knocked on the door. No one answered, and I grew antsy as I rapped again. I should have called first, but that risked Luke telling me not to come, or even hanging up on me. Hell, he might not have answered at all.
Taking a step back, I felt the chill crawl up my spine that told me something was wrong. The lights were off, as far as I could tell, in every room. But Luke and Everett couldn’t have gone far without the SUV. Mr. Wesley was in no kind of shape to walk far.