by Maria Amor
She hadn’t opened her eyes yet, but even the black curtain of the back of her eyelids hurt like hell. The recognition of that only seemed to make matters worse, too. It was like the true depth of her miserable headache hadn’t revealed itself until she had given it the power of life. Now that she had, it was the most brutal feeling she could remember having in her whole life.
This was the kind of headache that made a person want to die. It would have been bad enough if that was where it had stopped, but it most definitely wasn’t. The more aware she became, the worse it got until the feeling in her stomach was one she could hardly stand. She couldn’t decide whether or not she was going to throw up. She couldn’t even decide whether or not she wanted to throw up. All she really knew for sure was that she was miserable.
“Jesus, I feel like ass.”
“Whoa! What?!”
Delaney scrambled up in her bed, her eyes flying open in shock. The last thing she expected to find upon waking was another person in her apartment, let alone in her bed. It wasn’t like she was dating anyone, and she wasn’t the type to just bring random guys home. Or at least she hadn’t thought she was the type.
The evidence in front of her, or beside her, to be more accurate, was to the contrary. She was only slightly relieved when she saw that the man in bed with her was Dale. Relieved because at least she knew him, but other than that, she wasn’t feeling too good about things. She had most definitely been flirting with Dale shamelessly for a while now, but that hadn’t meant she was planning on doing anything about it. She most definitely wasn’t.
“Oh, my god, Dale. You almost gave me a heart attack!”
“Yeah, I can see that. Calm down, okay? It’s just me. No big surprises or anything.”
“No big surprises. Sure. Right. Except that I don’t exactly remember you coming home with me.”
“Okay. Well, I can see how that might make a girl a little bit jumpy. How much do you remember from last night?”
She grimaced and did her best to look through the haze that was her previous evening. What exactly was the last thing she remembered? She remembered the incredibly strong drinks and Dale pouring the both of them shots. She remembered the snotty way the girls in the bar had looked at her, all of them interested in taking Dale for a ride and resenting the hell out of her for taking even a little bit of his attention.
She definitely remembered the feeling of abject desolation at the thought that maybe everything she wanted to do with her life was a complete waste of time, and then... then?
“Um, Delaney? Did you go into shock or something?”
She looked over at him, not even caring that all she had on was a thin white t shirt that didn’t hide a thing and a pair of boy shorts. She should have been nervous, especially seeing how handsome Dale was even on the morning after a major binge. She would have been too, if it hadn’t been for the thing her hazy, angry brain was just starting to grasp again.
“Hey, was there some weird older guy talking to me last night, or am I making that up?”
“Oh no.” Dale grinned, folding his tanned arms behind his head and settling down into her bed so that his perfectly toned bare chest glinted in the sunlight. “You didn’t make that part up. I kind of wish you had.”
“But why?”
“Because! That’s when things got out of hand.”
“What do you mean?”
“You just couldn’t let that shit go. All it took was you Googling that address and you were off on a tangent I couldn’t get you off of. Giving you more drinks didn’t help. Shit, it just made it worse. I finally had to kiss you to get you to shut up.”
“Kiss me?”
“Aw, shit. Come on, Laney. Even a guy like me’s got an ego. You don’t remember that?”
She wanted to shake her head no, but just as she moved to do so she was hit by the memory of what he was referring to. Her and Dale out in the alleyway behind the bar, her back pressed up against the brick wall in the cold rain as Dale bent down and kissed her sloppily. Not that it was bad, really, just that the two of them had been so drunk! And the fact that she wasn’t into him. Which, knowing his track record, was probably a good thing for her.
“Ha!”
“What?”
“You do remember. That’s good. At least I haven’t lost my touch completely.”
“Nope, not completely. And by the way, speaking of touch…”
“Nah, you don’t need to worry about that. I don’t fuck girls who won’t remember it at all. At least not when they’re my friend. Not that I didn’t want to. Because I did.”
“Oh boy.” She rolled her eyes sarcastically, feeling a massive wave of relief wash over her nevertheless. “Such a southern gentleman you are.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you sometimes sound a little bit like Yoda?”
“Yes, actually, they have.”
“Of course, they have. But seriously, Laney, you don’t need to worry. All we did was come back here and make out for a little while, then pass out. You’re hot. I won’t lie, but I can’t do that with you. It would only fuck things up.”
“Good. I’m glad to know that. Now, can we talk about the weird old guy again?”
***
It took almost three hours, but Delaney was finally starting to feel a little bit like a human again. She and Dale had parted on good terms, both of them feeling physically like shit but otherwise solid. She was glad for that, gladder than she would have believed she would be over a thing like that.
If the evening’s shenanigans had taught her anything, it was that she actually valued the friendship she had with Dale. Hooking up would almost definitely have ruined that, and she would have been more than a little bit bummed by that. He had given her a kiss on the cheek when he went, which made her stomach give a little jump, and ruffled her hair.
“You’re all right, kid. You know that?”
“Thanks, Dale. Really. And thanks for, you know.”
“Not taking advantage of you?”
“Yes.” she laughed, her face turning a bright red. “Exactly.”
“Right back at ya. I’ll see you around, okay? Soon?”
“Definitely. Just try not to get me so drunk next time.”
“I’m not promising anything.”
He gave her a roguish grin and headed out the door, down the street and on with his life. She heaved a sigh of relief and went back inside. Her head was still pounding and her stomach none too pleased with her. It didn’t matter though, or at least not nearly so much as it had when she had first woken up. It didn’t matter because now she had a reason to be up and feeling like shit. She wasn’t going to just lounge around all day in bed eating fatty foods and feeling sorry for herself.
She wasn’t going to do that at all, because she had things to do. No, not things; one thing only, but one very important thing. Finally, right when she was on the verge of giving up everything about her hopes and dreams for her less than ordinary life, intervention had come in the form of an ominous looking, cranky aging man.
The moment she was on her own, she raced to her purse, ignoring the dizzy sick feeling the rapid movement gave her. She needed that card and that was all that mattered to her. Hangover be damned!
“Shit!”
At first, she was sure that it was gone. Of course, it would be. She had probably tossed it aside in a childish fit in favor of another round of shots. That would just be her luck, wouldn’t it? Precisely the kind of thing she would do. The thing about Delaney was that, although she was driven and had a very clear (if unconventional) vision of what she wanted to do with her life, she also had a tendency to sometimes be a bit of a mess.
It was nothing out of the ordinary for a girl her age, but that didn’t mean it didn’t get in the way. She couldn’t have even counted the number of coats she had left behind in restaurants or bars (either drunk or otherwise), but she had a feeling it was a lot. Fortunately for her, this was not another one of those times when she left something in
a place where it didn’t belong and then promptly forgot about it.
After rummaging in her bag from the night before for the third freaked out time in a row, she found the card at the very bottom. It was bent and already ridiculously dirty after only a few hours, but it was there.
“Thank god! Now who the hell are you, you fucker?”
It was maddening for a girl who wanted to be a reporter of sorts to not know anything, let alone something that might actually make a difference to her. Assuming that it would, which was a big “if.” She hadn’t allowed herself to really think about what that little card might give her if she actually found it but now that she had it in her hand, she was practically salivating to see what was at the end of her new yellow brick road. She scrambled to her laptop and started tapping away furiously, eager for any kind of information she could get.
“Shit! Shit, shit, double shit.”
Delaney was in full rabid reporter mode at that point, which only made the fact that she couldn’t find anything at all about the mystery address she had been given all the more annoying. Literally, there was nothing. In the day of the internet, that was pretty much unheard of. Because Delaney was a product of that same internet age, not getting what she wanted right when she wanted it was infuriating.
It also left her with only one more option. She was going to have to go there. She knew she probably shouldn’t do it. She was well aware of all of the Dateline style stories about women being abducted while doing things a whole lot less stupid than going alone to an unknown address to do unknown things.
What she was planning was right up there with taking candy from a stranger hanging out in the back of a van and offering a free puppy if she got inside. She was a smart girl and she knew all of that. It didn’t matter.
Nothing mattered but her getting to the bottom of what was going on here, especially if doing so might mean she didn’t have to go out and look for another shitty waitressing job. Because if there was ever a job she wasn’t suited for, it was that.
She nodded her head to herself, doing her best impression of one of those old timey fifties style sleuths, and made her way to the shower. She hardly even noticed that her body was still feeling like shit. She dressed and slapped on makeup as quickly as she could manage it, not once bothering to look herself over to see how much of her former night still showed on her face.
Instead it was out the door, a quick dash into her local bullshit chain coffee shop for the biggest cup they had, and then off to her mystery address. She took a cab so as to avoid having to put any money into gas (now that she was jobless she needed to think about that kind of thing) and drummed her fingers nervously on her thigh the whole way there.
And, as it turned out, the whole way was a hell of a lot further than she anticipated. The cabbie drove her right out of the Austin city limits, then deeper and deeper into the hill country. This was the point when a normal person would have turned around and headed straight back home. but Delaney was apparently not your average girl. There was absolutely nothing on the planet that could have convinced her to turn around at that point. Not a single damn thing.
“This looks like the place.”
“Huh?”
“We’re here, lady. At least this is where the GPS is giving me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Sure I’m sure. I’m the one who does this for a living, right?”
“I guess so.”
“Look, are you sure you want me to drop you here?”
“I’m sure.”
“I don’t know, lady. This place don’t look so safe. It looks like the kind of a place a serial killer might hang out in.”
“I said I’m sure. Thanks though, for the concern and everything.”
“Sure, I guess.” The much older and not-so-clean-cut-looking man shrugged his shoulders at her, clearly already losing interest in the whole ordeal. “Whatever you say. Just, you know, don’t say I didn’t warn ya, all right? I mean, I don’t wanna see you on the news or anything and know I didn’t say nothing.”
“It’s okay. I appreciate it, really. But I’m going to be okay.”
“Whatever you say, lady. Just in case though, here’s my card.”
For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, a guy she didn’t even know was handing her his card. She didn’t know if this was a testament to the life choices she was making, but it kind of felt like it. This was a feeling that only intensified as she got out of the cab and watched it drive away. Now she was legitimately on her own out in the middle of nowhere and standing in front of the largest, strangest looking house she had ever seen.
It wasn’t a joke anymore, not some half-cocked idea. This thing was for real. The mystery address on the back of a dirty old business card had led her to something that looked like a rambling gothic mansion picked up out of old school Europe and set down in the middle of Texas. She didn’t know what this place was, but she was definitely surprised by the fact that nobody ever talked about its being there.
“Oh Toto,” she whispered to herself and nobody else in particular, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Delaney was a girl who had many times been described as looking just like a doll. It was a comparison that she hated, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t pretty damned accurate. She was far from tall, not even reaching five foot five, with long blonde curls that fell halfway down her back. That was when she actually wore it down, which was almost never. She found that it got in the way and so she kept it in a messy bun on top of her head, exactly the way it was as she stood in front of this bizarre place.
She had slightly almond shaped eyes, a trait she had inherited from her father, and they glowed a striking green against her porcelain skin. She was a truly beautiful girl who really did look like she belonged on a shelf of Madame Alexanders, which was why her disposition was so unexpected. It was like her looks made her drive to get what she wanted and go for the really strange and dangerous stories all the more intensely.
It had always driven her parents crazy and it had a tendency to get her into troubling situations such as this one. The thing was, it also gave her the balls to handle the situations once she was in them, and that could only be a good thing. As far as she was concerned, she was going to make this situation her bitch, even if she didn’t yet know what exactly the situation was.
“Okay,” she whispered to herself, taking a steadying breath as she felt her heart thumping uncomfortably in her throat. “You can do this. You’ve got this, Laney. It’s just a house, right? I really, really big house.”
Although it was what she needed to tell herself to feel okay enough to move forward, it felt like the understatement of the century. The place was almost too big to even feel comfortable calling a mansion. She had the urge to call it a manor, with its turrets and aged stone and massive, wrought iron fence. The fence alone was more than a little bit formidable, standing at least ten feet tall.
It was a lucky thing that the gate was standing partially open because there was no way she would have been able to scale the fence itself. With one more deep breath, she slipped through the small space and into a wildly overgrown garden. It was the kind of garden she imagined Mrs. Havisham from Great Expectations must have had, the kind of garden that gave the impression of good, happy times long ago spoiled.
There were many beautiful flowers, but they grew in a way that struck her as somehow ominous, dangerous, even. The greenery was even worse with the tangled way it grew underfoot and over her head. Even as she thought this, she tripped over a large vine-like thing growing across the cracked courtyard floor and almost went sprawling across the ground. It was only her grace and the palms of her hands that stopped her descent, and when she looked at those palms they were badly scraped and already starting to bleed.
“Awesome,” she hissed to herself, more annoyed than injured. “Just what I was hoping for. I’m going to show up on some stranger’s doorstep and bleed on him.
Who doesn’t want to open the door to a strange girl bleeding all over the place?”
She thought that whoever lived inside this place might not be too keen on opening the door to a girl who was talking to herself either, but it was a little late for that. Besides, on second thought, anyone who lived in a house that looked this unruly, might be the sort of person who also did some solo talking. It was definitely not out of the realm of possibilities, that much was for sure.
Still feeling a little shaken and now with palms that stung badly, she made her way (far more cautiously this time) to the home’s front door. Assuming that this was a home, and not some satanic ritualistic spot, which she thought might also be a possibility. She did her best to put on her “don’t fuck with me” look and knocked on the door.
There was nothing. It remained so silent that, for a moment, she wondered if she had just imagined her knocking in the first place. It didn’t seem likely, but she guessed it was always possible. She lifted her hand to rap on the door harder, and this time something actually happened. Nobody came to answer the door, but it opened anyway. It just creaked open as if it had been waiting for her to get there for some time.
“Oh, come on. You’ve got to be kidding me.”
She looked around her, half expecting someone to be crouched behind a bush somewhere and watching to see what she would do. But there was nobody, just her and probably many a hidden little rodent waiting for her to go so they could go about their rodent business. What she was about to do definitely fell under the umbrella of breaking and entering, which should have mattered to her but didn’t.
She had been invited here after all, albeit by a strange drunk man’s card, and the owner of the home had left the door unlocked. Hell, it was more than unlocked. It was partially open, for Christ’s sake! If that wasn’t telling her that she should come right in and make herself at home, she didn’t know what would be.
“Hello? Anyone home?”