The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga)

by Hudson, Stephanie

I was now a bloody Millionaire!

  Chapter 5

  Poorest Millionaire and the Big Bad Wolf

  I was still in shock and I had to stop myself from tearing up the paperwork in anger. Ha, frustration Draven had said, well yeah that combined with about ‘seventeen million’ other emotions!

  The paperwork stated that every month I would receive a cool million dollars in my bank account, with the exception of every birthday, when I would then receive five million! It was absurd and completely irrational! I never wanted a penny of Draven’s money and the very idea that I had no choice in the matter was making me see red.

  It took a lot of stomping around and swearing to eventually calm down. I mean, I knew that Draven wanted to take care of me, but I was a bit sensitive to the money fact and had this crazy idea of earning my own money in life.

  By the time I had eaten my lunch, even chewing angrily, I decided what the first thing I would be spending my money on. I got up, fetched my laptop and was checking my online account to find, that yep, I was now a million dollars better off…fine, if that was the way things were to be played, then oh, I would play alright.

  I started looking through a list of charities that didn’t ever receive much support and decided on one. I then checked the website and clicked on the link to send money directly to them, anonymously of course. The first charity I chose was to make a statement as to how ridiculous it was in sending me all that money. The rest were Cancer and Children’s charities that got the majority of the money but ‘The Badger Rescue Trust’ in England was going to get a surprise when they found someone nicknamed Badger Bee Boo had just given them $200, 000.

  This was what I decided to do every month and I found I soon had a big grin when I’d finished, with my account having just my original savings in it. Of course, I had the usual phone call from the bank thinking some nutter had decided to play charity roulette with my account, but after assuring them with my security details that I was in fact sane, they could do little with my decision other than to proceed with the donations. When I then informed them that this would be a regular thing every month, the guy nearly wept on the phone. He even suggested a really good hotel in the Caribbean that he and his wife went to on their honeymoon. He said I sounded like I could do with a holiday, to you know, think things through. I asked for his details and sent him enough money to go on another holiday with his wife and kids…this time in a five star resort. At this point he did weep on the phone.

  I felt quite good after my little spending spree and I had to giggle, hoping Draven could see me now. I was in the bath shaving my legs, that looked as though they belonged on a Yeti, when I had looked up, as if I could see him above me and said,

  “Don’t mess with me matey, you think you can get one over on me…Ha! Not this Vixen!” It would have been a cool statement if my leg hadn’t slipped off the rim of the bath and I hadn’t just taken a thin slice from my ankle. Man that smarted!

  I got out of the bath and started to get ready, as I had promised to see the gang tonight. It was times like this I was glad Afterlife wasn’t open, as I didn’t think I would have been able to cope with that just yet. Seeing that place and knowing that Draven wasn’t up there looking down at me, would have been a first class ticket to Misery City with a stopover at Homicidal Central.

  Thankfully, we had decided on a pizza place before the movies. I was still trying to dress when I heard the beep of Jack’s truck. I dragged the top over my head and went over to wave out of one of the bedroom windows to hold up my hand to indicate five minutes. In that time I dried off the rest of my hair while stuffing my feet into my Doc M’s. I was still putting on my gloves when I reached the front door.

  Everyone asked me about baby Ella and I held the conversation until Jack was parking the car outside Pizza Pie Palace, or known as the 3P’s to everyone around here. Once we were seated in one of their biggest booths, one Chaz and Drew had waiting for us, we started chatting about what we were doing for summer.

  “Yeah Kaz, are you still going travelling with Draven?” RJ asked me, before taking a bite of a slice of pizza that I swear was bigger than her head. I, of course, snorted in my coke.

  “You ok Kaz?” Jack said patting me on the back while I wheezed, coughed and tried to find my breath that eluded me.

  “Yeah…just went…down…wrong way.” I said hoping RJ still wasn’t waiting for an answer. Of course, one look squashed that hope like a bug on a windscreen.

  “Well?”

  “Umm…” I looked around and now everyone had stopped and was looking at me, waiting. I closed my eyes briefly and took a deep breath. I knew I couldn’t have held this off forever but it still felt far too raw to be talking about this and even Libby hadn’t asked me the details.

  “Me and Dra…Dominic… broke up.” I said and in that moment all hope in my friends being tactful was lost. Lanie dropped her pizza, Drew’s glasses slipped down his nose, Chaz stopped drinking with his straw still caught against his lip and RJ…well RJ actually shouted,

  “WHAT THE FUCK!?” There only seemed to be Jack that I could depend on for even a normal response.

  “Yeah, well it kind of just happened and as you can imagine, I really don’t want to talk about it.” I added hoping like Hell RJ would get the hint.

  “Who finished with who?” Well Hell really was never going to be on my side now was it, I thought dryly.

  “Ok, if you must know, he finished with me.” I said knowing there was no other way I could play this card. I mean come on, no-one in their right mind would have believed that I finished things with him!

  “Why?” She asked and I rolled my eyes thinking just how blind, deaf and dumb could one person be at this moment. What part of I didn’t want to talk about it did she not get exactly?

  “Come on sis, what part of ‘she doesn’t want to talk about it’ don’t you get?!” Jack said as if reading my mind. Did I just project that or what? Either way it worked and even though she rolled her eyes, she still saw the insensitivity in her question.

  “Sorry…I guess I am just shocked is all.” She said but I shrugged my shoulders before responding,

  “No more than me, I can assure you.”

  “Is that the reason the club is closed?” She asked and Jack groaned.

  “What! I can ask that can’t I?”

  “It’s fine Jack. Look, I don’t really know all the ins and outs about the club or why it closed, but I do know that the Dravens won’t be back for a long time.” I said taking a sip of my drink to mask the emotion in my voice.

  “Oh, that’s a shame.” Lanie said quietly. I didn’t even have it in me to smile at her cute little comment.

  “So, what movie we gonna see? ‘Cause, I am thinking horror.” Jack said steering the conversation away from me and I nudged his leg under the table and mouthed a ‘Thank you’ when no-one was looking. He winked at me and continued with the tactic the rest of the afternoon.

  It was only later that evening when he dropped me off last, after Lanie, that he turned the engine off outside my house.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” He asked me, shifting in his seat to face me.

  “Do you want to come in?” I asked thinking that, no, I didn’t want to talk about it but on the other hand, I really didn’t want to walk in the house on my own.

  “Sure.”

  He locked his door and followed me into the house. Once inside, I made us both hot drinks and we sat down in the living room.

  “Do you wanna watch something?” I asked him getting up, but he stopped me with a hand on my arm, one I wasn’t used to being touched by human hands.

  “Keira stop.” I gave up on pretending and slumped down in the seat next to him.

  “I am no expert Keira, but I have had my fair share of heartbreak and know what it feels like to go through the emotions being left behind can bring. I am not asking you to tell me all the details honey, but I am going to ask that you consider me as a friend to talk to when you’re read
y, despite my devilish good looks, there is a good listener in here as well.” He said making me laugh at this last part.

  “I know you are.” At me saying this he did a dramatic head flip and pushed all his floppy hair back with both hands while saying,

  “Thanks sugar, no face for radio in this house, nope, not us!” He said breaking into a laugh when I elbowed him in the ribs.

  “Hey, watch the merchandise, gotta take this hunka burning love all the way to Hollywood someday.”

  “Hunka burning love…really?” I said sarcastically and we both burst out laughing.

  Jack stayed to watch a movie and it was nice not being alone in the house. We chatted like we used to do and Draven didn’t come into the conversation again. He explained that his plans for the summer were travelling and most of the gang were going along, if I was interested in getting away for a few weeks. I was just telling him I would think about it when he checked his phone.

  “Whoa, I didn’t realise the time.” He said standing up and stretching his tall frame. I could just see the strip of tanned stomach under today’s rock T-Shirt that was a faded Metallica logo in grey with a coiled snake underneath.

  “You working tomorrow?” I asked following him to the front door.

  “Yeah, although I was supposed to be taking some tourists up for a hike, only the sheriff put a stop to that. Hope it’s not for long though.”

  “Why, what’s wrong?” this piqued my interest.

  “Haven’t you heard? Man Kaz, you really need to start reading the papers, the damn world could be ending tomorrow and you wouldn’t even know it.” He said and I shuddered thinking he really had no clue how close that statement came to being true last December.

  “Well, that is what I’ve got my buddy Jack for, to bring me all this happy, feel good news that just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.” I said making him arch an eyebrow before he ruffled my hair like a child.

  “Sure do and don’t you forget it! Ok, here’s the heads up. Some weird stuff has been happening in the National Park, so do us a favour…don’t go walking in the woods alone…K?” He said becoming more serious as he put on his khaki combat jacket.

  “Why?” I asked having a very bad feeling about this.

  “Because some hikers didn’t fare so well the other week and from what I heard, it took a large crew to collect all the scattered body parts.” I hit him on the arm to tell him to stop joking with me but then I saw his look and knew there was no messing around in the story he just told me.

  “Please tell me you have exaggerated that ‘body part’ bit?” He shot a look to the woods before coming back to my worried eyes.

  “Hey don’t worry, it was probably just some wild animals or something.”

  “You mean they don’t know that for sure?!” I asked not being able to keep the high pitched squeak from the question.

  “Well, from what I heard, they have had loads of trackers and wildlife experts up there, but so far none of them can say with certainty what animal they are dealing with, but you wanna know the weird part?”

  “There’s a weirder part to that story?” I responded in disbelief.

  “Sure is and the whole thing kind of gave me the heebie jeebies, ‘cause when they did their search of the camp ground they found some strange stuff.” He said pulling his jacket together and zipping it all the way up.

  “Like what?”

  “Prints around the bodies that suggested someone else was involved, someone who wouldn’t exactly go hiking in biker boots but the weirdest part was, it was as if someone had been looking over one of the bodies.” The mention of biker boots had me almost breaking out in a cold sweat. I remembered boots that looked as if they belonged on a biker, but it wasn’t just this part that had me close to freaking out, it was the answer to my next question.

  “How would they know that someone was looking over the bodies?”

  “Because of what they found lying on top of the remains, as though it had fallen from someone’s pocket…” He pushed his hair back and I noticed the little shiver he did before carrying on,

  “An Oreo cookie packet.”

  That night I didn’t sleep too well and dreamt of tall men in biker boots chasing me through the forest. I even woke up, still in my dream, and saw a shadow stood at the bottom of my bed. I screamed again and then woke for real, to find I was alone but there was no going back to sleep after that.

  I just kept playing it over and over in my head. I had even dug yesterday’s old newspaper out of the bin to look at. Jack hadn’t been exaggerating at all, even though the authorities were still holding out for it to be a wild bear or pack of wolves, as the extent of the damage done to the bodies was too extreme for a single person to do. They even found claw marks to back up their theory, but I knew differently. I knew first-hand what the other side could become, let alone do to a human body with ease.

  Jack knew about the things the press had kept out of the paper thanks to a cousin he had on the force and with this type of thing rarely happening in Evergreen Falls, it was being talked about everywhere. Of course, RJ hadn’t thought it bigger news than the Dravens doing a disappearing act on the town, which was probably why I was only hearing about it now.

  I found, for once, I was bypassing the kettle and going for the hard stuff. I grabbed the first bottle I could see and poured myself enough to down in one. It burned all the way and made me cough but it still felt good. I tried not to think about it but the two elements put together were too much of a coincidence in my world. Could he have done this…my mystery guy? I wanted to say no way ‘cause he had helped me but what if he had been told not to attack me but anyone else was fair game? What if I had been right and he was a Vampire? It must get pretty hungry up in those woods.

  “Stop it, Keira!” I said out loud, pouring myself another shot. I mean a lot of people like Oreo cookies…I mean for Christ’s sake they were like the Nations biscuit of choice, probably having them in most homes. Like rich tea or digestives in England I thought as I swigged another back, this time wiping my chin from the over slurp of what I now knew was Vodka.

  I went on like this until I could remember that I hated Vodka neat, but by that time, I was far too wobbly to move. I woke the next day with the feeling something had crawled in my mouth and died, possibly a rodent, and a head that felt like someone had used it to go bowling! I was also still in the kitchen and had to peel my cheek from the table. That’s when I decided drinking alone was never a good idea or in trying to solve a murder by reading the paper. Nancy Drew would not have approved, nor would she have passed out on the kitchen table drooling over her face, making the newspaper soggy, which happened to be my only source of information.

  It wasn’t any better when I finally dragged myself to the toilet and looked in the mirror.

  “Well at least I didn’t lose all of the article.” I said rolling my eyes on seeing a large section of the print inked and transferred to my face where I had slept on it. I was glad when Frank and Libby brought the baby back so that I could find some normality again to my days.

  I tried not to follow the story after that and last I heard it had been declared an animal attack by the coroner and the investigation was dropped. This didn’t put me at ease in the slightest or make me want to go on any forest walking days out anytime soon. Even after weeks later and still no sightings of the biker booted man, it wasn’t enough to get me into those woods.

  So, with that, I spent my time locked away most days in the house when not at college and kind of became a hermit version of myself. It wasn’t that I had lost my backbone all of a sudden, but considering all my supernatural chums had up and left me to handle things on my own, I wasn’t sure how I would have done this when faced with another supernatural threat.

  The other down side to this was that the longer I went without seeing any of my old life, the more withdrawn I became. I would try and think of plans in my quest to rescue Draven, but I kept falling back to a point where all ideas fell
back to one question…where to start?

  I woke weeks later to the sight of the same old hollow eyes that looked back at me every morning. It was as if you could actually see the missing pieces of me that left only the shell to function… And function I had to. So, with that in mind, I did as I usually did and got ready for a day I couldn’t wait to see the back of.

  “Morning.” I said to Libby and she looked at me with tired blood shot eyes.

  “Is it morning? I can no longer tell.” She said in a hopeless tone I tried not to match.

  “Don’t worry, I will take the next night shift, so you guys can get some sleep.” At this she found the energy to get up and hug me, putting some much needed hope in her eyes.

  The new love of my life wasn’t big on sleeping through the nights but that was just fine by me, as I didn’t sleep so well myself these days. Ever since I was left alone I wouldn’t do so well and having little baby Ella with me soothed the ache in my soul like no other could. She was the reason I kept myself going, the reason I didn’t fake my smiles when I looked down at her precious face and the only reason I was still living in a place that reminded me of the only man I could ever love, at every turn.

  I got up after clicking the kettle on ready for my daily fix of Tetley, when I heard a knock on the door.

  “Who would it be at this time in the morning?” Libby snapped in her obviously deprived sleep mode. I smiled at her, giving her an ‘I understand’ pat on her shoulder as I passed to find who exactly it was.

  “Coming.” I said after nearly tripping up on a bag of nappies that was now half spread across the floor thanks to my foot.

  I finally made it and was still trying to push the knotted hairs that had escaped my plait back from my face as I opened the door. I was taken aback by the sight of a messenger all dressed in black and complete with flat cap to match. What the other startling thing was, that the boy must have been no more than twelve and was sat on a very old fashioned bike that should have been in an antique store.