1 WEEK AGO
"You bitch," she yelled at me, knocking me to the ground, and I let out a grunt.
"You!!!" She yelled, hitting me, and I instinctively used my hands to block my face.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Mia?" I managed to say under her.
"She's not worth it, Mia," I heard Stacy say as she tried to pull Mia off me, and after a while, ended up doing so.
"Why..." I started, but Mia screamed, cutting me off; her eyes were bloodshot, mascara running down past her chin, and her hair tussled.
"You took him from me!!" She yelled. "You knew I loved him, yet you..." She started sobbing into her hands, and Stacy rubbed her back.
At the corner, Angie stood backed against the wall, her hands folded around her body, looking directly at me. She didn't have to say anything; the way she looked at me, I knew what she thought.
She thought I did it too.
All of a sudden, Mia snapped up like a woman possessed and reached into the pocket of her hoodie, revealing a gun.
Stacy backed up immediately; Angie looked shocked.
Two shots were fired.
***
I jolted awake at night, sweating from the nightmare I just had. After the incident at Valley View, I started seeing a therapist. She explained the dreams were just a way of interpreting what happened that day.
I forgot what happened all those years ago; I don't need Damien going to dig it up.
Gosh, I have a migraine. I wonder what time it is. My head was throbbing, and I was sweating and clammy.
I need to throw up. I braced myself and slowly limped to the bathroom. The lights in the room were flickering, making everything dim and difficult to see.
My head throbbed, and I had to support my body on the doorframe so I wouldn't fall to the ground. That's when I saw it.
The hand was a grotesque appendage, its brown, claw-like fingers curled into a fist. The skin was dry and cracked, like ancient bark, with a faintly scaly texture that seemed to shift in the dim light. Each finger ended in a sharp, hooked claw, stained with dirt and God-knows-what else. The nails were long and curved, like those of a vulture, and seemed to be growing out of the finger itself, as if they were a part of the monster's very being. The wrist was thick and gnarled, like a knot on an old tree, and seemed to be pulling the hand back into the shadows, as if it were a creature pulling its limb back into its lair.
I couldn't see the whole of it. I put my hands over my mouth and muffled my scream, but it heard me.
I turned and ran straight for the door, but my head was pounding so hard I fell to the ground.
Everything was starting to go black, but I could feel it around me, its smell filling my nostrils—distinct, but I couldn't make it out.
I wanted to scream, but I couldn't, then I passed out.
***
"Jessica, Jessica," I heard someone say, shaking me slightly.
I opened my eyes slowly, feeling my surroundings, the events of yesterday rushing to my head all at once.
I jolted out of bed with so much force I smacked the person on the other side across the face.
"Jessica, what the hell!" a voice I now recognized to be Damien said.
It was here; I knew it was. I knew it wasn't human either.
"Something was here," I said.
"What?" he replied, giving me a look.
"I said something was here last night; I saw it," I stated. Damien gave me a look and got up from the bed.
"No, no, no, don't give me that look," I said, kneeling on the bed this time.
"What look, Jessica? You keep saying I saw it, it was here, but you are still yet to say what you saw. Also, you look all wide-eyed and crazy; are you okay?" he asked.
"I am fine, but listen to me, there was something here last night...it looked like a monster..."
"Look, you have to believe me," I said, my voice increasing in octaves this time.
Damien pinched the bridge of his nose and ran a finger through his hair.
"In the past 24 hours, I have been shot and nearly killed. I don't have the energy for this," Damien said.
"Damien..."
"No," he said, cutting me off, shaking his finger.
"I don't want to hear it. Do you even hear yourself?" he said, shaking his head and stepping closer to the door.
"The couple called us down for breakfast. I want to ask them if they have a cell phone, a landline—anything. We have lives to get back to," he said matter-of-factly.
I opened my mouth to say something else, but he was already walking out of the room.
I pressed my face into the pillow, dying of embarrassment. I knew how stupid I sounded, but I was sure of what I saw; the mere thought of it made the hair on my neck stand.
After a while of contemplation, I planted my feet on the ground. Damien is right; we have lives to get back to. People would get worried; Nina might be losing her mind right now.
I wondered if Mia would notice anything weird about Damien and me being gone together. I was still yet to find that sapphire necklace she gave me, and for the good of everyone, I really hoped it wasn't in Damien's house.
I limped past the door, and the floor creaked loudly as I walked down, following the smell of pancakes and eggs.
The old woman from yesterday was serving Damien and the other empty plate that I assumed to be mine, with a big smile on her face.
She looked perfectly fine; yesterday she looked...crazy, hysterical even, but here she was in the morning, serving pancakes.
"Oh, don't just stand there, darling; come sit," she cooed.