The Monster Within

CHAPTER SIX

“DID you do that?” I asked, knowing there was no way Ethan had anything to do with the rocks. He was as surprised as I was.

“No, and no one knows we’re here—other than the water and electric companies. I mean, my family hasn’t been here in years. None of them would think I’d come here when I left home. I’m sure it’s the last place they’d think to look.”

Ethan’s family had had sort of a falling-out about a year ago. Something about his uncle gambling away all his savings. The family had even staged an intervention, but when that didn’t work, his aunt and uncle had moved away, leaving the cottage in their son Rick’s name. The cottage had been abandoned long before all that, and since Rick didn’t like the Poconos he up and left.

“I don’t get it.” I shook my head. “Why would someone take all that time to arrange a bunch of rocks like this?”

“Maybe it’s a prank.” Ethan opened his door. “It could be some local kids messing around. This place does look eerie all by itself in the woods.”

I nodded. He was probably right. Some kids were bored and decided to scare some younger boy or girl by convincing them this was a gathering place for witches. That had to be it.

“You stay here. I’ll go inside and look around, make sure no one broke in while we were gone.”

“Okay.” I locked the car doors behind Ethan. For a moment, I thought how ironic it was that I’d be scared of some kids. I was a killer. They should’ve been afraid of me. Then again, I felt fine right now, and I touched Ethan all the time without hurting him. It was only when I felt the life draining out of me that I was a danger to other people. Not that that made it any better.

I scanned the woods. It was hard to see with the sun setting, so I couldn’t be sure if the people who did this were still lurking around, trying to scare each other. I didn’t see anyone. Not even an animal in sight. We were all alone. Secluded on our little hill.

Ethan came back out of the cottage, shrugging his shoulders. I opened my door and met him in the driveway.

“Everything looks fine.” He kissed my cheek. “See, just a prank.”

I eyed the rocks. “Real funny.”

Ethan moved one of the rocks out of the way, and we went inside. It was starting to get dark, and I was wiped from my first day as a working stiff. Pun completely intended. All I wanted was a hot shower. Of course, we didn’t have hot water. We had lukewarm water. It would have to do.

“You can shower first,” Ethan said, reading my mind. “Who knows how cold the water will be the second time around? I don’t want you turning into an icicle.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, go ahead. I’m going to play around with the TV some more. See if I can’t get us a station that works.”

I grabbed my pajamas and headed to the bathroom. I set the faucet all the way to hot, hoping for a miracle. When I stepped inside, I was shocked by the chill in the water. It reminded me of the coldness I felt before I needed to… What exactly was I doing? Feeding off humans? I shook away the thought as I washed off as quickly as possible. As I shut off the water and grabbed my towel, I realized I hadn’t felt that coldness of death creeping up on me since last night. Maybe I was getting better. Maybe I wouldn’t need to kill anymore. I hugged my towel to me and prayed that was true.

“Woo hoo!” Ethan yelled from the living room. “Babe, we have a channel!”

I laughed as I pulled on my pajamas—thankfully, Ethan had volunteered to take my clothes to Goodwill after I died, but instead he’d kept them for me. I stepped into the kitchen and made my way to Ethan, who wrapped me up in his arms.

I caught a glimpse of some crime show on channel two. Ethan hated those shows, but he was so happy to have anything to watch. He always could find the good in any situation. I let my towel drop to the floor and took his face in both my hands. “I love you.”

He smiled and kissed me so hard my head spun. I struggled for air, but this time, it was by choice. Ethan picked me up, wrapping my legs around him. The next thing I knew, we were in the bedroom. Our bedroom. My heart raced. Was this it? Was this the way it was going to happen?

Ethan gently placed me on the bed and stepped back for a second, studying my face to judge my reaction to the change of location. My mind was a flurry of thoughts, but the one at the forefront was that Ethan was too far away. I reached for him, and he joined me on the bed.

“Are you—?”

“Don’t ask me.” I returned my lips to his.

He pulled away. “But I want to make sure—”

I smothered his mouth again. I didn’t want to ruin the moment with the “Are you sure you want to do this?” talk. I was sure. For the first time since I’d come back, I felt like myself again. I wasn’t letting this feeling go.

Ethan’s kisses got softer, and I knew it was his way of giving me a chance to change my mind. That wasn’t going to happen. I pulled him closer, noticing he smelled faintly of sweat and brown gravy. A customer had spilled his gravy all over the booth, and Ethan had had to mop it up. I didn’t think I’d made a face or anything, but Ethan leaned back and sniffed his shirt.

“Wow, I need a shower. Maybe we should…” He was afraid to suggest we stop or even wait, so he was leaving the decision up to me.

“You know what? It’s not late. Go shower. I’ll be here when you’re finished.”

He kissed me one more time. “Five minutes tops.” I’d never seen him run so fast.

I laughed to myself as I lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. I thought I’d be more nervous, but this didn’t seem so nerve-wracking after all the other stuff that had happened to me. I was happy, and Ethan was perfect. Still, the air in the bedroom felt heavy. I got up and opened the window to let some fresh air in. The windows had locks on them, so they only opened about five inches, but that was plenty. There was a slight breeze, and I bent down, sticking my nose in the opening and breathing in the night air.

I closed my eyes and smiled. Tonight was going to be amazing. Unforgettable. A whiff of smoke made me open my eyes. Smelling smoke in the middle of the woods was never a good thing. Someone stepped in front of the window, and I jumped back. A yelp escaped my lips, and I stumbled into the bed. A guy was standing outside the window, looking into my bedroom.

“Ethan!”

“Wait,” the guy said. “Don’t scream.”

Don’t scream? Yeah, right. “Ethan!” I yelled even louder.

“Let me in,” the guy said. “I need to talk to you.”

I knew he couldn’t get in through the locked window, and I couldn’t remember if we’d bolted the front door, so I ran from the bedroom.

“No!” he called after me.

Ethan met me in the living room, soaking wet with shampoo still in his hair.

“There was someone outside our bedroom window!” I pointed toward the bedroom as if Ethan didn’t know where it was. I was freaked.

Ethan clutched his towel to his hips and ran to the bedroom. “They’re gone.” He came back out a second later with a pair of jeans and a T-shirt on. “I’m going to check outside. Lock the door behind me.”

I barely processed the words. I was having trouble figuring out why anyone would be spying on us. Why anyone would even come to an abandoned cottage at night. It made me wonder about the wooden box with the strange things inside. Maybe this place hadn’t been totally abandoned after all. Maybe someone had been using it. For what, I didn’t know.

Ethan grabbed my arms, holding me by my elbows. “Sam, are you listening to me? I want you to stay here.” He put his cell phone in my hand. “Call 911 if anything goes wrong.”

If anything went wrong? Like that guy hurting Ethan? “Don’t go out there.” I gripped his arms. “You don’t have to. We can call the police. Tell them about coming home to find the rocks and then the guy peeking in our window. Let them handle it.”

“Calling the police has to be a last resort. My parents probably have my picture posted everywhere by now, trying to find me, and that includes in the police database. I doubt anyone here would recognize me, but I’m not taking that chance unless I absolutely have to.”

He was right. I couldn’t put him in that situation. He’d run away for me. He’d done all this for me. I had to let him handle the peeping Tom his way. I nodded.

“Lock the door behind me.” He grabbed a flashlight and a hammer and went outside. I closed the door, but before I could reach for the lock, Ethan’s cell phone buzzed in my hand. The display showed his mom’s number. She must have been worried sick. My illness had hit her hard. She knew her son would be devastated when I died, but I was sure she didn’t think he’d run away. I hated that my being alive was causing her pain.

I let the call go to voicemail, and when it beeped with a new message, I played it. It wasn’t the only message. There were fourteen according to the mechanical voice. I couldn’t listen to them all, but I played the most recent one.

Ethan, please, let me know you’re okay. I just need to make sure you aren’t hurt. I know losing Sam was hard on you, but you need your family right now. We need you, too.

Her sobs tore my insides to shreds.

Something slammed into the side of the cottage. By the sound of it, it was close to the bedroom. I ran for the bedroom and peered out the window. Ethan was leaning against the house, slumped forward in pain.

“Ethan!” I had to help him, but the front door swung open. The guy saw me instantly. I backed farther into the bedroom, pushing the door closed, but a foot blocked me.

“I need to talk to you.” The guy rammed the door open.

I screamed and backed away as he stepped into the bedroom and closed the door behind him. He had platinum-blond hair and alarming blue eyes. He was skinny but strong, judging by how he forced his way into the room.

“Who are you?” I yelled, hoping it was loud enough to alert Ethan—if he’d recovered.

“I’m trying to help you.”

He moved toward me, and I backed into the corner between the bed and the closet. I looked around for a weapon, something to use to keep this guy back. I reached for the lamp by the bed and picked it up.

“Stay back!”

“I’m not going to hurt you. Put that down. We don’t have much time, and there’s so much I need to tell you.”

“I’m not putting this down, and I’m not having a discussion with some random guy who broke into my house.”

He reached for the lamp. “Come on. Give me the lamp.”

“Give you the lamp? Oh, yeah, sure. You’ve trapped me in a room with you. Let me give you a weapon to bash my head in.” I scoffed. “Not happening.”

“You have to listen to me.” He stopped moving toward me and dropped his arm like something had snapped inside him. “Besides, why would you use the lamp on me when you can kill me with your bare hands?”

My bare hands? Oh, my God! What did he know? Had he seen me last night? He could’ve been in the car that was driving by. He could’ve been the one who put the rocks in a circle around the cottage. He knew what I was, and he was trying to scare me.

“Sam, you need to hear what I have to say.”

A lump formed in my throat. “How do you know my name? Who are you?”

“Sam!” Ethan shouted.

“Ethan!” I gripped the lamp tighter in my hands in case the mystery guy tried to attack me out of desperation.

The bedroom door flew open, and Ethan’s eyes rushed from me to the guy. He lunged for him. “Get the hell away from her!” Ethan grabbed the guy by the front of his shirt and threw him into the living room. I heard a crash and knew our TV had gone down with him. So much for our one channel.

I held onto the lamp, yanking the cord from the wall, just in case Ethan lost the upper hand before we got rid of the intruder. I rushed to the doorway and stayed there as Ethan grabbed the guy and hauled him to his feet. He pulled back his arm and slugged the guy right in the nose. The sickening crunch of bones breaking made me cringe so much my shoulders practically went through the roof. The turkey and cheese sandwich I’d inhaled between refilling drinks threatened to make a reappearance.

Blood poured from the guy’s nose, and there was a small part of me that felt sorry for him. Ethan backed off a little and watched the guy stagger backward. His eyes were glued to me. “You have no idea what you’re doing,” he said, reaching for the door.

“If I ever see you near this place or Sam again, I’ll break a lot more than your nose.” Ethan gave the guy a final shove in the chest. He slammed the front door behind him and bolted it. The back of his head looked sticky with dark red blood from where he’d slammed into the side of the cottage. I had no idea where the flashlight or hammer was or how the guy had gotten the upper hand on Ethan. All I knew was Ethan was hurt.

I dropped the lamp, not even caring that the bulb shattered on the floor. I ran to Ethan and buried my head in his chest. My whole body heaved as I sobbed.

“Shh. It’s okay. He’s gone.” Ethan rubbed my back, trying to calm me.

But in that moment, nothing could calm me. I’d died, come back a killer, and now someone knew my secret. Knew it and might want to hurt me because of it.