The Monster Within

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

ETHAN slept in, so I watched infomercials on the one TV station that came in. Thankfully Ethan had gotten the TV working again after my peeping Tom collided with it. Really I wasn’t even watching, but I figured it would look suspicious if Ethan found me sitting in a dark room staring at the wall. So I put the TV on as a decoy. Meanwhile, my brain went over every possible reason Beth could be messing with me.

“Hey.” Ethan was all smiles as he came into the living room.

I hoped he wouldn’t make a comment about last night. I’d end up blushing and feeling self-conscious. “Morning.”

“I’m going to hit the shower, and then we can drive out to that storage place. It’s about two hours from here, so if we leave in the next twenty minutes, we should make it back in time for our shift at the diner.”

“Sounds good.” I went into the bedroom and got dressed. I was eager to get away from this place. Now that I knew that it was so easy for people to break in, I didn’t feel safe here, and it wasn’t like I could tell Ethan. So I was dying again last night, and I hit my head on a rock and blacked out, but I had another vision of some strange old man, and when I woke up from it, I was breathing normally, and the rock circle was back in place. Oh, yeah, and did I mention I found another note, which means someone else broke in?

Oh crap! The note! I ran out of the bedroom and to the kitchen. The note was still on the counter. I hadn’t even been able to bring myself to touch it last night. The bathroom door opened. Speedy Ethan was ready to go. I grabbed the note and slipped it into my back pocket.

“All set.” I faked a smile and pretended I’d been waiting for him.

I locked the door behind us and almost bumped right into Ethan. “What’s wrong?”

“Did you move the rocks back?”

Another thing I’d forgotten. “No.” There, it wasn’t a lie. I stared at the rocks circling the house, like I was as surprised as Ethan. “Do you think it was whoever broke in and stole my necklace?”

“No. It was probably those guys from the diner. They were pretty mad about getting kicked out.”

“They didn’t get kicked out. Shannon did. She’s the one who made them leave.”

“Doesn’t matter. I bet they’re screwing with us.”

Us. Crap! “Do you think they know we live together?” If that was true, then more than just two people knew about our living arrangements.

“I don’t know. Maybe.” He shrugged. “I’m thinking we should leave the rocks, at least for a little while. They’ll get tired of messing with us if it looks like we don’t even care.”

“I guess that makes sense.” If only ignoring my problems really was the answer, but my Hyde side wouldn’t let me ignore them, neither would my conscience.

We took Route 80 most of the way to the storage facility. How Ethan knew which one to go to was a mystery to me. There were tons of them, and they all looked the same. We pulled up to a gated entrance, and Ethan used a passkey to open it. We drove around the building to a set of smaller, climate-controlled garages.

“That’s us.” Ethan nodded to the row of doors on our right.

“You said this is your cousin’s storage unit?” I followed Ethan out of the car and down the lot to a big garage door with the number 1221.

“Yeah, but he moved to California last year. Told you he wouldn’t be using the cottage or this place.”

That was good to know. At least none of Ethan’s family would be breaking into the cottage while we were sleeping. That was reserved for strangers who liked to scare me.

Ethan used his passkey to open the garage door on the storage container. It wasn’t very big, but it was packed with things.

“Whoa, look at this stuff.” There were chairs, an ottoman, pots and pans, dishes, an old stereo system. It was like the family had packed up all the good stuff and left the junk to rot in the cottage.

“We can take anything you want back to the cottage. It’s not like anyone is going to use it.”

“Why would your family save all this stuff if they never plan on coming back to the cottage? Why are they even still keeping the cottage? They could sell it.”

Ethan sighed. “You’re always so curious about everything.”

“Sorry.” I was prying. I didn’t have a right to question what his family did. I should’ve been grateful we had a place to stay, and now we’d have some decent furniture, too.

“My great-grandfather built the cottage. No one has the nerve to sell it or tear it down, so it just sits.” Ethan started picking through a stack of books to avoid looking at me. This must have been a sensitive family issue. One I’d missed thanks to cancer.

“But if we hadn’t moved in, it would’ve fallen apart eventually.”

“I know. No one else seemed to figure that out, but I couldn’t let that happen. I have great memories here.”

I reached for his hands and turned him toward me. “You’ll have great memories here again.”

He kissed me, and I felt the full weight of his decision to come here. It was about more than just saving me. He was saving a part of himself, too. It was a relief to find out Ethan wasn’t basing his new life on me alone. That would have been too much pressure for me to live up to.

“Why don’t you look around and pick out some things you’d like to take back with us? I’ll go find your ring. I put it in the top drawer of a desk in the back corner.”

“Okay.”

He disappeared in the back of the container. Even though it wasn’t big, it was pretty dark in the back part of it. I stayed toward the front and tried out a wingback chair. Not as comfortable as it looked. I spied an old beanbag chair and cringed. Ethan was definitely going to want that ugly, brown thing.

I walked over to a tall piece of furniture covered with a sheet. It looked like a full-length standing mirror. I’d always wanted one. I grabbed the edge of the sheet and pulled it off. Dust flew everywhere, covering my face and arms. I staggered backward, choking.

“You okay?” Ethan asked.

“Yeah. Just dust.” I patted my arms and the front of my shirt, wiping the coating of dust from my clothing. “I’m going to step outside and get this off me.”

“All right,” Ethan called back.

I stepped into the sunlight and sneezed. The sneeze led to coughing, and my lungs constricted. It wasn’t just the dust doing this to me. I was having trouble breathing. I was…

No! Not again. It was too soon. Usually I had a little time between attacks, but last night’s attack had been different. I still wasn’t sure what had happened last night, why the attack had stopped. Why I was alive. There hadn’t been a body lying next to me when the vision ended, so I couldn’t have killed anyone. Was I getting better? Could the worst be over?

I tried to remain calm, telling myself this would pass. Like last night, it would pass, and I’d feel okay again.

The coughing intensified. I looked up, squinting to see Ethan. He was still searching the desk. I couldn’t put him in danger. Until I knew this would pass, I had to get away from Ethan. I moved as quickly as my body would allow, past the two other storage garages on the end of Ethan’s and around the corner. I came to a door that said “Office.” I stopped and stared at it. I could see movement on the other side of the cloudy glass window in the door. If I went inside, I could make this feeling stop, but it would make someone’s heart stop, too.

I bent forward, putting my hands on my hips and struggling to get air into my lungs. They felt the size of shriveled peas. It wasn’t stopping. Last night had been a fluke. If I didn’t do something soon, I was going to die.

I took a step toward the door and reached for the doorknob, but before my fingers grasped it, I stopped. I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t kill to save myself. Just because my life had ended early and I felt like the universe owed me something, I didn’t have the right to decide my life was more important than someone else’s.

I eased myself to the ground, coughing and choking on the air, which felt as heavy as concrete. My body went cold and rigid. My legs stuck out in front of me, and my back leaned up against the building. I had only minutes left. This was my last chance to change my mind. To save myself.

The will to live took hold of me and battled my brain. I tried to stand, to get to the office, but my conscience worked against me, slowing me, letting death catch up to me.

The office door opened, and a man smoking a cigar stepped out. He was humming as he counted a handful of rubber-banded bills. I stuck my foot out, tripping him. He stumbled forward, and I cursed myself for being weak. He fell a few feet away from me, still too far for me to touch.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you there,” he said, assuming he’d tripped over me, never suspecting I was trying to take him down. He grabbed the money and quickly pocketed it.

I swallowed, getting a tiny sip of air in my body.

“Do you need help? You don’t look so good.” He looked up at the sky. “Is it the sun? Heatstroke maybe? It’s unusually hot today.”

I couldn’t answer. His cigar had fallen out of his mouth when I tripped him, and it rolled toward me. I extended my finger toward it.

“Oh, there it is.” He picked up the cigar, grazing my finger with his hand.

I swallowed another sip of air. The slightest touches were keeping me from death, but how long would this last? How long could I hold out?

He bent down next to me. “Tell you what, I’m going to call 911 for you. You could probably use an IV or something to rehydrate.” He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out his phone.

My fingers crept toward him, lured by the heat coming from his body.

“Yes, this is George Peterson down at—” He stopped and stared at his phone. “Damn cell reception. I lost the call. They probably didn’t hear any of that.” My head lolled to the side, and I fell toward him. He dropped his phone and reached for me, supporting my head in his hands.

His touch sent waves of warmth to my freezing cold body. I shivered and then warmed. I breathed in—short, raspy breaths. Not enough. I raised one hand and waved George toward me.

“What is it? Did you want to tell me something?” He leaned toward my face, waiting to hear what it was I had to say.

I raised my hand to his neck, and he thought I was trying to pull him closer. He leaned down farther, allowing me to press my other palm against his chest. Instantly his life began to leave his body and enter mine. Air filled my lungs. I felt the warmth of my blood flow throughout my body.

George made a gurgling sound, and my eyes snapped to his face. He was shriveling at my touch. His body caved into itself, and his eyes pleaded with me as the life drained out of them. He slumped forward on me. My body shook with tears that threatened to spill out. I was so weak. Too weak to let myself die. To put an end to all of this. I hated myself, hated the monster within me.

“Sam?” Ethan called.

Oh, God! He couldn’t find me like this. He knew about the body at the gas station and at school. If he found me near George right now, he might start to piece things together, figure out the common factor in all the deaths. Me.

I scrambled to my feet and opened the office door. I dragged George by his feet until he was in the office. I locked the door behind us. It would be difficult to explain later if Ethan found me in here, but at least it would buy me time to hide the body. I dragged George behind the counter and made sure none of his limbs were sticking out. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered, as if the words could help him. Satisfied that no one would find George before Ethan and I got out of here, I put my ear to the door and listened for Ethan.

A knock made me jump. The doorknob jiggled.

“Hello?” Ethan called. “Anybody working today?”

I stayed frozen in place, afraid the slightest move would give me away. If I could hear Ethan, then he could hear me, too. I waited for him to leave before peeking out the cloudy window on the door. No sign of him, but I had to be careful. The window didn’t allow me to see down the row of storage containers. Ethan could be standing two units down, and I wouldn’t know it until I’d stepped out of the office and fully into his view.

My pulse thundered in my ears, limiting my hearing. I wanted to wait him out to make sure he was really gone, but the longer I stayed here, the more Ethan would worry, and my chance of lying my way out of the situation would decrease. I unlocked the door slowly, careful not to let it click back into place. I hesitated a few seconds to make sure Ethan hadn’t heard the lock, that he wasn’t coming back to look for me.

I turned the knob slowly until it wouldn’t turn anymore. Holding it in place, I pulled the door open an inch and peeked out. I didn’t see any shadows or movement, so I opened it a little more. Still nothing. I stepped out and pulled the door shut behind me. I glanced in both directions before bolting across the parking lot to the back of the building. Ethan wouldn’t come this way. He’d go back to the car thinking that’s where I’d gone.

I followed the building around to the front gate. My only chance was to come up on the car and pretend I’d gotten turned around since all the garages looked the same. Once again, I had to play dumb, no matter how much I hated it. But there were a lot of things about my life that I hated these days.

Ethan came out of garage 1221 as I walked up to the car. “What happened? Where were you?”

“I got lost.” I turned around and looked at the building, pretending to be confused by the layout. “I went back to the car because I got some dirt or something in my eye, but someone yelled for help.”

“Really? I didn’t hear anyone.” Ethan scrunched up his face.

“I guess it’s tough to hear outside noises from the storage garage. You were all the way in the back of it.” It scared me how easily the lies spilled from my lips. He nodded, waiting for me to continue. “I thought it was you calling me at first, so I followed the voice. But it turned out to be some guy who lost his passkey and couldn’t get in the gate. I didn’t know how to get the gate open without a key, so he ended up calling the office for help. After that, I had a little trouble remembering how to get back here. I think the heat is messing with my head.” I could thank George for that excuse.

“Well, unfortunately, I have some bad news.”

So many things came to mind. He’d found the manager’s body. His family had called and said they were checking the cottage in case Ethan was hiding out there.

“It’s your ring. It wasn’t in the desk drawer where I left it.”

“What? Do you think your family is here? Did they come looking for you?”

He shook his head. “No. I don’t think so. Besides, they have no idea I put the ring in the storage garage. My parents probably assumed I kept it with me. I should’ve kept it with me, but I couldn’t.”

I didn’t want him to have to explain his actions to me again, so I reached for his hand and squeezed it. “Then what happened to my ring? Why isn’t it here?”

His face turned cold. “Someone broke in and took it.”