Helen left the supermarket and headed for the car Jack had given her for their first anniversary. Jericho was kicking and she ran her hand over her stomach to calm him. She loved being pregnant so soon after getting married, and the fact that Jack was such a wonderful lover just made it all the better.
"Hello Helen, you're looking all pretty today..."
A wave of nausea crashed over her as she looked at the man who had recently been released from the mental hospital. He was more dangerous looking than ever and she felt a fear as he looked down at her swollen belly. "Leave me alone Nick, I don't want you coming near me, my husband..."
"I know all about your husband Helen and I could care less, you three, you screwed me up big time, and I just wanted to let you know, you three are going to pay. Not right now, I got other things to worry about, but remember this you little bitch; sooner or later I will get even..."
Helen ran to her car and behind her, he laughed in a way that sent chills through her. Chills that refused to go away until that night when Jack held her in his arms...
Chapter 8
Dani came awake and shivered. She felt chilled to the bone and once she was awake she knew it wasn't the actually the room temperature that had made her feel this way, if anything the air was stifling in the room. A heat wave had moved in the last week, and everyone was doing all they could to keep cool. Every window in the house was open trying to catch some hint of breeze, and her dad had ended up having an electrician come out to check the wiring when they kept blowing circuit breakers from all the fans running night and day. Now they were in the process of having all the electrical replaced and no one was very happy about it, least of all her folks.
It had been the nightmare that woke her, not a new experience, she had been having it since the day Nick Jensen had invaded her room and kissed her like she was some slut on the street. The dream always started out the same as that day had, but then it had changed, took on a darker life of its own, it was Nick, but he had changed, his breath was like the smell of something long dead, and his skin had scales like a lizard. His eyes had been filled with a bright red glow, and each place he touched her, he left a tail of slime and the smell of decay. What she had feared the most was his tongue, it wasn't human in the dream, it was like that of a snake, long and slithering down her throat, into her very body, as if it was searching for something. But then it wasn't just Nick, it was Jessie as well, his drug crazed eyes glowing just as red and he moved on her from behind, his lips and hands leaving behind the same slime and smell as his brother.
The first time she had been lucky to make it to her bathroom before she vomited all over the place, the dream had been so real that she had been sure she could feel the slime dripping down her skin, and she had spent almost an hour in the shower, under the hottest water she could stand trying to scrub it away. It was the same with her mouth; over and over she had brushed her teeth until her gums hurt and began to bleed.
Over time she had learned to control her reactions to the dreams, but tonight, tonight she had that same fear and feel of his slime all over her skin. As soon as she had reached the bathroom, she had stripped off the short gown she wore, turned on the light and looked at herself to make sure it wasn't there. Once that was done, she felt like she could breathe again and she flipped off the light so it wouldn't disturb Bull when she went back into their room.
Their room, not hers, not his, but theirs, she liked how that sounded. She understood now how her mother could look so contented each morning despite the way they lived; there was something special in having a man like her dad or her brothers in her life. A man with strong arms who could wrap them around her and make her feel safe and secure from the world outside. A man who touch her and feel as if each touch was a small blaze just waiting to erupt into a raging bonfire, and then put out the fire to both their satisfaction.
Not bothering to put the nightgown back on, she went back to their room and paused before the open window. A breeze was blowing and it felt good on her bare skin, off in the distance she could hear the thunder that the weatherman had been predicting, and flashes of light told her that the lightning was still several miles away. A big thunderstorm this time one like the one that had driven her and Bull off the hill.
Another crash of thunder, and she waited for the lightning, the storm was moving closer, and at a good rate, soon it would be over the town, and then come here. She loved thunder and lightning, she loved the feeling of the electricity in the air, and the sound of the thunder. As a little girl her mother had told her that the lightening were the weapons of good and evil, and the thunder was the clashing of the two. She had always wanted good to win, not because she was religious or believed totally in either side, but because it had sounded good to her.
Now she knew that evil did exist and you had to pick a side to believe in, it didn't make her as much a fanatic as Sue's father, or turn her back on scientific stuff that Annie's father taught at the high school, it just made her more aware of things and know that in the end, she was a true part of life, a human being.
The first feel of moisture in the air told Dani that the storm was almost there, she heard the rain begin to fall on the dried out ground and a crash of thunder seemed to come from right over her head, at the same time a feeling of something slamming into her from outside hit her so strong that she almost fell over. From inside her, she could feel her demon cowering in a dark corner, afraid to come out and there was something else, another force that was trying to get in, something not human, something slimy and smelling of death. Looking out the window, she saw him, directly below her; she could see him plainly as a flash of lightning lit up the entire back yard.