The Watchers Wake

Chapter 16 - Scott's Place

Chapter 16 - Scott's Place

I was still balled up against him when he stopped the bike and kicked the stand down.

“It’s Ok, we are here.”  His voice was soft and reassuring.

I opened my eyes to find where here was.  We were parked in the driveway of a huge modern house.  It was angular and white with lots of glass and concrete.  Even the garden consisted of sharp lines and controlled shapes.  I looked down the street and found much of the same.  Expensive, lavish and ostentatious, it was the posh suburb in town.  A world away from where I lived.

“Let me guess, your home.”  I winced as this just seemed to widen the gulf between us.

“Not so much of a home, more like a place that protects my stuff from the rain,” he scoffed, “Come inside and see for yourself.”

I walked into a show home.  Nothing was out of place and everything was shiny and minimalistic.  The furniture was designer and the walls were covered with original art.  Everything was deliberate and perfectly placed.   

“Wow, you live here?”

“No, come on I will show you where I live.”

We headed up the white hall with the shiny black granite tiles.  He held open a non-descript door at the end.  I walked into a completely different space.  So different that I actually glanced over my shoulder to make sure that rest of the house was still there and I hadn’t just stepped through some sort of transporter beam.  The hallway gleamed white and black behind me.

Scott came up close behind me closing the door behind him. “My bedroom,” he said softly with a smile in his voice.

One wall was floor to ceiling glass doors that seemed to concertina open onto a large wooden private deck.  Opposite the windows was a huge bed against a dark burgundy wall.  The bed was unmade but the linen matched the wall colour and the covers were burgundy and gold.  The gold matched the thick carpet, where I could see it.  There were clothes and shoes strewn around on the carpet mixed in with DVD’s, Game discs, football stuff and other unidentified things.  There was a large screen TV mounted on the far wall and a desk and computer in the corner.   

Scott was watching me take it all in then he wrapped his arms around me and encouraged me in the direction of the bed.

I looked at him and frowned. “So where do you mark the notches for your many conquests, you are missing the bedpost.”

He laughed and nodded his head to the door way.  Up the side of the door jam were a multitude of black marks and dates against each. 

I turned to him disgusted and sickened.

“Relax Natalie, I was joking, it’s a height chart.  My mum used to do it,” he laughed at my reaction, “I just keep it up.” He dropped and flopped out on the bed with a suggestive smirk.   

I frowned and looked at the bed unsure I really wanted to go there.  I started making a mental list of all the girls who would have been here before me.  Or at least of the ones I knew about. 

It was a long list.

“Don’t Natalie,” his facial features flinched, “Please it has been a long night I want to end it feeling good about something.  I just want to hold you and know that you are here and safe.  Please?”

“Just tell me that you change your sheets occasionally?” I said as I sat down and allowed him to pull me down into his arms.

He laughed into my hair, “Hmm it feels so good to hold you.” Then I felt him tense and I recognised his pain, “When I saw you floating in the water I really thought I was too late.  I nearly lost it Natalie. I can’t explain it other than saying it felt like someone ripped my heart out.   It was then I realised how much I love you.  Promise me you won’t ever scare me like that again?”