Taming the Familiar

Chapter 27 - Dragonfire

Alexa woke up crying. She felt like the blackness would suck her down with Jacob. She sucked in a deep breath and looked to see Pitch watching her. Somehow she hadn't woken Kaleth. She hugged Pitch tightly, reassured by the warmth of him next to her. She clung in close to his fur. That was the end of Jacob, maybe now these awful dreams could finally stop. She could feel her tears wet Pitch's fur and he began licking her hair. She giggled and sat up.

"Be good." She said and Pitch yawned before starting to bathe himself. Alexa sighed and lay back on her pillow. It was still dark outside but after that dream she knew there was no way she could get back to sleep tonight. Pitch was washing his claws as she climbed out of bed to move to her computer. Kaleth was still snoring slightly from the daybed as she sat down. She wanted to do some research and see what more she could find about Jacob and Haley and Liz. She wasn't sure if there would be much on the internet if it had happened so long ago but she could hope. She fired up her beast of a computer and got the search engine running.

As she had thought there wasn't a whole lot. The murders had taken place over forty years ago, long before the internet actually existed. She found the same newspaper articles she already had. Then she found a small article that described the girls injuries. She didn't need to read it to know what they were. It described Alistar as having an alibi. He'd been staying with friends. Alexa furrowed her brow, wondering where a creep like Alistar had been able to find friends. It didn't give her any further information on Jacob or why she was having visions from his eyes. All it said was that the search had lasted weeks in the surrounding area. Officials were suspecting he had killed them, even if the families said there was no way he'd do anything like that.

She sighed and plopped her head down on her keyboard. A few seconds later the computer beeped because she had apparently hit the shift key more than 5 times. Kaleth stirred and slowly blinked his eyes open. He looked at her curiously as he sat up.

"Why are you up so early?" He asked. Alexa shrugged, looking at the computer screen instead of him. She didn't want him to see how scared she felt.

"Nightmare." She said without elaborating. Kaleth furrowed his brow but didn't ask her to say anything further. Alexa shut the computer down and turned towards the balcony. Kaleth hadn't left her bedroom in two days and she could tell it was bothering him. What were you supposed to do against something that was already dead? They discovered even the frying pan had it's limits. It would send her away for an hour or so, but she was soon back and waiting outside the bedroom for Kaleth to come out so she could attack. She hadn't focused her attacks on anyone else, but Kaleth assumed it was only a matter of time. Alexa was watching around every corner for her. She seemed to have finally given up on getting Patrick to help her kill Kaleth. He hadn't mentioned the ghost in over a week and Alexa was relieved. Then again, he had been out of the house riding the horse more and more so he wasn't here for the ghost to bother.

Alexa gestured to the balcony doors. She was fairly certain if she opened them the ghost would enter. Kaleth nodded and picked the frying pan up. This was now their preparation for leaving the room. They knew she'd try to get in so they were ready, she'd attack, they'd dissolve her and have an hour of peace outside before they had to have Kaleth behind the salt.

Alexa took a big gulp of air before hauling the doors open. She wasn't surprised when an icy blast came pounding in as soon as it was open. Kaleth dove forward with the frying pan. She tried to dodge but he was far faster. She dissolved again with a shriek. Kaleth frowned to Alexa.

"She's learning. She almost dodged in time." He said. Alexa shrugged.

"What do you want to do about it?" She asked. Pitch managed to get her to smile, bounding out to the balcony like he had been locked in her bedroom for days, instead of just overnight. She glanced out over the pasture the see all the animals grazing. She turned to Kaleth with a grin on her face,