Fairy Tale: Winter's Bite

Chapter 14: House Guests (Part 2)

In the room next door, Joe was preparing a place for Cassie to sleep on the window seat. He stacked books into a pile so she could have some privacy and lined up cotton balls and washcloths for her to use as a bed. Then he set her down behind the books. "All set, Princess?"

"This is perfect. Thank you."

"Well, um, good night, then," he said, suddenly feeling awkward. He tried to think of a catchy one-liner that would give him an excuse to Modify down to fairy size and join her, even if it was just to talk. But everything that may have worked in the real world seemed out of context in his predicament. "Yeah, holler if you need anything," he said through a slight cough. His throat was suddenly dry. "I can't promise I'll hear you, but you can always try."

She sat down on the cushion and brought her knees to her chest. "Good night, Joe."

Joe sensed the closure in her voice and motioned with his hands that he was leaving. After he shut off the lamp, he collapsed on the bed and looked toward the moonlit window. He wished for a few minutes that he could see what Cassie was doing behind those books, but soon enough, exhaustion subdued his curiosity.

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Gretchen woke up in her master suite, overheated underneath her thick comforter, her mind whirling with memories stirred up by the arrival of her guests.

The digital clock on her nightstand read 2:50. She tossed and turned for a while but couldn't get back to sleep. Once she admitted defeat, she turned on the television. As she was flipping channels, she was surprised to see her nephew's face on the news. Recent pictures of his wife and children followed.

Then she remembered Chris's scabs and yellowing bruises, his poorly explained missing children, his lack of a wedding ring, and his weird behavior.

He could be a murderer, and he's in my house.

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Cassie shuddered underneath her washcloth covers, awake because of another nightmare. In the three nights since they'd left Pyxis, her odd, disrupted sleep had been filled with such dreams. It was as if her mother had found a way inside her head. Andromeda was clawing around in there, leaving her signature in the color red.

Cassie was afraid to go back to sleep but was struggling to stay awake, so she dragged her bed closer to the window. She lay back down and gazed at the sky. The nearly full moon seemed to fill the entire world with cool tranquility. As she tried counting the stars, noting all constellations as she passed them by, she had never felt tinier or more insignificant.

Her eyes drifted closed again. She kept re-opening them with great effort. Open, closed—and there was her mother's ghastly face, her long nails poised to tear flesh from bone. Open! Cassie gasped for breath, but her racing heart demanded more and more air. Her lungs could hardly keep up.

Cassie stared at the stars again and calmed herself by focusing on Joe's rhythmic breathing and the whir coming from the heating vent. Open, closed—this time she could barely hear her own scream over the sound of shattering glass. Open! She sat up, hugged her knees, and wrapped the washcloth over her shoulders. Even then, her stubborn eyes refused to stay open.

In a state of half consciousness, she heard another unsettling sound—a dull mechanical drone. An automobile, she realized, without opening her eyes. She should have been used to that sound by now, but something wasn't quite right. The noise of a moving car should have peaked and subsided to silence within a few seconds. For some reason, though, the hum was steady and it was joined by a choir of others, each with its unique intonation.