Morganville (Justin Bieber)

Chapter 27

I had my eyes squeezed tight shut. My mouth felt dry, shrivelled up, and I was pressed against Justin's hot, solid side, curled up on the couch in the Glass House. But when I opened my eyes, my friend Micheal was still dead on the floor in front of me.

"Shut those girls up, Justin, or I will" Justin's father snapped. He was pacing the wooden floor, back and forth, hands clasped behind him. He wasn't looking at Micheal's body, shrouded under a thick, dusty velvet curtain, but it was all I could see, now that I had opened my eyes. It was as big as the world, and it wasn't a dream, and it wasn't going away. Justin's dad was here and he was terrifying, and Micheal-

Micheal was dead. Only Micheal had already been dead, hadn't he? Ghostly. Dead during the day, alive at night.

I realised I was crying only when Justin's dad turned on me, staring with red-rimmed eyes. I hadn't felt that scared when I'd starred into a vampires eyes, because Morganville was a scary place, generally, and the vampires were pretty terrifying.

Justin's father - Mr Bieber - was a tall, long legged man, and his hair was wildly curly, the same shade as Justin's. He had dark eyes. Crazy eyes. A scruffy beard. A huge scar running across his dad's, puckered and liver coloured.

Yeah, definitely scary. Not a vampire, just a man, and that made him scary in whole different ways. I sniffled and wiped my eyes and quit crying.

Something inside me said, cry now; survive later. She figured the voice had spoken inside of Justin, too. Because he wasn't looking at Micheal on the floor either. His eyes were red too, but there were tears. Now Justin was scaring me too.

"Eve" Justin said softly, and then, louder, "Eve! Put a sock in it!"

Our fourth roommate, Eve, was collapsed in an awkward heap against the far wall by the bookcases, as far from Micheal's body as she could get. Knees up, head down, she was crying hard and hopelessly. She looked up when Justin yelled her name, and her face was streaked with black from running mascara, half her goth white make up had gone. She had on her deaths head Mary Jand shoes, I noticed.

Eve looked completely lost, and I slipped off the couch and went to sit beside her. We put our arms around each other. She smelt of tears and sweat and some kind of sweet vanilla perfume, and she couldn't stop shaking. Her skin felt cold.

"Shh" I whispered to her. "Micheal's okay. It's all going to be okay" I didn't know why I said that. It was a lie. We'd all seen what had happened, but something told me it was the right thing to say. And sure enough, Eve's sobbing slowed, then stopped, and she covered her face with shaking hands.

Justin hadn't said anything else. He was still watching his dad, with the kind of intense stare most guys reserved for people they'd like to pound into a hamburger. If his dad noticed, he clearly didn't care. He continued to pace, up and down. The guys he'd brought with him were standing in the corners, arms folded. The one who had killed Micheal looked bored as he flipped the knife in his fingers.

"Get up" Justin's dad said. He'd stopped pacing, and was standing in front of his son. "Don't you dare give me any crap, Justin. I told you to stand up!"

"You didn't have to do that" Justin's said, and slowly stood, feet slightly apart. Ready to take, or give a punch. "Micheal wasn't any threat to you"

"He's one of them. Undead" his father said.

"I said he wasn't a threat!" Justin shouted.

"And I say that you don't want to admit your friends turned freak of nature on you!" Justin's dad reached out and awkwardly punched Justin's shoulder. "Anyway, done is done. You know why we're here. Or do you need a reminder?"