That night, the darkness visited me again.
I was standing on the edge of the pit again. My toes curled over the edge, my t-shirt blowing in the cave's wind. Total darkness engulfed the vast expanse in front of me. Yet, I could see, rather, sense that I wasn't alone in the cave.
I could see the outline of the pit and I could see the silhouette of the man across from me on the other edge of the abyss. He wasn't a familiar figure. When he opened his mouth, the wrong voice spoke.
The man had the voice of Tucker Joy, but it wasn't him. I knew it wasn't him.
"What's stopping you from jumping?" The voice asked.
"N-nothing."
The man's head cocked to the side slowly. His Cheshire Cat smile seemed familiar.
"Eloise, such an interesting name."
I stumbled a little at the change of conversation and watched as a few pebbles tumbled into the pit. I never heard them reach the ground.
"Wh-what?"
The figure began walking around the edge of the pit toward me. Every step he took echoed throughout the cave and I wanted to step away.
"Your mother always did like the stories about the god Helios," The voice mused. "Though I never thought she'd name our daughter after him."
"Your daughter-"
"Lou!"
My eyes shot open, and I flew up in bed at the loud sound of my name. My hand against my furiously beating heart, I looked at my mother in the doorway. She rolled her eyes.
"Don't be dramatic, Sunshine. It's 10 am you should be awake, anyway."
She swatted the air, brushing me off. I took in a deep breath, still wondering about the dream I'd had. I had only a little time to worry about it when my mom clapped her hands together and grinned widely.
"What?" I asked, suspicious.
"You, me, and Harry are going," she paused for dramatic effect. "Wedding dress shopping!"
I wanted to laugh. Truly. My first reaction to her outburst was a burst of hysteria that threatened to break through.
"Mom, I don't think-"
She put her hands on her hips and I knew that it wasn't a suggestion. There was, however, an audible groan from the hallway. Harry poked his head inside my room and shot me a look.
"Don't bother arguing. She's relentless."
Mom gave him a good-natured shove away from the door and he laughed.
"What a sad day it is when my only two children aren't happy for their soon-to-be-married mother."
Soon-to-be-married to a raving lunatic and serial killer, I added silently in my head. One day and one day soon I was going to have to tell my family what I knew. We needed to escape.
Tucker had explained that we were safe right now because Owein didn't suspect a thing. Nobody from his pack, other than the Joy's, knew who I was. Nobody knew that Owein was behind the attacks. Nobody knew that he'd made Tucker and his brothers orphans. Despite that fact, I didn't feel safe.
-Especially, when I heard his voice come from down the hallway.
One moment I was in my terrifying dream world and the next I had three people standing around me in my bedroom. Owein's presence made my palms sweat and my hair stand on end.
"Just try to go under the budget, yes?" Owein joked to my mother. "I don't want to go into debt over something you'll be wearing once."
My mother mirrored his adoring expression. Shivers ran along my spine as he wrapped his arms around her.
"I could buy eight dresses with your budget," Mom winked at him. "And if you think I'm wearing that dress only once..."
She waggled her eyebrows and the two of them walked out of my room giggling like children. Harry gagged and flopped onto my bed.
"This is going to fucking suck."
And fucking suck it did.
Mom didn't know what kind of style she wanted, or what look she wanted. Harry was no help and all I could think about was that my mother would marry a psycho in a matter of months.
Didn't really make me want to help pick out a dress.
"How about this one?" She asked coming out in a big ball gown with so much tulle it looked like she was drowning in it.
"Looks great."
She scoffed and examined herself. "You sound so believable."
Harry and I shared a laugh as she turned with a huff back into the dressing room. He was eyeing me with a strange expression and all the psychic powers in the world couldn't help me decipher that look.
"So I was thinking..."
"Spit it out Harry, we haven't got all day."
He swallowed nervously and fiddled with the thread on his shirt. "I was uh thinking about asking Tilly out to see a movie or something."
My eyebrows rose. Tilly and I saw each other frequently. We worked together on the weekends and sat together for lunch every day. We sat together enough that I thought she would've mentioned my brother at least once. But she didn't.
"Really?"
He shifted nervously in his seat under my gaze. "Uh yeah. What do you think?"
"Sounds great, Harry," I muttered distractedly as I saw a familiar figure pass in front of the store window.
"I'll be right back."
Harry barely had time to get out a word before I jumped from my seat to the front of the store. The figure was hastening past the window, and I saw a flash of movement go behind the store. I jogged to keep up with it, but when I turned around the corner it disappeared.
"Lou!" Harry's voice called, "What the hell are you doing?"
I looked around the corner again, but the alleyway was empty.
"I uh I thought I saw someone I knew."
"Cause that's not creepy at all," Harry muttered under his breath.
I ignored it, still unsure of what I'd seen. I'd only seen a flash, but he looked so familiar. He was the figure. He was the man in my dream. Before Harry and I walked back inside, he grabbed my wrist.
"Something's up with you," he accused.
I shrugged. "Don't know what you're talking about."
"Bullshit. I know you better than anyone Louie and you've been different since we moved here."
"Harry, I'm fine."
He gave me a look. "That's what people who aren't fine say."
I didn't respond, so he continued.
"Does it have something to do with the Joy boys?"
My head snapped up.
"No, no. They have nothing to do with it. Really, I'm fine."
The eyes we shared stared me down. Eventually, he sighed when he realized I would share nothing.
"If something's happening Lou, you owe it to mom and me to warn us."
I nodded at him and assured him I would, lying through my teeth. The wedding was getting closer, people were being attacked, and my dreams were getting stranger. Something was definitely going on and I couldn't share it with them- not if I wanted to keep them both safe.
***
"I've apologized a thousand times, Ben. I don't know what else you want."
He was sitting at the bar top, giving me a scathing look and I was past exasperated. It was a Sunday night so business was slow at the club and our fight was more private. It had been two days since we'd visited the Denver's campsite and I'd spent both days trying to get Ben to talk to me. He was struggling to meet my eyes and the pit in my stomach grew.
"Why don't you make it a thousand and one then?"
I groaned and threw my towel on the counter. "Why did you come here if you were still mad, anyway?"
We were both silent afterward. He laughed into his cup but the humor wasn't there. His face was looking paler and thinner. This life was taking a toll on him, I could see it and I felt partially responsible.
"I'm not mad at you," He explained, "I'm scared for you."
"I can take care of myself if you haven't noticed."
"It's not that..." his voice trailed off as he tried to collect his thoughts.
"Spit it out, Ben."
"I think your feelings for my brother are going to get you in a lot of trouble."
"I don't-"
He cut off my objection with his hand and shot me a look. I'd done a fantastic job denying my feelings but now that he spoke them aloud they threatened to spill over. The full force of them crashed into me and I tried to shake my head clear of them but failed.
"I can't help it."
"You need to," Ben replied gently but firmly. "He's still with Rose and he's not good for you."
I swallowed. He was still with her; it was her sister who wanted to murder supernatural creatures- not her. Hearing the reasons I shouldn't (and couldn't) be with him was good for me.
"Why?"
I needed to hear the reasons.
"He's gone through a lot, Lou," his voice softened. "I love my brother and I'd die for him but he's fending off his own darkness. After seeing you the other day, I saw you going through the same things. And I know him, if he thought he could fight off your darkness... he'd die trying."
"What are you talking about?"
Ben sighed. "Have you seen his tattoo? The one on his back?"
I shook my head, curious about how this related to the topic at hand.
"It's of Tantalus," he explained. "The man who the gods punished by constantly being unable to reach the fruit hanging above him or the water below him."
He watched as his words set in. My face must have shown it all. There was something Tucker was reaching for that he could just barely touch, and he believed he'd never grasp it.
I pivoted away from him so my best friend couldn't see my expression. The wall became very interesting as I blinked at it. The lump in my throat was hard to swallow but eventually, I could breathe again and I turned back to Ben.
"You're right. I know you're right." I agreed quickly and changed the subject. "So what do we do about Owein?"
Ben's eyes hardened at the mention of his name.
"There's only one thing to do."
My eyes narrowed in confusion.
"We have to find someone to challenge him."
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