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My heart thudded in my chest. I ran to the open window and looked down. Maureen sat on a tree stump filing her nails. There was no way she could have run up here, pushed me, and then run back down in that amount of time.
I whirled around, the hairs on my neck standing straight up. It was dark. The wind had calmed to a whispering murmur, but the air was still freezing. Crisp and chill like a meat locker.
I snapped a quick picture of the broken door and darted back down the hall. The floor creaked behind me as if someone was following. I didn’t bother to turn around this time. I flew down the steps, taking them two at a time. I ran as fast as one could in four-inch-high heels. But it was my adrenaline that carried me.
While I raced through the doorless entryway and down the front porch, I could barely catch my breath, my teeth chattering. Maureen leaped up from her stump to meet me, but I walked past her.
“Hey,” she called out. “Did you do it?”
I didn’t stop until we were a block away from the house, Maureen whining over the wind the whole time.
“Bailey, what the fuck happened?”
My hands trembled as I held up my phone. “It’s done. I got in.”
She nodded, arching an eyebrow at me. “Why do you look like you just saw a ghost?”
I didn’t know what I saw or felt. But I wasn’t alone up there. That was for fucking sure. “I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to get really fucking drunk.”
Maureen grinned and handed me a jello shot from the tray that I’d completely forgotten we’d brought. “Bottoms up.”
I slammed three shots in a row on the walk back to Maureen’s house. It wasn’t enough to shake the eerie feeling of being watched. “Can we just stay here at your house tonight? I’m not in the mood to party with those assholes anymore.”
Maureen stuck out her lower lip in a fake pout. “Don’t be a downer, Bales. There will be plenty of drugs, alcohol, and chiseled abs to get you in the mood.”
I shook my head. “Nah. I’m good. I think I’m coming down with something actually. I don’t feel like being around a bunch of people.”
She sighed and tipped back another jello shot. “Well, I’m going. I’ve been looking forward to this party all year.”
I knew that if I told her what really happened she would stay. If I told her how freaked out I was, she wouldn’t go. But I did have a bunch of shots before I stepped into that house, and my mind was probably just playing tricks on me. I didn’t want to ruin her night just because I was coming down off a rush.
I nodded. “Okay, have fun, be safe, and use condoms. Call me tomorrow and tell me all the sordid details?”
Maureen planted a kiss on my cheek. “You know I will. Text me if you change your mind, bitch.”
Lingering at her front gate, I watched her strut down the block toward Billy’s house. A part of me was tempted to follow. But I just couldn’t shake this feeling that had crept into my skin. I wanted a hot shower, a stiff drink, and to forget this night ever happened.
It was midnight.
Happy fucking Halloween to me.
I wiped away the steam from the mirror and knocked back another shot of whiskey. I had brought the bottle with me. But despite the hot shower and copious amounts of booze, I could not escape this chill in my bones. It gripped me.
I slipped on a pair of black lace panties and my favorite T-shirt. It was big enough to cover my ass but not enough to keep me very warm. But all my sweatpants were still in the washer. I’d been so excited to go out with Maureen tonight that I had forgotten to change them over to the dryer.
Fuck me.
I scurried into my bed and pulled the thick blankets up around my chin. It wouldn’t be long before I’d be hot and throwing them off anyway. I was disappointed that I didn’t have a hard cock against my ass right now, though. Ugh, I should have gone to the party.
It was just a few minutes after midnight. Maybe I could still muster up the energy to go? I know I’d have a good time. And maybe it was what I needed to shake off this creepy sensation that had followed me all the way home from that fucking cursed mansion.
As I lay there contemplating getting dressed again and going out, movement flashed in my periphery. What the fuck?
My breath hitched as I laid as still as possible. Was I imagining things in the dark now? A soft wind brushed past me. And then I saw it.
The shadow moved across my bedroom.
It growled, breathing heavy. It stretched as it got closer. My stomach flipped. This was no shadow, but a man with broad shoulders.
