Experiment in Terror 09 Dust to Dust (13 page)

I knew Perry must have been losing her shit inside her head. This was big fucking news, the fact that her mother saw the very supernatural thing that her daughter did. It meant so many things.

And yet, I was going to have to let Perry deal with that. I had other things I had to deal with. Mainly, the voice in my head that told me to find answers, to go back to the past. It was like everything was clicking into place, the satisfying snap of puzzle pieces being fit together.

I needed to go find my childhood home.

Then everything, everything, would make sense.

***

After Perry’s parents put their bags away in Ada’s room and got over the fact that she had to share a room with Maximus last night (naturally, Max would have his own room going forward), we all headed out to lunch like one big fucking happy family.

Understandably, Perry and her mother were on the quiet side, while Ada was overjoyed at my suggestion we hit up H&M. It’s not that I enjoyed shopping at a store that was catered to European metrosexuals with pre-pubescent chests, but I needed to get something.

Luckily, I found jeans that didn’t show off every curve of my dick nor taper into my toes and a few plain t-shirts that didn’t have a cat wearing sunglasses on it. If I hadn’t already seen a beast from Hell that morning, I would have sworn I was in Hell itself. Hell & Metrosexuals, that’s what H&M stood for, right?

It was hard to keep my mood up, however, because every single time I caught my reflection, whether it be in the changing room mirror or the gleam of the floors or the glass on the buildings, I saw the same fucking thing.

My face, frozen in a scream, eyes open in horror. It got to be so unnerving that I started flinching every time I saw a reflective object.

“What’s wrong?” Perry asked as we strolled down Fifth Avenue, Ada scampering into every single high-end designer store. She grabbed my hand and held it tight, pulling me back a bit. Maximus was up ahead, talking to her father, while Ada was trying to convince her mom of something.

I ran my tongue over the tip of my teeth. “Well, I think I might be going crazy.”

“You’re not,” she said, keeping her voice low. “I saw the beast too. And you know what, I think so did my mom. She’s acting like she hasn’t, but I know it, I
know
it.”

I nodded. “Yeah I picked up on that. But that isn’t why I think I’m going crazy.”

Her brows furrowed. “That isn’t? Dex, I’m pretty sure we just saw Satan on the sixth floor. What else could be more than that?”

I cleared my throat. “Uh, well, every time I see my reflection, it’s not matching up with my face.” Her frown deepened. “It’s screaming,” I explained. “And earlier, this morning when I was in the bathroom, it was grinning at me, like it was about to fucking tear my head off and piss in it.”

“When you say
it
, you mean…”

“Me. My reflection is me and yet it has a mind of its own.”

Her grip on my hand tightened and she sucked in her lip for a moment. “That isn’t good.”

“No shit. Hence the main reason why I think I’m going crazy.”

She exhaled and looked down the sidewalk at Maximus who was getting lost in the crowd. “We should let him know. Maybe it means something.”

I shrugged, kind of annoyed that she would be going to him for counsel. I hated thinking that the man knew some shit that I didn’t. “I don’t know. But I do think I know what will help.” She looked at me expectantly and I continued. “I think we need to find the house I grew up in. Where Pippa was me and Michael’s nanny. Where we lived before my father fucked off.”

Perry didn’t say anything. For a second I thought maybe she didn’t hear me but she carefully said, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“What’s a good idea?” Ada’s voice interrupted us.

We looked over to see Ada and her mother standing close by.

“I want to go visit my childhood home, where I grew up,” I told them even though I could tell Perry wanted me to shut it.

“That sounds like a great idea,” Perry’s mother said.

I shot her a curious look, studying her. I met her eyes and suddenly I understood something that I’d been ignoring before. “Of course you would want to,” I conceded.

She gave me a slight nod. Though we never really discussed it, it was common knowledge between all of us that we were connected in more ways than just an upcoming marriage. When she and Daniel lived in New York City, her mother, Pippa, was there too, working as my nanny.

“I was there once,” she said to me, her accent gentle. “A very long time ago. My mother…she brought me over to show me where she worked. I met you, but you were very small. I met your brother too.”

I raised my brow. I had no idea that she’d actually been there, actually met me and my brother as a kid. This was officially getting weird than cum on a cracker.

“I hope I wasn’t a little shit, running around and kicking shins,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

She shook her head. “No, you weren’t. You were very quiet.”

“Never trust the quiet ones.”

“No,” she said, adjusting her purse on her shoulder, “I never do.”

Ada looked between the two of us. “So, like, this is kinda weird right? Mom, you actually remember meeting Dex when he was a kid?”

“His brother too,” she said and then cocked her head at me. “How is your brother? Do you keep in touch?”

I raised my brow and could feel Ada and Perry’s eyes on me. I guess she really didn’t believe my brother was the reason I was out here. “He’s reached out to me a few times. But we’re not close.”

She seemed to understand that and before we get into it further, Maximus and Daniel were at our side, looking hot and in need of a beer. “What is the hold up?” Daniel asked.

“Dex wants us to go visit the house he grew up in,” she said to her husband. I watched Maximus’s eye brows raise up to the heavens. “You remember where mama used to work right? It’s close to the hotel. It would be neat to see the place again, I remember she was so happy working there.”

Maximus was shooting me a look that was telling me I was crazy but he didn’t even know the half of it. I couldn’t explain it myself, just that I felt if I saw the house, I would be able to figure something out – why Michael had brought me here in the first place. It was like every instinct in my body was being pulled in that direction, and the more I entertained the idea, the more I knew it was something I had to do. And if everyone was going to come with me, then all the better.

Daniel groaned. “Can we do that tomorrow? We’ve only got a few days here before we head back and I thought we could at least have dinner in the theatre district tonight, maybe catch a show. You guys all like the Lion King?”

He was met with blank faces. Watching Broadway shows seemed terribly out of place at a time like this, but I had to remember that Perry’s parents were there only to get Ada and bring her back to Portland and were trying to sneak in a mini-vacation at the same time. They didn’t have to deal with our reality.

At least, Daniel didn’t. Now I wasn’t too sure about her mother.

“Sure, a show sounds great,” Maximus spoke up, smiling at them. “Might as well see something good while we’re here.”

Then he and Daniel started discussing the other plays in town and we all resumed our journey down the street.

The whole time, Perry didn’t loosen her grip from my hand. It was almost as if she was holding onto me for dear life.

I’m not going anywhere
, I wanted to tell her. But the truth was, I couldn’t be so sure.

To say I was concerned about Dex was a total understatement. First it was the nosebleed, then it was the time he spent in the bathroom that morning, time I knew he couldn’t explain. Then it was seeing the demon thing and the fact that he says his reflection was always screaming at him. Now, he wanted to visit his childhood home, something I knew was an extremely bad idea.

Something was happening to him, something I didn’t understand. I waited until we were all getting ready for dinner when I chanced leaving him alone and went up to Maximus’s room. I took the stairs, just in case. No way did I want to get stuck on the sixth floor again and see that terrible beast that made my limbs feel like lead.

My mom had seen it too, which means my experiment was working. She wasn’t on her pills and the world that eluded her for so long was slowly seeping in.

I rapped on Maximus’s door. He answered it, buttoning up a green cowboy shirt with a pointy collar.

“I thought it would be you,” he said, his tone hushed. He quickly ushered me inside. “We need to talk.”

“Yes, we do,” I said, sitting on the end of his bed. “I’m worried about Dex.”

He nodded and walked over to the mini bar, bringing out two mini bottles of vodka. He shook them at me. “Care for a drink?”

“You know those are like twenty bucks each.”

He shrugged and smiled. “You’re paying, aren’t you?”

I rolled my eyes but held out my hand. “Yes, give me one. Forget the mix. Cheaper that way.”

He sat down beside me and handed me the bottle of Absolut. “I’m worried about him too. I reckon I’m having a right case of déjà vu, don’t you?”

Now that he mentioned it. A trickle of ice went down my spine. Dex was acting a bit like I had been acting when I was possessed. Of course it was nearly impossible to know what I looked like to the outside eye, but Maximus, he had seen me. And now he was seeing him.

But that didn’t seem likely. How could his brother possess him? He was human.

“I don’t know what I think,” I said as I unscrewed the cap and dumped the contents into my mouth. It burned so good as it went down. I hoped it would cauterize my heart.

“Then tell me why you’re here. Tell me everything, even if you think it’s nothing,” he said. “It won’t do any good to keep your concerns inside, darlin’.”

I breathed in deep through my nose and gathered my thoughts. I started with the nosebleed and ended with him thinking that going to his old house would give him all the answers.

“And just now,” I said, “before I came up here, he was just standing by the window and staring at nothing. But it was like he was listening to something I couldn’t hear. Occasionally he would smile but I don’t know at what. It was…creepy.”

He finished his bottle and ran the back of his hand across his lips. “It could be nothing. He’s been through a traumatic event and even if he can’t remember it, perhaps his subconscious does. Maybe he’s just catching up.”

“But it has to mean something that he wants to go to that place, the very place we were looking for when we first got here.”

Maximus nodded. “It does mean something, I just don’t know what. But you know, Perry, I don’t think there is anything we can do about it. He’s going to go, whether or not we go with him. And now, it seems like your mother has the same idea.”

I chewed on my lip. “Do you think Michael will be there?”

He sighed and got up. “Lord, I hope not.”

“Maybe it will all work out for the best,” I said feebly, looking down at my hands. “It could put an end to everything and we can just go home and never have to look back.”

He put his hand on my shoulder and stooped over, raising his brows as he looked at me closely. “Have you ever known for something like this to work out for the best?”

He had point.

“Just keep an eye on him,” he said, straightening up. “We all will. And while you’re at it, keep an eye on your mother, too.”

I stiffened. “What do you mean?”

He gave me a wry smile. “I may no longer be a Jacob, but that doesn’t mean I don’t pick up on things. She’s seeing things – finally. She’s going to need you when she finally comes to term with it.”

Until then
, I finished in my head,
she’s going to deny, deny, deny
.

But that didn’t mean I was going to try. When I went back to our room, Maximus in tow, I discovered Dex talking to my mother and father, looking freshly shaven and bright-eyed. My mother seemed calmer too.

Maybe this was going to go okay. Besides, we didn’t even have to think about the house until tomorrow. Now, I was in Manhattan with my fiancé, friend and family and the night was ours. It couldn’t get much better than that. For all the doom and gloom and my tendency to blow shit out of proportion, I could at least try and enjoy the evening.

We went out to a delightful little Italian joint that my parents used to frequent when they were first dating in the city. Even though I didn’t have much appetite, I enjoyed the capriccio and copious glasses of red wine that was splashing around the place.

But most of the time, my attention was on Dex. He was sitting next to me and I kept my hand on his knee, just to feel him, just to let him know I was there. He was quiet but when he did talk, he was his usual smartass self. He kept on turning slightly in his chair, looking over his shoulder for someone or something. When I asked him what it was, he just brushed it off, saying he felt like he was being stared at.

I couldn’t see anyone in the restaurant who was paying us any attention. And maybe because of that, I was started to get a little more creeped out. Soon
I
was paranoid that we were being watched but I resisted the urge to keep looking over my shoulder every five seconds. Dex was doing that enough for the both of us.

After dinner, we ended up not seeing the Lion King like my dad had wanted but caught this small off Broadway play with John Lithgow. It was really good, albeit a little too dark for our moods but the acting and direction was compelling enough to steal my attention for a few hours.

When it was over and night had settled over the city, all of us decided to walk back up to the hotel instead of trying to catch a bunch of cabs. It was about a half an hour walk but I didn’t mind. I was going to use this time wisely.

While Maximus was talking to Dex and seeming to keep an eye on him, I decided to approach my mother. I pulled back on her silk shawl.

“Mom,” I said, “can I speak to you? Privately?”

She looked at me in surprise. Or maybe that was fear. Maybe she knew what was coming.