The Fine Line Book One Between Worlds Series (15 page)

“
What are you smiling
about?” she asked curiously.

“
I have a gift for
you.”

“
But we agreed not to buy
each other anything,” she protested.

“
I know, I know. But it’s
our first Christmas.”

“
Matthew!” she
exclaimed.

With a bright smile, he stood. “Just wait
here.”

She patiently waited feeling terrible for
not getting him anything.

He returned with a rather large square box
in his arms.

“
Matt! What did you
do?”

“
Just look
inside.”

She peered into the box and pulled the white
tissue paper away. A straw hat with a wide white ribbon lay
inside.

Her nose crinkled and she looked over at
Matt oddly.

“
I wanted to talk to you
first before I did anything,” he started, “but you and I said we
wouldn’t go on a honeymoon and, frankly, I disagree with that. I
think we should take a trip.”

“
A trip?”

“
A trip. I want to take
you to the Caribbean; a cruise.”

“
Matt, all of our money is
tied up.”

“
Not all of it. I’ve saved
back some cash and I asked around about cost. We could take a
really nice cruise in the fall. I realize it is months away, but I
thought it would be something we could enjoy. It’d be something to
look forward to.”

She smiled. “It would be nice, but…”

“
We could leave from
Miami,” he said paying no attention to her protests. “We could take
a 5 day cruise. I know how much you love water. It’d be a great
chance to get away.”

Still reluctant, she tried to reason with
him.

“
Matt, I appreciate the
thought. I really do, but we really can’t.”

“
It wouldn’t be until the
fall. And I’m paying for it.”

“
I just think we should
hold off. With my job, I really need to be here right
now.”

“
But, it’s in the fall,”
he continued still.

Looking rather defeated, Matt sat down
beside Robin. She sighed.

“
I’ve hurt your feelings,”
she said sadly.

“
No,” he said as he sat
back.

“
Matt, let me say
something.” With a serious expression, she continued. “We can’t
hide our feelings, even over something like this. I can tell you’re
clamming up on me.” She peered into his disappointed eyes. “It’s
really important that whenever we’re disappointed or angry or
upset, that we talk about it. I don’t want our relationship to be
one of those where we pout when we’re mad.”

“
I’m not mad,” he
shrugged. “I just wanted to take you some place nice to do
something fun. I don’t feel right about not giving you a
honeymoon.”

“
We have each other.
That’s all that matters. The gesture is beautiful, but I just don’t
think it’s the right time. We really need to keep saving our money.
We have to spend wisely. This house is a big investment for
us.”

“
Just promise me that some
day we will have a honeymoon. I don’t want you to feel cheated in
any way.”

“
There is no possible way
I could ever feel cheated,” she said with a warm smile.

****

In January, Olivia turned seven. After an
enjoyable three weeks off of work, Matt and Robin went back to
their respective jobs. The snows relentlessly covered the county
with up to eight inches at a time. Robin loved it.

The house still felt uncomfortable to Robin.
She didn’t like being in the house alone. Even her tremendous
beliefs and her steadfast faith didn’t quench the uneasiness. She
found herself staying late at work because she knew if she came
home terribly tired, she would fall asleep easier. However, her
plan failed many times. She would lie in bed staring at the ceiling
fearful to even move.

With the failure of such a well thought out
plan, she came up with another one. She cooked dinner many times
and took it to the hospital for Matt. She would fall asleep in the
on-call lounge when she became too tired to drive home. This seemed
to work out for a little while, but it didn’t offer a permanent
solution to the real problem.

She knew in her heart there were deeper
seated problems with the house. The unexplained doors slamming and
the giggling still had no viable explanations in her mind. In fact,
those activities served as stark reminders of her childhood.
However, she didn’t feel ready to share her experiences with Matt
yet considering his skepticism.

Wendy offered company to Robin in Matt’s
absence. Wendy stayed with Robin on several occasions, but the
uncomfortable nature of the house couldn’t be shaken. Wendy told
Robin she felt uneasy, as if someone watched her.

Robin made her best effort to be positive.
Matt’s midnight shifts began taking a toll on the marital
relationship, nonetheless. Robin said nothing to Matt about it
though. She did exactly what she advised Matt not to do; she
bottled her feelings up. She pushed them down into her core praying
the uneasiness and feelings of abandonment might go away in
time.

Eventually, to ease the loneliness, Robin
bought a dog from the local shelter. A mutt covered in golden brown
fur, she called him Cookie. Already large at only five months old,
Robin knew with age, he would only grow bigger; much bigger.

In a new house, potty training would be a
challenge, but Robin felt up for it. She crate trained Cookie and
used the basement as a place to keep him while she worked. Luckily,
Matt would be home during the day to work on the potty training
ritual. Because Cookie was so friendly, Robin felt a peaceful aura
surrounding him. He calmed her. She believed that by surrounding
herself with positive energy, no matter what the source, things
could begin to turn around in the house. At least, she could feel
more confident about being in the house without Matt.

Time passed with no strange events. The snow
melted into spring and soon the buds appeared on the trees. The
late March rains began. By then, Cookie was fully potty trained and
at night he slept in the master bedroom on a dog bed.

Edgy from the spring storms, Robin watched
television, but dozed off. Suddenly, the crash of thunder shattered
the silence and Robin shot up from the couch. She glanced at the
grandfather clock in the corner as it chimed once.

After catching her breath, she rested back
on the couch, T.V. still on. Cookie lay beside the couch, so Robin
reached for him and felt his coarse hair.

Another loud noise echoed through the house,
but it wasn’t thunder. Robin listened as an upstairs door slammed
and loud, heavy footsteps walked in the upstairs hallway. Cookie
jumped to his feet growling suspiciously. Again, she heard a door
slam followed by footsteps. She struggled to remain logical. She
hoped Matt had come home early and gone upstairs, careful not to
disturb her. Robin thought perhaps he needed a shower and had
bypassed the living room altogether.

“
Matt,” she
called.

Still struggling desperately to make sense
of the situation, she realized no one, not even Matt, could have
gotten past Cookie. Yet she continued calling out Matt’s name. When
she received no reply, Robin realized she needed to check things
out. Her heart thumping and the adrenaline racing through her
veins, she stood and walked to the closet off the parlor. She
grabbed the ball bat and slowly started up the stairs. With it
tight in her grip and held high, she turned the light on in the
hallway as Cookie took the lead. She knew with the ball bat in her
hand, she could defend herself, yet still she shivered with
fear.

At the top of the stairs she stood assessing
the situation. The doors stood open; nothing seemed moved or out of
place. From room to room, she walked through turning on lights and
glancing around. It was obvious that no one occupied the upstairs.
As her thoughts raced, she questioned her own sanity. The giggling,
doors slamming, and now distinct footsteps were just too much. Her
mind couldn’t process it. After one last look around the upstairs,
she decided she would go back to the family room to shut off the
television and the lights. With her back turned, she realized
Cookie still stood staring down the hallway toward the bathroom.
The stares turned to growls as the hair on the back of his neck
stood on end. His shoulders low, he shifted into predator mode.
Robin watched as he urinated on the hardwood. Then he barked
aggressively, baring his teeth.

Robin abandoned her plan to go back
downstairs and turned instead toward the bathroom. Slowly, she
walked down the hallway and grabbed toilet paper to clean up
Cookie’s accident. Cookie walked around her, still growling and
baring his teeth. She bent over and cleaned up the mess and then
stood to walk back to the bathroom. Cookie stood defensively in
front of her. He refused to let her through.

“
Cookie,” Robin said
sharply.

As she glanced back up, she saw a formless
light shoot across the hallway. It took her by surprise. Her body
shook. A giggle came from the study and Cookie’s demeanor changed
instantly. He relaxed and began wagging his tail with his mouth
hanging open.

Robin walked to the bathroom and tossed the
soiled toilet paper into the commode. Continuing with her efforts
to get off the second floor of the house, Robin walked toward the
banister again. In her left ear she heard,

“
Help us.”

The hair on her neck and arms stood up as
goose bumps covered her body. The breath came shallowly from her
lungs. Slowly, she turned; she was still alone with only the dog
upstairs. When she looked back toward the small window at the top
of the stairs, she saw Cookie sitting, patiently waiting. He
calmed, but without warning, he stood again, hair rising on his
back and his lips curling over his canines.

The hair on Robin’s neck stood again as a
hopeless feeling washed over her. Unspeakable sadness covered her
heart as she felt a cold hand on her arm. Tears fell down Robin’s
cheeks and her stomach sank.

“
Help us, please!” the
voice called again.

“
I don’t know how.” Robin
whispered. She felt the cold hand let go. Collecting herself, she
took a deep breath and walked downstairs. As she stood in the
hallway, she called for Cookie, who had not followed
her.

“
Cookie, come.”

He didn’t.

“
Cookie, come now!” she
shouted.

Reluctantly, he obeyed.

After turning off the downstairs lights and
the television, Robin reluctantly walked back upstairs with Cookie
following closely on her heels. The sleep deprivation overwhelmed
her. She put the incidents out of her mind as best she could and
crawled under the covers as Cookie settled onto his pillow. She
turned off the light on the nightstand and closed her eyes finally
finding sleep.

“
Robin, help me please” a
voice called out.

Groggily, Robin remained between
consciousness and sleep. Again, she heard the soft voice. “Robin.”
Finally, she realized her name was being called and startled awake,
her eyes wide open. Looking around the room, she saw nothing
unusual. Cookie rested peacefully on the pillow under the window.
She grabbed her cell phone from the night stand. The digits read
5:30 a.m.

It seemed easier to believe the voices she
heard came from a dream. Robin settled back under the covers and
closed her eyes. As she drifted off she felt a hard tug on her
ankle and then a deep male voice said, “You can’t help them!”

This wasn’t a dream. She knew that. Right
away, her eyes opened, and she jerked her foot away as she
screamed. Hands shaking and breath shallow, she reached for the
light and turned it on. Cookie perked up a little and then drifted
right back to sleep. Anxiety turned to fear. In her mind, she
wrestled with whether she was sane or not. She found it hard to
digest that these events could actually be happening to her.

As she pondered over the events, knowing her
restlessness could solely be blamed on the uneasiness in the house;
the feeling that someone watched her and now voices. The tremendous
grief and sadness she often felt with no reasonable cause also
entered her thoughts..

Realizing how futile it was to overanalyze
everything, she jumped out of bed and made her way down the steps.
Matt would be arriving home soon and because she was too tired to
go into work, she planned to use a sick day. Without sleep she
barely functioned.

A cup of hot cocoa sounded reasonable as she
neared the island in the kitchen. As she walked, the pain in her
ankle grew more noticeable. She looked down at it, lifting her
cotton pajama pant leg up to reveal the bruises on her skin. The
shape she saw sent shudders down her spine as she realized the
bruise was the shape of a hand. She felt sick. She felt as if she
were going mad and wondered what Matt would think when she told him
about the horrific events.

Cookie sat patiently by the door. Robin
walked to the door, opened it, and let the dog outside. The milk
began boiling on the stove. When the scream of the kettle ceased,
Robin heard heavy footsteps again in the upstairs hallway. Ferocity
and terror ran through her body like an electric shock. She put her
hands over her ears. Tempted to pull her hair out by the roots, she
could no longer be patient. She picked up the phone and texted
Matt: “Please come home right now. This cannot wait!”

Moments later she received a text back:
“What’s wrong? Everything okay?”

She typed as fast as she could: “No!
Everything is not okay! Just get home!”