The stream turns to blood. The sky turns to night.
“She’s dead,” a young Ross tells me, grinning a gap-toothed smile, rising from the bloody water. Gasping, I stumble back. “You ever seen a dead person before? You think you know it all, Merc, but you know nothing.”
The body of the dead woman bobs up to the surface right in front of me, a silver swan swimming by her head, and as I twist away, in the sluggish stream of blood, I fall and hit something hard.
A howl escapes me, my heart thrashing about in my chest—but I’m not in the stream anymore.
I’m lying on something solid: a floor.
A carpet, in fact, its short bristles tickling my fingers.
Dry. No blood.
No body. No Ross.
I lie there, stunned, waiting for my limbs to stop shaking and my churning stomach to settle, and all I can think of is What The Fuck?
Where’s Cos? I struggle back up on the couch. My back twinges where I hit the floor, even cushioned by the carpet. Where the hell am I?
Oh right, I forgot. She’s not here. She went to pick her things up from Springfield, and I stayed because it’s Cole’s birthday, and he’s sick with a fever. He wanted me here, and Cos insisted I stay.
In fact, I’m lying on Matt and Tati’s couch right now, which explains the unfamiliar surroundings. Though I’m here quite often, playing with the kids, I’ve rarely if ever stayed the night.
What the hell is Ross doing in my dream? Has he been there before?
Somehow I think he has. But he never participated. He stood in the periphery, watching. Holy hell, that’s fucking creepy.
Then again, Ross has always been a creep. That asshole.
I rub my hands over my face. He’s a real asshole, no kidding, a bully and a fucknut, but I should call him.
How else am I going to solve this?
How do you solve a dream riddle?
This is nuts but… it does feel like one. A mystery. And Gigi isn’t telling me something, and I need to know what it is. I need to—
“Uncle Merc!” Cole shrieks, almost giving me a goddamn heart attack, tearing into the living room like a miniature hurricane. “Uncle Merc!”
I sit up so suddenly the room spins. “What is it? What happened?”
“Wanna play?”
Holy fuck. “Scare me to death, why don’t you, you little shit.”
“Language, Uncle Merc,” Cole scolds me, sounding just like his sister, and his mother.
Good thing he can’t hear my thoughts.
“Language? Language? Watch out, my arch-enemy, I am coming for you!” I lunge at him, grab him around the waist and tickle him until he’s rolling on the floor screaming with laughter. “Now what do you say, huh, huh?”
“I surrender!” he squeals. “Please!”
“Please what? Say the magic word. Say it, or I’ll—”
“Pizza! Pizza!”
“Ah.” I let him go. “You’re saved.” And yeah, that’s our secret password. This is how we roll, Cole and I. “Hey, weren’t you super sick? What are you doing up and about? Isn’t it early?”