“You say that as if Wolfcreek has much to keep you occupied. You know, I was thinking, how about I visit? I miss that quiet town,” she laughed, but I'd already zoned out.
Mom knew all about my relationship with Dorian and how I crashed and burned when the relationship had met its disastrous end. I wasn’t going to tell her Dorian was back because she’d start to worry and would want me to talk about my feelings but worse so, I didn’t want her visiting before I got a handle on my chaotic thoughts and emotions about his return.
She'd liked Dorian. Actually, she'd loved him, and she would poke her nose right into the middle of our business.
“Yeah, sure,” I replied. “It would be great if you visited in a few months, sure, why not?"
There was silence on the other line until she finally spoke. “Marian, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing's wrong. Why?" I answered too quickly, and she started humming.
She always hummed when she sensed someone was lying or that someone was trying to play her for a fool.
“Come now, I can hear it in your voice. What’s going on?” she probed. “Did something happen?”
“No,” I drawled. I hated lying to her, but I didn't want to talk about Dorian. “Nothing happened, Mom. Diana left with Kaleem and Hope for their vacation, and I'm just feeling a little lonely. That's all."
“Oh, that’s lovely,” she exclaimed. “Well, I meant for Diana and Kaleem, but I'm sorry, princess. Maybe I should visit sooner?"
I pulled a face at the thought.
“It's okay. The supermarket is keeping me occupied, and I still visit the pack and all,” I turned onto my side when a clap of thunder echoed through the house, and I heard the first pitter-patter of raindrops outside. "How about I come back to Mexico in a few weeks and this time stay a little longer? Then you can come back with me?”
“Of course and that sounds great. But…," she whispered. "You can talk to me about anything, Marian. You know that, right?"
I nodded as if she could see me and stifled a yawn. "I know, and I love you."
“I love you too,” Mom replied. “You sound exhausted, so I'll call you tomorrow, okay? Get some rest and say hi to Diana when you speak to her.”
"I will," I replied, and our call ended.
I placed my phone on the ground beside the sofa and closed my eyes. As the rain grew louder, I felt the tears coming, so I didn't want to go into details with Mom about anything.
Whatever feelings I tried to keep buried were always drawn to the surface by her, but I didn't want to deal with that tonight. I didn't want to break down and unload my problems onto someone else.
This was my life, and I needed to handle it.
My eyes fluttered closed, and when a clap of thunder echoed through the house, I sat up with a start and rubbed my cheek. I pulled a face at the saliva on my hand and realized I'd fallen asleep.
Sitting up, I grabbed my phone off the floor to find that it was 12 am, so while it felt like seconds had gone by, I'd knocked out and was asleep for hours.
Diana had always complained when we were kids that I fell asleep far too quickly and then slept like a rock, to make matters worse. Rubbing my eyes, I reclined on the sofa and stretched, yawning until I turned to the window on my right and screamed. I jumped to my feet, a pair of red eyes were staring back at me.
Lightning flashed, and I rubbed at my blurry eyes which were clouded by sleep, but when I looked again, the eyes were gone.
It was the window to my front porch, and the curtain wasn’t drawn, but no one was there. I swallowed hard, my heart racing, as I rushed to the window and closed the curtain.
Did I just imagine that? I pondered to myself while backing away, and the hairs on my neck stood on end,did I? I wasn't so sure I'd imagined it. Those were vampire's eyes, and there was only one vampire in town, Isaac, but why would he be spying on me?
***
I didn’t sleep last night.
Each time I remembered those crimson eyes, I felt a chill. It wasn't like when I'd seen Isaac's red eyes at the mall. I'd been shocked, but somehow, his eyes weren't as frightening as those I saw last night.
Scratching at my brow, I sighed and closed the file before me, and pushed it to the side. I was exhausted, had a light breakfast, and had no lunch, so I was starving and cranky.
Checking the time on my laptop, it was 2:30 pm, and I had some work to do in the storeroom before heading home for the day.