The moment my eyes settle on the gun, Jillian steps in front of me. "Mason! Don't be ridiculous, take that monstrous weapon out of our faces and move aside!" A look of surprise passes over gorgeous features as soon as he hears Jillian's voice. She stands with her hands on her hips as he silently looks over his shoulder at the clock on the wall. Reluctantly, he lowers his gun and steps aside.
Jillian wastes no time brushing past him and walking inside. "What are you doing here? It's 2am and you're rocking up at my house with a stranger that looks like she's been dragged through the bush by her hind leg. Forgive me if I got a fright, but I wasn't expecting to see you until tomorrow."
Dragged through the bush? Who the hell does this beautiful asshole think he is? I look down at my clothes to find a couple of holes as well as a few scrapes and bruises I never noticed before.
I put my hands on my hips, mimicking Jillian, and meet Mason's glare. Although he's super intimidating and it takes everything in me not to shrink back, I straighten my spine and scrunch my eyebrows together, refusing to back down.
"Right, Jillian is there anywhere else we can go? I can tell when I'm not wanted, so if you'll excuse me." I dust my clothes off and turn around to leave. I'd rather take my chances with the cops than be judged by some idiot with no respect. Before I get to the end of the patio, a warm , solid hand catches my arm.
"My mother wouldn't bring a stranger to my home at this time of the morning unless it was absolutely necessary, so tell me why you're here." His mother? I look at his not so friendly expression and rip my arm out of his tight grip. What the hell? I've been friends with Jill for months and she never mentioned a son.
Before I can make a snarky remark, Jillian speaks up softly, "The police are after us, Mason. It's that.." "The police? Shit, Mom! Why would you bring a hunted criminal to my house? Do you want me arrested too?" "She's not a criminal, Mason! And don't you speak to your mother like that! Give us a moment to explain everything. Stop being so stubborn and invite the girl in."
"Fine, come in." He grumbles as he pushes past his mother and walks into the house. Jillian follows closely behind and looks over her shoulder at me. Suddenly the cold feels like it's seeping into my bones as a cool breeze caresses my bare arms, causing me to shiver uncontrollably. "Come on, Dearie. Let's get you inside and warmed up, look at you! You're freezing!"
Oh well, what choice do I have? I follow closely behind her as we walk into the dusty old farmhouse. It seems like everything is covered under old white sheets. Suddenly images of Mark and our first day at that house flash through my mind, followed by feelings of betrayal and longing.
I shove those memories aside and take a deep breath, no use in thinking about what could have been, what's done is done. All I need to focus on right now is getting myself out of this terrible mess. I look over Jillians shoulder and study Mason's tall, muscular form as he shuffles unhappily down the hallway. Once we reach the entrance to another room he lifts his arm up and runs his fingers through his thick hair before letting his hand rest on the back of his neck.
My stomach does a little somersault as I watch the hard, defined muscles in his back move through the tight cotton shirt. I tear my eyes away from his gorgeous form when I notice Jillian's eyes on me. She lifts her eyebrows in surprise and gives me a knowing smile.
Immediately I feel the heat rush to my cheeks and I look down. Damn you, Kayla! Stop this madness, you are running away from the police because you murdered a man and here you are drooling over some obnoxious asshole who had a gun pointed at your face not even a minute ago.
I bet if it weren't for Jillian, he'd have shot my face off without a moment's hesitation! My thoughts are broken off when I hear a females voice call out from the other side of said asshole.
"Hey Mason, who was at the door?" Followed by another voice, not a deep voice, but definitely deep enough to deduce that it belongs to a male. "I bet it's another one of his midnight mistresses." Laughing erupts from the room and I move my body left and right, trying to get a better view of whoever's there.
Eventually Mason moves out of the way and allows us to walk into what I assume is the living room. Everything but two couches are covered in dusty old blankets. On one busted seat with fluff oozing out of the bottom, is a short plump man in tracksuit pants and a bright red shirt.
Hands behind his head, he's casually sitting with his legs crossed and resting over the side as he wiggles his toes in the ugliest, mismatched socks I've ever seen, with a massive hole that allows his big toe to stick out.
On the larger couch opposite him are two woman. One with light blonde, shoulder length hair and perfectly applied makeup, dressed in a cute pink skirt, white tank top with a denim jacket and pink sandles. She looks up at as and gives us a smile full of white teeth.
Next to her, is a woman that looks extremely similar to the blonde, except she's wearing dark ripped jeans, a tank top with a crossbow on it which reveals her skull belly ring. Her entire ensemble is completed with a pair of blakc combat boots, making her look like someone you definitely don't want to mess with.
She also looks up at us but grunts and pulls her large headphones over her jet black hair before looking down and resuming whatever she's doing on her phone.
Jillian looks to Mason and clears her throat, "Well? Don't be rude, boy. Introduce the girl!" She says, giving Mason a sharp glare.
He studies Jillian for a few moments before sighing and rolling his eyes. He hasn't looked at me since we got here, and quite frankly, that's fine by me. He turns his back to Jillian and gestures to the plump fellow with the holy socks.
"This guy right here is Charlie." Charlie jumps up from his sitting position and waddles over, he extends one hand out to me and pushes his large glasses back with the other. "Nice to meet you, you can just call me chuck though." I shake his sweaty hand and give him a small smile. "Hey, Chuck. Nice to meet you too."
He nods his head and returns to the couch while Mason continues. "Over there are the twins, Felicia and Danny." Aah, that's why they look so alike. At the mention of their names, the blonde woman smiles brightly and rushes up to me before engulfing me in a bear hug.
"It's so lovely to meet you..." "Kayla." "Kayla. What a beautiful name! It's so nice to see a new face around here, we hardly ever meet new people when we're on.. hmmf!"
Before she has a chance to finish her sentence, Mason's large hand clamps over mouth. "Danny, that's enough. What did I tell you about blabbing about our business to strangers? We don't know who she is or what she wants, so please. Shut. Up." She rolls her eyes and pulls his hand away from her face,
"I was just being friendly, no need to be an ass about it. I wasn't going to say anything about what we do. Besides, so what if I did? She's with your mother so how bad could she be? She probably knows everything anyway. Oh, by the way, hello aunty B!"
While Danny rushes over to hug Jillian Mason turns to me with dark eyes that hold a raging storm, clearly screaming at me to get the hell away from here as fast as possible. When he opens his mouth I almost expect him to tell me just that, but instead he asks, "Why are you here?"
Immediately my cheeks heat up and my heart starts beating faster. Are they going to hand me in? Surely Jillian wouldn't have brought me here if that were the case. What do I say? How do I tell these people what I've done?
Luckily I didn't have to, Jillian clears her throat and the whole room goes silent. "Kayla here is the girl I was telling you about. The one that moved into the house where poor Leah lived." There's a chorus of "ooh" from all except Mason. My heart feels as though it's being squeezed at the mention of the little girl laying in a box six feet under in my back yard.
"Something happened, something really bad. We asked a priest to come help her get rid of this dark entity in her home, well we asked a few and they went running for the hills, but this guy said he'd come by.
Said he would be able to do what the rest weren't able to. We heard commotion upstairs, which we knew was the demon. He went upstairs to investigate and we heard this scream!"
Oh God, here we go. Now everyone will know. Please don't turn me in, please don't turn me in. "We rushed up there and the priest was on the floor in a pool of blood. We have no idea what happened, poor Kayla here was so distraught."
Wait, what? "Anyway I took her to my house and tried to calm her down, God knows your father played no encouraging part in that, so we went back to her house to see what we could do.
You know, dispose of the body so she wouldn't be arrested for murder and whatnot, but while we were there the police came knocking on the door! One of the neighbors must have reported the scream, so we hightailed it out of there, jumped over the back wall and well, here we are."
