His fixation

Chapter 4

You pace your living room back and forth, dressed as Sherlock Holmes and feeling butterflies in your stomach. You suggested Cole dress as Dr. Watson, but he never responded to that text. It's fine, it was a silly idea. You can almost hear the kids who bullied you in middle school laughing at you for trying to match their costume theme. As if you were their friend. You swallow down the memory and focus on the now. You have bunches of friends and none of them are doing it because your parents are friends with theirs.

"Roomie, you shake like autumn leaf." Garret says steadying you with hands on your shoulders. He looks towards the thermostat. "It's not cold—" He trails off then his eyes widen. "Oh are you scared of going to the haunted house? Garret could go with you for the moral support." You shake your head, your brown deerstalker hat nearly falling off.

"Garret you get more scared then I do, I'm just nervous." Nervous like some child. Your ashamed of yourself.

"Maybe you should cancel your date and rest." He means well but you pull back with red cheeks waving your arms nervously in front of you.

"It's not a date." You say far too quickly and defensively. "I don't even know for sure if he's going to show up." Your gaze falls to the ground. Garret lets out a soft understanding noise, nodding slowly.

"If he doesn't show, Garret will cancel plans and watch the scariest of movies with you." A grateful smile spreads on your face. Then the doorbell rings and your heart jumps erratically.

You rush to answer it, Cole is dressed as requested, his blower hat not really made to accommodate his panther ears. A cane in his left hand. "I was fully transformed until this morning so I had to shop at the last minute." Of course that makes sense, he couldn't have texted you back his paws would've been too big. You wave goodbye to your roommate and step out into the chilled autumn air.

"I've gone this every year since I moved here!" You happily chatter. He asks you how long you've lived here, where you lived before. He lets you talk about yourself the whole way to the park. The haunted house is misnamed a bit as it's never a house, but a series of temporary rooms and hallways set up in a maze-like way in the park's large open field.

The man selling entry into the haunted house looks you both over with a bright smile as you approach. "Cute couples costume, it's ten bucks a person this year because we had more volunteers to help make it bigger." Your smile drops.

Last year it was six dollars a person. You reach into your coat pocket for your wallet, looking into it as if you didn't already know it only had eight dollars and a gift card work gave you that only works at the cafe. Shame floods you at the realization that you're going to have to ask Cole for some money. How humiliating to not be able to afford such a small expense, you curse your stupid low wage job and the cost of living and why is good ferret food so expensive? "I'm short by a few dollars." You say barely above a whisper in volume.

"Paying is the least I could do for the privilege of your company." Cole purrs, handing twenty dollars to the man. You put your wallet back and try to shake the shame of being poor off you.

You'll use the money you saved and your gift card to get him coffee next time he's in the cafe. You both pass under a tarp the starting hallway has no roof over it letting in you see the orange glow from the setting sun. It casts the hallway in such warm tones you're not even spooked when a prop grandfather clock chimes right as you walk by it. Cole's ears twitch and the end of his tail is puffed out ever so slightly. You give him a questioning look.

"Most animals are skittish, even predators." The hand holding his cane is clenched tightly. The hallway has a sharp turn that leads to a doorway leading into a dark room with fake fog rolling out of it. Cole leads the way, his eyes catching the light just right for a moment. The rooms theme is a mausoleum or crypt of sorts, a wooden box painted to look like stone against the back wall under the glow of a tiki torch.

You're expecting a vampire or skeleton to pop out as you pass the tomb but it remains still. Then stone sliding against stone sound effects play from an unknown corner and behind you a skeleton with strips of hanging flesh starts to crawl out. The exit you're heading for is suddenly blocked by another costumed actor and with all the shuffling footsteps you have no clue how many people are in the room. You yelp and grab Cole's sleeve.

He calmly leads you to the real exit in the room, a door not previously seen off to the side, now lit up by lights hidden in the fog. The hallway is calm, and slowly transitioning from stone to wood planks as you start to get a ghost pirate vibe from the decorations. "I saw your eyes catch light, like Garret's cat. Can you see in the dark?"

"Yes, but I didn't want to spoil the room's real exit for you." Cole clicks his cane against the wall. "I hope this cheap construction holds well." He murmurs. By the third room you're clinging to his arm, he takes mercy on you and holds your hand as you both enter a new hallway fashioned to be like a hall of mirrors.

With mirrors on either side of you it has an infinite hallways effect to it, creepy carnival music echoing around you. A prop clown springs out of the darkened ceiling. It's rubber hands touch your hair. You squeal and fall to the ground. Your eyes clenched shut, you hear a snapping noise and a heavy thump, the sound of a mirror shaking in its wooden frame.

You open your eyes to see Cole has torn your fake assailant down from the ceiling, breaking its springing mechanism and prompting the actors running the area to turn the overhead lights on. "Dude." One of the actors sighs.

Cole adjusts his disheveled appearance the murder not quite faded from his eyes. "Whoops."  He says with a good humored chuckle. He pulls his hat off to smooth down his hair before placing the hat back on. "I suppose when we went into a place designed for startling people, I should have been aware my reflexes would end up doing this." The actors don't see the humor. "I'll pay for the damage, of course, and compensate for your time and labor." He opens his wallet and pulls out a hundred dollar bill and a fifty. "I trust this is enough."

He helps you and the actors point you to the emergency exit as Cole broke one of the rules for the house. He bitterly leads you back out into the night. "I still had fun." You assure him. His eyes snap to you and his anger dissipates.

"G-good I'm glad." He spots a vendor selling hot chocolate and brings you over to it. "Two please." He pays once again and hands you a nice steaming cup.

"Sorry I'm broke." You grumble. Cole dismisses your words quickly.

"It's not a bother, I figured with your part time schedule and abysmal pay that you would be strapped for cash. How do you afford rent?" You purse your lips, mom always said to never talk about your finances to people you aren't married to.

"Garret doesn't charge me even half the rent cost and I still barely manage to pay for it and my phone bill, prescriptions, and ferret food." You kick the ground lightly. "I don't think I'll ever be accepted into the college here." You admit. "I'll have to move back home once Garret stops being so generous." He never talks about doing that but nothing nice ever lasts long for you.

Cole takes your free hand again, fingers interlaced. "Everyone struggles at points, money is no concern of mine feel free to ask me for help should you need." His smile shows off his slightly sharp canines. You nod in embarrassment doubting you'd ever have the courage to ask for his help money wise.

"Sorry the haunted house was a bust." You apologize instead. He shakes his head.

"No matter, even though we didn't get to see all the rooms, what we did see has a very misguided sense of what the human mind fears." His chest rumbles as he starts laughing. A little too hard and loud and long.

"At least we had fun?" You say laughing a bit yourself. He stops abruptly.

"I keep getting carried away. It's so easy to lose myself when we are together." You look down nervously, sipping your hot chocolate again. "You must be careful, I know I look human like this but the animal inside is always at the surface, don't let your guard down."

"I trust you." You insist. He brings your hand up to his mouth to lay a kiss against each knuckle.

"You shouldn't." His warm breath against your skin before he starts walking you back home. You wonder if that's him flirting with you or if you just wish it was.