The Devil Next Door

Chapter 5: Carpe Diem

Imogen has never been a dreamer. She has always known what her life would be like. She would get married, have kids, and go to church. She would never travel. She would never have friends outside of her little community, but as she sneaked out to meet John, she had begun to dream. With him by her side, so many things seem possible. She could go to veterinary school and work alongside him one day. She could wear whatever she wanted. Between bites of his burger, he tells her about his trips to Mexico and Europe, and she starts dreaming of traveling all over the world with him.

He is in the middle of a story about his father losing his passport in a Mexican taxi, when he pops the last bite of his burger into his mouth. As he does, a dollop of orange sauce plops onto his white shirt. John curses under his breath and wipes at the stain with a napkin. That just smears it across more of his button up.

"This is the one bad thing about eating here. I don't know what's in this sauce, but it is the hardest stain to get out. Is it okay if we run by my house, so I can treat it? It's just a street over, and I wasn't kidding when I said I only wear this on special occasions. It's my nicest shirt," he says.

"Okay," Imogen agrees. "I wouldn't want your best shirt to be ruined."

John pays the waiter, and they down the rest of their drinks.

"Gotta get our money's worth," he says.

Imogen stumbles a little as they cross the parking lot. John grabs her hand and steadies her with a laugh.

"How come you're not stumbling? You had two drinks just like I did," she says.

He smiles down at her and replies, "True, but those weren't my second and third drinks ever."

He helps her up into the Jeep, and they drive all of two minutes before pulling into John's driveway.

"Wanna come inside? You can meet Wendy while I treat this stain," he says.

Imogen heartily agrees, and he leads her through the front door. It is a cozy, albeit a little messy, house. No family members or roommates come running down the hallway demanding where John has been, but the patter of paws announces the arrival of Wendy.

Imogen gasps, "She's adorable!"

The dog trots over to John with a wag of her tail and licks his hand, but when Imogen tries to pet her, Wendy whimpers and plants herself between John and Imogen.

"Well, that's weird. Maybe she needs to go outside to do her business," John says.

She follows him a few steps down the hallway, and he lets her outside into the back yard. He turns back to Imogen.

"Make yourself comfortable. I'll be right back."

He slips further down the hallway, and Imogen hears him searching through a cabinet. She moves into the kitchen and gets a drink of water. She hears scratching coming from the door leading to the back yard, so she opens it to let Wendy back inside. She growls at Imogen before racing over to her bed in the living room. She scoots all of her toys behind her and plops down. It looks like she is protecting them from Imogen.

Imogen shrugs off the dog's weird behavior without a second thought. She glances down the hallway to look for John, but he must still be in the laundry room. She finds herself wandering down the hallway to the next door and finds herself looking into John's bedroom. It feels as if a magnet is pulling her into the room. She does not resist it.

The space is dominated by a king size bed. Pairs of jeans spill out of a large dresser, and a TV hangs over it. A window lets in the light of the full moon.