Dance with the Devil

•Chapter 9•

Once Luca left, Brylee realized how late it had gotten and quickly cleaned everything up, putting her belongings into her backpack. Before she left, she hurriedly bandaged her still-bleeding palm. Then, slinging her bag onto her back, Brylee proceeded to walk to her church, where youth group was.

As she turned into the parking lot of the church, an all-too familiar 2013 Ford F-150 pulled into the lot. Before the red truck had even stopped, Catherine was hopping out of the passenger seat and running towards Brylee. The other two-thirds of the triplets swiftly followed, and the quartet engaged into a full-on group hug.

Christian, Catherine, and Christine Dobbs. The Dobbs family had moved to the small town of Cedar Ridge when the triplets were in the fourth grade. Because they were the only triplets around, their names spread throughout the elementary school like wildfire and everyone wanted to meet them. What they expected to see were two little girls and a boy who all looked, dressed and acted the same.

What they got?

They got Catherine, a passionate, athletic girl who was confident and stubborn as a mule. Then there was Christine. She was quiet and shy, and really didn't talk too much. Well, that was before Brylee got to know her, but still. Christine was sweet and very passive in nature, and had the most lovely singing voice. Christian was the genius out of the group. He was shooting for an Ivy League school, Princeton being his first choice, and it definitely wasn't impossible with his 4.0 GPA.

All of the triplets featured straight brown hair, jade green eyes, and were in relatively good shape. Catherine, of course, was tanner and more muscular as a result of endless hours playing softball with Brylee over the summer.

Suddenly Catherine let go and held Brylee at arm's length with narrowed eyes.

"Why do I smell cologne on you?" she asked, before her eyes widened and she began to squeal and jump around. Christian, Christine and Brylee stood with wide eyes and watched as their friend/sibling went wild.

Brylee cleared her throat, "Um, what are you doing?"

Catherine pointed at her, "You were with a guy, weren't you?"

Brylee's cheeks turned a shade of red as Christian and Christine both looked at her with wide eyes and dropped jaws.

She looked down, "W-Well, I mean, kind of..."

At this, Christine squealed and almost knocked Brylee to the ground as she hugged her.

"Who was it?" Christine yelled.

"Well, um," Brylee's mind raced to come up with something, "my mom thinks that it'd be a good idea for me to start taking self defense lessons, so I was working with my trainer."

Catherine groaned, "I thought you finally had a boyfriend."

With that, they went inside.

Brylee scanned the area and quickly found the person she was looking for. He was standing in line for four-square with his dark skin, eyes, and short black hair that was slowly beginning to turn grey. Rich turned to her and gave her a warm smile. She ran around the square and flung her arms around his neck, and he returned the embrace with his arms around her waist.

"Hey, Bry!" he exclaimed as they ended the hug. "How was your week?"

"Ugh," she groaned, "don't even get me started."

They walked over and into the kitchen, where they sat down at the table after Brylee hugged Maggie, Rich's wife. For the next few minutes, Brylee explained how her week had gone, like she did every Thursday. As her relationship with her mom wasn't the best, Maggie and Rich had become like parents to her.

The rest of youth group went as it always did- amazingly. Brylee played four-square, are some delicious homemade cookies baked by Maggie, and of course spent a good forty-five minutes in one of Rich's amazing Bible-studies.

Once the Bible-study ended, so did youth group.

Brylee was sitting on the stairs in front of the church, an amused look painted on her face at the scene playing out in front of her.

Chad was chasing Cat around the parking lot, a stick in his hand. On that stick was a long, slimy worm. He was laughing as he ran after a shrieking Cat.

Brylee turned when she heard the door open and smiled when she saw Tom. He returned the smile and sat down next to her on the step.

"Hey, Bry. Are you feeling any better?"

"Yeah, a lot better, thanks."

He wrapped his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. She closed her eyes.

When she opened them, she was being put into a car. Brylee furrowed her brow and looked up to see Tom, who gave her a soft smile when he saw that she was awake.

"I'll give you a lift home, alright?" he asked. Brylee nodded and gave him a grateful smile before buckling up and placing her head on the window, closing her eyes once more. The day's activities had taken a toll on her.

•••

Brylee waved to Tom as he pulled out of her driveway.

She walked through the front door to her house and took off her jacket, hanging it on the hook. She turned to see her mom standing in the archway from the kitchen to the living room, a scowl placed on her face.

"Where the hell have you been? I ask you one thing, Brylee, one thing. Be home by nine. Is that too hard?"

Her tone was cold, accusing. Brylee glanced at the clock.

9:04 PM

She was about to snap at her mother before a verse came to her:

Ephesians 6:1- "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right."

My face hot with frustration, I bowed my head.

"Sorry ma'am, I wasn't paying attention to the clock. It won't happen again."

"Damn right it won't," she muttered, before heading back into the living room. Brylee sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. Making her way to her room, she shuddered at the suddenly cooler temperature. She quickly changed into one of her dad's old shirts and a pair of pajama pants before climbing into bed and finally letting herself succumb to sleep.

•••

"Cazzo, will you wake up already?"

She swatted away the hand that was shaking her shoulder and rolled onto her other side. She opened her eyes, however, when a low growl reached her ears. Brylee shot up and found herself gazing into the glowing amber eyes of Luca.

"Finally," he breathed, before smirking, "it's time for your first session."