Only by Moonlight

Chapter 4

With special thanks to my pre-readers, EmmyDana here on Wattpad and ladylibre on FanFiction.net. I couldn't write without the feedback of these two lovely and extremely talented writers!! :)

Chapter Four

            I went to bed that night with an odd, unsettled feeling. I tried to attribute it to the fallout with Jessica at school, but although the situation with Jessica was upsetting, I knew exactly when this particular sensation started: when I woke from my “nap,” covered with a quilt I had never seen…but Alice had recognized as something she had stored in the attic months ago.

            Restless, I flipped over onto my other side under my new bedding, facing the wall rather than the room. Had I been sleepwalking? Did I somehow go up to the attic, open a chest, grab a quilt, take it downstairs to my room, and curl up beneath it?

            But I had never sleepwalked before…that I knew about, anyway.

            Nah, sleepwalking made no sense.

            And Alice’s reaction was puzzling too—I didn’t know her that well, but I felt that she knew something about this odd circumstance. Yet she had seemed confused and a little afraid when she confessed that she hadn’t covered me—even more so that I did.  

            Weird.

             I was using that word an awful lot lately, I thought as I flopped onto my back, sighing loudly as I yanked on my still shower-damp bangs.

            “Great,” I muttered to myself, resigned to not sleeping for a while. Reaching over, I switched on the bedside lamp and grabbed the latest Mary Higgins Clark novel on the bedside table to pass the time and to help me relax enough to sleep…I hoped.  

            Many pages later, I heard the mantel clock downstairs chime two o’clock in the morning. Deciding to use the bathroom, I padded across the floor, leaving my door half-open behind me as I entered the bathroom and took care of business.

            Before I flipped off the light, I peered at the tired, pale face staring back at me in the mirror. I was going to have a stellar day tomorrow at school, especially when Jessica’s little friends heard about what happened between us. I could just imagine their smug expressions, their eyes narrowing in dislike. Knowing them, they’d glare at me as if I were a disgusting cockroach that they couldn’t wait to squish beneath their Jimmy Choos. At least I had a short day with two classes, and only one of those with any of Jessica’s friends. But still, Jessica could make drama happen with the merest flick of her well-manicured claws.

            Gritting my teeth at these thoughts, I turned off the bathroom light, but abruptly stopped in the middle of the hallway.

            My bedroom door was closed.

            Wait a minute....

            I specifically remembered leaving my door ajar when I left to use the bathroom.

            Closing my eyes for a moment, I thought back through my actions since turning on my light to read. I had barreled through a good hundred pages in the suspenseful novel, and then I had decided to try to sleep again. But going to the bathroom first was obviously crucial. I had slipped from the bed, walked barefoot across the floor, opened the door, and had left it open while I used the bathroom.

            But now the door was closed.

            I tried to remember if I had heard anything since entering the bathroom, but for the life of me, nothing came to mind…and certainly not the pronounced click of my bedroom door closing. It was an old, heavy door with an antique brass knob, and it made a definite sound when it was shut.