Only by Moonlight

Chapter 7

With many thanks again for my lovely and talented pre-readers, ladylibre at FanFiction.net and EmmyDana at Wattpad. This chapter would have been far less well-paced and well-written without the creative ideas and perceptive insights of ladylibre especially. Check out their work if you haven’t already…. 

Chapter Seven

            Wishing I had a baseball bat or something I could use as a weapon in my hands, I slowly turned to face whomever or whatever was racing up the attic stairs.

            As I watched the stair landing warily, the chain pull for the light swinging crazily above me, a dark head emerged, a pale face swiveling toward me.

            “Alice, you scared the living daylights out of me!” I gasped, sinking weakly into my accustomed armchair.

            “Well, you scared me, too,” she grumbled, leaning her palms onto her slightly-bent knees as she tried to catch her breath.

            “Wait a minute. How in the world did I scare you?” I asked, my brows knitting in confusion.

            “You were up here turning the lights off and on; I saw them when I got home from filling my gas tank.”

            Slowly I shook my head. “Alice, I only turned on the lights when I came up here. But I did see them blink on and off when I was in the back yard.”

            “Hmmmm,” was all she said, her brows furrowing in thought. Then she seemed to make a decision. Resolutely she strode over to a stack of folding chairs, pulled one out, and unfolded it near my armchair. Seating herself, she leaned toward me. “Did you see anything else?” she asked quietly, watching me carefully.

            I was definitely curious—more than curious, actually—regarding what Alice seemed to know, but I also didn’t feel comfortable revealing the extent of my weird experiences. After all, I had moved in only a few days ago, and I didn’t want my new roommates to think I was insane.

            For example, if I had told Jessica anything like this even before the Mike disaster, she would have laughed her butt off, then proceed to tell everyone she knew about my “crazy,” plus every person she happened across in the course of her day: the librarian helping her with a project, the mother in line for milk in the grocery store, etc.

            While I knew intellectually that Alice was far more trustworthy than Jessica, I was also reluctant. I really liked Alice, but I didn’t want her to think less of me…or have her suggest I see a “professional”…or have her look at me with pity in her eyes—poor Bella, the girl who sees things….

            “Bella! Bella, are you listening?” Abruptly I came out of my thoughts to Alice’s hand waving in front of my unseeing eyes. As she realized I was “back,” she lowered her frantic hand and seemed more worried than before. “I asked if you saw anything else?” she repeated.

            “Like what?” I asked warily.

            “Like a figure,” Alice whispered so faintly that I barely heard her. She glanced up at me through her long lashes as if afraid of what I would say. 

            I took in a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, hoping that doing so would calm me, but it wasn’t working very well. I could feel the tenseness in my shoulders while my stomach churned unpleasantly.

            But I had to have answers. And in order to get answers from Alice, I was going to have to offer her a few of my own answers, too.