Veiled

Chapter 4

The next morning over bacon, eggs, and an obscene amount of coffee, Perry and Dex decide to stay an extra night. Perry says it's because she wants to check out the Saturday market downtown, though I know it's because they both don't feel right about leaving me. They have their friend Dean looking after their dog, Fat Rabbit, anyway, so they're squared.

Actually I do want to go to the market and peruse the handmade clothing and eat from the food trucks. I want to be in the sunshine and as far away as this house as possible. I even want to be around a crowd of sweaty strangers, just so I'm not alone.

I didn't go back to sleep last night. I was too scared. After the thing in the closet and the dream about my mother and Jay and waking up in the kitchen sleepwalking, plus seeing one of my neighbors outside on the street in the middle of the night staring at the house (or was that a dream too?), I went back upstairs, climbed in bed with Perry, but spent the rest of the night on my phone. I literally went through every single fashion blog and magazine there is and even bought a few things from shopping sites I'd banned myself from. Anything to keep from closing my eyes, to risk going through it all again.

Needless to say I'm exhausted, my brain is full of fog, and I've barely spoken two words all morning. But Perry knows, as she always does, that I'm even worse today than yesterday. So they're staying and I'm not protesting one bit. Even though Perry and Dex are known for attracting trouble, there's no one else I feel safer around. Dex has Perry's back and he has mine too.

But in my dream, so does someone else.

I'm the one who has your back. And I've been watching you for a very, very long time.

Jay.

It was so incredibly real, incredibly vivid and arguably the most fucked up dream I've ever had. It just felt . . . like I wasn't in control of it. Like it was being projected into my head. And the more I think about it, about my mother and the Thin Veil and Jay, the more my head spins.

I'm mulling that over as I grab my purse and head out the door with Dex and Perry, the stark sunshine feeling incredibly good on my skin while bird song erupts from the trees. I close my eyes briefly as Dex unlocks the doors to his black Highlander and try to let it the summer light wash away the darkness.

"Hmmph," Dex says and I open my eyes to see him staring over at the Knightlys', his brow furrowed as he sticks a cigarette in his mouth.

I look behind me, a chill coming over me. "What?"

The boxes are gone, there's no car in driveway nor the 70's Mercedes that the Jacob man drove. It looks quiet.

"Nothing," Dex says, lighting the cigarette and taking a drag. He blinks, seeming to relax before my eyes and blows smoke out of the corner of his mouth. "Anyway I was hoping maybe I'd see Sage Knightly."

"I'm sure you can harass the new neighbors tonight," Perry says as she walks around the hood. "And you're not smoking that in the car."

He gives her a salute. "Yes m'am." He promptly puts out the cigarette on the back of his lighter and shoves it back in the pack before getting in the driver's seat, sighing despondently.

During the drive to downtown, Dex has Soundgarden blaring and Perry keeps eying me in the rear-view mirror.

I'm fine! I yell inside my head, using the "inside voice" Jay told me to. I'm not sure if she can hear me or not because her expression doesn't change. She's studying me as if not quite sure who I am.

"What?" I finally ask her out loud, my voice sharp.

She looks away and now Dex is peering at me in the mirror.