The Calling | The House of Voices #1

Seven - Breakfast

Breakfast

October:

They were never going to leave me alone.

“Why, are you making a new friend, Dear? He’ll make a good addition to our collection.” Those were the words that were whispered into my ear when I was shaking Parish’s hand.

A good addition to our collection? What did that even mean? Were they going to kill him too, the way they had killed Uncle Charlie and Aunt Rosaline? I couldn’t have any more blood on my hands. No one else was going to die because I was such a freak. No one.

They’d threatened Kara once, but that was only when they realized that she and I were becoming friends. This was the first time they’d ever threatened someone I’d just met. What was the deal with that? Had they grown bored and suddenly decided to start killing everyone I’d exchanged more than a few words with? It really didn’t make sense why they wanted Parish, of all people – but hey, who was I to question the logic behind some psycho spirit-voices’ decisions?

I sat up in bed and stretched my arms over my head. I had barely gotten more than four hours of sleep. What with the nightmares and worrying about the voices’ change of M.O – those kind of things could mess with a girl’s sleeping schedule.

A loud guffaw made me jump mid-yawn. I twisted around to see Kara standing at the foot of her bed, laughing at my morning stretch-routine. For some reason, she always found that very entertaining.

“What?” I asked irritably as I slipped onto the ground and proceeded to make my bed.

“Nothing.” She replied with a grin. “You just remind me of Cookie.”

“Cookie?” I raised an eyebrow.

“My Persian cat back home.”

“You named your cat Cookie?”

“I was five. Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

I shook my head. “God bless that cat.” I furiously fluffed up my pillow and threw it back onto the bed.

Kara gave me a wry look as she dropped down to her bed. “Okay, spill. What’s with the mood?”

“What mood?”

“The one you’re in.”

I tucked the corners of my sheets in and flattened out all the creases from the bedspread. “You mean this fantastically chipper mood?” I asked sarcastically as I rummaged the wardrobe for my favorite pair of jeans.

I could hear the impatience in Kara’s voice when she answered. “Would you please drop the sarcasm and tell me?”

I sighed in defeat. As I may have mentioned before, there was no arguing with Kara. “I had a little run in with the MPD boy last night.” I yanked out the jeans and a yellow tank top and tossed it onto the bed. “He isn’t really the best company in the world.”

“You met the new kid?” She asked incredulously, eyes bulging.

“Isn’t that what I just said?”

“Let me get this straight. Yesterday, you had the great privilege of meeting both the new Doctor and the new kid?” She hitched her sweat pants up a little higher. “Man, you’re one lucky girl.”

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call meeting Parish a privilege but—”

“Parish?” She interrupted excitedly. “Is that his name? Parish?”

“Uh-huh.” I nodded. “Parish Feltman.”

“Hmm… Parish…” She got this weird, evil-looking glint in her eye. “Sexy name.”