Misery County

Chapter 5 - Part 3

"Eric, what the fuck, man!?" Cassie sounded irritated, and although they were probably miles apart, Eric could perfectly imagine the look on her face.

"Sorry, was that a question?"

"Not one you can answer, I'll bet. I'll give you an easier one – where are you?"

"I – well, I actually don't know."

"An even easier question then – what do you see when you look around?"

"I'm in a house. In Nevena's house. I think it's Nevena's house. Did you meet her last night?" Eric was still stumbling around in the dark, looking for a window he could look through.

"If you could call it meeting." The venom in Cassie's voice was unmistakable.

"What the hell happened last night?"

"Someone let Little Eric do all of his thinking for him. To be fair, if you've woken up in that bitch's house, I guess Little Eric deserves some credit. It's a damned shame he can't pick 'em better."

"I'm sensing you're upset," Eric tried gingerly.

"You missed your calling, Eric. You should have become a detective."

"Are you going to tell me what I've done wrong, or are you just going to be a passive-aggressive little bitch about it?"

Eric didn't need the silence from the other end of the line to tell him that he'd crossed a line.

"Cassie, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way. I'm just – I'm not feeling too well, all right?"

"What's happened to you, Eric? You never used to be this way."

"Maybe it's the alcohol."

"As if. You've been a heavy drinker for as long as I've known you, and I've never known you to be... whatever it is you're being."

"Can we just meet up? I don't like doing this over the phone. Besides," Eric lowered his voice to a whisper, "there are other ears listening here."

"How could I forget?" Cassie drawled sarcastically. "Where do you want to meet up?"

"The county library. That's pretty central. Then we can take it from there."

"Done, I'll see you there," Cassie said before unceremoniously hanging up.

Eric toyed with the idea of just finding the exit and leaving the house without saying anything, but doing so without his clothes would undoubtedly attract more than a few stares in the street, so he made his way through the dark, back to the bedroom.

Nevena was still lounging in bed but had her back turned to the doorway.

"Thank you for the lovely night," Eric forced himself to say, trying but failing to hide his awkwardness.

"Are you leaving already?" Nevena responded as she rolled back over to face him.

"Yeah, just need to get my stuff, and I'm out of your way." Eric was intentionally avoiding eye contact with her. After all he'd been through, he liked to think it took more than a pair of beautiful eyes to get him to melt, but if the past twelve hours had proven anything, it's that it didn't. This is humiliating, he thought as he put on the last of his clothes. Cassie would never let him hear the end of it.

"When am I going to see you again?"

"Well, you know, we'll find the time, I guess." Eric was stumbling through his words. "I have to be honest with you. I'm not in town for long."

"Don't worry, stud. I wasn't looking for anything long-term."

Nevena was crawling on the bed toward Eric, and even though he wasn't looking at her, he could see through the corner of his eye that she was trying to get in front of him, get close to him.

"What a relief. No one gets disappointed," he said quickly. "OK, well, I have to run. See you around." With that, Eric moved swiftly out of the bedroom and down the dark hallway toward where he guessed the front door would be.

"Oh, I'll definitely be seeing you around," Nevena called out from the bedroom.

Eric couldn't figure out whether he was weirded out by her or in love with her, but in either case, it would probably be best to stay away. No good would come of this.

He made it to the front door, a large, ornate specimen with, not surprisingly, blacked out glass. Half-expecting the door to be bolted shut, Eric was pleasantly surprised when it opened with no hassle. His joy was short-lived. Stepping out into the morning sun, he was greeted by yet another unpleasant surprise.