Come Home

Hannah

"You want to have a sleepover with me?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking how long it's been since we've had one. I-I kind of miss that."

"Me too. Do you want to have it in here or your room?"

"How about here? Declan might sneak into my room if we do it there," I laugh, in an attempt to loosen some of the tension that's suffocating me. It would almost be easier to back out the door and run to Declan's room, but I need some girl time. Chloe had disappeared with Fredrick and Connor was acting too weird making Roxee the only person I could think of.

We had been best friends until I turned 9 and started hanging out with Connor. She drifted away, and I suppose I did too. Sometimes I miss her but she seemed too far for me to ever dream of reaching her. I decided to try, after all these years, on my way to Declan's room.

I realized that I still wasn't sure I wanted us to spin out of control like we had agreed two days ago. I needed to talk to someone who had a clearer perspective and she's the only real option. She has a logical outlook on life so hopefully she can tell me what to do.

Declan hadn't been too excited when I told him I was going to see if Roxee wanted a sleepover, but he relented when I threatened to lock myself in my room for the next two nights.

"I love him, but I swear if I wake up to him sneaking in here to creep around, I'm going to throw something heavy and report him to Fredrick."

"Please do. I would never hold that against you. We could even sneak into his room and do all that anyway."

"That could be fun."

"Are we doing it? Is this something we're actually going to do?"

"Sure, I'm in."

"Yay! He needs some shaping up anyways."

"You mean mild abuse?"

"Yeah, if that's what you want to call it." 

We spent the next two hours talking about different things as they came up and it was almost like nothing had changed.Yet everything had changed at once.

Before the attack on Declan, we went down the hall and gathered stuff from my room. On the way back, we heard something creak from the floor above us.

I looked over my shoulder towards Roxee with confusion in my eyes, and was met with her calculating look and head tilted to allow her to hear better. Turning back towards the stairs that separate our rooms, Roxee began to swiftly but silently move up them and I scrambled to follow her from a safe distance but so I could still see her. When she reached the top stair, she paused and looked into the darkness to see what had made the noise. Before I had reached her, she moved to the left and marched down the hall into the thick darkness that shrouded the area.

I stayed at the top of the stairs and waited. For a sound, a movement, anything. Nothing came for seven agonizing minutes until I moved back down the stairs and ran to Declan's room. Pounding on his door in time with my panicked heart beat, I almost sighed in relief when he answered. His grogginess immediately disappeared when he noticed the terror etched onto my face.

"What's wrong? Where's Roxee?" he asked, looking around me before pulling me into his chest. "You smell like-" he left off with a frown forming on his face.

"Roxee and I heard something upstairs and she went to investigate. I was following until she disappeared down the hallway. She still hasn't come out and I couldn't see her. I-" I say stop and pull away slightly to gauge his reaction. His eyes had a distant look for a moment before he grabbed my hand and started up the stairs.