Between (12 page)

I hear
Alek saying the same words in my mind. The doctor was right. I need to speak to someone because I'm the one going insane.

I don't want to be alone with any of them. Mad tales of vampires, witches
, and ghosts fill my mind; tears of frustration and embarrassment push from my eyes. The rain falls harder and Finn hovers next to me.

"Now what?"

I shrug one shoulder, my mind turning over my options.

He indicates my rucksack
on the carpet inside. "Were you leaving? Where are you going?" he asks. "Home to your parents?"

I shake my head vigorously. "No! I need my life back on track, not to run home. I'm old enough to look after myself."

"Maybe, you aren’t ready yet? Your health isn’t great, I mean."

"You think I'm mentally unstable, don't you?"

Finn wrinkles his nose, looks at me with his concerned blue eyes. "No."

"Liar."

The heavens open and rain pours, sudden and heavy. I snort at the weather reflecting my mood. Finn looks upwards, the water trickling down his face.

He shakes the rain from his hair.
"Getting soaked here. Can we go inside while we decide what to do?"

Every cell of my body screams at me not to go back inside the house
, but if Finn is with me, I’ll be okay. Surely.

"Only until the rain stops,
and then I’ll help you leave. If you want to stay at mine..." He pauses at my shocked expression. "Okay, wrong thing to suggest. Have you any friends you can go to?"

I bite inside my cheek. No friends. Not anymore.

We step into the house and walk into the kitchen. Finn takes his grey hoodie off and hangs it over the chair. I throw him a tea towel and he looks at me with a crooked smile. "Gee, thanks. That’ll dry about one inch of my body."

His tattoo catches my eye as usual. I have an attraction to men's arms, always have. The strength I can see in his
toned muscles contrasts with his gentle role in life. Finn's arms are more protective than dangerous. I blink.
Why would I think that?
When I shift to look at him, he's watching me curiously, aware I'm checking him out. I'm not, am I?

I hastily turn away to retrieve mugs from a cupboard. "Coffee?"

"Yeah."

Two steaming mugs of coffee prepared, I relax and sit with Finn. Mostly relax
, I’m alert for someone else coming home, or whether he has a secret agenda to kill me like crazy Alek told me.

"So
, what happened last night? Why did you disappear? I don't understand why Alek was with you," asks Finn.

"I don’t want to talk about it."

Finn sighs and sits back in his seat. "I’m not used to girls disappearing on me when I go on a date."

I swallow the warm coffee in my mouth. "Date?"

Finn dips his head. “Sorry, that came out wrong."

Alek’s
face appears in my mind; his harsh kiss and the buzz it gave me. The blonde-haired guy in front of me could never do those things to me.

"I’m not looking for a boyfriend," I say quietly.

"Fair enough." Finn shifts his look to somewhere else in the room behind me. God, I hope I haven’t just isolated myself from my only friend by refusing him.

He rubs the back of his neck. "You really don’t want to stay in the house, huh?"

"The occupants are…weird."

"Yeah, I noticed. That
Alek guy is seriously unhinged."

Unhinged is an interesting way of putting it.

Finn’s shivering isn’t stopping, and goose bumps grow on his arms. "Let’s go into the lounge room; I’ll put the fire on and get you a proper towel," I say.

Finn stands. "Please. Your house is bloody cold."

When I return with the towel, Finn is standing in front of the warming gas fire. His hair is darker blonde with the wet, and he turns to me with an unreadable expression in his eyes.

"I can tell why you don’t like this place. I get a really bad vibe. Is it haunted?"

I shudder. "Maybe."

He takes a deep breath and sighs. "I feel these things," he says quietly
. "There’s people stuck here."

Oh
, shit; not him, as well. I bump my rear onto the sofa. "Yeah?"

He
doesn’t respond and stares into the fire. An awkward silence follows and I half-expect one of the ghostly residents to appear.

"I’ve seen one," I tell him and I’ve no idea why.

"Oh?"

"She attacked me." I decide not to mention the girl at the pub and her attack.

"How can she attack you if she’s a ghost? Like a poltergeist who threw something at you?"

"I don't know," I mumble, fighting tears, increasingly convinced I'm the
deranged one here.

Finn moves from the fire to sit next to me on the sofa. Not too close, thank
God. I hope the whole date issue is dealt with. I need a friend, not another lover. I shake my head. Lover? Alek’s barely touched me.

"You’re different today. Brighter. Not as pale," he says.

I look at my hands, perturbed by the way he scrutinises me, ending by looking at my mouth.
Okay, I don’t think the date issue is dealt with.

"I’m so sorry," he says softly.

"For what?"

Finn leans back on the sofa. "For how you are."

"I don’t understand."

"I mean I’m sorry you have to go through this, not
that I’m responsible."

"Why would you say that? Why would I think you’re responsible?" I push myself to my feet
and edge away. Either everyone in my life is deranged or it’s time I start to process and accept everything happening to me. "I think I’m going to get changed; I got wet, too."

"Wait."

Finn stands and grabs my arm, curling his hand around my wrist. The familiar painful chill spreads up my arm; as the numbing travels up my neck, he drops his hand. I step back, rubbing my sleeve, staring back at a wide-eyed Finn.

As if on cue, the front door opens and slams shut.
Alek halts, an initial wide-eyed look of surprise replaced by narrowed eyes and him shooting across the room toward us.

Alek
shoves Finn in the chest. "Get the fuck away from her!"

I freeze, unsure what he’s going to say or do
--to Finn or me.

"You should go
," I say to Finn and step between him and Alek.

Finn laughs softly to himself, and I shift my look to him. He has his arms crossed over his chest. "Why should I? You asked me in."

Oh, crap. I hoped he’d be intimidated like last time, not hold his ground. I don’t want to be part of whatever is about to happen.

The dizziness creeps across my head as the pain in my arm spreads from where Finn touched me and
into my chest, constricting my lungs. I back to the sofa and put my head on my knees, fighting the fog.
As soon as I get my breath, I’m out of here
.

"Calm down, man," says Finn, "No wonder she’s leaving."

"What?" He turns to me. "You’re leaving? Why? After everything I told you…?"

"
Because
of everything you told me."

He pushes a hand through his scruffy hair. "You
didn’t believe me?"

In the logic of the outside world brought on by the daytime, his stories are fairy
tales. Finding myself trapped behind invisible barriers in a claustrophobic house isn’t logical, though. "Maybe a little of it. But I don’t understand why you told me Finn is dangerous."

Finn chokes. "What the fuck?"

"Oh, don’t play so innocent. I know what you are!" snaps Alek

Now Finn steps away from
Alek, palms held outward in a gesture of surrender. "Umm. Okay. Sure. What’s that?"

Alek
runs his tongue along his teeth. "Fine, play games. You know what I am."

"A seriously messed
-up guy?"

I suppress a laugh which is instantly interrupted by
Alek pushing Finn against the wall near me. Finn makes a noise as his breath is knocked from him.

"
You’re not funny," he growls, leaving his hand on Finn’s chest.

"
Alek, stop being such a dick," I retort.

"Yeah,
Alek
."

Alek
looks between the two of us, tensed. "He just touched you. What did it feel like?"

"Okay..." He looks at me. "Is this a jealousy thing? Have you guys got together?"

The red creeping across my face answers his question. "No. Not really."

A moment in time
halts as Alek’s deep-brown eyes fix on mine in a way that delves into my soul. "We just kissed." He tips his head at Finn. "What do you think about that?"

"Whatever, kiss who you like. She’s not my girlfriend." Finn grabs
Alek’s wrist and pulls his arm away from his chest. "You have some major issues. I'm not surprised she wants to get away."

"What does it feel like when Finn touches you, Rose? Cold? Numb?" His attention remains fixed on Finn. "Are you dizzy now?"

"I’m not listening to this!" I place my hands over my ears and close my eyes, focusing on pushing away the fog. Disconnected voices filter thorough my fingers, and I open an eye to see them practically nose to nose.

"Get out of my fucking house
," he says in a low voice.

"Not without Rose."

Alek grabs Finn around the throat and I drop my hands from my head, wondering if I should intervene. "Get your hands off me, demon," growls Finn, "Or I’ll end you."

Demon?

"End me?" Alek squeezes Finn’s throat. "See! He’s a Reaper. He wants to kill you, and then he'll try to kill me! I think he's killing other people, too, at the hospital."

"What do you mean?" I yell at
Alek, "What’s a Reaper?"

Finn
claws at Alek’s hand, trying to free himself. His wide eyes meet mine and he shakes his head, unable to speak.

"
Alek! Let him go!" I yell. My vision greys; I feel like I'm watching through fog.

Alek
considers for a moment, and then drops his hand.

Finn shoves
Alek with both hands and steps away. "Forget it. I’m not fighting you. It’s pointless anyway. But I don't want to kill her any more than you do you," says Finn. "And I am not killing people, you lunatic."

Their voices grow
distant, alerting me to my incoming faint. My stupid, useless body collapses to the floor.

"Rose? Are you okay?" I
struggle to open my eyes as Finn’s words travel through the fog. His voice and the presence hit the subconscious part of my mind, where the night of the accident lives. This is him. Finn was the one who let me live. How can that be true? Nothing makes sense.

"I think she's unconscious
; we need to help her," says Finn.

"Get the fuck away from her!" shouts
Alek, grabbing his arm again.

I open an eye and watch as Finn stands back, hands held out in self-defence. "
Alek. There is something going on at the hospital. There are people dying, but it's nothing to do with me. Your housemate is involved."

"Bullshit," snaps back
Alek. "You're the fucking Reaper; it's your job, of course it's you."

"I’m here because of Rose. That's it."

"You’re lying! Lizzie is with me, here. She's helped me for years and she'll help Rose. "

"Rose knows then?"
I snap my eyes shut so they don't know I'm listening.

"Some of it."

"Then you need to tell her everything. You also need to be prepared to move on, and without Lizzie, because I’ve seen her with demons at the hospital."

Alek
freezes. "Here? Why are they here?"

"You know why
, and I know you're hiding from them. I’m trying to protect Rose, and her staying with you isn’t safe. You need to let her leave."

Their conversation sounds as if I'm listening from the bottom of a swimming pool, words making less sense than usual. Again, the confusion over whether this is reality or a dream crawls across my mind.

"I don't believe you. Just go," snarls Alek.

"You can't fight this on your own
. You’ve run for too long. They know where you are now."

"Go," repeats
Alek.

Voices
clamour in my head the way they did last time I gave into the fog, voices trying to pull me into a different place. For a few minutes, I focus on pushing them away. No more is said between Alek and Finn, and I hear the door slam. I lie with my cheek against the rough carpet for a few minutes longer until Alek approaches.