Flutter updated edition, p.18
Flutter: Updated Edition, page 18
I sighed. “No. I never should’ve kissed you, and after I did, I should’ve told Jack about it. I screwed up.”
“I shouldn’t have let you in my room that night. Or maybe…” He paused. “I never should’ve come back in the first place.”
“No, this is your home. I’m the one that ruined everything, but I always do.”
“Alice, you can’t take the blame for everything.” Peter took a step into the room, but I held my hand up to him.
“I need to be by myself, okay?”
He seemed to debate whether or not he should listen to me, but finally, he nodded and left me alone.
If I wanted any chance of a future with Jack, I was going to have to spend the rest of my life avoiding Peter. For the first time, I really understood why Peter was always taking off. It was impossible for us to be around each other.
In general, everything was falling apart. Bobby was recovering, but Milo was still shaken up. Peter sulked about the house, and he tried to talk to me several times, but I always shut him down.
Mae and Ezra were completely unraveling. I could hear them shouting at each other constantly, about Jack, about Daisy, about everything. Matilda just lay by me and whined, and I buried my head under the pillow. I didn’t know how much more of this I could take.
“Alice?” Milo knocked on the door tenuously. It was the second night Jack had been gone, so I hadn’t really slept. “Alice, wake up.”
“What’s in it for me?” I grumbled and poked my head out from under the pillow.
When I saw Milo, I blinked, assuming that I was dreaming. He was wearing some kind of getup that included black angel wings and excessive amounts of eyeliner and glitter.
“Okay, what the hell do you have on?” I asked.
“It’s Halloween!” Milo smiled and sauntered over to the bed.
“What are you supposed to be? Some kind of dark fairy?” I sat up so I could inspect his costume, but it didn’t make much sense to me. Other than being entirely black, there wasn’t any rhyme or reason to it.
Milo laughed. “I just wanted to wear wings and glitter!”
“Oh my god, I can’t believe I didn’t know you were gay growing up,” I said and flopped back on the bed. Every holiday ever was an excuse for Milo to dress up. The signs were ridiculously obvious when I thought about it.
“You can be a little slow sometimes,” he agreed. “Now come on. Get out of bed and get ready. We’re going out!”
“I can’t go out,” I said. “Jack’s not home.”
“I’m pretty sure you’ve left the house without Jack before.” He sat down on the edge of the bed next to me. “And it’s a holiday. You can’t stay cooped up in your room forever.”
“Maybe not, but I can’t leave with Jack still gone. It doesn’t feel right.”
“He’ll be home soon,” Milo said without conviction. “Or maybe he won’t. I don’t really know. But either way, you can’t just stay here until he gets back.”
“I can’t go out! That’s like… I don’t know. Sacrilegious or something.” I looked over at him. “I mean, he left me here to punish me. So I should be properly punished.”
Milo wrinkled his nose. “Jack doesn’t ‘punish’ anyone. That’s not how he works. He just needed time to clear his head, and he’s giving you time to clear yours too. Since you can’t seem to stop kissing his brother, he thinks you need to make up your mind about what you really want.”
“I have made up my mind!”
“Well, good, then you have time to go out with us!” Milo said brightly. “So come on! Get up! Get dressed! Let’s dance!”
“No, I really can’t,” I repeated. “Not until Jack comes back. I just have to stay here and wait for him.”
“What if he never comes back?” he asked, and I shot him a glare. “Sorry. But you know, what if it’s a really long time?”
“Then I’ll just wait forever if I have to,” I decided. “I’ll be like Snow White, and you can just put me in one of those glass cases until Jack comes and gives me true love’s kiss.”
“Oh, Snow White, that’s a good costume for you.” He touched my hair. “With your pale skin and dark hair, we could totally make that work.”
“Milo!” I groaned.
“Is she coming with?” Bobby asked, appearing in the doorway behind Milo. He was wearing a white shirt, unbuttoned down his chest, with a black vest and tight pants. I was about to guess for some kind of pirate, and then I saw the laser blaster in his belt.
“Are you Han Solo?” I raised my eyebrow at him.
“Yeah, I wanted him to be Princess Leia, but he wouldn’t go for it.” Bobby gave Milo a pouty look, and I was momentarily relieved that Jack wasn’t around so he couldn’t try out that exact idea on me. Then I realized that Jack wasn’t here, and I got sad again.
“I am not going to wear a gold bikini,” Milo said.
Bobby smiled wickedly at me. “Hey, if you don’t have a costume, you could always go as Leia!”
“Nope.” I shook my head. “Even if I wasn’t too busy moping, there is no way you can talk me into that. No gold bikinis or cinnamon bun hairdo.”
“Fine. Costume or not, you really should come out with us,” Milo said, looking at me with concern. “It’s not good for you to just lay in bed all the time like this. You’re not even watching TV or listening to music. You’re just lying in the dark. It’s not healthy.”
“I’m okay, though,” I insisted. “Honest. I’ll get up and do something tonight. I just… I don’t want to go out. But thanks for inviting me. I really appreciate it.”
“Okay,” Milo relented. “But you better be out of this bed when I get back. Or else.”
Milo smiled sadly at me before leaving with Bobby. On the bedspread, he left behind a trail of glitter and black feathers.
I did not want to get out of bed, but I didn’t really want Jack coming back to me being a big, stinky mess, so I decided that if nothing else, I should keep up my hygiene, so he doesn’t break up with me for that. I showered, styled my hair, put on makeup, and got dressed. For the sake of Halloween, I even painted my nails green. I don’t know why I went through all that trouble, but it felt like something to do.
Matilda needed to go to the bathroom, so I went downstairs to let her outside. She was the only real consolation I had. As mad as Jack might be at me and everyone else, he would never leave her behind. Not for good.
While she was outside doing her thing, I glanced down the hall. The door to the den was open, and Ezra sat at the computer, the screen glowing blue on his face. He probably still slept on the couch in there, and I wondered if he and Mae were ever going to make up. And if they weren’t, I wondered why neither of them left.
My cell phone started ringing, and my heart skipped a beat until I realized it was Milo and not Jack. I briefly considered not answering it. He probably just wanted to talk me into coming out with him. But then again, he might be in trouble, so I figured I should take it.
“Hello?” I answered, and I had to hold the phone away from my ear because the music was so loud.
“Hello?” Milo shouted over the music. “Hello?”
“Milo?” I yelled back, so he could hear me. “Milo? Where are you?”
“I’m at V!” Milo shouted, and I could barely hear Bobby saying something in the background about a girl. “You’ve got to come down here!”
“No, I already told you I’m not going,” I said. Matilda started barking at the French doors off the kitchen, so I went and let her in. “Thanks anyway.”
“No, I mean you really have to come down!” Milo said.
“She’s going in the room with him!” Bobby shouted plaintively at Milo. “Tell her to hurry and get down here! We’ve gotta do something!”
“I’m not leaving you alone to deal with her,” Milo told Bobby, and I really wished I understood what was happening or the music behind them was quieter.
“What is going on?” I asked.
“Jane is down here, and she looks like a corpse! For real! Not like a zombie Halloween costume or anything,” Milo said. “She looks really, really terrible, and she just went into the backrooms with that Jonathan guy she was with before. I can’t go after her and leave Bobby alone, so you need to get down here. If she doesn’t get out of here tonight, she’s probably never will.”
“This better not be some trick to get me to come out,” I said, but deep down, I knew it wasn’t. Both Milo and Bobby sounded genuinely frazzled, and I hadn’t been doing enough to get her to stop being a verkurva.
“I would never lie about something like this!” Milo insisted, and he really wouldn’t.
“Fine. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Wait for me by the dance floor,” I told him, then hung up the phone. Immediately after doing so, I found a giant flaw in my plan: I didn’t know how to drive.
Chapter Twenty-five
I realized that there was somebody here that always fixed everything and knew how to drive. “Ezra!”
“Yes?” Ezra answered, and I walked to the end of the hall so I could see him. He looked up from his computer. “Is something the matter?”
“Milo’s at a club, and Jane’s there. She’s a verkurva, and he says she’s in really bad shape. I need to get her before something bad happens,” I said. “Would you be willing to drive me down there?”
“Absolutely.” Ezra hit a button on the computer and stood up. “Milo told me he and Bobby were going out to the clubs tonight, and Bobby was looking quite well, so I told them to have fun.”
“They will go back to having a good time as soon as we help Jane,” I said as he met me in the hall.
“At least I get to go out on Halloween. I haven’t done that in years.” He noticed his teasing falling flat on me, and he nodded solemnly. “We’ll get your friend out of there. And Jack will come home. He does love you very much.”
“I know,” I lied. “I just wish I knew where he was.”
“He’ll turn up soon,” Ezra assured me. “He’s not the kind to stray very far.”
Ezra said very little else on the car ride to V. Downtown was a madhouse. People were everywhere, dressed in all sorts of wacky garments. Most of the girls’ outfits could barely count as “clothing,” and it seemed like everyone was drunk or high or just certifiably insane.
I had to jog to keep up with Ezra, and I felt strange going to the clubs with him. He dressed more fashionably and appropriate for a club situation than I had, but it was weird thinking of him clubbing. Even as attractive and as young as he looked, he never seemed like the kind of person that would frequent a place like this.
In the block before the club, he had to fend off several very drunk girls. I mean he literally had to push them off of him, and by the looks of the last one, she wasn’t exactly drunk. The fading pink marks on her neck meant she was just leaving the club we were going to.
A couple guys made a pass at me, and I didn’t really care, except for the fact that I was starting to get hungry. I hadn’t even really felt it until we were in a crowd of people.
Ezra held the door open to V for me, and the two giant bouncers were still manning their post. They nodded at Ezra and exchanged some kind of look with him. It made me wonder if he was acquainted with him.
The dance floor was completely packed. Michael Jackson’s hit song “Thriller” blasted out over the stereo, and at least half of the floor was doing the dance that went along with it. It would’ve been a sight to behold, but Milo and Bobby waited by the doors for us, reminding me of the business at hand. One of Milo’s wings looked damaged, but with the floor being as crowded as it was, I was surprised that his costume had stayed as intact as it had.
“It’s crazy here tonight!” Milo shouted over the music.
“I don’t understand how they all know the moves,” Bobby said, watching the “Thriller” dancers with some fascination.
“Yeah, great. Where’s Jane?” I asked.
“In one of the backrooms.” Milo gestured across the dancehall to the vampire bar section of the club. Blue lights flashed overhead. “I don’t know which one for sure, but I thought you could find her”
“As long as she’s still alive, I probably can,” I said.
Milo grabbed Bobby and made his way across the dance floor. I went into the crowd after him, but they were impossible to get through. Apparently, I wasn’t even as forceful as Milo.
Ezra came up behind me and put his arm around my waist before he started pushing our way through them. I was strong enough to do it, but I felt bad about pushing people out of the way. Not that any of them seemed to mind. Humans and vampires alike seemed to enjoy being lightly manhandled by Ezra.
The dim lighting and muffled sound of the smaller bar came as a huge relief. Even in here, it was incredibly packed. Usually there were just a handful of couples, but tonight, every available surface was covered with vampires feeding on people or making out with each other. There were even two vampires lying on the bar in the corner, grinding in a very provocative fashion. Milo, Bobby, Ezra, and I stood out for the simple fact that we were not kissing or biting.
“Which hall did she go down?” I asked Milo.
There were seven different hallways that went off the main bar, and I’m not even sure how many rooms were down each hall. I went down one before, and it had seemed to go on forever.
“I think that one.” Milo pointed to one on the far side of the room.
“Are you sure?” Bobby squinted. The red lights in here weren’t the best for his eyesight. “I thought it was the one just to the left of that.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I groaned.
“Ezra Townsend!” Olivia squealed and pushed an unconscious girl onto the floor. She moaned a little when she hit her head, but that was the only sign she gave that she was still alive.
Olivia’s tight leather uniform seemed much more appropriate with the Halloween crowd, and she was smiling widely at Ezra in her usual relaxed way. I expected him to look appalled by her, but instead, he smiled and greeted her with a hug.
“It’s so good to see you!”
“Likewise,” Ezra agreed when they released each other.
I glanced at Milo and Bobby to see them gaping at him too, so it wasn’t just me that found this apparent friendship surprising.
“It really has been too long.” Olivia touched his arm and laughed. “I didn’t even know you were still in the area! I thought you would’ve moved on years ago.”
“Well, I tried, but my wife has roots down here,” Ezra said.
“She’s not—” Olivia looked to me skeptically.
“No, no, Alice isn’t mine. She’s my brother Jack’s,” Ezra said.
Olivia nodded and smiled again at me. “She’s a little tart, isn’t she?”
“She can be,” Ezra agreed but he sounded affectionate. I think I had been kind of expecting him to hate me after all the trouble I caused between Jack and Peter, but Ezra didn’t seem to be one to hold a grudge either.
“You should’ve told me you were with Ezra,” Olivia said and touched my arm. “I would’ve given you the special treatment.”
“I didn’t realize you two knew each other,” I said.
“That’s just like Ezra to not mention me,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but we’ve got a missing friend,” Milo interjected.
“Same one as before?” Olivia asked.
“Yes, and we’ve got to find her. So, if you’ll excuse us.” Milo had Bobby’s hand in one hand and he took mine in the other. Olivia nodded at us as we started making our escape, but Ezra stayed back with her.
“So you know which hall it is?” I asked as Milo dragged me to the other side of the room.
“Nope, but it’s got to be one of these two halls.” Milo let go of my hand, but he still hung onto Bobby’s. In another circumstance, it would’ve been a very funny sight to see a black glittery fairy leading a rather short Han Solo around.
They led the way, but once we were in the hall, they slowed down considerably. Milo didn’t really know how to track Jane, not as well as I did anyway, but it was going to be impossible. There were too many people tonight.
Everything smelled like blood, and I was incredibly impressed with my current level of self-control. My stomach burned a bit, and I was really thirsty, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. It did, however, make it hard to distinguish different scents and sounds. Blood overpowered everything else.
I was about to give up on the whole thing when I finally got something. I froze in the middle of the hall, and Bobby bumped into me. It was too dark for him to see that I had stopped moving. Very faintly, I could smell her perfume. Her blood was too heady and mixed with the aroma of all the others bleeding here tonight, but her perfume was singularly distinct.
“It’s this one,” I whispered, gesturing to the door nearest to us. Milo moved in front of Bobby, putting himself between him and any possible attack.
After the way Jonathan had reacted the last time we busted in on him with Jane, I figured we should take the necessary precautions. This time, I decided to go with the element of surprise instead of breaking down the door like a SWAT team. Very slowly, I turned the knob and pushed the door open.
Jonathan didn’t hear us because he was feeding on Jane. He knelt on the bed, her body hanging limp in his arms, and he gnawed on her neck. It wasn’t the gentle bites that Olivia always gave her girlfriends, or even the times that Peter had bitten me.
This was intensely animalistic, reminding me of the shark attacks I watched on TV. Jane appeared completely unconscious, and when I listened for a heartbeat, I could only hear one — his, pounding strong and fast.
Without thinking, I flew at him. He was killing her, and I had to stop him while there was still time — if there was still time. I jumped onto his back, and he snarled and threw Jane to the ground. It would’ve been easier for him to just drop her on the bed, but he purposely chucked her away, like a piece of garbage.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, but he reached back and grabbed me by my hair. He lifted me by it, and I screamed. I kicked and clawed at him, and he threw me against the wall.
