Stake You (Stake You #1) Read online

Chapter Five

  I hung out at Maisy’s place after school. She had dance practice four times a week and a part-time job of her own, so I was kind of touched that she would give me the little spare time she had. I longed for her energy. She was the bright spark who never tired, and I liked that about her. Maybe because I was permanently in a slump.

  “That was kind of madness today,” she said as she rolled over on her bed to switch the song on her mp3 player.

  “Ha. Which bit?”

  “I don’t know. You being calm when someone called you a bitch?”

  I grinned back at her. “Everyone calls me a bitch. I’m used to it by now. Water off a duck’s back. The weirdest bit was that new kid jumping in like he knows us. What’s his deal?”

  “Okay, he’s a bit eccentric, but he’s so freaking pretty I can let it go.”

  “I don’t get why everyone is fawning over him any chance they get.” I frowned. It bothered me way too much.

  “Haven’t you seen him?”

  “Yeah, I mean, he’s okay if you’re into the emaciated look, but he skulks around trying to act enigmatic and shit. He’s such a fake.”

  I truly hated the persona he tried to put on. That intense, brooding, I act all distant because I’m obviously awesome crap that boys all of a sudden seemed to think worked on girls. Although he had done pretty well so far if Maisy and Shauna were anything to go by.

  “So you like a bit of meat on their bones?” Maisy asked, grinning.

  I shrugged. “I suppose. Better than Skeletor Junior, anyway.”

  “That might explain Deco, I suppose. Which I’ve never really gotten.”

  “You wouldn’t understand,” I said.

  “Oh, thanks for the credit. Maybe try me and then see?”

  Sighing, I stared at the posters on her walls. Her room hadn’t changed much in the last four years. “Deco was… safe. Or so I thought.”

  “Safe,” she echoed. “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”

  I threw a pillow at her. “It was just easy to say we were together and never have to do any of the actual relationship stuff.”

  “So you never…”

  I shook my head. “I’m abnormal, right?”

  “I don’t know. You never seemed into him. That’s what I don’t get. Why be with someone you’re not crazy about?”

  I stared at her meaningfully.

  “Oh,” she said slowly. “Oh, Dev. That’s pretty sad.”

  “Works for me. Or at least it did.”

  “But if everything was different, and you weren’t such a complete wimp, what kind of person would you go for?”

  “I should kick your arse for that wimp comment.”

  “You don’t think it’s cowardly to avoid love in case it hurts?” she said frankly, uncharacteristically serious. “I mean, if you can’t even tell me what kind of person you’d like.”

  “You’re so annoying sometimes. I’d go for someone who is the opposite of Sully.” I stuck my tongue out at her.

  “Hmm, let me see. Goofy, available, and buff. Let me think. Someone like Base?” she said cheekily.

  I burst out laughing. “Oh, Maisy, you’re lucky I had a good sleep last night.”

  “Come off it. All of that angry flirting has to come from somewhere. And I remember a time when two were becoming quite close.”

  I blew out a sigh. “And look how well that turned out.”

  She screwed up her nose. “I don’t know. All of that happened on Shauna’s say so. Given her recent behaviour…”

  “It doesn’t matter anyway. If he had really liked me, he wouldn’t have let anything stop him.”

  “You kind of tore him apart though. That would have stopped me.” She frowned. “I think you’re both as stubborn as each other anyway.”

  “So it would never work,” I said. “I’m keeping away from the male side of our species for a while. Too much trouble.”

  She smiled, her eyes going distant. “They’re good for some things.”

  “So you keep telling me.” Maisy wasn’t exactly a never kiss and tell kind of girl. I knew way more about her than I needed. “Anyone new caught your eye lately?”

  “New guy at work. Sizzling hot.”

  “He interested?”

  She frowned. “He’s kind of oblivious actually. But I’m patient.”

  “Lies!” I teased, and she threw that pillow right back at me.

  I stayed at her place for as long as I could, persuading her to study with me, much to her despair.

  Eventually, I had to make the journey home. I dreaded going inside because I could imagine what I would face. It seemed like there was less and less out there for me.

  Feeling guilty for even having those kinds of thoughts, I squared my shoulders and put my key in the door. But I didn’t turn it. Glancing over my shoulder, I realised there was a car parked right outside. A flashy black car. A familiar car that automatically made me uneasy.

  Sully.

  With my stomach launching into nervous somersaults, I let myself into my home.

  Sully sat on my sofa next to my mother watching my television. When he met my eyes, his expression brightened, but there was a cruelty there that I might have missed if I didn’t find everything about him extremely suspicious.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I said through clenched teeth, my fingers gripping the strap of my bag so tightly they went numb.

  “Visiting.” The smugness of his voice, the way he inched closer to my mother… I needed him as far away from her as possible.

  “You weren’t invited. Get out.” My voice shook with anger, but he smirked as though I feared him.

  “Dev,” Mam said in a perfectly clear voice. “That isn’t polite.”

  Her eyes were blank, her words completely lacking the usual slur. Even in sobriety, she crushed her words together, sliding over letters as though they didn’t exist. And now? Perfect elocution.

  My spidey senses went into overdrive.

  “I said, get out.”

  He rose slowly, obviously relishing the way he made me wait. I hated him. I really, truly hated him. There were warning bells constantly ringing around him because he was bad news. And he was in my house doing who knew what to my mother. He was going too far. This had to end.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a restful sleep tonight,” he said. “Oh, and my number is in your phone. Call me if you need a lift. I hate seeing you walk alone.”

  I tensed up. Had he been watching me?

  He brushed past me. Ice cold. Inhuman. A nightmarish soul. The oddest thoughts flooded my mind as he touched me.

  And when he left, the room seemed to freeze. My mother sat there, on the sofa, barely moving and not responding to me. She didn’t drink, didn’t fuss, and eventually I draped a blanket over her and cleaned up before bed.

  Remembering Sully’s comment about my phone, I checked my contact list, and sure enough, there he was. When the hell had he gotten to my phone?

  I fell asleep almost instantly when I lay on the bed. It was as though my body were making up for lost time or something.

  Something stirred me from a deep sleep. Eyes still closed, I vaguely recalled a tapping sound. My eyelids fluttered open, and my heart might have stopped because I glimpsed a figure at the window. A dark shape that was gone before I could focus. But I couldn’t miss what looked like red eyes peering in at me. I jumped up, breathing heavily, my heart racing in my chest.

  What the hell?

  I raced to the window, unable to stop myself from looking outside. There was nothing. Emptiness. Silence. As though I were the only one left in the world. It had obviously been a dream, but that dream had shaken me to the core.

  I pulled the curtains closed as if to protect myself from the outside world before going downstairs to check on Mam. I bit down on a scream of fright. She was still in the exact same position. Lights and telly on, her back ramrod straight, not blinking or saying a word. I clicked my fingers in front
of her eyes and seriously considered phoning for an ambulance.

  “Mam?” I spoke softly, but her eyes fluttered a little. I tried again.

  “Mam. If you don’t talk to me then I’m going to have to ring someone. The police or an ambulance or something.”

  Her gaze fell on me, but she looked right through me. Looking, but not seeing me. “I’m fine, Devlin. Go to bed.”

  She frightened me so much that I had to get away from her. I wanted to run, just to stretch my legs on the empty streets, but something deep inside me told me the streets weren’t really empty. That there was a danger out there. A malevolence in the air.

  It took me a long time to get back to sleep that night.