I arrived home, and Zion raced inside his room to go play games on his iPad, just like he sang all the way home. I kicked my heels off and dragged myself into the bedroom. Getting there, I dropped my bag on the bed and stripped out of my maid-of-honour dress into something easier to move around in. Since I no longer had a phone, for now I could only use the house line, and one was in the bedroom.
Daniel’s line was unreachable and kept going to voicemail, and after two tries, I gave up. I would try again later because I needed to speak to him about what happened between me and Aaron at the reception. I returned to the living room and tried to think of what would be best for dinner.
There was a cooking timetable on the wall, but it was harder for me to decide because I was not the only one having dinner tonight. I had Zion. I didn’t want to ask for his impute because that would mean leaving an adult decision to a child.
I needed to think up what would be okay for dinner for both of us. After ten minutes of thorough thinking, I chose mashed potato sauce. I picked out the potatoes and placed the pot of water on fire. Daniel crossed my mind once again, and I walked to the kitchen line and picked it up.
I was about to dial his number when the doorbell went off. I dropped the phone and hurried over to the door, wondering who it might be. As I opened it, I found Henry, the delivery man who had brought us packages in the last year.
“Henry!” I gasped at the sight of him because, despite not knowing who it could have been, I wasn’t expecting him. I hadn’t received any notice about a package delivery beforehand, and this was his first time showing up without me getting one.
“What are you doing here?” I raised my brow, a little tensed. “I didn’t get any notice about any deliveries,” I stated, still confused.
“There was a delay,” he mumbled, and it somehow calmed my scepticism.
“Can I get the package, then?” I asked, glancing at his hand and not finding a package as usual.
He bobbed his head and said, “It’s in the car; you can come take it.”
I didn’t know much about delivering, but that wasn’t how it worked. Packages were always handed in or left at the door, not in the truck.
I glanced behind him and found his truck on the side of the road, and I returned my gaze to him. “Umm, I’m currently cooking in the kitchen. I think you should grab it and bring it to me. I’ll wait.” I slammed the door, only to hear the home line go off in the kitchen.
I returned to the kitchen, but before I could pick it up, the line had already ended. I dialled Daniel’s number, but it still went straight to voicemail.
‘Or maybe he knows what you did with Aaron. Maybe he had his spies watching you, and when they saw what you did, they fed him details. He already knows, and he’s not so pleased about it,’ the voice in my head said. But I shook it off. Daniel wasn’t that petty. Watching me was something Aaron would do, not Daniel.
I moved to the counter, filled the now boiling water with potatoes, and covered it up. Fish would be the next thing to work on, which I knew Zion would like very much.
I didn’t feel happy about Daniel’s not picking up my calls. It was so unlike him, and the guilt-placing voices in my head weren’t helping me one bit. My terrible conscience took delight in torturing me and reminding me of how wrong what I did with Aaron was.
I dialled his number for the seventh time, and this time, when it went to voicemail, I decided to leave him one.
“Hey, Daniel, I called earlier because I needed to talk to you. But it keeps going to voice mail, and I don’t have another choice but to leave you one.” I paused and took a deep breath before continuing. “I did something terrible. I kissed Aaron.” I paused and placed my hands on the island in the centre of the kitchen. “He kissed me first, and I kissed back. I don’t know why I did it, but I did, and I only realized what I had done moments after I pushed him off. I have felt horrible about it ever since then, and that is why I-” I rambled on but stopped when I heard footsteps from behind.
I turned around but froze in my step as I saw Henry with glowing yellow eyes and fangs longer than I knew him to have. His face looked hairy, like an animal, and so did his exposed arms. My stomach dropped, and I realized this wasn’t a dream or a hallucination but reality.
“Henry?” I called, swallowing slowly, but he didn’t answer me. Instead, his eyes glowed. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t Henry-not the Henry I’d known for over a year now.
He took a step forward, and I tried to back away, but I failed because my back was now pressed against the counter. He took another step, and my heart raced in my chest, and my legs trembled while they struggled to hold me up.
Henry had related to Zion and me a few times, smiling and cracking jokes whenever he came over, and I knew he would never hurt me. This thing, however, might, and I wrapped my hand around the handle of the pot on the fire. As he launched at me, I threw the now hot water and potatoes in the pot at him. The water poured on his face, and next, I threw the pot, which smacked against his head.
He growled out in pain and covered his face. I took the opportunity and raced out of the kitchen, but I wasn’t fast enough because he caught my hand. I yanked it out of his grip and lost my balance, falling to the floor and blacking out.
….
My eyes opened, and I saw two people, more like creatures, bawling in the living room, which now looked like a mess.
My vision cleared, and I rose to my feet. I identified Henry from the clothes he had on earlier when I allowed him into the house, but the other person, I couldn’t tell.
Henry launched at him, but he caught him by the neck and threw him away. He turned to me, his eyes glowing red, his fangs just as long as Henry’s, and his arms and face equally hairy. The red in his eyes decreased, and I saw the hazel eyes telling me who he was.
“Aaron.” My heart tightened in my chest.
“Get Zion and get out!” He growled at me, and I didn’t even waste a second arguing about how he was in my room or why he was fighting Henry. I raced upstairs with my heart hammering away in my chest, and I hoped my son would still be in his room.
I found him laying in bed with his headphones on, playing a game on his iPad.
“Baby, get up.” I yanked the bedsheets off his body, and he immediately sat up on alert and dragged down the headphones. “We’ve got to go.”
“We need to leave, my love,” I said, and the ground shook underneath me. I feared even thinking of what could be happening downstairs.
“Is it an earthquake?”
I bit my lips and shook my head, not knowing how to respond to him. Henry, our delivery man, and Aaron, his father, were downstairs tearing at each other, and they looked like monsters.
“We need to go. I will answer your questions later. I promise, okay?”
He nodded, and I took him into my arms, not thinking about picking anything else up. I glanced at him. “Close your eyes,” I said, and he obeyed, shutting his eyes. “Do not open unless I tell you to, okay?” He nodded.
I raced out of the room into the living room, where I met the two men still going at each other. Aaron was on top of Henry, and he thrust his hand into Henry’s chest to yank out his heart. I screamed, making him stop.
Henry took advantage and swung his claw over Aaron’s shoulder, ripping his flesh open, and he threw Aaron off his body. Then he stormed towards me, a malicious growl leaving his mouth. I turned around to shield Zion from whatever Henry had planned. There was nothing else I could do but protect my son until my last breath.
I heard a sharp intake of air, and the next second, a body dropped to the floor in a loud tug. I felt too terrified to even turn around for fear of what I would see, but the fear subsided when I heard.
“Zera!” My heart raced, but I turned around and found Aaron standing before me, his clothes torn and his flesh ripped open. His eyes glowed a light shade of red before they vanished, and their hazel colour returned. My eyes dropped to his hand, and I found it covered with blood and holding the heart of Henry in his hand. I gasped at the horrific sight before me, and my arms tightened around Zion. This had to be a nightmare, one I desperately needed to wake up from. But alas, it wasn’t; this was reality. Aaron had ripped Henry’s heart out of his chest as if it were nothing. He dropped the heart on Henry’s lifeless body and stumbled back from him, my hand holding Zion, trembling in fear of my reality.
“Zera!” he called again, seeing my reaction to his nearness.
I shook my head. “Please don’t come any closer,” I begged, my lips trembling.
He yanked the torn shirt off his body and wiped his blood-covered hand. “Listen to me,” he started, but I cut him off.
“Look what you did to my home. You turned my house into a graveyard.”
“We need to leave, Zera.”
“We are not going anywhere with you!”
“Then you both will die here, and over my dead body will I let that happen.”
He closed the space between us in a blink and grabbed hold of my hand. I struggled to free myself from his hold but failed miserably. “I’m sorry,” he said, and my mind went hazy the next second as my vision blurred up.