Chapter 11: *CHAPTER 11*

"This is our guest room,” Jenna told me. With a pull of the hooked doorknob, she opened a door at the end of a long hallway. I’d followed her to the second story by way of a curved staircase just off the living room. The entire upstairs was just as clean and orderly as the downstairs had been.

I followed her floral-robed figure through the doorway. Cream-colored carpets and walls that comprised the space. It was a bedroom done up tastefully—a modern-looking bed with a black metal headboard leaned up against the far side of the room. A light-colored wooden dresser was against the left wall.

“We don't usually get many visitors, so all the sheets and blankets are clean for you. The bathroom is through here," she opened a door on the right, pulling out linens and towels as I watched, chewing my lip. "Let me get you some clothes you can change into." She patted my shoulder as she moved past me, and into the hallway.

With the shock slowly wearing off, my body was making known all of the scrapes and bruises I was sure to wake up with tomorrow. My back and shoulder were sore and I winced as I rubbed my hand against my neck. I glanced down at the pajama set I'd changed into after I'd gotten out of the shower and the hoodie I'd snagged on the way out of the house and grimaced.

I was covered in dirt from rolling around on the ground, my scrape with the concrete making a hole form in my shorts. I knew I smelled like smoke, my hair probably having dried in crazy waves down my back. I wasn't sure I wanted to know what was caked into the back of my hair.

The room was comfortable and looked neat and clean like the rest of the house. At least I knew I would be comfortable while I was staying here. Jenna came back into the room then, a pile of different colored fabrics in her arms, "I have a daughter a little older than you, she left some of her things here when she went off to college. They should fit you pretty well," she said, eyeing me with pursed lips, "though she's quite a bit taller than you are. I brought a couple of things you can go through and find what fits you best."

"Thank you," I said, meaning it as she laid the clothes on the comforter for me.

"I'm so sorry all of this is, Kassie," and to her credit, she did look truly regretful as she looked over me, a worried line between her eyebrows, "Is there anyone you need to call?"

I'd need to call into work tomorrow. And let Lauren know that I wasn't going to be there. I grimaced when I reached into my pockets fingers grazing empty fabric and realized I didn't have my phone with me.

"I'll probably need to borrow a phone tomorrow to let people know I'm okay.”

"Absolutely. And we're all just down the hallway if you need anything else." Jenna hesitated in the doorway on the way out of the room, as if she were about to say something, but instead gave a small sad smile and closed the door behind her on the way out.

Now that I was alone, I let myself collapse onto the edge of the bed. I was so so tired. And while my body was ready to collapse into sleep after the stress the day had put on it, my brain was so wired, I was certain that I wouldn't be able to sleep any time soon.

I looked over to the adjoining bathroom that Jenna had left open for me, knowing I should shower all of the dust and sweat off of me. I rubbed a tired hand over my face before making my way over to the mirror with creaky muscles, the dried scabs on my knees protesting the movement. Hopefully, the hot water would relax some of the restless energy coursing through my skin.

A passing glance in the mirror as I walked through the bathroom to turn on the shower had me cringing. As I'd suspected, my long brown hair had dried from my last shower around my face in dirty tangled clumps. Dirt and dust and a streak of dried blood splashed across my face like a macabre painting, lightly concealing the freckles that were typically visible across my nose. And the dark bluish-gray circles beneath my eyes stood out starkly, declaring to anyone in a ten-mile radius that I was absolutely spent.

As I turned on the hot water in the shower, a flash of black on my wrist caught my eye and I tensed. The Mark...what was it they'd called it? A Curse Mark? The thing Binding me to Malcolm. I eyed it a little more carefully now. It spanned my inner wrist with dots and swirling black lines.

The Markings stung a little bit, the surrounding skin sensitive as if I'd been sunburned. If not for this Mark, this irrefutable proof of what had happened to me tonight, I'd probably be questioning my sanity right about now. Wondering if I'd really seen what I'd seen.

Magic and curses and monsters.

With the water pouring from the shower now steaming up, fogging the mirror, I slowly peeled the clothes from my body. My body was stiff and protesting as I lifted them over my head. I considered just throwing my now torn and stained tank top and shorts straight into the small trash can in the corner but settled on setting them off to the side on the off chance they weren't as ruined as I thought they were.

The towels Jenna had left out were soft on my scraped skin. I breathed in the clean scent of laundry detergent as I dried myself off. Finally clean, I felt more like myself than I had most of the night. Wrapped in a towel, I rummaged through the clothes Jenna had left out on the bed before finally slipping on a pink t-shirt and shorts from among the stack. They were a little big for me like Jenna had guessed, but they were comfortable.

I made sure the bedroom door was locked before doing my nightly ritual of checking under the bed, and closet. Some things just didn't go away from living alone. I turned out the light and slipped under the cream-colored comforter.

In a new strange place, I thought I'd be tossing and turning in bed for a little while, but as soon as my head hit the pillow my eyes began to fog over, blurring and aching with fatigue as I stared into the dark room.

With a final wave of exhaustion, eyes drifting shut, I drifted off to the knowledge that tomorrow I'd figure all this out. The same as everything else, I'd get through this. One way or another.

Sleep didn't turn out to be the peaceful escape I'd been hoping for. The feeling of hot breath on my face woke me up in the morning and the feel of a brick on my chest. My eyes fluttered open, feeling more than a little groggy. And screamed.

Because I was looking into a pair of beastly red eyes.

I lay there frozen in shock, as the black fur of the massive creature on my chest cocked its head to the side before leaning down to sniff my cheek, its giant crooked teeth coming a hairsbreadth from my face. It was so heavy on top of me that I couldn't even squirm away.