Dream Haunter (9 page)

 
His lips leave a hot
trail on her neck. “No you don’t. You
love
you and me.”

Melody becomes over whelmed with rage;
the blood coursing through her veins fuels the burning fire in her
stomach. “This is all you wanted from me, isn't it?”

Adam works his way around to the front
of her face, his lips slowly making bitter contact with hers; she
feels nothing. She stares at the pile of clothing that was thrown
upon the floor last night, lifeless and empty.

Adam grabs her chin, bringing her face
to face with him. “What is it?” he asks, trying to sound as
sympathetic as possible.

Melody slides out from under
the black sheets, tears sliding down her cheek. “You didn't answer
my question so I guess this
is
all you wanted, right?”

He remains silent, his eyes roaming
around her, making her skin tingle and crawl. Melody shoves her
feet into her jeans, yanking her t-shirt over her head, refusing to
make eye contact with Adam as she stomps out of the room and to the
front door.

He runs after her, grabbing her wrist,
yanking on her arm. “You can’t leave.”

She pulls her hand away from him, her
fingers reaching out to grasp the silver door knob. “Yes, I
can.”

Adam’s fingers dig into her shoulders
as he pulls her back, spinning her around to face him. He raises
his fist, his eyes the same cold stone color they had been that one
night not so long ago, but tonight there’s a crack in the stone,
something within him trying to hold him back. He shakes his head,
clenching his jaw before sending his fist smashing into her jaw.
Melody’s feet slip on the tiles, almost crashing to the floor
before Adam grabs a fist full of hair, pulling her across floor and
over to the glass case, throwing her in it.

“
Feel free to watch Sam,”
Adam sneers.

The door of the glass case makes a
horrible screeching sound as he slams it shut. Her mind floats
easily off to the subject of Sam.

……………………………………………

Sam sits over his bible in his bedroom,
resting his head in his hands as his shoulders shake. Melody’s arms
ach to hold him close and tell him how very sorry she is and that
he should find someone else that could love him the way that he
needs to be loved, with the respect he disserves.

Sam’s head jerks up as he jumps from
his bed, walking to the front door.

Melody stands up in the glass case;
something wrong is going to happen.

“
No. Sam!” she screams, even
though she knows he can’t hear her.

 
Adam pushes his way
into Sam’s flat, wringing his hands around Sam’s neck.

“
SAM!” Melody’s voice
screeches as her heart picks up pace.

 
Adam throws Sam up
against the wall, yelling something at him that she can’t
hear.

Melody prays aloud, crying,
“Dear God, please,
please
! Don’t let Adam do anything to
Sam! PLEASE! I love Sam!  I do. Please!”

She paces into the glass
floor, her fists tremble at her side.
“Adam
keeps taking stuff from Sam and me. I do
not
love Adam. I love Sam. I just hope
that he can forgive me,”
She thinks to
herself.

 
Melody stares at the
glass incasing her, becoming more and more enraged with the fact
someone is trying to injure Sam. Tears burn down her cheeks as she
rams her side into the glass, barely scratching it. Her voice
shakes as she screams and prays all in the same breath while she
runs into the glass again; this time it shatters into a million
broken pieces across the tiled floor. Melody’s adrenalin pumps as
she lifts herself from the pile of glass, her feet and arms bleed
as she bounces on her toes, reaching out for the door handles,
pulling it open. A gust of wind, cold and hard, whips around her,
tugging at her soul as it takes her back to Sam.

Once her feet come back into view she
recognizes the warm carpeting of Sam’s living room, her muscles
relax just the slightest. Someone is shouting down the hall,
breaking her relaxation. She runs through his apartment, pushing
each door open as she runs past them, yelling for Sam. Her feet
skid to a halt in front of the bathroom door, listening to the
shouting voices on the other side.

“
I didn't mean to!” Adam
shouts.

“
Why did you take her from
me? You didn't need to bring her into this! Just because you lost
someone you loved doesn’t mean you have to take someone I love to
even the score,” Sam cries.

“
Yes I do!”
*thud*

Melody counts out three thuds before
pushing the bathroom door open. The two young men are throwing wild
punches at each other, ignoring her presence. Adam pins Sam to the
floor, his fist rising and falling as he pounds it against Sam’s
jaw. Melody grabs a dark green hair brush from the counter, a few
of Sam’s shaggy hairs are tangled around the teeth and fall out of
the brush as she smashes it across the back of Adam’s head. His
hand goes to his head, nursing the throbbing pain, as Sam pushes
himself from the floor, grabbing Melody’s arm as he runs out of the
apartment.

His feet pound down the cement stairs
to the parking garage, pulling Melody along behind him. Sam riffles
through the left pocket of his jeans for his keys as the run up to
the side of his car. He jiggles the key into the lock; it makes a
popping sound right before he and Melody jump in. He locks the
doors as Melody slides into the seat.

Sam stares across the dashboard at the
grey concrete slab in front of them, refusing to look at Melody;
his knuckles go white as he squeezes the steering wheel. He refuses
to look at Melody, making her wonder if Adam told him about last
night. Sam takes a deep breath and turns the key in the ignition,
the car makes a few coughing noises before starting. Melody stares
out the passenger window, watching the street names “Times street”
and “Rose road” fly by them. Sam pulls the station wagon into the
parking lot of a rundown park; its swing set and jungle gym are
rusting under the wet piles of red and yellow leaves.

“
This is where it happened,”
Sam says as he kills the engine, staring down the slope of a hill
that sits in front of us.

Melody notices a few patches of grass
that have managed to break free of the multicolored blanket of
fall, along with a rusted bench that sits between the leafless oak
trees. She rests her head against the window, cold under her cheek,
moving her eyes just enough to look at him.

“
Where what happened?” she
asks, though she isn’t fully paying attention.

Sam runs a hand across his face, his
eyes not wanting to look at Melody just yet, but she’s the only one
that he can tell. “Where Jet and I stopped being friends… well I
guess you call him Adam now. This is where he almost killed me,” he
forces his eyes to flick over to Melody, her body curled against
the window only a few feet away from him, though it feels like she
is just a small speck in the distance. “I had just told him that I
was there the day his mom died; I was what she ran into. I was
fine, just a few scrapes and bruises. I didn't kill her, she had a
bad heart and the impact killed her. I told him about it right
there,” he points over at the small pergola, “and that’s when he
first tried to kill me.”

Melody looks at him as if the words he
is saying are in some other langue. “Sam, what are you talking
about?”

He takes in a quivering breath as he
pulls the neck of his white t-shirt down far enough to show the
silver scars. They stretch down the side of his neck, like someone
had drug needles down his skin. Melody has seen them before, but
she hasn’t had the nerve to ask where he got them.

Sam laughs, fixing his
collar. “We
were
best friends. I didn't even remember the fight until a couple
days ago,” he licks his lips, making strenuous eye contact with
her, “That’s when I realized that he was using you to get back at
me.”

Melody sits foreword, sprawling her
fingers across the dashboard. “I… I don’t know what to
say…”

Sam nods, looking down at his lap. “He
told me about last night. I didn't know if he was just trying to
piss me off or if it really did happen last night. Did
it?”

Melody squeezes her eyes shut, trying
to keep the tears in as she nods.

Sam looks out the window to his left,
trying to let it sink in. “And you didn’t say no?” he asks, his
voice shaking.

 
Her lips quiver as she
nods again. A tear, hot and full of heartbreak, rolls down Sam’s
cheek; he knows he should be furious, he knows he should be
throwing in the towel and walking away with his dignity, but he
can’t. He knows this isn’t like her, and that she is just as scared
and confused as he is.

Melody reaches out a hand to comfort
him but slowly brings it back, knowing that he doesn’t want to be
touched by her ever again. Her fingers fumble for the small metal
knob that shows that the door is locked, clawing at it to unlock
the door. She lets out a frustrated grunt and shakes the door,
crying.

Sam’s hand grabs her arm, pulling her
into a trembling hug. His heart pounds rapidly against his chest as
he kisses her forehead. Melody lays her head on his chest, which
rises and falls rapidly under her.

“
I still love you,” Sam
whispers.

The words pierce through Melody like a
knife, cutting her open until she is bleeding out everything that
Jet has ever done to her; completely removing him from her
DNA.

She sits up, cupping Sam’s face in her
hands and kissing him, with pure love, not infatuation.

His cheeks become soaked
with tears; Melody’s fingers shake as they brush his hair away from
his forehead. “I
love
you, Sam. I never want to leave you again. I can’t even begin
to say how sorry I am and… I love you… love you…” Melody whispers
before pressing her lips against his; she can feel his smile slowly
spreading across his mouth.

Chapter
Seventeen

A long, black shadow is cast over the
two of them. Sam looks up to see Jet leaning against the car
window, a metal bat swinging in his right hand. Sam grips Melody,
pressing her face into his shirt as he turns the key in the
ignition. The car thankfully starts on the first try, with the gas
pedal to the floor board it jerks to thirty mile per hour, and then
stops. Sam turns the engine over, making a sad clicking noise, but
doesn’t start.

“
No gas,” Sam says, his tone
apologetic.

He runs his fingers through his hair,
grabbing a fistful and giving it a quick tug as he looks in the
rearview mirror, Jet is fast approaching, base ball bat
ready.

“
Run,” he says, pushing
Melody towards the door.

Melody looks at him like he’s gone
crazy, digging her nails into his soft cotton shirt. “No!” she
cries.

 
He pushes her away
from him, his body already aching from the slight distance. “He
just wants his revenge on me. Go, I don’t want you to get any more
involved in this then Jet has already put you in.”

He kisses her upper lip before reaching
over and opening the passenger door for her. “Please,” he begs,
“Go.”

Soon as her feet hit the mulched grass
she breaks out into a run, away from Jet, away from Sam, while Sam
slowly climbs out of the car, casually walking to Jet.

He stops a few yards away from him.
“Why did you bring her into this, Jet?” Sam shouts.

 
Jet makes his way over
to Sam, panting as he leans over his knees. “Don’t call me that.
I’m Adam. And I didn't try to, I loved her before I even knew that
she was yours,” Jet
pants.                          

“
But when you found out
about us….”  Sam says, his fists at his side.

 
Adam smirks. “That was
just the icing on the cake. I got a girl
and
revenge, all in one
swoop.”

 
Memories of he and
Jet, the real Jet, fill Sam’s mind; all the times they had snuck
out for a concert their parents didn't approve of, playing guitar
together. Sam pushes them away, coming back to the current conflict
they are having, who Jet really is: Adam.

“
Would you die for her?” Sam
asks.

 
Adam’s eyebrow rises
in an arch. “What? Um…well…”

Sam clinches his fist, his
nails digging into his palm. “Would you
die
for her?” he demands.

 
A branch snaps under
someone’s foot by the car, drawing Adam and Sam’s attention away
from each other. Adam stomps over to where Melody is crouched
beside Sam’s car, grabbing her by the crook of her arm and dragging
her to where Sam stands. Sam thinks through a plan, trying to
figure out how to get Adam to stop touching her.

Adam pulls out his
pocketknife and puts it to her neck. “Would
you
die for her, Sam?” he
asks.

Sam’s eyes stare at the way the little
light shining through the clouds bounce off of the sharp, wooden
handled, knife and onto the skin of Melody’s neck.