A lot shorter than the first one but tired and just had to get it down. Please r and r!
He jerked round to face her, but from the wild look in his eyes, she doubted he had even heard her. "Janet," He kept repeating, "Janet,"
The hours trickled past, moving it seemed to Kaye more slowly than they ever had before. It was as if they were dragging their feet, looking down at them and snickering at their discomfort. Corny sat in the chair, alternately laughing and crying to himself as he had done since the news. Which was, Kaye checked the clock, three hours ago? She looked once in Corny's direction; decided he was to out of it to mind and picked up his phone, slowly coiling the bright red wire round her fingers. On the fourth ring, her mum picked up.
"Hey,"
"Kaye, where are you?"
"At Corny's, he's had a bit of a shock."
"I'll bet, all over the news it was today. Modern day body snatchers, who would have thought?"
"Hmm, yeah, astounding. Anyway just calling to let you know I'm staying here tonight."
"Right. Oh, your boyfriend called round earlier, he seemed a bit wound up, have you two fallen out?" Her heart leaped at the mention of Roiben.
"No. What did you tell him?"
"Just where you were, he was really jumpy though."
"Ok, fine. Bye mum."
"Bye sweetheart."
Kaye hung up and leant back against Corny's bed, feeling nauseous at just the thought of all the iron around her. She cradled her thumping head in her hands, wondering why, when and how everything had turned this shitty.
Outside, across from the trailer park, two baleful eyes regarded the silent trailer. They watched as Kaye opened the window and leaned out, looking really sick, and then they melted away. Kaye turned at the sound of a car pulling up, waiting to see if it was Luis, hoping somehow against all reason it was Roiben. Her surprise when both rounded the corner knew no bounds. She shut the window and dashed to the door, trying to rouse Corny on the way without success. She pulled the door open before Luis even had the chance to knock and practically fell off the step to hug him. Roiben stood to one side, looking a little put out.
"I haven't seen you for ages!"
He smiled grimly, and hugged her back. "It's good to see you too. How is he?" She sighed and shook her head, pointing through the door to Corny's room, where his slumped figure could be glimpsed still in the chair.
He went through and Kaye turned to Roiben. He sniffed before declaring, "You stink of iron,"
"I know," She steeped towards him and held her arms out. He ignored the gesture and instead reached for her face, pulling her into a breathless, desperate kiss. It was over very quickly, Kaye thought ruefully. He put his arm protectively over her shoulders, before casting a wary glance around them. This and his obvious fear of something kept her on edge, so much so that when they were all sat on the floor in Corny's room, she did not even smile at the absurd sight of a king perched on Corny's unmade bed. Luis was sat on the floor next to Corny, holding his hand and stroking it comfortingly every so often.
"Well it's pretty obvious that you two know something we don't," Kaye began, "So if you could just fill us in, that would be great."
"We don't really know much more than you do," Luis spoke softly, "I for one only know that all over the country bodies are going missing. The police are putting it down to gang work, but I went up to New York investigate." Corny's head snapped up.
"You told me you went to help a family cursed by a troll!" He accused, "Why did you lie to me?"
Luis sighed, "Because then you would want to come with me, and I wanted to go alone. I just needed a little space to think about my brother, and we were born near to where I went. I'm just glad I had him cremated, or they would have got his body as well," He shuddered, and so missed the look of pure loathing Corny sent him. He pulled his hand free and shuffled away slightly, small movements that if Luis noticed, he didn't remark upon.
"So, did you find anything out?" Kaye prompted.
"No, but I ran into Roiben on the way back so obviously we were looking for the same thing. Then I heard the news and asked him to travel back with me, which he agreed to." Something struck Kaye as odd.
"So why did you ring us to tell us to stay inside?"She queried. Luis slid a quick glance towards Roiben that spoke volumes. Kaye stood, suddenly angry, "You're not telling me," A gesture towards Corny, "Us, you're not telling us something."
Roiben stood also, his face set and unmoving and said in a voice that chilled her through to the core, "You cannot be expected to understand, it is beyond you," Her fury at those words, at him treating her so rose up in her and she turned her back on him and stalked out to the small kitchen area. She heard movement behind her and was ready to lash out at who ever before she felt his strong arms encircling her waist and his lips brushing her ear.
"I'm sorry," She knew she could pull away but it was so comforting, so safe in his arms. He whispered again, "I'm so sorry, I treat you like a child when I shouldn't. I forget Janet was your friend."
"Is still," She mumbled back, but losing her anger and hate towards him.
She could never hate him, because that was to hate part of herself.