Woot! Chapter three is on! Okay, so this is where things really get going, the action is pumping in, and the ball is really rolling now. Can anyone say "cliffhanger"?
Everyone go check out RubyWater's "You Wanna Know What I Think?" Joker story here on ! Its an incredible story – and on my favorites list!
This chapter is dedicated to my made-of-awesome beta reader, the Kiyomi half of Banana Rum, who did indeed send chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, AND 11 back to me and agree to at least be 'Rorschach As The Propeht'. Coolio.
CHAPTER THREE [why hello there]
That night, even though I knew in my head that it'd just been Justin, my heart couldn't stop beating at an incredible pace. The adrenaline couldn't stop pumping. It was almost like my body was telling me that something else was coming, something else was going to happen, but I didn't know what.
I stashed the extra house key in a random drawer and then wandered aimlessly around the house for half an hour. Nail polish was unexpectedly distasteful to me after that and I was suddenly unsure of what I wanted to do. I turned on the TV again briefly without expecting to find much; the movie "V for Vendetta" was on TNT and it was currently in the scene when Natalie Portman is under a bed while someone gets a black bag shoved over their face right in front of her. I was so not in the mood for that.
At a total loss, I climbed into bed and shifted restlessly for the good part of an hour. This was one of those times when I missed Jack the most. On nights when I had a hard time sleeping I always curled over and around him, and let his breathing lull me into my dreams.
I could already tell that it would be one of those nights when no matter what I did I wouldn't be able to stop thinking about him. Couldn't stop yearning for his big, warm body. Couldn't stop wishing to hear his voice rumble in his chest as he tells me to go to sleep.
I remembered our first date, when we went to the carnival and Jack took me up on the Ferris Wheel even though he was afraid of heights. Our honeymoon to Niagara Falls when he got drenched by a wave and was sick for a week with the flu.
For hours I thought of all we'd done together – meeting the parents, first kiss, first apartment, first pregnancy scare. All the clichés. First viewing of "Beauty and the Beast" together, first mini-vacation in a ritzy hotel across town, first attempt at riding a two seater bicycle. All the not-so- clichés.
Of course, even as my mind sifted through the good times, it also found the bad times. Our marriage had once resembled a huge stone wall – strong and magnificent. But it had rapidly fell and was now crumbled and in ruins. The drinking and the cursing and the physical aggression stemming from that one single day.
The day Jack had gotten in too deep with the sharks. The day they cut up his back and neck in retaliation. The day he decided that the scars made him less of a man, even though no one could see them.
They'd all been factors in the deterioration of that "wall". When those aspects had increased to near unbearable levels, I forced myself to leave. And in doing so, I had created a hole in the wall. An unbridgeable rift that only the greatest of miracles could possibly close.
This Jack – this inebriated, dangerous, mercurial Jack – used my fall to close the gap between us further...
He stood suddenly stoic, like a marble statue, at the top of the stairs...
He, the way he had been, flashed before my eyes. His bright eyes, his wide, welcoming smile. But the longer the image lasted the more it warped. The eyes becoming black and empty, the hair greasy and rotting. My heart rate sped up as the image twisted and writhed.
I didn't want...I didn't want to see him like that. I didn't want to think about what he might be doing, what he might look like, what the drinking might have done...I couldn't...I couldn't...
I tried to shut my eyes to block out the image, squeezing them shut so tight that it hurt. But it wouldn't stop. The mouth wouldn't stop stretching into forever, the limbs would stop pulling and elongating. The hands wouldn't stop imitating claws.
I jerked up into a sitting position, my breathing rapid and unstable; it happened every time I ventured into that dark past. My left hand began to ache and unconsciously, my right hand traveled over to the left and grasped the ring finger, where the longing ache was centered. I buried both hands between my breasts to stop the pain, like it was a cut and I was trying to stem the blood flow by putting pressure on the wound.
I sat in silence for long moments, letting the darkness of my room sink into me. My brain tried desperately to think of other things. Happy things. Puppies, rainbows, chocolate, Johnny Depp...
A loud noise from the front of the house startled me out of my determined mantra. My head jerked up and my eyes jumped to the bedside clock. 3:27 AM. It was way too late for anyone to be paying a social call.
"Boss, what do you want-" someone called from the living room. He was cut off abruptly and a scuffle ensued. My hearing was so amplified that I could even hear the rustling of their clothing as the leader, presumably, gestured furiously.
In light of the situation, I was thinking that it was a good time to hide. My mind turned to the movie that had been on TV, and I slid out of bed as quietly as possible. As my feet hit the ground, inspiration struck. I drew on my obsessive compulsive tendencies and straightened out the bed covers, till they looked exactly as they had before I climbed in to go to sleep. I even plumbed the pillows as a final touch. The footsteps sounded louder than before now, and I managed to pull myself beneath the bed with a strangled gasp. I hadn't realized that they were so close. Or that it would be such a close call getting under there.
The door was kicked open with a bang and two pairs of boots stepped in. "This must be it. But she's not...here." one said to the other, rather lamely I couldn't help but think.
"Go get the boss." the other one said brusquely, sparking my memory and causing me to gasp lightly. The boots had been treading around the room, but when I did so, they halted and I clamped my hands over my mouth. My heart thundered in my throat and my stomach kept my feet company till he started moving again.
Meanwhile, my world was spinning. I knew that voice! It was Justin! But what was he doing here? Why was he doing this? And if he wasn't the boss, then who was?
I wasn't to wait long to find out. Three pairs of shoes entered the room, one of them a familiar pair from earlier, the second pair unfamiliar. But it was the third pair that caught my attention in particular. They were brown leather shoes, nothing too fancy, with red children's shoelaces. I don't know how I could tell, but the other shoes in the room (or rather, the owners of the shoes), were very deferential to that singular pair.
Red Shoelaces stalked about the room, inspecting various bits and pieces of it. I noticed that he stayed the longest in front of my bureau, which was arrayed with an assortment of mixed pictures from the last two years and also from my life before I'd met Jack. For a moment they stood right in front of me, inspecting the bed, and I was sure t hat I was going to be caught. "Hmmm..." they, a man, I gathered by the voice, murmured when he returned to the group at last.
"She doesn't seem to be home." The very first speaker said. This one seemed to have a knack for stating the obvious. They did, however, give me a few terrifying clues.
One, their search was very specific and thought out. Two, he implied that their main focus in breaking in was me. Three, they wanted me alive; they wanted me for something. Four, someone had to targeted me specifically for them to do this. My blood chilled.
"I'm aware of that." Another, puzzling voice. It was a raspy voice – that of an adult man – but with the same rhythms and mannerisms of a child.
Captain Obvious couldn't resist. "But her car is still outside."
"Again, I'm, uh, aware of that." Red Shoelaces stated, sounding quite annoyed.
"A friend probably picked her up." volunteered Justin, trying to act as the voice of reason.
"Maybe she's just hiding." Captain Obvious reasoned, making my heart stop. If my blood had been cold before, it was positively arctic now. If I could've I would've kicked him.
"Don't be silly idiot. This one isn't that smart."
Despite the stinging insult, my attention was caught by something else – a pair of shoes and socks that sat by the corner of the bed. Crap. Such a small detail wouldn't worry me usually, I mean, I wasn't a neat freak or anything. But I really didn't want them to wonder why I would go out without my shoes and socks on. That would really give me away.
Justin spoke again, this time taking the opportunity away from Captain Obvious and the other, so far silent, burglar. "What do you want us to do boss? I don't think it would be a good idea for us to come back tonight. Or even this week. She might get suspicious."
From the way he said this, Justin was apparently expecting a reprimand, violent or not, I wasn't sure. Although, expanding on the idea that these were rough criminals, I was betting it was a violent reply he was hoping to avoid. But the small noise he made at the back of his throat told me his surprise when he didn't receive one.
Red Shoelaces didn't say anything, just shifted again restlessly, something I gathered that he did often. He let out a sigh so soft that I was sure only my suddenly supersonic hearing could detect it. "Get out of here." He said, as I eyed my conspicuous shoes again.
For a moment I was struck by how different he sounded this time, like a normal adult person, and without the childish tendencies. Like he was sad and disappointed. Like my absence wounded him. Like he knew me and had been looking forward to seeing me again. My heart jumped at the sound as well, as if I knew a person, but my brain knew that was impossible.
I didn't know any thieves! Okay, so I knew Justin, but that was besides the point. I didn't know him well...
"But boss...what do you think? Later tonight or-" Captain Obvious had the misfortune to speak when he apparently shouldn't have.
There was a horrible sound, like a gasping fish on a butcher's table – a spurt of blood and heart slowing. A struggle in my very own bedroom. I squeezed my eyes shut and at the same time snaked my hand out to grab the shoes and socks while everyone was occupied with watching the ongoing murder, survival instincts all the way baby. I missed a sock in my lunge, but that couldn't matter too much. One lone sock was much less conspicuous than a whole set of shoes.
Besides, I couldn't bear the idea of reaching out my hand again. Of putting my living flesh so close to dead flesh – to a corpse. It sickened me to think about the stains on my floor, about the knowledge that would always haunt me when I entered this room. I would always think, 'A man died here.' I felt horribly nauseated.
A final thud signaled the end of the violence, and I knew that there was now an actual body on my floor. I was too cowardly to open my eyes though, and see the empty eyes glazing over, the mouth gaping open. And so I used my ears to monitor what was happening.
The sound of feet trooping back to the bedroom door gave me the signal to let my shoulders relax. I waited anxiously for the door to close again, and almost started to slide back out when the door swung open again at the very last second.
"Can't you do anything right?" Red Shoelaces asked angrily as he and one other came back in.
It was a new voice that replied, the silent partner from before. "I didn't mean to boss. I won't set anything down next time."
"Well hurry up. That little bitch might get home...any moment." I ignored the slight pause in his voice in lieu of praying for them to leave, taking it as a temporary loss of words. Or, as I liked to call it, a brain fart.
There was a bit of shuffling as the minion collected what he had accidentally left in my room and a good deal more as Red Shoelaces shoved his "employee" out the bedroom door. 'And none too gently.' I thought, as Silent guy hit the door frame with a 'thud'. I listened even more intently as I waited to hear the front door slam.
When it finally did I let out the biggest, most relieved sigh of my life and just relaxed for a good, long moment, resting my cheek against he cold, hard wood floor that had managed to keep me so grounded through that whole thing. To compliment that I let the blessed black behind my eyelids soothe me. I didn't hear anything else. I didn't see anything else. I didn't think of anything else. Until...
"Hello beautiful. And you are very beautiful."
Well hello there my beautiful reviewers (and those of you who read and should seriously become reviewers!). So that was chapter three of "Honey I'm Home", and I hope that you enjoyed it. I love sharing my stories with you folks and this just makes my life be even smoother.
Things are great for me right now – I'm registered at my first pick college for next year, I'm graduating, I've got good friends – when life is good, life is good. Although it could also be pointed out that when life is bad, life is bad. However, I do hope that life is good good for you too!
For the last chapter, I received the question, "Did she get rid of the baby?". My answer is: No, not exactly, or willingly, I should say. And that's all I'm allowed to tell you! He he.
Thank you to my wonderful reviewers: Jokerluv (so faithful, so sweet!), JokersChaosPrincess (glad you like it so much!), and Jilander-Napier. Thanks for your support!
As always, take a jaunt over to Youtube to watch my fanvid for this story at:(add at the beginning)
.com/watch?v=sgehwuE2bEk
The link is also on my profile!