Hopefully, now that I have taken a bit of a break from writing, I can come back and finish what I started. The pace SHOULD start to pick up from now on. And things are about to get complicated. Gotta' admit, this story started as a way for me to work out some stress and old regrets, and it has taken on a life of its own.
We rolled into the driveway at nearly three in the morning. Griffin's aunt's house was HUGE. And OLD.
"You sure about this? Like, we're not gonna' get eaten by vampires, are we?" Sam asked loudly as we piled out of the car.
"Sam, shush… it is the middle of the night. People are trying to sleep." Carly admonished the blonde demon. I circled around to the back of the car, retrieving our bags from the trunk. Sam turned away from Carly and walked backwards up towards to house, looking at me. Her eyebrow raised in confusion, then dropped back down, her face taking on its normal snarl.
"Ah, Jeeves. It is SO hard to find good help these days." She stated in a mock British accent. I was tempted to drop her bag where I stood, but that would have meant dropping the others' bags as well as my own, and frankly I just wanted to get inside and pass out on the nearest horizontal surface before I fell asleep standing up.
When we ascended steps up the front porch a few seconds behind Griffin and Carly, I did set the bags down. Griffin was absorbed in a piece of tattered paper stuck to the screen door.
"Okay, so apparently, there has been a slight change of plans…" He turned to Sam and I after tearing down the note. "My aunt had to leave…"
"Everything okay?" I asked, taking the note from him. I quickly scanned it. She had to leave on "business"… In quotation marks…
"That's… informative." I stuttered.
"Yeah, that's just how she is…. Vague as hell. It says here she'll call if she heads back this way, and that we are welcome to stay as long as we want." Griffin spun on one heel and reached up above the door to the enclosure around the porch light. It swung down on one side, dropping an army of dead spiders and bugs on us. Well, on Sam and me anyway. Carly was still up by the door.
"Dude, not cool." Sam growled, advancing on the boy. In answer, he dangled a small, shiny object in front of her.
"Spare key, man. She's kept it there for years."
"Apparently…" I deadpanned, attempting, and failing, to rid myself of all the insect carcasses and cobwebs that had collected on my head and shoulders.
We followed Griffin and Carly into the house. There was another note, this one detailing the sleeping arrangements that had been made. According to the note, blankets had been set out so that Griffin and I could sleep on the couches in the den, and Sam and Carly would be sharing the King size in the guest room. I started towards the back of the house where the den was located.
"Hey, there. Where do you think you are going?" Carly grabbed my arm.
"To bed…." I answered, exhausted.
"Not so fast…. I think this is a wonderful opportunity….." I caught a twinkle in Carly's eye that I usually only see in Sam's, and that is only when something is about to happen that will end up being very painful for me. Sam apparently caught the same thing I did.
"Oh, no…. there is NO WAY I am sleeping anywhere near the nub. He might rape me in my sleep or something."
I dropped the bags in the middle of the floor and advanced on her. "One, I would never stoop so low, and two, you should be so lucky. God knows what diseases you've picked up." She did what I really should have seen as the only thing she could do, and slapped me. "Wow, must have hit a nerve. Usually, you'd punch me in the stomach or…." I spoke far too soon, as her knee came up to meet my crotch. As I hit the floor, I heard Carly yell "SAM!"
