CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

"Boys, I'm leaving. Come give me a hug goodbye."

Carey turned away from the door as she heard the sound of rapid footsteps heading her way from the living room. She smiled as her six-year-old twin boys hurried over to her. Cody reached her first, throwing his arms around her waist, Zack right behind him.

"Mommy, do you have to leave?" Cody asked, tilting his head back and resting his chin on her stomach. "Stay here. You said you were going to play crazy eights with us."

"I know, sweetie, but I got a really great job offer to sing at a prestigious event and I couldn't turn it down." Carey kneeled down and held her sons' hands. Her heart hurt as she watched Cody pout and turn his gaze towards the ground. Zack, on the other hand, continued to stand beside her, gently holding onto her coat but staying silent. "This is a cocktail party for one of the richest people in the city and they want me to sing there. This will give us enough money to get you guys those new bikes you've been asking for."

"But do we have to stay here?" Zack finally asked, lifting his gaze towards her. He looked around the foyer before letting out a light sigh. "I don't like it at Grandma's."

Carey smiled a little, doing her best not to roll her eyes as at what was her son's normal complaint. "I know she has a tendency to lose track of her teeth but—"

"No!" Zack's eyes widened in earnest. "Her house is scary. There's always someone watching me. In our room." Carey then let out a short sigh, tired of the same complaint Zack had for nearly the entire last year. "There's something there, Mom. I've seen it. It's scary."

"Zack, there is no shadow monster in your room. There are no such things as shadow monsters. It's just your imagination getting the best of you. And you like to watch scary movies all the time even though I keep telling you not to." She gently grabbed onto Zack's arms and pressed her forehead against his, causing him to smile a little. "I promise, if there were, I would go in and send that monster away because no one will hurt my kids. Okay?" She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek before doing the same to Cody. "And besides, while I'm gone, Cody will protect you."

"Cody can't protect me," Zack protested. "He needs his blankie to protect him. I don't need a blankie." Carey started to stand up and Zack reached out to her hand. "Mommy!"

A light sigh escaped the young woman's lips as she ran a hand through her shoulder length hair. Clearly her work, her constant moving the boys around was hurting them more than helping but until they managed to find a place where she could have a permanent job, they didn't have a choice. There was never an opportunity to stick around in one place for more than a few months before they managed to land back in Seattle with her mother who begged Carey to move there. That was also an option but then she would be throwing in the towel, giving into what she had wanted to avoid throughout her life. Wanting to show her sister she was able to take care of herself and wasn't someone who had to rely on the handouts people would give her. While she knew it was an option, finding her own place to live with her boys was the ultimate goal.

"If I don't go to work, baby, then we won't have any money."

"I don't need a bike."

"But I want you to have one." Carey looked up as her mother stood in the doorway behind her sons and gave her a sympathetic glance. Carey gave a light nod in response before kneeling down once more. "I have to go or I'll be late. I promise I'll bring something back for you guys. Now give me a hug." She opened her arms and Zack and Cody walked into her, giving her a tight hug. Carey stood up, hugging them tightly as she rocked back and forth. "Love you."

"Love you," Zack and Cody replied.

Carey turned towards her mother as she walked towards her and handed the boys over to her. "So, boys, what do you say we have a big bowl of ice cream, huh?" Grandma Shelley said as she hugged the boys to her chest, doing her best to distract them from Carey's departure. "That would be delicious, wouldn't it?"

"But aren't we supposed to have dinner first?" Cody asked, his attention immediately turned to his mother. Zack, on the other hand, immediately brightened at the mention of dessert, both missing their mother quietly slide out the front door of the house.

"Can I have chocolate?" Zack asked, leaning up into his Grandmother's face. "And pecans. Grandpa Jim like pecans. I want pecans like Grandpa Jim, Grandma." He kicked his legs back and forth, signaling Grandma Shelley to put the twin boys down. They immediately raced through the living room and to the kitchen, where Grandpa Jim was reading a crossword puzzle. "Grandpa Jim, you like pecans on your ice cream right?"

"Shouldn't we have ice cream after dinner, Grandpa Jim?" Cody asked, climbing up onto his lap. He stuck his tongue out at his brother as Zack frowned, leaning against Grandpa Jim's leg. "Mommy wouldn't like this."

"Cody, if there's one thing I can tell you that your mother won't, she loves ice cream more than the next person and will take the chance to eat it when she gets it," Grandpa Jim said. He leaned to the side and winced, pulling Zack onto this lap as well. "And, she likes pecans on her ice cream, too, it's your Grandma that doesn't." He leaned close to the boys and spoke in a stage whisper. "Personally, I think something's wrong with her."

"I heard that, Jim," Grandma Shelley called from the counter. "And if we're going to talk about people being weird, let's not talk about your obsession with finishing the crossword puzzle before you go to bed. Which you never do."

"I sometimes do!"

"You always fall asleep in front of the TV with it lying on your chest. Then you wake up and get mad that you didn't finish it, drag your old butt to bed complaining, and do it all over again the next day."

"Ah, forget you."

"Forget you, too."

Zack and Cody giggled at their grandparents' antics as Grandma Shelley finished dishing out the bowls of ice cream and passed them out around the table before joining them. Zack eagerly grabbed the bottle of chocolate syrup and spread it over the top of his ice cream, globs of it spilling down the sides of the bowl and onto the table top before handing it over to Cody, who seemed to take Grandpa Jim's words as an okay, and messily spread it across his as well.

Kicking his legs back and forth, Cody scooped gooey spoonfuls of the creamy dessert into his mouth, being as neat as possible, but still spilling on himself as he did so. He continued to eat happily, only stopping when he heard a sudden intake of breath. Confused, he lifted his head and watched as his twin brother's face turned red before he belt out a bloodcurdling scream and raced out of the kitchen. Startled, Cody knocked his bowl of ice cream over before jumping down from his seat. He hurried to the living room and leapt onto the couch, grabbing blankie. As he did so, he turned and watched as Grandma Shelley and Grandpa Jim hurried after Zack.

He started to move off of the couch to go help his brother, whose screams and wails wafted down from upstairs, but stopped when he spotted something dark shoot across his field of vision. Frozen with fear, Cody held onto his blankie as he looked around the living room. The shadow darted across his field of vision once more before sticking to one point in the wall. And as Cody watched, the dark shadow on the wall formed the shape of a hand and slowly started to reach out towards him. It stretched and stretched as Cody's fear continued to hold him down. All of a sudden, there was a bright flash of blue light and the hand shot back through the wall.

Finding that he was able to move again, Cody balled his blanket up in his hands, threw it over his head, and screamed.