**I do not own the rights to The Covenant, I only own those to my own characters**
After about an hour of dinner, Grammie took her guests into the parlor and began to discretely talk to them without me listening in or adding my two cents. Excusing myself, I decided to head outside and explore the house's grounds. I grabbed my phone from the guest room upstairs before heading back downstairs to grab my coat before heading out the front door. Being as it was already dark, I used my phone's flashlight in order to safely walk the house's grounds. Since I'd spent some time at the old house in years past, I allowed my feet to almost robotically lead me to my favorite oak tree in the backyard. When I was younger, I used to get away from the house in the summer and lay beneath the cover its branches and leaves provided. It wasn't until later that I added a wooden swing to one of this thick branches. After some time walking across the house's large grounds, I finally came upon my tree. Locating the swing, I sat upon the old wooden seat and held onto the dark prickly rope that connected it to the tree. As I twisted myself in the swing from side to side, I unlocked my phone and checked to see if I had any messages from Tana. Sure enough, I had about four unanswered text messages from her.
Text message received at 6:02pm
Hey! Sorry that I didn't reply right away, I was at swim practice then had dinner with some of the girls from the team. Listen, I can come get you, but it probably won't be until about 9. Tyler wants me to hang out with him at Nicky's. Do you mind hanging out with him as well?
Text message received at 6:35pm
Hey its been a good half hour, and I still haven't heard back from you! So what's the plan Stan?
Text message received at 6:50pm
Helllloooo! Are you alive?! Do I need to send Bev over to make sure that Shirley hasn't killed you yet?!
Text message received at 7:05pm
Bitch if you don't answer my text messages soon, I'm just going have to show up at Shirley's doorstep to make sure that that woman hasn't killed you in the short hour plus that I haven't heard from you! Just answer me please...Also it gives me a chance to make plans for tonight and get ready.
Deciding that I better text her back before she sends poor Beverly over to see if my grandmother has, indeed, killed me, I decided to send her a short message.
Sorry that I haven't texted you back, but I was forced to attend a dinner tonight for the last hour or so, so I haven't been able to answer my phone. 9 is fine, and I'm sure Shirley will be passed out by then anyways! She's been drinking quite a bit tonight...I think I saw her put down about 3 Long Island Ice Teas! I'm sure she'll be feeling it in the morning, or perhaps not. Oh and be sure to park a little down from the house and turn your head lights off, just in case Shirley doesn't get to bed as soon as anticipated. I'll be sneaking out my window and scaling the wall over to the balcony in the next guest room over before scaling down from there and dropping to the ground. Don't worry, I'll just use my sheets to climb back into the house later tonight.
Ending the text message, I quickly sent it off to Tana and silently prayed that she would get back to me.
Text message received at 7:15pm
FINALLY! Its about damn time that you got back to me! Alright, well it sounds like a plan for tonight...although, I am a little concerned for your safety when it comes to that Assassin's Creed type shit that you're going to be pulling tonight. Just please, don't kill yourself in your attempt to sneak out! I'll see you right at 9 bitch! Xoxo
P.S-Tell Shirley she's a wild woman for how many drinks she had tonight in such a short amount of time! ;)
Chuckling to myself, I locked my phone and got up from the swing and started heading back to the house. By now, I'm sure the guests were probably gone, or at least I hoped.
Walking back into the house from the front entrance of the house, I quickly noticed that the cars were still in the driveway, so most likely Grammie wasn't done discussing things with her guests. Taking off my coat, I hung it up and began climbing up the stairs. Seeing that it was only 7:25pm, I decided to pass the time by heading to the family library for a little while and do some research.
Opening up the double doors to the library and closing them behind me, I flicked the switch to my right and illuminated the room. Starting on the shelves off to my right, my fingers grazed the old bindings of the books as I looked for books that could have been journals or perhaps old books about the families. After a while, I just started picking books off the shelves and looking inside them to see if it was anything that I was looking for. Most of the books that I picked up were old medical journals that I really had no intention or need of reading. It wasn't until I was getting closer to the end of the room that I noticed, thanks to the natural illumination created by the moon, a part of the shelf that was hiding something. Pulling out the book, I discovered an old brass key hanging on a hook. Gingerly grasping it from and pulling it from its hiding place, I carefully looked at the brass skeleton key that was simple in nature. It was long and had a celtic knot that adorned the top of the key. Looking around the room, I tried to look for any place that might use the key. After scouring the room from top to bottom, I still couldn't find anything that looked like it would use this key to unlock it.
"Well this is unfortunate.," I said to myself sarcastically.
Deciding to place the key back in its rightful place, I vowed that I would find out what hidden item it would unlock. Glancing at the screen on my iPhone, I quickly realized that I had wasted about half an hour in the library just looking for a the thing the key would unlock. Begrudgingly, I made my way over to the double doors and quickly flicked the light switch before quietly opening and shutting the doors behind me. As I turned myself around from the doors, I was given quite the fright at seeing Grammie standing right behind me with a glass of water in one hand and two capsules of extra strength tylenol.
Placing a hand over my heart, I said, "Grammie! You gave me quite a fright! I didn't hear you come upstairs."
Raising her eyebrow at me, she said, "And just what were you doing in the library?"
"I was reading. I do read, you know. I needed to find some way to pass the time with you in a private meeting with those two goons from tonight.," I said rolling my eyes.
Quickly tossing back her tylenol and taking a generous gulp from her glass of water, Grammie narrowed her eyes at me and said, "The guests only left a few minutes ago. And those goons as you refer to them are of very good standing in the Council, so you will do well in my presence and in the presence of others to refrain from using such disrespectful terms."
"Whatever, Grammie.," I said allowing my rebellious streak to show even more than usual.
Grabbing my chin, Grammie made me look her in the eyes and say, "Catalena. I know that they really upset you tonight, well Stanley did more than Vera, but that's besides the point. You need to learn to hold your tongue. What you pulled tonight was an embarrassment to me as your grandmother. I had to spend the last hour convincing them to even give our family a chance at lifting this curse, especially after the spectacle that you gave them tonight at dinner. Even if I am proud of you for using that pitchfork of a tongue that you have, you still need to know that I'm upset with you for riling up our guests and making them rethink this appeal."
"I'm sorry Grammie for embarrassing you, but I'm not taking back what I said. They deserved the lashing that they got from me.," I said looking my grandmother straight in the eyes when I said this.
Seeming to accept my apology and answer, Grammie patted her white hair that was beginning to loosen from its once tight bun with her age spotted fingers and said, "Well alright then. Off to bed you go. I need to be off to bed myself. I think I over did it on the drinks tonight."
Allowing a genuine smile to break the cold exterior I was putting out earlier, I chuckled to myself and said, "Yeah, goodnight Grammie."
Shuffling down the dimly lit hallway to the opposite side of the large house, the house seemed to envelope the elderly figure of my Grammie as she made her way to her bedroom.
Turning in the opposite direction, I headed toward my room and realized that I needed to quickly pick out what I wanted to wear tonight.
The only bad thing about having dyed my hair bright pink was the fact that it was hell organizing my wardrobe around, and I was quite limited in what I could wear.
"Well shit. Do I want wear something practical, casual, or semi-dressy?," I said out loud as I looked at the six outfits that I had packed for my two day stay at the manor.
Well, lets just settle this by texting Tana., I silently thought to myself as I looked at my options.
Tana, major 911 fashion emergency. What are you wearing tonight?
Sending off the text, I busied myself with other things like taking off the fishnet veil that hid my face and taking off my six inch heels.
Hearing my phone buzz, I quickly unlocked my phone and viewed the text.
Text received at 8:20pm
Just wear something cute and casual. Its a bar, remember?
Seeing her short and sarcastic reply, I quickly typed a message back to her and sent it off.
Thanks for all your help, bitch. You've really helped me in making my decision.
Tossing my phone onto the bed, I stood over my outfit choices and tried to decide on an outfit. Cautiously biting my lip as I weighed my options, I finally decided on my blue Juicy Couture razor back tank, white crop Hollister Co. jeans, and pink Nike sneakers.
As I unzipped myself from my evening dress and pilled the lace top over my head, I couldn't help but think to myself that at least with this outfit I didn't have to worry about killing myself in heels trying to scale the house.
It didn't take me long to put on the outfit and retouch hair and make-up, so I ended up laying back on the guest bed waiting for that text from Tana saying that she was here.
Glancing at the clock on my iPhone about every five minutes impatiently, I silently prayed that Tana would get here soon.
That bitch better not be late, or so help me, I'm going to..., my train of thought was quickly cut off by the buzz coming from my phone, signaling that I had a new text message.
Text message received at 8:59pm
We're here, so get your cute butt out here! Oh and please don't break your neck when you try your Mission Impossible type sneak out shit!
Rolling my eyes at her text message, I grabbed my favorite small crossbody bag and stuff my phone inside it before slinging it across my body. Shutting off the guest room light, I walked over to the window and unlatched the locks and pushed it open. Climbing out onto the thin ledge, I steadied myself before reaching a hand out to the drain pipe on the side of the house.
"Whew, well so far so good.," I said out loud to myself as I shifted myself over to hang completely onto the drain pipe.
"HEY! QUEENIE! NEED A HAND!?," yelled a voice from below me, completely startling me and making me loose my hold and concentration as I hung onto the drain pipe.
Yelping from being startled, my body's natural reaction was to jump seven feet in the air, which only made me let go of the drain pipe. Feeling myself fall, the only thing that I could think was, Oh, shit this is going to bruise.
Lucky for me, I didn't even get a chance for my body to connect with the unforgiving ground. Or perhaps I wasn't so lucky.
Realizing that I wasn't laying stiffly on the cold grassy round, I quickly realized that someone had caught me.
"Well jeeze, Queenie. Had I known you wanted to be in my arms so bad, I wouldn't just offered to catch you sooner.," said a very cocky Reid.
Shoving and jumping out of Reid's arms, I couldn't help myself from yelling, "REID! You asshole! I was doing perfectly fine getting down from my room before you had to come along and fucking scare the living shit out of me! What in God's name are you doing here anyways?"
"Well my method of getting you down was faster Queenie, so you should be thanking me. And I was invited I'll have you know.," said Reid with a knowing smirk. That boy just really knows how to push my buttons.
Narrowing my eyes at him, I whispered to myself, "Fucking Tana."
"What was that Queenie?," asked Reid as he knitted his eyebrows together.
"Lets go.," I said walking past him.
Quickly catching up to me, Reid casually threw his arm across my shoulders playfully, but I quickly shrugged it off and said, "Don't even think about touching me, Garwin. You're on thin ice as it is, so don't push your limits."
"Touchy, touchy. What's got your panties in a twist?," asked Reid from next to me.
Stopping dead in my tracks as Reid continued to walk a few more steps, I really had to rein my emotions in because I was on the brink of exploding from the amount of buttons Reid was pushing.
Taking deep breaths to control my anger from lashing out, I closed my eyes and willed myself not to try and kill him. Please God, don't make me ruin my night by killing someone when the evening has just begun., I quietly thought to myself before I once again began walking in he direction of Tyler's Hummer? Damn Tana., I thought to myself, since I was still pissed off and riled up by the situation she was subjecting me to. Walking up to the Hummer, the tinted driver side window rolled down, and I could see that Tana leaning over from the passenger seat.
"Hey! Get in loser!," said Tana with a wide smile plastered on her face.
Flipping her off, I said, "I fucking hate you right now."
"No, you love me! Remember, I'm the best friend that helped you escape tonight?," said Tana innocently.
"You're also the friend that nearly caused a near death experience and invited one larger than life asshole to join us in the process.," I said rolling my eyes and making a move to end the conversation by harshly wrenching open the car door to the backseat on the driver side.
Turning around as I slid in, Tana said, "What's got you so pissed off?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe its the fact that I had to fucking sit at a dinner with elderly people that I could not stand tonight. Then, I find out that my best friend, fucking invites the one person that I absolutely cannot stand, no offense Reid," I said as I glanced in Reid's direction before continuing, "to come pick me up. Oh and did I mention that he helped me fall from the second story of my Grammie's house? Yeah, so I'd say my night is going peachy. Just fucking peachy.," I said heatedly.
"Hey, I caught you, Queenie. No harm done.," said Reid butting in to protect his own hide.
Glaring at Reid from the front seat, Tana then turned her gaze to me and said, "I'm sorry Laney-bug. I should have consulted you about Tyler and Reid. Its just that Tyler offered me a ride, and when you texted me, I figured that you would be okay with it. I'm sorry."
Letting out a long and negative energy expelling sigh, I said, "I forgive you. Just DON'T ever do it again, or I swear up and down that I will burn every single one of your Pink Floyd vinyls!"
Narrowing her eyes at me, Tana said, "You wouldn't."
"Oh, you know that I would. And after I'm burning those, I'll move on to the rest of your vinyl collection.," I said raising one of eyebrows as if daring her to test me.
"Whatever, next time, I'll be sure to give you the full 411. Just don't you fucking dare come within an inch of my vinyl collection.," said Tana as she huffed and turned around to face the front of the oversized SUV.
This ride back to Ipswich was going to be a long one, thank God Tyler tried to diffuse the tension in the Hummer by turning up the radio. I think by this point in time, everyone was just thankful to be given the chance to zone out for a while.
So there you have it! Another chapter! I hope you all liked this one as much as I enjoyed writing it! If you didn't, that's okay too! I'd love to hear your feedback, so don't forget to review! You guys rock! (:
Xoxo,
Nova