Trent awoke the next morning with no idea of where he was or who he was with, except that she was really soft and the bed wasn't his.
He wondered, for a second, if he'd gotten wasted and blacked out, but that didn't make sense because he didn't drink like ever.
As he slowly sat up, beginning to actually worry, he looked around and finally it clicked back home. He was in his great-uncle's house. In another state. And the girl in his bed was Mae. And they'd had sex.
He was extremely tempted to wake her, but she looked totally out of it, on her back, mouth open, one arm flung up over her head, the other flung out to the side. Trent decided to leave her to her sleep. It was morning, obviously, though his sense of time was shattered. He got to his feet and stretched, a bit sore from all the activity yesterday. Fun and otherwise. The fire was dead in the fireplace and it was cold again, but not unbearably so.
According to an old clock on the wall it was about eight in the morning. Well, not a bad time to wake up, he supposed.
The next half an hour passed in a strange cognitive dissonance as he went through his usual morning routine, but in a completely new house. He walked upstairs, took a piss, then brushed his teeth, pulling his bathroom supplies from his suitcase. From there, he took a long shower, then pulled some fresh clothes on and went to check on Mae.
She was still out cold, hadn't moved an inch.
He went into the kitchen and poked around. The stuff in the fridge and the freezer was all gonna have to go, he didn't trust it after a week, (longer?), without power, but there was a box of breakfast bars in the cabinet so that was something at least. He ate one, then tried a cup of water from the kitchen sink, which had a filter attached to it. It was...tolerable. He supposed it'd become an acquired taste. But it was breakfast.
From there, Trent started really exploring the house that was now his.
It felt strange, impossible really, that he owned a whole house.
Legally. He legally owned it. And it was bought and paid for. All he had to do was pay utilities and taxes on it. That was nuts. And there was a lot of stuff in it, too. Stuff that he didn't really feel like he'd want to hold onto, stuff that he could probably pawn off or sell. At the moment he had like ten grand in the bank, but one of the horrors of adulthood was watching money bleed away. And quickly, too. He knew how fast it could go.
Especially now that he was jobless, and he apparently had a jobless girlfriend.
His mind was still spinning about that. Did he want to date Mae? Part of him immediately said duh you fucking idiot! She's awesome! She's funny and weird and plays bass and she's hot and she loves that you're a writer!
But another part of him was nervous. She'd admitted to some stuff, and she seemed like the kind of person who might never get their shit together. That was fine at twenty, but what about thirty? Forty? Of course, the exact same thing could be said about him.
Maybe that's why he was paranoid, he knew the warning signs because he wasn't sure he was ever going to get his shit together.
He'd written a few books, yeah, but he hadn't even come close to getting them published. And self-publishing seemed so scary and daunting and huge.
Especially for a horror author.
Trent kept searching the house. Maybe there was a secret stash of cash or something.
He'd basically seen the upstairs, and he did want to take time to sort through it more thoroughly, but he knew he'd need power for that, so for now he just canvased it. The bathroom, the bedroom, the closet, the study. That one seemed like it had potential to be hiding something, and there was a nice painting hanging on the wall that he'd happily sell. Downstairs was the living room and kitchen. There was another bathroom, a pair of closets, and also a door that led down to a basement. That seemed to hold the most potential.
It was a finished basement, at least, but it was jam-packed full of crap.
Furniture and boxes, mostly. It would take awhile to sort through.
He lost two hours to searching the house and still Mae wasn't awake. Jeez, how long was she planning on sleeping? He really wanted to get to wherever he needed to go to get the power on. And see the town. Also make sure that internet was still a thing. He'd spoken with the internet company, as with all the other utilities, but he wouldn't know for sure.
Finally, when eleven thirty rolled around, he prodded Mae.
"What?" she groaned.
"You gonna get up?" he replied.
"What time is it?"
"Eleven thirty."
"Ugh...no...wait. Didn't we go to bed early last night?"
"Yeah, you've been asleep like thirteen hours."
"Ugh. Fuck. That's something else you gotta know about me, man: I sleep a lot. It's like...a medical condition or something. I need a lot of sleep."
"I can accept that," he said.
"Can you really? Because I will definitely learn how to suck dick if you just let me sleep most days," she said, pulling the blanket over her head.
He laughed. "I think that's a fair deal."
"I can even be a cool girlfriend and let you bang my hot friends."
"...is that a joke?"
"No. I'm not jealous," she replied.
"Wait, like, are you being serious right now?"
"Yeah," she said, pulling the blanket back down, "I'm not jealous. Sex feels good. I like really know that now. And I want my friends to feel good, too. Hey, you should fuck Selmers. She's sad and divorced. Also Bea! She thinks sex is lame but it's just because she hasn't had it with you yet!"
"Whoa whoa whoa," he said, holding up his hands, "don't...I mean, don't tell your friends I'm like a sex god or something. We have awesome sex. I might suck with your friends."
"I doubt it," she said with a sleepy grin, her dyed red hair a mess, "but I guess it'd be fair to see if they even find you hot. I could join in, too. I always thought I'd lose my virginity to a girl, honestly." She threw the blanket back. "Well, if I'm gonna get up then I'm gonna get up. I need a shower. Can I use your toothbrush?"
"Yeah, sure," he replied. "I'll get this cleaned up, go on."
"Thanks! I'll take you around town today."
"Can we go up to that building you told me about, to talk about my power?"
"Yes. Also I guess I should check in with my mom. She probably has a pregnancy test ready to go or something."
"...wait, like, does she know that you and me were gonna fuck?" Trent asked.
"Well I asked her for condoms and she's not dumb so yeah," Mae replied.
"Oh. God. Weird. I...eh, it's gonna be so weird to talk to her now."
"You'll get over it," Mae replied, then headed upstairs. She paused at the foot of the stairs. "Wait! If either of my parents pulls you aside and like, asks if we used protection, just say yes. Okay? Say you had some condoms on you. Okay?"
"...all right."
"Thanks." She hurried upstairs.
Listening to her start showering overhead, Trent went about cleaning up the living room. It felt so weird, being here now. Living here. This place was his.
He owned a house.
That seemed like an episode of Twilight Zone.
He wondered how long that was going to take to get over.
For a moment, he stood there in the center of the living room after folding the couch back up. There was a lot to do. So much to do. It felt overwhelming in that moment, paralyzing. Trent's eyes finally fell on the fireplace. It was little more than embers now. Well, that was something he should do before he left: make sure the fire was truly dead and not burn the house down. He poked it with the poker and when he was satisfied it was really dead, sat on the couch and waited for Mae. He thought about her as he heard her banging around upstairs, first showering, then brushing her teeth, then doing...something?
He couldn't be sure what.
She was so weird.
He'd hung out with weird people before. Trent was weird enough himself. He supposed you had to be to be a horror writer. But Mae was definitely a degree of strange he'd never quite encountered before. There were aspects of her personality he'd seen, to lesser extents, in other people. Blurting out every thought that drifted across your mind was one that popped out. She seemed to hop between conversations almost at random sometimes, but…
So weird.
And he'd had sex with her. Unprotected, risky sex.
Twice.
And he was still wrapping his head around how good it was. Was it because she was weird? He didn't think she was lying about the virgin thing, there was something awkward and inexperienced in the way she'd acted during both times. He was sure he acted similarly, it wasn't like he'd had much experience himself.
Was this insane? Was he being insane?
Would he have dated, or even slept with, her had he run into her back when his life made more sense? Some part of him said: yes, of course, she's weird but in a way that's very compatible with you. Also, she's really hot.
He tried not to make too much of a deal about that, but she really was.
More significantly though, she thought he was hot. Well, in her own way she thought that, or seemed to.
"Okay!" Mae called, bounding down the stairs, "I'm ready! You're gonna love the town! It's awesome!"
"Show me," he replied.
She came to stand in the living room and stuck out her hand. "Can we hold hands? I like holding hands with you."
"I like it, too," he replied, taking her hand.
They headed for the back door.
They walked across their backyards, holding hands, and she ended up deliberating for almost five minutes as they came around to her front door before finally deciding to let him in with her. He could almost hear the gears turning in her head as she no doubt tried to determine if it was better to have him just hang around outside or come in the house, though what exactly those considerations entailed he didn't know and probably wouldn't like.
Either she was embarrassed of him, or was afraid he'd be embarrassed by her.
Or maybe it was something totally different.
Either way, she groaned softly as they walked in and her mom greeted them from the kitchen.
"Mae! It's barely noon and you're awake and walking and dressed!"
"Yes, mom. Truly a miracle," Mae replied bleakly.
"And talking! Speaking of speaking, I need to speak with you about something."
"In a minute, I need my meds," she replied, then began heading up the stairs. She stopped three steps up and looked back at Trent. "Don't follow me." She resumed heading upstairs and then stopped again and sighed. "Please."
"Okay," he replied.
"Thank you."
"Come talk with me, Trent," her mother said.
"Okay, Mrs...uh…" It abruptly occurred to him that he couldn't remember their last names. He was vaguely certainly that he'd been given it. B something…
"Borowski," she offered as he came into the kitchen. "I'd say you can call me Candy but you seem like you wouldn't feel comfortable doing that so ma'am will do fine, I suppose."
"Thank you, uh, ma'am...I met your...sister? Last night?"
"Molly? Sister in law."
"Ah."
"What'd she want?"
"Well there was no power in the house so we had to get the fireplace going and she saw it and knew the place was supposed to be empty…"
Candy nodded. "Ah yes, that makes sense. She does her due diligence."
There was a thump, followed by a loud curse from overhead. "She and Mae…"
"Do not get along at all. Mae's very rude to her. I wish she wouldn't be...did anything happen?"
"No," he replied simply. Then reconsidered. "Although...I don't suppose you know anything about my great-uncle? She just said there's an investigation. She wouldn't tell me anything and it sounded weird…"
"All I know is they recovered several corpses recently and buried them up at the church," Candy replied with an almost cavalier shrug.
"Several? How did they die?"
"Well…" She looked around conspiratorially, then leaned closer. "I don't know for sure, but I overheard someone who worked with the coroner and he said they were all smashed up."
"Smashed up? Like...in a car accident?"
She shrugged. "No idea, but it was supposed to be just brutal!" she replied, sounding almost delighted. Then she grimaced slightly. "Sorry. I realize this is family we're talking about. I just...get interested in this kind of stuff."
Yet again, a lot of Mae's weirdness made sense.
She leaned forward again suddenly. "I know about last night," she said flatly. It wasn't accusing, surprisingly, just factual and blunt. "I'm going to ask Mae to do something today and I want you to make sure she does it. She'll try to wriggle out of it but it needs to be done. Especially if you and her are going to be serious...or even causal."
"What...uh, is that exactly?" he asked.
"Doctor's appointment."
"Oh."
"If you don't have power, you'll need to visit the social administration building. That's not far from the doctor's office. I'm sure she wants to take you all over town. Also...just a friendly warning shot: if you do anything to hurt her, I know a lot of places to bury bodies."
From her expression and tone of voice, he genuinely could not tell if she was joking.
"Uh...roger that...usually this is the kind of thing I'd hear from her dad," he replied awkwardly.
Candy laughed easily and laid a hand on the book she'd been reading when they'd come in. "You should know by now that we aren't usual."
"I'd picked up on it."
"Would you be a dear and wait out front? I want to talk with Mae alone," she asked.
He nodded. The book's title, he saw, was HATCHET HANDS: THE BOY BORN WITH HATCHETS FOR HANDS (A TRUE STORY!).
Her mom was definitely weird, but...still not in a bad way.
He headed outside, glancing briefly up the stairs. He could see they continued on past the second story, up to the attic, and from the sounds, that seemed to be where Mae was. Trent headed outside and as he did, found someone apparently waiting for him.
An elderly crocodile with thick yellow glasses wielding a cane was grinning a broad, mean grin at him. It was smug, in an ugly kind of way.
"Hey, kid," he said. "I saw you."
"Uh...okay?" he replied cautiously, lingering by the front door as he closed it behind him. "And?"
"From my back window. I saw you with her, walking across their backyard. Holding hands." He let out a mean-spirited cackle. "Boy, did you ever pick the black marble!"
"What are you talking about?" Except he knew that he was talking about Mae. What else could he mean?
"Margaret," he said. "She's dangerous, son. Believe you me, I know all about sticking your willie in crazy, and dangerous. I was plenty wild at your age. But she's the real deal. Bona fide crazy. I was there the day it happened."
"What happened?" Trent asked, compelled despite his immediate dislike of the old man. There was something cruel and condescending in his words, his stance, his amused, superior grin.
"She cracked a kid's skull open with a baseball bat. In front of damn near the whole town. I was there that day. Put him in the hospital for weeks. There was blood everywhere. She just snapped," he said gleefully.
"You're lying," Trent said after a moment, because it felt too crazy to be true…
And yet…
"Believe what you want, I was there. Ask anyone. Ask about Killer Mae. They'll tell you the same thing. A miracle he survived. And they wasn't even fighting. She hardly knew him. She just lost it. Just plum went crazy. Her whole family's crazy…"
Behind him, the door opened. "Okay, mom! Yes! I'll do it! God!...ew, what do you want?" she asked when she saw the old man looking at her.
"Small town polite'll only getcha so far, huh Mae?" he asked.
"Piss off," she replied, then took Trent's hand. "Come on, let's get outta here before we catch old and die."
"Have fun you two! You'll make a great couple!" he said, and cackled again.
Trent wasn't sure how to feel as they walked away, but couldn't shake the bad vibes.