I frowned, not sure what to say to that.
The girl took a neat step forward, her hands clasped at her middle. “Or are you? Are you here to play with us?”
Without warning, a large gust of wind blasted at my back, whipping my hair into my face. When I finally brushed it out of my eyes, I saw Pippa standing between me and the young girl. Just like in my dream before she was looking tired and pale, her thin body hidden by a coat. Her attention was entirely on the girl.
“You get away from here,” Pippa said to her. “You leave her alone. She is not yours.”
“But she can see me,” the girl said matter-of-factly, a devious twinkle in those cold black eyes.
“Go,” Pippa said, her voice louder and almost animalistic. The young girl stuck out her tongue but trotted after the ball, disappearing into thin air right before the trees. Pippa faced me with a weary expression.
“They keep finding you, don’t they?”
“I don’t get it,” I said. “Am I dreaming again? Is this real?”
“You are dreaming but it is real,” she said. “This is the safest way I can get to you. The Thin Veil is too risky.”
I gestured wildly to the forest. “Then who the hell was that little girl?”
She gave me a slight smile. “I am not the only one who can get to you this way. You know this. Your dreams have always been very powerful, Perry, always. You’ve seen and experienced things that eventually happened to you. Every day you’re alive and embracing who you are, you’re opening yourself more and more.”
“So what about what you said before…about having to watch out?”
“I don’t think you should be here, Perry.”
“Dreaming?”
“Doing the show. Not right now. It’s just a feeling I have…”
“I can’t keep going on your feelings. I have a life to live too, a living to make.”
She reached out and grabbed my hand. Hers felt so delicate, thin and cold. “I know. But you’re not in a good place right now. You’re the strongest when you are strong and right now you are weak. You’re succumbing to worry and insecurity.”
“That’s me, like ninety-nine percent of the time.”
“Darling, please. I wish I could offer you more than just a feeling but you have to take it to heart. Go home. Go back to Seattle. Go be with Dex and concentrate on your life there.”
“But the show is my life, at least for now. It’s just a few days of filming, we’ve done this a million times before. When this is done, we will go back to Seattle. After we stop by my parents first. I’ve apparently got a lot of explaining to do.”
Her eyes widened with intensity, her mouth becoming tight. “No. No, don’t do that.”
My heart started thudding around in my chest at her sudden change in tone. She was starting to freak me the f**k out. “No? What do you mean, no? It’s my mom. Your daughter. I haven’t seen her or my dad or Ada for months.”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t know why but I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s...too much. It’s too easy. Everyone in the same place, all the eggs in one basket.”
Now she was starting to sound like Creepy Clown Lady. “You’re not making any sense.”
“I know I’m not making sense. But it’s wrong. It’s wrong. It’s bad.”
“And the show, filming here, that’s not the problem anymore?”
She shook her head still, her thin curls flinging around. She started wringing her hands together. “No. It’s all wrong. You need to go back home.”
“Just tell me why!” I exclaimed, almost stamping my feet.
“I don’t know!” she yelled back. Her eyes dropped to the ground.
A light ticked on in my head. “Are you afraid of my mom and I making up?”
She didn’t say anything for a long time, just staring at the grass beneath us. Another breeze blew past, my nightgown billowing around me.
“Are you afraid that if my mom and I make amends, that you’ll lose an ally in me? That I’ll turn against you?” I asked, studying her face. I took a step forward. “You know I’ll never forget what my mother did to you.”
I tried to reach out and touch her but she yanked herself out of my reach and stared up at me with frightened eyes. “Don’t go. It’s too much in one place.”
She still didn’t make sense but it didn’t matter. She was worried that my mom and I might make up. She probably feared that I would shun her or that my mom would do the same to me as she did to her. It explained why she looked so frightened.
“Pippa,” I said slowly, hoping to convince her not to worry. I knew what was best for myself. But my grandmother was already fading before my eyes.
“Too much, too easy,” she said, her voice croaking and then lowering itself until it was just a shadow of what it was. “Too much. Too easy.”
And then she was gone.
***
I woke up to Dex’s warm hand sliding up underneath my shirt, teasing at the soft area underneath my breast. I smiled and relaxed into it, momentarily forgetting about everything that happened. I pushed the thoughts of Uncle Al, of his warnings, of my dream, all the way to the back of my head. They wanted me to think about them, to weigh down my heart with worry, but I wouldn’t give in.
I’d only give in to the naked man beside me.
“Good morning, sunshine,” he whispered into my neck, his lips gently trailing down to my collarbone.
I lazily reached up and ran my hand through his thick hair. “Morning, baby.” I glanced around us for a clock, seeing only framed horror movie posters. The twins must have decorated the room. “What time is it?”
“No idea,” he said, and from the way his teeth grazed the outside of my ear, I could tell it didn’t matter. “I think everyone else is up. But then again, so am I.” He took my hand in his and placed it under the sheets, right on his cock. No surprise, it was hard as stone and felt hot beneath my touch. He groaned in response, the sweetest sound to my ears.
I gave him a sly look, putting pressure on my hand, my fingers gripping him. Still, I told him quietly, “I don’t think this is a good idea. That door over there doesn’t lock and anyone could come in at any moment.”
He sat up slightly and put his hand behind my head, holding me there hard. His eyes looked like a fire had been lit in them. “I don’t give a f**k if anyone sees us or hears us. Do you?”