“Get away!” I hissed, hitting him on the arm.
He just smiled and stuck them further up my legs, getting under the pajama pant opening. The coldness jarred me and I had nowhere to go but off the actual bed. I started laughing and pushing him away.
“I’m serious,” I said and shoved him hard.
He turned over on his side, retracting his feet and grinned up at me. “But you’re so warm.”
“I’m a hot-blooded mammal. You’re a cold-blooded reptile. Do the math.”
“Reptiles need love too.”
I paused at that and gave him a curious look. He was still smiling at me, though his eyes were full of sarcasm.
I shook my head and then pulled the covers up over me.
“I hope you don’t snore,” I added.
“I only snore when my feet are cold.”
I sighed and rolled over, away from him. He still had the light on for his writing but it didn’t matter to me. I closed my eyes, drifting off to sleep. All the joking around had miraculously erased the fear from my body. I didn’t know if Dex planned it that way, but it worked. Despite everything that happened earlier, I felt safe knowing that my major annoyance at the moment was his cold feet
My eyes flickered open. Something had woken me. I froze and let my eyes adjust to the darkness. I was still on my side, facing the wall. I wasn’t sure of the time, or how long I had been asleep, but it must have been the middle of the night. I listened and heard Dex snoring lightly beside me. His back was to mine, his butt square against me. Good thing he was wearing pants after all.
Despite that warmth and contact, I felt scared. I often did when I woke up for no reason. I tried to remember the dreams I just had but they were flitting away from my memory. Something about an owl… Dex…rocks.
The rocks! I remembered what had happened earlier. Could rocks have woken me up? I listened again, harder. I couldn’t hear anything hitting the window or the roof.
Then I felt something brush up against my foot. My feet were underneath the covers but far away from Dex’s feet. My heart stopped. I felt icky. I had to roll over and see what it was but doing so was going to be the toughest, most terrifying thing ever.
I took a deep breath and slowly turned over.
I felt the life being sucked out of me.
There was an animal sitting at the foot of the bed, just six feet away, on top of my feet. As they turned over with the rest of me, I felt my toes jabbing up into his soft bottom.
It was a fox. I couldn’t see it clearly but I knew that’s what it was. A fox, about the size of a collie, sitting on its hindquarters, ears creating a pointy silhouette. It looked right at me. Its eyes were a hazel color but they didn’t glow like a normal animal. They locked with mine. It was like looking into the eyes of someone I knew.
Was this for real? Was this actually happening? I wanted to look at Dex but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. The more I stared into those knowing, harmful eyes, the more I felt entranced. My legs and arms were replaced by lead pipes. I still felt the animal’s weight on my feet, which meant what I was experiencing was real.
I don’t know if I was breathing; I didn’t think I was. My heart thumped loudly in my chest, but even that started to slow. It wasn’t like I was calming down in any way – in fact I could feel the terror slowly take hold of my body – but my heart still slowed until the thumps were further and further apart. My thoughts became sluggish. I needed to look away from those eyes.
Then the fox shifted onto its front feet, perfectly positioned between my legs. It moved closer now and our eye contact had not been broken. I felt like I was drowning internally, my lungs were without air and I was too weak to gasp for it. The room started to spin, with the fox still front and center.
It took a step forward, mouth open. Was it smiling at me? Its eyes said the opposite. They said I was dead.
I tried to talk, to scream but nothing came out. Either I was going to wake up in a second or something horrifying was about to happen. And I couldn’t do anything about it.
It took another step, its tail waving subtly. The eyes narrowed, as if it was glaring at me.
I felt Dex shift and a smattering of hope rushed through me. The fox didn’t break its stare but it paused, its red coat bristling.
Dex stirred again and rolled over. I couldn’t turn to look at him – the paralysis had taken hold of my bones –but I prayed for him to open his eyes.
I felt him shuffle back in the bed and then, stop.
“What the f**k?!” he yelled.
Startled, the fox leaped off the bed and dashed towards the door, which had been open the whole time.
Dex leaped out of bed, dragging half the blanket with him, and hollered frantically, “Will! There’s an animal in here!”
He followed the fox out the door, then turned and ran back to me. I still couldn’t move, I still couldn’t breathe. My eyes and body were locked down.
“Hey!” He jumped on the bed and shook both my shoulders. “Perry, are you OK?”
I tried to answer but couldn’t.
“Answer me! Perry! What happened?”
He kept shaking me, then took my head in his hands and physically moved my face to the left until it was facing his. His eyes – as crazy and worried as they were – brought me a sense of reality. I felt my limbs coming back, hot flashes of nerves climbing up and down them.
My breath followed. I gasped loudly as if I had been underwater for the last five minutes. He held my face steady, hands warm but firm.
“You’re going to be OK.” His voice matched his grip.
There was a commotion in the hallway and Will appeared at the door. “What happened, is she OK?”
“She’s fine,” Dex said quickly and gestured with his head, “the animal went downstairs.”
Will nodded and took off down the hall, the walls shaking from his lumbering run.
Dex looked back at me, my wide eyes searching his as all the fear came rushing in.
“Hey, you’re fine,” he said. I started to shake and he brought his hands to my arms and held me there. “You’re going to be OK. But we need to go find out what that was.”
I shook my head violently. I was still unable to speak.
“We have to,” he said. “And I am not leaving you here by yourself. Will has his baseball bat. Whatever it was, was small, we’ll be OK.”
He climbed off the bed and walked around to my side. He looked down at me, smiled to himself, and picked me up in his arms.