Page 70 of A Very No Strings Halloween
“Wow, you are really bad at givin’ out candy,” Chelsea tells me.
I am. And I’m bad at no strings. And dating. And being a dating coach to the only person I have actually wanted to date for a very long time. And being honest about how I feel and what I want.
We’re all gonna die someday. I guess I just have to believe that even after we do, it’s not too late to tell the person you love how you feel.
SEVENTEEN
Billy
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF FISCHER
I’m driving as fast as I can down the highway to Donna’s house, and I was halfway there before I remembered that I know a guy with a helicopter and that guy is me.
I had stopped at the apartment, thinking I’d find her there passing out candy and we could have a nice quiet chat about how she owns my heart and she can have it forever if she’s in the mood for that. Instead I found her friend Chelsea there alone, telling me Donna was acting strange and rushed off, saying she had something important to take care of. I asked if it was for work. But Chelsea works with Donna, so she knew it wasn’t that.
Which means the important thing that Donna had to take care of was not a person who is alive or dying. It involves someone who has long since passed, in ahouse that is not safe, even though I told her not to go back there. God forbid she should just listen to me! But whatever help she needs from me, I’m going to give it to her.
The closer I get to Middleborough, though, the worse the weather gets. The rain’s coming down in billowing sheets, and I can barely see the road. So it’s a toss-up at this point if it would have been faster or safer in a chopper. I just know that any amount of time it takes me to get to Donna is too fucking long.
My hands are sore from gripping the wheel by the time I arrive, and the wind is picking up. All the windows on the first and second floors are lit up, but the lights are flickering ominously. I know I have an adrenaline rush right now, but I swear it looks like there’s some kind of eerie purple glow around the house. Like it’s the house itself that’s manifesting this storm.
But that’s not possible.
Rushing up to the front porch, I burst through the doors. “Donna!” I call out over the calamity of wind and rain and thunder. No answer. At least not one that I can hear. I remove my robe and drop it to the floor so I can run faster. “Donna!”
I find her in the sunroom, on her hands and knees. The room is dimly lit by a flickering lamp. A flash of lightning illuminates her. “Donna—are you hurt?” I bend downto help her up.
She slowly rises up off the floor. “Billy?” She sounds so confused. “What are you doing here?”
Another flash of lightning and I can see her stressed-out-but-still-beautiful face more clearly. “I went back to help you. With the candy. But you were gone.”
I’m about to continue, to tell her what I need to tell her, but she grips my arm and frantically explains, “I have to find the letter that Lara wrote to Lars! There’s something she needed to tell him! We just need to find it! Then she’ll be at peace. I know you don’t believe me, but will you?—”
“Anything you need, babe,” I say. “Just tell me where to look.”
We both jump at the clap of thunder. And then there’s a friggin’ tsunami of blood that crashes against the windows. Blood?! What the fuck?!
Donna screams and buries her face in my chest.
“Baby, it’s okay—it’s just the cranberries.” I have no fucking clue how it can be so windy that the cranberries are being blown out of the fucking bog that’s, like, fifty fucking yards away, but this is happening.
“It’s her! I don’t know how, but it feels like she’s angry and she’s not going to stop until we find the letter!”
“I know, baby. I feel it too.”
She looks up at me, so relieved. “You don’t think I’m nuts?”
“I didn’t say that, Red.” I grin.
That makes her laugh, which makesmefeel relieved.
The adrenaline easing up a little, I get a good look at her. All of her.
“Whoa. Hold up.”
“What?” She seems worried by the way I’m eyeing her, like I’m going to tell her she’s covered in blood or something.
“Are you wearin’ a sexy Ginny Weasley costume?!”
