Page 8 of One Wild Night
‘Oh, that’s okay, I can sleep in my t-shirt,’ I insist. ‘But thank you.’
‘You’re not wearing outside clothes in my bed,’ she replies. ‘It’s a house rule. So, thankyou, for wearing the nightgown.’
This is a nightmare – a genuine nightmare – or maybe it’s worse because, honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever had a dream about anything so messed up in my life.
I don’t see what choice I have other than to awkwardly change into the nightgown – used every tip and trick I learned inthe PE changing rooms at school – and then climb into bed next to her.
I’m sure it goes without saying that, out of the five of us (me, Dylan, Mikey, Jamie and Taz) I am the least likely to end up in a bed with a random girl – although if I said that to Dylan, he would probably joke that it was Jamie who was the least likely.
Kitty switches off the lights and I’m not sure if it makes things better or worse. Sure, it was strange, when I had hundreds of pairs of Dylan’s eyes staring at me, but now that we’re in the darkness, I don’t know, I almost miss the feeling of him watching over me, protecting me even.
In the darkness, and the silence, I wonder to myself how on earth I’m going to be able to sleep. Is Kitty sleeping? I can’t hear a sound from her, not even the sound of her breathing (not that I’m missing it or anything). Thankfully I can’t feel her next to me either. This isn’t a big double, but I’m finding it easy enough to keep some space between us, although I am quite close to the edge. Somehow falling out of bed seems like the least of my worries.
The silence continues for a few more minutes, until…
‘He doesn’t love you, you know,’ Kitty says, breaking the silence.
No, I suppose he doesn’t, or there’s no way I would be in this situation right now.
My God, this is intense, and creepy, and Dylan might have protected himself from a crazy fan by claiming that I’m his girlfriend, but it definitely feels like he’s thrown me under the bus.
And now I have to sleep, and I don’t feel any less worried about axe murderers now that I’m here, and you better believe I’ll be having words with Dylan in the morning.
If I make it to the morning, that is.
Chapter 4
I wake up with a start, disoriented, sitting up bold straight in the pitch-black room. It takes me a few seconds, to remember where I am, but then it all comes back to me. I’m in a bed, with a crazy girl, surrounded by a shrine to my best friend – a best friend who said-crazy-girl thinks is my boyfriend. It’s a tale as old as time.
I practically strain my ears as I listen to the silence. No, not quite silence, there are strange, unidentifiable noises now and then, barely audible ones, and the fact that I don’t know what any of them are only makes them seem all the creepier.
One sound in particular, although not all that loud, sounds like someone – or something – trying to get into the house. Oh God, unless it’s something trying to get out of the house, which is a much more sinister thought. If I’m being rational – or trying to be, at least – it’s probably just the sound of snow slipping from the roof, falling down in front of the window, but something about this creepy farmhouse makes me feel like I can’t quite afford to rule anything out.
The darkness has its advantages, I suppose. With the lights off it doesn’t only help me to forget that there are photos of Dylan stuck to every available surface, but I could almost forget Kitty was lying in bed next to me. I can’t see her, feel her or hear her. Although would I be surprised if she levitated above the bed while she slept? Absolutely not.
I think about what Pat said, about Dylan only being in the room next door, and I wonder if I could sneak to see him, undetected. Sure, I want to shake him, and ask him what the hell he was thinking bringing us here, but more than anything I thinkthat a familiar face would make me feel a lot less freaked out right now.
I peel back the bed covers ever so slowly, letting the chilly night air hit my skin, and it takes everything I have to fight off a shiver. I’m scared that even the slightest movement might wake Kitty up.
Finally on my feet, I tiptoe across the room, navigating the creaky floorboards, doing my best not to make a sound. It’s a relief when I make it to the bedroom door undetected, but as I step out into the dark hallway I realise I’m not out of the woods yet.
Moonlight creeping in through a landing window illuminates the hallway just enough to guide me towards the door of the bedroom where Dylan is sleeping – thankfully there is only one bedroom next to Kitty’s room, because I can’t even imagine what would happen if I crept into her parents’ room by mistake.
The floorboards seem as though they creak even louder out here, in a way that makes me suspicious, as though they’re connected to an amp, and Kitty’s parents use them as some sort of movement detection alert.
I make it to the door, then through it, before finally approaching the bed in the centre of the room. It’s dark, but I can just about make out the bump in the covers, where Dylan is fast asleep. He has this adorable snore that he does sometimes, which drives the others on the bus mad, but I’ve always found it cute and strangely relaxing. I know it can be annoying when you can’t sleep and the person next to you is flat out, but I find it kind of reassuring when I hear sleepy noises coming from Dylan’s bunk, because it sort of sends out a signal that it’s not only possible to sleep, but okay to do so. Then again, there is also that relief I feel when I know Dylan is asleep because it means he isn’t getting himself into any sort of trouble.
‘Dylan,’ I whisper as I approach the bed, reaching out for his shoulder to shake him lightly.
I gasp with horror as I feel a hand forcibly grab me by the wrist, squeezing it tightly.
‘What are you doing here?’ an almost demonic voice demands to know.
‘What the hell?’ Dylan says, waking with a start.
He must turn on this bedside light because the flash of bright light startles me almost as much as the demon did – the demon who still has a hold of me.
Of course, now that my eyes are adjusting to the light, I can see that it’s not a technically demon at all, it’s Kitty. Kitty who in in bed with Dylan, spooned up behind him.
