Life With The Boy Next Door - Lissie (brene brown rising strong .TXT) 📗

him to sit on the other couch. They glanced over at Alice, then away once again. Cassi didn’t come back in.
Then there was a loud knock on their door. Alice heard it and sat bolt upright, fear taking up all the room in her eyes.
“No, don’t let him in!” she cried urgently, blood bubbling over her lips and sliding down her chin.
She choked again and looked worriedly at her parents.
Annabelle wouldn’t meet her eye, and she and Jared walked to the door together. Cale was standing on the other side, a neutral expression upon his handsome face.
“Is Alice here, by any chance?” he asked politely, his eyebrows raised.
“Yes, she is. Come on in” Annabelle said stiffly, her eyes set on his face.
Cale nodded and stepped past them both efficiently, heading straight for their lounge. When he saw Alice lying on the sofa, his expression changed instantly. His mouth twisted and his eyes were full of pain and frustration.
“So this is what happens when I tell you everything you want to know, wife. Well, anywho, I’ve come to take you back home. Where you’re needed” he said coolly.
Cassi raced back into the room then, and glared up at him, her eyes darkened and feral.
“She is needed here, you demon! I need her! And I love her! Why don’t you leave us all alone?” she screamed at him, her hands clenched into small fists by her sides.
Cale calmly observed her, then bent and lifted Alice up. She couldn’t fight any longer; the bleeding had worn her out and she could feel the thing growing inside her at a more rapid pace; he was going to kill her, she was sure of it.
Cassi ran after them and threw stones at Cale’s back, but he didn’t flinch nor turn around.


5

That night, Alice rolled over in her sleep and suddenly woke up. Cale wasn’t there; his side of the bed was empty and the sheet was cold. She sat up, wondering if this could possibly be her moment to escape. But no, she lay back on the bed and gazed up at the ceiling. There was no point in trying to run again. No one was going to help her; her own parents had let him take her back. Only Cassi, her tiny six year old sister was willing to stand up to him. And there was no way, under highest Heaven, that Alice was going to allow her baby sister to risk her short life to save her.
She pulled the covers off her and looked back down at her stomach. Her eyes were dry as dust, but the feeling of sick horror still spread throughout her being. It was growing quickly. Alice sat up again and stood up, planting her feet plat on the carpet. She made her way slowly over to Cale’s full length mirror, shrouded by darkness. The glass shone faintly in the lack of light, and she ignored the sheen coming off it. She refused to believe for one second that there was anything good, and light, remaining in Cale. She stared at her dim reflection in the mirror and then turned side on. Her abdomen stuck out farther than ever before and she could see the monster wriggling around beneath her skin. She shuddered and listened to her heart beating, rythmically thumping in her chest. She was thinner than she’d ever been, all of her natural body fat removed from her by the scary baby moving inside her.
Alice sat down on the floor and stared at herself some more, blinking very slowly, thinking. She had to do something about it. She wasn’t suicidal, so she wasn’t going to take her own life to get rid of this thing. And anyway, suppose it didn’t die after she did? Suppose it was already strong enough and it could continue to live without her, its unwilling host? Its mother…
Alice slowly got up and moved back to the double bed. She perched on the end of the mattress and propped her chin in her hands. She had to do it when Cale wasn’t there to stop her from going through with it…but she couldn’t allow his child to enter the real world and stay alive, breathing the humans’ air. He might be the one to end it all one day in the future, no matter what Cale said. His son would be one of the Decreed undoubtedly. And he would know, of course he would. It was true that Cale had once been true and good; he had twice saved her life and she’d saved his. But now he was wrong, and she had to fix the wrongness in her life. Life wouldn’t go on like this forever. There had to be a way out. She no longer wanted to be the wife and mate of a werewolf, and she no longer wanted to be Cale’s lifetime plaything. She wouldn’t stand for it. She would run, and learn to protect herself. Perhaps there were others like her? Those wives and mothers of freaks who would be willing to help her in her horrific plight? It was just like something out of a horror flick…


Cale came home in the early hours of the morning to find Alice not in bed, but downstairs in the kitchen, her head and shoulders buried in one of their numerous cupboards.
“What are you doing, Al?” he asked, coming up behind her.
She didn’t jump. She’d heard him enter and steeled herself not to move.
“Looking for ingredients. I want to bake today and I can’t find anything” she pretended to complain, knowing that he would offer to help her out.
“I’ll do it. Go sit down at the table” Cale told her, giving her a half smile and gently nudging her out of the way.
He lightly touched her stomach, but she didn’t wince or dodge away from him as he thought she would. Instead, Alice smiled blindingly at him and wandered over to sit down in her usual place at the dining room table. She leaned forward and rested her skinny elbows on the shiny polished wood surface and looked blankly down at her lap. But when Cale came to stand by her side, she instantly smiled again, turning up the power wattage. She knew she had stunned him, and felt no guilt in doing so. She was getting out of here, and she wasn’t going to allow him to sway her.
“Everything’s out on the bench for you” Cale said quietly, helping her out of her chair.
Alice nodded, forced herself to kiss him on the cheek, and then sashayed back into her kitchen. She went about the process of baking chocolate fudge brownies; they were Cale’s favourite.
From where he now sat at the table, Cale could smell the strong, mouth watering scent of the baking brownies, even when they weren’t yet in the oven.
Alice smiled to herself and mentally patted herself on the back. Hopefully, he won’t want to use the computer anytime too soon. Her search results would still be available in the History folder. If he knew what to look for, he could easily find her discoveries. She had spent the hours he was gone goodness knows where to look up other women like her on every possible search engine she could think of. And, to her great surprise and immense relief, she found them. They had their own website, difficult to find and even harder to access. The website had a rigged system; whenever someone attempted to access the site and its information, a secret camera flicked on and searched on the person’s body for evidence of supernatural workings, such as a strangely pregnant form. And Alice had gotten in; her form was misshaped and ugly to the human eye, and those on the other end of the hidden camera knew just what they were looking at. So they let Alice in to their secret haven for wives of the supernatural.
In the time Cale had been out of the house, she had written and sent a letter to the private address they gave her. And if the letter was intercepted, and possibly opened, it would appear uninteresting and mundane. Now all she had to do was wait for the answer. She needed to leave, and if they could get her out, it would all be organised. And once she’d done her deed, she would be able to leave, and if necessary, she would never stop running.


Four days later, she received their reply. It arrived in the letter box in the early morning, care of a strange, previously unseen postman. Alice smiled and hurried outside into the fallen leaves. Cale was still gone for the moment, and that moment was all she would need to get this letter and find out what she needed most.
Dearest Alice V,
We will help. You did the right thing by coming to seek us out and ask our assistance in this matter. As you most likely already know, all of us here in the Lost Society have been through what you are going through right now. Some of us, though, were not as brave as you are. We know your plan and think it is dangerous, but courageous. We will support you and get you out as soon as you have done what you know you have to do. Many of us have never done what you are going to do. We think you will be doing this in roughly one week’s time, considering what we have seen and what you told us in your previous letter. Trust us, a small team of us will be there to get you away from his house as soon as the act is complete. Complete your task and leave; we will be waiting for you at the edge of the forest. We know where you live; have no fear. We can save you.
.-.Sisters of the Lost Society

Alice stared at the sheet of paper in her shaking hand and clasped it to her throat. She was going to escape. They were going to help her out of this place. Away from Cale. All she had to do was…no, she didn’t dare even think the words. She would burn the letter.
She walked quietly over to the tall fire place and tossed the letter onto the dancing orange flames. They burned as bright as her hair, as hot as her decision. This day would change her life and shift it in a direction she never imagined she could walk in. And yet, the path was here, right in front of her now. Alice took a deep breath and sat down in front of the fire to wait.


6

Jared and Annabelle woke up very early in the morning exactly a week later, to find Cassi standing at the foot of their bed, her arms at her sides and her head cocked to the side. Annabelle had to suppress a scream of shock when she saw her youngest’s glowing eyes. The pale, pretty blue colour was now a bright electric sapphire hue, and the irises were catlike, slanted sideways instead of being round and human. Nothing about the little girl had changed except for the strange eyes.
Annabelle extended her hand toward her, fingers trembling slightly. Cassi slowly shook her head, her dark blonde hair swinging loosely around her small pale face. She had never known what she was until she recognised similar characteristics in Cale. She was lighter than him; she was no Child of the Decreed. There was no serious darkness in her, and at least she was like a cat, not some huge hairy wolf dog.
She watched as her parents both stared at her, unable to take their