Novel: Horror

I actually took a step back, bumped into the thing behind me, and jumped.  It clattered madly and wriggled around in its skin.  Its mouth opened and though there was no tongue its teeth milled about, floating inside like glitter in a snowglobe.

“So that,” Amnon continued, “is why I waited until you two made a play for Milo.  That was your plan, yes?  To lure me somewhere to regain Milo?”

“Well, I suppose there’s no denying it now.”  I looked directly at him, directly into his eyes.  As dangerous as they were, they helped me ignore the monster at my back.

“But I knew when Milo was coming to see me, when you couldn’t.  You could only waste time waiting, exposing yourselves.  Sam never did have a reason to learn to be inconspicuous.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to keep my cool, trying to keep my voice from shaking.  I shrugged my shoulders a bit too violently.  “We failed.  So what’s your plan with me?”

He rested his chin in a hand and scratched lightly at his cheek.  “Now I know Sam’s had a companion with him since at least Cain, and probably sooner, probably all the way back to Dives.  This companion probably helped him out a bit, possibly a lot.  Sam can’t fight, can’t shoot a gun, can’t make his way with a blade.  Oh, he can shoot an arrow just fine, but that’s all he ever bothered to learn.  Because he didn’t need to learn anything else.  Come sit with me.”

He indicated the space beside him on the couch.  His change of topic was so sudden I didn’t react right away.

“Come sit with me,” he said again, and his eyes were a gorgeous blue again, and I was sitting on the couch cursing myself for looking into his eyes because now I couldn’t look away.

“Tell me what you are to Sam,” he said.  The color in his eyes shifted like storm clouds.  They looked so familiar, but I couldn’t think to place where I had seen eyes like that before because I was already answering.

“A lover.”

“And you love him.  Does he love you?”

“I’m almost completely certain.”

“Hmm.”  He leaned back, his eyes let go of me, and he smiled easily.  “And has he told you?”

I blinked at him, suddenly repulsed that I was so close to him, I could reach out and touch him.  But I knew if I stood he would just command me to sit again, and I didn’t want that slick film of his concentration over my mind again, didn’t want those eyes to bore into me like…

Like what?

“Tell me what?” I asked.

His smile widened, fit to burst.  “Oh, he didn’t tell you.”