I carefully slid my wounded leg to the edge of the bed, then did the same for the other one. Refusing to concede to the pain coming from my wounds and aching muscles, I positioned myself in a sitting position at the edge of the bed. Adele heard my movement and looked at me, then rushed closer, trying to keep me from falling on my face.

“What are you doing?” She grabbed my good arm to support me.

“I’m getting into a position to talk with you,” I said through gritted teeth. “Otherwise, I’m a damn invalid. What I have to say is to make sure you know that I’m not looking for your sympathy. Give me a second.”

After taking a few deep breaths, the pain subsided enough for me to focus.

“Now look at me in the eyes,” I told her. She did, her emotions clearly ready to flood out. I reached up and softly touched her cheek.

“Truth be told, I’m not good for you. I guess that’s what you’re really witnessing for the first time.”

“No, that’s not...”

“Hear me out,” I interrupted her. “As you’ve noticed, Lane Dagger’s changed. In many ways, I’m not the man you married.”

I can say that for sure!

“The problem is that I can’t I tell you why I can’t leave this place, or why I bleed tears and feel like I’m dying in pain. Truly, I don’t know the real reason. But I’ve got ideas. However, if I tell you what I’ve experienced, you’ll think I’m crazier than the damn Mad Hatter. It’s too ridiculous for a sane person to consider,” I explained as a grin crept to my face. “Well, maybe I am nuts. Anyway, I’m stuck here.”

Adele’s confused expression mixed with anxiety.

“Recently, I discovered a few things about who’s doing this. No matter what, I’m forced to take what’s coming. I don’t have a choice and it makes me angry.”

Sure, she believes I need mental treatment now.

“I know that what I’m saying doesn’t make sense, but I can give you good news. You’re not stuck in Stull Junction. You can go anywhere, and I want that for you. If you don’t want me, I understand. I’ll sign that damn paperwork. Hell, I won’t take another dime from you. You warrant much better than I can give you.”

Her eyes searched mine. Suddenly, she hugged me tight enough to take the pain to a new level. I grunted, then she stopped squeezing me and apologized.

“You’re really too much. Just when I think I understand, you turn around and hit me with something else.” Her lips trembled as she kept her eyes fixed on mine. “But you don’t have faith in me and that hurts me terribly.”

I shook my head, trying to tell her she was wrong, but she pressed her fingers to my lips.

“No, I mean it,” Adele continued. “While the things you’ve done, I don’t agree with, you’ve amazed me. Yes, you’ve kept your promises since that night. But I’m so anxious because you take such risks without even realizing the suffering I must endure. Love can’t be a one-way street. It makes me wonder if you don’t care for me.” She brought her hands up to my unshaven cheeks.

“I’ve told you what I’m going through, so why can’t you tell me the truth? I don’t care if it sounds crazy.”

Love, how in the hell do I go there?

After telling her to sit next to me, I put my good arm around Adele’s shoulders. It took me a bit to get started since raw feelings continued sweeping inside of me.

“I’ve never been great at expressing my emotions, but I do care for you. That’s why I wanted you out of this city when things blew up,” I explained honestly. “I couldn’t stand it to see you hurt.”

Hell, I recognized I wanted Adele with me. I just couldn’t figure out an emotion called love.

Aren’t love and lust two sides of the same coin?

The questions that I never asked shot through my mind faster than I could keep up.

Would I take Adele back to my world?

Hell, yeah, in a heartbeat.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

Would I stay here for her sake?

That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?

Then, I remember Cora calling them familiars.

Would Adele stay with me when I go back?

I have no fucking idea but screw it, I’m on this path against the world.

Adele’s next question cut to the core.

“But you don’t really love me, do you?”

“You’re wrong,” I said. “But I want you to be happy. Can you have that with me? Look at what you’ve just went through.”

Nice fucking diversion, you asshole!

“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “At times I believe it, then I get confused.” Adele carefully rested her head on my shoulder. “Your actions don’t help. I can’t believe how different you’ve become, even when you treat me better. Still, I want to believe in you. That’s why it’s important that you trust me.”

A chuckle came to me as I thought about my last week filled with frustration, danger, near-death, and amazing sex. The strange part was I found everything about this experience exhilarating, kind of like jumping out of a perfectly good airplane with a parachute.

“I’m living a topsy-turvy existence,” I stammered out thoughts as they entered my head. “Truth is that I didn’t think I would get out of the last scrape alive. All I can remember before passing out was telling you I was sorry that I couldn’t keep my promise. But it hurts more to hear you say that I’m the one ripping out your heart.”

I felt a lurching inside my heart when I confided something deep that I didn’t expect to say aloud. A tear came down her cheek, landing on my thumb, and I kissed her forehead. It helped me make my decision.

“Alright, if you want the truth, let me ask you this question. Do you know of a mansion at the top of the hill in this town?”

“You mean the Elder house?” Adele lifted her head, giving me an expression that I should know the place.

She knows the mansion!

“What do you know about the place?” I tempered down my hopes.

“Well, I heard that’s the founder’s home. Mrs. Edler’s family is the founder of the city. She carried a lot of weight here.”

“There’s a family?”

“Well, I never met them, but I’ve heard it’s a woman and her two brothers. Why are they so important? They went missing earlier this year after a festival. I think someone moved in there afterward.”

Of course, that statement threw me for a loop. Maybe it shouldn’t since Cora warned me, but it’s hard to believe everything. Miss Wonderful needs her body back and someone takes over her mansion.

No coincidence there.

“Please tell me why this is so important. How can it affect you?”

I put my hand to her cheek.

“That’s what I want to understand. Do you believe in ghosts?”

Hell yeah, I used a cheat. It was the only thing that I could come up with that might explain something without people thinking I was totally nuts. Using the cover story that Cora Elder’s ghost causes my problems might be the best way to explain over telling her the truth.

First, saying that I came from another time and place would send Adele running to the doctors. On the other hand, if I told Adele that I saw Cora with two demons before they disappeared through a wall in my room, she might have me put in a mental hospital. So, I went with the safest option by pulling out the idea of ghosts. They don’t put you in the insane asylum for that.

Obviously, I needed more information. The little black book failed me on this when remembered the pages. I knew another meeting with Miss Wonderful was coming. And I intended to have Adele with me. If she’s a familiar, she needed to know what that meant for her and me. Judging from Adele’s expression as she put her head back on my shoulder, she only judged me half-crazy.

At least she didn’t reject the idea.

~~~

Another day passed before I finally got out of the hospital. That morning, Adele arrived holding a new suit so I could leave the hospital. Her white shirtwaist dress with a red collar and cuffs matched with her red felt beret. I had to admit, women dressed eloquently in the time.

After I got dressed, she looked me over with approval. Then, she put my coat over my shoulders since I wore a sling for my arm. Everything fit as expected, and I jokingly asked her if she took my measurements while I was asleep. The woman blushed when she admitted it was what happened. We both laughed when she explained how the nurse gave me a sedative before it happened and worked with Adele to get the measurements.

She’s more devious than I thought.

As she drove me in her car, I heard the local radio station playing a song that I didn’t recognize. Of course, the big band sound was nothing like the heavy metal that I liked, but the women’s harmony made a catchy tune. My gaze out the window followed the line of houses as we drove through a neighborhood of white houses with white picket fences. The peaceful scene made me think about the future.

Adele told me that Winton no longer planned on bringing charges after me over the thug’s death at the Vaugh’s home. It appeared that he determined that Antonio used his connections with a corrupt cop to pin something on me. I was thankful for the news.

When the car bottomed out going through a dip in the road, I noticed most of the pain in my body subsided. Aside from the black and blue marks, along with stitches in my leg and shoulder, I looked somewhat like my old self.

Suddenly, I had a thought about Stull Junction and the outside world. Asking Adele about her time in Sacramento and back, she gave me the details. They spent two nights in the hotel before Shane O’Conner tracked them down. Sally appeared to be recovering from her trauma, which made me feel better. When Adele told me about her anxiety waiting to learn about my fate, I apologized again.

One thing I learned is the timelines between this dimension and the real world appear synchronized. Frowning, I wondered how much control Cora held over the seen and unseen realms. Sure, she came to my world, only to put me here. Still, the idea that Cora could not stop her own death with such power seemed farfetched.

Why not go back before the event happened? Hell, they do that in the movies all the time. Even better, she could send her demons after the culprits to force a confession for her body’s location. Still, she stated she had no power over familiars, so the only one who’s affected by her appears to be me alone. A nagging thought came to me.

What if Cora is not as powerful as she seems?