Chapter Eight

Colbie woke up the next day with a pounding head and a mouth full of cotton. The police had arrived shortly after the entire ordeal had ended, pulling every person inside of the fast food restaurant for questioning. Not that there was a lot any of them could say. A crazy homeless man has bludgeoned himself to death by repetitively driving his head into the glass. The police suspected drug. Colbie knew the truth was something completely different.

Alex was just in a daze.

He hadn’t spoken since those last few words. Once the men in uniform had arrived with their flashing blue lights he had clamped down, eyes turning to the table top and his jaw clamping. Colbie had thought that he was unusually tense but her mind was already elsewhere. She knew that this incident spelt trouble.

Evil wasn’t usually so obvious. They hid in the shadows, pulling the strings of mortals, committing their sins in the darkness.  They didn’t expose themselves like this. It was too dangerous – too risky.

Colbie shivered and wrapped the covers tighter over her body. She had been given leave off of her lessons due to stress. She felt like telling them that she wasn’t stressed, she was just a little scared but dared not open her mouth. If she spoke the words they would probably make it real. She didn’t want it to be real. While wrapped in her covers, hiding from the world, she could pretend that she was a normal twenty year old in a normal world where things like this just didn’t happen.

“Colbie?”

There was a sharp rap on the door followed by someone trying the door handle. Another knock and then more muttering and talking. She couldn’t actually distinguish the words from where she laid but the gist was obvious enough.

Closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths, the brunette pushed herself upwards. She regretted it immediately. Her head spun and bile rose up in her throat, threating to spill over at the slightest prompt.

Upon arriving back at her room in the early hours of the morning, Colbie had taken one look at the messy kitchen before helping herself to her housemate’s ridiculously large alcohol collection. It definitely solved any issues she had been having getting to sleep. Around 4 am, in a haze of alcohol and vivid waking nightmares, Colbie Carrington had passed out into unconsciousness with the vodka bottle still clutched in her hand.

Holding her head in her hand, the youngest Carrington tried to silence the thudding in her head but it was louder than a heavy metal concert. She could barely hear herself think. Unable to see straight let along touch up the special effects make up on her forehead, Colbie grabbed a hoodie from one of her drawers and threw it on. Yanking up the hood, she used her finger tips to muss up her hair enough so that she could hide her forehead.

With her hangover, Colbie doubted her eyes would leave the floor anytime soon. It hurt to just have her eyes open. There was no way she was risking more pain to see where she was going. More bruises were less torturous than this.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Colbie clutched one hand to her head and stumbled towards her door. She fumbled over the lock but finally managed to wrench open her door.

“What?” She growled, squinting against the bright lights of the hallway as they drilled their painful light into the back of her eye balls.

“Are you okay? I’ve been knocking on your door all morning.” Max stated simply, his head cocking to the side as he examined his bedraggled friend.

“I wish everyone would stop asking if I am okay.” The Carrington girl muttered, burrowing her head further into her jacket. “I am far from okay and right now I have the worst headache I have ever experienced.”

Max glanced down at the floor and scuffed his toe on the lino looking much like a upset puppy.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bug you.” 

Guilt swirling in her guy but Colbie fought against the urge to apologise. A lot had happened lately - too much. It was to be expected that she go just a little crazy. She had kept it all together for far too long.

Colbie sighed and ducked her head.

“No, I’m sorry. It was unfair to snap at you.” She brought up a hand and pulled it down over her face as if to wipe away the weariness. “Last night was a bit of a fiasco as mother would say. It’s not every day some crazy kills himself in front of you.”

Max stepped closer and wrapped his arms around Colbie, pulling her into the warmth of his body. They stood there in silence, despite the loud chatter coming from the kitchen. There was loud clatters and bangs as several cupboard doors opened and closed.

Colbie hid her head further into Max’s chest, trying to get away from the crashes and bangs but also to hide the smile that was already making its way on to her lips. Biting her lip, she thanked God she had had the foresight to hide the empty vodka bottle at the bottom of the bin despite the stupor she had been in before crashing the night before.

“Where is it? Where’s my vodka?” A flame haired girl streaked past Colbie’s room, stomping her dainty feet with every step that she took. She pushed open her bedroom door and glanced over her shoulder at the embracing pair. “If I find out you stole my vodka, I will make you pay.”

Happy with the threat being delivered, she strode into her room in a swirl of perfume and highly glossed hair. As soon as the door slammed shut, more crashes and bangs could be heard before the red head’s voice shrieked at the top of her lungs.

Colbie lifted her head from Max’s chest and snorted.

“Oops?” she offered sheepishly.

He quickly buried his head in her neck in an attempt to muffle the laughter which spilled from his lips. His entire body shook with the effort.

“Let me guess,” He said between bouts of chuckles. “You’re the vodka thief. Let’s hope she’s as clueless as Facebook lead me to believe.”

Opening her mouth to question him, Colbie paused before simply closing her mouth and relaxing back into his hold.

“I don’t even want to know. My head hurts too much as it is.”

Max offered a sheepish smile and released Colbie from his hug but chose to keep his hand on her arm. He couldn’t fight the urge to maintain contact – to know that she was okay. He had woken up in a cold sweat with no logical reason as to why. Things hadn’t been normal since term began but even that sixth sense which had him checking under his bed before he climbed in every night was beyond even the logics he understood.

“I should probably start packing.” The young woman muttered some minutes later once they had both had time to calm down.

Another crash and bang could be heard from their irate housemate but it only elicited eye rolls and knowing smiles. Max smile fell away quickly as her words sank in.

“Packing? What for?”

Colbie tugged on his arm and pulled him into her room. With one final glance out into the hallway she shut the door, closing them off from the rest of the house. Max had stepped back and folded his arms across his chest.

“You know who my father is. Do you really think he will let me stay here now? This city was supposed to be safe.”  Colbie shuddered and looked away.

“But it wasn’t about crime. Last night was just some loony tune. He can’t make you leave because of one nutter.”

“Yeah, just a nutter.” She said absently but felt her gut churn at the words.

The heiress knew it was so much more than that. She knew her family defended the world from evil but never had she seen or experienced it. A shiver coursed down her spine. And last night wasn’t even an attack. It was a warning - a warning of things much darker and much more painful to come.

“Do the police need you for anything else?”

“Wha-? Oh no, not a lot to report really. They have a video tape of me making a complete and utter fool of myself. It seems to be a habit of mine these days.”

At the look she received from her friend, the young woman let out a groan not caring that her hood fell backwards exposing her bruise free forehead.

“I kind of tripped and fell backwards over the table when the man threw himself at a window.”

At the sound of his laughter, Colbie sat up and gave Max a swift punch in the arm. Pain radiated through her hand. She shook the hand and glared at the man-boy across from her as if it was his fault that her hand was now throbbing.

“You’re such a klutz.”

Colbie held her hand to her heart.

“I take offense to that. How would you hold up if some lunatic came charging towards you and started beating his head at the only thing separating you. It was terrifying. I won’t even pretend to be brave.” Colbie’s mind filled with the image of the smile the homeless man had given her, the spirit of evil looking out from those eyes with a promise of pain lurking deep within.

“I wasn’t brave and probably won’t ever be brave.”

She absently rubbed at the goosebumps that had formed beneath her jumper. Sitting beside her on her bright blue rumpled bedding, Max wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Tilting her head up, Colbie noted that for the first time since she had known him that Max wasn’t wearing his square frame glasses.

“Wow, I’ve never noticed before but your eyes are really beautiful.” 

She clamped her jaw shut as soon as the words had slipped out. A red rosy flush formed on Max’s cheeks and he ducked his head in an attempt to hide his beautiful eyes from her.

“Thanks,” he muttered lamely.

“No problem.”

An awkward silence fell over the pair. Neither of them looked at the other as they sat side by side. There were only a few scant inches separating them.

“So, I’m guessing your date didn’t go too well yesterday?”

Clearing her throat, Colbie reluctantly answered.

“It was good. Really good to begin with,” she said. Her fingers absently trailed over her lips as she remembered the kiss. The brunette felt the familiar tingle of warmth course through her veins at the mere memory of the action. “And then you know the rest.”

She ducked her head and looked away.

Max cleared his throat and took a deep breath.

“Well, that’s good. Isn’t it?”

The Carrington heiress closed her eyes and pressed her hands to her face.

“I don’t know.” She mumbled. She dropped her hands to the bed as she fell backwards. “Is there really any point? It’s not as if it can last. My father is a politician. Because of that, certain things will always be expected of me. Alex is great but I don’t think he would find me so great when he learns about my family.”

She heaved in a breath before turning her head to the side so she could look directly at her friend.

“What happened last night was nothing. That really was just a crazy. Do you know my father gets at least a dozen death threats a week? He receives at least one letter a week threatening the lives of his family. Why do you think I have so much security? Being related to someone in the public eye might seem fun but it couldn’t be farther from the truth.” Colbie drew in a deep breath. “And the truth is, this here – being at university – is the lie, my lie will never be normal. I just need to learn to accept that.”

As she voiced the words that had been floating around in her mind since she became old enough to actually think about her future, Colbie felt something in her break. It was hope. She had always hoped that she could have that quiet life away from the media limelight. She had always prayed that she could live in almost anonymity - loved and known only by those she called friends and family. But as she laid there, her brown eyes swam with tears of defeat.

There was a gentle tap on her bedroom door preventing their conversation from going any deeper.

Noting her distressed and emotional state, Max pushed to his feet with a sigh. His eyes were reddened too, moisture forming within them.

“It’s because of the contacts,” he muttered to himself but he could resist glancing over his shoulder.

Colbie had moved further up the bed so that her head rested on the pillow. Her face was blank, no emotion at all as her eyes stared straight ahead without actually seeing. That expression on her face made Max’s chest ache and yet he didn’t even know why. He had never been an expert in emotions and had always found them baffling. Like Colbie he had never had many friends when growing up. Something about his personality just didn’t mesh well with other people.

Shaking his head, Max tried to pull back the joy and energy that usually filled his entire being. He just fell flat. Taking a deep breath, he pulled on the door and yanked it open.

Abruptly he stepped backward as his eyes took in the pale faced and unshaven man standing in the doorway.

“Uh Colbie, we have company.”

The woman in question just huffed and hid her head under her pillow, unwilling to face up to reality any sooner than she had to. The lanky young man was left to fend for himself in a situation that was so awkward that even his natural jovial attitude struggled to cope.

Alex stood in the doorway looking as if he had seen better days. His skin was clammy in the artificial light of the hallway and his clothes were rumpled from where he had slept in them. His hair no longer looked artfully mussed but had tangled from him continuously carding his fingers through his hair in frustration. He now was the proud owner of a small bird’s nest on top of his head.

“Is uh-.” Alex paused as he met Max’s steely gaze.

Immediately male pride had Alex pulling back his shoulders and attempting to stand as tall as he possibly could.  Max was taller by an inch or two but what he had in height, he lacked in body muscle. Clenching his jaw, he stared down the unshaven man before him while attempting not to be intimidated by the undeniably good looking man before him.

“Is Colbie here?” Alex asked, leaning closer to the doorway in an attempt to look past the human barrier in his way.

Stepping closer to the door frame, Max pulled the door flush against his body so Colbie’s boyfriend – he tried not to flinch at the thought – was forced to look directly at him. He had never really been one to judge on just appearances but one glance at the man already had a bead of dislike forming in the younger man’s gut. He felt puzzled over the entire situation but, when he felt the man move closer, decided it was better if he dealt with it all later.

“She’s in.” He answered finally when he had no choice but to reply or make the situation even more awkward than it already was.

“Great, can I see her?” Alex stepped forward expectantly and thus was more than a little thrown when Max looked at him from head to toe before responding in a firm voice.

“No.”

Alex folded his arms across his chest, his fists clenching into the fabric of his leather jacket as he struggled to rein in the irritation this boy was creating.

“Why not?”

“Look, she likes you and you like her but Colbie’s not really up or visitors right now.” He replied firmly looking into the room behind him, Max noted that the woman causing all of his troubles had her eyes closed as she curled her body around a pillow.

“I’ll tell her you stopped by. She’ll be happy you did but right now she needs to rest and try to make sense of everything she has seen.”

Chewing on the inside of his lip, the teen tried not to worry too much about her. However it was much more difficult in practice - with her dreams and the homeless man?

He dropped his gaze to the floor and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. He had never felt so useless in his life because there was nothing he could do apart from be there at her side and protect her the best that a weakling like him could manage.

“Just leave a number and I will make sure that she calls you.” When Alex wavered, the younger men grit his teeth and offered up the best cordial smile that he could muster. “I promise.”  

Her beau gritted his teeth before nodding affirmative. Bitterness and anger radiated from him as he turned abruptly away from her doorman and strode away with his fists clenched at his sides. The gestures were evidence enough that he resented backing down from the fight – especially with a guy that he could easily take down with a single fist to his face.

He paused at the door leading the cold weather outside and looked back at her frowning caretaker.

“She already has my number so please get her to call me.”

With those parting words, he yanked open the door. Through the gap under his arm, the younger man could see a group of people huddled together on the other side of the road, several were holding camera equipment. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath even as the other man closed the door, disappearing into the chill winter wind.

Colbie was right. She would never get a quiet life.

Max stood there in the door way for a long time after Alex’s departure just staring into nothingness as thoughts passed rapidly through his mind.

He knew he had done the right thing in turning Colbie’s love interest away  - especially with the media right on their doorstep - and yet Max knew that deep down it had been for his own benefit – not Colbie’s.

He shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably and stepped back into the room. It would be something else he could deal with later. For now, as far as he was concerned, his only job was to watch over Colbie as she slept and make sure no more nightmares haunted her dreams. It was a feat easier said than done but by the time she woke up for her lectures the following day, she was alone in her room with the door securely shut.

And Colbie was left unawares that she was one of those people who talked in their sleep.