Pretend With Me (Midnight Society #1) (11 page)

I kept my eyes closed, feeling tired. I hadn't slept a full
two hours last night. At first, I couldn't fall asleep. Even
though the day had been overwhelming and exhausting,
Eric's confession wouldn't give my brain a rest. Instead, it
played in my head like a song stuck on repeat, and when I
did finally fall asleep the dreams attacked me, waking me
up seconds ago. I knew trying to go back to sleep was a
waste of time so I didn't try. Instead, I began to stretch,
only to find that my movements were restricted.

My eyes shot open at once as a mixture of fear and
adrenaline pulsed through me. In the same second I sat up,
too panicked and confused to care about not waking the
sleeping person at my side.

Instead of waking, the person bundled up to me,
hugging me tighter. It was a girl; a tiny girl with hair that
looked as soft as clouds. I tilted my head at her confused,
trying to find her face, but it was buried halfway in my lap
and the covers. All I could make out was her light golden–
brown, soft hair and her fair, almost white skin.

Just then Eric walked into the room, his head buried in
papers. Without glancing in my direction, he walked over
to his bookcase, shuffling through the bundle of papers
for a moment, then found a file lying somewhere on the
bookcase and placed them in it.

“Eric,” I whispered not wanting to wake the sleeping
child. He turned to me smiling and began making his way
to the bed. Before he could reach me, I put a finger to my
lips showing him to be silent and then pointed to the little
girl on my lap.

“Sorry,” he both frowned and smiled when he saw the
girl. “My sister, Christy.” I stared down at the unknown
sleeping girl as Eric stopped at my side and leaned over
her, about to wake her.

“No,” I whispered before he could, “don't wake her.” I
slapped away his hand and in the process forgot that I
should not be moving. Instantly, I went still when she
began to stir.

A moment later she raised her head, looking up at me.
Her eyes were wide bright blue orbs that were too awake
to suggest she'd just been asleep. She smiled at me, as if
she already loved me unconditionally, yawned and nestled
back on my lap, hugging me tighter.

“Christy,” Eric said with gentle authority and she
looked up at him, seeming to realize only now that he was
in the room. “We talked about this, remember?” he said
sitting on the side of the bed.

“But... I love her so much already,” she said speaking
to Eric but looking at me. “I screamed when you fainted.
It hurt so much... I was so afraid something bad had
happened to you.”

It took me a moment to make sense of what she was
saying. Then I remembered the horrible scream last night.
It was the last thing I heard before blacking out. I bit my
lip looking at Eric.

He had told me what Christy could do and I didn't
know what to say or how to respond to her. How could I
show her I was okay, when I wasn't? How could I fake
being happy when this child, who already loved me, could
feel everything I felt?

“Come on, Christy, let's leave Jen to rest” Eric said. He
scooped her up in his arms and started for the door.
“Goodbye, Jen,” she called as he carried her outside. I
raised my hand to wave to her, but Eric was already gone.
As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, I dropped
back on the bed. A moment later Eric, re-entered the
room.
“Sorry about that,” he said, “Christy can be a little
overbearing sometimes.”
“It’s fine,” I sighed sitting up, waiting for him to start
asking his usual morning questions; how I was feeling?
What I wanted for breakfast? Had I taken my meds
already? Instead he only stood there for a moment smiling
at me with calculated eyes that was filled with wonder.
Instantly I knew he wanted to tell me something. Most
likely something I wasn't going to like.
“Spit it out, Eric,” I demanded when he remained
silent.
“Well I have a favor to ask,” he began, sitting at my
side on the edge of the bed. “My mom wants to spend the
day with you.”
“What?” I blinked gawking at him.
“Well tonight there's this thing… our engagement party
actually and they're literally tearing downstairs apart so my
mom thought while they did that you might want to go
out,” he said in one breath. I had only heard the first part
though. From the second he had mentioned 'our
engagement party' I began freaking out.
“Our party?” I squeaked, choking the words out.
“Yes,” he nodded reaching behind his back and pulled
out a rectangular piece of paper, placing it on my lap. I
grabbed it up at once. The paper was thick, hard and
rough. The script was smooth and elegant in a golden font.
It declared that there would be a ball to celebrate Eric and
I tonight. It looked like a very rich and lavish wedding
invitation, the only thing out of place was a large, black
widow spider imprinted onto the paper, but even this was
tasteful. If this was the invitation to our engagement, I
didn't think I could handle the actual wedding. I looked at
Eric, beginning to panic.
“It isn't going to be big, I swear, just a few hundred
people,” he said trying to calm me. It wasn't working. My
breathing was unsteady and my heart was about to give out
due to being over worked.
“Hundred?” I heard myself squeal.
“Don't worry, it'll be fine. I'll be at your side all night.
You might even get tired of me,” he laughed. I gave a
nervous laugh and he took my hand in his. “It'll be fine, I
promise.” I nodded even though I didn't really believe
that.
“Okay,” I swallowed. I needed to distract myself before
I could go into full freak-out mode. “So about this
favor...” I said hoping this would be enough to take my
mind away from the upcoming hellish event.
“If you do decide to spend the day with my mom...
please be nice to her.”
“You're giving me a choice?” I asked surprised.
“She's giving you a choice, yes.”
I thought for a moment and then nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay, you'll do it?” he asked and I nodded again. A
huge, bright smile spread across his lips as he cupped my
face, pulling me to him. Instantly he planted a kiss on my
forehead and hugged me. “Get ready and when you're
done meet me in the kitchen. We'll have breakfast together
and then you can leave.” He kissed me again on my
forehead and then left the room.
I took my time getting ready. Even though I agreed to
spend the day with Eric's mother, I wasn't in a hurry to
start that day. I had no idea why I agreed, but I already
promised so there was no going back now.
Finding the kitchen was surprisingly easy. Last night I
had seen enough of this house - if it could be called that to know it was big enough to get lost in. What I hadn't
thought of was the amount of staff it took to manage this
place. I passed at least twelve different persons on the
corridor alone, and they all knew exactly who I was and
greeted me with a slight curtsy, like people did in those old
movies, and a bright cheerful 'Good morning, Ms Jenifer.'
It was overwhelming, but without their help I would have
gotten lost.
At breakfast, Eric asked his usual questions and as
usual, I lied through my teeth, telling him I was fine and I
had already taken my pills and I slept well. All through
breakfast I wanted to ask him something, but was too
chicken-hearted to try. Now we were almost finished
eating and I knew I had to suck it up and come out with it.
“Eric,” I hesitated, not looking at him as I picked at the
remaining piece of bread on my plate. “Why didn't you tell
me about this party-ball-thing before we came here...” I
asked backing out for the umpteenth time. “I mean they
must plan these things months in advance... why didn't you
tell me?”
Eric stopped eating and turned to face me fully, his
blue eyes burning my face. “You don't do well with stress...
If I had told you, you'd have dwelled on it and freaked out
about it. I wanted to give you as much of a stress free
week as I could. I owed you that...” he trailed off.
He was right, of course, but I still hated that he kept it
from me. I didn't tell him this though, instead all I said
was, “Thank you. Hawaii was nice...” I figured that since I
was going to die soon, the least I could do for him was be
agreeable. “So you said your mother could see a person's
past... how does that work?” I finally got out as casually as
I could.
“Well...” he mused, “it only happens once. When she
sees the past of a person... she can't see any more than she
saw that first time.”
I looked at him confused, not quite understanding.
“Okay,” he began again, seeing the confusion clearly on
my face. “So let's say my mom sees someone walking on
the streets, that person's life will flash before her eyes,” he
stopped making sure I understood so far. I nodded so he
could continue. “If she saw that same person twenty...
thirty years later and she tried to see their past, she would
only see as far as she saw the first time.”
“Okay,” I nodded again. My mind was buzzing with
new questions and details now. I thought for a moment
picking out the most important ones. “What if the first
time she met someone, she didn't look into their past?”
Eric was already shaking his head. “It happens
automatically. It’s not something she can control. The first
time she meets someone, she sees their past whether she
wants to or not.”
“Oh,” I said taking in everything he was telling me.
There was a part of me that was relieved; now I didn't
have to worry about her knowing I wasn't taking my
medication through her freaky, supernatural gift. But that
also meant Eric's mother knew about Daren, and what
happened the night he and Brandon had died.
“You look relieved,” he commented but didn't demand
a reason why and for that I was glad.
“I have one more question before I leave. When I
agreed to this date with your mom, you were really happy...
why?” He took my hand and pulled me off the chair. Then
he began leading me out of the dining room. I followed
willingly, waiting for a reply.
“I want you to be comfortable around my family.
They're your family as well and I want you to see that.”
I couldn't help smile up at him.
Eric walked with me to a sitting room that looked like
it came straight out of a Jane Austen novel. I was
beginning to realize that all the rooms in this house were
big, beautiful and antique. The house itself was magical
and almost like a fairytale scene.
Eric's mother was sitting with her back to us and a
book opened in front of her, and at the sight I got
nervous. My heart shot into overdrive again, threatening to
burst through my ribcage. At my side Eric gave my hand a
gentle squeeze and I turned to him. He was smiling at me,
encouragingly yet amused at the same time and I got the
feeling he knew exactly how nervous I was.
As soon as we entered the room, Eric's mother shut
the book, stood up and turned to face us with a warm
smile on her lips. She was just as I remembered, with waist
length, blonde, straight hair, perfect skin that celebrities
would kill for and piercing bright, blue eyes just like the
rest of her family.
“Good morning, honey,” she smiled warmly and at first
I thought she was speaking to Eric. Her voice had held so
much love and affection that only a mother speaking to
her children could sound like that, but then she walked up
to us and hugged me. The hug was gentle but still awkward
because Eric refused to drop my hand. At the physical
contact, my body had stiffened automatically. “You look
absolutely lovely,” she stepped back, taking both of my
shoulders in her hands as if to get a better look at me.
“Thank you Mrs. Wilson, you too.”
“We better leave now or we're going to be late.” She
already had my hand in hers, leading me to the door.
I looked back and saw Eric watching us. He waved to
me and then the front door closed behind me, leaving me
alone with his mother.
* * *

I had three women working on me at the same time,
each poking at my body. One of the girl, a short, thin girl
with dark hair was at my feet polishing my toes. Another
was at my fingernails and the last was attacking my hair.
Earlier today when the car had pulled up in front of the
lavish, hellish place, I wanted to turn and run away
screaming. I only entered because I promised Eric I was
going to be nice.

Unfortunately, I had not known being nice meant being
pampered and all that crap, as Mrs. Wilson had put it when
she saw the horror on my face as we walked into the place.
My body had had enough pampering and any moment I
was going to light one of those girl's hair on fire.

They had painted my nails to a dazzling bright color
that stood out too much, had waxed my eyebrows – which
didn't really need waxing – and had insisted on cutting my
hair. That I didn't allow. They could prod at me however
they pleased, but it was going to be a happy day in Hell
before those witches ever cut my hair.

“Are you hungry?” Mrs. Wilson asked at my side. At
once I nodded, too eager to get out of the torture den.
Mrs. Wilson got up, said goodbye to the witches and then
we began making our way to the car waiting out front.

I looked up to her frowning. “Are you kidding? That
was horrible.” Her only response was a small, amused
chuckle. The driver of the car was already standing with
the door open waiting for us, and once we were inside the
silence became deafening.

“Jenifer,” Mrs. Wilson called kindly and I turned to
face her. She took a deep breath and I could tell the very
moment I feared all morning was here. “How much has
Eric told you about us... his family, I mean?” Her question
was casual, but I knew there was a deeper meaning behind
it.

I hesitated for a minute, not sure what to say. Was I
supposed to know about their freaky yet somewhat cool,
supernatural gifts? “It’s okay,” she smiled seeing my face,
“secrets in our family are... well it’s hard to stay secrets for
long.” I nodded. With Christy and Eric's gift it would be
hard keeping secrets. It was easy to lie with words, lying
with emotions and the mind was a complete different
story.