Chapter Seventeen
The sunshine cuts through Penny’s closed eyes like a knife slicing through a piece of cheese. She rolls onto the side where sunshine rays warm her back. With that simple turn, her head rattles, and her stomach puckers. Penny obviously had one too many drinks of whiskey last night but who could blame the poor woman after seeing her estranged son.
Another low rumble grows in her stomach while a jab of pain reverberates at the top of her body. Just like a knife.
Nothing that a Bloody Mary couldn’t fix with a batch of fried eggs and bacon. But first, she needed more rest. With the sun rising, Penny fell back into a restless fit of sleep.
Lewis felt strange that day at school. He couldn’t put his finger directly on the emotion but something just felt...off.
Maybe it was due to the night before. Mom and Penny were acting very strange. They regularly ordered pizza on a weekday but there was additional tension present with the meal. For starters, Penny was drinking way more than usual. And that’s saying something because Lewis’ grandma drank on the daily.
He acts “dumb” but Lewis listens to everything. Penny enjoys a shot or two with her afternoon tea just before everyone returns home from work. And yes, she has an additional cocktail at night with dinner. All normal, except for the large flask that she didn’t even bother to hide while walking into her bedroom last night.
Lewis is accustomed to his family drinking alcohol, but this excess drinking felt almost charged.
Denis was calm about him playing hooky earlier that day but even after entering his bedroom, it felt claustrophobic. Like an unwelcome guest had entered his space. The Home had a different level of energy. He truly believed that old homes held a history so dark and unspeakable that only the few could recognize. Lewis was one who acknowledged that energy and often reflected it in his drawings. It’s not like he tried to display the darkness lurking in the shadows but still, it was evident through his drawings and even more prevalent in the nightmares.
This thought makes him sick while sitting in English and he tries to shake the feeling. He knew there was one person who could always make him feel better. This one person who he could confide in, even after fighting.
Lewis pulled out his ancient cell phone and sent a text to his childhood friend, Mckenna. “Sorry about yesterday...I shouldn’t have blown you off. Forgive me?”
He sends the message, trying to ignore the energy that envelopes him.
Penny eventually rolls out of bed in the afternoon. The headache was subsiding but the growl deep within her stomach made it nearly impossible to sleep any longer. She had to eat some food and guzzle down a gallon of water, swearing to never drink again.
The kitchen feels cozy with the sunlight pouring in which instantly brightens her mood. Instead of reaching for the coffee pot, she walks to the liquor cabinet and pulls out the half-empty bottle of vodka. The slosh of the liquid matching her empty stomach. “Nothing like having the hair of the dog who bites me to take the edge off. Just one Bloody Mary should do the trick,” she says to The Home.
While shaking the vodka, tomato juice, Tabasco sauce, and ice inside the tumbler, she places a pan on the stove to cook some bacon. “A BLT would pair well with this drink, wouldn’t you say?” Penny has never lost her mind but chooses to speak with the presence within the home instead of ignoring it.
“Now, I have a stash of bacon hidden somewhere within this fridge,” she peers to the very back with nearly half her body inside the fridge. Living with boys her entire life, she has learned the secret to keeping some food hidden otherwise she ends up hungry and broke.
With her backside fully exposed to the kitchen and her mind focused on rediscovering the hidden bacon, she doesn’t notice the sun fading away behind the shadow that slowly creeps up from behind. Never harmful but always leering, waiting till a distraction catches the attention of a house occupant. The temperature drops suddenly as if the freezer door had just been opened. The house grows silent, not even a hum from the refrigerator can be heard. And Penny has her head stuck so far inside, that she won’t feel the icy slithering of a foreign touch until it’s too late.
She was cornered and never even realized it.
The Shadow is always waiting in the dark for just the right moment. Happiness, joy, and love usually kept it at bay but yesterday, the estranged son had broken that spell. It had been far too long since it had been fed and now it was starving.
The landline suddenly rings and Penny bashes her head against the bottom shelf in response. The shadow slinks back into the corner as Penny yells four-letter expletives, “I mean come on! Who even calls the landline nowadays?”
Rubbing the back of her head and smoothing out the rumpled muumuu, she answers the phone. “Hello?” No response from the other end. “Hello, who is this?” But still, the line remains silent and she slams it back down onto the receiver. “Damn scammers and their greed, now I lost my hunting spot for my hidden bacon.”
Little did she know that the caller was no scammer but rather a guardian angel. Light and dark share the same space, always fighting for attention. One will out win the other, for now.
