The drive wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I always tended to remember the worst aspects but I genuinely enjoyed the dark, empty roads and my heavy metal tunes. It was a sort of therapeutic.

It would have been down right pleasant had I not awkwardly run into my ex boyfriend at the towns only gas station while I was fueling up. Sean hadn't changed much in the many years I had been gone from the area. He was still over 6 feet tall with shoulders wide enough to push a mountain. His hauntingly beautiful blue eyes still held an unmistakable pull and his long dark hair had grown out quite a bit. He had full, kissable lips that at one point made my knees weak. The charm of him left me when he cheated on me with my ex best friend. Funny how they weren't still together.

Thankfully, it had only been a short unspoken flaunt of "Hey, Z. See what you're missing out on. Let's fuck again!" due to his sudden tumble on the pavement. While he was brushing off his knees, the tab for the gas nozzle clicked, signifying it was full. I tried to hide my laughter until I was safely in my truck cab, leaving him to his shame and made my way to my parents house.

I was still giggling by the time I rolled into my mom's driveway. As promised, her white Buick was gone which told me that she had already departed for the airport. The spare key to get inside was still hidden under the broken potted plant next to the garage door and I let myself inside.

I casually tossed the door closed with my foot as I shuffled with my bag over my shoulder and I heard it hit something. I glanced back to see it swinging back open and I sighed in frustration. I had been telling her to get this damn thing fixed. The lock on it tended to get stuck inside the door so it didn’t work properly. My hand firmly turned the door knob and pushed on the little button to make sure it didn’t get stuck and closed the door. I gave it a few hard pulls to make sure it was secure and then I locked it again.

I heard Sosha yapping away already and it grated on my nerves. The little black poodle was exactly where I knew he would be. In his massive crate in the living room. My mother had tried to train him to sleep with her, but the little dog didn’t seem able to sleep because he was too excited to be next to my mom. More often than not, he’d wet the bed and she’d have to wash all the sheets.

As I came around the corner from the kitchen, the little asshole started to snarl at me. Not uncommon. He was a dick to anyone other than my mother. A trait she found, oh, so endearing. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fuck you too, you little dick. Mom will only be gone for a few days and then I’ll be out of your hair. Let’s go. Outside.”

Normally, when anyone mentioned the word ‘outside’ Sosha perked up, but as I bent to open the door to the cage, he lowered himself to the floor, small whimpers shaking his whole body. That was indeed odd behavior. I noticed his beady eyes were fixed on something behind me, but there was nothing but the wall. Something was spooking him to stay fixed to his spot and when I reached for him, he just backed further into the cage. “Okay…”

I stood up and went to the front door, which was conveniently in the living room, to open it up. Still, Sosha was quivering in his cage looking up at the wall. What the hell was he seeing? A ghost? Surely not. My mother was extremely superstitious and would be the first one to tell me about a ghost. Mainly because she knew I could sometimes sense shit like that.

Out of curiosity I found myself walking over to the wall where Sosha was staring. My mom hung up various pieces of my old art up as well as portraits of us girls and my father. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I started to turn around, but I caught a whiff of something that I didn't recognize. What the hell? I frowned and closed my eyes to try to concentrate as I inhaled deeply and nearly moaned. It was a deep musk type smell. Something close to Egyptian Amber, but... earthier and more exotic. All I knew was that it was fan-fucking-tastic and this smell needed to be bottled and sold ASAP.

I looked around to see if my mother had a candle placed about, but I couldn’t find the source of that wonderful smell. I fell to my knees to peer behind the beige reclining chair, ignoring the creaking of the house. “What the hell? Mom’s got to have a plug in somewhere here with that damn smell!”

The clatter of nails on wood made me look up to see that Sosha had darted outside finally. That made me momentarily abandon my hunt for the smell. I’d just ask mom about it when she got back. I looked back at the open door fully expecting Sosha to be searching around for someplace to use the bathroom, but he was oddly sitting in the middle of the yard looking back at the door. Just...watching. “Creepy little fucker…” I found myself muttering.

My stomach growled and I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything in nearly 12 hours. I was fucking starved. My first stop was to the fridge to see what leftovers my mother had. I saw the silver crockpot inside and pulled it out with a happy jig. I could already smell the spices wafting out of it and knew it was her beef vegetable stew. Oh, hell yes, please! Mom was a fabulous cook.

I ended up barely tasting the first bowl because I was so hungry, but I made sure to savor the second and even the third bowl. By the time I was finished, I was almost too tired to put the food away. Fatigue was starting to hit me hard, but I forced myself to do it. I also checked on Sosha. He was still sitting in his spot on the lawn. I couldn’t leave him out there because he would make a tasty treat for a large bird and boy wouldn’t that be an awkward conversation to have with mom?

“Yeah, I know I said I’d look after him, but welp, wouldn’t you know it that on day one he got eaten? Sorry, mom!”

Yeah. That totally wouldn’t work. So I opened the door and called for him to come back inside. The little fucker didn’t move. I sighed, dreading the fact I was going to have to go chase after him...but as I walked up to him, he didn’t move. The little guy was literally shaking on the spot. He didn’t even fight me as I picked him up in my hands like he normally did. Not wanting to risk him coming to his senses, I walked back inside and sat him down. Immediately, he ran inside his crate and burrowed under his many blankets. All I had to tell he was even in there was the quivering pile. What the hell was up his ass?

Maybe food would help him? It was about time when my mother would feed him, but he didn’t even budge when I cracked open his wet dog food to place in his bowl. It actually worried me a bit. Was he getting sick? He wasn’t that old, but what illness would make a dog react like that? Scared?

I debated about calling my mother to tell her about Sosha’s weird behavior but the tiny taps of his claws made me look down to see his quivering cautiously around the corner. His little eyes were darting around, looking for something. I watched him slowly approach his food, every step making his little eyes hastily looking for anything abnormal. I bent down to hold out my hand to him. When he didn’t make any growling sounds, I ran my fingers through his soft curls. “What’s got you so spooked, huh? You may be a little dick, but you’re mom’s best friend. You can’t go kicking the bucket just yet.”

I wasn’t sure if it was my petting, or my voice, but he seemed to calm down a little. Now that he was behaving a little more normal, I got up to go close the front door and replaced Sosha’s training pad in his cage before walking back to my old bedroom. Mom left it there for me because she always wanted to have a bed for me to come home to should I need it. I think she secretly hoped things wouldn’t work out for me in the big city and I’d eventually come home. No thank you ma'am.

She hadn’t changed a single thing in here. Even my heavy metal band posters were still pinned to the wall even though she hated the music. It made me smile a bit. I grabbed the tv remote and turned it on before kicking off my shoes and crawling up on the dark comforter. I sighed heavily, my body already going into shut down mode. I didn’t plan on watching tv, but it did always help me sleep in the old creaking house.

My head hit the pillow just as the sun started to peek through the massive window of my room. I almost laughed at the sudden memory of Sean crawling through it many nights while my parents slept. God, I had thought I really loved that asshole at one time. What I would give to have someone in my life that made that fucker think twice about approaching me again. It was the last thought I had before I fell asleep.

***AUTHORS NOTE***

This Chapter shall contain only Z's perspective because Xai'an's is a bit long. Thanks for reading and please vote! Leave comments! I can't wait to hear from you!

***END AUTHORS NOTE***