Ten o’clock hit, and it was all clear.
Damn it.
Even Clara had noted how tired I looked that morning. I’d been too embarrassed to tell her why I’d stayed up. I had to deal with this on my own.
I wasn’t even sure when I passed out, but I did, sitting upright on the mattress with my mom’s notebook open, back against the headboard.
What I did know was that when my neck started hurting at some point, the lights still on, I woke up.
And I yelled again because the son of a bitch was back.
And he was flying around erratically, like he was drunk; he could’ve been six feet wide, terrorizing me and the home I was living in.
Actually, it wasn’t a he. This one knew what it was doing—raising hell—and only a woman would be that intuitive and ready to fuck with someone for the hell of it.
She swooped, and I screamed, flying off the bed and running down the stairs, screaming again, and out the damn door.
As fate would have it, the moon was bright and high in the sky, illuminating another bat flying around what felt like right over my head but was really more like twenty feet above ground.
And again, I screamed. This time “Fuck!” at the top of my lungs.
I’d left my keys! Upstairs! With her! And my blanket!
Okay, Ora, all right, think.
I could do this. I could—
A loud voice boomed, “What is going on?” straight from the darkness.
I kind of knew that voice.
It was Mr. Rhodes, and from the crunching gravel, he was coming over. Probably pissed. I’d woken him up.
Later on, I would be disappointed in myself again for jabbing my finger toward the garage apartment and saying, “Bat!”
I couldn’t see him. I wasn’t sure if he made a face or rolled his eyes or what, but I knew he was getting closer and closer. But I could hear it in his voice. I could hear him rolling his eyes just from the way he spat, “What?” in the same voice he’d used the day I’d shown up.
“There’s a bat in the room!”
Finally, I could see the silhouette of his body stopping a couple feet away, and I heard his annoyance as he asked, “What? You’re bellowing over a bat?”
Bellowing over a bat? Did he have to ask it like that? Like it was no big deal?
Was he shitting me?
And like the one outside knew we were talking about its kind, the bat swooped back down toward the light mounted above the garage door, and I pulled my tank top up over my head and ducked, trying to make myself as small as possible so it couldn’t get me.
Okay, more like Mr. Rhodes would be bigger, so if one of us was targeted it would be him since he had more mass.
I was pretty sure I heard “Goddamn it” being grumbled right before it sounded like he was walking again.
Leaving me to fend for myself.
Either that or the bat had grown fucking feet, a couple hundred pounds, and was on its way to kill me.
I waited a second and peeked out to see… nothing.
It was gone. At least the one outside was.
Or more like he was sitting somewhere. Waiting to pick on me again.
“Where did it go?” I asked about a split second before I spotted what I was pretty sure was bare feet moving across the ground like that shit didn’t hurt like hell.
Where was he going?
“He went back home, to its cave,” he muttered, genuinely sounding disgruntled as he walked away.
He was leaving me here. To fend for my life. Because this was no big deal to him.
Then I remembered it was a bat and just about anyone would scream. It wasn’t my fault he was a mutant with no fears.
All right. I needed to calm down and keep my shit together. Think.
Or move. Moving was good.
I got up, glancing up at the sky one more time, and then hustled after Rhodes who was… making his way toward his truck?
Fuck it, I was nosey. “There’s a cave around here?”
“No.”
I frowned, remembering right then that I wasn’t wearing pants but then decided I didn’t care and kept on following him.
He glanced over his shoulder as he opened the door. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” I croaked, but really, all I could think about was safety in numbers.
Even with how dark it was, I could tell that he was making a face.
“What are you doing?”
He might have rolled his eyes, but he had his back to me so I would never know for sure. “Going to my truck.”
“For what?”
“To get a net so I don’t have to hear you hollering at the top of your lungs when I’m trying to get some sleep.”