Afterlife. Part 22

"Wasted, is more like it," Rick said. "Just like I don't believe G.o.d came down from the sky and made a virgin get pregnant and I don't believe that vampires get up out of their tombs at night to suck blood, I don't believe this stuff. I think human life is rough enough without these...popular delusions."

"You told me you were skeptical," Joe said. "I didn't know you thought I was delusional."

"Baby, not you. I respect your beliefs. I just don't believe this stuff."

With this social stalemate threatening to bring storm clouds, Julie suddenly got the idea that they should get the croquet set out and get the kids playing in the front yard. It helped break the brief, slightly drunken tension between Rick and Joe, and Dutch, the dog, loved chasing after the croquet ball.

10.

Rick and Joe were going to get the guestroom, and when everybody was getting ready for bed, Rick pointed to the little nightlights. "What's with all the nightlights?"

Julie was in the bathroom, standing there with Livy, both of them brushing their teeth in the mirror, Livy standing up on the footstool that allowed her to get up high enough for the sink and mirror. When Julie rinsed, she said, "It's because it's too dark at night."

"It's for me," Livy said. "I see a ghost sometimes."

11.

Right on schedule, her erotic dream took her over when she fell asleep.

The dead man who was not quite Hut turned her on her stomach. He began licking from the nape of her neck down her shoulder blades, following the slight k.n.o.bs of her spine, his tongue wet and flickering as he tasted her skin. He held her wrists back with his hands, and he went lower, and when he reached the dip in her back, just before the rise in her b.u.t.tocks, he made a slow long circle there, and bit slightly down on her cheek before his mouth went between the cleft.

She moaned into the pillow, but she was not in her bed, but on a dirty mattress in what seemed like a dungeon, with gray stone walls around her, and what looked like metal instruments of torture hanging from the ceiling.

He licked her inside and out, up and down; every part of her below the waist grew moist and warm with his ministrations.

Then, he rose over her, hefting his weight onto her back until she felt crushed, and her breath came hard to her, and then, he entered her from behind, first in one entry, then another. She felt a burning sensation. Oh, but it felt good, and the dead man whispered in her ears, his spit sliding just inside her earlobe, "Do you want me inside you, Julie? Do you? Do you want me all the way in? Every way? I want to open you. I want to open you, Julie."

And she opened her mouth wide to say yes, but a m.u.f.fled sound came from her that was not quite her voice.

Then, someone said, too loud, "Julie? Julie?"

12.

Julie looked up in the dark. A man stood there. Her eyes adjusted, and she reached for the bedside lamp, fear pulsing through her.

Flicked the light up.

It was Joe, wearing a San Francisco '49ers T-shirt that went all the way to his knees. "Are you okay?" "Joe? Joe-what's wrong?"

"You were screaming," he said. "In your sleep." Then Julie realized that she lay there naked, the covers thrown off the bed, her pajama bottoms pulled down around her ankles. Quickly, Joe looked away, and Julie reached for the bedspread, pulling it up over herself.

Chapter Seventeen.

1.

After Rick and Joe and dog left for the city again, Livy asked to talk to her in private. Julie went with her to her room, and Livy shut the door behind her.

"What's up?" Julie asked.

"He came into my room last night," Livy said. "Who?"

"Daddy."

"Honey, it's not Daddy. You know that."

"It is," Livy said. "But he told me you wouldn't believe me. He told me he was going to come for his family and that he loves all of us and not to cry." "Livy, it was a dream you had."

"Maybe," Livy said, looking at her curiously as if she didn't believe a word that her mother said.

"There's nothing to be scared of. We have the burglar alarm. We have the NannyCam. Don't be frightened by these dreams. You're safe."

"I'm not scared anymore," Livy said. Then, she went to open her bedroom door again, and went down the hall to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

Julie sat down on Livy's narrow bed and looked up at the NannyCam on the bookshelf by the door. She went to get the videotape from the previous night.

2.

She fast-forwarded through the tape of the hallway NannyCam. Joe and Rick stumbled back and forth to the bathroom at the end of the hall. Matt got up to use it. And then, nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Empty hall. Bedroom doors either shut or slightly ajar.

And then, a movement through the hall.

Julie felt her heart leap into her throat. Adrenaline pumped through her veins. She paused it-looking to make sure that it wasn't somehow Joe or Rick. That it was someone else.

It was a tall man with broad shoulders, but she couldn't make out much else. It was like a dark shadow moving in the hallway, obscuring the nightlights as it went.

And then, it pa.s.sed Livy's bedroom.

It kept going down the hall.

Straight down the hall to Julie's room, pushing the door open slightly.

Then, the shadow pa.s.sed into her room.

It could not have been a shadow, she knew. It was someone. Some man.

Some stranger had gotten into her house and had gone into her bedroom.

And then the NannyCam's videotape went to static as if it had shut off prematurely.

3.

She checked the burglar alarm, made sure it was operational. Checked all windows. Double-checked the locks on the doors. Grilled both Matt and Livy when they got home from school in case there was any joke going on, but she didn't tell them what she'd seen.

Then she asked Matt to move the wires and the videotape equipment for the NannyCam to her bedroom. They put one on her dresser, to the left of her bed, aimed for a shot of her entire bed. Then, the other one on the doorway. When Matt asked what it was about, she told him it was just an experiment to see when she snored because she had to see if it was sleep apnea or not. He didn't quite get it, but he didn't ask her too many more questions after that.

She couldn't fall asleep that night until five a.m., because every time she started to close her eyes and drift off, she thought she heard a noise and woke up. She ended up sleeping all day, and then getting up that night to try it again.

She looked at the tapes of the first night, anyway. But there was nothing. It was too dark in her bedroom. She could just make out her sleeping form. Then it went to morning, and she fell asleep. Light came through her window. The clock's display read: 6:20 a.m. Matt and Julie would probably be waking up. Nothing happened. The light came more fully up, and Matt came in to get her out of bed.

The next night, again, she had trouble sleeping. She took an Ambien, and did something she knew was stupid. She had a gla.s.s of the wine that Rick and Joe had left behind. Sleeping aid and booze Sleeping aid and booze, she thought when she watched the video later: nice descent into pathetic, Julie. nice descent into pathetic, Julie.

That night, she had the dream of the dead man, again, lifting her up, her legs around his waist as he pierced her, and she opened for him and he entered her deeply and she felt as if she had been plugged up, that she had no opening, and he took his fingers and pushed them into her mouth and she tasted his skin and in the dream she kept telling herself it was a nightmare and she had to wake up, she had to wake up right now! lifting her up, her legs around his waist as he pierced her, and she opened for him and he entered her deeply and she felt as if she had been plugged up, that she had no opening, and he took his fingers and pushed them into her mouth and she tasted his skin and in the dream she kept telling herself it was a nightmare and she had to wake up, she had to wake up right now!

She fast-forwarded the video, watched herself finish off the gla.s.s of wine and lie down.

And then, when the clock's display read 3:00 a.m., a shadow moved into the room.

4.

She could not see more than his dark form-his body was so much like Hut's, it shocked her-but his face was darkness, and he came to her bedside, putting his face near hers. Then, he slowly slipped a hand beneath the covers and drew it back, exposing her in her night shirt. Then, he ran his hand down along her breast, squeezing lightly. She shivered as she watched it.

Slowly-it might've taken him a half-hour-he unb.u.t.toned her top and unlaced her bottom, pulling them both off, while she slept through this, moving slightly.

When he had her naked he pressed his mouth against her forehead while his hands roamed down over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and then further down, between her legs. He pressed his hand down into her, and the sleeping Julie lifted her hips to him.

"f.u.c.k," Julie said aloud, watching this, not believing it, her mind spinning out of control.

Then, he brought his hand back up to her mouth, and pressed his fingers between her lips. Julie couldn't quite see, but it looked like the sleeping Julie sucked at his hand. Then he went to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, taking each nipple in his mouth. For the flicker of a second, she was sure that he was looking straight at the NannyCam lens, knowing that he was being watched.

Then he kissed down her navel and belly and went to her pubic hair. He moved around so that he was crouched over. He was naked. Had he taken his clothes off? She hadn't been able to tell because of the darkness. His p.e.n.i.s was hard and long and poised over her mouth as his face went between her legs.

Julie stopped the tape, freezing it. She felt as if she were having a heart attack. She felt as if she had been raped, but wasn't sure if she could really believe what she was seeing. It was like this was a tape, not of her bedroom, but of her dreams, of what she experienced in them.

She hit "play," and the tape continued.

The man's head went between her legs and moved around in circles as he dipped and wiped his p.e.n.i.s across her face. Then, sleeping Julie opened her mouth and took him inside her. His b.u.t.tocks began pumping against her face while he lapped at her v.a.g.i.n.a.

Then, after minutes, he drew out of her mouth and sat up beside her on the bed. Looking straight at the NannyCam, he rolled her over on her stomach. He got down on all fours and began licking down her back, to her b.u.t.tocks-as she had remembered from the dream-and then he pressed himself deep into her, and sleeping Julie cried out into the pillow, and he had his face next to her, against her ear, and she cried out again, and his b.u.t.tocks pounded harder into sleeping Julie.

And then, the tape went to static.

Part Three

Chapter Eighteen.

1.

She rewound the tape several times, and watched it slowly and quickly and backward in parts. She tried to get close to the Sony Trinitron to see if she could make out a face. At first, she'd felt horror at watching it, then she was fascinated and generally confused. She cried on one viewing of it, because she was sure that it was a rape, but she didn't understand how it could be rape because she looked as if she were going along with it. After all, although her eyes seemed closed-she couldn't quite tell-it looked like the sleeping Julie opened her mouth on command for him. It looked like the sleeping Julie was fine with rolling over. There was no struggle. Worse, she had begun to think of the man as Hut, although their s.e.x life was not nearly as exotic as the mating she saw on the video.

Watching it, she grew increasingly angry, and finally turned it off, and drew the tape out. She called up Mel and told her about it, and Mel suggested that she call the police. "What if it's the man who killed Hut?" Mel asked. "What if he somehow drugged you?"

"With a sleeping pill sleeping pill? A mild one at that?" "You never know how this stuff works," Mel said. Then she regaled Julie with the story of a teenaged daughter of a friend who was drugged with something called the date rape drug and was conscious through the whole horrible ordeal. But the family brought charges, and the boy responsible was behind bars. Then, Mel interrupted herself, "I'll be over in half an hour."