Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 140462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 702(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 468(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 702(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 468(@300wpm)
After the frenzy he got me into last night, I almost regret that our deal means we have to wait with anal, because even though I’m a little frightened, I wonder—
The door swings open, making my heart stop, and I suddenly can’t breathe.
“How many times have I told you about splashing water around everywhere?” Mrs. Moor yells, but the moment her eyes land on me and Hawk, she screams.
Behind me, Hawk starts awake too, backing away from me and removing the comforter from my naked body in the process. I try to protect my modesty, but it’s no use when Hawk cries out, falling into the gap between my bed and the wall, wrapped up in our only covering like a body prepared for burial.
“How dare you fornicate under my roof?” Mrs. Moor shrieks like the evil witch character from a cartoon I saw a few days ago. She might be an average human woman in her forties, with short blonde hair, but her soul is as ugly as a creature from the deepest sea. “I was doing you a favor, but you’re a pervert like my ungrateful son! Out! Out!”
I grab the only thing left on the bed, a pillow, and cover my crotch. I am mortified. If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume I was bitten by a despair, and now I’m living my worst nightmare while my physical body slowly dies from the beast’s poison. All that’s needed to complete the picture would be my mother shaking her head, and my dead brother saying I don’t need a pillow this big to cover my privates.
“Mrs. Moor, please, it’s a misunderstanding. You must allow me to explai—”
“There is nothing to explain! There is a man in your bed! I thought I was helping out a polite young man in need of a Samaritan’s hand…” She takes a deep breath and squints at me. “You have ten minutes to gather your things and leave. I will not support your perversion in my house!”
And worst of all is that the disgust in her gaze mirrors a look I’ve so often been given by my family members.
Underdeveloped.
Useless.
Not fit for the position I was born into.
A failure. And it doesn’t matter that her reasons for being angry are utterly ridiculous.
She storms off, leaving me with scattered thoughts and goosebumps all over my skin. Nausea rises in my throat, but before I can consider running off to the bathroom, the bed shifts away from the wall, and Hawk rises from the floor, wrapped in the comforter as if it were a hooded cloak.
“What the fuck is her problem?”
My breath is ragged, and I can’t speak, because my throat is too clenched with panic. I’ve just lost my lodgings in an unfamiliar world.
But even though my body wishes to shut down, I get up on weak knees and throw away the pillow, fighting my instinct to hide. Hawk has seen me naked and had no complaints, so there is no reason to get coy now. I am a Goldweed, and I will survive this. Somehow. I must.
“Her son’s gay, and so she’s taking out her unreasonable hate on me,” I say and start moving even though I can barely breathe. I need to gather the few possessions I have. That is my priority, and if I can focus on the task at hand, I will be able to ignore any feelings trying to crawl out of my chest.
“Some people really shouldn’t have children. My parents weren’t great, but they tried,” Hawk mumbles, crawling back onto the bed and shedding the comforter. I can’t bear looking at him now, so I pull on a fresh pair of underwear and glance around, relieved my belongings are so few and far between that I might succeed at packing them all within those ten minutes the evil witch of Blackwood has allocated for it.
But then my gaze settles on the trunk servants carried in when I first moved here. Hope leaves my body. There’s no way I can carry that thing.
“What should we grab?” Hawk asks behind me, and the sound of a zipper tells me he’s getting dressed as well.
How is he so calm about it? I’m guessing it’s because it’s not his life falling apart. I hoped to come back here after Boston to plan my way back to the Nightmare Realm, but it wasn’t meant to be.
I stuff my journal into my bag, along with some writing supplies, clothes that may be useful, my jewelry. It is only then that my mind registers his question.
He said we. Like this is somehow his problem.
“Do not fret, this is not your burden,” I say with my chest tight.
He pulls on his hoodie, his body completely hidden under the fabric as he cocks his head. “What do you mean? We’ve got to stick together. Just tell me what I can do. Is everything in this room yours?” he asks as I open the trunk marked with my family crest and stare at all the things I haven’t bothered to unpack, since they would have made me stand out too much.