he said, “Olive Garden is crap, crap, and mega crap. How they can even call it Italian food is beyond me. The only decent thing they have are the bread sticks and salad. All the rest is crap. You want Italian food, find a restaurant with some Italians in the kitchen. Otherwise you two can drop me off in the alley and I’ll go dumpster diving while you eat the trash inside.”
“We don’t have to go to the Olive Garden,” Noella said, since Randy had been so nice last night. “How about Red Lobster?”
Red Lobster wasn’t one of Randy’s favorites, but he didn’t hate it like he did Olive Garden, and there was a steak on the menu he could tolerate fine.
Josie said, “Sounds perfect!” then kissed Noella on the cheek, grabbed her keys from the hook, threw on her jacket, and pulled out of the driveway a minute later.
Noella went into the living room, picked up the remote, then plopped onto the couch, pointing the remote at the screen on her way to the cushion.
But she didn’t care what was on the screen a bit.
The remote fell from her fingers as Noella slowly rose from the couch, then raced toward the living room window. The Element was back in the driveway across the street which had been naked just a moment before.
She had to see him.
She had to stare in the eyes of her dreams.
She had to know if she was insane, or whether the whispers inside her were real.
Someone had saved her. She’d seen someone in the bedroom window across the street. If not Dante of her dreams, then maybe some other version. But he was real, and the morgue had a dead body to prove it.
Now it was time to find out who was watching her. Who her guardian was.
Noella ran upstairs and threw on her best sweater, then traded her comfy sweats for jeans, then back downstairs and outside.
She trotted across the street, nervous but eager.
She wasn’t sure how she’d introduce herself if anyone other than Dante appeared in the door. “Hi, does the man from my dreams with some kind of magical powers live here?”
No, that probably wouldn’t work.
Noella couldn’t explain any of the things that were happening, inside her head or behind the walls of her life. She had a million questions and no answers. But if anyone did have answers, it would be Dante, or whoever it was that lived across the street from her.
She headed up the walkway and to the front door she’d been by a hundred times if not 200, when Sam lived there.
Every answer was just beyond the door.
Noella rang the doorbell, anxiously rubbing her hands against her sides as she stared at the red door and waited.
The door swung open a second later. A small brunette girl, maybe eight, with bright blue eyes stood in the doorway, looking up and smiling at Noella. Behind her, stood a woman with long dark hair who appeared to be the girl’s mom.
“Hi,” the girl said, smiling a big, friendly smile.
Noella swallowed, then said, “Hi, I’m Noella. I live across the street.” She turned and pointed to the blue house with the white trim, where she’d lived since the day her world moved from nightmare to permanent midnight. “I just wanted to come over and say hi, meet our new neighbors and, you know, welcome you all to the neighborhood.”
“Hi,” the girl’s mom said, stepping forward, and shaking Noella’s hand. “My name is Jen, and this is my daughter, Tori.”
“Is it just you two?” Noella said, looking at the girl. “I thought I saw a guy here yesterday.”
The little girl looked confused, and the woman downright baffled.
The woman shook her head. “Sorry,” she said. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. No one lives here but the two of us.”
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
The story continues in Episode 2
ForNevermore: Episode 2
US: www.amazon.com/dp/B007H44TRM/
UK: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007H44TRM/
or get the full season at one low price:
Season One Compilation (Episodes 1-6)
US: www.amazon.com/dp/B007SNNUMW/
UK:
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DD Prince
Kali Willows
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