Chapter Eight

Ebony let out a long heavy sigh as she stared at her reflection in her Grandmum’s old antique bathroom mirror. The ornate tarnished silver edges made Ebony’s face almost appear to be in a frame, but she was not smiling as she should be in a photograph.

“What is with you?” She murmured softly to herself, turning on the bathroom faucet and splashing her face with cold water. “What is it about this Jay guy that gets under your skin?”

Her reflection had no more of an answer than she did.

She silently turned away from the mirror and dried her face on an old yellow towel hanging on the rack. It had been several hours since her encounter with Jay in his bedroom, and still she could not shake the feeling that had washed over her when he had kissed her on her forehead so tenderly.

Ebony closed her eyes for a brief moment, playing back the entire scene in her head. She had been so upset with Jay – annoyed that he had ignored her all day long, acting as if the moment they shared the night before had never happened. Never once had she considered the possibility that he had forgotten.

Natalie, Java’s best friend growing up, sleepwalked. Ebony used to tease her about it all the time. Ebony would wake up in the middle of the night and Natalie would be standing in her room, staring at her reflection in the mirror, sitting at Ebony’s desk, or doing some other oddball activity. In the morning she would never remember.

Later when Ebony was older and able to understand such things, Ebony learned that Natalie had deep emotional problems. Her stepfather was a drunkard who regularly abused little Natalie. That was why she spent so much time with Java.

A child psychologist had said that Natalie’s sleepwalking was connected to the abuse she suffered. He doubted she would ever fully outgrow it, though it would lessen as she grew older and further away from the traumatic event.

Ebony momentarily wondered if there was perhaps a traumatic event in Jay’s past that caused him to sleepwalk. She knew that wasn’t the basis for all sleepwalking, but for some reason when she thought of it, she knew it was for Jay’s.

“Ebony, are you about done in there?” The clearly annoyed voice of Ved sounded through the wood of the door.

“Yeah, Ved. I’ll be out in a minute.” Ebony called back. She quickly finished drying her hands then unlocked the bathroom door and stepped outside into the darkened hallway.

Jared, Elaine, and Ved had returned less than an hour before. Both Jared and Elaine had been exhausted, but her Grandmum had told her that the procedures to get Ved released from the jailhouse had been long and messy – seeing as how this was not Ved’s first black mark on file.

“Hi Ebony.” Ved grinned at her, eyeing her up and down as she stepped past him.

“Don’t hi me.” Ebony snapped at him, suddenly angry at the younger boy for causing her grandparents so much grief. “And don’t even think about using my bedroom window to sneak out tonight. My door is going to be locked.”

Ved chuckled but gave no response, stepping inside the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind him.

“That kid.” Ebony muttered to herself, stalking back to her own bedroom. She hesitated at Jay’s door, knowing that he had retired shortly after Jared and Elaine had arrived back at the ranch house. His doorknob was still broken from when she kicked it in that morning – an event that still brought a brilliant flush to her cheeks.

“Scooby Doo boxers.” She chuckled, the image of a half-dressed Jay still vivid in her mind. Ebony shrugged her shoulders and turned to her rooms, pushing all thoughts of Jay as far away from her mind as possible, humming the theme song to Scooby Doo all the while.

~*~*~

A chilly wind brushed against Ebony’s naked cheek as she restlessly turned over in her sleep. She was having a nightmare, of what she wasn’t sure. She saw children, hundreds of them, suddenly robbed of their families, their parents, their security. She then saw herself, but she didn’t look like herself. Her face was marred with ugly black and red makeup written boldly with a desperate hand.

“No.” She moaned softly. “No Zoot, no.”

Suddenly, Ebony’s eyes flashed open. She wasn’t alone. “Who’s there?” She demanded, pulling her comforter up around her. Her eyes scanned the darkness of her room and she suddenly wished she had taken her Grandmum up on her offer to provide her a nightstand lamp so she could study if she wanted to in the late hours.

Ebony slowly rose to her feet, feeling the cool hardwood beneath her bare feet. “Who’s there?” She repeated. “Whoever you are, I demand you show yourself.”

“Sleep.” A strange, twisted sounding voice hissed in the darkness, chilling Ebony to the bone. “Sleep.”

A sudden wave of drowsiness washed over Ebony as she struggled to remain on her feet. Suddenly nothing seemed important to her other than laying back in her bed and pulling her warm blankets up around her neck.

Ebony shook her head violently, trying to shake the feeling of need for sleep. “Whoever you are, I’m going to call the cops if you’re not gone by the time I count to three.”

“Sleep.” The voice said again, this time closer to Ebony, though she still could not pin point his exaction location. “Sleep Ebony. Sleep.”

Ebony’s eyelids began to grow heavy and she knew she wouldn’t be able to stand for very much longer. She tried to scream for help, but suddenly her throat was dry as cotton, tight and unable to produce even the feeblest of screams.

“Leave me alone.” Ebony whispered, her eyes filling with tears as her heart filled with terror. “Leave me alone.”