10. Scream

TEN

SCREAM

I can't sleep. Not really.

Damn it.

The first few months after Clay disappeared on me, my therapist hooked me up with a psychiatrist. Dr. Lucas couldn't prescribe me antidepressants or sleeping pills, but Dr. Hogel could. I guzzled them suckers like they were candy because I needed the break from reality, but once I decided I needed to move on, I stopped refilling the prescription.

What I wouldn't give to have one of them now.

I don't know if I would've fallen asleep at all if it wasn't for the protective way that Tommy held me, stroking my hair, and murmuring softly to me so that I was able to relax even a little.

His side of the bed is empty. I think that's what woke me up. When I couldn't sense him next to me any longer, my restless sleep became even uneasier until I woke up on my back, staring up at the ceiling.

My hand roves over the rough sheet. My first instinct was that he must've gotten up to use the bathroom. I don't think that's right. The sheets are cool, as though he's been missing for a while, and I don't see the slight yellow light sleeping from under the bathroom door that shows he's in there.

I rise up on my elbows. "Tommy?"

No answer.

My heart skips a beat.

"Tommy?" A little louder this time. A little more urgent. "You here?"

I don't think he is.

My phone is on the nightstand on my side of the bed. I grab it, wincing at the bright light of the screen, then the symbol that shows there is no signal on the island. No matter how much I hope that, suddenly, my phone will work and we can call back to Gullhaven, it still hasn't happened yet. Tommy regretfully assures me it won't, but I keep checking anyway.

Still no service, and the clock tells me that it's only a couple of minutes past midnight.

I slept for about two hours, I guess. Not as bad as I thought, but now that I'm inwardly freaking out over Tommy being missing, there's no way in hell I can go back to sleep until I know where he is.

Using my flashlight, I tiptoe through all of the rooms of the cabin. Just like I thought, he's not here. The back door is locked, too, and when I check the front door, I see that that one isn't .

It was when we decided to lie down. I watched Tommy turn it himself. Did he leave? Where did he go?

Visions of Vee's broken body flash across my mind. I swallow roughly, eager to push them back. No dice. Instead, Vee's replaced by Tommy. His deep blue eyes wide and staring, his body crumpled on the ground.

My hand shakes. What if something happened to him?

I move toward the window.

My heart beats triple-time when I see a shadowy figure walking down one of the other porches to a different cabin.

I can't see who they are. Silhouetted against the faint moonlight, they seem to be dressed all in black. A hooded sweatshirt. Dark pants. A shadow falls in front of their face so I can't make out any details there. The height makes me think ‘male', but willowy Madison is almost as tall as Tommy so that doesn't really help.

Who is that?

Then, a better question: whose cabin is that?

Mine and Tommy's is on the end. Chase's is next, but he spent last night with Madison. He's probably been with her since we left Vee at the ravine, so it's empty—and that's not the one I just saw the shadowy figure step out of.

The next one is Vee's. The one after that is also empty because it was meant for Aaron. But the fifth one…

That's Summer and Tyler's cabin.

Weird. If that's Tyler… what is he doing? But Tyler is bulkier than the figure I saw leaving the cabin. So who else could it be?

And why did they stop at the end, turning directly to look at the last cabin in the row, almost like they were searching for me ?

I don't know, but I'm already super jumpy after waking up and seeing that Tommy is gone. Inching away from the window, I turn my back on it. Another peek to make sure the door is locked and I tiptoe all the way back to the second room.

But I don't go to sleep. I can't. I sit up in bed, the light on, until I heard the door unlocking.

My heart leaps up to my throat. Too late, I realized I should've grabbed a weapon from the kitchen. A knife, maybe, or one of the heavy pans provided so we can cook. I'm utterly defenseless?—

—and Tommy startles when he sees I'm sitting up against the headboard, watching the entry to the bedroom with wide, terrified eyes.

"Cyn."

I shudder out a breath. " Tommy ."

It's Tommy.

He's wearing his jeans and the same blue hoodie he always has on when he's not at work and it's too chilly for just a regular t-shirt. From a distance, though, if he had the hood up… it could look black. He could've been the shadowy figure I saw

I swallow roughly. "Where were you?"

"Me? Oh. Couldn't sleep. I went out for some fresh air and caught Chase outside, smoking a cigarette. He told us all he stopped, but with the stress of Vee… he needed a hit, I guess. Madison wouldn't let him smoke inside so he was on the porch. Once he was done, we took a walk to check on Vee." He shows me the phone in his hand. "Good thing I had this for the flashlight. We had to scare a couple of predators away." His face closes off for a moment. "It was gnarly. I'm glad you didn't have to see that. I tell ya, I'll be happy when it's Monday and we can get off the island. Won't you?"

I nod, still trying to imagine if Tommy could've been the person I saw. But it couldn't have been. He was with Chase…

"And Chase is in his cabin? No more accidents?"

Tommy's expression turns concerned. "Cyn, love? You okay? You're looking at me like you saw a ghost or something."

I don't know what I saw.

I shake my head. "Yeah. Sorry. I couldn't sleep, either."

I don't think I'll be able to sleep again until we're off of Halo Island again.

Surprisingly, I do.

That's exhaustion for you. My mind was wired, my body tired, and one of them had to give out. After an hour of lying next to Tommy, relieved at least that he was safe and able to rest, I finally did fall asleep.

When we don't wake up the next morning to a scream, I'm so fucking relieved, you have no idea. Vee's death is a tragedy, but it was an accident. Now we just have to make it until tomorrow morning before Mulligan returns and we can alert the authorities to it. But that's all it was. An accident.

Right?

I get to think that for most of the day. Following yesterday's routine, Tommy and I linger in our cabin. I make breakfast of pancakes and bacon while he's slumbering peacefully. I'm careful not to look out the window again in case I see something that's not there, all while pretending that everything is okay.

After we eat, I shower. Get dressed. I ignore Tommy's obvious disappointment that I didn't invite him into the shower with me or decide to spend the day in bed with him. Instead, I curl up on the couch in the front room, turn on the DVD player that came standard in each cabin. There's no cable or internet, so no streaming, but our room has six hand-picked DVDs, all for the upcoming Halloween holiday.

I pass on Nightmare on Elm Street , Friday the 13th , and Halloween , the classic itself. I almost put on Scream , but the opening sequence with a terrorized blonde and her high school sweetheart in the varsity jacket fucks me up. It reminds me too much of me and, well, both Tommy and Clay. I was a nobody at Gullhaven High who ended up dating both the quarterback of the football team (plus the first baseman of the baseball team) before I traded him in for the star kicker with the football scholarship out of state. Varsity jackets are still Madison's kryptonite, but I had to admit that I had a thing for them, too.

I'm twenty-seven now. A widow. I lost one of my high school boyfriends. I don't want to imagine losing the other.

That left Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus . And as much as I grew up on the cult classics and love them both, I decided to turn on my three favorite witches.

Tommy joins me at that part when Max is lighting the black flame candle, bringing the witches back to life for one night all because he's a virgin with no impulse control.

I nod at the screen as Tommy sits on the couch, tugging me so that I'm sitting right next to him. Echoing my thought, I say, "A virgin with no impulse control. Reminds me of someone I used to know."

"Hey. You were a virgin when we got together," he teases.

"But I had impulse control."

Back then, anyway.

"Don't I know it. You were the one who made me wait a year before I could even put my hands in my pants."

I smirk, snuggling up against him. "It was worth it, wasn't it?"

"Oh, yeah. Believe me, Cyn. There isn't anything I won't do to keep that pussy as mine."

"Just my pussy? My tits might not be that big, but my ass is pretty nice. Plus I can cook."

Tommy kisses my temple. "Okay. I'll keep you for your food, your ass, and your pussy. Deal?"

I shove him away from me. "You're such a fucking charmer, Tommy."

"I try," he laughs. "I try."

The mood is a lot more relaxed after that. After Hocus Pocus ends, I get up and make us a couple of sandwiches so that we can settle in to watch Nightmare Before Christmas together. I'd forgotten that Leah, Tommy's younger sister, was a huge fangirl of the film during her teen years. Leah's twenty-three now—the oldest of his siblings after Tommy—and she just had a baby in June.

Between Tommy singing along with Jack Skellington and the two of us discussing what baby Cameron is going to be for Halloween,

The world goes on. I forget that sometimes. My life is ruled around two dates: May 15th, when my mother died, and October 28th, when I learned that Clay had disappeared. I shut down around them, mourning by myself even when I have Tommy right by my side, then exist in a world without Caroline Preston and Clayton Rivers as best I can for the months in between the next reminder.

But as the movie comes to an end, with the reminder that Jack and Sally were simply meant to be, I press a kiss to the edge of Tommy's scruff-covered jaw. Simply meant to be … like us?

Maybe.

If anything, I'm content at the moment. I'm not thinking about how hard Clay's anniversary is going to be come tomorrow. I'm forcing myself not to think about Vee's body being ravaged by the wildlife on the island because Chase convinced us to leave her there. I'm just enjoying this moment with Tommy, and when he suggests we give Scream a try next, I'm all for it?—

And that's when another scream rents through our cabin, and I know in an instant that I won't be content again for a long, long time.