Chapter Ten: Butting Heads

Wynter slammed her front door and stormed into the kitchen. Her walk had done nothing to cool her temper. She wanted to break something...picking up a dirty mug off the counter she hurled it and felt a small burst of satisfaction as it shattered against the wall. Then the annoyance returned as she now had to clean up yet another mess....
“Have a good chat?” said Shannon walking into the room wearing Rayne’s bath robe and nothing else. She raised her eyebrow at the splattering of tea on the wall and the broken glass on the floor. Wynter just glared at her as she reached for the broom while Shannon made herself comfy at the table.
Munching thoughtfully on a cookie Shannon watched Wynter’s choppy movements. Years of friendship had done nothing to dull her amusement for one of Wynter’s temper tantrums...well at least those that she wasn’t directly involved in. Given her wrathful mood Shannon figured that the cause was due to a certain individual with a sweet ass and a cryptic personality. She waited until Wynter was finished cleaning up the mess before speaking again “You never answered my question, dat’s rude y’know”.
“Where’s Ray?” asked Wynter.
“Sleeping...he’s wore out” she gave a feline smile and flicked her hair back “So now that you know where you’re brothers to you’re gonna tell me what Tanner tole you right?”
“Sure if nudding counts as something” said Wynter angrily.
“Nudding! He tole you nudding! Den why the hell did he make me leave? Youse didn’t have sex in the store did you? ‘Cause dat’s just gross” said Shannon wrinkling her nose at the thought “Unless you did it on ol’ Mrs. Rochford’s desk! That would be awesome! So did you do the nasty at Souwesters or didn’t ya?”
“No!” exclaimed Wynter who had only been half listening to what Shannon had been saying and was mortified that Shannon would even ask her such a question. “We had a fight...Listen to this! I told him that I needed to be alone and he kept bugging me and telling me he needed me to trust him...Then he had the nerve to tell me that I was the one not being fair! The bloody bugger didn’t tell me a thing! Not even what happened this afternoon...What did happen by the way?”
Shannon blinked at her and then her eyebrows knit together as she pondered her answer. “It’s hard to explain...” she held her hands up as Wynter made a move towards her “Never said I wouldn’t tell ya; just that’s its difficult...it was a big swirling mess of dirt and rocks and leaves; you went towards it then Tanner showed up threw a knife and it kinda exploded and you were hurt....that’s ‘bout it really”
“Why the hell couldn’t he of said that?” demanded Wynter putting her hands on her hips. “Here I was thinking the worst possible thing I could imagine and it turns out to be a bit of dirt flying around!”
“I expect it was the glowy thing in the middle of the whirling dirt that he didn’t want to explain” said Shannon with a shrug of her shoulders.
“Glowy thing. What glowy thing?” demanded Wynter.
“The glowy thing in the middle...that’s why you were going towards it I think, to see what it was” answered Shannon as she grabbed another cookie to nibble on.
“Now I feel more confused than ever” said Wynter as her anger finally deflated and left her feeling hallow and exhausted. “Why can’t he just tell me everything?” she pouted and sat down at the table.
“Have you told him everything yet?” countered Shannon as she passed the tin of cookies across the table.
“No” said Wynter as she took a cookie and put it back down again almost immediately. “But I have good reasons for that”
“Maybe he does too” suggested Shannon wisely.
“I hate it when you’re right” said Wynter with a sigh.
“Really? I kinda love it” said Shannon with a heartfelt laugh. “It happens so rarely”
“Well don’t get used to it” said Wynter darkly. Shannon just laughed harder. Unable to help herself Wynter began to laugh too. Then she sobered as she realized how erratic her behaviour had been. “Oh my god I’m a relationship retard!” she exclaimed and put her head in her hands.
“Yes you are” agreed Shannon “And we both knows why...”
“Well I was a retard for going out with Mark in the first place so we can’t go blaming him....”said Wynter hoping that Shannon would drop the subject. Mark, her ex boyfriend of three years was still a sore point for her.
“Well he sure messed with your head for a while there...” continued Shannon who was completely oblivious to Wynter’s sudden despondent attitude towards the conversation. “I mean who know’s how you wouldda ended up if he hadn’t of dropped off the face of the earth? He was bad news dat’s fer sure...the prick actually thought I’d sleep wit him! As if I’d ever do that to you...And remember that time you caught him wit Samantha? Sure I heard that she has the clap now, looks good on her the slut....”
Wynter got up and looked out her kitchen window as Shannon continued to ramble on about Mark and his deluge of indiscretions. That was only half of the story but Wynter would never reveal the other humiliations that she had suffered at his hands...But it had been a life time ago and one is always destined to at least a few bad relationships when in their teens and determined to be rebellious.....The day Mark disappeared was the day she realized how much she missed being herself. At first she lived in fear that he would come back but as the months passed and he never returned she slowly relaxed and got her life back on track.
Sometimes she wondered what had happened to him but mostly she tried not to think about him at all. It was a coping mechanism that worked well for her, except for the rare occasion when he was thrown at her out of the blue. “Stop! Just stop ok? I’ve had a bad day and I just can’t take any more right now...” she nearly screamed it at Shannon but she managed to rein it in somewhat so that it only came out as a frustrated tone instead of the tearfully one she felt inside.
Shannon gaped at her. “You’re bleeding!” she cried and rushed over to her.
“What?” said Wynter looking down but she couldn’t see anything “What are you talking about?” she asked.
“Right there!” exclaimed Shannon pointing to her chest. “Sure by its seeping right through the material...What did that arse hole do to you?”
Again Wynter looked down and again she saw nothing “You’re losing it! I’m not bleeding Shannon!”
“Right there!” said Shannon and this time she pulled open Wynters shirt but there was no sign of any kind of wound. “What the hell? I saw it! I knows I did!” She looked up at Wynter with frightened eyes. “What’s going on?”
Wynter had no clue what to say so she opted for a head shake and a shrug as she buttoned up her shirt. “I dunno but it’s getting stranger and stranger everyday ‘round here I can tell you that much.”
“Oh my God! Do you think I have the sight now? Am I some kind of freak...who sees their best friend bleeding when they aren’t? Fuck! Make it stop! You hear me? I don’t like this not one bit! I’m fragile Wyn you knows I am!” cried Shannon as she began to pace about the room tugging on the ends of her hair anxiously and biting her lip.
“Shannon! Calm down!” said Wynter stopping her by holding her on both of her arms and making her look at her at the same time. “You’re fine...and no I don’t think you have...what I have. I just think that the fey are playing some kind of trick on ya...a horrible and mean trick is all....”
“Fuckers! YOU HEAR ME! FUCK YOU! YOU...” screamed Shannon but Wynter covered her mouth.
“Stop that! You don’t want to make them angry!” she warned and looked about warily. Shannon glared at her but said nothing more until Wynter took her hand off of her mouth.
“Fine but I’m not staying here...I can’t....” she began to sob and Wynter held her until she finished. As they stood there Rayne entered the room and shot Wynter a questioning look. Wynter just shook her head and allowed him to take over.
Leaving Shannon to her brother’s care she went to the small guest bathroom she had put in under the stairs. Locking the door she undid her blouse and took another look at her chest. There wasn’t so much as a red mark on it but that didn’t stop her from shivering. Carefully closing it up again she sat down on the toilet and allowed herself a few moments of panic.
“You should be scared” said a voice with pure hatred.
Jerking her head up Wynter saw a cruel face peering at her from the mirror. It eyes were a bottomless liquid black and its skin held a moss green hue while its hair was a darker shade of the same tone. “You have no right” it said.
“No right? No right to what?” demanded Wynter in her confusion.
“You know” it said with a hiss “Stay away or we will be forced to take action”.
“Take action? I don’t understand!” said Wynter but it was already gone. “Great. This is just friggin’ great! I’m butting heads with the good people and I don’t even know what it’s about...” disgusted and fearful all mixed into one she stepped out of the bathroom. There was no sign of her brother nor of Shannon and to make things worse the entire house was dark.
Cautiously she made her way back into the kitchen and flipped the light on. The sudden glow made her squint but there was no would be attacker lurking in the corner waiting for her. Instead there was a note propped against the kettle. Striding over to it Wynter picked it up and read her brother’s neat hand writing.
Wyn, took Shannon home. I’m going to stay with her tonight as she asked me to. She seems pretty shaken up but won’t tell me why. Tried to tell you this but you were in one of your moods...you know I hate being ignored! Anyways I expect an explanation tomorrow...
Ray
P.S. Took the leftover stew for supper!
Putting the note down on the table Wynter frowned and looked at the digital clock on the stove. It was almost midnight....She had been the bathroom for over six hours! Turning on heel she picked up the phone only to realize that she had no one to talk to...She was utterly alone.