Harland grinned as he quickly typed out a text message to Remi. “Leave me alone. I’m sleeping.”
Almost at once he got a return message. “We need to talk.”
“We’ll talk tomorrow. Let me sleep in peace for now.”
There was no return message, but the knocking and shouting stopped.
Harland smiled down at the unconscious woman, stroking her half-naked body. Then snarled in frustration as her phone vibrated again.
“Fine. But I’m going to be back first thing in the morning. Be sure you’re ready to talk then.”
Harland glared at her phone, then toward the front of the house. “Stupid fucking people! I hate people. They ruin everything,” he whispered harshly. Standing up from where he still knelt on Emmalyn’s chest and arms, he reached out and snatched her off the sofa and onto the floor. He bent quicklyand slipped his hands under her arms and dragged her through the house and into the kitchen. Once there, he paused and very quietly opened the door into the garage. Determining that no one was in the garage, he made his way over to the deep freeze, and looked inside. Not quite enough room to place her inside it — at least not with all the frozen foods inside. He began quietly removing the foods and lining the shelves of the garage with them. He’d filled three shelves by the time he determined he’d made enough space by visually comparing the unconscious woman on the cold cement floor to the nearly empty deep freezer. He grabbed her up off the floor, and dropped her unconscious body into the freezer, folding her arms and legs to mimic a fetal position. She just almost fit, but her head was slightly above the rim of the freezer. Grasping the lid of the freezer, he began to bring it down heavily, beating the back of her head, and alternately punching and shoving her body down into the bottom of the freezer until the lid completely closed.
Standing back and looking at the freezer, he inspected his handiwork as he brushed his hands on his pants then rested them on his hips. His gaze wandered over to the box containing the blankets he’d been sleeping with for weeks. He grabbed one and shook it out, then holding it in both hands, threw it over the top of the freezer to mask it from view. “Even if it only buys another five minutes in there for you, I’ll take it. I want to make sure you’re good and dead,” he said. “It’s not fair that you destroyed my life’s work, and I didn’t get to at least experience the pleasures of your fear,” he grumbled. He felt cheated and decided then and there to return to take at least one if not more of the women in her family as part of his collection. “I’ll be back for some of them. And it’s all your fault. I hope you suffer the guilt for eternity. You should have stayed out of my business.”
He watched the freezer for a few more minutes, almost like he expected it to open and her to step out of it. “Shame I couldn’tpleasure us both before your friends had to ruin everything. But at least you’re tidily put away. I suppose some day I’ll see you in hell. Maybe then we can finish what we started.” Then he had a sudden thought and laughed. “Maybe it will be a cold day in hell! Get it. Cold. Because you’ll be frozen. I am quite witty if I do say so myself.”
He enjoyed what he saw as his witticism for a short while longer, then turned his back on the freezer, and looked around the garage. At first glance nothing seemed out of place. No one would think anything was amiss until the rotting food began to smell. Only then would they think to look in the freezer. He grinned sinisterly. “Wish I could stay to watch, but I must make my getaway before they lose patience and force their way inside.”
~~~
Inside the deep freezer, Emmalyn’s Bear tried desperately to wake her. She’d been trying unsuccessfully since she’d first lost consciousness. Unable to shift due to the drugs in her system, she wouldn’t be able to stave off the cold temperatures inside the freezer. But perhaps she could at least keep the human alive. Emmalyn’s Bear concentrated on the biological process that was natural to her, though rarely even considered by the human she shared skin with. Hibernation. If she could manage to place their heart and brain into hibernation there was a good chance they could survive. Hibernation, even in the below freezing temperatures of the deep freeze, wouldn’t cause harm to her Bear, but the human body was not so lucky. There could very well be damage. Unfortunately, the human form was the one they were stuck in.
~~~
Barron lay on his back in the wooded lot across the street from Hellen’s house. His arms were folded beneath his head as he looked up at the stars. Remi was at his side.
“At least she said she’d talk to me tomorrow,” Remi said.
“Yeah,” Barron said.
“We don’t argue. We usually get along really well. I’ll explain everything.”
“I’m sure you will.”
“It’ll be alright.”
“I doubt that, but okay.”
“Why do you doubt it?”
“She should have more faith in me than this.”
“Have you given her the same faith?”
“Huh?” Barron asked, turning to look at Remi.
“When she was trying to get with you at Christmas, did you have the level of faith in her that you’re asking for from her now?”
Barron sighed.
“Didn’t think so,” Remi said.
“Maybe we should just call it quits. It’s too damn back and forth and convoluted and neither one of us is willing to stand down.”
“Maybe you should just call it quits.”
Barron sat up suddenly and scowled down at Remi. “Why would you say something like that?”
