Chapter Twelve

Hallie and Taylor walked hand in hand across the smoothly paved street and toward the gravel driveway that led up to the Potter house. Kicking a small rock out of her sandal, Hallie sighed and squinted against the bright rays of sunshine streaming through the huge mass of trees in front of her. The day was beautiful, but she was oblivious to it because of Raymond Maris. She couldn’t get her mind off of it. She didn’t know how, but Noelle was connected to Maris. Hallie wasn’t even sure if Noelle knew she was connected. All she knew was that this was a weird coincidence.

Taylor squeezed Hallie’s hand to get her attention. She looked up at him.

“Hey, what’s the matter?” he asked. “You’re really quiet.” Hallie opened her mouth to say something when Taylor interrupted her. “And don’t say that nothing’s wrong because I know there’s something wrong. You’re acting too different from usual for everything to be okay.” Hallie shut her mouth and stared down at her freshly painted toenails.

“How long have you known Noelle?” Hallie asked. Taylor thought for a moment, a puzzled expression on his face.

“Well, I don’t know. She’s been in Ike’s class for as long as I can remember. Why?”

“Was she in his class whenever Ike was in grade school? Elementary school?” Taylor shrugged, glancing up at the sky.

“Yeah. I think so. Why do you care?”

“I’ve just been having weird feelings about her. They’re worrying me.” Taylor started to say something, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “And no, they aren’t lesbian-like feelings. You will not get a personal viewing of something only usually seen on cable channels late at night. You will not receive ‘physical love’ from two girls simultaneously. In fact, right now, you shouldn’t be receiving any physical love from anyone unless, a.) it’s your close personal friend Rosie Palm, or b.) you can deflate her and put her back in the closet whenever you’re finished.” Looking down at her in awe, Taylor laughed.

“Oh, I love it when a woman can talk smart and dirty at the same time.” The serious expression on Hallie’s face softened and she laughed.

The hill was a lot harder to walk up than they had planned. By the time the Potter home was in sight, they were both substantially winded. A high pitched yell make them both jump.

“Taylor! Tay! Tay!” Gabby screamed, throwing open the front door and running (fully clothed) toward Taylor, her curly auburn pigtails flying along behind her. Taylor stopped walking and smiled, releasing Hallie’s hand. He picked Gabby up as she reached him, balancing the light child on his hip. She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed, almost cutting off his air supply.

“Hey, Gabs, how you been?” he asked, resuming walking with Hallie up to the house. The child smiled, displaying her new lack of front teeth.

“Gavin and I were fighting and he knocked my teeth out and I cried and the toothfairy came and she took my teeth and gave me money for them!” she exclaimed, growing more and more excited by the second. A look of mock confusion crossed Taylor’s face.

“Money?” he asked. She nodded.

“Yup. Five dollars for each tooth.”

“Five dollars?! My goodness! Do you know what I got for my teeth when I lost them?” he asked.

“What?”

“Dirt.”

“No you didn’t!” Gabby exclaimed, laughing. Taylor smiled, trying to remain sincere.

“Yes I did. I woke up with dirt underneath my pillow.” Gabby began giggling like a lunatic and Hallie smiled, watching Taylor try and convince the child that he had been given soil in payment for his baby teeth.

Taylor put Gabby down as they reached the front door and then entered the house. Julianne was sitting on the couch with Logan.

“Hi,” Hallie said, smiling. Julianne grinned.

“Hey, Hallie, how are you?” she asked. Hallie and Taylor took a seat on the loveseat across from the couch.

“Good.”

“That’s good. I hope that you’re up for this tonight. Gavin is up in his room right now. You probably won’t hear much from him this evening. He has an ear infection and the medicine that the doctor gave him makes him drowsy.” Gabby climbed up on Taylor’s lap, leaning against his chest and grinning. Julianne smiled. “We will be in Oklahoma City for the night. My cousin is getting married and rather than drive back home late at night, we’ve just booked ourselves a room in the hotel that the reception is being held.

“On the pad of paper by the telephone in the kitchen, you’ll find the telephone numbers for our hotel room and cell phone which we’ll have on all the times when we aren’t in our room.

“If Gavin wakes up and tells you that his ears hurt, go ahead and give him another dose of his medicine. He hasn’t taken any since early this morning. He’s very doped up so if he asks you any weird questions, dismiss them as the drugs talking.” Hallie smiled. Julianne put her hand on Logan’s knee to avert his attention away from the football game on the television. “Have you loaded everything up into the Jeep?” she asked. He nodded.

“Yeah, all thirty of the bags you packed are in there,” he said, smiling, teasing her. She laughed and used his knee to push herself up to her feet. “Let’s go say good-bye to Gavin and then we can leave.” The two stood and then walked over to the stairs that led upstairs and began climbing them.

Gabby slid off of Taylor’s lap and landed on the soft carpet, turning to stare at them.

“What are we going to do tonight?” she asked. Taylor looked to Hallie.

“I don’t know,” Hallie said, leaning forward. “What do you want to do, Gabby?” she asked.

“Can we watch the Pokemon movie?” she asked, her face lighting up in a wide smile. Not knowing how very damn annoying that movie was, Hallie agreed, shrugging her shoulders.

“You’re going to be sorry,” Taylor whispered to her as Gabby made her way to the entertainment center to find the movie. “This movie will slowly drive you insane. Mackie has it and watches it religiously. He knows every word in the entire thing. Even the stuff that isn’t actual words. The weird little sounds that they all make. He does that too. If you won’t let him watch it, he starts reciting the lines until you give in and actually let him put the stupid tape it.” Taylor sighed. “One of these days, I’m going to burn that damn tape.”

Logan and Julianne came walking down the stairs and stood at the bottom of them.

“Gabby, come here and say good-bye to us, baby,” Julianne said. Gabby raced toward her parents. Logan scooped her up in his arms and gave her a kiss on the cheek, then smiled at her.

“Are you going to be good?” he asked her. She nodded in response then leaned out of his arms to her mother and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Bye, Mommy.”

“Love you, sweetie,” Julianne said, looking at her daughter, completely in love with the child.

“I love you too.” Logan tickled her sides.

“What about me, munchkin?” he asked, smiling. She giggled her high pitched little girl giggle.

“I love you too, Daddy.”

Hallie and Taylor watched, feeling almost like intruders. It was just too cute not to observe. Taylor looked down at the couch cushions and saw Hallie’s hand laying beside her leg. He slipped his bigger hand around hers, squeezing it gently. She looked at him and smiled. He winked at her and then placed his other hand on top of her hand, completely covering it.

“Well, we’re going now. Have fun. Have the Gabster in bed by nine-thirty, okay?” Julianne said as Logan put Gabby down. Hallie nodded.

“Good-bye,” she said smiling.

“See you guys later.” Julianne followed Logan out the door to the garage as Gabby yelled one final farewell to her parents.

“Bring me back something nice!” Taylor laughed. Sure, she was a spoiled little brat, but it was unconsciously so. She was still adoreable.

Hours later, Gabby was almost unconscious on the floor in front of the TV, having watched the entire Pokemon movie and listened to Taylor read her three Dr. Suess books.

Hallie noticed that it was quarter after nine and there was no sense in waiting until right at nine-thirty to take her up to bed. She nudged Taylor who had dozed off. Slowly he opened his eyes, the light shocking them. Hallie grinned.

“Why don’t you help me carry her up to her room? She’s dead to the world.” Taylor rose up from his seat on the loveseat, stretched his long frame and groaned quietly.

“You shouldn’t have let me fall asleep,” he said, bending over to pick up Gabby. After hoisting the child into the air, her arms and legs hanging lifelessly at her sides, Taylor followed Hallie up the narrow stairs to the bedrooms upstairs.

“Well, I figured that it would be nicer to sleep through the end of Pokemon than actually watch it. Anyway, you looked so cute,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at him. He smiled at her. “Why don’t you take Gabby back to her room and I’ll check in on Gavin. See if he’s awake and if he needs anything.” Taylor nodded, passing her on his way to Gabby’s room once they were up in the play room.

Hallie slowly pushed open Gavin’s bedroom door and looked inside. Thanks to his nightlight, she could see that he was sound asleep. She pulled the door closed and walked back into the toy room.

Curtains covered the sliding glass door that led to the upper level deck outside. Hallie pulled back the heavy white curtain and pushed open the door, stepping out onto the deck. Dry, brown leaves and twigs were scattered over the floor of it and the boards creaked as she walked across them.

She looked up at the sky and noticed that the moon and stars weren’t visible. Wind blew through the trees and sent her hair flying in all directions. The air smelled wet. Like it was about ready to rain. Hallie leaned up against the railing and stared off into the dark woods. She could barely see anything five feet in front of her.

The sound of the sliding door being opened again made her turn around. Taylor smiled at her as he stepped out onto the deck with her. He shut the door behind him and then walked over to her, leaning up against the railing next to her.

“It’s pretty cool out here, isn’t it?” he asked, looking around. She nodded.

“Yeah, but I still wouldn’t want to live out here. Too secluded.” Taylor laughed at her.

“Hal, you’ve seen too many horror movies.”

“No, really. Think about it. There is literally no one around to hear you scream. I could just scream bloody murder and it would be just the same as if I was totally quiet. I don’t like that. It bothers me.”

The sound of gravel crunching under tires averted their attention from the conversation that they were having. They both turned around and saw two headlight beams lighting up the dark night.

“C’mon. Let’s go and see who’s here,” Taylor said, walking toward the house. Looking up at the sky one last time, Hallie followed him into the house, shutting the door behind her and looking out of it as she locked it. Pulling the curtain closed, she looked behind her into the empty play room, hoping that there was no reason for her to feel this paranoid and anxious.

As she walked down the stairs, she heard Taylor open the front door.

“What are you guys doing here?” he asked.

“That’s a nice greeting, Tay,” she heard Ike say. She reached the bottom of the stairs just in time to see Taylor shut the door behind them.

“You’re drunk, aren’t you?” he asked, annoyance evident in his voice. Isaac scrunched up his face and waved Taylor off.

“Oh, a little bit, but not to the point where it impairs my judgement.” Noelle looked up across the room at Hallie.

“Hey, Hal. How ya doing?” she asked. Hallie smiled tightly.

“Fine.” Taylor looked back at her too, apologetically. Isaac sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote control and began flipping through all of the channels. Noelle, noticing Hallie’s different attitude, sat down next to Isaac on the couch. Taylor walked over to Hallie and put his hands on her waist, pulling her close and speaking directly into her ear.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t tell them where we were. I don’t know how they got here.” Hallie shook her head.

“It’s okay. As long as they aren’t real loud or anything, it’s fine. I’m just a little uncomfortable.”

“I can tell. Just relax. I suspect that as soon as they realize that there is no alcohol for them to consume here, they’ll leave. I just hope that Noelle is driving. She doesn’t seem drunk compared to Ike.” Taylor released her and they both turned around to see Ike and Noelle watching television, quietly and calmly. “This is really weird.” Hallie nodded in agreement.

Hallie and Taylor walked over to the loveseat across from Ike and Noelle and sat down gingerly. Neither knew what exactly was going on.

All of the sudden, rather ubruptly, Noelle stood to her feet and grabbed Ike’s hand, pulling him up with her.

“I want to go explore. Come with me,” she commanded him. He followed her, not having much choice, Hallie suspected because if Noelle had let go of him, he might just have fallen over. Hallie watched them both walk back in the direction of Logan and Julianne’s bedroom. She sighed, resting her chin on her hand.

“I really don’t like this Taylor,” she said. He nodded in agreement.

“I know. I don’t either. But, at least they’re in here and not on the roads being a danger to someone else. I guess that’s a good way to look at it.” Hallie leaned back and closed her eyes. Taylor sat there, the TV blaring MTV and the Blame Game was on. It didn’t interest him. He relaxed against the back of the couch as well, staring at her.

Reaching out, he removed her glasses from her face and then placed them on the coffee table. She opened her eyes, giving him a questioning glance.

“What are you-”

“Shhhh,” he said, running his hand over her hair and leaning down to kiss her. What meant to be a tender, sweet kiss eventually became one of passion. Taylor had been starving for her and Hallie desperately needed to lose herself in thoughts that didn’t have to do with court cases and prison sentences.

He leaned over her, his right hand on the back of her head, and deepened the kiss, tasting every inch of her mouth. Hallie raised one of her hands to his shoulder and rested the other on his leg, enjoying the sensation that she had missed for so long. They hadn’t really been together in this sense since before their fight. At the moment, the warning that Ryan Taylor had given to her about being careful meant nothing. She just wanted to lose herself in the boy or man or whatever he was that was before her, pleasing her beyond belief.

Hallie felt herself slipping toward the side of the couch under his weight. Slowly, she ended up with her head resting on the arm of it and with Taylor hovering above her. She rubbed her hands up and down his sides and back as his lips parted from hers.

“It’s been way too long since we’ve done this,” Taylor said and then groaned as she began kissing his neck. Determined not to let this get carried away, he pulled back, putting himself out of her reach.

“What?” she asked. He fell back to where he was sitting on his feet and she was still laid back on the couch. “What is it?”

“I don’t think that I can go any further. We can’t. It’s just not a good choice, I don’t think. Since you’ve decided that this is going to be abstinent, we shouldn’t do anything more. It would only add fuel to the fire.” Hallie sat up and reached for her glasses, putting them on.

“Okay.” She ran a hand over her hair, then smiled. “I’m surprised. I figured that I would be the one who would have to stop things.” As she finished saying that, they both heard a loud crash. Momentarily, they sat there, paralyzed by confusion. They didn’t know what to do. A scream followed it which drew them both to their feet and running quickly toward the back bedroom where Ike and Noelle had gone.

Hallie pushed open the door and saw Isaac lying on the bed. He wasn’t moving. She looked around the room as a large clap of thunder shook the house. The scattered remains of a broken lamp surrounded him on the bed and on the floor. Noelle wasn’t there, but the window above the bed was open, cold rain flying through it. Hallie reached up and pushed it shut as Taylor tried to revive his brother. Hallie looked out the window for sign of someone and then to Taylor right as he turned toward the door. A broad object, vaguely the shape of a cutting board, smashed him in the face. Hallie screamed. The figure that hit him was wearing a ski mask and long black trenchcoat. It lunged toward her over Isaac’s and now Taylor’s unconcscious bodies. Hallie fell off the back of the side of the bed, trying to avoid the grabbing hands of the attacker. Scampering to her feet quickly as the figure made yet another lunge at her, she raced around the other side of the bed and out of the room.

She ran through the kitchen, across the dining room, and up the stairs to the play room, trying to get to the children’s bedrooms. She reached inside Gavin’s bedroom door and clicked the lock into place, pulling the door shut, locking him inside his room and locking anyone else out. She did the same with Gabby’s door. Somehow it seemed as if the kids hadn’t woken up yet. Hallie peered around the corner and back into the open play room. She didn’t see anyone in there. Quickly she dashed to the sliding door and unlocked it with trembling fingers and stepped outside, quietly closing it behind her.

Standing on the deck, she looked for a way off of it. It was at least fifteen feet in the air and had no stairs leading to the ground. Figuring that this was the only way out, she climbed over the railing, that she had only fifteen minutes before leaned up against, and jumped, landing in a pile of leaves and, with the luck that she had now, probably poison ivy or something. Although she felt a sharp pain in her side and had heard some sort of pop or crack, she could still stand up and walk or run. She ran blindly into the woods away from the house until she couldn’t anymore. Once she was at the top of the hill that the house was built on the side of, she looked down, tears streaming down her face. Licking her bottom lip, she tasted blood and spit it out. She was such a coward. Waiting for her breathing to return to normal, she gently felt around on her side and decided that she most likely was the victim of a broken rib or two.

She crouched down near a tree, hoping to be hidden by the dark and everything around her. Sehe was scared out of her mind. According to Julianne and Logan, she was supposed to protect and take care of their children and here she was, hiding in some dirty leaves in the rain, crying, while they were in danger.

Hallie cursed quietly at herself for being such a coward and began crawling toward the house on all fours. Hitting a patch of slippery mud (thanks to the rain), her hands slid out from underneath her and she began tumbling down the hill in the direction of the house. Fortunately, the nice trunk of a pine tree stopped her trek down the hill.

“Owww,” she mumbled, fearing that this time her hip would be shattered along with her rib cage. This damn hill was going to kill her before the psycho in the house would.

Hallie sat up and began crawling again. It suddenly dawned on her that Taylor was in a lot of danger as well. Her Taylor. Determined to get in there and kick some ass, she somehow located some strength and courage that she didn’t know she possessed before and crawled faster.

She made her way to the open garage and crawled in, finding the tool bench and began looking for something that would suffice as a weapon. Deciding that the staple gun was going to be her best bet, she made sure that it was “loaded” and then walked quietly to the back of the garage where the door that led into the house was. She wrapped her dirty hand around the doorknob and turned, praying that the door didn’t creak when she opened it. It would definitely give her an advantage if she could sneak up on her attacker. If that was possible. Then, she would be their attacker, technically, but that’s trivial.

Thanking God as she pushed open the door and it didn’t squeak, Hallie stepped into the house, holding her weapon as if she were an inner city cop entering a drug house, her fingers on the trigger. Her senses were sharp, perhaps more due to the adrenaline rushing through her body than any real superhuman powers that she had.

She peeked around the corner into the dining room and saw the dark figure dragging Taylor by his ankles down the hallway from the bedroom, his arms and hair dragging along behind him. As they reached the couch, the figure picked him up and laid him on it. It pulled a bottle of something and a cotton ball from the pocket of the trench coat that it was wearing and doused the cotton ball with it. After holding the cotton ball under Taylor’s nose for a few seconds he came to, trashing around. When he looked up and saw what was happening to him, a look of fear crossed his face.

“What the fuck do you want from me?” he asked. The figure laughed a sadistic, evil laugh and then pulled off the mask to reveal the face of Noelle Carson. He looked at her, shocked. “Oh my God.”

“Surprised, Taylor? You should be.” He gaped at her.

“Why are you doing this?” He sat there for a moment and then looked around the room. “Where’s Hallie and Ike? What have you done with them?” Noelle rubbed her hands together.

“Ike remains unconscious on the bed. It’s rather nice to distract a man whenever he’s drunk and you’re pleasuring him, you know?” Taylor shook his head.

“No, frankly, I don’t.”

“Hallie decided to do a swan dive off the balcony upstairs. I’m afraid that she won’t be joining us for quite some time.”

Hallie smiled to herself. Now that’s where you’re wrong, bitch. She walked silently across the floor, keeping her eyes on Noelle and sticking the staple gun in the back of her pants for future use.

Noelle walked around the couch, stepping in front of the fireplace and picking up one of the rather dangerous looking, pointy fireplace tools.

Curses. Now she’s armed.

Taylor glanced behind Noelle quickly, noticing his rather beat up looking girlfriend approach her. She looked as if she’d been maulled by about a dozen different forest creatures, but able bodied still.

Hallie decided that there was no better time than the present and reached her hand out, grabbing the bottom of Noelle’s ponytail, pulling her head back against the stone fireplace. Noelle fell down to the floor, more out of shock than actual unconsciousness. She swung back and nailed Hallie in the knee with the fireplace tool she held and Taylor lunged at her, knocking her weapon out of her hands as Hallie fell against the wall in pain.

Noelle raised her knee as strongly as she could, making solid contact with Taylor’s crotch. He rolled off of her, groaning. Still relatively uninjured, if you don’t count the splitting headache, she approached Hallie, a gleam in her eye that Hallie didn’t like.

“You know why this is all happening. I could tell that you did whenever I first got here. I must give you credit for that. Smart kid.” She looked calm, serene even, until her hands flew up to Hallie’s throat, choking off her air. "Raymond Maris is my father. He's my fucking father."

While Noelle was busy studying Hallie’s rapidly discoloring face, Hallie reached behind herself and found the staple gun. Fingers around the trigger of it, she whipped it around and held it against Noelle’s left shoulder, pulling back the trigger as many times as she could before Noelle let go of her. Stumbling back, Noelle gasped seeing the blood seeping through her trench coat. While she was looking down, Hallie smacked her across the face with the heavy metal object, rendering her unconscious.


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