A Beauty Dark & Deadly (A Dark & Deadly Series Book 1) (7 page)

So what happened?

“Emmy.”

Emmy jumped and nearly dropped the photograph onto the floor.  Her heart rivaled that of the newest sports car in the fact that it jumped from steady to accelerating in two seconds flat.  He was right behind her, probably staring at her back, deciding which artery he could pierce.  She pressed her lips together and placed the frame back onto its place, on the nightstand.  Slowly, she forced herself to turn and regard him.  Her fear was not easy to mask, and as such, decided not to even try.

“Dinner’s ready.”

That was all he said before he turned and walked away.  Emmy didn’t know how to react because for the life of her, she had no idea how he reacted to seeing her in his room with a very intimate photograph. 

Chapter 4

The next day, after breakfast, Jason headed upstairs to no doubt to continue to stare at another blank screen for the majority of the day.  Since being caught in his room looking at his wedding photograph, Emmy had been on her guard, waiting for Jason to lash out verbally, or worse.  However, during dinner and breakfast, he was completely like himself; calm and awkward, if a little more quiet than usual.  When she was sure that he was upstairs, she decided to head outside and check on the garden.  After grabbing the basket Jason used yesterday, she slipped out the door as quietly as she could and walked around the side of the house.  The weather was beautiful today though a bit chilly if Emmy was being honest.  Luckily, she had planned for the cold and had thrown on her hoodie over her clothes.  The sky was painted with heavy white clouds that successfully hid the majority of the sun, but it would seem that the sun did not mind too much.  There was no breeze, but due to the forestry surrounding the small house, there was a lot of shade.

The garden looked as it had yesterday.  She set down the basket and then plopped down next to it, curling a strand of hair behind her ear.  Her eyes flitted over the vegetables, staring at them idly, not exactly sure why she was out here.  No, that was a lie.  She was outside because she felt that she needed to get out of the house.  There was a tension, however slight it might be, that had grown between Emmy and Jason due to her reckless behavior last night.  At least here, she did not have to worry about such tension; she actually enjoyed being outdoors.

However, as her eyes skimmed the garden once again, she realized that she had no idea how to decipher a ripe vegetable from a nearly-ripe vegetable from a not-even-close vegetable.  Emmy didn’t want to guess and choose wrong, ruining his garden in a way, and preventing any chance to let the vegetables in need of growth to ripen.  Pursing her lips, she sighed through her nose, and then finally let out a frustrated sigh.  Well, now what was she to do?  She didn’t want to go back in the house, in fear that Jason decided to get angry with her when she walked through the door, but she had nothing to do outside.  She would never venture into the forest for fear that she would get lost, and she didn’t want to head into town because she was in no mood to get lectured about being in the company of an alleged murderer.  To put it frankly, she was stuck.

A snap caught her attention, and Emmy jumped, startled, and peered over her shoulder, expecting to see Jason Belmont with an ax or a butcher knife, standing right behind her.  But no, she could see nothing.  How odd.  Emmy craned her neck and shifted her position so that she could easily look behind her.  However, with the forest so thick and the sun mostly blotted out, it was hard to see through the shadows and darkness.  If there was something in the forest, she could not see it.

Emmy yawned and then looked up at the sky sleepily.  She wondered how her grandfather was, if he was getting along okay without her.  But he wasn’t really ever alone now, was he?  He had Bingo, their chubby Australian Shepherd that was incredibly loyal and protective.  The majority of his fur was black, with brown scattered throughout his fur.  White consumed his chest, as well as the tips of his paws, and like all Australian Shepherds, Bingo had no tail, but a tiny little nub in its stead.  Emmy was very close with Bingo, just as she was close with her grandfather.  She felt tears prick the inside of her eyes as she reflected upon them; she missed them dearly.

Another snap caused her shoulders to jump and a tear to slip down her cheek in surprise.  Quickly, she wiped it away and she stood, preparing to defend herself from whatever it was that caused the noise.  Her brow was furrowed, and she felt herself become slightly angry that someone or something had unnerved her as she was thinking about her close-knit family.  She did not appreciate people sneaking up on her when she was in such a vulnerable state; she preferred privacy due to the fear that people might know exactly what she was thinking, and she did not want people to know.

She whirled around, staring back in the forest, but there was just blackness, thickness, forestry.  Her eyes flashed frustration, and her fingers curled so that her hands were balled into fists.  Was Jason playing tricks on her in retaliation for yesterday?  Was he trying to scare her?  If he was, he was going about it the wrong way, for Emmy was becoming quite angry instead of quite scared.

“Show yourself,” she murmured as her eyes narrowed.  “Let’s get this over with.”

Then, a shuffle pierced Emmy’s ear, as though feet were treading on autumn leaves.  Emmy felt her body tense due to her flight-or-fight reaction, and she realized, although it was slightly off-subject, that she was going to fight rather than walk away.  This caused a very small, proud smile to slip onto her face.  If she were being honest, she would have thought she would run rather than fight only because she didn’t really engage in fights, and really didn’t like to when she had to.  She was quite good with persuasion, however, and she was also relatively quick on her feet.  But here she was, her body rigid, prepared to take on whatever it was that had been scaring her.

The shuffling continued to get louder and louder until Emmy saw a silhouette start to emerge from the trees.  However, it was rather short, and for a moment, Emmy thought it might have been a child that had gotten lost on a trail and ended up in a forest.  It continued towards her, and to her surprise, a very skinny dog came out of the darkness.  It (for Emmy had yet to notice if the dog was a boy or a girl yet) was brown, with different sizes of blotchy, black spots plopped onto different places of its fur, like big, black ink spots that stained his fur from a careless master.  Its eyes were brown and his ears were squared shape, in the same manner as a Chow’s.  Its tale was long and skinny, and upon noticing Emmy, it pointed straight out, its ears perked up, and one paw was held up as though it was unsure of what to do.  Should it venture towards Emmy, or head back into the woods?  Emmy wasn’t quite sure what sort of dog it was, although she was certain it was some sort of mutt.  At first, she believed the dog belonged to Jason, but upon further inspection of its skinny body, she noticed bones protruding from its skin and figured that this dog was indeed a stray.

Her first instinct was, of course, to feed it.  Looking at her with those big brown eyes, the dog was already melting Emmy’s heart, although if Emmy was being honest, such a thing concerning any dog, any animal for that matter, was quite easy to do.  However, her mind began to argue with her pulled heartstrings, reminding her that if she did do such a kind act of charity, the dog would begin to expect such a thing and come back to the house.  Normally, this wouldn’t have bothered Emmy all that much because she loved dogs too much to care if a stray continued to come back, begging for food (she might have even preferred that it did), but this wasn’t exactly her house, and as such, it really wasn’t her decision to commit to the dog.  First off, who knew if Jason would actuall
y
wan
t
a stray dog lounging around the perimeter of his home, or if he even liked dogs, for that matter?  Not that he would notice, however; he was always up in that office of his, staring at nothing, and probably developing cancer by doing so.  Secondly, it was also Jason’s food she would be using to satiate the dog, and she wasn’t sure Jason would approve if he saw that Emmy was using the food he paid for to aid a dog that didn’t actually belong to him.

Well, it didn’t actually matter, though, did it?  She was going to feed the dog no matter what.  Emmy ran her tongue over her lips and the dog tilted its head to the side.  Their eyes were still locked, and Emmy moved her arms.  The dog raised its brow at this, but did not move, and slowly, Emmy put her arms down, hoping the dog would know the signal to stay.  Then, Emmy slowly began to back up, wary that she would scare the dog before finally turning around and all but bursting into the house.

Her feet led her directly to the kitchen, and she threw open the refrigerator.  What would be fit for a dog to eat?  All right, immediately cross of fruits, vegetables, and chocolates… no eggs, obviously… Did they have sandwich meat?  She moved some things around in the fridge and found the last of the round slices of turkey.  After she grabbed them, she closed the refrigerator door and was about to head outside when she realized she should probably give it some water as well.  For a moment, she placed the turkey package down and grabbed a small bowl from the cupboard, quickly filling it up with water.  When she was satisfied, she grabbed both items and headed back outside.

Much to Emmy’s astonishment, the dog was still in the same position it had been when it first noticed Emmy, and upon seeing her coming back, its hair, along with its body, tensed.

“Here, doggie,” she murmured softly, hoping that she would not scare it.  “I’ve got some food for you… Would you like some food?”

Emmy froze in her former position outside, not quite sure if she should approach it or if she should wait for it to approach her.  She bit her lip and then carefully placed the water bowl down on the dirt next to her, and then slipped the turkey out of the package.  While she didn’t move from her stance, she reached out her arm as far as it would go, hoping the dog would catch its scent and come closer to her.  Upon seeing the food, the dog shifted its brown eyes from Emmy to the meat, and unconsciously licked its lips.  However, it did not move, at least not yet; it was as though the dog was as unsure as Emmy was.

The dog lowered its head, and Emmy could see its nose twitching, so she was sure it could smell the food she was offering it.  Boldly, she took one step forward, hoping to go unnoticed by the dog, but failing miserably.  Seeing her move caused the dog’s body to snap into action, and tense again.  However, it would seem to dog’s curiosity currently outweighed any fear it might have had.  Emmy, of course, was frozen on the spot, not exactly sure if she should move again or not.  They stayed like this for a long time, for in a frozen position three minutes feels like three hours.  A little voice in Emmy’s head, however, was growing impatient.

Why don’t you just throw a piece of meat at him
?
it suggested.
 
Then maybe once it realizes your intentions, it’ll be more comfortable with yo
u
.

That sounded like a good idea, so Emmy threw one piece of turkey at the dog.  The dog’s ears jumped upon seeing the flying meat, and it caught it in its mouth, devouring it greedily.  Immediately after swallowing it, the dog darted off, back into the dark forest.  Before Emmy fully comprehended what she was doing, exactly, she began to follow him, insistent on feeding him the second piece of meat.  Two would surely not fatten him up, but then again, two pieces were better than one.  However, as though the dog knew she was following him, it continued to run.  And for whatever reason, Emmy began to follow it into the forest she promised she wouldn’t enter, at least alone.

--

How long had he been sitting there?  How long had his screen been a pure, white blank page?  His long fingers were draped over his lips, his back was somewhat slouched, his thick-rimmed glasses slid down the bridge of his nose until it hung on the flare of his nostrils, his brows were pushed together, and his lips, though covered, were pursed.  This was his usual position, or, at least, it had been for the past few months.  He had a couple of pages with introductions and dialogue, but for whatever reason, they were never good enough.  How many thrillers had he written before this?  Shouldn’t this come easy to him, or had he used all he had concerning somewhat similar plots?  Maybe he should switch gears, write a horror story instead of his usual choice of genre?

His dark eyes rolled over to his window, the sunlight hidden by blinds with only rays peeking through the spaces.  Jason stood up, and using his fingers, he pushed the middle portion of the blinds down until his eyes sought out what he was looking for.  Emmy Atler was outside, looking at something in the forest.  He couldn’t quite make out what she was looking at exactly, but he didn’t particularly care.  If he was being honest, he really liked simply looking at her.  She was very attractive, and yet he doubted that she even knew it.  The clothes she wore were more for comfort rather than style, and her hair was either tumbling down her back or tossed in a messy ponytail or a bun.  Her reaction to his presence was quite amusing, if not fascinating.  He was pretty sure that she had heard of his trial, of the charges brought against him (and later dismissed), and she was obviously frightened of him.  How could she think that he would ever hurt her?  That would be like harming a butterfly, something so fragile and yet so beautiful.

He wasn’t exactly sure how she perceived him, however.  When he had walked into his bedroom and found her sitting in his bedroom looking at his old wedding photograph of him and Stacey, he startled her unintentionally.  He wasn’t sure how he felt, seeing her there, watching her look at something that he felt was incredibly private.  Jason wasn’t angry or offended, but he did not want her to see that photo.  There were times he missed Stacey, but then he remembered what she had done to him, how everything he worked so hard for crumbled into pieces right before his eyes.  When she died, she took his muse with him.  In fact, he wasn’t exactly sure why he still had the picture out.  And Emmy looked up with those big eyes of hers, full of fear, that any anger that might have bubbled inside of him, immediately dissipated.  How could he be angry with her?