Dream Haunter (11 page)

 
He throws their back
packs over his shoulder, wrapping his free arm around Melody’s
shoulder. The lady at the front desk jumps at the sound of the
doors as they ding open. She plasters on a corporate
smile.

 “
Welcome. How may I
help you?” she asks in the chipper voice that she is paid to speak
in.

 
Sam smiles as he sets
their bags down on the polished white tiles. “Two rooms please,
just for the night.”

The hotel clerk taps her perfectly red
painted finger nails against the keys of the computer. “I’m sorry
but there’s only one room left…” her eyes bounce between Melody and
Sam, “Would you like it?”

Sam looks down at Melody leaning
against his side, wondering if she’s ok with sharing a room with
him. She shrugs, too tired to do much of anything else.
“Sure.”

Sam pays for the night and slides the
room key into his back pocket. “Are you going to be ok with this?”
Sam asks as he hits the up button for the elevator.

Melody leans against the wall, yawning
as she nods. A dinging noise sounds and the doors slide open,
revealing a green and blue carpeted hall way. He slides the card
into the slot, unlocking the door and pushing it open for
her.

Melody grabs a few cloths out of her
backpack and retreats to the bathroom. Sam sits on the end of the
bed, looking around at the contents of the room with its weird
swirly colors in the carpet, two beds with the matching green bed
sheets and two identical mounted lamps.

When Melody emerges from the bathroom,
now in baggy sweat pants and an old t-shirt, stretching her arms
above her head as she says, “It’s so nice to get in comfy
close.”

She furors her brow, her eyes searching
the small hotel room for Sam but he can’t be found. “Sam?” she
calls out before grabbing the extra room key card and wonders down
the hall.

She pops her head around the corner
into the lobby. “Um, have you seen the guy I was with when I came
in?” she asks.

The woman at the counter, her chipper
facade now gone and boredom is pushing her face down into a sad
droop, lazily pointes down the hall at the fitness room.

Melody thanks her and saunters down the
hall, her slippers making soft patting noises against the forest
green colored carpet. Her feet halt in front of a glass door, a key
pad mounted on to the wall next to it. She presses herself against
the glass, checking the weights and treadmill for Sam, but the room
is practically empty except for one bulky man in the running shorts
sitting on the work out bench, hunched over and watching a late
night talk show. With a sigh she turns to her left, peaking through
the rectangular window that leads to the pool before pushing the
metal door open; chlorine burns her nose as she watches Sam swim
laps. She rolls up her pant legs, sitting down on the tiles at the
edge of the pool, gently swinging her feet in the water.

She smirks as she pushes on his back
with her feet, playfully pushing him deeper into the
water.

Sam’s head pops up out of the water,
taking a gulp of air before realizing it is Melody sitting next to
the pool. His lips twitch into a mischievous smile before grabbing
Melody’s feet with his wet hands and pulling her into the pool,
splashing and laughing. Her head breaks through the surface of the
water.

“
Sam!” she shouts with more
surprise than anger.

 
Her sweatpants weigh
her down in the water, clinging to her legs, as Sam wraps his arm
around her waist pulling her against his chest. Melody pushes away
a drop of water dangling from his nose with her index finger as he
gently drops his lips upon hers. She pulls herself away, laughing
as she playfully splashes him.

“
Come on, it’s getting
late,” Sam says, smiling. He grips her waist and lifts her up onto
the side of the pool before he pulls himself up next to her. Melody
quickly wrings her cloths out, walking, quickly, beside
Sam.

………………………………………………

Adam angrily watches from a distance as
Sam wraps Melody into a towel in his arms.  Flames of hatred
dash through his perfect eyes.

Sam pads down the hall towards the
elevator with Melody, dripping with water, and snuggling underneath
his arm.

Adam climbs the stares to their floor,
hiding in the shadows as he follows them down the hall to their
room. He curses himself as the door clicks open, Sam and Melody
blocking him out as the door shuts behind them.

“
I'm gonna change, since you
took it upon on yourself to give me an unnecessary bath,” Melody
says before she grabs Sam’s pajama bottoms and her tank top,
retreating to the bathroom.

Sam smiles to himself, plopping down on
the foot of the bed. He counts the amount of cash left in his
wallet; just enough to buy a medium sized pizza. He rifles through
the phone book, finding a pizza chain that can deliver. He flips
his phone open, carefully punching in each number to make sure not
to call the wrong one. A post pubescent young man takes his order
and guarantees the pizza will arrive to Sam hot and under thirty
minutes.

Melody slips from the bathroom, rolling
the waist of the plaid bottoms down so they fit. Sam grins, his arm
reaching out for her, gently guiding her down to him. Melody
happily nestles her head into his shoulder; she has forgotten the
soft mix of coffee and ink that has always seemed to roll off of
him in waves.

Sam’s fingers run through Melody’s
hair. “Um… can you tell me about it? What Jet did?” Sam asks,
sheepishly.

 
Her skin boils with
regret and shame, her palms sweat, but she has to tell Sam, she
owes him that much. She nods, pulling away just enough to make eye
contact with him. “Yes. What do you want to know?” she tentatively
asks.

Sam’s Adams apple bobs; he wants to
know but how can he even ask for the information when he can’t get
the words out? “Wha-what did you feel when you um, kissed him and,
um, stuff?” Sam asks.

 
Melody nervously plays
with the ends of her hair, her eyes flickering from Sam’s eyes to
his lips. “I don’t know… I mean obviously I felt
something
, but that wasn’t
what kept me coming back… I don’t know I guess I felt needed. At
times I felt dangerous, or lonely, but most of the time I was just
there to…
fix
him.”

Sam nods, scratching the back of his
neck, his stomach twisting itself into knots; he didn’t know that
she didn’t feel needed. “Did you think that I don’t need
you?”

The air around Melody’s skin grows more
and more uncomfortable with each second that drags by. “I-I don’t
know… sometimes I get this space inside of me that needs to be
needed by someone that needs to be saved. I’ve been like this my
whole life, Sam, sacrificing my happiness and relationships because
I try to save someone that is just so broken…” Melody meets Sam’s
green eyes, her own fog over with tears, “I can’t tell you how
sorry I am for this, Sam. I don’t know why I am like this! I wish I
could hold myself back, keep myself from giving them my happiness
because they have none,” she breaks into a sob, slurring “I'm so
sorry” in between sharp intakes of breathe.

Sam has always known how caring she is
with people, dedicated to make them happy; it’s why he first fell
in love with about her. The muscles in his arm twitch as they reach
out for her, looping around her back before bringing her against
his chest.

“
Melody… I’ve always known
about your compassion, it’s one of the many reasons I love you.
Some people are just so low that they take advantage of your
kindness, I wish they wouldn’t, but they do,” he pulls away,
holding the sides of her face in his hands, “I will
always
need you to push me
in the right direction and pick me up when I've fallen. And I
promise you I will always give back to you what you have given to
me.”

Now Sam is the one beginning to cry,
his fingers trembling as he uses them to cradle her head in his
palms. Melody lets out a breathy laugh and leans in, kissing him
sweetly, brushing the tears of his cheek with her thumb. They both
jump at the loud knocking coming from the door. Sam smiles down at
her, his face and eyes red with emotion.

“
I forgot, I ordered pizza,”
Sam laughs.

He clears his throat, trying to break
apart the last few sobs, as he jogs down the little hallway to the
door. The pimpled faced delivery boy hands him the greasy box of
cheesy goodness before taking Sam’s cash and wishing him a good
night. The door makes a soft click as Sam shuts it, sauntering back
to the bed where he sets it down, flipping the lid open to reveal
the greasy gooiness that is pizza.

When Sam is satisfied with eating half
of the pizza, all on his own, he lays down next to Melody. Her
greasy fingers are beating the buttons of the remote mercilessly as
she searches for something on the TV that would suite her mood. She
ends up settling for an old black and white romance movie from the
mid nineteen-forties. Sam slowly creeps closer to Melody as she
sinks more and more into the melodramatic plot.

When the two lovers kiss
under the soft Paris moonlight, two doves fly across the screen
caring a banner that reads
The
End
. Melody’s insides
flutter around with pure joy for the lovers’ happy
ending.

“
Aw that was so cute… Sam?”
Melody gushes.

A soft snore comes from her
lap, sending her eyes down at the sleeping figure of Sam, fast
asleep on her legs. She scoots out from under him, pulling the
comforter down so that it’s lying on top of him, and tip toes over
to her own bed
.

Chapter
Nineteen

Melody wakes up in the heart of the
night, lying next to Sam, his arm wrapped around her. She furrows
her brow, looking over at the twin bed across from her. She must
have sleepwalked or something. She rolls over on to her side,
kissing Sam’s forehead.

Sam moans, draping his arms around her
waist. “I love you, but you’re seriously messing up my sleep
pattern,” he whines.

 
She smiles, kissing
his cheek before nestling her head against his chest. “I'm sorry
I'm such a burden,” Melody whispers.

………………………………………
..

A soft rustling noise awakens Melody in
the early morning light. Her skin prickles with goose bumps due to
the lack of body heat next to her.

“
Sam?” she
whispers.

He pokes his head out of the bathroom,
a red tooth brush handing from the side of his mouth.

“
Did I wake you?” Sam asks
through his toothpaste filled mouth.

She sits up, her head spinning as her
eyes try to focus on the clock. “A little, but it’s ok.”

He nods, slipping back into the
bathroom to rinse the tooth paste out of his mouth before making
his way towards her. He grabs his wallet from the night stand. “I'm
going to get breakfast then we should probably get going,” Sam says
before giving her a minty morning kiss and making exiting the
room.

Melody slips out of bed, stretching as
she walks into the bathroom, blindly groping the wall for the
switch. She grimaces at her reflection. Eyes sagged from lack of
sleep and her hair sticking up every which way from being dragged
into the pool last night. She forces herself in the shower, using
the musky smelling soap that came with room, scrubbing away all the
dirt and grime that has built up on her skin and hair.

By the time she gets dressed and packed
Sam walks through the door, a brown fast food bag of
food.

“
This was all I could find,”
Sam announces.

He sets out the foam boxes on the table
by the TV, along with forks and napkins. Melody pushes her fork
around in the runny eggs, smothering them with syrup so that it
will go down smoother.

He throws their belongings in the back
of the Station Wagon, sipping on coffee while Melody finishes
eating in the passenger seat.

…………………………………………

Sam drives nearly the whole way there;
his eyelids try to drop shut on him.

“
Sam!” Melody screams as she
reaches across the seat for the wheel, pulling them back onto the
road. She lets out a breath. “Sam, pull over. I'm
driving.”

He reluctantly pulls to the side of the
road, sliding across the seat while she walks around the front of
the car to the driver’s side. She pulls the seat forward, fixing
the mirrors before pulling back onto the highway. Sam curls himself
up against the window, his hair falling over his eyes; Melody
smiles at how his facial muscles relax and he drifts
slept.

……………………………………
.

Melody yawns, wishing that Sam would
wake up since it has been almost ten hours since she took over
driving for him. She looks at the exit sign, realizing she’ll reach
her parents house around nine at night, and decides just to wake
Sam up once they get there.

She smiles to herself as she drives
down the familiar streets, remembering learning how to drive on
them so many years before. She pulls into the driveway, turning the
car off before running her fingers through Sam’s hair, whiffs of
the generic hotel soap still lingering on its strands.