Dream Haunter (10 page)

Sam steps forward, puffing
his chest out. “Yes, because I truly
love
her,” he says
confidently.

 
Jet’s eyes become
panicked as his mind tries to grasp onto something that would get
him out of the situation, scotch free, while still pissing off Sam.
He thrusts the end of the bat into Sam’s side, right below his
ribcage, while sliding his tongue down Melody’s throat.

Her skin feels like it’s being peeled
from her shaking bones as she claws at his chest, screaming and
grunting until she slips free of his arms.

Sam straightens up, grunting at the
pain that throbs in his stomach and steals his breath. He lets his
fist fly through the air before it smashes into the side of Adam’s
face. He grabs a fist full of Melody’s t-shirt and he pulls her
against his chest; she thuds against his chest as Adam takes off
down the hill, tripping over his feet before turning the
corner.

Sam wraps an arm tightly around
Melody’s waist and places his other hand on the back of her head,
hugging her as close as he can. She sobs against his white cotton
t-shirt, wiping her eyes against the shirt before looking up at
him.

“
You would die for me?” she
asks sheepishly.

 
He rests his chin on
top of her head, feeling like he is breathing for the first time in
months. “Any day.”

Melody’s heart leaps, trying to break
through the thin barrier that is keeping it from Sam’s.

………………………………
..

Melody and Sam fall asleep on the beat
up orange couch in Sam’s apartment.

Something heavy and hot burns its way
into Melody’s lungs, awakening her from her comfortable sleep next
to Sam. Her eyes burn against the heavy smoke that is blowing its
way through Sam flat; Sam moans in his sleep, not being jerked
awake by the heat of the yellow-orange glow. Melody’s eyes find the
source of the smoke: a small note slid under the door. She jumps
from the couch- her heart pounding with panic due to her lungs
filling up with smoke- running to the smoking paper as she screams
at Sam to wake up.

Sam jerks awake, suddenly alert, as he
takes in the smoke and fire that are climbing its way through his
apartment. Melody stomps out the paper, coughing and eyes burning,
but the fire has worked its way across the apartment from randomly
tossed papers on the floor. She throws wet towels on some of the
flames while Sam runs down the hall and pulls the fire alarm; bells
ring throughout the building as water rains down from the ceiling.
Sam runs back in the room watching Melody throw water and wet
blankets on just about everything in the apartment that is near the
flames.

“
Melody!” Sam coughs,
rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt, “I’ll do that; pack
some of our stuff up!”

She throws a few of his cloths in to a
bag, and then grabs his guitar, cameras and portfolios, their cell
phones and a few of her cloths. She runs back out to him, the
flames still fighting against the water as Sam stands coughing
before he pulls her out the apartment. A note, about the size of a
playing card, is pinned over the peep hole.

 “
This guy is a
psycho!” Sam croaks, his throat swollen shut, as he pulls it from
the door.

She takes the note from him, reading it
in almost disbelief.

Adam
W
A
s
H
e
R
e.

Sam pulls on Melody’s arm as the fire
department runs down the hall into Sam flat.

………………………………………………
..

They arrive at Melody’s apartment
around six in the morning, tossing their bags at the door and
sluggishly walk down hall to the bathroom. They scrub each other’s
faces free of soot, splashing cool water on their skin before
making their way to her living room. Sam laces his fingers with
Melody’s pulling her to the couch.

“
Maybe we should make it out
to your parents’ house tomorrow; far away from here. Does he know
where that is?” Sam asks.

 
Melody shakes her
head, playing with the hem of her shirt. “No, but… are you sure
you’re up to the drive? I mean it’s like a two day drive and last
time you whined the
whole
way there.”

He leans forward, that boyish grin
smeared across his face. “I’ll survive.”

He kisses her, soft and sweet, right as
the room goes black. Sam looks around the darkened room; something
is just off putting about the lights being shut off
suddenly.

“
How about we leave right
now?” Sam proposes.

Melody smiles, standing to her feet.
“Sounds good.”

She packs the rest of her clothes,
throwing her bags in the back seat of the station wagon.

Melody sits in the passenger seat,
talking with Sam about random things like the weather and how she’s
disappointed that it’s physically impossible to lick her elbow, so
he won’t fall asleep. The sun intermingles itself in the brown/
gold hairs of Sam’s head. She smiles as she reaches her fingers
out, running them across the top of his head.

Sam’s eyes flicker over to her, if this
was a month ago, before all of this, the slightest touch from her
would make his heart flutter, but right now all he can think about
is: did she do this to him too? He leans his elbow against the
window. “Um, I'm wide awake so you can go to sleep if you
want.”

Melody nods, rolling up against the
passenger window.

So Sam sits there, hands loosely
holding the steering wheel, all alone except for his thoughts.
Melody shivers in her sleep, moaning a little as she wraps her arms
around herself. He wonders if this is what Adam got to see every
day, and if he felt the same way he feels for Melody now; maybe
Adam had loved her to some degree.

Sam reaches in the back seat for his
jacket, gripping the soft leather as he delicately lays it on top
of Melody. He swallows; he is so uncertain if taking her back so
fast was wrong. His right hand slowly runs up and down her back
sending her into a deeper sleep.

Chapter
Eighteen

Sam pulls off of the freeway, driving
down a dusty dirt road until he comes upon a small gas station. The
bright red paint is peeling free from the rusting gas pumps, along
with the small mini-mart’s matching red paint is. Sam parks next to
the unhinged door that leads into the mini-mart, getting out and
stretching.

He squints up at the sky, the bright
orange sun at its highest point; it’s noon and is beating
mercilessly down on the un-air-conditioned town. Sam strolls
through the small isles, feeling the beady eyes of the gas clerk on
the back of his neck as he grabs a bag of potato chips.

Melody wakes up to the tapping sound of
a crow dropping seeds on the orange hood of Sam’s car. She
stretches her neck around, taking in her surroundings, trying to
remember how she got here. She moves her arms, stretching them
above her head, before looking down at Sam’s jacket.

Her heart slows, for a moment the world
slips away as she runs her fingers across the frayed edges where
the jacket shows the most age. Her lips slide into a smile as she
remembers the first time she’d worn this jacket: after their first
date.

They were exiting the wooden
doors of a small café where Sam was playing his first solo
performance, walking around the building to the side walked. They
walked in uncomfortable silence; Melody’s apartment was another
three blocks and she was trembling so hard from the late night fall
air that her teeth were hitting each other. Melody had jumped when
she felt something heavy and warm being draped across her
shoulders. She felt up her arm, her fingers finding the frayed ends
of the sleeves before she slid her arms into them.

Sam had stood next to her,
staring down at his feet, seemingly unfazed by the slight ice wind
slapping against his sleeveless arms like knives. Melody had
smiled, stopping at the intersection; the little red hand across
the street was holding its hand up at her to stop.

She looked Sam over. “Thank
you. I'm not used to Wisconsin falls yet.”

He smiled back at her, only
a few inches between them, their breaths turned into vapors as it
hit the night air and intermingled with each other.

To this day she doesn’t know
what had made her kiss him that night. Maybe it was the caffeine
surging through her veins or maybe it was the air that settles
itself around Sam, so safe and warm
.

He smelled like ink and
musky deodorant as he veered closer to her. Her heart pounded
beneath his leather jacket, it had never beat like that before, and
it scared her.

“
Sam…” It almost sounded sad
when it made it past her lips, which was odd because sad wasn’t
even close to the cornucopia of feelings brewing within her
stomach.

He kissed her, he was
actually kissing her. Something inside of her sang with joy. She
had never been kissed like that before.

Melody unlocks the car door, blushing
as she stretches in front of the car.

Sam walks over to her, leaning against
the hood of the car, Slurpies in each of his hands, one blue and
one red. Melody reaches out and takes the red one, thinking that
the lid is fastened. She squeezes the cup too tight, sending the
syrupy ice sloshing over the rim of the cup and onto Sam’s white
shirt.

She slaps her hand against
her mouth. “Oh my gosh! I am
so
sorry.”

He smiles, holding the stained part of
his shirt away from his chest. “There are some napkins in the glove
box, can you go get some?”

She leans her shoulder on the passenger
seat, shaking her head at the napkins and paper bulging out of the
cracks of the glove box before pulling the plastic handle. A pile
of take out menus, paper, straws and eating utensils fall out onto
the seat beside her. She rifles through the mound, searching for a
napkin, but instead finds a box, small with black felt stretched
around it. Melody glances up at Sam, who is still holding his shirt
away from his skin and taking a quick gander around the gravel
parking lot. She sticks her thumb nail into the seam of the box, a
creaking noise sounds as it flips open.

Melody’s breath catches as the diamond
ring stares up at her, catching the sun light and showing all of
its intricate details of vines and leafs around the band of the
ring.

She stares at it for what seems like
forever, when Sam leans into the car behind her.

“
Hey, what’s…?” his gaze
falls on the ring, dropping the stained shirt against his chest.
“Um…I was going to… ha you don’t know how long that’s been in
there…”

This isn’t how he wanted this to
happen. He was going to plan this big dinner and do something corny
like hide the ring in her drink or something, not stand in this
crappy gas station parking lot with a Slurpee stained shirt. His
head pounds with how wrong this was.

Melody stands up, holding the box out
at him, sending him staggering backwards a few steps. “Sam, were
you going to propose to me?” she asks.

He looks down at his shoes; the dust
from the parking lot is making them a dull shade of blue. His gaze
meets hers. He knows that this is what he wants, to be with Melody
for the rest of his life, he knows she loves him, that Jet just
took advantage of the fact that Sam had been gone for a long time
and she was lonely.

Melody’s lips twitch with
emotion before they shape themselves into words. “You want to marry
me, Sam? Spend the rest of your
life
with
me
?”

He grins, sitting his Slurpee on the
roof of his car as he walks up to her, gently taking the engagement
ring from her fingers. He slowly gets down on his right knee, the
gravel poking through his jeans.

“
Yes. There’s no other way
I’d rather spend it. I love you Melody,” his cheeks warm, “Will you
marry me?”

Melody holds a hand to her mouth; her
finger tips tremble against her smiling lips. She nods, pulling him
up to his feet. “Yes.”

His cheeks spread into a wide smile as
he takes her left hand in his, placing the ring on her finger
before sweetly, gently, kissing her.

…………………………………………

Adam sits across the road in his black
pickup, watching them, his anger overflowing. Sam and Melody jump
back in the car, it hiccups before pulling out of the gas station
parking lot. Sam holds tight to Melody’s hand as he presses his
foot against the gas pedal, coming up to speed on the
freeway.

…………………………………………
.

They make it through Wisconsin in one
day; night creeps up on them, trying to drag them down into sleep.
Sam parks the station wagon outside of a Holiday Inn.

“
Come on, you can sleep when
we get in.” Sam says as he shakes Melody’s arm.