Nightmare continuing

Margaret turned around and with a pouty face said.

"I guess you did catch me, I was just checking in on you. Everything alright?"

"Yes thanks, please Margaret don't exhaust yourself too much, I will sleep in another room tonight, don't want to disturb Mark. Goodnight."

She waived to me and left.

Rhett Wolfestern's POV

As Simon was explaining the benefit we would get from working with him, I received a message from Margaret.

"Hope you aren't mad Arthemia brought a friend over tonight. I looked over them, he seemed really nice." My eyes widened, a he? The friend she brought was a man?

"Who?" I replied quickly.

Simon was still trying to pull wool over our noses and I wasn't having it, I flew all the way to him just to listen to his nonsense. I sighed, waiting for Margaret's response.

"I think she said his name was Mark. And she went to sleep in your room looks like she already misses you." I stood up forgetting the meeting was still going. Simon stopped.

"The meeting isn't finished, our gangs can benefit from each other."

"Shut up." I remarked, gesturing to everyone we're leaving.

I rushed Peur to drive faster, but he said a couple of minutes won't change anything, they still had to prepare the plane and there's still a long way to go.

The plane landed at noon, I rushed jet lagged Peur and myself to the car, reminding him to go faster. We got home in no time. Margaret was right, a stranger's car stood in front of the house. I walked in. There was a bunch of noise coming from the kitchen. I practically ran there. I walked in all sweaty to Arthemia and Marquel eating lunch. She looked up at me and her eyes lit up, I didn't expect that. She looked back at Mark and gestured for him to sit next to her because he was sitting in my spot. I sat down.

Mark punched her on the shoulder with his head pointing to me.

"I didn't expect to have you here so soon, how was the trip?"

I looked at her smiling face with spite; she didn't even try to hide the fact that she had another man in my house, without my permission.

"Do I look dumb to you?" her smile disappeared and she looked back at Mark.

"O sorry I didn't tell you but Mark drove me home yesterday, because I was bored I decided to let him stay, he slept in my room don't worry." Her eyes widened and she put the fork down and started swaying her hands. "No I mean… I slept in another room."

Mark just petted her and shook his head.

"Nothing happened yesterday, that's all I will tell you."

I eased up, somehow having him say it after hearing it from Margaret helped, but I couldn't let this slide so easily, she will have to learn a lesson.

Arthemia straightened up and with a smile said.

"For breakfast Mark and I made pancakes, trust me they are literally the best ones I have ever eaten. Tomorrow we should make them, I remember every step perfectly."

She was acting really cute, but I won't let her get away with disrespecting my rules.

"Marquel, I think it's time to leave, I will personally make sure Peur will take care of you."

He just nodded and followed me.

I sent him to Peur and he agreed to get Mark home. Afterwards I came back to the dining room to check on Arthemia. She was finishing her food and her eyes looked up at me and smiled. It still felt weird, was she hiding something?

"I have a proposition for a deal?" I said making myself comfortable in the chair. She put down the utensils and did the same.

"I'm listening." She said, wiping off her clean face with a napkin.

"While coming back I saw a paparazzi's car standing outside the house, do you understand what kind of a scandal I would face if they saw Mark leaving and I wouldn't be home?" I had to make up some kind of excuse.

"We're friends."

"It doesn't look like you are to others." She was so calm sitting in the chair relaxed she didn't try and defend herself too much. "In any way we have to make a deal that you will not be flirting or talking to other men in these 6 months."

Her brows went up and she started fidgeting in the chair.

"Alright." She replied. "With one condition."

I was taken aback, but more than anything intrigued.

"If you're setting up rules and deals I want to add my part of the deal to it." I kept on listening.

"If I can't date or meet any men, you can't meet or date any women."

I stopped, looking at her, trying to keep my composure. What was she trying to gain from all of this? There was no point for her to say that, or is there?

"I agree." I stood up and went around the table to her. I pulled out my hand waiting for a handshake.

"You should know, I take my verbal agreements very seriously, I hope you can do that too."

She nodded and shook my hand.

"I do too."

She looked in optimal condition to take care of herself so I didn't come to her room to take care. The room felt empty, hollow, cold. I just sat down and continued work. There were over 20 emails from Simon. They started off formal, apologizing about what happened, but then towards the end they just became aggressive and defensive, I decided to ignore them further and had no energy to deal with that moron. There was an ominous email sitting at the top. It was from Kevin Ropeling. The headline said. "You won't get away with this. You won't steal things from me." Somehow I knew what it was about and smiled. This should be fun. I decided to give him a reply. I didn't need to read the whole email to understand what he meant.

"Kevin, you truly think you can ever win over me?" Headline: "Important ;)". And sent. This should play out perfectly, and everything might get a little more fun.

As I was finishing working I heard a knock on the door. I opened the door. Without my surprise Arthemia was standing there.

"I thought I would stay in your room tonight." I was too tired to think so I just blatantly said:

"No." and closed the door on her. Without hesitation the door swung open.

"I won't take no for an answer." I just pushed her out and closed the door again. Held it closed for a couple minutes and when I was sure she had given up, went to the closet to undress. I heard the door creak open, I finished and got to check the room. I was about to scold Arthemia for coming here, I saw an empty room. Maybe I was getting insane?

I decided to brush it off and went to sleep.

I was in my old room from when I was a teen again I was smoking pot, listening to music. No one was home. I was blasting it all the way but weird things started to appear in front of me. I knew what awaited outside so I thought to just go into the bathroom and lock myself there, but once I walked into the bathroom I walked outside for a while starting to sweat and my eyes darted checking everything around me. In the corner of my eye I saw someone. I looked into the forest. It was my grandfather all bloody hovering over the trees, the same exact image from last nightmare. He was supposed to be dead. I couldn't grasp it so I just started running this time, suddenly I discovered little voices mumbling in my head. It had me wondering if this is really the same dream, I couldn't understand what they said but it sounded wrong. If I tried to stop or get a breath I would immediately feel someone behind me getting closer and all I knew I couldn't let him get closer. I marched through the park so quickly I didn't even notice I was in it until I left again. I tried to walk the other way but it just teleported me back to the same place I was in last time. That's when my grandpa's carcass emerged from the darkness; he couldn't talk something about the verge of sadness I scurried off. I felt like I was on the verge of madness, I was sure my grandfather wanted to warn me about something, maybe it was the dream itself. The landscape was starting to become stranger and stranger. I couldn't understand what was wrong with it but it felt not normal. Then I came to a slope that was steep and saw the train tracks. I already knew what was about to happen. The silhouette appeared again. I saw from a far that he had a grin. As he started to talk to me he said.

"It's a nice night for a walk would you mind if I joined you?"

The same words he said last time I tried to ask for answers for what's happening again, but all that came out was:

"Do what you want to do. I don't care."

The man was still smiling and started walking with me.

"Well that's great 'cause I'm going to and I don't want to annoy you or anything but lemme ask: what a young guy like you is doing here, by the train tracks you waiting on a train?"

He was starting to piss me off; something inside me was screaming: get away now! But he didn't try to do anything so I just continued walking not minding him too much.

"Nah man, I'm minding my business so maybe you should do the same. I just witnessed something sick and sadistic so disgusting you should feel lucky you missed it so I'm not in the mood for chit chatting." I didn't even try to fight it anymore.

His grin widened even more; he rolled his eyes and continued.

"Easy there son, what you've seen is scary but nothing this old man hasn't seen, I could show you things to paint all your dreams haunted I can even make you scream if I wanted, or I could be your best friend forever, you'd never have to work or steal or even beg if you're interested then let's make a deal."

Now I was getting weirded out, was he playing the devil or something? He must be insane or on drugs I should just ignore him.

"…" I didn't say a thing just kept on going.

He didn't seem to care and continued.

"All you want in life for a solid small price of your soul, imagine all the money you could hold and the power you'd fold, I'd even put you in control."

I started shaking. Was he the devil? Sweat dripped off my face and I stared into him.

Everything started to shake.