Down Came the Rain (NOW FREE!)

26

Chapter 26

The sun set just outside the open window, the full moon slowly taking it's place. Soon it would be dark. When the shadows in her apartment all came to life. When monsters slunk out from underneath the bed. When memories from the past came back to haunt her.

How could Annie have deserted her like that? Right when she needed her the most? Some protector she turned out to be. Abandoning Hudson in her time of need. What if The Shepherd came back? The professor, Nick Lockhart? What if he broke into her apartment and hurt her again? What if he—

No!

She wouldn't go there.

Hudson continued to gaze at the sky from her warm and comfortable spot on the couch, watching as the puffy white clouds faded to black. Unblinking. Her eyes dry and stinging, but she didn't care. Nothing mattered anymore. Had it ever mattered to begin with? There was a time when it had, but that was so very long ago. Like a glitch. So sad when one thought of happy times as glitches. When the bad times were all she had ever really known.

A knock at the door jarred Hudson from her stupor.

Head in her hands, her fingertips tapped lightly against the hollow of her temples. Who could it be? Myles had to work, and it wouldn't be Annie. Annie was going to the club. Annie left her just when she needed her—

The knock came again. Lifelessly, Hudson rose to answer it, not even bothering to check the peep hole.

If it were The Shepherd ... good. She hoped it was. She'd make it easy on him. No more scaling up brick walls like a spider. No more haunting her house like a ghost. No more teaching and preaching about love and submission like he really gave a fuck. He didn't. If he cared the way he said he did, he never would have done what he'd done. Over and over and over again. His blue eyes with golden flecks like the sun, watching her, drinking her in. Enjoying her. Hurting her. Talking and pushing and talking until spit formed at the corners of his mouth. 

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The door swung open and she fought to focus her eyes. Tall, dark and handsome. Eyes gleaming. A perfect white smile and easy, confident charm.

"Hudson!" Jacob engulfed her in a tight hug. "You're a sight for sore eyes."

Hudson blinked once. Twice. Jacob. The handsome man who lived on the second floor. Her neighbor of sorts. Her friend. Annie's friend. Right? The Three Musketeers. Her brows squeezed together. "What are you doing here? I thought you were in Michigan."

"I came home early. I was worried about you."

"Worried about me?" she asked. "But why?"

Jacob stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans, and gave her a sheepish half-smile. "Annie told me about what happened. About the break-ins. She asked me not to say anything, to let you tell me yourself. But I couldn't get it out of my head. I was worried," he said again and paused. "Then she called this morning and said you two had a fight. She said she wouldn't stay with you anymore. And I know how she gets—all erratic and unreliable. I didn't want you to be all alone."

Her neighbor blurred before her as her eyes filled with tears. "You came home early just to stay with me?"

His smile widened, a dimple sinking into his left cheek. "Of course, I did. What are friends for?"

For a moment Hudson couldn't breathe, the intensity of her emotions crushing her lungs. Jacob was so good to her. So nice. Like that time at the mailbox when he said she looked pretty and to have a nice day. He cared. Not the way Frank cared about Ebony. Or the way Myles cared about her. But he did care.

"So," he said. "Mind if I crash in your spare room for a while? Just until they catch this creep."

Hudson said nothing.

"Come on," Jacob coaxed. "Let me stay. It'll be fun! Like some crazy co-ed slumber party. You know, like the kind they have after prom? Where everyone's invited to spend the night and celebrate until the wee hours of the morning."

Jacob wiggled his eyebrows, and despite her ominous mood, Hudson smiled.

See? He did care about her. Jacob wanted her to be safe. He was her friend.

Her will started to cave. "I'm not staying up until the wee hours of the morning," she said finally, a heavy weight lifting from her shoulders. "I can barely stay up past ten as it is."

Jacob laughed, the sound echoing in the stillness of her apartment. "That's right, you old lady! Twenty-three going on eighty-three."

Hudson rolled her eyes. Leave it to Jacob to crack a joke like that. "Yes. I recall you saying so before."

Or had she said it? She couldn't remember ...

Jacob studied her and rubbed a hand over the bit of stubble dotting his chin. "So, what was this fight about? Between you and Annie? Do you want to talk about it?"

Should she tell him? And if so, how much should she say? Didn't she owe him the truth? "Annie's not who you think she is. I know her better than anyone. She's not right."

Hudson glanced out the window as an uncomfortable silence stretched between them. The sheer curtains swayed in the evening breeze, and for a moment she felt as if she were standing there alone.

She knew what came next.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked again. "I'm a good listener."

No. She didn't want to talk about it. In fact, she wanted to forget the whole thing. Why couldn't she just forget? Why did everything have to gnaw away at her, making her crazy? Yet Annie could let it all go. Annie had always been good at letting things go.

Hudson remembered a night from her past, a very long time ago, when she was thirteen—or had she been fourteen?—when she'd gone out with an older boy her family didn't approve of. They'd spent the entire evening drinking too much, smoking too much, having too much sex. If there was such a thing. That was shortly before her parents had sent her away.

No. Wait. Those weren't her memories. They were Annie's.

Hudson's parents were dead. A car accident when she was only seven-years-old. Killed instantly, both of them. And Jonathon, her baby brother. So sweet and innocent. Too young to have left this earth. So cruel to have deserted her. The same way Gran had deserted her. Her entire family. Gone.

"You're tapping your fingers again. Did something just change?"

"No. Nothing's changed."

"Okay. I believe you. I always believe you, Hudson. You know that, right?"

She nodded her head.

"You know, I've seen this before. I know what it means."

She knew what it meant, too. Or did she?

Sometimes, she felt so confused.