Chereads / Dreadlocks of Time / Chapter 17 - A "Stephen King Special"

Chapter 17 - A "Stephen King Special"

Alessia took in a few deep breaths and ran into her house, walked upstairs and after about a minute, she was back outside with her bag which contained a couple outfits she didn't care to identify. 

"Kon Kon" Drake's door whispered. Whoever was knocking was definitely doing so for the first time as the sound was barely loud enough for Drake to hear. Drake was having a cup of orange juice while glancing into empty space. 

"Who's there?" Drake asked as he was a feet away and he didn't get a reply.

As he opened to see whoever was there, he had a shocked face than Alessia who was totally shy as she looked into his eyes. For some seconds, the things Drake noticed were her bag that seemed packed and her face that looked like she had just cried.

Alessia's mouth was opened and no word could come out, so she moved closer to Drake and hugged him tightly. The both of them needed this hug right now as they were the only ones who had to be there for themselves.

After a while of the warm hug, Drake led Alessia inside and shut the door. Alessia looked around the sitting room while thinking of what she would tell Drake and if her coming here was a mistake. Drake was in the dining room pouring orange juice from the fridge into another cup as he brought it to Alessia.

"Here. You should drink something" Drake said calmly as he gave her the drink.

Was this one of those heart melting moments? Alessia was surprised, touched and wondered how he knew that she really needed this drink right now. She drank it all in less than a minute and now she was ready to talk. She said it all to Drake who kept a blank face that had an undertone of concern as he looked at her.

"But I can stay here, right?" Alessia asked optimistically.

"Sure." Drake replied faster than usual as he tried to ward off whatever thoughts of his that were peeping through his mind.

"You want a refill?" Drake asked as he noticed the empty glass in her hand. She followed him to the dining table and as he poured it into the cup, she noticed the box that sat on the dining table with an address in a language that looked like Greek. 

"What language is that?" Alessia asked curiously.

Drake moved closer to her as he tried to get a hold of the language. He touched each of the letters of the box and read the words, "To the definite" slowly as Alessia looked dumbfounded as she checked his face to know whether he was serious or not.

"Since when do you speak whatever language that is?" She asked as her ears patiently waited for an answer.

"Since, I don't even know… it just kind of popped in my head at the moment I looked at it." Drake replied, still shocked himself if he just read it right or just said something stupid. In this spirit of freaky awkwardness, he hastily opened the box as he sought an answer to whatever prank or joke this was. When he opened the box, he saw a book with a purple cover with a strange font that looked like an horror movie.

"What's this?" Drake asked aloud as he looked at the cover of the book that rested on his palm. He was thinking of flipping a page open and Alessia was getting more and more worried and maybe scared as her tense facial expression was visible from all angles. What more could today have in store for her? A robbery and now what seemed to be the opening scenes of an horror movie. How could she not be scared?

"You might want to wait before opening it." Alessia said rapidly as she breathed aloud.

"I'm so scared right now. What is this?" Drake said as he dropped the book on the dining table.

"Alessia looked at the creepy book cover and decided to flip it open. "How much scarier could it be than to check it out?" Alessia asked Drake who was wearing a guise of bravery almost perfectly.

Alessia flipped the first page open as she shouted. There was nothing out of the book, or out of the blue, only out of her mouth and this was the cause of the fear that made Drake scream just as much or more.

After seconds of panic and their vocal response to whatever creature or monster that they thought they unleashed, they kept quiet as their eyes focused on the book which was just there, on the table after it fell from Alessia's hand in fear. They stared at the book, their backs and their faces before Drake broke the silence.

"I guess it was nothing scary, right?" Drake said as he forced a smile of bravery that only aroused humour from Alessia.

"We didn't die!" Alessia shouted on the top of her voice as she looked at Drake with a heavy laugh she could barely contain.