backyard
Ali, my roommate’s dog, suddenly went to the sliding glass doors that looked over the yard as if wanting to go outside. But she never barked, not noticing the man. I couldn’t bring myself to get up. I was still contemplating whether I should try to fight or call the police or just run screaming out my front door. I looked to the glass doors, the lock wasn’t clicked. The doors which I relied on for some measure of protection, were completely open and unlocked. I was fucked.
I was too young to die, I thought suddenly. I was only 20. I’d been to psychics as a joke and I’d always been told I would have 2 kids and die of old age. As much as I laughed then, I clung to those words like a blanket now. I couldn’t die. I couldn’t die. I just kept repeating that to myself as I felt myself rising from the couch. Why the hell was I going towards the bad guy?! I felt completely out of control of myself. What was I doing?
I reached the sliding doors and my hand froze on the handle. He wasn’t there anymore. Maybe I had been mistaken. The darkness always plays tricks on people. They see things moving, hear things, this could easily have been my eyes playing tricks on me. I was, afterall, reading a novel about vampires. I was probably just moving the things in the book into real life. My back yard, more specifically.
I finally convinced myself that all was well. I opened the door and Ali ran out. Thankful to be able to run around. I smiled, breathing a sigh of relief that I couldn’t see anyone standing in the backyard. Or at least I did until I saw what was coming in the side door of the back porch.
It was beautiful. Tall, lean yet muscular, the light was too dim for me to see the specifics of his features, but slowly they came into focus. He had dark hair, medium length, falling just below his ears. His skin was pale, but had a light pink tinge to it. His eyes were the last part I was able to take in. They were so entrancing that I felt myself take up roots to the floor. The cool concrete of the porch got colder as he took a step closer to me. Ali, unaware of the stranger on the porch, gleefully ran around the backyard, playing with something that I couldn’t see. I heard an unfamiliar bark that scared me enough to manage to look away from this man’s eyes. There was another dog in the yard.
“I-I have a gun inside.” I tried to sound menacing, to sound absolutely sure of myself, but for the first time in my life, I was faced with something bad and I felt no confidence in myself. I was always the calm one under pressure, under fear, now, when it mattered most, I was falling apart.
The man looked at me, confused for a moment, and then abruptly, laughed out loud. “Do you really? Why, that’s quite fascinating!” He was amused by my fright. And it seemed, trying to make me feel at ease.
“Excuse me? Listen, I don’t want any trouble, if you want, you can take whatever you want. Just please, don’t hurt the dog.” I realised I was leaving something important out. “Er-or me. Please.”
“Hurt you? No! Oh goodness, I’m very sorry. I must have frightened you!” Understanding dawned on his features. Which I saw were just as gorgeous laughing as they were serious. “You see, my dog got out, and we’re a little new to the neighborhood, so I was afraid he wouldn’t find his way back so I let myself into your yard. I think he dug a hole somewhere around the fence and got in. I would have knocked otherwise!”
Relief flooded over me and I felt myself slump slightly. He wasn’t trying to kill Ali. Or me. “Oh thank god. I thought you were a vampire - or worse, a murderer!”
He straightened for a moment when I said vampire. Even his dog seemed to stop playing in the yard. He smiled again. “A murderer is worse than a vampire?” He studied my face for a moment.
“Well, I suppose it would depend on my relationship to the vampire, but yes. Definitely worse. Your dog is absolutely huge! What breed is he?” I felt at ease around him, the conversation wasn’t strained, and now that I knew he wasn’t going to kill me, I thought it might be nice to get to know the absolutely beautiful next door neighbor.
“Elias is actually a crossbreed between a Great Dane and a Mastiff. And I’m Edward Collins, by the way.”
“Edward? I’m Juliet Moloch. Nice to meet you.” I smiled, automatically sticking my hand out to shake his hand. I’ve loved the name Edward since I was little, and it was hard for me to keep back the giggle of my favorite name being coupled with his amazing good looks. I hoped I didn’t look too horrible, although I held no hope he would be interested in me as anything more than a friend.
“You as well. You have a very…interesting last name.” He smiled again, and I couldn’t do anything but stop breathing, something had changed about the smile he’d given me earlier, it was a darker somehow. But it made me want to get closer to him. Probably just the danger enthuiast in me leaking a bit.
The dogs reappeared through the same door as Edward had. Ali, a pitt bull mix, looked like a chihuahua compared to Edward’s Elias. The dog seemed to come higher than my waist and I was 5′6″. Ali looked beat, she slunk back into the house and went directly to the couch and curled up in a ball to fall asleep. Elias came over to me and started sniffing me. “He doesn’t bite, does he?”
The dog finished his sniffing and went back to Edward. He looked down to Elias and he almost seemed to nod up at him. “Elias is too sweet, he’d never hurt a fly.” The dog in question sniffed angrily and turned back to the yard.
“I think you’ve insulted him.”
“Maybe, but there are much more interesting things to focus on for now.” He looked down to the watch he was wearing. “It’s getting late, I should let you get back to your night. I’d love to chat with you some more sometime soon, will you be available tomorrow evening?”
I blushed and looked to Ali through the doors to try and hide the pleasure I felt from the invitation. Which was absurd to be so happy to receive. He probably has a gorgeous girlfriend or something that he lives with. I tried to talk my excitement down. “Absolutely, what time?”
We arranged the time and I found that he had moved into the house down the road that the entire neighborhood had been built around. It was only two stories, but incredibly huge and elegant. It had always reminded me of an old plantation home, but I’d thought that some old family that originally lived in the area owned it, passing it down from son to son. I’d heard that the last son had passed on a few weeks ago. Maybe he was some long lost relative, here to stake his claim.
Going back inside I felt unusually optimistic. I got ready for bed, brushed my teeth, and was so glad to have the next two days off. Laying down, my mind was jumping in all sorts of directions but I found myself falling asleep faster than usual. And then I had the first dream.
I knew I had to be dreaming, I’d had a similar dream a few years ago, but it all felt so real. I was standing in the old house down the road, looking in a huge closet. Standing next to me was a woman, just a little older than I was probably 22 or so, and we were laughing. She was holding up old dresses, they looked intricate with detail, long skirts with multiple petticoats that were strewn across an old chest of drawers. There was no sound but I felt screams coming from somewhere in the house. The girl’s eyes widened and she pulled me by the hand further into the closet, quickly shutting and locking the door that connected us to the other room. Pushing one of the dressers aside she opened a small door. “Get in!” She shoved me inside the door, then shut it quickly and I could hear the dresser being pushed back into place. The screams came next. I tried to find a way out, but there was nothing. I tried pushing against the door or trying to find another way out, but I seemed to be trapped. I felt tears coming down my face as I laid down, rocking in place hearing the screams.
I started to hear the sounds of wood moving against wood, and I bolted upright. I looked around and found myself in my room, awake. I was safe.
****
It was easy enough to find my way to Edward’s house that night. It was something I always passed by whenever I walked Ali, and the walk there only takes about 2 minutes. Thankfully, the Florida night was relatively cool for May.
When I actually stood on the porch, I realised how intimidatingly huge this house was. Just the outside made my own home go to shame. I rang the doorbell and automatically tugged on my shirt, pulled up my jeans (since they always refused to stay where they should), and prayed to the beauty gods for some sort of miracle for the hair that would absolutely not behave.
After a few moments, the door opened and my memory had not done Edward justice. In the bright lights of his home, what I thought had been dark hair was actually a golden brown color. His eyes were a deep shade of blue, and the pink tinge of his skin seemed to have disappeared, leaving him paler than the night before. “Juliet! Please come in!” He smiled warmly at me, gesturing into the house.
He led me through the foyer to the sitting room which was twice the size of my living room at home. There were portraits lining the walls of older generations but not much in the way of furniture. The middle of the room held a circle of love seats, giving the impression that they often entertained couples…or had some interesting parties. There was a small coffee table in the center that held a silver platter of crackers, small cakes, and petit fours. I felt horribly underdressed. I sat, cursing myself that I hadn’t worn a skirt, or dress, or something that didn’t shout “Hey! I’m a yank!” He offered me a drink, and after he had brought it back (on another silver tray), he sat across from me.
“Your house is absolutely gorgeous, how’d you come by it?” I didn’t feel the need to go through the regular boring small talk with him, which was a great change.
“My family has owned it since it was built. I grew up in this place, but I’ve been away from home for quite a few years. I have to say though, I’m glad the scenery has gotten better around here.” If anyone else had said that, I probably would have slapped them, but the way he winked at me after he said it just about stopped my heart. So I didn’t have much of a choice other than to just sit there.
I composed myself enough to realise that his dog wasn’t around. “Where’s Elias?”
“I’m right here!” A man strolled out of a nearby doorway to lean against the frame and my jaw almost dropped open. He was just as gorgeous as Edward, but in a much more…earthly way. His hair was a deep black, his skin a tan color that didn’t look as though it came from the sun, and his eyes were a breathtaking black color. Which generally wouldn’t be breathtaking, but I guess these two just got the lucky sticks when they were being made.
Edward shot a dark look to him. “I think she meant the other Elias.”
The human Elias just smiled to me, “Hi there, I’m Elias.” He came over to me, quickly dropping into one of the other love seats. “You must be Juliet.”
I was officially the ugly pimento cheese next to freshly baked french bread.
