Page 42 of Fever Dream

I put my hand over the phone.I didn’t want to betray him.I didn’t want to lure him to his death.

“What is it?”Charles asked.

I couldn’t speak.Tears formed at the corners of my eyes.I shook my head, forcing the words back.

“Tell him to come home now,” the man said.

“Charles, he wants you to come now.”

“Where are you?”he asked.“Who wants me?”

“I’m at home,” I said.“There are men.”

He was quiet for a long beat.I could tell he was taking in the gravity of the situation.He was working out what to do about it.

“He wants you to hurry,” I said.

“Where is he?”Charles asked.

The man shook his head.“Tell him to stop asking questions and get a move on.He has five minutes.”

“He wants you to hurry.”

“I’m on my way,” he said.“Are you in the kitchen?Where are the kids?”

We had three phones in the house.One in the kitchen, one next to our bed, and one in the family room.

“Don’t tell him anything more,” the man warned.

“Dinner will be ready,” I said, knowing he’d understand.“Just please hurry.”

I hung up and turned to the man, sounding more sure of myself and defiant than I felt.“There.”

“You told him where you were in the house,” the heavy-set man said.“That’s a shame, Grace.It makes me think I can’t trust you.”

“You can trust me.”

I don’t recall what happened next, other than the sound of the crack as the gun made contact with my skull.I’m not sure I felt it, at least not at first.One second I was standing, and the next I couldn't see straight.The room was spinning, and eventually I fell to the floor.I cowered in a ball, covering my head.

“Good,” he said.And then, just as soon as they’d come, they were gone.It wasn’t until later, until I was lying in the dark, that I realized what had happened.The men hadn’t come to rob us, or to kill me, at least not yet.They’d come to send a message.