“Well,” I started and wiggled out of Rooks grip. “I feel like a crazy person. Always thinking about you. Wondering what your story is and what your family is like and what books you like to read. I don't know what to do. I don't want to be thinking these things because I know it's a bad idea. But, I just can't help it." I threw my hands up with exasperation.

He leaned up against the counter, crossed his arms and looked at me. I stared back, not believing that I had just told him. I hadn't wanted him to know that I felt like that, but nowthat I had said it I felt that much better.

He finally said, after about a minute of silence, "I don't read."

I laughed and walked out of the kitchen. What was I going to do now? Slouching down onto my cushioned brown couch, I sighed and closed my eyes. I didn’t have enough time to really think about the whole situation. To think about what was really going on with me, or think of a real answer to the current situation, since there is a murderer coming after us. Covering my face with my hands i groaned. Rook walkedinto the living room and sat across from me.

    We both sat there for what seemed like hours until exhaustion finally hit me and I yawned. I dropped my hands into my lap as Rook came over and sat next to me on the couch. I leaned against him and he wrapped his arm around my shoulder. Finally I felt safe enough to fall asleep and slowly drifted into a dream.

         Thenight was crisp and cold and there was a deep mist covering the park as I stoodwaiting. I knew I had to be here. There was something coming. I turned to facethe person. Their face was covered in blood. They carried an ax in one hand anda man’s head in the other. I couldn’t scream, couldn’t fight as he dropped thehead and grabbed me by the throat. He lifted me up until my feet no longer touched the ground. I clawed at his hands desperate to get a breath of air.

    “Isent you many warnings and you still won’t listen.” His deep scratchy voice bellowed. “I’m coming for you so you better prepare your funeral.” With that he threw me to the ground and walked back into the misty darkness.

    I gasped and sat up in bed. I tried to calm my racing heart and get my breath back to normal. Somehow i had ended up back in my room. Rook must have put mein bed after I fell asleep. It was a relief to see that I was still fully clothed. As the dream began to fade away, worry began to gnaw at my mind. I got out of bed and walked into the living room. Rook was snoring on my couch with ablanket barely covering him. Smiling, I walked to my kitchen and turned on my tea kettle. I grabbed a cup from the cupboard and put a tea packet in it.

    Rookgroaned and moved in his sleep. He was thrashing and mumbling. He didn’t look happy. Then he yelled like he was being attacked and sat up. I ran over to him.“Are you okay?”

    He took deep breaths and looked at me. I squeaked with surprise as he pulled me tight against him. “I am now.” His heart was racing and I leaned against him as his grip loosened.

    “Did you dream about him too?” I asked him.

    He pulled away and looked at me. “What happened?”

    I smiled at him, not wanting him to worry. “Nothing. He just told me to go away again.” I wiped the hair out of his face and kissed his cheek. “I’ll make you some tea.”

    I walked to the kitchen and took out another glass. The tea pot whistled and I poured the water into the glasses. When I was a child, I had nightmares often.My mom would always make me a cup of tea and it always seemed to soothed me. I can remember one night in particular, when my mother had come into my room after i screamed for help in my sleep. She woke me up and carried me to the kitchen. I still had tears in my eyes as my mom handed me a cup of hot apple cider.

    Rook came into the kitchen and grabbed the cup after I added the hot water. He tooka sip. “That’s really good. When i make tea it never tastes like this.”

   “Secret ingredient. My mother taught me it when I was a teenager.” I smiled at him and sipped my tea. My nightmare slipped away slowly and I felt happy beingable to help Rook as well. “Does it help?”

    He nodded with a smile. “It’s comforting, yes.” He took another sip and put down the glass. “We need to talk.”

    “About what?” I asked looking up from my glass.

    “How were going to fix this problem. I want to finally enjoy living instead of constantly being afraid of what might happen. I want to be able to get close toyou without having to worry about waking up to you being dead.” He moved close to me. “I want to kiss you without being afraid that that might be the last.”

    I looked at him for a few seconds and then took a long drink from my glass, emptying it. “Okay. What do you think we should do?”

    “I think we could try to trap him. Calling the police won’t work so we might have to find some people who might be able to help. Do you know anyone?”

   Putting my glass down I went through all the people I knew in my mind trying to think if there was anyone with the ability to get rid of someone or could atleast help us trap him. I could only think of one person. “Joe Woods. He went to jail for a month for being at the wrong place at the wrong time… but he might still be able to help.”

    He nodded. “Can you get ahold of him and see if he can meet with us as soon as possible?” I nodded. “Okay we also need to think about his weaknesses. He only shows up during bad weather, which is almost every day here. And he only uses close range weapons like axes and knives. So he would have to get close to us to hurt us.”

    I nodded. “That means we could try to lure him here. But how would we do that?”

    He rubbed his chin in thought for a few seconds. “We could pretend to be sleeping and leave the front door unlocked…”

    “He’s probably already watching us.” I stated biting my lip. “It would be hard to get Joe here without him knowing.”

    Rook nodded. “True.”

    Anidea came to mind. “We could go to the party my friend has planned for this weekend.”

    Rooklaughed. “I think that will work perfectly. But I can’t imagine you blending inat a party.”