Shadowed Dreams & Rippled Water

A Ring

Chapter 9

A Ring

I reached the second-floor staircase landing and found myself shivering. Tiny goosebumps covered my arms. The hallway was icy cold. Suddenly, Mum shrieked. I spun around and peered down over the banister rails. She stood in the middle of the kitchen with her face between her hands. Her eyes were moving so fast around the room I couldn’t keep up.

“Michael ...? It can’t be…” She whispered, her hands going to her heart.

Dad...? I tightened my grip on the rails.

Mum’s face drained of colour. She reached for the sink and almost toppled into it. Her hands shook as she reached under the sink and pulled out her polishing cloth. When stress became too much, Mum resigned to cleaning her antiques.

“Michael,” she whimpered as she disappeared into the lounge room, no doubt seeing what antique to polish next.

“Lucy...”

“Who’s there?” I shrieked and turned around, backing against the banister rail. “Who said that ...?”

Was someone watching me? I moved away from the banister rails and stepped into a cold spot. My breath grew white. Floorboards creaked in every direction. Heavy footsteps drew near until they were right in front of me. “Lucy ...”

The last time I heard this voice was thirteen months again, around the same time Dad was pulled from the sinking ferry—when he had died. At first, I thought I was Kane playing a prank, but after everything had happened, I concluded it wasn’t him. But I still didn’t know what it was, and it had returned.

“Leave me alone!” I squeaked as I sprinted down the hallway, not stopping until I reached Dean’s bedroom door. What’s happening to me?

I closed and opened my eyes, hoping to make the voice disappear. Thankfully, as it had done last time, everything returned to normal. Whatever had brought on the cold had lifted, the light had returned, and the voice was gone. Was I going insane? Were these the first stages of psychosis? Or was this linked to my strange dream?

Dean’s voice caught my attention, diverting my attention away from the hallway.

“Krissy, why...?” he asked with a low growl. “You could have done this in person...”

There was no real need to move any closer to hear the conversation. It was clear from where I stood. But, overtaken by my curiosity, I placed my ear against his door.

His footsteps thundered through his room, echoing off the walls. “No, that’s not true…! Who in the hell...? I should’ve known…” he said, fastening his steps. “You're exactly as Lucy said—toxic!”

I wanted to shout, “About bloody time,” but I thought better. He was upset enough as it was, and I had never seen him angry, so I didn’t want to.

“Who is it? Or don’t I want to know?” There was a drawn-out silence, and then he laughed. “Jack Green of all people…! Then again, his parents have money, and what do I have?”

I knew Jack Green. He was a nerdy high school student with a long, pointy nose and bright orange hair resembling a malformed porcupine. Though he was not one of the best-looking guys at school, he was wealthy, which alone would explain Krissy’s sudden interest in him.

Dean laughed again, this time more sarcastically than before. “What...? Come on...! Yeah, right… I want nothing more to do with... No, don’t you dare bring her into this, what...!” His voice grew louder. I had to remove my ear from the door. “Don’t try using that against me… You know the truth, and if you tell her… It would be the kind of love no one else can give me... especially you!”

Geez, I wish I could hear the entire conversation. I inched closer, not placing my ear to the door, but close enough to listen to whispers.

The room fell silent. Was it over, or had he lowered his voice to a level I couldn’t hear? I leaned against the door as the floorboard squeaked beneath me.

“Shoot!” I covered my mouth. Too late, I knew he had heard me.

“Come in, Lucy. I know you’re there…”

Biting my bottom lip, I opened the door and lingered in the doorway. My heart began to race, echoing in my ear. Heat returned to my neck. “I–I wanted to talk. I don’t like arguing with you.”

Dean rubbed the back of his neck and patted the spot on the bed beside him. “It’s alright, Lucy lady. Come sit…”

Tapping my fingers against the door, I hesitated for a moment.

“It’s fine. You know I can't stay mad at you.” He patted the same spot again. “Sit...”

I joined him, twiddling my thumbs. “I’m sorry about before. I don’t feel Krissy’s right for you. Besides, she rubs me the wrong way...”

“Ah, I understand,” he laughed, returning to his playful self. “Anyway, it’s kind of funny seeing you jealous.”

“Jealous?” I almost snorted. “Why the hell would you think I’m jealous? That’s plain—well, anyway, I’m not jealous...” Or was I? This was different from the usual jealousy I kept inside over being the figurative black sheep in the family. It felt different.

He poked me in the arm. “Oh really, because you’re acting like it.”

“Well, I was then, and I’m not now.” I huffed, folding my arms in front of me. My heart fluttered. I ignored it… I had to. If I was jealous of Dean’s relationships, something was deeply wrong with me.

“Deny it all you want, but I know you too well.”

“It’s not true.” I defended.

“Well, if that’s how it’s going to be…” He made his eyebrows dance.

It was difficult not to laugh at his persistence. Before I knew it, he had scooped me under his arms and thrown me on the bed. The mischievous guise in his eyes was one I knew all too well. “Don’t you even think about it!”

“Oh, too late…” he grinned, wiggling his fingers.

I twisted, squealed under his tickle attack, and laughed so much that I couldn’t breathe. “Alright ... okay, stop! I hate being ticklish…”

“Now you know how I feel…” Dean quipped, flopping beside me. He laid on his back and hooked an arm under his head. “I know you heard everything I said to Krissy. So, I guess you know I’ve decided against proposing.”

I turned, leaned against my propped hand, and looked down at him. His shirt was buttoned halfway, but I could see the line of his collarbone and the smooth skin beneath it. A strange tingling sensation gripped my stomach. I turned my attention to his face, trying to ignore it.

“If you ask me,” I said, my voice wavering. I cleared my throat. “It’s better off that way, honestly. Later down the track, she would have only done it again. You only need to take one look at her to see that. I know you deserve better.”

“I know that…but—” He trailed off.

“But what?” I asked curiously.

He tilted his head to face me, “I’m starting to believe things happen for a reason…”

“What reason?”

He opened his mouth to speak, thought better about it, snapped it shut, and shrugged. “I don’t know yet. When something comes out of this, then we’ll see.”

Before I could ask any more, Dean brushed my fringe from my eyes and stared deep into them. “If only I could find a girl like you. You’re one of a kind.”

I swallowed nervously at his touch, and the tingling sensation moved from my stomach to my core and turned warm. That was something I had never felt before. It was strange and oddly lovely.

“Do you know how pretty your eyes are?” He asked softly. “I mean it. They have something about them…”

“Mum calls them looking-glass eyes…” I said, unsure how else to respond.

“Oh, that reminds me…” He reached under his pillow and pulled out a small silver box with a tiny gold bow.

It was a jewellery box. I knew that from all the jewellery Valery had bought me over the years. Flicking the lid open, he placed it by my arm. Inside the soft silk lining was the prettiest yellow-gold ring I had ever seen, with two diamonds on each side of a yellow jewel. It put all Valery’s presents to shame.

“Is that for Krissy?” I asked, sounding suddenly disappointed. The warm tingles began to settle but didn’t subside. The pang of jealousy tightened my chest. “It’s beautiful…”

Dean closed the lid and sighed. “It was. Now, I want you to have it.”

“What, you’re proposing to me?” I teased, but something inside me welcomed the idea momentarily before dismissing it. “Now, that’s a little bit suspicious...”

“No, of course not,” he chuckled. “I think you should keep it. One day, when you have your own family and stuff, you could, you know... say it’s from their awesome uncle Dean.”

“I’m flattered. I can’t, though…” I pushed it across the bed, so it came to rest in front of his chest. “It looks as if it cost a small fortune. You need to keep it.”

Dean shook his head and stood up. “Honestly, I don’t need it. It’s yours.”

“But I—”

“Nope, no more on the subject… It’s yours. Don’t even attempt to sneak it back to me when I'm not looking because I’ll know.”

“Dean, I—” I attempted to argue.

“Nope,” he said, pressing a finger against my lips. “I don’t want to hear it.”

Sighing in defeat, I allowed him to place the box in my palm.

He removed his finger. “Look after it as if it were a piece of my heart, okay, Lucy lady?” He leapt to his feet. “I better save Mum from polishing her fingers to the bone.”

With the box firmly in my grasp, I stood beside him. “Are you working today?”

“Yep,” his eyes shifted from his clock to me. “I should’ve been there twenty minutes ago. Old Bilbo’s got me working the morning shift again… Perks of being his favourite cook…”

Dean headed for his door, paused, spun around, and ran back to me. His eyes had a gleam—a kind of hunger or need. For what, I wasn’t sure.

“See ya, Lucy Lady,” he whispered as he embraced me quickly and then raced out the door.

“Bye...” I half waved after him.

My body grew warm. My insides were alive with electric butterflies that had never known this unknown and unwanted enjoyment. It was Dean! He had hugged me many times over the years, but never before had that happened. Why was I feeling this way? He was my brother… and that feeling was wrong. So wrong!

Light-headed, I slipped the ring into my back pocket and left the room, treading the path his deodorant trailed behind until I was in the hallway.

There was a rustle on the floorboard behind me. “Sissy, Sissy... I don’t feel very well...”