“You think?” Aspen hedged, touching my other thigh. “I don’t know if she’s ready. She’s not opening up to us much yet.”
“I don’t think she’ll open up to us until we do to her. She knows we’re keeping something. I mean, how do you trust people you
know
are hiding things from you, not just you haven’t crossed that topic with them yet?”
“That’s a good point,” Aspen agreed, nodding. “Okay, soon then.”
And then the dream was over. I had another, shorter one, but no talking that I remember in that one. Normally they didn’t talk, I more felt them there with me, touching me, almost as if I could see them like infrared. No, I didn’t think that was a sane thing to dream
either.
But when a person believes they are losing their
mind
that doesn’t seem like such a big deal.
The next morning I woke before my alarm, stretched slowly, and remembered I was back home… And then the camera. I bounded out of bed and put in my contacts before double checking the instructions on how to back up a recording. I did
not
want to risk accidentally deleting something after going through all of this.
Once it was all ready and the extra file saved I took a deep breath, steadying myself as best as I could before finding out if I was really crazy or… Or I didn’t know what. Or I was going to deal with something
really
crazy.
I hit play and saw myself getting ready for bed. This model had a motion sensor so it only recorded when something or someone was moving so once I was under the covers and stopped moving more than breathing, the screen went dark for a few seconds before turning back on here and there when I rolled over enough to trigger it or snored loud enough.
Because I now had recorded proof that I did really snore. Great. Who didn’t ever want that?
By the fourth time the video loaded with me simply turning over, I was about to admit defeat and seriously consider what several of the specialists had told me—that my symptoms were some form of psychosis. A very polite way of saying I was batshit crazy and maybe it was time to consider I needed to be locked up.
I thought that was a bullshit way out. There were certain things the body could do to itself because of the brain and certain things it could
not
. Fine, memory loss and dreams was one of them. Extreme weight loss was not one I’d ever heard of and most of the other doctors agreed with me.
Some
of the other ones didn’t. Great when they couldn’t. Really instilled faith in them all.
The next clip popped up and I did a double take as Teak walked into my bedroom followed by Cypress and Aspen. I turned up the sound and the scene played out exactly as it had in my dream with the only addition being that Aspen asked at some point if I was really out, as in unconscious was my guess, and Cypress nodded. So they had kept me asleep.
Which explained why I never woke as a light sleeper. That had been the one thing that had always made me assume it couldn’t be them. I woke for
everything
unless I’d been drinking, then I could sleep through a tornado.
I watched the whole thing and then a second round of them coming in my room about an hour later according to the time stamp. After that it was nothing but a couple more scenes of me rolling over before I woke up. I clicked my mouse back to clip five and watched that and six again just to make sure. Then I put those two on a USB drive, already knowing how to play them on the TV downstairs.
I wasn’t
really
sure what I was going to do, but I had a feeling it was going to be big because I had that cold, calm feeling that normally even scared
me
when it came over me since it was typically followed by my temper blowing like a volcano. Or I got hysterical. One or the other or both. Nothing ever rational or calm though.
Making some coffee, I texted the guys and said I was hopping in the shower but why didn’t they come over for breakfast in half an hour and we could hang out. There was no way I’d be able to get anything done with this hanging over my head, and I needed to know what the fuck was going on anyways because whatever they’d been doing to me was causing a mountain of chaos in my life.
I got three enthusiastic replies, and I let them know the front door was open. Then I picked out something comfy to wear, because it was going to be that kind of a day, fixed up my coffee, grabbed the USB drive, and headed downstairs to shower. The whole time I was under the water I was surprised that the cool spray didn’t instantly turn to steam and evaporate I was so pissed. And then a random thought hit me, one so insane I couldn’t stop laughing for a good five minutes.
I’d been right all along with my little snarky thought that first day after they’d moved in and I’d gone to change the lightbulbs and they had already been done. I did have little elves running around my house at night doing my chores for me and
more
. Okay, they weren’t little and I didn’t know if they were elves, but given they were sneaking in past locked doors without keys and somehow making me sleep when they were in my room and miraculously losing more weight than
humanly
possible… Elves were not out of the picture.
There was a knock at the door right at the half hour mark, and I heard their heavy footsteps in the foyer as I threw on some deodorant in the guest bathroom, already showered, dried off, and dressed.
“Down here, guys,” I called out as I stepped into the hallway. “I want to show you something first.” I didn’t wait for them, walking into the family room and turning on the TV.
“Good morning,” Teak greeted, moving in as if to give me a kiss.
I stepped away and gestured to the couches. “Sit down. You guys are going to
love
this. I know
I did
.”
“Cara, are you okay?” Cypress hedged as they eyed me cautiously, each slowly taking a seat.
I ignored him and plugged in the USB drive, talking while it loaded. “So funny thing. I’ve dreamed about you guys every night since you’ve moved in. Did you know that? No, I don’t think I told you that. But I do. That you enter my room and touch me. Not a dirty dream, but that you just touch me. Crazy right? And then there’s the weight loss thing that coincides with your arrival but there’s no
way
that could have anything to do with three men except then I didn’t lose
a single pound
when I was home.”
“Cara, we can—” Aspen started.
I spun around and pointed a finger at him. “Shut the
fuck
up and watch. You guys had your chance!” I stared him down until he nodded and then played the first video for them. “But see, I’m
not
crazy. Every night you have been creeping into my room and doing
something
to me. Twice I would guess from this.” I hit the button for the next one and showed them.
When it was done, I spun to face them and
launched
the remote across the room, almost smiling as their mouths dropped open as they watched it shatter against the wall.
“So what are you? I keep coming back to elves because that first night you were here my lightbulbs were changed out and
I
didn’t do it and I kept making this joke in my head that maybe I have little elves running around my house doing my chores for me. So tell me are we talking Seeley Court and Unseeley Court or more light and dark? Or is it more a Lord of the Rings kind of thing?”
“We’re dark elves,” Teak whispered, his eyes practically bugging out of his head. “Good guess.”
“Well I’ve had a
lot
to time to think about this as I wondered
just
how crazy I’ve gone.” Aspen opened his mouth but I held up my hand to him and focused on Teak. He’d be the most honest with me, I knew that already. “So you have been sneaking in here and fixing things for me, taking chores off my to-do list and
physically removing
them from the list, yes?”
“Yes, but—”
“What are you doing to me in that video? Is it the same thing I feel when you guys touch or hug me all in a row?”
“You
feel
that?” he gasped, looking almost
impressed
.
“Answer
my
questions,” I demanded as I took a few steps closer, shaking my finger at him. “It is
time
for answers. What have you been doing to me? Sucking fat out of me?”
“Kind of, but it’s more complicated than that,” he sighed, glancing at Cypress. “Can he answer? He’s better at explaining it than I am.”
“Fine.” I turned on my heel and focused on him. “Explain.”
“The weight loss is more a side effect,” Cypress hedged, adjusting his neck before rubbing his hands down his shorts roughly, obviously not liking that he was being put on the spot.
Too. Fucking. Bad.
“Think of it as healing. Your body takes damage over time. Either from toxins or impurities in foods, the fact you smoke, the shit in the air. Stress hurts the body, all of it. Our touch heals. It’s a little at a time, but it’s best to think of it as a reversal of the clock so bringing your system and body back closer to where you were maybe at eighteen. The side effect is the loss of an ounce or two of fat each time we touch you and we can do it a few times a day, each of us.”
I nodded as he spoke and mulled it over. “So it’s a clean slate starting from this moment. I won’t
instantly
gain all the weight back or go into withdrawal if you stop.”
“Why would you—” Teak almost asked but shut it when I snapped at him.
“Correct,” Cypress
wisely
answered. “Your body is probably now where you were at twenty instead of thirty. You will simply be twenty and a day tomorrow or whatever. That’s all.”
“Okay,” I whispered, bobbing my head as I stared at my bare feet, bracing my hands on my hips and mulling all this information over. I’m glad I knew now, but
fuck
, I still had a mess to clean up. Maybe one day I would be grateful for the gift they’d given me.
Maybe. And one day. But not that day.
“Okay,
what
, Cara?” Teak asked carefully.
I sniffled and raised my head. “Okay, get the fuck out of my house and don’t ever come back. Not for dinner, not in the middle of the night, not
ever
. Don’t call me, don’t wave at me, don’t touch me, don’t speak to me, don’t even
look
at me.”
“What?”
Aspen roared as he jumped to his feet. “Because we’re
elves
?”
“I could give a
shit
that you’re
elves
,” I whispered as tears burned my eyes.
“Then what? Helping you? You wouldn’t ask for any so—”
“Helping me?”
I choked out as I closed my eyes and covered my face with my hands as I screamed. “That’s what you call what you’ve been doing? Are you fucking
kidding
me? You have fucking
blasted
my life apart!” I fell to my knees and moved my hand away, opening my eyes, the tears falling and not able to hide them. “I’m about to go bankrupt.”
“What?” Teak whispered as he slid off the sofa and onto the floor. I held up my hand, and he got the idea, stopping. “Cara,
how
?”
“How?” I laughed and not in that good way, in that hysterical
I was not keeping it together well
kind of way. “Because for months I’ve been going to see
every
doctor in the area to explain the inexplicable weight loss I’ve been having. It’s not
normal
to lose eight to ten pounds in a month and that’s even with serious dieting and exercise which I have
not
been doing and I’ve been losing that in a
week
. I thought I was
dying
, you assholes! That’s normally
why
humans have drastic, rapid onset weight loss.”
“Oh shit,” Cypress hissed as he joined Teak on the floor.
“Yeah,
oh shit
,” I giggled, wiping my eyes. “But do you know what they’ve found?
Nothing
. Abso-fucking-lutely nothing. So they would send me somewhere else. They would do different tests my insurance only partly covers or others they don’t cover at
all
, but well, what else was I going to do, just
die
? Because obviously
something
was wrong because a person doesn’t just start losing eight or so pounds a week without a reason! I went to Chicago to see a rare disease specialist that cost me four
grand
just to get through the door.
“My parents are talking about taking a mortgage out on their house and they paid that off years ago all so they can help save me from this
mysterious
illness. And this is all while I’ve been thinking I’m losing my fucking
mind
! Things I wrote down aren’t there. Jobs I knew I had to do are done. Things aren’t where I left them and appear in different spots. I didn’t know if this was related to the weight loss or, on
top
of whatever was causing
that
, I had a fucking brain tumor too.