I Hope You Find Me by Trish Marie Dawson Read Free Book Online Page B

in circles sniffing the blankets and pillows.
Eventually she sat down near me and rested her head on my legs. She
whimpered at me and I absentmindedly began rubbing the top of her
head. My hand found her ears and scratched behind them. I was
trembling all over.
    “No one’s in here but us.” Connor said, still
sounding sleepy. He put the bottle down on a small dresser near the
door.
    “I swear someone was in this bed next to me.”
I looked around nervously. The only place someone could have gone
was into the bathroom or under the bed. I drew my legs up to my
knees, suddenly feeling like I was eight years old again. Zoey
shifted and laid her head on her paws and watched as Connor flipped
the bathroom light on.
    “All clear in here.” He said, as he leaned
into the bathroom door frame, his arms crossed at his chest. He
made no attempt to cover a yawn.
    He was obviously not going to check under the
bed. So I bent forward and rolled onto my stomach and leaned over
the side, slowly pulling up the sheet and blanket to peer under the
mattress. As my eyes adjusted all I could see was the carpet,
shrouded in night, but then the other side of the bedspread flipped
up and there were Connor’s eyes, looking back at me. A strangled
scream escaped my mouth before I registered it was his face and not
some intruder’s and I lost my balance and slid off the bed,
crumpling into a heap on the floor. I lay there on my back a
moment, breathing heavily while Connor sat on the edge of the bed,
laughing at my expense.
    “Oh, shut up.” I said, half serious, as I
stood and straightened my tank top. “You scared the crap out of me,
what were you thinking?”
    “Did you really think someone was under the
bed?” Connor replied, holding one of his hands up to his mouth to
cover his smile.
    “Something was in here. I felt someone
lay down right next to me!” I stood with my arms crossed and an
indignant look on my face. I was half tempted to stick my lower lip
out at him in a petulant pout.
    “You were probably dreaming.” He paused and
glanced around the room seriously. “I’ve had some strange dreams
myself lately.”
    “I wasn’t dreaming.” I glared at him, aware
that my face was flushed with heat.
    “Okay, you weren’t dreaming, but nothing is
here now. Except the three of us, of course.” He gestured around
the room. He stood and ran his hand through his hair, a move I
found more enticing every time I saw it, which immediately annoyed
me.
    Connor moved toward the door, and turned to
face me. “You going to be okay in here?”
    I rolled my eyes at him, and patted the space
next to me as I slipped back under the covers. “I’ll be fine; I’ll
keep Zoey in here.”
    “Okay, good night then.” He smiled, and
closed the door behind him.
     
    ***
     
    Connor lay still in his bed, resting on his
back with his arms shoved beneath the pillow, staring up at the
ceiling tiles. The room glowed slightly from the moon, making
everything around him the same dusty, bluish-grey color. His room
smelled faintly of detergent and wet dog as he replayed the day’s
events in his mind.
    He had been startled awake earlier that
morning by a loud explosion that vibrated through the hotel. He had
seen the smoke in the distance and wasn’t sure but it looked to be
coming from near the airport and he wondered if a plane had tried
to land, and crashed instead. So when the smoke got worse instead
of better, he set out with a days’ worth of supplies in the
afternoon to see what happened. He had been to the airport just
last week. There were so many bodies inside and the runway was
littered with planes that even if someone was left to fly them,
they wouldn’t be able to taxi down the runway. He doubted a plane
could land at all but perhaps someone had tried anyway? Either way,
it was worth seeing what was going on.
    He weaved through the streets, walking
briskly, with his hands shoved into his pockets. As he rounded a
street corner he stopped