Page 109 of Dream a Little Dream

Thatsmile. Ingratiating. Unnerving. Nowso fucking familiar. Aaron’s skin crawled with the memory of it. Of the way Drew had sat across from him, feigning understanding, playing the role of a confidant, and his blood ran cold as Drew gestured him inside as if welcoming a guest to a dinner party.

“Come in. You’ve come all this way.”

The stench hit him before the door fully opened. Heavy. Cloying. Wrapping around him like a suffocating shroud. The air was stale, heavy with the nauseating rot of mildew and decay, mingling with something worse. He wretched.

“Why?” Aaron asked, voice tight, strained.

Drew’s smile widened, his teeth yellow in the dim light. “To meet your destiny.”

“WhyRahul?” he spat, shaking with anger. “Why him? He was no one to you!”

“But he was someone toyou.” Drew’s tone was light, conversational, as though they were discussing the weather. “And that matters.” He stepped aside, beckoning Aaron again with a calm, almost fatherly gesture. “Come inside. Let me explain.”

Guilt crashed down on Aaron like a tidal wave.I told him about Rahul.The realisation made him sick.Hehad handed Drew the perfect target, unknowingly played into his hands, and now—

“Come on.” Drew’s tone turned darker, more insistent. “You came here for answers, didn’t you? You’ve been out there on your own for so long, haven’t you? No one to guide you. Trying to fend for yourself. And you’ve done a fantastic job, but you can never truly understand where you came from and who you are until you step inside and let me show you.”

Aaron couldn’t move, his feet rooted to the ground as his body warred with his mind. Every instinct screamed at him to run, but something stronger kept him there—the need to know, to understand.

The search for that illicitwhy.

“I’m not going in there,” Aaron said, voice steadier than he felt.

Drew chuckled, low and soft. “Of course you will. You’re curious. And curiosity,Aaron…” He leaned closer, his smiletwisting. “Curiosity is what brought you here. It’s what ties us together. You and me, we’re not so different. I see it in you. The need to understand. Toknow. And you know what’s funny? The truth you’re chasing? It’s already part of you. It always has been.”

Aaron wanted to hit him, to knock that smug smile off his face, but his body refused to move. And what made it all the worse? Drew wasright.

“I promise, you’re safe. No one would dare harm you. Imagine Roisin’s wrath if I did.” He chuckled, as if finding all thisamusing. “I mean, look at what happened to your father.”

Aaron froze, the words slicing through him like a blade. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Drew’s eyes glittered with secrets he wasn’t ready to share. “I think you already know.” He stepped back into the house, darkness swallowing him whole as he spoke over his shoulder. “Come inside. I’m letting all the heat out.”

Aaron knew he should flee. Heknewit. Nothing good could come of stepping inside this house. But his defiance burned brighter than his fear. He hadn’t come back to Ryston, to Wilton, only to turn and run away. He was here to confront whatever darkness lurked within these walls. Inhimself. To face the man who had twisted his life into this nightmare. So, steeling himself, he stepped over the threshold. The door closed behind him with a resounding thud, sealing him inside with the monster who had dragged him back to the edge of his past, daring him to survive it.

Maybe it was because, deep down, he’d always known he was untouchable. That nothing, no matter how monstrous, could break him. He’d carried that belief for as long as he could remember. A fortress he’d built around himself, its walls bolstered by his mother’s shadow. He’d thought it was her love shielding him, keeping the world’s horrors at bay.

But it wasn’t love. It never had been.

As he’d always suspected, he had the devil watching over him.

So as he followed Drew down the dim corridor, the truth tightening around him like chains, realisation stung. Devotion hadn’t forged his mother’s shield. The devil’s hand had. And the devil didn’tlove. Hepossessed.

The air grew heavier, colder, as they descended deeper into the heart of the broken house. Religious symbols littered the walls. Faded, grimy crosses and fractured frames, their presence more oppressive than comforting, as if mocking any notion of salvation. Each step carried him closer to the suffocating darkness, to the stench of rot clinging to everything like a second skin.

Then, from somewhere ahead, came a sound. A faint rustling. A soft, muffled whimper.

Aaron stopped cold. “What the fuck was that?” He widened his eyes. He might be invincible, but he was still shit fucking scared.

“That’s your gift.”

“My what?”

Drew opened a door, holding out his arm in a big reveal, as if he were a game show host showing what the contestants could have won. He looked practically giddy with it, too. And Aaron’s heart pounded as he stepped into a blank room, breath robbed. Because there, in the centre, on a single chair, sat a young girl. Wrists tied, mouth gagged, eyes wide andterrified. Dressed as Wednesday Addams, plaited hair trailing down to her shaking arms. She looked at him. Desperate. Pleading.

“You’ll thank me for this.” Drew slithered into the room like a poisonous serpent, positioned himself behind the girl and dumped his hands on her trembling shoulders as if staking a claim.

Dread curled at the edge of Aaron’s mind. This girl wasn’t just a victim. She was another piece of Drew’s twisted puzzle, and Aaron had walked right into his labyrinth of horror.Willingly.

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