Page 45 of Snowed In with her Mountain Men
The voice in my head screamed for me to lift my leg; and start up the staircase. I could pretend I’d never seen him. I could make like I was oblivious, head upstairs, and alert the guys.
Only Ihadseen him. Or at least IthinkI had.
Against my better judgment, I slowly turned my head. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness at the far end of the living room, relief flowed over me in a giant wave.
“Holy shit, Jaxon!” I gasped, clutching my chest. “You scared me!”
I kept watching, expecting him to emerge from the shadows. Only Jaxon didn’t move. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t do anything, except make this incredibly strange sound.
And then I realized, he wasn’t even facing me. He was facing the wall.
What the—
He was shirtless, dressed only in boxer-briefs. Moving but not moving. That wasn’t the creepiest part, though. If I listened carefully, I could hear the sound was coming from deep in his throat. It was a low, lingering growl. More of a thrumming noise, or a frog-like croaking.
“Jaxon… are you okay?”
I ran over to him, and even more details emerged. Jaxon’s legs were moving steadily, as if he was walking, but he wasn’t going anywhere. And that’s because he was walking into the wall.
“Jaxon?”
He reminded me of every video game NPC I’d ever encountered, stuck in some sort of movement or clipping glitch. The noise he was making grew louder, creepier. I reached out to touch him, but he didn’t flinch.
“JAXON!”
His eyes blinked open, and that was the scariest part of all. They’d been rolled all the way back. For a full second or two, I saw only the whites of his eyes…
And then all of a sudden, he was in control again.
“Camryn?”
He looked confused. Helpless. Vulnerable.
“Yes, it’s me,” I smiled. I took his hand. “It’s only me.”
His expression went from confusion to embarrassment and then, shockingly enough, to one of anger.
“W—What’s going on?”
“You were sleepwalking,” I told him. “I think.”
His eyebrows knitted together even further. Was he angry at me?
“I—I know you’re not supposed to wake sleepwalkers,” I said apologetically. “Or at least that’s what I’ve heard. But you were moving around, and I was worried you might hurt yourself. And you were making this weird noise…”
Jaxon put both hands to the sides of his head, then rubbed at his eyes. When he looked at me again, he seemed disappointed in himself.
“Thanks, then,” he said glumly. “I appreciate it.”
He moved past me, in the direction of the stairs. But I refused to let go of his hand.
“Is this something that happens often?”
For some reason I knew the answer to the question before I even asked it. In the dim glow of the dying fire, I saw his jaw clench tightly. Beneath that thick black beard, he frowned.
Jaxon pulled his tattooed arm away, as politely but as firmly as possible. Then he stomped up the staircase and disappeared, leaving me stranded in the shadowy silence.
~ 26 ~
