Page 9 of Nightmare For Hire
Without hesitation, I weave my shadows through his tear ducts and into his memories. While I wait for feedback, I settle on the edge of his bed and rifle through my snack bag. Of course, the cute heart-shape is filled with chocolate and hard candy. Not a lot fits the space, but it’s enough. At the bottom are a few Pixy Stix, and that’s what I aim for right now. A hit of pure flavored sugar. I rip open all three and pour them in my mouth, biting off a moan.
In the back of my mind, a few visions of Jaxson’s fears float through, but none of them are interesting enough to work with. Not yet anyway. He sits naked at his work desk and what I assume is his boss comes in. Boring. A dog bares its teeth and barks at him. He runs away before it catches him.Boring. An old lady hits on him.Boring. Fire.
I can work with fire. It’s a common fear, but can be ramped up to a thousand. I’m so excited I dematerialize and become my shadow self without thinking about it. What’s fun with fire nightmares is that I can make him think he sees fire even if he’s awake. I ping around the room, thinking about how I want to do this before settling over his chest. That’s the best place to feed from. My shadow wraps around his ribs. There’s no substance for him to feel me here, but he might have one of those dread sensations.
I send more tendrils through his tear ducts. In his dream, he thinks he’s in bed, and he is. But I send in little tiny bits of flame to his mind. Just licks at his blanket, then his pillow.
Jaxson thrashes beneath me and I drink in the pure fear fueled by the nightmare. It’s the only thing I need to nourish myself. Human food is just for fun. I can’t absorb it or use it as energy. I just like the flavors.
The nightmare flames lick at his feet, not touching. Never touching. The fun part about nightmares is how I can toy with my meal. Scare them, even though they’re always safe. But as soon as they figure that out, they either wake up, or I have to change the nightmare.
Jaxson screams in his sleep and I cackle in his nightmare to bring another element of fear to the experience. It has the desired effect and I’m drunk on his fear. He’s so delicious. Nev is getting his money’s worth and I can’t wait to text the jackalope the results.
Is this what it’s like for humans when they’re high? Or horny? Or any number of weird human experiences? I should ask Dani sometime. But now it’s time to extinguish the flames to give Jaxson a false sense of peace for the night.
While I give him a rest, I materialize back into my human form and text Nev their first update.
Nox: Jaxson is responding well to the nightmares. I’ll stay with him all night.
I snap a pic and send Nev a picture of a sweat drenched Jaxson.
Nev: :) transferring money right now.
He doesn’t have to do that. I told him he could wait until the third night to pay. But I’m not going to argue either. I just hope this gives Nev closure in the end. Sure enough, my phone notifies me that three hundred dollars has been transferred to me. Hello, new platform boots in the very near future.
I go all night with the fire dreams. At one point, Jaxson actually wakes up. Too soon, his alarm goes off and he has to get ready for work. I leave a few tendrils of my shadow in the corner again and pop back to my apartment. It’s time to find some more clients.
Chapter 4
Cyrus
I yawn as I open my locker to grab my bag and phone. “Time to break it off with Mick.”
“Yes!” Devon shouts and fist pumps the air. “I’m gonna leave the makeup here. That way, I don’t have to lug it back and forth,” Devon says as she swings her locker closed again.
“Sounds like a good plan. And thank you again. You’re amazing and I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“You’d figure it out. I still don’t know how you do everything you do.” She wraps her arms around me in another hug. “Promise me you’ll call if you need something or need to talk. Or—”
My phone buzzes over and over and over again.
“Someone is popular this morning,” Devon says.
“Unfortunately,” I mumble.
Mick: We’re done.
Mick: Don’t ignore me. I said we’re done. What do you have to say about it?
Mick: Fuck you.
Mick: You’ll be begging for me to come back to you in no time.
Mick: You’ll beg me to fuck you until you can’t walk. My cock is the only one that can satisfy you.
I turn the screen so Devon can read. We both burst out laughing.
“I guess he beat me to it.” Even though I planned during my entire shift how to break it off with him, I'm not mad he broke things up first. Just the thought of not having to face him anymore causes me to sigh in relief. I can finally breathe again. I delete the messages and block his number. No need for it if we’re through, but what set him off?
