Glade Part 26 - Psycho

Rachel stays with Glade for a couple of days because they seem to need each other. She needs to feel safe with someone strong, and he needs someone there for him to care for. It's also nice to have life in the house after two or three decades of him or other's like him. He likes hearing her moving around before she goes to work and she likes knowing that when she goes back there's going to be someone there. After those few days Glade starts to worry that Rachel is too scared to go home. He needs time to think, somewhere quiet where he won't be disturbed. It's dark by the time she gets home so he goes out to hunt before she returns.

When Rachel does get home, and finds him gone, she tries to call him, but he's turned his phone off. "What did I do wrong?" He'd been so caring before this night, he'd always been there for her when she got home and asked how her day was. Maybe he just wanted to go out early. She curls up with a book to wait, but he doesn't come back till dawn. R: "Morning."

G: "Good morning Rachel."

"Busy night?"

"No. I wanted to be alone tonight."

"Do you want me to go home?"

"Only if you would feel safe."

"I would, but I'm worried that you're lonely." He smiles and sits down opposite her.

"I am not lonely, I have a little melancholy, that is all."

"Melancholy?"

"I was thinking about all I had done since my change and how much I had gained and lost."

"Everyone gets like that sometimes."

"I would like you to stay, if you would."

"Of course I would."

"Thank you." He goes into his bedroom, and comes out a few minutes later, picks up a book, and sits opposite Rachel. He can't focus on the story and puts it down after twenty minutes. Rachel looks over her book to see if he wants to talk, and puts down her own book. R: "Need to talk?"

"No, just to rest. I did not hunt tonight, so I am restless now that my mind has settled."

"I'm here if you need me." He hears her heart speed up and understands that she means to let him drink, not just to talk. "It feels wrong to drink after dawn. Night is for hunting, day is for resting."

"I should get to bed soon anyway. I'm not tired till early morning now."

"Human sleep cycles are easily influenced by late resting times."

"Yeah I know. It's just annoying that there's not much daytime left by the time I get up."

"You should not keep staying up all night with me."

"But I'd miss you." She thinks for a minute to decide whether to ask about something she thought while she was at work. R: "Would you ever change me?"

"What is your reason?" She doesn't reply straight away, she hadn't thought of a reason.

"I don't know."

"Then I would not change you. It is not something you can reverse."

"I know. I'll think about it." She yawns, and he smiles. "I really should get to bed now."

"Yes, I think you should."

A few hours later she's woken by her phone. "What?"

"You have to get home right now Rachel."

"Wait, what?"

"Dylan. He tried to burn down your house. He put petrol and a match through the letterbox."

"Oh my- I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Where are you?"

"At Gla- I mean Jacob's place."

"I'll come pick you up if you want."

"Ok. Do you know where Jacob's place is?"

"Yeah, I'll see you in a few."

"Thanks." Marcy hangs up first, and Rachel just stares at her phone for a minute before waking up enough to think of what to do. She gets dressed, picks up an apple, and knocks on Glade's bedroom door. "Come in."

"Hi, I have to go, I don't know what time I'll be back." She's nearly crying so he gets up and comes over to her. "Will you be ok?" She nods, then shakes her head and starts crying. He hugs her, and walks her to the sofa to sit down. "Can you tell me what has happened? I heard your phone."

"Dylan....Tried to burn my...house down." She cries some more, and he holds her again. After a couple of minutes she forces the tears back and calms herself. Glade hears someone outside the door and looks over to it. Rachel understands, and gets up. He helps her with her coat, then hugs her again before stepping back to avoid a burn from the sun light.

Marcy sees that she's been crying and hugs her, and they go to Rachel's house. When they get there the firemen have already finished checking the house. Police have Dylan in the back of a car while they wait for the fireman's report. When he sees Rachel he starts shouting. "She shouldn't be here, she should be at work! She told me she'd be at work so I couldn't have hurt her. Never hurt her. If something bad happened she would come back-" A policeman tells him to shut up then comes over to Rachel to tell her what happened. "A neighbour saw him pouring what hey thought was petrol through the letterbox, followed by what looked like a black bag full of old shirts. He'd just put the match through when we got here. The firemen got here a minute later. There's no structural damage from the fire, but you can't move back in yet because there is a lot of smoke damage in the hallway but not in the living room and not much upstairs thanks to the doors being shut." Rachel sways, and Marcy grabs her before she falls, and the paramedics come over to check her over. M: "She's got a bad heart murmur and when she's stressed she faints from it. She's fine, she just needs to be left alone till she wakes up." They take her to the ambulance and check her over anyway but don't find anything unusual so they let Marcy sit with her till she wakes up. "Marcy? Did I faint again?"

"Yeah, you did. I told them you're fine but they wanted to make sure. The police said you can't go back in before it's repaired and you have to pay."

"How am I meant to pay for something like that?"

"Insurance?"

"I don't know if I'm covered for fire."

"You should be." Rachel thinks about the damage, and the money that would be needed to fix it and falls back on the cot. She knows why but that doesn't stop her being annoyed. She wanders off after a while and when Rachel wakes again she's alone. She slips away when everyone's looking the other way and goes back to Glade's house. He opens the door before she reaches it and he helps her with her coat. She goes straight back to bed and he looks in on her before pulling the door nearly closed and leaving her to think.

For the next few hours she thinks about asking Glade to change her. She would be strong, so she would be safe. She has a few friends, but she's not particularly close to them. Marcy didn't even call when Rachel disappeared. Why would Dylan do something like that anyway? Did he think she would go back to him when her house mysteriously burnt down? Maybe he thought she wouldn't have had anywhere to go other than his bed or that he could play the hero and offer to help. She could leave him behind is she changed. There's no family to leave behind, a drunk driver took care of that years ago. Thankfully her heart stopped her being able to remember anything past the first few seconds. If she was changed, her heart would be cured. So would the scars on her back. So would the one faint and well hidden scar across her left wrist. Nobody else knows about it. Boyfriends had been told that the  ones on her back were from her falling through a window when she was about three, and that they never met family because they were religious and she wasn't. She'd never found love, not proper love anyway. If she changed that would change too. She would know for sure if she'd found the right one or not and if she hadn't she could easily move on without worrying that she'd left her soul mate behind somewhere. She could move away, find a new home for herself, or with how bad her friends are she could just stay exactly where she was. If she changed, she would be happy. She doesn't get a chance to think more about the subject because she falls asleep. She dreams of a young man with coal black eyes but when she wakes the next morning she doesn't remember him.