A/N: I own none of the Forbidden Game series, they all belong to Lisa Jane Smith.

This chapters revision was solely created by:

Artist: Maggie Eckford
Song: Tell Me How to Feel

Chapter Five: Surprise

A flicker of a lightbulb illuminated the pale figure laid out on the floor. A duster black jacket fitted around a lithe frame and a silver bangle coiled around upper muscle. Disheveled hair like frosted crystals against the dark plains of a face.

  Julian.

A single breath expelled from his bared chest and receded a name, "Jenny..."

His whisper saturated the parquet walls and the hollowed ache in her heart. "Nothing really dies...as long as it's not forgotten..."

This wasn't one of their dreams, but a memory. Figments from the night Julian had died in her grandfathers basement. Yet the apology remained choked in her throat as a tumultuous wave of emotions crashed over her.

  There had been no funeral. Nothing had been left to bury. Who would've attended had there been? No one aside Jenny earnestly cared for the Shadow Men. Redemption had not excused the torment he'd put each one of her friends through, after tearing down the very fabric of their character on numerous occasions.

As the memory played out, Julian vanished like quicksilver moments later.

  Jenny was left standing in the very hallway she'd watched her grandfather be dragged from. The silence that settled sent an eerie prickly sensation down her spine. Like spiders crawling on gooseflesh. She felt the fear slowly rise to the surface and curdled her insides.

  Silver eyes like molten moonlight, branded her mind. Just as she recalled her last moments with Julian on the beach.

  Where are you? The words curled at the edge of her tongue, waiting to be released.

  A harrowing scream suddenly split the air as liquid eyes of cobalt seared her vision.

  "JENNNNNNYYYYYY!"

  Jenny awoke to herself screaming. A strangled gasp clawed up from her lungs as she pulled herself upright.

  Before hit with a shock of cold.

The waters encasing her had long run cool,  the lavender bath salts dissolved, leaving a slick residue on her sun-kissed legs. Rivulets of water dripped from her coiled bun, sending a shiver down her bare spine as she staggered out.

  "W-what the hell was that?" The words shivered past her lips with a sense of dread.

  If just to ease her anxiety, she'd need to come clean with Summer. Jenny couldn't handle this on her own, anymore. Anxious, she slipped into the jade tank top and jean shorts folded on the sink's ledge.

  As she'd started extracting the bobby pins holding up her hair—

A shadowy figure passed through the mirror.

  Her blood ran cold. Jennys scream caught in her throat as fingers fumbled for the light switch. Sheer terror seized her as she flicked it on—only to see the grotesque reflection gone.

  Tick.

  An ornate clock on the fireplace's mantlepiece continuously ticked beside her. It agitated her nerves as she waited for Summer to return to the homestead.

Tick.

  Jenny paced, her white trainers creaking across the wooden floorboards with a finger twisting loose strands of hair undone from her clipped updo. Every so often she'd strain her hearing for the familiarized rumble of a 1976 VW Beetle.

  Much to Jennys chagrin, Summer had purchased the vehicle from a sleezy second-hand dealership known for jipping it's customers. With a yellowed flaking paint job and a sputtering engine that sounded on its last leg.

  Tick.

  Her fingers curled into fists as she forcibly threw herself into one of the plush couches that had come with the furnished duplex. A convenience her mother had founded, through their family's realtor.

  The excitement as the keys had been handed over for their "first place", seemed a lifetime ago.

  Tick.

  Jenny had refrain herself from chucking the clock out the window. Time alone was driving her up the wall with the clock amplifying each second.

  Like a countdown.

  To what, her inevitable break in sanity?  Had she hallucinated it all?

  Toms not an option. My parents are definitely not an option. Not with how they'd hovered after Pennsylvania. Plus she wasn't ready to tell them about the engagement. Summers the only one I can trust with this...

  Would Tom think her insane if he found out? Was she underestimating her... fiancé? At this, she glanced at the diamond that gleamed in the golden sunlight.

  Pug, pug, pug.

  She stilled as a stalling engine resounded outside.

  Minutes later keys jingled in the lock. As soon as the front door opened, Jenny was at the threshold. "Summer!"

  Her hands flung around her startled friend, a rolled-up mat tucked under an arm from her yoga class.  

  Summer grinned shrugging off a worn knitted cap stitched with a peace sign. Jenny gifted it to the hipster lover after Summer had taken her thrifting to 'expand her horizons'. The girl had worn it ever since.

  It made Jenny's smile soft yet strained.

  "Nice to see you too." Summer tossed back the mass of gold curls hanging in her eyes. Her voice feigned to hide her foreknowledge as her smile brightened, "Glad to see you looking well again my newly engaged flower! Ready to celebrate?"

  Jenny fought to keep her smile in place. That was a can of worms in itself. She settled for subtlety. "Thank you, it is still... soaking in I think." She scratched the back of her neck, mentally preparing for her friends reaction as she delivered her next words. "Actually... there's something I do want to talk to you about."

  "Okay." Summer shrugged nonchalantly. "Follow me to the kitchen then I'm starving." She added this with a dramatic flair of her hand, as they started down the hallway.

  Guilt soured her stomach as Jenny followed. Nearly a year had passed and Summer still suffered from vivid nightmares. Constructing the dollhouse at Toms birthday party, they'd have a confrontation with Julian after being sucked into the game where he revealed his true identity—before making them face their own nightmares.

  Unfortunately, Summer would fail once her nightmare took on the form of an infestation of giant-sized insects and morbid creatures in her bedroom. Sucked down into the pit of the grotesque monstrosities had nearly killed her. For a time, Jenny would believe Summer dead and blame herself as the cause. Until they'd found her in the playhouse at Joyland Park simply asleep.

  The emotions of that day brought fresh tears to her eyes as she looked upon her friend. Alive and breathing. Occasionally the two shared a midnight snack, after a nightmare drew them out of their rooms.

   The girl appeared tranquil, practically floating on light feet as she rounded the polished kitchenette. Retrieving a tub of ice cream from the freezer, a dreamy smile graced her lips.

  Zach.

  Ever since they'd become a couple, a perma-grin remained on the blondes face. Rain or shine.

  "So, how's Zach doing?" Jenny casually leaned against the kitchen island with arms folded against her chest. She pinned her with a quizzical brow.

  Summer ushered a small girlish giggle as she skimmed the cupboards and pulled out a blender. "Good, he said he just had someone offer to buy one of his paintings."

  Jenny gaped at her, "Really?"

  Summer nodded as she scooped out chunks of Swiss chocolate ice cream. "He said the guy offered him about a thousand dollars for it."

  Jenny's eyes widened. "A thousand? Well, I'm glad he's making progress, then."

  Far more than my own.

  Summers smile deepened as she licked melted droplets off a ringed finger. After inserting three scoops into the blender, those radiant, cornflower blues swiveled to Jenny. "You want some while I'm making it?"

  Jenny scooped some of the residue off the side of the ice cream tub. "Mmm... what you are making?"

  "Chocolate malts." Her nose crinkled in distaste with a purse of lips. "Yoga classes tend to make me parched afterward."

  Jenny couldn't help but laugh. It was such a Summer quirk. A stickler about a healthy diet for a clear mind, she still indulged her sweet tooth. Evidenced at the last local fair they'd gone to. Her and Zach had smuggled a funnel cake when Jenny had been haggled by a carnee to play a game.

  Ironic.

  Jenny's laugh tightened. "Oh I think a malt sounds perfect right now."

Summer winked, none the wiser. "Coming right up then."

  Summers was fixated on her drink, her face blank. After breaching the topic of the Shadow Men she excused herself. In making a second round to the kitchen, she'd returned with two Baileys Irish Cream drinks.

  The alcohol smuggled in by her new college friends.

  Jenny made it partially through her story before Summer decidedly settled on the entire bottle of Baileys. By her glassy-eyed expression, it was obvious Summer was drunk.

  Jenny sighed setting the frosted mug she'd downed—simply to take the edge off—on the coffee table.  "Summer, you're the only one I trust to tell this. Dee needs to stay focused on her internship and Tom would think I'm losing it. You understand, don't you?"

  Now Jenny didn't feel as certain.

  Summer coiled a springy curl around her finger in thought. "Yes," she added slowly. "I do. But why are you dreaming of J-Julian?" She hiccupped. "Didn't you stop seeing him in your dreams after a while?"

  Jenny looked to her tipsy friend with a furrowed brow as the alcohol starting to warm her blood. Summer was unaware of Jenny's budding friendship with the Shadow Man. Their relationship was classified as complex at best. 

  Thus, she glossed over the question. "That doesn't mean he can't come back." Her eyes wandered towards the window as the lace curtains swayed in the dry breeze parched of moisture. They really needed rain. "It's possible he could've been carved back into the rune stave. The face I saw in the mirror—"

  "But Julian died," Summer enunciated. She tilted her glass with a bidded nod. "We all saw him disappear... like mist. Just, gone."

  "Yes, I know!" Jenny could feel the irritation prickling her nerves. Especially as the alcohol loosened her tongue while ideas flooded the sober part of her brain. She exhaled deeply to ground herself. "Any Shadow Man can die. But they can be resurrected if carved back into the runestave they have. Maybe it's not even Julian, maybe it's..."

  The tips of her fingers numbed as her answer crystallized. "Maybe it's  another..." She recalled those luminous eyes from the depths of the ocean once more.

  "Another? Right." Summer giggled unfazed before smacking a hand over her mouth. "Sorry."

  Jenny shook her head, albeit slowly still shaken by the revelation. "It's okay you needed to take the edge off."

  "Well," Summer began offhandedly, "almost dying by real flesh-eating monsters, because of some powerful supernatural being obsessed with your best friend? Yeeeah." She snorted, "Any sane person would need a drink to digest this."

  "I understand." Jenny nodded with a sympathetic wince. "It was all supposed to have ended when the door was shut." Jenny groaned as her mind grew foggier. "This is maddening the unknown! Then there was that cut on my finger."

  She'd almost forgotten about that.

  Summer belched rather unladylike and took another swig of the bottle. "That probably happened after dragging his heavy ass through the door."

"Yeah, maybe..." Summers humorous remark was lost on her, too fixated on the pieces to the puzzle being snapped together. However, the drunken haze permeating her mind was making it difficult to think straight. Thus, Jenny finally relinquished control with a frustrated sigh, settling back into the sofa.

  She closed her eyes as the muscles in her body became lax. "If my blood is there..."

"Those shadow dudes are duuuumb." Summer smacked her lips together with a snort.

  "Shadow dudes dumb." Jenny couldn't help but laugh lightly at her own ridiculousness. It had been so long since she'd last felt the urge to laugh.

  "Now try saying it five times fast." Summer giggled so hard it jostled a another exaggerated snort.

  It was such a profound sound Jenny was now shaking with hysterical laughter. Drunken tears spilled down her cheeks as she keeled over. "Stop you're going to make me pee!"

  "Wouldn't be the first time! I remember my pool party incident!"

  "Oh, you should talk. Whose brown bikini bottoms were see-through and didn't know? Bush beans?"

  "Why did you never tell me? Audrey never let me live it down!"

  "I was being modest!"

  "Well, clearly I wasn't if the entire junior year could see my goods!"

  The two nearly toppled off the couch but caught themselves just in time, clenching their sides in another bout of riotous laughter.

  When the stomach cramping subsided, Jenny heard herself sigh aloud, "D'you know today will be the same day my grandfather opened the portal?" By Summers's choking cough, Jenny added,
"Crazy I just remembered that. I'm glad you guys never saw the messed up kid I was."

  Summer recovered after a moment and cleared her throat, "Damn, Jenny."

  Jenny nodded, "It was right before I was to start pre-school. Will never forget it."

  "Mhm." Summer muttered beside her and Jenny felt the couch dip as she scooted closer.

  "Summer?"

  "Hmm?"

  "Thanks, for not thinking I'm crazy."

  Summer chuckled softly and patted Jenny's knee. "After w-what I've been through? No chance even for a Twix stick."

  Jenny felt her lips break into a grin at her choice of words. Only Summer. "Even though I suffer from post traumatic stress?"

  "Mhm," Summer sighed her voice having gentler, "think we all do, Jen."

  Jenny didn't doubt it.

  "Jenny?"

  "Hmmmm?"

"Not to go off s-subject but are you scared of marriage? I guess I just expected you to be excited. This is what you've wanted right?"

  Jenny sighed. "Shoould it?"

Summer yawned, "I don't know. I know you can be afraid to let go of what's familiar... to cleanse the chakras so to speak."

  Jenny's took a long time to answer. Her response was so quiet she doubted Summer heard her. "I don't think so."

  "It's okay you know," Summer added. "All of us went through an experience, Jen. Just stop shouldering the burden for us. We'll be okay."

  Jenny felt tears prick the corner of her eyes, touched by the sunflowers words. "Oh Sums, my heads such a mess lately. And I just... I feel like something isn't right. All I want is a normal life. I do need to talk to Tom, but I feel like if I ignore my gut feeling—"

  "It's going to happen all over again."

  Jenny stiffened, Summers's wide blue eyes darting to hers. Slowly, Jenny sat back up to see a double Tom Locke standing in the doorway.

  "Hey, Thorny, surprise."