The Terrors In The Night

Chapter Ten

"Malise, wake up," a voice whispered. I opened my eyes and saw we were in a well populated area. I yawned and sat up, stretching my back and neck.
"I take it we're here?" I guessed.

"Yep," Oswell answered.
"Was I really asleep for 7 hours?" I remarked.

"Well, technically it was only 6 and a half hours," he argued and I jokingly glared at him.

"So what are we going till night comes?" I wondered.
"Get a room, shopping, looking around," Oswell suggested."Sounds good," I agreed.

"Here, we can either get a hotel or a motel," he offered.

"What's the difference?" I questioned.
"Motels usually are bigger and have the option of another bed sometimes," he explained.
"Which is cheaper?" I countered.
"I know a few places that are pretty cheap. Which would you prefer?" he replied. I had been kind of hoping he'd say hotels would be cheaper.
"A hotel," I stated, glancing at him. He smiled and looked over at me.
"Any reason?" I prodded, but we both knew why.
"Because it's smaller, and should be cheaper," I lied, looking down at my hands and he chuckled.

"Okay," he drawled, making sure I knew he knew I was lying. He moved through the streets with ease and parked at a nice looking hotel.
"This doesn't look cheap," I demurred.
"It is, don't worry," he assured me, tossing me the keys and getting out to book the room. I put my jacket back on and grabbed our stuff, locking the car and walking in. It looked really fancy in here, making me think this was Oswell's way of getting back at me for wanting to be cheap. I waited near the door until he came over and took his bag and the keys. He took my hand, sending shivers through me and led me to the room. When he opened the door, I was once again shocked, but not by the one bed.
"This place is not cheap," I asserted and looked up at him to see him smiling.
"Well, since you wouldn't tell me why you actually wanted to stay at a hotel with the option of a motel, I got one of the most expensive hotels," he explained, putting his stuff on the floor and sitting on the bed.
"You know why," I told him, putting my stuff on the ground as well.

"I want to hear you say it," he sighed, lying down.

"Fine, I liked sleeping in bed with you and waking up in your arms," I confessed, annoyed. "Happy?" I added, crossing my arms.
"Very," he answered, sitting back up with a giant smile on his face.
"Can we go shopping now?" I groaned, wanting to change the subject. Never thought I'd be so happy to go shopping.
"Sure," he allowed, getting up and grabbed some of the money out of the Stuff bag. I grabbed my knife and phone and put them in my pockets.
"Do you have a knife?" I wondered.
"Yeah," he answered, then pulled his pants up and grabbed a knife out of his shoe.

"Cool trick," I congratulated.

"Thanks," he smirked, shoving it back in his shoe.
"But doesn't it cut you?" I worried.
"There's a pocket in my shoe made of strong plastic. It's not the most comfortable thing, but it works," he assured me. I nodded and quickly grabbed some of my own money to buy him something to carry it in. We walked out of the room and down the stairs. I headed for the car park door, but Oswell was heading for the street door.
"We're going to walk?" I questioned, quickly making my way over to him.
"Yeah, there's a mall not too far from here," he answered. We walked outside and I noticed all the people and cars around. I grabbed his hand and entwined it with mine. He squeezed my hand and I looked up at him, smiling. He smiled back at me, then led me down the main road.

There were a lot of people at the mall, but Oswell expertly guided me to Target. We made our way to the women's section, then let go of his hand and turned.
"You can go look around for a bit," I told him.
"You sure?" he questioned.
"Positive," I answered.
"I'll be in the men's section," he informed me. I nodded and he walked away. I sighed and turned back to the clothes. I wanted casual, comfortable, stuff I could run around in, yet could wear around normally. I ended up getting a few short sleeve and long sleeve t-shirts and tank tops in black or red, a few pairs of black skinny jeans, leggings and shorts, a couple pairs of bras, underwear and socks, because I needed them, a black one piece, a comfortable red hoodie, two pairs of PJ's, one red and one black and a few dresses, usually mid-thigh, flowy/puffy and red or black. I found a trolley and put all the clothes into it, then moved over to the shoe section and got another pair of black runners, two pair of heels, with a small stiletto heel in black and red, another pair of black flats, two pairs of black boots with small stiletto heels, one ankle and one mid-shin, a pair of thongs and a pair of slippers. Looking at all my items, I admitted I might've gone a little overboard, but I'd never been let go like that. I made my way to the men's section, but couldn't see Oswell, so I quickly made my way to the men's jumpers. I had to assume his size, so I just grabbed one of the bigger sizes that had a zip and looked inside. It had spaces inside it where the pockets were, a perfect space to hide a knife. Happy with my choice, I started looking for him. I turned around a corner and almost ran into him.
"Hey," I said, surprised.
"I see you had fun," Oswell commented, looking at the pile of items in the trolley.
"Yeah, I might have gone a little overboard," I admitted, looking at the few items hanging over his arm.
"It's all good," he shrugged. We made our way to the self-checkout and found two spots available next to each other. We secured them, then started scanning our items. I made sure to do the jumper first, so I could hide it under all the other clothing. When everything was accounted for, the total added up to over 200 dollars. Oswell came over and paid for it, then we grabbed our bags and walked out.
"We should've come in the car," I complained, my arms hurting under the weight of the bags.
"You were right," Oswell agreed as we made our way out of the mall.

When we got back to the room, it was almost six and the sun was starting to set.
"There's not much time left for exploring," I commented, looking out the window at the sky.
"No, but we need to eat, so we could go to a restaurant or something," Oswell replied from behind me.
"Sounds fun," I agreed, not turning around.
"Um, I got you something," he revealed and I turned around to see him holding up a white dress with roses on it.
"It's really pretty, but why?" I questioned. It wasn't something that I would've picked but if he chose it, there must have been a reason.
"It looks like there dress you were wearing in my dream, so I wanted to see if my imagination is as good as real life," he revealed and I smiled.
"I guess I should try it on then," I sighed happily and he smiled too. I took the dress and went into the bathroom. This one was much bigger than the other one, for people who will be on holidays and will bring toiletries. I took off my hat, sunglasses and the dress I was wearing, then put on the white one. I couldn't quite zip up the back, so I held it all in place and opened the door, walking out."Something wrong?" Oswell worried and I smiled at his concern.
"I just need help zipping up the back," I assured him and he walked over. I turned my back to him and I felt the zip travelling up slowly.
"There," he announced and I turned.
"How does it look?" I asked.
"Just how I thought it would," he beamed and I walked over to the mirror. It was very figure hugging up the top, but puffed out a little at the bottom, coming to mid-thigh. It did look good on me, I had to agree that the dress brought out my hair and eyes, but my slightly tan complexion helped to make the dress stand out a bit too.
"I got you something too," I remembered, rushing over to the bags of clothes. I grabbed out the jumper and showed it to him. He looked at it questionably, trying to figure out why I bought it.
"Why?" he asked. I unzipped it and opened it, showing him the secret inside pockets.
"There are hidden pockets on the inside, so you could put your knife there," I explained.
"Really? You're the best," he exclaimed, smiling. I smiled back, then looked at the time.
"If we want plenty of time for killing, we might want to leave now," I suggested and he nodded. He changed into something a little more formal, while I put on my ankle boots.
"Oh, look in the bag on top of the table," Oswell called and I moved over to it. I opened it up and there was a wig in the bag.
"Did you seriously get me a wig?" I questioned as he walked out. He had a little gel in his hair, making it look stylishly messy.
"Yeah, that way you don't always have to wear your hat," he answered. I ripped open the packet and went through the steps to put the wig on. When I finished, I looked at myself in the mirror and was shocked. First, I'd managed to put it on properly, so you couldn't see any of my actual hair and Second, somehow, he'd gotten a wig that was only a few shades darker than my natural hair colour.
"Was this the only colour there?" I asked, facing Oswell.
"No, I just thought it would look the most natural. Do you not like it?" he replied.

"It's just weird, that's all," I said, but he gave me a look that told me he knew there was more to it. "This colour is only a few shades darker than my natural colour," I explained.
"Wow, that is weird," he agreed. "Shall we leave?" he added, holding his arm out in that old-fashioned way, making me smile.
"Yes," I replied, linking my arm through his and heading out the door.