Masked By Madness

3. Dark Divine

And then, just like that, Grayson was laughing wildly, the sadistic twist of his lips making him look like something from a horror film. He let go of Jane to clutch his sides as his chest heaved and he attempted to control his laughter. She took note of his drastic mood swings and raised her eyebrows in alarm.

The rain had stopped but they were both still dripping wet. Jane was holding the poor soul of a creature in her tightly wound her arms. The dog was writhing in her hold, struggling to jump from her arms.

Jane couldn't take it. Her frustration spilled over into her shouts, "You are going to help me take care of this dog! You hurt him, now you're healing him!"

His smirk disappeared for all but two seconds before it returned, stretching wider into a slanted smile. As if Jane had just cracked the best joke ever. He should have been sent to an asylum years ago.

"What are you smiling at?! Follow me, bastard; if you don't, I'll call the cops right now!" Jane cursed him as she headed in the direction of her house, soaked clothes clinging to her scrawny figure.

Grayson, surprisingly enough, walked along with her. He said nothing but glared daggers into the back of her head. After a while he pulled a sweet from his pocket and slowly peeled away the crinkling pink striped wrapper away. Jane glanced back; a fatal mistake.

He met her gaze and tossed the treat into his mouth. Jane was bewildered that his teeth looked blunt and average; she'd been expecting ugly, twisted, yellow fangs.

"You want one? They're sour. Taste delicious!" He chuckled and offered a sweet from his pocket.

Jane rolled her eyes and turned back to watching the sidewalk ahead, picking up her pace. "Fuck you."

His long legs easily kept him by her side. "Oh come on, it's good!" He smacked his lips together as he noisily ate the second candy.

"You and your sour treats are disgusting and I don't want a part of either!" she snapped, ignoring Grayson's fake pout.

A small sigh escaped Jane at the sight of her quaint little house and much larger barn looming behind it. She nudged the old wooden gate open with her foot and let it shut when Grayson entered the yard. She swayed as she made her way up the stone path and to the door of her home. She shifted the dog's weight to her left arm so she could dig her keys out from her pocket and unlock the door.

The second the door opened a small brown and white puppy bombarded them, jumping at their legs and yelping excitedly. The dog in Jane's arms seemed to jolt back to conciousness at the sound and it whipped it's mangy head around wildly. Juane stepped over the puppy after closing the door. She led Grayson to the dining room which had bags of animal food covering every counter and food bowls on the floor that were covered in slobber. Toys were scattered in every room and birds tweeted in the other rooms. The house reeked like it hadn't been cleaned in months.

Jane seemed to take no notice of it. She carefully handed the dog to an unsuspecting Grayson and warned him, "Don't you dare do anything! Don't even move from that spot! I'll be back in a minute!"

He nodded and held the dog sweetly in his arms, brushing his fingers through its filthy fur. As soon as Jane scampered away with the puppy following her, he moved to the living room and sat down on the hair covered couch. Pictures of animals occupied the dark purple walls while real animals took over the rest of the one floor house. Grayson spotted Jane's beautiful grey Persian cat sprawled out in the center of a coffee table with her two sleeping kittens.

He had yet to spot another human in Jane's house. 'Talk about a crazy person,' he thought cynically.

Memories flashed behind Grayson's eyes and he tensed, fighting the shout that clogged his throat. The dog whimpered at how painfully tight Grayson held him.