Unbinding the Demon

Love on the Lake

Paintbrushes of various shapes, colors, and sizes clinked into the white rose adorned zaffre blue ceramic vase. I hummed a little tune, as I placed the vase on the beautiful dark wood desk, and took a step back to admire my new painting area with a satisfied smile. Ashton had offered to let me turn one of the spare bedrooms into my own personal art studio, which I more than happily excepted. I had even gotten to pick out the lavender purple color that he'd recently painted the walls with.

The room had a few large diamond paned windows, with a lovey view of the lake, and got plenty of evening sun. It was still mostly empty, considering I had only been living here for six days now, and it took Ashton a few days to fully fix it up. Most of my stuff was either in the bedroom or still in boxes, all neatly stacked in the corners of the room. 

I blankly watched a small white moth whimsically flutter around the little table lamp that warmly illuminated the room, as I carefully planned where everything would go. My eyes drifted over to my rather disorderly potted plants on the windowsills, so I walked over there to rearrange them.

"Alright, Fernicus the fern can go here, and Philippe the Philodendron can go over here-"  I suddenly furrowed my brows, and stuck my finger into a black glossy pot, then wiggled it around in the rather dry crumbly soil. "Hmm, looks like Figbert could use some more water..." 

As I continued to quietly narrate how I was repositioning my plants, the hairs on the back of my neck suddenly began to stand up. Fuck, not here too... I quickly looked around, trying to find the source of the eerie presence that I sensed. My eyes landed on the open door, leading out to the blackened shadowy hallway... Yeah, big fucking surprise that I feel like someone's watching me from out there.

I rarely ever had that creepy feeling in this house, which was weird, because this place was really fucking creepy before Ashton fixed it up. So, I had been hoping that it might go away completely now that I was living here, but I guess not. I grumbled as I turned around, ignoring the unsettling feeling, and continued to organize my plants.   

"It's starting to look nice in here." Ashton's deep voice suddenly rumbled through the room, startling me near to death. 

I jumped in fright and whipped around to see him leisurely leaning against the doorframe, with a soft smile on his lips and a mischievous twinkle in his golden eyes. "Good grief! Don't sneak up on me like that!" I dramatically put my hand over my heart.

"I didn't. I've been standing over here for quite a while now." He casually shrugged his shoulders and began to walk towards me, with his heavy footsteps echoing in the nearly empty room. 

"Yeah right! I literally just looked over there less than a minute ago, and I didn't see you!" I playfully teased with an 'I'm not falling for it' look on my face. 

He laughed and put his arms around me, pulling me into a hug. "Well, anyways, I have a surprise for you." He smiled down at me and quickly kissed my forehead. "I've laid some clothes out for you on the bed. I want you to go put them on, and then meet me in the foyer... And don't wear anything underneath them." He playfully bopped my nose with his finger, as I smiled up at him.

I was suddenly really excited for whatever he had planned, but I played it cool, and raised a curious brow at him. "Alright, I'll go put them on, I guess." I casually strolled out of the room, and then as soon as I was out of his sight I enthusiastically sprinted down the hall towards the bedroom. 

I bet I'm going to find some cute sexy ass lingerie- What the? 

I paused with a look of confusion on my face when I saw a plain black hoodie, black sweatpants, and a pair of thick warm socks laying neatly on the bed. Huh? I walked over and held the hoodie up while legitimately raising a brow. Not what I expected, but okay. I stripped down and threw the new outfit on, then headed to the foyer.