She felt like she could sleep for two straight days, and sleeping terrified her, because unlike the cliché, it was a very real possibility that she could wake up and the spell would be broken. She’d wake up from the dream. She could move her hands the wrong way, and the dream would be broken, as surely as anything was broken by her power.

She couldn’t even trust the success. It felt like a pressure, closing in on her, and the solitude of her room wasn’t enough. The room was almost too much, too white, too clean, the towels too fuzzy, the sheets too soft. All too easy to break and ruin, like so many other things in life.

She stepped outside. There was a danger she would destroy her key card, but she could always knock on the window of the others.

Ashley hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but she couldn’t be inside.

She might have spent a full hour of that cool summer night just outside the side door of the hotel, looking at nothing in particular, far from sleep and yet too tired to think.

The door opened, and J stepped outside.

“Need anything?” he asked.

“No.”

“Want company?” he asked.

She shrugged.

He walked over, and he leaned against the wall beside her.

His arm touched hers as he stood there. He did nothing else.

She’d been right. He’d lied—it hadn’t been the money that had motivated him.

Eclipse x.5

Ashley and her group walked slowly through the house. She had the lead, J right behind her with bags in each hand, and the others followed as a loose group.

It was already furnished. Plush white carpets, black leather furniture, artwork already on the walls. The placemats on the table had lace at the edges. The corners of each room had a little statue, a piece of furniture, or a plant. Lilies.

J put the bags on the bench in the hallway, while Ashley continued into the house.

“Will it serve?” J asked.

Would it serve? It was nicer than the hotel, and she had honestly thought the hotel was as nice as things got. Mansions on TV were like the hotel rooms, just writ large, but this… she could do without the paintings, they were too bright and colorful, she would want to change things around, but…

“Yes.”

Angel whistled. She’d smeared eyeshadow around her eyes and tied her hair back. The girl wore a black tank top over a gray tee, loose black exercise pants, and black sneakers. Her handwraps were black.

Others in the group had trended that way, picking up the style on their own without Ashley needing to say anything. Bar was back, and even though it didn’t fit his character, he’d started wearing black eyeliner. That he was sleeping with Angel had probably played a role in that.

She wondered if J had suggested it to them.