A High Heels Haunting by Gemma Halliday Page A

and he danced me backward toward the bedroom shedding clothing as we went. 
    I never did get to try the merlot.
     
    *   *   *
     
     
    It was dark when I woke up.  At first I couldn’t remember where I was, then I heard Blake’s soft, even breath beside me.  His arms were still twined around my waist, our limbs tangled up in each other.  I smiled in the dark.  Wow.  I didn’t know what I did to deserve this night, but, man, I hoped I kept doing it. 
    I slowly slipped from his grasp, careful not to wake him, and stood back, admiring his bare body.  A more perfect specimen I could not imagine.  I felt myself go all tingly again as I reached for his discarded shirt and slipped it over my head, padding out to the kitchen on bare feet.
    I went to the sink and poured myself a glass of water, looking out the back door at the perfect picture of the valley of twinkling lights laid out before me.  Like thousands of stars fallen down to earth.  The sight was so alluring, I slipped open the back door and stepped out on the patio. 
    The stone was cool beneath my feet, the air hitting me like a sudden refrigerated blast, causing little goosebumps to rise on my arms.  I looked out at the stunning view . 
    Then down at the swimming pool in front of me.
    It lay uncovered, the surface a glassy dark blue, appearing almost like a shimmering mirror reflecting the sparse moonlight.  I walked over to the edge and look ed down at my reflection. 
    And t hat’s when I felt him.
    Hands on me from behind, shoving me forward as I watched my horrified reflection stare back at me.  A scream hit my lips, but before it could get out, water covered me, the sound lost in the waves of the perfect blue swimming pool.  I tried to push upward, to reach the surface, but something was holding me down.  Someone.  I thrashed my legs back and forth, my arms lashing out, my vision blurred by the water, everything growing darker and darker as I felt my lungs slowly losing air, screaming for the surface of the pool I could see just inches above me.  I tried to reach it, but couldn’t move.  The hands.  They still held me from behind, firm, strong, menacing.  Pushing me under as my vision went black, as I tried to scream one last time.
    “Jesus, Kya, what’s wrong?”
    I jumped as Blake materialized in the doorway, clad only in his boxers.
    I looked down.  I was dry.  I was alive.  I was sitting at the edge of the pool, my knees tucked up under me, cold sweat pouring down my back.  I was shivering, my teeth chattering together.
    “What are you doing out here?  God, you scared me half to death.  Why were you screaming?”
    In one quick stride Blake was crouched at my side, his warm arms wrapping around me, chasing away the chill.
    “I… I don’t know.”  Which wasn’t entirely a lie.  I shook my head trying to remember what had happened.  I’d gone to the kitchen for water, went outside.  I was standing at the edge of the pool when someone pushed me in.  Only…  I looked down.  My clothes were still perfectly dry.  Obviously I hadn’t been in the water.  A dream? 
    “I… I came out to look at the pool,” I said, lamely.
    Blake’s face was a deathly shade of white under the moonlight.  “Why?” he asked, his voice shaky.
    “I… I don’t know.”  I shivered again despite his arms around me as I remembered the feel of those hands pushing me under the water.  It couldn’t have been a dream.  I’d been wide awake.  A hallucination?  But it had felt so real.  Even as I grasped Blake’s arms in a death grip, I could almost taste the chlorine on my tongue, feel the burn in my lungs, the desperation bubbling up in my throat again.
    “Hey, you’re shivering,” Blake said, helping me to my feet. “Let’s get you back inside.”
    I nodded and let him lead me through the glass doors and back to bed. 
    Though both of us curled up into silent little balls as soon as we got there, each lost in our own