Chad heard a chilling scream from June's room and jolted awake, half hanging out of the bed already. He fumbled out of it double quick despite a solid effort by the covers tangling his legs. Did she wake up and realise what they had done the day before? Was that why she was screaming, at the thought of Chad and her in the study, on the lounge, feeding each other takeout food like a lady and her tramp?

"What? What?" He scrambled into her room with all but his boxers pulled up hastily, and backwards, only to find her hopping on the bed, wrapped in a towel.

"Get it. Get it!" she squealed, pointing at the floor beside her wardrobe, sheer panic in her voice.

"Get what?" He glanced at the area.

"Spider!" she let out, crouching on the bed in anticipation of being saved now that he was there.

'This is your moment, Chad. Show her the hero.' Terry's voice rang in his ear, approving. He really must get in touch with her and break the damn news, that his journal and the story within it, is 'misplaced' when he meant missing.

"If this spider doesn't kill me, maybe Terry will," he muttered under his breath.

"What?" June piped behind him.

Chad peered around the room for a weapon. One of June's giant medical sciences textbook caught his eye. The spider, wherever it was, wouldn't stand a chance against it. He grabbed the thing, not expecting it to be as heavy as it was.

When he spied the spider, a giant Huntsman, cocooned in the wardrobe's corner and the wall, it was an area he couldn't really throw his weapon. He mumbled once more. "Where's Jo when you need her?"

"Can you get it?" June asked again.

Chad nodded. There was no way he could back out now. He needed to be a 'man' as Terry would put it. He inched his foot out, tapping the floor near the wardrobe, hoping the Huntsman would scramble out into open space. It barely budged.

He bent over and thrust the textbook towards the creature, missing it by miles. He had never been into killing insects. Saving Chad and Marjorie from critters had been Jo's forte. She had a giant set of balls. She'd grab the thing if it were not poisonous and throw it outside. If it were poisonous, she'd trap it in a container and leave the container outside.

"Did you get it?" June half hovered over the edge of the bed.

Chad's head throbbed this early in the morning from all the wine they'd consumed. The thud of the textbook had sent a jolt of nausea up his belly earlier. He was not looking forward to doing it again.

"No, not yet," he managed, retrieving the book from the floor and throwing it towards the creature again. This time the book landed closer, and the Huntsman scrambled into the dark recesses of her wardrobe, an area he didn't want to tread in case the thing jumped him.

"I'm gonna call Jo." He gave up and replaced the book on the table, afraid that any more throws would damage the thing.

"You mean it's still there?" She eyed her wardrobe in terror.

"It's not a poisonous spider, and I'm sorry, I'm not really into smashing things today." He gave the foot of the wardrobe a glance to make sure the spider wasn't coming out before he turned to June. Had he looked up, where the spider had crawled to, near the window, he would have noticed a distinct red pin-prick of light from a camera watching them.

"Jo's good at these things," he muttered, picking June's dress off the floor where she had dropped it in her haste to get away.

June grabbed her garment off him and donned it, nervously eyeing her wardrobe. Chad tried to give her the privacy, but now and then he snuck a glance at her naked body over which the dress slithered, wondering how she'd ever gotten the giant scar on her hip from a burn. He had asked her the night before, but she'd evaded the question, distracting him with more kisses than he could handle. That's when he noticed the empty photo frame on her bedside table behind her, as he eyed her scar again before it disappeared beneath her dress completely.

"What happened to your photo?" He pointed at the empty frame.

"What photo?" She followed his gaze, struggling to zip up her dress at the back. "What the... Where's my photo?" she asked as Chad's cold hands zipped her up.

"You didn't remove it?" he asked suspiciously.

She crept over to the frame and picked it up. "No. It was here yesterday morn..." She trailed off. She couldn't remember the last time she had paid attention to it since she'd placed the frame there. "It's the only thing I have left of them that survived the fire."

Chad approached her cautiously, eyeing the empty frame. "What fire?"

June shook her head and cleared the knot forming in her throat. "My parents... our house... caught fire a year ago." She caressed the glass, trying to imagine the photo exactly as it was. She couldn't. She hadn't studied it since the incident. Looking at her parent's faces broke her heart. Now she regretted it. "They didn't make it, but I..." She dropped on the bed.

An image from last night flashed in Chad's mind, of his hand gently tracing fire-scarred skin. Her skin on her left hip and oblique. He studied her. Every part of her skin was perfect except what hid under the dress. He dropped beside her on the bed. "I thought you said they died in an accident?"

She wiped her nose. "It was an accident." Her lips quivered ever so slightly, "And it was my fault. It's the only photo I have left of them." Tears streamed down her face.

Chad grabbed the photo frame by a corner and slid it out of her grasp. "There might be prints on these," he muttered, embarrassed that instead of comforting her, he worried about contaminating potential evidence.

"You think she took it?" She watched him place the frame back on the side table.

"Is there anything else missing?" He eyed the room.

"Why would she take my photo?" She rose to feet and scanned the room.

They slowly turned on their heels, trying to study every inch of that room. The rolling silence broke only when a hard knock sounded on the front door and they could hear Jo scream.

"Oie, you dipshit! How many times do I have to keep knocking? You deaf now?" Jo yelled from the front yard. "Open the damn door, I gotta pee!"

June glanced out the window and saw Jo's head bobbing up and down as if she were jumping on her feet. "It's your sister."

"Aye, coming!" Chad rushed down, not sure whether he was happy for the interruption or annoyed. The missing photo meant Cassie had her eye on June now, not just him.

Maybe Cassie is bi-sexual? The thought interrupted and Chad couldn't help but imagine the two women intertwined. The image made his stomach turn. "No, no, no, not doing that!" he muttered all the way down the stairs.

As soon as the lock clicked open, Jo threw open the door, shoved Chad aside and navigated past the furniture towards the toilet. "My bladder's about to burst."

June gawked, standing at the foot of the stairs, as the woman rushed to the loo. "She knows how to make an entrance, I give her that."

Chad stared after the hurricane that was Jo and chuckled. "That she does."

June stared at the laundry door, through which Jo had disappeared. "Are you going to tell her? About what's going on here?" She turned in time to see him nod.

"Jo knows everything about Cassie. She's the only one who knows actually, so please never mention it to mum. Or she'll have a heart attack and make me change my name and undergo plastic surgery."

"She wouldn't!" June laughed at the ridiculousness.

"You have met my mother, right?" Chad arched his brows. "And I kind of like my face the way it is, even if it's not the hottest face out there."

June grabbed his face, turning it left and right. "I don't know... Zachary Eve could probably use a few nips and tuck, but I like your face the way it is too. It's very Chad." She smiled and let go.

He consciously touched his face in worry.

"I'm messing with you." She laughed. "And I won't mention any of this to your mum, promise."

"Mention what to mum?" Jo emerged, relaxed. She stared wide-eyed at the two, a wild grin forming on her face. "You two finally did it, didn't you? That's why it took you so long to open the door."

"What? No." Chad shook his head, despite his cheeks flushing red, making a liar out of him.

"Well, you both have that look on your face, the guilty one. Why? I'm not sure. It's not like it's a surprise to anyone. I mean, the way you two were at the barbecue, it was only a matter of..."

"Jo!" Chad glowered at her to stop.

"Yeah, you're right. It's none of my business." Jo shrugged and leaned in closer to June, whispering, "My brother's a terrible liar. He always has been. Plus, I can tell a hickey a mile away. So, you two are finally doing it?" She jabbed at the side of June's neck where the reddish bruise was visible, thoroughly enjoying herself. "Hope you got a good concealer."

"So what if we did?" Chad barked rather meekly.

Jo shook her head in delight. "Nothing. I'm just happy and wait till mum hears about this? She owes me a hundred bucks!" She guffawed, dropping on the sofa and eyeing the two. "So what's going on here? Why do I feel like I interrupted something?"

"You put a bet on us?" Chad eyed her scandalously.

Jo nodded. "I said you two would get it on before the month was out, mum said it'd be around their wedding, cause it's so 'romantic'," Jo gagged on the word animatedly. "And poor dad couldn't understand why we were hedging bets because he totally bought the girlfriend-boyfriend story and believed you were already 'boinking'." She turned to June with a toothy grin. "I called it the very first time I saw you."

Chad was about to argue the morality of it all when he caught June's face, red as a tomato, and her eyes pleading, Don't you dare, Chad Gilligan, don't you dare, not if you want it again. And he wanted it again, and again, and again, but that was not the point. The point was, having grown up with two strong ladies in his life, he knew when to shut up, and this was one of those moments.

"Chad needs to tell you something about Cassie," June blurted, relishing the fact that his face scrunched up unpleasantly at the mention of the stalker. "And seems she stole my photo for some damn reason. Go on, tell her who took the only photo I have of my parents after the f..." she bit the word. "Tell her what's happened in the past few days."

The threatening tone in her voice surprised Chad. It caught him off guard. "I... I..." he started and had to look away from her to Jo. He heaved in a deep breath before confirming Jo's suspicion. "She's back."

Jo's jaw dropped, her gaze locked on his face. She knew exactly what all this entailed. Resembling a viper striking, Jo sprung to her feet, red hot in temper and gritted teeth, muttering, "That murderous bitch!"

"She has my photo," June gasped, shaking her head, more horrified than before. "Why would she take that?"

It was an excellent question, and Chad suspected he knew why. June was a target now, he was sure.

(Image by Mabelle Imago from Pixabay)