Under Dust Painted Skies
Chapter FiveAs it turned out, Nanette had managed to sell a few pieces of art. The phone call to his agent hadn't been particularly pleasant. Instead of rehashing their previous conversation, Zac chose to act as though it had never happened. He knew if he had to talk about it again, he would just end up angry. Nanette seemed to sense this and dove right into the art dealings.
Zac spent about an hour packaging up the paintings Nanette had sold. After that, he decided to suck it up and start cleaning the house. He knew it was really beginning to bother Remy, even if she hadn't said much about it, and with her already upset over Alec's disregard for common courtesy, he didn't want to add any more stress.
The house wasn't nearly as bad as it seemed once he picked up the things that had started to pile up. He was certainly going to have more trash than usual this week, though. He managed to clean the living room and kitchen before Remy returned to the house with Luca in tow.
He passed the items that needed to be shipped over to Remy with a grimace. It went against his nature to let her heft around the paintings, but his mental block against the outside world kept him from toting them out to the car himself. Remy shrugged it off, joking about her muscles, and left, leaving Zac to fulfill his promise to Luca with an afternoon filled with painting.
"Will you draw me?" Luca begged after Zac had lifted her tiny body up onto the stool in front of one of his drawing tables.
She'd asked this numerous times, and he had a small mountain of paintings that marked the day to day to week to week to month to month changes in Luca's appearance. She'd barely been two years old when Zac first met her and watching her grow and change seemed to tug at something deep inside of him. She wasn't his, but sometimes he could pretend that she was. He loved her like she belonged to him, anyway, and sometimes he was sure she knew she owned him wholeheartedly.
"Okay," Zac nodded as he laid his older paints out in front of her along with a sketchbook. "Try not to move around too much. Otherwise, your painting will just be a blur."
Luca nodded before setting to work on her latest creation, and Zac went to his canvas. Their afternoon was mostly quiet. Luca would occasionally ask a question or tell him about something that happened in school, and Zac smiled as he painted the little girl's portrait. When it was just the two of them working at their stations, creating whatever they wanted, were some of his favorite moments.
Zac worked intently on his drawing of Luca. Despite knowing that she would be thrilled with whatever the outcome, Zac was something of a perfectionist when it came to his artwork. He worked to insure that her curls were just so and that the ever present sparkle in her eyes came through in his drawing.
He could work like this for hours when he was feeling energized. With his lack of sleep, those moments were fewer, but where Luca was concerned, he always seemed able to muster up his energy.
He lost track of time and only spoke when Luca broke him from the daze that always seemed to surround him while drawing, so it wasn't until Remy spoke from her perch at the bottom of the staircase that he even realized she had returned.
"I think it's time to head home and do some homework," she declared.
Luca, apparently more aware of her surroundings than Zac, pouted just a bit, but she eased herself off of the stool before Zac or Remy could come to collect her. Zac felt himself pout a little as well. He could easily finish his drawing of Luca later from memory, but the idea of them leaving for the evening tugged at his heart.
Remy caught his eye and his expression and she smiled just a little. "Or I guess we could do homework here," Remy said slowly. Then she glanced down at Luca. "Maybe we can get Zac to cook us dinner."
Zac could tell that Remy was making this proposition more for his benefit than for any true desire to spend the rest of her evening at his place, but he wasn't above accepting her pity in this case.
"I'll cook. No problem," he offered as he joined Remy and Luca at the bottom of the staircase.
Remy smiled up at him, beatifically, and it did strange things to his insides. He mentally cursed Taylor for planting seeds, but he smiled back at her.
"How do chicken Dijon, roasted potatoes and some veggies sound?" Zac suggested as Remy scooped Luca up into her arms and they headed up the stairs.
"Yummy!" Luca declared. Zac's chicken Dijon ranked high on Luca's favorites list. Zac grinned. Even though the little girl loved her mom's cooking, Luca's love of Zac's cooking was still something of a sore spot for Remy.
"Maybe one day I'll pass my super secret recipe on to you, Lulu," he teased.
"You might tell me," Remy muttered.
"Not likely," Zac chuckled. "I've got to keep some things secrets so you'll keep coming back for more."
Zac could practically hear Remy rolling her eyes.
--
While Zac set to work on dinner, Remy ushered Luca into Zac's rarely used office to work on homework. Despite all of his bragging about a super secret recipe, it was a fairly easy and basic meal. Remy probably could have replicated it easily just by looking up some recipes online. He knew that she wouldn't, though.
Sometimes Zac was sure Remy needed the adult company during the evenings as much as he did. For all of her talk about no longer being in love with Alec, Zac knew this last year hadn't been the easiest transition for Remy. Even if she and Alec fought often, she had still had someone to help her most nights to get Luca to bed. Now she was essentially a single parent who got the occasional weekend reprieve from parenthood. Then she was just alone.
Zac wondered again why she hadn't dated, but the feeling these thoughts brought on did not sit well with him; instead of pondering over Remy's love life, he concentrated on putting together their dinner.
Then, once he had the chicken and potatoes in the oven and the timer set, Zac headed into the living room. It was only out of morbid curiosity that he still occasionally watched the evening news.
Luckily, he'd missed the weather forecast and wouldn't have to be reminded yet again that he had no use for it. After a few short politically related stories, Zac wasn't overly surprised to see the newscasters talking about a missing woman until he noticed that this woman was different from the one they'd mentioned this morning.
He noted the station and realized it was a different one than he'd been watching earlier. He shrugged slightly - he really had no preference for this sort of thing - and focused on what they were saying on the television.
As he listened to the newscaster discuss the case, he took in the photo of the woman on the screen. Something about her seemed oddly familiar. "Bianca Saxton is a thirty-two-year old bank teller. Friends and family didn't grow concerned with her absence over the weekend, but when her employer could not reach her and contacted family members, the police were alerted. Ms. Saxton was last seen at 1974 Bar and Grill. She had drinks with a couple of friends, but stayed behind when they left for the evening. She was last seen wearing a red sleeveless dress with black high heels and was carrying a red clutch. The police are asking anyone who might have seen Ms. Saxton on Friday to please call the number shown at the bottom of the screen."
Zac frowned at the picture, thinking the girl looked familiar, but he was unable to place her. He shook his head after a moment, figuring she probably resembled an actress he'd seen in a movie or TV show or something.
Slightly annoyed at being unable to place her, Zac changed the channel, flipping to another news station that was in the middle of a discussion about some sort of scandal at a nearby high school, involving members of the basketball team. His annoyance only seemed to flare at this. "Don't they ever report news about anything good?" he wondered aloud.
"Nope, they're a bunch of negative Ned's and Nancy's," Remy replied, startling Zac. He spun around in his seat; she stood in the entryway to the living room.
"Trying to give me a heart attack?"
"Yes," Remy nodded solemnly. There was just a hint of an underlying smile trying to make its way on her face. "But apparently you have a good heart."
Zac rolled his eyes, but when he glanced back up to meet Remy's eyes, there was a sincerity written on her face that told him her words were more than just in jest.
"Where's Lulu?" he asked in an attempt to avoid the awkward feeling her kind words left in his chest.
"She had to potty," Remy replied. "How's dinner coming along?"
"In the oven," Zac murmured, but he stood as he spoke. He knew there was still a bit of time before the food would be ready, but television was a bust for now. Maybe he could throw something together for dessert in the meantime.
--
Dinner was the usual affair when Remy and Luca stayed to eat. They sat around the table, consuming the food. Luca had dug into the chicken Dijon and asked for seconds to her mother's dismay - and jealousy if Zac was reading her right - in between regaling them with stories from the schoolyard.
Remy only occasionally had a story to share from her days out and about, running errands and tending to both hers and Zac's needs. Zac never had much to share. His days were too mundane to bother, so unless he had a good painting session when neither of them was around, he had little to contribute.
These dinners were comfortable, though, and they always helped ward off the loneliness Zac often felt in the evenings. Again Zac revisited the idea that it might be the same for Remy now that she was a single mother.
"Well," Remy sighed, rubbing her full belly, "I think it's time we headed home."
Luca whined a bit, but there wasn't a lot of energy behind it. It was getting to the time of day when she usually started to wind down.
"You need a bath, Lulu," Remy reminded. "And we need to pick out clothes for tomorrow."
"Can we read Wardrobe before bed?" Luca wondered.
Zac smiled, knowing she meant The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe but she could never remember the full title. Apparently, they were rereading it as a bedtime story. Zac frowned a bit. He'd kept Luca a few times in the evening when Remy went out with friends, and he'd been privy to the bedtime story ritual, but it was usually something he missed out on.
"Sure," Remy agreed to Luca's request. After giving Zac a big hug and a kiss on the cheek and collecting her things, she and Remy took leave for the evening.
Despite the sound of the television in the living room, Zac felt no less alone. He figured by now he should be used to it. No matter who came through the door it wasn't long before they walked back out. Selfishly, he wished for them to stay - like in that episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Dawn made the wish that people would stop leaving her. Though he knew why they had to go, Zac could certainly understand Dawn's position. It wasn't easy being left behind.
"Should have made Remy stay and help clean up," Zac grumbled as he cleared the table. He scooped the leftovers into Tupperware dishes. He briefly considered washing the dishes by hand just to have something to do, but instead he quickly piled them into the dishwasher.
"What to do, what to do," he muttered to himself as he looked around the recently cleaned kitchen. He knew he could always go upstairs and start picking up his messy bedroom, but he'd had his fill of cleaning this morning. Besides, he'd need something to do come tomorrow anyway.
He briefly considered going back down to the basement to do some more painting, but after an afternoon filled with Luca's company as he worked, he knew it would be too depressing. He decided to give the television another shot. His brain wasn't it in, but maybe something would be on that could distract him until it seemed a decent enough time to try to go to sleep. After a mostly sleepless weekend, he knew it would be easy to fall asleep, but waiting until he was absolutely wiped out seemed the better option. At least that way he'd be too exhausted to think about anything that might lend itself to nightmares.
He found a relatively harmless looking zombie movie on SyFy and settled in for a mindless evening of cannibalism. He couldn't even take these types of movies seriously anymore. He'd experienced true horror, and it looked nothing like this.
Somewhere between the main characters shooting zombies for fun and plotting an escape plan, Zac's eyelids began to grow heavy. He told himself that he'd go to bed as soon as the movie was over but even as he thought this, the world around him began to blur and darken as he drifted.
The air was moist, thick with humidity. The heat seemed to encompass him, but he couldn't be bothered. His eyes focused on the flickering light of the fireflies that passed him by.
Despite the almost steamy air, Zac breathed it in deeply. He looked at his feet and found them bare. He glanced behind himself at the front door of his self-induced prison. It seemed to beckon to him, but the strings that usually bound him there were absent.
Smiling to himself, he took first one, then two steps until he was on the stone path of his yard that led to the sidewalk. The stone was cool beneath his feet and a welcome, stark contrast to the air around him.
Without much thought he moved from the stone pathway to the grass, which he knew before his feet even touched it would be cool against his skin. His feet sunk into the earth, the green blades slipping between his toes.
He laughed, thrilled by the sense of freedom he felt. He wanted to hoop and holler, but the night sky, bright as it was, reminded him that most people would be in bed. He glanced next door, wondering where Remy was. Probably tucking Luca into bed, he decided.
As his eyes roamed the quiet street, he contemplated his next move. Where to go, what to see? He'd missed so much. Before a decision could be made, a cry broke through the night only to be quickly hushed.
Zac tensed, looking around quickly. He heard a whimper and his eyes strayed to the house across the street. All was dark, or so it seemed at first. Then he noted the faintest light dancing in the darkness through the window of what was surely the basement.
Confused, Zac's feet carried him forward. He crossed the street without a second thought; the asphalt was warm beneath his feet until he reached the cool concrete of the sidewalk on the other side. He moved through the grass yard, his brain telling him he had to look, he had to see what was inside the room the light shone from.
As he neared the seemingly harmless house, he heard another cry. His heart seemed to pick up in speed. Curiosity was replaced with unease. His heart seemed to stutter slightly and then picked a new rhythm, keeping time at twice the pace.
He glanced around, warily, not knowing what may be lurking about; the freedom he'd felt only moments ago turning into unease. As he continued across the grassy yard, the dew on the grass seemed to increase, soaking the cuffs of his sleep pants.
Finally, he reached the side of the house. He looked around, afraid that someone might see him but also afraid of what he might see inside the house. Nervous, yet curious, he kneeled carefully just to the side of the lit window. Guarded, he peeked around the corner into the room.
He didn't know what he expected to find, but the image that met his eyes had his mouth falling open in shock and a scream erupting from somewhere deep in his chest.
His scream pierced the quiet night and seemed to reverberate and echo all around him, but his eyes remained glued to the scene before him until the man standing inside turned at the sound of his shriek.
Fear seemed to seize him and cause his limbs to freeze for a moment, but then the adrenaline seemed to kick in. He pushed back, away from the house, but his damp feet slid in the wet grass, sending him sprawling on his back. He twisted to his stomach and moved to his knees. He began to lift himself, but when he looked to the earth beneath him, he realized that it was not dew that had wetted his feet. Even in the moonlight the dark, nearly black, blood could not be disguised.
Zac sat up with a jolt and nearly slid off the couch. He caught himself at the last moment, but his breath was coming out in pants and his face felt wet. He ran a hand across it expecting sweat but found tears leaking from his eyes instead.
He looked around the room, as if expecting something to jump out at him, but as his mind became less fuzzy his breathing slowed. His heart continued to race, though, as his mind tried to make sense of the images that haunted his sleep.
It took Zac several moments before things began to click into place. The scene he'd witnessed inside the room in the house across the street had been gruesome. A naked woman, both hands and feet bound and her mouth gagged, had hung from the rafters from a meat hook - her chest cracked open, exposing the bones and organs beneath. That, however, had not been the most frightening part. No, that had been her eyes. They had been wide and aware; despite the carnage that was her decimated torso, she was alive. How, Zac had no idea.
In his wakeful state, he could have written the dream off as a byproduct of that stupid movie he'd fallen asleep watching except for the fact that his dream had delivered the answer to the question he had been unable to solve earlier in the evening.
He now understood why the missing woman he'd seen on TV seemed so familiar. No, she hadn't resembled a character from a movie or television show. Odd as it seemed for a shut in, he had seen her. And so had Taylor and Remy. When she stepped out of Mr. Cline's car on Friday night, clad in the skimpy red dress and those tall fuck me heels.
Zac stood gingerly from his seat on the couch and moved to collect the phone. He dialed quickly and waited several moments as the phone rang. "Come on, come on," he uttered under his breath.
Finally, he heard the phone being picked up and presumably fumbled around before someone finally answered. "Hello?" Remy sounded confused but also worried.
"Remy," Zac said quickly. "Remember that girl the neighbor brought home the other night?"
"Zac?" Remy still seemed confused, but she sounded a bit more alert. "What are you talking about?"
"Friday night," he said slowly. "The neighbor - the Cline guy? He came home with a woman, right?"
"Yeah," Remy said. Now she seemed even more confused but also a bit annoyed. "So what?"
"On the news earlier, they were talking about a missing woman," Zac explained. "I thought she looked familiar, but I couldn't figure out from where. Then I remembered. It was the woman the neighbor came home with. Now she's missing."
"Are you sure, Zac?" Remy replied. "Maybe she just looked like the woman."
"No, the woman was last seen wearing a red dress."
"A lot of women wear red dresses - especially on a Friday night," Remy pointed out.
"But -"
Remy cut him off before he could argue further. "Zac, do you have any idea what time it is?" she asked. All confusion and sleep had left her voice, and now all Zac could hear was the ire in her tone. He flinched slightly at the sound of it. An angry Remy was never a good thing. Guiltily, he glanced at the grandfather clock on the mantle.
"Shit," he muttered under his breath. It was after two in the morning. "I didn't realize it was so late."
"Obviously," Remy retorted. "What are you doing up anyway?"
Zac didn't want to admit that he had another nightmare - even if it was one of a different variety. "I was watching a movie," he lied. "I guess I lost track of time. Sorry."
"It's fine," she muttered, but it sounded anything but fine. "Just get some sleep already. You owe me breakfast."
Zac cracked a smile for the first time since waking up and apologized again before hanging up the phone. He didn't, however, follow Remy's directions. Instead of heading upstairs to go to bed, he made his way to his office where his laptop lay. It seemed he had some research to do.