Dark Creations: Hell on Earth (Part 5) Read Free Page A

feisty little package.”
    She cringed and wondered whether Yoshi liked being both objectified publicly, and being called “little” all the time by his girlfriend.  Judging from the enormous smile on his face, she guessed he didn’t mind either.
    “You’re too much!” she said to Alexandra.
    “You bet your ass I am,” Alexandra smiled proudly then changed the subject.  “Hey, did you see Daniella?  She’s here.  And she brought her special friend.”
    “Wait, you mean she brought Ryan, the guy she met when she was doing Habitat for Humanity in the Appalachians?”
    “That’s the one.”
    “I thought they were just in a casual relationship,” she said and glanced nervously at her father.
    “Don’t look at me like I’m Aunt Lorrie.  I get what you’re saying, you know,” her father grumbled.
    “Sorry, dad,” she said and patted him on the shoulder. Then to Alexandra, she asked, “What happened, things got serious?”
    “Looks like it has,” Alexandra replied and they both glanced over their shoulder as Daniella approached hand-in-hand with Ryan.
    “Hi everyone!” Daniella exclaimed.  “Congratulations Melissa!” 
    Daniella hugged Melissa tightly.
    “Thanks!” Melissa said and stepped back to look at her friend.  “Whoa!  Daniella, you look incredible,” she said commenting on the nearly twenty pounds she’d lost. 
    “Thank you,” Daniella blushed.  “Oh, you remember Ryan, right?” she said and placed a hand on Ryan’s chest. 
    “Hi Ryan.  Good to see you again.”
    Melissa and Alexandra had met Ryan once. It had been over a year ago, when Daniella had returned from college, briefly.  She’d told them that she’d been volunteering during summers and holidays and that she’d met someone, Ryan.  Ryan, a mountain of a man whose height and heft dwarfed Daniella, and pretty much anyone else he stood beside, had come with her to Harbingers Falls.  Melissa had spent time with them then, but hadn’t invested much energy in getting to know or like him because Daniella had insisted that theirs was just a temporary relationship.  She wasn’t sure at the time whether Ryan had known that key piece of information, but had made certain to note it for her own use.  Watching the two of them together now, how one couldn’t keep from touching the other for more than ten seconds, made plain that temporary had transitioned into constant somewhere along the way. 
    “Congrats,” Ryan said to Melissa.  To her father he said, “You must be Mr. Martin.  It’s good to meet you, sir.  I’ve heard a lot of nice things about you.  And congratulations, too.”
    Daniella beamed while Ryan spoke.  Alexandra put a finger near her mouth and pretended to gag.  Daniella, seeing her make the face, promptly smacked her arm and Melissa felt as if they were back in high school again. 
    “Ouch!  What the fuck?  I was just playing around,” Alexandra snapped.
    “You were being rude,” Daniella said smiling tightly , but talking through her teeth.  “I needed to remind you to not act like an ass.”
    “Ooh!  She’s grown a pair away at college!” Alexandra cheered.  “Nice to hear you finally curse.  Only took you, what, twenty years?”
    “Ahem!” her father cleared his throat.  “Enough.”
    “We’re sorry,” Alexandra and Daniella said in unison like naughty school children. 
    “Good to meet you, too, Ryan,” her father said and stood to shake Ryan’s hand.  “And thanks.  This is a happy day for my little girl.  And me, too,” he said and winked at Melissa.  “But I see my idiot brother over there boring the snot out of my future son-in-law.  I’d better get over there and rescue him.”
    Melissa’s father moved past Ryan and paused to kiss Daniella on the cheek.  “Glad you’re home for this,” he said then continued across the party room to where her uncle Steve had Gabriel cornered.
    “Isn’t her dad awesome?” Daniella said to Ryan.  “He