Slumber by Tamara Blake

himself to her mother? She bolted up the steps and inside in time to see Tam courteously shaking her mother’s hand while Mom gazed up at him from her seat on the sagging sofa like he’d just stepped out of the pages of GQ magazine.
    â€œYou didn’t tell me you were bringing a friend over,” Mom said to Ruby reproachfully, nervously patting her hair.
    â€œI wasn’t.”
    Tam gazed around their living room with bright interest, taking in the water-stained ceiling, the motley collection of thrift-store furniture. Ruby squirmed with shame.
    Mom struggled to rise from the sofa. “Let me get you something to…to drink, Tam…”
    â€œDon’t get up, Mom. You need to rest. Tam was just going anyway, weren’t you, Tam?” She shot him a pointed glare, which he blithely ignored.
    â€œI’d love a drink, thanks, Mrs. Benson.”
    Ruby regarded him with surprise. How did Tam know their last name? Was he really stalking her? No, he’d probably gotten it from the Happy Housekeepers service contract. It didn’t make her feel a whole lot better.
    Mom nervously gestured for Tam to have a seat on the wobbly cane chair. “Is orange juice okay?” her mother asked him anxiously.
    Tam’s dazzling smile made her mother blink at him. “That’d be great.”
    Ruby searched his face for traces of condescension, but he seemed relaxed and happy in their shabby environment, comfortably leaning back in the hard chair and asking her mother about the weather and if she was glad the tourists had finally cleared out from the beaches.
    â€œDon’t keep our guest waiting for his drink, Ruby,” Mom said.
    â€œOh, of course not,” Ruby replied with extreme courtesy. Tam’s lips quirked.
    Shelley ran in with her drawing of two fishes and laid it on Tam’s knee. “I drew Nemo and Dory,” she explained seriously, “because they’re friends.”
    â€œFriends are important,” Tam agreed. “Is that the Little Mermaid?”
    â€œNo. That’s a rock.”
    Ruby went into the kitchen and poured the last of their orange juice into a glass for him. He was smooth alright. She heard him asking Shelley to draw another picture and her mother about her ordeal at the hospital.
    But…did he know she could hear him? Where was the line between being a smooth operator and just a really nice guy? Tam seemed to constantly waver over it, back and forth.
    The necklace around her neck began to prickle. In her discomfort over having Tam here, she’d almost forgotten it. If she could just get the thing off, she could be free of Tam, too. Then she could try to forget that she been reduced to stealing to save her mother. A clean break. She tucked the wire cutters in the pocket of her hoodie.
    Back in the living room, Ruby handed Tam his drink. “Here you go. Will you excuse me for a moment?”
    â€œSure.” Tam took the glass and downed the juice in a couple of pulls. “Thanks, that was just what I needed.”
    â€œGood to know.” Ruby took the empty glass and dropped it off in the kitchen on her way to the bathroom. Once she’d locked the door behind her, she unzipped the hoodie and drew the necklace out from under her t-shirt. The gold gleamed dully, and the ruby pendant glittered. She slipped the links into the cutter’s jaws, careful to keep the sharp blades away from her jugular.
    â€œI’m getting rid of you for good,” she muttered, clamping down hard on the handle…
    Nothing happened.
    She squeezed again, this time with all her might, until her hand couldn’t take it anymore. The gold chain didn’t budge. She examined it in the mirror to see if the soft gold had given way at all. The wire cutter didn’t even leave a mark. Ruby groaned.
    She let go of the pendant, but it didn’t fall as far down from her throat as it should have.
    Oh holy shit. The gold chain was now