by Lola StVil
“FIX IT? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!” I shout into the phone.
“Hey, watch how you talk to me, Lissy,” he scolds.
“Don’t worry about it, Dad. I won’t be talking to you like that again—I won’t be talking to you ever.”
“C’mon, honey. I know I messed up but I have a way to fix this. I have a way to fix everything. Just give me a chance to explain everything. That’s all I ask.”
“Fine. Talk. Tell me how you plan to fix this.” I reply between clenched teeth.
“I got a very reliable tip about this horse—”
I hurl the phone at the wall. It splits open and shatters as it hits the floor. How could I be so stupid? Why didn’t I check on the account sooner? Why didn’t I stop him? I rake my hand through my hair and curse my existence.
I’m sorry, Mom. I’m so sorry.
I hear someone banging on the back door in rapid succession. That can only be one person, Sadie. Sadie was a patient at the Dover nursing home where my mom used to work. She’s eighty-three and has stark white hair that’s as wild as her stories.
Sadie’s family couldn’t afford to keep her in the nursing home anymore, so they had to send her to a state facility. She lasted about two days, then she ditched the place and started living on the street. She refuses to go back and won’t move in with her family because she doesn’t want to be a burden.
Sadie prides herself on never taking charity. So, when I ran into her on the street a few months ago, it was like pulling teeth to get her to let me buy her lunch. The only way she let me feed her was if she gave me something in return. She looked into her shopping cart and took out some random trinket, and I marveled over how amazing it was. I told her that there was no way I could live without whatever it was she had and that I would trade with her. I’d buy her a sandwich, coffee, and scone; in return she’d give me her most “precious” stones and trinkets. I placed them in a square tin under the counter. I call them “Sadie tokens.”
When I’m working by myself on nights like this one, Sadie knocks on the back door and I let her in. I make her something to eat, and she tells me these wild stories about worlds on the brink of extinction. I told her she should write her stories down and try to get them published, but she says she likes having me as her only captivated reader.
I hear the knocking once again, but this time it’s louder. I pull myself together enough to head towards the door. I don’t feel like having company, not even Sadie. My whole life has imploded and I don’t want an audience for that. But I’m going to open the door anyway because I have no idea if she’s eaten today, and I can’t let her go without any food. And it’s raining like crazy out there; she needs a nice warm and dry place.
As I place my hand on the doorknob, I remind myself that Sadie is like a grandmother to me and if she sees me crying, she’ll worry about me. So I dry my eyes, take in a deep breath, and hope I can bluff her. I open the back door that leads to the alley and put my best smile in place.
“Hi, Sadie, I…” The words die in my throat as I look down at Sadie on the floor. She’s bleeding from several slashes to her face and body.
“Sadie!” I shout as I kneel down beside her and try to stop the bleeding. I scan the bookshop for my cellphone. I spot it in pieces on the floor of the bookshop.
Damn my father to hell!
“It’s okay, Sadie. I’ll get you help, I promise.” The rain is pouring so hard, I’m not sure she hears what I’m saying. My mind is racing; there are a million things I should be doing, but I’m not sure which one to do first. I should get her out of the rain, shout for help, put pressure on the wound, or use the bookshop phone. I should run to the phone, but that would mean leaving her alone and I can’t do that. My mom died alone in the street, and I will not let the same thing happen to Sadie. What should I do?
Bleeding; stop the bleeding.
I peel off my sweater and wrap it around her midsection. Sadie is trying to talk, but I tell her not to waste any energy. The sweater helps slow down the bleeding but not by much because it’s soaked in rainwater. I wrap my arms around her top half and try to drag her inside the shop. She’s too heavy for me, and even if she wasn’t, the rain makes it nearly impossible to get a good grip. Sadie uses every ounce of strength she has left and signals for me to come closer. I place my ears close enough so she can whisper to me.
“Get the stones,” she says in weak and desperate voice. She must think we’re inside one of her stories, but I don’t have time to play along right now. I have to get her some help.
“Sadie, we can play later. Right now, save your strength, okay?” I beg as I try to lift her again.
“Get. Stone. Now,” Sadie shouts as she tries to stand up. She groans as blood oozes out of her even faster.
“Sadie, try to be still. I can’t stop to get some trinket you found on the street!” I scream frantically. I use all my might and try to slide her into the doorway of the bookshop, but it’s no use. I swallow my fears about leaving her alone and dash back inside the shop. I run over to the phone and call for help. The operator tells me the ambulance is on the way. I run back to Sadie and kneel beside her on the ground in the alley.
“It’s okay, help is coming. Hang on, please,” I beg as I take her hand in mine, not sure what else I can do. Suddenly Sadie’s eyes widen with fear as she looks over my shoulder. I follow her stare, and there, standing on the rooftop of the building across the ally, is a large, fleshy human-spider hybrid with multiple bulging arms growing out of its back. It has an exposed spinal cord, a mouth packed with needlelike fangs, and three eyes on each side of its face.
What the hell?!
My mouth drops open as I stare at what can’t possibly be real. Suddenly the creature jumps off the rooftop and heads straight for us. I can feel the adrenaline coursing through me as I double my efforts to try and get Sadie inside the shop.
“We gotta go! We gotta go!” I plead. Sadie, still in her delusional state, begs for me to get the stones.
“Damn it, Sadie, we have to get you out of here. The stones are just shiny rocks. They don’t mean anything,” I snap. She looks at me in a way that sends chills down my spine almost as bad as the ones I had from the spider freaks coming for us.
The stones. There are just stones. Right?
“Screw it!” I shout as I run inside the shop and make my way behind the counter. I grab the tin box and head back towards Sadie. The creatures are now only a few yards away. Sadie signals for me to place the stones in a circle. My hands are shaking and my heart is permanently wedged in my throat.
We’re going to die out here in the gutter while I placate a sweet old woman and her stories.
There are six stones, and she’s making me place them in a certain order. But as I’m placing the last stone in the circle, the creature opens its mouth and spews a bright neon-red web in our direction. It latches onto Sadie and starts eating at her skin like acid. I drop the last stone and run to help her.
I dive into the dumpster and feverishly look around for a weapon. I find a metal rod that once belonged to a table of some kind. I grab it, leap out of the dumpster, and run towards the creature. It has Sadie wrapped in its toxic web, and it’s eating through her flesh with every passing second. I frantically wave my hand in front of it to get its attention. But it’s not working, so I lift the rod high above my head and jab it into the beast’s side. It growls in anger as it drops Sadie and turns its attention towards me.
Crap, what now?!
The beast rushes towards me at top speed and spits its web at me. I dive behind the dumpster, with only a second to spare. The beast is now enraged, and it uses its multiple limbs to push the large dumpster out of the way. I am now exposed— there is nothing shielding me from it. I look up and see my reflection in the creature’s many eyes. As it descends on me, I spot a large fragment of broken glass just a few feet away. As the beast plants itself on either side of me with its limbs and opens its mouth, I reach for the glass and plunge it
into the underbelly of the creature. It cries out as a black liquid oozes out. The creature is wounded and down but not for long.
“We don’t have much time. Helics are self-healing. Place the last stone on the ground, finish the circle,” she says as tears flood her eyes. I rush over to her, and I begin to cry, knowing there is no way she is going to survive—her face is pale, and she’s fighting off sleep. She’s going to die.
“Sadie, don’t go. Don’t die. Please,” I beg.
“I am not important; you are. You must finish the circle.” She gasps. I do as I’m told and place the last stone in the circle. She tells me to stand inside the circle. I follow her instructions, not sure what else I can do.
“You must find Kane; remind him of his vow to me. Remind him,” she says. The beast is fully healed now. It’s coming towards her.
“It’s coming!” I shout as the creature races towards what’s left of my friend. I try to leave the circle and help, but Sadie mumbles a phrase in Latin, and suddenly I’m held in by an invisible force field.
“NOOOOOOOOOO!” I yell as I pound on the shield holding me captive. It’s no use. It won’t break, no matter how hard I bang against it.
Sadie dips into her wound and gathers some of her blood in her hand. She then flicks her bloodstained fingers towards me. Her blood lands at the base of the circle. Suddenly the stones form a gold-colored whirlwind beneath my feet. The tornado spins at unbelievable speeds, and the scene before me starts to disappear. The last thing I see is the beast descending on Sadie. Moments before the creature tears her body in half like cheap paper, she coughs up her final seven words to me. And much like all of this, they make absolutely no sense.
The whirlwind is so strong; it lifts me up and tosses me in the air. I land on something soft and bouncy. I’m not sure what it is yet because my vision is blurry. When I can finally see clearly, I find myself somewhere unexpected: in some naked guy’s bed.
He’s shirtless and exquisite: six feet five inches, strong chiseled jawline, broad shoulders, and a muscular physique. A stray strand of his lush onyx-colored hair falls forward and dangles just above his eyelashes. I know girls who would give their lives just to place that stray hair back where it belongs. And while his penetrating sapphire eyes are stunning, they are also turbulent and haunting; the only thing that has me more awestruck than his looks is his massive shimmering gold wings.
In one motion, he yanks me off the bed, holds me high in the air with one hand, and pins me to the wall. He is so quick with his blade, I didn’t even know he had one—until I felt the cold steel against my neck.
“Three seconds. You have three seconds to convince me to kill you quickly instead of the way I normally do it,” he threatens in a lethal tone.
“Ah…I…I—”
“Two seconds.”
“There was a creature…” I reply.
“One second,” he says coldly.
“I don’t know—”
“Time’s up,” he says as he begins to carve into the flesh of my neck. I cry out as his blade slices into me. Desperate to make the pain stop, I call out the seven words that Sadie said to me.
“I am the first and the last!” I shout.
He pulls the knife away from my neck and glares at me.
“In that case, there is no need to kill you; you’re already dead.”
I’m dreaming. That must be it. I fell asleep on the sofa at the bookshop and now I’m plunging headfirst into a romance fantasy novel. I know it’s a fantasy because giant human spiders don’t exist. And neither do perfectly sculpted homicidal beings with gold wings. But even as I say these things to myself, I know they’re lies. This is real. This is happening. I try to focus and piece together what has occurred in the last thirty minutes. But it’s hard to get my thoughts together because my mind insists on focusing on something else.
Why are his eyes so beguiling? What would his sun-kissed skin feel like beneath my fingers? I need to sit down or lean on something; something like his rock-hard chest—Atlas Morgan! Stay. Focused.
“Please put some clothes on!” I demand.
“Aw, did I offend you?” he says sardonically.
“Look, I don’t—” Before I can finish, he grabs me by my neck and hurls me out the window. My arms and legs flail widely in the air as gravity pulls me towards my death. The window I was thrown from gets smaller and smaller as my body cuts through the air. On TV, the person about to die always reflects on the life they’ve led. But in reality, there is no time to reflect. There is no “life flashing before me” moment. There’s just terror—pure, unmitigated terror.
The wind howls in my ears, all the hairs on my body stand on end, and adrenaline pumps through every inch of me. Ironically, the last moments before my death are when I feel most alive. I’m screaming loudly inside my skull, but the sound is eaten up by the sheer force of the fall. My death will be silent.
I close my eyes and take comfort in knowing that dying means I may get to see my mom in the afterlife, if there is one. I think about my father, and despite everything, some part of me will miss him. It feels like the fall has taken forever, yet the crash is coming all too soon. When I land, I feel the last sensation I ever thought I’d feel—softness. I open my eyes and look around me.
I have fallen out of the window and onto a small flatbed truck carrying stacks of bound mattresses. That’s the good news. The bad news is I don’t stay on the truck; I bounce off and fall flat on my face. It hurts like crazy, but at least I survive it. I drag my bruised body up off the sidewalk.
I pull open the double glass doors and enter the front of the hotel I was just pushed out of. The lobby is small and dimly lit. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a seedy hotel, but it’s definitely not high class. The furniture is shabby; the paintings on the walls are dark and cheap looking. The girl at the front desk is heavy into the Goth scene judging by her clothes and her many piercings.
“Hey, can you tell me where we are?” I ask.
“Wow, you must be tripping on some good shit,” she says wistfully.
“No, I’m—never mind. Where are we?” I ask again.
“Patron Row Hotel in New Jersey,” she says.
“New Jersey?!”
“Yeah. Man, can I get some of that—whatever it is you’re smoking,” she jokes.
“I’m looking for this guy. He has dark hair—”
“And eyes that can make you want to cum just by looking at him? Yeah, he’s in room 29G,” she says with a sinister smile.
“Thanks—wait, does that means this hotel has twenty-nine floors?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
“Okay, thanks,” I reply as I head towards the elevator.
“Hey, wait! Can I get some of what you’re smoking?” she shouts, very serious this time. I roll my eyes in frustration as the elevator door closes. I press the button marked “29.” When the elevator door opens, I stomp up to his room and pound on the door. He answers, now wearing a black tee shirt and jeans.
“What?” he says as he swings the door open.
“Did you know there was a truck full of mattresses before you threw me out the window?”
“What truck?” he asks.
I put all my weight on my back leg and punch him in the face—hard. It should have hurt him—maybe not sent him to the hospital, but it should have had some impact. Instead, all it did was annoy him.
“Kane, who’s at the door? Whoever it is, tell them to come back later,” a female voice orders from inside the room. I barge in as if I live there. The female on the bed looks like she just walked out of a shot for Maxim magazine. She has full bouncy breasts, a small waist, and perfect curves. She’s wearing a skimpy black dress and standing near the bed. I hate her on sight. But not just because she sounds like an extra from a porn movie; I hate her because she’s touched him.
Wait, what?
“Your boyfriend just tried to kill me!” I shout.
“Boyfriend? Do I look like the boyfriend type to y
ou?” he says.
“I need you to give me some answers,” I inform him.
“I told the Alliance I was done with this crap. I’m out. You hear me? I’m out!” he says.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I reply.
“Yeah, right.” He snorts.
“I’m serious. I was in the alley behind the bookstore where I work. And my friend was attacked. She sent me here somehow so I could talk to you,” I insist.
“Well she made a mistake. I don’t take in strays. So, go find someone else to pour you a bowl of milk and pet you,” he says dismissively.
“Argh! You’re such an asshole! I don’t know what Sadie was thinking when she—”
“Sadie? Sadie sent you?” he asks, sounding interested for the first time.
“Yeah, she said to remind you of your promise to her,” I reply. His expression quickly darkens. He looks over at the human blow-up doll by the bed and signals for her to leave us alone.
“Fine, I’ll jump in the shower, but when I come out, she better not be here. I didn’t plan on a threesome…tonight,” she says as she walks into the bathroom and closes the door behind her.
“Sadie and I—”
Kane holds up his hand, signaling for me to stop talking. We then hear the shower in the bathroom running, and he signals for me to continue. I tell him everything that happened from the time I opened the back door of the shop.
“And then I ended up here, with you,” I conclude.
“Damn that old lady to hell,” he says bitterly.
“Don’t say that! Sadie and I are friends. I’ve known her ever since I was a kid. And I just watched her get…that thing tore into her like she was nothing. She was in so much pain and I couldn’t save her. I tried, but she sent me inside this circle thing and then…is she really dead?” I beg.
“Yup. Helics don’t leave anything behind. They would have inhaled her bones by now. You might find a stray tooth or a hair follicle but that’s about it. Helics like to eat what they’ve killed; like a cat licking its own throw up,” he says callously.