by K. C. RILEY
“One moment, Jean.” Josie linked her arm into mine and pulled me to the side. “Allow me to educate you on the etiquette of rich people. Never ever use the words can’t afford, even if it’s true. Always smile, nod, and accept. And don’t worry about the bill, it’s all been taken care of.”
“I can’t let you pay for this.”
“Not me silly. I told you. Mrs. Ellington is sponsoring the whole thing, including dresses for the homecoming dance coordinators, AKA, us. She’s one of the school's biggest contributors and she’s loaded, so don’t worry about it and take the damn dress.”
I glanced at the tag and wanted to faint. “Three thousand dollars? Are you crazy?” There was no way. But Josie wasn’t taking no for an answer. I finally gave in and went to the back to try it on.
“And don’t be all day,” Josie yelled.
Inside the dressing room, I opened the garment bag to reveal a silver-pink gown.
Josie yelled from the front again. “Do you need any help?”
“No. I’m fine,” I yelled back.
With a deep breath, I carefully took the dress out of the bag and tried it on. The dress was breathtaking and shimmered like a pink moon.
Three thousand dollars. Rich people were insane. But, I couldn’t deny, the fit was perfect. I glanced at myself from side to side in the mirror and smoothed out a couple of wrinkles with my hands when a shadow crept up from behind me. Meghan. I could sense her like a black cloud from a mile away.
“You know, he’ll throw you to the curb when he’s done with you.”
Meghan always seemed to slither. It was disturbingly unnatural.
“What are you talking about?” I said to her reflection in the mirror. There was no way I was turning around to entertain her.
“Jake.”
“We’re not together.”
Meghan leaned in from behind and whispered into my ear. “Liar. I know he’s tasted your blood.”
“What?” Ewwww. The girl was more cracked than I was.
Meghan’s eyes turned completely black, and I gasped.
She slithered to my other ear and sniffed me. What the hell?
“Hmmm,” she said. “What are you? Doesn’t matter. Like I said, he’ll dump you when he’s done.”
“Jake is my boss and nothing else. And you’re not making any sense.”
“Sure he is. The dress is beautiful. I’ll give you that. Shame if anything was to happen to it.”
Enough was enough. I turned around to face her, but no one was there.
I dashed out the dressing room to catch up to her at the front of the boutique. “Did you see her?”
Everyone stared at me like I was crazy.
Cassie held a champagne glass loosely in her hand. “Who? And holy crap, you look amazing.”
“Do I know how to pick a dress, or what?” Jean said.
“Meghan,” I interrupted.
“What?” Josie stared at me perplexed. “There’s no one here but us.”
That was impossible. I couldn’t shake Meghan, what she said, or the creepy thing she did with her eyes. And I wasn’t crazy. I wasn’t.
I played the whole thing down as best I could and spent the rest of the day sampling cake and menu items for the dance while looking over my shoulder for Meghan.
Our last stop was a Japanese spa about thirty minutes from town.
“It’s our favorite place to go.” Josie parked the car. “The mud wraps are to die for.”
The place was naturally rustic, earthy, and beautiful. Private tubs and shallow pools were carved out of the speckled silver and gold stone from the hillside itself.
“The healing waters come from an underground aqueduct. It’s what gives the land its magic,” the attendant said.
Magic. I hated that word.
Some part of me knew everything that happened with my mom, the book, the ghost, and Meghan wasn’t in my head. I could feel it in my gut. And yet, for the first time, some part of me almost wished that it was. If magic or the supernatural was real, what did any of it want from me?
Josie was right. The mud wraps were to die for.
By the time we got back to campus, we were all pooped, stuffed, and pampered.
Josie reached behind her seat and pulled out packets that she handed to us. “Now remember, we’ve got committee meetings on Wednesday and Friday. We still have to go over table arrangements, valet parking, and which of us will be in charge of managing the staff for food, decorations, and live music.”
“Got it,” Cassie said.
“And, Liz, no offense, but your dancing? It’s redonkulous. You’ve got to show up to Blavatski’s this week.”
Wow. Filter much? I had completely forgotten about Blavatski. And I couldn’t lie, I did have two left feet. “I’m on it. I swear.”
11
I had kept my word and showed up at Blavatski’s studio every day for the past the week. Not once did I step on my partner’s toes, and everything flowed the way it was supposed to. I fell in love with every minute of it, the music, how it made me want to glide, float, and turn with my partner, Alexei—Blavatski’s grandson.
It wasn’t that I got nervous around cute guys. Alexei was gorgeous stacked on steroids— dark hair, mischievous eyes, and a smile that was always up to no good. Not to mention an accent that warmed me to the core.
It was Jake, specifically, that was the problem. Every time I was around him, all of my wits seemed to jump out of the window. My feet and arms just wouldn’t work right.
Blavatski suggested that I was mentally blocked. She said the issue had nothing to do with my feet and everything to do with my head and maybe even my heart. I asked her what I should do about it. Her reply was she was a world class dancer and not a shrink. Go figure.
In spite of my mental emotional block, there was still good news.
I had gone an entire week with no secret messages, no hidden symbols, no ghosts, no haunted books, or creepy encounters with Meghan. Everything was one hundred percent normal. Maybe stopping my meds was working after all. Things were finally getting better, including my waltz.
It had been a long afternoon at Vye’s, but a good one.
I took the trash out and stopped to breathe in the country night air. The smell of gardenia unfurled my senses. It was as if the honey like scent had brought everything to a standstill. I inhaled deeply, again. For the first time since Mom’s accident, everything felt like it was going to be okay. Not only that, I had finally discovered something that I actually liked to do, well, other than working in a coffee house—dancing.
The warm breezes that blew across my face seemed to lighten each step I took as I lost myself in a sky full of stars.
Before I knew it, I was practicing Blavatski’s steps for the Homecoming dance in the back of the diner where no one could see me. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two…
“You know, that last step is wrong,” an irritating voice said.
Here we go, I thought. “Stalker much?”
A slick smile inched across Jake’s face. “You wish.”
“Whatever. And, no, I don’t have it wrong.”
“If you say so, but I’m telling you, you missed a step.”
“Really?” I said trying to not let him get to me. “Well, if you’re so good at it, why don’t you demonstrate?”
“Gladly.” Jake’s voice shifted to something deep, and sultry. “May I?”
I only took his hand to prove him wrong. At least, that’s what I told myself.
“Wait,” Jake said. “If we’re going to do this, we might as well do it right.” Jake pulled out his phone, scrolled through a playlist, and soon the music from Blavatski’s dance was playing.
Jake took my hand again and spun me around until I was wrapped in his arms. I remembered what Blavatski said about everything being in my head and heart, how I was getting in my own way. This time, I refused to lose focus. Jake leaned in close behind my ear. The devil knew exactly what he was doing. The warmth o
f his breath gently tickled the back of my neck, awakening every nerve in my body. Focus. My breath shortened again as he unwound me out of his arms and then pulled me back into him.
I almost lost my train of thought and started counting the steps to the routine in my head. So far, so good. I had made it to the second movement of the dance.
The music continued to play as the wind gently swept around us, encircling us in the faint scent of magnolias.
I couldn’t say when or how it happened, but at some point everything about me dancing with Jake clicked into place. Miracles did happen.
Jake’s eyes softened and glistened like they were made of starlight. And there was no brooding or acting like he wanted to be a millions miles away from me either. Instead, it was almost as though his eyes were letting me in like they did the first night we met. I thought about the week before when he took my hands and soothed me out of a panic attack. I then thought about the guy that stood up for me in a tub at Zander’s party.
Lastly, I thought about Jake being an angel. I still couldn’t explain how I could have seen him in my mind before actually meeting him. And I still wasn’t sure I hadn’t made the whole thing up. Jake an angel. Ridiculous.
For one second, my eyes dropped to the outline of his lips. Focus, I told myself after almost missing a step. Each pull into Jake, sent my body into a furnace of flames and heart palpitations I thought would consume me.
It didn’t matter. I stayed with the count. When it came to the next step, I went right. He should have gone left.
Our feet tangled, and he hit the ground taking me with him. There was no escaping it, drowning in the pools of his eyes.
“You were right,” he said softly.
“You did that on purpose,” I uttered lowly still about to explode.
“What if I did?”
Jake’s lips were so close. My breathing stopped at the pounding of his heart underneath my hands.
He was about to kiss me when the bin slammed startling the crap out of me.
“Get a room.” Jessie opened the bin again and threw another bag of trash in it.
With my face flushed, I pushed myself off of Jake all the while wondering what it would have been like to kiss him. We were so close. And Jessie’s timing couldn’t have been more off.
“I better get back to work.”
“Right,” he whispered still gazing into my eyes. “Work.”
While taking a customer’s order, I scanned the room for Jake from the corner of my eye. He was nowhere to be found. Like a gushing idiot, my heart fluttered as I wrote down the customer’s order, the wrong order. I was being stupid. Silly. I thought about Meghan’s twisted warning. If she was that bitter about being dumped by Jake, why was she still showing up every afternoon to watch him like a hawk? What if Jake was still into her? Where did that leave me? And what the hell was I talking about? Other than going to the same school, Jake and I were nothing but dance partners and co-workers.
After putting in the customer’s order—the correct one—I was about to grab one more bag of trash when I overheard Vye on the phone. She was near shouting and about to explode.
The weirdest feeling bubbled in my stomach. The kind where it feels like you’ve walked into a room where you know someone was just talking about you.
“You stay away from here and stay away from her. I’m warning you. Besides, you shouldn’t have left in the first place. You’ll only end up doing more harm than good.” Vye slammed the phone on the hook.
Walking past her was unavoidable, at least if I wanted to get the trash. “Hey, Vye, everything all right?”
“Hey, sweetheart, just telemarketers. They can’t ever take no for a damn answer.”
Vye looked nervous, clammy. Some telemarketer. I grabbed the trash unconvinced.
Still lost in Jake’s lips, I went back to humming the music for the Homecoming dance. I was about to drop the trash in the bin outside but stopped in my tracks. A sense of being watched from the alley snaked up my arms and neck.
“Hello?”
No one answered. I thought I was being paranoid and dumped the trash.
When I turned around, someone had tackled me from the side.
My body hit the pavement hard. The assailant held my hands down as I squirmed to throw him off of me. The only thing I could see was darkness in a black hood where a face should have been, the shadow that tried to kill me.
The stench of rotten flesh and seaweed seeped into my nose. It was the same smell that came from Mom’s phone the night of the accident. The first thing I did when I got out of Crown Hill was destroy it, the phone that is. The demon on the other end was something I never wanted to hear, see, or smell again. But of course—according to Dr. Davis—shadows and demons didn’t exist.
I tried to scream, but couldn’t. The fear had paralyzed me.
The thing that held me, its head unnaturally creaked from side to side as it peered down at me like it was studying me. I turned my face away as it leaned in closer and deeply sniffed at my cheek. Its breath was horrid. And what was with the sniffing thing, anyway?
“Darkness,” it said, its voice ragged.
The drool from its mouth dripped onto my face as I prayed for my life. I was about to puke when I heard the back door open.
“Hey. Get the hell off of her,” Jake yelled.
Jake’s feet hit the ground running with the force of an oncoming tackle. But before he could get there, the thing hissed at him and sprung off of me. And just like that, it was gone. Stunned and confused, I sat up and rubbed my wrist. Why didn’t it kill me when it had tried to before?
“Are you all right? Are you hurt?”
“I’m okay. Just got the wind knocked out of me is all.” Who was I kidding? I practically crapped my pants.
“Can you stand?”
“Yeah.”
“Who was that?”
What could I say? He would think I was crazy.
“I don’t know. Probably some guy on drugs looking for money. He didn’t hurt me. I’m fine. Really. It’s not a big deal,” I lied.
“It is a big deal.” Jake’s grip felt safe until he said, “I’m calling the police.”
The last time the police were involved I ended up strapped to a bed in a psych ward. “Don’t. Please,” I begged. “I’m fine. I swear.”
Jake’s jaw tensed. “You’re not fine. You’re shaking.”
I guess I was. Before I could protest, Jake scooped me up and carried me inside. He was making it impossible to not completely fall apart in his arms. I was already hanging on by a thread.
“You don’t have to do this,” I insisted. “I can walk, really.”
He ignored me, took me inside, and sat me on a high table in the storage room. “You’ve got a scratch on your forehead. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
“I told you. I’m fine.”
“Just wait here,” he said. “Promise me.” Jake eyeballed me into staying put.
“All right. I promise.” Alone, all I could think about was the thing that had attacked me in the alley. What did it want?
A couple of minutes later, Jake came back with a first aid kit. He gently turned my arm over to reveal a scuff on my elbow from where I fell. Nothing serious. He took a dab of hydrogen peroxide and cleaned the wound. It stung slightly as I tried to hold my arm steady. He patted it dry and placed a Band-Aid on it.
He then dabbed my forehead.
“Ouch. That stings like hell.”
“Hold still.” Jake held my chin in a firm but gentle grip. He stood so close my heart thumped in my throat. “A few more dabs and... There. You’re all done. It shouldn’t leave a scar.”
I swallowed. “Thanks.”
The electrical charge between us was palpable, but neither of us made a move.
I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Well, I better go.” I hopped off the table, but maybe I hopped off too fast.
“Are you okay?” Jake reached his arms out to keep me from f
alling.
“Just a little lightheaded. I’m fine, just ready to go home.”
The front door chimed.
“Sure. But, there’s no way you’re driving yourself.”
I protested as we argued on the way up to the front to see who had come in.
“Evening folks.” A black female officer walked further into the room. She was petite, but clearly had presence. She also reminded me of someone I couldn’t put my finger on.
“Officer,” Jake replied.
“Got a call about a disturbance out this way. Have you guys seen or noticed anything strange?”
Jake was about to open his big mouth.
“No, we haven’t seen a thing,” I said quickly.
Jake’s eyes pretty much sawed me in half as I held my trembling hands behind me.
“That’s some scratch on your forehead,” the officer noted.
“Oh, yeah. I uh, fell,” I said, running out of lies.
“Some fall,” she countered.
“Yeah, but she’s fine,” Jake said finally playing along. “I keep telling her to be more careful with those step ladders. We were taking inventory in the back.”
“Really?” The officer took a step closer as though Jake was the culprit.
I had to say something, quick. “Yeah, totally my fault. I fell off the stupid thing.”
The officer wasn’t buying it and took another step as she looked down and behind the counter. “Is that so?”
“Uh, yeah, I’ve got two left feet. Just ask him, he’s my boss but my dance partner too. We’ve got this dance thing coming up, ballroom dancing. Can you believe it? Who’s ever heard of ballroom dancing at a high school, right? Anyway, there was this big lottery for partners and I ended up with him. Just my luck. Or his luck. Or something like that. Anyhow, I’ve been stepping on his toes ever since, all the time—”
The officer quickly put her hand up and cut my nervous babbling short when her walkie talkie went off. “Roger that, I’m on it, over. Look, you two be careful. Whoever this guy is, he snapped Miss Lyle’s Rottweiler in half.” The officer looked at me again. “And maybe you should get some extra lessons with that whole dancing thing. Might help with the coordination and not falling.”