by Alex Apostol
“Don’t be scared,” Sari said gently as he placed his hand on top of my clenched fist.
I forced my hands to relax and snorted under my breath.
“I’m not scared. I’m just preparing myself is all.”
He looked away from me as he took his hand from mine, trying to suppress his urge to laugh.
“If you say so…”
Ignoring his comment, I turned my head forward again and took a deep breath. It was now or never I told myself…time to get it over with. I opened the door and stood still while I tried to locate the ghost before she found me. The echo of the door slamming seemed deafening in the open wilderness around me. As far as I could tell, I was completely alone. I walked over to the passenger side window to ask Sari what to do, but found myself talking to an empty seat. The bastard left me all alone! What if I couldn’t do it? What if this ghost ripped me to pieces? Did he even care about me at all?
“Can you help me?” a high, soft voice asked from behind me.
I whirled around, pinning my back against the hard, solid truck. Standing in the middle of the road was the young girl from my vision. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen years old. Even though she didn’t seem dangerous, I knew that could change in a heartbeat. She shuffled a few steps closer, barley lifting her exposed, naked feet from the slick pavement. She stopped close enough to let the light from the headlights brighten her features more. I held my breath as she spoke again.
“Please…can you help me?” she said again softly, desperation escalating in her voice.
A cold gentle breeze blew past us, lifting her dirt filled hair off her face and behind her shoulders, exposing the deep red gashes covering almost every surface of her skin. One of the straps on her dress had been broken and was dangling over a dark stain near her stomach.
“Hello ladies, something I can help you with?” called the reassuring voice of Sari.
I released an enormous sigh of relief. Sari walked up to me with a grin on his face, acting nonchalant as if he were just another person passing by. Without any warning the wounded girl across from us started to emit a low rumbling growl from deep within her throat. Her face changed into the terrifying one I had seen earlier in my vision.
“What are you doing? Get out of here!” I yelled at Sari.
I knew the sight of a man was the reason behind the young girl’s transformation. ‘Ladies in White’ normally targeted men since men were usually the ones responsible for their tragic deaths. Before Sari could manage one of his mysterious disappearances the enraged teenager moved with impossible speed, pinning him by the throat against the truck next to me.
“I’m going to make you suffer,” she hissed into his ear as she grasped his hands in one of hers, leaving him defenseless and unable to perform his angelic touch of death.
“It will be slow…and painful…just like it was for me,” she promised.
The force of her slamming Sari backwards again knocked me to the ground. I stared upward in horror, watching Sari’s mouth open and close silently as he gasped for air. The dark veins of his face started to protrude, like purple spider webs under his skin. His bulging eyes pleaded to be saved.
I scrambled to my feet with a burst of intense adrenaline at the sight of Sari so close to death. There was no way I was going to let Sari go out like this. I grabbed the gun from the ankle strap I had used to hide it and aimed straight for the blood stain on the young girl’s side. As the iron bullet penetrated her body she flickered, only disappearing for a split second before resuming her grip on Sari’s throat.
I hoped the shot would have bought us enough time to get Sari out of harm’s way. My brain was racing, trying to come up with another plan to save him. His eyes were perfectly rounded with fear. The little red blood vessels were creeping toward his amber irises, threatening to burst at any moment. Little time was left for me to end this and I was beginning to panic. The thought of losing Sari was more than I could bear. Tears streamed down my face silently.
“Stop!” I screamed long and loud, holding my hands out in front of me.
Instead of making the girl release her grip, streams of lightening exploded from my fingers with a loud thundering and lit her entire body up with bright white lights. Before she could let out a shriek of terror, she was gone. I ran to where Sari should have been, but found nothing. Breathing suddenly became impossible. I tried to fight the urge to have a full on panic attack. In my attempt to save the only person who believed in me, I ended up killing him. These powers had been nothing but a nightmare for me and now I was never going to see Sari again. I wept on the rain soaked pavement.
“What are you doing?”
I spun around to see his familiar, perfect face standing over me, unscathed and smiling. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. I stood up slowly, my legs shaking beneath my weight.
“How…I thought…” I stammered, blinking to make sure he was really there.
“I had to give you a push to be able to do what you did,” Sari reasoned as he grasped my arm to steady my balance.
Suddenly, I felt very stable.
“You mean you faked it? You were never in any real danger!” I heard my voice break from the amount of anger I was projecting.
“Well, no, I wasn’t technically, but I did it for your own good,” he tried to explain in a calm tone.
“How could you do that to me? I thought you were dead!” I yelled louder than I thought I was capable of. “I thought I’d never see you again and now you’re telling me it was all an act?”
To my surprise, his lips curled up into a flattered smile.
“You were worried about never seeing me again?”
“Yea, I was, but you don’t have to worry about that anymore,” I responded as I stomped my way over to the driver side of the truck, swinging the door open with full force. “Do not follow me!”
I slammed the door and sped away. I looked in the review mirror to see Sari standing in the middle of the dark road alone. After what he did to me, I was okay with that being the last time I ever saw him. He was alive and well and he obviously didn’t need me. I glanced at the road and then back into the mirror one more time against my better judgment, but the road behind me was empty.
10
“Light ‘em up and watch them burn. Teach them what they need to learn.”
–Miranda Lambert
“You didn’t really think that was going to work, did you?”
“Shit!” I screamed as I swerved the truck in terror and slammed on the brakes. “Don’t do that!”
“Sorry, but we can’t waste any more time. We have a lot of work to do.”
“Are you kidding me?” I couldn’t help the squeak in my voice.
How could he think I would still want to have anything to do with him after what he just did?
“You needed a push to learn and I gave it to you. I don’t really understand what you’re so upset about. What you did was amazing,” he said, turning his whole body to face me in awe.
“That’s just it, Sari, you don’t get it! People have feelings and you can’t just go around playing with them. I don’t know if you even feel at all…”
Sari scooted his body across the long seat till he was sitting as close as possible to me. He rested his arm around the back of my seat and lowered his face to look up at me through his long dark lashes.
“You don’t think I feel?”
When I wouldn’t meet his gaze he lifted my chin gently with the tip of his finger. His eyes pierced through me intensely.
“You have no idea the feelings I have.”
I was almost afraid to breath, like the sound of my exhale would shatter the moment. His warm breath continually beat against my neck as he stared at me with intent.
“I’m…sorry…I was just upset…with you,” I stammered, trying to break the hold his eyes had on mine.
“Forgiven,” he said, smiling at me in satisfaction. “Now, let’s go. We have a job to do.”
<
br /> I looked up at him, not sure what he was talking about. I hadn’t gotten a call from Cara or Don to help anyone and I wasn’t expecting to for a while since they were still dealing with Tom’s death.
“There’s a significant and dangerous demon over in Chicago,” he said as he moved back over to his side of the car. “You can use it to practice some more.”
I sat in silence, trying to compose myself before I attempted to operate the vehicle. It was ridiculous the power Sari had over me. How could he manage to immobilize me with one glance?
“How do you know there’s a demon there?” I questioned as I lightly pressed the gas pedal again.
“I just do,” he responded in short. “Don’t worry. One day you’ll get good enough to where you’ll just know, too.”
*
Chicago was a six hour drive from Bad Axe; a long, silent, awkward six hour drive. I heaved a big sigh of relief when I saw the skyscrapers ahead of us. As many times as I’d visited Chicago while growing up, the magic of the city was always there. I looked out my window at the tall buildings next to us as the truck crawled down the jam-packed Lake Shore Drive. Maybe we would have time to do something fun while we were here I thought as I turned to drive straight into the heart of downtown. I hadn’t been to the Museum of Science and Industry in ages.
“Pull into that parking garage over there,” Sari said as he pointed his finger at the windshield.
I opened my mouth, but shut it again. There was no point in questioning him on his every move anymore. He obviously knew where we needed to go. Once we were out of the dark garage, we walked down Michigan Avenue, the sun shining brightly overhead.
The sidewalk was busy with people, all hurrying to return to work from their lunch breaks. Sari walked closely alongside me, occasionally stopping to look into the store windows. Momentarily, I didn’t feel as if we were hunting. It just felt like a wonderfully normal day. Sari grabbed my hand and pulled me around as we walked down a set of stairs to go below the bustling street. At the bottom of the stairwell, we turned and stopped in front of a dark, pub-style bar. My heart skipped a beat as I read the sign on the door.
“Here?” I asked, smiling with excitement.
Sari nodded his head as he reached for the heavy wooden door and walked into the popular dive bar known as ‘The Billy Goat Tavern’.
“This place has the best burgers I have ever eaten!” I exclaimed. “Whenever Cara and I would take the train up here during high school, we would always eat here.”
“As much as I like making you happy, I didn’t bring you here because I knew you would love it,” Sari said, leaning in close as he sat down at a table.
He nodded his head in the direction of a small woman eating behind us. I tried to glace over at her casually with utter failure. She looked up at me just long enough for our eyes to meet before she looked back down in discomfort. She had to have been about the same height as me, if not a few inches shorter. The sleek black heels she had on added to her stature a bit. Her shiny blonde hair was pulled tightly back into a complicated bun and the suit she was wearing was meticulously pressed without a single wrinkle on it. She looked like someone who worked in a very important law firm or office of some kind, but definitely nothing evil about her.
“She just looks like a normal woman enjoying a burger,” I said puzzled. “Speaking of burgers…” I added, smiling innocently.
“Hint taken.”
Sari stood up to make his way over to the counter.
“Two doubles, please!” I shouted after him.
If we were going to follow this woman till she was alone, I should at least have a full stomach. We ate our burgers quickly, occasionally glancing over to see if the tiny blonde was about to leave. It was a half hour before she stood up and threw away her trash on her way out the door. Sari and I looked at each other and stood up, doing the same before we left to trail her.
After she left the tavern, she took the stairs back up to Michigan Avenue. We made sure to stay about half a block behind her. We didn’t want her to get suspicious. To my delight, she walked into the giant cathedral inspired building I had always dreamed of one day working in. This woman had it all, everything I had ever dreamed of having. Her apartment was probably some penthouse high above the city, too. Sari and I sat down on a bus bench to wait for her again.
“I know how much you want to go inside, but we have to wait out here for her,” Sari explained.
“What makes you think I want to go inside?” I asked, trying to downplay my disappointment.
Ever since my high school field trip to the Chicago Tribune building, I’ve wanted to go back. It was my dream job. Distracting me from fantasizing about being a successful journalist, Sari put his arm around me to form a shield from the chilling wind.
“I remember a conversation you had a long time ago with Rob about what you both wanted to do with your lives,” Sari said as he rubbed up and down on my arms to warm them. “You said you wanted to be a very important journalist at the Chicago Tribune and report events that were going to change the world. You wanted to do something important to change peoples’ lives.”
I stared at a group of pigeons walking along the sidewalk in front of us. I couldn’t believe he remembered what I’d said when I didn’t even remember ever saying that to Rob.
“I could never go back to wanting that, could I?” I asked, thinking about the people inside the skyscraper behind us.
“You’re still making a difference in the world, Kamlyn,” he responded in a soft, comforting tone.
I sighed. I knew he was right, but I still envied the lives of others. At least most people got recognition for their work. I was more of a shadow than an actual person, swooping in to save lives and then vanishing without a trace.
Night came and the city twinkled as everyone turned on their lights high above us. The air turned bitter cold and I wished I had worn a jacket with a hood to keep the wind from freezing my ears. Without a word Sari stood up, pulling me up with him. We began to follow the short, suited woman again. Thankfully, she lived in an apartment building only a few blocks from where she worked. If I didn’t get into a heated building soon I was sure I would turn into a human popsicle.
As I listened to her high heels click while she walked, I wondered why the demon inside her would want to go to work and go through her routine activities as it did. Most demons I encountered possessed a person so they could wreak havoc and destroy that person’s life. Could Sari have been wrong about her? So far, everything seemed completely normal to me.
Stopping in front of a tall, chic building, the woman unlocked the front door and climbed the stairs up to her apartment. Just as the door was about to click shut and lock us out, Sari grabbed the handle to hold it open. It sure came in handy to move with such great speed I gaped in awe. We walked up the fourteen flights of stairs and stopped in front of the last door at the end of that floor’s hallway. Not even in her apartment yet, I was already impressed. The walls of the hallway were a honey crème color, warmly lit by intricate gold plated fixtures placed evenly along the ceiling. I took a deep breath.
Without a moment to spare, Sari kicked in the woman’s door as I watched in astonishment. I had never seen anyone break into a locked room with a swift kick of their foot before. I made a mental note to try that the next time instead of breaking in by picking the lock. The woman looked up from her plate of reheated Chinese food with little interest as the door separated from its hinges and fell to the floor with a loud crash.
“I thought I was being followed,” she said as she took a big bite of her rice.
Sari’s face grew cold and full of hatred. If he had looked at me in such a way, my legs would’ve barely been able to hold me up from fear. Instead, the woman looked at him as if he’d just said ‘hi, how are you?’ He stepped forward and waved his hand in front of him, sending the woman flying into the wall. Her head hit so hard that a hole was left, forming spidering cracks all around it. In the blink of an ey
e, Sari was across the room with his forearm over her throat to secure her as I watched in silent shock. Besides inhuman strength and impossible speed, what else was he capable of? I had no idea, but I was positive I never wanted to make him mad.
“Find something to tie her to the chair with,” he demanded as the woman fought to escape his grip fruitlessly.
I ran to the bedroom and ripped the high thread count white Egyptian cotton sheets off the bed and began to tear them into strips. I brought the scraps back to where Sari now had the woman pinned to one of her wooden dining chairs. Once I was done securing her, Sari let go and stepped back to stand next to me. He smiled at the helpless woman in front of him as if he’d just found a new toy to play with.
“Sorry to barge in like this, but we needed to use you as a guinea pig for my friend here if that’s okay with you,” he said while he walked behind me and rested his hands on my shoulders.
It was a side of Sari I’d never seen…menacing…vindictive.
“Screw you, God boy!” the tiny blonde shouted as she tried to free herself.
She spat towards Sari, missing him by a quick shift of his head. Sari knelt in front of the woman, who slowly lifted her head to look at him as her eyes shifted from baby blue to hallow black. If looks could kill, that’s exactly what hers would have done just then. She knew there was nothing she could do to win this one. She was trapped and death was certain. But like a captive ferocious animal, the demon did not take its eyes off its predator. Sari stared back as if he’d just backed a tiny kitten into a corner.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he laughed as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
He stood up and walked over to me again as I stared down the evil before me. The young woman’s once delicate and sweet features started to shift into something unnatural. The demon was taking over.