fiX - A ParaBnormal Fairy Tale

by Michael Golvach

  “Let go of me, Brent.” She allowed herself to hang limply in his grip. “Some of you will take this news hard, I’m sure, but you’ll all be fine. You’ll see you don’t need the provision. It gives you nothing you don’t already possess inside. It’s an illusion. It only gives you strength because you believe it does. It’s a miracle none of you have gotten ill from it over the years. Your bodies are all, most likely, filled with pus and ulcers and your stomachs are almost certainly abnormally large. Probably your livers and gallbladders too. And you’re all more susceptible to the diseases your hosts carried around with them before they became provision. Why do you think that little tart you can’t keep your eyes off—that Juno—got so ill when she ate the steak you grilled for her?”

  “Well, your precious Davey’s fine.” He shook her violently. “Junie is an exception. Everyone else is doing well on the provision. None of them will be happy about this.”

  “Yes, David is doing fine. For the same reason I am. He’s almost like me. But Juno is no exception. All of you were miserable when you started. But you deluded yourselves and you fed your sickness until you became tolerant. That still doesn’t make it right. Or even remotely healthy. If it helps, while everyone in town is busy figuring out who else amongst them possesses the fortitude to provide, there’s already a large store of new meat in the freezers next door and, after this day, there will be enough food to last you many months, if you don’t waste it and gorge yourselves. You went without for almost a year, rationing what little you had, before this current provision. And, unless I’m mistaken, you haven’t made anyone else in town aware of the new provision. No one’s calling, asking when they may collect. I think you’ll find that everyone will do just fine without. Perhaps they already are.”

  “They’ll kill you if you try to walk away, Cadence,” he said, beginning to throttle her. “I’ll fuckin’ kill you, you selfish little slut.”

  “If I leave, you get no more provision after today,” she said, not at all affected by Brent’s exertion as he tried to choke her. “If you kill me, you get no more provision at all. In both scenarios, you either begin to provide for yourselves or you stop eating the provision. It makes no difference to me which you choose. I will no longer be here to serve you. No more a dutiful slave to your wants and needs. And how am I a slut? Never once did I lay with you or any other man since I met you.”

  “It’s just an expression, you pretentious cunt.” He tried to make even a slight depression in her neck, but found its supple flesh as hard as steel. “Maybe we don’t even need you any more. Maybe you’ve worn out your welcome. Davey will stay. We’ll keep him protected from whoever’s coming for him and he’ll provide for us.”

  “How?” she asked. “I never taught him.” She apologised effusively to David over their mental channel for lying about his abilities, and there paranormal dalliance, but he wasn’t offended by anything she felt she needed to say. “I never had the time. Why else would he have asked you if you knew how I did it? Has he ever provided anything for you? Except money?” She raised her hands and removed his from her neck gracefully, bending them back at the wrist as he howled in pain. “If you ever touch me like that again. If you ever physically assault me, you will have David to answer to.”

  “Is that who it is?” Brent laughed and tried to pretend his wrists weren’t killing him. “The junkie thief from the city? The hustler? On the run from the drug syndicate? With that whore girlfriend of his? Really? That’s who you’re leaving me for? You think he loves you? You’re just going to be something on the side. All he loves are his drugs, his money and that cheap piece of ass that lets him bang her any way he wants whenever he wants, with no strings.”

  “You lust after that diseased harlot more than he ever has. And are you really unaware of the blatant hypocrisy you’re spouting? You’re no less an addict than he. The provision is no better or worse than ‘his drugs’.”

  “I’m not an addict,” Brent shouted. “I just need the provision to maintain and... Look... Junie? Seriously? I don’t know where you get that idea from, but I’d never touch her. She’s trash. She has no place in this town. This is a decent community. With decent people. You’ll see. He’ll run away with his little sex toy, and you’ll be left all alone. Trust me. I know his type.”

  “You’re wrong about him, Brent.” She slid open the patio door. “He doesn’t love her and she doesn’t love him. They no longer lay together. He’s quit the drugs. He no longer needs them. He’s grown up. Matured. Become something more. Unlike you, who were so loath to accept his gift of dirty money last night you, of course, refused it.” He shook his head and rubbed at his temples as she continued. “After today, his ‘sex toy’ will no longer be in the picture. She will no longer be a part of his life. He swore that to me and I believe him. And when we find peace, if things go as I hope they will, I will be a good wife to him. He won’t have to take me how he wants and when he wants. Because we will make love creatively and often, and it will be beautiful. So much more satisfying than anything he or I have experienced before. And you? You’re free to do as you please with any other woman you please. It’s not my place to judge you, or how you choose to live your life. If you want to take up with Juno—as I’m well aware you do—and she wants to take up with you, I give you both my blessing. None of it is my concern. Not any longer. Just know I did love you, Brent. I waited for a very long time. I still do love you, but not in the same way. It took many years and a fresh perspective to open my eyes to the fact I’d condemned myself to a prison life. But now I am free. As are you. Goodbye.”

  Brent began to follow after her. The phone rang in his bedroom and he stopped, realising he was late for work.

  “This isn’t over.” He grabbed her and spun her around. “You don’t get to walk away.”

  “You can’t hurt me, Brent. You can’t kill me. You must know that. You tried to choke me. My threats before were ridiculous and unnecessary. And I do love you. I mean that. Please just—”

  Brent smacked her hard across the face and a tear of pain ran down her cheek. “How?” she asked. Awestruck. “You hurt me. I can’t believe I wasted so much time waiting for you.”

  Brent slammed her into the sliding glass door and began swinging. Slapping at her face repeatedly. Her arms trying to block him. Becoming too weak and going limp as he began to hit her. Drawing blood and crunching bone with each savage punch, as she cried out. Hitting until the anger left him. And when he was spent, her body slid down the glass and her bottom hit the floor. Her back against the door. Her face bloodied and broken. Bruised and misshapen.

  “Now you look like yourself again,” he said, spitting on her. “You ugly, annoying, uptight little shit stain.”

  She picked herself up, fumbling for her bags. Crying as she bled. Touching at her face in disbelief. “You hurt me,” she said. Still with wonder in her voice. Her words unintelligible as her fractured jaw detached, swinging back and forth. “You never loved me. You never cared for me at all. You’re a vicious and evil man. And I hate you.”

  Brent grabbed her by the hair and punched her in the head again, feeling the bones in his fingers break as he stumbled backward and yowled in pain.

  “Go run and tell your boyfriend.” Brent nursed his crippled hand. “You’re not leaving. Not that easily.”

  He continued calling after her as her frail frame managed to easily carry all three fully loaded suitcases down the street. One beneath her left arm and one in each hand.

  She waved goodbye, effortlessly lifting a heavy suitcase, as she made her way across the street. Stumbling and coughing up blood every three steps. Not looking back.

  David met Cadence at the door and she hobbled into the living room to drop her bags on the floor. She fell to her knees, crying tears of pain. Her jaw hanging open. Broken and loose. Drooling blood.

  “Jesus,” he said. “Your channel went damp once things got heavy, but I thought that was you respecting Brent’s privacy, since he was making a
complete ass of himself. But I guess Junie was right about him... What the fuck happened?”

  Brent happened, she said. He didn’t take the news well. She quaked. Crying even harder. I didn’t think he could do it. Or he would. I made myself weak being with him. Giving so much of myself to him for so many years. Eating the provision. But it was the love I gave him before I left that made him able to hurt me. I didn’t think it would without a pledge of loyalty between us. But love, even worse than your heroin. It makes us weak. Vulnerable to the other, as I said. And now I’m scared, David. If I’m good and decent, and I allow myself to feel any endearment for Brent, or his memory, he can hurt me. How can I ever ensure our safety? I’ll never love him like I love you, but he was a part of my life. And I did love him. I felt it deeply once. He’s going to be a threat now. To my life. To this day. To our future happiness.

  “We’ll both help each other. He’ll never hurt you again, and I’ll never hurt you, ever. I love you, even if things go south and this day ends with us apart.” He took her face in his hands as she cowered and flinched in agony.

  And I’ll never hurt you. I love you too. But now you can see I’m ugly, she said. Brent made sure I am.

  “No.” He consoled her, as his eyelids began blinking more rapidly, becoming invisible. “You’re not ugly. You’ve been beaten. Abused. You’re hurt, but I can fix you.” He ran his fingers along the sides of her face and held it in his hands. Kissing her tenderly. All over her head. Cleaning the blood from her face with his tongue, drinking it down and tasting the flesh beneath. Feeling energy drain from him as she slowly became able to open her mouth properly. More and more, to receive his kiss. Transferring his energy to her. And soon, her face began to heal itself.

  You must stop, she said. We’ll need strength. More than ever today. For the confrontation with the townsfolk.

  He didn’t stop kissing her until she was whole again.

  “There you are,” he said as he finished. Feeling weak. “You’re good as new. And, yes, we’ll need strength. But your strength is more important than mine. You’re the more powerful of the two of us. It’s better I be weakened and you be whole. That will give us the best chance to make it through this.”

  “Then you must be careful today, David. We’ll have to be careful. It will take time to regain your strength. We’ll have to work together, so you’re not vulnerable. We can still do this, but you have to forget Brent. Let him go.”

  David looked across the street, at Brent’s car driving off. He fumed. “No, I can still take care of him.”

  “Leave it,” she begged. “Please, David. For me. For us.”

  “We’ll see. I’ll try. But I’m not sure if I can promise you yet. I certainly can’t promise Melody. I can’t do that. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I understand. And I love you for it. Who I am, I mean. There’s no... It’s hard to explain. But I will.” She looked down, wringing her hands with worry, and then back at the bedroom. “Have you severed your connexion?” she whispered.

  “Not yet. She’s just waking.” He also kept his voice low. “But it shouldn’t be an issue. She ended it with me before we even came to this town, and, if you were paying attention, you heard her offer up my life to the men who are coming for us, in exchange for her safety. I’m interested in hearing the crap that’s going to come out of her mouth when she sees I wasn’t kidding about you.”

  “Well, we shouldn’t take too much joy in her embarrassing display.” She blushed. “I want this to begin correctly. Without hurting anyone else. If that’s possible.”

  “Agreed,” he said at a normal volume. “Whether or not it’s possible may be entirely up to Junie, though. The more blatant the lie, the harder she’ll back it. Trust me. I know her.”

  “Well,” she said. “She means nothing to me. I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt. Out of respect for you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If she meant nothing to you, she’d already be in the freezer.” Cadence tried not to smile as David hugged her quickly, stroking the back of her head, and chuckled.

  Juno came stumbling out of the bedroom, wearing a tee shirt and a dirty pair of women’s boxers. She rubbed at her eyes and yawned. “Fuck am I hungry. But I suppose it can wait. And I...” She rubbed her eyes again. “What the fuck is this?”

  “Good morning, Juno.” Cadence looked down and away. “I’m sorry to be a burden. But Brent and I. We split up. Last night was the final straw for our relationship. We—”

  “Well, feel free to come live here, then.” Juno spit into the sink and drank from the tap. “Davey says you’re going to help me out. How? How are you going to help with my problems? Are you going to turn down my bed sheets? Do you have even the slightest idea how much danger Davey has put me in?”

  Cadence sat herself on the living room bench chair, undoing her bun and shaking her hair free so it fell to her lap. Framing her face perfectly. Appearing, to David’s increasing delight and Juno’s increasing displeasure, even more attractive than she had the previous evening. Growing more beautiful and more sexually alluring every second. Looking, for a moment, like a grown up version of his memory of Melody. “Everything will be fine. As David said, I’m here to help in any way I can. I’m here for David, but if you allow me, I can help you too.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Juno stormed up to Cadence and bent over to look at her face to face.

  “I only mean I’m here to ensure David’s safety, and I’ll help you, if I can, when things get ugly around here later,” Cadence replied.

  “Bitch.” Juno’s eyes turned into slits. “Things got ugly around here the minute you walked in the door.” Cadence looked down as she listened to David ask her, on their mental channel, to, please, just suffer Juno’s meaningless insults for the moment. “There’s no place for you here. I’ve got news for you.”

  “I understand.” Cadence looked at the floor, blushing and trying to hide a smile as David continued to soothe her in the Underneath. Assuring her things would be okay, and kissing her softly on the back of her neck.

  “Hey.” Juno tipped Cadence’s head up. “Here’s the news. When I got home last night, Davey worked out a deal with his boss. He’s going to give him back the stupid tape recording he has. The thing that forced me out to this God forsaken shit-hole of a town. Once he does that, it’s going to be just me. No you, Cadence. You don’t belong here. If you choose to stick around, I can’t guarantee you won’t get hurt.”

  “By whom?” Cadence asked, her eyes wide and innocent. Her face looking so lovely, even Juno had begun to itch.

  “By the men who come to make the deal,” Juno said. “And, once the deal is done, if I decide to stay, there won’t be a place for you here. I’m not like you, Cadence. I don’t appreciate strange women sleeping in the same house, much less the same room, as my man.”

  “Is he your man?” Cadence psychically apologised to David for being impertinent, but he, again, assured her all was well. That anything she did was okay with him. That he trusted her judgement. No matter how hard she fought it, that made her smile on the outside.

  Juno smacked Cadence hard across the mouth. Cadence’s eyes went wide with shock and she brought her left hand to her cheek. Faking physical hurt as best she could as Juno tried to pretend the actual pain in her own hand away. “Well he sure as hell isn’t yours, you prissy little carpet-munching cunt.” Juno flexed her fingers and rubbed the pink out of the skin on her palm. “Mother fucker. Ouch...” She snapped back on point again. “You really think he looks at you and sees anything more than a Q-Tip with a pair of mosquito bites he’s curious about? I mean, you may be doing something with your look now that makes you less unappealing, but you’re still nothing to him. You’re still just a homely little uptight farm town piece of probably-virgin ass. A simple little thing he might enjoy fucking until you start reminding him of a corpse while you lay there, ashamed of your body. Which, let’s face it, you should be. You’
re about as shapely as a seven-year-old boy. You know it. Why else would you wear clothes like that?”

  Cadence looked at her burlap dress and wondered aloud. “This?” Juno slapped her across the face again. And before Juno could cry out in pain as her fingers turned red, Cadence grabbed her by the neck with her right hand. Squeezing hard as Juno fought to free herself. “This is a simple dress. I can move freely in it and it’s comfortable in this weather. It’s not meant to be sexually appealing. I only chose this because I didn’t wish to bring shame to you in your home. It wouldn’t be right for me to draw attention to my body and use it to entice David into having impure thoughts about me. Especially since I’m a guest. That would just be... That would be just... That would be terribly inconsiderate.”

  Juno looked over at David as her eyes bulged and she fought for air. Cadence relaxed her grip, letting Juno fall to the floor.

  Juno coughed and sputtered. “What the fuck, Davey? You’re just going to let this bitch do that to me?” David looked away. She looked back at Cadence. “You’re lucky I don’t kick your scrawny ass.” Juno stood herself back up and moved away. “If you touch me again, I’ll teach you a fuckin’ lesson you’ll never forget.”

  “I’m so...” Cadence said. “I’m so sorry. That was impolite of me.”

  Juno laughed, weakly, as she looked over at David, who was also chuckling, but for much different reasons. “You fuckin’ crack me up, Cadence. I’ll give you that.” Juno stopped to catch her breath, stumbling forward and looking Cadence in the eyes. “Let me ask you something that’s been on my mind ever since that towering pile of backed up semen you call your ‘beloved’ said it to me. What did Brent mean when he said you were afraid of being the gossip of the town? Actually he said ‘again’. That’s what got me curious. What did you do to become the gossip of the town before? I just have to know, because I want you to tell me something bad you did. Something just... Oh. No. Just horrible. Just unmentionable.”