This time, he was different. He was furious, and he was going to take what he wanted from me with a vengeance.
He dragged his tongue along the side of my face and whispered in my ear, “One sound, Roz, just one little sound from you, and I’m going into that boy’s room across the hall and slitting his throat. Are we clear?”
Vincent.
Terrified, I nodded.
I was finally able to pull air into my withering lungs, which also meant I could talk.
“How are you here?” I whispered.
He ran his hand along the side of body as his eyes followed.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” he said.
“Are you part of Parker’s plan?” I whispered again.
He glanced at me. “Who?” He asked.
I breathed in deeply. Derek didn’t know who Parker was. Either he was lying, or he was here by some other form of magic.
I opened my mouth to ask another question, but he put his hand back over it, cutting me off.
“No more talking,” he said angrily. “You killed me, and now you’re going to pay.”
His hands gripped my tank top, tearing it quickly down the middle as his eyes roamed every inch of me.
I bit down on my lip, hard, trying to keep in the scream that threatened to spill out of me. I couldn’t let him hurt Vincent. He was my little brother. I had to protect him.
Suddenly, my bedroom was lit up with a brilliant blue light coming from behind me. It encapsulated Derek’s entire being as he looked toward it in horror and awe.
“No! It can’t be!” He exclaimed. “I killed you! I killed you years ago-”
And just like that, he vanished into thin air, leaving me holding together the torn pieces of my tank top as I hastily turned around.
A young woman stood in the center of my bedroom. She was dressed in a pale blue, flowing gown that reached the floor and sparkled along the bottom. Her hair was long and dark, with the sides of it pulled back away from her face with a strand of silver stars. Her eyes were the clearest, loveliest blue I’d ever seen, and her whole body was swathed in a soft blue light.
She looked terribly familiar, but I couldn’t place her, not exactly. She smiled gently at me, her face kind and caring. The longer I stared at her, the more I realized she looked almost like me, as if she were the grown-up version of me.
And then I knew who she was.
My eyes filled with tears as I covered my mouth with my spare hand, trying to hold back the sounds of my crying.
“Do not be filled with sadness, Sister,” she said to me. Her voice was angelic, the most beautiful I’d ever heard. “I’m always here with you… just like Jimmy.”
That made me cry even harder.
“But you’re all dead,” I cried. “You’re dead, he’s dead, our mother’s dead. Parker wants me dead.”
“Parker is a different matter altogether,” Angelina said cautiously. “You must save your strength, and be wise, for the battle with him will be soon.”
I wiped my tears, nodding. “So now I can see ghosts all the time?” I asked. “First Jimmy, then Derek, now you?”
She shook her head no, and smiled softly.
“Derek was brought back as a test. Parker’s coven demanded it, they were testing his abilities, that’s all. He wasn’t brought back to life, nor was he a ghost. He was simply a test. But, I have fully dispatched him now, so he’ll not bother you ever again. Not in your dreams, or otherwise.”
I remembered what Derek had said right before he’d disappeared.
“It was Derek that killed you?” I asked, brokenly.
She nodded. “He hit me, and I fell down the stairs. It wasn’t an accident, like you’d been told. Not truly.”
I stared at her. “I’m sorry Angelina,” I said quietly.
“It wasn’t your fault,” she said firmly.
“Why am I seeing your ghost now?” I asked.
She smiled. “I’m not a ghost. I’m something else. Sort of an angel, but not really that, either.”
“You’re something more,” I said.
She nodded. “I am.”
“I love you,” I said.
“I love you,” she replied.
And then, she was gone, vanishing like Derek, leaving behind a small sprinkling of glittering blue dust on my carpet floor.
***
I never went back to sleep that night. How could I?
My dead mom’s dead boyfriend came back from the dead to rape me, and my dead sister came back from the dead to save me.
That wasn’t exactly something that happened everyday, even in my crazy, supernatural-filled life.
I stayed in the living room for the rest of the night, fresh tank top on, and covered up with a throw. Since the living room was located in the center of the house, it was the logical spot for me to go. Anyone would hear me if I had to scream. However, I offered up a simple prayer of thanks to God for sending Angelina to save me this night, and asked that there be no further attacks on my person for the time being.
There was only so much a girl could take, after all.
Angelina.
I never expected to see my long-deceased sister, especially not as a young woman. She was a little girl when she’d died, and seeing her in grown-up form threw me for a loop. Seeing her at all threw me for a loop.
Although, I shouldn’t have been that surprised. A part of me had to know, somewhere deep down, that is was totally possible for me to be reunited with her at some point. Look at everything I’d learned this year. Ghosts were real, so were witches. So was evil. So was good.
Yes, everything I never believed in before, I believed in now.
Especially the good.
CHAPTER 35
Parker was his usual smug self at school that day.
Instead of ignoring me, as was his M.O. lately, he made cryptic (and not-so-cryptic) remarks all day, like:
“How’d you sleep last night, Roz? You look tired,” or, “Ever think about having a family reunion someday?” or “How old do you think we are in Heaven?”
Each of his questions was answered with my scowl.
Each one of my scowls was met with his wicked grin.
I decided not to let him ruffle my feathers, but I knew, from his caustic remarks, that he knew about what'd happened the night before. I still wasn't sure if he'd been the one who had temporarily brought Derek back, or if what had showed up in my room was even the real Derek. But I knew Parker well enough to know he wanted to get a rise out of me.
It wasn't going to happen.
I decided to use all my pent up frustration and fear to begin working on my Art Fling project. Being at the cemetery in Fairmount the weekend before had given me the inspiration I needed. Even though the cemetery itself had not been an eerie place to visit, it had still been something to stir up the darkness residing within me, and this art piece was going to be exactly that.
Dark.
I talked to Mr. Harken about what I had in mind, and he was excited and intrigued. It would require a larger canvas than what the school was allowed to provide for free, however, and asked about where I could purchase a letter canvas.
“Honestly, Roz, there isn't much in Marion for art supplies. We have to order online what we provide in the class.”
Well, crap. It was a slight ding in my plan, but I would not be discouraged. I instantly thought of going to Bonnie for a solution, and knew she'd likely have what I needed.
She did!
After school, I explained to her and Mitch that I'd been invited to show my art in the upcoming school exhibit, and Bonnie was beside herself with excitement.
“What pieces will you show? What are they like? Are you going to create something new? Do you need help?”
She fired off the questions one after the other. I looked at Mitch who merely smiled and held his hand up, making the universal gesture of “talking too much.”
I giggled.
“I see you Mitchell!” Bonnie said
, pausing her interrogation to chide him. “I can't help it if I'm too excited for Roz!”
I laughed and said, “Okay, so here's the deal. I have a few pieces at school that I'll be showing,” I left out the part how Mr. Harken said I'd be showing all of them, and continued, “But I want to create one piece that will be personal.”
Bonnie nodded vigorously. “Awesome. Well then, what do you need for it?”
“I need a bigger canvas than what they can supply at school,” I said sheepishly. I hated the idea of them spending money on me for what I had in mind, but I had a strong feeling Bonnie probably already had a canvas I could use.
“To the garage!” She announced, and turned to head out.
I followed closely behind, matching her purposeful stride as we went outside and raised the garage door.
“Now then, let me think,” she said, looking around. “Mitch had me move my canvases in here somewhere until he could build our studio.”
I looked sharply at her.
“You actually asked him to build a studio?”
She nodded.
“Of course,” she said very matter-of-factly, “Mitch likes keeping his family happy. And a studio would make us very happy, don't you think?”
I nodded and grinned. “Absolutely!” I cried with gusto.
“Then it's settled. We're getting a studio sometime this summer. Now, let's find those canvases.”
Bonnie had loads of art paraphernalia throughout the entire garage, but it wasn't a canvas which caught my eye. It was something else.
Leaning up against one of the walls was a long slab of stone. It was grey and covered in dust, and quite misshapen in form. It was almost like a rectangle except that it was slanted on one end instead of squared.
I knew right away this was what I wanted. Needed.
“Bonnie?” I asked as she rummaged through her art supplies.
“Hmm?”
“What is that, and can I have it?”
She stood and looked at me, noting my outstretched finger which pointed toward the stone.
“You want that?” She asked, and stepped around a pile of paint cans to grab it. She picked it up with a little effort, and turned around. It looked to be about sixteen inches wide and maybe four feet tall. It was a slender, long slab of old, cracked, dirty stone. And I loved it.
“This is something I had taken from a junk pile a few years back. I was going to use it for some kind of table or craft project, but I never did.” She raised her eyebrows at me. “You want to use this, instead of a canvas?”
I stared at the slab, imagining my painting on its surface.
“Yes, please?” I whispered reverently.
She grinned.
“I can tell by the look on your face that this is the one. Alright then, come on. Since the weather is nice now, we'll set you up on the back deck.”
I smiled and knew my entire face was glowing. I was thrilled with the prospect of taking some ugly, old, discarded thing and turning it into a work of art. Especially for what I had in mind for it.
***
“I can't believe Angelina saved you,” Odie whispered as tears ran down her face. “Such a miracle… But, Roz, what would you have done if she hadn't shown up?”
Me and Odie were sitting in the cafeteria at lunch time. I told her a watered-down version of the events from the night before, and her reaction nearly broke me.
“I don't know,” I said with quivering chin, “I wasn't going to let him hurt my family, that much I knew.”
She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “I'm so glad you're alright.”
I shrugged. “I'm not really sure I am… but I will be.”
***
In an attempt to escape the pain of not seeing Jimmy, and to escape the inner torment I'd received from my “visit” with Derek and Angelina, I threw myself even more into my art project. I lived and breathed it. I thought of nothing else except what to add next to the stone slab.
The only thing that I allowed to take me away from the back deck, where the slab sat upon an old table surrounded by various paints, paint thinners, brushes, and rags, was Vincent. He was a constant for me, one that I hoped would continue to grow as we both got older.
Another thing that made me come inside the house sooner than I wanted to, was Drew. He came by for dinner one night, looking tired but wearing his fantastic smile. We sat together at the dining room table, eating Mitch’s killer street tacos, reminiscing and conversing like… well, like a family.
“I will never forget when I took you for your driver’s test!” Mitch exclaimed, laughing as Drew chuckled and looked uncomfortable.
“Yeah, umm, can we maybe not talk about that in front of the kids, please?” Drew said.
“Oh come on now, we're all family here,” Bonnie said, and looked at me, grinning. “Drew, tell Roz all about it.”
He laughed and said a long, drawn out, “Nooooo!”
“Then I will!” Mitch called out. Drew threw his wadded up napkin at the older man who caught it and laughed.
“Drew was sixteen, and like every sixteen year-old, he wanted his driver’s license. So, I took him down to the DMV, and they had him take the written test which went well. He passed. But, he was so nervous when it was time to go for the driving portion of the test that he threw up all over his driving instructor!”
I gasped and looked at Drew.
“No!” I breathed.
He nodded, laughing.
“Yes,” he said. “She was such a great sport though. She left me standing beside the car to go back inside and clean herself up, and when she came back out she gave me some indigestion tablets and a glass of water.”
Mitch laughed until I thought his belly would burst. “Ah, the poor kid! I felt so bad for him Roz, but you know what? Despite the vomit, he got a perfect score on his test!”
“That's because I had the best teacher,” Drew said, smiling with appreciation at Mitch.
“Ah, that's my boy!” Mitch said happily.
After dinner, Vincent was sent to get ready for bed, while the rest of us sat quietly in the living room. Bonnie asked Drew about his mother, concerned etched on her face.
“It's not going to be much longer,” he said quietly. “She had bronchitis last month, but now it's developed into pneumonia. With her body already so weak, the doctors don’t think she’ll be able to fight it off.”
“What?” Bonnie asked worriedly. “She seemed in such good health when I saw her last!”
Drew nodded. “She was, for a long time. But each month it seems like she deteriorates a little more. The damage to her brain affected everything from head to toe, and when I went to visit last week, the doctors told me I needed to prepare myself.” He paused and took a deep breath. “I know she thinks I'm her big brother,” he said quietly, “But once in awhile, it's like she's my mom again. She'll get this look in her eye, and I know she's remembering our life together.” He wiped a single tear from his eye as Bonnie moved to sit beside him and put her arm around his broad shoulders. “It's going to be hard to say goodbye to her.”
“Oh, Drew,” Bonnie sighed, and hugged him tightly. “You know we're here for you. Whatever you need, just name it.”
He nodded. “You know what I need?” He asked quietly.
“No honey, tell me,” Bonnie replied.
“To not go back to my empty apartment tonight.” He looked at her, eyebrows raised.
She grinned. “The couch is all yours!” She stood up and headed for the kitchen. “I'm making slumber party milkshakes!” She cried out.
Vincent came running in at the word, “milkshakes.”
“I want chocolate!” He shouted.
Mitch stood and went to find clean sheets and pillows while Drew and I sat together in the living room.
“I'm sorry about your mom,” I said.
He nodded, “I'm appreciate that, Roz.”
“If you need a friend, I'm here,” I offered.
He smirked at
me. “Friends? Heck, we're family, kiddo.”
Then together, arm-in-arm, we followed everyone else into the kitchen to help Bonnie make the shakes.
CHAPTER 36
Drew slept on the couch, even though he could have easily taken Amelia’s room for the night. Bonnie had offered it to him while whipping up the milkshakes, but he shook his head.
“I'm not sleeping in there,” he said quietly. “It wouldn't feel right.”
Bonnie hadn't replied, she'd simply squeezed his arm.
Although I had school the next morning, I ended up hanging out and talking with Drew in the living room much later than I should have. It was so easy to be in his presence. He'd had his own share of pain in life, yet he didn't allow it to consume him or rule him. He was naturally friendly and un-bittered by the hand he’d been dealt. He was making wise decisions about his future, and had great plans to open his own cafe someday.
“It's going to be the go-to place for great coffee and all our local arts!” He said proudly.
I asked what he had in mind, and he shared his vision with me.
“It's going to be an art gallery, bookstore, and coffeehouse, all in one. I'll have local bands come play at different times during the week, poetry readings from local writers, local art hanging on the walls that customers can purchase, and the best coffee in the entire state!”
“Wow, that sounds awesome,” I said, “So you're going to support local artists with it, and have live music? Geez, it sounds amazing. Odie and I will be the first in line!”
“Not just coffee,” he said proudly, “I'm going to have a separate space in the building that will be a formal tea room. Customers will be served exotic teas and scones, pastries, little savory appetizers too. But it'll be a bit different than the rest of the place. Fancier. Formal. A little spot my mom would have loved to visit.”
I smiled warmly at him. “I’m sure she’d approve.”
Rest in Peace Roz: The R.I.P. Series Book 1 Page 22