Death (Cursed)

by Tara Brown

  Lydia doesn’t even get onto the ground when the grip, I never even noticed on my shirt, is gone. Hanna's eyes are blank.

  "Fuck." Lydia whispers. I have never actually heard her swear.

  Sam comes running through the door. His face instantly drops, "Hanna." He whispers.

  Lydia jumps up and grabs him, "She's going to come back any second. We need someone with incredible strength. Get Lorri."

  Sam is panting and convulsing.

  Giselle is crying and dragging Shane's semi conscious body, to the edge of the guards. "Where should I put him?" He was her friend. "Why did I do this to him Aimes? It's Shane. Aimee?" her voice is panicked.

  Lorri flashes to us just as I press send on my text. She looks at Hanna and sighs. "Worst day in a thousand years. I swear to god." She turns to see Giselle, holding Shane, sobbing. Lorri looks at me, like I am to blame. "Excellent job Aimee. This really is the shit icing on the fuck up cake."

  I point back at Shane, "He's a traitor. Him and Mar…"

  A man's scream cut's me off, "LORRI" I don’t get to finish saying his name and he's there. Marcus is right outside the guards. Giselle drops Shane and runs across the guards. I wink to her and put myself between them and her.

  Shane lies still on the ground, but Marcus is fuming mad and pacing the line of the guards.

  "You give her back. We made a deal." He speaks through his teeth.

  I whisper, "Traitors. They're traitors."

  Lorri ignores me and stomps across the grass in her big boots, "Fuck you and your deal." She looks at me expectantly.

  I jump and blurt out as much as I can, "He and Shane have been helping Jonathan with the blood bags and blood drugging. He's the one who double-crossed us on the brothel with Ari. Shane knew we were going there. I told him in the alley when we thought they would take O. He was pretending to try to win me back again. Marcus is the one who wiped Oliver and made him evil."

  Lorri's face trembles with anger, "You killed Dorian with your actions. Dorian." Her words are short and sharp. He winces but still forces a smile across his lips in the end.

  "Lorri, it was a bit of fun. You know better than anyone how I feel about the sheep. You know how Dorian felt."

  "I DON’T GIVE A GOOD GOD DAMNED ABOUT THAT! YOU KILLED DORIAN WITH YOUR ACTIONS!" Her spit flies from her mouth. She is frothing.

  Something ripples under her skin. Something scary. I look back at Lydia. She nods her head towards the house. I take a step back from Lorri and Marcus.

  Marcus points, "Give her to me."

  "NO."

  "Give her over or I will go home and get Henry and he will BLOW YOUR MAGIC HOUSE DOWN!"

  I take a step back.

  Marcus's eyes land on me, "You little bitch. I saved Shane for you. This is how you repay me? You steal the one thing that soothes my heart and heals me and makes me almost human again?"

  I lower my gaze.

  Lorri shakes her head, "She didn’t make you double cross us and work me and Jonathan against each other. You always were just out for yourself. All along you've been the same selfish little prick you were when Ethan went bat shit crazy."

  A loud rumbling fills the moment of silence between the bickering.

  Marcus's eye gleam as a wicked smile crosses his lips.

  Lorri's head drops as a sigh leaves her lips. I close my eyes. The rumble turns into a groan and then a moan and then a gasp. I turn my head and look back. Hanna looks like she is having a seizure on the ground. She is trembling and twitching and vibrating.

  I bite my lip and glance at Lydia again. Terror crosses her face.

  "Ophelia." I say quietly.

  Sam vanishes from where he was standing.

  "She'll cross the guards, there is nothing you can do about it Lorri. She'll cross and destroy shit and none of us is strong enough to stop her when she does." His voice is filled with humor and joy. He knows Hanna will need him now.

  A grin crosses my lips, "I know something you don’t." I smirk and wink home. Well, to my hometown.

  I wink into his bedroom by mistake.

  "Aimee, what the fu..? How did you do that?"

  Alise screams.

  I grab him off my sister with one hand and grab his bathrobe off the floor with the other. I wink us both to where I am praying to god Aleks is. The place he talks about.

  He is. The muted sunlight and the fresh mountain air are majestic. I take a deep breath and smile. I look over at Blake, who is heaving spaghetti all over the rocks. I grimace and walk away. Quickly.

  "Hey." I say it softly. I want to shout it and tell him to hurry the frig up, but I can't. He's broken and it's my fault. His red-rimmed eyes look brutal.

  "Hey."

  I look down and nudge a small stone with my boot, "I'm sorry. You know that right? I never meant for him to die and for me to live. I didn’t even know what was going on. I didn't know he loved me. I don’t think I've ever known it."

  He shakes his head, "He was such an asshole to you. He was so good at it. You never would have guessed it was all an act. A despicable act. A way to spare himself the pain of you not choosing him and sparing you the choice."

  "I feel like Harry Potter I swear. The whole Severus thing blew my mind equally."

  He looks confused.

  Blake coughs and shouts, "Aimes, what the hell is going on? Where are we? Why did we come to a mountaintop to talk about Harry Potter? How the hell did we get here? Are we really here?"

  Aleks looks past me and waves, "Hey Blake."

  Blake's face gets red like when he rants, "Hey strange guy, I don’t know sitting on the mountain." He looks at me and holds his hands out, "What is going on?"

  I sigh, "I don’t have time for this. I'll get the girls to give you back your memories when we get back. Just stop being a tard. Think Dr. Who."

  His lips lift, "For real? Awesome." He tightens his burgundy robe and doesn’t even think about the fact he's barefoot and it's freezing.

  Aleks laughs and stands up, "I need you." His words are soft.

  I don’t have an answer but I know what my heart is telling me. The place around us is familiar. When I look past him at the graves, I feel like throwing up. I feel weakened and sick. I feel like jumping into his huge arms and letting him crush me into him.

  So I do it.

  I step into his huge embrace and let him wrap it all around me. His warmth and smells crash against me. His lips meet mine and it's heaven. His kiss is hungry and crazed. My body responds. I jump up and wrap myself around him. I could die smelling him. He pulls back and looks at me. My lips almost keep kissing the air. "Why did you come?" He asks.

  "Uhm. I don’t….oh yeah. Oh my god, we have to go. Hanna is back." I jump out of his arms and drag him to Blake and wink us all to Marcus's house. We are standing in the hallway.

  "Why are we here?" He asks.

  I put a finger to my lips, "Henry, remember. You stay out here and keep watch for him." I wink myself and Blake inside. "Blake, if we steal these notes can you make a cure from them. It's for a friend who is a rage monster Hanna? Uhm like the Hulk."

  Blake scowls, "What? Am I in a coma? Are we dead?"

  I drag him to the notes I noticed the last time I was here. I flip open the book and show him the formula.

  He reads fast. He shakes his head, "What is this? This is craziness. Aimes, this is to make the monster worse. See here. Notes on adding rage."

  I growl. I wink us to the hall and grab Aleks and wink us to Dr. Jekyll's office.

  He's at his desk. He smiles at me and then looks at Blake and frowns, "Odd, but welcome nonetheless. How may I help Miss James?"

  I take a deep breath and try to say it all so he and Blake get some details. "We know about your daughter's raging monster condition, obviously. Anyway, you had notes. Last time you had notes. It was on the timeline they made. You gave me notes and Marcus made a cure from them. Well this time Marcus just has the notes. He knows how to make the cure. It's the cure he has made for you."


  "Aimee I was there for it all." He says impatiently.

  I point to Blake, "He wasn't. Anyway, you know how it's short term? Well, I was wondering if you could make it long term and make some fast? Like now?"

  His eyes brighten, "Do you have any of the notes Marcus worked on? Without them I can't get past where I am. He won't give them to me."

  I slap down Marcus's papers and push the still robed and completely confused Blake at the doctor, "Totally ahead of you doc. Make Blake here understand what's going on. I don’t have time to help you or explain further. Hanna died today. It's just like last time. She's raging around Lydia's house as we speak and Marcus is trying to take her."

  The doctor's face drops.

  "Sensitivity never has been a big thing for you." Aleks steps forward. "We can get her back. Aimee can wink her. And I have something that will solve the Marcus issue."

  I look back at him, "You're going to Henry?"

  He nods. I feel sick.

  The doctor grabs something from inside of his desk and passes it to me, "It's a single round. You can't miss. It'll drop her like a dead deer. You'll need to bring her home after that. Roland and I can keep her safe, until the potion is ready."

  I look at Blake and smirk, "This is the thing you've always dreamt about. It's real. All of it. The science fiction isn’t fiction in my world. It's just science and fantasy meeting. You want in?"

  He grins from ear to ear, "Hell yes. This is probably a dream, but I'm so excited I don’t care." He chuckles, "So this is the science grant you're working on?"

  I grin, "Something like that. This is my boyfriend Aleks."

  He puts a hand out, "It's nice to meet you." Aleks shakes his hand and looks weird. I can't imagine how messed up it is, remembering everything from so many different times. Especially with Blake and I remembering nothing.

  I grin at the doc, "So I can leave him here?"

  The doctor shrugs, "I don’t really see how much use another person will be, but I might be able to use him."

  I laugh out loud. "He goes to MIT. He was at home visiting my sister. He's a genius."

  Blake's face turns red like he's going to argue but he doesn’t. He laughs and nods.

  The doctor beams at him, "A lad after my own heart. Fabulous. Yes, go and save my girl and bring her home. We have this. How ever did you get the notes?"

  "I've been in the lab before. I knew how to wink in there. He never thought about letting me in there. I know he doesn’t let anyone else in."

  Aleks shakes his head, "No one. I think he assumes with your memory loss you won't think about the lab, beyond it being a geek thing."

  I grin, "It worked." I grab the gun and Aleks's hand. Before I can wink us, he flashes. I don’t know the place.

  He lifts my chin, "If things work out the way they did last time, I just want you to know it's real. It always was. For me."

  I smile, "It's real for me. Henry said the curse is broken. You don’t smell delicious and tempting to other women. But you smell that way for me."

  His face lightens up, "Really? He truly said that?"

  I nod, "He did." His eyes sparkle and he presses his lips into mine. He holds me to him.

  He pulls back and laughs, "Finally. You just see me. Of course this has to be the moment Henry will kill me."

  I kiss him once more and then let go of him. "I love you Aleks. I know I do. So, don't you even think about letting Henry kill you." I wink before he can say anything else.

  I hear the screams before I see the mess and chaos. Hanna.

  I wink and run to where she is ripping the boathouse to pieces. Ophelia is shooting things at her and shaking her head. They cut Hanna, but the beast doesn’t stop. She is disgusting looking. I hold up the gun and shoot. She turns and screams a high pitch shriek at me. She starts to run towards me, but she only gets half way before she drops with a ground-rumbling landing. Her body shrinks back to her normal form. Her clothes are tattered and destroyed.

  Lorri looks at me "Don’t go off like that again."

  I nod. Everyone is out of breath and bleeding from somewhere. Marcus is pacing the line like a cat in a cage.

  I wave back at him, "Screw you Marcus." I shout.

  "Don't taunt him." Lydia puts her bleeding hands on her old round hips. "He can still summon Henry."

  My eyes must have given something away, because her face drops when she sees my look. "What have you done child?" She asks in a hushed whisper.

  I shake my head, "Not me." I look uneasily at Lorri. Her ears perk up. She turns and gives me a glare worthy of a death sentence.

  "Where is he?" She asks though her teeth.

  "It's done Lorri." She scares me more than most things on the planet, so my voice cracks and lacks confidence.

  She is gone. She doesn't wait to see if it works or if anything else happens. She just leaves. I know that’s for my benefit. She wanted me dead. I saw it. I've seen the look before.

  I glance back at Hanna and see Sam scooping her up. He gives me a look. I know he blames me. I frown, "Take her home. To her dad. He and Blake are working on some shit. I'm going to go and find Ari with Luke and Ben. And I guess O, that isn’t really O."

  "Okay." He's curt.

  "This is a frigging shit storm of doom. Anyone seen Giselle?" I turn around. I don’t get an answer. I get a scream. I think it's Hanna but she's gone with Sam. I spin to see Henry holding Marcus in the air.

  I wink closer.

  Lydia runs over waving her arms, "Henry wait. Don't do it. It'll taint you. I suspect this was Jonathan's plan all along."

  Henry's hand twitches. He thinks about what she's saying. He puts Marcus down, but holds him with his power. He looks at her and back at Marcus, who is clutching his chest. I don't see Aleks. I know he told Henry, but where did he go?

  "Make him a new one, Henry." Her voice is desperate. "Don't taint your soul. You'll be playing right into Jonathan's hands. I suspect he always wanted you to kill Marcus from the beginning. That’s why he told him about the heart. That’s why he told him if he took it he could control you."

  Marcus is coughing and dropped to one knee, but still squeaks out a word. "Truth."

  Henry's eyes flare bright red.

  Lydia is gasping for air when she makes it to the street from the backyard. "Make him a new one. You can do it. You have to. I know you must take back the heart but don’t murder him. Make him suffer for all eternity."

  Henry looks sad. He nods once.

  Lydia looks at me, "You take care of them child. Don’t let them kill each other. Take care of each other and love each other. I'll be watching."

  "What?"

  She pulls open her blouse, flashing her old lady bra at Henry. I wince, "What are you doing old woman. Put that back on, do those buttons up. Jesus." I grab at her. She swats at me. It's then I see the tears streaming down her cheeks and Henry's. He's about to do something he doesn’t want to.

  My mouth drops, but even as I try to wink and move forward, I'm throw into one of the huge old oak trees. "NOOOOOOOOO!" I scream. Lydia shakes her head and looks at me, "He has to stay pure. He has to. If the evil gets into him Jonathan can corrupt his magic. He's been counting on this moment from the beginning."

  I'm sobbing and struggling but my back doesn't budge from the old oak.

  "Ophelia, Ophelia help me. " I scream.

  O walks over. Her body is shifty and weird. Her eyes are magical all the time now. She tilts a head and asks with the voices of the sisters, "Why do you need help? What is happening?"

  I point, "Stop them." I'm panicked and breathless. "Stop him."

  She shakes her head, "The witch is right. The Fae king cannot kill or his soul will be tainted." She turns and walks away.

  "He killed Aleks's dad. Lydia his soul is already dark."

  Lydia shakes her head, "He removed the curse that gave Jon his long life. He never murdered him."

  I slump, "Aleks, ALEKSSSSS!" I can't flash. I can't move. Henry pulls bac
k. Lydia looks at me and smiles, "Look away my love."

  I can't see her clearly. My eyes are so full of tears. "SAM. BEN. LUKE. ANNABELLE. SOMEONE!" Annabelle comes through the door as Henry's hand breaks flesh, but it's too late. Lydia drops to the ground in a heap. Her heart glows like a red ball of flames in Henry's hand. Henry lifts it to the sky and shouts something I don’t understand. Annabelle screams. Her ghostly body is pinned by the guards. She cannot get out of them. She screams and pounds. I shake and sob, but can't move either.