by Karina Halle
He shrugged. “It’s a hell of a feeling.”
I couldn’t help but smile. He grinned right back and I felt a rush down my spine, that butterfly feeling that I still got when he smiled at me. I couldn’t love this guy more.
Then his smile fell a bit and something dark came across his face. “Perry,” he said.
I stiffened, wondering what was next. “Yeah?”
“You know I didn’t keep all that Maximus stuff from you because I was ashamed or I didn’t want you to be in the loop. I always want you in the loop, kiddo. You are my loop.”
“I know, I get it.”
“It was more that I couldn’t think of the right time,” he continued. “And I couldn’t imagine it would ever be relevant. Sometimes…the heavier and more crazy the subject, the harder it is to bring up. You know how that is.”
I frowned at him. What was he getting out now? “I do…”
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “So, it’s not a matter of keeping stuff from you. It’s a matter of deciding how and when to talk about it. In this exact case, I just didn’t know when it would be a good time.”
“And I’m sure it didn’t help that it wasn’t your secret to tell,” I said, trying to alleviate some of the burden he suddenly seemed to bring on himself. “It didn’t really involve me. It was about you guys.”
“Yeah,” he said but his voice wavered. I stared at him for a moment, wondering what else was on his mind, until I noticed a trickle a blood coming out from his nose.
I jerked back. “Oh god, Dex, your nose.”
He sat up straighter and ran his fingers underneath his nose. He stared down at them, shiny and red with blood. “Huh,” he said, staring at it in awe. “That’s weird.”
I scrunched up my face. “Totally weird. You don’t normally get them, do you?”
He shook his head and the blood poured out harder, spraying onto the sheets. He let out a gruff cry and I shot out of bed, grabbing the nearest box of tissue paper and bringing it over to him.
I scrunched up a wad and shoved it under his nose. “Easy now,” he said, his voice nasally. “I’m all you for playing nurse and all, but you know you have to wear the uniform.”
“I’m naked, what more do you want?”
He grinned and I put my hand behind his head, holding him in place as I tried to stop the bleeding. He eyed me. “You know, if you had told me that Michael was an alien, this would make a lot more sense. Alien abduction victims are always complaining about nosebleeds and lost time.”
“Don’t you dare even mention aliens,” I warned him.
He smiled and I only pressed the tissue harder. “Aliens? You have a problem with them, Scully?”
“Yes, Fox Mulder,” I told him earnestly. “I do. They freak the hell out of me. I can’t even.”
“So all this time, you brush off ghosts and demons and sasquatch but it’s aliens that really get under your skin, huh?” When I didn’t say anything, he clicked his tongue. “Well, you learn something new every day.”
“And I’m learning that you have an awful lot of blood up your nose,” I told him, tossing the blood-soaked wad aside and applying fresh new ones. “Good thing you don’t seem to be squeamish, or I’d say when I get pregnant, you should definitely avoid the delivery room.”
The air around us seemed to still. Dex sucked in his breath through his teeth and his eyes immediately left mine, focusing on a bloody spot on the sheets. I immediately felt a bit stupid for mentioning the pregnancy thing. I wasn’t sure why. I mean, we were getting married. It was pretty much a given that at some point in our marriage, I would be pregnant, or would at least be trying to be. Maybe not in the immediate future – I was still young and my biological clock wasn’t really kicking me yet – but it wasn’t unreasonable to start planning on it.
“Sorry,” I said awkwardly. “Aliens and babies are touchy subjects for us. They even look the same.”
At that, there was a knock at our door. Normally I would have been annoyed considering I was naked and Dex’s blood was in my hands, but I was eager to leave that conversation behind.
“Just a minute,” I said loudly and placed Dex’s hand over the tissues, motioning for him to keep applying pressure. I quickly grabbed a cushy robe from the closet and wrapped it around me before answering the door.
Ada was standing on the other side. She looked a bit wary but the minute she saw my blood-stained hands, her eyes widened maniacally. “Oh my god,” she said. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I told her and looked over my shoulder to make sure Dex was decent before inviting her inside. He tugged the sheets higher over him and then gave Ada a wave. “He just has a nosebleed.”
“Ew,” she said, looking totally disgusted. “There was this kid in grade school who kept getting nosebleeds all the time. Aynsley I think her name was. Totally gross. They said she couldn’t keep her finger out of there.”
“I don’t think this has anything to do with Dex’s finger,” I told her.
“It’s true!” Dex shouted. “My finger prefers other holes.”
Now Ada really looked like she wanted to vomit. “Ugh, okay I’m going to go.”
I reached out and grabbed her arm before she could turn away. “Seriously, what’s up? How are you feeling? I know you must be all sorts of messed up because of the Veil.”
She stared down at her fingernails, seeming to examine them, something she tended to do when she was trying to appear blasé. “Yeah, I definitely don’t feel one hundred percent. I feel really spacey, like I’m drunk or high but it’s not as comforting.”
“It will pass,” I told her, though I honestly didn’t know if or when it would. I could only hope.
She cocked her head to the side. “Will it? Because it’s not just feeling like I’m walking on the frigging moon without moonboots.”
“What do you mean?”
She sighed and looked over my shoulder. “Should I come back at some other time? I don’t want to interrupt your bloodplay.”
“Ada,” I reproached her. “He has a bloody nose. And how do you know about bloodplay?”
“I read kinkier books than you do,” she said simply. “Actually, I’m just going to go back up to my room. I want to hit the hay before Maximus starts snoring.”
I squeezed her arm harder, my eyes searching her face. She’d already taken off her makeup, which normally made her look more innocent but that wasn’t the case here. There was a weighty quality behind her eyes, like she was beyond tired. Maybe sleep would be best for everyone, even though it was still early and we were in Manhattan of all places.
“What did you want to talk about?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “It can wait.” She shot me a quick smile and when I wouldn’t let go of her, she rolled her eyes and gave out a heavy sigh. There was the Ada I knew. I released her and she started down the hallway toward the elevators and stairwell.
She paused a few steps away and looked over her shoulder at me. “I’ll talk to you in the morning. Oh, and by the way, stay away from the sixth floor. There seems to be a demon down there. I’d take the stairs from now on, if I were you.”
And then she disappeared around the corner.
I stared at the empty hallway and shivered. Okay, there was definitely something to talk about. I turned back to the room and Dex was now standing by the window and looking outside of it, completely naked. While I spent a second admiring his ass, there was something about the sight that brought the shiver back down my spine.
“Are you okay?” I asked, stepping back into the room and closing the door behind me.
He didn’t say anything, didn’t move. His hands were down at his side and the tissues were still on the bed. A drop of blood fell to the floor.
I breathed in deeply, trying to shake off the unease and walked over to him.
“Dex,” I said gently, afraid to touch him, as if he were a sleepwalker.
I stood behind him for a moment.
Finally he seemed to notice my presence and turned around. A congealed river of blood had formed beneath his nose. His eyes were dark as coal and strangely blank. He blinked a few times and then said, “Sorry, were you saying something?”
“Not really,” I told him with a nervous smile. “I was just talking to Ada. What are you doing, trying to give the neighbors a peep show?”
He looked down at his dick and then let out a laugh. It sounded hollow. “I guess so, huh,” he said. He then stretched, his arms above his head and let out a yawn. “I think I’m going to turn in.”
“Your nose is still a bit bloody, by the way,” I said to him as he brushed past me and headed right for the bed.
“I’ll deal,” he said, getting under the sheets. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”
Didn’t you hear what me and Ada were talking about? I wanted to ask him. Demons on the sixth floor? That doesn’t interest you at all?
But then again, this wasn’t Experiment in Terror. That baby had been put to sleep and bringing up demons and weird shit at a time like this probably wasn’t the best idea. Tomorrow I’d talk to Ada properly and get Dex checked out and hopefully this whole maddening event could be put behind us.
Besides, my parents were coming in the morning. Every single one of us needed our strength for that. Oh, the horror, the horror.
I crawled into bed beside Dex and turned out the lights. The sky outside the window was now the darkest indigo, lit by orange neon lampposts. It was more comforting to have that light from the inside seeping in, to know that the world outside was carrying on as usual, even if our lives were anything but.
Still, I didn’t fall asleep for the longest time and when I finally did, my dreams were filled with things that would make the lightest nights seem black.
I dreamed that the man I was lying beside, the man I was set to marry, the love of my life, was not that man at all.
But I didn’t know who he was.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Dex
I woke up feeling like a nun’s ass – all dried out and tight as a rubber band, my head absolutely pounding from a headache that wouldn’t go away. I must have pressed snoozed a million times before I got out of bed, and by snooze, I mean I swatted at Perry every time she tried to shake me awake. I could have slept forever.
But she did remind me each time that her parents would be showing up at the hotel soon with pitchforks and since I was to be their future son-in-law, I needed to show them some respect. That wasn’t exactly her words, of course. She just didn’t want me to get frozen by the Swedish Queen of Planet Frigid.
Eventually I pulled myself out of bed and staggered right over to the shower. One look in the mirror and I was certain Perry would be calling off the wedding. My cheekbones were sticking out like Ziggy Stardust and my face had taken this pasty shade of grey. The dried blood beneath my nose didn’t help but at least it matched the red in my bloodshot eyes.
I felt a little more alive with hot water flowing on my face but my mind kept wanting to float to things that I wasn’t sure I could afford to entertain. It wanted to think about Michael. It wanted to think about the sixth floor of this hotel. It wanted to think about the beginning of the end.
Dude, I need an IV drip of coffee, I thought to myself, trying to rip that last thought from head. The beginning of then end? What the hell was wrong with me? When did I turn into such a fatalistic douche?
Since my brother apparently abducted me, I guess. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. The facts just made no sense¸ even though they were the facts and the only things we had to go on.
“Dex!” Perry cried out, pounding on the bathroom door.
The franticness of her voice surprised me. I blinked a few times, realizing I was staring at myself in the bathroom mirror, water slowly dripping off of me and pooling at my feet.
I tore my eyes away from my reflection to answer her but as I did so, the reflection in the mirror changed. Even though it was out of the corner of my eye, I could see the face in the mirror open its eyes and mouth wide in a distorted scream.
My breath froze in my chest and I immediately looked at the mirror dead on. It was just me, staring at myself with a look of shock.
I willed my pulse to return to normal and quickly opened the door, no longer wanting to look at myself.
“What is it?” I asked, my voice cracking a bit.
Perry was totally dressed, her hair and makeup done. “What are you doing in there?” she asked, sounding more concerned than annoyed.
“I don’t know, showering?”
“I’ve been knocking on your door and yelling your name, didn’t you hear me? You’ve been in there for like forty-five minutes.”
I tried to not let the shock register on my face but there was no way I was in there for that long. Oh god, please don’t let those quantum leap time jumps start up for me because that’s the last thing I need.
“Well, I’m done now,” I said. I grabbed a towel off of the rack and quickly wrapped it around my waist. Like a car wreck, I couldn’t help but let my eyes drift over to the mirror again.
This time my reflection was staring right at me and grinning like a madman.
I knew I wasn’t.
I whipped my head around to look at Perry. She was staring at me in mild horror, though I wasn’t sure why. Did she see it too?
“I’m worried about you,” she said and that’s when I knew that the whole thing must have been in my head. If she had seen my reflection move separately from my body, she wouldn’t just be worried. She would be freaking the fuck out times a million.
Kind of like how I was feeling. And I know I should have told her what I was seeing but I didn’t see why giving her another reason to worry about me would have helped.
“Don’t be worried,” I said, but that wasn’t going to change her mind at all. I stepped out into the hallway and made a mental note to avoid all mirrors. “So when do your parents get here?”
“They’re already here,” she said sternly. I sat down on the bed and looked at her. She really was all dressed and ready to go and, more than that, she had her battle face on, the stance she got when she was about to face her parents. To my admiration she looked less afraid and more combative. She’d changed a hell of a lot this year, especially when it came to standing up to her parents. I didn’t think they were necessarily bad people but they certainly didn’t make things easy for either of us.
“Okay,” I told her, wishing I had other clothes to put on than the ones I had been found in yesterday. “I’ll be ready in a second.”
I quickly pulled on my pants and shirt and wondered how Perry would feel about a shopping spree this afternoon. She usually liked that kind of shit and what better place to do it than New York. I’d pay her all back, of course, so as long as I didn’t have to keep wearing the same pair of briefs for days.
I was ready fast and thought she’d be impressed, but instead she just came over to me and put her hand over my chest. I automatically put my hand over hers.
“What were you doing in there?” she asked, unwilling to let it go.
My mind immediately conjured up the image of me screaming at myself. I swallowed the bubble of fear and put a smile on my face. “Jacking off, naturally.”
She narrowed her eyes but seemed to be happy with that answer. Good to know. She was going to make a fabulous wife.
I grabbed her hand and together we went out into the hall, about to take the elevator to the lobby where she said her parents already were. But as soon as she pressed the button, she seemed to think twice about it and said, “Come on, let’s take the stairs.”
Just then the elevator doors opened, empty and beckoning. “Are you sure, cuz it’s kind of here and everything…”
For whatever reason, fear came over her eyes, her pupils becoming tiny pinpricks, but she brushed it off like she did to her hair as she pushed it behind her shoulders.
“All right,” I conceded, following her to the stairwell and h
eading down the echoing stairs. It didn’t matter what building you were in, all stairwells had this impersonal, institutional and cold feeling to them, the doors shutting you in like you’re being locked into prison. I didn’t know why this was preferable to the elevator and I was just about to ask when rounded the sixth floor and she nodded to it.
“Ada says there’s a demon on this floor. Our elevators have been stopping there.”
Again, the image of me in the mirror, me but not me, grinning like I was going to eat myself alive, burned behind my eyes and my skin immediately erupted into goose bumps.
At any other time I would have brought up the fact that it could make a great EIT episode, that we should explore it and film it, but now, even though EIT no longer existed, there was nothing I wanted less. I wanted to stay as far away from anything supernatural as possible. I was way too fucking weirded out to take on any extracurricular scary shenanigans.
“That’s just fucking great,” I said.
Soon though we were out of the concrete prison of the stairwell and into the lobby that toed the line between classy and try-too-hard trendy. I mean, a carafe of cucumber water is a nice touch but does anyone need house music piped over the speakers or neon pink fringe pillows? I think not.
And, over there, on the white leather couches adorned by the aforementioned pillows was Mr. and Mrs. Palomino. They didn’t look happy.
That said, they didn’t look like they wanted to kill us either, which I thought was progress. Usually they looked at me as if I’d just talked about slaughtering puppies, even when I was just waving hello. Of course it could all have something to do with the fact that I dare to open my mouth around them, and, well, I knew from life experience that my mouth got me in trouble more often than not.
“Perry,” her mother said, holding out her arms getting to her feet. She looked great – I hoped one day I liked the woman enough to admit that she was a total babe – even though she looked utterly drained, the same kind of look in her blue eyes that I’d seen in Ada’s the other day.
I watched as she pulled Perry into an awkward embrace. Perry stiffened, unsure of what to do, and I silently encouraged her to just suck it up and enjoy her mother’s affection while it lasted.