by Rue Volley
The officer pushed me on as sweat beaded on my brow from the panic attack welling up in me. As we walked I heard whispers and screaming so reminiscent of that night so long ago when my parents were rushed in, me alongside them after a terrible car accident that I swear involved an oversized black winged bird that came out of nowhere. I tripped and the officer helped me up and pushed me along until we finally walked into a darkly lit room and he sat me down as I leaned forward and caught my breath. The officer hesitated, but the man in the suit nodded to him and waved him out.
I heard the door shut then lock and I looked up as the man walked to the metal table between us and sat down. I adjusted in my seat and slowed my breathing as he set the clipboard down on the table and it echoed slightly in the room. I looked up and saw the light encased in a metal cage and then leaned back, trying to regain my shit the best I could.
“So Nicolas, seems you had a good day.”
I watched him, as he looked some papers over and then leaned back, pulling a cigarette out and lighting it, taking a drag I wish I was taking and the smoke filtered up into the light like a ghostly apparition.
“I would say it was more weird than good,” I said as my voice cracked a bit and I suddenly wanted a cigarette too. That is the thing with addictions; they fucking suck and kill your focus. My addictions only consist of 2 things…nicotine and pussy. I guess you could add alcohol, but honestly I could skip it but not the other two.
“How well do you know Elizabeth Bailey?”
“Who?” I said.
“Elizabeth, the woman who knocked a hole in your wall, or better yet made YOU break a hole in your wall.”
“Izzy,” I said under my breath and he leaned forward.
“Izzy?”
“Yes, her name is Izzy.”
“Strangely non feminine wouldn’t you say?”
I raised an eyebrow and grinned a bit.
“Women are capable of birth, I would say they can call themselves whatever the fuck they want too.”
He laughed and took another drag, blowing it into my face and I breathed it in. Beggars cannot be choosers. He then pulled an extra one out and nodded to me as I leaned up. He placed it to my lips but not in them as he eyed me.
“So, where did this Izzy contact you?”
I took the cigarette with my teeth and leaned back just happy to have it.
“I saw her on the street getting a cab.”
He pulled out a lighter and lit it as he stared at the flame.
“Are you an escort?”
I laughed and shook my head.
“Do I just scream prostitute or what?”
He laughed and leaned forward as I did and lit my cigarette. I was so glad to suck the toxic smoke into my lungs and allow the drug to falsely calm my nerves. I blew the smoke out and he watched me closely.
“It takes all kinds, I mean what is your profession Nicolas?” he said and I took another drag and knew it was going to be a long night once I disclosed my work…all ghost hunting and consoling women and shit. He may lock me up longer for insanity.
“I am a hunter,” I said and he tilted his head as I let it all come out of me, the death of my parents when I was 9, the orphanage, the foster homes, the abuse…the running away and then the paranormal shit. By the time I dumped my sad and oddly intriguing past on him I thought maybe he would not care about Izzy but it seemed he indulged me as if he were a connoisseur of oddities.
“That is a sad fucking life,” he said as he smoked his 5th cigarette and I was on my 3rd.
“Thanks.”
He laughed and leaned up as the light caught his eyes a bit and I swear they shimmered. I watched him and he blinked and it was gone.
“So, where is she?”
I watched him as I took a slow breath and heard a slight whispering in my ears rushing around the room.
“I woke up and she was gone.”
“Did you get it?” he asked me and I narrowed my eyes as I watched him lighting up yet again.
“I seriously thought I smoked a lot.”
He stood up and slammed his hands on the metal table as I leaned back quickly and my heartbeat sped up. He leaned forward and blew smoke at me again.
“Where is she?” he said, as he looked aggravated.
“I do not know, if I did I would tell you.”
He gritted his teeth and leaned towards me, a low growl welling up in his throat and then a knock came to the door and he took a breath and stood up straight. Messing with his hair a bit and walked to the door and opened it up as a voice muttered to him too low for me to hear. He looked back to me and then stepped out as he glanced at me only to disappear and I let my breath out and leaned up, wondering what the fuck was going on and why was Izzy the subject here? Who was she and why did this detective want her? I scooted my chair and the metal legs made a horrible noise against the floor that made me cringe, the detective was stepping back in and covered his ears as the noise bothered him as well. I looked up and he cleared his throat and adjusted his tie.
“You are done,” he said and I tilted my head at him.
“So I can go?” I asked and he nodded to me as the officer returned and uncuffed me. I stood up and massaged my sore wrists, the truth was the cuffs just aggravated me, the bruising was already there from the metal on the frame of the bed holding me down…wait, the fucking metal frame held me down. I started to walk as the detective placed his hand on my chest and stopped me. He leaned in and smelled of very strong cologne but not strong enough to hide a familiar smell to me, that of sulfur. I stood my ground and refused to look at him.
“You can retrieve your shit from your apartment, the landlord had mercy on you but the neighbors refuse to live next to you so you are moving a floor down to 3.”
“Sounds good,” I said as I stepped out away from him and was happy to escape this weirdness once and for all. I ran down the hallway and out into the station’s lobby as I was handed my hat and coat as if I had been at dinner. I placed them on and walked out, feeling lucky but knowing I wasn’t. I have this really bad feeling I am no longer a ghost, as I preferred to be.
****
I grinned as I looked up at the hole in my wall while I shoved clothing into a bag; it was now plugged with a pillow to block the view of the poor couple that had been mentally scarred as we did some amazing shit. What a fucking night, I mean what a woman. Possessed or not I would do almost anything to feel her against me again and that is truly a fucking problem for me. I do not get attached; I let attachment leave me as a child when my parents died for no other reason but to torture me. I loved them, with everything that I am and I was an only child and completely at the center of their world. Once they died I was nothing to anyone really. Passed around and then dumped back off to the orphanage when they tired of me or whatever. I mean I never did anything and maybe that was the problem. I was not the trained monkey they ordered off the menu. I never said ‘I love you’ and ‘I am so grateful’ because I wasn’t. I wanted my parents back and no one else so I shut myself off and said fuck it, not only with family but also with people in general. Now I am standing in a weird place. I should just pack and move on, it is close enough to 3 years but something in me says fucking stay, she will find you, she will be back.
I picked up my bag and smiled as I turned and a silhouette was in my doorway. I relaxed my hand and almost prepared to drop it until I saw it was Mrs. Taylor and I sighed, not happy to deal with this shit at all.
“Nicolas, I seem to have a leak in my shower.”
“Sorry to hear that, is the maintenance man in?” I asked.
“Unfortunately no,” she said as she stepped in and allowed me to see her in her silk robe and lace nightgown.
“There are children on this floor,” I said as I adjusted my bag in my hand and she placed a hand on her hip.
“I have your new apartment ready Nicolas, you would think you would be nicer to someone who was willing to put up with damage such as a hole in your wall.”
I glanced at it and then back to her.
“I have money.”
“I have more,” she said, and then she was pushed aside as Izzy rushed in and took my hand, pulling me along with her as Mrs. Taylor yelled at her to stop.
Izzy stopped and looked at her.
“Bitch, go suck your husband off.”
Mrs. Taylor closed her robe as if she was so insulted and I could not help but smile as Izzy pulled me along with her, down the hallway to the elevator and started to press the button quickly in a rushed fashion. I smiled as I watched her and she did not even look at me.
“Hi,” I said like a schoolgirl crush would, I even felt a bit stupid after I said it.
She looked at me and slapped me across the face and I stumbled back as I rubbed my face.
“What?” I said and she shook her head and tapped the button a few more times.
“Fuck this,” she said as she grabbed my hand and I dropped my bag. I tried to stop and she yelled, “Leave it!” as she hit the door and we were in the emergency stairwell. She looked down and then back to me.
“We need to move now,” she said and I laughed.
“Am I in some sort of danger?”
She looked back at me and hit me again, this time knocking me to the cement wall.
“Izzy, what the fuck?” I said and she looked over the railing again.
“I said I needed help and instead you fucked me. I can get laid, I needed exorcised.”
“Well when you busted a fucking hole in my wall I thought you found Jesus.”
She looked back at me and raised a hand as she looked as if she may hit me again.
“Kidding,” I said and she grabbed my hand again as I heard something but could not tell exactly what it was, almost scratching maybe? She started to run down the stairs, dragging me behind her. I tried my best to not fall but running is not my specialty. She kept on as I heard it again and looked up as she ignored it.
“You hear that shit?” I asked and then we both slammed against the wall as metal and cement fell down from above us and crumbled on the stairs, but mostly it fell in the hole in the middle. I looked upward and thought I saw something big, like a bird and my heartbeat thudded in my chest. I had seen this shit before, or maybe it was a nightmare of a child. This same thing had appeared when my Father swerved the car into the lake and we started to sink. But it cannot be…it just cannot. Then I covered my ears as a loud screeching noise rang out and made my head split with terrible pain. I held my ears tightly as I looked to Izzy who was narrowing her eyes in pain and I saw blood start to trickle from her ears, but she was busy pulling out two badass guns, long and silver, and looking like some movie on TV. I watched as she pointed them both upwards, twisting on one foot and doing a half spin, blood starting to trickle from her nose too but she didn’t fucking care. She shot one gun then the other and the beast above us screamed as it started to fall in a spiral, slamming against metal railing and walls until it finally curled into a ball and fell past us at a crazy speed and barreled towards the bottom. Then we both stepped up to the edge and looked down to see it at the bottom, black ooze spreading out beneath it and then we saw two more of the things come rushing in then jumping on it, tearing at flesh and eating like animals until one stopped and looked upward. I then saw eyes, glinting black like death itself as the light caught it and looked to Izzy who stood there with two guns up and smoking.
“Oh shit,” I said as she started to run up again and I followed as best that I could as I heard the clawing and screaming beneath us. Then Izzy lowered to a knee as she held a hand to her chest and I leaned in as she looked at me quickly and her eyes were changing to black also. I shook my head and then slapped her as hard as I could. That was either extremely smart or extremely stupid; I am gunning for door number 1. She fell forward, catching herself with one hand, and then looked back to me and handed me one gun.
“Can you shoot?” she asked me and I looked at the gun like a foreign thing in my hand, holding it awkwardly.
“I said, can you fucking shoot?” she yelled as she stood up and the beasts closed in on us from below.
“I have no fucking clue.”
“Listen, you aim, you breathe, you fucking pull the trigger, it is as easy as a kiss,” she said, and then she knocked me aside as she shot one beast as it rose behind me. It was then I turned and saw it for what it was.
Its black wings were outstretched in a terrifying fashion, making it even more of a nightmare than I could have ever dreamed up on my own. His face was almost human, but black and charred with cracks exposing a blood red under the surface like lava was its internal workings. Izzy shot at it and it dodged and weaved as she tried her best to place a bullet it its heart. Then it reached out and grabbed her as she dropped her gun. I tried to pry the sharp talons from her waist. I was frozen for a moment and then something changed in me, more like a switch being turned on and the faces of my parents flashed in my mind and all who had treated me badly as I grew up, the rage grew and I reached down, grabbing the other gun and I raised them both in steady hands and yelled to Izzy to try to move. She leaned forward and bit into the beast’s clawed hand as she tore black flesh from it and started to change herself. Her teeth becoming pointed and her eyes black as night. The beast screamed out as she dug into him like a wild animal with her teeth. The beast dropped her as I now had a clear shot, I took a breath and closed my eyes dreaming of the kiss Izzy had given to me and pulled the trigger on one gun and then the other. I opened my eyes as one bullet tore through the beast’s chest and the other through its head. It froze with a strange look on its face and then twitched slightly. After that it fell, like I had thrown away some trash. I then remembered that Izzy had fallen and I ran to the edge to see her hanging onto a twisted piece of railing. I dropped the guns and ran down to her, trying to reach out and grab her hand but it was then that she looked up at me and I saw her eyes, black and dead and so like the beast that had attacked us. She started to slip and I heard a small tearing and then a loud rip as she cried out and let go, only to have two large black wings escape her back and she hovered as they moved slowly and she rose up and looked at me. I ran up to her guns and grabbed them as she followed me and then I raised them up as she landed in front of me and her wings moved slowly out to her sides. I tried to shoot her and I felt as if she wanted me too, as if she were here to have me release her once and for all. I finally understood why she needed my help. She had this thing in her and she saw in me something that was trying to wake up, something close to her in a way and yet I still held onto my humanity despite my sadness, my exile of being able to connect. She tilted her head as she stepped up to me and placed the guns barrel to her forehead. I started to shake, as I knew I loved her. There was something in her so close to what I harbored in me and whatever the fuck that happened to be I was not willing to accept it and take her place as I was feeling she wanted me to do. I then placed the gun to my own head and she screamed as I pulled the trigger, wrapping me in her black wings and biting into me as the bullet ripped through my brain and my thoughts were completely scattered to the wind.
****
I sobbed like a baby as Frenchie glanced at me and did her nails in between caring and wondering what the fuck I was doing. Truth was, when I woke and could not find her, I ran. I ran as far away as I could and when running did not seem to be enough and the dreams of her consumed my mind, I did what I had to do to get locked up as deeply in a hole as I could and I buried myself alive in Saigon, hoping she would never find me again. When she bit me, she transferred her memory to me and it was then I tried to accept the truth of what we were, what she was and how I was to replace her. My love for her would not allow it to be and although it may have meant the destruction of the world around us, my love for her made me feel as if I was righteous, that for once I would give and not take. But…she found me. How, I do not know and in a Saigon, she kissed me and with it gave me her power to track those of our kind…but most importantly my
job was to find and love her as she had to be loved to wake her up after so many years of slumber…because AVA was the only one who could end this shit, as she was special and first and the demons would not even see her coming. My job was to wake her up, but true love would set her free.
I threw my wallet to Frenchie who caught it and looked at me.
“Take it all,” I said as I stood up and rubbed my hand through my hair. I then closed my eyes and whispered her name.
“Izzy.”
Whispering whipped up on the wind and I ran to my dresser and pulled my guns, loading them quickly and laughing as I dropped bullets. Frenchie got nervous and started to run to the door.
“Thank you for the suck,” I said and she opened the door quickly and ran out, falling onto the carpet in the hallway and then scrambling to her feet and running as fast as she could away from me. I walked to my coat and slipped my guns onto my back, I then placed my coat on and sighed as I looked down and saw the symbol of light starting to rise in my palm, a symbol I had seen only once before as I let Izzy bite into me. I smiled and placed my coat on as I ran out the door and left the building with a hope I had not had in forever…
****
I watched her pull a cigarette out and she lit one, she tilted her head and sucked that smoke deep into her lungs, holding it and then letting it slowly roll out of her mouth. I felt the need to speak to someone I had seen so many times in my dreams.
“Those will kill you,” I said and she narrowed her eyes and tried to see who I was. I then stepped out and she stood up straight, as she looked me over, so reminding me of Izzy.
I stepped towards her and she looked at my lips first, then my jaw line, studying me like I had not been looked at in forever. I stopped about 3 feet in front of her and she took another drag from her cigarette and I watched her, studying her lips too and watching her suck on it. She tried to act as if I was not of any interest but I could feel that I was and she was stunning, just as Izzy had been.