Necromantic
Page 14
“No? I already have. Thanks to you, I was never declared dead. You have no idea how much easier that made things. Thanks to a little of that mind-clouding magic from your notes, I was able to play it all up rather nicely." I changed my tone, putting a little mock drama into my voice for the effect. "I had run off because of your abusiveness, disappeared, and had been covering my tracks ever since. Sorry, but I had to throw you under the bus a bit for that one. I'm sure you can understand. Anyway, so the story goes, I had only recently come to terms with things, finally coming back home to confront you.”
“When people find out...”
“I took care of that,” I said, interrupting him. “You, sadly, broke down from grief, weighed heavily by the guilt of your crimes. Alas, you just couldn’t live with yourself for the things you had done to me. Before I could stop you, you grabbed a razor blade and committed suicide. Slit your own throat.”
“But how? They would have taken my body...”
“Of course, they did, Harold,” I explained as if he were a dimwitted child. “They weren’t about to just leave you in the basement.”
“But I’m here! The ceremony...”
“I had you cremated.” I hooked a thumb over my shoulder toward the far dresser. On top of it was a tasteful brass urn. “I wasn’t sure it would work, but apparently dropping the last hoe into your ashes had pretty much the same effect as having your entire body here. Go figure, the nuances of magic.”
“You fucking bitch,” he spat. “I’ll find a way to get you...”
“No you won’t. In fact, your time is almost up. See, I discovered that changing the ingredients works both ways. Add mandrake, you get more time. Switch it out for some wolfsbane, though, and it gets cut down to an hour. Tomorrow morning, I’m going out on a boat to scatter your ashes to sea. I think you'd have wanted it that way. Don't get me wrong. I had considered maybe keeping you a little while longer, but sadly...” I glanced down at the penis of the body he inhabited. “Well, you’re missing the best part of you now. The sex was nice, but it just wasn't the same.”
“So you brought me back to gloat?”
“Only partially. I thought I'd give you one more fling for all the times you brought me back. One for the road, so to speak. I hate to admit it, but during most of those visits I did have fun, physically at least. More importantly, though, I figured you owed me.”
“Owed you?”
“Yes, for the years of lies I had to put up with. For denying me the family that I wanted. You see, Isis brought Osiris back from the dead and he fathered a child with her before returning forever to the underworld. Therefore, I found it only fitting that you do the same. I wanted you back this one last time, when I was ovulating, so that despite all the things you did to me, I could have one good memory of you to cherish.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Congratulations, Harold. He won’t be yours physically, but that’s okay. We’ll both know the truth and I’ll be sure to tell our baby all about you. Well, maybe not everything. There are some secrets that are best taken with us to the grave. Wouldn’t you agree?”
THE END
About the Author
Cole Vance lives in the most exciting city in the world, New York. There he spends his days enjoying Manhattan and its myriad people, marveling in the life around him as he drinks in the sights and sounds. His greatest enjoyment, though, comes from bringing pleasure to others, if not with his hands and lips, then with his words.
Also available:
As Cole Vance:
Meeting Misty
As Rick Gualtieri:
Bill the Vampire (The Tome of Bill, Part 1)
Scary Dead Things (The Tome of Bill, Part 2)
The Mourning Woods (The Tome of Bill, Part 3)
Holier Than Thou (The Tome of Bill, part 4)
Sunset Strip: A Tale From The Tome Of Bill
Bigfoot Hunters
The Poptart Manifesto