Eternal Ever After

by A. C. James

  “Turn to the side,” she said, as she opened her make-up case.

  The stylist applied make-up to my face. I didn’t really wear make-up and her application tickled. It took great effort to hold still and not to blink.

  “There. That should about do it,” she said. “Take a look. What do you think?”

  I turned toward the mirror and was stunned. My own reflection revealed an elegant image I didn’t recognize. The whole idea of me modeling in the photo shoot seemed ridiculous to me and I didn’t relish one bit of it, but looking in the mirror now, I felt confident and sexy.

  “It’s unbelievable. You do good work.”

  She laughed. “Well you’ve got great skin and give me a lot to work with.”

  “Thanks.”

  Lori started packing up. “Do you need help getting into your dress?”

  “Thanks. But I should be okay. I just need to step into it.”

  “Well I’ll leave you to it. It was nice to meet you.” She collected her make-up case and bag before leaving me to change for the photo shoot.

  I managed to get into the dress without maiming my hair and slipped on the shoes. Holding up the skirt of my dress, I gingerly trudged down the hall in the heels from Rue’s shop and almost fell flat on my face. Great. These heels are going to be the death of me. Arie is going to have to either carry me or hold me up all night. I managed my way back to Tessa’s office. I opened the door but didn’t think I wanted to try sitting in one of the chairs. Oversized or not, I didn’t see how that would work with the dress. Tessa sat at her desk and the photographer sat across from her.

  Tessa looked up as I walked into the room. “Well now I see what the fuss is all about. I suppose Arie has good taste after all.”

  I could feel my face flush and glared at Tessa, who either didn’t care or didn’t notice.

  “Should we get started then?” the photographer asked. “Where do you want me to shoot her?”

  “I have an idea. Come with me,” Tessa said.

  We followed Tessa to the elevators and descended to the main level where Victoria and Luna were chatting at the bar. Doors wouldn’t open until eight o’clock and this place wouldn’t start packing in the fang-fakers until at least nine or ten. Tessa walked over to the sound table, flipping switches; the lights darkened, and the black light starlit dance floor illuminated the empty club.

  “I don’t know if we can get the lighting right but I thought maybe we could get her to lay on the dance floor close enough to the stage that you could get an elevated shot,” Tessa said.

  The photographer frowned. “I should have brought my assistant. It could work. But we might have to shoot her on the stage against that white wall.”

  Luna had disappeared and Victoria walked over to us.

  “Where do you want me?” I asked.

  “Over here. Can you lay on the floor as close to the stage as possible?” the photographer asked.

  The heels made it difficult to maneuver. I stumbled toward the stage. Victoria rushed to my side and she caught my arm, keeping me from falling. She helped me to the floor. After several rounds of smiling, not smiling, and pouting as I lay there he had me stand in front of the white wall on the stage instead. The photographer had me move this way and that, snapping more pictures.

  Luna came back in and stood close to Victoria. They were watching and commented on how beautiful I looked. I couldn’t help but notice how cozy they seemed together. Finally, the photographer stopped shooting and with Victoria’s help I went upstairs to change. She told me to meet her back downstairs when I was done. I kind of wished Arie could have seen me all trussed up in something other than handcuffs or red silk scarves.

  CHAPTER 23

  I met Victoria downstairs. She sat at one of the round tables at the edge of the dance floor. The lighting on the stage had been illuminated while the band members set up their equipment.

  “So now what?” I asked.

  “We have a headliner for the gala, but we need an opening act. I hear these guys are pretty good. They’re called the Hellcats.”

  The band started playing a hard rock number. About halfway through their second song Victoria held her hand up for them to stop and said she’d be in touch.

  “What did you think of them?” I asked.

  Victoria shrugged. “It’s not my taste, but they’ll do for an opening act.”

  A sexy woman with pale skin swaggered onto the stage. She enacted a burlesque snake dance to the song ‘Fever’. Her pearlescent skin was a dead giveaway. Following the snake dance, a mortal woman performed a fan dance. Her sheer gold dress shimmered under the spotlight. It made her voluptuous figure curvy and exceedingly sexy. I couldn’t believe she pulled it off. After the fan dance she began doing a striptease while reciting a poem she told us Albert Laighton had written. It talked about the dead and pondered whether they could watch us and if they knew of our sins. Then it ended by talking about how the dead can visit us in dreams. Or rather, how the poet viewed his own dreams. I shivered at how appropriate and fitting it was. It made me think of the intensity of my own dreams and visions these days. By the time she finished the poem, only feathers covered her breasts and her pussy. I had no idea what held them in place.

  “I can’t say it’s entirely original,” Victoria said. “You’ve managed to incorporate the style of Sally Rand and add your own spin on it. And I like the bit you did with poetry, very Gypsy Rose Lee. But I think I might be able to use you. We have your phone number, but leave your email address with Holly and we’ll let you know.” She gestured toward me.

  The woman approached our table. I handed her a piece of paper and she jotted down her email address.

  “Thanks,” I said. “You’ll hear from us if we can find a spot for you.”

  “Thank you for your time,” the woman said with a smile before turning to leave.

  After the woman left, Victoria turned to me with a smile. “You catch on quick. I was non-committal because Tessa hasn’t decided whether she wants me to book three burlesque acts this year or only two.”

  “I thought she was really good and I admire what she’s doing. She doesn’t look anorexic. It’s refreshing to see someone with a body doing a routine like that. I think we should book her.”

  Victoria laughed. “I couldn’t agree more. I’ll talk to Tessa.”

  I couldn’t help but think it was strange that a vampire-witch and a witch were auditioning burlesque acts. Victoria had taken to celibacy and I had recently discovered that pain mixed with pleasure was the only thing that kept me from having visions during sex, allowing me to orgasm. I almost laughed at the absurdity of it. We had one more act to audition. A man came out carrying a bed to the stage. At that moment I realized he wasn’t a man. He had to be a vampire with the way he carried the bed single-handed—like it weighed nothing. Then I saw his skin under the stage lights. And I knew when his unmistakable skin shone a luminous white that he was a vampire.

  I recognized the blonde who came to the stage. She appeared to be in her early forties and she was accompanied by the vampire who had been sucking her blood upstairs the first night I came here with Arie. Except instead of joining her on the stage, he sat in a chair close to the stage but in the audience.

  She came out on stage wearing everyday clothes and carrying a suitcase. Setting the suitcase on the stage, she opened it and removed a red negligee along with a gown from it. The blonde put the gown on over her clothes and the negligee on top of that. With more grace than I could muster she had her clothes and the gown drop from under the negligee.

  Then she strutted down the stairs to the vampire, sat on his lap and kissed him in a way you would only kiss someone if there were no one else in the room. I could feel the heat rise to my cheeks. After she claimed him she took his hand, leading him to the bed on stage. The vampire straddled her. Another one that I didn’t notice before near the sound and lighting table darkened the lights. Victoria and I sat in the pitch black but all I could hear
was a breathy sigh from the stage. After her sigh came a moan.

  When the lights came back on she wore the same clothes that she had on when she first took to the stage and the vampire was gone. Only now blood dripped down her neck from two round punctures. The woman took a scarf from the suitcase and closed the case before wrapping the silk around her neck to conceal the wounds. She picked up the suitcase, bowed, and then left the stage. I could see how the purpose of the entertainment was in the concealment of what they did on stage when the lights went down. I wouldn’t have thought it sexy if I hadn’t seen it for myself.

  “Oh, yes. They’ll fit in nicely. He told me that he’s been working on that routine with her. It’s an imitation, of course, and a bloody one, but the crowd is going to love it. They’ll eat it up,” Victoria said. “I think I’ll have them be the final number. Doors open at eight. The burlesque acts will go on from nine to ten. Then the live music starts.”

  “But he bit her. I mean he really bit her. Don’t you think that’s a bad idea? I mean with everyone watching.”

  Victoria laughed. “No. They’ll never believe it’s real. They’ll just think it’s fake blood—all part of the show.”

  An elevator door slid open and Tessa stepped out, making her way over to our table. When she reached us she placed an envelope on the table in front of me.

  “Your pay,” Tessa said.

  “Thanks.” I opened the envelope. It contained the key card and cash. I pulled the money out, counting it. I swallowed. “There’s three thousand dollars here.”

  “It’s for the month. I figured you could use an advance. Arie told me you quit the Coffee Grind.”

  “Will this be what I get paid every month?”

  “Yes, but typically I do payroll every two weeks.”

  I did some quick math in my head. It was double what I made working at the coffee shop. “But all I did is highlight some flyers and book the entertainment with Victoria. I really haven’t done much of anything.”

  “Oh, but you will. I’m not paying you for that. What I’m paying you for is far more valuable. I expect when I need to make use of your more lucrative skills you’ll earn every penny of it,” Tessa said. “And you modeled today. Plastering your face on a twenty by sixty foot billboard should get Katarina’s attention. At the very least it might just piss her off enough that she’ll do something stupid.”

  I sighed. “I think we can safely say she’s already pissed at me. She summed it up in two words she left on the wall of my apartment—‘die bitch.’”

  Tessa flicked one of her polished fingernails. “She never was very creative.”

  Victoria snickered. Tessa’s heels clicked across the marble as she left. Victoria turned toward me. “Arie called me while you were getting changed.”

  “Oh?”

  “He sensed a trace of her aura close to where the homeless woman was found near Lake Ida on the edge of the woods. It’s not very far from where Margaret Johnson was attacked in her home on the south side of La Grange.”

  “So do you think we can track her?”

  “I do. He wants to meet up with us and try scanning the area for her presence.”

  I gulped. “Yeah, let’s go. We can take my car.”

  If sanity was boring then my life pressed against an edge where reason and logic fell into a crazy void, and while scary as hell, it was the first time I’d really felt alive. Arie, Victoria, Tessa…all of them had lived and loved in a way that was reckless because they could. I swallowed their dark secret, knowing about the people they had killed, the people they had loved. But they were just like me, only amplified in every way. The intensity of their emotions—love, hate, and passion—could only be felt with such depth by those who have dived over the edge of sanity. They weren’t perfect, but I’d never had a family and I would never be sorry for choosing to stand on the edge as I tried to join them.

  ***

  I drove with Victoria on South La Grange Road and pulled onto a road that had parking spots lining both sides. Arie’s Venom was parked up ahead and I pulled the BMW into an empty spot next to it. He stood leaning against his car with his mouth set into a grim line. Despite his stern expression and our purpose for being there, I couldn’t help but feel attracted to him. Victoria got out of the car and gave him a nod. I grabbed my army satchel and threw my keys into it before getting out. Arie smiled to lighten the somber mood.

  “Follow me.”

  Without waiting for us to acknowledge him, Arie led the way through the grass to the edge of a wooded area. A small path led through the forest where trees stood erect on either side of me like silent sentient warriors guarding some ancient secret. My imagination danced with ghosts. It wouldn’t have felt sinister if I didn’t know that someone had been killed here recently. I shivered. My feet crunched on the frost-covered ground as we came to a clearing encircled by trees. I wondered how her body had been discovered in such a secluded spot at this time of year. It would have been the perfect place to picnic, but not in the dead of winter.

  Arie stopped. Bile rose in my throat at the sight of blood, dead just like the season and Katarina’s latest victim. Even though I didn’t want to look at it, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the bloodshed. I tried to hold back and swallowed my fear. It was the same sensation you felt when you witnessed a car crash. In my heart, I always hoped the driver survived, but I couldn’t help scanning the scene surrounded by flashing lights. Except this time I knew the outcome. This was no accident, and there would be no survival. She was dead. I wondered now if the homeless woman had family and if they would ever know she had died. Victoria crouched by the dried blood pooled on the frost-covered ground.

  Then she turned to me and placed a hand on my arm. I think she sensed how difficult it was for me to be here. “Holly, you can help me find her.”

  “But how?”

  “Close your eyes and focus.”

  “Usually, I have to touch someone or something. It’s not something I can control.”

  “I have an idea that might help you. Do you trust me?” Victoria asked.

  I looked to Arie, but his face remained an impassive glacier imprinted with centuries of wisdom. I swallowed. “Yes.”

  “Give me your hand,” she said.

  Before I could protest Victoria grabbed my hand and pulled me to the ground beside her. She placed my hand on a patch of the dried blood and held my hand in place with her own. I tried in vain to recoil as I gagged.

  Arie stepped toward us. “Just breathe.”

  “Try to relax. Close your eyes and focus. Let the visions in,” Victoria said.

  I looked at her incredulously, but her eyes were already closed as she focused on some unseen force. I sighed. Following her lead, I closed my eyes. At first all I could see was a lightshow of colored dots, an entoptic phenomenon dancing behind my eyelids. Then the chimerical colors formed into shapes. The shapes darkened and I could see the homeless woman. She cried out, begging for someone to stop, but a maniacal laughter filled the clearing. I knew I had crossed over to somewhere I didn’t belong and it frightened me beyond words. Somehow, I had entered Katarina’s mind and it was overrun by frenzied thoughts that were devoid of meaning.

  My fangs lengthened but they were not mine, they were hers, and I felt an exquisite pleasure, her bloodlust. I couldn’t tell which thoughts were mine and which were hers. Katarina pierced the homeless woman’s neck and I drank her blood. The confusing mesh of thoughts and feelings left me with an uncanny impression. I felt free. Free from guilt, remorse, love, or hate; and then it hit me. Katarina’s mind was a barren wasteland lacking humanity. She released the woman and blood spilled onto the ground. I looked down into her eyes as her life drained away. I felt pleased. I felt sickened.

  Time bent, almost like pushing fast-forward, and then a castle loomed in front of me. No, it was not a castle. I knew this place. I knew it well. The familiar sign on the black chain link fence showed me everything I needed to know.

  I o
pened my eyes. “I know where she is. I know exactly where she is, or at least I know where she went after killing her. We have to go.”

  Arie looked down at me. “You’re certain?”

  “Yes. I’ve been there a hundred times.”

  Victoria looked skeptical. “The only aura I could sense was the muted energy of the homeless woman.”

  “I couldn’t feel her at all. I felt…” I didn’t want to tell them what it felt like inside Katarina’s warped, demented mind. It made my skin crawl. Nausea washed over me as I remembered her crazed energy. “We have to go now. I know where to go. It’s not that far from here.”

  Arie shrugged. “Why not?”

  The three of us made our way across the clearing and down the path through the forest. It took us to the open grass and the parking lot beyond it. I stumbled in the grass. Arie caught my arm.

  “You’re scared,” Arie said. “Don’t be. I won’t let her hurt you.”

  I tried to manage a smile. “I’ll try. It’s hard to keep trying to be brave and think there’s nothing left to lose.”

  Arie gave a cruel laugh. “There is always…always something left to lose.”

  CHAPTER 24

  Archer Avenue had been an infamous haunted highway on Chicago’s Southwest Side and a source of fascination for those who wanted to meet the dead for decades. I’d never met the dead or undead until finding out Arie was a vampire, and it didn’t fascinate me or draw me like the ghost hunters who flocked to this area. But everyone knew the story of Resurrection Mary, who’d haunted the stretch between the Oh Henry Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery since the 1930s.

  Legend claimed that she was dancing in the ballroom with her boyfriend when they got into a terrible fight. Mary stormed out, deciding to walk home on a cold winter’s night rather than spend another minute with her beau. On her walk home she was struck by a drunk driver who left her for dead. Her distraught parents buried her in the cemetery in a white ball gown and the clutch purse she had carried that night. I suppose there’s some truth to the story. Anna Marija Norkus died in 1927 in car accident on her way home from the very same ballroom.