She jumped, gripping Justin’s shoulder as they began to frantically gabble to their fellow demons. The others answered, moving quickly towards the table, no longer concerned with Justin and Tabitha. When five more reached the table, they began to rip and tear the body apart, each one taking a piece of it. When there wasn’t anything left, the others focused on Tabitha and Justin, growling and hissing, in such a way that it seemed they were protecting the departing demons.
“Don’t move.” Justin whispered, unable to keep his eyes off of the retreating beings. They both watched in ghastly awe as the demons that held the limbs of the dead quickly disappeared back into their reflective origins. When all those that carried remains had vanished, the others followed, keeping their beady, black eyes focused on the intruding humans.
It seemed like hours after the last one disappeared before Justin moved away from Tabitha. They both warily went from device to device examining the surface of each piece, not saying a word, they both ended up at the flat screen TV. As he reached out to touch the stains that were left on each gadget, he whispered, awe in his voice at what they were both experiencing and seeing. “Can you believe what we just saw? And look at this! It looks like…”
“Water spots!” Tabitha cut in. “Like water or dirt spots you clean off of your mirror, window or TV every week.”
“Exactly!” he exclaimed, excitement replacing the awe in his voice.
“It’s creepy and unnerving!” she cried, unable to find the excitement in the situation as he did. Justin looked at her, confused by her agitation.
“Don’t you see what this means? They are everywhere! Even people who don’t see them, see their tracks or their imprint, if you will, and they don’t even know what they are looking at! Companies are always marketing their products to get spots and smudges off of all sorts of reflective surfaces, mirrors, windows, all of it. It’s not just us that see them!”
“No, its not just us but think it through, Tabs. They are obviously harmless. It’s like they’re the keepers of the dead, the mortuary crew so to speak. They’re not here to hurt anyone, just to remove the remains before any human sees them.” He went over to her and embraced her, trying to calm her fears. “We only know because we captured one and it died in our presence. They know we know about them, so they had nothing to lose or hide.”
Instead of calming her, his comments seemed to rattle her even more. “So now that they know we know, won’t they terrorize us more? Try and get rid of us now that they know we can see them and capture them?”
“I don’t know. This is all new to me, too. But if you think about it, if they have any intelligence, they already knew that we’ve known about them. We’ve seen them when we have been alone and in public, it’s not a secret. I think they’ve known since before they killed our parents.”
Tabitha tried to calm herself, knowing that Justin was right, there was no sense in losing her focus now. “Ok, so what have we learned from this?”
Adaptable ran through Justin’s mind again as he squeezed her arm and then released her. Blowing out a breath of air, he scanned the apartment and absently ran his hand through his hair. “Our contact, or more importantly, our touch with them seems to kill them. When those others scratched me during my experiment a few years ago, they were fine but when I grabbed the one, it reacted as if in pain. Maybe our chemistry changes when we are in fear and when we are aggressive.”
“But you were willing to die when you did your experiment.” she argued.
“I may have been willing to die but I was terrified at first. When my thoughts went back to my family being killed, that’s when I became furious and I lashed out. Today, the only fear I felt was of you being hurt, and that made me enraged.”
She smiled at him, surprised at the love she felt for him at that moment. His devotion for her made him that much stronger and she vowed that she would do the same, they could do this together. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. “Ok, now what?”
“There’s more to Stacia Todd’s story than what she is letting on. We’ve got to find out what it is without getting you fired.”
“Wow! That’s a change from this morning.” she teased
“I know but I think Stacia is another one of us. Unaware or unwilling to admit it to anyone, I suspect, but still able to see them. If you get fired, she can shut you out before we get any answers.”
“Ok, so how do we handle this?”
“Slow and easy. We tell her that there are rabid rats in the office, try and get some more people out of there. Then we’ll start to question Stacia, ask her how long she’s seen the rats here, if she’s seen them at her place. She sounds like she may be in some sort of denial so I don’t want to spook her.
“Maybe you can use your charm and get a little closer to her, you know, personally. Women seem to naturally gravitate towards each other, female bonding and all that.”
Tabitha couldn’t help herself and snorted. “What a completely guy thing to say! Some of us aren’t as comfortable with social interaction as others are. In case you’ve forgotten, I’ve spent the majority of my life avoiding relationships, intimate and formal.”
“So this should be a breeze for you, having all those years of pent up yearning to bond and gossip!” he teased, watching her emotions rise to his bait.
When she finally realized he was trying to push her buttons and was succeeding, she punched him in the arm. “You are incorrigible!”
“I know, I’ve been so bad, you can punish me later. Right now, let’s figure out a way to get you a little closer to Stacia. One possibility is the common thread you two share. Granted, it’s a painful link but maybe one or both of you would benefit from being able to talk about the grievous loss you’ve both experienced.”
“She may not want to talk to me about it. I know for me, personally, I couldn’t talk to anyone about it for years. It was like reliving it every time I talked about it and I couldn’t do that if I wanted to survive emotionally. Stacia may feel the same way. When she told me her desk was a present from her father, she seemed really torn up.”
“I believe in you. If anyone can open her up, it’ll be you. You’re compassionate and have a nurturing side that seems to put people at ease. Just take it slow and easy and see where it takes you.”
“I’ll give it a shot,” she acquiesced, “Now we’ve got to get back to the office. I’m sure Kashia is dying to find out the scoop and I need to introduce you to Stacia.”
Running a hand through her long hair, reminiscent of what Justin had just done a few moments ago, Tabitha surveyed the open apartment, her eyes resting for a fraction on every reflective surface and noting the inconspicuous spots on each furnishing. It all looked so ordinary, just like a typical bachelor’s apartment that was in desperate need of a good cleaning. Her subconscious mind almost convinced her that it had all be a figment of her imagination until her eyes rested on the discarded box and terry cloth towel that still had tufts of matted, moldy hair.
She started as Justin grabbed the truck keys and gently put his hand on her elbow. “C’mon, Tabs, we still have to go back into the garage.”
“Shouldn’t we grab the box, in case another one shows up?” she started to go to it but he held her still.
“No, we’ll burn it all. I don’t think we’ll have anymore visitors in the office today. I think that’s because there is some residual matter of it on the box and towel. The minute it hits the sun, it’ll burst into flames. They seem to have a knack for tidying up after themselves, if it’s not gone by the time I get back, I’ll throw it in the incinerator down in the basement.”
She nodded and they left the apartment without a second look back.
SEVENTEEN
They didn’t run into anything in the garage and drove back to the office in silence, both of them needing the quiet to process the mid-morning events. Kashia rose from behind her desk as they entered the reception area, anxious to hear of their discovery. Justin quickly explained that it did app
ear as though the ‘rat’ had rabies, although it would be a few days to get the positive results back and he recommended that the staff find another location to work out of until the situation was under control. They knew that this would require Stacia to be informed and as Justin and Tabitha hoped, involved a meeting with her. She was understandably distraught, her main concern that her prestigious firm was inhabiting infectious rodents but Justin relieved her fears by explaining his plan to keep everything under wraps. They would hold an inter-office conference and tell the staff that the floor was getting a makeover and the fumes from the dust and paint could become bothersome so they would therefore be relocated to the floor above until the renovations were complete.
Because Kashia was the only other one to have witnessed the true reason for the evacuation, she would be pulled into a private meeting before hand to have the plan explained to her and the reasons for keeping the situation quiet.
“I’ll give her a bonus and make it plain that if any of this is leaked out to the other staff or clientele that she will be immediately terminated. I don’t believe that will be a problem though. Kashia is very loyal and trustworthy or else she would have been gone a long time ago.” Stacia was very calm throughout their discussion and Tabitha was worried that her initial hunch that Stacia knew the creatures weren’t rodents, was wrong.
As Tabitha and Justin rose to leave the office to allow Stacia to meet with Kashia, Stacia called to Tabitha and asked her to stay a moment, to go over what Tabitha had in mind for her office. When Justin hesitated, Stacia flashed her winning smile at him and waved her hand, “She’ll just be a minute. I need to go over the new countertops with her but I promise she’ll be out in a jiffy.”
Justin glanced at Tabitha for just a minute before flashing his own smile and walked out the door, closing it softly behind him. Stacia sat back down behind her temporary desk and began to shuffle her papers absently. She flashed a look up at Tabitha and seeing she hadn’t sat back down, gestured to the chair. “Please, Miss Reynolds, have a seat.”
Tabitha sat back down and watched Stacia go back to fidgeting with her papers on the desk. “I trust you know Mr. Murphy and the work he does is reputable?”
“Yes, Ms. Todd. Justin, er, Mr. Murphy is the best I’ve met in his field.” Tabitha assured her, as she nervously smoothed out the wrinkles in her skirt,
“He’s dealt with these kinds of rodents before?”
Tabitha noticed her hesitation when she said rodents and immediately know her first hunch was correct, Stacia knew what they were. “Yes, Ms. Todd. He’s had years of experience. I would trust him…” with my life, she started to say then caught herself, “with this situation.”
For the first time since sitting down again, Stacia stared at Tabitha, pursing her lips as if trying to decide something. Tabitha felt uncomfortable as Stacia scrutinized her and was starting to feel fidgety when Stacia blew her breath out. “Stacia, please, Miss Reynolds. I’d love to ask you a few personal questions. You don’t have to answer them and you won’t risk your job if you don’t but it may make a difference in our working relationship. Do you understand?”
Tabitha met her gaze steadily and nodded. “Yes, I do but please, call me Tabitha.”
“Very well, Tabitha.” Stacia hesitated again and then looked down. “Have you experienced these rodents before? Even before you met Mr. Murphy?”
“Yes, ma’am, I have. Since I was six years old.” Tabitha replied calmly.
Stacia squeezed her eyes shut tightly, as if trying to keep the words she was hearing out of her mind. “Does you’re family see them?”
“No. I lost my family to a house fire when I was six, at the same time I started seeing them.” she answered softly, keeping her eye’s on Stacia’s face.
Stacia lowered her head slightly but Tabitha saw the tear that escaped from the corner of her eye.
“I know this may seem like an incredulous question to ask, Miss…um, Tabitha, but do you believe these things were the cause of the loss of your family?”
Tabitha felt her own tears well up in her eyes and quickly blinked them back. “Yes, Stacia, I do.”
“And Mr. Murphy?”
Although she hadn’t fully stated the question, Tabitha knew what she was asking and didn’t insult Stacia by playing dumb. “Yes, Justin lost his family in a car fire when he was seven years old and yes, he believes it was because of them too.”
Stacia didn’t say anything but nodded her head in acknowledgement and that she understood. Out of embarrassment, she furiously wiped her eyes, feeling that if she showed emotion, she was showing weakness. Feeling somewhat composed, she looked back up at Tabitha. “If it’s not an imposition, I would like to meet with you and Mr. Murphy somewhere away from the office, somewhere…safe.”
Tabitha smiled with compassion, “Anytime, I’ll let Justin know. My home is always open.”
“It’s safe there?” Stacia warily asked.
“It is.” Tabitha reassured her. “There are precautions that I take, that I learned from Justin.”
Stacia took a deep breath and stood. “Very well than. I’ll let you know what would be a good time for me and see if our schedules match. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a few meetings to attend to.” She hesitated as if she wanted to grab Tabitha’s hand but didn’t. “Thank you for being honest with me. I truly appreciate it.”
Knowing that if she tried to console Stacia, she would be met with disdain, she simply left the office, leaving further communication up to Stacia. She found Justin in Stacia’s office, peering into the cabinets of the bar. She felt panic flood her as she saw him reach into one of the spaces but then relaxed slightly when she realized she hadn’t felt a shiver. She recognized that she would have to pay closer attention to her gift and try to hone it to their benefit. If she was able to give them some warning when they first walked into a room, they could be better prepared.
She stood silently, watching him investigate the bar, noticing the way his muscles rippled under his shirt. His hair caught in the collar around his neck and she felt the compelling pull to go over and run her fingers through his hair to free it. She was amazed to find herself aroused just by looking at him. The circumstances that brought them together in her work place were not forgotten, but her desire was quickly mounting.
When he sensed her presence, he turned and smiled, freezing in place as he read the expression on her face. He slowly rose as she moved to him, almost hesitantly, as if she was worried that he would disappear. He reached for her, even as she reached for him, and buried his hands in her hair, pulling her into him. He kissed her deeply, feeling her thirst kindle his own. He was overwhelmed by her frantic fumbling with his clothes and her excited kisses, knowing that part of her adoration was in reaction to what they had experienced earlier. He tried to calm her, to try and discuss reasonably what had happened but he felt himself get pulled into her frenetic need. He tried to retain some reason, some logic, knowing that even though the office door was closed, the chances of someone walking in was still a possibility. All reason flew out of his mind when she began to rub his groin and he was lost, all he could focus on was the woman who had changed his life just a short five days ago.
Tabitha knew that at any moment, Kashia or Stacia could come walking into the office but she didn’t care. She was with the man who understood her and had changed her life so dramatically. She had experienced boogymen for as long as she could remember and knew that part of the sexual frenzy was in response to what she and Justin had witnessed over lunch but the majority of her drive was finding this beautiful, sexy man who made her feel safe, loved and vibrant. She knew, she felt, that he was always with her, wanting her and not someone else. That in itself was exciting and powerful.
When Justin went to clear the desk to make them more comfortable, she hesitated. She grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the desk towards the bar. He looked at her questioningly.
“That’s the desk Stacia’s father gave her befo
re he died. It just wouldn’t feel right. Everything else is going, so the bar is ok.”
He understood and moved her closer to the bar before lifting her up and gently placing her on the top. She instantly moved her legs to pull him closer, desire building stronger and becoming demanding. He pushed her skirt up her thighs, rubbing the soft skin there. He sucked in his breath when she caught the rough skin of his neck with her teeth, nibbles turning into desirous nips as she brought them both into a fevered rapture.
He wanted to touch her, to love her and reassure himself that she still wanted to be with him. He knew that what she had watched today rocked her to a new level of awareness. If he hadn’t pushed her into wanting and needing to know more, she would probably be redecorating the office, trying to control the shivers until she had completed the remodel. Now, with what they’d experienced this morning, he knew she wouldn’t look at a reflective surface the same way. He couldn’t help but wonder if, after she had time to reflect, she would just decide it was too much and tell him she didn’t want to be with him anymore. That she just wanted to go back to the way her life used to be. He couldn’t blame her and if she did want that, he would let her go even though it would tear his heart out. He even wondered if he could give up learning about them, chasing them, to be with her, but when he thought of their families and the way they died, he knew he couldn’t. His life was destined to destroy them, it was predetermined before they’d ever met.
As those thoughts blasted through his mind, he knew he wouldn’t take advantage of her, now or in the future. She needed to face what they’d witnessed and decide on her own the path that she would follow. He felt his own shiver as she moved her hands lower, stroking over his own hips and thighs but he found the willpower to gently push away from her. When he gained the courage to look into her eyes, he found passion mixed with confusion.
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