“What’s wrong? Did I do something?” she asked, then nervously looked towards the office door as if expecting to see someone standing there.
“No, Tabs. It’s ok. I just think that here is not the place, or the time.”
“No one will bother us. Stacia’s in a meeting with everyone, they’ll never know.” she giggled and began to fumble with the zipper on his pants.
He sucked in his breath, struggling between his heart and his mind, finally holding her hands still. “Not now, babe. We both need time to digest what happened today. You still need to do things here, you’re on a two week time frame and I need to get back to my place and clean up the mess.” He hated seeing the pain in her eyes, knowing he was the one who caused it but he knew it was unavoidable. She needed to come to her own conclusion as to what was going to happen between them next.
“But, Justin, I can help get your apartment cleaned up and after the conversation Stacia and I had, I know she’ll give me more time if I need it, though Lord knows I can have this office done in a week.” she added absently.
“What conversation, the one in the office just now?” he asked, frustration mixed with excitement.
“Yes, she asked about things that had happened to us in our past. She knows that we’re not dealing with rats. She wants to meet with us sometime to talk about things, both of us. She said she’d give me a call.”
He knew that this was a good thing but realized she still needed the time to make her own decision. “Good, that’s great. See if she can wait until Thursday evening. I have some, um, things I need to take care of. We can meet with her then, at your place, if that’s ok with you.”
“Thursday? I thought you’d be excited about this and want to get right on it. I was hoping tonight, tomorrow night the very latest! What things do you have to take care of?” she asked agitatedly.
“Business stuff. I told you, I own several businesses and they need my attention occasionally or I wouldn’t have the ability to do my own stuff when I wanted to. I’ll be at your place by six, alright?”
“I won’t even see you till Thursday? Have I done something wrong?” she knew she sounded needy and whiny but she couldn’t help it. She had thought they had something magical, binding and obviously he didn’t feel the same. Could her instincts have been that wrong? Of course they could, you silly little girl, she thought bitterly to herself, it’s not like you’ve had tons of experience in relationships.
Seeing the despair in her face, he tried to reassure her, though his lies sounded false, even in his own ears. “I’ll call you everyday, I promise. Plus this will give you time to research.” he tried to smile, “if you wanted to.”
“If I wanted to? What’s that supposed to mean? It’s not like I’m studying for mid-terms or something! This is about our lives! Why wouldn’t I want to?”
“I didn’t mean anything by it, Tabs! Calm down! I just meant you might be busy with your job here, that’s all.” he started to button her shirt but she jerked away.
“I can get it!” she seethed, “And don’t worry about calling me, I’m sure we’ll both be too busy!” she knew she sounded like a petulant child but she couldn’t help herself. She needed to hold onto the anger until she got home, then she could address the pain. She quickly grabbed her things and stormed out of the office, leaving Justin there to get himself redressed.
EIGHTEEN
She made it home without shedding any tears, reliving the past five days and their time together. She knew things had been fast and furious between them but she thought Justin had felt the same connection that she’d felt. Their situation and their past did not allow for an uncomplicated relationship. They both knew how fleeting life was and not to squander it on whimsical relationships, which is why she couldn’t understand why he appeared to be avoiding her. She was so distraught at misreading him that she gave up trying to understand and focused on making a fruit salad for supper. She was cutting the strawberries when the tears came, flowing over the barrier of anger she had kept up for the past hour. They came so fast and hard that she couldn’t see what she was doing, so she went to the living room and collapsed on the couch.
She allowed herself the tears, knowing she couldn’t stop them if she tried. When it became dark in her apartment and her tears had lessened, she turned on the lamp next to her and reached for the remote to turn on the TV. She froze, remembering the hostile creatures that emerged from Justin’s flat screen. There, in the corner of her screen, were little spots that were similar to the spots left on his screen when the boogymen had crawled back into it. She felt the rage surge through her body as she ran to the linen closet for the cleaning supplies.
“Bastards!” she screamed as she frantically began to clean the television screen until it was as clean as the day she bought it. Renewed with the fury she felt as opposed to the pain, she began searching for every reflective surface in her apartment. She’d never paid that close attention before to these items and couldn’t remember the last time she had cleaned them but she vowed that there wouldn’t be a day, from this point forward, that they wouldn’t be cleaned. She may not know how to keep them from showing up yet but she damned well would know if they’d been there. She was no longer going to be a bystander in her own life.
After ninety minutes of cleaning, there wasn’t one surface that wasn’t sparkling. In the bathroom mirror, spots having been cleaned away from her maniacal efforts, she finally focused on the face that blearily looked back at her. For the first in a long time since her parents had died, the face that looked back at her was haggard and tired looking. There were dark, puffy bags under her eyes and what little mascara she’d applied that morning, had run down her face leaving dark trails. Her color was sallow and she appeared to be ten years older.
Exhausted and no longer willing to pretend she was not tired, she went to the kitchen, put everything away before crawling into her bed. Though she wouldn’t remember it in the morning, she would cry out for Justin, her dreams filled with limbless demons coming for her, unaware that red, glowing eyes watched her from the bedroom mirror.
* * *
Justin cursed himself a thousand times on the way home, playing out a hundred different ways he could have handled the situation with Tabitha better. Hell, he had no clue on how to deal with a relationship! He had never had anything longer than a one night stand, and he was too young to notice the intricate partnership between his mother and father. He remembered they laughed a lot and were always touching or kissing but who really pays attention to that when you’re only six? He smiled as he was able to recall his parents having a BBQ for a Fourth of July celebration. There were so many people, friends of his parents that he couldn’t recall seeing again but whenever his Mom walked out on the deck, his Dad’s eyes were always on her and when she was near, he had to touch her. He remembered a burly man standing next to his Dad at the grill laughing as he joked, ‘Get a room!’. Justin didn’t understand at the time what he’d meant but ten years later, understood perfectly.
Fifteen years and four kids later, his parents were still crazy about each other. Wasn’t he getting a taste of that now with Tabitha? So why in the hell was he risking that by avoiding her? To keep her safe, that’s why. And wouldn’t his father sacrifice his own joy and happiness to keep his mother safe? Yes, unequivocally yes. So it boiled down to his feelings for Tabitha, which were strong. He’d never been in love, never allowing himself to get that close to someone because of the risk that was involved. Here, he found a woman who could see the demons that he could but she wasn’t condemned to a death sentence when she did. What made Tabitha and himself immune to their attacks? There were so many question and not enough answers. He knew he would have more answers in the future. The main question that was hovering now was whether Tabitha would be a part of that search for knowledge or not. He had to give her that time, whether he liked it or not.
He made his way through the parking garage and up to his apartment without any visitors. His ap
artment was stuffy from having everything closed up but undisturbed. The box and the towel were still in the same place and everything seemed normal. Before opening his curtains and windows to air things out, he took the towel and box down to the basement incinerator and threw everything in. He stayed long enough to watch it catch on fire before he turned to go back upstairs. He was shocked when he saw a cherub demon sitting in front of the stainless steel elevator doors, watching him.
They locked eyes for a moment, it hissing a little before disappearing back into the reflective surface of the elevator doors. Justin stood there, watching it calmly disintegrate back into the reflection. He wondered about it’s visit on the way back up to his place. Was it watching to see how he “disposed” of the evidence? Was it satisfied that he burned everything instead of trying to have it analyzed? He’d thought of that, getting a lab to figure out the composition of the stuff that was on the towel. He knew he could get it to a lab without it bursting into flames but he didn’t know what the risk would be to the innocent lab technicians and he wasn’t willing to put lives in jeopardy. But since they didn’t know that, it would explain the presence of this last fiend.
As he walked into his place, he found himself heading towards the phone to call Tabitha and tell her of this last twist. In just a few days, he found that he longed to share the events of his day with her and also, to hear her comforting voice and hear what she had done in her time without him. He stopped just as he was about to hit send, remembering her anger at him when he said he had work issues to deal with. To be fair, it hadn’t been a lie; he was supposed to go over two contracts to buy a hotel in Italy and one in Germany. He had business managers and attorneys who went over the contracts with a fine tooth comb and it would only take an hour, two at the most to review the terms and sign off but it was a good excuse to give Tabitha the time she needed. He hadn’t exactly lied to her, he just stretched the truth a little.
He resealed every opening in the apartment before he grabbed the contracts and sat down at his desk to review them. He found his attention distracted, flicking back to the spots on the appliances that the boogymen had emerged from, then disappeared back into. Swearing aloud, he found himself cleaning all of the surfaces in his place, emulating the actions that Tabitha had performed in her own place just hours before. It didn’t take him as long, having fewer things to clean and being in a frenzy to clean them, he was back at his desk within a half an hour.
He finished up the contracts around ten p.m., taking longer than usual because he found his thoughts revolving back to Tabitha. He had hoped she would have called but her pride, he knew, would prevent her from calling tonight. Maybe tomorrow, after a good nights sleep, things would be clearer for both of them.
Not wanting to face his empty bed, he flicked on the monitor and continued his quest for answers.
NINETEEN
Tabitha walked into the office at seven in the morning, surprised to find the doors unlocked. The firm didn’t open until eight but Stacia had given her keys to get in just in case she wanted to work late or come in early. Tabitha had awakened at five, feeling like she hadn’t slept at all. After checking all of the clean surfaces in her home and seeing them still clean, she felt restless and decided to get the day started. She had, after all, a job to do and wanted to put her best foot forward.
When she heard voices down the hall of the firm, she moved towards them, wanting to let whoever was there that she was here also. She stopped short when she heard Stacia’s voice raise in anger.
“I don’t care if you consider the case closed, I want a copy of the report before the end of the day, they were my family and I want to see it!”
Tabitha didn’t want Stacia to catch her eavesdropping so she quietly made it back to the front desk where she found the sample books of the contractors she had been researching the day before. She had just settled into the waiting area chair when she heard Stacia coming up the hall, muttering to herself. She didn’t see Tabitha sitting there and not wanting to startle her, Tabitha gently cleared her throat. “Good morning, Stacia. Thanks for leaving the front doors open, I wasn’t sure which was the right key to use.”
“Oh, Tabitha, you’re here early! I wasn’t expecting you so soon. Anxious to get working?” she tried to sound friendly but Tabitha could hear the tension in her voice.
“Definitely! I want to show you what I’ve got and to let you know I take this job very seriously.”
Stacia gave her a genial smile, “I know you do, and I appreciate it. I also appreciate your help in the, uh, other dilemma.” The tone in her voice acknowledged that Tabitha was doing more than just her job, she was helping with so much more.
“I will do everything in my power to make your life easier.” Tabitha stated.
Stacia didn’t look at her, but softly asked, “Can you bring my parents back?”
Tabitha heard the familiar pain in Stacia’s voice, the same pain that was in Tabitha’s voice when the firefighters told her that her parents were dead and she pleaded with them to go back in the house to save them, arguing with them that her parents weren’t dead and they could save them, bring them back to her. She briefly closed her eyes against the wave of pain that flashed through her body. “I wish I could. I wish I knew how but I can’t, for any of us.”
Stacia smiled but it didn’t hold any warmth and didn’t reach her eyes. “I know you can’t, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. They took them, those alien bastards. They need to pay, for what they did, for what they’re doing.”
“That’s what Justin and I are working on, how to stop them.”
“What if they can’t be stopped?” she let out a deep breath, almost in resignation and continued. “I mean, what if these things have been around since the beginning of everything and this is just part of life?”
Tabitha didn’t answer her right away, considering Stacia’s words. “It may be that they have been around for a very long time, but I don’t believe that they can’t be stopped. If I believed that, I would just give up and live what little time I have.” she hesitated, “but I don’t believe that. I believe that the three of us have been given this gift to counteract them, good to fight evil, someone to right the wrong. It’s proven that nature needs balance so it only makes sense that these things would have a nemesis and I believe that nemesis is us. We just need to learn our powers, if you will, our talents and our enemies talents, including their weaknesses.
“I missed out on so much of my life, allowing them to keep me in fear. But now I refuse to roll over and play dead. I will have a voice in what happens to me and my life.”
“God! You sound like Wonder Woman or something! You’re a tenacious little thing, aren’t you?” Stacia smirked and some of the pain faded from her face. “So, I was wondering if tonight would be a good time to meet.. I’m not sure what Mr. Murphy’s schedule is like but…”
“Justin won’t be able to meet with us until Thursday, previous, um, obligations. I would be more than happy to meet with you, though…”
“No, that’s ok. I’ll wait until Thursday when the three of us can meet. Do you mind if we meet at your place?” Stacia questioned.
“Yep, that’s fine. What time would be good for you?”
“I’m flexible but it sounds like Mr. Murphy has a tighter schedule. Set up the time after you’ve talked with him and just let me know. I’ll keep my calendar open that night.”
“Ok, I’ll try and get in touch with him today, I’ll let you know what he says.” Tabitha wasn’t looking forward to calling Justin but couldn’t see any way around it. Well, she would just keep it simple and short, all she needed was a time from him, not a conversation.
Stacia started to turn to leave when she stopped and hesitated, “I’ll let you get back to work. If I’m not here after you’ve talked to him, call my cell.”
Tabitha nodded and smiled, trying to send unspoken reassurance to her. Heaven knows she could use some of it herself.
* * *
There was a pause of silence over the line before she heard his weary voice again. “No, everything is fine, what time is it?” he sounded confused and exhausted, which was unusual for him.
“It’s almost noon! Why are you so tired?” realizing she was overstepping her bounds and getting off track as to why she called, she didn’t let him answer. “Never mind, it’s none of my business. Listen, the reason I’m calling is Stacia wants to schedule that meeting. She said Thursday is fine at a time that’s convenient for you. I figure it would be easier at my place since all your research and books are there.” She paused for just a moment and then continued, “Listen, if you don’t want to do this with me anymore, I’ll understand. Just let me borrow your stuff long enough to make copies so I don’t have to start from scratch.”
Once again, there was silence over the phone and she began to feel the panic she’d felt the day before at the thought that Justin had had second thoughts about her, about them being together. She was just about ready to tell him to forget it, that she could handle this on her own and they could go their separate ways when he broke the silence.
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