PANDORA

by Rebecca Hamilton

  Accept three spirits into your fold.

  Keep them enslaved until I summon.

  Yours to taunt as they ponder devotion."

  "Oh dear," Ruth cried.

  "What the hell?" Sara echoed, as the vortex opened beneath them.

  "Exactly! Well shit! Just shit!" Martin's exasperated voice echoed. And, in a puff of smoke, they were gone.

  ***

  "This isn't hell. Where's the fire? Where's the man with horns in the red suit? Where the hell are we?" Sara asked the minute they were deposited on a cold, damp marble floor.

  A deep, masculine voice reverberated around the room, "They have arrived, my children."

  A strange cachinnation came from the walls surrounding them; it rent the stale air, ascending into manic glee.

  "Whoa. Just . . . Whoa!" Sara grabbed her ears, her eyes big and round. "Ohmigod! Go on! What the heck was that?"

  "No sense in gettin' all hysterical and whatnot," Ruth suggested.

  "Just keep in mind, they can't kill you," Martin said, his smoky eyes swelling over his eye sockets.

  "What can't kill me?" Sara asked, as voices gibbered and wailed.

  Flickering sconces created warped and ominous silhouettes as two shapeless figures shuffled and loped from square tiles lining the walls. They took on solid forms covered in tattered clothes as they both stumbled toward them.

  "It's been so long. Let me see, now. Come on, just a little peek," a middle-aged woman cackled, a blade buried to the hilt in her chest. Her eyes were swollen, oozing; her lips split and cracked as she twisted her mouth in a snarl. She shoved Ruth and hammered fists through her chest, then opened her mouth wide.

  "I 'ate this part, I do." Ruth yelped, clamping her eyes shut, as the woman sucked Ruth's translucent form in through her mouth as though she were taking a drag off a cigarette and then slumped to the floor, closing her eyes with a smile on her face.

  Sara jumped. "Spit her out! Bitch, don't make me slap her out of you!"

  The woman didn't move her lips, but Ruth's voice floated from her body like music out of a bad set of speakers. "Bless'erpoorsoul, Sara, she can't 'elp 'erself, she can't."

  "What? Back it up, Ruth, what the hell is happening here?" Sara screeched.

  "All right, now that's enough lovie, blessyercarnivoroussoul, ya'ave got the picture. Spit me out, dear, now will ya?"

  The woman clamped her hands over her mouth and shook her head.

  "Spit out the old lady, NOW!" Sara screamed, her eyes on a young boy, his face and body bloated, his eyes begging as he staggered toward Martin.

  "No sense in watchin' a movin' picture over and over again, dear," Ruth's voice echoed from inside.

  "Ruth! I want answers!" Sara said, hovering over the woman.

  Martin sidestepped the child. "Back off, kid, not the kind of suckage I'm fond-"

  "Martin! Blessyercrudemouth, it's gonna be a long haul if y'just don't deal with this." Ruth's fingers wiggled out of the woman's chest wound, followed by the rest of her body. "Well it's always a disgustin' experience, it is, but nothin' can stop 'em I'm afraid."

  The kid reached for Martin and he whipped away, heading for the ceiling. "Not soon enough!" Martin yelped as the child bolted up after him.

  The masculine voice vibrated the walls with his laughter. "Enjoy them while you can, my children, because soon they will be gone."

  "Can y'show yerself, dear, so's we can 'ave a little talk," Ruth asked, her eyes wandering around the walls of the room, "before y'go draggin' anymore peacefully dead and respectable ghosts from their well-earned graves, blessyerblacksoul?"

  A deep throaty cackle echoed around the room.

  "Or not," Martin said as the young boy dragged him to the floor, leapt on him, and grabbed his ghostly throat. "Okay, so get off. There you go. Back up." Martin flattened himself against the marbled floor. The boy tilted his head and opened his mouth. Martin screamed like a horror flick chick as the child sucked him in through his mouth.

  Sara buzzed in front of Ruth. "What's going on?"

  "They're temporarily zombies, they are," Ruth said. "See, by taking us in, they get to see into our souls, absorb the world as we've traversed it."

  "Come! Come and partake, all of you," the voice announced.

  Whispers and manic laughter assaulted the room as the walls exploded with smoky disconnected forms.

  Sara covered her ears, her eyes jutting around the large dark room, peering through ghostly apparitions circling her. Granite walls wept with moisture and mold. Withered flowers drooped and clung to sconces, dead for as many years as the creatures that began to float out of the walls by the hundreds. "Okay, you are all in my personal space! I need a good two feet of air. Back the hell up right now or I'm gonna start flinging shit at all of you!"

  Sara elbowed her way through the zombie-like ghosts as they began to take on a solid form and then bolted toward a big double door at the end of the room, only to bounce off, shaking her head. She tried another wall with the same results, backed up and tried another, and then spiraled toward the ceiling, only to ricochet back to the floor.

  "Although that's terribly amusing, you think we should enlighten her?" Martin asked Ruth as he corkscrewed his body out of the boy's ear.

  "Give 'er a minute, dear, I'm thinkin' she needs t'blow off some steam, she does."

  "Well, shit! There isn't a way out!" Sara hit the doors again several times before floating into the center of the room, both hands inside her hips.

  A balding old man wearing a dirty black suit, a young girl holding a rag doll, her blond hair tangled about the shoulders of her dingy white dress, a woman with half her face missing, and a teenager covered in cuts and big purple bruises, an automobile windshield-wiper protruding from his chest, all plummeted Sara with their mouths open wide, driving her to the floor.

  "Gran! I'm gonna kill you when you let us out of here!" Sara's echoed screams filled the room as she was sucked into the teenager.

  "That might just be an option, dear," Ruth offered, "if y'care t'experiment with Gran's spell book, that is. Y'know we can't move on 'til we put Bartholomew in 'is rightful place, and if 'e gets inside o'yer sister it will be too late, dear."

  "Okay! All right already! I'll try it, dammit!" Sara echoed from inside the teen's body.

  "Ruth! We summon your dead guy first," Martin squealed as he was pulled into another body, only to bolt out a second later, screeching like an overzealous maniac.

  "How ya doin', Martin?" Sara asked with a snarl as she wiggled her way over the windshield-wiper blade.

  The balding old man grabbed Sara, opened his mouth, and she squealed, "I am so ready to hit that book!" The zombie-like creature sucked Sara in through his nose. "Oh yuck! Nothing like a petrified nasal cavity to make a girls day!"

  Ruth let out a yelp when another zombie drew in his breath and her words echoed off the walls as she disappeared. "Martin, yers is a better choice, 'e is, and well mine . . . 'E's not. Y'ave t'trust me on this one, dear," Ruth's muffled voice enlightened.

  "Oh-give-me-a-break!" Martin yelled, dropping his fangs as he bounced off a wall trying to dodge another attack.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  It was Wednesday afternoon and Toni stood in front of her bed with her cell phone hanging from her ear as she tossed some lip-gloss into her purse. "Reggie still on for tonight?"

  "Yep," Paddy answered, "But Reggie doesn't want to talk about the Jessica shit at the gym."

  "Why?" Toni asked.

  "She has something on Jessica she wants to show us and Jess and her friends go to the gym a lot in the summer. So can you meet us at the mall entrance in about two hours?"

  'Jessica did Reggie' popped out at her from the open diary on the bed. Probably so not true. I mean I wrote it. "Actually, I was just headed to the library. I had a marathon read and finished three books in two days. Can you meet me at the library?"

  "The library? None of the Sploshers ever go there. Go figure, right? Oh, Reggie's gonna l
ove that. Hold on, she just walked in," Paddy said and Toni heard her yell, "She's on her way to the library right now. You wanna meet her there before we go to the mall?"

  Toni heard a mumbled reply and then Paddy said, "Come on! How bad can it be? And it's less public than the mall. Hell, Jess could be there!" More mumbling, then Paddy said, "We'll meet ya at the library, Toni."

  "You sure? Hold on . . . crap . . . I still have to ask if I can borrow the car. I know Mom doesn't have anything until her hair appointment later, so I'll have to be home early."

  "It's cool," Paddy giggled. "See ya in a few."

  Toni clicked the cell closed, opened it again, and copied Paddy's number to her contact list, then tossed the cell into her purse. She tucked the diary in the drawer of her bedside table, and headed for the stairs but stopped in front of the mirror on the back of her bedroom door. She fluffed long red curls, straightened the short tank top that matched her green eyes, turned sideways and sucked in her stomach over jean shorts that rested low on her hips. Why am I suddenly so worried about how I look? She thought as she puckered her glossed lips and batted her darkened lashes. She glared into her reflected eyes as she whispered, "You are not like Sara. You will come to terms with . . . oh hell, with what?" She looked down at the books in her hands and sighed.

  ***

  Antoinette walked into the kitchen and found Belle stirring a pot of tomato sauce on the stove. Her streaked hair was fashioned in a ponytail, a pair of faded jeans hugged her shapely hips, and a capped sleeved, red t-shirt snuggled her chest.

  Rufus rolled over under Belle's bare foot as she wiggled her toes in his fur.

  "I thought you didn't like that cat," Antoinette said. Rufus gave her a weary glance.

  Belle turned and casually asked, "Is Bartholomew still captive inside Rufus?"

  "Yes. Why do you ask that?" Antoinette locked eyes with the cat.

  Belle set the large spoon on a dish in the center of the stove, wiped her hands on a dishtowel, and turned to Antoinette. "I was just wondering if you should let him out so we have more control over Paul. Toni hasn't seen him since he came over the other day."

  Rufus turned his head away from Antoinette's gaze, flapped his tail on the tiled floor, his motor running.

  "All in due time," Antoinette said, still watching the cat.

  "What's Sara up to? Has she been keeping an eye on Paul?"

  "No, I gave her something else to do," Antoinette answered with a smile. She sat down at the table and adjusted her paisley silk caftan around skinny legs, and then reached up to tuck a curl of stray hair behind her ear, gray eyes locked on Rufus.

  Rufus's chest rumbled as he met her gaze again.

  With a look of concern, Belle said, "I'm worried about Sara. If she can possess a human, we should be thinking about her in regards to Paul now that Bartholomew is not in possession of him. That's what I'm getting at. What if she's been manipulating the boy?"

  "I've been able to control her . . . manipulations, and have-"

  "I know," Belle interrupted, "but lately I've been having . . . thoughts . . . dreams about her loyalty and unexplained abilities. Are you sure she's willing to assist us? Because I had a dream last night and-"

  "Was Rufus sleeping with you last night?"

  Rufus got to his feet, flipped his ears back, and glared at Antoinette.

  "Yes, he was. You don't think Bartholomew..."

  "I do."

  They both stared at Rufus. He stiffened his tail, his snout bobbing; and, with an air of indifference, sauntered over to the door as Toni walked into the kitchen. He began to rub his side against her ankles, meowing obnoxiously, his butt hiked in the air, tail beating her legs.

  Belle and Antoinette locked a glance for a second before they both turned to Toni.

  "And what are you up to?" Belle asked.

  Toni gave the cat a scratch behind the ear. "I'm on my way to the library to meet Paddy and Reggie." She hugged the books closer to her chest. Please don't ask me any questions. I just want to get the heck out of here.

  "I'm so glad you've made some friends, sweetie," Belle said, with a directed glance at Antoinette.

  Okay, that's hopeful. "Paddy's really nice and she knew Sara. I can't wait to meet Reggie, she-"

  "Have you talked to Paul lately?" Antoinette asked, her eyes on the novel titles peeking out from under Toni's arms.

  Great! Here it comes. I'll be stuck here forever. "He called earlier. We're going to his father's bookstore Saturday," Toni said hurriedly, and then asked, "Can I borrow the car, Mom? I'll be home early so you can get to your appointment on time."

  "Sure you can," Belle said, pointing at the car keys on the kitchen counter. "Also, I wondered if you'd like to invite him to dinner, tonight. I'm making your favorite."

  Shit Shit Shit! Like that's so not going to happen. No more interrogations. "Um, well, I'm . . . ugh, well, he has plans tonight, and besides I'm going to work out later, so maybe some other time?"

  "How about your new friends? You could ask them," Antoinette suggested.

  Oh hell no. Sure, like I can just see me saying, 'Nice to meet'cha Reggie and how about dinner with my mom and grandmother tonight. Like that is so not going to happen, either. How the heck would Sara handle this? She'd run and not turn back. "I haven't even met Reggie, Gran, and I just don't feel comfortable asking them to dinner yet. Okay?" Toni plucked the keys off the kitchen counter and headed for the front door.

  "Dinner will be at seven, does that give you enough time for your workout?" Belle called after her.

  "Yep, that's fine," Toni shouted over her shoulder as she opened the front door.

  Belle squinted at Rufus. "Well at least we know she'll be seeing Paul Saturday. Are you sure you don't want to let Bartholomew out?"

  "Not quite yet," Antoinette answered, glaring at the cat. "And, dear, I think you should go back to your natural hair color. Those orange stripes do nothing for your skin color."

  ***

  Fifteen minutes later, Toni walked up to the doors of the library and saw Paddy and Reggie standing on the other side. She gasped, and paused.

  "First time I saw her . . . " Toni opened the door and stared at Reggie. "Her eyes met mine." She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She's beautiful. And Sara was...

  "Hi." Reggie smiled. "You don't even look like your twin sister." She looked almost relieved.

  Her body was tall, lean and muscular. Her hair, raven black, cut extremely short and choppy. Jagged pieces fell randomly across her forehead, others reached for her high cheekbones, and in places it stuck up on the top of her head, making her look like she'd just jumped out of bed.

  Toni's mind reeled with the soft curve of Reggie's breasts—the small ripple of flesh over the top of her low-cut jeans—her sensuous grin, but she blurted, "You're black!" Ohmigod, migod, migod, I didn't just say that!

  Reggie's cocoa-brown eyes got big and round, she hit the wall beside her with her palm, and gasped. "No shit? Goddammit, black, and gay! I'm so screwed!"

  Toni couldn't move. Say something you idiot! "I . . . um . . . I'm . . . "

  Reggie's eyes twinkled mischievously as she stared at the books that Toni held in a death grip against her chest. "So you cramming for finals?" Reggie held her full lips in a big grin as she pointed her finger at her own t-shirt. "Cuz, I'd make a good study partner."

  Toni's jaw hung inches from her chest as she absorbed the script on Reggie's black shirt: 'Nobody Knows I'm a Lesbian.' Okay, so how do I follow that? "Um, well I . . . I mean," she mumbled, "I . . . I was just . . . um, wanted to..." Christ, untie your tongue, will ya!

  Reggie pointed a thumb at Toni and turned to Paddy. "Does it actually talk?"

  Paddy rolled her eyes. "Will ya cut her some slack. You're scaring the hell out of her."

  Toni's eyes walked down Reggie's glistening muscular arms, settling on her dangerously tight Levi SilverTabs. She raised her eyes, and found a contagious smile on Reggie's lips.

  "You look li
ke you're hungry," Reggie said.

  Toni burbled a giggle and felt heat color her cheeks. What the hell am I thinking? Sara and Reggie doing . . . Crap! So NOT going there!

  "Come on," Paddy said, shaking her head as she headed down the hall leading into the library. "Quit giving her shit—we got business to take care of."

  Toni followed, feeling awkward as Reggie fell in beside her.

  Reggie tapped the books Toni held. "If you're really interested in what your sister was all about, I have some nonfiction books, brochures, and a club I can suggest."

  "Um . . . okay . . . well, that would be nice," Toni stammered. Nice? Oh man, that’s so lame. I wish I could be more like Sara. Where's my wit when it comes to actually talking? Terribly aware of Reggie's closeness, she sidled a few inches away as she deposited her books on the librarian's desk.

  "Ya know it's not contagious, right?" Reggie laughed.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  "So, ya want me to show you what I got on Jessica, or you wanna talk about your sister and me first?" Reggie asked, locking eyes with Toni as she slid into a chair at a table in the back of the library.

  Toni pulled out the chair next to Paddy with a shaky hand and just about fell into it. This is so awkward. I want to hear about my sister, but . . .

  "I say we hop right on Jessica." Paddy tucked her long bangs behind her ear and studied both girls.

  Toni glanced around nervously. An older woman adjusted her spectacles on the bridge of her nose and jerked her gaze from their table to a book as she pulled it from a shelf. A group of junior high kids huddled together and quickly turned back to the computer in front of them, whispering giggles.

  The librarian checking in the novels Toni'd just returned was seated at the counter across from the computers. When Toni looked in her direction the woman quickly diverted her gaze and lowered her head.

  They're all watching us. Toni stiffened and immediately chastised herself. Why am I so concerned about whose looking at us? I feel like I'm doing something wrong, that's why. How stupid is that? I mean we're just sitting in a library, for God's sake. Is Reggie supposed to hide her sexuality? Is this what Sara felt like?