Maybe leaving now would be okay. It was daytime. That thing would have gone.
My clothes sat on the chair opposite the sofa, all neatly folded. Buzz had washed them? When had he done that?
A while later, Buzz left. He said he wanted to go to the gym and run some errands before he headed to work. He told me I could stick around if I wanted.
After he left, I explored the rest of the house. I’d only been in the kitchen and living area. I went into a bedroom. That had to be Buzz’s room. It smelled of him, like outdoors and pine trees. He kept his room neat. He’d even made his bed before he left.
A photo sat on his dresser. I picked it up to look at it. Buzz and a woman and a girl around my age at some restaurant with a seaside theme. Was that his wife and daughter? There was no trace of a wife in this house, no women’s clothes in the wardrobe. Maybe she’d left him.
I opened the door to the next room. A fake berry smell hit me, like the ghostly remains of a sickly-sweet bubblegum. The dressing table was laid out with girlie things—a hairbrush, perfume and a bunch of cheap hair accessories. I sat on the bed and picked up a magazine from the pile on the bookcase. That magazine was over ten years old. I flicked through the rest of the pile. They were all just as old. I put the magazine back and picked up a red rose hair clip from the dresser.
As soon as my hand touched it, I saw them. The woman and the girl. The woman driving on a winding road by the sea then suddenly losing control of the car. My stomach lurched as the car careened off the road, with a steep drop straight into the ocean.
I dropped the hairclip.
My body flashed hot and cold. I needed to get away from that room. I didn’t need to know that. I hated it when I saw things like that.
I rushed back to the living room, shoving my stuff in any pocket it’d fit. I wanted to keep the paper sigils but I had nowhere to put them so I left them behind. I’d buy more chalk.
When I got to the front door, I hesitated. It could still be out there. It could be waiting for me. I rushed back and got those papers. Then I zipped up my hoodie and put them inside it.
I opened the door and walked out, hesitating on the doorstep. The voice was gone. The sun shone and the street looked so damn normal. Every house on this street looked so solid. Anchored into its place in this world with no question about where it belonged. The gardens out front of each house were filled with trees and flowers proving how established these people were. This wasn’t a place where you just pulled up stakes and moved on. I’d never lived in a real house or in a real neighborhood. I had no concept of how that felt.
With a full belly, I didn’t need to spend my day scrounging around for food so I headed straight to the library. There was an alcove at the back where I liked to curl and read. Or curl up and sleep. So long as you were quiet, no one bothered you there.
Libraries are amazing. All those books you could read for free. I grabbed a couple on demon lore, hoping I’d find out something about this thing that had marked me. If I knew what it was and what it wanted, then I could work out a way to escape it.
After a few hours, I hadn’t found out anything practical but I had learned a lot of interesting stuff. Soon, the library would be closing. You can’t hide in a hidden corner and stay in the library after hours. They always find you. I’d tried it a few times. I put the books back on the trolley and headed outside. I did not want to be alone once night fell so I headed to a cafe. There were a few places where you could sit for hours if you bought a drink. It’d be worth spending a few of my last precious dollars.
It’d take me about half hour to walk to the place I had in mind. Straight down the shopping street, then turn left at the statue of the old guy on the horse then walk to the shop with the ducks in the window and turn left again.
I shoved my hands in my pockets, put my head down and started walking. I could leave town, hitch a ride somewhere else. It wasn’t like I had ties in this place but that demon wouldn’t let go so easily.
As I walked down the street, people gave me a wide berth. Not because I stunk this time either. Even if people had no idea, they avoided me because I was marked. The bad juju rolled off me in waves. No one wanted to be tainted by that.
I got to the horse statue and turned right.
The wind blew stronger and I pulled the hood up on my hoodie.
Wait, right? I had to go left. I turned, cursing myself for getting too involved in my own problems and screwing up my sense of direction.
I tried to backtrack but every time I took a step, I spun around again. I was being dragged back to that house with no free choice.
I wanted to scream out but I knew not one person in the street would help me.
Even if they tried, what would I say? That I no longer had control of my body, that a demon controlled me instead. That’d just buy me a one-way ticket to the crazy farm.
I couldn’t just give up even though my muscles ached from the strain. I could move my arms and I could move my face. My stupid legs though, they just wanted to walk straight into the gates of hell.
The demon had my name and he could call me to him.
Despite the cold, sweat drenched my body and the smell of fear oozed from me, all sour and fetid.
AS I APPROACHED THE house, the front door swung open. I gave up fighting.
“You’ve got me here. What do you want?” I called out. I tried to sound strong, cocky even, but I knew there was no fooling the demon.
The voice whispered my name.
“Yeah, I got it. You know my name. Big whoop.”
I stood in the middle of the room. I could feel this thing all around me even if I couldn’t see it. And I sure could smell it. Evil. Now stronger, like fermented shit. I put my arm up to cover my nose.
I’d been an idiot. Why had I said my name out loud? Now it had a hold of me and I’d never get free. I wrapped my arms around myself, wanting some protection. I had nothing but those sigils and I wasn’t sure they’d work for this.
The old windows rattled in their frames and the house shook as though blown by massive gusts of wind. It blew through me and I shuddered all the more. Pinpricks covered my skin.
I dropped to a squat, folding my arms on my knees and burying my face.
If this thing wanted me, it could take me. I didn’t have that great a life and I sure as hell had no future that wasn’t struggles and pain. I took my head in my hands, covering my ears as the whispering voice grew more intense. That whisper cut me, like paper cuts all over my skin.
Then the red eyes glowed in front of me.
Soon this would be over. That’s what I had to tell myself. Soon I’d be gone. I’d be nothing.
Footsteps thudded through the house. Was this another of the demon’s tricks or maybe some fool junkies stupid enough to come in here? Or those damn kids might be back again.
“Jayne.” Buzz’s voice sounded way too sane and normal for this stupid situation. “Fight it, Jayne.”
I peered up at him. Fight it? I had no idea how to do that. People I could fight but whispers and glowing eyes, they weren’t solid things.
Buzz walked across the room and put his hands on my shoulders. The whispers stopped. I exhaled a breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding. I didn’t want to inhale, not with that smell in the room. I’d gag on it.
“When I let go, you have to focus. You can do this if you fight.”
He didn’t understand. This thing was so powerful and I was nothing.
“How can I fight?” I yelled at him.
“That’s it, tap into that anger. Tap into the things hidden inside you.”
I rolled my eyes. The things hidden inside me should stay hidden.
“I’m going to take my hands off your shoulders at the count of three. Are you ready?”
“Nope.”
He gave me a look like no one had ever given me before. There was something in that look that said I was capable. I wasn’t just a worthless piece of trash. That look said he believed in m
e. Buzz might be an idiot for thinking that but what was the alternative? I couldn’t spend the rest of my life squatting in this dirty old room with his hands on my shoulders.
I pushed myself up onto my feet without dislodging Buzz’s hands.
“Okay,” I said to him. It wasn’t okay. It was anything but okay. Still, I needed to finish this one way or the other.
“Don’t block your power, Jayne. I’ll count to three. One...”
No, I didn’t want to do this. I had no power. He was delusional.
“Two.”
My stomach stirred. I’d vomit. Was that my power? Vomiting power? Ick.
“Three.”
Buzz lifted his hands from my shoulders and stepped back. As soon as he did, the whispers came back even louder than ever. I glanced at Buzz wondering if there was something I needed to do. He smiled and nodded. I was about to make a smart remark about that not helping but, before I could, something whipped my head, throwing me backward.
The whispers mocked me.
“Hey, you stupid whispers, stop that,” I yelled.
I got into fighting stance as the red, glowing eyes came closer. Gradually a shape formed around them. A shape was good, it was something I could fight.
Or maybe not. I rushed. I stumbled right through it and hit the wall on the other side.
The whispering died down as the demon became more solid but the laughter continued.
I sucked in my breath, not sure how to handle this. That feeling of the wind whipping returned. It chilled me to the bone. As the power of it intensified, it reached inside of me as though it wasn’t just content to chill my bones but wanted to suck the marrow right out of them.
Bits of me separated. Not physically but in my mind. Bits I never even knew existed inside of me. The demon seemed to sift through them as though looking for something. I had no idea what that something was but it was my something. Screw him if he thought he could take it from.
He pulled at me. I scrunched my eyes, willing him to stop.
Something in the air changed. He found what he wanted. I could picture it. All black and spiky and ugly.
I didn’t want something like that in me. If the demon wanted to take it, maybe he was doing me a favor. For a long time, I’d suspected that I had something wrong inside me. Now it had a shape and form, and it was even uglier and more malevolent than I’d ever imagined.
If he took it, he’d leave me alone and maybe I’d be a better person for having it removed. I just had to stop fighting and all the things I tried to hide would no longer exist.
Let go. Let go. Was that my voice saying that or the demon?
Buzz frowned. Did he know what was going on? How much of this could he see and hear? From his perspective, I just stood in the middle of the room but he looked like he could read the struggle going on inside me.
I had no idea why Buzz thought I could beat this demon but he believed in me and he didn’t want me to give up anything.
Maybe the black, ugly thing the demon wanted was bad, maybe it was what made me bad, but it was mine.
I gritted my teeth and pulled back my shoulders.
I wanted that demon gone, destroyed, annihilated. I wanted it with every part of my being.
As soon as that thought solidified in my mind, words spewed out of me. Words in a language I didn’t even know.
The house shook harder, dancing on its foundations. The air around me twirled and black smoke blinded me, but the words didn’t stop flowing. I could stop, I understood that. I was being used as a channel for something or someone but I wasn’t just a stupid puppet. I had a choice.
The whispers turned to shrieks. They pierced my head but I just covered my ears and let the words pour out.
Blankness filled me. Exhaustion like I’d never known even when I hadn’t slept for three days running. It took all my energy to stay upright.
The words continued, like a chant rising in me. I tried to hold onto them, to work out their meaning but they floated away.
The house shook so hard, I tumbled from my feet. I couldn’t keep going. My throat burned from the black smoke. Tears spilled from my eyes and I trembled all over.
The force of what I was doing became stronger than my body. I’d shatter before destroying this demon smashing into pieces like an ugly vase.
The red eyes turned from me. Had I won? The glow didn’t die down though, it just moved. Moved toward Buzz.
I didn’t even know the guy that well but there was no way the demon could take him. There was no blackness in him. Still, the demon moved for him.
I rested my hands on my stomach, trying to physically force the words out of me. Was I having any effect on that demon at all or was I just mumbling a bunch of rubbish?
As the eyes got closer to Buzz, the words screamed out of me, faster and shriller. Almost too high pitched for my ears to handle.
The demon became more shapeless and the red eyes dulled like the dying embers of a fire. I grabbed the end of the bed, needing something solid to stabilize myself.
Then the words stopped. I became silent.
I knew it. I couldn’t win. But the smell of evil had left the room and those red eyes glowed no more. The black smoke cleared and the shaking stopped.
Around me, everything seemed as it had once been.
Buzz smiled.
“Has the demon gone forever?” I asked.
Buzz nodded. “He’s gone but there’ll be more.”
I could never plan too far into the future. If I was safe for now, that would be enough.
For a little while, I just clung to that old bed and sobbed. The demon had scared the shit out of me but the way I’d fought him scared me even more.
Then Buzz walked over and helped me up.
“Jayne, it’s time for you to make a choice,” he said.
I hoped that was a choice between chocolate chip or cookies and cream ice cream.
“I can train you to develop your powers. You’ll be stronger than you imagined. I can’t protect you and, once you start training, you’ll open yourself up to danger.”
I shook my head. I didn’t want that. Powers were all cool and fun in stories but they weren’t for me. But he said he’d train me? That’d mean settling down, having something solid.
“What’s the other choice?” I asked. The need for home grew within me. A promise of a dream I’d always been denied. But if it meant accepting that black part of myself then I couldn’t do it. I’d run forever.
“I can help you resist. The source of your power can’t be defeated but it can be controlled, like turning the flame down on a gas burner.”
“That’s possible?” I asked.
“It’s possible. You’d be normal, safe.”
He gave me a reassuring smile but it didn’t actually reassure me. I wasn’t sure I believed that. I knew Buzz wasn’t lying but that it was something he didn’t understand himself. I could be normal for a while. Maybe ten, twenty years, but not forever. Maybe those years would be long enough.
I nodded my head. “I want to be safe,” I said. “No matter what.”
I’d believe that lie and worry about the consequences when the time came.
THANKS FOR READING Run Away. If you want to find out what happens when Jayne’s powers resurface, be sure to pick up Smoke, Mirrors and Demons, the first book in the Carnival Society series. And you can join my VIP list to find out all the news about new releases, promos, freebies and other fun stuff.
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Street Spells: Seven Urban Fantasy Shorts Page 18