by Abe Moss
In the background were the continued noises of Hiltrude’s suffering—sniveling, coughing, wheezing. As Annora contemplated whatever it was she contemplated, the mechanisms of her cruel, plotting mind at work, her attention drifted loathsomely toward her sister’s sounds.
Annora spoke gently. Far off.
“And as your world falls apart all around you, and those you care about most are taken from you, and you feel your heart ripped out of you time and time again, you’ll know exactly the reason. You and only you. Because nobody believes. Not anymore…” She turned to Maria. Her unfeeling eyes blazed their natural sour yellow for a moment, colors swirling around her black pupils. “I suggest you avoid new relationships in the coming days. You might save some lives.”
Annora’s tongue danced quickly behind her parted lips and it was clear she was saying something, just a low whisper from her throat. Another of her incantations. She produced the knife from her sheathe again and stuck herself in the tip of her thumb. A welling bead of blood. Defenseless, Maria screamed internally as the witch brought her thumb toward her face. She pressed it to Maria’s lips, drew a line toward her chin.
“In the meantime…” Annora said softly. “An eye for an eye.”
With the same bloodied thumb, she painted a swipe across Maria’s left eye. She stood straight, admiring her work. The taste of her blood ran down Maria’s petrified tongue. Coppery. Annora sheathed the knife.
“I’ll let you get back to your miserable life,” she said. She smoothed the front of her dress, looking over her shoulder at the state of her useless sister. “Don’t do anything stupid, Maria. As bad as things are going to get for you, it could still be much worse.”
Maria listened as Annora stepped out of view.
“Get up,” Annora told Hiltrude. “We’re done here.”
After some pacing, and a little more complaining from Hiltrude, the witches departed through the front door.
What would someone think, Maria wondered dreamily, if they were seen coming out from her apartment? Perhaps nothing. Perhaps no one did see them. No one but her. That was their way…
As the door closed, she lay paralyzed for a while longer, nothing but the quiet apartment to keep her company. She strained her eyes to see all sides of the room, searching for a dark figure in the corners. Where was Harvey now, she wondered? Her vision blurred with tears while she waited, thinking her tortured thoughts. How long would this last?
What exactly had Annora cursed her with?
It was half an hour before feeling was restored to her. She felt it first in her fingers. A slight tingle. She twitched them, barely. Then it quickly worked its way up her arms, to her chest, and the rest followed almost immediately, and her body returned to her so abruptly she was overcome with the feeling of having the wind knocked out of her. Her voice erupted from her scrunched face, groaning. She rolled onto her side, gasping, balled up like a fetus. She lay that way for a short time.
She sat up, wiped her mouth on the back of her sleeve. The witch’s blood. She felt nauseous. She stood and hurried to the bathroom, where she looked in the mirror and saw the smear of blood down her mouth, her chin, across her eye. She wet her hands and splashed cold water on her face, rubbing, rinsing, rubbing, rinsing, until the blood was washed away. She examined her eye, which looked perfectly ordinary. Her stomach continued to flip and churn, but she didn’t vomit.
She went to her purse on the table by the front door. She took out her phone, thoughts of calling for help screaming in her mind, thoughts of reporting a crime. And what might that accomplish? They would find nothing. No one. And she wouldn’t be able to tell them the whole story anyway, of course, because…
Nobody believes. Not anymore…
Desperate to tell someone, to confide, to be protected, she called her father. The phone rang and rang without answer. It wasn’t late, she thought, seeing as her date was cut short. It wasn’t even seven-thirty yet.
“Hello?”
Maria opened her mouth, said nothing. She panicked. Her mind raced. The mere sound of her father’s voice filled her eyes with tears again.
“Did I wake you?”
Her father cleared his throat. “Yes, but I wasn’t in bed. What’s up?”
The lump in her throat doubled in size. Her face burned, her eyes burned. She paced into her bedroom, impulsively wishing to sit on her bed. As she stepped into her room, however, her mind instantly filled with the images she’d seen only minutes prior, flashing like a nightmare slideshow.
Could she tell him the truth? Should she tell him the truth? The need was intense. It thumped in her chest, an aching to be heard. Understood. Believed. Consoled. It ached so much because part of her knew just how unlikely it would be to have any of that.
“Dad…” She struggled to speak levelly. “It’s happening again…”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew how it sounded. How it would sound to them. Her parents. To anyone, really. For a moment, she wished her words were tangible, spilling from her mouth like fishing line which she could reel back in if she so chose. But they weren’t.
“What’s happening? Are you okay? You sound upset.”
She paced to the living room sofa and sat against its back.
“You’re not going to believe me…”
She said this more to herself than her father, speaking aloud as it dawned on her fully.
“Believe what? Tell me what’s wrong, baby…”
She cried into her phone. “Are you and mom okay?”
“We’re fine. We’re both fine. Tell me what’s going on.”
“They were here,” Maria told him. She opened her mouth to say more as her phone buzzed in her hand, a new text message. She took her phone away from her face and saw that it was from Jessup. She blinked, distracted. She put the phone to her ear again.
“—do you mean? Who was there?”
She thought of all the things Annora had threatened her with. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind she’d meant every one of them. It was only a matter of time. Her suffering would begin eventually at their hands, and it would involve the suffering of those close to her. She’d been promised that much.
“I need you to believe me, dad. I know you didn’t before…” It was incredibly painful, knowing already what would come of this, but she had to say it. “They found me again. The women from the cave I told you and mom about… they were just here, in my apartment, and they—”
“Woah, woah, woah. Slow down. Who was—”
“—they threatened me. I think… I think… I’m scared they’re going to do something to you and mom. I don’t know how to stop it. I don’t know what to do…” She tried to slow down, to breathe. The further she got in explaining, the more her tears subsided, strangely—her emotions hardening as she realized how fruitless it was. “Dad, I—”
In the background, likely whispering over her father’s shoulder, Maria heard her mother’s voice.
“Let me talk to her,” her mother said. A pause. “Ask her if she’s seen her therapist this week. Ask her if she’s still taking her medication. Have they changed her medication? Let me talk to her.”
There it was. Inevitable. It couldn’t have gone any other way, she knew. She’d known it before she even made the call.
“Maria, I’m going to give the phone to your mom, okay?”
“No,” she said. She sighed—a weak, shuddery sound. “That’s fine. It’s fine. I’m sorry I called like this, I… Everything’s fine, dad. I just—”
“Maria?” Her mother’s voice, loud and shrill. “Maria, what’s going on? Tell me everything.”
She could tell her everything, Maria thought, and she’d hear nothing.
“I…” She didn’t know what else she expected. “Everything’s fine, mom. I think… I think maybe I had a bad dream, is all.”
“Do you need us to come get you? We can leave right now. We’ll be there in an hour.”
It was nearly a two-hour drive, Maria kn
ew.
“No, I don’t need to you to come get me. I’m sorry I called. I think I just had a bad dream. I… I was…” She thought quickly. “I had a long day, and I came home and fell asleep, and I think I just had a weird dream… I’m sorry I woke you up. Everything’s fine…”
Her mother continued probing on the other end, wary of her daughter’s sudden change of heart.
“No, I’m fine. I swear. Now I’ve been awake a few minutes, I’m… I’m feeling better. Just a weird dream… I don’t know… I’m sorry I woke you and dad up.”
“You’re sure?” her mother said. “You’ve got us worried.”
“Yep. Nope. I’m fine. Everything’s okay.”
“You’re sure you don’t want to come here for a couple days during your break? I think it’d be good—”
“Hey, mom, I’m gonna have to let you go. My roommate just got home, and… and she needs my help with something. Sorry I worried you. Everything’s good. I’ll call you later, okay? I have to go. Love you. Tell dad I said love you, too.”
With the sound of her mother’s concern still coming through the line, she ended the call. As she lowered her phone, sitting on the edge of the sofa’s back, she looked over her shoulder toward the window. Just a feeling.
And there he was. Finally.
“Now you’re here?” Maria said. She watched the dark apparition coldly, resentfully. To her surprise, he shrugged in response.
“You can stop them,” Harvey said.
Maria laughed humorlessly.
“You have to stop them.”
She set her narrowed eyes on his unmoving shape, incredulous.
“How? There’s nothing I can do.”
“They’re not untouchable. They’re as vulnerable as you or me.”
“They can do things I can’t,” Maria said. She turned toward the kitchen, where she’d fought with them, and saw her necklace was gone from the floor. Taken. Never to be used again. “And I have no protection from them.”
“You didn’t have much before,” Harvey said.
Maria recalled their incantations, their potions. Things she couldn’t attack or defend against. She recalled her voiceless struggle in the desert so many moons ago, or even the paralysis they set upon her just tonight.
“There’s nothing I can do…”
“You have to stop them.”
“Stop saying that!” She stood from the sofa, pacing in a circle. “I… I can’t risk going back there. I don’t want to end up in chains again, I…. I don’t want to be tortured.”
“They’re torturing you now.” There was movement across the room. The dark figure moved from the window toward the sofa, away from the shadows and into the light of the lamp by the door. The light fell over him, revealed him. Naked head to toe. Angelically beautiful, in an unsettling kind of way. “They’ll torture your family, too. And anyone else you love. The witch told you as much already.”
“I know, but—”
“And what do you think they’ll do when they’re finished with them? When you have no one left?” Harvey regarded her somberly, a hard, no-nonsense judgement in his eyes. “They’ll torture you personally, then. Like they did me. Much worse, I bet.”
Maria folded her arms to keep from shaking. It was true, she was aware. But there was nothing she could do to prevent it, as far as she could tell. She was helpless.
“You’re not helpless,” Harvey said, and chills rained down her body. “And they’re not invincible. I can help you.”
“How can you help me? You’re a ghost. Better yet, you’re probably not even real…”
“I’m real.”
“You just want me to release you. I’ll die trying to save you, that’s all that’ll happen. You know I’m the last chance you’ve got, so of course you’re trying to convince me—”
“Yeah, I’ll admit I might get something out of it, too. But you’ve got way more to lose if you do nothing.”
Maria paced from the sofa to the kitchen counter. The cutlery block lay on the floor, as well as the knife she’d pulled from it. Shaking her head, she turned toward her bedroom, then hesitated. She turned to the living room again, toward Harvey’s naked figure watching her.
She threw her hands in the air. “So, what? What do I do? How do I stop them?”
Harvey cocked his head, grimacing. “There’s no secret to it. You’ve hurt them before.” He looked past her, and she followed his gaze to the knives spilled on the floor. “You just have to finish it now.”
She rested her eyes on those sharp blades for a minute longer, mind reeling, considering, deciding. In an attempt to collect herself, she closed her eyes and all she saw burned against the blacks of her eyelids were their cruel, revolting faces, their yellow eyes, the rotten smiles they wore. The viciousness. She saw Michael, bled and spinning from a rope in a cave. Hallucinations, they told her. More like a waking nightmare.
Lost in thought, she realized her fists were clenched and she opened her eyes. She looked to the living room and Harvey was gone, though his voice came to her as though he stood directly beside her.
“They think you’re weak,” he said. “They won’t expect you to be strong.”
✽ ✽ ✽
One new message from Jessup.
Despite the willies it gave her to do so, Maria sat on her bed. She hoped to never feel as totally helpless as she felt tonight. Never again…
And all it took were a few words from their mouths…
She opened her phone conversation with Jessup and was startled to see quite a large paragraph. More and more, she got the feeling he was a bit of a worrier.
Just wanted to say I had a lot of fun with you tonight. I know you said you’d call in the morning, but I wanted to tell you I think you’re an awesome person and I can’t wait to get to know you better, if you’re open to it. If not, that’s cool too lol. I’m sorry about your family stuff, hope everything’s okay. Anyway, hope you get some sleep. Goodnight.
Although she wasn’t entirely sure what to make of his eagerness, she again felt that warm pang, an odd sensation in her chest, something she couldn’t quite place or wrap her head around. Whatever it was, all she knew was she wanted more of it. Something—perhaps wishful thinking—told her she might find it with him.
With more on her mind than she knew what to do with, she texted him back.
Sorry for the sudden end to our date. I had a good time. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately. But I couldn’t have asked for a better distraction, so thank you.
She was about to send it when that sensation bloomed inside her again. A thrilling want. Thrilling because she’d began thinking such a thing was impossible.
He believes.
It was a selfish impulse. An idea. As soon as it surfaced, she recognized it for what it was. Unfair. She was torn. She wanted so badly to tell him, to confide in him, and somehow she knew he’d believe her. She felt it in her heart, that odd sensation, that ache. He’d believe her, and…
To introduce him to her troubles would just as well spell his doom, she thought. If she told him anything, as she so badly wanted to, he would undoubtedly want to be part of it. Her fate was decided already. But to drag Jessup into it, even if he came willingly, which she easily predicted…
If she cared at all about him, she would tell him nothing. She would do it alone—
—and die trying.
Pressing her lips together in thought, thumb hovering over the message she’d written, Maria hit SEND.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
DESERT TRAVELS
She waited for the response she knew would come. Though she hadn’t predicted his words verbatim, she guessed the sentiment she’d be met with exactly.
Within a minute of sending her message, as though he’d been readily waiting for it, Jessup replied:
Good! I’m glad you had a good time, at least. I’m always happy to distract haha. And, just throwing it out there, if you ever need to talk about whatever might be on your mind, I’m avail
able. :)
The smiley face. The goddamn smiley face. Maria fell back onto her bed, experiencing a full-body cringe—not for Jessup, but for what she knew she was about to do to him.
“I’m a shitty person…” she muttered aloud, eyes fixed to the spackle pattern on her ceiling. “Fuck…”
It didn’t stop her. She replied exactly how she’d planned, exactly how she knew she’d be able thanks to him, and already his next response was foreseeable to her. Predictable. The butterflies in her belly took flight and she felt them pinging against the ache in her chest as she typed.
What are you doing right now?
As she hit SEND, she felt the chasm to hell growing a bit wider beneath her.
Her phone buzzed.
Not much. You?
Her heart pounded. She took a deep breath. Held it. She responded truthfully.
I wasn’t honest with you about what happened at the bowling alley. I was afraid to tell you the truth. Even if I tell you now, I’m afraid you’ll think I’m crazy.
There was still a chance he might, she thought.
SEND.
She let out her held-in breath, slow and bumpy with guilt.
✽ ✽ ✽
It wasn’t twenty minutes later that there was a knock on her door. Maria, dressed in her sweats because ‘who cares’, answered the door in fear that she wouldn’t be able to contain her emotions. Jessup stood in the hallway. Upon seeing her, he offered a sympathetic half-smile on that boyish face of his and Maria felt a chunk of her anxieties wash away. She stepped aside and let him in.
“Are you alone?” he asked, scanning the apartment, noticing how terribly silent it was.
“Yes…”
She closed and locked the door behind him. She led them both to the sofa in the living room, where she gestured for him to sit. Instead of sitting with him, she stood with her hands clasped, pacing in front of the sofa, in front of those sympathetic-yet-amused eyes of his as he watched her nervous movement, waiting for her to say something.