For Blood & Glory

by Cassandra Hendricks

  “Hell if I know,” she said, flicking ash. “But it’s dead now so don’t sweat it.” Eyes shut, she took a long drag, held it, then exhaled. Studying the glowing end of the cigarette she asked, “You need a ride back to your car?”

  A ride back to my car? What? “Aren’t you the least bit curious about what’s going on here?”

  Joy shrugged. “Look—what do you expect me to say? One minute I’m at a costume party dancing with some nerdy dude, and the next…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m capable of some weird stuff—no lie. But this?” Her jaw tightened. “I’ve never experienced anything like this. Hell, did you see what I turned into? And the dogs?” She straightened up, jamming fingers into her chest. “You don’t think I’m freaking out right now? Trust me, I’m doing everything in my power to keep it together.” She winced as she took another long toke.

  Well you’re doing a much better job than I am. “Okay.” Sefira closed her eyes, taking it all in. “Putting aside the pulsing grey monster and the fact that you changed into some sort of…beast. What about that…power…the red stuff that came out of me? How did you make that happen?”

  “I didn’t, you did.” Propping her elbow atop her wrist, she continued. “All I did was help you to focus. The rest was all you, chica.” She exhaled sharply.

  “I’m confused.” Sefira gripped her temples in exasperation. “How did you know it was going to work?”

  “I didn’t.” Blythe dropped her cigarette and put it out with her boot. “I just told you what I do when I’m trying to orb and stuff.”

  “Orb and stuff?” Sefira gesticulated dramatically. “What does that mean? Are you telling me you gambled with my life? I could’ve been killed?”

  “Or seriously injured.” Joy scratched her ear. “Hey, if I would’ve known you were a complete newbie I never would’ve called you. My bad.” She shrugged.

  Sefira ignored her sarcasm. It was like pulling teeth, this conversation with her. “And how did you do that? How did you call me? And what was that thing talking about?”

  Joy started to look just as annoyed as Sefira felt. “Listen, I’m definitely sober now and I see this is gonna take a little bit longer than we have. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to stand around here and have to explain to the cops why I’m bleeding, why we both look like hell, or why there’s a steaming pile of hairy fat on the ground. I’ll tell you what, I’ll be in touch. ” Joy walked off.

  “Wait,” Sefira protested, “you’re just gonna leave? Just like that? Don’t you want answers?”

  “Of course, I do,” she answered, walking backwards and throwing her hands in the air. “I want to know why that thing completely destroyed my buzz.” She turned back around.

  “Wait—we need to talk. How can I find you?”

  “We’ll be in touch.” And with that, she vanished into thin air.

  Sefira was left standing alone in absolute wonderment. She knew she wasn’t dreaming, but she had to pinch herself just the same. This was all too incredible to believe. Dazed and confused, Sefira made her way through the darkness, back to the party.

  “What the hell was that?” Giselle uttered, wide-eyed as ever. “Monica.” She smacked her on the arm. “Tell me you filmed that?”

  “Yeah …I got something. I mean, I got some pics.” Monica’s mouth remained agape.

  Giselle turned to Monica. “Am I crazy or did you just see what I saw?”

  “Well…I think…”

  Giselle grabbed her by the shoulders. “You saw it, Monica, she like fried that guy—and the other girl, she turned into a monster. They’re like witches or aliens or something.”

  “Yeah, we should call the police.” Monica was visibly shaken. She looked as if she intended to make a call but was too rattled to properly dial.

  “Wait.” Giselle grabbed the phone from her. “Don’t. Nobody’s gonna believe us. We’d sound crazy. No, instead of doing all that, let’s just expose her for who she really is.” She thumbed through Monica’s pictures until she came to one that captured Sefira’s back and an iridescent red light surrounding her. “Yep, this is all the security we need to make her world come crashing down. Say ‘cheese’, witch.”

  Let Me Finish

  “Where’ve you been? You had us all worried.” Zada pushed Sefira lightly as she walked up to Rakor Hall. Apparently, everybody had been waiting on her—Zada, Sky, Nora, and her boy toy. Their expressions ranged from pissed to relieved as they sat on the benches outside the party. Zada was the only one bold enough to voice their collective opinions.

  “I’m so sorry.” Sefira didn’t quite meet Zada’s eyes, and she could tell by Zada’s demeanor, she noticed immediately.

  “Is everything okay?” Zada asked with concern in her voice.

  “Yeah, I just went for a walk, got a little turned around and tripped on a stupid pothole. I mean—I ate it! Wrecked my costume.” All eyes were on her. She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry if you guys were worried, it didn’t seem like I’d been gone that long.” She could tell Zada wasn’t buying it, but the rest seemed satisfied.

  “Well it’s 11:30. Your mom’s going to be pissed, so I hope you’re prepared for that,” said Nora. “Besides that, I hope you had a good time.”

  “I had a blast.” Sefira tried to mask her sarcasm.

  “We better take off, it’s getting late,” Sky added.

  “You guys know the way back?” Nora asked.

  “Yeah, we’re good,” Sky answered.

  “Fira, call me.” Zada looked concerned.

  “Okay.”

  The ride home was rather quiet on Sefira’s end. Sky was chatting away, but it was all white noise to Sefira. She wasn’t even worried about getting home late. She had just experienced the most deranged ordeal of her life and it just kept replaying in her mind. The mental dialogue, the monster, her “power,” for lack of a better word, and the girl who disappeared right before her eyes. It’s time to face the truth. I can’t hide this any longer.

  As Sefira walked through the front door of her house she half expected to see Celeste sitting on the living room couch, waiting for her with a watch and a lecture. She was hoping for that. Instead, her entrance proved uneventful. The lights were all off, the couch was vacant, and nobody was present to scold her. She walked past the living room, family room and kitchen and finally through the dining room to the hallway door that led to Celeste’s room. The hallway was a short corridor with a few family pictures aligned on each side. At the end of the hallway was the door to Celeste’s room. It was open and as she neared she heard light snoring, prompting her to contemplate whether or not to wake her up. Why am I hesitating? Gathering her courage, she entered.

  The room was completely dark save for the nightlight plugged into the wall and the TV affixed to the wall opposite her mother. Spanish dialogue streamed. Celeste didn’t speak Spanish. Sefira was willing to bet that her mother had tried to wait her out and fell asleep. The remote control lodged between her fingers kind of gave it away. Again, Sefira had second thoughts when Celeste’s rhythmic breathing came to a halt.

  “Fira?”

  “Yeah Celeste, it’s me.”

  Celeste cleared her throat. “What’s wrong?”

  “I need to talk to you.”

  A dark shadow was cast against the wall as Celeste’s silhouette sat up in bed, yawning and stretching. “What time is it? You’re late. You know you’re never going out in this lifetime again, right?”

  “Celeste, please….”

  Evidently the concern in Sefira’s voice put Celeste on edge. She dropped the television remote on the bed and grabbed the one for the ceiling fan from her nightstand. With a push of a button, the lights were on. Her eyes looked tired, yet markedly serious. “What happened?”

  “You’re never going to believe this.” Sefira had managed to remain calm up to this point, but as she began to explain, her tumultuous emotions began to speak on her behalf. “Something happened to me a few days ag
o that I never told you about because…I don’t know…I guess I was scared. Remember when we went to the mall? I mean Sky and I?”

  She blinked, tugging at her yellow t-shirt. “Yes.”

  “Well, while we were there I spotted a couple of people from school that we knew. They were far from us—several hundred feet away—nowhere within earshot. In fact, I was inside the Halloween store and they were over by a shoe shop. Anyway, so I’m looking at them and then the next thing I know something just clicked and all of a sudden…I could see them up close and hear their conversation. I mean it was like I was standing right next to them, only I wasn’t.”

  “Wait,” Celeste wiped her eyes with her fingers. “You said what now? You said you could see and hear their conversation from afar?” Her grogginess exited the room.

  “Yeah. Crystal clear. Like it was amplified in my head or something. It was so weird. And Sky was standing right next to me and she couldn’t hear or see anything that I could.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

  “Because I thought maybe I was ‘off’—I don’t know. It just didn’t make any sense, so why would I share that with you? Plus, I didn’t want you to have me committed.”

  “You should’ve trusted me. Why are you standing in the doorway? Come here. Come sit down.” She patted the bed.

  “I can’t. I can’t sit right now I’m too amped.”

  “Just sit down. I think you need to take a deep bre—”

  “Okay wait, I’m not finished.” Sefira ran her fingers briskly through her hair and began to explain. Her hands were like puppets dancing around as she recounted recent events. “So, we went to the party tonight and something similar happened. I was dancing, and saw this girl across the room dancing with some guy. At some point we locked eyes. Just a brief second. I don’t know why, it was weird. Right after that, everything around me started slowing down until it stopped. Like, time stopped, but I don’t think it actually did. And then I heard the girl talking to me.” She took a deep breath before finishing. “In my head.”

  Celeste stared at her, eyes a slit. “What did she say?”

  “She asked what my name was, and when I didn’t answer, she said I was useless.”

  Celeste slipped a finger beneath her blue scarf and scratched her scalp, chuckling a bit. “Okay…”

  “Please, don’t laugh. I know how stupid this must sound, but I swear to you it’s true.”

  “Okay, so is that it?”

  “No.”

  “Honey, just spit it out. It’s okay, I believe you,” she said, untying her scarf, repositioning her hair, then retying it again.

  “Okay. I was totally weirded out by the whole thing and decided to go over and talk to the girl, but she left the party. So, I decided to track her down.”

  Celeste sat up sharply. “You what? Where were your friends?”

  “They were still at the party.” Sefira scratched her head. “Look, I didn’t tell anyone anything, I mean how would it sound?”

  Celeste’s forehead wrinkled. “Wait—wait, you left the party alone?”

  “Yeah Celeste, hold on.” She scoot next to her mother and placed her hands briefly on her shoulders. “Don’t get bent outta shape. Just let me finish telling you what happened.”

  Despite the admonition, Celeste was clearly upset. Her fingers fidgeted with the covers before pushing them completely off of her. Drawing her legs in she sat cross-legged. “What happened?”

  “I started walking around, and I heard a voice crying out for help, like in my head again, and I just knew it was her. The girl I was looking for. So, I ran over to her just in time to see the guy she was with assaulting her.” Sefira rubbed nervously at her elbow.

  “Okay…then what happened?”

  “I started screaming thinking it would scare him off, only to find out that he wasn’t even…like…Celeste.” She grabbed her mother’s hand, squeezing it tight. “You know I would never make anything like this up, right?”

  Celeste squeezed back. “I know, just tell me what happened.”

  Sefira could feel herself perspiring now and her heart was doing jumping jacks. “The—thing. It wasn’t human. I have no idea what it was, but it was nasty looking. I’ve never seen anything like it. Pasty—bald—skinless, and it was covered in, like these disgusting veins or I don’t know what they were.”

  “What?” Celeste’s voice changed, and she reared back just a little.

  “When I started yelling, he quit messing with the girl and turned his attention to me. I think I went into shock, ‘cuz I just stood there for a minute. Celeste, I was so scared.” She squeezed Celeste’s hand. “But then, the girl—she started talking in my head again and told me to focus and I listened to her and I just…followed her directions. And then the next thing I knew, my body felt prickly and cold and then hot and this weird, like, power or something just started pouring out of my hands.” Sefira unwittingly began to reenact her movements, raising her arms as she spoke. “I didn’t even know how to control it, but I had this energy. I don’t even know how to explain it.”

  Celeste stared blankly, a poker face as good as any. “So what happened to the thing?” she asked, calm as ever.

  “I used the energy to push it into a barbed wire fence, but he broke free and pinned me to the ground. I swear, I thought I was done for.” Sefira swallowed hard.

  “And then?”

  “And then the girl that I followed turned into a lady beast and snapped its head off, and then it just—disintegrated or something.”

  The bed buckled and creaked as Celeste got off. Tugging at the waistband of her pj’s, she walked around the room. “I could use some coffee right now. Couldn’t you?” She glanced at her end table, then her dresser. “I had a coffee mug in here…”

  “Celeste?”

  “Yeah, honey?” Celeste briefly met her gaze. Guess the poker face could only last for so long, because now she was as pale as ever.

  “You think I’ve lost it don’t you. I know that rationally, this doesn’t make any sense. I mean if someone were to tell me something like this I’d think they were nuts. But Celeste, I’m telling you, it was real,” she said, slamming her fist into her palm. “It either really happened or I’ve just lost it.” Tears swelled in Sefira’s eyes as she leaned forward on the bed, burying her face in her hands.

  “No, sweetheart.” Celeste returned to the bed and sat down next to her, hugging her tightly and whispering in her ear. “Listen, I don’t want you to worry about a thing. I know you’re not lying, and believe exactly what you saw. Why don’t you take a few days off from school while we sort this out? Okay?”

  “Yeah.” Sefira sniffed and nodded, wiping warm tears from her face. “I’m sorry I went off like that too, I just—”

  “Not another word. Just rest.”

  Dr. Leonard was right. Her back felt better already.

  Awake

  “Fredo,” Blythe called out. There was no answer. “Fredo!” She opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of Cranberry juice, took it to the head and set it on the kitchen counter. Most people would probably be asleep by now, but she knew Fredo wasn’t. More than likely he was in the bed, munching on a snack, watching an old Western or some such nonsense.

  Straightaway she went to the bathroom, washed her face and hands and stared at herself in the mirror. Hips against the counter, she leaned forward and peeled back her lips with the tips of her fingers. Open-mouthed she gave her gums and teeth a once-over. They were normal as was her tongue. As far as the rest of her body, besides looking like she’d been to hell and back it was normal too. Not a trace of hair or fur or whatever on her. Her jaw was still swollen and her outfit of course, torn to shreds. She tended to her skinned arms and knees and dabbed at the bloody parts of her body. A shower was what she needed, but even that would have to wait.

  The kitchen was a mess. Dishes were in the sink, countertops needed wiping, seasonings and sauce pans were left out. I need to help out more, sh
e thought as she cleared some of the dishes and put away garlic, salt and oregano. Cleaning wasn’t exactly in her repertoire, but she needed to clear her head. With a sponge she wiped the counter, inadvertently bumping her knuckles against a clay pot. She picked it up, sucking her teeth. Even Natalie’s pot of herbs looked unkept. She buried her nose in the leaves. They still smelled good, but the potting soil was as dry as bone and some of the leaves were browning. Grabbing a cup from the cupboard she filled it with water, poured its contents over the plant and placed the cup back inside the cupboard.

  The potted plant didn’t look like much, but it was important just the same. She’d given it to Natalie as a Mother’s Day present and her mother had displayed it proudly in her kitchen ever since. Neither Blythe nor Fredo had green thumbs, but they managed to plant and replant herbs as sort of a homage to her. She was fingering a dying leaf when she noticed its tip began to unfurl. At first, she thought that it was an illusion, maybe set off by her fingers brushing against the plant. But after she steadied the pot and it continued to unfurl she was dumbfounded. Hunched, she studied it more closely, befuddled by what she was seeing. The brown leaves—they were turning green. It just gets weirder and weirder doesn’t it?

  Sucking a breath, she was about to call Fredo again when she heard a muffled voice from somewhere in the back of their two-bedroom duplex. The shuffle of heavy work boots followed. She waited and after a few minutes Fredo emerged from the back room, his boots clomping until he stood behind the table. For whatever reason he appeared a bit more worn than Blythe recalled. He wore his usual garb, a red and cream shirt from his flannel collection, the sleeves rolled up neatly around his ashen elbows with a white wife-beater beneath, and a pair of paper-bag-colored cargo pants, starched with razor sharp creases along the knee. But, something was slightly different. Blythe studied his stubbled face and realized old age was settling in. It dulled the brilliance of his burnt amber eyes and began to tug on his once taut earthen colored skin. His frame stooped, just a bit more than she remembered, and his peppered hairline had begun to recede. Man, how come I didn’t notice this before? Although his physique had visibly aged, his tongue in cheek was as fresh as ever.