Odette nodded mutely, her face tinged pink.
Grayson hummed. “You’ve never been out on a real date, overprotective parents. Probably the reason that you’ve never had a boyfriend too.”
Now she really frowned, pretty offended. Even if it was true, that kind of stuff didn’t need to be announced to a group of strangers. That was just cruel.
“Oops, don’t hate me, please. It’s all part of the process,” he “apologized.”
The group of teenage girls snickered loudly and Odette couldn’t help but shrink back.
“And now, for your name. It isn’t one you hear a lot nowadays, it’s something classy and elegant,” he tapped his chin dramatically while sizing her up. He snapped his fingers like he understood a really hard question on a test. “I’ve got it! You are Odette, the Swan Queen.”
Odette’s jaw dropped, not actually expecting him to guess it. “Yeah, it is.”
Grayson smiled at her but it wasn’t a kind one. It was sinister and set her on edge. He reached out and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and, out of nowhere, produced a white rose.
She cautiously took it from him, careful not to prick her fingers on the sharp thorns. “Thank you.”
“A pretty rose for a pretty girl,” he responded. “Everyone, please give the lovely Odette a hand!”
He pressed his hand to the small of her back and helped her off the stage and back to her seat. Odette noticed that he didn’t break contact with her body once, not until she sat back down in her chair with her rose in hand. He didn’t say anything else or even look at her again once she sat back down. He strode back to the stage with confidence, his once bored look changed to one of cockiness.
The old man whom Grayson had previously brought up to the stage had been locked into a box where only his head and feet where visible. Greer stood behind him, making sure everything was secure.
“And now for one of the oldest tricks in the book! I will saw this man in half.” Greer brandished a large and very real and sharp-looking saw.
Odette looked down at the rose and touched its delicate petals and looked back up to the stage at the boy. There was something very strange about him, strange but magnetic.
“Thank you for coming to our show!” Greer shouted
“We hope you all enjoyed it,” Grayson added.
They held hands and rose them up over their heads. “GOODNIGHT!” they shouted in unison. They bowed and a plume of smoke exploded. When it cleared, the twins had vanished.
Odette saw her mother turn towards her from the corner of her eye. She met her mother’s eyes with her own inquisitive look.
“Are you ready to go, Det?”
She nodded, grabbing her purse and walking out the tent with her mother beside her.
“That was exciting, wasn’t it? Were you excited when you got to go on the stage?” Her mom probed, nudging her with her shoulder.
Odette blushed, twirling her rose. “I was scared. There were a lot of people looking at me.”
“You looked scared. I thought you might have puked,” she teased, sticking her tongue out at her daughter.
Well, Odette thought, you’re not wrong.
“How do you think he did it?” Pamela asked.
She shrugged, “Magic probably.”
The drive home was quiet; aside from Odette listening to her mom dictate her notes for her article about the twins’ show.
Her father pulled in just as they did, just in from his work. He greeted his daughter with a tight hug and his wife with a kiss, asking how the show had gone. Pamela was happy to tell him all about it while Odette claimed she needed to go upstairs to rest a little.
She laid the rose on her vanity and changed out of her sundress into something more comfortable, taking her time to relax after her venture out.
Odette couldn’t help it; she brought the rose up and smelled it, feeling the silky petals brush against her face. A small smile came to her lips, running her fingers over the petals. She needed a vase for it but she would wait.
Who was Grayson Mages? It sounded like a stage name honestly, and she wouldn’t be surprised if she was right. She grabbed her phone and typed his name into the Instagram search bar. There were a lot of fan accounts made for him, most of them had a picture of Grayson in a flower crown with a colorful background, but she did find his personal account eventually. He had a few pictures on the account, not many “personal” ones, most were advertisements for his show. There was one from a party that he had attended but, other than that, it was empty.
Greer’s account had much more content. There were pictures of her with her best friends at the mall, pictures of her during her show, pictures of her with famous people, pictures of her with her brother, and then some other miscellaneous photos of books or tea. All of them looked very professional and made her look even more glamorous.
They had quite the following and, even though Odette had never heard of them until recently, it seemed like everyone else in the world had. There had been a TV interview with them, someone wrote a book about them, there were some fanfiction, and even talks of them making a movie.
Odette set her phone down and decided that she should get a vase for her flower. She didn’t want it to die any time soon. She chewed on her lip and worked on dodging all of the moving boxes that had yet to be unpacked.
She held the rose gently in one hand and held onto the stairway railing with the other. She was two steps away from the bottom when she heard voices, more than just her mother and father, and she was sure that it wasn’t the TV.
Stepping off the stairs, she curiously glanced at the doorway to see who had come to visit so soon and almost didn’t stop until her brain had processed who was standing at her door.
Greer and Grayson Mages.
Her mother was talking to them. And they were actually outside her house. It seemed far too bizarre, especially since she now knew how popular they were.
Greer’s eyes moved past Pamela’s face and landed on Odette. She had no time to hide. The magician smiled a genuine one unlike the mysterious one she had worn in the show. She seemed like a regular girl. “I remember you, you’re Odette?”
Her mother looked between the three teens with a smile. “Det, I was just telling the twins how much we enjoyed their show.”
Odette swallowed her nerves and stepped off onto the landing. “Yeah, it was really amazing. I’d never been to a magic show before,” she admitted.
Like her, they had changed since the performance, yet they still matched color wise.
“We came over to greet the new neighbors. It’s always good to make new friends in a new place,” Greer said.
Pamela stepped back and allowed the twins inside, followed by a “Please excuse the mess.”
Odette’s eyes lit up, “You all must be in that big house down the road.” It made sense to her now. She didn’t miss how her parents gave her a questioning look, they didn’t know about any big house. They hadn’t driven down that way. Oops.
“You would be correct,” Greer said.
Grayson remained quiet, his passive face studying the room around him and then focused on Odette. His eyes didn’t rake up her like they did at the show, only remained on her face. It was just as unnerving and—somehow—as attractive as before.
He probably knows he’s gorgeous, Odette thought bitterly.
Greer turned to her brother who broke his gaze from Odette. They just stared at one another.
Odette wondered if they had twin telepathy, conversing with one another in their heads. They reacted to one another like they had been speaking. It only lasted for a few seconds before they turned back to face Odette.
“We would like to invite you all to dinner tomorrow night,” Grayson requested suddenly, though it sounded more like a demand.
Jonah, who was sitting on the couch, smiled, “That’s very kind of you all. We don’t want to intrude on your family time, though.”
Greer laughed, “Oh no, Grandfather
requested it himself. We adore new visitors, especially new neighbors. It is very … rare that we get any new people in town.” She winked at Odette and shot her brother a look.
“Yes, it’s been a long time,” Grayson added robotically.
Greer’s heels clicked against the wooden floors as she crossed what little distance was left between herself and Odette. She took the girl’s hands in her own and smiled, “I can tell that we’re going to be such great friends already.”
The girl towered over Odette like her brother; even without her heels, Greer would have had several inches over her.
“I hope so.” I don’t really have any, Odette left out.
Yes, the twins were strange. They had an intimidating, almost dangerous aura around them, but they were magnetic. They were probably going to be Odette’s only contact with the outside world too.
“It was a pleasure getting to formally meet all of you. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow night, say … six thirty?” Greer asked, turning away from Odette.
“Yes, that sounds perfect,” her mother replied.
Greer quickly pulled Odette into a hug. She wasn’t prepared for it and couldn’t properly return it but Greer was gone as soon as she came.
Odette turned to Grayson, her lips forming the word goodbye when he grabbed her hand. Her eyebrows pinched together and she watched as he led her knuckles to his lips. Their eyes met. He was gone.
It hadn’t lasted longer than a second but she blushed pink all the same. He had already moved on to shake hands with her father and kiss her mother’s hand as well but she stayed paralyzed, running the scenario over and over in her mind. That … really just happened?
The twins left her home but Odette remained firmly planted in her spot, looking at her hand and envisioning an invisible lip print. No one had ever kissed her hand before. No one had ever made her feel so anxious before. Then again, no one was quite like Grayson Mages and she hadn’t even known him for that long.
His lips were warm … and soft ...
“Odette, you’re bleeding,” Jonah pointed out.
The girl looked down, having forgotten that she still had the rose in her hand. At some point during the conversation, she had clenched that hand into a fist and the thorns had pierced her flesh in several different places.
She curled her hand again, the pain now beginning to set in. Odette hissed and went into the kitchen to clean herself up.
The rose’s green stem was streaked with her blood but it contrasted with the white petals in an oddly pleasing way. Still, she had to clean it off so that it would remain pretty. She didn’t even know what to do about her palm.
Odette dug around in the cardboard boxes and pulled out a skinny vase and filled it with some water, then lowered the flower inside.
She waved to her parents, claiming she was going to bed—even though she hadn’t eaten dinner—and retreated into the sanctuary of her room.
She placed the vase on her vanity. It seemed rather pathetic, honestly, with her room in shambles. There was nothing she could do about that now, not tonight. Her parents would probably come up in thirty minutes and force her to eat something, so she figured that she had better lay down.
Odette laid down on her bed, her body needing rest. She had her eyes trained on the tree closest to her window. She blinked slowly, each time her eyes getting heavier until she was asleep.
When she opened her eyes next, it was pitch black in her room and the house was quiet. There, however, was a strange air to everything, a feeling that made Odette’s throat constrict.
She remained laying as still as she could but her eyes ran rampant around the room. There were strange shapes, but she assured herself that these were just things like her boxes and a floppy hat or maybe a pile of clothes that she needed to put away.
A cold breeze blew across her and Odette froze up. It couldn’t be the air conditioner because she expected to hear it roaring. She shifted onto her side and noticed her window open. How was it open?
A shudder racked her body. There was a small sound that came from the corner of the room, something that she knew she shouldn’t worry over. All the same, her heart sped up. There in the corner were two glowing, electric blue eyes, staring back at her like two live wires.
Odette sat bolt upright, her covers pooling around her waist but the glowing eyes didn’t as much as flinch. She scrambled to her side table to turn on her lamp. The yellow light flooded the room, illuminating every corner of it. The eyes—or the person they belonged to—weren’t there anymore but the window remained open. The wind howled outside and the trees rustled, as if nature was laughing at her for being an idiot.
Odette rubbed her eyes. She needed more sleep, her mind was playing stupid tricks on her.
IV
The morning came and the events from the night had all but slipped her mind. It was deliberate; she began to read a random book by her bed to forget the image of those eyes. Odette had almost convinced herself that she had created them like she usually did with those horrible monsters in her dreams.
She became immersed in the book and didn’t put it down until her mother came upstairs with her meds and a plate of waffles. Odette always referred to this as “the breakfast of invalids,” her daily ritual.
“What are you going to wear tonight?” her mom asked, sitting on the foot of her bed.
Odette shrugged her shoulders and threw her head back to swallow the pills. “Nothing too flashy. One of my dresses.”
Her mom nodded and looked around her daughter’s room. She got up and dug through a box, pulling out different sundresses and laying them out.
“You don’t have to get ready just yet. Take it easy this morning, okay?” her mom instructed, rummaging around some more. She pulled out one of Odette’s notebooks and flipped through it briefly before setting it down again.
She had learned a long time ago that Pamela Sinclair wasn’t really one for privacy, but it didn’t bother her too much now; what did she have to hide? Certainly not a schedule of parties that she had to attend, like she would ever go to such a thing.
Odette nodded and chewed her waffle slowly. Truth be told, she felt a headache coming but she just hoped that the painkillers would kick in soon. “I know, Mom.”
Eventually, her mom finished digging through her stuff—for what, Odette didn’t know for sure. Drugs? All of the heavy duty stuff was downstairs and Odette hated taking them. Then her mom gave her a kiss on her forehead, then left the room.
Odette finished her food and pulled out her phone, looking for something to do. There was a notification from Instagram that xxGreer.Magesxx had followed her. She smiled and followed her back, something she hadn’t done yesterday when she had been stalking her and her brother. Grayson had requested to follow her, too, but she waited before accepting his request and got out of bed to take care of herself.
The June sun shone the brightest it had since Odette had arrived in town, not blocked by clouds or fog. She took the time to sit down on the window seat in the hallway to admire the outdoors. The bench creaked underneath her as she shifted around to get the full view of everything.
She noticed something about the window that made her frown. She lifted the glass up, letting in a warm summer breeze, and pressed her slim hand on the screen. Did her window have a screen?
Odette rushed back into her room and threw open the window where she found the screen properly attached. They were meant to keep things out like spiders and leaves, so how could have someone possibly gotten into her room?
There was no conceivable way to pop it out of its place, at least not without brute force and making a lot of noise. That would have woken her up and her parents.
Did she really see someone or something in her room in the middle of the night, or was it all just a dream?
Her efforts to forget about the incident were demolished as a creeping fear blossomed. She couldn’t tell her parents about this because they would brush it off, saying that it was a bad
dream or a hallucination as a side effect from the meds.
A knock on her door frame scared her out of her thoughts. “Earth to Odette.”
The girl whirled around, clutching her chest. Her heart was beating faster than it should have been, the little monitor giving a warning beep. “Ah! Geez, you scared me,” Odette chuckled, running her hands through her hair. “What do you need?”
Her dad stepped into her room further, leaning against the wall opposite her. “Just checking in with my daughter.”
“Oh.”
“That boy yesterday, the Greg guy …”
“Grayson,” Odette corrected.
He chuckled, giving her a weird look. “Yeah whatever. You seemed to like him.” Jonah raised his eyebrows, daring her to deny it.
She shook her head, “He’s nice, yeah. But I think it’s too soon to say if I ‘like’ him or not. He’s just … our neighbor, and a guy. His sister seems nice, though.”
Jonah shrugged, “There are lots of ‘just guys’ out there, Det. Whatever you guys do, just be friends first.”
“I don’t even know him.” Odette waved her hand flippantly. “We probably won’t say two words tonight, you know?”
“Whatever, weirdo.” He clapped his hands together and stepped through her doorway. “Just take care of yourself.” And, with that, he left.
“Never!” she called after him. She could hear his chuckles echo from the stairs.
Odette waited until he was gone all the way before she returned to the window seat. As she sat down there was a strange creaking noise again. Odette stood again and felt around the bench when the top half of it lifted up.
A dust cloud rose up and Odette sneezed. When the haze cleared, there laid a dictionary.
Odette frowned, lifting it up out of the compartment. The yellow and dry pages cracked every now and then when she flipped through the pages. There was nothing special about it, which was a major letdown.
She went to put it back inside but saw something that caught her attention. Stuck between the side and the base was a piece of paper. All she could make out was that it was once white but was now slightly yellowed and dirty.
Violent Delights Page 3
