Skeptic

by Denise Mathew

  She collapsed onto her butter colored leather love seat, then pulled him down beside her, gripping his hands with both of hers. When she pushed in so close that there was barely a hairsbreadth between them, Dakota was mystified. It wasn't like he didn't appreciate her closeness, but it was such a complete about face from their last encounter, that it left him wary.

  "What's got you so spooked?" he said.

  "Spooked," she said, and shook her head, then swallowed a few times and gave him a thin smile. "Funny how you'd say that, right when I'm about to spill all my spooky secrets."

  "I'm not following you here," Dakota said, studying her.

  What little color she still had in her cheeks faded, and she drew in a deep, shuddering breath.

  "Something weird happened on the flight home," she said, her eyes growing wide, as if the memory chilled her. "There was a woman, a witch who..."

  "A witch, like Nicole Kidman in Practical Magic?" Dakota said, cocking an eyebrow and grinning.

  "No, nothing like that," Elise snapped. She glowered at him, and jerked her hands away. Dakota stiffened at the sudden shift in her mood.

  "Pardon me for asking," he said, straining to keep his cool. He couldn't believe that after he had gone out of his way to come over to her apartment, she had the nerve to be pissy with him.

  Elise locked eyes with him, then her face softened, and she touched the back of his hand with her fingertips.

  "I'm sorry Dakota," she said, offering him an apologetic smile. Tears swam in her eyes, and even though he knew she was upset, he was already tired of waiting for her to tell him why.

  "It's just that what you said today at the Maple Plantation was right on the mark."

  She blinked a few times, then pulled her legs up into a tailor sitting position.

  "I was, hiding something."

  Intrigued, Dakota leaned in closer.

  "I never wanted to tell you, or anyone for that matter, but I can't hide it any longer..." She sighed. "I can see ghosts, and spirits and sometimes if I know the person well enough, auras."

  Dakota released a soft chuckle, but when he saw Elise's unyielding expression, the smile froze on his lips.

  "But it's your job to prove that supernatural junk, is all fake," he said, his brow furrowing. He'd known for a while that she had been hiding something, but never in his wildest imagination had he expected this. Elise was a master at explaining away every odd occurrence with science, and if she couldn't come up with a plausible explanation, she pegged it as coincidental.

  She grabbed his hand again and squeezed.

  "I've been lying all this time."

  She averted her eyes in an act that rang loudly of shame. "I've always fought my ability, tried to ignore it, pretended it didn't exist. I thought that maybe after I became the Skeptic, it would somehow make it all go away, and I could be...normal."

  Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she chewed on her bottom lip until it turned bright red.

  He rubbed his temples, stumped for a response to her admission.

  "I still don't get it, you're the Skeptic," he finally said, narrowing his eyes and shaking his head.

  "It's all a lie, most of the things I've proven to be frauds were actual paranormal in nature," she said, closing her eyes.

  As the truth sank in, anger flared in his gut, and it was all he could do not to lash out at her, because if she was telling him the truth, not only had she lied to everyone else, she had lied to him too.

  "If that's true, then how can you go on TV and say that everything is fabricated, when you're the phony," Dakota said, ice in his tone.

  He didn't want to think about the number of investigations they had done, and the multitude of people who they had accused of being frauds. "How could you do that to those people, I mean they had lives, and you made laughing stalks out of them?" he said, heat burning his cheeks.

  "I know, and I'm sorry...but it all got so big, that I started believing my own lies, and before I knew it, everything I'd built my life on depended on the paranormal not existing...even though I know it does."

  "How many of those people were telling the truth?" he said, through clenched teeth. He wanted to shake her for making him an unwitting accomplice to her deception.

  "I never wanted to be like this," she said, and her expression of utter despair had him instinctively reaching for her. She swallowed a few times before she started again. "When I was growing up, my Nanny Flo taught me so much about the supernatural. In our house we were so accustomed to the wild and the wacky, that it never fazed us."

  Dakota narrowed his eyes. "If what you're saying is true, you seem the most unlikely of candidates for the job as the Skeptic..."

  He released her hands, and leaned back against a plush leather throw pillow. Elise tugged the elastic from her auburn hair, and ran her hands through her tresses a few times, then licked her lips until they glistened. And Dakota couldn't believe how rapidly his annoyance had turned to the desire to grab her in his arms, and kiss her until she remembered how good they had been together.

  "When I left Nanny Flo, I decided that all the small town superstitions that I had grown up with wouldn't fly in a big city. I knew that if I wanted to be taken seriously, that I would need to act the part of the professional. Fortunetellers, witches, and ghosts aren't exactly dinner conversation topics for the average person. As soon as you tell people that you can see something that they can't, they get nervous. And nervous people weren't what I needed to get me through the doors of the entertainment world."

  Dakota shifted on the sofa. "Not telling people that you can see ghosts seems a far cry from making it your mission to prove that the occult doesn't exist," he said, scratching the stubble on his chin.

  She put her hand up. "Hear me out," she said.

  "I moved to the city, and managed to get a job as a runner in a studio. I was busy, trying to learn everything I could, about what made the place tick, and it seemed that the ghosts and spirits that usually stalked me, got the message that I didn't want them around, and for the most part they left me alone. Or maybe I just ignored them. The funny thing about denying your abilities, is that for a little while you actually believe that you don't have them anymore."

  She pressed her lips together, then exhaled, tucking her bare feet beneath Dakota's legs. "I was always a fast learner, and managed to work more hours than there seemed to be in a day. I was such a regular fixture, that I was eventually promoted to floor director's assistant, which as you know, means your fingerprints are on practically everything in the production."

  Dakota nodded, and was secretly surprised at how little he really knew about Elise's life before she had become the Skeptic. The more she told him now, the more he needed a stiff drink. He put up a finger to excuse himself, and she seemed relieved for the break. Dakota unfolded his legs and strode to her fully stocked teak and glass mini wine cellar at the far corner of the living room. He retrieved and popped the cork off a bottle of Australian Merlot, and poured them both a glass. He would have preferred a shot of something stronger, because after everything she had just spilled, getting drunk, real fast, seemed like a good plan.

  With the wine glasses in his hands, Dakota moved back to the sofa, and passed Elise a glass of the garnet hued wine, then laid the bottle on the carpet at his feet, and sat down on the sofa beside her. His first sip revealed a combination of black cherries, and green olives, and his taste buds almost sang in appreciation. Dakota was a super taster, which meant that he had more taste buds than the average person, and could taste things that most people couldn't, so he appreciated Elise's fine vintages, probably even more than she did. But when he thought about where the money came from to buy the wine, it went bitter in his mouth, and he laid his glass down on the carpet at his feet.

  "I guess alcohol is fitting since it was the reason why I moved up the chain so fast."

  She put the glass to her lips and drank deeply, then fixed her gaze on him. "My boss was a bit of a drunk, so it wasn't lo
ng before I was doing his job better than he was. Back then, there were days that I never saw my bed, but I always reasoned that eventually it would all pay off, and lucky for me it did. When they canned the project director after he came drunk to work one too many times, I was the obvious replacement, since I had been practically doing the job for a year already."

  Elise wiggled her feet under Dakota's thighs, and he reached for them, massaging her manicured toes. She closed her eyes lazily. Despite how the evening had begun, he loved having his hands on Elise again.

  "Go on," Dakota said, and Elise blinked her eyes open, and gave him a sleepy grin.

  He smirked, half a glass and she was already tipsy. She had always been a lightweight when it came to drinking.

  "The idea for the Skeptic came after we had done a show about unexplained phenomenon, and we interviewed all these scientists and psychics. For the most part every supposedly supernatural occurrence could be explained away by science. And it got me thinking how a show where someone went in with a critical eye, accompanied by scientists with the appropriate equipment, could reveal that many so called supernatural experiences, might not be as mystical as first thought."

  She tipped the last drops of wine into her mouth, and Dakota poured her a second glass, for a change she didn't stop him.

  "So I pitched my idea to Jim, he was still the producer back then and he loved it. But the twist came when he asked me to be the Skeptic..."

  Her voice trailed off and her face hardened. "All I could think was how disappointed Nanny Flo would be in me, but...but I couldn't just let the opportunity slip by me. You know show business, it's fleeting, and who knew if I would have ever got another shot at being on TV." She dabbed a tissue to her nose and drew in a long breath.

  "When I started the show, I was working with the best intentions in mind. There are fraudulent fortunetellers out there, who scam and prey on people who are struggling with life. Most of the victims want answers about what their future holds, and the charlatans bilk them for everything they're worth. I wanted to call out those people, and I did, and it felt good."

  She shrugged, and blew her nose.

  "But as the show got bigger, I was an instant a celebrity, nothing sells like reality TV. And that's when the trouble began, because the investigations we started doing had us going to places where there was a lot of legitimate activity, and it went from being ninety percent fraud, to most places being genuinely haunted..."

  She shivered as if the temperature had just nosedived.

  "Most of the new places were hotspots, and just being around all that activity, was a catalyst to reawakening my abilities, and suddenly the floodgates opened wider than they had ever before. No matter how much I tried to ignore them, ghosts and spirits invaded my space. I decided then, that the only way I could ever make the show work, was by using my abilities to my advantage and..."

  Her voice hitched.

  "Avoid the places where you saw ghosts, so there wouldn't be any data that might indicate paranormal activity," Dakota finished.

  Elise nodded. "At first it was tough to ignore them, the ghosts and spirits I mean, but after a while I was a pro, at proving that everything could be explained by science. By that point, I was so far entrenched in the Skeptic persona, that I didn't know where she began and I ended."

  "I'm sure the money made it a lot harder to come clean too," Dakota said.

  By the expression of hurt that crossed Elise's face, he knew he had touched a nerve, but he didn't care. Sure he loved her, but he couldn't forget that he, and so many others, had been dragged into Elise's sleazy world of lies.

  "I'm not going to lie and say that the money didn't matter, because it did. I grew up with very little. Our house was never warm because Nanny Flo kept the thermostat at sixty-two degrees to save on oil, we used a bent coat hanger over a burner for a toaster, didn't have running hot water, and shopped at the Salvation Army for clothes, so yes, the money was and still is, important to me."

  Dakota spared her a sideways glance, then crossed his arms over his chest. And all he could think, was that lots of people lived in poverty, but they didn't resort to lying to get ahead in life.

  She stared down at the back of her hands, as if too ashamed to meet his gaze.

  "Some cases were harder to get through, like this particular Hedge witch I investigated. She was so sweet, and I knew she was the real deal. I knew the day I met her, that she could heal people with her spells, but I was too focused on keeping my perfect track record, to admit she was gifted."

  At that, Elise broke down, and buried her face in her trembling hands. When she lifted her tear-streaked face up again, she recounted her experience on the plane with Tansy.

  "Damn it Dakota, I looked for her, decided that maybe I could work out a deal with her, but there was no trace that she had ever been there. The flight attendants thought I was nuts. I even checked every seat on the plane, but I couldn't find her. She had just vanished."

  Elise nursed her drink, staring into her glass as if it were a crystal ball that would somehow give her a solution to all her problems. Tension and fatigue played in her eyes, and Dakota was sure her expression mirrored his own.

  "What do you want me to do with that kind of information?" he said.

  "I don't know, but of all people, I wanted to tell you first. That old saying, it's not you it's me, is so true here. I only ended it with you, because I was scared you would find out what I was hiding, "she said, studying him.

  Her last admission had been the final straw, and Dakota leapt up and paced the room. Elise's words had hit him hard, but they also explained so much, like how one moment they were inseparable, and the next she had tossed him out like yesterdays garbage. His gut clenched, as he tried to wrap his head around the bomb she had dropped on him. Everything he thought he knew about her had been a lie. His hands shook, and for a fleeting moment, he wanted to be as far away from her as he could get. She had duped him, just as much as she had everyone else.

  "Fuck Elise, I don't get how you could have lied for so many years."

  But as soon as he had judged and found her guilty, he wondered what he would have done given the same set of circumstances. With so much at stake, her job, fame and reputation, not to mention all the other people who worked on the show that would be affected by the truth, it seemed almost impossible to come clean. How could he denounce her actions, when the truth was, he might have done the exact same thing as she had?

  He paused mid-stride, and pondered his choices. As far as he could see he had two options, one was to walk, that way if the truth came out he would be safe from repercussions. The other choice, one he was more inclined to lean toward, was to stick around and help Elise wade through the mounds of shit she had gotten herself into. Without much thought, he knew what he needed to do, stay. Despite what she had done, there was no way he could just walk away.

  He should have hated her for bringing him into a whole mess of trouble, but he didn't. Sure she had dumped him, and it had been beyond tough to deal with, but that didn't mean he could ignore, that he still had feelings for her. What he felt for Elise went too deep to cut his losses and run, and as hard as it was to acknowledge, he couldn't imagine his world without her.

  He slid in beside her, and pulled her close. She clung to him like a scared child, clawing at his shirt, as if she could somehow disappear into its folds.

  "I don't know what to do, Dakota," she whispered against his chest.

  He stroked her hair in silence, because neither did he, but before he could come up with something to say, an overpowering scent of roses filled the air, as if someone had dowsed the room with perfume.

  "No," Elise screamed, springing to her feet. Her wine glass tumbled to the floor, spilling red wine on her pristine carpet. "She's here."

  4. DAKOTA

  Shocked by Elise's outburst, Dakota sprang to his feet, and scanned the room. Other than the nauseating stench of roses, he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, unt
il his eyes fell on a flickering cloud of black mist, forming just a few feet away from where they had been sitting. He stared wide mouthed as the cloud shifted and changed shape, then molded into a heavyset woman. Her jet-black, ruler straight hair, fell in thin locks over her shoulders, and cut a stark contrast to her pasty white skin. A slash of red lipstick marked her sneering mouth, and her grin showcased lipstick-stained teeth. Her piercing grey eyes glowed with malevolence, and Dakota knew without asking that it was the woman from the plane that Elise had told him about.

  The woman took a few steps closer to them, and Dakota instinctively coiled an arm around Elise's waist, guiding her backwards, effectively widening the gap between the woman and them.

  "Shit," Dakota whispered, threading his fingers through Elise's. "How did she get in here?"

  "I think she's using astral projection," Elise murmured.

  Dakota had been working with the show long enough to know that astral projection was when your spirit, or life force, somehow separated from your body, and shuttled to other places. But he also knew that astral anything was a crock of bullshit. Yet, seeing the woman's stiletto heeled knee high boots, floating a few inches off the carpeted floor, made him rapidly rethink his point of view.

  "Very good Elise," Tansy said in a husky voice, that sounded as if she had smoked a pack a day since she'd been born.

  "She's the witch, right?" Dakota said, not taking his eyes off the woman.

  "You may call me a sorcerer, a magickan, an enchantress or witch, if it pleases you," Tansy said, before Elise could respond. "And who might you be?"

  Tansy cast her icy stare on Dakota.

  "Da..." he started.

  "Don't give her your name," Elise hissed, and his words froze on his lips. He knew Elise was trying to sound brave, but the quiver in her voice gave her away.

  "Come now Elise, I would never hurt your boyfriend," Tansy said, with a malicious grin. "Unless you fail to clear my sister's name."

  Tansy closed the distance between them, and as she did the stink of roses grew stronger; only now, beneath the sweetness was the unmistakable odor of road kill on a hot day.