Skeptic

by Denise Mathew

  "What the hell are you doing?” I started to say, but a second later I knew.

  Mira stabbed the blood soaked blade into the egg, puncturing the shell with a loud crack. Blood dripped down the shattered shell, swirling and mixing with the gelatinous contents of the egg, that was seeping from the fissure. Lightning flickered outside the window, and the clap of thunder that followed, seemed to shake the house to its very foundations. Tansy's scent of ozone, roses, and sulfur filled the air. Another shiver ran through me, and everything went noticeably quiet, as if the storm had stopped on command, then Mira murmured a word that made me shudder involuntarily.

  "Die."

  The astral vortex flashed a myriad of shades, that alternated between yellow, blue, green, purple, and red, like a colored film that had been placed over a flame. The remote control slipped through Tansy's fingers, and she clawed at her chest with her black nails. Then her hands were at her throat, leaving thin strips of red where she had scraped away her skin. She fell face forward out of her chair, her body seizing so violently, that it was horrific to watch, but I couldn't pull my gaze away.

  Tansy managed to get on all fours, and move a few inches forward, but it seemed to take all her energy just to do that. Blood dripped, then poured, from her chest, landing on the carpet beneath her, and she collapsed. Her arms and legs splayed out, her neck was slanted, so her face was in plain view, and I stared into her dead eyes.

  "I heard you screaming. What the hell is going on?" Dakota said.

  I pulled my focus from the astral vortex, that was already fading. Dakota was standing in the doorway, with a yellow towel wrapped around his waist, water still dripping down his bare chest. Shocked into silence, I propelled forward, throwing myself into his arms. His heart beat furiously against my cheek, and cold beads of water from his soaked hair wet my face.

  "Are you okay?" I heard him say. His voice was gentle, but on edge. I wanted to tell him everything was okay, but I couldn't, because I didn't know if it was. I had just witnessed Tansy's murder, and I knew I should have been horrified by that fact alone, but all I felt was selfish relief, because Tansy was dead, and now she could never hurt me again.

  12. DAKOTA

  It took an hour for Elise to stop shaking in his arms, and another forty-five minutes, before he could persuade her to lie down. He had expected her to settle into her childhood bed without hesitation, but instead she fought every sign of fatigue, as if she feared sleep.

  After she finally drifted off, Dakota changed into a pair of red plaid lounge pants, and a black undershirt. Dead tired, he thought about slipping into bed alongside Elise, but since Nanny Flo had made it abundantly clear that they were to sleep in separate rooms, he decided not to push his luck. He exited the room, closing the door softly behind him, and strode down the hall, lit by dim sconce lights. The house was eerily silent, with all the doors he passed, shut tight. He yawned, and stretched his arms over his head, trying to loosen the tension in his muscles. He knew the only cure for his joints made stiff by days of driving was a run, but at one in the morning, that option was out of the question.

  Exhausted, but too hyped up to sleep, he decided to go out for a breath of fresh air. He made his way through the living room, and onto the screened in front porch. The bare wood was cool against the soles of his feet, and the little light that spilled from the interior, gave the space a pleasing ambiance. He positioned himself on the porch swing, the boards above his head creaked slightly from his weight, and he began rocking rhythmically. The night air was pleasant, and scented by damp foliage and gardenias, but also had an underlying stench of decay.

  Alone for the first time in a long while, Dakota tried to make sense of what he had seen in the dining room, a few hours before. All the paraphernalia in the garage had been one thing, but the ritual or spell, that Mira had been in the midst of performing when he had interrupted them chilled him. There had been blood, and if he didn't know better, he could have sworn that he had seen a holographic image just behind Mira, but by the time he'd had a good look, it had vanished. Whatever they had been doing had spooked Elise bad, worse even than Tansy had, and that was more than unsettling. There was no doubt that something was wrong in the house, and though he couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was, his instinct to get the hell out of there, sooner rather than later, was ever present.

  Suddenly, there was a flash of movement to his left, just a few feet from where he was sitting. Heart pumping, he sprang up, scanning the gloom surrounding him. The wind whistled forlornly through the trees, and there was an intermittent chirp from a night creature, somewhere in the dense vegetation, but he also heard rustling in the trees. His first thought, was that it might be a wild boar that Elise had told him to watch out for, but he quickly reasoned, that whatever he had seen had been too tall, too human like, to be a boar. There was a squeak, then a scrape near the screen door, and he spun around.

  When the storm had cleared, a full moon had appeared in the sky, and now a woman stood bathed in silvery moonlight, only ten feet away from him. She was dressed in a flowing long-sleeved gauzy white shift, that touched the wooden floor, and fluttered around her. Her wavy flaxen hair was loose, and draped her shoulders, and her alabaster hands were clasped at her waist. Her face was shadowed, yet he knew she was studying him, and all he could think was that he had finally lost his mind, because he was sure she was a ghost. And it spooked him, enough that instead of laughing off the ridiculous thought, fear took him over.

  "Can I help you?" he said, hoping his voice didn't give away his uncertainty.

  He stepped forward, and a splinter jabbed the ball of his foot. He cried out, hopping on one foot. He ran his hand along his sole, until he felt the shard of wood that had done the damage, then plucked it out gingerly, groaning with instant relief. When he pulled his gaze back to the woman, she had disappeared.

  "What's wrong with me?" Dakota said, scratching the back of his neck.

  With no sign of the woman, he questioned whether he had actually seen her at all, or if he had fallen asleep and dreamed she had been there. After a few moments, he gave a low laugh, amused at his wild imagination, and tread back toward the inner door. He laughed, thinking that if he didn't get some sleep soon, the next thing he would see would be a vampire, or even zombies.

  Just before he opened the door, he spotted something on the porch deck, in the exact place where he had thought he had seen the woman. He bent down and retrieved a single, long-stemmed black rose. When he lifted it to his nose to sniff, an explosion of light lit the porch. Nanny Flo flung the door wide, and just missed hitting his shoulder with the edge.

  "Shit, you scared me," Dakota said, almost dropping the flower. Nanny Flo glared at him with unrestrained hatred.

  "Where did you get that?" she spat, motioning toward the rose.

  Dakota shrugged, and weighed whether he should tell her about the woman, or keep his mouth shut, and after a quick deliberation decided that telling Elise's grandmother about a ghost who had left a flower for him, would definitely make him seem like a nut case.

  "It was here on the floor," he said.

  Nanny Flo skewered him with her stare, as if she could somehow detect a lie with a glance, then pursed her wrinkled lips.

  "You should go to bed," she said.

  Her tone held less malice, but it was far from friendly, and Dakota decided that it was in his best interest, to do exactly what she said. As he took a step to leave, the old woman snatched the rose from his grasp, and bit the stem in half. A thorn pricked her bluish lips, and a drop of crimson popped to the surface. She grinned wickedly. Dakota stared at her in disbelief.

  "Go," she ordered. Her voice snapped him back to attention, and he gave her a wide birth when he walked by her.

  "What have I got myself into," he said, under his breath, and wasted no time getting to his designated bedroom, that he couldn't help but notice, was as far from Elise's room as it could get.

  He walked into the room, flipped
on the overhead light, locked the door behind him, and climbed beneath the stiff sheets. The barracks style twin bed, had a black painted metal headboard, and was as hard as a slab of stone, and had the added discomfort of a few wayward springs that dug into the muscles of his back. Too tired to care, he fluffed the pillows under his head, and tugged the thick burgundy comforter up to his chin. He closed his eyes, and a vision of Elise formed in his mind. He hoped that she would be okay, when she woke up and found him gone.

  He closed his eyes, and didn't remember falling asleep, only that the next time he opened his eyes, despite the fact that he had purposefully left the light on, his room was in complete darkness. He rolled onto his side, and threw out his arm, hoping to drift off again, but when he felt a warm, naked body, curved on the mattress beside him, he froze.

  "Elise?" he started to say, but before he finished, light flooded the room. He shaded his eyes from the glare then turned to see who had thrown the switch. Even though he was thrilled that Elise was naked in bed with him, he couldn't help but worry that her grandmother might catch them.

  When he saw that the door was still closed, and no one was there, he was beyond baffled. He turned back to Elise, but was shocked to see that Mira was in bed with him.

  "Fuck," he whispered. A light scent of roses tickled his senses, and Mira smiled up at him alluringly. She was wrapped in a white sheet, that covered most of her torso. He blinked his eyes a few times, as if the act would somehow transform her into Elise, but rather than disappear, Mira pushed in, even closer, and hooked a caramel hued leg across his hips.

  "That's what I was hoping for," she said, licking her already slick lips. Dakota sucked in a stunted breath, and broke into a cold sweat.

  "You can't be here," he said, shoving Mira's leg off him.

  She seemed unaffected by his rebuff, and propped up on her side, then tugged his sheet away. When she did, he realized that he was as naked as she was.

  "Where are my clothes?" he said.

  "You don't need them for what we're going to do," she answered, locking her eyes on his erection.

  Dakota snatched back the blanket, but the move stripped the sheet from Mira, and he drew in a sharp breath and swallowed a few times. Her breasts were mounds of satiny perfection, her dark nipples were erect, and begged for him to run his tongue over the delicate flesh. He wanted to taste every inch of her, and make her beg for him to be inside her. His eyes moved down the tight muscles of her stomach, to her navel, but he managed to catch himself before he went down any farther. He knew that being with Mira was wrong on so many levels, but when Dakota locked on Mira's heavy lidded eyes, and the way her lips were drawn into a pout, he craved her so badly, that it was almost painful.

  "You have to get out of here," he hissed, with the last vestiges of his resolve, even though it was the last thing he wanted.

  "You really want me to go?" she said, arching her back, before running a finger down the center of her breasts, slowly circling each nipple, as she descended lower.

  His breath caught, and he suddenly knew what he needed, and that only she could give it to him. Mira slid her finger further down her body, finally coming to rest just above the coifed triangle, that covered her sex.

  "Stop, please, I can't..."

  His voice was so low it was a rumble in his throat, but even as he said the words, he throbbed to be inside her. Gradually, she edged her knees apart, and he almost yelled for her to hurry up, because everything, but Mira, faded into oblivion. He tore the sheet away from his quaking body.

  "Dakota?" Elise said from behind him. He went rigid, as he was knocked back to reality.

  He darted his eyes to the doorframe, expecting to see Elise standing there with an expression of horror on her face, but the paneled wooden door was still closed as it had been before. The doorknob rattled, and Dakota realized that it was locked. His breathing came out in short bursts, and his lips pulled tight across his teeth.

  He was trapped, and seconds away from Elise catching him with Mira. The fog that clouded his senses lifted, and his return to sanity made him wonder what the hell he had been thinking. What had made him act nothing short of a male dog trying to rut with a bitch in heat?

  "Dakota?"

  Elise's tone was more urgent, and he knew he couldn't prolong it a second longer. He managed a clipped response, his voice so hoarse, that it sounded like he had a sore throat. He sprang from the bed, and hastily scanned the room for his clothes. When he didn't find them, he snatched a sheet off the bed, draped it over his shoulders, and pulled it closed in the front. He glanced back at Mira, and placed a finger over his lips. She giggled as though it were all a joke. Instant rage bubbled in his gut, and once again he questioned why he had been so fucking stupid.

  When he cracked the door open, Elise looked as if she had just woken up. Her hair was an auburn tangled nest, and she still had a sleep line on her right cheek.

  "Can I come in?" she asked, giving him a suspicious look, as if she knew that Mira was in the bed, just a few feet away from them.

  Dakota cleared his throat, and shook his head.

  "You better not, your grandmother might actually kill me, if she catches us together," he whispered.

  Elise's face pinched with anger.

  "She has no right to dictate what I do anymore," she said, planting her hands on her hips. Dakota had to agree with Elise, but he wasn't about to let her into the room with Mira draped like a porn star over his bed.

  "How about I come back to your room, and we..."

  "No," Elise said, shouldering past him. "I don't want to be there, it brings back too many bad memories."

  Dakota felt his heart stutter, and he spun around, waiting for the scream that was sure to follow Elise's discovery. A flimsy explanation, about it not being what it looked like, was poised on the tip of his tongue. Of course he knew Elise wasn't going to buy it, but he wasn't going down without a fight either.

  "I can explain," he said, spinning to face her wrath.

  But nothing went down even close to how he had predicted. Mira was gone, and Elise, with her legs crossed, and wearing a puzzled expression, was in Mira's place.

  "Explain what?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

  Dakota's mouth opened and closed a few times, before he forced his lips into an artificial smile. Before he could respond, Elise fell back onto the mattress, and grimaced.

  "Maybe we should go to my room after all, this bed is horrible. I can't believe that Nanny Flo actually put you in here," she said.

  Dakota tried to hide the shock he knew was written all over his face. He did a rapid scan of the room. It was little bigger than a good sized bathroom, still he wondered if Mira had somehow found a hiding place that he hadn't noticed before. He slanted his gaze to the only wood framed window adjacent to the bed. It looked like it was painted shut,, and hadn't been opened in years. The only entrance was also the exit, and there wasn't even a closet in the space never mind a bathroom, but as inexplicable as it was, Mira was nowhere to be found.

  Elise tugged off the jeans and blouse that she had fallen asleep in, and let them fall into a crumpled heap next to the bed. Clad in a black lace-edged bra, and matching silky panties, she slipped under the twisted sheets, yawned, and patted the space beside her.

  "Cuddle with me," she said, smiling.

  Normally, Elise half-dressed in his bed, would have been cause for instant arousal, but after nearly getting caught in bed with another woman, sex, not that it was even on the menu, was the last thing on his mind. His brain worked for half a second more, before he cut his eyes to the only place he hadn't looked, under the bed.

  "Is that a spider?" he asked, going down on all fours, and when he found no sign of Mira there either, he sighed.

  "Nope, nothing there after all," he said, popping up again. He released the sheet he'd been using to cover himself, and when he did, he found he was still wearing the clothes he had worn to bed.

  "What the..." he said, grabbing a ha
ndful of his shirt. He wondered if any part of what had happened with Mira had been real.

  "Dakota, what's up with you?" Elise said, her brows hiking up to her hairline.

  "Nothing, nothing at all."

  He shook his head, and crawled into the space beside her. The bed was a tight fit for two people, so he extended his arm under her head, and wrapped his other arm around her waist and hips, drawing her into him, until their chests were pressed together. And though she seemed to have flown the coop, he could still smell Mira, and was terrified that Elise might detect her scent too. He buried his face in Elise's hair, and drew in a deep breath, attempting to block out the rose perfume, but Elise seemed bathed in the identical scent, and it served to repel him.

  "She's gone," Elise murmured. Dakota flinched.

  "Who's gone?" he asked, trying to keep his tone casual.

  Elise averted her eyes to the peeling china blue floral wallpaper.

  "Tansy."

  At the mention of the name, he almost released a sound of relief, and it suddenly struck him as odd that less than twenty-four hours before, just the mention of the witch's name would have rattled him.

  He moved a strand of Elise's hair from her eyes, and pressed his lips to her forehead. She shivered, and he hugged her tighter, but she broke free, and rolled onto her back, keeping her eyes fixed on the water-stained ceiling.

  "I think she's dead. I don't want to be happy, but I..." She paused and swallowed a few times. "I am."

  She turned her focus to his face, shame blazed in her flushed cheeks.

  "Mira did it, I think she killed Tansy."

  At just the mention of Mira's name, he recoiled, as if saying it out loud would bring her to his side.

  "What do you mean she killed Tansy?" he said, narrowing his eyes.

  He had seen some crazy things lately, but murder was something completely different. "How could she have killed someone we don't even know how to find?"

  Elise's face went rigid, and anger pulled at the corners of her mouth.