The Life & Death of Jorja Graham

by Brynn Myers

  Yes! I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was aware that something was off, and with Rhetta’s reaction to his cool demeanor, things were about to go from bad to worse. I could sense her anger and now we were all about to find out exactly what was going on.

  “I’m standing here half naked and all you can be concerned with is the way the house looks?” she said as she flicked the robe closed.

  “Where’s Jorja?”

  “Excuse me? I’m right here.”

  “I know her scent and you are not her, so I’ll ask you once again. Where is my girl?”

  Oh thank God, there’s hope. I am his girl and he knows something’s wrong. That thought however, that truth, slammed into me with the blinding realization that he knew she wasn’t me and the only way he could’ve known that was if Rhetta was right––Corbin was a demon. If I’d been in control of my body, I would’ve fled, run until I could no longer feel anything. My heart would be ruined, eyes bloodshot and swollen from the countless hours of crying over how incredibly stupid I’d been to fall for his charms, but since I couldn’t run, all I could do was suffer here in silence. Reality had begun to set in. I was entombed, trapped like Rhetta said. Who knows, maybe my death would be quick and painless because this––this was torture.

  “Your girl, aww, I love it when you call me that.”

  He gripped Rhetta by the throat and dragged her kicking and gasping for air to the wall next to the study. “No, Jorja wouldn’t and I won’t ask you again.”

  In the scuffle the robe had opened and the pendant bounced against Rhetta’s exposed chest. Corbin looked down and loosened his grip. He obviously knew what it was because he stepped back, giving Rhetta a chance to catch her breath. She loved that he backed off, felt as if she’d gained some measure of control in the situation.

  “Rhetta Rhyland I presume?”

  “In the flesh so to speak. What gave me away, was I not sweet enough for you?” she goaded. “You know, I’d hoped you and I could’ve had some playtime before you realized who I was,” she continued as she righted her robe.

  “You stink of insecurity, Jorja does not,” he said with clenched fists. “How have you managed to possess her?”

  She pulled the pendant to her lips and kissed it. “Just one of the many benefits of this.”

  “You can wipe that smirk off your face. It will only be a matter of time before I have you removed.”

  She laughed. “Aw, but you can’t, the locket binds me to this body.” He moved to grab her but she held up her hand. “Don’t bother trying to remove it. Lura taught me how to spell it against demons,” she said as she walked into the study. “Besides I doubt your precious Jorja is all that interested in you now that she knows the truth. In fact, I think she might be repulsed by you.”

  He lunged forward, lifting her off the ground, his eyes a mix of copper and black. “Do not pretend to know what she thinks. I’m certain she can hear but not speak, so you don’t have a clue about what it is she wants.” He stared into Rhetta’s eyes, gripping her tightly. “Jorja, I will find a way to free you and when I do, I’ll explain everything. For now, know that our time together was genuine no matter what she tries to convince you of.”

  I was shocked by his declaration but knew in my heart that he was sincere. I could see in his eyes just how much this pained him but even so, I didn’t think I could get past this new reality. He was a demon, simple as that. Love or no love, our lives could never be intertwined.

  Rhetta began chanting under her breath and a thick charcoal haze began to float around her. “Get your hands off of me.” She dropped but I wasn’t certain if it was from the fog or if Corbin had released her, either way the ire she was feeling was rising rapidly. “When I raise my queen you’ll be subservient to me and I cannot wait for the day when you are begging for my forgiveness.”

  Corbin laughed. “You couldn’t possibly know how to summon Lilith. Only Lura could do that and she’s dead. I killed her myself.”

  Rhetta snapped and charged Corbin, the haze surrounding him as she swiped and clawed at him. “I know everything Lura did. We’d spent the better part of sixty years bound to one another. We were one and when Lilith is free I will kill you myself for what you’ve done.”

  “You are incredibly foolish and unaware of what your actions will bring forth but it certainly has been humorous listening to you go on and on. A human cannot summon her without consequence and I will not let you take Jorja from me to do it. Free her now and I will spare your soul.”

  “Do not test me because you will lose,” Rhetta said as she took her blood red nails and ripped the flesh on my arm. Black ooze and crimson began to flow in a steady stream from the cut.

  Fury raged on Corbin’s face. His eyes became black pools and the gold flecks that were usually present had turned to flames. “You have no idea who you are dealing with, do you?” Fire flickered on his fingertips and then began to crawl up his arms, his features transforming into a beast-like creature. In a booming voice he declared, “I am the leader of Hell. I do not take orders from anyone much less a whore like you. ”

  Rhetta stood unmoving as he continued to loom over her. Lura had apparently warned her about the demons determined to keep Lilith imprisoned, but she’d not really said exactly who she’d be going up against. As Corbin continued to explain how insignificant she was, Rhetta began to take his threat seriously and opted to regroup before she faced him again. He, however, wasn’t backing down. His face continued to shift between the sexy man I knew and the beast she’d released when she cut my arm.

  Rhetta’s fury was replaced with fear as she stepped back. She never took her eyes off his for a second. Instead, she watched the flames as they continued to dance in the hollows of his eyes. He must have sensed her fear because he grabbed her wrist, ran his finger along the spot where the blood continued to flow before pulling it to his lips. Within seconds the wound healed as if it had never happened. “Mar her skin one more time and you will suffer a wrath beyond your imagining and when you beg to be released, I will make you suffer even more.” His tone was low, almost a whisper but full of menace. “Do we understand one another?”

  Rhetta didn’t speak, she just nodded her head but what Corbin didn’t know was that this little scene had only fueled her fire. She’d spent years married to a drunken, malicious womanizer and yes, while Corbin was a demon, he was just like any other male and that she knew how to manipulate. Rhetta was already scheming because now she knew his greatest weakness––me. I hated what he was. Hated all the lies he’d told me, but at the moment if I had to choose between a demon who cared for me verses a vindictive bitch of a ghost––I’d choose Corbin.

  c h a p t e r

  NINETEEN

  The front door slammed with a thunderous crack and I was sure it had splintered. I had no idea where Corbin was going or why he was leaving. If he was as powerful as he just said he was, why wasn’t he doing more to save me? Maybe he couldn’t exorcise ghosts; maybe that wasn’t part of a demon's job description. Oh my God, what the hell am I saying? Exorcisms, demons, ghosts; I've officially lost it. Was vomiting split pea soup in my future? Again, how insane was this? I guess I should’ve paid more attention to Cat’s mother when she talked about the spirit world and maybe then I’d know how to eliminate this crazy bitch myself. Cat, why’d you have to be out of town this week? You would’ve known just what to do.

  Days passed with no sign of Corbin. I wanted to believe what he’d said about our time together being genuine, but as more time passed, my outlook wavered. In the last few days, I’d witnessed every sick thought Rhetta had as she'd taken a stroll down memory lane. Each time she walked past a room, a book, a trinket, she’d remember things she and Lura did. Together they’d killed several dozen people, some male, some female, and most were individuals that they’d assumed no one would really miss.

  They fed each other’s sadistic nature and wreaked havoc on anyone who displeased them. I could only assume the young hipp
ie, the Mary Kay sales lady, and the maid had done something to provoke Rhetta or Lura in some way, but for the life of me I couldn’t connect them to my father. Why would he have chosen Rhetta?

  From everything I could decipher from Rhetta’s thoughts so far, Lura came into her life at the perfect time, at the height of Carver’s philandering. She wanted him to suffer a merciless death, so it was a win-win for Rhetta when she was approached by the demon in need of a human host to hide her true identity. Lura offered Rhetta a chance to live a second life and one she’d never regret. The deal was perfect in Rhetta’s mind and she never hesitated a second when Lura asked her to agree to co-exist within the same body. They did so for almost sixty years, which now explained how Rhetta had maintained her youthful appearance well into her nineties. It also explained why folks believed she was a witch and could curse people on a whim. Rhetta was everything everyone assumed and now that I knew all of her secrets, she was actually worse.

  Lura and Rhetta had spent all those years planning for the day when they could release this “Lilith” person. It had to be done on a specific day and only during a full moon or there would be grave consequences. I wanted to understand more about Lilith but was blocked from any information until Rhetta thought it or as of late, babbled about, as she tore the house apart looking for her hidden belongings.

  She’d cursed my name more times than I could count for having renovated and blocked her secret passageways but suddenly her mood shifted. She walked out the back door and headed to the carriage house where she proceeded to use one of the logs next to the fireplace to break apart the bricks in the chimney. Pieces crumbled onto the floor until she finally found what she was looking for. A wooden box covered in shapes and symbols. She pulled it out, dusted it off, and opened the lid.

  Inside were small apothecary jars filled with various items I couldn’t identify, a mortar and pestle, and a folded paper that crackled as she opened it. At the top of the page was the same marking I’d seen on the opening in the wall the day I found the locket. I tried to read the words written but she flipped the page too quickly. The writing on the back, however, sent a shiver up my spine and she laughed. “Guess you’re finally realizing you’re screwed and that your demon won’t be able to save you, huh?”

  She was right. I was screwed but I wasn’t about to go down without a fight. There had to be a way for me to get control of my body, to free myself from this prison. She may not be able to hear my thoughts, but she could feel my emotions so that’s where I needed to start. I certainly had enough pain and resentment to pull from; in fact, I had enough rage built up inside me to burn this entire estate and half of Georgia down with it. Rhetta had no idea what she was in for.

  I let my mind wander to a small event in my past to see if it would have any effect on her. I thought back to when I was nine. My mother became enraged over me getting mud on my new dress. She’d told me to go sit on the bench outside the house and wait for her until she finished her phone call. Of course, I did as I was told. I sat with my legs crossed and my hands folded neatly in front of me, waiting patiently. I watched as the neighbor boy kicked his soccer ball into our yard. He was oblivious to me when he kicked it again and sent it flying in my direction.

  I put my hands up to block it but the soiled ball landed square in my lap. I gasped but it was too late. I was a muddy mess and knew what my mother would do when she saw me. The boy apologized, grabbed his ball, and ran back to his house. He no more left when Eudora walked out to see me frantically trying to brush off the dirt. She didn’t even give me a chance to explain, instead she looked for the thinnest branch she could find and snapped it off the tree, then stalked towards me. “Was I not clear about you staying clean?” One lash, three, seven…I lost count, but the welts on my skin beneath the skirt of my dress told the story I was to remain silent about.

  Bile rose in my throat and my stomach began to churn at the memory and Rhetta gasped as she tried desperately to understand why she was feeling sick, then it hit her. “You little bitch, I don’t know what you are trying to do but it won’t work. You and I are bound to one another with no escape.” She stood and walked into the bathroom to stare at her reflection in the mirror. “It won’t be long now and you will be gone for good. The full moon is almost here and nothing you do will push me off course. I will have my vengeance.”

  The fact that I’d been successful in affecting her only made me want to push more. Rhetta wasn’t the only one out for vengeance.

  c h a p t e r

  TWENTY

  Rhetta smacked her palm on the mirror before she turned and walked back towards the living room where she dropped to her knees near the kitchen cabinets. She tunneled her nails along the seam of the wood until she found the place where the plank was loose and pried it until it tilted upwards. The floor board cracked and popped as she removed it and pulled out a leather bound journal marked with more of those symbols. How many secret places and books does this woman have, for crying out loud?

  She loosened the leather tie and opened it to the center pages. The writing wasn’t Rhetta’s, so I assumed it must’ve been Lura’s. She ran her fingers down the tea stained pages and scanned for the passages written in Latin. I had no idea what they said but Rhetta seemed to know. There were various markings on either side of the page…some were stick-like figures, while others were hand drawn suns and moons. There were also five amulets sketched in charcoal with what appeared to be numbers resembling Roman numerals on each of them.

  As Rhetta continued to flip through the pages, I could understand some things here and there. However, when she stopped on a drawing of a beautiful woman, the details of her features so specific I almost thought she was going to come alive on the paper, I was taken aback. The woman’s hair was drawn so that it appeared as if it were blowing in the wind. Her look was seductive as she stood nude among a bed of flames, her lips painted ruby red and she was wearing the necklace I now wore around my neck. Oh God! As Rhetta turned the page, the image of the woman was the same, but this time the flames looked like thousands of butterflies fluttering against the parchment. The pages in this book were unlike anything I’d ever seen; they seemed to come alive with the mere touch of her hand. “My queen, it’s almost time to rise.”

  Rhetta was joyful, elated almost, as we walked back to the main house. She held the book lovingly as she thought about how things would be when she resurrected the ancient demon. She had an entire plan worked out and not one bit of it included my life being spared. I would not survive this transition just as Corbin said, well at least not my soul. Rhetta planned to take possession of my body and live as me for the rest of my days only with “added perks” as she liked to call them. She was convinced that freeing Lilith would solidify her place in the demon world. Rhetta couldn’t bring back Lura, but she could certainly honor her by taking her place as Lilith’s handmaiden.

  Rhetta made her way into the house and then into the study to pull more books off the shelves. From the outside they appeared to be classic pieces of literature, The Scarlet Letter, Lord of the Flies, and Macbeth. All interesting titles considering, but in reality these were books cataloging noteworthy events in the demon world. The first one seemed to be the guide to the second and third books. It was the only one Rhetta had actually been permitted to read and clearly stated that only upon Lura’s passing was Rhetta to open the following. I guess there were things that Lura didn’t share with her host, Corbin had been right again, and I hoped he was right about being able to save me, too.

  Book two talked about the leaders of hell, two brothers, who ruled side by side. One was married to Lilith and the other who had yet to find his queen. They both were known to be fair but formidable, managing the underworld and purgatory with an iron fist. One brother more vicious than the other but together they found a balance that the demon world fell in line with.

  Rhetta opened the next set of texts, giddy with excitement. She was thrilled to no end to finally put together the pieces o
f the puzzle that had been kept from her for so long.

  The story went on to read that the “Hallow Crow” was able to read the past, present, and future with a single touch and could invoke love, despite the fact that he was without a female. He was capable of bringing down entire cities if they’d become uncontrollable and was the balancer to his brother. Quentin, on the other hand, was the one who ruled the five rivers that flowed into the levels of Hell. He loved his position of power, considering he could manipulate and wield one's desires to suit his own. He controlled whether or not a person remained in purgatory, limbo, Sheol, or the underworld itself. And for the souls who begged to be given another chance to right their previous wrongs, he alone decided their fate.

  Quentin however, was known for his lustful tendencies and Lilith’s jealousy over her husband’s actions began to influence her. She could no longer stand by and allow a man to treat her as anything less than the goddess she saw herself as. She wanted to be worshipped by everyone and would accept nothing less. In her eyes, anyone who dared to refute her should be punished until they saw things her way. Her husband, however, found this ludicrous and rebuffed her silly notions. In his eyes, she had been treated as a queen and he would not allow her to have anything or any more power than she already possessed. It was then that she plotted to have him killed.

  Lilith was powerful; more so than even the brothers knew. Her small gathering of faithful followers had grown in number, and she’d been strengthening her abilities by stealing dark souls and feeding from them until the day she became immune and couldn’t pilfer any more. If her plan worked, once her husband was gone, she would become the first female to rule the underworld and could decide the fate of the dead and take as much power as she desired, but even that was not enough. Part two of her scheme was to break the wretched curse that plagued all her offspring. Her union with Quentin was bound by a pact that made it so all their children but one would die so as not to exceed the balance of power. Lilith had always lusted after her brother-in-law and since he was without a wife, her plan was to claim him and produce new heirs and then she and her children would finally be free.