The Darkest Lullaby

by Jonathan Janz

  This was Katherine.

  Katherine with her fingertips skimming the waistband of his boxer briefs, her nails tickling the flesh of his belly in the most wonderfully maddening way. Propped on his elbows, Chris watched the fingers teasing over him, then gazed at her forearm, her shoulder. Above that, the sheer nightgown draping her delicate frame.

  The moonlight slanting through the panes illuminated the diaphanous white gown she wore, made more distinct her lovely body beneath. He eased himself down, lying as he’d been when she’d first awakened him, and from this angle the limpid glow allowed an exhilarating glimpse of the sheer gown. He could actually make out the shadowy thatch of pubic hair, the supple lines of her inner thighs limned by the flimsy fabric.

  Katherine drew down his waistband, Chris raising his hips to help her, and as the briefs slithered down his legs he remembered Ellie, slumbering beside him. He shot a glance that way and saw her lying peacefully on her side, the way she always did, facing away from him, and thank goodness for that. His attention returned to Katherine, who was bent over him now, massaging the flesh of his upper legs.

  Reason demanded he delay their liaison until they could go to another room, but obviously Katherine had other ideas. If she wanted to make love in her room, why was she still teasing? Why not simply walk away and trust him to follow?

  Because she wants you to make the decision, he told himself. She’ll do it either place, but she wants you to take charge. You do know how to do that, right?

  Hell, yes, he thought. Not that Ellie would ever give him credit for his assertiveness. Her every word was designed to emasculate him. And she’d succeeded, at least for a time.

  But not any longer, he thought. Oh no, not any longer.

  Chris reached up with his free hand, hooked his fingers in the neck of her nightgown, and drew her down so he could kiss her. Her tongue met his, and she moaned so loudly he feared Ellie would awaken. But that was part of it, wasn’t it? The excitement of doing it right beside her?

  Chris climbed on top of her.

  She’d cinched her nightgown up so there’d be no encumbrances to their lovemaking. Good girl, he thought. He lowered himself on top of her, but as he did, he detected something new and entirely unwanted seeping into Katherine’s pretty face, a combination of fear and utter bewilderment. As their bodies came together, her eyes shot down to her bare breasts.

  “What are you—” she began, then she swung her head toward Ellie and gasped.

  Ellie was sitting up, her eyes wide with horror.

  “Katherine?” she asked in a breathless voice. Then to Chris: “What are you two doing?”

  Isn’t it obvious? Chris almost said, but there was no time for wisecracks now because Ellie had climbed out of bed and was switching on the lamp. Katherine was doing her best to scramble out from under him, but Chris was in no hurry. They were busted, and nothing could change that now. The light spilled over them as Katherine scuttled away from the bed, her arms thrown over her breasts as if she’d just realized the nightgown was damn near transparent.

  “I can’t believe you,” Ellie whispered in that same aghast way.

  Chris stood but made no attempt to hide his erection. Several feet to his left, Katherine hugged herself, made little keening noises that reminded Chris of someone who’d just stubbed her toe. Ellie shouted something at him.

  He faced her. “Huh?”

  Her lips drew back. “I said, I want you out of this house.”

  He grinned. “It’s my house, too, dear.”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  “What would you rather be called?”

  She cracked then, palsied hands twining in her hair. “Goddamn you both!” she spat, but her voice dissolved on the last word. She stormed out of the bedroom. The bathroom door boomed, the lock clicked and Chris glanced at Katherine, who was staring at the floor, a shell-shocked expression transforming her face into that of a frightened dullard.

  He gave her a grin. “You sure know how to surprise a guy.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know how it happened.”

  “Nothing did, but if you want, I’m still game.”

  Her bottom lip quivered, and she gave him a brief, doleful look. “Please don’t.”

  He shrugged and went to his dresser. When he got his clothes on and went out, Katherine was still standing there.

  And Ellie was still in the bathroom.

  “El?” she heard Kat say through the door again. “Ellie, please? I don’t know how to make you believe me, but…” Her voice trailed off in what sounded like a sob.

  Fuck you, Ellie thought and gripped the edge of the vanity tighter. Fuck you, you vicious, heartless slut. I’ll just bet there’s more to your divorce than you said. Did you jettison your whole family so you could steal my husband?

  Kat’s voice, plaintive: “Please open the door.”

  Through the stinging tears, she stared absently at her makeup case, the toothbrush holder. Next to that, a half-used tube of Crest.

  Beside that, a razor.

  Ellie picked it up, considered using it on her wrists. Or better yet, on her sister’s throat.

  No, it was a safety razor. Bright orange plastic with a white handle. More useful for shaving legs than slitting throats, but maybe if she got lucky she could catch Kat off guard, swipe at her nose, her eyes, disfigure the husband-stealing bitch or at the very least seriously impair her vision. Whatever forces resided here weren’t allowing Ellie to leave, that much was obvious. She might as well exact some revenge, spread the suffering around a little.

  “For God’s sakes, Ellie, I’m scared,” Kat said. Though the voice was muffled by the thick door, Kat’s fear resonated nonetheless. And though her sister had always been a good enough actress, Ellie didn’t think the terror was feigned.

  Exhaling, she dropped the razor in the sink and opened the door.

  “What?” she asked in a dead voice.

  Kat moved forward, and for one insane moment, she was sure her sister would try to embrace her. But Kat turned sideways in the door, hurried into the bathroom. She wrested the door from Ellie’s grip, closed it, and pushed the lock button on the old brass knob.

  “What do you think—” Ellie began, but Kat’s strident whisper arrested her in mid-sentence.

  “We don’t have much time.”

  “Time for what?”

  Kat looked bewildered a moment, then her eyes brimmed and, bending over, she sat on the closed toilet lid.

  You think I’m going to comfort you? Ellie thought. You try to screw my husband, and you think I should comfort you?

  Yet she found herself crossing her arms, biting her bottom lip. She hated it when her sister cried, probably because it happened so infrequently. What if she really had been driven by some other force to come on to Chris? What if she’d been sleepwalking?

  Bullshit, Ellie’s anger insisted. She’s wanted Chris since she met him, and you know it. She didn’t even have the courtesy to make her move behind your back, had to attempt it in your marriage bed. If you hadn’t awakened when you did, they would have been humping like rabbits, and can you imagine waking up to that?

  Kat said, “You must think I’m the worst person in the world.”

  Ellie stared down at her and said nothing.

  “I’m so sorry, Ellie. I—oh, God.”

  The depth of pain in her sister’s voice nearly softened Ellie, but she fought it, forced herself to think about what had happened only ten minutes ago. Kat practically sprawled across her husband, their two faces mashed together.

  “I want you out of here,” Ellie said. “Now.”

  Kat stared up at her with naked fear, but rather than evoking pity this time, it only hardened her resolve.

  “I mean it,” she said. “You couldn’t have hurt me any worse.”

  Her bottom lip quivered. Ellie’d never seen her look so small, so lost.

  Kat sniffed, reached forward and tore off a strip of toilet paper. She blew her
nose on it, and Ellie watched with satisfaction as it disintegrated in her hands.

  “There’s something I need to tell you,” Kat said.

  “You slept with my first husband too?”

  Kat flinched, hung her head abjectly, and again Ellie felt a tug of sympathy. She struggled against it, but it was there and for the time being ineffaceable.

  Kat ripped off a longer strip of toilet paper, but the result was no better this time. As she swabbed her eyes with it, the white tissue balled into messy fragments and clung to her eyelashes, her nose.

  Ellie sighed. “Oh, for chrissakes, here.” She grabbed a towel and shoved it into Kat’s trembling hands. Her sister gave her a grateful look and began cleaning her face.

  “I suppose you hate me,” Kat said, “and I don’t blame you at all. In fact, I’d hate me too.”

  Ellie remained silent, a hollow weariness taking hold.

  “I told you about the fight I had with Roland the night of your wedding,” Kat said. “I told you it was about Chris looking good in his tux, but that was only part of the truth.”

  “Do I wanna hear this?”

  “Something happened at the reception.”

  “You threw yourself at Chris.”

  “It wasn’t Chris,” she answered. “It was his aunt.”

  Ellie felt a stirring of dread.

  Kat exhaled a shuddering breath, stared down at the towel in her lap. “I was standing at the bar waiting for a drink. I felt someone staring at me—you ever have that happen? Where you can feel someone watching you?”

  Ellie waited.

  “It was a beautiful woman. Gorgeous face, these old-fashioned red ringlets.”

  Ellie’s heart thundered. Oh my God. Please stop.

  “She had pale skin, the kind the Victorian romance novels would’ve called ‘porcelain.’”

  Ellie didn’t think she could support her own weight much longer, so she slouched on the edge of the sink.

  Kat didn’t seem to notice. “The woman was staring at me, I could tell that even before I turned to look at her, and what was more—what scared the hell out of me—is that my body reacted to her in a way I’d never experienced before. I was…aching.”

  Ellie had a fleeting thought of the scratches on Chris’s back, but her sister was going on.

  “I faced her, and the woman staring back at me took my breath away.” Kat glanced up at her. “I mean it, Ellie, no matter how cliché it sounds. I couldn’t breathe. I realized I was also perilously close to having my first orgasm in years, and the woman hadn’t done anything but look at me.”

  Kat blew out shaky breath. “Then she got off her barstool and walked away.

  “I thought that was the end of it, but later, when I went to the bathroom, I had the same feeling as before. It was one of those single-toilet bathrooms, and I’d locked the door. I was reapplying my lipstick when the door opened.

  “That couldn’t be right, I thought, because I’d been sure to lock it, but it was swinging open, and what was more, I smelled a woman’s perfume.”

  Ellie closed her eyes. “Then what happened?”

  Kat was quiet a moment longer. Then, her voice scarcely above a whisper, she said, “I thought it was strange that a woman so young would wear an old-lady perfume, and when she appeared behind me in the mirror, I saw something even stranger. I hadn’t noticed it before, but she was wearing the same red gown Chris’s aunt had worn at the wedding. I just had time to make the connection before the woman reached around and began massaging my breasts.”

  Ellie fluttered a hand. “Kat, please, I don’t—”

  “I have to,” she said, eyes fierce and pleading.

  Ellie closed her mouth, but her heart throbbed harder.

  Kat said, “I’ve never been attracted to women before. I swear to God. Even in college, when my roommate wanted to experiment a little…you know, kiss and all that…I never had any interest.”

  Kat stared down at the towel she was clutching. “But when I felt those fingers touch my nipples…then move lower, lifting my dress…I turned and let her…put her mouth on me.”

  Despite herself, Ellie saw the scene playing out in her mind. She felt a little sick, and beneath that was an undercurrent of fatalistic doom.

  “I held the dress up around my belly while she…did what she was doing to me, but it had only gone on a couple minutes or so when I felt her tongue stop, her mouth pulling away. I was disappointed—I’ll admit it—and a little confused, but what happened next was the biggest shock of my life.”

  Kat’s voice lowered to a whisper. “The woman bit me.”

  Ellie’s mouth fell open.

  “Slightly to the right of my…you know, where the leg begins. I felt this incredible pain. I looked down and saw her face writhing, the tongue lapping up the blood pouring into her mouth…her teeth, lips, stained red…” Kat closed her eyes, shuddered. “She was feasting on me, El. I understood even then that this was why she’d come onto me, why she’d picked me out at the bar. I’ve had dreams of her ever since. Especially in the last year or so.”

  Ellie started. “Do you remember when the nightmares…accelerated?”

  “Like I said, about a year—”

  “Do you remember the date?” Ellie nearly shouted.

  Kat drew back. “El, why would I—”

  Ellie took her by the shoulder. “Was it when Lillith died?”

  Kat’s expression remained confused a moment. Then a slow fog of horror seeped into her features. “Yes,” she said.

  Ellie went to the sink, turned on the water and splashed some on her face. When she’d done this, she stared at her dripping skin in the vanity. “You said the woman appeared behind you in the mirror.”

  “So?”

  “She cast a reflection.”

  For a moment, the sarcastic Kat she’d always known flickered. “Oh for God’s sake, this isn’t some silly vampire movie.”

  “But that’s what we’re talking about, isn’t it? Vampirism?”

  “Ellie—”

  “She drank from your femoral artery. You said so yourself.”

  “I know what I said.” Kat made a face. “But vampires, Ellie? Really?”

  “Call it what you want. Regardless, we have to find a way out of here.”

  The faintest of smiles played on Kat’s lips. “What, you think we’re being held against our will?”

  “I do.”

  Kat’s grin turned rueful. “Nothing is stopping us, El. It hasn’t rained in days, I’m sure the creek is down. Let’s go now.”

  Ellie shook her head. “I can’t.” She opened her mouth to say more, but the memory of the stomach agony stopped her.

  “What do you mean, you can’t?”

  Ellie thought it over, chose her words carefully, “Maybe it’ll let you.”

  Kat’s eyebrows rose. “It?”

  “Whatever you want to call it. The forest, Chris. Aunt Lillith.”

  Kat drew back. “You think he’d try to stop us?”

  “You’re leaving tonight to get help.”

  “For what? There hasn’t been a crime, El. Am I supposed to tell the sheriff we’re worried about a dead woman coming back to life and drinking our blood?”

  Ellie felt herself careening toward panic. “I don’t care what you tell him, I just want you to get him here. He’ll be able to notify the doctor, get someone out here to take care of me.”

  “Shouldn’t I just go to the doctor directly?”

  Ellie thought it over. Then she said in a quiet voice, “I’m afraid Chris would…hurt him.”

  “Ellie,” Kat said, a look of disbelief furrowing her brow, “he’s your husband, not a killer. I know he’s been doing unusual things lately, but he’s still the same person.”

  “Were you the same person a few minutes ago?”

  Kat recoiled as though she’d been slapped. “You know that wasn’t like me.”

  “It wasn’t like Chris either.”

  Kat’s mouth worked.
“God, I’m sorry, Ellie. I never—”

  “We don’t have time for that,” Ellie said. “You’ve gotta get help.”

  And when Kat’s eyes finally locked on hers, her sister’s face gained back some of the steel to which Ellie had grown accustomed.

  “Okay,” she said. “Tell me what to do.”

  Ellie returned her gaze a moment, then shook her head and looked away. “I don’t know what to do. But I have an idea where we might start.”

  When Kat beheld the picture of Lillith, she didn’t speak for a long time. What Ellie first mistook for uncertainty, she soon realized was dread.

  “She’s been in my dreams,” Kat said, “haunting me since that night at the reception.”

  They sat on five-gallon buckets in the garage, rummaging through boxes of Lillith’s things. They’d found an old Coleman lantern buried under a half-disintegrated tarp. Amazingly, the lantern worked, but they kept the light dim. Ellie had an idea if Chris knew they were out here, these boxes would disappear the way the box of videotapes had.

  Kat couldn’t stop staring at a leather-bound album from Lillith’s childhood. The edges of the paper were gilded with dark gold, the spine burnished to a dull shine despite the album’s age. Ellie was eager for her sister to move on to help her find something of use, but she suspected this was a kind of therapy for Kat, a struggle to understand the most uncanny experience of her life. Staring at her sister’s knitted brow, something occurred to her.

  “How did it end?”

  “How did what end?” Kat asked absently.

  “The…incident in the bathroom.”

  “It’s hazy, El. I have a hard time remembering…”

  “Did she say anything?”

  Kat cocked an eyebrow. “She was too busy doing other things.”

  “So…she just left?”

  “There was one more thing.” Kat cleared her throat, and this time it wasn’t pain in her voice, but deep embarrassment. “She wanted me to do to her what she’d done to me.”

  Ellie held her breath. “Did you?”

  Kat was silent a moment, her head down. “You mean the…pleasuring? Or the drinking of blood?”