Dust to Dust

by Karina Halle

  Perry, however, for all her telekinetic abilities, didn’t seem to pick up on that thought. Her mother embraced her and then let her go. Her sharp Nordic features instantly became severe, perhaps because Perry didn’t give when she wanted her to. For the first time I was acutely aware that their relationship was more of a two-way street than Perry made it out to be.

  Of course, the affection and concern didn’t last for very long. Suddenly her mother launched into near hysterics, about how irresponsible she was for jetting off here, for the money she wasted, for the danger she put her sister in. All the while, her father, Daniel, was staring me down with that Mafia-look he sometimes had. I’d learned not to be intimidated by it over time, but now he was especially Pacino-esque.

  I mean, it was all my fault they were here, wasn’t it?

  “You know,” her father said, stepping toward me, “if you just wanted to go to New York, we wouldn’t have cared. You’re both free to do what you want and Dex, you’re a man of your own will, you can do what you want as well. But to involve Ada…” he shook his head, disappointed and looked away, jamming his hands in his pockets, “I just don’t know what you were thinking.”

  Obviously Perry had tried to explain to them what really happened but the truth never settled very well with her parents. Actually, it never settled well with anyone, even with us. So we let them think what they were going to think anyway. Eventually, they’d get over it.

  When her mom had calmed down a bit, she shot me a nervous glance. I thought that was kind of strange since her looks usually consisted of the glacial variety. I wasn’t used to her acting anxious around me. I had to wonder if I still had blood on my face. Maybe I smelled. I subtly pressed my nose to my shoulders and breathed in. Yeah. Time to buy new clothes.

  I smiled at them. “Now that you’re here, have you been checked in? Why don’t we all go out for lunch, do some shopping?”

  “Our room isn’t ready yet,” Daniel said sternly.

  The door from the stairwell swung open, saving my ass. It was Ada and she ran right into her mother’s arms with a big smile on her face.

  Her mother hugged her tight, then pulled back and held her stiffly by the shoulders, and the whole lecture she gave Perry came out once more. At least this time Ada was seen to be at fault almost as much as the rest of us were.

  When it was all said and done though, Ada offered for her parents to store her bags in her room until their room was ready. I noticed that she didn’t mention Maximus, which was probably a good thing. I know the burly redhead had been a favorite of theirs back when Perry was possessed but I wasn’t sure if this was going to go over too well with them. A nearly sixteen-year old sharing a room with a man who may have been thousands of years old?

  Well, they didn’t have to know about the thousands of years/ex-immortal/supernatural guide part. Thirty-two year old ginger was bad enough.

  Her parents brought their luggage over to the elevator but Ada flinched and immediately headed to the stairs. “I’ll catch up with you, I’m on floor eleven. I need the exercise.” She shot Perry a ‘are you coming?’ look but Perry only shook her head. It would look weird if all of us decided to walk up eleven floors when the elevator was right there.

  Though I wasn’t feeling much trepidation about this so-called demon on the sixth floor – after all, her parents were far scarier and relevant – Perry seemed to shudder and then resign herself. She caught me staring at her and attempted a reassuring smile that didn’t quite work.

  We got into the elevator with her parents and watched the floor numbers as we slowly ascended. It was more than a tad awkward, squished in there with them. I could feel the animosity coming off of them, just fumes at first, then building to smoke of pure hatred.

  At least, I thought the hate was from them. But when the elevator unexpectedly stopped at the sixth floor and I felt the feeling intensify, practically wrapping itself around my neck and choking me, I knew it hadn’t been coming from her parents.

  It was coming from what was on the other side of the elevator doors.

  It was waiting for me.

  “Oh, what now?” her father said, jabbing his finger on the elevator button repeatedly. I could feel Perry glance at me in worry but I couldn’t take my eyes way from the door.

  The doors slowly parted with a metallic groan.

  At the end of the hallway opposite us was a tall, muscular figure, standing with its side to us, absolutely still. It was about seven feet tall, with cow-like horns on top of its head that nearly grazed the ceiling. It was naked, resembling a mixture of a human and a bull, all hard and sinewy and black as sin. I wasn’t sure if there was skin or short fur but it was so dark and dense that it felt like you were looking into something, rather than at something.

  It deliberately turned its head until I was looking our way. White slits for eyes bore into my own. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.

  We were going to die.

  I was going to die.

  That’s all I knew and I knew it like I knew the sun rose in the east and set in the west.

  You need answers.

  I wasn’t sure if I thought it or the phrase just was plucked from the air. It was a voice with no voice.

  You need to find the answers.

  Start with your past.

  “I thought this was a nice hotel,” Perry’s dad grumbled, his disgruntled tone bringing me back into reality. The beast at the end of the hall was still standing there, but black red blood began to flow from its bull nose, created a river of crimson tar that sluggishly moved down the hall toward us.

  I could barely bring my eyes away from it to look at her father. He was jabbing the button again and for a moment I thought maybe he just needed to look up, maybe he needed to look up and he’d see it.

  And then he did. He glanced right down the hall and his face never changed. He went back to the button, hitting it harder this time. To him, there was no beast, just a hotel that was getting on his nerves.

  Now, the elevator doors finally began to close, shutting the creature and the blood from reaching us. But it didn’t erase the image from my mind. It didn’t take away that blanket of evil that I felt settle around my feet, like blackened dust.

  I looked down at Perry, my mouth open slightly, trying to take in air, like I’d forgotten how to even breathe. She was dead still and staring at her mom.

  Her mom had her hand to her chest, a look of utter horror on her face.

  Daniel looked to her. “What’s wrong dear?”

  Her mother slowly turned to look at him, blinking fast, her mouth opening and closing, trying to find the words. “You didn’t see…”

  He frowned. “What? That the health code in this building probably isn’t up to par? Damn New Yorkers, always cutting corners. You remember that building we used to live on 32nd, right? My goodness, that was a cause for concern.”

  Though it was hard to forget what I saw, I was watching her very closely now, as was Perry. She had seen something. She had seen it. The demon on the sixth floor.

  I knew Perry must have been losing her shit inside her head. This was big fucking news, the fact that her mother saw the very supernatural thing that her daughter did. It meant so many things.

  And yet, I was going to have to let Perry deal with that. I had other things I had to deal with. Mainly, the voice in my head that told me to find answers, to go back to the past. It was like everything was clicking into place, the satisfying snap of puzzle pieces being fit together.

  I needed to go find my childhood home.

  Then everything, everything, would make sense.

  ***

  After Perry’s parents put their bags away in Ada’s room and got over the fact that she had to share a room with Maximus last night (naturally, Max would have his own room going forward), we all headed out to lunch like one big fucking happy family.

  Understandably, Perry and her mother were on the quiet side, while Ada was overjoyed at my sugg
estion we hit up H&M. It’s not that I enjoyed shopping at a store that was catered to European metrosexuals with pre-pubescent chests, but I needed to get something.

  Luckily, I found jeans that didn’t show off every curve of my dick nor taper into my toes and a few plain t-shirts that didn’t have a cat wearing sunglasses on it. If I hadn’t already seen a beast from Hell that morning, I would have sworn I was in Hell itself. Hell & Metrosexuals, that’s what H&M stood for, right?

  It was hard to keep my mood up, however, because every single time I caught my reflection, whether it be in the changing room mirror or the gleam of the floors or the glass on the buildings, I saw the same fucking thing.

  My face, frozen in a scream, eyes open in horror. It got to be so unnerving that I started flinching every time I saw a reflective object.

  “What’s wrong?” Perry asked as we strolled down Fifth Avenue, Ada scampering into every single high-end designer store. She grabbed my hand and held it tight, pulling me back a bit. Maximus was up ahead, talking to her father, while Ada was trying to convince her mom of something.

  I ran my tongue over the tip of my teeth. “Well, I think I might be going crazy.”

  “You’re not,” she said, keeping her voice low. “I saw the beast too. And you know what, I think so did my mom. She’s acting like she hasn’t, but I know it, I know it.”

  I nodded. “Yeah I picked up on that. But that isn’t why I think I’m going crazy.”

  Her brows furrowed. “That isn’t? Dex, I’m pretty sure we just saw Satan on the sixth floor. What else could be more than that?”

  I cleared my throat. “Uh, well, every time I see my reflection, it’s not matching up with my face.” Her frown deepened. “It’s screaming,” I explained. “And earlier, this morning when I was in the bathroom, it was grinning at me, like it was about to fucking tear my head off and piss in it.”

  “When you say it, you mean…”

  “Me. My reflection is me and yet it has a mind of its own.”

  Her grip on my hand tightened and she sucked in her lip for a moment. “That isn’t good.”

  “No shit. Hence the main reason why I think I’m going crazy.”

  She exhaled and looked down the sidewalk at Maximus who was getting lost in the crowd. “We should let him know. Maybe it means something.”

  I shrugged, kind of annoyed that she would be going to him for counsel. I hated thinking that the man knew some shit that I didn’t. “I don’t know. But I do think I know what will help.” She looked at me expectantly and I continued. “I think we need to find the house I grew up in. Where Pippa was me and Michael’s nanny. Where we lived before my father fucked off.”

  Perry didn’t say anything. For a second I thought maybe she didn’t hear me but she carefully said, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  “What’s a good idea?” Ada’s voice interrupted us.

  We looked over to see Ada and her mother standing close by.

  “I want to go visit my childhood home, where I grew up,” I told them even though I could tell Perry wanted me to shut it.

  “That sounds like a great idea,” Perry’s mother said.

  I shot her a curious look, studying her. I met her eyes and suddenly I understood something that I’d been ignoring before. “Of course you would want to,” I conceded.

  She gave me a slight nod. Though we never really discussed it, it was common knowledge between all of us that we were connected in more ways than just an upcoming marriage. When she and Daniel lived in New York City, her mother, Pippa, was there too, working as my nanny.

  “I was there once,” she said to me, her accent gentle. “A very long time ago. My mother…she brought me over to show me where she worked. I met you, but you were very small. I met your brother too.”

  I raised my brow. I had no idea that she’d actually been there, actually met me and my brother as a kid. This was officially getting weird than cum on a cracker.

  “I hope I wasn’t a little shit, running around and kicking shins,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

  She shook her head. “No, you weren’t. You were very quiet.”

  “Never trust the quiet ones.”

  “No,” she said, adjusting her purse on her shoulder, “I never do.”

  Ada looked between the two of us. “So, like, this is kinda weird right? Mom, you actually remember meeting Dex when he was a kid?”

  “His brother too,” she said and then cocked her head at me. “How is your brother? Do you keep in touch?”

  I raised my brow and could feel Ada and Perry’s eyes on me. I guess she really didn’t believe my brother was the reason I was out here. “He’s reached out to me a few times. But we’re not close.”

  She seemed to understand that and before we get into it further, Maximus and Daniel were at our side, looking hot and in need of a beer. “What is the hold up?” Daniel asked.

  “Dex wants us to go visit the house he grew up in,” she said to her husband. I watched Maximus’s eye brows raise up to the heavens. “You remember where mama used to work right? It’s close to the hotel. It would be neat to see the place again, I remember she was so happy working there.”

  Maximus was shooting me a look that was telling me I was crazy but he didn’t even know the half of it. I couldn’t explain it myself, just that I felt if I saw the house, I would be able to figure something out – why Michael had brought me here in the first place. It was like every instinct in my body was being pulled in that direction, and the more I entertained the idea, the more I knew it was something I had to do. And if everyone was going to come with me, then all the better.

  Daniel groaned. “Can we do that tomorrow? We’ve only got a few days here before we head back and I thought we could at least have dinner in the theatre district tonight, maybe catch a show. You guys all like the Lion King?”

  He was met with blank faces. Watching Broadway shows seemed terribly out of place at a time like this, but I had to remember that Perry’s parents were there only to get Ada and bring her back to Portland and were trying to sneak in a mini-vacation at the same time. They didn’t have to deal with our reality.

  At least, Daniel didn’t. Now I wasn’t too sure about her mother.

  “Sure, a show sounds great,” Maximus spoke up, smiling at them. “Might as well see something good while we’re here.”

  Then he and Daniel started discussing the other plays in town and we all resumed our journey down the street.

  The whole time, Perry didn’t loosen her grip from my hand. It was almost as if she was holding onto me for dear life.

  I’m not going anywhere, I wanted to tell her. But the truth was, I couldn’t be so sure.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Perry

  To say I was concerned about Dex was a total understatement. First it was the nosebleed, then it was the time he spent in the bathroom that morning, time I knew he couldn’t explain. Then it was seeing the demon thing and the fact that he says his reflection was always screaming at him. Now, he wanted to visit his childhood home, something I knew was an extremely bad idea.

  Something was happening to him, something I didn’t understand. I waited until we were all getting ready for dinner when I chanced leaving him alone and went up to Maximus’s room. I took the stairs, just in case. No way did I want to get stuck on the sixth floor again and see that terrible beast that made my limbs feel like lead.

  My mom had seen it too, which means my experiment was working. She wasn’t on her pills and the world that eluded her for so long was slowly seeping in.

  I rapped on Maximus’s door. He answered it, buttoning up a green cowboy shirt with a pointy collar.

  “I thought it would be you,” he said, his tone hushed. He quickly ushered me inside. “We need to talk.”

  “Yes, we do,” I said, sitting on the end of his bed. “I’m worried about Dex.”

  He nodded and walked over to the mini bar, bringing out two mini bottles of vodka. He shook them at me.
“Care for a drink?”

  “You know those are like twenty bucks each.”

  He shrugged and smiled. “You’re paying, aren’t you?”

  I rolled my eyes but held out my hand. “Yes, give me one. Forget the mix. Cheaper that way.”

  He sat down beside me and handed me the bottle of Absolut. “I’m worried about him too. I reckon I’m having a right case of déjà vu, don’t you?”

  Now that he mentioned it. A trickle of ice went down my spine. Dex was acting a bit like I had been acting when I was possessed. Of course it was nearly impossible to know what I looked like to the outside eye, but Maximus, he had seen me. And now he was seeing him.

  But that didn’t seem likely. How could his brother possess him? He was human.

  “I don’t know what I think,” I said as I unscrewed the cap and dumped the contents into my mouth. It burned so good as it went down. I hoped it would cauterize my heart.

  “Then tell me why you’re here. Tell me everything, even if you think it’s nothing,” he said. “It won’t do any good to keep your concerns inside, darlin’.”

  I breathed in deep through my nose and gathered my thoughts. I started with the nosebleed and ended with him thinking that going to his old house would give him all the answers.

  “And just now,” I said, “before I came up here, he was just standing by the window and staring at nothing. But it was like he was listening to something I couldn’t hear. Occasionally he would smile but I don’t know at what. It was…creepy.”

  He finished his bottle and ran the back of his hand across his lips. “It could be nothing. He’s been through a traumatic event and even if he can’t remember it, perhaps his subconscious does. Maybe he’s just catching up.”

  “But it has to mean something that he wants to go to that place, the very place we were looking for when we first got here.”

  Maximus nodded. “It does mean something, I just don’t know what. But you know, Perry, I don’t think there is anything we can do about it. He’s going to go, whether or not we go with him. And now, it seems like your mother has the same idea.”