by Dana Piazzi
The glass in front of him was wiped clean and the black-haired woman’s face smiled back at him. She smoothed her hands over the glass in a sick parody of a caress, and he wanted to vomit. He raised his hand and flipped her off, and the effort it cost him was massive.
She tisked at him and shook one long, pointed nail at him. “Behave, Ian,” she said softly. “You will learn to love it.”
“Screw you,” he ground out weakly, and she laughed.
“I love it when my boys show such spirit; I will keep you for a long time.” She laughed, and it was an eerie, echoing laugh that chilled him more than the fluid he was in ever would. Her green eyes, which he’d once thought beautiful, now reeked with mad glee. Ian knew now that she was crazy, but strangely enough, she looked younger now than she had the night before. He pulled his hand up to rub his eyes and grimaced at the creak in his bones. His arm was no longer the slick, muscled one of youth; his arm now looked like that of a fully grown man. Ian screamed as he flexed his hands.
“What the hell have you done to me?” he asked scathingly.
“Made you mine,” she replied softly as she rubbed against the glass. “You will be here until I am done with you…you and the others.” She pulled back and wiped the frost off the window again so he could fully see the horror surrounding him. This time he really was sick as he saw the four other tanks, three filled with men of different ages. “You will all help keep me young and beautiful for as long as I want.”
He wiped his mouth as he met the terrified eyes of the other three men in the tanks. They all floated, like he did, in a green fluid. They waivered in and out of view as the fluid caressed them. But one thing echoed his terror…the look in the men’s eyes.
“Let us go! Someone will come looking for us!” His voice trailed off uncertainly. “I just can’t remember who.” Ian shook his head as the blankness smacked him like a fist. He shook his head again and tried to reach for a name, any name of someone who would miss him, and failed.
She laughed quietly and tapped the glass. “No one will miss you. The rest of them have been here for at least a year, and no one ever came looking. They were all your age when they came, and they have been very useful.”
Ian looked at the three other men and cringed as he saw that one was in his mid-forties, one in his fifties, and one approaching old age. She laughed in glee at his face and slinked away, and then strapped on her high heeled sandals and straightened her clothes. She checked her stick, straight hair and smiled at the men in the tanks.
“I’m going to bring home one more new toy,” she said with a smile as she walked to the door. She blew them a kiss, and a layer of frost covered everything. She closed the door with a click, ignoring the screams of the men inside.
Tessa paced the floor, unable to believe it. The lights of the police car rotated wildly, turning the room into a strobe of blue and red. Ian’s parents huddled together on the couch, holding each other and crying. She shook her head, unable to believe what the police had told them. They said that Ian was dead. For some reason, he’d gone out to the lake in the park late last night and had fallen through the thin ice. The lake connected to the river so they weren’t sure that they would be able to find his body. His clothes and shoes were on the shore along with his cell phone.
“It doesn’t make sense!” Tess said shakily, wiping tears from her eyes. “Ian never would have gone to the lake, especially alone at night! He was afraid of water!” Ian had almost drowned when they were ten, and he could barely stand to be in water of any kind. Tessa shook her head and tried to control the shaking of her body. She felt like her heart had been ripped out, but there was no emptiness inside her. She knew she would feel it if he were gone.
“He’s not gone,” she said forcefully, coming to a stop in front of his parents. “I just can’t believe it.”
“The police say that there were signs that he fell in and evidence that he was on the ice. We have to accept that he is gone,” his mother said tearfully as she rose and hugged Tessa. “Don’t you think I wish it weren’t true?”
“But it’s not true!” Tessa cried out as she pulled away. “I don’t feel it here.” She thumped her chest and realized that she was practically screaming. She shrugged her off and gripped Mrs. Richards’ arms, shaking her. “Don’t you feel that he is alive?”
Mrs. Richards looked at her with tearful eyes and shook her head. Tessa wheeled around and looked into her own mother’s eyes and those of the detective working the case, and saw the same, accepting sadness echoed on each of their faces. She pulled away and backed toward the door.
“I will prove that he is alive,” she said shakily as she slid her feet into her running shoes. “You’ll see.”
“Sweetheart, listen,” her mother started softly, “we know this is hard. It’s hard for us all, but we have to accept that he’s gone.” She reached her hand out to Tessa, but she backed away, shaking her head in denial.
“No,” Tessa denied softly. “It’s not over; he’s not dead.” She broke away and ran for the door, jerked it open, and ran out into the early morning light, headed for the lake.
The air around the lake was cold, thanks to the frost that covered everything and the snow that still trickled down. Tessa skidded to a stop at the lake and ducked under the crime scene tape, not caring that it was off limits. She bypassed the police men standing guard and ran to where the pile of clothes still sat. She hunched down and examined the clothes and shoes, as tears streamed from her eyes. She grabbed his phone and saw the missed calls from her last night and wiped her nose on her sleeve, trying not to panic.
She closed her eyes and ran her fingers over his clothes, unable to believe that he was gone. The wind swept over her face, almost like a touch, and she opened her eyes to see a face inches in front of her own. She began to scream, but a gentle hand covered her mouth and her eyes widened as the young Italian man pushed her behind a bush. She tried to scream, but found her voice strangely muted, because she could see right through him.
“Promise not to scream,” he whispered to her softly, his voice nothing more than a sigh on the early morning breeze, his dark eyes intense, “and I will let you go. But you must listen or your friend will die.”
Tessa nodded slightly, and his hand disappeared as if it had never been there. He appeared in front of her, vaporous and hazy, as if he were having trouble trying to stay in focus. He faded, but then solidified again with a wry smile.
“Who are you?” Tessa asked as fear and sadness warred within her. She was scared shitless, but the look in his eyes was hopeless and so sad that it hurt her heart. She had no idea who he was, but it was obvious that he was dead. He only looked to be about nineteen, and Tessa thought that was the saddest thing of all…dying so young.
“I…. I don’t have long,” he said, his teeth clenching as if each word were a great effort. “My name is Simon and I had to make my death count for something. I can’t save myself, but I couldn’t let her do to anyone else what she did to me and the others. Maybe I can still save them.”
Tessa frowned. “Who are you talking about? What did ‘she’ do to you?” Her brow furrowed as Simon faded in and out as confusion clouded her mind.
Simon sighed and sat down cross legged in the dirt. His Pink Floyd “The Wall” T-shirt was black and filthy, matching his filthy jeans and lip ring. As he raked his dark curls back, he seemed very tired, as if each breath cost him dearly. “Her name is Elena Snow, and she takes young men and uses her witchcraft to take their youth to preserve her own life. She sucks it away and it leaves her younger and ages the men until it is too late. She’s completely crazy. I’ve seen her talking to no one and sometimes her eyes are so bright that they shine with it.” Simon paused, breathing hard as if he’d just run a marathon.
Tessa felt her stomach heave as she struggled to believe the words he uttered, her head spinning. “How is that possible?”
He smiled crookedly and she saw that he had been handsome. “You’re ta
lking to a ghost and my story is what you doubt?” He laughed in a low, husky voice, and Tess felt sad that this boy was no longer alive.
“This just seems crazy…all of it…you…this situation…the whole thing.” She motioned with her hand at him and the crime scene tape. “What does this have to do with Ian, anyway?” she asked as a creeping suspicion wedged its way into her heart.
“He’s her newest acquisition,” Simon said softly. “We have to get him out before she uses him up like she has all the others, like she did to me. She has been using them up faster over the last few years. I’m not sure what is different now, but she is going through them at a startling rate; about one a month.” He looked down at his hands and picked at the rip in his jeans. “But some, like me, last longer. I lasted five years.”
“Five years before…?” Tessa let the sentence hang there, not knowing how else to ask it.
“I died.”
Tessa swallowed, not sure what to say, but then she remembered his words about Ian being a new acquisition, and she felt fear grip her. “So, she’s going to suck away his life, like she did yours? How do we save him and the others?” she asked fiercely, putting her panic aside.
Simon smiled and stood, motioning her after him. “Follow me.”
Tessa stood and followed him, not sure why she trusted him or why she felt okay following him, but she knew that he was Ian’s only chance. She followed his flickering form away from the crime scene and prayed that she was doing the right thing.
Ian swore and hit the glass again, but it felt as if he were moving in slow motion. He tried not to look at the other men in the three other tubes, but his eyes kept straying back to them. They all looked tired and their eyes said that they had long ago given up hope. Fear trickled down his spine, and if he could have sweated in this ghastly fluid, he would have.
The door flew open and Elena sauntered in, leading a young, dark haired boy behind her. He seemed as dazed as Ian felt, walking listlessly behind her. His hair and clothes were covered in frost and he didn’t fight her as she led him to the empty tube. Ian screamed and pounded the glass, but the boy didn’t even notice.
Elena smiled ruefully and closed the door of the chamber. Then, it started filling with liquid. She was moving slower now and Ian noticed that she had aged twenty years since she had left. There were streaks of grey in her hair and crow’s feet around her eyes, but she was still stunning.
The boy gasped as the liquid overtook him, but immediately stopped when the cold fluid hit him. She turned and smiled widely, her teeth gleaming in the dim light of the room. “Oh, don’t be jealous,” she said softly as she slid toward him. “I will have time for all of you.”
Elena blew a kiss his way and the glass frosted over, holding Ian immobile again. She smiled as she walked toward the newest addition to her stable. Ian continued to struggle, but it did no good. The tube lit up and the man inside began to scream and twitch. Ian cringed as the boy lost the last of his baby fat, and his body began to change and stretch into that of a twenty year old man. Elena smiled and began to glow as her back straightened and the streaks disappeared from her hair and around her eyes. She once again appeared seventeen.
“Ah,” she sighed as she stretched, ignoring the muffled screams of her newest victim and those of the other men in the tubes. “Perfect.”
Ian shook as he prayed for redemption.
Tessa watched Simon disappear through the door of the abandoned building and shook her head as she stood tapping her foot, waiting for him to open it. Her skin felt like it was on fire, as the nervousness coursed through her. Simon had barely made it here before collapsing. Tessa had given him her hand and had felt the little pull as he’d siphoned her energy. Tessa had pulled back at first, but when he’d become more solid, she’d gripped his hand back tightly.
This part of town was the worst in Atlanta, and this time of night was the worst time to be here. But if Ian was here then Tessa would be, too. The door opened and Simon motioned her forward. Tessa snuck quietly through the darkness, following Simon. They began to descend into the earth, and Tessa began to feel the chill immediately. The wide, winding metal steps seemed to lead down into nowhere, it was so pitch black. Tessa really didn’t want to go there, but Ian’s face kept creeping up in front of her eyes and she knew that she couldn’t leave him or the others.
She slid down the creaking stairs, praying that she could do this. Panic rolled through her as she wondered how she was going to save anyone, let alone herself. Tessa slid to a stop on the stairs and sat down heavily, placing her head in her hands. Simon came to sit next to her and Tessa felt calmed by his prescience. “How can I save them?” she asked in a small, quiet voice. She knew that she was panicking, but couldn’t help it. “How do I do this?”
Simon let his hand hover just above her shoulder and looked at her grimly. “You are the only one who can,” he said. “I didn’t want you to know, but I see that I have no choice but to tell you. You are part of her family; your blood is her blood. That is why you can beat her. But where she is darkness, you are the light to counteract it. You have that power because you are a witch, too. Your love for him will free him. It will free them all.”
Tessa cringed back as her mouth fell open. “What the hell are you talking about?” She knew that she was screeching, but she couldn’t help it. “I’m not a witch! No one in my family is, and I certainly would have remembered having a relative who sucks the life force out of men like some kind of kinky vampire! How do you know all of this, anyway?” she asked quickly, angry, but with an edge of fear. She stood and turned, not sure where to go, but stopped dead when Simon wrapped his hand around her wrist. Suddenly, she felt a shock go through her. But this time, she actually felt him.
Simon drew her hand close and she shuddered silently as it came to rest on his semi-solid, cold chest. “They told me when I died, and I was sent back to help you. It’s okay to be afraid,” he said. “We all are. But just because you didn’t know about your heritage doesn’t mean that you can’t stop her.”
“But how? How can I have any power? I’m so normal it hurts! The best thing about me is Ian.”
Simon shrugged and pushed her hair back over her ear just the way she liked it. “Don’t sell yourself short. You are powerful on your own…with or without Ian.” His hand whispered over her face as he put his hand under her chin, making her look at him.
Tessa had felt the electric tingle of attraction before, but she’d loved Ian so long that she had thought it impossible with anyone else. But, sure enough, there it was. That sizzle as her eyes met his deep brown ones.
Just my luck, she thought snidely. The first person I’m attracted to who’s not Ian and he’s a ghost! What’s wrong with me? She shrugged inwardly, not sure how to deal with this attraction and this situation.
“But how could I not know about any power in my family? How could it stay hidden for so long?” She knew she was whining, but couldn’t seem to stop herself.
Simon smiled as he ran his finger along her chin. “Your parents hid it, and their parents before them. There has not been a practicing witch in your family for four hundred and fifty years. That would be about the time your great, great, great, grandmother, Mathia, died. She was the last of the light witches in your family.”
“So, what about the dark ones?” Tessa asked, trying to focus on anything but Simon’s gentle touch.
“That would be Elena,” Simon whispered. “She was Mathia’s sister.”
Tessa’s head swam. The information swirled around, and she felt as if she was going to vomit. “How is this possible?” She pulled back and gripped her head, tugging on her brown curls. She felt like she was going crazy.
Simon’s semi-transparent hand pried her fingers away, gently disentangling her hands. He smiled and gently shook her. “You can do this! You have all the power of the light witches inside of you! Do you really think that it was a coincidence that she took Ian? She may even have thought that it was random. Bu
t the light and dark have to balance, and it has been out of balance for a long time. It’s time to make it right.”
“So, what powers do light witches have?”
Simon smiled as he rubbed her arms, and her body clenched. His smile was sweet and she felt it all the way to her toes. “Whatever you need,” he said. “That’s how it works.”
Tessa shivered and rubbed her arms as the cold began to drift up over her. She looked down the pitch black stairs, and she could almost see the ice climbing the walls. “I just don’t know if I can do it.” She knew that she sounded like a wimp, but she wasn’t sure how to stop it.
“Man, I didn’t know that you were a wuss,” Simon said with a snide laugh.
Tessa wanted to smack him, but she held back, not sure if her hand would go through him or not. She smiled wearily at him, instead. “Shut up and lead on, smartass!” she said wryly. Simon swept his hand in front of her and turned to lead the way.
Simon’s form drifted down the stairs, his chuck tailors not even touching the floor. Tessa shook her head and followed him, even though she still wasn’t sure how she was going to save anyone.
The ice started creeping up the wall and got worse as they went down the stairs, becoming a treacherous sheet of ice a few steps down, and Tessa had to hold onto the rails to keep from slipping. Tessa’s fingers started tingling as they began to freeze to the metal railing. She quickly pulled them away, leaving some of her skin behind. Tessa sighed and kept going, knowing that she had no choice. The snow completely obscured everything and Tessa wished she’d brought her coat as her fingers continued to freeze.
“How am I supposed to save anyone if I can hardly move?” she muttered grumpily.
“Follow me,” Simon said, ignoring her whining. “It’s just ahead.” He floated on faster than she felt her numb legs could carry her. And she considered telling him to stop, but the concern in his eyes and the fear in her heart for Ian spurred her onward.
