Amanda’s face tightened watching her daughter step slowly away from her. For a moment there was a fleeting glimpse of the four year old child she’d once been, fearful on that first day at kindergarten, leaving her mother’s side. And now like she had then, all she wanted to do was grab onto her daughter and hug her, take her back to the shelter of their home.
“Hi.” It came out hesitant from Kelly’s lips as she stepped closer to the old woman in the chair.
Amanda watched her daughter for a few beats before she rushed forward to grab Kelly’s hand. “Kelly’s father is waiting so she can’t stay very long, Carmel.” The words died on her lips watching the old woman’s eyes. The pale blue had darkened resembling the depths of the sea, while her lips bowed in a tight lipped smile. There was a charge in the air between her daughter and the old woman. She could almost see an electrical current flowing between them.
Kelly seemed to float as she lowered taking the seat across from Carmel. Amanda reached for Kelly’s arm. Every instinct in her gut was screaming to grab Kelly and run. It made no sense but it was there. “Kelly, I think you should leave.”
But Kelly shrugged her hand away and leaned closer to Carmel. “I’m fine, Mom. Mrs. Turner wants me to stay for a while.”
Amanda peered at Carmel. She had said nothing at all. Yet Kelly was convinced that Carmel wanted her to stay? Some kind of weird vibe was happening between Kelly and Carmel...something she wasn’t privy to, and definitely something that made her very uneasy.
An icy whisper flooded through her core.
Neil. Kelly had said he had gone missing when he was supposed to be all gung ho about going out with her tonight.
Dr. Stone. He’d kidnapped a kid. Carmel and Stone were good friends. Her gut screamed to get her daughter away from there!
“No! This ends now, Carmel! You wanted to meet Kelly and now you have. She’s leaving right now!” Once more Amanda grabbed Kelly’s arm and this time the girl wasn’t able to shrug her away.
“Easy Amanda. Sit down. Have some milk. You know why you need milk. Shall I enlighten Kelly about...?” Her gaze darted down to Amanda’s stomach. When her eyes met Amanda’s there was a hard glint before her voice became softer, droning on, “Everything will be fine, Amanda. You need to rest. You’re so tired. Rest for a little while. Kelly is enjoying being here. She’s having a good time. So are you. Everything is fine.”
Amanda stared into the old woman’s eyes. They seemed to glitter and then deepen into a midnight shade of blue. She tried to look away but it was too much of an effort. Why was she even trying? Everything was fine. Her shoulders fell lower and a sleepy lethargy seeped through her body like mist over a warm lake in the early autumn chill. Her feet were leaden blocks when she stepped closer, sinking into the chair that Carmel had set for her.
Her mouth was suddenly dry and the glass of milk on the table with beads of condensation rolling down was too tempting to resist. The taste was bitter but oh so cold...and refreshing. So good. And even better was the fact that Kelly was sitting next to her. Her eyes felt like sand had fallen into them. Slowly the lids fluttered and then closed.
A sharp blow in the center of her back brought Amanda upright! “Ow!”
‘NO!’ The word blared in her head. Her body tensed while her gaze took in Carmel still silent but staring at her daughter. And Kelly was now slumped forward, her chin resting on her chest.
‘NO! NO!’ There was another blow to the side of her head, leaving her ears ringing. She couldn’t move, but saw the entire room fluttering with those shadows. They were flying at Carmel like attacking bats, but were being repelled by an unseen force. They spun in the air and shot back at Amanda.
A smile crossed Carmel’s lips, as cruel and evil as a serial killer’s. She made an absent wave with her hand, holding two fingers out while holding Kelly’s gaze.
The shadow entities froze in place. Carmel made another gesture, and they were pressed against the wall.
All of them—Amanda, Kelly, and those shadow beings were under Carmel’s control.
Oh my God. Something dangerous was happening! Kelly was in danger! Carmel...Carmel was doing it!
Suddenly everything became blurry and dark. She blinked a few times to clear her vision. She could hardly make out her daughter’s face and she was sitting right next to her! Her vision narrowed even farther becoming a pinpoint centered on the glass of milk.
Oh no. The milk! Carmel had put something in it. Carmel had set all of this up. But why? The glass of milk disappeared in a cloud of darkness. Her head fell to the side and her eyes drifted shut.
THIRTY NINE
KELLY WAS VAGUELY AWARE of her mother falling to the side. Only the arm of the chair saved her from falling to the floor. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the old woman across from her.
It was her eyes. Right now they were the deep blue of sapphire but they kept changing. In the next second they were a rich chocolate and then flecked with green in the blue iris. Like flowing molten glass, the new color rolled over the one before it.
The old woman’s voice was visceral, resonating in her stomach, oozing like honey flowing down her legs. Kelly’s eyes blinked slowly and then closed.
In her mind’s eye she saw the old woman’s eye colors flow again, like thick waves of bright liquid washing over the shore of her mind. Kelly let herself adrift in the colors, feeling them float through her and in her.
Images began to form, and she was within them. It was like a dream, but without the peacefulness of sleep.
Kelly’s world flickered with a curtain of yellows and oranges, licking up all around her. In the next moment she was before a raging bonfire, watching the figure of an ebony woman dancing in swirling circles. They were deep in a tropical forest, under a full moon.
As the woman danced and swirled around the bonfire, a primitive, throbbing rhythm pulsed through Kelly’s entire being. The woman’s eyes, dark orbs of chocolate brown, flecked with gold, fell on Kelly and the figure lurched toward her, her arms outstretched, hands like claws.
“Carmelinda!” echoed in Kelly’s mind as the bonfire faded into darkness. All Kelly could now see was the woman’s approaching eyes. They shimmered, morphing into a new color, crystal green.
Like a dimmer switch, everything around Kelly brightened again. Now she was in a grand parlor. Large oil paintings hung on the walls and richly brocaded furniture was arranged around an elegant room with mahogany paneling. A roaring fireplace under a marble mantle made the room stifling hot.
A redheaded woman in a richly appointed black Victorian dress stood before a young girl about Kelly’s age. The girl was wearing a plain gray shift and barefoot. She was seated ramrod straight in a chair, her head turned up at the woman. The child was still as a statue, her vacant gaze transfixed up at the woman.
The woman’s head turned slowly to Kelly. Her eyes also shimmered in different colors as her hand rose toward her before all went dark again.
“Carmelinda!” again echoed in Kelly’s mind. That was her name. Then as it was now.
Tableau after tableau passed through Kelly; visions of eras past. In each one, a woman was confronting a girl her own age. In each one the woman looked over at Kelly. And in each one the woman had the same eyes.
And as each scene changed, “Carmelinda!” echoed.
All of this played like a movie in her mind while on another level she was conscious of Carmel’s gaze holding her hostage. Part of her wanted to help her mother but the older woman’s control was absolute. It was no use trying. The longer she sat there, the more she experienced Carmel’s life, and the less the world around her mattered. Not her mother. Not her father. Not Neil. Carmel was everything.
Carmelinda…it was a soothing balm on her soul. She was all that mattered. She was all there was…
“Carmelinda…” she said aloud.
“Child…” the old woman replied. Her voice was silver smoke in Kelly’s ears. “Are you mine?”
Kelly�
�s mouth was slack. It was so hard to form words. She nodded.
“Tell me you’re mine, child.” There was an insistence in her voice.
Kelly’s head fell forward and she swallowed with difficulty. She lifted her head to behold her all, her life, her Mambo. She drew her breath to speak the words.
“Carmelinda!”
Kelly blinked at the loud bangs in the room. “Tell me you’re mine! Speak the words! Now!” The shout was purple rage, tinged with desperation.
And Kelly’s world shattered into jagged glass.
FORTY
“CARMELINDA!”
The word like a steel spike driven into Linda’s chest. With a gasp, she dropped the tray of meds and staggered back gasping.
She gulped for air. Oh shit it hurt! She was having a goddam heart attack! She groped for the chair in the room and flopped into it.
Carmelinda? She hadn’t heard that damn name since Haiti! What the hell was happening to her? With all the bedlam of the day, now these damn memories? She hadn’t had an anxiety attack in years!
She realized it wasn’t a heart attack. It was a return of those damn anxiety attacks! From that harrowing, evil night in Haiti where she lost everything.
She had left the order for Lucien and then after that battle with the Vodou Mamba she had lost him.
It took years for her anxiety episodes to pass. She couldn’t see a therapist—‘Hi Doctor, I’m having some PTSD because I fought a Vodou priestess, got any Valium?—yeah, as if. She could kiss her nursing license goodbye had she done that!
“Deep breaths, girl. You know the drill,” she said aloud. She sat back in the chair, controlling her breathing. Well…trying to, but it wasn’t doing any good. She was panting like she had just run a mile. Her hands were shaking and her heart felt like it was going to explode. God damn that Carmelinda!
“Oh shit!”
Carmelinda? Carmel? What the hell?
It all came to her in an instant. She didn’t know how the hell it happened, but that bitch Carmel…
“Is another Carmelinda!”
She staggered to her feet and threw herself through the door of the meds room.
“Linda!” Courtney squeaked when she ran into her, knocking the woman to the floor. “What’s going on!”
She could barely breathe. She just pointed down the corridor. “Help!” she finally gasped. Carmel’s room was at the far end of the hall. She had to get there right now! She stumbled and staggered down the corridor.
Each step was harder than the one before it. Like a drunken sailor stoned on magic mushrooms and LSD, she bounced from one side of the corridor to the other. She knocked over the laundry rack on one side of the corridor, stumbled to the other side and demolished a side table holding a flower arrangement before falling to her hands and knees.
“Linda!” Courtney was at her side. “Are you having a heart attack? Stay down! Don’t move!” She jumped back up to her feet and shouted down the corridor. “Code Blue!”
She wasn’t having a heart attack! Linda scrabbled at the handrail on the wall that lined all the corridors in the home, and heaved herself back to her feet.
“Linda!” Courtney grabbed her arm. “You need to sit down!”
With every fiber of her being, Linda shoved the woman, who flew across the corridor and bounced against the wall.
“Down! There!” Linda grunted, spittle flying from her lips. “Carmel’s room!” she staggered away leaving her dazed co-worker behind her.
She got to Carmel’s room and pushed on the door. She could barely budge it! Drawing a deep breath she ran at it with her shoulder only to recoil off and end up on her ass.
“What the hell’s going on here!”
She looked up to see Jane Drogan’s brother Mike looming above her. She tried to mouth the words as she gestured at the door. “She’s—” her breath frosted the air. “She’s killing them!” she gasped as she shoved at the door.
“What?” Drogan looked down at the woman, his own breath vaporizing. He breathed again, watching the plume of fog before his lips.
“Killing!” Linda gasped.
Drogan shoved at the door. It moved about two inches. “Screw this shit!” he said. He backed up to the other side of the corridor and with a running start threw his shoulder into the door. It opened about a foot. He hit it again and howled in pain as he felt his shoulder dislocate. But the door swung open.
Linda had pulled herself to her feet, and the two of them lurched into the frozen storm.
FORTY ONE
CARMEL WAS JUST ABOUT FINISHED WITH THESE TWO.
She glanced away from Kelly to Amanda, slumped against the arms of her chair. Ah well, dearie, you’ll have a new child to replace the one you’re about to lose. But this child’s life force is mine!
A pulse of energy from the hellions she had pinned against the wall disturbed her for a moment.
She now knew what they were. They were the remnants of each Renaissance she performed. Just as how a meal we eat becomes part of our body’s cells, the life forces Carmel stole became part of her own essence. Simple remnants of past feasts, nothing more.
They had been able to gather strength against her after she came to this foolish nursing home. Perhaps it was the failings of this body? She had never waited so long to Renaissance, but this time Ryan had kept putting off securing her a new donor; and with these greater years came that damn dementia!
Those shadow creatures had used her weakened state to terrorize her. But when the girl entered the room clarity and power had surged through her body. They weren’t evil shadow things sent to kill her. They were mere remnants of her victims. She’d over-powered them when they had lived and would continue to do so. Knowledge was definitely power.
Those remnants wanted their vengeance. Well too bad. With a flick of a hand and a few murmured black words of a spell, they became immobilized behind her. Let them watch Kelly’s donation and relive their own past contributions all over again as punishment.
She had brought Kelly through the spell. The child had fallen into each episode, her will and sense of self weakening with each passing scene. She was ready now, ready for the final words. The girl would utter the words giving herself over. Carmel would be renewed again!
Time to completely focus now.
She had held the girl’s gaze, staring back at her with blank wonder.
“Child…” the old woman said, her voice was soothing smoke. “Are you mine?”
Kelly’s mouth was slack. It was so hard to form words. She nodded.
“Tell me you’re mine, child.” There was an insistence in her voice.
Kelly dropped her head and swallowed with difficulty. She lifted her head to behold her all, her life, her Mambo. She drew her breath to speak the words.
“Carmelinda!”
Kelly blinked at the loud bangs in the room.
Carmel looked over at the doorway. It was that old bitch nurse! Quick as a flash, Carmel made a gesture with her hands to hold the door shut. That would hold that bitch in place!
Turning back to Kelly, “Tell me you’re mine! Speak the words! Now!” The shout was purple rage, tinged with desperation.
The door to the room boomed open and Linda and Mike Drogan poured in. Mike landed on the floor screaming in pain from his dislocated shoulder, while Linda wove unsteady on her feet.
***
Linda’s breath caught in the frozen air. She took the scene in—Kelly across from Carmel, Amanda slumped in a chair beside her and dark spirits hovering against the wall behind Carmel.
Carmel had Kelly ensorcelled. There was only one thing to do!
Linda leapt across the room smashing into Kelly and Amanda. In a flying tangle of arms, legs and broken chairs the three of them fell to the floor.
Carmel leapt up from her seat. “Damn you!” She pointed at Linda. “I’ll burn your heart in your chest!”
Linda lurched to her feet, stretching her arms out to be sacrificed. Just as Our Lord had on
Calvary. “In Nomine Patri!” she said.
“I piss on your Lord!” Carmel screamed.
Linda felt the stabbing pain in her heart. Her gaze rose to Heaven. “Thy will be done!” She dropped her gaze and took a deep breath as the pain in her chest drove like an ice pick. “In the name of love, I rebuke you,” she said in a firm voice. “By all that’s holy, I rebuke you!”
The shadows that had been pinned to the wall tore away from it and flew at Carmel.
“Aaiii!” she cried the second they touched her flesh. She began to flail at them with both hands, releasing Linda from her enchantment.
Linda fell to her knees gasping for air. She looked over at Mike Drogan. He was on his side, wide eyed, gaping at the dark shapes attacking Carmel.
It took but a moment; it took an eternity.
A spinning cloud of entities, like an enraged colony of vaporous bats encircled Carmel. She flailed at them with one hand while holding her chest with her other. They flew away from her, turned in the air, and en masse shot past her hands disappearing into her chest.
“Aaiii!” Carmel’s eyes went white and she sunk to her knees.
“She’s having a heart attack!” Linda scrambled to get to the old woman.
“Linda!” Mike reached out and grabbed her arm. “Let it play out, kid!”
Linda stopped. Carmel gasped twice, then her voice let out a hacking noise and went still.
From her chest the vapor cloud returned, shooting from Carmel’s heart back into the room. It spun in a ring over the still body, faster and faster.
As it spun the cloud changed color. From the smoky blackness, dozens of colors grew in brightness until Carmel was surrounded by a spinning wheel of color.
One by one, each color peeled away from the spinning circle, shot to the ceiling and went through it. A jet stream of rainbows shot up through and away into the night.
It was gone.
Graveyard Shift Page 17
