by Kristen Day
“And just how do you plan on killing our best friend?” If Carmen’s eyes could kill, Liam would be the one dying, not me.
“That’s part of the serum as well. We’ll hook up an IV for Stasia and slowly let the serum enter her blood stream. Once her soul separates, we will monitor the amount of serum within her body until she returns.”
Although Finn hadn’t completely explained everything that would happen when I ‘died’, Liam’s detailed explanation actually made me feel much better about the whole situation. Especially if Natasha had used it before. She wouldn’t put me in harm’s way.
“Would we be able to be there? I’d feel a lot better about this if I could be close to her,” Willow told Liam calmly, but I could tell she was holding back her emotion.
“I think that could be arranged,” he smiled at her.
“It better be arranged,” Carmen threatened.
“I definitely want to be there,” Phoebe’s bottom lip began to quiver. I got up and gave her a hug.
“If Finn trusts Liam, then so do I - and I especially trust Natasha. They won’t let anything happen to me,” I tried to console them. Finn smiled at me encouragingly. “I need you guys to trust them too.”
My roommates reluctantly nodded their heads in agreement, but it was obvious they were extremely uncomfortable with this twist in the journey. After Finn and Liam left, we stayed up for a while longer talking; however my bed was calling so I retired to my bedroom before everyone else.
*** Lightness. A reverie? But where was I? Everything was pitch black. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. Suddenly I felt myself flying though space, tumbling towards an unknown destination. The temperature dropped and I stopped abruptly, landing on my hands and knees. Even though I had no idea where I was, I could see a little better. It was still dark, but my eyes had adjusted enough to see several yards around me. The ground beneath me was hard and dusty, stirring up into my eyes and causing me to cough. The air smelled of smoke and I got the odd sensation that I had been taken to a recently burned forest, void of any life. I wiped the parched earth from my knees and stood carefully, right before something suddenly struck me from behind, sending me skidding across the sooty ground. I wiped my eyes and frantically glanced around, preparing for another attack.
“Who’s there?” I scanned the blackness around me; finding no one. I heard shuffling feet all around me, but I still couldn’t make out any shapes. My breathing began to come in shallow spurts as fear crept around my heart and entered my frenzied thoughts. I tried to stand, but was pushed from behind a second time, finding myself back on the ground. That’s when she materialized in front of me.
“You did this,” her ghastly sounding voice came out ragged and forced. Her gray cloudy eyes glared down at me. My stomach lurched at the sight of her sunken skull and hallowed face, beaten and bloodied, but there was no denying who was standing in front of me. My dead foster mother who had been killed by my foster father when he hit her with a baseball bat…seconds before I shot him.
She inched closer and I slid backwards on my backside, trying to put distance between us.
Just like Bianca, she was transparent, allowing me to see the blackened ground behind her. She reeked of mildew and rotten flesh. Paralyzed by fear, my legs stopped responding to my commands. I sat there stunned and helpless as she moved even closer; peering down at me with pure hatred.
“You did this,” she repeated with quiet rage.
“No. He did. He killed you,” I managed shakily.
“Liar!” she roared; blood spewing from her mouth. “If it weren’t for you, we would have been happy. If it weren’t for you I’d still be alive!” Her form blurred as the anger rippled through her body. Finally my legs began working and I scrambled to my feet, backing away from her.
“You did this!” she repeated again, and something about her forced voice caught my attention. Her gray eyes changed to an even darker gray and laughter erupted from her bloody mouth. Then she disappeared. I collapsed into a heap on the ground, trying to catch my breath and remove her disturbing image from my mind. As the instinctual terror receded, it changed into a more powerful instinct: survival. I began to run. With no way of seeing what was in front of me, I held my arms out in order to avoid running into something. Or someone.
“Anastasia,” I whirled around at her voice. The breath caught in my throat as recognition hit. Her bright red hair was blowing in a nonexistent wind and her eyes were shining with madness.
“Nicolet? What’s happening? Why are we here?” I asked, hoping for an ally in this desiccated hell.
“You did this,” she glared at me, completely ignoring my questions.
“No-“ I began, but she was quick to step forward and interrupt me.
“This is your fault! If it weren’t for you I’d still be alive!” Crushing guilt slammed into me as I lost my balance and fell to the ground again.
“Nicolet, I’m so sorry!” I pleaded.
“Liar!” she shouted, suddenly standing over me. Her green eyes turned dark as she berated me with accusations. “This is all your fault! You killed me! You did this...!”
On and on she continued screaming at me. I curled into a ball on the blistered ground and clamped my hands over my ears. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut, hoping she would go away. I tried to remember what Finn had taught me about controlling my reveries, but I couldn’t think straight. I felt helpless to protect myself.
Blaring silence filled my ears. Was she gone? Or waiting for the opportune moment to murder me? A crawling panic spread across my chest as I tentatively opened my eyes and looked around. There was only darkness. I jumped when something tapped my shoulder and spun me around.
“Boo!” Nadia was inches from my face, her dark eyes smiling. Then I was falling. Endlessly falling into a bottomless pit of despair and guilt that I hoped I would never wake up from.
I sat straight up, gasping for air and drenched in sweat. I looked around me frantically, but only saw my own darkened bedroom. I pulled my shaking knees in to my chest and closed my tear filled eyes. I accepted what I already knew. Nadia had found a way to not only enter my reveries, but to also control them.
Chapter 19
“My bronzer is leaking off my face,” Phoebe screeched in her best Jersey shore accent, and then collapsed into a fit of uncontrollable giggles.
“I’m going to have to veto that costume. I’m not going to a Halloween party with…that,” Carmen turned her nose up at the Snooki costume Phoebe was parading around in. A tacky wig full of dark coarse hair that sat at least two feet off of her head in a pouf completed the outfit.
“If people start dressing up as me for Halloween, please do me a favor and shoot me,” Willow shook her head as she perused the rack of pirate costumes.
A week after Nadia had invaded my reverie, we had gone to the mainland to one of the hundreds of Halloween stores that seemingly popped up out of nowhere during the month of October.
I hadn’t told anyone what I suspected about Nadia’s ability to now terrorize not only my waking hours, but my reveries as well. I was hoping that I was just imagining things. I didn’t particularly want to consider that it had actually happened. The idea that someone else had control of my soul was too terrifying to consider. Maybe if I stashed it away with my other repressed memories, it would magically vanish.
“What do you guys think about this?” I held up a white chiffon Greek goddess costume.
“You can’t go as yourself, silly,” Phoebe informed me casually, as she put the Snooki wig back onto the mannequin’s bald head.
“But I’m not a….oh.” I smiled sheepishly and hung it back on the rack. Carmen pressed a red bathing suit against Willow and tossed a red rescue tube over her head, and then nodded in approval.
“You’re welcome,” she told Willow with a smirk, who looked down at herself and grimaced.
“There is no way I’m going out in public dressed up like a Baywatch lifeguard.”
�
��You could so pull that off, but you’d have to run around The Hole in slow-mo,” Phoebe laughed, as she showed us her best impression of the slow motion Baywatch run.
“Stasia! You should go as the Corpse Bride! Look at this one!” Carmen came running around the rack, waving a white dress. She placed the veil over my head and held the dress up to me.
It was actually kind of pretty.
“Not bad. I’ll go try it on,” I admitted, and made my way to the dressing room. Phoebe followed with some sort of red and white striped ensemble she wanted to try on. I smiled to myself as I slipped the form-fitting white dress over my head and zipped it up. The bottom of the dress was cut in a ragged fashion to appear torn, and several slashes ran along its length as if I’d just been stabbed.
It was slit up the side all the way to the top of my thigh, showing a lot of leg. The strapless bodice was trimmed in black, and the accompanying veil flowed down to my shoulder blades. I pulled on some lacy thigh highs and turned around in front of the mirror. Some white makeup, a little fake blood and a ratty hairdo would do nicely. My new aqua highlights actually helped the otherworldly look.
I shimmied the dress off; deciding to leave the big reveal for Halloween. I left the dressing room in search of my roommates and found them gathered around Phoebe with questioning looks.
When Phoebe turned to face me, I understood why she was being met with such skeptical looks. She was dressed in a skin-tight red and white striped dress with red and white stockings that came up past her knees. A red hat with a white ball sat precariously on her head.
“What am I?” She quizzed me; standing very stiff.
“A candy cane?” I surmised, and Carmen laughed so hard she snorted. Phoebe’s face fell slightly while she waited for Carmen collect herself.
“No! I’m ‘Where’s Walda’!” She twirled around, still thrilled with her find.
“That’s it. I’m picking out your costumes from now on,” Carmen informed her sternly, giving her a light push towards the fitting rooms. Phoebe slinked away to change back into her clothes.
“What’d you think?” Willow asked me, gesturing to the dress in my hand.
“It’s coming home with us for sure,” I smiled.
“Good, now you can help me figure out what I’m going to wear. I’m at a loss.”
“Maybe you and Liam should come up with a couple’s costume,” I wiggled my eyebrows at her.
“We’d have to be a couple first.” She shook her head in confusion, and then let out an exasperated sigh, “I can tell he likes me, but he just won’t do anything about it! He hasn’t asked me out or even tried to kiss me. I’m definitely not making the first move,” she declared stubbornly.
“You just make him nervous. Give the poor kid a break! Want me to get Finn to talk to him?” I winked at her.
“No!” she said a little too frantically, “I mean, I want him to ask me out when he’s ready. I just wish he’d hurry up,” she grinned.
“Jackpot!” Carmen came around the corner holding a sexy nun outfit, “I was born to be a sexy nun,” she announced dramatically with a devilish grin.
“Oh my God, Carmen! It’s so PEM!” Phoebe ran up behind her from the fitting rooms. I looked at Willow, but she just shrugged her shoulders; as clueless as I was.
“PEM?” I prodded.
“Pure Effin Magic,” Phoebe clarified with a telling smirk.
“Oh my God, this is it!” Willow jumped up and down as she pulled something from the rack.
“This is exactly what I’ve been looking for!” I couldn’t help but smile at the costume that could have been made just for her. It was a flowing ethereal lavender dress straight out of a fairy tale.
“Cinderella?” Phoebe rubbed her chin.
“Cinderella wore a blue dress, Phoebs,” Carmen corrected her, but didn’t offer a guess of her own. Fortunately this dress belonged to the one Disney princess I ever liked. Probably because I had a lot in common with her.
“Rapunzel,” I confirmed simply with an adoring smile. As Phoebe and Carmen caught on, their faces lit up.
“Hair extensions! You need hair extensions! I’ll put them in for you!” Carmen was already sizing up the length of Willow’s hair, while Phoebe took a close look at Willow’s eyes; pinching her cheeks.
“And you need glitter on your eyelids, it’ll make your eyes sparkle…” she explained. Willow sent me a subtle look that screamed ‘get them off me before I murder somebody’.
“Oh my God, is that Kim Kardashian?” I squealed and pointed out the window.
“Where!?” Phoebe and Carmen spun around, just in time for me to grab Willow and pull her away.
We headed back to Lorelei with three winning costumes and four others for the undecided Phoebe. She justified her unnecessary purchases by telling us she’d return the ones she didn’t wear.
But I had a feeling they had all just found a permanent home in her closet. Back on the ferry, we followed the sun as it set below the horizon and cast warm colors across the sky.
“Did you guys hear that girl Nadia went back to California?” Carmen asked us.
“She did?” My breath caught in my throat at her name. She hadn’t been in class for a week, but I definitely wasn’t losing any sleep over it.
“I guess she didn’t like it here,” Phoebe shrugged her shoulders, but I knew there had to much more to her disappearance than that. As much as I didn’t like seeing her evil smokiness and being in her chilling presence, not knowing where she was or what she was doing was even worse. They always say to keep your enemies close, right?
“I’m glad she’s gone. She just gave off bad vibes,” Willow scowled, visibly shivering.
Maybe she could feel a hint of Nadia’s evil nature without realizing it.
“Same here. Something about her just didn’t add up,” I agreed as my phone vibrated in my pocket. Finn.
Ur goin to be the most beautiful dead bride ever How in the world did he know what costume I bought? I looked around the ferry to see if he was spying on me. Then I remembered.
Either ur stalking me or u had a vision bout me Yes Yes ur stalking me or yes u had a vision bout me?
Stalked u in a vision Ur impossible Thank you That wasn’t a compliment Then why r u smiling?
Good night, Finn So I was right Good night, Finn Night Pasha - luv u Luv u 2
*** Later, as I crawled under my cool covers and closed my eyes, I made an effort to stop the rush of thoughts that were splashing around in my head. November second was now only a week away and I still didn’t feel ready. I doubted I ever would. How do you prepare yourself to die and travel to another realm?
“I like your room.”
I sat up so fast I got whiplash. As soon as the world had stopped spinning, I noticed her standing in the corner of my room in that same blue dress. Her blonde hair flowed down her shoulders and a shy smile danced on her colorless lips.
“Bianca?” I squinted at her, trying to make sure it was actually Bianca and not Nadia dressed up in ghost clothing. She walked out of the shadows and towards my bed, stalling on the soft rug.
“You remember me!” The surprise in her wispy voice was unmistakable.
“Who could forget their first ghost sighting?” I joked, attempting to make light of the situation. Unfortunately it had the opposite effect on Bianca.
“I haven’t always been a ghost.” She drifted closer and actually sat down on my bed. The bedspread didn’t give under her weight. But then again, she must weigh next to nothing. I wasn’t sure if the jitters in my throat were from the whiplash or from the actual ghost sitting next to me. I just chalked it up to a combination of the two. “I had a good life…or so I thought.” She smoothed her bloody dress and hung her head as sadness pulled down her beautiful features.
“I thought my mother loved me,” she looked up at me with desperation, “but I guess in the end, she…didn’t.”
“What…happened to you?” I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know the answer to
that, but I couldn’t help but ask. It just seemed so tragic. Her life had been cut short before it could even truly begin. And now she was left to wander the earth until the end of time? That couldn’t be the way her story ended.
“I’m…I’m not real sure. I mean, I remember mother getting real mad at me and me crying, pleading with her that I hadn’t done it.” She looked down at her transparent hands, “But she didn’t believe me. She wouldn’t listen. And then everything went black and all of the sudden I was floating above my body. I was only fifteen.”
Fear splintered in her eyes, “That’s when I met her.”
“Who?”
“The Reaper,” she whispered, and a shower of shivers cascaded over my skin.
“Nadia?”
“Yes. She took me to Persephone. And then she brought me back here after I was…rejected.
Now I really am cursed. I’ll always have to answer to her.”
“But why? Why did Persephone reject you from entering the Underworld? I mean you don’t seem, well, broken.” I wasn’t sure how to say it, so I stole Finn’s description of the rejected souls.
“If The Reaper finds a soul she wants to have, she will stop at nothing to obtain it - even if that means influencing the living. Persephone grants her daughter any wish she may have.”
“You mean…” I was having trouble speaking as Bianca was unknowingly confirming my fears about Nadia’s true intentions.
“I believe The Reaper coerced my mother into killing me.” Her bright green eyes flitted up to mine, hesitant, “She wanted my soul.”
I was completely speechless for several minutes as I accepted what I didn’t necessarily want to believe. Nadia had taken Bianca’s soul. Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place. At the séance, she had ripped my soul from my own body; so she obviously had the ability to play with people’s souls like her own personal play toys. She knew exactly what she was doing. And she appeared to be incapable of feeling any remorse.
