“Oh baby! That feels great! Nails down my back really turn me on, just a little softer though.” He was still unaware of the change in Tabitha.
“Dddyyllaann… Dylan!” Tabitha moaned. This time Dylan heard the change in Tabitha’s voice. Still inside her, he pushed himself up with his arms and looked down into her face, shocked at the expression that he found. She pushed down into the pillows and mattress as if trying to force herself to melt into the material. Her complexion was white and her eyes were round and glossy but she wasn’t seeing him. He started to say her name when he caught a movement in the headboard mirror. Confusion flickered in his eyes for a second before terror overcame him. The beast slashed his back open with its razor-sharp claws and Dylan reared up, screaming out as the pain ripped through him. The scream quickly turned to a gurgle as the creature slit his throat. Dylan fell back onto Tabitha, shuddering and shaking as his life drained out of him, covering Tabitha with his blood.
“Are you all right, Miss?” The receptionist called out, startling Tabitha out of her nightmarish memory and she realized she must have called out.
“Yes, I’m fine. Just going through pre-interview jitters and trying to relax myself.” She said with a shy smile.
“You’ll be just fine, Miss Reynolds, I saw your portfolio, and I must say, very impressive. I believe Ms. Todd was also impressed. Just relax and you’ll do fine.” The receptionist gave her a knowing nod and a wink before going back to her typing. Five minutes later, Stacia Todd breezed into the reception area, grabbed her messages from the receptionist and started walking down the hall. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Miss Reynolds, please follow me. I’m on a tight schedule.” She never even hesitated or turned around to address Tabitha but kept on walking down the hall. Tabitha picked up the folder that contained her resume and quickly followed her into a large office.
Stacia Todd was average height, Tabitha would guess about five-foot-six, but the way she carried herself made her appear much taller. Her dishwater blond hair was cut in a short bob that was stylish yet easy to style. Her round face had tasteful make up applied and it made her green eyes stand out. She was dressed in a professional business suit, complete with the narrow neck-tie that matched her shirt.
“Please have a seat, Miss Reynolds. I apologize for being late and making this short and to the point but as I mentioned, I’m on a very tight deadline and my current interns are making it worse. Boiled down to the bare bones, I’m impressed with your work and I feel that you have a lot of potential. If you are willing to take orders, take notes, follow directions and put up with me, you could become very successful. The pay isn’t much, only three thousand dollars a month salary with no benefits for the first year. You will have to carry a beeper twenty-four-seven as I have clients that call me all hours of the night and morning. I know,” she replied as if Tabitha had protested, “You would think that interior designers would have banker’s hours, but the clients that I keep are very extravagant. Wealthy and famous people who go off to Vegas for a weekend, get married on the spur of the moment and then absolutely have to have their marriage home decorated immediately. Seems a little ridiculous to me, but they never balk at my price and those paychecks keep this business thriving and my living comfortable.”
While she was talking, Tabitha felt a shiver and noticed a cupboard door on the dry bar open slightly. She felt her heart beat pick up and sank a little lower into her chair. Stacia finally looked up from her desk and noticed Tabitha focusing on something behind her.
“Is there something that you would like from the bar, dear? Or are you just contemplating my offer? I really do need a decision from you before you leave, as I said, time is money.”
“No ma’am, I mean yes ma’am. I would be very interested in the position and the salary would be quite nice, thank you.” Tabitha stammered, trying to focus on Stacia but her eyes kept flicking back towards the cupboard door.
As if sensing something herself, Stacia turned in her chair and looked towards the dry bar. “I swear those hinges must be going, I close that cupboard door at least ten times a day!” Turning back towards Tabitha, she smiled and handed her a beeper. “I’m so excited to have you on board, your ideas and tastes are exquisite. Now, I don’t expect you to start tomorrow since it’s already Wednesday but I do expect you to be here bright and early Monday morning. Have a good weekend and I’ll see you then.”
Tabitha stood up and hesitated, glancing once more at the cupboard door. No movement, no dark shadows. Thanking Ms. Todd again, she turned and left, hoping it had just been her imagination.
Not even fifteen minutes had passed when Tabitha came walking out to the reception area where she saw the receptionist craning her neck looking for her.
“Well?” The petite redhead asked excitedly.
“I got the job! Thank you for helping me calm down, I owe you a coffee or something.” Tabitha smiled at her.
“How exciting! When do you start?”
“Monday morning, bright and early.”
“Well, go home, call all your girls, get spiffied up and go out to celebrate! You deserve it, plus after you start, you won’t have very many girls nights out. Ms. Todd can be a real bulldog when it comes to work.”
“Thanks again, have a great day and I’ll see you on Monday!” Tabitha pushed open the office doors with a large flourish. She had a job! The redheaded receptionist was right, she deserved to celebrate!
She decided to shop for a new outfit. During school, she’d overhear the other girls use any excuse to go buy a new dress and the giggles and squeals of excitement that came from them made the adventure sound exciting and titillating. There must be something more inside the cute boutiques she saw them enter, than what was in the windows. She’d always done her shopping at the thrift stores, believing that she was doing her part to keep the planet green. She’d splurged for a graduation outfit at JC Penny’s but that was as fancy as she got. Today, she’d go all out, money was no object. She wouldn’t feel guilty spending money now that she had a paying job.
She walked along the sidewalk, gazing in the windows of the quaint little shops, trying to decide which one she would go into first. She walked down a few more doors when a tremor wracked her body. She stopped abruptly, her spine stiff as a board as she searched the shadows for the unseen devil, poised and ready to flee.
He’d been walking along the street, trying to distract himself from the painful memories, when he noticed the figure a few yards in front of him stop short as if she’d run into an invisible wall. He stopped also and watched as she fearfully looked around, then focus on something in the shadows. He stepped to the side to get a better view of what she had spotted, his eyes locking onto the small demon lurking in the shadows of a large potted plant. His eyes flew back to the woman’s face, not believing that she was really seeing the same thing. It had to be a coincidence. Maybe she just thought it was a dog and she was afraid of them. He’d seen that before. But she was absolutely terrified and her body visibly shook.
He was frozen, mesmerized by what he was seeing as she warily and quickly crossed the street, never turning her back on the creature, glancing at it several times out of the corner of her eye as she made her way safely across to the sidewalk. He began to move forward, following her as she hurried up the street. He ignored the creature as he passed the plant and tried to keep up with her without her noticing. As worked up as she appeared to be, he had no doubt she would run if she thought he was following her.
She rounded a corner and he swore as he tried to cross against the light at the busy intersection. He couldn’t lose her, he had to find out if she really could see the boogymen that plagued him. But as he made it across and searched the sidewalk, he realized he’d lost her. He was alone again.
FOUR
He walked into the dark pub, pausing a moment to allow his eyes to adjust to the smoky gloom. He needed something to quench his thirst and try to figure out how he could track down the mysterious woman he saw outsid
e the boutiques. He avoided the college bars and sought out the quietest pub he could find. Stepping up to the bar and ordering a Coke, his eyes caught the muted news story of a local college girl who had apparently committed suicide the night before. He averted his eyes, not wanting to see the picture of the young and beautiful Pixie. He leaned against the bar, waiting for his Coke and surveyed the pub. An outsider would figure he was scanning the room for chicks but he was actually scanning for boogymen. They usually liked bars because it was easy to go unnoticed and torment humans while people were intoxicated. Sure enough, he found a small one along the far wall near a biker couple. It was tugging at the male biker’s boot which made the man think his female companion was flirting with him so he became more amorous and aggressive. Justin kept an eye on the scene from the corner of his eye. Looking at demons full on seemed to gain their attention and that was never good. They would get visibly irritated and soon others would show up and start circling their prey. Of course, regular people didn’t see them, Justin seemed to be the only one who could see them, or so he had thought until today.
The first time he’d seen them he had only been eight. He had been awakened shortly after midnight by scuffling and growling noises coming from his closet. Terrified and alone in his bed, he pulled the covers over his head, closing his eyes tight and whimpering. For what seemed like hours, he huddled under his flannel Snoopy bedspread as he heard them growling and scratching at his covers. For reasons he didn’t find out until later, they never hurt him and eventually went away.
Now, as Justin was casually watching the small boogyman and scanning the rest of the bar, his eyes rested on a young woman in the far corner. He probably would’ve passed her by, she was so well hidden in the corner, but he recognized her face and her expression. It was a look of the utter terror and she was staring straight at the little creature.
“Holy shit!” he muttered to himself as he grabbed his Coke and started towards her table. There was no doubt that she saw them, that she saw what it was doing. He had never met anyone else who could see the creatures and for a moment was selfishly relieved and intrigued that he wasn’t alone. Sitting down at her table, he startled her. “You’ll attract their attention if you look directly at them.”
She snapped her gaze from the creature to the stranger who had suddenly appeared before her at the table, her eyes as large as CD’s. “Excuse me?” She stuttered, trying to regain herself.
“Over by the biker couple, if you stare straight at them they seem to feel your gaze and it attracts more of them. If you look at them out of the corner of your eye, it doesn’t draw their attention.”
Tabitha stared at the very provocative looking man who was sitting right in front of her. He had the shoulders of a lumberjack and his hands encompassed his drink as if it were a tiny shot glass. His face was handsome and regal with indications of deep dimples if he were to smile. He was definitely a looker and she was uncomfortable with the sensations he stirred within her, almost as if she were starving for years but unaware she was so famished. Now, her instincts and her physical reaction was to have him, to feast upon him for her salvation. She was thrown off by these strong emotions stirring inside of her as well as his opening statement and decided that the man was as dangerous as the conversation, so she tried to diffuse the situation.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” she sat up and squared her shoulders. “They seem like a nice enough couple.”
Justin actually let out a soft laugh. “Oh, the couple is harmless enough, it’s the little cat-like demon under their table that’s the problem!” At Tabitha’s gasp, he continued. “You know, the creature that is a brownish-gray color, long claws, no fur or hair, just a leathery membrane that covers its skeletal features?”
“You see it?” Tabitha scarcely whispered, her gaze going back to the monstrosity.
“Don’t!” he snapped quietly. “Don’t look at it. You already made it uncomfortable by looking at it for as long as you have. See how it stopped messing with them and is now searching around? They feel direct gazes, it’s uncomfortable for them and draws their attention. Don’t look at it anymore.” As intrigued as he was with her, he knew they weren’t safe in the dim-lit bar. Her constant glances at the creature had elevated its agitation and it was only a matter of time before it could turn deadly. He tried to keep her eyes locked onto his to prevent a very messy scene and all he saw at first was the horror that was behind those eyes. When she finally held his gaze for longer than a few seconds, he noticed what a beautiful emerald green they were. Her face, though pale right now, appeared young and flawless, although she dressed old and frumpy. She started to dart her eyes again back to the monster but he lightly touched her hand, drawing her attention back to him.
“I take it you don’t go to many bars. Are you new in town?”
She shook her head and he was worried that she was going to look back at the couple again when she forcefully grabbed her drink in her hand and took a deep pull. It was a pretty hefty swallow and he chuckled as her face went red and she choked a little.
“No.” she coughed, “I’ve lived here for six years, going to school. But you’re right, I haven’t been to any bars. It was a mistake to come here.”
“I didn’t say it was a mistake to come here, I just noticed you didn’t seem like the bar type. You seem very young to be anti-social and I’m a curious fellow.”
Tabitha looked at the mysterious stranger, thankful for the distraction but wary of his friendliness and unsure of where the danger really lay. “I just got my first real job today since graduation. I was hoping…” She hesitated before going on, “that maybe I’d see some friends here and we could celebrate.” She didn’t want this stranger to know she had no friends coming to meet her, making her vulnerable and alone.
Justin knew she was uneasy but also realized she was lying. Smart girl for not letting on that there wouldn’t be a group of young adults getting ready to bust through the doors to meet her. Even as he took another drink himself, he caught her gaze wavering and quickly tried to keep her attention on him.
“I have a cell phone, you could use it to call them if you’d like. If they are somewhere else, I can take you there to meet them, by taxi, of course. I can always come back for my car.” Catching the wariness in her eyes, he quickly amended, “Just to make sure you get there safe.”
Commotion at the bikers table caught both of their attention and they looked just as the female biker slapped her male companion strongly across his face and stormed out. The man looked confused and shaken, and Justin saw the demon disappear back into the shadows, it’s mischief done for the day. When he looked back at Tabitha, he saw her looking at him incredulously.
“I can’t believe you see it! I thought I was the only one.” She choked as she stared at him. “Do you know about them?”
“A little, there isn’t a lot of information about them out there, or our gift.”
“Gift!” She snorted sarcastically. “More like a curse. What do you know about them?”
“Not here. We can’t talk here. Do you have a place nearby?”
Uncomfortable with the situation, Tabitha hesitated.
“Justin Murphy, and you are?” he asked as he held out his large hand.
She hesitated and then grasped his hand. “Tabitha, Tabitha Reynolds.”
“Nice to meet you, Tabitha Reynolds. Please let me reassure you, in the twenty-seven years I have been alive, I’ve never met anyone else who could see these things so I’m going to be making damn sure that nothing happens to you. Now that I’ve found you, someone else with my ability, I’m probably never going to let you out of my sight.” He squeezed her hand a little but continued to hold it.
Tabitha felt a flutter in her heart as she felt the electricity pass through their hands. Under normal circumstances, she had dreamed of spending an evening with a handsome man. Unfortunately, these were not normal circumstances.
FIVE
They made it back
to her apartment with no problems and Justin noticed that all of the lights were on in her apartment when she opened the door.
“Automatic timers.” She explained and Justin nodded, taking in her place. Her living room was decorated in various shades of grays, black and dark ruby. The colors were shockingly masculine but the prints softened the room, making it beautifully balanced and comfortable. There were several overstuffed chairs throughout the room along with several reading tables, all of them were positioned to face a long, high backed suede couch with an exquisitely engraved coffee table placed in front of it. He was surprised at the level of professionalism the décor held and he began to wonder if he had gotten caught up with another rich college girl. Tabitha appeared to be more sophisticated than the college girl he’d been with but she seemed too young to be as financially secure as her apartment appeared.
“Can I get you something to drink?” she asked as she set her purse down on the table.
“If you have a beer, I would love one. I haven’t had one in quite a while. Also, any salt? Sea salt would be great but regular table salt will do.”
She turned and looked at him quizzically. “Salt in your beer? Isn’t that awful?”
“It’s not for my beer, it’s for your apartment.”
“My apartment?”
“Your windows and doors specifically. It seems to deter them from entering and hopefully there are none in here already.”
Without another word, Tabitha went to her cupboard and handed him a box of sea salt. “I keep it for my salads and cooking recipes, it tastes better.”
Shadows Page 2
