"Just leave the bitch alone!" the thing that had been Jesse screamed. "The little know-it-all deserves what she gets."
The thing that had been Jesse laughed, and it was like spikes in Jimmy's ears.
"She's cold, Jimmy," it said. "She's cold and she deserves it. She needs to float."
Then it threw its head back and howled into the sky. The volume of that shrieking howl grew louder and louder, and Jimmy clamped his hands over his ears. He moved his legs, kicking away the roots and getting to his feet. The Jesse-thing was now twenty feet away, still staring at him with its pointed tongue dangling from its mouth.
"Every place needs a legend," it said. "And she's the one for us! So beautiful. So strong-willed."
It titled its head at Jimmy as if considering him for the first time.
"She guards the doorway," it said.
Then there was a blast of smoke and wind, and the thing that had worn Jesse's face was gone. This was followed almost immediately by another scream from Sapphire.
Jimmy began running. This time the ground did not try to stop him, and he found himself better able to find purchase, but the trees seemed to go on forever. Every time he rounded a bend, another dozen trees seemed to spring up in front of him. Again and again the piercing screams from Sapphire assaulted him, but no matter which way he turned, he was unable to find the road. As he rounded around another tree that had sprung up out of the ground in front of him, there was the road.
Sapphire stood there; around her were giant beasts, unlike anything Jimmy had ever seen before. They were like ogres from storybooks, but each of them wore a human face. The one holding Sapphire by her neck wore Devlin Little's face. He was grinning, and he held Sapphire's bleeding body by her neck from one hand. Her feet dangled several feet off the pavement, and her head lolled to one side. Despite this, her eyes were wide and pleading.
"What do you think, Jimmy?" the thing bearing Devlin's face asked. "Should I drown her? Or hand her to my son?"
Just then, another of the ogre-like monsters turned to face Jimmy. This one bore Stan's face. His mouth was ripped apart in a hideous smile, and he vibrated with excitement.
"Tell him to give her to me," the Stan-thing said. "I'll really show her a good time."
Please, Jimmy, Sapphire whispered. Her lips did not move, but Jimmy clearly heard her in his mind. Help me.
"Don't listen to her, Jimmy," said a voice to Jimmy's left. He turned, and there was the thing wearing Jesse's body again. "She knows that nothing can stop this. A sacrifice is always required. She should be honored."
The Jesse-thing shrugged.
"Normally, we require a virgin," it said. "But we'll take what we can get."
"Who are you?" Jimmy asked.
The thing bearing Jesse's face tilted its head back and laughed. The ogre-things laughed, as well. They laughed for what seemed like an eternity. The laughter lacked joy, but was filled with evil and hate.
"Don't you know, son?" the thing with Jesse's face asked.
Jimmy shook his head.
"We are this place," it said, gesturing around with long talons. "We're what you people call Knorr. Where things are thin and the other side is so close you can almost smell it. And what's on the other side, Jimmy? Why, we are. We're what's there, and we're what's always been there, and the only thing that keeps us on the other side instead of punching through and wiping out you disgusting flesh-bags is sacrifice."
Then it laughed again. Its face contorted, stretching, and its body grew, the skin that had been Jesse's splitting and sloughing away. The skin beneath was red and running with blood and twisting with muscle. It quickly grew taller than the trees, and Jimmy knew that he was looking into the face of evil itself.
Jimmy screamed.
Jimmy's eyes snapped open and his body twitched. He could immediately feel that his entire body was coated in a layer of sweat. His hair was damp and pressed against his skull. The sheets felt wet beneath him.
"Jesus," he whispered.
As he sat up, he realized his limbs were shaking. The buzzing in his head had gotten loud again.
Sapphire? he thought.
Yes, came the immediate reply.
Were you with me in my dream? he asked.
Yes, she said.
Did it make any sense to you?
The buzzing grew. For a moment, Jimmy heard the other sounds that sometimes accompanied his conversations with Sapphire. He could hear screaming, moaning, and weird, demented laughter. Jimmy wondered what that meant. Was Sapphire thinking? Was she pacing?
I'm not sure.
Something about the way she said that made Jimmy think she was lying.
Are you sure?
Yes, she said, but her voice was irritated. It was unlike her. I don't know what any of it means.
It feels like you're close, Sapphire, Jimmy thought. Are you in the room with me?
I can't tell, Jimmy, she said. It sounded like she was breathing heavily. Odd, he thought. Did she still take breaths because it was automatic? It was hard to imagine a ghost needing to breathe. At the same time, nothing about their relationship made much sense. Since they had met and fallen for each other, she had become more and more real.
Can you appear here, in this room, with me?
Now Jimmy sensed fear. I don't know, Jimmy. I've never tried this. I’ve only ever appeared in person by the bridge.
Then try it.
The room suddenly got very cold very fast. All of the sweat on Jimmy's body felt as if it turned to ice. At the same time, the hairs on his arms and across the back of his neck stood up as if he were standing near an electrical current. The air felt thick. Near the foot of the bed, a kind of mist began to form. Breath plumed from Jimmy's mouth, and he shivered. A strange noise began to emanate from the center of the room, seeming to come from all over, and concentrating at that spot at the foot of his bed. Just when Jimmy thought he would freeze to death, a bright white light suddenly erupted from a spot about five feet off the floor. The light grew brighter and brighter, becoming nearly blinding, spreading, growing wider. After an eternal moment of brightness, there was a shape in the middle of the sun that had suddenly formed in the middle of the room. Slowly, the shape became more and more distinct, converging into a female form. Suddenly the light flashed as if lightning had struck, there was a large crackle of energy, and Jimmy's eyes felt as if he had looked directly into a blazing sun.
The image faded, and as Jimmy rubbed his eyes, seeing nothing but after-images, he heard someone moving around in the room. When his eyes cleared enough, he opened them and saw Sapphire standing in front of him. Her dress seemed as bright and blue as the image he had seen in his dream. Her eyes were wide, and her face was creased with a grin. She had never looked more gorgeous.
Jimmy stood up and walked to her. Sapphire smiled and came to him. They enfolded each other in their arms . Jimmy was surprised that Sapphire was quaking as much as he was.
"I've never had a girl in my room," Jimmy said.
Sapphire laughed. "I've never been in a boy's room."
She looked up at him. Her face was flush with blood and life and warmth. Her skin was warm, so warm that it made Jimmy's skin tingle. He leaned down and felt her lips against his, and they were wet and soft and warm. She was not a ghost. She was something real and alive. He could feel her heart beating against his chest through his shirt.
They kissed for a long time. It seemed, like always, that they were alone in the universe. The world spun beneath them, the sun made its way across the sky, but they were floating above it all. Eventually, their hands were running up and down each other’s bodies.
The kiss broke, and both of them looked at each other, each of them breathing hard. Jimmy marveled at the warmth of her breath against him. Somehow, she was alive, real, and present here. She was unchanged, but she was so real. The feeling between them was so intense that it nearly knocked them over. He kissed her again and she pressed her body against his. Running his hands down
her back, he could feel her heart beating, fast but steady, against his chest. Their hands wandered, their breathing got faster, and then they parted. Both of their faces were flushed and anxious.
"What are we doing?" Sapphire asked.
"The impossible," Jimmy replied.
"How can we do this?"
"How can we not?"
Sapphire smiled. "I've never—"
"Me, either," Jimmy replied. "And I think you've waited long enough."
"What will this do?" she asked. "To us? To the universe itself? If our being here, together, both of us alive, is impossible, doesn't that mean it's against the very laws of nature? If we do what both of us think we're about to do, what happens?"
"Do you mean will reality itself split open and the universe unravel or something?" Jimmy asked.
Sapphire shrugged. "Yes."
"I have no idea," Jimmy said, and kissed her again. "But at this point, I'm more than willing to find out."
They kissed again. They touched. They pressed against each other and fell onto the bed at the same time, the garments they were wearing fell to the floor. There was no unraveling of the universe. There was nothing but softness and the eagerness of two teenagers, despite the fact that one of them should have been a woman in her sixties. Sapphire did not turn into the devil; Jimmy's soul was not sucked out of his body. Instead, they moved together, becoming one, both of them moaning and kissing and sighing in the same way lovers had throughout the centuries. Somehow, the very power of their union made death something that was not to be feared. It could be conquered and crossed and, for a time, put on hold.
There was no fear. There were no monsters. The first time it had been over very fast, but they were soon moving and touching and going again. This time things were better and, again, the universe did not end. When it was over and they lay on the bed, their bodies touching, bare skin to bare skin, they were both of flesh and bone, warm and real. There was nothing supernatural and nothing scary. They were just two teenagers in love, about to explore adulthood, venturing forth in this one act that had been built up to them as something to hold in awe and fear. Instead, they were both warm and spent, filled with nothing but love for each other.
Afterward, they lay in each other's arms, the sweat cooling on their skin. She was still there, in Jimmy's arms, real. He closed his eyes and laughed. The ridiculousness of the situation was just beyond him. He had just made love to a woman who had died years ago. And yet, here she was, in his arms, her heart beating against his skin, her chest rising and falling with her breath. She was alive.
"So," he said, "was it worth the wait?"
Sapphire giggled. "Absolutely."
Jimmy kissed the top of her head.
"How is this happening?" Sapphire asked.
"I have no idea," Jimmy said. "Where do you go when you aren't here with me?"
"It's like most of me is shut off," Sapphire said after thinking on it for a moment. "I don't feel like I have a body like I do when I'm here. It's like being pure thought or pure energy. And yet, there are times when it feels like there are real things around me. It's so hard to explain, Jimmy. I don't really understand how any of this is possible. It's like trying to ask you how you felt and what you were doing before you were born."
Jimmy nodded. "The universe is infinitely more strange than I ever thought it was just last week."
Sapphire nodded. "Each time I would come through to try and find someone to help me, it was never real like this. All of those memories are so hazy. I remember feeling lost and then feeling hope each time that someone would understand and be able to help me. Every time, it was like I was put back into a closet and shut away again. It was like being turned off. You can't imagine what that's like. Then I met you, and suddenly it was like I was back and alive again and everything was real."
"Could you just stay here?" Jimmy asked. "Now that you've come through, do you have to go back? Have you broken through permanently?"
Sapphire got quiet for a moment. Jimmy could feel that buzzing in his head that indicated she was thinking.
"No," she said quietly. "I don't think so. I don't know how I know that, but I can feel that other side pulling at me, even now. And when I step back there, this body that's so real will just vanish and I'll be real, but at the same time, I won't be real."
Jimmy held her tighter. "Can you tell how much longer before you have to go?"
Sapphire shook her head, her hair rubbing against Jimmy's chest. "No, but I can feel it draining my energy. You have no idea how much energy it takes to appear like this. To make things real."
"I can imagine," Jimmy said. "I mean, we're basically breaking all of the known laws of physics and, well, life itself. You're not supposed to be able to come back to life once you've crossed over."
"And it's because of us," Sapphire said. "Something that connected us. Somehow, reality itself can bend when we want it to."
Jimmy extended his hand into the air. He concentrated. Another burst of electricity, the same energy that had brought Sapphire here, cracked in the air. The ceiling above them suddenly warped, the board and plaster, seemed to bend and twist. Jimmy gasped, wiggling his fingers, and the air itself seemed to bend and twist and then the ceiling went back to the way it was.
"We shouldn't be," Jimmy whispered. "None of this should be, unless the universe itself wants us to right this wrong. Does that make sense? It's like we were meant to be."
"And it's growing stronger," Sapphire said.
Jimmy turned and kissed her. And soon, they were moving and touching again. They were the masters of their own universe now, rolling and twisting and turning. Around them, the air crackled with energy, bolts of bright blue lightning bounced off the walls, struck the light set into the ceiling. The air itself became thicker as they breathed, and then exploded with light. The air seemed filled with a thousand stars that formed and burned out in seconds, as if their love and passion created entire universes around them and then destroyed them again within seconds. A million lives lived within entire microscopic universes that burst into existence as both of them moaned, and then exploded into a million tiny supernovae. And when they reached the end, the light was so bright that it burned their silhouettes into the blinds set against the windows to the room. They collapsed, panting, into each other’s arms, and, eventually, Jimmy fell asleep.
When he awoke, he was alone. Beside him the blankets and sheets still held her shape and he could smell the perfume she had been wearing, but she was gone. Even the buzzing in his head was gone. When he reached out his hand and moved it, nothing happened; the air was silent and quiet. They only had power when they were together, and even the distance of crossing the veil into death was not far enough for them to be connected when they wanted to be.
Jimmy sat up and sighed. It was late afternoon. He could just tell from the way he felt and from the color of the light breaking through the blinds against the window. He shuddered.
Had this power always been inside of him? He shook his head. He had always been smart and he had always been good with language, writing, and reading. He had always been good with computers. He had always been interested in ghosts, but he had never ventured into their world. Had he always had the power to alter reality? Had the power always been inside of him and he had just never used it, or had Sapphire simply awakened this power? And what would it grow into? Would he find out what happened to Sapphire, bring her peace, and then she would vanish and the power would leave him, as well? And when that power went, what would that mean for Jimmy?
Jimmy shook his head. This was all too much to think about right now.
Jimmy stood up and his knees popped. His body was tingling. Had he really just lost his virginity? Had he really just done so with a girl who died more than fifty years ago? How did that stack up with the world's religions? he wondered. You weren't supposed to have sex before marriage, or so various priests and pastors had told him over the years, but how did God rank sex among people who have c
rossed dimensions because of their love? Surely that had to count for something.
He ran into the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom. He took a quick shower and then got dressed. He hadn’t heard a thing from downstairs in hours. How long was Tabitha going to let him sleep? Were they worried about him? More importantly, where was his mother, and when would she be home?
Jimmy opened the bedroom door. Something was cooking already. The smell hit him hard and he realized he had missed lunch. His stomach rumbled in protest at being neglected for so long. He descended the stairs. Tabitha sat at the table on her laptop, clicking away.
"Ah, finally awake?" she asked, not looking up from her work.
"I didn't realize just how long I had been asleep," Jimmy said.
"Yes, you really conked out there," Tabitha said. "I’ve been doing research, but I can’t find any accident reports or records of the accident that Jesse claims happened that night, but that’s not entirely surprising. What is disturbing is that I can’t find any police reports about Sapphire. It sounds to me that Jesse and his father contacted the police at some point. There should be reports."
"Who was the sheriff back then?" Jimmy asked as he sat down at the table.
"A rather deplorable man named Tegan Mitchell," Tabitha said. "He was run out of town a couple of years after the accident for corruption. He was rather notorious for being racist and for his treatment of inmates."
"So, in other words, the kind of guy who would gladly take a bribe to make an entire case vanish if it involved one of the most popular and wealthy families in the area?"
Sapphire: A Paranormal Romance Page 22
