Dark Reality 7-Book Boxed Set

by Jennifer and Christopher Martucci

  Chapter 2

  “Well this is it,” Arianna’s new landlord, John Jervis, announced and spread his plump arms wide.

  Arianna wasn’t sure why he was acting like a game-show host presenting a contestant with what she’d won. It was just a cabin in the woods, not a free weeklong stay at a luxury hotel. Besides, she’d already seen the place twice.

  “What do you think?” he asked and looked at her expectantly, as if waiting for her to ooh and ah over property she’d visited before.

  “It’s great,” she said and watched as his features shriveled. She knew from the look on his face that she hadn’t been enthusiastic enough in her response. But enthusiasm was hard to convey, especially since she’d been there on two separate occasions with a real estate agent before agreeing to rent it. And then the ordeal had really begun.

  “Hmm,” he said and arched a bushy brow at her. “You don’t seem so sure.”

  “John, of course I’m sure,” she assured him and wondered why he was so reluctant to rent the place. Why list it if you don’t want anyone to actually rent it, moron! She thought. She was tempted to ask him exactly that, but decided against it. She did not want to waste more time trying to find another house if she pushed him too far. So she went another way and reminded him of how difficult he’d made the process up until the present. “And besides, weren’t you the one who didn’t want to rent this place to me? I’m starting to think you are the one who’s not sure. Maybe you don’t want to part with this place. Or maybe you just don’t like me,” she said and feigned a pained expression.

  “I, uh, you see,” he stammered uncomfortably.

  She smiled and laughed softly. “Don’t get yourself worked up, John, I was just messing with you. I get it. I know how you feel, about renting to me, at least,” she helped him. “My age was a factor at first. No hard feelings. I understand. I would have had the same concerns, believe me.”

  He looked relieved and his chubby face relaxed a bit. “Good,” he said and opened his mouth to say something else, but she cut him off.

  “Damn right it’s good. Good for you, that is,” she joked. “You already made a fortune off me. If I were to split, you’d make out with three months’ rent and two months’ security.”

  Unaccustomed to her direct sense of humor, his ruddy cheeks deepened to an unhealthy shade of magenta. Nothing she’d said had been untrue. After all, the terms of her lease agreement had been at his choosing. And while his sloppy and overall unhygienic appearance gave off the impression of an unintelligent may, John was far from stupid. He was a shrewd businessman. He was protecting his investment.

  “Yes,” he said hesitantly. “I guess you’re right. I am in a good position, aren’t I?”

  “Yes, yes you are,” she said and attempted a smile, but it did not reach her eyes. Her attempt at happiness felt so forced and phony, she feared her face would crack in half. “I was just ribbing you. And don’t worry about your cabin here,” she said and swept her arm to one side, gesturing to the living room. “I’ll take good care of it, okay? There won’t be any wild parties, I promise. But don’t go getting any ideas about me skipping town or anything. I plan on being here for a while. Don’t start spending my security deposit,” she finished with a wink.

  Looking equal parts heartened and puzzled, the man smiled goofily and leaned in to speak to her. Arianna immediately noticed that his breath reeked of liquor. A quick glance at her watch revealed that it was not yet eleven o’clock in the morning. She backed away reflexively and couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose.

  “I trust you, Arianna. You seem like a nice kid who’s been through rough times,” he said then handed her a single silver key and a piece of paper. “My home telephone number is on there as well as my cell phone number. If you need anything, just call me.”

  “You got it,” she promised.

  John ran a hand through his wooly hair that was more salt than pepper then rested both on his round belly.

  “Okay then,” he stalled. “Take care.”

  She wanted to scream, “Okay, get the hell out already!” but thought twice about it. He was her landlord, after all, and she needed to be polite and respectful. She nodded and said, “You, too!” instead and did her best to smile again.

  He hesitated a moment and parted his lips as if he were going to say something, but closed them abruptly then turned and walked out the front door.

  She sighed, relieved, as soon as the front door closed. She could not have imagined spending another moment pretending she was normal when she was anything but. Both she and her life were broken irrevocably. Fortunately, nothing in the house resembled her life.

  Arianna glanced around the small cabin she’d rented. The space was small and sparsely decorated, but immaculately clean. Clean was a good thing given how dirty and complicated her life had become. Two weeks earlier, she had lost everyone she’d cared about. Three people had lost their lives, murdered by Howard Kane, a man who’d devoted his entire life to rooting out and killing her. While Kane had not succeeded at killing her, not physically at least, he had succeeded at taking from her that which had not been his to take. He’d ripped three of the only people she’d ever cared for from her life. He’d taken Lily and Luke. He had taken her mother.

  Luke and Lily had been people she’d just begun to let her guard down with, but her mother had been a fixture in her life since she’d been born. And while Cathy Rose had not been by any stretch of the imagination a model mother, she had been the only mother Arianna had ever known, and loved.

  Thoughts of her mother, her horrific death so fresh in her mind, slammed against Arianna’s chest like a sledgehammer. The cabin seemed suddenly cramped and the demand for fresh air overwhelming. She dropped her bags to the couch and strode to a sliding glass door off the kitchen. After fumbling with the ancient lock for several seconds, the latch released and the door slid open. She stuck her face out and breathed.

  The late-November air was crisp and a brisk breeze blew her hair back, but she felt impervious to the cold. Her insides already felt frozen, immobilized by the paralytic effects of grief. She inhaled deeply and felt the anesthetizing properties of the sharp air numb her lungs. She wondered whether there was a way to numb all of her insides, particularly the ceaseless smarting in her core.

  Eager to test the theory, Arianna stepped outside and found that she stood on a small concrete patio. Two plastic lawn chairs remained as reminders that summer had existed not long ago. An overturned plastic pot, the skeletal, brown remains of which lay sprawled across the ground where it had succumbed to death by season change, stood as a forensic reminder that winter loomed on the horizon.

  Winter. The thought of spending the holidays without her mother brought with it a fresh wave of pain. Not that the holidays in the Rose household had been even remotely idyllic. In fact, they’d been far from it. Still, she had not been alone as she would be this year. She closed her eyes and could see her mother leaning against a kitchen counter, a long cigarette protruding from between her lips. She’d hang around and nit-pick everything Arianna did. Of course, her mother had never helped prepare a holiday meal. She’d just linger in a drunken, supervisory capacity until whichever wretched boyfriend she’d been shacking up with returned home with a fresh bottle of liquor for them to celebrate with. It hadn’t been the stuff of carols and cards, but it had been how Arianna had spent each holiday, until now. The realization stung.

  Eager to distract herself from a fresh swell of grief, Arianna turned and walked back inside to find her pack of cigarettes. She riffled though her bag and felt the box immediately, as well as her lighter. Clutching both, she returned to her spot on the patio, alongside the foliage crime scene, and lit a cigarette.

  She inhaled deeply and allowed the smoke to fill her lungs. She was about to exhale when a voice called out to her unexpectedly.

  “Oh Arianna, just o
ne more thing,” John called from nowhere.

  “Holy shit!” Arianna jumped and fumbled her cigarette. She’d nearly dropped it, but caught it just in time. The burning head sent embers cascading down the front of her shirt, however, and she lowered her eyes to see if she were on fire. Once confident she was not burning, she looked up and saw a familiar, flushed face a few feet from her. “Jeez!” she jumped again. “What is with people sneaking up on me?”

  “What?” John asked and screwed up his features unattractively.

  “Nothing, nothing,” Arianna dismissed him. “What do you want?” she asked and tried to mask her impatience.

  “The toilet,” he said and frowned at the cigarette between her fingers.

  “Yeah, what about it?” she asked and followed his line of vision to her cigarette.

  “Uh, it’s just that, uh,” he faltered. Then in a sterner tone he said, “You know there’s no smoking in the cabin, right? It’s in the lease.”

  “Yeah, and I’m not inside the cabin am I, John?” she said, annoyance creeping into her tone.

  “Uh, yes, technically that’s true. I just wanted to be clear. I didn’t know you were a smoker. That may have changed things.”

  Anger bristled inside her and she had to make a conscious effort to rein it in. Blazing him where he stood would have given her satisfaction, but she knew she should not abuse her powers over trivial matters such as fussy landlords. “Well, the lease has been signed and I am not violating any of the terms,” she snipped. “What was it about the toilet you wanted to tell me?”

  “Oh yes, the toilet,” he said. “Sometimes you need to jiggle the handle. You know, if it runs after you flush, you’ll need to jiggle the handle.”

  “Okay,” she said and willed her temper to calm. She wanted to shout at him, “Are you frigging kidding me, jiggle the toilet handle? Really?” but took a deep breath and asked, “Is there anything else?” instead.

  He paused a moment as if mulling her question over in his mind. “Nope, nothing I can think of,” he said but made no attempt to leave.

  In her head, she was shouting, “For the love of god, leave already!”

  Still, John did not budge. He waved the air in front of him and coughed thinly. Arianna inhaled again and blew out a large cloud of smoke in his direction. He rumpled his face and knitted his brows disapprovingly before turning on his heels.

  “All right, Arianna, I’m leaving now. Just remember, no smoking in the cabin.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it, John,” Arianna replied and waved at him.

  She watched his portly body waddle across the lawn until it disappeared completely. She lifted her wrist again to take a drag of her cigarette and when she did, a wind chime that sounded like the rattle of her mother’s bangle bracelets startled her. She didn’t remember seeing wind chimes anywhere on the property. She smiled despite the heartache she was feeling, and decided in that moment to not succumb to the intense heartache she was feeling. She’d managed to relieve the Soldiers of the Divine Trinity Church of their substantial funds in spite of it, and had rented the cabin she stood outside of, too. She had not had a choice. Her life needed to continue. And continue it would.

  The seven hundred thousand dollars she’d taken from Kane’s church had been a bittersweet surprise after she’d been forced to incinerate Luke’s body with her powers. The heat of the arc of fire from her fingertips had burned hotter than any ordinary fire, and had reduced it to a small mound of ashes. It had been a gut-wrenching task, but a necessary one. No one could know what had happened at the Soldiers of the Divine Trinity Church, or why he would have been involved. No one could ever find his body. She’d had to think quickly, and listen to an instinctive voice deep within her that had guided her.

  Her mother’s body had been a different story entirely. She’d left it there, among the bodies of Kane’s disciples. She’d had to. A funeral had to be held and records had needed to reflect her mother’s death. She had not wanted to think of the traumatic death she’d witnessed in those terms, but she had not had a choice. She remembered how it had been next to impossible for her to keep her wits about her and remain pragmatic. But if her mother had taught her anything, she’d taught her to always think realistically. And she had been realistic, as realistic as a girl who’d just watched her mother burn could have been. She’d thought about her mother, about the life she’d led and the people she’d known, and in that moment, a realization had dawned on her. She’d realized that the few friends and family members they had would not be surprised by Cathy Rose’s alleged affiliation with a group of religious fanatics. She had joined cults in the past. Police finding her body with them would not be a point that would raise questions. So she’d cremated Luke’s body only and left her mother’s behind.

  Once she had been satisfied that all evidence of what had happened had been sufficiently destroyed, she’d collected Luke’s ashes. She vowed to scatter them somewhere beautiful one day, somewhere that would honor him. Until that day came, she would keep them with her in the cabin she’d rented thanks to Kane’s church’s generous, albeit unwitting, donation to her.

  His unknown contribution had been a great help to her in the last two weeks. The money had secured the cabin she now called home. Convincing the owner of the cabin, John, had been a challenge. But the almighty dollar had proved potent enough to sway him to rent it to an eighteen-year-old girl. His price had been three months’ rent upfront and a hefty security deposit. She’d paid cash, to his delight, and after signing a lease, he had just handed over a key. He’d seemed like a pleasant enough man, and with his cherry-hued cheeks and nose and a distinct scent of Scotch that clung to his clothes like scum on a pond, he would have been exactly the kind of man her mother would have dated. Perhaps that’s why she’d felt an odd soft spot for him. Nevertheless, he was her landlord, and she was a brand-new tenant living alone for the first time in her life.

  With a roof over her head, all that remained for her to do was to register for school, again. Dropping out of high school in her senior year had never been an option. Sola or no Sola, she was determined to graduate from high school with a diploma. Apart from her own motivation, her mother would have wanted her to.

  “Make me proud, baby,” her mother had always said. “Be the first in my family to graduate high school.”

  The words echoed in the wind as though her mother were reaching out to her from a golden trailer park in heaven.

  Arianna smiled, a pained, sentimental smile, and stubbed her cigarette against the sole of her black motorcycle boot. She set the snuffed butt on the ground for a moment then inspected the backyard. But before she could take in the entire view, another image distracted her. Her eyes settled on the overturned pot on the patio, or more specifically, the deceased plant that had been housed there. Unable to look at the plant cadaver a moment longer, she stooped and scooped it up. She stood the pot upright and placed the brown and dried carcass inside. With that out of the way, she scanned the surrounding area. Her cabin, nestled high in Hallowed Hills, Maine, offered a panoramic view of trees. In the early fall, she guessed the view would be stunning, alive with rich colors. But now, with the last of the leaves long-since fallen, the landscape looked as though it were filled with innumerable emaciated limbs reaching, pleading with outstretched arms toward her. The woods were watchful as well, too watchful.

  All around her were countless thickets, shrubs and trees. All could easily conceal predators, animal and human. Unease tickled the back of her neck like invisible fingers trailing over her skin. Perhaps it was the result of her strained mind, battered and bruised by the gruesome deaths of the ones she’d loved, or perhaps being hunted by Kane had left her so paranoid, she now thought the forest stalked her. More of his men existed in the world, but she wondered whether any of them could feel her as he had, or whether they would simply disband in the absence of their deranged leader. Either wa
y, she felt the need to be vigilant, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched.

  She stepped out further, boldly positioning herself on the edge of the patio where the concrete gave way to grass. The lawn extended to a tree line that marked the beginning of what looked like rolling hills and valleys of woodland. With her shoulders back and her hands on her hips, she brazenly surveyed the land, staring intensely, as if challenging whomever or whatever watched her, and made known she was not afraid. But the forest didn’t flinch. And nothing had pounced from the bushes. She raked a hand through her hair then turned and walked back in to her cabin.

  With the door closed and the daunting chore of unpacking before her, Arianna decided to put stalkers and supernatural beings on the back burner and save any further mourning for her evening shower. Boxes needed to be unpacked, food needed to be stocked on shelves and in cupboards. After all, the next morning would be her first day at the last high school she would ever attend, a high school she’d been drawn to in a town her powers had brought her to.