by Mia Fox
“Maybe Charlotte has found her, and can get through to her.”
“We need to hurry -- in case Charlotte has been compromised.”
* * *
Chapter Eight
“Would you like to dance?”
Samantha looked up to see who had made the request of her. Like the three before him, he was extremely good-looking, and similar to the others, his soul was completely tarnished. She had gotten better at reading souls and developing her ability to realize a person’s true essence. There wasn’t much else to do in these realms so it was a pastime that she had decided to perfect.
“No, thank you. My feet hurt.”
“Alright, maybe later.”
Samantha smiled politely, not wanting to upset the man whom she suspected had killed his former lover. Initially, she could only decipher whether a person was innately good or bad. It was quite simple, almost like a thumbs up or down sign that flashed in her mind. But as she practiced, visions would accompany her instincts and now she could also tell what caused a soul to go bad.
She sat twirling one tendril of her long, red hair that managed to spring free of the bun. She had taken to piling her hair on top of her head as she found it attracted less attention than her unruly and wild curls. There was little to do except listen to the music and hope that nobody too terrible approached. She was quickly realizing that in the realms her gift kept her in solitude.
She watched her would-be suitor walk away, swirls of black clouds trailing him and visions of him stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death materializing out of the dust that rose above him. He greeted another girl who accepted his advances. Although Samantha typically needed to speak to someone to read their soul’s essence, this girl was so rogue that her misguided nature and inability to conform to society flowed freely from her. Samantha stared in her direction, amazed at how clearly the vision of the girl’s guilt puddled at her feet. In the realm of the present, the girl had seduced one man after another only to blackmail them for money after pretending to be pregnant with their child.
“Looks like you dodged a bullet there.” She looked up to see a young man with light brown hair that fell in gentle waves over his forehead, wide-set brown eyes that still twinkled in spite of the depressing nature of their environment, and a broad chest and strong shoulders that filled out his suit nicely.
“Yesiree,” Samantha admitted. “I’d say those two are meant for each other.”
“So, are you ready?” he asked expectantly.
“Pardon me?” Samantha asked with a guarded expression.
“Are you ready to dance? Everyone else is and if you just sit here, the others are sure to ask. I’m Daniel,” he said holding out his hand.
Samantha followed his gaze to where a row of young men were standing by the wall of the rounded room eyeing all of the women inside as they sized them up deciding whom to approach. The young guy was right. She didn’t want any of them coming up to her as they were all showing essence of evil. It was true that some were less so than others, but she didn’t need any type of malignant male in her life. As one man whose essence showed him to have held a girl underwater started toward her, she hooked her arm within Daniel’s.
“I’ll take that dance now. I’ve had enough cray-cray for one night.”
“Cray-cray?”
“I’m Samantha,” she said holding her hand to him in return. “And that’s my own little expression for crazy, which I think I’m quickly becoming.”
“This place will do that to you...unless you dance.”
Samantha shrugged her shoulders in response.
“Come on,” Daniel coaxed. “You’re not like most people here. I could use the distraction.”
“Are you sure? I’m no debutante,” she warned with a slight smile, the first one that had graced her face since she arrived in this horrible place.
“I’ll take my chances with you,” he said and held her hand high above her head, readying Samantha for her first twirl around the floor.
* * *
“That’s her! Shadow, how do I get inside?”
The girl held tightly onto Charlotte’s hand and her voice wavered. “I don’t want you to leave me. Please don’t go!”
Charlotte’s heart melted. The more time she spent with Shadow, the more of a pull she felt toward the girl, a deep need to take care of her was growing within her. She bent down on one knee to look the little girl in the eye and readily pulled her in for a hug. Whispering soothingly in her ear, she said, “I won’t leave you. I don’t know how you ended up alone, but you’ve got me now. I just don’t want my friend to be alone either.”
Shadow looked into Charlotte’s eyes, sizing her up and weighing whether to risk losing her to another. “You promise me?”
Charlotte made the sign of crossing her heart with her finger.
“Follow me,” Shadow commanded before running around the building to a side that wasn’t covered by windows, but with a mural. The painting depicted a lake with one solitary swan and a bridge that disappeared into the mist.
“There,” Shadow pointed. “That’s how you get in.”
Charlotte shook her head. “Where?”
“Don’t you see it?”
And then, as if Shadow willed it to appear, the outline of a small door suddenly became visible within the base of the bridge. Charlotte placed her hand on the small, wooden knob, disguised as part of a tree branch in the mural. She tried to turn it, but it wouldn’t budge. Feeling desperate to get inside, Charlotte rapped on the door, but barely a sound echoed from her touch.
“Wait,” Shadow stopped her, placing her small hand atop Charlotte’s. Charlotte immediately recoiled her hand, the touch of the child feeling oddly cold to her.
“What’s wrong?”
Charlotte recovered herself and took a deep breath. “Nothing....nothing’s wrong.”
“Just don’t forget your promise.”
Charlotte hugged the girl ignoring the cold chill running through her as she did so. Shadow placed her own hand on the knob and with barely any effort, it turned and the door swung open, releasing the sound of the orchestra’s waltz.
Shadow outstretched her arms and turned in circles. She began dancing with abandon, exhibiting the exuberance of youth. Only somehow with Shadow, it came across as more of a manic act. She stopped only when she had twirled herself into a dizzying fit and stumbled into Charlotte.
“That was fun. Now it’s your turn,” she said and indicated that Charlotte should go into the next room where the music could be heard.
Charlotte took a tentative step in the direction that Shadow indicated only to have her stop her once more. “You’re not going in like that, are you?”
Charlotte looked down at her casual and now rather dirty outfit. “I don’t have anything more appropriate,” she reasoned and started toward the room again.
“Not really the best way to make an impression.”
“Listen, I’m not here to make an impression. Samantha is my best friend. It’s not like she doesn’t know me.”
“She won’t know you.” There was something about the emphatic way in which Shadow spoke the words that made Charlotte take notice. “You’ll look like some sort of street urchin and the guards will throw you out.”
“So what do I do?”
Shadow pointed to a long hallway with a door at the end that read: Salon de Beaute. “Go in there. They’ll get you sorted.”
Charlotte glanced down the hallway, and then back at Shadow, who had miraculously changed her appearance and was now wearing a light blue party dress with a black sash, white tights and black shoes.
“How did you...” Charlotte looked at Shadow, who was taking a brush to her curls.
“Your necklace is pretty,” Shadow said admiring the Amulet of Pollox that hung on a delicate chain around Charlotte’s neck. “It would look so pretty with my dress. Can I...” she started to ask while reaching her hand toward the pendant.
Instinctively, Charlotte
batted her hand away. “No!”
Shadow looked up in surprise, her eyes growing large and filling with tears.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Shadow. I’m just so jumpy. I can’t even remember you changing clothes, and this necklace is very special to me.”
Shadow’s eyes cleared of tears and changed to a hateful red before she blinked them back to their regular ice blue. “I’m going to go inside now,” she said sullenly.
“Okay, I’ll get fixed up and see you soon. You’ll be okay?” Charlotte asked, but the little girl had already left.
* * *
Samantha watched the murals of the room go by as Daniel led her around the rounded room in what seemed to be a never ending waltz. They passed the same couples repeatedly, each displaying varying degrees of evil wafting up behind them. Samantha wished she could close her eyes and lose herself in Daniel’s arms as he was the first person she had encountered in the Romani Realms who didn’t send off warning messages in her mind. Whether that was safe for her remained to be seen, but for the moment she decided to go with it and enjoy the mental salvation.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Samantha asked.
“Well, you’re here for one thing, and from what I can tell of your soul it isn’t tainted. Want to talk to someone who is good at listening?”
Samantha’s need to confide in someone was great, and yet, she hesitated. “How do you know I’m not...tainted? And besides, why would I trust you?”
“Your soul is pure. I can read it...just like you can with me.”
Samantha stopped dancing and focused. Since being in the Romani Realms all of her instincts were heightened and she was learning to trust them. She took Daniel’s hand once more, a silent acceptance that he was telling the truth.
“So how did you end up here?”
“You mean if I’m not...evil?” he asked, maintaining a low whisper because of their proximity to other couples who did not share their purity.
Samantha nodded, also not daring to speak aloud.
“Some mistakes are irreversible. I made a big one,” he said and shrugged.
“Me too,” Samantha added sadly.
“Do you miss your friends and family?” Daniel asked.
Samantha wrinkled her brow. “It’s strange, but I don’t remember any of them. I see snippets of myself somewhere else, but I don’t know what I’m looking at. I see myself running and I’m terribly scared. No, I’m worried about someone, but I don’t know who. And then, I think I’m falling, but maybe it’s just like one of those dreams where you feel like you’re falling. You know?”
Daniel nodded, and pulled her closer against his chest. Samantha looked up in surprise. It felt good to talk to someone openly.
“I’m sorry,” he said and released his hold slightly. “Hearing your story makes me want to keep you safe. I’ve seen so many people here succumb to the curse of this place.”
“How long do I have?” Samantha asked, knowing that he spoke the truth. Even she had felt her hold on reality slipping away, before he mentioned it. She suspected that the fact that she couldn’t remember anything about her former life to be indicative that the Romani Realms were already affecting her sanity.
“If you can learn to channel your thoughts by keeping a foothold in your former life, you can be okay indefinitely. It’s just not easy,” he said, indicating a couple that breezed past them, each one spewing vision clouds that displayed heinous acts of malicious intent. “Those two arrived here together three years ago. He had been in a car accident and was on life support. She took his life in the hospital and then her own believing they would end up together. They did.”
Samantha furrowed her brow in question as she watched the couple. She saw them committing a myriad of other acts against innocent people.
“So the crimes they committed...”
“All of them occurred here,” Daniel explained. “Their souls were so lost that it was easy for the evils to prey and feed upon them until no goodness was left. Now those two do the same...eating away at the humanity of the newcomers so they can feel just a bit more human and good, to feel some semblance of what they once were. It’s why they spend so much time at these dances.”
“Why are you here?”
Daniel shrugged uneasily. “I guess I want to find someone too. But not for the same reasons.”
Samantha looked at him warily.
“Tell me that you believe me.”
“I want to...but you have to be honest with me...and trust me.” Samantha stopped dancing for a moment to look into Daniel’s kind eyes. She wanted so much to believe that there could be one other person here who was good. “What caused you to be here? What did you do?”
“Voodoo,” he answered simply.
* * *
Chapter Nine
As Charlotte entered the Salon she was immediately greeted by two beautiful, young women in their mid-twenties. Identical twins with blonde hair and blue eyes, both wore their hair in a chic and tidy chignon and were immaculately dressed in crisp, clean linen robes.
Charlotte was handed a similar robe, hers in a rather ugly shade of blue that resembled a hospital gown, and led to change into it behind a partition. When Charlotte came out carrying her clothes, the girls looked at each other as if weighing who had gotten the short end of the stick and would be forced to touch something as disgusting as the dirty clothes. One of the girls finally rang a bell and within seconds another girl appeared. Unlike the girls attending to Charlotte, this one was brunette and wore a robe of burlap. Charlotte’s eyes immediately went to the girl’s throat, where a hideous scar weaved across where her voice box would normally be.
One of the girls shouted in a foreign tongue at the new one, when she accidentally dropped one of Charlotte’s shoes. The brunette bowed low immediately in front of the twins, who merely let her remain in the subservient pose for a good minute before dismissing her.
Once she was gone and Charlotte’s clothes taken along with her, the twins whispered to each other as they circled Charlotte. After a few turns around her, one stopped in front of her and reached for her hands to inspect her nails, while the other gingerly touched her hair and examined the pores of her skin. Although Charlotte was a natural beauty by anyone’s standards with skin as smooth and pale as alabaster, blonde hair so light it was nearly white and her delicately small facial features, but in spite of her good looks, the girls shook their heads and made clucking noises with their tongues as if making Charlotte over would be the challenge of a lifetime.
Finally, the twins, known in the Romani Realms as Nephilim, the product of fallen angels and human women who had been trapped in the realm, came to an agreement. Deciding on the course of action they would take, they led Charlotte down another hallway to a stark, white room filled with sinks and salon chairs, a large table covered with colorful bottles of every shape and size, and various instruments to either curl or straighten one’s hair.
The Nephilim continued their unusual language at times sounding guttural and then turning into a bird-like chirp. At one point, Charlotte recognized a few words of Spanish, but no sooner did she show a look of recognition did the girls catch her eye and changed their dialogue to French. Once again, a look of understanding crossed Charlotte’s face and the twins again switched to something that sounded like Dutch. Charlotte casually moved her hand up to her necklace to activate the powers of the Amulet of Pollox. Visions of the men who had the pendant in their possession came to mind, but alas, none were Dutch and so she was at a loss to figure out what plans the girls were cooking up for her. They watched closely as she fingered her necklace and when satisfied that Charlotte had no idea what they were saying, they continued, only now obviously more relaxed about their conversation as they seemed to be arguing about their course of action.
One of the girls touched a lock of Charlotte’s hair and shook her head in disgust. The other objected and pointed to her face and then waved a finger up and down, pointing
out the flaws she found with Charlotte’s entire body. Finally, the first one threw up her hands and nodded. It was decided. They handed Charlotte a towel and three bottles: one pink with a silhouette of a woman’s body, one turquoise that had an image of a woman running her hands down her long hair, and the last one, a pale green bottle that had a similar picture of a woman massaging her head with bubbles floating up into the sky. They pointed to a shower and then left the room.
“So I guess they think I stink. Okaaay,” she said to herself and turned on the water. “I’m guessing body wash, shampoo and conditioner. If I had a razor, I’d be all set.”
As if able to either read her mind or hear her voice within the confides of the shower room, one of the girls suddenly appeared, rapped on the door, and handed Charlotte a razor that was hygienically sealed in a plastic wrapper.
“Thank you,” Charlotte said, trying to cover up her body at the same time.
The girl glared at Charlotte and made a face as if she were trying hard not to vomit, and simply pointed at Charlotte’s legs.
“Yes, I’ll take care of it,” Charlotte answered.
* * *
The ball was still in full force with the floor full of couples dressed in elegant clothing, the tuxedo clad waiters standing in the shadows waiting to bring drinks or replenish the multitude of dishes at the buffet.
Samantha indicated to Daniel that she needed a rest from their turn on the dance floor, pointing to the table of canapes.
“Deux champagnes, s’il vous plait,” Daniel requested.
“They’re French?”
“Only tonight,” Daniel replied with a shake of his head and shrug of his broad shoulders. “The elders of the realm thought it gave the ball an air of elegance so they brought in an entirely French staff for this event. Trouble is, they don’t speak a word of English so unless you’ve studied, you go hungry.”
