Dark of Night - Flesh and Fire (32 page)

“You gonna haunt them?”

She shrugged. “I guess so.”

He laughed, but it was lifeless.

“Wait out here for a bit, in case it, you know, doesn’t work.”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks for all you’ve done today. I don’t know if I could’ve gotten out of this without you.”

“Don’t celebrate yet. We have to make sure it’s right first.”

She nodded, took his hand, and squeezed it. She kissed him, this time without the urgency she’d shown in the field. Instead it was a light touch, a show of friendly gratitude.

He watched as she pulled away, pushed the car door open, and climbed out of her seat and out of his life again.

The pavement stung Chloe’s feet and she winced. She focused on the house ahead and reminded herself that the pain would only be temporary. For being a passage to something as wonderful as freedom from oppression, rest for the weary, the front door looked rather plain. It was just over six and a half feet tall, off-white, and decorated by three square windows across the top. Her heart palpitated as she walked toward it.

This
had
to work.

She crossed the yard tentatively. If this did work, thirty years of suffering would come to an end. Thirty years? It dawned on her that her suffering had endured for much longer. It had dominated both her mortal and immortal lives. Part of it, she knew, was her doing, but what about the rest of it? The pain had started here. It had started at home. Maybe even before that.

A chill raced up her spine as she thought of Samael’s insistence that she wasn’t who she thought she was. That she was someone that had been promised to him long ago. If that were true, would she ever be free?

Her bare feet curled and she squeezed clumps of grass between her toes. She shut her eyes. A tear rolled down across her face. She took a breath and moved forward. The brass doorknob turned in her grip. There was a click of its latch, followed by a subtle creak of its hinges as she pushed it open.

Samael stood in the entryway, waiting for her. Fresh blood dripped from his hands and she looked past him to see two crumpled corpses, a man and woman. Their bodies were twisted in macabre poses and their chests were open, leaking viscera and blood onto the hardwood floor. Samael licked his lips.

~Anna~

Anna watched the front of Keith’s car swallow up the road ahead. Bass notes vibrated through the interior. She felt them in her chest and nervously twirled her fingers in her lap, only half aware she was doing it. Occasionally Keith sang a line of the song and squeezed her knee. Cold air blew from the vents, raising gooseflesh on her arms.

“Do you ever worry about this?” She asked it without taking her eyes off the winding road.

He turned down the stereo and the throbbing bass became a muffled knock. “What do you mean?”

“What we’re doing. Do you ever have second thoughts about it?”

“I worry about how long it can last sometimes. You’ve got your family and I have … well, nothing really holds me back.”

“I guess that’s why you’re so attractive to me.”

For a stretch, neither of them spoke. Keith turned and slowed down when necessary. The music remained muted, lightly bumping against the speakers, whispering through the air. She and Todd used to drive around like this, but with no destination in sight, just moments passing by. Looking back, she wondered how many of those moments she’d ruined by telling him to slow down or watch a car changing lanes or insisting they find
something
to do. She didn’t know how to relax back then; she wasn’t sure she even knew how to now.

“Something’s on your mind, I take it?” Keith asked.

“Tell me something, Keith. Tell me about your ex. When did you know that the marriage was beyond redemption?”

He sucked in a deep breath. “Where did that come from?”

“Just humor me, okay?”

“Sure.” He stayed silent, his jaw pinched tightly closed. His eyes were on the road, but they’d narrowed and a frown wrinkled his otherwise smooth features. “The hell of it, Anna, was that I didn’t know. I never knew anything was wrong until she was ready to leave.”

“Come on, really? You didn’t have the faintest clue?”

“What about you? When did you think your marriage was unredeemable?”

She gasped. “I never said it was.”

“Then what the hell are we doing? Why would you do this if you thought there was something left to save?”

Each word of his question pierced her like a series of darts. How do you respond to that? He’d basically just called her out on her bullshit. Bullshit that she’d done her best to ignore for the extent of their nearly yearlong affair. Occasionally it had come bubbling to the surface, but she felt like overall she’d done a good job of repressing her misgivings. Today though, her confrontation with Katie and now Keith’s pointed questions had dragged everything out into the open. It was all she could do to not cry.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “We’re just having fun, right?”

She dug her nails into the palms of her hands. “Do you love me?”

Now it was his turn to be caught off guard. He looked like she’d slapped him. She watched intently, waiting for him to answer. His mouth moved, but no words came, it looked like he was chewing on what he would say, getting an impression of how it would taste.

He looked at her, his eyes expressive, and she knew how he’d answer before he got the words out. When he affirmed what she already knew, she looked away from him, back at the black, empty road. She took almost a full minute to digest what he had said.

“Stop the car.”

“What? Why?”

She thought about the implications of his confession and the possibility that maybe she loved him too. She must love him if she’d spent the last year risking her marriage and her family. The whole thing was goddamned crazy. Now, no matter what path she took, someone would get hurt. Maybe the best thing to do was go home and think about it, really think about it.

She remembered the night Todd came to her door near the end of that summer where he’d drifted away into the affections of some girl named Chloe. She listened from the top of the stairs as her father greeted him as if no time had passed at all, asked about Todd’s father, and offered a drink. Todd took a seat on the couch and she waited for him to get settled before she came down to see him.

When he embraced her that night, he said he was glad to see her. She remembered feeling he meant it. Something in his features betrayed a willing vulnerability, that he was open to trying.

After having a drink with her father, they drove off to a movie.
Poltergeist
. She’d been tense the whole time, like she was now, until finally she asked him where he’d been.

“Really,” she'd said.

When he had hesitated, she asked him if there’d been someone else even though she had known there had been, because their fathers had been close and her father had always relayed what he had felt was relevant information.

Todd had lit a cigarette, delaying his response even more. Finally, “There was, but it’s over now. I didn’t do it to hurt you.”

“Who was she?”

“Does it matter?”

She had taken one of his cigarettes and lit it. “No, I guess not.”

“I mean it though. It’s over.”

“What about us? What do you really want out of this?”

He had seemed to think hard about this. Expecting a plethora of answers or maybe even one cosmos-shifting one, she had tried to stay open to whatever he would say.

“To be loved, I guess. To be important.”

She had put her hand on his. “I can love you.”

He looked from her hand to her face. A sense of security had settled over the atmosphere and she felt the tension loosening its grip.

After that night, things had happened quickly. In a month’s time, he had proposed, and they'd been married that spring. By the next summer, she was pregnant with Dale.

Todd
had
loved her. Maybe he still did. She took Keith’s hand and squeezed, more of a consoling gesture than one of romantic affection.

“Just, please, Keith. I need you to take me home.”

He took a deep breath. “Sure.”

~Katie~

Katie studied the remaining pink sunlight that shined through the canopy of trees above. A cloud of marijuana smoke billowed up beside her and Jake handed off the joint, which she took gratefully. She held the sweet smoke in her mouth, closed her eyes, and savored it. Jake always got good stuff. She coughed it out and opened her eyes to watch it ascend.

Her body tingled and a wave of relaxation settled over her. It was nice to be away from home. More so, it was nice to be with Jake. They'd met two semesters ago at some party her classmates had talked her into attending. She had noticed that he'd looked like he wanted to be there even less than she did, so she struck up a conversation. They liked the same music and he had a sense of humor so they became fast friends. He was fun by nature and gentle when she needed him to be so they became eventual lovers. He drank a little too much, but he was a dreamer that always looked ahead to a better future, and he was a great listener.

“I fucking hate my family,” she said.

He took a hit from the joint, exhaled, and sipped from a bottle of beer. “Your mom acting out again?”

“It’s way worse.” She told him about the confrontation, the younger man she didn’t recognize in the parking lot of Marcus and Marcus, the kisses, how her mom and this man left together.

He coughed. “Holy shit, you followed her?”

“Jake…”

“I’m sorry. Just… wow.”

She wished they’d waited to smoke until after she told him everything. They were having too good a time and she didn’t want to ruin it, but then she reminded herself that the main reason she had invited him out was to talk. She just hoped he wasn’t too stoned.

“So yeah, I don’t know. It’s really upsetting, and it’s not just her. My dad acts like nothing’s happening. Like everything is right with the world. How can he not know something weird is going on?”

Jake propped himself up on his elbow and focused on her. He put out the joint on the hood of his car and flicked its ashen remains into the dirt road. She continued.

“Could be denial, I guess. I just hate seeing him so oblivious and her being so… so…”

He waited for her to finish the sentence.

“…so shameless.”

He nodded. “I can’t imagine what they’re going through. I swear people lose their minds at their age.”

He was speaking from experience. A week after turning fifty, Jake’s father had quit his job, divorced Jake’s mother, and left her everything but his Pontiac, which he used to drive down south to find a permanent new home. Jake hadn’t spoken to him in three years.

“I’m sure it’s not easy on you, but I’m sure the last thing your mom wants to do is hurt you, and your dad’s not a dumb guy. He’s probably playing dumb because he thinks that will protect you or some shit.”

She reached down and took another beer from the cooler. “You’re probably right.”

“Whatever your mom’s going through is probably giving her tunnel vision. Maybe as shitty as this is, it’ll help you grow and stand on your own.”

“What? You don’t think I can stand on my own?”

He put up a defensive hand. “That’s not what I said. I think you’re perfectly capable. Separating yourself from your parents and their bullshit issues may be a good opportunity to show yourself just how capable you actually are.”

“You are so high,” she said with a laugh.

“So are you.” He kissed her.

She returned the kiss, but quickly pulled away. “I’m concerned for them though. I can’t just pretend nothing’s happening.”

Jake shrugged. “Maybe you should confront your mom.”

“You think so?”

He finished his beer and took another. “And your dad, too. Fuck it. Let them know how much their stupid drama is affecting you.”

She nodded, feeling empowered for a moment. “I wonder if I could really do it.”

“Sure you could.”

She returned her attention to the pink sunlight glowing between the leaves. The idea of calling her mom out was both terrifying and exciting.

“I think my dad needs a hug more than anything else. He always seems so lost, like he’s adrift somewhere far away and his body’s been left behind.”

“That’s it? He’s off the hook.”

“Well…”

“So you are mad at him, too, right?”

She thought for a moment, then nodded.

“Then I wouldn’t let him off easy, I mean, if you plan on confronting them at all. You can always just let it go.”

She looked away from the sky and down at her hands. “You know I can’t do that.”

“Then you know what you have to do.”

She nodded.

He took her chin in his hand. “Now how about we finish that kiss?”

~Chloe~

Chloe was too petrified to react as Samael stepped through the door frame, flashing his jagged teeth, his hands clenching and unclenching. Those teeth had bitten into her many times before. Those hands had ravaged her on more occasions than she could count.

“Welcome home,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Hearing the malicious intent in his words, she snapped out of her trance and turned to run. He fell upon her, snaking an arm around her throat and forcing her face into the dirt. He squeezed and she felt her air supply closing off as his hot flesh pressed against hers. He laughed as he strangled her, so sure of himself.

A car door slammed and a voice cried out.

“Hey!”

Samael released her, pushing her back to the ground and getting to his feet. She raised her head and saw Todd standing outside his car in a fighting stance. She got to her knees.

“No, Todd, don’t…”

A slap to the side of the head from Samael silenced her.

As she fell, she heard herself repeating that last word:

Don’t.

Don’t.

Don’t.

~Todd~

Todd watched Chloe pitch to the ground. Samael came for him at a speed he didn't believe possible. He had no time to outmaneuver the attack. Samael reached for Todd’s hair and snatched a fistful of it. Suspended into the air, his scalp caught fire with excruciating pain. He sounded alien to himself as he screamed a shrill, childlike cry.