Authors: Felicia Jedlicka
Gods and Monsters
Copyright © 2014 by Felicia Jedlicka
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Felicia Jedlicka
Book design by Felicia Jedlicka
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Felicia Jedlicka
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Successors
Rivals
Honeymoon
Lovers and Liars
Time and Time, Not Again!
Bad Blood
Let My People Go
Tenants and Tyrants
The Ring Bearer
If Wishes Were Fishes
Gods and Monsters
Beasts and Burdens
Magic and Mayhem
…More to Come…
Corn, Cows, and the Apocalypse
Cow Tipping After the Apocalypse
Corn Husking After the Apocalypse
THE
WARDEN
Gods and Monsters
Felicia Jedlicka
Table of Contents
“Mom,” Cori could feel reality seeping back into her muscles, but not her mind. Before she could fathom what to say to her undead mother, Emily Reiger pulled her sackcloth towel off her shoulder and rushed to amend the spill at Cori’s feet.
“Corinthia Ellen, what is wrong with you? Nearly thirty years old and you still can’t manage to keep from making a mess in my house.”
While Emily mopped up the coffee, Cori looked to the calendar that always hung on the side of the fridge with red X’s on the past days. The date was right, but nothing else. Her mother had passed away some five years ago, just before she headed to college. Her Aunt had supported her during that time, before she also passed away. Cancer had taken them both.
Cori looked around the kitchen. Everything was familiar, but with a few added features: small appliances, different dish towels, and the curtains over the sink had been exchanged for wood blinds. This was still her mother’s home, the one she had lived in while finishing her secondary education.
“Corinthia, are you just going to stand there? Here take this cup so I can get up?” Cori took the mug and set it in the sink before helping her mother off the floor. “What is wrong with you?”
“I…” She wasn’t sure how to answer that. It was clear that making her wish to “go back to
normal
” had returned her to her previous home with her mother, but what else had changed? What had happened to Ethan and the others?
There were too many questions that she wouldn’t be getting answers for any time soon. Instead of pining on those mysteries, she focused on the moment and did something she hadn’t been able to do for many years. She hugged her mother.
Cori could feel Emily accept the hug willingly just as any mother would, but the intensity in the embrace started to make her uneasy. Emily soon pushed her away and pierced her with sky blue eyes. For the first time, Cori noted the similarity between Efrat’s eyes and her mother’s. She cringed at the comparison and wondered how much of her trust in Efrat was born out of a misplaced reminder of her mother. Someone could write a thesis on that psychological conundrum.
“Corinthia, what is wrong? Are you okay?” Emily kept hold of her shoulders squeezing just hard enough to demand the answer she sought.
Cori smiled and pushed her mom’s frizzy waves back behind her ear. She was always thankful that she inherited her mother’s hair, minus the frizz. “I’m okay, but…” She wasn’t sure honesty was going to be the best protocol, but this was her mother. If she couldn’t tell her the truth, who could she tell?
Plus it’s not like they were near any asylums.
“Mom, something unusual has happened and I’m not sure how to approach it with honesty, but it might be the only way.”
“Oh, God, are you sick? Please tell me you didn’t find a lump. That fucking cancer!”
Cori was taken aback by the cuss word from her mother, but she was certain if anyone deserved to curse about the disease, it was her. “No mom, not cancer.”
“Oh, good, I don’t wish to relive that disease a third time, certainly not through you.” Emily kissed her on the cheek, no doubt leaving a smudge of coral pink lipstick. It wasn’t the best color for her, but she insisted it was. “It was hard enough with my sister.” Emily moved to the sink to continue her dishes.
“Mom, I’m not in the right place.” Cori followed taking up a new towel to help dry.
“Oh, sweetheart, it’s just a starter job. You can’t have expected to get a high paying job straight out of school.”
Cori sighed and shook her head. This wasn’t going to be easy. She could just say that she made a wish and got thrown out of her own reality, but that would be like expecting someone to understand that dolphins weren’t fish, when they didn’t understand the difference between lungs and gills. She needed to start simply.
“Mom, you’re supposed to be dead.” Perhaps that was too simple.
“I know dear, and I thank God every day that I’m not. Are you ready for a scone? I think they’ve cooled enough?”
“I’m ready for one,” a deep voice bellowed from the hallway, preceding a tall, lanky, chocolate haired man. His tie hung undone around his neck, and three buttons on his white shirt were undone. He was handsome in a stately way. His face was all chin and forehead, and his frame, all portrait and no profile. He had to be taller than Danato, which made him tower over Cori.
“Oh, Geoffrey, you are always ready for dessert,” Emily chided him before dishing up one of her infamous scones for him.
When Geoffrey sidled up behind her and put his arm around her, she resisted the urge to shove him away. Instead, she checked his hand for a ring. He wasn’t wearing one, but she meanwhile was still wearing all ten of hers, including her wedding ring. That didn’t seem to make sense since she wasn’t wearing the same clothes.
Point in fact; she was wearing a black, spaghetti-strapped, wide-leg jumper with high heels. Given that her male friend was wearing a suit, and her mother had on a rather nice violet dress, she wondered if this was a special occasion. She didn’t like the sound of that. She was already in a bind without more
special
to add to it.
“What about you, cupcake?” Geoffrey tugged her shoulder, pulling her against him so he could speak close to her ear. “Do you want to celebrate our engagement with dessert, or should we celebrate with our own dessert later?” He chuckled at the innuendo and Emily scoffed, but smiled warmly at him.
“Oh, you hold your tongue, Geoffrey. She’s still mine until you can pry her out of my hands.”
Geoffrey withdrew from Cori, offering her a reason to relax her tensed muscles. He moved to her mother and plucked up her hand. He withdrew the spatula she was holding and set it back on the platter. “Mrs. Reiger you know if you don’t let her go, I’ll just have to take you both.” He winked and kissed her hand.
“Oh, you rake,” she teased drawing her hand away, but Cori could see her blush. It was unusual to see her mother affected by a man. Granted it was unusual to see her at all, but she wondered what she would think of Ethan. Would his reserved demeanor, make her think he was cocky? Would his territorial nature, cause her to assume he was controlling? She was certain Ethan would not be able to charm his staunch mother like this man, but she would have enjoyed watching him try.
Geoffrey came back over and tried to kiss her, but she recoiled. He looked at her baffled and a little hurt. She stepped away and tried to come up with an explanation, but she didn’t really have one to offer. “Darling, I was only teasing.”
Emily looked her over and turned back to Geoffrey. “I think the engagement is starting to settle in. She’s already concerned about how much money her job is contributing.”
He exhaled with exasperation. “I told you if you want to continue to work when we have children, I’m more than happy to pay for a nanny.”
Cori nodded, but part of her wanted to roll her eyes. Was this her life without the prison—married to the cliché charming business man that for all his modern ideals, still didn’t understand the real world, because he had just enough wealth to avoid it. It was her ideal
normal
life, or at least it was three years ago. Now it just seemed mundane.
“It was really good seeing you again, mom,” Cori said biting her lips hard so she didn’t choke up.
“We saw each other yesterday. Where’s your marbles girl?” Emily said gathering up scones to take to the dining room.
“I wish to undo my wish,” Cori said to the heavens or from this perspective the ceiling. She had anticipated a warping of images, maybe even to black out, but nothing happened.
“What are you saying?” Geoffrey said wide-eyed. “Are you saying you don’t want to marry me?”
“No!” Emily jumped in before Cori could answer. “She doesn’t mean that. Do you Corinthia?” Her eyes were filled with as much anger as expectation.
“No, that’s not what I meant. I was just…”
Trying to talk to my genie.
“Listen, Geoffrey, I assume you were planning on taking me home tonight.”
“Yeah, of course, unless you’d rather go to your flat?” He sounded so accommodating. Had she not already been married, she might have considered him charming, even if he was a walking high riser.
“Actually, I’d prefer to hang around here. I really need to speak with my mother. You understand right?”
“Oh,” he said as if he had just figured out what was really going on. “Girl talk?” He winked.
“Something like that.” She smiled to offer him some kindness. She may not have intended to stay in this reality, but there was no reason to get tangled in the details.
“Say no more,” he said and embraced her. “I will leave you two be, but tomorrow I am taking you shopping for a ring. Maybe at last we can get those wretched things off you.” Cori looked down at her rings, once again surprised that they were still there despite everything else being different.
“I…” Cori looked up to respond to Geoffrey, but he kissed her. She played her part and received the kiss. It was too wet for a good bye kiss, and too soft for a meaningfully heated kiss, though she might have been biased since she preferred Ethan’s lips to any other man.