He shrugged. “Says she’s looking for someone. Are they here, doll face?”
I pretended to scan the room before I shook my head. This was poor planning on my part. How was I supposed to prove whether or not I was possessed? Pick a fight? The idea was so ridiculous I almost laughed.
Dino cocked his head. “You all right?”
If he only knew. I leaned heavily against a barstool, my knees suddenly weak and my throat dry. “This was a mistake,” I answered. “Would it be all right if I got a drink of water before I go?”
The bartender frowned.
“Just give her a drink, eh, Teddy?” Dino said. “Then she’ll be on her way.” He looked at me. “Right?”
“Absolutely.”
Dino nodded at me before walking across the room and joining two men at a pool table. The bar patrons turned back to their beers.
“Here.” The bartended dropped a chipped plastic glass in front of me with enough force that water sloshed over the side. “Drink up, then you’re out of here.”
I climbed the wooden bar stool and took a giant gulp from the glass. That seemed to satisfy the bartender, who went back to pouring beers.
The bar top was sticky and I was careful to keep my arms off it as I sipped my water. My experiment had been a bust. I hadn’t proved anything other than bikers are a lot nicer than I’d assumed. Or so I thought until I felt the lumbering presence behind me.
“Here I am.”
I spun the stool around to find a guy in his late twenties with red-rimmed eyes. I set my glass on the bar. “I’m sorry?”
He hiccupped and the movement dropped his bandana across his eyes. With greasy fingers he pulled it back up. “You said you were looking for someone. Well, here I am.”
A cool breeze floated through me even though the door to the bar remained closed. I jerked straight up in my seat. No! It couldn’t be! This guy was a loser, too drunk to be a threat, yet ribbons of satin uncoiled beneath my skin anyway. I had my answer; whatever was going on with me, adrenaline had nothing to do with it.
I gripped the edge of the stool. Maybe I could fight it off? I clenched my teeth and tightened my hold, but the effort proved pointless. A tingling numbness sucked me deep inside myself, holding me captive in my own body.
“So how ’bout it, sweet thang?” The biker teetered to the side, but righted himself with a hand on the counter. “Wanna ride on my bike? It’s got a
big
engine.”
“No, thanks,” I said. “I’ll pass.” If he turned away everything would be fine. I could go home and pretend this whole thing never happened.
But he didn’t budge.
On the inside I screamed. On the outside my mouth twitched. If this guy hadn’t been such an idiot I might have felt sorry for him.
The threat of conflict filled the room like humidity in a sauna, pressing, making it hard to breathe. Sensing the tension, the bar patrons twisted in their stools, searching for the source. The bartender stopped wiping the counter and threw his rag down. “Oh, sweet Jesus,” he muttered. “Dino, get your boy.”
Dino froze mid-shot and placed his pool stick on the table. “Jesse, she’s jail-bait. Leave her alone.”
Jesse ignored him. “Come on, baby. Don’t be that way. I don’t like a tease.” He lifted a hand. What he intended to do with that hand I’d never know, because in the blink of an eye I’d struck the soft flesh under his jaw with my palm. Jesse’s eyes rolled into the back of his head seconds before his body collapsed to the floor.
The entire bar rose to their feet, looking at each other as if waiting for someone else to decide what to do.
The bartender broke the spell by throwing his rag over the bar, where it landed on top of the groaning heap that was Jesse. “Mary, mother of all that is holy, somebody get him out of here. And you.” He glared at me. “Get. Out. Now!”
I flexed my jaw side to side and tested my voice. “S-s-sure thing.” All systems were in working order. The spirit was gone and had left me another mess to clean up. I slid off the stool and made my way, backward, toward the door.
“Hey!” A woman wearing leather pants and a leather vest with nothing underneath stepped forward. “She can’t get away with that!”
I froze. So close.
She set her beer down on the bar. “Jesse may be a dumb-ass, but he’s pack. Ain’t nobody treat a pack member like that and get away with it.”
Most of the women grumbled in agreement while the men merely looked amused.
“Marlene,” the bartender growled. “I don’t want any trouble in here.”
Marlene sneered. “Then we take it outside.”
The experiment had gone too far. While I hadn’t been afraid of Jesse, the same couldn’t be said about the half-dozen women staring at me with death in their eyes. I didn’t know what my limits were and didn’t feel like finding out.
Marlene lunged for me and, for the second time in just a few hours, I turned and ran.
17
I
darted into the parking lot with Marlene on my heels.
A fist wound its way into the back of my shirt and pulled me backward. A yelp escaped my mouth before I could smother it.
Marlene jerked my face inches from her. “You are in for a world of hurt.” Her breath smelled like onion rings and cigarettes.
I struggled against her hold like a puppy caught by its scruff. Where was the voice now?
Marlene laughed at my pathetic attempt to escape before throwing me down on the ground. Pain exploded from my elbows where gravel embedded itself in my skin.
Behind Marlene, six more women exited the bar, only they were more like rhinos in leather and braids than women. A few laughed while the rest just looked pissed.
Marlene tossed her head back, her braided hair swinging like a whip. “You’re young. I bet you like games.”
I shook my head.
Marlene laughed. “Well, that’s too bad because we’re going to play a game called ‘Pickle Jar.’ The rules are like this: I’m going to take your neck and see how many twists it takes until your head pops off.” She cracked her knuckles and I couldn’t help noticing the thick silver rings on each finger.
It took me several tries before I could swallow. Why couldn’t I think before I acted? If I hadn’t been so upset with Kim and so desperate to prove him wrong, I might be at home enjoying a hot cup of cocoa and an episode of
The Real World
instead of waiting to get my face pummeled in.
Marlene jumped on top of me, startling me from my thoughts. My head was thrust against the concrete upon impact. Before the stars could clear from my vision her forearm pressed into my throat, cutting off my air supply.
It was then I felt the cool sliding sensation under my skin.
“About time you got here,” I gasped.
Marlene frowned and let up on her grip. “What?”
Instead of answering, my mouth curled into a smile. I braced my weight on my elbows and swung my legs up, snatching Marlene’s thick braid between my feet. With as much force as I could muster, I brought my feet down, pulling Marlene away by the hair and releasing her grip on my neck. She toppled over backward.
Wide-eyed, she climbed to her knees and launched herself at me. But I was ready. I curled my legs against my chest and kicked out the moment she collided against me. She spun in the air once before landing on the asphalt, sliding on her face before coming to a halt.
Marlene had her back to me when she stood up, but the hisses and winces from the rhino women let me know that she didn’t look good. I didn’t waste time. I scrambled inside my car and locked the doors.
“You think it’s gonna be that easy?” Marlene yelled from outside the driver’s side window. I gasped when I saw her face reflected under the bar’s lone streetlight. Small pieces of gravel clung to the bloody ribbons that were all that was left of her right cheek.
Marlene whirled around and snatched a bottle of beer from the hands of the woman standing behind her. Spinning back, she brought it down on my side mirror, wrenching it off my car. She swung again, this time shattering the bottle across my hood and eliciting a scream from my lips.
My car! The image of the moon looked like a broken puzzle reflected in the fresh dent on the hood. The Fiesta had been a sixteenth birthday present from my Nana, the last gift she’d ever given me.
The rhino women surrounded my car and pressed their hands against the sides. My screams couldn’t be heard over the groaning metal as they rocked my car back and forth. With each passing second they gathered more momentum and my car came closer to tipping over. I felt like a hamster in a plastic ball rolled around by a group of sadistic cats.
My only hope was escape. I clung to the steering wheel, grasping for the keys that dangled from the ignition just out of reach. I tried again. And again. The keys continued to bob from my grasp with each shake of my car until finally I’d circled my hand around them. Unfortunately, the next shake caused me to rip them from the ignition—that’s when it happened.
The moment the keys fell into my lap, something exploded inside my chest. I gasped. The pressure grew fast, rolling and pushing against my skin like an animal trying to claw its way out.
So caught up in my pain, I barely noticed when a bottle smacked against the passenger window, leaving behind a spider web of cracked glass. Time was running out. I needed to move, but couldn’t think past the ripping inside my chest. So much pain. Was I having a heart attack?
There was another crack, this time next to my head. Glass, like chunks of ice, rained down on me. I knew I should run, fight, do
something—
but all I could think about was the force crushing my ribs until I thought my heart would burst through, falling heavy and wet onto my lap.
Marlene shouted something and my car stopped shaking. This was it. I was either going to die from a heart attack or Marlene and the rhino women would pull me from the car and finish me off. The pain was unbearable. Either way I wanted it over.
Marlene grinned as she leaned through my window. “Ready to play nice?”
I closed my eyes and whimpered. Each second I felt myself stretched further as the animal inside me clawed its way through bone and muscle, until, finally, it burst through my skin, spilled out my pores, and ripped the scream from my throat.
The pain was gone.
I opened my eyes, afraid I would find my skin shredded into a bloody mess. But what I saw was something else entirely. Like a stone thrown in a pond, there was a ripple of … air? Energy? Whatever it was, it spilled forward, invisible except for the slight distortion in the air it projected as it grew. The ring left my car and hit Marlene and the others, tossing them to the ground like dandelions popped from their stems, before melting into the night.
Like it had never existed.
“This isn’t real,” I murmured. Chest heaving, I rested my forehead against the steering wheel. I felt like the bones had been pulled from my body, leaving me a pile of shivering goo. “I’m dreaming. This is a nightmare.”
But the groans of the women drifting through my shattered window proved that they were, in fact, very real.
I pressed my hands against my chest to steady my heaving gasps. It didn’t make sense. One minute I’d been screaming in agony and the next I’d been pain-free with the rhino women on their backs, littered among the cigarette butts. Did this have to do with the possession or was it something else all together?
A movement off to the side pulled me from my thoughts. A burly woman with a sleeve of skull tattoos was slowly pushing herself up from the gravel. With strength I didn’t know I had, I sat back against my seat and started my car.
Time to go.
Later that night, as I lay in bed, my thoughts raced around in my mind like cars in the Indy 500. Round and round they sped, each coming just close enough for me to try and grasp onto it before another would fly in and take the lead. After my encounter with the bikers, I was willing to believe I was possessed. But what could I do about it? Could I really believe Kim when he’d said there was no way to get rid of the spirit, or was it just another deception? He’d lied to me once; who’s to say he wouldn’t lie again? He’d also said I could be the target for “very bad people.” Were these people really dangerous and were they the ones who left the note on my door? I pushed the thought from my mind. I had enough to deal with.
Kim promised to protect you.
I clamped my hands against my ears. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” I screamed at the inner voice. I couldn’t even trust myself. Was I in a fight for my body? What if
I
became the one trapped inside my head?
Unable to lie still any longer, I threw the covers off my legs and stomped into the living room. Debbie’s keys were still missing from the hook by the door, so I could only assume she was at an event schmoozing with clients.
Happy to be alone, I turned on the TV in the hopes of distracting myself from my thoughts. I flipped through the recorded shows until I found the latest episode of
Built To Shred.
As I watched the host lead a crew in turning a ravine, a fallen tree, and several sheets of plywood into a makeshift half-pipe, I was reminded how my love affair with skating began. I’d been eight years old and climbing the jungle gym at the park when a group of skaters showed up and began freestyling in the basketball court.