Authors: Elizabeth Arroyo
It was full dark as they navigated their way
back.
“Some night, huh?” he said as he stopped the bike
next to her house.
“Yeah, nice.” A hint of sarcasm in her whisper.
Using him as leverage, she got off the bike.
“Will you come tomorrow?”
She shook her head and held his gaze. “I won't let
you jump if I'm there.”
“I'll see you tomorrow then. After.”
“Sure.”
A warm feeling settled in the pit of his stomach.
She hadn’t moved away from him. He kicked out the stand and got off
the bike as she watched, hoping he looked graceful while inside his
heart was about to burst.
Clasping her hands, they fit perfectly with his.
“Tell me what you feel?” he asked, his voice low, his pulse racing.
He didn’t know what to expect from her. But when her lips broke
into a smile that sparked a fire in him, he knew he was doomed.
“Nothing,” she said. “Absolutely nothing.” Then she
leaned into him, lifted herself up on the tip of her toes, and
kissed him.
Sap came to mind. Jenna would die of laughter after
she’d survived the shock of it. This girl, whom he’d known for less
than a week, held his heart in her hands. No, more than his
heart—his soul. And worse, he gave it to her willingly. If he
stopped breathing now, if he died tomorrow on that jump, he’d lived
a full life because he caught a glimpse of something more than
love. It was a deep sense that all was right in the world. That he
could touch the stars.
She pulled away from him, her face a web of emotion
he couldn’t quite read.
He watched as she went into the house. Too geared up
to go home, he whizzed past the house and went back to the cliff
side. The clouds hung low and the night sprung shadows. Jake crept
down the slope and sat with his legs dangling over the edge of
nothing, too dark to see below him. A cold wall of air sprung from
the rushing waters below. The distant sound of the crashing waves
soothed him. It made the night real.
Jake had always loved heights, the feel of nothing
under him, of weightlessness before the plunge. His mother had
called him a daredevil, though he knew she had always been fearful
of what he would try next. He'd broken most of the bones in his
body. The hospital emergency staff knew him by first name, and the
insurance company had threatened to cap him. It didn't matter
because in that one breathless moment, the stillness right before
the chaos, he felt alive. Immortal. A feeling that seeped into his
bones and soul. He wanted so much for his mom to understand him,
but she died before she ever could.
A sharp wind blew from behind him, and an icy
feeling crept along his spine. He stood up, wiped his pants, and
started to climb the slope. Gabby came to mind. He needed her, and
yet she still guarded herself from him, he sensed it. Maybe he
deserved it. He wasn’t sure how he would’ve felt seeing a guy kiss
her. No, he knew exactly how he’d feel and didn’t blame her for
pushing him off. But she allowed him to kiss her, had accepted it,
and wanted him. All he had to do was not mess it up. She would open
up to him, eventually.
His feet caught on a gnarled root and he stumbled,
pitched forward, shooting out his hand to balance himself when he
noticed someone under the canopy of trees. He squinted a bit and
the shadow moved across the blackness and into the dim light.
Something wasn't quite right with this picture. The shape of
whoever the hell it was flowed with the wind, hovering above the
ground, the grass undisturbed under it. A burst of energy prickled
Jake’s flesh, followed by a surge of adrenaline that warned him to
run. He steadied himself instead.
“Can I help you?” Better than how's the weather. He
took a few steps toward it, but stopped short at the base of the
clearing.
“Stay away from her.” The voice dripped with malice.
A man or woman, he couldn’t tell.
Pain slammed into Jake, sending him careening
backwards and landing on his back with a loud thump. A painful cry
escaped his lips while something in him ignited. Ignoring the pain
that threatened to drop him again, he rolled sideways, vaulted up,
and ran. Horror etched every part of his being. The voice faded
with the wind, but the words were clear.
Stay away from her.
Gabby. He jumped on his bike, and without looking back, jetted out
of there.
His heart took more than a moment to catch up. Sweat
beaded his brow, sending an icy chill through him.
What was that thing? And what the hell did it do to
me?
His limbs felt stiff, the pain in his back settling
lower. When adrenaline subsided and the fear rescinded, he let out
a nervous laugh. It couldn't be real. He imagined it. Jake didn’t
believe in ghosts, the Boogieman, or Godzilla, but the pain in his
back was real, the voice real.
He slowed his bike as he passed Gabby’s house. The
lights were off and the dock empty. The boat gone. Maybe her
brother showed up and took her to town. It eased him to know she
wouldn’t be alone. He made his way home, the lights on. He knew
Jenna waited for a report.
“What happened?” Jenna asked as he hobbled inside
and dropped onto the sofa with a grimace.
“Why do you ask?” he croaked.
“Look at you. You look like you were run through a
shredder.”
“I fell off the bike,” he lied. He couldn't very
well tell her some ghost dropped him on his ass. He didn't believe
that himself.
She gave him the look his mother had perfected. The
one that said don’t mess with me or I will knock your balls to high
heaven. It was in their genes.
“Gabby called.”
He sat up, momentarily forgetting the pain in his
back, before wincing. “What did she say?”
“She says you're going to do something stupid
tomorrow and I should stop you.” She sat next to him.
He eased back into the sofa, unsure if he could
totally like a snitch. Gabby owed him big time. He didn't think she
would've struck that low. “I'm going to jump the mountain.”
She waited for something more. “And?”
“And, Gabby thinks it's dangerous. She doesn't know
me well enough.”
“Yeah, but I believe her. She sounded...I don't
know...desperate and really scared.”
He shrugged. “You know scary is not my thing. You
can come if you want.”
Jake knew this always settled his sister, and she
never watched him do some crazy stunt. So she surprised him when
she said she was going to go with him. She stood up and disappeared
up the stairs.
Jake leaned forward and brushed his hair out of his
eyes. His back was killing him and he wasn't sure if he could make
that jump. But nothing was going to stop him. Scary wasn't his
thing.
The Marking
Gabby still tasted Jake on her lips. His soft scent
of soap and earth made her feel giddy and weak. It twisted her
insides into a tight knot. But what happens now? She’d just met
him, and she wanted to spend her whole life with him...what did
that mean? And saving his life had felt good. Even when he tackled
her to force her to listen to him, she’d forgotten about being
pissed off at the world. Funny, he made her forget the world
entirely.
And then there was his impression. Or, rather, lack
of impression. She’d have to ask Max about it. After she asked him
about Father Kane’s murder. Starting a list of questions she needed
to ask him would probably be a good idea, especially since she
didn’t know when Max was going to show up. Calling him was not an
option. She didn’t want him to think she needed him as much as she
did. She’d never ask him for help. Not anymore.
With a sweater, a blanket, and a water bottle in
hand, she headed for her row boat. It was the only thing Adler
owned that looked...old, like in really old and ready to snap in
two. Gabby had convinced him to buy it so she could go to the
middle of nowhere and just be alone.
It was already eleven-thirty and Max hadn’t shown
up. She would be spending this birthday alone. Being alone was
nothing new to her, never having a mother and never having been
allowed to meet her father. As a child, she always asked Adler when
he was coming for her the way he came for Max after he got his
wings, but Adler gave her no response. And then she just stopped
asking. Gabby’s parents were dead. Both of them. She stopped
playing the sympathy card a long time ago. No one would listen
anyway. Not even Max.
But nothing would happen this time. She decided to
take the boat to Somes Pond, a small body of water with nothing but
trees. Kudos to her for planning it perfectly.
Rowing away from civilization, she thought about
Jake. It had felt good being with him, though she had sensed his
indecision when it came to her. Sometimes his smile was sincere,
and other times she couldn’t decide if she should run from him. It
was like looking into a dark well and seeing a glimpse of water.
Only you happen to be dying of thirst, and the water could be an
illusion to get you to jump and kill yourself. She couldn’t let her
guard down. With Max gone and a demon stalking her, playing tricks
with her, she knew something was coming, and Jake was smack dab in
the middle of it. Why else would he make her so...so...confused? It
was why Gabby had to get as far away from him as she could. At
least until she talked to Max.
After she reached what she thought was the middle of
the pond, she pulled in the oars and found a comfortable position
where her legs weren’t dangling over the side of the boat.
The night was clear, the sky dotted with millions of
perfect, shimmering stars. Even the moon was full. The pond placid.
The boat barely moved. She took out her phone and looked at the
time. Five minutes till midnight. Her hand found the angel
medallion around her neck, and she twirled it around her finger,
closing her eyes and thinking about Jake.
He held the rugged look to perfection, and his
intense, green eyes did something more to her. She couldn’t even
put a name to it. He awakened something needy in her. Something
she’d hoped to have hidden deep inside but seemed to be floating to
the surface. She didn’t know what he wanted from her, and for the
first time, she didn’t care. Saving him gave her a glimpse of what
she could be, what she wanted to be. She was tired of being pissed
off all the time, tired of fighting, and tired of being afraid of
what impressions people would have. She had believed the visions
were all bad. But they weren’t, not really. Sometimes she glimpsed
hope, kinship, and love. For her, the bad seemed to always outweigh
the good, and so she allowed herself to believe it was all that
existed. Evil. But she didn’t want to believe in the evil anymore.
This feeling, the feeling that swirled through her very being every
time she thought of Jake, was much better than the one she had
lived with for so long. Max would be proud. He always knew that she
wasn’t really evil. He had to have known. A cheesy smile spread on
her lips.
And then pain blasted through her.
Tears rimmed her eyes as she struggled to unzip her
boot and pull it off. She lost it in the water in her haste, along
with the oars, and cursed. Pulling her sock off, she sucked in her
breath, and blinked and blinked again.
Black ink swirled under her pale flesh, coiling
around her left ankle. It felt as if some unknown force was
stabbing her with millions of tiny needles. Her ears pounded with
the drumming of her heart. Every pulsing heartbeat felt like a stab
under her skin which had turned into a canvas for an invisible
artist.
A series of swirls and runes marked her flesh just
above her ankle in a six-inch length along the inside of her calf.
The searing pain made her cry out. When her voice ran dry, she let
her chin drop, almost touching her chest. Then she heard a voice. A
woman’s voice.
She looked up to a single shadow above the pond. It
hung in the air, swirling as it approached her. Gabby’s first
instinct was to run, but she couldn’t out paddle the thing
approaching her, especially since her oars were no longer inside
the boat. She gripped the edge of the boat and sat up, gritting her
teeth from the pain and fear that threatened to consume her.
The apparition settled on the boat, and Gabby sat as
far away from it as she could without tipping the boat. The dark
mist materialized into a figure with dark, long hair and brown,
almond-shaped eyes.
“My precious darling,” it said. The boat shifted
under its weight. It was real. Gabby could feel the space it took,
the energy emanating around it.
Gabby had one photograph of her mother she kept in
her wallet. The apparition was her splitting image. But it couldn’t
be. Her mother was dead, really dead. Her mom wasn’t an undead,
wasn’t a demon. Was she?
“Who are you?” Gabby asked, feeling the hairs on the
nape of her neck stand on end.
The cadence of the apparition’s voice broke as if
two women were speaking and not one demon. “I am Naite, daughter of
Senn. I am here to lead you.”
Gabby snorted and a semblance of relief settled over
her that this crazy apparition wasn't her mom, but probably a demon
trying to get to Max. “Why do you wear my mother’s face?”
“It was deemed easier for you to believe. If I came
in my true form, I do not think you would have remained in the
boat.”
“That ugly, huh?” Gabby almost felt sorry for the
wraith. She’d met some uglies when Max was at work, but wraiths
were influence mongers with no real concrete shape. They weren’t
half in and half out of realms like half breeds, or the undead.
They were usually all in their realms, out only in spirit form.
They were the possessors of the bodies.
Gabby saw no reason why Naite would want to possess
her. Max would contrast it and Naite would be dead meat. Meaning,
sent back to Hell with a violation of sorts.
Naite shrugged. “Ugly elicits fear in people. It is
a form we chose, young one. My true form would bind you to me. I do
not need a seedling in my midst.”