The door suddenly opened. Before light flooded the area in which we stood, Morik disappeared without me. I quickly let my hand drop and looked over my shoulder toward the blinding light.
“There you are. I was looking everywhere for you,” Beatriz stood in the lit hall looking at me curiously. “Since when do you have a tramp stamp?”
In the vanity mirror by the door where she stood, I saw the reflection of myself looking over my shoulder at her and caught a glimpse of a mark under my shirt. I tugged it up for better look. Sure enough. Right where the tingling had been two thick lines, one strand black, the other a silvery grey, twined twice on their climb up my spine. It looked slightly tribal. Holy, crap!
“Ah… it’s not something I think about,” I turned toward her tugging my shirt over my new mark.
“I love it! Can we show it to Brad? I want to get one just like it. He’d promised to take me.”
Morik would just love that. She kept going without waiting for my reply, for which I was grateful.
“What are you doing up here anyway?”
“Just needed some quiet time to think,” I said leaving the room with her. She carefully closed the door behind us. “Hope you don’t mind. Nice sign by the way.”
“Like it? I had Tommy make it.” She grinned cheekily and I laughed.
After our kiss, I thought Morik might join us again, but he didn’t. Back in the basement where the rowdiness of the drunks intensified by the minute – in a fun way – Beatriz started challenging pairs of Brad’s friends to a pool game. Jay and Tommy accepted and I was pulled into the game as her partner. We took turns when it was our team’s go.
Jay had too much to drink and kept messing up his shots. After last weekend, Tommy played it cool with the alcohol and presented more of a challenge, which meant that Beatriz started playing dirty. She’d stand close to him and talk to him during his shot pointing out each girl in the room with a short skirt or a low-cut top. For the most part, he ignored her. Then, she talked some of those girls into leaning over the table opposite his shots. He started losing focus fast. After beating the pair of them, she challenged another pair, who were too drunk to even hold a cue stick.
While she worked the room looking for another group to challenge, I escaped upstairs again.
Passing the kitchen window, I thought I caught a glimpse of Brian just inside the circle of light on the back lawn. When I did a double take, he was gone. Just like when we went to the mall. This time, I went outside to look. The cold air after the basement felt good on my face.
Standing on the porch, I scanned the darkness. I saw nothing, but did hear something. Racking sobs coming from the woods. Girls who go alone into the woods on a dark creepy night usually die. But they didn’t have Morik. I quickly stepped back inside to grab my shoes and jacket. No one paid attention to me.
I stepped off the porch and walked toward the trees, listening to the snow crunch beneath my feet and the distant crying.
I found him sitting in the snow by the base of a large oak. His knees drawn to his chest, he looked up at me as I approached. Enough moonlight filtered through the barren branches to glitter on his tear-streaked cheeks. Here sat the cocky senior on the road to becoming an alcoholic who tried bullying me into a date. Instead of feeling distain, I felt pity. Without him, I would have never met Morik in time.
When he saw me, his tears started falling in earnest. “Clavin was right. Oh,” he moaned slightly before continuing as if in pain, “They put him in a hospital because he was talking about demons.”
He sobbed, and I took a step toward him ready to comfort him. I wasn’t sure what to say, but he looked so hopeless.
He saw me move and started squealing, “Don’t come near me! They’re here for you! If he has you, he’ll leave me alone.”
Stopping my advance, I squatted down to his level. He watched me closely.
I spoke in a soothing tone hoping he wouldn’t start freaking out again. “Who’s here for me?”
Was he talking about Morik? I couldn’t believe Morik had shown himself to Brian. It didn’t make sense.
Brian didn’t answer. Instead, his gaze shifted to a place just behind me. Then he ducked his head and started talking to himself. “This isn’t real. This is just a dream. It’ll be over soon and I’ll wake up.”
Before I could turn, a shiver of fear coursed through me as a voice rasped, “I am.”
I turned as I stood - one fluid motion. There stood the black apparition I’d first seen on the road chasing me from the woods. A part of me knew it wasn’t Morik, but I still asked, “Morik?”
It threw its head back and laughed revealing a mouth illuminated by its burning tongue. Its laughter stopped as quickly as it started.
With those glowing green eyes fixed on me, it glided forward on hazy double columns of shifting smoke as it spoke. “No. Ahgred.”
The name sounded familiar. Then I recalled why. The second deal Belinda had made. “What do you want?”