“Are you sure about that, Max?” someone said.
The voice was shocking in its familiarity, the way it made the arms on my hair stand up. It was low, rich, deep.
And hardened.
Maximus flinched and whipped his head toward the door. His burly frame was blocking my view and I could only crane my neck so far to see who else was in the room.
I saw Ada walk past the foot of the bed, her eyes locked to mine, warning me about something.
Then Maximus, in his most disbelieving drawl, said, “What in God’s name are you doing here?” and moved over just enough so that I could see Dex standing in the doorway.
The room swirled in slow motion. I couldn’t breathe. My eyes widened and froze that way. My body tensed up. My heart lurched around from a mil ion emotions I couldn’t even name.
Dex. My Dex. My Dex who broke up my heart. My Dex was in my bedroom.
He looked older somehow. My mind was barely processing thought but somehow I was able to fixate on the little details of him. Time stood stil .
His shoulders seemed a bit wider and there was a bit more beef to his arms, which poked out of black t-shirt, his damp cargo jacket flung over one forearm. I don’t know why I thought he would have gone skinnier with grief or something. Wishful thinking. His face was different too. The eyebrow ring was gone and he had a thin layer of scruffy facial hair like he only shaved every couple of days. It suited him. His eyes were the same. Deep brown, shiny and a mil ion degrees of intensity.
He wasn’t moving, just standing there. His expression went from surprise to indignation to rage as he looked me over, taking in the sorry sight that I was.
Then he sprang into action. He stormed into the room, his arms gesturing wildly to me, and marched right up to Maximus and got in his face. Or almost his face, since Maximus was tal er.
“What the fuck is this?” Dex yel ed waving his arms wildly. “What are you doing to her?”
“What the fuck is this? What the fuck are you? Why are you here? You shouldn’t be here!” Maximus said right back to him, not backing down.
“You should thank your freckled ass that I’m here,” he shot back, closing the space between them.
“Guys!” Ada yel ed from the other side of me. “It’s OK, I invited him.”
I looked at her incredulously. She mouthed “sorry” to me.
“Why would you do a stupid thing like that?” Maximus said to her across the bed.
“Stupid?” she squawked. “I’m not going to sit back and let you tie my sister to her own bed, pretend you know what the hel is going on with her and then cart her off to a hospital tomorrow when we al know she’s probably not going to be coming back!”
I was touched by my sister’s loyalty and her built-in ferocity. I felt the tears creeping up in my eyes, al too overwhelmed by the situation, what was going to happen to me, and the fact that the man who had broken my soul and made my last few months a living hel , was standing a few feet away from me.
And then I felt that little twitch in my brain, like bugs were crawling in underneath a door. Something was choosing this time, of al times, to take over. I tried to force the blackness out, the suffocating cloak or pure evil. My eyes rol ed back in my head and fluttered involuntarily as I concentrated.
“What’s wrong with her?” Dex asked gently, his voice strained. He came closer.
“I’d stay away if I were you, son,” Maximus said, putting his arm out to stop him.
Dex shot him a dirty look and threw his arm off of him.
He stopped right by the bed and crouched down so that his face was at my level. I wanted to look at him but I couldn’t. I had to fight and fight harder because I was losing.
“She’s not wel ,” he said absently.
“No shit, Sherlock,” said Maximus.
“Did you notice her eyes are a different color?”
“What are you talking about? No, they aren’t, they’re just dilated.”
Dex shook his head vigorously. “Dilated but the color around them is brown now. Perry’s eyes have always been blue. Like the ocean on an overcast day.”
Ada gasped. “Dex is right.”
I felt him starting to untie the ropes from my arms. This was not the time to do that!
“Dex, don’t do that,” Maximus said for me. “She’s tied up for a reason, not for sport.”
“She’s not a fucking animal,” he grunted, and kept untying them.
I gave up. The thing was too strong. I wasn’t going to win this time.
I raised my head sharply. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
He raised his head just as the last knot came undone and our eyes met, burning into each other. “It’s me, Perry.
It’s Dex.”
I smiled an ugly smile, dripping venom.
“Precisely.”
The thing took over completely, more powerful than ever before. It lunged forward, grabbed Dex by his shirt and then flung him like a ragdol clear across the room so he hit the ground beside Ada. She cried out and helped Dex to his feet.
But the thing had me coming. My legs yanked at the ropes and they snapped. I jumped over the back of the bed and landed on Dex just as he was almost upright, my nails going after his eyes and just catching the edges of them, leaving bloody trails. He and Ada flew to the ground, but it was just him that I was going to kil . There was no getting around it. He was what the thing wanted. The thing wanted him dead. And somewhere, deep down inside, I think I did too.
I wrapped my fingers around his throat as I held him down, feeling how easy it was to just squeeze and squeeze until his windpipe broke. His scruffy face turned purple and his eyes were shut hard as he tried to pry my hands off of him. He couldn’t. He was fading fast, unable to breathe. I was actual y going to do this. I was going to kil him and I’d not only see it happen, it was my body that would inflict it.
His eyes flew open, the blood weeping from the scratches, and looked up at me. I felt so much anger from the thing and from myself. But the anger was only there because of the pain. The pain he caused because I let myself fal in love with him. I loved him once. It was a fact I could no longer ignore.
I mustered up al strength I had and pushed against the blackness in front of me. I wouldn’t let this happen. Not on my watch. I pushed and strained and for a second I felt a sense of relief and it was in that second that Maximus grabbed me by the waist and pul ed me off of Dex.
The thing let out a shriek and my legs kicked out as he held me a few feet above the ground.
“Ada, the rope,” he commanded.
She was on the floor kneeling over Dex.
“Leave him, get the rope. Get it now!”
Ada jumped up and snatched the ropes off the bed.
I flailed with my legs trying to get her in the face. I tried to burst out against Maximus’s stronghold but he was clutching my writhing body tight as a vice. For the time being. What would happen if I broke free?
I made another push from inside my mind, another attempt to get back in my rightful place. I imagined being stronger. I imagined being pure of heart. Being good. I imagined love. A big heart beating with love. The love I felt for Ada. Her apparent love for me. I forced that image onto the intruder with al my might.
And the kicking stopped. I fel limp in Maximus’s arms and Ada quickly, but with great hesitation, like I was just fooling and reading to smoke her, started to tie my legs.
“No, onto the bed,” he said, and brought me over to it and lay me down. Ada worked on my legs while Maximus tied up my arms.
Meanwhile, Dex slowly got to his feet, rubbing his throat and staggering a little. He leaned against the bed post and tried to catch his breath, wheezing loudly. His throat was pink and you could see the indents from my fingers.
He was looking at me as if I had just betrayed him. I never wanted to hurt him like this, but what did he expect, just waltzing in here like that? Did he think I was going to welcome him with open arms?
So, I didn’t apologize. Even in the throes of demonic possession, I chose to be stubborn.
When they were done constraining me, Ada touched his arm gently and asked if he wanted ice. He shook his head, his eyes stil focused on mine.
Maximus folded his arms. “I told you so. You’re going to have a heck of a mark on your face there.”
Dex’s eyes flitted to the scabby scratch that stil scarred Maximus’s face.
He coughed. “That how you got yours?”
“She’s feisty.”