“When am I going to be able to pay you back, sugar daddy?” I ask him in a worried tone.
I watch the way his sensual lips curve cunningly as he tries not to smile. He notices I am not smiling, so he says, “Let me take care of you. It’s all I want to do.”
I sigh. “I’ve no choice right now but to rely on you for help, but I’m not taking the credit card,” I say firmly.
“Evie,” Reed’s tone is cajoling.
“Reed,” I say, as I dig in.
“What’s a sugar daddy?” Reed asks me, and then laughs when he sees my blush deepen. “That bad, huh?” he asks.
“Yeah, that bad.” I reply. “When are we leaving, Buns?” I ask to try to change the subject away from my waifish existence.
“I’m going to call them and make the arrangements. How long do you two need to plot and scheme?” Buns asks Zephyr and Reed.
“A couple of hours. We’ll be ready by tonight.” Zephyr replies and Reed nods.
“Sick! We can go tonight and be on the slopes after breakfast tomorrow,” she says happily, and then she jets out of the room in an eighth of a second to get her phone and make the arrangements.
“I’ll go pack.” I say, feeling the mixture of excitement and dread again. I speed to my room in seconds so that they will all think I am just excited.
Alone in my room, I go to my closet to get my suitcase. As I pull it down from the top shelf, a box that had been partially hidden falls down with it. Kneeling on the ground to retrieve the box, I freeze. It is a wooden box with dragonflies encrusted on its lid. Someone must have gotten it from my dorm room when they had brought over my things. My hand shakes as I reach for it.
My touch is light as my fingertips brush over the wood, feeling the intricately carved images covering the surface. Freddie gave me this for my birthday, I think as I lift my fingertips from the box as if I have been scalded by it. He had been telling me what he is with his gift, only I hadn’t realized it at the time. He is a fallen Reaper angel with iridescent wings that resemble a dragonfly, not unlike the ones depicted here. I shudder as I recall touching his paper-like wings that had buzzed and vibrated in agitation.
I’m so stupid. How could I have let this happen? Guilt and shame hit me. I open the lid to the box and see the small, silver makeup compact inside; on the lid is etched an ornate dragonfly with inlayed opals that comprise the torso of the dragonfly. The stones gleam evilly in the dim light of the closet.
I didn’t see what he was, and as a result, many people had suffered and died including my uncle, I think as my hands curl into fists. This gift is a physical representation of my stupidity. It is a reminder that I have to look at things differently from now on. I can’t afford to be stupid and naïve anymore or the ones I love will suffer for it. This is my bitter reality. I pick the compact up, hugging it to my body in despair. I can’t fail again because the price is too high.
Feeling the small latch on the compact beneath my fingertips, I flip the compact back over and look at it. Depressing the button, it opens with a soft click, dispelling a small gasp of air that was trapped inside. I raise the lid, revealing the mirror. For an instant, all I can see are my eyes looking back at me. I look haunted: deadened by the thing I hold in my hand. But then a movement in the mirror distracts me from the image of myself. It startles me, so I look behind me to see what could possibly have moved. There is nothing there. I peer in the mirror once again, noticing that the image of me is murkier, less crisp.
Something moves in the mirror that is not a reflection; a truly distorted and shadowy shape shifts within the glass. The longer I watch it, the closer it seems to be coming and the more it takes on a definite form…as if a shadow is running toward me down a long corridor within the mirror that is in no way a reflection of any room I have seen in this house. But, it isn’t just a shadow, it’s a swarm of flies all working together to form the shape of a man.
Coming to my senses in the next instant, I try to snap the lid of the compact shut, but it is levered open and refuses to close. Tossing the compact away from me, it crashes to the floor. Hissing emits from the mirror, casting a stench in the air that I had prayed I would never smell again. Black clouds of flies come pouring out into the air, billowing from the mirror to sway and undulate grotesquely until their dark mass implodes into a single image of a man—a shadow man. He is like the one I had seen in Coldwater with Freddie. It only takes the shadow man a fraction of a second to grin at me evilly before he lunges forward to kill me.
CHAPTER 2
Road Trip
Only the blink of an eye exists to assess the danger of the shadow man. As he stands in front of me, his lurid form moves and shifts as the dark, disjointed spirit crests and swirls around him. The shadowy entity is almost like a lover embracing the demonic man. Feeling paralyzed by its presence, I fail to evade his attack. He catches me by my throat, picking me up off my feet. His steely grip probably would’ve crushed me just weeks ago, but I have evolved since then; I am harder to kill now. The demon realizes this; irritation flickers across his face as he brings his other hand up to apply more pressure. Black spots dance in my vision and my eyes dart around the room, looking for a means of gaining my release.
Buzzing registers in my consciousness, and at first I think it must be a result of having the life choked out of me. But as my eyes dart away from the evil grinning creature suffocating me, I see that my bedroom window is covered on the outside in dragonflies. The dragonflies form a dark silhouette of a man, which then morphs into an image I know quite well. It’s Alfred and he is hovering just outside my room. His iridescent, bluish-green wings are beating rapidly to sustain his elevation. As he observes the scene inside my room, his mouth turns up with a grin of satisfaction.
My feet dance drunkenly beneath me while I bring my own hands to my throat. I tear at the shadow man’s hands, trying to utter the name that I am screaming over and over in my mind. Reed. Panic makes my legs swing out further, trying to kick the monster in front of me. Baring his teeth in a feral growl, the shadow man cringes when I kick him as hard as I can. That is all it will take and I know it. The shadow man just sealed its fate with that one tiny sound.
In an instant my door crashes in, and before it has time to ricochet off the wall, I am released from the strangle hold that had me dangling in midair. Dropping to the ground, the body of the shadow man, along with his shadow is propelled backward away from me. I take the first gasping breath of air, feeling it burn a path to my lungs because the shadow man’s putrid odor permeates the room. Reed’s charcoal-colored wings spread wide as he hurls the demon out into the hallway, where Zephyr catches it. The grotesque popping and tearing sounds of the shadow man being torn to shreds by Zephyr become softer as it is carried further and further away from my door. In the next instant, Reed has me in his arms.
“Al-Fred,” I wheeze, trying to tell him that Alfred is outside my window. I turn to look at it and point, but Alfred is no longer there at the window. The coward ran away again when he saw the Powers enter the room to save me.
“Evie, are you hurt?” Reed asks in an anxious tone while scanning me for possible injuries. I shake my head no, coughing as I try to inhale too much air and have it forced back out.