Bitch Witch (23 page)

THE YOWLING OF cats in heat woke Sarah. She opened her eyes as they batted against her bedroom window, trying to get in.
I threw the food away. Why are they back?
She reached for her cell phone to call animal control to come take away strays again, but she couldn’t find it.

No, wait. She couldn’t reach for it because she didn’t have any arms
.

Aunt Lily shoved open the bedroom door and peeked inside.

“Lazy bitch,” she teased in her deep voice. “Stop reporting the cats. You don’t even like them. Would you rather I used some
one
instead?” Lily put the emphasis on
one
, her slanted feline eyes glittered but she grinned when she said it. The smile stretched the skin tighter across her face, and Sarah could see the way dark matter flowed beneath her flawless skin, writhing like snakes.

She tried to answer her aunt. She tried to open her mouth but she couldn’t find that, either. It had gone with her arms.

Lily opened her lips; they were puffy from far too much filler. She opened them wider and dark matter flowed out, looking like a giant snake. It shot across the room with its maw open and swallowed Sarah. Without a mouth she couldn’t even scream.

She lived inside the belly of dark matter. Its stomach acid burned her.

It lit her on fire and gnawed on her bones, turning her to charcoal.

Mother sat next to the pilot inside a cockpit, wedged into his seat. Sarah kept her eyes on the view of the Grand Canyon below, refusing to see what was happening to him. Refusing to know she had no body. Behind them in the main cabin, Aunt Lily straddled the co-pilot’s lap. Sarah knew what was happening to him. His happy but pained grunts echoed through the small plane.

“Mother, you’ve taken enough,” Sarah heard herself say.

“Go sit in the back,” Mother replied.

Sarah could see their reflection in the windshield. The pilot’s head looked limp between her mother’s hands. “No, Mother. His heartrate is too high. Someone has to land the plane. I can’t!” Even if she had hands she didn’t know how.

“Tell Lily to stop! Why does it always have to be me?”

Despite the fact that she had no body, Sarah knew she sat in the co-pilot’s seat. “Mother, you’ve lost control. You’re acting worse than grandmother did at the end!”

That got through. Mother let go of the pilot. He slowly shook his head, trying to reorient himself. Relief shot through Sarah.

This is the last time I flew with them.

The realization came sudden and she tried to look down, to see herself as the memory returned, but she couldn’t move. She recalled this day like a memory even as she sat there. This was the day she’d begun to wonder if dark matter really wanted the energy or essence it demanded. Did it actually consume a decade or two of a man’s life, or a woman’s youth? Or did it want to detach a witch’s soul by forcing her to make such offers? Maybe it was both. Lily and her mother had gone from hurting animals to people in the bat of an eye.

Somehow the plane landed. Somehow Sarah now sat inside the little terminal of the private airport, still without a body. Aunt Lily and Mother sat beside her, watching her with guilty eyes and apologizing.

“It’s so hard to tell anymore.”

“Sometimes we lose ourselves.”

“That’s why we need you to remind us.”

They waited for an answer. Sarah couldn’t reply. They were gone and she was at home with her body again. It worked fine.

SARAH APPLIED FINISHING touches to her face; a bit of eyeliner made ice-blue eyes pop against black lashes. She ignored the doorbell echoing up the stairs. Someone must have come early. Tonight the entire coven would gather. The autumnal equinox was a big deal for some. The Archers weren’t particularly devoted, or into ceremony.
Or company much, anymore.

Sarah hoped no one would comment on Aunt Lily’s looks.

She grabbed a tissue and wiped the makeup off.

No reason to upset her. Besides, who cares?

From downstairs came the cackle of mother’s laughter and Sarah glanced at the clock. She slipped into her heels and hurried downstairs.

Gray rushed past, her arms loaded with linens for the dining room. Sarah barely glanced at the ghost of a woman. Gray cleaned the house and cooked, and rarely said a word. Like the rest of her family, Sarah often forgot she was there.

Sarah headed for the kitchen to see if any food was ready. Before she got to the archway, Gray stepped in front of her and Sarah nearly plowed into her. Their eyes met, and for a moment Sarah wondered if she’d ever looked at Gray’s face before. She had ruddy, windburn cheeks and droopy brown eyes. The woman swallowed and nervously chewed her lip.

“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked.

Frightened eyes stared meaningfully back at her before glancing in the direction of the doorway. Sarah could hear a faint childish giggle, her mother murmuring, and the rustling of Aunt Lily’s silk skirts. Slinky dresses and bare midriffs had given way to old-fashioned gowns and occasional cloaks. They hid the cost of a lifetime of casting.

“Is that your Halloween costume?” a little girl’s voice asked. “I’m going to be Batman. Daddy thinks I should be Catwoman, but I’m going to be Batman anyway.”

Sarah moved past Gray and the large bureau near the entryway and stopped. Mother knelt beside a little girl, a scrawny arm around her shoulders as if hugging her. An expression of wicked glee made her look almost as bad as Aunt Lily. Lily stood blocking the open door, a fake smile plastered on her skeletal face. Thick makeup and perfect hair did nothing to hide the monster inside. She moved forward until her gown touched the child, and reached a bony hand toward her. Blood-red fingernails glistened.

“Do you want to fly, little one? Like Batman?”

“Batman doesn’t fly!” said the girl. “But if I sell five hundred dollars in candy and wrapping paper, I can get his mask!”

“I can make you fly!” said Aunt Lily, clearly not listening to the child.

Sarah saw dark matter oozing from her mother’s arm and Aunt Lily’s hand, drifting over the little girl. Perspiration beaded across the child’s unwrinkled forehead and her fine skin grew paler by the second. The trusting smile didn’t waver.

“What’s going on?” asked Sarah, stepping into view. “Are you selling something for Batman?”

The smile grew wider, and the girl waved a form with one hand and a thin glossy brochure with the other. “No, silly! For school! But I can win a real Batman mask if I sell enough!”

“We’ll take it all,” said Aunt Lily, running chicken bone fingers through dark waves of thick hair. “Everything!”

The little girl stiffened and her eyes widened. “For reals? Goody!” she squealed, and jumped up and down, fading right before Sarah’s eyes.

“She reminds me of you!” said Mother, squeezing the girl closer, making motions like air kisses with her lips.

Sarah knew she was consuming her, and her stomach dropped. She barely heard Aunt Lily’s murmurs of agreement.

Sarah tried to keep her voice calm. “Mother, go get your pocketbook. You’re going to need it if you’re going to buy enough for her to win a Batman mask! Aunt Lily, will you nab mine, too, when you go upstairs to get yours?” Sarah needed only seconds alone to send the kid safely packing.

They saw right through her. Both the women frowned as the girl looked up at them expectantly.

“Grab my checkbook, Sarah,” Mother said. “It’s in the desk right there.”

Lily beamed at her sister.

“My tummy hurts,” said the little girl.

“No, it doesn’t,” said Aunt Lily.

“No, it doesn’t,” echoed the girl, but her papers fluttered to the floor as she hunched over and clutched at her stomach.

“She’s a neighbor!” said Sarah. “Where are her parents?”

Both women leered. Lily answered, “Our clever girl snuck out.”

“Gonna. Surprise. Daddy,” the child whimpered, her pallor turning quickly from white to grey. Mother supported her as her legs gave out.

“No,” said Sarah. “Stop it. You’re really hurting her!”

The little girl’s eyes went wide, locking on Sarah’s with the first trace of fear in them.

“You stop it, Daughter!” said Mother. Her lips reached the girl’s cheek like a kiss to whisper, “We’re not hurting you. We’re your friends.”

The child smiled faintly, a hand grasping Aunt Lily’s gown. “Um, kay.” Her head rolled loosely on her neck, dropping forward.

“I said no!” Sarah stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the limp girl, wresting her from them. She backed away, holding the girl to her.

Both women turned on Sarah, shoving her and the little girl against the wall with a flick of their wrists. “Who do you think you are? Who do you think provides for your needs? We do! We always have! Why do you think we need so much?” said Mother.

Aunt Lily growled, reaching for the girl. “Let go of her!”

“Gray! Call the police!”

Both women laughed. Sarah held the limp child tightly, trying to protect her from their reaching hands. For a moment they grappled; Lily attempting to pry Sarah’s hands loose and mother tugging on the girl. Something changed though, and they both stopped fighting Sarah at the same instant. For a second Sarah thought her mother had regained some sense. Her lips pressed against Sarah’s cheek as though to offer a token of gratitude. Then she noticed Lily’s mortified expression.

“Sissy, no,” said Aunt Lily. “She’s your daughter.”

Mother turned her head to respond, her fingers now running down Sarah’s cheek. “Dark matter flows through her. It’s intoxicating. Taste.”

Lily licked her lips.

Despair ripped through Sarah’s heart, taking her breath, and she squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t want to see what they’d become, and her strangled words came out with angry sobs. “Go ahead then, both of you, if this is what you’ve become! If you’re going to kill children, you might as well have your own too! I won’t fight! You don’t have to waste a cast on me!”

“Open your eyes,” said a man’s voice. “Sarah, I know you can hear me. Open your eyes. Kathleen is going to be okay, don’t cry. Do you hear me, Sarah? It’s Paul.”

Sarah’s body disappeared again, along with her mother, Aunt Lily and the little girl.

It took time for Sarah to know anything. It took time to really feel the pain, to feel dark matter again gnawing on her blackened bones as she floated in lava. Between those times she disappeared without a conscious thought. Nothing was the bearable part. Everything else tried to kill her, searing heat through her bones and icy sharp pain into her stomach. The memory of Paul’s disappointed dark eyes scorched her. Henry’s didn’t, but they were focused on someone else. Somehow that was worse. Sarah didn’t struggle as she vanished again.

D
ark matter roosted inside Sarah, so much she thought the bed would collapse from the sheer weight of it.
Where am I?
She tried to remember what had happened. Memories came with a wave of remorse. She’d cast against Kathleen. Big time.

Big time? You tried to kill her.

No
, she argued with herself.
I never meant to kill her. Not for a second.