Dark Corners - Twelve Tales of Terror (12 page)

“
You
don’t even know me...” she said, this time unable to keep
the tremble out of her voice. He reached over and took her hands, his
skin hot to the touch. Maintaining eye contact, he leaned in close
and whispered into her ear.

“
I
can give you everything.”

As he pulled back, his eyes still fixed on her, she
wished it were that simple—that she could just walk out with
him and leave everything behind.

“
I
can’t...”

Monde didn’t seem at all put out by this. Instead,
he offered his perfectly white smile and released his grip on her
hands.

“
Tomorrow,
I will take you to dinner. Be ready at eight."

She laughed but saw something change in his face; a
millisecond of rage that was enough to make her stop and explain
herself.

“
Look,
you don’t know how great that sounds, really... But I’m
working tomorrow. In fact, I work almost every night.”

Monde didn’t respond, he simply reached into his
pocket and took out a business card. It was white and his name and
number were printed on it in gold lettering. She didn’t think
anyone actually carried business cards anymore, and smiled as she
took it.

“
You
are persistent, I’ll give you that.”

“
If
you change your mind, call me.”

“
Look,
don’t get me wrong here; I’m interested in seeing you
again. I don’t want you to see this as a brush off, but I
really don’t know when I’ll be able to see you.”

He smiled, drained his glass and stood. For the first
time, she realised how tall he was. Jimmy who worked behind the bar
was around six feet tall, but Monde had at least six or seven inches
on him. He straightened his jacket and turned that deep, brown-eyed
gaze onto her again.

“
One
thing you will learn about me, Tina, is that I get everything I
want.”

“
Well,
don’t be disappointed if you don’t hear from me. I can’t
just leave my job. You understand that, right?”

He flashed his smile again, and her heart skipped.

“
I’ll
see you tomorrow,” he said softly and made his way towards the
exit. She watched him go, waiting to see if he would turn around and
look back at her from the door. He didn’t and she felt suddenly
deflated. With a sigh, she picked up her tray and went back to work.

Her shift ended at three AM, and she had gone home
exhausted, eager to fix some of the H. She locked herself away in her
dingy apartment, and felt more alone than ever. As she cooked up the
shot that would get her through the night, she looked at the business
card Monde had given her. Clean, straightforward, to the point.

Monde

555-2624

She siphoned the heroin into a syringe and readied to
inject herself, wishing there was a better way to dull the pain of
her life. Rolling down her elbow-length, fingerless gloves, she
looked at her arms, which were deeply marked with scars from
self-inflicted cuts. She did it less now that she had her heroin, but
on those occasions when she couldn’t afford it, she would take
out the razor blades. She selected a vein, the skin around it already
bruised from months of injections into the same place. She inserted
the needle and slowly depressed the plunger, the immediate rush of
heat overcoming her as she slumped over onto her bed. She felt warm
and safe, cocooned in from a world she no longer had any connection
with.

Three

She woke to the maddening vibration of her mobile on the
bedside table. She had been dreaming of Monde, of him making love to
her, carefully caressing her as she looked into his deep, brown eyes,
whispering hotly into her ear about giving her everything she ever
wanted. Now roused from her dream, she grabbed clumsily at the
handset, fumbling for the answer key.

“
Hello?”

“
Tina?
It’s me.”

“
Hey,
Lexi, what’s going on?” Tina stifled a yawn as she
glanced at her alarm clock. It was just after nine AM.

“
Are
you fucking kidding me? There was a fire at the bar last night.”

She was immediately awake and sat up in bed.

“
Holy
shit. What happened?”

“
Nobody
knows yet. Could be an electrical fault.”

“
Was
anybody hurt?”

“
Nah,
place was empty, but you should see what’s left of it. I’m
down there right now.”

“
How
bad is it?”

“
It’s
gone. Burned to the fuckin’ ground. Looks like we just got the
night off. Hell, what am I saying—it’ll be months before
they get this place fixed up again. I was saying to Sasha that…”

Tina wasn’t listening anymore. She was thinking of
Monde, of how he had been so sure she wouldn’t be at work the
following night. Surely he couldn’t have had anything to do
with the fire. No, she wasn’t thinking straight. No one would
burn down a bar just to free up a date. Especially not someone as
refined as Monde. Right? She saw his card tossed on the bedside table
and picked it up, wondering if she should call or make him wait a
while. She already knew the answer. She was desperate to see him
again, and her dream of being with him had not faded away as dreams
often did. Lexi was still talking, about what Tina wasn’t
exactly sure, as she had been too lost in her own thoughts to pay
much attention.

“
Hey,
Lexi, do you want to meet up this afternoon for a bite to eat? I
could do with some advice.”

“
Yeah
sure, where do you wanna meet?”

“
You
know that bar down on the corner by Oakfield Park?”

“
Yeah,
down by the Italian place right?”

“
That’s
the one. How about we meet there around twelve?”

“
I’ll
be there. Is everything ok, Tina?”

“
I’m
fine. I just need a friendly ear, that’s all.”

“
Is
it about Mr. Crème suit?”

She felt a stab of anger and jealousy at Lexi’s
slightly teasing tone.

“
Yeah,
it’s about him. I’ll fill you in when I see you.”

“
Ooh
sounds exciting. Ok, T. See you in a few hours.”

“
Thanks,
Lexi. Bye.”

Tina hung up the phone and thought about the
implications of not having a job. Remembering she had a little heroin
left, she decided to shoot up and sweat the job problem later. “Tina,
you stupid bitch,” she muttered to herself as she cooked up the
last of the potentially lethal drug and pumped it into the same vein
as the previous night. She promised herself that would be it. No more
now that it was gone. But then again, resolutions always sounded
better with a head full of smack. She felt that familiar warm blanket
envelop her, and she drifted into a dreamless sleep.

Tina was running late, and when she arrived at the bar,
Lexi was already waiting for her. She felt a pang of jealousy at how
relaxed and worry free her friend looked. She was reading a magazine
and was dressed in an oversized Ramones t-shirt that hung off one
shoulder, revealing a singular, pink bra strap. As Tina approached,
revelling in the smell of fresh coffee and cooked bacon, Lexi looked
up and smiled. For the next hour, Tina told her all about Monde and
her suspicions that he might have had something to do with the bar
fire. Lexi listened intently, barely speaking and allowing Tina to
tell the story in full. When she had had finished, Lexi took a second
to consider, then pronounced her verdict.

“
I
think you should stop worrying about coincidental shit and go out
with him.”

Tina blushed, and despite her concerns, managed a smile

“
I
don’t know, Lexi. There’s something about him, and I’m
not sure what it is.”

“
Can
I be honest with you, T?”

“
Always.”

“
I
think you’re scared to commit and looking for an excuse not to.
Give him a call. Meet up with him. See how it goes. It can’t be
any worse than spending your nights alone.”

Or
fucked up on drugs
she
thought to herself. She went on to make idle small talk with Lexi for
a while, but she felt distant somehow. A restlessness had overcome
her, an uneasy feeling of something being slightly off balance, or
more off balance than normal at least. She finished her drink and
made up an excuse to leave, telling Lexi that she would call her
later. Almost immediately after she left the bar, she took out her
pink Samsung and punched in Monde’s number. She had half
convinced herself that he wouldn’t answer; or if he did, he
wouldn’t even remember who she was.

Four

Rhodes looked up from his notepad, ignoring the pain in
his wrist from writing for so long. Their conversation was being
recorded of course. All interviews were, as per standard police
procedure, but he always made his own notes to refer to later, when
he was home and able to think more clearly.

“
You
think Monde started the fire at the bar?” he asked, watching
closely for her reaction. Tina paused, considering carefully, then
looked him in the eye.

“
I
don’t think so. Not seriously anyway. I’d considered it
at the time, but knowing him as I do now, it doesn’t really
seem his style.”

“
I’ve
seen some pretty crazy things over the years. You would be surprised
what some people are capable of.”

She only nodded in response, and he couldn’t shake
off his uneasiness.

“
You
said you
didn’t
think he was capable of starting the fire. Has that changed now,
Tina?”

“
I
didn’t say that. I said I didn’t think it was his
style,
”
she said, offering a slight smile.

“
Did
you ever ask him about it?”

“
Eventually
I did, but he didn’t really want to talk about it... and Monde
isn’t the kind of man you’d want press... His temper is…
bad.”

“
Let’s
not get too far ahead of ourselves here. What happened after you
tried to call Monde?”

“
He
answered on the second ring. He wasn’t even surprised to hear
my voice. It was as if he had been waiting for me to call—and
maybe he was. I was nervous of course, but he took over as he does
with everything and guided me through the conversation. He wanted to
pick me up from my place, but I was embarrassed about how it looked,
so I convinced him to meet me at the restaurant he had booked. That
was the night I began to suspect that there was more to him, not as a
person, but... I don’t know...” She trailed off and
shrugged.

“
Tina,
please. I need you to focus. What happened next?”

“
Well
I went out and I met him. I thought that I would be more in control
of myself the second time around, but as soon as our eyes met, I
immediately fell under his spell again. That’s exactly what it
was: a spell. An enchantment. Something he does with his eyes that
makes you lose free will. It wasn’t just me either. Everyone
seemed to be in awe of him. Now I know why, but I’ll get to
that eventually if you don’t mind, as it would just derail
things, and I’m feeling better about everything now.”

“
That’s
good. Please continue.”

“
So
the meal was fine. Actually, that’s an understatement. It was
amazing, unlike anything I had ever experienced. High class, rich
snob stuff. Way more expensive than anything I would ever be able to
afford. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the meal cost more
than a month’s rent for my shit-box apartment. Lexi was right,
Monde had money. He picked me up in a limousine for God’s sake!
It was crazy! I thought it might be awkward at first, you know how it
is when nobody can think of anything to say to plug the silences, but
I needn’t have worried. The conversation came easily. I
couldn’t stop looking into his eyes, those beautiful, brown
eyes. I could stare into them forever.”

Five

When they arrived, she had felt awkward and
underdressed, but Monde had relaxed her, taking the lead, exuding the
confidence she severely lacked. They made small talk during the
course of the meal, mostly about her and her life. She found that
whenever she asked a question about him, he would evade it, and
smoothly divert the attention back to her.

She normally wasn’t the type to talk about her
childhood, but it seemed whatever question Monde asked, she felt
compelled to answer. He took her hands across the table, and she
gasped at the heat that seemed to radiate from his skin.