Erin Dameron-Hill (10 page)

Chapter Six

The shifting sands of the desert were once again upon me. With small grains and pieces of glass that crawled over my easily torn flesh creating lines of blood that ran their way down my feet.

The scrapes didn’t hurt; instead, they felt like tiny brushes of power crawling on my skin like a feather duster being rolled down my spine.

My eyes managed to avoid my body now casting glances around at the horizon and the sky. The sun was sinking low throwing soft hues of orange and purple against the twilight-ridden sky.

I stood under the silky raindrops and felt my white sheer nightgown billow in the gentle breeze. The small titter of water brushed across my face erasing the tears that had swelled in my eyes. I don’t remember crying, but I was.

My feet turned around in the sand and saw the perfect ebony corpse of Clyde strung to a pole. His strong arms were overhead as if they were nailed through his palms. The tops of his feet were also nailed to the wooden pole as if the Romans had accused him of murder and this was his sentence. His eyelids shuttered open and with barely moving lips he whispered, “Help me”.

“How?” I asked.

He began to cry blood, leaving crimson trails flowing down his cheeks. I started to touch him, to discover some way I could remove him from this torture. The rain became heavier and pelted at Clyde’s body. The moment the water touched him, his body split apart. Flesh and skin peeled off from his bones delicately flopping onto the sand in front of me. A few spatters of blood landed gently on my cheeks. My hand wiped the blood across my face, smearing it as I tried to remove it.

I looked back at the pole and instead of the strewn corpse of Clyde, Charlie Groves, one of my wolf-brothers, was now impaled upon the post. His long blonde hair wafted on the hurried breeze, beating in time with the thunderous applause that had now taken the sky. I looked into those soft, child-like features and felt a moment of guilt. Had I allowed this to happen to him? I think I had.

It was my fault he was on that pole. But why was it my fault?

My hands reached toward him and he quivered against my touch. He shifted his body just enough that I had to move closer to feel him. As my fingers reached up to pull the metal spikes from his palms, he began to cry. The tears, once again, were blood. They etched their way down his face dragging skin and flesh with it.

His body was torn into a thousand tiny pieces, each flopping on the ground like a dying fish. His parts were alive, and yet he was dead.

I shook my head and took a deep breath, ignoring the pain and suffering that was dancing around my legs. The ancient spice of rosemary and true sage smacked itself into the air. The shadow was here. And he was watching me.

I could feel his gold eyes roam over the smallest parts of me, boring themselves deep into my soul. My heart shuttered underneath his stare and my body, uncontrollably turned around in hopes of touching him.

His stare forced my body tight and wet, making me cringe on the brittle sand. One by one my feet carried me closer to him, closer to the love who would cherish me, hold me, and protect me.

No.

As I walked aimlessly in the desert, searching for him, I felt his hot, mottled breath flow across my back and down my chest. His large black paws glided down my now naked stomach feeling like so much soft fur. I writhed slightly into his touch. I wanted to turn around, to take him…

No. Don’t turn around. Don’t do this.

So, I didn’t. Instead I stared directly ahead of me into the black, starlit sky. As I gazed more firmly, a small outline of a man grew on the horizon. His hair matched the darkness that surrounded him, but a certain light gleamed from his countless earrings. He was so far away from me that I couldn’t really see him.

“No, Anput,” the creature growled, “Come to me.”

I wanted to. I wanted to race into those strong, ancient arms, feel that embrace that only he could give. But instead, I shook my head.

I didn’t want him here. I didn’t want to feel his touch that could make me cry out for more.

He roared loudly and dangerously behind me and his heavy thumps trumpeted his power as he bounded towards me. I still had my back to him and I braced for impact…

My cell phone was ringing allowing the hollow electronic tune of Beethoven’s 5
^th
to echo in the heavy silence.

Lazily and groggily, I reached over the several dozen sweat-drenched pillows and grasped it up in my hands. The blinding light of blue temporarily unsighted me in the pitch black of the night sky. I squinted and looked at the caller id,
Matt D.

“Matt?” I asked huskily. My voice was feeling dry and unused like someone had stuck one of those breathing tubes down there and then ripped it out none so delicately. I didn’t think he literally meant we would be talking in the morning, the
early
morning. But if he wanted to speak so soon, then I wasn’t going to complain. After all, he had just saved me from a horrendous nightmare.

“Sorry to wake you, Sophie, but you need to come down here,” he replied hastily.

“Down where?”

“Charlie’s place.”

“Charlie Groves?” I asked hoping there was more than one Charlie in our pack. But I knew otherwise. Out of the 48 members of our pack, there was only one Charlie. I just didn’t want this feeling of dread to grow into something factual. I don’t know how much more death I could handle. I especially didn’t want to see another family member torn into tiny bits. But according to my dream, he had been on a pole just like Clyde and had been ripped apart. As much as I hated dreaming of these events, I was also pretty pissed off that it wasn’t warning me in time. What’s the point of seeing the dead, mangled corpses more than once? How does that help anything?

“Well, yeah,” he replied slowly as if I was special education student. I should probably focus on listening to people instead of living in my own internal monologue.

“What happened?” I asked, swallowing slightly, praying and hoping that Charlie had just won the lottery and was giving us each a million dollars instead of being a strewn corpse.

“I don’t want any more of us to be alone. You’re right, we’re being targeted.”

“What do you mean, ‘targeted’?” I asked, but I already knew the answer; I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.

“Charlie has been murdered. Looks like the same guy who killed Clyde was here.”

My heart sunk so much into my chest that it hurt to breath. I had seen this, I had dreamt this. I knew that Charlie was dead even before I received the call, I just didn’t want it to be true. And seeing the aftermath as a vision wasn’t giving me any clues as to who exactly was behind this. Sure there was a horrifying creature who kept calling me “Anput” but I didn’t know who or even what it was. And honestly, I didn’t even know if he was behind it, or if in fact the creature was the Entity.

“Sophie, are you there?”

“Yeah, sorry, I was just…” Just what? What exactly could I say, that I’ve maybe seen the culprit but I don’t remember who or what it was? What exactly could that help?

“Sophie, are you alright?”

“I think I’m just a little bit shaken.”

“Do you want someone to pick you up?”

“Pick me up?”

“Like I said, I don’t want any more of us to be alone. So, are you okay to drive down here?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Please stop asking. I’m as fine as someone who has lost three friends in the past twenty four hours can be.”

He hesitated for the slightest of seconds, “I’m going to send someone.”

“Really, Matt, it’s not necessary.”

“I can hear it on your voice, Sophie, you’re scared. We’re all scared and like I said earlier, I don’t want anyone one of us alone.”

“You’ve said that three times now,” I replied even more scared now that he was repeating himself, really hammering the point that he didn’t want us to be alone.

“Sophie, I’m putting my foot down on this. I know Billy is missing and I’m sorry you’ve lost him right now, but I’ll send someone to just bring you down here. You can stay with Sheila and I until we find another partner. Okay?”

“Another partner?”

“If you can’t control your beast you need to be able to call someone.”

“Why are you even considering the idea that Billy will no longer be my partner?” I asked tears now rising to the brim.

“Just until he gets back, then.”

“Matt…”

“Sophie, don’t argue with me on this one. Billy has disappeared and two of our family are dead. I’m not taking any more chances. You will hole up with us until we find something else. Now pack a overnight bag or two and get your ass down here.”

“Okay,” I said not wanting to push the issue because I was so damn tired and emotionally overwhelmed. I didn‘t know I had any more fighting left in me. And he was my father in a sense, so I wasn’t going to argue. Not only that, but he made some valid points. It wasn’t safe for any of us to be alone anymore.

“Good, someone will be there in about ten minutes, so make sure you have everything. They’ll bring you to Charlie’s place, alright?”

“Why there?”

“I’ve only known you for two years, but I can tell when something’s wrong. And I think you know exactly what’s happening to my pack. So, you’re going to come here and you’re going to get a feeling or two and then you’re going to tell me everything. There are no secrets in this family, Sophie. Do you understand me?”

“Yeah,” I said feeling just a little bit like a teenager who was caught trying to sneak out of the house. This is why I appreciated my loneliness, my private bubble, because no one could command me. But as a part of this family, I was obligated to follow him even blindly.

The only thing is, what exactly would I tell him? That I have abnormal feelings for a creature who was maybe slaughtering our pack? Or that all I could see was just the strewn bodies, not who was going to be next so that we could protect them? I may have the Entity back, but it wasn’t divulging information like it should have. It was still standoffish and sluggish.

How am I supposed to tell them that? And would they even believe me? Everyone wants something to believe in during a crisis and I’m not so sure that I was the right thing to believe in. Shouldn’t they put their trust in a higher power? Why me, why do I get to be the center of attention? They all think I know the answers and I don’t. I’m being given my fifteen minutes of fame to be an ass. Woopy.

“Alright, Sophie, you better hurry up and pack. I’ll see you in a few.”

“Bye,” I said into the phone realizing he had already hung up.

I threw the phone on the bed and went to the hallway closet to pull out my luggage. I was probably only going to spend the rest of the night with them, so I wouldn’t need much. I packed my toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash (because no one ever had the good kinds of dental equipment that I preferred), a blue t-shirt bra to fit under the blue t-shirt, khaki crop pants and a pair of beige thong sandals.

I grabbed my purse and zipped the luggage bag. The cell phone was already in my purse when I locked the door behind me. Matt had been so sincere and instilled that horrific fear that he had actually lit a fire under my ass. This was the fastest that I had ever packed, a record really.

As I walked down the concrete path to wait on the curb, I past several small cigarettes that had been thrown into the bushes. I didn’t know anyone who smoked in my building so I guessed they were Ms. Jean’s. The first few times I had seen her for a reading she was smoking her Virginia Slims one right after the other. If only she had a cigarette holder she would look like a clowned-up version of Cruella DeVille.

I sat on the curb and listened to the ants scurry beneath my feet, marching to and fro in order to harvest the small crumbs of McDonald’s fries. I glanced at the red container that had been thrown out and wanted to dispose of it properly. But, I didn’t have any gloves and I really didn’t want to catch anything. If only I had a litter spear than I would be able to clean that up. It’s infuriating to watch people throw out garbage willy-nilly. This is your home, keep it clean.

My eyes glanced back up into the starless sky seeing only the bright red blinking lights of helicopters and airplanes and I wondered what time it was. Darkness had already seeped into the bright corners of the day and the moon was halfway across the sky, threatening to be full within a few days. I always looked at the moon, because what else was I supposed to do when my very life depended on it?

A soft bristle of fur mashed itself on my sleeveless arms and I gave a very unattractive yelp turning to find a black cat had brushed up against me. The cat nuzzled in close to me, desperately wanting my attention so I acquiesced. I stared deeply at the cat recognizing it for the one that had been playing the role of a raven, constantly tapping at my window.

“So, it’s you, huh?” I said to the cat, gently stroking its head, back, and tail. The cat meowed loudly and came back for another round of petting.

As I stroked the cat, my own beast woke to the soft scent of wild forests and underbrush that was issuing from the cat. Through my eyes it saw the small animal and for a split-second, the idea of a taking a shovel to the poor thing made logical sense.