Sweet Menace (17 page)

I couldn’t help but think of his house. Not Sam’s house. I had never been there. But Jerome’s house. My cousin’s love nest turned into lair of murderers and evil witches. How Lavender was surviving all this? How was she now that she had seen Jerome again? And I was assuming she was there and he was keeping her safe. What if she was just another soul I need to save? One soul of many I had condemned to dying just a few days ago.

Protected with just a dagger I created with dark Maghik, I left my van hidden a few miles behind. In many movies I had seen it. The good guy appears all of a sudden, parking his car right across the alley, and surprise-surprise! Gives himself away. Dies bleeding his whole veins in the pavement and end of the story. Evil wins.

My hands shaking like coconut custard held the dragon dagger. In between my slippery fingers this weapon felt like an electric saw with which I could harm myself. I prayed. Prayed like I never used to, begging for my legs not to falter, allowing me to fall and stab myself with this monstrous weapon. While I should feel like a reaper, truth was I felt like a scary kitten trembling all over.

I wanted to tell myself that this was all worthy. That Sam deserved this fear I felt and the cold chilling my bone marrow as well. But I knew better. If he was capable of making a bet to take me to bed before even knowing me, what else could I expect from him? Of course this wasn’t worth the pain and suffering. Of course I’ll end up disappointed. How was I so ignorant to expect to fill the emptiness inside with what bought it in the first time? Since when love had a pedestal so high and unreachable inside me?

Foolish mercy when I discovered I was right in front of Lavender’s house. Contrary to what I was expecting, all the lights were turned on and the door was closed. I expected something raunchy like in horror movies. Door opened just a gap, lights out, darkness and fog hiding the upcoming terror with its freakish cloak.

I walked around the house, trying to peek through the windows but the only thing I saw was the damn virginity blanket. It seems that my cousin was so proud of her purity that she kept displaying it to the whole town, even though nobody cares anymore. That was just old news. New news were Patrick’s murderer still on the loose, Jerome’s disappearance, and a rumor running from door to door about a romance between the new cop in town and the handicapped baker- who’s me.

The backdoor was opened and I took a look inside the house, making sure nobody was hiding behind a corner expecting me to attack. Disappointment seized me as I was half expecting to find them all sitting in the kitchen table, sipping cappuccinos and rolling the dices and gambling about who will take my dignity away. A new thought pushed me deep into apprehension. If they weren’t there, where would they be?

With the dagger almost announcing my entrance to every room, I walked through Jerome’s and Lavender’s house with a fear I’ve never felt before. Frustration invaded my core when I discovered that the house was empty. To my displeasure, I discovered the television on, playing a homemade video of Sam and I cuddled together in my own bed. Shame took power of me. If the villagers see this… well, lets say Sam would be without work and my shop would never sell another pumpkin roll cake, no matter how close Halloween was right now.

Certain that the house was empty I went to the dvd player to takeout the disk, but the movie kept playing. The disk in my hand had a handwritten message:
wrong again
. I was getting tired of this game. It was late. I haven’t had a good sleep since… I don’t even remember. The last time I had a proper meal was… when I nibbled some food with Lilly and Mamma and it wasn’t much what I could engulf thanks to the butter knife misplaced in my kitchen.

Careful not to move another thing, I left the house, searching in the surroundings. Where were they? Jerome had said his house, and this was his house. Yet they were nowhere. I had no other option than to yell, calling for Sam, giving myself away. But as bad as it seemed, that was my only option.

“Sam. Are you okay?” -Stupid. Stupid one thousand times. Of course he wasn’t alright. He was sick and in company of two crazy people. -“Sam?”

He had said something about someone from his past, but who? Maybe an ex-girlfriend? A psycho lover? A lunatic crush? But who could this woman be? We didn’t need anyone else. With Edora hanging out there, helping Jerome and supporting his craziness, our agendas were full already. Another cuckoo nutcracker was beyond what we could handle at the moment.

“Oh, look who joined the party! Come, chicken legs, follow me.” -Jerome appeared between bushes behind his house. Having a big garden around the house always tends to be a blessing. No neighbors peering through your windows, no wanderers crossing your gates on a Sunday morning. Running free around your own house, kissing your beloved in your porch without nosy people, or taking a refreshing bath in the pond right behind your room were pros of this lifestyle. But today it was beyond a curse. Who’ll hear us if we have to cry for help? Nobody. I was here to help, not to cry for it. I was here for vengeance, for pain, for humiliation. All of that pain must be eased tonight. The souls of my parents were claiming for their blood to be avenged. Every mock launched like a rocket towards me, every rock kicked my way to make me stumble… Tonight was pay time.
He

“Where’s Sam?” -I asked Jerome while following him through the dense weed and shrubbery growing carelessly behind their house. -“Where’s Lavender?”

Jerome simply laughed at my questions, making me uncomfortable and more nervous than what I already was. While I was walking cautious behind him, Jerome didn’t even looked back with mistrust. Even looking twice at my dagger, he kept walking in front of me as certain I wouldn’t attack him, taking advantage of the disguise of the night.

Remembering the first time Jerome came to the house, I couldn’t help but suppress the urge to vomit. He was puny then, not the semi-gorilla he was now. A weak boy with glasses carrying a dictionary under his arm. Two years ago my uncle and aunt were still alive, but not for long. Somehow I started considering Jerome had something to do with their sudden deceases but it turned impossible to confirm. Right then, despite his cute-looking nerd appearance, I knew what he was inside. His braggart attitude emanated from his pores as sweat from an athlete’s. He seemed as nice as the worst of incurable diseases. I digested him with the normalcy I digest spoiled milk and rotten eggs together. Nothing had changed since then apart from his toned body. Inside he kept being the same idiot.

Animal noises echoed around. The bellow of cows. The neigh of horses. The bleat of some goats awaken this late. Technically, it wasn't this late but this early as midnight happened long ago. If I looked carefully beyond the lush of the trees and the tall grass, I could see the sunrise breaking the darkness far away.

Minutes passed by, making me more impatient. Still no signal of Sam or the rest of the evil team.

“Liked the movie?” -Jerome asked. I grimaced in confusion but soon knew what he was talking about. Sam and I cuddled in my bed. Somehow, they recorded the whole night. -
“
It'
s
a shame it didn’t turn out interesting. I thought it would be fun in the beginning. My pal got you drunk, that was priceless, but then he turned you down. Idiot. You were so easy then, taking your clothes off all of a sudden. You took him by surprise.”

My cheeks blushed madly. Now everybody had seen me naked and in my worst seductive mode. How long would it take for the whole town to see this video? How long until our reputations would end ruined? Incoherently, I found myself worrying about what all this people could think of us. No. I have nothing to lose, but Sam would be ruined forever. Without job and be pointed for taking advantage of weak ladies, he’ll never be respected as a cop with that in his record. Believe me, this people would make sure he has to drag all this with him until his death.

Jerome was making some nasty noises and I tried to ignore him, focusing my attention to the chirp of grasshoppers and birds, and in the occasional hiss of some lonely snake. Putting my attention to the animals living between the woods I tried to imagine what kind of noise lizards make. There are some of them living in the walls outside my house or frequently walking in my window screens during the night, but they never make noises. They don’t whisper things to me.

“I like your dagger but it’s kind of heavy.” -Jerome said while we enter a clearing in between the house-tall grass. What he had just said is that he used my dagger? That he killed Patrick just to blame me? Or he just meant that he took it?

The desire to ask him to clarify his last words was big but right in front of me appeared Edora. Sam was close to her, his hands were tied with an ivory straitjacket. A muzzle was covering his mouth, a real horse muzzle, covering his nose as well. His semi-sedated eyes found mine and I wanted to run and hug him but I held my ground. He had broken my heart and if I was there was to end all this and take vengeance. Of all of them.

“Let him go.” -I demanded in anger.

“As if you could order us around.” -Edora answered. -“What a bad girl you are, leaving that little baby to protect your interests.”

“You’re a coward. Kidnapping a girl just to make me suffer? You should have known me better, Edora.” -A mysterious bravery accompanied my words and I felt grateful for the excess of confidence at the moment. -“I don’t care about this people.”

“I warn you. Be careful with what you say or you’ll give too much away.” -Edora scolded me.

“Wha
t
d
o
you wan
t
fro
m
me? What do I have that you two want to take? Kill me. Is that what you want? Why didn’t you do it long ago? You have had plenty of opportunities.”

They walked around me and soon I was close to Sam, maybe just two or three steps away.

“
It'
s
not what you have but what you are. You’re a threat to all of us, a crime to happen sooner or later. You should have died the second after you were born. You’re a shame for your family.” -Jerome spitted the words with a hatred impossible to understand. Never in my life had I treated him like a catastrophe falling over our house. As long as Lavender was happy, there wasn’t much to do.

“Then I’m lucky I have no family, ‘cause what I’m going to do will give them great sorrow.” -My words sound like a promise and I felt happy that my brave self was still with me. I extended the dagger with an easy swing and stopped it right in Jerome’s prominent Adam’s apple. His eyes changed suddenly, only fear reflected in them. He looked down low to his groin and I followed his eyes there. A laugh hard to suppress escaped my lips and I burst into an unstoppable joke. -“Oh, poor boy!”

Taking advantage of Jerome’s loss of control, I mocked him to show him how bad I can really be.

“You pee your pants!” -I said out loud while moving the dagger to hit his wet thighs with the fat blade. He convulsed in pain. -“Too bad Lavender isn’t here to see the kind of man she married.”

I was enjoying this so much that I didn’t even took a look at Edora until Sam was making chocking noises. His face was covered in agony. Edora was holding him tight with a dagger matching my own. A fine trail of blood was sliding through his sweating neck.

“
That'
s
enough, Morgan. Drop your weapon or I’ll bleed him to death. You know I don’t care about him either.”

Taking a few steps back, I consider my sister’s warning. Was she really capable of killing Sam? Who was I trying to fool? Of course she was.

“Drop the dagger, Morgan. Don’t make me repeat it. I’m not playing here.”

My sister was a terrible thing. An abomination. Her powers saw no limit and she used it all to cause pain.
You’re not different from her, Morgan. Weren’t you who baked some gooey cookies to kill the town barely two days ago? You’re just like her. Two drops of blood from the same cursed bloodline.

I held my dagger with determination and walked around.

“I don’t care what you do with him.” -I snapped to bite my tongue thereafter. If she was capable of harming Sam, she’ll suffer worse than what I had initially planned.

“You asked me why. Why him. Why not killing you when I first came here. Why. Why. Why.” -Edora moved slightly, holding Sam to her, like if dancing a soft ballad. With her face she caressed Sam’s forehead, the only skin not hidden behind the muzzle. I fell to my knees as Jerome took me by surprise, kicking me and snatching the dagger from between my cold fingers. -“Oh, sister! He never told you, did he? How happy we were. How blessed we felt.”

Her words flowed like a wild gust of wind and I couldn’t understand her expressions. I needed to. I wanted to. I just couldn’t. What she was telling was so painful to listen. A tear slid down my face and nevertheless I looked up straight to Sam. The sadness in his face was excruciating. I tried to stand up, to comfort him, heal his soul, but Jerome kept me in the floor. With every attempt to stand up, he kicked me harder.

“I still have my wedding dress. White as he wanted it to be. Controlling like that he is, sister. The night before the wedding everything changed. Maybe I drank too much or it was something I said, what gave me away.”

Sam denied with his head. Somehow I knew he was asking me not to listen to Edora’s words. I just couldn’t stop now. I needed to know the truth. At least the truth from my sister’s point of view.

“He was so crazy for me that he asked me for a proof of my endless love for him. I could have done what he asked me, I could have relinquished everything to him and just escape from his family and fly away together, just like mother and father did. But no, I was so good then. So perfect and he was so courteous and charming and I fell for his rightness so bad.”

Digesting her words I remember what Mamma had said. His fiancé never showed at the wedding. She sent a message that she was abandoning him for someone else.

“Then why didn’t you show up at church? Why just sending a message of infidelity and disappearing? I don’t get it, Edora.” -I asked trying to fill the gaps of their history.

“Mmm.” -Edora mumbled as if enjoying every single second. -“Why indeed.”

Hauled from the floor to be standing again, I stood face to face with Sam. Shame, anger and sorrow were in the few tears pouring down his eyes.

Next thing I knew Sam was unconscious on the floor while I was been hit hard not just by Jerome but by Edora as well. I tried to cry, I tried to yell. But it was useless. Help would never come. Nobody will come in our aid as there was no one else who worried about us.

“There was no need for him to hear the next part, right?” -Edora said with an innocent smile.

“Why, Edora? You really want him dead?” -I yelled at her with deep sorrow. My sister. My own sister. The one I never thought to have, and she was so evil.

“Of course I do, Morgan. Of course I do.” -She hissed cheerfully. -“I was ready to marry him, to leave my Maghik behind. A normal life seemed the most appropriate thing to do. A husband, a family. Everything normal as I was accepting I would never be queen. But that night before the wedding, Mamma and the sweet over-protective sister invited me out. Perhaps they suspected of me, how perfect I always was, not a single detail misplaced. They unmasked me and warned me to stay away from Sam. They preferred him death rather than with a witch, you know. They’ll do worst to you once they find out.”

“Mamma knows already.” -I confessed daringly.

“What?” -Edora asked as if she hadn’t listened.

“Mamma knows already. That’s what I’ve said.” -I repeated in high confident voice.

A guttural cry escaped Edora, as if she was in so much suffering. She was all a lie. It was difficult to see her as a loving person. I doubted that she really loved him.

“She’s sick now. She wants him to be happy.” -I said trying to make her see my point.

“And what about him? He knows about you? About what you are?” -Edora was acting like a wounded creature wanting to know the reasons behind the act of cruelty. Her voice changed abruptly, from high shrieking voice to a begging whisper. -“He knows? You think he’ll want you when he finds out?”

“He doesn’t have to know. I’m not like you.” -As soon as I said those words I knew I was lying. The word
fake
was like engraved with fire in my forehead and Edora could see it clearly.

“Of course not. You’re the perfection of our family. Don’t you see how perfect you are?” -The sarcasm in her talking was hateful. I hoped that my own sarcastic attitude wouldn’t be as hideous as Edora’s. -“Horrible walking. Normal face. You go unnoticed thanks to your ordinariness. He’ll certainly keep you… to clean his messy house with a proper normal wife.”

I wanted to hate her more but it was kind of impossible. Every time I tried to gather that strong feeling, our sisterhood always stood first. Silly of me, our blood stood between us in the worst of the ways. I was just a barrier to her conquering plan.

“You’re not better than me, Morgan. We were born alike. The difference is that you haven’t developed all your wickedness. Your talent is still wasted. Mine on the contrary has seen the glory of triumph and grandeur. That’s why you’re better option than I to be Queen of all covens. You’re easy to manipulate. You’re the perfect puppet for our grandmother. She’ll retire as established but yet she’ll reign through you.”

Maybe Edora was right but at this point she was the only known threat in my otherwise boring existence.

I’ve been wicked, yes. I’ve been evil sometimes. My heart is dark and my mind is not different from a lump of coal. But I’ll never aspire to be somebody’s queen.

“See.” -Edora said pushing the blade of her dagger deep into Sam’s arm. He was helpless with his hands tied behind his back and unconscious on the ground. More blood gushed from him and if Edora kept doing this, he won’t survive longer. -“You need to keep going until you feel nothing.”

“So you don’t love him anymore?” -I wanted to know but I should be wiser. The answer was kind of obvious.

“Anymore?” -Edora said laughing. -“And never. I just wanted the normality that came with him. His good manners. The right man treating me like a deserving woman. But love? Why to tie my heart to something so useless? Ask mom and dad about love when you go to the other side. They’ll tell you much about love.”

“Let’s get over with them already.” -Jerome told Edora with urgent voice. -“Kill her so I can be free to go back. Lavender has to be scared.”