The Ensnared (10 page)

“What are you talking about?” Melissa
asked. She had to stall, give Mark some time to track her down. But how could
she stop him?

Rafe chuckled and sat down next to
her. Melissa cringed but refrained herself from moving further away. The last
thing she wanted to do was infuriate Rafe and end up dead.

“What did Mark really tell you?”
Rafe asked.

Melissa bit down on her lip as the
pain from her wound sent waves of agony up her abdomen. “That, you were a
ghost- a demon!”

Rafe laughed harder for several
seconds before getting up. “That’s a lie.” He turned towards her so suddenly
that Melissa pushed herself against the wall. “I’m much worse.” he growled and
swung his fist at her.

Melissa let out a groan and fell
sideways and blinked twice before closing her eyes. The last thought she had
before she plunged into darkness was a silent prayer that Jennifer be alright
and that Mark find them.

*****

Her hands touched something hot and
powdery and before she had even opened her eyes, Melissa knew that it was
morning again. The sun was hot and the heat was pricking at her skin. She
opened her eyes, tiredly and gasped when she saw that she was lying face down
on sand.

She coughed out the sand that had
entered her mouth and dusted off her clothes as she rested on her knees. She
looked around her and blinked. Surely, this couldn’t be right could it? There
were trees around her and exactly in front of her were the tombstones she had
tripped over two nights ago.

Melissa pulled herself up slowly
and looked all around her. There was water all around her and she could spot
the street from where she was standing.

“Surprised?” Rafe asked.

Melissa turned around to see him
standing in the shadows of the trees. She couldn’t see his features; only a
dark silhouette of him.

“How did I end up here?” she asked
and brushed off more sand from her hair.

Rafe made no sign of moving from
his place. He raised his arm and pointed to his right. “That’s where the sewage
water comes out. Through that opening over there.”

Melissa looked at where he was
pointing and squinted. Her hands reached the zipper of her jacket and pulled it
down. It was already sweltering and even though she wasn’t wearing a watch, 
she guessed it was probably a little before ten

“You dragged me here?” she asked.

“Something like that.” Rafe said a
little distractedly.

“Are you a vampire? Why don’t you
come out into the light?” Melissa asked, all the while estimating what her
chances were if she just dove into the lagoon right now and swum to the other
side.

Rafe laughed half-heartedly and
shuffled his feet but still didn’t step outside. “No, I’m just a little
sensitive to sunlight.” he snickered.

“What are you?” Melissa asked. “You
did say you weren’t a ghost or a demon.”

“How’s the cut on your thigh?” Rafe
asked.

Melissa instinctively reached for
her leg and moved her hand up her thigh very tenderly. She looked up at him
then and her hands pressed into her skin.

“You’re welcome.” Rafe said and
leaned against the tree. Melissa imagined seeing him smirking in the shadows.

“It’s not bleeding anymore.” She said.

“Actually it’s completely healed. I
did it.” Rafe boasted.

Melissa turned to look back at the
street and wondered where Mark was. Had he followed her trail to the sewers? Would
he be able to guess she was not in the sewers anymore? Maybe she could throw
her jacket in the waters so that he could spot it and come rescue her.

“Thinking about Mark?” Rafe said
dryly. “He won’t be coming here.”

“Mark will find me.” Melissa said
and clenched her hands into fists. “He will come save me.”

“If he wanted to save you, he would
have never sent you here in the first place.”

“Mark said your spirit was focused
on me and so only I could be used as bait to lure...”

Rafe started to laugh harder and
Melissa wished her voice hadn’t wavered. She believed Mark and she definitely
trusted him. “Where is Jennifer?”

“We’ll get to her later.” Rafe
said. “Before that, you should be aware of some truths.”

Melissa stepped back towards where
the islet slopped into the waters. “Help!” she screamed. “Mark!”

“Mark won’t come to save you.” Rafe
said. “He’s offered you as a sacrifice.”

“Just shut-up!” Melissa said. “Mark
said you’d try to trick me; try to confuse me. It won’t work. I know exactly
what you are and Mark will come and get me.”

“Except Mark tricked you into
believing he was telling the truth.” Rafe said. “He didn’t tell you what
happened that night did he? That one…fateful night that started this all?”

Melissa considered picking up the
rock and hurling at him, but what if that just went through him or worse,
enraged him? “Let’s see, you said the riders burnt to death while Mark said
that you and your friends crashed into each other after the cops set up a trap
for you. I’m going to have to go with Mark’s version. You know, since it seems
all the more plausible than your lies!”

“Well, well!” Rafe said and stood
up straight. “Mark did tell you half the story. The truth is, the riders not
only crashed but burnt to death in that accident along with some innocents.”

“Save it! I’m not going to trust a
word that comes out of your mouth.” Melissa retorted. “Besides, who cares how
you fiends died?”

“Not even if I tell you who the
innocents were?” Rafe teased. “You may be surprised or...shocked. I’ll give you
a hint- it’s something to do with Mark.”

“And now you’re going to tell me
that Mark and his friends are demons.” Melissa said.

“Now, why in the world would I say
that?” Rafe grinned and stepped closer towards her.

“Because you’re a liar?”

“The truth is...”he started to say
and then walked towards her.  

The trees were still shadowing him
and Melissa felt her breath caught in her throat. His silhouette was bigger
than yesterday.
Had he morphed to his true self?

“That there were two others,
innocents, who had died that night too.”

Rafe started to step into the
sunlight and then hesitated. “They were Mark’s parents!”

“What?” she asked.

Rafe stepped out of his shadows
then and Melissa felt her heart stop beating as she gazed at his face. She
screamed as he drew closer; his hands reaching for her throat.

Melissa had only seen demons in
books and movies and she had imagined that if they existed they too would have
horns and fire breathing abilities along with scales all over their bodies. But
the sight before her sent cold shivers all over her body.

She kept screaming without even realizing
it and Rafe caught hold of her wrist, pulling her closer towards him. His face
looked like it had been peeled off by a fork and stabbed several times
thereafter. But it was his cold menacing eyes that made her want to scream. The
eyes looked hollowed and rusty as if something had crawled up there and died
several eons ago. Nevertheless they seeped into her soul, destroying every
emotion inside her.

Rafe put a rough arm on her that
felt like dry bark and pulled her into the shadows.

“Let me go!” she blubbered.
“Please!” She willed herself to free herself, but her limbs felt like jelly and
she couldn’t take her eyes from Rafe as they stepped into the shadows. His
touch on her was searing and she imagined she would have burn marks on her skin
for the rest of her life. If she did get to live that long.

It was then that Rafe suddenly
transformed into a human being. He looked as he had appeared to her three
nights ago. His face was almost handsome now. His eyes no longer held any
power, they were soft and brown and Melissa found herself falling to the ground.
It was just a mask. She now knew what Rafe really looked like.

“Sorry you had to see that.” Rafe
said and kneeled towards her. “That’s why I never walk into sunlight. The sun
reveals my true self.”

“What are you going to do to me?”
Melissa asked and wiped her nose with the side of her palm.

“Relax, will you? If I wanted to
kill you I would have done so last night.” Rafe got up and picked up a twig
from nearby. He threw it into the water and watched as it created ripples.

Melissa felt her panic disappearing
as she stared at the ripples. It seemed to have a calming effect on her and she
took a deep breath to fill her lungs.

“I’m a demonic soul.” Rafe said
after a while. “No surprise there. I’m here because of what Mark did.”

Melissa hugged her knees. She had
so many questions, but all she could do was keep telling herself again and
again that she was in the presence of a monster.

Rafe took a deep breath. “Three years
ago, five riders were riding down the street. The cops had laid a trap for them
and the plan was in motion. But they made one tiny little mistake. They had
overlooked one of the roads that intersected and the riders skidded and hit the
car that was coming in the opposite direction. It was all very careless, but
the engine blew up, there was a fire and the riders and Mark’s parents perished
in the fire.”

Melissa tried to remember
everything she knew about Mark. He did have parents, he did live in a house and
he had never told her about any such incident. But, she had only known Mark for
a year.

“How is all this Mark’s fault?” Melissa
said. “He’s the victim here. Your story has a major flaw. I know Mark and I
have met his parents.”

Rafe picked up a pebble and threw
it into the water. He grinned as the pebble bounced several times on the water
surface before sinking. “I miss doing regular things like these, you know, when
I used to be a human too. That was a very long time ago.”

Melissa moistened her lips and took
off her jacket. She pulled up her hair and leaned her head against the tree
trunk, studying Rafe. He really didn’t appear very threatening now. She could
see his eyes moistening as he was talking to her and she found herself feeling
sorry for him. She shook herself from that thought. What had gotten into her?
Rafe was a demon!

“And then I did some pretty bad
stuff, got sent to hell. But my work was really appreciated and I was given
charge of a section of cursed souls.”

Melissa shuddered. She didn’t want
to believe Rafe, it all seemed too ludicrous, but how could she forget that she
had just seen his true self?

“How does Mark into fit all this?” Melissa
asked.

“Oh, coming back to your earlier
accusation, did Mark really introduce those people as his parents or his uncle
and aunt?”

Melissa thought back to that day.
Mark had usually avoided inviting her home and she had thought nothing of it
until now. But there was this one time when Mark had sprained his ankle and
couldn’t come to school. She had gone to his home then to give his homework
assignments. And what had he said then?

“Melissa, these are my...”

“Mr. and Mrs. Stone!” she had
smiled, eager to impress them. “How nice to meet you!”

She put her head in her hands and
stared at the ground. Couldn’t she just have stayed quiet for two seconds and
let Mark introduce them? But how could Mark let her keep thinking that they
were her parents?

“Anyway,” Rafe continued. “Mark
came here with his uncle when he found out. The police of course wanted to keep
this quiet, but when Mark’s uncle started to delve further into this matter,
the cops told him that the riders were drunk and had crashed into the car.”

“It must be so awful for him.” Melissa
said.

“It was!” Rafe said. “After he got
over his grief, he started to realize that it was entirely the riders fault. So
he cursed them. Wished that they were right in front of him so that he could
kill them all.”

“He was angry.” she said. “Who
wouldn’t think of those things?”

“Usually, in my business, a curse
such as this would mean more terrible years in hell, but the riders were
wrongfully cursed. You see, it was actually the cops who had screwed up, but
Mark didn’t know that. So his curse gave these souls the power to escape every
year at that very month until they find justice or until someone breaks the
curse.” Rafe explained.

“But you’re one of the souls
and...”

Rafe slapped his forehead and
frowned at her. “I was never one of the riders. I was in charge of them. There
are five demonic souls out there that even Mark can’t identify. Still. You’d
think they would send someone capable enough…”

“Then tell him. Tell Mark
everything you told me. If he knew that he made the mistake...”

“Mark already knows.” Rafe said.
“He found out a year later when the souls showed up the first time. He was just
visiting the city and overheard a rookie cop talking about it. He couldn’t
believe it so I told him the whole story.”