I swung my legs out from under the covers. I started to lower my feet to the floor but paused. Something was amiss.
I lifted one leg and peered at the bottom of my foot. It was rubbed black with dirt.
My other foot looked exactly the same. I anxiously lifted back the covers. The area where my feet had been had scatterings of dirt across it, like I had gone on an epic walk in my bare feet and crawled back into bed without cleaning myself off.
A vicious knot formed in the pit of my stomach. Last night had to have been a dream. I mean, I wasn"t wet. And I certainly wasn"t dead.
"Darling?"
"Coming," I said unable to control the warble in my voice. I quickly brushed all the dirt off of the sheets and tucked the cover back down. I vigorously rubbed my feet against the grey carpeting, glad that the scratchy cheapness and forgiving color would hide the evidence. I couldn"t explain why, but I didn"t want Maximus to know about this. Not yet, at any rate.
He had laid out a white robe on top of my duffel bag, so I pulled it on and walked out into the rest of the apartment.
The newness and generic quality of the factory-churned apartment no longer made me feel safe. How could I be safe when I was leaving places like this in the middle of the night and going on little night hikes?
"Are you all right? You look a bit pale," Maximus said as I came into the kitchen. He flipped two slices of bacon onto a plate of eggs and toast and nudged it toward me with his elbow. "That"s all for you, sunshine."
"Thank you," I said with as much graciousness I could muster. I took the plate and sniffed at it with appreciation. "I"m just a bit...tired."
He nodded with a smile and twisted around to grab some salt from the spice rack. It was then I saw his face, the four thin, scabbing scratches that stretched from his cheekbone down to the side of his mouth.
I gulped and gripped the plate extra hard so I wouldn"t drop it.
He raised his brow at me, then his lips twitched sheepishly. "Oh right, my face. I"m telling you Perry-"
"I"m so sorry!" I exclaimed, cutting him off. I put the plate on the counter with a clatter and reached up for his face, gently pressing my fingers along the cuts. It actually suited him, adding an additional layer of ruggedness and mystique, but it still shamed me. I wasn"t that violent of a person, and I"d never been rough during s.e.x before.
He grabbed my hand and kissed it, his eyes never leaving my face. He didn"t seem mad or put-off but it didn"t make me feel any better. "No worries. I reckon I probably deserved it."
"I wasn"t trying to hurt you," I told him. But as soon as those words left my mouth I was second-guessing them.
He shrugged and gave my hand a squeeze. "I wouldn"t blame you. But, hey, sometimes the first time is bit wishy-washy. I reckon we"ll find our groove."
Placing a kiss on my cheek, he sprinkled extra salt on his eggs and took it to the table. The thing was, I didn"t know if there would even be another time to find our groove. Now that it was the next morning and the steam and l.u.s.t from the night had died down, I couldn"t spend too much time having a relationship with Maximus. I didn"t even know if I wanted one. Maybe I just wanted to get laid. What I did know what there was something much larger I needed to concentrate on.
I sat down across from him and helped myself to a pot of fresh-brewed coffee.
"How close are we to a library?" I asked him between sips.
"You"re the Portland native, little lady," he pointed out as he cradled the mug in his large hands. "Going to do some reading, are we?"
"I am."
"Do you care for the company of a gentleman?"
I looked around me mockingly. "I would but I don"t see any."
He chuckled to himself and tucked into his food. "Well you just let me know then."
"You can come if you help me. And not laugh at me. Not judge me."
He paused, his eggs balancing on his fork. "Why would you say that?"
I leaned forward, making sure he knew how serious I was. "I"m getting books out on demon possession."
I could so tell he wanted to say something to change my mind but to his credit he swallowed it down. Literally, I could see his Adam"s apple bob against his long throat.
"What brought this on?" he asked in a steady voice. His eyes were a bit glazed as if he were already judging me in his head.
"It"s just something I"ve obviously been thinking about."
"But Perry, demon possession is one thing. A ghost is another. They aren"t the same things."
"They are similar," I protested.
He shook his head adamantly, his eyes widening. "No they aren"t. A ghost is the spirit of a dead person. They"re still human beings, or at least were once. A demon isn"t from this world. It"s not human. It has no sense of humanity. It is pure...evil."
He noted my face and added, "I"m not trying to scare you. I just think we would both know it if you were possessed by a demon. I reckon we wouldn"t be sitting here having this conversation. Now, a ghost, maybe Abby...we can work with that theory. We"ll go to the library and get cracking on this."
To be honest, I was a bit amazed at his support. It calmed my nerves and gave me the strength to finish the rest of the food (despite Maximus"s overuse of hot sauce) and gave me the first sense of hope that I"d felt in a long time, the feeling that we were actually going to do something about it all and I finally stood a chance.
I suppose that sense of possibility translated into some pretty amorous feelings because before I knew it, he was taking his shower and poking his red head out from the curtain and inviting me to join him. What I thought earlier, about there not being a next time between us, was out the window. At least for the time being. Traces of dirt from my feet swirled down the drain but Maximus was so distracted by the b.l.o.w.j.o.b that he didn"t notice. I felt the negativity wash away with the dirt as his fingers slid softly, and slickly around my c.l.i.t, and I was even able to o.r.g.a.s.m without feeling like everything would go to h.e.l.l.
Needless to say, we were both fresh-faced (well I was, his face still looked beat up, thanks to my nails) and affectionate as we set out into the bright sunshine and made our way farther downtown, hopping on and off the free public trams. I figured the big, bad brick Central Library would be our best bet for finding some occult-like things. And if I didn"t find anything there, the extensive Powell"s Books would be our second best bet.
The Multnomah Central Library is a historic behemoth. Within a few minutes of scrolling through their online catalogue system, we found a plethora of weird, spooky and unexplained t.i.tles.
Luckily they were all spread out on the same floor. Some sections dealt with ghosts and UFOs while others dealt with demons and witchcraft. Despite what Maximus had said about demon possession being out of the question, I was still curious and when I told him in the ghost aisle that I was going to go check out those books, he didn"t object.
That area of the floor that held the occult books was a little more remote and quiet than the other one. I felt a hush around me as I located the catalogue numbers on the side of the stacks. I did a quick look around for some sign of life. It"s not that I thought it would be busy but the fluorescent light above was flickering on and off and that was always something that put me on edge.
I brushed off the creepy feeling and went down the aisle, the tall shelves looming over me, like they were threatening to topple over and crush me to death. I stopped at the right numbers and began flipping through the books.
It immediately felt wrong. I felt like just picking up the books and flipping them over in my hands was inviting something dark and dangerous into my life. Of course, that was ridiculous there was already something dark and dangerous in my life. And it wasn"t just me.
My back erupted in a mixture of icy p.r.i.c.kles and cold sweat and I tugged at the back of my jacket, trying to ease my tunic off my sticky body. Even though I was in a public library, it was a quiet Monday, I was away from Maximus and the library itself was old and ripe with history. If I closed my eyes I could imagine the way the section looked at the turn of the century. Perhaps the occult books were sealed up in a special tomb, covered in cobwebs and surrounded by dripping water.
A cold breath blew against my cheek.
I let out a small cry and jumped, dropping my books. I ignored the pain as the largest book landed on my toe, and I looked around wildly. The lights flickered, the aisle was empty.
"Jesus, Perry," I swore at myself, then cringed at my poor choice of words.
I squatted down to the ground to pick up the books. As I did so, I looked across the tops of the books on the very bottom shelf.
I saw a pair of legs from ankle to knees standing in the other aisle. They were bare with tons of little scratches on them in red criss-cross designs. They were as still as death and the bookshelf was the only thing separating us.
I paused, my fingers blindly coiling around the spine of the thickest book. I didn"t want to take my eyes off the legs, especially since no one was standing there two seconds ago.
The legs turned and walked slowly, soundlessly, to the right. I carefully rose, trying to catch a peek of movement in between the books but I couldn"t see anything. I watched anxiously, my pulse pounding rapidly in my throat, and waited for the person to turn the corner and show themselves.
A soft laugh from behind me.
I spun around, keeping the treacherous books close to my chest. A hardcover at the end of the aisle was pushed out of its spot by something on the other side and fell to the ground with a thunk.
It could just be an actual person, someone careless, I told myself. Just someone looking for books on gardening and not realizing they"re making a mess.
From the opposite shelf, and closer to me, another book was pushed out, splatting face down and open on the library"s carpeted floor.
I took a step back.
A hand reached out from between the shelves and grabbed the belt around my waist.
I cried out and pulled away from the female hand that tightened its bony grip around me. In my panic I glimpsed up at the shelf and saw the red, gleaming eyes looking at me. The bottom half of her face was obscured but I knew what her teeth looked like and I knew she was smiling wickedly.
With a final tug I ripped myself out of her grasp and, losing my balance, flew back against the other shelf, nearly knocking it over as the pointy edges of books dug into my back. I wasted no time in getting to my feet and racing out of there, hearing the continuous sound of falling books in my wake.
I ran throughout the stacks, my heart racing, ignoring the dirty looks of old people reading newspapers and students trying to study at random desks. I ran until I found Maximus with a mound of books spread out on a table, flipping through the pages.
He looked up at me and immediately got out of his chair.
"Perry, what happened?"
I shook my head, too out of breath and scared to speak.
He was getting better at reading me. He put his hand on my shoulder and hunched over, looking at me closely. "Do you want me to go take a look?"
I shook my head again. "Can we go?"
"Of course," he said, and immediately began to pick up a few books, leaving the rest for the librarians to pick up.
He eyed my chest. "You"re taking that?"
I looked down. I was still clutching the largest book to my chest, holding on to it for dear life. It was dark brown with the dust jacket missing and read Demonology 101 in gold script. I guessed it was coming with me.
"So what did you end up doing all day?" my mother asked during dinner, another mound of mashed potatoes and fried chicken that I didn"t want to touch.
Oh you know, I thought as I made fork impressions in the potatoes. Woke up after a night of s.e.x and sleepwalking, had breakfast, gave an awesome b.l.o.w.j.o.b in the shower, went to the library for books on possession, saw a demon. The usual.
Instead of saying all that though I looked up and gave her a smile. "Went to the library, got some books."
"Are you working tomorrow?" my dad asked. He was looking worse for wear, with puffy rings of sleeplessness beneath his eyes. After Maximus and I left the library, he wanted to know if my dad needed a hand in cleaning out the study. By then it was too late; my dad had the cleaners in the wee hours of the morning and everything was done. Looking at my dad, I could see how much of a strain the whole situation was putting on him. I wasn"t the only one suffering.
"No, I"m not on many shifts this week," I said. It was true, too. I mean, I wasn"t on any shifts until I could prove to Shay that I wasn"t a psychopath, and I had a feeling that was easier said than done.
I expected him to grumble in disapproval but he didn"t. He just went back to eating.
I looked over at Ada, who was being unusually silent. She was eyeing my neck strangely and as soon as she caught me looking, her lips squirmed into a knowing smile. I had a feeling I probably had a huge hickey and I immediately moved my hair over to that side to cover it, which in turn made Ada laugh.
"Maybe you should ask Perry how her night was," she said gleefully.
My parents exchanged an awkward glance and I shot her the dirtiest of looks.
My mom cleared her throat. "I"m sure Perry had a lovely time with this Max character. He seems like a real doll."
"He is," I agreed, and sat up straighter in my chair, prepared to go into my spiel. You see, I had a plan.
"Mom, dad, I was wondering...things are going really well with Maximus and I want to keep seeing him. Since I"m trying to save money," I gave my dad a pointed look, "I thought perhaps we could have a date in. Like, here. Because his apartment is too small. And I wanted to cook him a really nice dinner."
My mom snorted, the first time I"d heard her laugh in a while. "Perry, you can"t cook. You can bake, but you can"t have apple pie for dinner."
"Yes you can," I said quickly, "But the point is that I wanted us to have some alone time. Here. So...if it"s not too much, I thought maybe you two could go out for dinner. You know, on a date of your own. Then we can all have our private time."
"What about me?" Ada asked with annoyance.
"Oh, you have friends, go hang out with them," I told her. She was put out as she crossed her arms and sat back. I wanted to wink at her because the truth was, Ada wasn"t going anywhere. I wanted the time alone with Maximus so we could do a cleansing ceremony on the house and Ada, even though she didn"t know it yet, was a needed partic.i.p.ant in the event.
I looked back at my parents, putting on my most hopeful and love-struck face. After a few seconds of telepathic hemming and hawing between them, they both looked at me and nodded in peculiar unison.
"OK, sweetie," my mom said. "Just for a few hours, though. And no funny stuff."
She wagged her finger at me, though we all knew I had gotten the funny stuff out of the way last night.
"I wouldn"t dream of it," I said with a smile. Things were slowly falling into place. For once.
After the library, Maximus and I had gone back to his apartment and I explained what happened with the books and seeing Demon Girl. It came down to two things. Either I was so worked up that I was imagining things (not b.l.o.o.d.y likely), or that some supernatural presence was following me around (more likely). If it was the latter, we had to cleanse the house, the place where the haunting originally started. At least at that rate I would be protected in my own home and perhaps libraries and coffee shops would follow soon after that.
A lot of the books that Maximus had checked out had cleansing rituals in them as well as shopping lists of what herbs and oils and candles to buy. He promised he would handle all of that if I could secure the house for an evening, the sooner the better.
"What night would work best for you?" I asked my parents, knowing I"d ask it to be ASAP no matter what their answer was.
Luckily, my dad said, "I have to do some work tomorrow night, so Wednesday will work. How about you, honey?"
My mother nodded and I breathed a sigh of relief.
When dinner was over, I volunteered myself and Ada to wash the dishes; you know, as a thank you so they wouldn"t think about backing out on our arrangement.
"Do you hate me, suddenly?" Ada hissed at me as our parents retired to the sitting room to read and sip decaf.
I made sure my parents were out of earshot before I put the plates in the sink and grabbed her arm.
"Listen, that was all a ruse."
"What? Muse?"
I rolled my eyes. "No. A ruse. As in an act of deception."