Page 45 of Too Cursed To Kiss
“Found it. Anyone got a Band-Aid?” I asked, holding up the album.
“No fucking way,” Britannia rasped as the room filled with a piercing shriek.
I bent my head, cowering as swirls of gray manifested in the air, becoming somewhat corporeal. Was it Agatha? The screeching stopped, but the gray was now body-like, not human but still solid.
“You’re such an idiot,” Britannia snapped, jumping up and half falling back onto the couch as Wald ripped the photo album out of my hands.
My finger throbbed but had almost stopped bleeding. I sucked the cut again. The taste was like iron, and delicate, and strangely focused me as the gray swirl began to have a face with eyes, then many of them, twenty or so. The face wasn’t a shape as much as a swirling mass of scream-worthy,insanity-inducing three-dimensions. It made no sense to my brain that my eyes could track the movement of the swirls, or the eyes, but I could.
I froze in awe as much as panic, wondering what the hell I was looking at but unable to form words. Wald was frantically paging through the photo album. Britannia had backed into a wall, brandishing a large glass fragment. What the fuck good a glass fragment was going to be against a smoke demon-esque creature thing, or whatever you wanted to call what was in front of me, was anyone’s guess.
Then the fricking smoke thing spoke to me in my head. The words slipped through my body as if I had no control to shut them out.
“Harlan… you are mine.”
“Not a chance,” I stammered, stepping back and falling into the chair behind me. Glass fragments crunched under my butt, and I curled in on myself trying to protect my organs as the smoke lunged at me. Wald ran in front of me, so I was now staring at his back. His muskiness drew me, as if he was some rare potion that would give me extra strength. I leaned forward and sniffed him. It was bizarre.
The smoke-thing’s voice sounded in my head.“Step away. She is now mine.”
“No, I hold you, Frank. You are under my control.” Wald’s commanding tone undulated through me, resounding like we were in an echo chamber.
When I tried to get up, Wald was too close for me to have room to stand. I grabbed on to his waist to steady me, and that’s when all hell, or whatever you want to call it, broke loose.
The creature or spirit, or whatever the fuck it was, zipped toward Wald. The gray swirly crap hit Wald without touching him.
I know. It was insane to me too.
The force whipped him against the wall like he was a ball of paper, and still hanging on to his jacket, I was dragged across a pile of broken glass next to the couch before I let go. Wald was holding his head in his hands and writhing as the smoke thing curled, ready to strike again.
I’m pretty good in a crisis, but blood was dripping from glass shards poking out of me, and my odds to make it to the door without ending up like Wald were close to zero. Britannia was still in full cower, holding the glass out like a shield in front of her.
If Agatha had lined this room in mirrors, maybe glass would work against whatever-the-hell-this-thing was. It was worth a shot. Searching for a weapon-worthy piece of mirror, I spotted a round anomaly among the glass fragments. I grabbed it, but my feet began to rise off the floor. Terror twisted my insides as I floated helplessly with the gray smoke raising me up and dragging me toward now glowing red eyes.
Struggling only resulted in the cold grip crushing harder, as if the bond was self-tightening. I squeezed the little rock of glass in my hand as my lungs tightened, every breath rasping. My chest hurt so much it was hard to think about breathing, but it was the only thing I could think about. The world grayed as the maw of the smoke-thing opened, and I prayed to gods I didn’t believe in to save me. In the second I was about to be eaten, I hit the floor.
Excruciating pain tore into my side, and I shrieked as blood gushed around the six-inch long shard of mirror that was impaled into my side.
Wald was holding the Family Album open, his face even whiter than normal. His golden gaze met mine, and his mouth opened as if he couldn’t believe I was still alive.
I felt like I was dying.
Wald flew over to me, and Britannia ripped the book from Wald’s hands as he passed her. My hands were slick with my own blood, and I was near to passing out. I didn’t want to look down. It hurt like hell, and I knew it was going to be ugly.
“Get me to the ER,” I moaned as Wald knelt beside me and attempted to pull my hand away.
“I’m so sorry,” Wald said as the shard moved.
I squealed. “Don’t touch me. I’m going to die. It hurts so much.” The room turned glassy and began to spin.
“You are not going to die. I’ve got you.” Wald picked me up with one hand and with the other brushed the glass off the couch. He laid me down on my good side and curled me toward him.
“There’s no other way. This is going to hurt, but I will take care of you. I promise.”
I sank into his musky scent as his fingers fumbled at my back, undoing the corselette strings. His scent soothed me as he gently peeled the black satin away from my skin.
“This was not what I had in mind for the first undressing…” he said breathily.
When I choked out a laugh, he pushed me back onto my side fast enough I didn’t get to breathe out aNo. With a quick brutal movement, he yanked out the glass. I guess. I actually have no idea because I was screaming my fucking lungs out at the time.
