The Marradtih Ryder Series: The Art of Shadows, Part 58
Marradith turned over in bed and looked at the clock.
The digital letters screamed back at her: 3:15 A.M .
Closing her eyes, she sighed and pulled back the covers. Other than the drone of the air conditioner, and crickets chirping outside her window, all was deathly quiet.
She wondered if Danny had been able to get to sleep with all that weighed on his mind.
If she were back in her own home, she’d have wandered downstairs to get a cola. But she felt odd about walking around in her Uncle’s house at night.
Instead, she turned over, her back to the clock, and tried to relax.
She fell asleep, and quickly into dreams.
***
Marradith could feel something was wrong.
Before she could even see him, she heard his voice.
“Mari, don’t you think you better get some rest for tommorow, sweetheart?”
Leighton stood in front of a fireplace. He had a drink in hand. His hair was down, falling across his shoulders. “You don’t want to be tired before our guests get here.”
“I… I guess I should.”
He kissed her cheek. “Go on. I know how you get when you’re tired. You get your crankiness from me.”
Shaking her head, disoriented, Marradith climbed the stairway.
At the top of the stairs was a small bedroom. She walked in. The room was pristine in its neatness. No posters on the wall, no hair products on the dresser or pictures pinned to the mirror.
She walked to the bed.
Laid across it was a black dress.
The top of it was a leather bustier, and the skirt was made of a thin, floaty fabric. She picked it up.
When she looked in the mirror, she was wearing it. The bodice was so tight it restricted her breathing.
Justin was suddenly beside the mirror.
“Is this who you want to be?” he asked. His eyes glowed green. “It’s not enough to be mine, you need the others too?”
“What are you talking about?” Marradith demanded. Justin moved towards her, menacing, his teeth bared.
“You want to be the Pack Mother,” he said. “You’ll still have me to answer to.”
“I don’t answer to anyone,” she spat. She left the room, slamming the door behind her.
She was no longer in Leighton’s house.
She was in the woods, but this wasn’t a familiar place. It wasn’t the Ryder property. At least, not as she knew it.
She did, however, recognize the house up ahead. She ran towards it.
The front door was unlocked, and she walked in.
This was the guesthouse she shared with Justin. There was a framed picture on the mantelpiece of them standing on a beach with black sand. The Spanish grandfather clock that Rafael bought as a wedding gift ticked softly on the wall.
Darkness gathered outside; in moments the sky changed from day to night. None of the light switches in the house worked, so she went into the kitchen. The matches were where she always left them beside the stove. But where were the candles? They were usually in the cupboard, but she couldn’t find them.
“You don’t need those,” David said.
“How did you get in here?” Marradith demanded. The grandfather clock chimed with the stroke of the hour.
“You left the door open,” he replied.
He motioned, and she saw that not only was the door open, but a storm was brewing in the darkness. The wind blew dead leaves across the livingroom.
“Close it,” Marradith screamed. The door slammed shut.
David turned to her with a smile. “See how it is? Now that we’re here, we are both stronger. We will be able to do things together that neither of us could do alone.”
David opened his palm. Floating above his hand was a globe of light. It was the size of a baseball, and the ambient light was enough to brighten the room. “This belongs to you.”
“I didn’t invite you inside,” Marradith said.
He took a tentative step towards her. “Yes you did.”
He moved closer, until he was so close that she felt his breath on her face. “If it’s not what you want, tell me. I’ll go. But now that I am here, it will hurt us both if you make me leave.”
David closed his palm, and the light disappeared in his fist.
She hesitated. She could feel the heat of his body, his energy.
Marradith touched his chest.
He moved forward, and put his arms around her. He kissed her mouth, and then her neck. She clutched him, pressing her nails into his back. He moved her backwards.
She felt her back hit the kitchen wall. He was on top of her still, only now she was pulling at his shirt. he whispered in her ear. Or at least she though he did. He could have been speaking to her telepathically. His lips brushed her earlobe.
The wind howled, bending the house. Leaves, dirt, and bits of trees came flying through the black space where the ceiling once was, yawning open like an animal’s mouth.
David pulled away for a moment, long enough for her to look in his eyes. She touched his face and realized that they were both dirty, covered in soil and dead things from the forest that piled up around them. The walls were melting away around them, disappearing into ashes.
“See what we can create?” he said. “When we bind our flesh, we share our power.”
***
Marradith jolted awake.
Shivering, sweating, she looked around. She was alone in her bedroom. All was quiet, other than the crickets and their nighttime chorus.
Laying back down, she turned over her pillow. The cotton soothed her fevered skin.
She closed her eyes but opened them after a time. So often dreams faded upon waking.
This one didn’t.
She kept seeing David’s face smeared and dirty, hovering over her. And his whisper in her ear, with all the commotion roaring around them.
Let me inside.
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©2011 Lori Titus
Tags: Lori Titus, The Art of Shadows, The Marradith Ryder Series
October 12th, 2011 at 8:05 am
Nice. David is really starting to creep me out…