Evelyn didn’t need a mirror to know that she looked a hot mess. The eyeliner and smoky eye shadow she’d worked so hard on before Trevor arrived was streaming down her cheeks, a tarry river, she was sure.
“Is… is that why you’re talking to me now?” he asked. The first time she noticed dejection in his gaze. “Because you feel like you have to settle?”
“Oh, sweetie, no.” Evelyn wiped her eyes. “No, no, no… You have more integrity and smarts and sexiness in your pinky toe than that dumb brute’s entire body. And I don’t care how much money you have.” Words she couldn’t believe had just come out of her mouth. “It wasme. The nonsense I thought I needed to put up with to make it.” She pulled Trevor in. “You have family stuff… and I have stuff, too, connected to how I grew up. My parents weren’t around, were too strung out to take care of me, so I was raised by my grandparents. Mostly my granddad after Grandmama died. He wasn’tnasty, not exactly, but he wasn’t that nice. And he didn’t know a thing about raising a child, especially a girl. I had to figure out how to take care of myself and make myself useful so he’d keep me around. I was so scared… I was so scared he wouldn’t want to keep me around.”
“Evie…” Trevor held her tighter. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“That’s why… that’s why I was with Kent. That’s why I worked so hard, because I wanted to make sure Mtume wouldn’t get rid of me. I needed to be safe.”
Evelyn’s sobs filled the apartment as the weight of it all dragged her down, as Trevor led her to the couch. His arm remained around her waist as he reached for the box of Kleenex on her coffee table. He grasped one, two, three, four, five wads of tissue and held them in her lap. Her sobs, a ragged noise that made her feel even more embarrassed. She couldn’t stop the shame from spewing forth, from surrounding her. She was about to drown.
“Something happened recently,” she whispered, unsure if she should go on. “I met this woman, Trevor, this strange woman, Linda, the one who they say caught the first demon eye. She had me at her agency, and something happened. But I can’t fully remember. But something happened, for real… It’s like, things from my past keep coming up. Memories. And I’ve been feeling things, big emotions, almost out of control. But they don’t feel wrong. It’s just more like… I’m feeling what I should’ve been feeling for a long time. Like I’m more than that scared little girl stuck with Granddad.” The dreams of her dancing blue, she kept to herself.
“Yeah, I’ve noticed… a change from when we first met,” Trevor said. “There was this vibe I picked up from you months ago that made me wonder… I don’t know… I thought that maybe you were trying to keep certain things under wraps.” He shrugged. “But now, how we’ve been getting down, how you’ve been taking charge, going after what you want… it’s like you’re free. Even your voice, with your sultry Toni Braxton thinggoing on. I thought you took up smoking because of job stress.” He lightly tapped her shoulder. “I’m messing with you. I just… I don’t want you to be sad. You’re my baby.”
Evelyn’s heart melted at those words. More tears tumbled down. “You’re right. I do feel different. All that time… all that energy it took to be chipper little Evie.” She dotted at her face with a tissue.
As overwhelmed as she’d felt moments ago, it dawned on her she wasn’t hurting. She wasn’t in pain. Despite what Trevor had just said, she wasn’t even sad. Not really. She’d simply held on to things for far too long. To give them air, to let them breathe… it was overwhelming, draining… yes. But she wasn’t hurting.
“I need to get something straight…” Trevor slowly reached for more wads of Kleenex, his eyes trained on Evelyn as if she’d have another breakdown if he said the wrong thing. “You said you’d met privately with Linda Villanueva, the woman who ran down the first demon eye? So what’s she like?” He arched one of his eyebrows. The podcaster was making himself known.
“Um… she’s…” Evelyn took a moment. Discussing Linda Villanueva, thinking about Linda, made her anxious. “My memory of our encounter, like I said, it’s foggy. But I think she’s strong, no-nonsense… and maybe a little sad? Yeah, something about her just seems heavy, like she’s carrying something.”
Trevor nodded. “I hear you. Some of the other hosts at the station have been trying to get her on one of their shows, but doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. No response to their emails. And the only person who picks up the phone at her agency is a snippy British woman who says Ms. Villanueva isn’t available.”
“Have you heard? Last count from this morning, they’ve rounded up a dozen demon eyes.” News she didn’t want to bring up.
Trevor’s mouth became a straight, grim line. As if something shadowyand nefarious had entered Evelyn’s apartment. “Yeah, I heard that, too,” he said.
“What’s it like outside?” she asked, the need to get answers suddenly overwhelming. “I haven’t left my apartment in days. I’ve had my groceries delivered, just sticking my head out for air…” She gestured at a window. “I’ve been trying not to check out the news too much because I honestly… I don’t know what to think.”
“Outside is… quiet,” Trevor said. “Folks are collectively holding their breath, waiting to see what’s next. No one’s really hanging out just to hang out. A lot of people are scared they can become possessed by a ghost or demon just by breathing air. Like this craziness is some sort of infection.” Trevor interlaced his fingers with her own, their hands joined among puffs of tissue. “We’ve been discussing nonstop how to cover this over at the station. ‘Mystical specialists’ are floating around claiming all sorts of things. Some say we shouldn’t be jumping to conclusions, others that a ‘great evil’ has landed. A lot of them seem full of shit to me. A good amount of folks have left the district.”
“I know. Do you think… Are you planning to leave?” Evelyn’s unspoken question lingered.Would you ask me to come with you?She had no right to request such a thing. Who they were as a couple… They weren’t even a couple, not really. They simply weren’t there.
Trevor held out his hands. “No, I’m not leaving. Some of my family’s like, ‘Fuck this shit.’ We have people in Arkansas and Louisiana, so they think it’s better to get to safety while they can before it gets like the last forty minutes ofSinnersup in here. But I’m like, ‘What’s the point?’ Idothink this is something supernatural… Even folks at the station agree about that. We’re living in a new, mystical world. I don’t know if running around, jumping from state to state is going to solve anything. At some point, we’ll have to face whatever the fuck this is.” He paused. “No offense, Evie, if you’re thinking about getting up out of here. I wouldn’t blame you.”
“No… it’s fine… I get it. I’ve thought about it, of course. About leaving. But I think I agree with you, that we can’t just run willy-nilly. Oh, Trevor, Ihatethis.” Evelyn had balled her fists in front of her body, like she was ready to box. “I don’t know, DC is my home. I’ve built a good life from practically nothing. I have a great-aunt who lives in Atlanta, but she’s crankier than Granddad from what I hear. If I go somewhere, I’d be starting over.”
“Right. So, I’m just gonna get something real quick. You… are you cool?” His face looked inquisitive and unsure. His arms hovered around her, as if she’d fall apart if he dared step away for a second.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, Trevor.”
“Okay.” He dashed over to the bed and brought his man purse back to the couch. He retrieved a small object. “Check this out.”
“Huh.” Evelyn held the object in her hand. The amulet depicted a handsome face embedded in what appeared to be the sun. The person’s eyes were closed. Their mouth hung open. “This is… nice. What is it?”
“I’ve been researching different belief systems, like I mentioned to you last week. Thinking that maybe I can help figure things out. Definitely going to do a special report–type story at the station. Checking out different modalities, how folks are finding ways to cope. I went to a talk given by this life coach guy who claims he’s also a spiritual practitioner. Gave a lecture over at the Smithsonian where he talked about different wards folks have relied on through the centuries for protection. Was handing out these replicas of a sun symbol ward people across the Caribbean have used for centuries in their households. Figured I’d grab one, see if I can do more research. Haven’t found much about the amulet, but it’s beautiful, right?”
“It is… I suppose.” In her heart, Evelyn was thinking of getting back to church more on the regular, though she wondered how much safety a house of worship could provide if a man of God like Pastor Samuelsonwas supposedly possessed. The amulet, something she was sure many would deem Satanic.
Trevor tossed the amulet onto the table and gestured toward the garment bag still on her bed. “So, I’d planned for this to be our gods-and-goddesses time, but maybe the mood is, like… dead, with all of our emotional revelations and talk about demon eyes and getting the hell up outta the DMV.”
Evelyn drew her legs up on the couch, placed her head on his shoulder, placed her fingers in his beard. If just for another night, she needed to keep the world’s turmoil at bay. “I’d love to be your goddess for the night, Trevor Montague.”
Trevor picked up the garment bag from where he’d rested it on her bed, held it in his arms, and got on one knee as he presented it to Evelyn.
“This is for you,” he said. “I, uh, kind of explained to Jackie over at the station what I wanted. I showed her your picture, and she wanted to help me out immediately because you’re such a, and I quote, ‘pretty, accomplished woman.’ She grabbed something for me from this showroom she works with.”
