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“Okay, I got it. No staying overtime," he choked out, the darkness enveloping him on all sides.
It moved again, but no coldness followed its fluid movement. The eyes drifted from Mel for the first time to stare down the hallway.
Mel moved between it and Anastacia.
“All due respect, I’m tired of the fucking charades,” Mel growled and locked eyes with the shadowed thing in front of him. There was another icy shiver, this time with a bit of a bite.
Good, he’d pissed it off. Its focus would be on him for a little while longer.
“You know how I feel about her. If that breaks some unwritten rule or tears at the fabric of the universe, I couldn’t give a fuck. Yes, you’re scary as all hell, but if there’s a price to be paid for what we feel, thenI’llpay it. You leave her out of it. You’ve taken enough from her already. She deserves her light at the end. If you need a soul, you take mine instead of hers.”
Even if we take it now?
A million voices invaded Mel’s head, their speech in unison, tones stacked.
Mel stepped back, tears burning behind his eyes as shivers of fear rippled through his spirit. This could be his last moment on earth, and he wouldn’t get a chance to say goodbye. He would be shredded into pieces and leave Anastacia behind to find them. Panic vibrated in him, his vision swimming as his feet slid back another inch.
As we thought.
The mass reached again for the hallway, reeling back when Mel stepped in front of it again, tears streaking down his cheeks. His hand slammed against the wall, arm blocking the hallway. A feeble attempt he was sure, but he would do anything.
“I’ll pay it,” he whispered.
And if your payment is not what we want?
“Then I guess you’re still taking me because I don’t care what it takes. You aren’t taking her. You’re going to have to rip me apart first.”
His fingers tightened their grip on the wall when he heard the water stop; her still scratchy voice hummed a few tunes behind the bathroom door. He pushed toward the creature. His whole being felt like it was breaking apart, shivering with such intense cold as the Gatekeeper loomed over him, shadows growing around him. He still refused to move from his spot.
“I’m not moving. She stays here.”
You’ve made your choice.
Above him, the shadows covered all light and, just as suddenly as the Gatekeeper had appeared, all the shadows dispersed.
Anastaciawalkedintothekitchen wrapped in a towel and looked around with a frown, “Mel?”
She wrung out her hair as the water dripped along her shoulders and down to the towel secured around her chest. Her brow shifted downward in confusion, the quiet of the apartment disturbing her. There was no faint tick of the clock or hum of the fridge. The dryer had stopped tumbling. Most notably, there wasn’t a certain ghost cracking jokes. She didn’t feel a dark spirit, but she checked the back door, seeing part of the salt barrier still where she put it. After a quick look into the front room, she noticed the other corner was also undisturbed and took a hesitant step into the colder-than-normal kitchen.
A loud rumble filled the air, cutting through the silence.
“Shit!” she screamed, glaring at the dryer. Her clothes from the night before were on a wrinkle-free spin, starting the dryer back up again. Catching her breath, she opened the dryer to throw on her clothes and tossed the towel into the washer for later.
“Damn it, Mel! You could have warned me about the after-cycle. It scared me half to death.” She chuckled at the absurdity and turned around, hoping he was there. Her heart sank when she found only the empty apartment in front of her.
She swallowed the intense tug at her chest, as if something pulled her heart further down into her stomach with every beat, causing the pulse to flutter in an erratic pattern. Closing her eyes, she placed her palms flat on the counter to ground herself in the physical world. With a deep breath, she opened herself completely to anything in the apartment.
Fear saturated the air around her. Intense, but not hers.
Her legs carried her from the kitchen to both bedrooms, her voice aching as she yelled out his name. The remnants of fear intensified as her own added to it, becoming cloying, making it hard for her to draw a deep breath. He wouldn’t leave. Not now. He would tell her. Leave her something.
In the living room, she fell into his chair, closing her eyes. She took a deep breath and concentrated further, digging deeper. She wasn’t calm enough to get into the mindset for full meditation, but she could push her gift to reach out even past the salt boundaries she laid out. Her fingernails gouged into the upholstery as she delved further into her mind. She had never dug this deep into her gift, but he was worth it.
“He wouldn’t just leave.” Her voice trembled along with her now shaking arms.
There was something at the edge of her mind, beyond the walls of the apartment.
Her name was being called. It wasn’t his voice, but it was just as familiar.
