Page 10

Kali

T he shadow man was really starting to piss me off. My feelings towards him were beginning to rival my feelings towards Blake, and that was saying something about his ability to get under my skin.

It was constant. Constant watching. Constant taunting. Sometimes, he openly mocked me, yet not once had he shown himself. Even now, he remained in the shadows, his eyes boring into me as I watched the girl. She was crying now. Her screams had died out a few days ago after Blake’s last visit. He’s left her with enough food to last a week, some of it hot, though it cooled too fast for it to mean much, but most of it was pre-packaged snack food. Cheez-its, goldfish, a few sandwiches, but mostly potato chips and Twinkies. Those had always been his favourites, his sweet tooth even worse than my own.

Her wrists and ankles were still bound, but he’d pulled up a bedside table that consisted of three drawers that he filled with the food. There was a pitcher of water on top, both the pitcher and the cup made from plastic. Less likely to break and be used as a weapon against him. Such irony, that he enjoyed doling out the pain, yet he couldn’t take it himself. Fucking coward. She could reach it all with her left hand if she pulled against the chains enough, but she kept getting frustrated as they tangled from her struggles, further restricting her range of movement.

It didn’t matter if she could reach the table, though. She was starving herself, hoping to choose her death rather than be killed at the hands of her captor. It wasn’t going to work, but it wasn’t like I was in any position to warn her. She couldn’t fucking see me.

The now familiar dark chuckle resonated throughout the room, bouncing off of walls and reverberating back to me with danger in every echo. The sound lingered like a bad taste, yet something about it called to me. Something I couldn’t name. Still, the shadow man was stalking me, then had the audacity to laugh at me when I became frustrated in my helplessness. Progress was still progress, but did it have to be so goddamn slow?

‘ Pathetic, useless little girl,’ he mocked from the darkest corner of the room. I couldn’t see him, but if I squinted, I could just barely make out the thrashing of his smoky tendrils.

‘What do you want, asshole?’ I snapped, addressing him directly for the first time after days of ignoring him.

‘ Ah, so you’ve finally given in and deigned to speak with me. It’s about time.’

‘I’ll stop if you keep avoiding my questions. I still don’t know who you are or what you want, so either tell me or shut the fuck up and leave me be.’

His laughter was richer, darker, like smooth, melted chocolate. ‘ If you want to know the answers to those questions, then you will have to earn them.’

I rolled my eyes, my patience running thin. ‘And how would I do that?’

‘ You are attempting to harness a power beyond your reach, but it remains so because you are missing one vital piece of information. Figure it out, and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.’

‘Why don’t you just tell me what I’m missing, and then we can bypass these stupid games?’ I snarked back.

‘Because that would defeat the purpose of the test. Either you figure it out, or you don’t. I suggest you put the pieces together before I lose interest. You are amusing, but you won’t always be.’

I felt more than saw his presence leave, and I spat as many curse words as possible in the corner he had just vacated. Fucking bastard. I wasn’t here to solve anyone’s riddles, and I certainly wasn’t here for his fucking entertainment. I had a job to do and power to harness, and I was going to do it with or without him stalking me.

I’d dealt with worse than a stalker. I might not have survived, but I was still here, even if in a different way. I was still fighting.

Angry and also bored of watching the girl cry, I left as well. I wasn’t following the shadow man, even if a part of me was curious where he went whenever he disappeared (and how he did it, because that sort of power was the goal, here). I just needed to get out of that damn basement, leave that fucking cabin in my dust, and never look back. Unfortunately for me, unless my bones were moved, I was stuck here. It didn’t matter how far I pushed the barrier and widened my spherical prison, I would always need to come back to my bones to replenish my energy reserves.

Yet another thing that was pissing me off lately.

I decided to glide over to the edges of my domed cage, though I didn’t intend to push any further today. I simply wanted to watch and wait. This side of the property backed up onto the neighbour’s house. I could tell that someone lived there, but I’d never seen them. I was curious about them. They lived beside a serial killer, surely they’d heard the screams? Felt the presence of the spirits that had died so close to where they rested their head at night?

I had spent most of last night imagining it was an older couple, too decrepit to acknowledge the evil happening less than a mile from their cosy little home. It was a single-storey house, mostly well-kept, though it was in dire need of a new paint job, and there was a dirt driveway with tire tracks that proved at least one vehicle was still coming and going. Little plants that needed watering lined the pathway to the front door, an array of colourful blooms and multicoloured grasses caging in a cut little cobblestone path. It was picturesque, if you looked past the signs of recent neglect.

Still, it was sturdy. Homely.

The sun was just beginning to set when the rumble of an old, weathered truck reached me. My gaze immediately darted to the road, where I watched a beat-up pickup truck with pealing red paint ambling up the driveway. Even from this distance, I could see the pink, fluffy steering wheel cover and gaudy dreamcatcher hanging from the rearview mirror.

What I couldn’t see was the driver. Until he stepped out. If I’d had breath in my lungs, it would have hitched. This man was one of the most beautiful creatures I had ever seen. Lush caramel curls dipped low over his head, and he raised a muscular arm to push them out of his eyes. Eyes the colour of the ocean framed by thick, dark lashes that only seemed to accentuate his raw beauty. He caught his full bottom lip between his teeth as he patted the truck lovingly, and my attention drifted down. His shirt was tight enough that he may as well have forgone wearing one entirely, and highlighted his trim waist and washboard abs. And his ass…

Oh, fuck me sideways, his ass was a work of art. Plump and bouncy when he walked, perched perfectly above a set of deliciously thick thighs that I bet looked fantastic spread apart while he clutched at a woman’s hair. I imagined saliva dripping from my mouth as I gawped at him.

My reaction to him was so visceral that I was stunned. It was almost reminiscent of when I’d been turned on when I was alive, the sensation like my clit was throbbing, only it sent tingles throughout my entire form rather than focused on that tiny nub, like every atom of my being was clenching, desperate to squeeze around a cock as it plunged inside me, but I was empty and bereft. I hadn’t felt any type of arousal since I’d died. I didn’t think it was even possible.

Who was this man to generate such an impossible reaction from me?

As if he could sense eyes on him, he paused when he reached his front door, key pointed at the lock just shy of being inserted. Then he turned, scanning the trees as if he were expecting someone to jump out. When his gaze skipped over me, a part of me was disappointed, like I had subconsciously been anticipating him seeing me. Another impossibility.

Until he did a double-take and his ocean-blue eyes held mine, a single eyebrow arched in a silent question. Surely not, though. I hadn’t met a single individual who could sense me in any capacity since my death. Not Blake. Not any of the girls he brought to the cabin’s basement.

‘Can I help you, miss? Are you lost?’ he asked, his voice running over me like the thick, sweet honey. I glanced behind me and peered through the thick foliage that separated this property from Blake’s but found no sign of another person.

There was seriously no way…

‘Yes, I’m talking to you, pretty woman. Is there someone else with you?’

I gaped. I couldn’t help it. My jaw stretched comically wide until it practically hit my chest as I stared at this mystery of a man in wide-eyed wonder. I pointed to myself, just to be sure, and mimed the word ‘Me?’

He was gazing at me as if I had a few screws loose, and I didn’t blame him. If he could see me, did he not realise I was dead? ‘Yes. You. Are you okay? Do you need help?’

He was moving towards me with long, fast strides now, eating up the distance between us like it was nothing. I was frozen in place, unsure of what the hell to do, or even what I was supposed to do in a situation like this. Death didn’t come with a handbook. I didn’t know how long I’d been dead. I had no idea what year it was, or how long I’d gone without any real interactions. The ghosts of the other girls didn’t count, mostly because they shunned me as soon as they realised I was their monster’s wife. The shadow man sort of counted, but I was pretending like he didn’t. He could go fuck himself.

But this beautiful man now standing right in front of me, looking at me with earnest eyes filled with concern, was the first real person to actually see me in a long time.

‘Miss, do you need me to call someone? Would you like a ride into town?’

My head shook, almost imperceptibly, but all I could think was What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?

He fidgeted, shifting from one foot to the other as his frown deepened, his frown deepening even further as he scanned my form. Checking for injuries, perhaps?

‘Are you hard of hearing? Do you need a translator?’ he asked, slowing his words down and enunciating each syllable in case I needed to read his lips.

I shook my head ‘no’ again, but no sound would escape the lump currently blocking my throat. I wasn’t even sure I was trying to speak, afraid that he wouldn’t be able to hear me anyway and know straight away that I wasn’t a person. Not anymore.

‘Why don’t you come inside, hmm? Get something hot in you and then we can figure out who to call?’ He tried to reach for me, but I stepped back and out of his way, pushing myself through a gap in the foliage so he would have to work for it if he wanted to touch me. Not that he could. This body was nothing more than smoke. An illusion. And for some reason, I didn’t want him to figure that out.

He raised his hands, fingers splayed as he backed away, softening his features to make himself seem less threatening. ‘Okay. All right. No touching. Got it. But you’re really starting to freak me out now, miss. I can’t help you if you don’t let me.’

I had two options here, as I gazed upon his openly compassionate expression. He truly was concerned for my well-being. I was a stranger to him, and from his perspective, I was trespassing on his property, yet he was still extending me a kindness I had learned the hard way was more than likely an act. Except, I wasn’t that same na?ve woman I was when I was alive. He might be another Blake in the making, but there was nothing he could do to me. I was already beyond his help.

So why was I still hesitating to try to communicate?

I knew the answer, of course. I didn’t want to get my hopes up in case his ability to see me was limited to just that. I had no clue how my voice would sound to him. He believed me to be a solid, tangible human being, so it could mean that he could hear me like I was one as well, right?

Only one way to find out…

‘I’m Kali.’

He blinked once. Twice. Then a broad, bright smile stretched across his cheeks to reveal two deep dimples in his cheeks and straight white teeth that gleamed in the setting sunlight. ‘Kali. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Rhodes.’

‘Rhodes…’ I repeated slowly, rolling the name around on my tongue to get a feel for it. All the while, I was immensely pleased that I must not have sounded like something from a horror movie to him. He seemed to be registering me as if I were alive, and that built an excitement inside of me, momentarily feeling the gaping hole that loneliness and the need for vengeance left in its wake. I realised with startling clarity that I had been lonely, and that I didn’t want this interaction to end.

But luck had never been on my side.

His phone rang, the ringtone cutting through the thoughts racing through my mind with the implications of this discovery. The familiar guitar solo from Thunderstruck filled the space between us, and he pulled it out to check who was calling. He raised a finger to me, asking me to hold on a moment while he took the call, but another sound drifted to me that he couldn’t seem to hear. A deep, warning growl echoed out from the shadows of the trees, and I knew my time was up.

I knew innately that the shadow man could and would hurt Rhodes if I stayed any longer. I almost believed he was jealous that this man had stolen my attention, even if only for the briefest of moments.

I slunk back behind the trees, and my heart clenched painfully in my chest when I watched from behind a trunk as Rhodes noticed I’d disappeared. He frowned into the foliage, hanging up the phone to step over the property line as he searched for me, calling out my name.

But I couldn’t let him get close. With my stalker now in play and Blake’s murderous tendencies hanging over our heads, it wasn’t safe for him to be near me, no matter how much my soul screamed for the companionship he could offer.

‘ Mine . ’ The shadow man materialised in front of me, close enough to touch, but his tendrils still blurred his features to hide his face, but then he was disappearing again, leaving me with one last parting phrase that sent chills racing through me. ‘ You’re mine .’

Rhodes finally gave up after one last glance into the woods, accepting that I was long gone and out of his reach and leaving me more alone than I had felt in a long time. I just hoped that, one day, we could have a real conversation. One where I told him my story. One where I might be able to recruit him in my vengeance. Soon, I would destroy my husband the way he had destroyed me, and this strange man with the ability to see through the veil might just be my only hope.