Chapter 64: Not Suzanne
At first I wasn't sure there was anyone home when her eyes flew open. It was like the person who used to live there went on permanent vacation and left behind an empty shell. She was totally void, blank, and I caught nothing from her but a whole heap of nada.
Until her eyes fixed on mine. Suddenly her whole existence came into sharp focus. There it was, what I dreaded all along, the stench and touch of the thing, the creature, buried inside her so deep it poisoned her slowly as it rose to the surface, taking bits of her as it went.
She looked insane as she struggled to sit up and it was only then I noticed the thick leather straps pinning her to the bed. Someone, probably her mother, covered them with a blue wool blanket. But as soon as Suzanne started to struggle the camouflage fell away and Alison and I both gaped at her in horror.
Suzanne's wide mouth twisted into a smile so grotesque I wanted to run from the room or at the very least tear my gaze away, but I couldn't. Hello, train wreck. Her eyes bugged from their sockets, massive in her skeletal face. Suzanne had always been skinny, one of the purge brigade according to Alison, but this wastedness was something else entirely. The creature remained connected to her, feeding from her.
She was being devoured from the inside out.
"Let me go." Her words erupted in a harsh moan, a croak of glass over metal. I rubbed my arms against the surge of goose bumps. That voice sounded familiar.
"We can't," Alison whispered. "Can we, Syd?"
Why was she looking at me? No way was I letting Suzanne out of her restraints. It was pretty obvious now why she was in them in the first place.
I remembered Mrs. Collins final words to us. Somehow I didn't think telling the damaged and horrible ghost of a girl in front of me her Mommy loved her would make a bit of difference.
"You must release me." Her hands twisted and spun inside the cuffs holding her. She jerked so violently the bed actually hopped in place. "You must."
I just stared at her and wondered if this was what my mother meant by taking care of things. Obviously she missed a few signs. Like, oh say, possession? I considered reaching for her then and there but had no idea what using my magic around Suzanne would to do her so I held off.
I'd be home soon anyway from the way this visit was going.
"Suzanne." Alison took her hand, trying to soothe her, I guess. And was scratched for her trouble. She pulled back with a cry, a single claw mark tracked across her wrist.
"I am already free," Suzanne hissed at me. "I must feed. And then devour you and your kind and send you to your death while I grow strong again!" She opened her mouth wide, so much so I could practically see down her throat, and let out a wrenching laugh sending Alison scrambling to her feet.
"What the hell is she talking about?"
I stood up and tried to act like I was as shocked as my friend. "I have no idea. Do you think she snapped?"
Alison shuddered and started backing out of the room. "I better get a nurse."
And she left me there. Alone. With the bride of darkness.
She and I had to have a serious friendship conversation.
Suzanne pulled against her restraints again and I could see her body lifting from the bed with her effort. My demon screamed at me to destroy her, to fight the evil, to do something, but I just stood there and took it all in while blood seeped from the cuffs to pool on the white sheets.
"You will be devoured alive, you and the boy child," the Suzanne creature said, her eyes filling with black until the whites were gone, "savored at the last as fuel for my victory. And when you are dead the world will be mine again. Mine!" She started to flail, the bed bouncing now, her hair flying around her like a filthy mop, spit laced with blood spewing out of her mouth as she bit her tongue.
I was shoved roughly aside, two nurses running past me to pounce on her. They tried to pin her while a third slipped toward her and emptied a syringe into the tube hanging from her arm.
Suzanne continued to fight but the drug acted fast and it wasn't long before she collapsed, panting, under the weight of the nurses. Mrs. Collins slid to a halt next to me, her face so pale she almost looked like what was left of her daughter.
"What happened?" She had coffee down the front of her designer suit, her wad of tissues soaked with it.
"She woke up," I said and quietly left the room.
I found Alison sobbing in her car and sat there with her, silent. Not like I knew what to say. Or that anything I could come up with would help. The girl was in serious trouble and I had to believe my mother didn't know how serious.
Surely Mom wouldn't let Suzanne suffer on purpose.
Unless there wasn't anything she or the coven could do? I considered going back inside and trying my demon's luck at it when Alison fired up the engine and drove off.
I almost offered to drive, but she seemed like she had it together enough to get us home so I let her.
"Al-" was all I blurted out. It was like me breaking the silence opened a verbal floodgate in her head.
"What the hell, Syd? What was that? What is wrong with her? It's not Suzanne. She's crazy! What was she saying?" Alison stomped on the brakes at a yellow light and I was very grateful for my seatbelt. "What happened to her?"
I wished I could tell her what I knew but the information wouldn't help matters any.
"I don't know," I said. "Maybe she is crazy." Being possessed kind of qualified as nuts, didn't it?
Alison's cheeks were bright pink and her hands shook even with her grip on the wheel. "I wanted to help her. But I couldn't." Fresh tears coursed down her face, sobs choking out of her. She pulled over into a parking lot before I could suggest it and covered her face with her hands.
Can you spell useless? That's how I felt. I just let her cry and patted her hair and wished I was anywhere but there. Still, I was her friend and friends stuck it out, I guess.
It was another torturous ten minutes before Alison could drive. She had to take her contacts out, though, and for the first time I was able to see the real color of her eyes.
Still blue. Pale and cool. I liked hers better than the brightness of the plastic.
She fished her glasses out of the dash and slapped them on, glaring at me through the devastation of her grief. "You tell anybody," she said. "I'll have you whacked."
She was feeling better. Which made me feel better too.
My driveway was empty when Alison pulled up to my house. I cursed silently. I really needed to talk to my mother.
"Syd," Alison stopped me as I undid my seatbelt, one hand on the door handle. "That was... holy crap."
"Yeah."
"That's it," she whispered. "I'm done. No more drinking." She shuddered and looked at me. "And if I ever end up like her?"
The thought drove a spike of fear through my guts so painful it took me a moment to answer.
"I'll have you whacked," I whispered.
Her answering smile was enough.
"Did you want to come in?" I figured it was polite to ask, but knew she wasn't in the mood.
"Thanks," she said. "I think I'll just go home."
I waved at her as she pulled off and walked into the kitchen. I immediately felt around for my mother, just in case she had let someone borrow her vintage car, but no luck. My eyes fell on a piece of paper on the table.
I picked up the light pink note, sighing at the purple ink smelling faintly of grapes and read what my mother left.
Coven errands. Took Meira. Check on your grandmother.
Love you. Mom.
I dropped the note to the table. Crap. Coven errands could take forever and meant anything from having tea with one of the witches to cleaning up a massive magical mess. Leave it to Mom to be vague.
Which led me to believe she was hunting the creature and my heart plummeted.
Get a grip, I thought, shaking myself. She took Meira. Which means there is no creature ass-kicking in her near future, at least not planned.
But I knew it also meant she worried about my sister and didn't want to leave her home alone. Not that she didn't also worry about Gram, but I knew when push came to shove the old lady could take care of herself.
It was too early for Uncle Frank and Sunny to rise, so that left me with my crazy grandmother and Sassy if he was home. Which he wasn't, another mind sweep told me. Great. And from the feeling of Gram she was sound asleep dreaming about something that made her giggle.
I considered doing homework before slumping into a kitchen chair. Who was I kidding? My focus was shot. Besides, I was so out of it all day I wasn't sure we even had homework.
I was about to retreat to my room to watch movies on my laptop when the phone rang. I raced for it, sure it was Mom.
"What's wrong?" I don't know why those were the first words out of my mouth. Probably because my mother never used the phone.
She hadn't this time, either, as it turned out.
"Nothing." Brad's deep voice sounded confused. "Should there be?"
I collapsed against the wall, clutching the phone to my ear with both hands.
"No," I said. "Sorry."
"Are you okay?" I loved the sound of his voice and realized I'd missed him.
"Not really," I admitted. Okay, I was fishing for sympathy. About time I was on the receiving end of a little after the day I'd had.
"What happened?" His concern was like liquid light and I bathed in it.
"Alison and I went to see Suzanne." An involuntary shudder raced through me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. The image of her solid black eyes would haunt me, I was sure of it.
"Yeah," he said. "I was there this morning. Pretty harsh."
He had no idea.
"Maybe I can take your mind off of it." I liked the sound of that. "I was wondering if my girlfriend," he stressed it so much it made me giggle, "would like to go out for dinner. Since I didn't get to treat her for her birthday."
"Hmmm," I said, pretending to think it over. "Dinner? With you? Tonight?"
"Like now." I heard the rumble of an engine followed by the crunch of tires on asphalt and looked out the window. His black truck was parked in the driveway. "Your limo is waiting."
How could I possibly say no?
***
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