60: This Is Real

Three weeks go by without leaving my apartment much less leaving my bed. Healing time is what Gretchen called it. Caleb made a home for himself on the couch for a week keeping watch and keeping the nightmares away. Nightmares that seemed never ending and very real, then he ended up making a spot for himself in my bed. I didn’t protest, because Caleb always made things feel safer.

Today he’s driving back to Scarlet River to talk things over with the alpha, Dravon while I go back to work. I aimlessly rub at my where the mark of Felix’s hand scars my arm. It’s healed, but still hurts every so often. Out of nowhere it burns to the point of it taking my breath away.

It takes several tries to find something to wear. All my long sleeved things seem to itch and rub at the mark that it’s too uncomfortable to wear, but short sleeves are out of the question. So I decide on my classic green jacket with a t-shirt underneath.

The trek to work tightens my chest. Being out in the open...alone has my heart working overtime. Even though Caleb insisted that he got rid of them that he threatened the demons of going to war with werewolves. Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not, but I don’t trust Felix. Demons could still be lurking anywhere, everywhere, watching.

The bell above the door startles me as I enter. It’s been a while since I’ve heard it.

“There she is.” Monty gushes as she sees me walk through the door.

“You’re here.” Gretchen appears from around the corner. “I’m so happy you’re back. Safe and well.”

I don’t know about safe or well, but I don’t argue with her. “So what’d I miss?”

“Nothing.” Monty replies. “Absolutely. Nothing.” She bends her elbows on the countertop and proceeds to drop her chin onto her palms unamused with boring shop life.

“I’m just gonna...go drop my stuff off in my room.” What I need most is getting out from under their concerning gaze.

I tidy up the shelves, straighten the table, but the second I stare at the chair Gretchen set me down on that night of the attack, flashback after flashback play behind my eyes. A shiver goes down my spine.

“Hazel,” A cheery voice yelps behind me. “When Gretchen told me you were coming back today, I had to come in.” Melinda marches into the room.

“Melinda. It’s so nice to see you.” Her sudden appearance has my heart racing, but it slowly dissipates.

“I’m so sorry for not being here for our past appointment.” I apologize unsure of what Gretchen told her considering Melinda is one hundred percent human.

“What? No. You don’t need to apologize.”

Her hand goes to her chest in shock. “It was awful what happened and I’m so glad you’re okay. I just hope they catch the jerk that attacked you.”

“Me too.” I let out a held breath. Looks like they just gave her a vague reason, some stranger jumped me. It’s true...to a point. “Did Gretchen reschedule with you? Do you have an appointment today?”

“Yes, unless you’re not feeling up to it. I can come back next week.” Her eyes fill with a sadness that I’m not sure I deserve.

“No, have a seat.” My arm points to her usual chair. “Just give me a second to get some things ready.”

“Take your time.” She replies as she digs in her purse to retrieve her phone. She scrolls and taps the screen wasting time.

Once I sit on the chair across from her, her hands go to lay open on the table ready for the reading to begin, but before I can grab one of her hands in mine, her eyes go blank.

“Melinda?” I touch her hand before I jerk away. She’s ice cold. “Melinda?” I say again.

Her face changes as her features relax, almost as if she’s zoned out. Her eyes go from staring at the table to locking onto mine. “It’s Jezmin, Hazel.”

The chair slams down onto the floor as I shoot up to my feet. “What the hell?”

“Don’t freak out, but this is the only way I can get in touch with you, any of you.” She pauses as she looks me over. “Listen, they did something to the ritual, something that forced all ghosts to...I don’t even know where we are. Someone referred to it as the underneath.”

I stand shell shocked unable to put words together in my head. Jezmin just possessed my client.

“I’ll help you if you help me.” Typical Jezmin. “Gabriel is visiting you.”

“What?” I ignore the ‘I’ll help you if you help me’ part when she brings Gabriel up. “How do you-”

“I know things, just like I know Gretchen has been seeing Icky behind everyone’s back for the past several months.” When I don’t agree or argue with her she goes on. “Monty is thinking about quitting. She got a job offer from a coven in the next state over. Ask her.”

“Later.” I look her in the eyes, Melinda in the eyes. Is she aware of what’s going on? “They’re just dreams. Gabriel is...not here.”

“Oh, they’re not just dreams. They’re real. He’s using magic from The Old Country.”

“No.” My head shakes violently. “No. He can’t, he’s a vampire. Vampires can’t use magic.”

“That’s to be proven. Many things are possible in The Old County.” Being trapped has done nothing to stop her from being so cryptic and vague.

Seeing as that’s all she’s going to say about the subject, I do my part...kind of. “I don’t know how you think I can help you. I don’t even know where you are. What is the underneath?”

“You’ll have to look it up. I have to go.” The panic in her voice distorts Melinda’s face and I become nervous of the unknown threat.

Just as fast as she came, she disappears. Melinda sits in the chair, confusion flashes across her face before she recovers. “I’m sorry, I must’ve went off in lalaland for a minute.” She puts a smile on, but I can see it waver.

I do my best in reading her palm. Thankfully, with Jezmin’s possession it didn’t change anything in Melinda’s future. I go through the motions of pointing out what I see and speak what my gut tells me to.

The reading doesn’t last long and before I know it I’m left like an idiot lingering out on the sales floor. There has to be an explanation. Jezmin was playing with me, punishing me for ruining her opportunity to ravage the world, but some part of me feels like she was telling the truth.

Monty stares at me. “Didn’t go well, I see. She like dying or something?”

“No. Jezmin just possessed her.” My lips are numb as I say the words.

“What?” She mutters before she squints against her rambling thoughts. “I haven’t seen Jezmin since-”

“The ritual.” I stare at her waiting for her to disagree with me, but she doesn’t. “She told me that they changed the spell I gave them. Sent them to somewhere called the underneath. It had to be Brooklyn, because after that dream realm encounter she became terrified of them.”

“The underneath. Shit.” It wasn’t a ‘mad’ shit, it was a ‘too bad’ kinda shit.

I stare at her wide eyed and waiting. When she doesn’t get my unsaid questions, I ask, “What’s the underneath?”

“A place where the dead go. It’s impossible to escape and the only way to get there is by dying. I bet she’s going crazy.” There’s a small smile to her lips as she envisions Jezmin and Jezmin’s anger freaking out there...wherever there is.

“She told me some other things too. Like you getting an offer from a coven.”

Monty straightens up. It doesn’t happen very often, but she stares at me with her lips slightly parted in disbelief. “How…”

“It’s true. When?”

“I got the offer last week. I’m not even sure if I’m going to accept, but…”

“It’s fine.” I didn’t really hear much of what she had to say. All I needed was that it was true. Jezmin wasn’t lying and if she wasn’t lying about that, then she wasn’t lying about Gabriel.

Oh crap.

I leave earlier than I usually would, but my mind is racing with thoughts. Some terrible, some bad, mostly terrible though. I break. Gretchen can sense it and doesn’t ask, just puts her hand to my shoulder and nods with understanding. She probably thinks I’m not ready, still reeling from the attack, but this is something else entirely.

My feet make their way home without my brain directing them. The nervousness I had earlier about demons lurking is nothing compared to the anxiousness I feel when I think about Gabriel. All I want to do is collapse and sleep a dreamless, unvisited sleep. I slip my jacket off, toss my purse on the kitchen table before heading to the couch.
But I black out before I can get there.

I stand speechless in the middle of the living room floor. The last thing I remember is my knees buckling from underneath me as I blacked out. I scan the floor for my body, but it’s not there. My gaze rises at the sound of my name.

“You.” I snap. The words ‘this isn’t real’ want to burst from my lips, but I stop them, because they’re not true. This is real. “You son of a bitch.” I snap at him.

His eyes flash with recognition. “You know?” He asks. “I can explain.” His voice is pleading with me to calm down, but I can’t.

“I’m sure you can, but I’m not sure I care.” I stare at him as if seeing him for the first time. A mixture of hatred and yearning takes over me. “Maybe I just want it to stop. What am I, just face down on the floor right now?”

“I’ve been trying for weeks to get through to you.” His eyes scan my arm. “Your arm looks better.” He takes a step forward.

“I need to wake up...or whatever the hell this is.” I shout as I begin pinching myself. His hands go to grab me, but I slip away. “No.” I scold him like naughty puppy. “You can’t just waltz in here,” I point to my head, because that’s where he is, in my head. “...you...left.” The words come out, words I didn’t exactly want to say.

“Not because I wanted to. Phillip insisted that it wasn’t safe to do the ritual, so we went-”

“To The Old Country. I know.” I turn my back on him, not wanting to talk to him anymore. Maybe he’ll get the clue.

“He won’t leave until he’s made enough progress. That’s why you were supposed to come to me.” He follows so close behind me that I can hear his fist clench. “But you don’t listen, I know.” He says using my own words to make his point.

A puff of laughter slips my lips. But I don’t argue with him, I’m on a mission. My fingers reach out for a knife in the block on the kitchen counter. Inches, centimeters away from it, my hand is slapped away and held tightly.

“I don’t think so.” He doesn’t let go, he only squeezes tighter.

I jerk out of grasp and frantically open the closest drawer, my hands plunging inside searching for something. I just need to give myself a jolt of pain and I’ll snap out of this. I become eerily still as my fingers wrap around metal. Scissors.

It all happens so fast, I drag the scissors out, open them up, but before I could slide the blades apart, Gabriel wraps his hand around it. It’s tug of war and I’m losing. My grasp slips from the handle.

Gabriel just stands there, eyes burning into me. I break. One fist punches his chest followed by the other and then again and again. Tears roll down my chest as I continue to beat at him. After a few punches his arms come around me and force me into a hug. I fight against it.

I fight so hard, I snap myself out of it.