She opened the car door and helped Denny stand up. “Can you walk for me?”
Denny managed a nod.
Brianna wrapped her arms around Denny’s waist and helped her up the porch stairs one step at a time. Twice, they almost toppled over, but Brianna managed to hold her balance and keep them from falling.
“Which room?”
“Way up there. We’ll never make it.”
Brianna looked at the inside stairs. “Yeah. No shit. Is there a guest room?”
“Right over there. Through that room.” Denny stumbled slightly, but Brianna held her up and sat Denny down on the edge of the guest room bed to start taking her shoes off.
“I don’t drink.”
Brianna looked up at her and grinned. “You don’t say.”
“I do say. I say I don’t. I think...I’m all sortsa jacked up.”
“Yes you are. Do you sleep in pajamas?”
Denny fell back on the bed. “Nope. Can’t feel a ghost through pajamas, ya know?”
Brianna tossed a shoe in the corner. “No, I don’t. Do you?”
Running her hands through her hair, Denny tried to open her eyes but couldn’t. “Sure I do. Who do you think my girlfriend is, shilly?”
“Are you telling me––”
“That my misshing ghost is alsho my misshing girlfriend? Yeah. I am. How fucked up is that?”
“Pretty fucked up, Silver. Pretty damn fucked up.”
***
D
enny woke up feeling like someone had split her head in two with Paul Bunyan’s dull ax and then marched through her mouth with muddy army boots on. As her fuzzy eyes adjusted to the surroundings, she realized she was in the guest room.
Guest room. Woman. Clothes.
Brianna.
Denny turned her head, half expecting Brianna to still be lying there.
She wasn’t, but a note was. Denny sighed with relief that she hadn’t done anything dumber than get wasted.
Denny whipped up the covers and was relieved to see she was in pajamas. Her flannel ones. The ones with the ghosts that glow in the dark.
Yeah, pretty damned sexy.
She let the covers fall back, happy to know she hadn’t done something rash like sleep with Brianna. Rush may have been missing, but Denny was no cheater...even if Rush
was
a ghost.
Rubbing sleep the size of gravel from her eyes, Denny then slowly rolled over and read the note.
~~~
G
reat pajamas. Really? Hope you’re feeling better. I’ll be at the coffee shop until two. Come by for some when you get up. On the house, of course. There was absolutely no edible food here, so I’ll spring for something easy on your belly. Take some Aspirin and a hot shower and you’ll feel a little better. A little. Hope to see you later––B.
~~~
H
er handwriting was flawless and she’d managed to cluck over Denny without being obnoxious. Denny wondered if Pure had seen her––
Then she remembered what had driven her to the bar in the first place.
Pure.
Had she come home or had she stayed over at that cretin’s house?
Denny rolled out of bed and carefully slipped on a pair of ripped jeans and a white button-down shirt. After brushing her teeth until her gums bled, she grabbed her keys out of the pocket and headed downstairs.
To her surprise, there Pure sat with a huge bowl of Fruit Loops in front of her, her head in it like she wished it would swallow her whole.
“We need to talk,” she said.
“Yes, we most certainly do.”
***
D
enny slid onto the stool next to Pure’s and reached for the box of cereal.
“You look like shit and stink like a brewery. What the fuck, Denny? You don’t drink.”
She almost said, “language,” in that annoying way Sterling did, but caught herself in time. “This is what a half a bottle of Jameson’s looks like in the morning. Not pretty.”
“You got that right. You smell sour. You never drink.”
“Yeah, well now we know why.”
Pure poured a second bowl of cereal and pushed it over to Denny. “You’ll feel better if you get something in your stomach.”
“Thanks.” Denny crunched on a spoonful of cereal that was far too sugary for her taste.
“Now, before we get all up in each other’s faces about last night,” Pure said. “What in the hell is going on with you? Arguing with me about a stupid boy wouldn’t normally be enough to send you into a drinking flurry, so what’s the deal?”
Denny swallowed and then pushed the floaty and colorful O’s around in the milk. “Rush is missing.”
Pure stared at her. “Wait. Missing?”
Denny nodded. “Some sort of...I don’t know...evil force has her. It’s a long story.”
“Oh, Denny, I’m so sorry I’ve been so wrapped up in my own little world, I––” Pure shook her head. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I’ve just been coming and going, not paying any attention.”
“You’re seventeen. It’s what you’re supposed to be doing, Pure, not worrying about the family ghost.”
“Well, no wonder you’re bummed and acting like a lunatic. If something has her, what can we do?”
Denny ate another spoonful and shrugged. “Not much we
can
do. I’m running down all leads, but finding a ghost is...well...challenging to say the least. I’m sorry if I embarrassed you last night, and—
“I’m sorry for being such a bitch about Mike Cockerton. I’ve just been on edge lately.”
“Well at least now I know why. For a minute there...”
They ate in silence for a moment before Denny finally asked. “He’s really your boyfriend?”
Pure shrugged. “Denny, he’s a really nice guy. He’s smart, funny, and he treats me with respect. He’s way more mature than the other guys his age. He doesn’t think farts are funny, he doesn’t blow snot out of his nose, and he refuses to get into fights with guys who want to test their mettle against him. You’d like him if you gave him a chance.”
Denny wondered how many “nice guys” would call a lesbian a dyke man-hater. She decided it was best to let it go. Pushing Pure away right now would be a huge mistake. They needed to stay on the same side until Denny had more facts and less supposition.
“Den, I know parenting me wasn’t on your list of things to do when you graduated from high school. I really appreciate you stepping up and all, but I’m not some stupid little girl. You and Sterling raised me really well, you know? You need to trust that. And me.”
Denny chewed slowly. “I do.”
“Then let me enjoy this without any guilt or sneaking around, because that’s what I’ll do if you draw that line in the sand.”
Denny studied her little sister. She’d grown up so fast. She was only eleven when they’d lost their parents, but since then, she’d blossomed into a bright, beautiful young woman deserving of her respect and trust.
A young woman who might very well be dating a demon.
“You got it, but no more sneaking around, okay? If you want me to trust you then you have to be honest.”
“Really? That’s a deal.”
They ate a little more in silence.
“I’m really sorry to hear about Rush.”
“I’ll get her back.”
“How?”
Denny smiled slightly. “Well, if you haven’t noticed, I have a few tricks up my sleeve.”
Pure dropped her spoon in her bowl. “No shit! What
was
that? You popped him four feet in the air and a good fifteen feet away. His chest is bruised like someone hit him with a two-by-four. If I hadn’t been so pissed off about it, I’d have applauded.”
“I’m...taking Tae Kwon Do.”
“That’s too cool, but Christ on a cracker, that was pretty damned impressive. You kicked his ass and then some.”
Denny pushed her bowl away and asked the question she’d been dreading to ask. “When did you get home?”
“Last night, before you. Not that you’d have noticed. Your friend...the big girl...she’s pretty. She helped you get in bed. I left it be in case...you know...”
“Pure! I was drunk, not horny.”
Pure stared at Denny a moment. “Not your type?”
“What do you mean? She’s just a friend.”
Pure chuffed. “Chyeah. I saw how she looked at you, Denny. She likes you. A lot. But I can see why she’s not your type.”
“Why? Too heavy? Too girly? Too––”
“Too alive.” Pure ran out of the room before Denny could catch her.
***
H
e watched her.
Long, flowing blond hair, a smile that would melt a glacier. She was the one, for sure. She would start everything happening and be so deep in it, it would be too late once it all came crumbling down.
And it
was
going to crumble.
It had to. This was, perhaps, his most important mission and, already, he’d made contact and swept her up in his world.
Humans were stupid and self-absorbed, to be sure, but human women were the worst. How many of them were verbally, emotionally, and physically battered only to offer up both forgiveness and their faces for the next round of testosterone brutality? How incredibly pathetic each was to so crave the abusive attention of a man too weak-willed to stop himself from harming a much more vulnerable creature?
Pathetic.
Yes, that was the best word to describe human women who contorted their bodies in the name of beauty––who shot toxins into their faces in order to appear younger and smoother for creatures who, truth to tell, couldn’t care less what a woman’s face looked like as long as she was either kneeling down or bending over.
It was as if the female of the species was starving for any affection they could get, regardless of how toxic. With a beauty industry nearing eighty billion dollars annually, it was evident that a woman would rather starve than leave the house without her makeup.
Yes, they were pathetic in their single-minded pursuit of something so far beneath them...something as inadequate as the male of the species. Poor pathetic female creatures, always in a dither over something some slob of a man did or didn’t do.
Well, not always.
Then there were the lesbians.
Now
they
were an interesting group, to be sure.
The lesbians were a tricky bunch, to be sure. You never knew who the current girlfriend was because all the past girlfriends still hovered about––moths to yesterday’s flame, like they just couldn’t figure out how to let go. They never knew when to quit or when to stop fighting. Even when the buzzer rang, they’d keep fighting.
No, lesbians were definitely problematic, and the older sister of this blonde target was becoming one such problem.
He would have to do something about that...and soon.
***
D
enny wrapped both hands around the mug of hot coffee and waited for Brianna, who set on the table a plate of warm morning buns with melted butter sliding down the sides.
“How you feeling?”
“Better now that my head doesn’t feel like it’s in a drum of the USC marching band. Thank you so much for going out of your way to care for me last night. I’m really embarrassed I got so drunk. It’s not like me. Honest.”
Brianna laid her hand down on Denny’s. “Trust me. It was evident to everyone. Besides, I didn’t go out of my way. It was my pleasure, really, and I like to think you’d have done the same for me.”
Denny sipped the fresh brew, savoring the aroma. “For sure. I just...had a bad day. I’m not really a drinker.”
“Really? Wow. I couldn’t tell.” Brianna laughed and the sound, normally melodious to Denny, rang her head like a bell.
Denny shook her head. “It was a stupid thing to do. I...I was just at my wit’s end.”
“Because your
girlfriend
is missing? The one few can see? That’s actually understandable, Denny.”
Denny laid her face in her hands and groaned. “Oh god...I didn’t.”
“Oh...you did. I suspect if you were talking to anyone else, they would have passed it off as the ravings of a drunken woman.”
Denny looked up at her. “You don’t?”
“No, I do not. You chatted on a great deal before finally passing out, and my guess is that most of it, if not all, was the truth. Your girlfriend is a ghost.”
Denny sighed. “Yes.”
Brianna tapped her chin with one finger. “I take it she’s Rushalyn Holbrook.”
Denny nodded.
“And something evil has taken her.”
“Yes.” Denny waited for the other shoe to drop.
It didn’t.
“Was that all I said?”
“Wasn’t that enough? Jesus, Denny this...this is incredible.” A look of understanding crossed Brianna’s face. “Oh wow. Look, you have nothing to worry about. Nothing at all. My lips are sealed. Besides, I’d sound like a raving looney, and the coven doesn’t really need that kind of publicity, you know?”
Denny just kept shaking her head. “Who would believe you, anyway?”
“Right. Nevertheless, I just
might
be able to help you with this.”
Denny perked up a bit. “How?”
“One thing we witches do quite well is the séance. We might be able to communicate with her––see who has her and what we can do to help.”
Denny’s eyes slowly traveled up until she locked eyes with Brianna. “You’d
do
that?”
“Absolutely. Listen, Denny, we’re not
playing
at being Wiccans. We
are
. We believe in the power of nature and our ability to wield that power. I’m offering you the opportunity to tap into something most people believe is a myth.”
“What will a séance accomplish?”
“A séance will enable us to communicate with her to find out what’s going on. You mentioned Ophelia last night. She is a very powerful seer. What’s she got to do with this?”
Denny groaned. “Did I?”
“Nothing to be ashamed of, Denny. Ophelia was once the best in the business. If she told you Rushalyn is being kept from you, I’d believe her.”
“And you really think you can help?”
Brianna sipped her coffee. “I think we can gather some information for you so you at least have a game plan. Seems to me that’s more than what you’ve got right now.”
“That would really put my mind at ease, thank you. Rush has been with me for so long, I don’t really know how to be without her.”
“You sounded torn last night––like you truly, deeply miss her.”
Denny’s eyes welled up. “She’s been in my life since I was eight years old. The house has never felt emptier or lonelier. I know it sounds crazy––”