Haunting
This time Lucas took the remote and flipped through the channels. After flipping through all of them twice faster than I could tell what was on TV he settled on watching Fried Green Tomatoes. It was based off of mine and Lucas' favorite book. It reminds us both of old times. We quickly fell into our usual routine. I made a few rude comments about his mom, and he slapped my legs. He made a few comments about crazy southern women and I kicked him, but besides that we had a pretty relaxing evening. By the end of the movie when Ninny died, I was feeling a little melancholy and by the look on Lucas' face he was feeling the same. Yohannah had gotten up and left us to work with her pastels. Ironically, Yohannah did not share Lucas' or my fondness for girly movies.
Lucas looked towards the front windows at the darkness outside. "Hungry?" he asked me and I stood with him and headed towards the kitchen.
"Shouldn't we be going back to the hotel room?" I asked.
"The Cullen's invited us to stay with them for a while," he explained. I didn't respond. I guess one place was as good as any other. They gave us enough privacy anyway. I searched the cabinets and refrigerator and decided to make myself a stir fry.
"What do you want me to do?" Lucas asked.
"You can be my sous-chef," I told him. After a second he stifled a giggle. "What?" I asked.
"Hi, my name is Sue, How do you do?" he began.
"You're going to die." We finished together chuckling to ourselves at our cleverness. Lucas began to sing "A Boy Named Sue" to himself as he chopped the vegetables for my stir fry. It didn't take long; we were only on a second song, The Girl I Left Behind Me, by the time I sat down at the table to eat.
"Meri," he asked softly as I started on my diner. It wasn't unusual for him to sit with me while I ate, but his constant hovering was beginning to get old. "Can I ask you something," he asked. The tone of his voice erased my annoyance in an instant. He sounded quiet and thoughtful and a little sad.
"What is it, My Friend?" I asked.
"I was wondering," he began hesitantly. "When you fell outside, do you remember anything about that?" he asked. He sounded unsure and weary.
"Yes," I told him simply, taking another bite of my stir fry and trying to avoid his gaze.
"What do you remember?" he pressed gently.
I tried to make a joke out of it. "Remember a long time ago when I told you that if you killed me I would haunt you for the rest of your life?" I asked, finally finding the courage to look at him in the eye. He nodded suspiciously. "Well, I found out that I have the power to do that," I joked. "So don't even think about it." I smiled and he smiled back at me but rolled his eyes.
"Meri, if I ever kill you, you can haunt me for the rest of my miserable days," he promised earnestly. "But I'm serious, what do you remember?"
I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell him. I seemed to be giving away too many secrets lately. I had kept this one from him for seventy years, why is now any different? "Did you see a light, Meri?" he asked silently. Said in any other moment, I would have thought him joking to say those words, but he sat there in all seriousness and curiosity honestly looking for answers.
"I saw many lights," I told him mysteriously, slipping into silence along with him.
"Truly, Meri?" he asked quietly, looking as vulnerable as I was feeling. In the past, Lucas and I would have long discussions about the life hereafter, in better times we did. As of late I had not talked about it, preferring to drown my sorrows in liquor or pot. Dying was something I thought about all too often and in all reality, but it wasn't something I wanted to talk about anymore. Lucas worried about whether or not creatures such as him would be able to pass to the other side. I couldn't give him that answer, because I had never gone there myself.
As I looked upon Lucas' face he looked almost childlike in his honesty at the table. I decided it was the least I could give to him, wasn't it? He didn't have to know the whole truth, just enough. It wasn't that I wanted to keep this from Yohannah more than it was that not everyone needed to know about it. If Yohannah asked, I would tell her later, I told myself, but I knew she would never ask. She never really cared about the afterlife, not like Lucas did.
"It was nothing like they say," I reluctantly continued. "I didn't see those who had passed on before, and I still know nothing of God," I told him honestly.
"What did you see?" he asked, placing his corpse-cold hand on mine. With my other hand I wrapped his hand completely in both of mine. It wasn't me who needed comforting here.
"I stood above my body in the clearing," I told him, "and I watched all that happened around me," I told him shaking at the memory of him flying out the front door with murder in his figurative eyes.
"Were you scared?" he asked, guessing at why I was shaking. He picked up his other hand and placed it on top of mine again, comforting me once again. We sat there silently with all of our hands piled on top of each other, trying to comfort each other for reasons neither one of us could guess. I'm sure we looked like fools, but at the moment, I had tuned out the entire world, but my dear friend sitting next to me at the diner table.
"It's not that," I told him silently, looking into his red-orange eyes. His head tilted a little to the left in confusion as he tried to understand why I was shaking. "I saw you," I told him. "I saw everyone, deep to their core. I wasn't so much scared for myself but for everyone else."
"I don't understand," He admitted. I decided to show him. In my mind I remembered the way he charged outside, all full of rage and hurt so that his body distorted into a nightmare.
It was an abomination. The emotions running through it frightened me. The charging creature seethed with negative energy: anger, rage, bitterness, and a possessiveness that bordered on lust. Its body was an unnatural red-orange color, and it seemed to be on fire with all the emotions surging through its body. The hideous thing tore towards my helpless body, and I truly feared for the safety of the body in the dirt.
I heard Lucas gasp in front of me, and his hands went stiff around mine.
"What is that?" he whispered aloud in horror. I continued with my vision to the point where the other golden creatures came to circle around the flaming red monstrosity that was there to hurt those that were there to protect the girl's—I mean my—body. "My God," he uttered under his breath, his hands tightened around mine to the point where it was beginning to hurt, but I chose to keep myself silent. He looked to be in just as much pain as I was in, and I didn't want to add to it.
"Its alright, you just panicked," I told him silently, trying to calm him. I showed him the way his aura had softened as we stood in the medical room upstairs. His body had softened with concern and regret. Lucas' grip relaxed a little at that, but the look on his face did not change. He was horrified.
"You must have been so scared," he said, his eyes once again focusing on my face. I shook my head and smiled sadly at him. His pain was hurting me. I regretted showing him what I saw. Nobody wants to see themselves like that. I showed him Embry's spirit standing over my body, so beautiful in its pain.
He gasped. "An angel?" he asked. I smiled and shook my head. I didn't understand what it was at first either. "Its so…" he began but couldn't finish.
"Pretty?" I suggested silently.
"Beautiful," he corrected. I froze my vision where it was so he could take a look at it better. His eyes focused on me once again after a minute. "If not an angel," he began silently but finish aloud. "What is it?" I smiled at him.
"Embry."
Lucas's brows tightened together in suspicion. "No," he said in disbelief. "It can't be." I moved my vision forward and allowed him to watch as the other wolves came to circle around me as the golden shapes continued to hold down the red monstrosity that was Lucas. "What was wrong with him?" he asked as he watched the shape seem to implode with all its hurt. I shrugged my shoulders as if I wasn't sure what to believe as I replayed the scene from the restaurant in my head and projected it to him. I stopped abruptly when Embry kissed my hand, and began to feel embarrassed about showing him too much.
"You know the rest," I told him, removing cold hands from under his. He flinched a little.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly, still deep in thought. "I had no idea." He left it at that and didn't speak at all while I finished my diner. I wondered what he was thinking but didn't press it. He would talk to me when he was ready.
Our silence was interrupted by Yohannah calling me from the living room. "You've got to come see this," she told me sounding amused.
"I'm eating."
"Just get out here," she scolded and I mumbled an apology to Lucas as I rose from my half eaten diner to see what the matter was. Lucas rose with me out of respect, but sat back down. As I turned the corner to the living room I nearly bumped into a topless Embry. I took a step back in surprise. "Told you," Yohannah told me silently. I tried to hide my amused grin but failed.
"Hey, Meri."
"Hey…Naked," I managed to choke out. "What is this, Spring Break?" I asked Yohannah silently. She was lying on the floor across the room drawing another picture with her pastels and pretending not to pay us any attention.
"Boys Gone Wild," she suggested, and I stifled a giggle once again.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him.
"I just got off work."
"Dressed like that?" Yohannah questioned me.
"That's some uniform. Where do you work where they let you walk around like that?" I asked.
"And can you get me tickets?"
"I was wearing more clothes earlier. I kind of lost my shirt on the way over," he explained, seemingly embarrassed. "Does this bother you?" he asked.
"I'm bothered," Yohannah told me silently. "Hot and bothered."
I tried not to let Embry see me fight off a laugh so I turned and grabbed him by the arm. As I stepped forward I couldn't help but notice once again that he was a full two feet taller than I was and his skin was burning hot. "Would you like to have diner with me?" I asked.
"I would love to," he told me and we walked towards the kitchen. I resisted the urge to comment on how hot his skin was, because I feared Yohannah would make another borderline obscene comment.
"What are you thinking?" he asked, no doubt suspicious about the smile I was hiding.
"Nothing. I was just thinking that your skin feels like it's about to burst into flames," I told him.
"I'll tell you what's about to burst into flames. My—"
"Yohannah!" I interrupted mock outrage, not realizing that I had said it aloud until I saw Embry's reaction to my sudden outburst.
"What?" she asked innocently from across the room.
"You know what," I accused pulling Embry around the corner into the dining room. My face must have been beet red. He looked at me curiously but I wasn't about to explain to him what Yohannah was saying. "Its nothing," I told him, still blushing.
As I walked past the table Lucas rose. I rolled my eyes at him and waved him down. He was taught to rise from his chair when a lady rose or was seated, but that was a long time ago and his archaic customs annoyed me. Everything about him was annoying me. I felt glad that he wasn't acting hostile towards me and Embry but I wish that he would talk to me about it. We used to be much better friends than that.
I served Embry up a plate and commented on how little time he actually worked today. "Oh I was able to beg myself off early."
"Boss must like you," I told him offhandedly as I spooned him.
He smiled like there was some private joke I wasn't getting. "Oh, she loves me." The happiness that was inside me turned to ooze in an instant. She? He had asked me if I had a husband earlier but I never asked him if he was involved with anybody. I didn't understand why it mattered. I told myself that it was because I didn't want to make his girlfriend jealous but wasn't sure if I was lying to myself or not.
"Girlfriend?" I asked as I handed him his plate. I tried to sound casual. He laughed.
"No, it's my mom's store."
"Oh," I said trying to sound nonchalant as relief filled me. As we walked back to the table Lucas stood again. "Stop that."
"What? You want me to be rude?" he asked, sounding amused.
"Yes, sit down," I told him and he sat down until I pulled my chair out and he rose again. "Lucas!"
"Okay fine, I won't be polite anymore," he told me and sat down again.
"It's not polite if you're only doing it to annoy me." I went to sit in my seat and he rose again but I kicked his knee and made him sit down again. I sat before he had a chance to stand back up. At this point Lucas and I were both laughing.
Embry looked at me curiously from across the table. I tried to wipe the grin off my face. "So, you like it?" I asked. He told me that he did, but besides smiling at me from across the table, and telling me that business was slow today at the store, he didn't say much else. I assumed it was because Lucas was there. "Why don't you go check up on Yohannah?" I suggested to him.
"Why?" he asked. I saw him wrinkle his eyebrows together from the corner of my eye.
I took a drink of tea to hide my smile. "She mentioned something about bursting into flame. You might want to check on the condition of her panties," I told him silently.
"Her panties?" he asked. I nearly choked on my drink when I heard him say it out loud. As it was I spit what I was drinking back into the cup I was holding. I heard Yohannah yell out from the other room.
"Meri!" she accused.
"What?" I chocked out, not even bothering to hide my laughter. "Why do you always assume we're talking about you?" I laughed. I blushed and covered my face with my hands, still giggling, when I saw Embry raise his eyebrows and bite his lip, chuckling. Lucas cupped his hands over his mouth and nose and tried to hold back the laughter that was shaking him. I locked eyes with Lucas again and pointed my thumb in Yohannah's direction. "Get out."
"By your leave," he told me still chuckling as he rose from his chair. He ruffled my hair as he passed. On his way out he paused at the door and then turned and called out "Hey Embry." I froze and looked towards him.
"What?" I asked him silently. I stole a glance at Embry, he looked apprehensive, but curious.
"I just wanted to say that I was sorry about earlier. Forgive me," he said and then turned and out of the room.
Embry and I both stared after him for a moment before I shook my head and looked back towards Embry. He looked as confused as I felt. "I think he has a crush on you," I told him in a stage whisper that I was sure every supernatural being in the house could hear. The shock faded from his face and he smiled leaving only curiosity.
"What did you say to him?" He asked.
I blushed. Maybe Lucas did listen to me. I really didn't want to explain it to Embry at the moment though so I tried to make a joke. "It's like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, isn't it?"
He laughed and I smiled disarmingly at him. "Ever see that movie?" I asked him, successfully changing the subject. We began to talk about horror movies over our diner and in the process we discovered that we both enjoyed the newer horror movies out of Japan. I invited him to stay and watch a movie with me and he happily agreed. After we finished with out diner dishes we headed over to the couch to search for movies on the pay per view. We debated for a moment over which movie we wanted to watch, until we agreed to watch them both. We watched both Shudder and The Eye. Embry sat on one side of the couch and I sat in the middle with the blanket that I grabbed out of the RV over my lap. Yohannah sat on my other side and Lucas sat at her knees. We made it half way through shutter before I realized how warm I was under the blanket that I had brought but I was loath to part with it lest I have nothing to cover my eyes with when it got too suspenseful. Instead I pulled the blankets over Yohannah's legs as well. Pulling the blankets over Yohannah's legs got Lucas' attention.
"Aw, are you scared, Meri? Bless your heart," he told me, which we both knew was southern for "you're pathetic." I kicked the back of his head.
"Shut up, Huckleberry." He reached up under the blanket and pinched my leg, I kicked at him again, but was soon distracted by the movie. It wasn't long before I was cold.
Sitting with Yohannah under the blanket was like bedding down with a block of ice. I tried to pull the blankets back on myself but she grabbed them tight. "Mine," she told me silently. I rolled my eyes at her, and tried to pull them again but she held strong to them. I gave up my effort and instead leaned closer to Embry who was as hot as a furnace.
By the time the second movie had started I was glad that Yohannah was under the blankets as well. Embry was much too hot to sit next to, and she was much too cold, but in between them I was feeling pretty comfortable. When my feet got cold and my shoulder too warm, I changed position and leaned on Yohannah, putting my feet on Embry's lap. When the opposite happened I leaned back over to Embry. The Eye was scarier than the first movie we watched and I found myself burying my face into their shoulders and squealing like a girl more than once. At a particularly gruesome part of the movie, Embry put his arm around me and I grabbed his hand to cover my face instead of the blankets. Yohannah seemed pleased, but I was comforted too much by Embry's arm around my shoulder to really care how it looked to her.
By the time the credits had started rolling my nerves were at their absolute end. "Oh God, I'm glad it's over," I told them. Lucas laughed at me.
"Bless your heart," he told me again and I reached my foot out to kick him but he ducked out of my way. Silently I asked Lucas for the time and he pulled his cell phone out to show me.
"Oh crap. 12:30? Is it really that late?" I asked.
"Mmm, you should be heading to bed soon," Yohannah told me. I rolled my eyes at her insinuation and hoped Embry didn't catch it. He didn't seem to.
"I should be going," Embry said, standing from the couch. I leaned back over into the warm space he left there and pulled the blankets away from Yohannah.
"See you tomorrow then?" I asked.
"Ten thirty, right?" I nodded my head.
"Well, Goodnight then," he said. He stood above me, seeming uncertain.
"Goodnight," I told him and he turned toward the door. I watched him walk out.
"How disappointing," Yohannah told me as he left.
"What do you mean?"
"Your bed is going to be awfully cold tonight," she said. I grabbed the pillow underneath me and hit her in the head with it. I tucked the blanket in under my feet and fidgeted with the pillow for a few seconds before I shoved it under my head again.
"Hey, you don't mind me sleeping in the RV do you?" I asked.
"Why?" Lucas asked.
"I just want to sleep in my own bed for once," I told them. Yohannah shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't see why not."
"Okay," I told them with a yawn. "But in a little bit. I want to stay up a little while longer and watch something that's not going to give me nightmares," I told them as wiggled my fingers towards Lucas in the universal "give me the remote" gesture. I snuggled into the couch and turned the TV on to The Discovery Channel and watched some documentary on coral reefs.
The next thing I remember was the feeling that I was falling, but cold arms around me and Yohannah's soft voice reassured me that I was only being carried to bed. The blanket that I had been sleeping with on the couch was wrapped around me, but it was still freezing cold as she carried me to the trailer. Yohannah helped me into pajamas and led me to the bed. "Goodnight, Baby," she whispered as she pulled the blankets up to my neck and sleep overtook me once again.
