Deep Down

She shivered as she hugged herself. It was so cold. She let out a sigh. She could see her breath roll out of her mouth and dissipate around her. She shifted where she was standing. A small squishing noise emerged from underneath her. What was she doing? She wasn’t sure. Standing here any longer was a very bad idea. She needed to get out of there. But a part of her couldn’t move, didn’t even want to move. If she didn’t leave soon, she would get into a lot of trouble. She knew this. The sun was slowly starting to come up over the horizon. The sky was filling up with pink and orange colors. On a normal day, she would have enjoyed this. But not today. Today wasn’t a day of enjoying anything.

She looked down at her feet. There were red splatters that decorated her normally white shoes. Red stains. Red blood. She shut her eyes and hugged herself tighter. She opened them after a brief moment and stared off at the lake before her. It was so beautiful, so peaceful. There wasn’t a ripple anywhere. Nothing was disturbing it. No one would know that underneath those waters laid a secret. Her secret.

She thought that she was lucky, that she had escaped this miserable cycle of being in miserable relationships. It seemed as if fate had a different story. Billy was sweet at first. He said all the right things. He did all the right things. He made her feel like she needed to be with him. That was her first mistake. She fell for the sugar. Never fall for the sugar. It can rot your teeth. Among other things. Once they were with each other long enough, the beatings started. She would have bruises upon bruises. Sometimes they were so big that makeup would not be able to hide them. But still, she stayed. Why? She had no idea. Maybe it was because she felt like she needed to be with someone to be complete. Did he make her complete? She didn’t know. These days she didn’t know how she felt. She was constantly hiding her feelings. She was numb most of the time.

She knew that she loved him. He must have loved her too. Loved her enough to keep her around this long. But he seemed angry at her most days. It was always yelling. Yelling and screaming. He called her names so often that the name calling never hurt her feelings anymore. She wasn’t allowed to go anywhere unless she had to go to work. That was the only place allowed. She had to ask permission first. If she needed to buy groceries, she had to ask for the money. She was never allowed to keep money to herself. He would say it was because they needed to save. To save for what? She never figured that out. As far as she knew, they were doing just fine. He constantly had friends over. They were always playing games and drinking. One time, one of his friends grabbed her by the crotch and made some crude comment about sleeping with her. Did Billy care? No, he just laughed. That stung her to the core.

She ran to her room and sat on the bed. Head in her hands, she thought of everything that Billy had put her through, was putting her through. She decided that enough was enough. She needed to find a way out. And she was going to find that out no matter what.

She stared down at the address in her hand. She still had one friend, despite Billy’s effort to isolate her. Violet. They met and hung out at her job. It was the only time she was ever out. She had told Violet her plan to leave Billy. How she wanted to do it in a way where she knew that Billy would never come back. Because if Billy was allowed to come back, she would never truly be free. Violet gave her this idea to make him disappear. She wasn’t sure if she was being serious or if she was joking. She didn't care. At this point, she needed solutions. She stared at the building. She wasn't sure if she should walk in. She felt kind of silly even considering going in. Violet told her about this psychic that she always went to. Violet was kind of into the stuff. Whenever something big was going on in her life, she always tried to consult the psychic. Apparently the psychic knew magic as well. A magical psychic. She laughed. Why was she entertaining this idea? Because it was better than considering murder. The thought took her aback a little. Murder? Why the hell was she even thinking about that? How could she even think about taking a life? She wouldn't even dream about doing that. Or could she?

The random thought popped back into her head. Murder. No! This ridiculous idea right in front of you is the way to go. It might not work, who are we kidding? It won't work. But maybe it'll give you that courage and push to finally break free from Billy. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

Inside was dark. There were lights strung up everywhere. Everything was either black or dark purple. She glanced around. There didn't seem to be anyone around.

"Maybe they're closed." She muttered to herself.

"Maybe we aren't." She heard a kind voice say behind her. It made her jump. She spun around and came face to face with a woman. She was about the same height as her, possibly a few inches taller.

“Oh!” she exclaimed in surprise. “I didn’t see you there.” She stepped back a little.

“Not to worry my dear.” the woman gave her a gentle smile. She walked towards a small table on the other side of the room. “Come, sit down.” She gestured to another chair by the table. “My name is Glenda. Come, don’t be scared.” Glenda smiled at her again. She couldn’t help but smile back at her.

She walked towards the table and gingerly sat down. She didn’t know what to make of the whole thing. Glenda seemed nice enough. She wasn’t what she expected. In movies, psychics were a little weird and out of it. They spoke in a voice that they tried to make mystic. But Glenda talked normal. It was like she wasn’t trying to sell some kind of image. She was that image.

“So you are here for a solution.” Glenda sat back in her chair. She didn’t ask it but said it matter a factly. “Well, I may have that solution.” Glenda reached over and placed her hands over hers. She felt warm. It was comforting just being there with her.

“H-how did you know?”

“I know all. Now, you are having some issues with a loved one? Trying to fix it?” She stared at her with eyes so intense. They were a light, smokey grey. They were so pretty. It was hard to look away from them.

“Yes, I want to escape. I want to be free. I feel so trapped being in this relationship. And I just want to escape this cycle.” she stared down at her hands. Glenda’s hands were soft and warm. Why was she so comfortable with this complete stranger?

“I understand my dear. It’s never okay to be trapped in a world where you aren’t comfortable. You should never have to be trapped.” Glenda reached behind her and pulled out a piece of paper. She looked at Glenda in confusion.

“That’s it?” she realized she probably sounded rude. “I’m sorry. That sounded rude.”

“No, it’s okay. It might seem surprising with this whole witch thing. You probably expected the whole potions and cauldron type thing.” Glenda smiled, a mischievous look on her face. “Magic isn’t like that. People watch too many movies.” Glenda laughed. She handed the piece of paper over.

“If you want him gone forever, say this when you are near him. It needs to feel his energy. If you say it when you aren’t anywhere near him, it won’t work. It will latch onto his energy. It will need his stench to find him. To get rid of him.” Glenda got up. “Have fun.” she winked and walked towards the back and disappeared behind a curtain.

She stared at the piece of paper in her hand. She was very confused. There were only three sentences on the piece of paper. How was this going to get rid of him?

She watched as he just sat there. He didn’t have a care in the world. He didn’t care that he had given her yet another black eye. They had got into another fight. He asked her where she had gone this afternoon. She had lied and said her mother’s. But he didn’t believe her. He said there was something in her face that told him that she was lying. But she just kept telling him that’s where she was. So he hit her. Made some blood come out of her mouth. She was used to the taste of iron in her mouth.

After the fight, he sat down and just started watching tv. Just like that, nothing happened, back to normal. It made her angry. How could he just pretend he didn’t abuse her? How could anyone feel okay for hurting someone so badly? They needed to pay. They needed to know that what they were doing was horrible. He was a horrible person. He needed to pay.

“Hey, babe. Do you want to go for a ride? Maybe go by the lake? Have a romantic stroll?” She gave him her best baby doll eyes. He never gave up a chance to spend as much time with her as possible. She could see his mood had changed.

“Ya, that sounds like fun.” He sat up and gave her a giant smile. “We can head out now.” He got up and grabbed his car keys. She followed him to the car.

The entire car ride he was chatting away. Saying how much he loved her and how much he wanted to be with her. Claiming that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. That he knows that he hits her, but it was only because he loved her so much. It wasn’t anything bad. That they could work it out. Things always work out. She just smiled and nodded. Agreed to everything that he was saying. She didn’t want to make him mad before it was time. So she let him continue driving and ranting on.

They finally got to the lake. The sun had already set so it was pitch black out. Why didn't he realize that it was weird being at a lake in the middle of the night. She shook her head. Then again, he was an idiot. A brute and an idiot. When they got out he immediately grabbed her hand. He didn’t want her wandering away from him. She could feel his hand squeeze hers a little too hard. A little payback for earlier. Him saying “You are mine. You aren’t allowed to go anywhere without my permission.” she winced a little. It was starting to hurt. He tugged her towards the edge of the lake. It was so quiet. The water was still. There were a few fireflies hovering around here and there. It was the perfect night. It was so beautiful. She stared down at their hands. In normal circumstances, this would have been fun. It would have been something they could enjoy and really make some memories. But things weren’t like that.

She tried to pull her hand away. His head immediately turned towards her.

“What are you doing? Are you trying to go somewhere?” she could see anger start to form in his eyes.

“N-no. Of course not. My hand just got itchy. I wanted to scratch it.” she mumbled out the feeble lie. She held her breath hoping her lie was convincing. He gave her a sideways look then continued to pull her along the lake edge. She needed to do it now. Otherwise she will lose her nerve and never be rid of him. She will never get away. She needed to take charge. Luckily she had the words memorized. She muttered under her breath.

“Lamia camia enthrala. Lamia benena tresla. Lamia aurra menala.” she whispered under her breath. She glanced at him as she finished. He didn’t seem to notice she was even talking. She glanced around. At first, it seemed like nothing had happened. It was still quiet. As they continued walking around the lake. The ground was getting softer and wetter with each step that they took. From the middle of the lake, there came a bubbling noise. She glanced at where the noise was coming from. She could see something slowly emerging. She glanced at Billy. He didn’t seem to notice that anything weird was going on. She wanted to keep it that way. She glanced back at the lake. She saw a black figure start to emerge. At first she saw the head, then the shoulders, then the waist. It stopped there. It started to creep closer and closer to where they were walking. She could feel her heart pounding. She was frightened. But she was excited at the same time. The figure was moving slowly but it seemed like it was moving at lightning speed.

Suddenly, the figure was right next to them. Everything happened so fast. It grabbed Billy by the ankle. She heard him scream. He was still holding onto her hand. She felt herself going down with him. His grip tightened on her wrist. She tried to pull herself free. But his grip was too tight. She looked around her and saw a root. She grabbed onto it. She didn’t want to go down with him. Billy was screaming and gasping for air. Water was getting into his mouth as the figure tried to pull him down. She glanced at the figure. It was a woman. Her face was grey. Bits of skin were falling off her face. Her eyes were yellow. She was grinning as Billy struggled before her. She was having fun. Her teeth were pointed and small. She could feel her heart start to beat faster and faster. She didn’t want to go where Billy was going.

“Let go!” she screamed. She forced herself to push herself up into a squatting position. “Please let go.” she could feel the tears start to form and fall down her cheeks. She was terrified.

The figure let out a shriek. It threw back its head and bared its teeth. They seemed to get longer. Within a second the figure had sunk its teeth into Billy’s neck. Blood flew from his neck. She watched it splatter onto her shoe. Billy let out one more cry, his grip loosened. She yanked her arm back and fell to the ground. Billy stared at her with disbelief.

“Prudence, why?” and she watched as he slipped down into the water.