Pixie Dust: Part Two

The visitation room of the county jail was a cold, sterile and repulsive place. A place that made my whole body tense just by being there. Though it was a nice change being on the other side of the glass, and not in handcuffs.

I sat anxiously across from Dustin, separated by a thick, scratched plexiglass window. I lifted the clunky receiver and pressed it to my ear. “Dustin, man. How you doing?”

“Cut the shit,” he spat back at me. “You don’t give a fuck how I’m doing.”

I took a deep breath before responding. “You know what, I really don’t. At least not until I know what the fuck happened in there.”

“Bro, you saw what happened.” He chuckled, with a douchey grin plastered across his smug freckled face.

“What I saw?” My voice began to rise, “what I remember seeing — “ I quickly checked my tone as two officers looked at me and took unsteady stances, “was apparently your mom, floating in the air like the bitch from The Exorcist, getting sucked on by a giant fucking squid.”

Dustin’s eyes started to water at the mention of his mother. “Listen man, it wasn’t supposed to be her, okay? But he dont fuck around when it comes to collecting his payment.”

“What the hell are you talking about? The drug dealer you were rambling about the other night?” I searched his eyes for any hint of humanity as I continued, “you let your mom get killed over some dope money?”

“He’s not a drug dealer. He’s the Dealer. And Pixie Dust ain’t no drug,” he leaned forward, “It grants wishes, my guy.”

If my eyes could have rolled any harder I swear to Christ they would have rolled right out of my fucking face. Pixie Dust? At the time I figured this was just some new Gen Z, fairy fruit version of X or MDMA making kids lose their minds.

“You don’t have to believe me, it’s probably better for you if you don’t. The Dust hasn’t even hit the streets yet, but when it does,” he whistled as he made gestures resembling a big explosion. “No more war. No more religion. No more governments or taxes. This bullshit we call life, the illusion we’re imprisoned in, will cease to exist.” His eyes darkened as if each of his irises were replaced by swirling shadows.

“So then what makes you so special that you get to sample this wish-granting, wormhole opening, reality-shifting fairy dust?”

“Pixie Dust,” he corrected me. I guess the little shit couldn’t pick up on sarcasm. “I’m a Chosen One. One who will serve the Great Mother once she prepares the kingdom for the Voidwarden and his queen.”

“Dustin, do you know what you sound like right now? You sound like you belong in the goddamn looney bin. ‘Chosen One?’ ‘Great Mother?’ What the fuck does that even mean?” At this point my voice and my hands were violently shaking, none of what he was telling me made any sense.

“There are things out there that would literally melt your brain, dude. And honestly, I don’t really care to explain it to you. You won’t be here to witness it when the shit goes down anyways.”

I thought about that spinning portal in his living room, and how his mom was tangled up in that creature. Part of me knew he was telling the truth, even if I couldn’t understand it.

“All I’m hearing is that you’ve been fucking with some intense, experimental drug, and you’ve gotten yourself involved with some extremely dangerous people. I think you’re right where you need to be. Good luck getting your precious fairy dust in here.” I went to hang up the receiver before he stopped me.

“The Dealer gets in anywhere. There’s not a door in this universe or any other that he can’t open. We still have work to do, and he will get me out of here. Fucking bet.”

“Well I hope it was worth sacrificing your life for. And your mother’s.”

He jumped up out of his chair so fast it made me flinch. With tears streaming down his face, he screamed, “It wasn’t supposed to be her,” he slammed his palm against the glass. “You didn’t answer my calls! You didn’t get there in time! It wasn’t supposed to be Mom—I told her to stay away!” He unraveled into hysterics as two armed officers grabbed him by either arm and pulled him away.

“Alright, visit’s over,” a stern voice came from behind me.

I could still hear Dustin’s maniacal ranting as they dragged him back to his cell. “Enjoy what time you have left with your precious Raven!” I couldn’t tell at that point if he was still crying or laughing. “The Great Mother is coming, and ALL will abide!” His voice echoed in my ears as I made my way to the parking lot where Raven was already waiting for me.

Sometimes a man’s descent into madness is marked by an unforgivable act. Dustin crossed that threshold when he sacrificed his own mother, but then to threaten Raven? The little asshole should have added that glass barrier to his gratitude list.

The ride home was mostly silent as my mind replayed the visit with Dustin over and over. The conversation left me with more questions than answers. Who the fuck was this “dealer” guy, and what could he want with Raven? I kept my gaze on the passing trees as we made our way through the winding roads of the Shenandoah Valley.

My thoughts consumed me until we made our way into the house. “So you didn’t see anything weird when you went into Dustin’s?” I asked Raven abruptly.

“I mean other than you in a mangled pile on the floor and Dustin knocked out beside his sofa, no. Nothing I can think of anyway.” She dropped her keys into a dish by the door in the foyer.

“Nothing crazy with the ceiling? Nobody else was there?”

“No, Chase. Nothing. And what did you see on the ceiling?”

I took a seat on the loveseat across from the mounted television in the living room. “Honestly probably nothing. I was pretty disoriented after the attack and everything, but I swear to God it looked like a vortex opened up on the ceiling. I know it sounds crazy, but — ”

“You don’t sound crazy. You sound like someone who’s just been through some real shit. Did talking to Dustin give you any clarity on the situation?” She asked, plopping down next to me.

“Hell no,” I scoffed. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her the weird things he said to me.

“I’m really sorry babe,” she said, grabbing the remote and a throw blanket.

We fell asleep in the living room that night, binge-watching some horror show she had picked out for us. As I drifted into sleep, the room began to fade around me and I suddenly found myself inside of a dark jail cell.

I could hear a voice whispering to me from somewhere but I couldn’t see anyone. “What do you want?” I asked the seemingly empty cell.

“You know what we want,” the voice hissed from somewhere just beyond my vision. “You failed to uphold your end of the deal.”

Time itself seemed to stand still as I found myself unable to move and hardly able to breathe through the stench of sulfur. “Deal? What are you talking about?”

Suddenly he was nose to nose with me. His gaping smile stretched an unnatural distance across his face, and his glowing eyes peered into mine. “The girl! You useless husk of human excrement!” I became vaguely aware that his hand had been clasped around my throat as he suspended me in the air. He tightened his grip, and I felt the veins constrict in my head.

“Please — ” I struggled to speak.

He tilted his head back, opening his mouth uncannily wide. A row of jagged teeth gave way to a gaping opening at the back of his mouth. From there, wisps of shadows came propelling towards me. My eyes widened in terror and tears cascaded down my cheeks. One by one these appendages started to conjure an opening in the empty space above us.

I shook uncontrollably as slimy tentacles forced their way through the rift. One by one they slithered and coiled around me like menacing vines, pulling my limbs taut. The man stepped back and pulled a baggie of black powder from his pocket. Dozens of extremities worked together to pry my mouth and my eyelids open.

“Ah, I almost forgot—some Pixie Dust for your efforts,” he laughed as he grabbed a handful of powder and blew it right into my face. My body collapsed onto the floor and the man and his monster disappeared through the portal.

The floor began to shake beneath me, cracking open and releasing a rancid vapor. I writhed on the floor, clawing my face and chest as the dust particles morphed into millions of tiny bugs that dug their way into my skin.

I tried to scream for help as the walls crumbled around me. From the cracks in the floor, more creatures made their way into the cell. Beings resembling giant arachnids with humanoid faces, centipedes with hundreds of eyes and endless rows of teeth, and other indescribable horrors converged upon me. They tore their way inside of be, wriggling and digging deeper inside of me until I couldn’t tell where their bodies ended and mine began.

In a sudden moment of desperation, I did the only thing I could think to do to wake myself up from the nightmare. I crawled my way to the nearest wall, shaking and clawing myself the whole way. I took a final glance behind me as more entities surrounded me. I drew my head back and slammed my forehead as hard as I could against the white brick wall.

I could feel the blood trickling down my face as I head-butted the wall again, this time crushing my nose. I choked and slammed my head against the wall again. I became acutely aware of broken teeth grinding around in my mouth as my throat filled with hot, metallic fluid. Why isn’t it working? I thought, as something started to creep up my leg to burrow itself into my — actually, let me hold on to a shred of dignity here.

“Help me!” The words ripped from my mouth with a screech after finally coughing up the bloody obstruction. Another viscous extremity coiled around my arm, seizing me by the shoulder and sliding into my mouth. In a panic, I started bashing my head rapidly against the wall, no longer aware of anything but the searing pain of my life slowly ending.

I finally woke up, panicked and drenched in sweat. Raven slept peacefully with her head on my lap. I patted myself down to confirm I was really there. From the corner of my eye, I caught a brief glimpse of a swirling bright light before blinking it out of existence.

I tried to brush it off, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was severely wrong. I quickly gathered myself and woke Raven up to come to the bedroom. Once we cuddled up in the bed, she was asleep within seconds. I don’t think I even blinked the rest of the night as I held her. I stayed awake and cautiously scanned each dark corner and watched every shadow with mounting suspicion, daring them to move.

The next day progressed around me in a blur. Raven could tell something was clearly wrong with me, but I couldn’t tell her about the nightmare. I really just wanted to forget about it altogether as I dove into my work.

“Well if you won’t talk to me about it, can you do me a favor and please just call Phil?” She finally asked as she threw on a short pair of cutoff jeans and a loose crop top.

“What?” I asked, pulling myself from my train of thought.

“Are you gonna be okay tonight?”

“Yeah I’m good. I just really didn’t sleep well last night. But I’ll call Phil, I promise.”

“Alright,” she responded, leaning in for a kiss. “Don’t forget I have Women’s Last-Call Group after work tonight. Please don’t make yourself stay up for me, get some rest.” With that she grabbed her bag and her keys and made her way to the door.

About an hour passed before I was scrolling through various news articles on my phone. It was one of the ways I was able to ease my mind or at least distract myself from my own thoughts for a while. On the third round of refreshing the page, an article appeared, having only been posted in the last ten minutes.

My mind was sent reeling as I absorbed as many words as possible at once. The headline read, “Young man jailed on Assault and Attempted Murder charges found dead by apparent suicide.”

I scanned the article, taking in the information with mounting anxiety as the words jumped off the page.

“Dustin Holder, a Harrisonburg local, was found dead in his jail cell at approximately 5:15am, where he was being held on charges for aggravated assault and attempted murder. Official reports claim that the cause of death was suicide by repeated blunt force trauma to the head…”

Nothing made sense to me, and my mind felt like it was being stretched in a thousand different directions all at once. Officials also stated that there was an ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Holder’s mother, Ashlynn Holder.

“What the fuck is going on?” I said to the empty room, patting my pockets for my pack of smokes without taking my eyes off the phone. My hands were shaking as I continued to read. I had gone through everything else until that point with little to no desire to drink or use, but at that moment all I wanted was a tall glass of something strong to calm my nerves.

I finally made up my mind to call Phil. I couldn’t have cared less if he believed me or thought I was absolutely batshit. All I knew was that if I didn’t talk to someone, I’m pretty sure my head was going to explode.

The phone rang twice before he answered, “Hey kid, how’s it goin’?”

“I’m not sure, Phil. But it’s going. I think.”

“You alright, Chase? You don’t sound too good.”

My voice began to tremble, “I’m really not, man.”

“You at home?” He asked.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Sit tight, buddy. I’m on my way over.”

“Sure thing, Phil.” My eyes started to water and my half-smoked cigarette fell from my hand. Before I knew it, tears were streaming from my face and I hung up the phone.

He made it to the house in just under twenty minutes, which was just barely enough time to compose myself from my little meltdown. I met him on the front porch to grab another smoke.

We greeted each other with a quick hug, as always. For a big, burly mountain man he was also a big hugger. He had a firm belief that a lot of the issues that drive men to active addiction come from the fact that we don’t give or receive enough affection. If “hugs, not drugs” had a ZZ Top beard, oversized gut, and a chaw-stuffed smile, it would have been Phil.

“So what’s going on, kid?” He asked. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you probably heard the news already, huh?” He said as we took our seats on the black wicker chairs.

I nodded, taking a long pull from the cigarette. “It ain’t just that, though,” I started, deciding to just get right to it. One thing he and I had in common was our low tolerance for small talk.

“I’m listening.”

“Well I’m not even sure where to start. I’ve… seen some things. Like at Dustin’s house, and here, I think. It’s not gonna make any sense, but I gotta just get it out and whatever happens, happens.” I finished my cigarette and immediately lit another, preparing myself for the insane shit that was about to come flying out of my mouth.

I told him everything. We eventually made our way inside as I told him exactly what I remembered seeing at Dustin’s house, and tried my best to describe the thing that attacked me. I told him about everything Dustin had said about the Pixie Dust, and The Dealer.

Not once did he interrupt me. Not once did his gaze break from mine. Usually he would try to talk over me, or try to help explain away my feelings, or recommend I pick up some extra meetings. But, he just sat there, taking in every last word until I was finally finished.

“You probably think I’m fucking insane don’t you?” I asked after a few minutes of silence lingered between us.

He took a deep breath before speaking. “Have you told Raven about any of this?”

“No?” I responded curiously.

“You told anyone else?”

“What? Did you hear a word I said? Who the hell would I tell that to?” I wasn’t sure what kind of response I expected, but the conversation was not going at all how I thought it would.

“Yeah, yeah I heard you,” he said, his eyes slowly scanning the yard to the driveway where his old F-150 sat parked. The sun was starting to set, and the air dropped several degrees. “Let’s get inside.”

“Anyways, so now apparently I’m having nightmares that are coming true. I’m seeing shit that may be real, probably isn’t but I don’t even know. I feel like I’m losing my mind, Phil.” I spoke as I went to make a fresh pot of coffee.

“You’re not crazy, kid.” Phil finally said as he found his seat on the couch adjacent to the loveseat.

“I’m sorry, what?” I asked, handing him his cup.

“You heard me,” he said before taking a loud slurp of his unsweetened, black coffee. “So, now it’s my turn to talk, and you just listen. Got it?”

I sat down on the loveseat. “Yeah, I got it.”

“There’s some things in this world that ain’t meant to be meddled with. Hell, things that ain’t even supposed to be in this world at all. But some people just don’t know when to quit meddlin’.” He sat back in his seat and his brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what to say next, or maybe how to say it. “There’s things in these mountains that don’t like to be disturbed.”

“Oh for fucksake, Phil, really?” I scoffed. “Don’t give me some urban legend bullshit.”

“I said you hush your mouth, boy!” he snapped. “Besides, this ain’t a fairytale your mama tells you at bedtime. I’m talking about things more ancient than these mountains themselves. You see, this ‘Dealer’ fella has gone by a lot of different names. Some folks have called him the Hoodoo Man, other people call him the Shadow Man, or demon or Djinn. And I suppose now he’s callin’ himself. ‘The Dealer.’ Don’t matter what you call him, it’s a demon straight from the pits of hell. All throughout time he’s made his way around, messin’ with people’s minds and filling their heads with all sorts of visions and delusions. He makes all kinds of promises, and claims to grant wishes but his only satisfaction is pure chaos.”

“I don’t understand what you’re telling me,” I finally spoke.

“I’m telling you that you’ve somehow put yourself right on his path. And I’ll tell you right now, I suspect your little girlfriend’s been makin’ deals with the devil.”

“Alright Phil, that’s enough. I should have shut this down at the mention of ‘genies,’ but to bring Raven into this is where I draw the fucking line.” My voice began to rise without constraint as my nerves got the best of me.

Phil lunged from his seat and towered over me. “You listen to me, boy! You ain’t from around here, but I damn sure am! You don’t have to like it, but I’ve never lied to you and I ain’t lying now. She’s involved in some dark business, and I don’t trust her as far as I can throw her whole cursed goddamn house.”

I stood up so that we were nose to nose. “That’s enough, Phil! Get the fuck out… right now!”

“Kid, I need you to really listen to me. There’s something real evil goin’ on around here, and darkness seems to follow that girl. I knew her mama, and she wasn’t always crazy. Priscilla was always a good girl growing up, and a fine woman before she brought Raven into the world. It broke something in her. I’m tellin’ you, Chase. The girl ain’t right.”

That’s when I snapped. Without a word I grabbed his shirt collar with my left hand and met his jaw with a staggering right hook. But that just wasn’t good enough for me. I drew back two more times, popping him twice in the nose before shoving him to the ground. He tried to deflect my blows, but being nearly twenty years older than me with a bad hip and no upper body strength to speak of, his attempts were futile.

The room around us darkened as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, and I realized that my hands were closing around his neck. I quickly came to my senses and got off of him. “Phil, I — ”

“No, Chase. I ain’t hearing you right now,” he said as he spit his blood onto the carpet. He struggled to stand, and I made my way over to try to help him up.

“Phil, I’m sorry. I don’t know what the fuck happened man— ”

“Chase!” He cut me off again. “I said I ain’t hearin’ you right now. Best thing you can do is get the fuck away from me and let me go in peace with what dignity I got left.”

I dropped my gaze as he slowly hobbled to the door.

“And that was a cheap shot, too.” That was all he said before he left, slamming the door behind him.

I went out to the porch and sunk into the chair, closing my eyes. I leaned my head back and breathed in the crisp air as the stillness of the trees started to calm me down.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself strapped to a surface in a dimly lit room. I scanned my surroundings as my eyes adjusted to the low, flickering light of dozens of candles. I tried to call out, but it was like I was paralyzed. God damn it, not again, I thought as I realized it must have been another nightmare.

I fought against my restraints as hooded figures emerged from the shadows in the corners of the room. I counted eight bodies. They remained silent as they formed a circle around me, and one stepped forward at my feet. The individual reached into their robe and pulled out a vial of black dust. Each of the members were clad in black robes and hoods, and wore intricate masks that resembled creatures not much different from the ones I’d seen in previous dreams.

As I gazed down, I realized that I was in a woman’s body. Not just any woman—Raven’s body. Terror seized my entire being as I fought fiercely to break myself free of the shackles, but it was no use.

In unison the group began to silently chant incoherent incantations. From their voices, it became apparent to me that they were all women of various ages. The one holding the powder climbed onto the table and perched herself on top of my naked feminine form. She opened the front of her robe, revealing her smooth, dark skin. She started massaging my body, rubbing my thighs and sliding her fingers up my abdomen. I felt a surge of electricity throughout the body as she caressed my tits, or Raven’s tits, rather. Her body thrusted against my own as she continued to rub me down, sending shivers throughout my being.

She traced her tongue along my neck, and made a trail down my torso and stomach until her masked face was between my legs. The sensation was unlike anything I could have imagined. My legs started to shake as she sucked the clit and for a moment I began to really understand a thing or two. This went on as the other figures continued their chant. One of the other women rolled an instrument table over to us.

The unfamiliar girl that was on top of me carefully lifted an intricately designed object from the trolley. The thing was downright unsettling — like some twisted, malformed appendage. It had this slick, pulsating surface with veins running all over, it almost seemed to be alive. At the end of it, these jagged bits jutted out like mangled claws.

As she slowly inserted that thing inside of Raven, a wave of euphoria swept over me despite my own relentless terror. The group closed in on us as she began to fuck me harder and harder. I could feel it ripping into me, like it was eating me from the inside out. I became aware of the blood all over her hands and she began to smear it around her neck and chest, drawing strange sigils on her body and mine.

Other members of the group gathered around us, taking turns using that fucking monster cock on my girlfriend and tracing strange, bloody symbols onto their bodies. The room began to pulse and the ground trembled.

With each thrust, a surge of dark energy rippled through the air. Traces of Raven’s blood mixed with its gross, sticky secretions. Shadows grew around us, snuffing out the flickering candles. As the ritual intensified, their chants grew louder and more desperate.

Raven’s moans escaped my lips, and in the subtle vibrations I lost all awareness of ego or identity. The voices in the room grew stronger, and I could make out some of the syllables.

“Nam-kalag, gi daltu, utuk xul, alal sishkur!”

Tension mounted as my body convulsed, straining against invisible bonds. With a final, guttural incantation, the appendage erupted in a rush of dark fluids.

Right then, Raven’s orgasm overtook all of my senses. Senses I didn’t even know existed. It was like an explosion, but not just in a physical aspect. The pulsing sensation was more intense than any nut I had ever got. In that brief moment, it felt like my spirit had kissed the cosmos, like an exploding star birthing new constellations. The other women staggered back, exhilarated and breathless.

In the silence that followed, the rift above us expanded with a deafening roar. From the other side came a towering, indescribable figure.

Splattered in black mucous, the women knelt in terror and reverence. Their chants merged with the uncanny whispers. The scent of iron and incense lingered in the air.

One by one those disgusting fucking tentacles came slithering through the opening. God knows I wanted to cry, wanted to scream, needed to wake up. All I could think about was the real danger that Raven could be in, if this nightmare was to be anything like the last one. But my body remained still and calm.

The rest of the creature crawled through the portal above me and hovered just above my face. It didn’t seem to have eyes, but I could feel it peering into me somehow. It was a massive black mass that held an almost human-like shape, aside from its gross masses of flesh and tentacles that seemed to be made of both solid matter and vapor. It moved as though gravity had very little effect on it. It lifted Raven’s body like it was claiming a prized offering.

“How I’ve longed for this moment.” It whispered.

There was a silence before Raven’s voice echoed within my psyche. “Show me the Great Mother’s grand design.”

There was a horrible screeching noise that seemed to split my brain in half. The room around me swirled before fading out of focus. Once the spinning finally stopped, I found myself in a barren wasteland, still in Raven’s body.

No geographical features gave any clue to my whereabouts, and the sky was a vast crimson fog. There was no life in sight, just a scorched landscape that seemed to be in a state of post-apocalypse. The dirt was bone dry, and there was no breeze. The sun was obscured by a thick cloud that seemed to stretch endlessly, casting a red hue across the land. I was suddenly startled by the scurrying of footsteps behind me and quickly turned around.

Coming at me with terrifying speed was a creature with half the face a deformed human baby, and the other half a charred lizard. Its body was like a snake with two large rubbery wings protruding from its back. I tried to run, but it was too quick and was suddenly right on top of me. Just before it could grab me, a larger winged creature with hollow eyes and massive talons swooped down and grabbed it, ripping its body right in half. The thing only consumed some of the other creature’s blood before tossing the carcass and flying away.

“Behold your new empire, Princess,” a low voice sliced through my brain. “We have anxiously awaited your return, and our own liberation.”

“As for the progress?” Raven’s voice responded as we began to walk. It was no easy feat getting used to being in someone else’s body. Her body. Not tin this way, anyway.

“You’ll be pleased to know that we have secured more incubators than we could have even thought possible by this point. And that is just on Earth; we have already begun seeding many rocks throughout the galaxy, Your Highness.”

“This is delightful news, indeed,” she answered. “Take me to The Clinic.”

In the distance, a jagged silhouette of massive proportions awaited us. As I got closer, the damn thing loomed up like the carcass of some ancient, god-awful beast. The Clinic was a massive, twisted heap of what looked like bone and metal, all fused together into a grotesque mess. It had these huge rib-like structures that jutted out, creating a dark canopy overhead. The entrance was a gaping maw, framed by heavy, rusted doors that looked like they hadn’t been touched in centuries.

Fungal growths clung to the surface, glowing with a sickly green light that made my skin crawl. Steam hissed out of cracks in the decaying flesh—yeah, flesh—and the whole place reeked of rot and chemicals. It was like something straight out of a nightmare, and every instinct in me screamed to turn the hell around.

Once inside, the room seemed to expand endlessly, with rows upon rows of metal slabs. On top of each were women in disturbing, contorted positions, each one with a monstrous entity attached to them. For some, it was simply latched to them, appearing to feed. For others, the creatures seemed to merge with the bodies in horrific and symbiotic ways. Still, other bodies were completely ripped open, as if something was violently removed from their corpses.

The smell of decay and the gruesome sight before me would have sent me into panic. I would have screamed, cried and thrown up had I been in control. But, I was not at the reins, Raven was. And as far as I could tell, there was no indication of shock or fear to be felt. The confusion and terror that tugged at me were buried beneath her own calmness.

“Everything is progressing perfectly it seems. Our alliances are proving to be quite fruitful.” Raven’s voice deepened, “But tell your little ‘dealer’ friend, as he’s known now, to keep away from Chase. He’s already seen too much.”

“We could dispose of the human for you, Princess,” the monster responded.

“You will do well to remember your place, leech!” She snapped. “Besides, he has something that I need.”

“Yes, Your Highness. It shall be so,” the voice responded in a low and feeble tone.

“Chase? Chase!” I awoke on the porch to Raven shaking me by the shoulder. She appeared untouched and unharmed. I instinctively snatched my arm away from her.

I quickly glanced across my surroundings as I patted my sweaty t-shirt down. “Rav? What the hell is going on?”

“Looks to me like you fell asleep outside, babe. You okay?”

My eyes darted up and down her body with skepticism. “Yeah, I think so. Just really exhausted still. How was the meeting?” I asked cautiously as we proceeded into the house.

“Eh, same as usual I suppose,” she replied casually. “Elise introduced me to a newcomer that I might start sponsoring if she comes back. Tonight’s meeting was pretty intense, so we will see.”

Yeah, I bet it was, a sarcastic notion crossed my mind.

“There is something we need to talk about,” I announced as she stripped down and made her way to the bathroom.

“Yes?”

I made an executive decision to just jump right into it. “Well, I’m not too convinced that you will tell me the truth. And I’m not convinced at all that I could really handle it if you did. But I need to know what’s actually going on.”

“Chase, what are you talking about?” She asked, and I could see the pain and worry plastered across her face as she tried to dig out a towel from the clean laundry pile.

“I think you know exactly what I’m talking about,” I started. “So I’m going to give you one opportunity to be completely honest with me, your highness.”

She stopped dead in her tracks, and stood rigid before me. “Have you stopped taking your meds? You sound crazy.”

Raven had never, ever questioned my sanity. Never tried to gaslight me. I stared in bewilderment at the woman I had loved, but didn’t recognize. Without another word, her body began to rise from the floor. The area on her torso where the bloody symbol had been started to glow until a blinding light erupted from it.

The room was bathed in an unbearable brilliance as her voice bellowed. “An ancient darkness awakens. It hungers for what was, and what will be. The terms of peace have been renegotiated, and soon the Great Mother will bring forth her ancient overlords. A pact must be sealed, or all life shall be consumed.”

With that, she dropped to the floor and the room fell into darkness. I was left in shock, my mind reeling as I grappled with what she said. An eerie silence hung in the air as I stood there, trembling and wondering what the hell any of that was supposed to mean. One more, I was left with more questions than answers.

To be continued…