If you missed part 1, it’s right here
“…Then the bed seriously levitated two feet off the floor,” Karen took a sip of her second dirty martini.
“Oh my God,” Ming said, “And you’re telling us you weren’t scared?”
“No, I was definitely scared. I was scared the bastard wound dent the hardwood when he inevitably dropped the bed. Which, of course, he did.”
“Kar, seriously, why don’t you listen to him and move out?” Louise asked. “He gave you, what? A week? And you’ve been there more than a month.”
“Six hard fought weeks,” Karen corrected then finished her drink in a big swallow and signaled the bartender for another.
“Okay, six weeks – that’s longer than even the month you said he gave you originally. You won. Why don’t you take that victory and walk away while you have your sanity and your life?”
“Because… It’s my goddamn house, Louise. You know how hard I worked to afford my own place. I’m not going to leave just because some ghost wants me to.”
“Umm, some verified homicidal demon ghost.”
“Thank you, Ming,” Karen nodded and took her martini from the bartender, “just because some homicidal demon ghost.”
“Just so we’re both,” Louise gestured to Ming and herself, “on record saying this is a monumentally shitty idea, yeah?”
“Duly noted,” Karen nodded.
* * *
Ming pulled her Mustang to the curb in front of the Dale house. She could see a light wink on in an upstairs bedroom. She craned her neck and leaned over Karen just in time to see the curtain peel back and the sharp features of an older man peer out. “Oh my God, I think he saw me,” she shrieked, flattening herself against her chair.
“Ming, you’re good. He’s only got eyes for me. Glowing red demon eyes, but…”
“Karen,” Ming turned in her chair to face the other woman, “You don’t have to stay here. Why don’t you come stay at my place tonight? Then… I don’t know, we could look for a place to live together – you can leave this place. It’ll be like college!”
“You have a selective memory. You forget we almost killed each other after two weeks. I’m a tough person to live with,” she smiled. “Right now I’m being John Dale’s pain in the ass,” she shrugged. “…And vice versa,” she amended as she turned to regard the house through the window. The curtain dropped back in front of the upstairs window and the light upstairs went out. She picked up her purse and opened the car door and squinted against the dome light flooding the cabin with yellow light. “Thank you, Ming,” Karen turned and smiled. “I really appreciate the sentiment. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay,” Ming said, then added, “leave the lights on.”
“I wish that helped,” Karen closed the door. She opened the mailbox, took out a handful of envelopes and closed the little door. She turned and walked up the walkway to the front door as Ming started off. She wasn’t even at the door and she could feel the negative energy of the place wash over her. She sighed then put her hand on the door knob (she didn’t bother locking up – she had the greatest alarm system imaginable).
She turned the knob and pushed the door open. She had barely a moment to dodge the bloody corpse swinging on the noose towards her. More casually than one would think possible, she stepped inside as the lifeless corpse swung back inside. She pressed the light switch button as she dropped her keys in the bowl on the small table next to the door. She timed the swinging of the lifeless body to close the door. On the backswing, the body came to a stop against the door with a sickly wet thud.
“A little welcome home gift,” Dale called down from the top of the stairs.
“You’re too kind,” Karen said without looking up. She flipped through the mail as she asked, “Friend of yours?”
“Ah, no, friend of yours!” he replied menacingly.
“You know, Dale, you really missed the mark by not having a mustache to twirl menacingly.” For the first time she looked up at the corpse dangling and saw it was Ming’s mutilated body. Panic started to course through her veins, but she instantly and deliberately put the kibosh on that feeling. “Nice trick,” she said flatly. “If I hadn’t seen Ming leave a moment ago I might have bought it.”
“Shit,” he said, starting down the stairs. “I knew I should have used Louise instead. But she’s got that particular bump in her nose, you know? That’s really hard to capture in a convincing corpse.”
“Her Dirty Dancing Jennifer Gray nose?” Karen nodded. “And you’d best not mention that to her because she’d go all exorcist on your ass for that. Seriously, though,” Karen studied the faux-Ming corpse, “If you disfigured the face a bit more I’m sure you could get around the bump.”
Dale stood opposite her and regarded the body, “Yes, but it’s a fine line – too much and you wouldn’t recognize her and where’s the shock then?”
“Good point,” Karen said, taking an object from her purse before hanging the purse on one of the set of hooks above the door side table. “I got you something, too.”
“Oh?” He waved a hand and the corpse, noose and all, dissolved into a puddle of ectoplasm.
“You might remember this,” she said and held up a gnarled stick with a small circular drum attached to the end. The drum was covered by some hide yellowed with age, sinew cord zig-zagging the circumference holding the skin taught.
Dale’s eyes went wide and he took an involuntary step backward. “Where the hell did you get that?!” he demanded.
“I had a meeting with a medicine man today,” she said and experimentally twisted the stick causing some beads inside the drum to rattle.
The effect on Dale was immediate; he didn’t move across the room as he instantly appeared on the other side of the room. “Put that thing away. You do not know what you’re holding!”
“Actually, I do,” she said, cradling the drum in both hands careful not to rattle it. “According to my new Miwok friend, it’s an artifact of profound evil. Enemy of my enemy, and all that…”
“You have no idea!” Dale started up the stairs.
“No, really I do,” she nodded emphatically. “You want to stay upstairs tonight then?”
Halfway up the stairs, Dale stared down on her, “You keep that foul monstrosity down there and I’ll stay up here tonight. Deal?”
“Sweet dreams,” she smiled crossing to the couch as she rattled the drum a little more. Dale let out a squeal then disappeared upstairs. Karen slid out of her wedges, sat on the couch, delicately set the drum on the coffee table and reached for the comforter draped over one arm of the couch. She reflected on the danger of the artifact as she undid the clasp of her bra, kicked her feet up on the couch, pulling a pillow under her head and drawing the comforter over her. The drum, she knew, was a calculated risk – and a temporary one at that. She’d have to return it tomorrow. But that was tomorrow and for now she closed her eyes and slept the most luxurious night so far in her house.
* * *
Karen let the warm water sluice over her and reached for her poof and body wash. Before she had time to lather up the poof, the hot water turned to blood. “You asshole,” she yelled out of the shower. She couldn’t hear his self-satisfied laughter over the rush of the blood shower, but she imagined she could hear it. She fought her gag reflex back, telling herself the blood was just an illusion. She lathered up the poof and forced herself to start soaping herself up with the blood water. After a few minutes her effort paid off and the blood turned back to water – though she knew intellectually it was always water.
She toweled off and crossed out to her room, opening a dresser drawer for her underwear. That’s when the cobra shot out at her face, fangs bared. Karen turned just enough to let the reptile shoot past her face. Karen knew it would disappear as soon as it left her sight. She pulled on her jeans and top then moved back to the bathroom to do her makeup. Closing the mirror of the medicine cabinet she stared at her face, but aged, wrinkled and cracking like dried mud. She sighed at the sight as her nose cracked and fell into the sink. “So it’s going to be that kind of a morning, jerkface?” This time she did hear his laughter as she looked at her mummy face. “Natural look today, then.” She said.
“No makeup today?” Dale tsked at the foot of the stairs, hand on the banister. He shook his head admonishingly as she started down the stairs, “Not very ladylike, are you?”
Karen came even with him at the base of the stairs without saying a word. She met his gaze and exchanged a stare. Without breaking the gaze, she smoothly withdrew the dagger from her back pocket and stabbed it through Dale’s hand, pinning it to the banister. He bellowed in pain as she walked past him and took up her purse and keys. “Blessed obsidian dagger, bitch,” she said and left him cursing after the closed door.
* * *
Karen pulled into the driveway and regarded the shadow that darted past her headlight. For a moment, she thought Dale was up to something. No, she was outside of the house. This wasn’t Dale’s work. For the first time in months she really was scared. She reached into her purse and took out the pepper spray and pulled out the safety ring. With a deep breath, she pulled her keys out of the ignition taking the keys between her clenched knuckles, claw-like. She pushed the car door open scanning the space ahead of her for the shadow she saw when she pulled in.
That’s when she felt the sharp cold steel press against her neck. “Drop the pepper spray, bitch,” the voice said into her ear. She steeled herself as she tossed the canister onto the seat of the car.
“Take my wallet. Just let me go,” she said as steady as she could manage.
The second man stepped out from in front her car – the shadow she’d seen earlier. “We’re gonna take your wallet, bitch,” he said moving close to her. “And we’re going to have some fun, too.” He looked around and motioned to the man holding the knife, “Let’s take this bitch back here behind the house.”
Karen fought back panic as the knife-man maneuvered her around the car and towards the lightless yard behind the house and blocked from the street by the detached garage. She remembered something from an old Oprah episode or was it a This American Life podcast? Try to humanize them, she recalled. “Look guys,” she started, “You don’t have to do this…”
“Oh, yeah, we do,” the man without the knife said. “Hold her,” he said starting to unbuckle his belt. Then he froze.
The knife at Karen’s throat fell to the ground as she heard a sickening crack. Without the knife, she spun with her key-fist ready, but the lifeless body of her attacker collapsed to the ground. Behind him stood a man in tight black trousers and a red jacket over a tan vest with glowing red eyes.
The other attacker started backing away, but he shouldn’t have bothered. In a heartbeat he slammed against the side of the house, his feet dangling two feet off the ground as his hands clawed at the invisible hand pinning him there.
“You’re a terrible person,” Dale said, walking towards the struggling man. “I mean she’s halfway evil,” he gestured behind him at Karen, “but you and your compatriot…. You’re truly terrible. I want you to see this,” he said, turning towards the prone body of the knife-man.
His form twitched… no, not his body… a glowing shadow in the shape of his body twitched and stood up. Karen could see through his translucent body to her car behind. His spirit slowly stood up and regarded his corpse, silently mouthing “What the…?” The spirit looked up catching sight of Dale.
“Mine,” Dale said simply. The man’s spirit swirled into a shower of bluish sparks. Dale pointed at the ground in front of his feet and the sparks streaked down into the earth. Dale looked back at the man pinned to the wall, his face a mask or terror. “His soul is mine. And now,” he swirled his hand again, and blue sparks coursed out of the man against the wall. As the lights exited his body he sagged against the invisible hand. “So are you,” Dale gestured at his feet again and the earth absorbed the streaming sparks of the other man’s soul. Dale turned towards Karen and the invisible hand released letting the lifeless body fall to the ground with a thud.
Dale extended a hand to Karen, “Are you okay?”
Karen regarded his hand. “You’re just going to do the same to me – if not now, then maybe tomorrow, or in a week, or a month,” she said flatly, defeat in her voice.
Dale smiled a genuine smile. “I meant it when I said earlier that you were halfway evil. That’s pretty much the best compliment you’ll ever get from me.”
“So?”
He sighed, “You intrigue me, Karen. I’ve never encountered a human like you. You’ve done more than purchase this house, you’ve earned it.”
“What?”
“Oh, don’t think I’m going anywhere – and don’t think I won’t continue to fuck with you. But I’m not going to let these…” he sought the word, “Lesser beings mess with you.”
She stared at him.
“Please,” he said extending his hand again. “Let’s go inside.”
“Inside, like… the house, right? Because I’m not interested in that soul-disappearing-into-earth thing.”
“Our house.”
Karen took his hand.
