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  I L L U M I N E

  ALIVIA ANDERS

  Copyright © 2012 by Alivia Anders

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people living or dead are used fictitiously. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  For those who never gave up on me.

  O N E

  They say you have epiphanies in the strangest places. It's not something you plan to do in the morning while you mull over the Times with a venti soy skinny latte in one hand. Just like it wasn't something I had really planned to have in the middle of a morning shopping event with Cassie.

  Standing in the dressing rooms at one of her favorite indulgent shops, she switched between two sequent covered dresses, the only difference being the pattern. Holding up the maroon colored one decorated in hypnotic swirls against her petite frame, she frowned. "Essie, which one should I get?"

  "That depends," I took a quick look up from my cell phone. "Are you trying to look overly oriental on purpose, or are you trying to showcase you'll never have a nice chest and ass with your gene pool working against you?"

  She rolled her brown eyes, but I caught the quick smirk that flickered on her lips. "Please, you're just jealous I'll forever fit into Abercrombie Kids clothes." Eyes back on the mirror, she switched to the paisley blue dress, chewing on her lip. "Do you already have something for tonight?"

  I kept my face glued to my phone, feigning interest in a random new app. "Uh-huh."

  "Essallie Hanley, you think you'd learn after twelve years that lying to me is like lying in a Confessional at school," she sighed, shutting the dressing room door behind her. She threw the door open moments later, back in her skinny jeans and favorite oversized sweater.

  She was right. Since my first day to our Catholic prep private school, Cassie Knight had always been able to tell when I was bluffing, even at my best. Like one of those aura reading kids right off the pages of a teenage novel, Cassie had no problem telling me what mood I was in and pinpointing exactly why before I could even say what was on my mind. We called it her 'freak gift.'

  "Forget about the clothing snag, okay?" Cassie snapped her fingers in front of me. "I just get testy you'll always have curves and the only way I will is if I stuff my jeans or binge on Burger King for a few months."

  We walked out of the dressing room to the register. Cassie, in her typical indecisiveness, bought both dresses. I shuddered and turned away from the total on the register, not that her Dad's credit card would notice it one bit. Once we sat in the back of her town car, I decided to spill my guts for her.

  "Can't we just skip the party, Cassie? No one would even notice if we didn't show." I kept my eyes away from meeting hers.

  "Oh, yes, because no one's going to notice the girlfriend of the guy who's hosting the party isn't there. That sends a wonderful message for your relationship with Chase." I felt her stare hot on my face. "Relax. What on Earth do you think is going to happen?"

  "I don't know. Just, call it a bad feeling. I'm all partied out from Jessica's bash last week," I said, shrugging my shoulders. Truth was, I had only stayed at Jessica's for a few minutes, took one look at the five-man three-girl orgy in the middle of the floor, and left. It was great being in the center of a socialite social circle, but I thought of it more like a job than a gift: casual Friday is great, but the other six days of stiff neck collars and ties are overwhelming.

  The second part was the very reason I was supposed to be at that party tonight. Chase DeRapport was just as mysterious as the values in each case on Deal or No Deal. Everyone assumed just because I was dating him that I'd know every inch of him, from boxers or briefs to favorite board game during a potential blackout. After a year and a half of knowing him, three months of that dating, I still felt like something was just...wrong. Amiss. Just a little off. All the little bells and whistles saying to turn back and run sounded in my head, but how exactly did you explain that to your friend when you're supposed to be the life of the party?

  "It'll be over before you know it, trust me." Cassie snapped me out of my haze as she shoved against my shoulder, smiling. "Besides, I've been told by a trusty insider that he's got something wicked good planned for you," she winked.

  By the time I'd decided on skipping dinner, picking out a dress to wear, and rocked on my heels through several stops to the eighth floor of an apartment complex a few blocks from Times Square, I was late for the party. The door had been left slightly ajar, multi-colored flashing lights blinking just inside.

  Stepping inside, I made my way through the small packs of people hovering in little cliques against the walls, giving them small smiles and nods where eye contact was needed. I noticed that in the main room he had decided to put up his latest work of art on canvas. A picture of a bare-breasted angel with blood on her hands and wings spread toward the heavens, a blindfold covering the maiden's eyes. Something about it gave me the shivers, as if I was having the strangest case of deja vú.

  Fingers laced around my upper arm. Giving his long dark hair a swing from his eyes, Chase pulled me towards him until his lips met with my neck in a gentle but sloppy drunken kiss. "How nice of you to show," he murmured. His hand lazily brushed over my white dress. "What kept you?"

  "Actually, that would be exactly what I see right now," I half-shouted into his ear over the music. He looked confused. Big words don't really work on the drunk, silly me. "I didn't want to see you drunk."

  That seemed to sink in. His face took on a new expression, and for a moment he looked mildly sober. "I'm sorry, Essie, baby. I didn't know what to do without you."

  If he drank every time he didn't know what to do without me...I pushed it out of my mind, figuring it was the alcohol talking. I knew for a fact that when he was fully sober he was far from overly-dependent on my existence. "So what's this surprise Cassie mentioned?"

  "Shit." His eyes widened, and he practically dropped his arms off my waist. "What did she tell you?"

  "Nothing, nothing, I swear," I said. "Just that it would be, in her words, wicked good."

  The tension in his shoulders relaxed as his face softened. Under the spectrum of lights, he looked closer to a waterlogged corpse than the owner of an occult bookstore in downtown NYC. Dark bruises lingered under his eyes and dashed his cheekbones like blush, his skin suctioned to the bone.

  "Not to be mean, but I've seen feathers sturdier than you," I teased. I leaned up on my toes and brushed my lips against his immobile pose.

  Chase looked back at me, eyes locked in his infamous faraway glaze. Every time I focused on his eyes, I saw battling sparks of light as if they were fighting to push past his brown eyed stare.

  He snapped to attention so suddenly I squealed. "Come on, let's go." Keeping my hand in his, he led me past the people in the hallway to the door, bumping into whoever stood in the way. I looked up to apologize, only to bite my tongue in shock. Every person in the hall had turned to look at us, to look at me. Each face looked ravaged like Chase's, cold and lifeless with bright dazzling crimson eyes.

  Just a trick of the light, I repeated in my head, keeping my eyes glued to the floor until we were out of the apartment and in the elevator.

  Chase hit one of the buttons, and I watched 7 light up while the elevator groaned to life. "What's on the seventh floor?" I asked.

  He didn't look at me, but I caught his eyes flash as the corners of his mouth twitched upward. "Something special." The doors opened and he led me down the hallway, coming to a halt in front of one door that was already slightly open. From the outside I could only see darkness.

  We walked inside, Chase sealing us inside as he shut the door. The darkness made it
impossible to see anything, not even a window for a sliver of moonlight. I fumbled my hands out in front of me for anything to grab onto.

  "Over here, Essie," Chase's voice carried just a bit in front of me. I took a step forward and missed a dip in the floor, half-collapsing into him with a gasp. "Are you ready for your surprise, my little angel?"

  "Not really, no. Let's just get the hell out of here," I hissed at what I assumed was his face. "Why are we in here anyway?"

  "Don't you want to bond with me?" He asked.

  My eyebrows creased. "Are you saying you want to have sex with me? 'Cause I don't need an empty apartment to do that. Your bed would have worked just as fine."

  Chase laughed. "No, not that kind of bond. I meant a spiritual bond." He left me standing alone as he walked around the room lighting candles in clusters of five or six at a time. Under one of the flickering flames I caught him looking back at me, his eyes shining like two freshly polished black marbles. "I found it in one of the new books that came in last week to the store. It seemed fitting for two soul mates to bind themselves past the physical level."

  As he lit more candles, the room started to come into focus. One quick look at the floor showed me standing in the middle of a chalk-drawn circle surrounded by symbols. Four small dishes marked each pole, all filled with different items. The one directly in front of me sat empty.

  "What do you think, Essallie? Cassie thinks it's a perfect night, don't you?" Chase called from across the room, hovering over another pile of candles with a lighter. A second face came into view next to him, the peak of sequins glimmering against the candle light.

  "Cassie?" I tried to breathe against the sandpaper sensation in my throat.

  "Don't take it personally, Essallie. We've been doing this for years." She came to the edge of the circle drawn on the floor. "I'd chalk it up to bad luck. Normally we'd just pluck someone from a bar or shelter and use them, but once Chase found out what-"

  "No." Chase stood in front of her. "You do not tell her."

  Cassie narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. "Fine." Leaning over just enough, she added. "Let's just say, your blood is worth its weight in gold."

  As they both started to sprinkle salt around the circle, I wasn't sure what to do. My boyfriend and best friend had both gone mad in thinking that not only was magic real, but that I would stick around and play into their little game. Nothing was holding me into place, not a strip of duct tape or string of rope. I took two steps to the edge of the circle as fire leapt up the edges, closing me inside.

  "Should have told her she couldn't leave," Cassie said.

  "I wanted to see if she'd try," Chase mused, setting down the last of the salt from his hands and moving over to a small table holding multiple volumes. "Remember that girl in the '50s who tried to leave? Kept saying it was just a dream and burning herself."

  "Nothing quite beats the smell of charred flesh and fear. You think we could bottle it for future memories?" Cassie closed her eyes and heaved a wistful sigh, opening them back up to exchange dark smiles.

  "You're sick!" I screamed as loud as I could. Fire began to filter into the circle, wicked yellow flames rising higher as it slowly inched closer to the hem of my dress. "Someone will see the smoke and report it to the fire department!"

  Chase rolled his eyes skyward then fixed his gaze on me. One of his eyes didn't return to center. "At which time you'll be choking on more than your misery and fear." His fingers grasped a tome from the table into the crook of his arm, his free hand waving over the cover. The book burst open, pages fluttering left and right until they settled. He began to chant, repeating the same phrase over and over. Nausea pressed my stomach like a steamroller to pavement, bile touching the back of my lips as I crouched down toward the ground, pleading.

  Please don't let me die, not like here, not like this.

  All at once, the sound escaped the room leaving but the unsettling quiet left for the dead. Every candle in the room blinked out. Ice began to crystallize any surface, stopping just short of the flames surrounding me. Something slithered over my shoulder, passing through the fire with no restraint.

  "Yet again you call. More time, I presume?" the voice asked with a slow whisper.

  "I propose a trade. An exchange of power," Chase calmly replied. His eyes flashed a passing of light among the dark. "The girl for eternal life. No more sacrifices."

  "And what," the voice began. "Does this meager bag of flesh have the others have not?"

  "Observe," he said. I heard Chase pull something from a pocket. Against the faint light from the fire a small vial filled with dark liquid shined. With a slip of the hand the vial crashed and burst apart on the floor, the liquid igniting into bright blue flames that spiraled and danced every which way.

  "Agreed." the voice sounded pleased. "It is done."

  The wind in the room shifted, blowing with force against my face. The fire parted as a tall, slender figure stepped inside. Color began to bleed into his features, giving him an icy white skin base and long flowing blonde hair against sharp blue eyes. For a fickle moment I felt a pull towards him and his human disguise.

  "Just breathe, and it'll all be over before you know it," he tried to soothe. Between his needle-shaped teeth smile and flick of a forked tongue, I felt all but calm. Long, spindling swirls of smoke coiled up to my face, lingering just centimeters from my cheek. I held my breath as the smoke reached further and touched my skin.

  Light flashed within the room instantly. Each candle burst to life with a new flame, changing between red to yellow to blue. Across the room, Chase's face stared back at me with a triumphant grin.

  Fire of the brightest blue flames engulfed the smoke, blazing the room. Sounds of shattered glass and screams filled my ears. Chase's face now looked horror-struck, caught in a mask of shock.

  From the fiery smoke a face materialized, tan skin matched black pearl eyes. Inside the eyes existed a world of fire and brimstone. Hell.

  His mouth spilled open, hundreds of screams filling the room. I dropped to the floor, covering my ears and screaming for it all to stop.

  Above me the smoke coiled back. It seeped down toward the ground taking the form of a human dressed in regular street clothing. Its eyes burned into mine as it watched me against the shadows.

  "You are mine, now, mortal," he said, each word crawling over my skin and itching my ears. "Why do you not let me touch you?"

  He was kidding, right? Why wasn't I letting the creepy death-demon thing touch me? I shook from head to toe as I struggled to speak. "You- you're asking me why I'm n-not drinking the Kool-Aid?"

  The demon looked puzzled. "What is Kool-Aid?"

  "Oh for Pete's sake," I heard Chase snap. He pushed past the podium he stood behind, knocking over books as he went. Somehow in the few minutes it had taken to cast the spell he had aged. Salt and pepper hair covered most of his head as age lines on his face deepened, thinning his face to that of a gaunt homeless-looking man. "Take her! I fucking offered her to you and you play with her instead?"

  The demon stared at me, narrowing his eyes to paper cut-thin slits. He reached out again for me. The minute his hand came in contact with my skin blue fire raced up his arm, engulfing him instantly. He howled, exploding into smoke and dispersing through the room before returning to human form. Sweat sat on his temples and cheekbones, an irritated expression crossing his face.

  He turned to Chase. "You gave me what I cannot touch. Fool me once, shame on me."

  "If you leave I'll only summon you again," Chase spat, licking his lips and crossing his arms. "So what happens when I fool you twice?"

  The demon plunged a hand into Chase's chest and removed his still-beating heart in a single move. Licking the organ with his thin forked tongue, a Cheshire grin spread from ear to ear. "This."

  Chase's body collapsed to the floor, but I was still focused on the demon. His tongue had wrapped around the heart like a whip around a pole and swallowed it whole, leaving him time to suck each fing
er clean. Giving me a quick glance, he winked.

  Cassie screamed. Caught between wanting to hug the remains of Chase or save her own skin she bolted for the door, flinging herself out into the hallway as blood clung to her skin and matted in her hair.

  The demon continued, unfazed. "Want to see what I do to those who annoy me?" He didn't wait for my answer. Bending his body to unnatural angles he got on all fours and tore into the fresh corpse. Horrified, I was unable to move, watching as each limb was ripped off, every rib broken, every organ consumed. Blood spatter hit my face and clothes, and it took everything I had not to pass out.

  When he finished with Chase he sat Indian style on the floor, hands on his knees. Blood had smeared across most of his forehead, and a bit of flesh rested on his shoulder. He continued to watch me as I remained immobilized by my fear. Seconds felt like lifetimes as he stared back at me until he finally spoke.

  "Don't worry, Essallie. When it's your turn I'll make sure you're awake for all of it," he whispered. He slowly began to disperse into thin air until there was nothing left.

  Long after he left, I finally moved. Sirens began to wail in the background as the sound of screaming picked up again. It wouldn't be until the police arrived that I'd realize it was me who was screaming.

  T W O

  Five months later.

  "Looks like you're drawing that Japanese cartoon stuff."

  I looked up from my sketchbook on the desk, pencil still in mid-stride. Local Belfast hottie football runner Leonard 'Leo' Skripper was leaning over my end of the table. His head was tilted to the side, looking thoughtful at my sketch.

  I took a double take around the room. Kids were slowly shuffling into the Bio classroom, some still stuffing breakfast down. And his girlfriend was missing.

  "Is it supposed to be just an eye?" He looked at me.

  "Umm, yeah. It's actually the only part I can really draw."