Forbidden Knots (Shadow Duet #1)

22. TWENTY TWO

TWENTY TWO

Storm

T here was still music from the woods echoing in my mind, Sophie's lifeless eyes haunting my sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her, and my lips began to scream. I sat down in the corner of the basement floor, enveloped in darkness. Fear was under my skin, carved deeply, and I didn't know if I would ever escape this feeling. My legs and body felt paralyzed, held in place, and then my body started to sway up and down while my eyes followed the same directions.

Tears no longer fell; it felt like there were no tears left in my body. Just as I tried to move, footsteps grew closer. But no one was inside the room; I was alone in the dark. I closed my eyes and placed my palms over my ears. The music inside my mind grew louder, and my breathing quickened. My heart now beat so fast that I feared it might burst from sheer terror.

For a moment, I tried to calm myself, thinking there must be a reasonable explanation for the sounds, but then I heard breaths—loud breaths against my ears.

"No," I shouted, getting up, and with closed eyes, I ran across the basement, stumbling and falling to the ground.

A strong hand grabbed my ankle and pulled me down. I screamed, my nails digging into the concrete of the floor. As I kicked, I turned around, my eyes now wide open. I saw a woman in the shadow, and as she came closer to the moonlight, her face full of scars and cuts stared back at me. Her hair was black as the dark in the basement, and her body pale, skin and bones.

She placed her finger to her lips, saying, "Shhh," but I screamed again, kicking her in the chest and crawling back to the mattress.

"Go away," I shouted, "Get the fuck away."

"I live here," she said, standing up. Her white dress was oversized for her skinny body. "Is this how you behave when you come to someone's house?"

She turned again, laughing, her teeth yellow, her breath reeking of death. " Peekaboo , I can still see you," she said, laughing, placing her hands over her face as she came closer.

I shouted, I screamed, I kicked towards her. But she still came closer.

"I just want to play," she said, "Do you want to play?"

"No," I said, my head shaking. "No."

She shrugged her shoulders, nodding her head. "Okay."

She came closer, her head tilting, scanning my body.

"Blood," she whispered, sniffing me.

My eyes closed again, my body shaking. I could feel her finger brushing against my skin, and as I moved, she sniffed her finger and put it in her mouth, licking it and then taking it out.

"Mmm, tasty," she said, "Who did you kill?"

I shook my head, moving away from her. "No one," I whispered, my voice trembling.

"Liar," she hissed, her eyes narrowing. "I can smell it on you. Blood. Death."

"Don't be shy, it runs in your family," she said, laughing, her piercing laugh filling the room.

"Who are you?" I asked, my shaken voice barely managing to speak.

"Ghost of your past," she said, her eyes widening then closing, her face tilting as she came closer to me.

"I don't believe in ghosts," I said, my voice still shaking, my breathing heavy.

"But do you believe in stories?" she asked, her eyes flickering.

"Brrrr, what's that?" she asked herself, "Sorry, voices."

"Get the fuck away," I said, moving back.

"Stay," she whispered, her voice turning sharp, then started laughing again. "Let me tell you a story."

"I don't want to hear it," I said, retreating further, but her hands grabbed my face, squeezing my cheeks, as she spoke to me.

"You will hear it anyway," she insisted. "Once upon a time," she began, her voice dripping with mockery, "there were these two sisters. One was evil, and the other one was crazy, and together they were trouble," she laughed, "big bad trouble."

"One day, one of them fell in l-o-v-e ," she whispered, "but the other sister was so jealous that she had to do a very bad, bad thing."

"She killed him," she whispered, her breath cold against my face, "and then she cut her sister's face so that no one would see her again."

"Did your sister do that to you?" I asked, my breath quickening in tempo with the beat of my heart.

She nodded, "And then she took her sister's identity."

"Is that you? Your story?" I dared to ask.

She nodded, whispering, "It's yours too."

I shook my head in denial.

"I watched him watching you," she giggled, "He loves you," her laugh pierced my ears, "but pretty pretty boys are the worst worst."

She stood up, moving away from me, shouting, "Shadow will hurt you, Shadow will hunt you."

I shook my head, "No."

"They all do," she whispered, crawling back towards me, "They will take you, use you, break you until you become their pretty little doll."

"In the dark, you go until Shadow you become," she giggled, "And he will haunt you, he will haunt you," she said, walking away.

Tears finally found their way down my cheeks again, my voice now shaking as I gasped for air.

"Mommy will take care of it, she will hide it, and she will hide you," she said as she hid in the dark, "But the sister is still there, sister will hurt you, bad bad bad girl, you've been a bad bad girl," she told herself, and I could feel her footsteps fading away.

The door unlocked, and Grandma was at the door, her eyes still floating; she was still sleepwalking. She walked down the stairs, hitting everything in her way. Her white nightdress was stained with more blood than before, her hands were painted red.

She repeated, "Rose, Rose, Rose," as she walked me away from the mattress.

She did something. This house hid so many secrets, and now I had one too. She walked me to the bedroom, and then to the bathroom. The bathtub was already filled with water, and then she walked away, closing the door behind her.

In Tristan's shirt, I lay in the bathtub, and I started to rub my skin with my fingers, my teeth clenched together, my eyes filled with tears as I scrubbed my skin as hard as I could. Trying to wash all the blood from me. But some things you can't wash away; you can't delete from your brain.

Some things will just haunt you.

Stay with you forever.