The Voodoo Bell

Part 7: Chapters 18-19

18

The Feast

I wasn't alone more than a few seconds before I heard a sharp crack announcing someone was coming up behind me. Before my eyes could register the movement, Derrick was standing near me.

"Are you hurt?" he asked, voice a bit cold towards me.

"No" I answered back flatly. I didn't feel like addressing his sore pride.

"Come on then", he said, lifting me unceremoniously up into his arms and using his super speed to teleport us back to the manor.

He was quiet when we got there. He sat me down inside the doors and began to straighten up his suit. It was the first time I had ever seen it with any wrinkles in it and I knew that was my fault.

"You are lucky the wolves didn't get you" he scolded me and I felt my cheeks start to burn in embarrassment. I didn't respond. After all, what could I say?

He turned away without looking at me and began to walk to the door.

"I have business to do". He said, not giving me a second glance.

After I hauled myself upstairs to put on a fresh set of pajamas, I decided that I needed to take a hot bath. So, that is just what I did.

After drawing a bath and getting out all my towels, I let my body relax into the welcoming warmth offered by the immersion into the steamy water. The feel of the liquid around my sore muscles would have been splendid if I hadn't spent a good five minutes of it in self-loathing over my failed escape. When I decided to stop focusing on the bad and clear my mind, I started watching the candlelight flicker around the room. I had only lit one and it had been shorter than the usual tapered candles that were found around the house. I noticed that it smelled of lavender though and I thought it would help relax me as I soaked. So, it had been the one I chose.

It was so hard for me to believe that all this was happening. This was all real. Vampires, witches, spells were all real. Thinking about it made me feel so antsy, that I had to mentally force myself to stop thinking about anything except the feel of the water. I had closed my eyes and was trying to concentrate on the sensation of hot water resting on my skin. The way it waved back and forth over me as I took deep long breaths. The small ripples that bounced back and forth off the walls of the white claw foot tub as I moved my legs from their place under the surface. I tried hard to remain clear, but my mind continued to wander back to the scene in the woods. When the next wave washed over my chest, it hit my neck a bit further up than those previous waves. In fact, it washed all the way up to my chin. Had I moved? If so, I hadn't noticed. I looked at my resting form under the water and then recommitted myself to emptiness. When the next wave hit my chin, I knew I hadn't moved that time and my eyes shot open. My wide eyes were met by another gush of water that hit over my face and pulled me under the surface.

I began kicking and pushing up, trying to pull myself back to the top for a breath, but it was like the top of the water had been replaced with glass. I hit on the hard surface with all my might, but I couldn't break through. My lungs were starting to burn and ache and I knew that I couldn't hold in the precious oxygen much longer. My limbs started to relax into stillness as my body gave in with the lack of fresh air. I looked up through the water, now clear and still. Above me, stood a woman. She was a stranger, but there she was, bending over the tub, looking at me. She was beautiful with pale porcelain skin. Her face was surrounded by shoulder length, bright red hair that fell forward a bit as she bent to look into my face. Her eyes were the color of the clearest blue sea and they almost sparkled with joy as I sat drowning. Her sheer pink dress flowed forward past her shoulders, draping around her in a blushed halo. I knew that this woman must have been an angel, here to welcome me into death. I had started to crack open my lips to allow the water to rush into my lungs when a flash of yellow and black shot over the water and the woman was knocked from view. With this movement, the water spit me out like I was a bad taste.