In the hallway behind the intruder, the girl spotted her mom and dad standing with Noel. All three of them swayed to some hypnotic tune buzzing in their minds and they all looked pale and sickly. None of them recognized her.
The girl backed away from the door, from her own family.
Narissa-the-Fetch seemed delighted. Its torso undulated as it shut the door and bolted the lock.
The true Narissa did not know what to do next. She looked down and a small sound escaped her parched lips.
Her hand had gone transparent. She could see the boards of the porch clearly through the hollow of her vanishing skin.
The following Monday, a ghostly girl watched Narissa as she left her apartment, running to catch the subway to Huntington.
Narissa looked rapturous in the early morning sun; her skin rejuvenated and lice-filled hair gleaming. Her smile spread wide and her fangs were clenched. Not one person she passed on the street seemed to see her as anything but beautiful, happy, one-of-a-kind Narissa.
She seemed full of life.
But the girl, a shadow now, watched the Fetch and saw through its glamour. The girl lived with eternal, wintry chill now, and regrets for the life she so carelessly let slip away.
A life that might have been hers.
The girl dimmed to a wispy apparition. She shimmered and billowed away, across a crowd of students rushing to class at various colleges in Boston.
Floating along until she was no more.
BEAUTY RITUAL
John Grover
It was after 2 AM. when the chill slithered into Chad’s bedroom and woke him out of a dead sleep. Gooseflesh broke out over his arms and chest as he sat up in bed, his eyes adjusting to the inky darkness.
Chad’s gaze searched the clutter of his room. Something wasn’t right. Simple cold shouldn’t have woken him, especially after all the mixed drinks he’d downed at the Paradise club that night. He turned to the window behind him. The streetlight outside illuminated the glass in amber, revealing a layer of glittering frost.
Frost? In June?
He was almost out of bed when the tap on the wall stopped him. Chad forgot the window as the tap grew louder. His bed was pushed up against the wall, insuring he would never wake up on the wrong side, or so he liked to think.
The strange thing was his apartment was a corner unit and there was no one on the other side of that wall, nothing but the outside of course.
Chad placed his ear to the wall, listening attentively. A smirk formed on his lips as he figured he was probably just suffering from the effects of a hangover that would undoubtedly render him useless when the sun came up.
Suddenly, the wall shook violently. Chad fell back, stunned, his mouth agape. A fissure formed, shooting right down the length of the wall, splintering like a spider web. Debris shot over the bed and Chad leapt to the floor.
A roar pealed through the room as the wall crumbled, and a creature hurled itself to the floor in a giant ball. It rose slowly to a towering height, its body covered in razor-sharp quills.
Azure eyes pierced the gloom and focused on the terrified Chad, who refused to believe what he was seeing. A scream died in his throat, but his legs sprang into action and he dashed for the bedroom door.
The creature howled and he could see it writhing out of the corner of his eye. Intense pain washed over his back and he fell to the floor, his skin ripe with the quills that lanced his back and buttocks like acupuncture needles.
To his horror, Chad realized he couldn’t move as a poison pumped into his flesh. The pain diminished as his entire body went numb.
He heard the creature scale the nearest wall, then drop to the floor beside him with a thud. It turned the helpless Chad over with spindly claws, leaned its grotesque face into him, and thrust a blunt, wet snout towards him. In the meager light, he could see a lipless mouth open, revealing massive tusks and rows of tiny teeth covered in black foam. The creature took hold of his shoulders and climbed atop him.
Unable to move, Chad watched as hundreds of teeth sank into his chest. Not a sound escaped him, but inside he prayed for death and shut his eyes as the beast ate him alive.
Daniel’s eyes popped open and he reached for Jeremy’s side of the bed. “Jeremy?” Where’s he gone to now? He rose from the bed and stepped into the small bathroom just outside the door. After relieving himself, he downed a glass of water and headed down the stairs.
The dining room and kitchen were dark, so Daniel strolled through the living room and stepped into the narrow back hallway. A single door to his right was closed. It was never closed. The room behind it was a small, oddly shaped room that Jeremy used as an office. A lot of these old two or three story houses had whacky little rooms that could barely serve a purpose.
Dim light flickered under the door and Daniel heard a groan on the other side. “Jeremy?” he called, thinking his boyfriend was in some sort of distress until he heard a giggle.
He pushed the door open in time to see Jeremy extinguish a candle and close the glossy cover of a rather large book. “Jeremy, is everything alright?” The faint scent of sulfur wafted past his nostrils.
“Everything’s good, Danny.” Jeremy turned and smiled. He held out his arms and Daniel went willingly into them, the embrace warm and comforting. Over his lover’s shoulder he spotted the book, the title read: Queer Magick. There was a subtitle but Daniel couldn’t make it out.
“Where did you get that book?” Daniel asked with a chuckle. He thought the title was absurd and knew it had to be some kind of joke Jeremy was conjuring up.
“On the internet,” Jeremy replied. “I thought it was very fascinating. I didn’t even know we had our own magic,” he laughed out loud.
Daniel returned his playful mood with his own. “Sounds really hokey to me.”
“Well, it’s just for fun. You know how I like weird and mysterious things.” He tussled Daniel’s hair.
“Cut it out and come back to bed.”
Jeremy ran his fingers down Daniel’s cheeks and stared into his eyes intensely. “You are so beautiful, Danny. I wish I was too.”
“Don’t be silly,” Daniel kissed Jeremy on the cheek. “You are beautiful to me.” He really did believe that. For an older man, Jeremy was in very good shape. So what if his skin was beginning to show signs of aging with a few stress lines? So his chestnut hair had more strands of gray than any gay man he knew. It didn’t matter. He only cared about what was inside, having something real and lasting. That’s why he gave up the scene and the parties to move in with Jeremy six months ago.
“You’re sweet, my love.” Jeremy pulled Daniel to him again and they kissed, deeply. “Okay, let’s go back to bed.”
The morning sun was rejuvenating. Daniel basked in it momentarily before fetching the newspaper off the front stairs and heading back up to their second floor apartment.
He straddled a stool at the kitchen countertop as Jeremy poured himself some coffee, who planted a peck on his cheek before searching for something to eat.
Daniel unfolded the paper and his eyes widened. A flood of emotions rushed through him. His heart fluttered. “Oh my God…” the words tumbled out of him.
“What, sweetie,” Jeremy stopped what he was doing and turned to Daniel. “Danny, what is it?”
“It’s your ex… Chad, he’s… he’s been murdered.”