Page 99 of Girls Night
Electra’s right hand moves up to her heart on its own accord. She had cast the spell days after her and Delphi’s break-up. “I… I thought I had, but…”
“Don’t lie to me, Electra! I can read right through that stupid face of yours.” Olectra clicks her tongue and curls hair behind her ear. “You can’t let go of her, can you? And where’s it gotten you? Screaming bloody murder in front of a group of customers. How embarrassing.”
Alectra scratches at the acne on her forehead. “It totes looked bad, Electra. For real though, I —”
“Shut up.” Olectra glares at her deformed sister. “No one wants to hear anything coming from that tear in your face you call a mouth, Alectra.”
Electra sighs. “Be nice, Olectra.”
Her sister’s jaw drops. Her eyes are angry. “To her? You’re standing up for the thot that fronted without your permission just to get a taste ofyourgirlfriend?”
Alectra giggles, scraping a dry flake from her forehead, and eats it. “Delphi tasted like roses dipped in honey.”
The love knot was meant to warn people of cheating significant others with a gentle tug at the heart if their boyfriend or girlfriend slept with anyone else. The vice grip Electra had experienced earlier was something far worse. “I have to go after her. She’s in danger. I can feel it in my core.”
Olectra shakes her head. “Forget about it. Not going to happen.”
Alectra twirls a greasy lock of hair between her fingers. “It would be nice to see her again, Olectra.”
Now, both Electra and Olectra shoot daggers at their sister, and shout in unison: “Shut up, Alectra!”
After a moment’s pause, Electra announces that she is going after Delphi. She has to. She won’t be bullied by Olectra. Not this time.
Exasperated, her sister states that Delphi isn’t a part of their lives anymore. That whatever is coming to her, must come to her. End of story. Case closed. Sayonara.
But Electra stands her ground. “I can’t do that. Please, Olectra. Just this once?”
“You hate her.”
“No, that’s not true —”
Olectra crosses her arms and wrinkles her pretty nose at Alectra. “Even after everything that happened… Withthem?”
“Call me stupid,” Electra says. “It’s just something I have to do.”
Olectra closes her eyes and a solitary tear runs down her cheek. She doesn’t brush it away. “Then, sister, you do it alone.”
“Olectra, wait…” Electra scrunches her hands into fists as Olectra disappears from the mirror.
“Kiss Delphi for me,” Alectra says, before she too evaporates. “Right between her thighs.”
Electra is all by herself, staring at her own reflection in the vanity. She ignores the thick lump rising up her throat.
She doesn’t pack a single thing. From what she remembers of her vision, the town isn’t a place she wishes to stay for very long. All she takes with her is money for transport, then locks up the Three Blind Mice and heads for the bus station.
The bus doesn’t stop at Cotton Rock. Not anymore. The driver refuses to tell Electra why. He’s a good Christian, God damn it. He’s heard all there is to hear about the strange little town. Although his pastor at the Tears of Mary church down in Parkerville claims such strange stories cannot possibly exist, the driver is worried that even so much as whispering them to his lone passenger will give the darkness power. He opens the doors and waits until the girl has disappeared behind the thicket of trees to breathe a weary sigh, and prays.
In the forest, the air is cold and clammy. Electra finds it hard to keep her balance. The mounds of pine needles and cones that carpet the ground in a dull red make it near impossible to walk. She’s twenty minutes into her hike when she walks into a spider’s web. Ten minutes later, an ominous fog has rolled in through the trees that creak and loom over her. It is accompanied by a stench she can chew.
Electra’s gut tells her she’s close. Her mind, now empty and silent since her sisters’ departures, begs her to turn back. She persists anyway, because she’s stupid and won’t heed a single warning.
Because Delphi still means more to her than she should.
Chapter Nine
Purpose
I come to, and the world around me is enveloped in plants. Flowers of every size and shape – their colors fierce, gnarled and radiant – billow and eddy before my eyes, caging me in place. I try extending my right arm, but sheer agony has me recoiling.
