Dark City

28.

It was early morning when Lacey awoke on the hardwood floor of Liam's cabin. Her arm felt stiff and covered in ants, numb from sleeping on it. She checked her pink, puffy-lipped reflection in the bathroom window. Mascara stained the bags under her eyes.

Outside she heard crickets and saw the sunlight barely peeking over the treetops. She was at the Compound, a two-story log cabin, four-bedroom house that had fallen into disrepair. The appliances had their annoying quirks: faucets that whistled, toilet handles that needed jiggling, a refrigerator with a motor that sounded like someone hitting his head against a wall. The finish was lost in some places and the screens of the porch were ripped.

Lacey stepped through the rickety back door. The grounds were still wet with dew from the morning rain, but her granny boots kept her well protected. She could feel the energy of the forest as it awoke to a new day. She followed a nature trail, humming an ancient hymn. Nowadays she didn't sing the Christian songs from her childhood, but rather the pagan music of the old gods.

Manipulating men was how she survived, and she had led Liam to believe that she was his possession as long as Carl and Tom were out of town. Having little interest in getting hooked on narcotics, Lacey only used psychedelics. Liam had money stashed away, lots of it. And Lacey knew exactly how to relieve powerful men of heir assets.

Hypatia lay against a stone fire pit half a mile down the trail. She was possibly the strangest woman Lacey had ever come to know. She had intensity in her narrow eyes, which she accentuated with light, iridescent powders. She was what the Cajun folk in New Orleans would call "jolie laide." Her beauty was unconventional, but exceptionally striking. Whether it was the pairing of her thin lips with her kittenish cheekbones or the subtle asymmetry of an otherwise perfect face, Lacey couldn't really tell.

Hypatia lay on her back, pointing at the sky with an ivory boleen, a little scythe normally used for collecting herbs. Her eyes were wet and glossy from LSD she'd dropped the night before. As Lacey came closer, she noticed little bundles of forget-me-nots on her lap. Lacey lay down besides her, carefully resting her head against a rock.

"How long can you stay with us, Adelace?" Hypatia whispered.

"Tom gets back in a couple weeks."

"Where is he again?"

"Hungary."

"What is he doing there?"

"Fencing lessons with a master. His dad tagged along too, so I have the house to myself."

"Good," Hypatia sighed. "Oh my Goddess, I wish I could sleep."

The girls stared at the clouds passing between the trees. Hypatia took the white boleen and tried to shift their direction with her mind. Very slowly, she moved her cloud into another. Lacey's eyes widened.

"How did you--"

Hypatia hushed her and continued to trace the skies with the boleen. The edges of her cloud tapered off and formed the shape of an owl. She swiped and the owl's wings extended. "Hoot hoot."

These were the powers of suggestion and the after glow effects of LSD. Lacey giggled like a child.

"The sky is as blue as Liam's eyes," said Lacey. "How long have you been together?"

"We go back many, many years. We met when I was a child, but we weren't together until much later. Baphomet realigned the stars, just as he did when he brought you to us." Hypatia took Lacey's face in her hands. They kissed deeply until they heard footsteps; they pulled apart just as Alex and Liam were coming around the corner.

Alex had become Liam's newest pet. The night before she'd brought her little pink duffel bag and moved into a bedroom upstairs. Liam had his arm around her shoulders.

"Do you have the Xanax?" Liam asked. "Can't sleep." He had spent most of the party with Alex while Lacey and Hypatia had tried to conjure spirits on the Ouija board in the attic.

Hypatia smiled gracefully and stood. Stuffing her flowers and boleen into her skirt pocket, she said, "Jacob took it with him on his way to work. I'll call him."

"No," said Liam. "I need to see him anyway."

The show of assertion was all a front for Alex. Everyone in the house who knew anything knew that Liam worshipped Hypatia. She called him her equal, but he bent to her will entirely. Liam was handsome, rich, and influential in the community, but with Hypatia, he was lower than a slave.

"Come, angel," said Hypatia to Alex. "Let's lay down in a dark room and see if we can get some sleep."

Hypatia and Alex descended the trail back to the cabin. As Lacey went to follow them, Liam pulled her back by her skirt until she was pressed tight against him. The others veered out of eyesight.

"I hope our mutual friend doesn't get us all shafted," he whispered, fingers drawing up her inner thigh.

"Alex?"

"The Baphomet thing is fun as long as it doesn't compromise my business."

"You don't have to worry," she said. "She's too enamored with us to betray us."

"You can never be too careful in this town, Red; especially when you've got a flock to tend to."

"Oh? Do you think I'm one of your little lambs?"

"No, sweet girl. You're a Bo Peep like Hypatia. Bring Alex into our flock, and I'll buy you a fucking car."

"What if I don't want a car?"

Liam removed his glove and slid his hand down the front of Lacey's pantyhose. "Don't forget who you're talking to, Red. I'm the shadow that follows you down every alley, the Jersey devil shrieking in the trees. I'm the Night Man of Asbury Park."

"I'm sorry," Lacey said as sweetly as she could stand.

Liam bit her nape and tried dragging her tights down around her hips.

Sometimes Lacey was still in that closet, clawing against the door.

Daddy, is everything okay? Please let me out.

The sound of her fingernails scraping against the wood had been the soundtrack to her nightmares, but every morning she awoke to a world in which she was in control.

"Hey," Lacey said, arching her neck so she could breath warm air against his ear. "Let's get out of here."

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Music: "House of the Rising Sun" Muse