“What did she used to want from you, Mario?” Kayla repeats. “When you were a kid.”
“Fuck, man, I don’t remember much,” Mario cradles his chin in his hand, his eyes closed as though he can access those dark childhood times better that way. Like a movie screen showing long forgotten creature features. “I don’t really recall specifics, but she wanted me to know you, Erik. Your sister too. It sounds ridiculous, but I swear, man.”
My eyes shoot up at my name. “It doesn’t sound ridiculous after the week I’ve had.” I recall Juniper mentioning that Mary encouraged her to befriend Kat, so the fact that Malvina pushed Mario to befriend me chills me. I meet eyes with both Ian and Kayla and know immediately that they are remembering the same.
“Do you know why she wanted you to meet Erik and Juniper?” Kayla questions, leaning forward and patting Mario’s folded hands, making him startle.
“No, I’m sorry,” Mario says sincerely. “But, I did share consciousness with Mary.”
“You have insight?” Ian asks, eyebrows perking with intrigue.
“It’s hazy, but there are flashes of some sort of dual consciousness,” his face reddens. “Mostly I’d wake hours and hours later with no memory, but as the possessions got longer, I started to remember things, and then eventually I sometimes saw things as they were happening. It was bizarre and felt like I was underwater watching my body do things I hadn’t told it to do.”
“What did Mary do to Kat while in your body?” I ask, my stomach lurching at what Kat must be going through as a silent prisoner in her own body. Remembering how Mary had tried to strip in front of me, and the thought sickened me since it wasn’t of Kat’s own accord. Had she just been trapped, watching it all unfold helplessly?
“I was sitting here and next thing I know I’m seeing blurry visions of forcing Kat into her hotel room and pinning her down on the bed,” Mario cringes recalling it, and Kayla’s breath intakes sharply as she splays her hand on her chest, shocked. “I fought against her then, and I took myself back again and tried to let Kat escape, but she couldn’t before Mary fought me back down. I have no idea what she did, but when I came to, I was sitting in Kat’s room on the floor with Kat in front of me, tied to the bed. I untied her and then It took me a minute to realize that it wasn’t actually Kat.”
Mario pauses to lean forward, holding his head between his hands, elbows resting on his elongated knees. His shoulders are shaking and I realize he is sobbing and I am frozen, unsure of how to react when Kayla sits next to him and drapes her shapely arms around his broad shoulders. She whispers to him tenderly and he just nods and keeps weeping.
Ian and I stare at each other awkwardly as Kayla works her soothing magic. Eventually Mario pats Kayla on the hand and straightens to look at us with reddened eyes.
“Mary said if I told anyone that she’d kill Kat and the rest of us. They were Kat’s eyes but they weren’t. She wasn’t there. It was just that malicious, evil in there. The thought of Kat stuck in there just really horrifies me,” Mario looks as though he may dissolve into tears again and Ian clears his throat.
“Hey man,” Ian begins. “You aren’t at fault here. You know that, right?”
“I should have fought harder,” Mario whispers. “I should have protected her.”
“No, you couldn’t have,” Ian says persuasively. “You are susceptible to the paranormal, and she preyed upon that. There is nothing more you could have done, and now you are doing what you can to help.”
“I feel like I’ve been a curse; first the bad drugs and now this,” Mario moans, leaning forward again, head inserted back into large hands.
“It wasn’t the drugs, Mario,” I say quickly. “That was Mary too.”
His head shot up. “What?”
“Yes,” Ian confirms. “Mary has been targeting Erik’s family for years, centuries even.”
“Stop beating yourself up,” Kayla agrees. “We have all been pawns.”
“What the fuck does she want?” Mario roars, making us all jump.
“We were hoping you would know,” Kayla says quietly, patting Mario’s knee. “We know she wants Erik to some extent, but we don’t know what she intends to do to him or Kat.”
“I don’t know,” Mario laments. “I was more privy to fragmented memories, I guess. She had a daughter, it felt old-timey, and she contacted her daughter through a mirror and her daughter Ida—”
“Iris?” I correct, watching Mario nod.
“Yes, sorry, Iris. She had Iris spread the word about a game of contacting her in the mirror to find out who they’d bang or some shit.”
“Marry?” Kayla laughed.
“Yes, sorry, marry. Anyhow, it took off from there, with Mary getting called into mirrors long after Iris kicked the bucket. I don’t know what the appeal would be with calling a bloody lady to your commode mirror, but what the fuck do I know?” he shrugs, peeling little bits of soggy paper off his beer label absentmindedly.
“It’s certainly odd entertainment,” Kayla agrees. “Though if she had blinded every single person who called her, I think we would have heard more about it.”
“I think she more or less fed on their energy, but she hates blondes,” he starts rolling each piece of wrapper into little balls that he drops like an artillery pile onto the glossy coffee table. “I have no idea why, but plain blondes set her off.”
“Are you saying she would attack girls in mirrors when they looked a certain way?” Kayla clarifies, looking at the pile of trash on the table with dismay, likely bristling at the untidiness.
“I think so. Someone who was blonde must have really pissed her off in life, I guess?” he grabs Kayla’s empty beer and begins the process again with her label. “Ladies can be real drama, even if they are fucking
