“What do you remember?” I asked forcing her face to mine so I could compel her to forget the harrowing tragedy.
Trembling she spoke, “I left the party and was walking home. It didn’t feel right being there. I looked for a cab because my place is in Brooklyn. I should have waited, but I didn’t.” Tears pooled in her unfocused eyes. She wasn’t hysterical, but she would be.
I brushed her hair back behind the shell of her ears fixing the mess of her chestnut locks. My thumb drifted to her lips and rubbed the blood off. “What’s your name, little one?”
“Jane.”
I smiled. She was no plain girl in my eyes.
“I’m Bash.” I said sharing a shortened version of my name, not that she’d remember it.
She returned the smile shyly.
“It’s nice to meet you, Bash.” She finally took in her surroundings. “How did I get here?”
“Well, you had a bit of a rough night. Begged me to live and basically forced me to go against my principals to not intervene.”
Her eyes rounded owlishly.
Sue me, I was feeling snarky and felt the hunger pangs I’d ignored since meeting her.
Her hands reached for mine and I let her hold them unaware of the leashed power she clasped onto. “I’m sorry? What do you mean?”
“I’m sorry too, Jane. I’m sorry you won’t remember any of this.” I brushed a lock of hair from her forehead continuing. I deepened my voice commanding her attention. “You won’t be scared at night and you’ll be a good girl from now on. You won’t stay out late at parties. You’ll finish college and live a happy life.” I kept touching her face, her hair, anywhere to keep my connection to her. “You definitely won’t be with any man who is not worthy of you, but most of all, this will seem like nothing more than a bad dream.”
I ended my spell kissing her soft lips, licking the rusty taste from them, breathing in her scent I wasn’t likely to forget anytime soon.
Compulsion was a funny thing.
One had to be clear in what they said to a compelled witness. You never knew when someone would start squawking like a chicken or stripping in a public place. Those news reports were typically one of my brethren poking fun at the mortals.
I wanted better for Jane.
Solace.
“You will sleep like a princess.” I traced her forehead gently feeling the softness of her skin tingling up my hand and through my body. My blood made her glow in a way that only I could see. Healthy. Spirited. “No more bad dreams, my darling girl.”
“A bad dream.” She repeated on auto-pilot, the vacant look in her eyes telling me she was under my compulsion.
“Yes, Jane. Now let me have my driver take you home. You’ll tell him where you live and you’ll spend today resting. Tomorrow will be the beginning of a new day, a new year.” I kissed her temple lingering for a brief moment before breaking the connection between us.
Jane slowly got up with my assistance. I put her in the good hands of my very human driver John. Compelling often left one in a trance like state for hours. She’d go home, live her life, and the balance of nature would resume.
I would never see her again.
1 The Day after, and a hangover later.
JANE
“I can’t believe you ditched my phones calls.” My roommate, Nina, was currently in Miami celebrating the New Year chastised me, again. For someone who was supposed be sipping cocktails in a bikini in the dead of winter, she seemed to have an awful lot of free time to call me complaining.
At least she couldn’t see my shrug through the phone.
“I wouldn’t say I was ditching you. I spent the day resting.” It was as if the entire day was a blur. I dreamed in vivid images that moved too quickly for my brain to process. It was like having a migraine without the pain.
I ate, I think.
Maybe, had a shower?
It felt like I slept a lot and not the restful kind of sleep that abates with a good yoga class. No, this feeling lingered and I didn’t like it.
“Well, how did it go?” Nina wasn’t giving up on this conversation. This was the last thing I wanted to discuss. We had a two week break between classes and if she kept calling me like this, I wasn’t going to enjoy any of them holed up in our apartment alone.
I groaned and rubbed a hand over my face. “How did what go?”
She huffed.
“Operation Ditch Virginity.”
Oh. That. What we also referred to as ODV. Something that didn’t bother me as much as it bothered Nina. Of course she’d also been having sex since high school and felt like I was missing out on life because I didn’t have a guy between my thighs like every twenty-one-year-old out there.
I blew out a breath feeling that weariness resume. And hunger. I had a sudden craving for food like I hadn’t eaten in days. Maybe one of those dirty water hotdogs from the vendor on the corner. My mouth was parched. I wanted salt and cheesy comfort food. I’d order a pizza once I got off the phone with Nina because you never really knew what was in that hotdog water.
“Hello, Jane?” She snapped my attention from thoughts of food.
Another vivid blur, this one in black with splotches of red assailed me. At this rate, I would be a good candidate for the Rorschach tests.
“You know, I think I’m okay with how things are.”
“So what did you do last night? Did you go to that party I told you about?”
I did and it wasn’t fun. I didn’t plan on doing anything like that for a while. I spent my night alone sipping cheap beer inside a million-dollar brownstone near the park until I got bored,
