Excerpt: The Seeress & the Seraph

 

Tuesday, New Moon

“Stan, have you seen Zippy?” Kyrah asked. Her parents had always insisted she call them by their first names. “My narwhal. The one I keep on my bed?”

Stan Nestor, her father, sat at the table in the kitchenette of their small apartment playing Sudoku. Reruns of a game show played on the television, mindless noise that grated on Kyrah’s nerves. He answered without looking up at her.

“Your mother took it for good luck.”

Kyrah froze. “What? Irene’s gambling again? After what nearly happened?”

But father had interacted with her as much as he was likely to in the evening. His pen scratched on the paper. The chatter on the television babbled on. The kitchenette smelled like cigarettes even though no one in their family smoked. The apartment had come furnished and nothing could cover the stains or smells.

Only moments later, the door burst open and Kyrah’s mother burst in. Irene Nestor looked like an older, blown-out version of Kyrah. Dark hair, pale skin, dark blue eyes. But Irene’s face had withered prematurely from dissipation and erratic habits. Right now, her cheeks were flushed scarlet and her eyes almost glowed.

“Irene, have you seen...” Kyrah began and stopped, because her mother was clutching the stuffed animal.

“This stupid thing was supposed to bring me luck!” bellowed Irene Nestor. She waved it at Kyrah. “But it brought me nothing but crap!” She suddenly rushed into Kyrah’s personal space and shouted at her, nose to nose. “CRAP! I BET YOU LIKE THAT DON’T YOU!”

Kyrah tried to rescue the stuffed animal, but Irene staggered away, still holding Zippy.

“You like it when I lose! You hate me, don’t you?” Irene demanded.

“Irene...”

“You deliberately sabotage me!”

“How could you start gambling again after we barely managed to pay off your last debts? If it weren’t for my friend...”

“Your friend? YOUR FRIEND?” bellowed her mother. “You let that gold-digger marry the billionaire Magician instead of you... you let her steal him right out from UNDER YOUR NOSE! After everything I did for you...”

Irene wheeled around the room again, coming dangerously close to knocking Stan Nestor’s Sudoku off the table. Without a word, Stan stood up and walked into his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

“If you made real money, I wouldn’t have to gamble!” Irene shouted at his departing back.

Kyrah also backed away, but it was too late.

A huge tornado of emotions and wild, incoherent thoughts swirled around Irene. This tornado catapulted off Irene and latched onto Kyrah. All the air in Kyrah’s lungs whooshed out of her. Dizzy, she grabbed the edge of the table to keep from falling. Her mother’s tornado of emotions caged her in a whirlwind of icy hail and darkness, crackling with sudden bursts of blinding, burning-hot lightning. Kyrah’s throat closed. Sweat broke out on her forehead and her whole body trembled. Her stomach clamped, waves of nausea pummeled her, and she feared she might pass out, or even suffocate.

Oblivious to Kyrah’s pain, Irene continued to circle the kitchen, making wild erratic movements, and stirring the tornado of negative energy faster and faster.

She waved the narwhal in front of Kyrah again. “What woman your age still plays with dolls? Grow up! This thing stinks! I’m doing you a favor!”

Irene grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter. She raged around the kitchen. With acid recognition of what was about to happen bubbling in her stomach, Kyrah wanted to follow, but it was all she could do to remain standing as the tornado of vicious black energy raged around her. Kyrah felt her own energy torn away in the storm. The battle against the darkness left her too weak to do anything to stop Irene.

She watched, feeble and quivering, while her mother stabbed Zippy with the knife, disemboweled the stuffing. Then Irene raced into the bathroom and tried to flush the whole thing down the toilet.

This is the first of the three events I saw in my Vision. Kyrah first flushed hot, then chilled to subzero.

Kyrah pushed herself out of the maelstrom of dark energy and staggered to her own bedroom. She shut the door behind her.

And Bethany marrying the scowling man under a dome of ice? Could that have been her wedding to the Magician?

If that was true, then only one Vision remained. The seemingly angelic warrior leading an army of the undead...

Which was crazy. Kyrah knew ghosts were real. But angels? Zombies? That sounded bonkers even to her.

Judging by the sounds coming out of the bathroom, which Kyrah could hear through her closed bedroom door, the toilet couldn’t handle the stuffing and started to overflow. Irene cussed wildly.

Kyrah and Bethany had both worked as waitresses in the Las Vegas dinner-theater of a world-famous stage magician, Alephander Guiscard. An eccentric billionaire, he’d made an offer just before New Year—more of a threat, really—out of the blue to pay off Irene Nestor’s gambling debts if Kyrah would marry him. Since his last six wives had disappeared under dubious circumstances, his offer was like something out of a horror movie. Kyrah had wept over the ultimatum to her friend Bethany.

And Bethany, being Bethany, had stolen Kyrah’s clothes and identity and taken her place.

The very next day, all of Irene Nestor’s debts had been paid off. A few weeks later, Bethany had emailed Kyrah assuring her that everything was fine. Who knew if that was true or if Bethany had been forced to write that? Yet Kyrah decided there was nothing she could do.

Kyrah feared that decision had been her own cowardice. She was so afraid, all the time. Kyrah glanced around her bedroom. It was the closest thing she had to a sanctuary, the place where she came to hide from her mother’s storms of mania or rage. But Kyrah couldn’t stay here any longer. Although she felt drained, as she always did after dealing with her mother, this time, Kyrah knew she needed to make a change. 

She packed a few things. I should have done this a month ago. I’m a terrible person. I let my friend walk into danger. Tonight was a New Moon again. She hid her face in her hands. Maybe she should wait... it would be easier to travel on the Full Moon...

No, if she procrastinated any longer, Kyrah knew she would lose her nerve. Or worse, her mother would make promises and Kyrah would fall for them all over again. After the New Year fiasco, Kyrah told herself that her mother needed her. Irene had broken down into tears and sworn that she’d learned her lesson, that she was going to use the money to get into rehab. It was obvious that she’d used the money for something else. 

“Where are you going?” shrieked Irene when she saw Kyrah open the front door. “You can’t just leave! Are you crazy?”

Kyrah turned and observed her mother. Dark energy still swirled around her, like swarms of wispy vipers, gnawing at her spirit, tearing holes into her. Kyrah had seen ghosts like that: ragged, broken souls, as unable to find peace after death as they were in life. Guilt gnawed at Kyrah. My mother needs me....

“Is this because of a stupid stuffed animal?!” screeched Irene. “Who cares about your stupid, childish toy?”

If Flippy were in trouble, Zippy would go to her rescue, Kyrah thought. 

“I can’t help you, Irene,” Kyrah said sadly. “I wish I could. But maybe there is someone else I can help.”

“You’re crazy if you think a useless girl like you could help anyone!” shouted Irene as Kyrah closed the door closed behind her.

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