(Continues from Meaning)

It’s Monday and I’m melting,
my perceptions are winnowing,
contracting
to the chalk outline tying
me to this spot where something
delivered me into Death’s hands. 

I crouch down and touch the chalk. It reminds me of the symbols I found in Jase’s office. My corpse is gone. Maybe Detective No Name called in for a body disposal. Or perhaps he dumped my body into the drink after he finished destroying the evidence.

I’m alone in a world with no choices. Death took them all from me. So I fly back to the slice of green in the glass and steel jungle of New York. I pick up the book and check the knight. She nods her head and dons her helm. She’s got a war to ride off to and I’ve got one too. It’s time I paid Detective No Name a visit. A rogue tornado kept me from interrogating him before but there’s no such impediment now and I need answers.

I rise. The wind catches my coattails and fills them lifting me up until an old man turns the corner and fixes his acid wash eyes on me. Beside him, shadows rise and between two of them, Jase hangs listless and lost. I drop to the ground surrounded by sketches of demons, broad dark strokes against the verdant green creeping closer, ready to pounce.

“You have something I want,” Demin Eyes says and smile lines crinkle around his cruel mouth.

“So do you,” I say and my voice startles Jase out of his funk. His eyes catch mine and I read an apology there as his gaze drops to the book in my off hand. The wind rustles its pages, providing teasing glimpses of an armored woman. I roll with it, opening the book to the page spellbinding my crush. Words swell in the silence and a tear slides down Jase’s dead cheek. He stares at the female knight trapped on the vellum page and she glares back.

A car passes by the frozen tableau blasting its stereo. Cheryl crow croons, giving voice to the question pounding in my heart. Are you strong enough to be my man? 

Jase turns his head away, half in negation and half in shame. All I hear is the old man clapping and the squeal of tires.

Find the earlier parts of this series here.

If you missed a part, worry not. This will be available from Amazon in 2017.
The adventure continues tomorrow (maybe today if I can get the next piece done before my meeting).

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For Monday Melts hosted by Jade and Rosema.

And while I have your eyes, what do you think of the new cover idea?

 

 Curse Breaker: Enchanted is a free read through Kindle Unlimited.