Himora Clarke “There she goes…” #3
“She said keep digging!” Souxie snapped.
The men immediately went back to work, kicking up the grass with their heads down.
Bellamy was the only one who stood on the side, lighting a fresh cigarette and keeping his eyes suspiciously on me.
Asha suddenly turned and went back to the house just as the one named Harvey with the blacked-out eyes stepped out holding a sandwich.
“I made myself a sandwich, does anybody want some?” He asked. “I figured we’ll be here for a while.”
“Why are you in their kitchen?!” Namir flipped.
“Because I was hungry? Is that not obvious?”
“Shit, hold up. He might be on to something,” Seth said. “What they got to drink?”
The nymph looked torn, afraid to say something to Souxie but afraid to go after the one named Asha. Her back-and-forth fidgeting was a bit distracting, so I brushed my pants down free of invisible lint and started for the house.
“Himora?!” Trevor called out.
I stepped into the home seeing the incubus named Harvey in the kitchen when he turned to me in the middle of taking another bite.
Pausing, we stared at one another when he carefully brought his pointer finger to his lips in a silent motion and a wink.
Of course. Hanging around young college-aged women, he couldn’t have been more obvious.
I kept moving until I was back out-front seeing Asha talking to the professor by the car door.
When Vanessa and Audrey would argue like this back at the home office, I found myself having to step in as some sort of mediator so we can continue to move forward.
“Excuse me?” I called out as she and the woman looked back at me.
When I stepped up to her, she took a few steps back, looking down at me in a way that wasn’t familiar to the Underground.
Her characteristics reminded me of Trevor so I could safely assume she was raised here above ground and not below.
“Who the fuck are you?” She asked with a sniff. “I don’t know you for you to walk up on me–––”
“When we find the body, our hope is to reverse or break whatever spell is casted over this family that dates back a few generations,” I said.
“Huh?”
“It’s not breaking and entering when you know what you’re doing,” I continued. “No one can see us because people are asleep so cops would not be called at the moment–––”
“What are you talking about?” She snapped.
“You asked me a list of questions,” I said.
“I’m answering them. I would advise you to learn to think before you speak so people will listen to you and instead of simply hearing you.
My father always told me that anybody can raise their voice, but it doesn’t mean they’ll listen.
If someone feels attacked, they stop listening or begin overtalking you.
I encourage you to find a middle ground.
Just so you’re not handing out the most vulnerable part of your emotions on display for everyone to see the way she just did. That is no way to protect yourself.”
She stared at me as I gave her a quick firm nod. It was the same thing I told Audrey who still had her own issues to deal with. It was exhausting but better to hear it from someone who gets straight to the point.
“That was absolutely beautiful advice!” Professor Jones let out from the car. “Asha, you need to hug this woman because that was so needed–––”
“Please,” I said, stepping back. “That won’t be necessary.”
I didn’t like being touched or touching others unless it was my husband or my daughter.
I reserved that intimate side for those two alone.
I turned back and started for the house but when I stepped in, I could see Bellamy walking in with his eyes completely red.
His dark brown lips were shining from the overflow of saliva as his chest began to heave when he stared at me.
I froze, standing in the living room, ignoring the homely furniture and decor.
Harvey stood in the kitchen eating a second sandwich as he watched the two of us with intrigue.
I knew that look from Bellamy all too well. He took one step with his foot raised and suddenly he was standing right in front of me, breath becoming shallow by the second.
“You have questions on what I am,” I said, stating the obvious. His first mistake was ignoring Trevor as the true threat and his second would be assuming that I am the weaker of us two. Before either of us could speak, we heard Solomon shout out.
“We got something! I think we found her!”
Bellamy’s intense gaze on me suddenly retracted as he stepped back. It was just in time for Trevor to calmly step back into the house with his eyes on me. All of this proved to be anti-climactic and a waste of time and energy.
“Meeting your birth mother should be your only priority. Not me and what I am,” I said in a low tone.
“Please act accordingly and focus on what’s important.
” With a twitch of my nose, I stepped around a stunned Bellamy and walked towards my husband with a light brush of his stomach, coaxing him to follow me.
His nephew was merely confused at the sight of me.
It was purely natural to be curious, aroused, and angered all in one.
He was being true to his incestuous nature.
We stood around the dug-up hole as everyone, minus Asha, looked down at the body that barely decomposed.
Trevor had Ace Martin on speaker with Vanessa Dubois in the background.
I bent down to touch the damp cold and pale skin where all the melanin was drained.
A part of her face was chewed to the bone with the skull cracked, and the lips were partially sewn shut.
Her body, swollen with fluids that she was still holding on to, kept her skin the way it is.
She should have been nothing but bones, but you could see everything, even the fact that she was obviously a female.
Souxie bent down to place the burlap sound found by the body on top of her hips to cover her intimate parts.
“You see the mason jar?” Ace asked as Trevor bent down to grab the jar.
“Yeah I see it.”
“Don’t touch it.”
Trevor dropped the jar back onto the body while Souxie sat down and began to reach into her own personal belongings.
“Don’t open it. Don’t touch it. Not yet. We’ll have to find another way to destroy it. Has she decomposed?”
“Barely,” he replied.
“What does that mean?” Namir asked while Solomon looked around. I could tell he was looking for his counterpart when he quietly slipped off and walked back into the house.
“It means that the spell is alive and working overtime to maintain. She needs to pass on,” Vanessa cut in. “Sooooo I think for now, you all need to give her a proper send off and hope that she will break the contract herself. Until then, she is still very much present.”
“So we need to have a funeral basically?”
“Mmmm pretty much,” she said. “A cute little ceremony should do it. Pay your respects, ask for what you want, and go from there. Don’t be greedy and don’t lie on the dead. Be honest. If it works…her body will remove itself. Find another way to take the jar and be careful not to break it.”
Trevor hung up the phone as he looked around at everyone.
“Well shit, I guess it’s a good thing you’re all here then,” he concluded. “How we doing this?”
Everyone began talking over one another as I stared at the young woman lying in the ground. The water nymph looked up, annoyed with tears in her eyes as she glared at the men.