Atticus #2
I’m stuck in a spiral. I’m trapped between being terrified of what could be happening to me while I’m unaware and the new reality I’m being thrust into.
I wasn’t made to be uncertain; I was born from my mother’s womb with a thick power in my hands, ready to be wielded. For the world to obey my every command.
And if not the world, then maybe just a few of its inhabitants. A lover, a family, a little kingdom of my own making.
Who am I now? What am I made of if not absolute, complete control?
“We’re here,” Jullian suddenly speaks, and my head snaps up.
We’re in a regular neighborhood, but the house on the corner has a glowing sign outside that tells the public that whoever is inside does tarot readings, palm readings, and psychic readings.
“You’ve brought me to a psychic?” I deadpan, turning to give my current company a blank stare.
“Trust us,” Atlas says, opening his door and climbing out.
Julian and I follow suit, and as we walk up the designated pathway and walk into the business, I feel my palms begin to sweat.
“Julian,” a woman calls out from where she’s sitting behind a desk on our left, tapping away at her laptop even as she looks at us.
“Madam Lu, how are you?” Julian greets.
“It’s been a while. Have you taken my advice and stopped messing with the unknown?” The woman gives him a pointed stare, one that tells me these two are very familiar with each other.
“Yes, I have. This is Atlas, my boyfriend. He’s the one I… the one I saw you about before.” Julian motions Atlas forward, and my brother flushes, giving her a small smile.
“Hello, ma’am.”
“Why, aren’t you a pretty little thing?” she coos. “I can see why Julian was so willing to dirty his hands for you.”
“Madam Lu,” Julian cuts in. “This is Atlas’s brother, Atticus, and I think he may have gotten himself in some trouble.”
“Trouble?” Madam Lu questions, and her eyes fall to me, assessing and curious.
“I guess,” I mumble.
“He used the Black Book,” Julian explains.
Madam Lu nearly gasps, her eyes widening as she looks me over again and again.
“We were hoping you could take a look at him,” Julian adds.
“I’m not a doctor, so I can’t fix anything,” Madam Lu tells us. “But what I can do is tell you if something has attached itself to him or cursed him.”
“Lead the way,” Atlas encourages nervously.
We follow the woman down a dim hallway, all the way to the back left room.
There’s a low table that has pillows around it as makeshift chairs, a crystal ball, and a deck of cards in the center. A lot of hippie décor surrounds the walls.
The smell of something earthy and sweet fills the air.
“Sit, please,” Madam Lu instructs, and everyone waits for me to take a place first, with Julian and Atlas sitting on either side of me and Madam Lu across from us.
“What did you talk to?” the woman asks me, and for a second, I’m startled.
“How did you… What?”
I don’t believe in psychics. Sure, I believe in God, the devil, and demons, too. But foresight? That seems like a bit of a stretch. So how did she know? Has she been stalking me?
“Almost every single spell in that book is rumored to be a summoning spell, a way to contact something stronger than yourself for help. So, did you?” Madam Lu pushes.
I swallow roughly, my eyes locked onto hers like she’s the only life raft in an ocean full of man-eating sharks.
Atlas goes completely still beside me.
“Yes,” I whisper, my voice carrying throughout the entire room.
“And what did you ask for?”
“I asked… I asked for it to save my brother,” I admit.
“Okay.” Madam Lu nods thoughtfully. “And what did it say?”
My eyes dart to Atlas, who is watching the tablecloth before us with wide, panicked eyes.
I think… I think he feels guilty.
“This isn’t your fault, darling,” I tell him, but as I reach for his hand, he pulls it away.
“Please, Atticus, answer my question,” Madam Lu requests.
I take in a large inhale and confess my sins. “It asked for ten years of my life in exchange for protecting him. But after the deal was done, it told me the protection would only last ten days.”
“Shit,” Julian hisses, reaching around my back to grip Atlas’s neck in a firm, grounding touch.
Envy twists within me, green and vicious.
“Which ten years did it ask for?” Madam Lu asks.
“Sorry?” My brow furrows, my hands trembling on my lap.
“As in, was it asking for ten years now or later—and what will it do with them?”
“I… I don’t know. It didn’t specify,” I admit.
“You made a deal with a demon and didn’t get the specifics?” Julian grills, narrowing his eyes at me.
I glare back; I will not take shit from Julian Walsh, the brother stealer. “Sorry, I was too busy writhing in fucking pain to ask for the details, Julian.”
“Atticus!” Atlas shouts.
“Wait—pain?” Madam Lu interjects.
“Uh, yeah. A few minutes after the deal was struck, a horrible pain coursed through me until I passed out,” I explain.
“I heard his scream from my room,” Atlas offers quietly.
“Atticus, if you don’t mind, has anything weird been happening to you?”
“Weird?” I repeat to her, thinking of the hours I was missing from my bed.
“I feel something from him,” my brother tells her. “I get the same hot, eerie feeling I felt before. It’s been getting worse.”
“Don’t forget the random muddy shoes he keeps blaming everyone in the estate for ruining,” Julian comments.
Asshole!
Madam Lu sighs, extending her hands palm-up on the table. “Please take my hands, Atticus.”
I stare at her pale fingers, the various rings decorating them, and hesitate.