Goetic Justice 10

Chapter 10: A Taste of Freedom

Becky mounted the steps of the apartment complex, muttering angrily to herself, tapping at her phone as she rounded the corner and made her way past the numbered doors towards Ryan’s apartment. How dare he ignore her calls. She had wanted to teach him a lesson, that was all. He was supposed to realize what he had been doing wrong and man up, start giving her the attention that she deserved instead of taking her for granted. Instead, he had gone dark, dropping off the face of the earth and refusing to answer any of her calls or messages. She hadn’t seen head nor tail of him since they had met at the coffee shop. Worse, she had seen a new car in his parking spot the last time she had driven by, a nice one. Had he landed a better job since they had split up?

She rapped on the door loudly then stood back and waited with her hands planted on her hips, silently seething as she heard the door unlock from the other side. She was ready to tear into Ryan as soon as she saw his face, a thousand curses and insults swirling in her head, but as the door opened the wind was taken out of her sails.

There was a woman standing in his apartment, tall and willowy, with pale skin and platinum-blonde hair that bordered on silver. She was wearing a fluffy, white bathrobe as if she had just gotten out of the shower. She was beautiful, and Becky was taken aback for a moment, her face reddening as she realized that she had been replaced. It was unacceptable, he couldn’t do this to her!

“Where’s Ryan?” Becky snapped, the tall woman cocking her head curiously as she examined her with a pair of hazel eyes that were so light as to appear amber under the right conditions.

“He is working,” she replied. Damn it, even her voice was sexy, Becky fuming silently as she looked her new competition up and down in disdain.

“Well I need to speak with him, and he hasn’t been answering his phone.”

“You must be Becky,” the strange woman mused, a smile curling her lips. “Ryan has told me all about you.”

“And who the hell are you?”

“My name is … Natasha, pleased to meet you.”

“What are you? His new girlfriend or something?” Becky spat, simmering with jealousy. She couldn’t believe that Ryan had bounced back so quickly. A new job, a new car, a new girl. It was as if Becky had never existed and she couldn’t abide being ignored, it was the one thing that drove her crazy.

“I’m his wife,” the woman replied, raising her arm and brandishing a black ring so that Becky could see it. Her brow furrowed as her anger got the better of her, in the few weeks that they had been apart the bastard had gotten married?

“So you won’t tell him to call me, then?”

“I could relay a message for you,” Natasha said in that breathy voice, “what did you want to tell him?”

“Nothing now, just that he’s a piece of shit. Where did he meet you anyway? Vegas? He can’t have known you for more than a couple of months. What kind of woman gets married so quickly?”

“Don’t you believe in romance, Becky?” Natasha asked as she smirked at her. The bitch was taunting her, unbelievable.

“Tell that loser that I hope he enjoys his new whore,” Becky hissed, turning her back on the woman and storming off down the corridor.

“Wait,” Natasha said, and Becky stopped to look back at her.

“What?”

A cold filled the corridor, chilling her to the bone, a smell like rotten eggs stinging her nose. The tall woman was standing outside of the apartment and just staring at her, those hazel eyes now glowing yellow like those of a cat. A shadow crept along the walls and ceiling to fill the hallway, crawling along the carpeted floor as if it was being cast by grasping fingers that were reaching for her. Becky wanted to scream, but the sound caught in her throat and petered out into a whimper, her feet refusing to move as though she was caught in a nightmare.

Natasha grew, the already tall woman stretching as Becky watched in horror. Her legs cracked and creaked as they snapped into a new shape, her bones appearing to break before Becky’s eyes. A crown of gnarled horns sprouted from her blonde hair as if they were growing out of her skull, rising to brush the ceiling. Her fingers grew claws, her arms elongating, her face stretching grotesquely as the previously beautiful woman opened her mouth and brayed like a goat.

Becky’s flight reflex finally kicked in, and she fled in the direction of the stairwell as if the devil himself was on her heels, stumbling over herself as she descended as fast as her feet could carry her. She reached the bottom, bursting through the door of the complex and out into the street, rushing past a startled Ryan without so much as glancing at him.

Ryan stepped through the door of his apartment, throwing his jacket onto the coat rack and finding Nahash lounging on the couch as she held a mug of steaming coffee in her hand.

“Welcome home,” she said, taking a long sip as she watched him walk over to her. She made space for him and he flopped down beside her, kicking off his shoes, her free arm curling around him to pull him close.

“How was work?” she asked.

“Good,” Ryan replied, “but the strangest thing just happened. I could have sworn that I saw Becky running out of the main entrance just now. She went by too fast for me to be sure, but whoever it was looked like they’d just seen a ghost. Did you … do something?”

She hid her smirk behind the mug as she took another drink.

“That was Becky, yes. She came looking for you, but I politely informed her that you had moved on and that you didn’t want to see her anymore. She is a remarkably jealous woman, avaricious, I don’t understand what you saw in her.”

“Unfortunately I lack the ability to read people’s emotions,” he laughed, “sometimes you can live with a person for years and never truly know them. What have you been doing all day?”

“Exploring,” she replied. “We had coffee back in my time, but I like yours better.”

He looked at the floor below the couch, the chalk summoning circle strewn with wrappers and containers.

“Looks like you’ve been busy,” he mused, leaning forward to pick up an empty bottle of hot sauce. “Did you … drink this?”

“I like the way it burns,” she replied, delving her clawed fingers into his hair to stroke him as he sat back. He exhaled, his muscles relaxing, she really knew how to push his buttons. “Next time you buy food, bring me more like it. The spicier, the better.”

“Or, you could actually put it on food as intended,” he volunteered. “Hell, I’m making enough now to buy you whatever you want, I can think of a hundred things that you might like to try. It might not have been conjured by a Watcher, but I’m pretty sure I can find some dishes that you’ve never tasted before. We live in a global economy now y’know. Oh, that reminds me…”

He reached into his pocket and withdrew a small plastic packet, tossing it into her lap. She picked it up gingerly and examined it, struggling to read the brand name.

“Pop … Rocks? What is this?”

He helped her open the packaging and poured some of the tiny, pink crystals into his hand.

“Stick your tongue out,” he said, and her long organ parted her lips obediently. He tipped them onto it, and she took them into her mouth, Ryan failing to suppress a grin as her eyes widened.

“What is that!?”

“It’s just candy,” he laughed, “I saw it at the food court at work, and I thought of you. I’ll get you something sour next time, maybe a Warhead. I can guarantee that you didn’t have those back in Sumeria.”

She smiled as the candy fizzed on her tongue, every sensation, every taste and scent an adventure to her. It made Ryan realize how much he took for granted. The gentle breeze, the feeling of a warm shower on his skin, the sensation of a cold drink soothing his parched throat on a hot day. She was giving him a whole new appreciation for life. She had been deprived of a physical form for so long that she took pleasure in the simplest of things and he would do well to follow her example.

“What of tomorrow?” Nahash asked after the effects of the candy had worn off. “Are we still visiting the shore?”

“Yeah, I got tomorrow off, my boss was surprisingly cool about it. Whatever you did to make them like me, it stuck. Helen won’t stop leering at me from across the office. The moon will be full, and it’s a weekday so nobody will be around. We can spend the whole night down there.”

“I want to feel sand beneath my hooves again, smell the salt on the breeze. I’ve not seen the ocean in eons.”

He patted her thigh reassuringly then rose to his feet, stretching his arms above his head.

“Well, we’d better get some food, I’ve not eaten since lunch. Let’s get takeout. Judging by your recent … explorations, I’m thinking buffalo chicken. Don’t cock your head at me, I know you don’t know what that is, you’ll just have to trust me.”

She rose from the couch to stand behind him, the weight of her breasts resting on his shoulders as she wrapped her arms around him, heavy enough to make his knees buckle.

“And after? I hunger for more than just food, there are other desires that I wish to sate.”

She brought her head down to plant a kiss on his neck, sending a pleasant shiver rolling down his spine, the warmth of her magick flooding him and making him dizzy as if he had just taken a shot of whiskey.

“All in good time,” he replied, “the night is still young.”

THE END OF CHAPTER TEN