Radiant Eclipse

"Where are you going, Vickie?" asked brad, as I pulled on a pair of black super-skinny jeans, the black fabric of my tunic shirt hanging to roughly above the knees.

With French-braided hair and the usual smokey-black eye make-up, I grabbed my large purse, slung it over my right shoulder and sighed. Looking at him with uninterested eyes, I replied, "I have an appointment with the dead. I think you should stop asking about what I am doing all of the time, Brad. You're not my mother."

"I just worry about you, that's all," he mumbled.

Glaring at him, I said, "Yeah? Well don't. I don't like it when people worry about me like I'm some reclusive, depressed teenager with mental issues or something."

I was tugging the door to my hotel room open when Brad stated, "You're not a teenager, but I worry about all of those other things, Vickie. You've never been that happy in the first place, so i worry about you. Maybe we should have let you taken a break."

I turned around and snapped, "Fuck you, Brad," and slammed the door behind me as I rushed off towards the elevator doors. I angrily stabbed the down arrow button and waited impatiently as someone appeared beside me. I didn't bother to look because, to be honest, I didn't really fucking care. So it would have been a waste of my energy to have looked anyways. But I should have, because all of a sudden I heard that rusted, deeply horrifying voice whisper, "You still smell like honey and milk, baby."

The elevator doors opened, and without looking at the man who had stolen my virginity and my life, I ran into the empty shaft and slammed the door close button with as much fear as anger. He stepped in as I backed myself into the corner, breathing heavy as I tried to scream, to say anything. But I couldn't. he still had that hold on me, the one where I never fought back or said anything to his face.

Michael was over six feet tall, with hair cut in an edgy emo style, spiked and messy all over the place. His bottom lip was home to two snake bite piercings and there was a bull ring in his nostrils as well. His eyes were heavily shaded with black eyeliner, and when he reached out towards me, I saw that my name was tattooed across his forearm in Celtic writing, my name displayed in a coffin. I gulped.

His hand pressed itself against my throat gently as he asked with a smile, "How's my baby doing, huh?"

I whimpered as he pulled me into his muscled arms, holding me like a husband would cradle a grieving wife. He still had the aroma of body spray and smoke, and I cringed remembering how I'd once had to smell that three times a week for almost two months.

"What, baby doll? Nothing nice for me to say?' he asked sweetly, before taking both hands and slamming me against the back of the elevator as it reached floor three. "I haven't forgotten you, Vickie. I dream about you every night. Whether you like it or not, I will have you one day, and you will be glad to be mine."

With that he kissed my lips and exited onto the second floor as I hurriedly kept my composure for an entering couple. They gave Michael an odd look before smiling at me and pressing the doors closed button with little warm giggles across their faces. Once they left on the second floor, to go off to the pool, no doubt, I pressed my hands to my forehead and trembled as I closed the doors once more. How'd he do that? How did Michael know where I was? What the hell! What. The. Hell!

As I walked across the main floor's lobby, I ran right into Johnny, and I shrieked as i jumped and started to hyperventilate. I almost thought that maybe Michael had followed me again, so I was freaking out. Johnny pressed both hands to my shoulders as tears started up behind my eyes. "Vickie? What's wrong? Where are you going? What happened?" he automatically started shooting off questions.

I pushed him off of me and answered, "I gotta go. Please let me go." I started walking away, but knew Johnny was following me as I exited the hotel in downtown Chicago, near the Loop. I felt his hand gently in mine before I could argue against it, and I sighed, looking down at the ground. "If you promise to wait until I want to tell you what happened, will you shut up and just come with me?"

Johnny nodded, and proceeded to follow me as I led us to my mother's resting spot.