The Pulls of the Haunting

Derek twirled Lindsey playfully inside the suite, at the end of it of the motion, pushing her lightly onto the lush, oversized bed. He lifted his arms and proclaimed to her, “For you my love, all this for you.”

“Because you love me?” Lindsey asked, a flush smile upon her face as she hiked up her dress to reveal more leg and hint at her want, “or because I helped you rid of him?”

“Because of love of course!” although his eyes said it was at least as much that his rival was now dead. Lindsey broke her wanton gaze with Derek to take in the gorgeous room. The painting of the the lady was breathtaking, the many vases of flowers overkill if not secretly appreciated, and a bottle of wine uncorked, two goblets of blood-red waiting to be indulged in. They might have to wait a while.

For the first time in two weeks, Lindsey was very relaxed. The guilt of killing her fiance gnawed at her a bit, but that was always overshadowed by her desire for Derek. It was a cruel ending to a guy that was probably better than both of them combined, but love can make one do the darkest of deeds. What gnawed at her more was getting caught, losing everything she sacrificed for after, especially losing Derek. Derek assured her that if she did the deed, he would make sure no one would ever know. Kyle was indeed dead, by her hand. His case was already closed as a suicide. Lindsey would soon have Kyle’s fortune and got to finally focus her attentions again on Derek completely.

Lindsey took a glass of the wine and took a sip, watching her lover casually undress, his pace as much a tease as one could be. The wolfish smile on his face evidence that he wanted to be going faster. Lindsey ached for him. It was a harsh ache, it seemed like it had been forever since she tasted his lips, felt his touch, ached at his bite, and just held him inside herself. He looked ready to devour even though she was sure she was going to devour him as much. She broke their shared gaze again, looking at the painting once more and now seeing the painting glaring back at her in a menacing way. Lindsey shrieked and spilled some of her wine.

“What is wrong, Lins?”, Derek turned to look for what was causing the distress.

“That painting. It is glaring at me, at us. That is not how it looked a minute ago.”

Derek laughed, “Oh, you have obviously been overstressed my dear. The painting…”

“Changed. I swear it. When I first looked upon it, I was thinking how I wanted it for my bedroom at home. Now it’s…”

Derek looked at the painting more closely, then to Lindsey, then back again. “Are you sure? When I was setting up the room earlier, this is how the painting looked? Menacing yet erotic. I can cover it if you prefer.”

Lindsey tried to look at the painting in Derek’s light. There was an eroticness to the woman’s hunger. It reminded her of her own again. She brought her eyes to Derek and reached for him, all pretense for play erased. Need trumped temptations now. He smile as he joined her on the bed, reaching up her skirt to find how wanting she was. He brought his wet fingers to his lips and sucked her off of them, making her swoon and forget about the painting. Derek reached down and ripped her dress open, kissing her neck, biting her left shoulder. God, she loved how he bit her when the passion flowed. He bit down harder and she moaned. She felt her right shoulder be bit, but Derek’s mouth was still on her left. The painting was smiling wickedly now. Lindsey screamed.

Derek misinterpreted her terror though. He spread her legs with his own and entered her with little resistance. Lindsey looked into her lover’s eyes, wanting to get lost in him instead of her panic. On the first few thrusts, she watched Derek grunt in his bliss of being in her.

“This IS what you want, isn’t it Lindsey?”

As she moaned her yes, his face seemed to be superimposed with Kyle’s. His smile lustful and hungrier than anything Derek wore or even anything that Kyle wore when he was still alive and her lover.

“I THOUGHT so, Lins…”

Lindsey heard the words, but in Kyle’s voice. She tried to scream again, but moaned instead. She clawed at Derek’s body, but that only caused him to thrust faster and harder.

“I THOUGHT you loved ME, Lins…”

Lost in a moment of deep pleasure and absolute terror, the guilt of what she had done to Kyle swelled up in parallel with the tide of pleasure building within her. Her body knew Derek’s touch and enthusiasm, but her mind saw, heard, smelled and felt Kyle. Her panicked mind, her killer mind reached for the wine bottle, broke it against the table as Derek rode her wearing Kyle’s face, and slashed at her lover’s body, stabbing him in the neck, blood fountaining everything. She didn’t notice the handset to the phone in the room falling from the cradle, and the keys 9-1-1 depressing seemingly on their own.

“I killed you! I killed you! I KILLED you!”

Derek looked down at her in shock and confusion as the light dimmed from his eyes.

“Bitch, you stabbed me!” Derek screamed in a hollow voice.

“She killed you too. Just like she killed me. Well, not just like…”

Derek turned to the sound of Kyle’s voice. His greatest rival. “You are suppose to be dead.”

“Oh, I am very DEAD. No thanks to the both of you. Now, so are you. She can’t hear you by the way, she could barely hear me.” Kyle took a step and hovered closer. “There is a funny thing about death. There are forth paths after death. One is to follow the calling of a light. One is to get pulled into a dark. One is to anchor yourself to earth because each of the first two paths are frightening…,” Kyle paused hovering closer.

“And the fourth?” Derek asked, slowly feeling his new reality take shape.

“Oh...when the spirit is fresh and new, it can get ripped apart. It can get ripped apart by accident, by an equal pull between the light and the dark, or by a very disgruntled ghost.”

Kyle launched at Derek and began to shred his worthless soul, an empty vengeance to the life that was taken from him, but a vengeance all the same. The room was filled with Lindsey’s scream as she cradled her dead lover. She screamed when the knocks came to her door. She wept as they took her away.

~~~

Lindsey sat in her cell, taking in how halogen light almost mimicked moonlight. How she missed the moonlight and all of the times she was loved under it. How she missed Derek. She even missed Kyle, before she fell into Derek’s gravity and becoming a pawn within their endless game.

She thought about a time before she could ever even fathom killing someone. Now she has killed two men. Both her lovers, both that she even loved in different ways at some point. Derek’s love was a sweet poison. A compulsion. A craving you can’t shake. It dwarfed the love she had for Kyle. Made that love seem like a cheap, frivolous thing. Still, for the first time in a long time, she admitted to herself that she did love Kyle once upon a time. Once she did, the guilt for killing him truly struck home.

“I loved you too,” Kyle whispered.

Lindsey looked up and saw Kyle’s form shimmer in the halogen light.

“Are you really there?”

“Yes, for a short time your guilt allows this.”

“You were there that night, he was suddenly you.”

“I was there, you pulled me into the room. He was always himself though. You saw me because you wanted to see me. I watched you from afar.”

“But I saw you, I heard you. I felt...you bite my right shoulder.”

“I cannot say why you saw my face instead of his. As I am now, I can barely change the world. I can shift paint. I can, with enormous effort, press some buttons…I was thinking about biting your shoulder, but didn’t actually do it. Interesting that you felt the thought...”

“The picture…”

“That was me…”

“It was…”

“A reflection of my feelings. Enormous hurt but still the echo of longing I had for you…”

“Had?”

“I have been a spirit too long now, I needed to fuel my vengeance with my passions. Only embers remain now.”

Lindsey nodded. Her love for him was nothing but embers anymore.

“Will Derek visit me too?”

“I am afraid that will never happen, Lins. However, I will leave you a gift of him. Goodbye. There is nothing left keeping me here. I do hope you eventually find peace for what you have done. For what you could have had with me, yet tossed away.”

Kyle shimmered away, a glowing spark of gold hovering where he reached out for her, her gift.

It was beautiful, it hummed with Derek. She touched it without hesitation, because she ached for any hint of Derek. It popped as she touched it, her soul instinctively knew that spark was a piece of Derek’s soul, a memory that for some reason was separated from it. His voice filled her head:

“The stupid bitch believes I love her. She killed him, for me. She is going to give me his everything. What a fool she is. I wonder how long she will force me to play this ruse before it sinks in who I really am.”

Lindsey shook until she wept at the truth of it, as if a fog lifted. She wept uncontrollably, never feeling so alone or unloved. Never feeling as much as a fool as she was. She had a good life, and she threw it away.

Kyle watched her with pity. It gave him no pleasure to give her that last piece of Derek. It was a kindness to free her of Derek’s false promise. A kindness he had to pay if he was to move on himself. The earth didn’t ground him anymore. Now the only option yet was either to yield to the calling of the light, or the pull of the dark. As frightening as both were, he whispered his final goodbye to a woman he once loved and gave his answer to the calling and the pull.