The door opened without a sound and I was grateful for the silence. Light assaulted my eyes and I had to squint against it until they finally adjusted to the brightness. Then I realized that it was too silent. I had no idea where Jared was or if he was even still inside. Beads of sweat began to drip down my back and my heart thumped in my chest.
If only I had Jessica to guide me, to be my lookout. But as soon as she had told her story, it was like she had faded away, too drained to find the strength to stay corporeal. So I was on my own… and I was terrified.
Taking a deep breath, I pushed the door open a little more, pushing as slowly and quietly as I could… and then… Boom! The door was swung open and cashed against the wall. Jared was on the other side, his face a mask of amusement as if he was happy to see me.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said cheerily. I tried to stop myself, but I couldn’t, and I began to whimper. He tsked, “don’t be that way, everything is going to be perfect. We can be together now.” He took a step closer to me and I cowered against the wall. “It’s okay Jessica, I love you.”
It was like a rock was dropped into my stomach. There was no hope then. It was apparent that he was crazy. I knew that there would be no reasoning with him and I was too weak to fight him.
“I’m not Jessica,” I whispered so quiet that my voice could barely be heard.
“What did you say?” He asked, craning his head closer to catch what I was saying.
I looked up at him with tears streaming from my eyes, “I’m not Jessica.”
He recoiled as if I had hit him. His once handsome face became distorted with rage and he lunged toward me and backhanded me as hard as he could across the face. “How dare you lie to me?!”
My head snapped back and thudded against the wall with an ugly crack. The edges of my vision began to black out, but I held on to consciousness, not willing to succumb to the unknown. He picked me up and carried me toward my bedroom… Jessica’s old bedroom.
He had transformed the small space in my absence. Candles were lit on every possible surface and more flower petals were scattered across the room and the bed. Their fragrance combined was too strong and had me gagging at the smell.
Lying my gently on the bed, I began to shiver. My body began to shake so hard that my teeth were clattering together even though there was a sheen of perspiration over me. He was going to take what he wanted and then kill me… and there was nothing I could do about it.
“Fight.”
Jessica’s voice sounded from right beside me and I jumped when I turned and saw her. Her face was pale white and dark circles ringed her eyes. This wasn’t the Jessica that had been visiting me in various states of attire; this was the Jessica from my nightmares, the one that the newspaper had shown from her murder scene.
Her hair was tangled and mottled to her head with dried blood. One side of her face was caved in from the blunt force of whatever he had hit her with, the bones there shattered and unable to hold the curve of her cheek. A fly crawled out of her nose, buzzed around for a second, and then climbed back in. But it was her eyes that truly terrified me. There was no life in them.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Jared murmured above me. “I just want to love you. Would that be alright?”
Without waiting for me to answer him, he began trailing moist kisses along my jaw line. I closed my eyes, eager to just get it over with, ready to give up. It was then, in those darkest moments, that I felt Jessica slide into me. There was no other way to describe it. One minute I was in control of myself… and the next… I wasn’t.
“No one kisses me the way you do,” my voice purred. Only it wasn’t really my voice. It was different.
Jared sensed the change too, pulling away from my body, his eyes widening in recognition. “Jessica?”
She pulled up too, closing the gap between them, her spirit making my body stronger. “I’ve missed you, baby.”
Her arms, or my arms, wrapped around his neck and pulled him closer. The kiss was ferocious, demanding penance for the things he had done. Then, all too sudden, it turned deadly. Her teeth, my teeth, clamped down hard on his tongue. I could taste his blood in my mouth, but it was her that smiled in triumph.
“You’ve been naughty, Jared… it’s time that you pay.”
She spat and blood splattered his face. He shrieked and fell backwards off of the bed. One of his hands flew up to cover his bleeding mouth and his eyes bulged from the sockets. “What is this?” He demanded. “Why are you acting like Jessica?”
She pouted, “I am Jessica.”
“No you’re not,” he said, backing away from us, “this isn’t funny McKayla.”
“Oh I’m sure that McKayla thinks that this is very funny…” she cracked our knuckles, “but she isn’t in control right now.”
Thunder sounded in the distance and inside everything went black. I would have thought it was just a power outage, but even the candles had all been distinguished, leaving a haze of smoke in their wake.
It was his turn to cry… his turn to run. It was her turn to stalk him. He scurried away, keeping his face toward us so that he was backing away from us through the room and then out to the hallway of the condo. Gone was the handsome façade of the professional psychiatrist. In his place was a terrified shell of a man who had clearly lost his mind.
We cornered him in the living room and it was there, amid the various bouquets of dried flowers that we were going to finish him.