Page 44 of Signed in Blood

“Never leave me.” Sabrina makes her promise in the car. Her headlights are still on. The snow falling in the dark night and the bright lights of the bar where the band will play are off in the distance.

“Never,” Lilith says with that same smile and then she’s gone. Vanished. Leaving Sabrina in panic and screaming for her.

* * *

Ripping my hand away, I stop the vision for both her and myself.

Lilith’s love for her friend is far too strong. And that love is returned. That’s a bond I cannot break and one that could prevent all of Lilith from becoming mine.

Tick, tick, my thoughts war with the time as it passes.

Time moves slowly as I debate what to do with poor, sad Sabrina.

The heat kicks on and she stirs from the sound as I tower over her.

With every breath she takes, I’m aware I could simply take the oxygen from her lungs. She’s a pure soul and when she goes…Lilith would never see her again. But her pain, her pain would last forever and I know that far too well. I won’t allow that.

Sabrina can never see Lilith again though, it is against all laws. Not as Lilith. I am bound and helpless. It’s fucking tormented bullshit.

With a grunt and anger at the thought, I move to the window and stare out into the dark night. The crows rest in the branches. Watching and waiting.

My faithful companions. My only friends for as long as I’ve known who I am. And beyond them, my sweet Lilith sleeps. I can feel her heart beat from here.

She wishes to be close to Sabrina and Sabrina’s destined for agony not knowing what happened.

Perhaps…perhaps I can set a series of events into motion.

With a heavy heart I turn back to the bed and raise my hand over her closed eyes.

Planting the memory of that night, every single moment of it.

Allowing Sabrina to see what happened not only when she left Lilith…but what happened after in the woods.

I’ll show her what happened and give her closure even if that may break her. At least it will end her searching. And maybe both can finally rest?

And then what comes after…

I am already salivating over.

Chapter Twenty

Lilith

* * *

Bright neon lights read “Ted’s.”

The place is your typical frenzy of drunk people wandering around trying to fuck each other. I was never one for bars and being murdered after a concert at one doesn't change my opinion of them. Ted’s smells of booze, cigarettes, a hint of weed, and hell of a lot of bad decisions.

There are only two bartenders, a young woman who’s probably in college and an older man, maybe in his forties, both wearing the same black T-shirt with “Ted’s” written across it in white with the block font matching the sign out front.

Three waitresses, also seemingly college students, work the crowded room. It’s packed, and the same football game plays on the three TVs on three different walls of the bar. The crowd is mixed between college kids and older men from town who have come to the bar to watch the game.

I know this place. The wings are good but this late at night, the kitchen is closed. I spent the day watching Sabrina’s room, trying to get a glimpse of her, but I never did, then night set and I dragged myself here.

It’s your basic hole-in-the-wall kind of joint and I’m looking for one man and one man only.

Murphy.