Daughter of the Legend: Soul on Fire (#Wattys2018)

Chapter Twelve: Under My Skin

"I hate him. Absolutely hate him!" I whispered furiously to Bentley, as I finished the dishes. He was leaning against the fridge, hot coffee in hand, hair sticking up in random places, listening to my rant without complaint. Poor guy, he only walked through the door ten minutes ago...

"Yeah Rae, I got it. You HATE him."

"It's- He's so pompous and just!" I groaned in frustration, "He's an asshole. That's it." Bentley watched me through tired eyes.

"You have issues." He said, taking a swig of coffee. I threw the towel in my hands at him. "Like I said. Issues."

"Shut up ,jerk." He smirked and took another drink.

"You let him get to you. Get under your skin." I frowned, but Bentley continued, "He's no different than anyone else Rae, just ignore him."

"But-"

"I mean it." He looked at me pointedly, "Jesse is making you crazy...more than you already are." I stuck my tongue out at him, leaning back against the draining sink. "It's just what he does." He put his coffee cup aside.

"I can't believe you're friends with him."

"Hey I didn't know he was the anti-christ. Plus, he saved my ass, I owed him."

"What even happened?"

"God, it was back in 2010. I was on a possession case in Utah, this "haunted house" Asylum 49-"

"I know that place!"

"Yeah its pretty popular, its been on a couple tv shows for actually being haunted."

"Yeah! Isn't it connected to a resident care facility or something."

"Nursing home would have done the trick Rae." I waved my hand at him. "So anyways, I was there looking into the initial claim about it being haunted, it was October and the tourist season was up and running so getting a tour was no problem." I nodded.

"What did you find?"

" I'm getting there. So, yeah the place is packed with all sorts of shit. Definitely haunted. Next thing I know, a few residents in the nursing home start dropping like flies- and not in the natural way. Well, as awful as it sounds, that was my in. Staff was quitting left and right and I conned my way in. It was perfect, with limited staff and long hours, I would be able to hunt this thing down in a matter of days."

"But?"

"But things didn't really go as planned." He took a drink of coffee, "A week into the job, one of the night nurses disappears, two days later, she was found hung in the attraction side of the building. Her body was carved up with sigils." I raised an eyebrow. "I'd never seen anything like it. The next day, Jesse shows up." Bentley shook his head, "I wasted half of October trying to pin point that thing...I was doing rounds a few days later, giving this old guy a new IV when he grabs my arm and says "She promised she would do it." The way he looked at me... I felt chills Rae."

"So what happened next?"

"Well, I don't really remember..."

"What!"

"I remember this wave of cold air, you know the kind, go through me and everything went black. Next thing I remember, I'm waking up in the basement, head pounding and bleeding. I can barely see but I see Jesse, and he's going to town on this wall, trying to bust it down, while this crazy ass ghost is trying to stop him! Finally he breaks down the wall and like always, a corpse falls out, I honestly don't remember seeing him light a match, but he salts and burns it." He paused, " When he got me to the hospital, I had four broken ribs, a concussion, and some internal bleeding. If he hadn't been there, that ghost would have killed me."