Delilah Recovered **2017 Watty Winner**

chapter two

Dee caught sight of herself in the rearview mirror, and it was a sight to behold. Her mascara and eyeliner had formed a dark rim around her violet eyes. Her cheeks, which normally had a rosy blush, were now haunted ashen. She had spent the good part of the morning wrestling her thick wavy hair into a tight low bun and now it had sprung loose from the bobby pins holding it down.

"Where are you going to watch it?" Her Lyft driver asked.

Dee took her index fingers and tried to wipe away the excess makeup under her eyes while at the same time concentrating on her breathing, gently reminding herself to breathe in and to breathe out. "Watch what?'

"Watch what? Are you serious my lady? The triple moon! It hasn't been seen in like three-hundred years or something," he replied.

Dee had no idea what he was talking about. He slammed on the breaks and a string of expletives came pouring from his mouth. She fished around the back seat trying to find the seat belt under the bright red seat covers. She took a hold of the headrest to steady herself. The car jerked forward and she noticed they were embroidered with an image of a sun with a face in the middle.

He turned around and smiled, "Sorry about that, these city drivers. Hey, do I know you?"

Dee looked at him. He was striking with his olive skin with wet dark black hair and onyx eyes to match.

"We have never met," she replied as she focused intently on her phone trying to will this conversation to end.

"I'm Mahai Symeon Nicolae Andri, I am King of the Romani," he proclaimed.

"Romani?" She asked as she stuffed her phone into her bag.

Mahai replied with a deep baritone laugh, "You know, like a nomad, a wanderer, a traveler."

Dee looked around the car for the first time. There was a bobblehead of a saint bobbing up and down on the dashboard. It read "Sarah the Black" underneath it. The floorboards were carpeted in Oriental rugs and the car smelled like a head shop.

"You're a Gypsy?"

He waved her off, "Ah, yes, but we don't like that word so much. So the triple moon, are you going to the lake?"

"I just want to get home," Dee replied just as the traffic came to a standstill.

"You know what they say about this moon? The last time it appeared in the sky was on the night the last witch was burned alive. And after the light of this moon, a descendant of Joan of Arc will lead the witches out of the shadows once more."

"Lead the witches out of the shadows," she repeated.

"Only if you believe that kind of stuff," he said as he winked at her and popped a piece of gum into his mouth.

"Would you like a piece? It's black licorice," he said as he showed her the package of Black Jack gum.

Dee looked around, the traffic was not going to move anytime soon, "You know what, I'm good. I think I can walk from here."

Mahai shrugged, "It's of no consequence to me."

Dee gathered her backpack and tried to open the door, but it was jammed.

Mahai mumbled something under his breath. "Try it now."

The door flew open and Dee tumbled out into the street. The moment she slammed the door shut, the traffic began to move. She watched the beat-up black Land Rover as it took off down the street.

Dee walked the rest of the way home. Even though she was bone tired, she didn't want to take the L. Her nerves were frayed and she wondered if the day was in fact just a fever dream.

"More like a nightmare," she said out loud.

All she wanted was a cold shower and her bed. It was so muggy that steam was rising up from the asphalt and her clothes were sticking to her body. She felt a drop of water land on her forehead and looked up. She stopped and watched as dark clouds tumbled across the sky.

Of course, I forgot my umbrella, she thought just as the sky opened up on her. It was at that moment Dee realized she was at St. Mary's of the Angels. Relieved, she let out the breath she was holding. There was something about this church, she always felt safe and protected. She could see the stark white angels that stood sentry around the rooftop from across the city. She ran to the stairs taking shelter under the massive white Ionic columns. She pulled out her phone and wanted to check the weather app to try and figure out how long the storm was going to last. Her phone was dead.

The sky turned black as white-hot lightning battered the roof of the church, sending a mammoth ivory stone angel crashing down into the street. Its wings severed from its body as it came crashing into the side of the church, rocking the building like an earthquake before landing in the middle of the street.

Dee turned toward the door. When she put her hand on the door handle, she felt a hand around her neck. She then came face-to-face with a man wearing a balaclava mask, holding a gleaming crescent-shaped silver knife to her throat.

"I've got her," he shouted over the crack of thunder.

Another dark figure came up behind her and pulled at her right arm, shining a flashlight on a small spiral birthmark that lived on the inside of Dee's forearm.

"It's her," said the woman.

As he pressed the knife into her throat, Dee made eye contact with her captor, she could see his eyes, one blue and the other brown. Dee had a vision. She saw a young boy with warm golden skin and curly chocolate-colored hair kneeling with his head down as a man with a cruel jaw towered over him with a whip. When the whip came down and cracked against his back his head shot up and his eyes filled with terror.

The woman screamed, "Wolf, execute her now."

Behind the man in black, Dee saw another man, dressed in a white T-shirt with a thin leather harness that ran over his shoulders, jeans, and work boots emerge from the shattered angel statue. On his heels was a formation of women dressed in charcoal turtlenecks, leggings, and knee-high boots with tight ponytails on top of their heads.

The woman in black turned around, "Not the fucking fairies."

The man in the white T-shirt extended his arm out and with an invisible force pinned the man in black against the wall.

"Aros, we have no quarrel with the Grigori," the man in black screamed over the rain and lightning.

The fairies descended upon Dee's assailants surrounding them like a swarm of furious flies ready to rip them into pieces. Dee was caught in the vortex, unable to breath, unable to run. Until a fairy seized her, launching her through the air, was her last moment of consciousness before she heard an unholy hollow crack as her skull landed on the pavement and she was completely knocked out.