A tattered grocery bag drifted through the air, ghostly white against the dreary gray backdrop of the autumn sky. It tumbled and cartwheeled, danced and pirouetted, twirled and curtsied, a lovely lost soul on a path to the gunmetal heavens.
Then, it caught on a twisted, leafless tree branch, and I couldn't help a wicked smile. Serves you right. If I have to be trapped in this car for hours, you have to be stuck in a tree.
"What are you smiling about?" came Van's cool voice, barely tinged with even a hint of curiousness, and I turned to him with a smile much more innocent than the one I'd had for the bag.
He was a pale silhouette against the drab gray sky, a ghost just like the grocery bag. Of course, he was the handsomer of the two, hands down. His short, dark auburn hair shifted the slightest bit in the whisper of a breeze that came over his cracked window, his tall torso erect but lazy all at once, his strong jawline and sweet, delicate nose accentuated by the harsh glow of the gray sky...and then, he pinned me with those olive-green eyes, and I felt my smile melt into a flirtatious smirk.
"I was just noticing how handsome you look today," I said, attempting a casual-cool yet seductive tone. "Is that a new suit?"
He turned away with the usual eye-roll. "No, it's not. You were with me when I bought it a month ago." But in spite of his mannerisms, his voice remained even, his demeanor unruffled. I sighed.
"I know that," I murmured, half embarrassed and half annoyed, as I turned my attention back to the dreary landscape. We'd left the suburban area behind and entered an obviously poverty-stricken urban district, complete with badly drawn graffiti and worn old houses in desperate need of repair. "You could just try flirting back, you know."
"You know I don't like to flirt," he said, barely pausing before rolling through a stop sign. I could hear the smile in his voice when he added, "Besides, if I were going to flirt with someone, I would be sure to pick someone who could do it better than you."
I whipped around, long ponytail slapping me painfully in the face, but the car jerked to a stop before I could speak. Through the driver's side window, past Van's handsome meanie face, I saw a crumbling old house just like the dozens we'd just driven past. The paint was off-white and peeling, the little shed out back half collapsed, and I could hear the lopsided front porch creaking from where I sat.
"Your family owns this place?" I said, my nose wrinkling. If you sniffed hard enough, you could almost smell the mold that probably covered the walls inside. "There's no way." But Van nodded and stepped out of the car as if nothing was wrong with this scenario at all, and I was quick to follow him out. "But your family is rich! Why would they want to own a dumpy old place like this?"
"It makes a good hiding spot," he replied coolly, starting down the cracked sidewalk with a rich-boy swagger that just didn't fit in here. I could only stare in open-mouthed horror, looking from the house to the man and back again in a vicious cycle of disbelief. "Are you coming?" he called, pausing halfway down the path to look back at me. I went through the cycle a final time, then started after him with my mouth still hanging open. He sighed at the sight of me and walked on.
"Why does it smell so weird around here?" I asked once I'd finally managed to gain control of my own mouth again. Van shrugged, leading the way around the side of the house in silence. "Shouldn't we, like, knock on the door or something?" I prompted after a moment, but this time, I went completely ignored. Van stopped dead on the walkway, his head tilting to one side as he gazed at something in the distance. I drew up beside him, taking in his puzzled expression, and asked, "What is it?" He pointed, and I followed his direction.
"What does that look like to you?" he asked, and I squinted into the darkness of the half-dead shed.
"It looks like..." I jerked back, my hands over my mouth to muffle a shriek of horror. "Oh, Van!" I cried around my fingers. "It's a kitty!"
YOU ARE READING
Illusory
RomanceI'll never understand why he accepted me as his assistant -- me, a college dropout with the sense of a squirrel. I'll never understand why he won't teach me the magic I want to learn -- me, the stubbornly determined twenty-something who knows where...
