Don't Tell Ellie | Complete | Open Novella Contest

Chapter Fifteen: Midnight

I've never been uncomfortable in Vivienne's presence, but today I am. I'm bitting my nails—an old bad habit and fidgeting. "How do you know he's coming for me?"

"A long time ago," Vivienne begins, moving to the edge of her seat, "when your mother and I were sophomores in college, we went to a festival. It was a stupid spiritual thing, fake psychics, fortune tellers, Wiccans. They were telling futures and selling potions. We were stupid and thought it was all so much fun."

I'm watching her closely, each word perfectly annunciated and dripping with regret.

"It was an uneventful night, we had our cards read and bought some potions, one for love, one for wealth. You know, the regular bullshit kids think is important." She stops speaking suddenly and stands, "do you want some tea? I think we need tea."

"Fuck the tea, Viv."

"No, it'll do us some good."

She leaves me sitting in her living room as she clatters around in the kitchen. Finally, she's back and she hands me a gigantic mug that I need two hands to hold.

"Peach Green Tea, it's delicious. Do you have a cigarette?"

I set my mug down next to me and dig out my forgotten pack of Marlboro Red's. I hand her one and place one in my mouth.

"Perfect." She says with a shiver, "So where were we?"

"Your night was uneventful." I say, trying to filter my annoyance.

"Right!" She nods sipping her tea, "so we left. We were walking back to our dorm laughing at the stupidity of the night when he stopped us." She takes a long drag off her cigarette and holds her breath as if she's smoking a joint. Smoke streams out of her nose and mouth as she exhales dramatically.

"It's odd to me that you're taking so long to explain this story when you've just told me some psychopath is after me. What's the deal?" I'm on cigarette number two and my mug of tea is empty, Viv is still nursing her tea which is definitely cold by now and looking everywhere but at me. "Vivienne!"

"I'm sorry," She sniffs. "I just miss your mother, honey. She was my best friend and I-" she shakes her head in an attempt to dissipate the the blood in her cheeks that's turned them crimson. "He was wearing a blue suit, royal blue. I remember because at first, I thought it was black, but in the light of the street lamps, it shimmered in the prettiest blue hue I'd ever seen. His face was kind and he was a well dressed older man so we didn't think anything was strange about him until he started talking."

Vivienne stands and her eyes close as if she's diving back into the memory. "Angela Howard, he'd said. He addressed your mother by her full name it was really eery and you know your mother, all bark no bite. She glared at him, eat shit old man, she'd said and god, we fucking laughed. Witness me, Vivienne Harris, he'd said and I was sure the guy was just a bored professor from the college who had seen us at the festival and wanted to fuck with us. But then he said: your second seed will bring about a destruction and I will return to stamp it out. When twelve years have passed I will reclaim what is mine. And then out of thin air, he was gone." Vivienne's eyes pop open and set on me.

My mouth is hanging open. "What the fuck does any of that mean?"

"For years we'd talk about it, joking, laughing, it was a highlight of our college career, the nut job who said your mothers kid was going to end the world, but then when she was pregnant with you he showed up. He knocked on your mothers door on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of a summer heatwave. I was there. Your father was working a double at the hospital and I came to help you mother with Marlow and the house. He said his name was Wes Marston and that his family owned the house across the street. They went upstairs to talk and when she came back down she was a wreck."