Season of the Witch by Timothy C. Phillips Read Free Book Online Page A

face. I tried to keep my voice light and impassive.
    “Oh, that. Handsome devil, aren’t I? I got that going above and beyond the call of duty. That’s what they said anyway. Or maybe I was being a damned fool. I caught a man, a rapist. He had been breaking in on women out in Mountain Brook. The Mountain Brook Slasher, the media called him. He always struck at night while they were alone. He always struck married women. He used to slash their faces. He cut my face while we were struggling, when he was trying to get away.”
    “I remember hearing about him. That must have been terrible for you.” She hesitantly reached out and touched the scar again. It felt like a butterfly had landed on my face, her touch was so light. “It doesn’t look ugly. It just sort of gives your face . . . history.”
    “I like that, I’ll have to remember it. The good thing is, I was his last victim. He fell on his knife when we fought. He later died of peritonitis in the hospital.”
    She gasped and started suddenly. She looked very afraid. It wasn’t from my story.
    “It’s Steve,” She whispered. “He’s home.”
    It was then that I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She had heard them a few seconds before me. From her expression of fear, it wasn’t difficult to figure out why she had developed such heightened senses.
    Steve threw the door open without preamble and strode jauntily into the room. As he had seemed from a distance, skinny and pockmarked. Seeing him up close revealed additional charms, including long unwashed hair and a perpetual sneer. He also didn’t smell very promising.
    He took us in with a smug glance and continued toward the kitchen. “Don’t let me bother you, bro. It’s cool,” he mumbled as he went by.
    “Steve, this man isn’t . . . I mean, he’s been sent by my parents. They want me to come home.”
    Instantly, the acne-ravaged features became a dangerous cardiac red. He bared his yellow teeth at me. “What? Get the fuck out!”
    He approached me threateningly and I stood up. There was a noticeable size difference, to my advantage. He stopped, but still snarled menacingly. “I don’t care who sent you. You can forget it. She’s not going anywhere!”
    “That’s not your decision, and it’s not mine. If Lena wants to leave here, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”
    His eyes narrowed and he shifted them toward Lena, as he changed his approach. “So this is your idea. I should have known.”
    He started running at Lena, his hands curled into bony little fists. I grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him into the wall. He tried with a surprising burst of energy to squirm out of my grasp. He managed to turn and bring his fist up. I grabbed his wrist and squeezed.
    Steve decided to stop struggling and become cooperative.
    His smell really was repellant. I wished silently to heaven that there was a way to beat the hell out of him without actually touching him, but I knew that would solve nothing.
    “I’m going to let you go, Steve. Okay?”
    His reply was a grunt and a barely perceptible nod. “And if you make the slightest move toward Lena or me I’m going to stop being so understanding, because I really don’t like you very much, know what I mean?”
    After another sullen nod I slowly released my grasp. Steve walked over to the door and turned back to Lena.
    “You fucking bitch. I’ll fix you. And you too, motherfucker!” Then he was gone out the door.
    “Charming young man.”
    She stood looking after him. “I feel so sorry for him. I used to really love him.”
    “Nobody can blame you if you hate him.”
    “No, I don’t hate him.” She had a vague light in her eyes. She seemed far away again.
    “We aren’t fit judges of those who do us wrong.”
    She promised me she would be gone from there by that night before Steve came back. When we parted, she was smiling again.

 
    Chapter 4
     
    It was obvious either way that I would have to wait for Harry to contact me again.