She shook off the situation and busied herself by organising her clothes for the upcoming day of judgement. Turns out, she needn’t have bothered. She got a message from Carson. They had dropped her court case, which was a tremendous relief. He said it was going to be handled differently. She didn’t know what that meant, but at least she wouldn’t have to appear in court. The day suddenly seemed to free up for Rae, so she decided to head to The Heritage’s offices and take care of her tasks. The full-time staff were few and far between. Many like Rae were only contracted when there was work available. With the emergence of online platforms, the traditional newspaper was no longer able to contend with rapid news stories. The web could be updated in an instant and readers were hungry for the latest information. Still, Rae hoped the paper would endure for a while. The small but intriguing office was like a second home to her and she had an amazing time at her work.

  The office only had one little reception area and a few desks in a large room behind it.

  Rae spoke to the receptionist to discuss her upcoming jobs. The receptionist wasn’t friendly, she just directed Rae to speak with William, the paper’s editor.

  ‘Rae, long time no see.’ His voice was gravelly but somehow comforting.

  ‘Nearly fully recovered, and excited to get some more work.’ There was a moment of silence apart from the gum William was chewing on. He had quit smoking and taken up chewing nicotine gum. He had started his career in the era where chain smoking in the office was completely acceptable. Although the deep lines from years of smoking etched into his face were the consequence of that time.

  ‘I thought Tom would have called you by now.’

  This didn’t sound good. ‘Called me about what?’

  William lowered his voice. ‘They only have enough work for the full-time staff. They aren’t doing too good financially, and even a few people are getting laid off.’

  Rae felt like someone had punched her in the gut. ‘No, I haven’t been told anything. I’ve been there for two years.’ She hated how whiny she sounded.

  ‘Yeah, I know. Alice is getting the boot.’ She’d be devastated.

  William frowned, ‘Now the writers have to take their own photos.’

  Rae was too upset to say anything comforting to him, she knew it would add to their workload but she was now broke.

  ‘I’m sorry, it’s the way of the industry now. Everyone has a phone that can take decent pictures.’

  ‘Yeah, everyone’s a bloody photographer these days.’ It was so disheartening. Rae had known this day would come, but she hadn’t thought it’d be so soon.

  ‘I am sorry. I’d love to talk more but my arse could be on the line soon if I don’t get my work done.’

  Rae shut her eyes and sighed. ‘Yeah, I’ll see you around.’

  William’s voice raised to its normal level. ‘For sure. If you are ever downtown, let’s catch up for a drink.’

  SHE SAT DOWN TO WATCH television, but she felt antsy, like she should be out doing something. If it hadn’t been the hottest day of the year, she would have gone for a walk to work out her energy, but she didn’t want to get all sweaty.

  Her eyes kept travelling to a bottle of vodka on her kitchen bench. Her apartment had a lounge and kitchen combined with only a tiny bathroom and one bedroom. It was hard not to see the alcohol beckoning her.

  She had been in a state of shock ever since she’d lost her job. It was like the ground had been taken out from beneath her. Trying to come to terms with the fact that she may have to leave her beloved apartment was devastating. She started running through her budget in her head, trying to figure out how she was going to afford her rent each month.

  With a heavy heart, she realised she would have to search for a new job, desperate for something that would help her hold on to the place that meant so much to her. Losing her job had been a tough blow, but it hadn’t knocked her down completely. She was ready to fight back and find a new path forward, no matter what it took.

  Rae knew she shouldn’t start drinking. Nonetheless, she couldn’t get her mind off having a shot of the clear liquid. Once she’d got it in her head, the thoughts just kept going around until finally, she gave in to temptation and poured herself one. One can’t hurt. Maybe it would take the edge off.

  After she threw it back, she cursed herself. What was she doing? She never did this. Drinking was for fun, not for doing alone. She found that really sad.

  She settled back on the couch, sinking in and closing her eyes. The last few months had been awful. She hadn’t felt this bad about herself since she’d lived with her mother. And now she was drinking in the dark, the curtains drawn and the dark walls closing in on her.

  Thoughts of the clear liquid running down her throat began to circle her brain. She groaned and put a cushion over her face. Why was this so hard? It didn’t help that the show she was watching had alcohol. She decided one more would be fine, but she drew open the curtains so at least she wasn’t suffocated by the lack of light.

  One more turned into two, then three.

  Rae heard someone walk up to her door, it wasn’t long before they started knocking. She dragged herself up and smoothed her hair. Rae hesitated before going further, trying to see if she got a bad feeling about who was on the other side. With everything that happened in the park, and then with the mayor, she was starting to think she should listen to her gut feelings about people.

  The banging on the door continued and vibrated around her head. She wasn’t getting any bad vibes. Yet.

  ‘Yeah, I’m coming. Hold on,’ she yelled at the back of the door.

  Slowly she moved towards the noise. She grabbed the handle and twisted it.

  Chapter 11

  ‘Oh,’ she said. The hot guy from the hospital was standing on her doorstep. She was acutely aware of how horrible she looked as his eyes ran up and down her body.

  ‘Miss Quill?’ His voice was like velvet; she shivered.

  ‘Yep, that’s me.’ She edged herself halfway behind the door so he couldn’t see how much of a mess she was.

  ‘I’m Eddy. You missed an appointment with me.’

  She giggled. ‘Oh, I doubt I’d miss an appointment with you.’ She cringed inside. She was in no way looking fit enough to flirt. ‘We had an appointment at two. I’m here from the Guild.’

  It figured this chiselled specimen of a man would be in law enforcement, although she was confused about why the Guild would want to see her.

  Her heart raced when she fully comprehended who she was talking to. As for missing an appointment – she’d been told no such thing.

  ‘I’d advise you not to miss my appointments.’

  She winced at the sternness in his words. ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘Or you fell asleep after drinking.’ Damn, she hadn’t realised the vodka was still on her breath. Her cheeks flushed, but the confusion must have shown on her face.

  Eddy sighed. ‘Your court case was dismissed because you will now be dealt with by us.’

  This wasn’t good. She did not want to be on the Guild’s radar.

  Rae had heard the horror stories; tales of people being spirited away to some far off treatments facility never to be seen again. She had heard of a kid from their school who ended up possessed by a demon and soon after, the Guild showed up and took him away. Even though she wasn’t sure if it were true, that seemed to be the recurring theme from all the rumours she had heard over the years: get involved with the Guild, disappear. They never saw that kid again.

  Eddy cleared his throat. Rae hadn’t realised she was just staring at him while her thoughts ran rampant in her head. ‘I’m here now, so if I can come inside, we can sort out the paperwork and go over what is expected.’

  She really didn’t want him coming inside, but she realised she didn’t have much choice. What was wrong with her? She was losing it.

  ‘Sure. I just need to go to the ladies first.’ She opened the door and motioned to the couch. ‘You can have a seat and I’ll be out in a moment.’

  She raced into the bathroom, running a comb through her hair and dabbing some concealer under her eyes. She wondered if she had time to shave her legs quickly. Maybe not. She quietly brushed her teeth once she was as good as she was going to get at that moment. Without a full-on makeover, she went back into the living room.

  He’d dragged one of the stools from the kitchen bench over to sit on. He obviously didn’t want to sit beside her cosy-like on the lounge. His loss—she was a great cuddler.

  He clicked his pen, waiting for her to sit down. She got up and opened the curtains even wider to make the apartment seem less gloomy—the sunlight streaming in made his amber eyes look like they were on fire.

  ‘First, I just need some basic history about you?’ He was straight to business.

  ‘How about we start with why the Guild is interested in this case?’

  His look of disapproval was surprisingly hitting her where it hurt, but she was not going to let that or the fear she felt show on her face.

  ‘We’ll go over it in a minute.’ He rattled off several questions about her job, lifestyle, and so on. She managed to answer even though she thoroughly enjoyed watching his mouth move. She wondered if he was single. Probably not. The good ones never were.

  ‘Have you been doing anything unusual lately?’

  Rae was confused. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Have your actions lately been unusual? Any uncalled-for outbursts? Or any unusual symptoms?’

  He was obviously fishing for information about her arrest. However, Rae wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him anything at all so she tried to deflect.

  ‘Are these questions really part of your job,’ she leant forward, ‘or are you just trying to get to know me better?’

  Eddy frowned at her. ‘Let’s keep this professional, please.’ His distaste was apparent. It seems she hadn’t made an excellent first impression on him. He definitely thought she was sloppy.

  ‘So can you answer the question, please?’

  She shrugged. ‘You still haven’t told me why you need to know.’

  He sighed; she never usually irritated people this much, except for her mother. Unlike Janine, though, Rae kind of liked that she could get under his skin. Despite how comfortable she felt around Eddy after just meeting him, she was scared. What if the Guild just disappeared her and no one ever saw her again?

  ‘I need to know if anything is going on that might trigger you. We need a plan to make sure you stay out of trouble.’

  It still didn’t make much sense to Rae. ‘I haven’t been getting much sleep, so I guess I’m more irritable than usual.’

  He wrote in his notebook. ‘Is that since the accident?’

  ‘Yeah. I mean, it was a lot.’

  He kept writing. ‘Anything else you think is worth mentioning?’ Again, his eyes bored straight through her. She got the feeling he had a specific answer he was looking for, but she didn’t have the answers.

  ‘No, not really.’

  He didn’t seem to believe her. But Rae wasn’t going to tell him that she felt like she was never alone, that something was always there, just out of sight. She wasn’t going to tell him that the few times she had gotten into an argument, she’d felt a thrill she’d never experienced before. And the satisfaction she felt from punching the mayor right in his face, that still made her stomach flutter.

  ‘If you think of anything, let me know. I’ll leave you my card. Please go over these rules.’ He handed her a piece of paper. ‘And I want to see you tomorrow.’

  ‘Wait, rules? What for?’

  Eddy looked at her like she was daft. ‘In case you are possessed.’

  Rae gasped. She hadn’t meant to, but she was totally out of her depth here. ‘What do you mean?’

  Eddy shook his head. ‘You actually weren’t told we were meeting, were you?’

  Rae shook her head.

  ‘I’m sorry, I would have been more... delicate if I’d known.’

  ‘Delicate?’

  Eddy nodded. ‘You are at risk of possession from your accident. Anyone who dies is. We need to monitor you to see if you are.’

  This was a lot for Rae to take in. ‘And if I am, then what?’

  Eddy frowned. ‘Then we must determine if it’s good or bad. If it’s the former, we will work with you. If it’s the latter, we will perform an exorcism. Quickly.’

  Rae knew the Guild did exorcisms but she’d never met someone who had needed one.

  ‘Hold on, good or bad? What the heck?’ Rae knew the Guild dealt with the supernatural. She had been born after the demonic uprising that had made the Guild necessary. But unless you were in the Guild, it was on a need-to-know basis and she realised apparently she didn’t need to know there were good and bad demons.

  ‘Yes, it’s complicated, but you will be told more if you need to know. For now, please reach out if something unusual happens. Anything at all. Otherwise, we’ll be in contact.’

  Rae didn’t want them to be in contact. First, she’d lost her job, and now she had the Guild breathing down her neck. Her chest tightened; this was not supposed to be how her life went once she’d moved out of her mother’s house.

  Eddy glanced at the half-empty vodka bottle on her bench. ‘Consider laying off the alcohol until this is sorted.’

  Rae snorted. ‘Fine.’ She got up and opened the door. ‘Guess I’ll see you around then.’

  He nodded goodbye, and she watched his backside as he walked to the black car she’d seen him in at the hospital. She wondered how long they’d been watching her. It couldn’t just be a coincidence that she’d noticed him before.

  Chapter 12

  Millie was going to bring pizza over for dinner, which was good because Rae’s cupboards were bare, bar the remaining vodka and some red wine. She’d even eaten her last chocolate bar that afternoon.

  Millie hadn’t talked to her much over the last few days. They always spoke on the phone at least once a day, even if it was just when they were bored.

  Rae sat on a little window seat that was built into the apartment while she waited. From there, she watched the traffic go past. It was Peak hour—the thin walls meant she could hear all the engines and the honking horns, but she didn’t mind the noise. It always made her feel less alone. The traffic started early in the morning for the daily commute.

  Rae could practically see the fumes from the cars exhausts. Although she wasn’t in the central part of the city, it was still a throughway suburb. People from the fancier suburbs probably just wanted Bayswater Ridge bulldozed. But then where would all the broke-ass people go? Safer there than in their precious communities, right?

  There was a small parking lot for her complex. It was usually empty; only guests used it. Most residents either couldn’t afford a car or found it useless when the transport system was so close. There was also an empty block of land across the highway. People parked their cars there when they wanted to train the rest of the way to work. Parking in the city was expensive and usually non-existent.

  Rae watched people return from work and drive their cars out. She wondered if she could put a sign up and charge for parking. Would anyone notice? As the lot got emptier, she realised there was a car parked that looked suspiciously like Jack’s. She squinted, trying to cut through the glare of the traffic to see if she could get a better look.

  She went round to the front of the room and looked out her window, worried she’d see Jack walking up the stairs. No one was there, thank God. She did not want another fight; she was still rattled after the last one. It mustn’t be his car. There were probably a billion silver Mazdas. Surely he wouldn’t be stupid enough to come back.

  Millie showed up with a box of pepperoni pizza in one arm and a bottle of wine in the other. Rae got out a couple of plates and some plastic wine glasses.

  They sat on the floor cross-legged with the pizza between them. Millie looked like she’d lost weight, which wasn’t hard for her. Rae had always been the curvier of the two, and she could tell it annoyed Millie sometimes. Millie had grown up with people calling her anorexic. She wasn’t, but it still hurt her. In this world, you could be big or small and still get judged. Rae never focused on her weight; she had decided long ago that it was nobody’s business.

  ‘Are you okay? You're not eating your pizza,’ Rae said, gesturing to the untouched slice of pepperoni pie in front of her friend. Millie didn't reply, only pushing the plate away with tears brimming in her eyes. Rae gave a sympathetic smile. Unlike her, who found comfort in a tub of ice cream and hours spent sobbing over romantic comedies, Millie had never been able to find solace in food. ‘Petra’s a jerk.’

  Millie popped the cork on the wine. She sloshed some in both of their glasses and lit a cigarette. Usually, Rae didn’t let her smoke in the apartment, but she could tell this was not the time to ask her to step outside. Instead, Rae balanced her wine whilst opening the window. So much for promising Eddy she wouldn’t drink.

  ‘What happened? I thought things were going great.’ She joined Millie back on the floor.

  ‘They were until this bitch Bethany called me and told me Petra was sleeping with her.’

  ‘Who’s Bethany?’

  ‘No idea, but somehow she got my number and took great pleasure in telling me that Petra went home to hers on the night we all went out together.’

  ‘What, the night I beat up the mayor?’

  Millie’s head bobbed up and down. ‘Petra denies it, but how did Bethany know she wasn’t with me?’

  It sounded suss to Rae, but Petra had seemed like an alright chick when they were all together. And she was pretty into Millie. Who wouldn’t be?

  ‘I don’t know, Mils.’ She gave her a brief hug. ‘What are you going to do about it?’

  ‘I want to believe her. Apparently, this girl has been wanting Petra for years. Always causing trouble in her relationships.’

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23