The Headshrinker's Dilemma

Chapter Fourteen

Dale couldn’t remember who went and got pillows and blankets, but both him and the Jamaican girl made their bed right there in the hallway shortly after making love (Dale wasn’t sure if you could even call it that – s*x definitely, but was it love?). Regardless of what it was or had been, they were together now – in the hallway, naked, undercovers and in each other’s arms. Dale tried to wrap his mind around it. There were so many questions that he wanted to ask her, the first being who the hell was she or what? That was a trip: to have had s*x with someone that you weren’t sure was a human or not – someone that could possibly be some kind of deity or demon, angel, who knew.

Dale turned his head slightly to look at her. The Jamaican girl’s eyes were closed (he knew she was sleep). She looked so peaceful. If he let his mind go, not focus on it, he could get lost in her features and forget all about everything that they had done; there was a slight indentation above her top lip that caused her lips to curl slightly into more of a pucker. He liked it, just that little thing about her, it made her more human to him than he had ever viewed her, even when he first walked in and met her. If they could only stay this way, but he knew that they couldn’t. The one thing that Dale knew was that this was just a brief reprieve from the true business of it all. Both of them had gotten caught up in the emotions of it all – the magic or voodoo that she was working, the swelling of confidence and certainty that had come over Dale, all of it came together and a climatic blend that cornered them and pushed them to do what people did – have s*x – it wasn’t that uncommon under strenuous and life changing circumstances. Still, a part of him did wish that it could mean more.

She opened her eyes. Dale met her gaze as she searched his face. She was still different from before, softer. Even now, as her eyes rove over him, from his face to the outline of his body under the blankets, there was a vulnerability about her that hadn’t been there before, that had only started when Dale had accepted his fate and embraced who he was because of her. Everything changed after that, she wasn’t even in his thoughts anymore but he was in hers, somehow they had switched roles or his being entuned to her had gotten stronger. He wasn’t sure if there was an answer for any of these questions considering, at least for him, there was no basis or prerequisite of any occurrence or anything like this. Dale needed more information.

“I need to know what’s going on,” he said plainly, looking directly at her, his staring back at her never wavering.

But hers did. She looked away. Dale noted it. It meant something to him. She was still in the same place – vulnerable – and he didn’t know the reason, not yet. Dale took a chance. He reached over for her, slowly and deliberate. The Jamaican girl turned her eyes back to him and watched him fiercely as his hand moved closer to her face. When his fingertips finally touched her face, a light brushing before fully landing, she exhaled. Relief spread across her face. It was like she had been holding her breath and waiting for her entire life just for that one touch. Dale couldn’t resist, he felt drawn to her, compelled even, he leaned in to kiss her. Apprehension filled him. For some reason, he felt unsure, like she was going to pull away and reject him. But those were just baseless fears, an older version of himself that he had lost hours ago. Dale continued forward and the Jamaican girl didn’t retreat from him. Rather, quite conversely, she welcomed the kiss, leaning in to meet him, subtly moving her lips to greet his; it was a nice kiss, strong, sensual, lasting. When it came to an end, she was closer to him, her body fitting in a groove, perfectly pressed and placed next to his body, their naked skin touching.

“Who are you?” Dale asked again, his eyes searching her face for the answer.

The Jamaican girl answered with her wandering hands: under the covering of the blankets, Dale could feel her hands running down his leg, like a paint brush, light and very faint strokes. Dale felt himself stiffening with each second of her touch. She must have seen her effect on his face, that he was ready, because on her next stroke up, she grabbed all of him and pulled him to her. This time, she leaned in and pressed her lips softly against his; her lips were a sweet pucker that slowly engrossed his lips. Dale returned the kiss as best he could, matching the movement of her lips. The Jamaican girl slid in her tongue and Dale was caught in a whirlwind of tonguing that quickly turned hot and heavy; she kissed him vociferously, pulling at him, edging him closer and closer to her as if she wanted him to take over her body. Dale did the only thing that he could do in response and that was to kiss her back just as hard and passionate. And then, she shifted slightly and he was back inside of her.

They stopped. Everything stopped. Their eyes met as she moved slowly. Their bodies were facing each other, both of them were still on their side looking into each other’s eyes, fitfully kissing, snapping almost at each other, the motion and rhythm of their bodies a calming river coursing downstream with slight gyrations and skillful maneuvering. Dale was sure that this time, they were definitely making love.

***

The day had passed and they were rolling into the night. Dale lost count of how many times he and the Jamaican girl had made love. Honestly, he was sore. He wondered if she was too – the thought made him snicker some. By now, they had had their fill of each other and there was also now, a bound between them that Dale hindsight didn’t believe hadn’t existed before. It now seemed like they had always been together. Still, there was only one piece of information that was missing, something that he needed to know in order to move forward: he needed to know who was she.

“Hey…” Dale called out to her.

The Jamaican girl was gathering up their make-shift beds from the hallway, she had found some clothes and through them on. He watched her movements. Slithery. Sleek. Everything about her seemed to have meaning and purpose. That fed into how he viewed her and he could now say also fueled his lust for her. She pretended not to hear him. Dale went over to her.

“Hey… I need to know something –”

She turned quickly to face him, her eyes big and bright and surprisingly watery – was she crying?

“What? What do you need to know that you don’t already?”

Dale was confused. He tried to think back to how he could have upset her… What had he done? But he couldn’t think of anything. Everything had been fine, perfect. He didn’t know how he was supposed to respond to this, he had no prior knowledge for the correct handing of things like this, not with someone that you were with – could he say that him and her were together? Dale pressed forward regardless of his ignorance on what to do. Dale eased closer to her and slowly reached out for her, to touch her, to bring her to him. His hands fell on her bare shoulders. She didn’t resist. She fell into his arms and against his chest.

“Talk to me…” he said.

Her head shook against his chest. He could feel her shaking. It was unnerving. A few hours ago, she had been a force to be reckoned with, now, not so much. Dale tried to track what had happened. A part of him questioned if he liked her this way but just as quickly dispatched those thoughts, replacing them with memories of their bodies linked together; he liked that and he liked being that close to her. That was more important to him than anything at the moment. Suddenly, she pulled away from him. The Jamaican girl took a step back, followed by a deep breath. Dale had the feeling that he was finally about to get what he wanted – to know who and what was she…

“I am Priestess – a Voodoo Priestess – that’s it. Nothing more. Nothing out of this world. Just a priestess and not a very good one.”

Dale didn’t like hearing her talk about herself so negatively. That was his first thought. Just a priestess? WTF!? For some reason, she had begun to tremendously underestimate herself. Had she forgotten all that she had done – the power that she had? Dale was confused.

“You…” she hesitated, even shuffled her feet some, she was suddenly so unsure of herself. “You were the first person that one my spells really worked on. I had tried before but… Nothing. And when it did… Well, that was another set of problems.”

Dale was taking this all in. There was something about what she was saying that was really bothering him, something that he knew that she was getting to. He wanted to jump in and just ask her but something inside of him (not her this time) told him to be patient, to wait and just listen, hear her out.

“I really didn’t have a plan in all of this,” she said.

That was it.

“What?” Dale shot back, something in the pit of his stomach was stirring, bubbling.

The Jamaican girl shied away from him even more, backing away, closer to Felicia’s room. When she got close enough, she stopped , looked at the door, and then in the room, the door was slightly ajar. She cringed and then turned back to him.

“Wait. What – What was that?” Dale questioned her actions, her response. “It – It looked like… Wait – Wait – Wait… What the hell is going on here?”

She turned to him, her eyes still watery, tears beginning to fall: “They were just random names. I started with Felicia because she was irritating the s**t out of me and then – just names – I didn’t know who these people were or anything.”

Dale couldn’t believe his ears.

“And so –” she started but Dale jumped in.

“No! What – What about all of this? No! I felt you inside me, you were reading my mind, you moved my hand and made me do things – you fuckin’ pressed me up against the wall!”

The Jamaican girl took a deep breath: “That was kind of real. I did an incantation and gave you some hallucinogenic, the white liquid, I – I played my part because the fuckin’ head shrinking spell worked and after that I didn’t have a choice.”

“And the rest of the s**t you made up?” Dale added.

“Yea, I filled in some parts.”

Dale was at a loss for words. In the last few hours, he had taken on a persona that he never knew existed inside of him and it was all because he believed something that wasn’t really true. Yes, it was true that he had the ability to shrink heads but everything else surrounding it was now in questions – and because of that he was now in question. Dale didn’t like this. In the brief time that he had had confidence, he enjoyed it, relished it, he liked this Dale more than any version of himself before. He didn’t want to lose that, but he was all of sudden grasping at straws, trying to find his footing, something to tether himself onto to keep him at this place that he’d come. It was all just a slippery slope now and he was afraid that he was going to lose himself down it.

“So… I killed people for no reason? Just – Just because you wanted to practice voodoo?” Dale couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of his mouth.

The Jamaican girl looked away.

“This all was fake. Well, no… Not all of it. The power is real but that’s because it’s a spell but it’s all being led by a spell and none of this has a higher purpose… It’s – It’s just you.”

The words fell out his mouth with finality. He understood it all so clearly and he didn’t feel any less about himself because of it. Like most things in his life, there had been an insane potential at this finger tips, ready to be grasped but again, very much like how things went in his life, like soapy water, it ran straight through his outstretched hands only leaving the suds in its wake. Dale threw up his hands. He was tired of looking at her but even more than that he was just tired of it all – his life was ruined and there was no way out. He turned away from her. There was a light hesitation on his part, but there was nothing else left for him here, not with her. Their time had been great but she too was a let down just like everyone else except… Cashier girl. She hadn’t let him down. And to think, he had actually been considering killing her because of the bullshit that Jamaican girl was saying. f**k. He had killed Felicia because of her. Dale was done. He made his way to the door to leave – jail, prison, being on the fuckin’ lamb was better than being in that apartment with her.

“Dale wait…”

There was nothing that she could say that would change his mind.

“The only way to break the spell is to finish it…” she started. “If you finish the spell, kill the last person, the power to shrink heads will be removed and you be granted one wish – and that can be anything.”

Dale was already at the door and turning the door knob when she shot that last bit of information to him. He looked back at her, not knowing whether or not to believe her.

“Lies. More lies,” he shot back at her with venon.

And left out the apartment door.