Chapter 27: The Mystery of the Neighbor is Solved

“Tom!”

I started awake. I was lying diagonally across my bed where I had collapsed after having sex with my ex-girlfriend Laura, randomly somehow my next-door neighbor. I still felt incredibly tired.

Kate was there, holding the baby. “It’s your turn. I have to get some sleep.” She handed me Amy and then took a second look at me. “You feeling okay?”

“Just really tired,” I replied.

She continued to scan my face. “You look like you need to eat more. I’m sorry Demie and I have been fighting; it must be hard on you.”

I nodded and got to my feet a little unsteadily. Kate took my arm and helped me to the playpen, where I gently placed baby Amy. After confirming I was fixing myself something to eat, Kate went back to her room to rest.

I ate some leftover pizza as I sat on the couch and listened to my daughter’s happy cooing.

I woke to the sound of Amy crying. I fell asleep again? I was feeling a bit better, so it was obviously helping, but damn. The clock informed me that it had been a couple of hours since I last looked at it. I picked Amy up, checked her diaper, and then figured that she must be hungry. Actually, so was I, still. After I warmed up a bottle of breast milk under the tap, I grabbed a banana to chow down on while the baby sucked down her lunch.

I thought about Laura in the next apartment. We had broken up almost two years ago because she felt like I was no longer connecting with her on an emotional level, but now it seemed like that was all water under the bridge. What was she to me, now, though? We hadn’t had time to discuss anything before we had sex. Laura almost certainly wouldn’t want to share me with two other women, one of whom was the mother of my child. I didn’t know what to do.

That night, I woke to the sound of singing coming through the wall separating my apartment from Laura’s. I couldn’t make out the tune but it sounded sad, yet hopeful. Laura wasn’t big on singing, so it seemed odd to me. It did sound like her voice, though, rather than something on the radio.

Since she was obviously awake, I put on a shirt and some sweatpants and went and knocked on her door. When she opened it I was astounded by how gorgeous she looked, like she had just come back from the beauty parlor after having everything done. She wore a white blouse and flowy skirt, as she had when I had first met her. I felt underdressed.

“Wow!” I said, and she blushed.

“I’m feeling really good,” she said, and ushered me in. “How about you?”

I sat on her couch again and she joined me. “Still pretty tired. I thought maybe I caught a bug, but it’s not acting like one. Maybe I just need to eat better. This year has been Hell.” Literally, I mused.

“Ooh, poor baby,” she gave a moue, and at the mention of “baby” I realized that I should tell her about my current situation before we did anything else.

“Laura, I...”

That’s all I got before she was kissing me again, her vanilla scent filling my mind and removing all outside concerns. Soon she was straddling me, her skirt settling around us as she rubbed her panty-covered pussy against the crotch of my sweatpants.

As I kissed her neck and rubbed at her breasts through her blouse and bra, she sighed. “Oh, I want to do this again, but I also want you to get better first. You might not last otherwise.”

I sat back. “Huh?” I could feel myself starting to get tired again, and it was getting hard to think straight.

She got off of me and arranged her skirt. “Go home, Tom. Come see me when you’re feeling fully restored, alright?”

“Um, okay...” I got unsteadily to my feet and gave her a kiss which turned into another and almost started us making out again, but then she pushed me away, her face flushed.

“Go,” she urged me. I went.

I slept until morning when Kate handed me the baby again. Was this all parenthood was, just handing the baby back and forth until it went off to college?

Around 10 AM I got a call on Monday’s phone, but it was the police! They had found an emaciated man lying in a trash container, barely alive, and he had been taken to hospital. They had managed to get into his phone and I was the last number he had called. That had been before he came over to visit the other day.

I left a note for Kate and took the baby with me to the hospital, which provided the first test of the baby seat we had bought for the Chevelle. I spoke with the police officer who met me there. Monday’s wallet was missing, so I filled them in on his particulars and where and when I had last seen him. Then I went in to check on my friend.

He looked terrible. When they had described him as emaciated I thought they had been talking about his normal thin build, but his skin looked sunken around his bones. He was hooked up to a drip to get his calorie count and fluid levels back up, but was still unconscious.

“Goddamnit, Monday, you just can’t catch a fucking break,” I remarked. I left my number with the nurse for when he woke up.

When Kate woke up I asked her what kind of creature could cause what happened to Monday. She thought for a moment.

“Some spirits can do that sort of thing, or blood mages, or a vampire, maybe? Did you notice any fang marks?”

I shook my head. I hadn’t been looking, and I didn’t know if the doctors had either.

She continued, “Honestly, there are a lot of supernatural creatures that feed on humans. Life eats life, and there’s nothing more powerful than the need to keep on living, even if you have to harm or kill others to do it. We witches are tasked with acting sort of like netherworld police sometimes, if the need arises.” Then she realized what she had said. “We ... them, I mean ... not me anymore. Shit...”

Then she headed to her room, crying. I went to follow her, but she waved me off.

That night, urged by Laura’s singing, I again went to her door. This time she was wearing sheer lingerie and looking sexy as hell. She let me in and gave me an analyzing squint. “Something’s wrong. I’ll fix you a drink and you can tell me about it.”

I watched her shapely ass as she went into the kitchen. While I heard the clinking of glasses and bottles I looked around her apartment. I didn’t want to talk about sad stuff. Maybe some music would set the mood. I opened a cabinet, hoping she had a sound system in there.

There were some books, boxes, and a plastic bag on the lowest shelf. The bag looked out of place, so I opened it.

I froze. Inside was a wallet and a Nintendo Switch. Opening the wallet, I found Monday’s driver’s license.

“You still like Long Island Iced Teas, right?” Laura came back into the living room carrying a tray with two glasses. “Oh.”

I stood up, holding the wallet out like the damning evidence it was.

Laura set the tray down. “Tom, I can explain.” Her voice started taking on a sing-song tone as she carefully moved toward me.

I had seen enough crazy shit in the last year to realize that nothing here was what it seemed. I ran for my apartment.

After I closed the door behind me, I heard Laura singing a demanding tune as she approached it. I couldn’t help myself as I turned and opened the door. She stood there, beautiful in her negligee, holding her arms open as she walked into our apartment. I couldn’t do anything but stand there.

Suddenly a metal band appeared, surrounding the lower half of Laura’s face and cutting off her singing, as well as her control of me. I heard a gasp from the side and saw Kate there, holding the baby, the hand of her free arm pointing at Laura. Kate looked at it, confused. “How?” she whispered.

I looked back to Laura as she struggled to get the metal gag off. Then ropes appeared and trussed her up. Kate moved forward, clearly controlling them. Her powers were back?