The Promise

Chapter 1 -- Red

Dying sucked.

I promised Reba I would care for her for the rest of her life or die trying. Little did I know. And she always said I'd better not, because if I died first, she'd reverse haunt my ass.

"Reverse haunt? Baby, what are you talking about?"

Her grey eyes bored through me. "You know my family has the gift, Red -- we have for generations. If you did first, I will summon you back from the dead and keep you with me until I die. And don't you think I can't!"

I never knew when she said things like this if I'd taken a crazy girl, but if I had, so be it; because I was crazy about her. And I knew that I would die for her if I had to, so I just wrote it off as a battle of wills. Hopefully, neither one of us would ever have to find out the other meant it. So I played it off as a joke. "Well, girl, how do we die then? Because from what I'm hearing, we gotta go together."

"Sex," she'd always say, her eyes twinkling. "We'll be old and gray, and I'll fuck you to death, and then die of surprise. They'll find us with your wrinkly old cock still hard in my saggy old dry pussy with grins on our faces from one ear to the other."

So why couldn't she have been right about that, too?

Chapter 2 -- Reba

"Oh, my god, Roy -- she's back! My baby girl is back! Praise Jesus..." Momma always praised Jesus when she was happy or relieved...it didn't matter if it was because her angelfood cake didn't fall or because she won five bucks in the lottery, Jesus was gonna be getting some praise.

My eyes fluttered open, but all I could see was grey. "Momma?"

"We're here, Reba...Daddy, too." Her hand pressed mine, and I jerked it away when she hit the IV feed.

"Nora, be careful, honey! I know you're excited." Daddy could always tell what I needed, ever since I was a little girl.

"Momma, Daddy...I can't see. What happened?" Momma leaned over me far enough that I could feel her breath on my cheeks. She must have been looking at my eyes.

"Roy..." Momma's voice was shaking like it did when she cried.

"Nora, they said this might happen," daddy answered. "Reba, what's the last thing you remember?"

I thought about that. It hurt; this couldn't be good. "I was going to the Halloween party with Red, daddy. But it wasn't by bus...we were in the Dodge. Oooooh..."

Chapter 3 -- Red

I watched from the corner of the hospital room as she woke up, her head bandaged, face scratched, and eyes empty. So many tubes sticking out of her and on her. How fragile we are...

She remembered we were in the Dodge when the bus t-boned us. She was in her sexy witch costume, her hat and stockings textured like spider webs, and I was the Devil, with an open red vinyl vest, tails, and horns. It seemed like a nice poke at all the idiotic stories of witches having consorted with Satan. We'd dance, have a few drinks, have a few laughs, and go home and fuck.

It hit on her side. I saw her head fly forward, the airbags deploy, her body thrown around the truck's cab like a rag doll. Blood dripping down her button nose and matting her dusty blonde hair. I didn't see the shard of glass enter my eye socket, ironically enough, and didn't feel it. I saw myself float through the truck's roof, rising above the scene, but I was confused. Who was the guy in the truck with her? With the glass sticking out of his head like a frozen lightning bolt? Weird that she was with someone else in a devil su---

Oh, FUCK! That was me!

I saw tendrils of energy rising from her body, and realized her soul was leaving, too, and I hurtled back down through the roof of the truck and blew my last bit of breath, my last bit of energy, the remnants of my soul into her body. "Live!" I yelled...though I know no one living heard me.

She heard me, though, and the tendrils drew back into her body just as the EMT's cut her out of the truck. I felt myself floating up again, and reached down for her, wanting with every cell I'd ever had to hold her and tell her it would all be okay. And then the spirit lights began to gather around me, and I ran from them toward the ambulance taking my Reba from me.

Chapter 4 -- Reba

"Where's Red?" My voice was a whisper, but I knew they heard.

Silence, except for Momma's jagged post-cry breathing.

"Momma, where's Red? You have to tell me."

I knew she was looking at daddy for guidance, whether I could see it or not. Finally, she answered me.

"Reba...honey...you should rest now."

That drove me wild...I could hear the heart monitor start beeping frantically as I realized what she wasn't telling me. "No.

"No, that can't be. I'd know! There has to be a mistake..."

Strange voices, a mad patter of footsteps, something rolling..."I'm afraid you'll have to step outside. We'll let you know as soon as we have an update." Momma whimpering as daddy crooned comfort in her ear.

Chapter 5 -- Red

How right and how wrong she was. I was right there, and my heart ached for her. There was only one way to calm her when she panicked like this.

"She's panicking. Feed in two milligrams of lorazepam stat."

"Yes, doctor."

They thought the drugs calmed her.

I focused all the energy that was left of me on her lips, pressing them, wrapping my arms around her and cradling her head, before moving down to suckle her left nipple in a slow, steady rhythm, pinching her right in tandem with it. I could feel myself fading, but I moved down to continue the same rhythm on her clit until my world went dark. I could feel her body shudder slightly as I left.

"Red, I know you're here, and I know they're wrong. I'll find you, Red..." Her voice trailed off, a whisper fading into the wind.

"She's stabilizing, doctor."

"I'll tell the family, but then I have to get back to rounds."

Chapter 6 -- Reba

"Momma, I don't need the wheelchair. Really. Let me walk."

The nurse answered for her. "It's hospital protocol, dear. You had a close call there; let us take care of you just this little bit more. You'll be back on your feet before you know it."

"She's right, Reba," continued her mother. "Just relax. Let's get your strength back."

Then I saw Daddy driving the car up, and felt my legs turn to jelly. I didn't want to be in a car...maybe ever again. I nodded and let them load me into the back seat, where I felt my heart pounding at my ribs like a prisoner begging for escape from his cell. Dear lord, I needed Red.

Chapter 7 -- Red

My poor babygirl. I don't blame her for being scared, so I slide between her and the seat back, imperceptible to everyone but her. I wrap my arms around her, and massage her breasts, letting my lips travel up and down her slender neck. She's still so pale, so delicate. I can see the bruising, mottled yellow and green, spreading from beneath the bandages where the IV was.

I kiss every area that's been hurt: her eyes, the cuts on her scalp, her heart, the burns on her arms from the airbags.

"Daddy, can you turn up the air a little? It's warm back here." And he does, of course.

But I know what's really warmed her...and I keep her warm until the car is parked in her parents' driveway. I can't talk to her anymore, but I can still be here for her.

Chapter 8 -- Reba

It's like...he's here with me. I can feel his arms, his lips; his hands, his breath.

"Hey, momma -- question?" I can hear her...and I think something else.

"Yes, sweetheart? I'm so glad you're home."

She presses a cup of warm apple cider into my hand, and I sip it. "Momma, you're going to think I'm crazy, but...

"Did you just turn a light on?"

"Oh, Reba! Oh...praise Jesus, yes, I did! You could see that?" I can hear the thunk of her knees hitting the carpet. It drives me crazy, but that's just what she does.

"Momma, what day is it?"

"Sunday, honey..."

"No, Momma, I mean what date?"

"It's October 27." October 27...I have four days to be well enough, to see well enough, to hold the ritual.

"Thanks, Momma."

Chapter 9 -- Red

I want her to see...I want her to know the beauty of the changing leaves, the snow that's soon to fall, the beauty of the Moon in the night sky as it grows full and wanes to new, the changes to the earth as the Wheel of the Year spins our lives.

But I don't want her to see...because then she won't see me. My arms around her will meld into the memory of our love, my breath into a frisson as someone walks on her grave, my kisses into longing for what we once had.

Will she know that I'm here? How long can I stay? I don't want to go...

Chapter 10 -- Reba

They've been hanging around the house. Kids, probably. But Momma keeps mentioning that a flowerpot here's been knocked down, and a shirt from the clothesline there. A sheet blows away, covers the lightpost in the front yard, and blows like a ghost in the wind.

I can feel his tongue licking the side of my neck. I swear it.

Chapter 11 -- Red

When I knocked down the flowerpot, the guys who were getting ready to break in -- meth heads, probably -- ran.

The shirt was an accident.

The same guys were casing the house, looking like scared squirrels. When the sheet billowed at them and reached out toward them as I growled and hissed, they ran. I'm pretty sure one of them pissed himself. Definitely worth it.

Chapter 12 -- Reba

I've been asking myself if it's right. If I should.

I did promise, didn't I?

My vision's come back; as far as I can tell, the doctors think it was "hysterical blindness."

That I had seen something so traumatic, so painful, that I never wanted to chance seeing anything like it ever again, and so my brain and eyes chose to cut ties with each other.

I did promise, didn't I?

Chapter 13

It's All Hallow's Eve, the time the veil between the worlds is thinnest. Red's only been gone a few days; if I can ever call him back, now's when it will happen.

Momma and daddy are out for the night at Rotary Club, as they've decided I'm well enough for an evening alone. So I've gathered my images, candles, herbs, stones, salt, water, cakes and wine.

I've consecrated them all.

Normally, Red would be my priest.

I scribe the circle and set the quarters; I consecrate the cakes and wine. And then I open the door between his world and mine, prick my finger with a lancet to leave a drop of blood, and call him through.

And...I see him. Luminous, ethereal. He is Red, but no longer Red, and I realize that it was his kiss, his hand, his tongue, his arms. And I'll have them again.

"Red, I know what you've done for me. I know I'd never have lived if it weren't for you." The tears are flowing. I can't feel them; I can't stop them. "But...

"I don't want to live without you. I need you."

As I move toward him, his shape flickers, so I stay still. Eventually, he moves toward me, his legs moving as if he were walking; his shape floating as if they don't need to.

I close my eyes, and I can feel his body, muscled and warm, pressed to mine. I can feel the bulge of his cock hardening against my belly. I can feel his lips crush mine, and the empty space where our breath would normally mingle.

I drop my robe and let it fall to the floor next to me. Red's weight presses down on me, and I feel safe.

I feel his hands moving my legs, and draw my knees toward my chest. We will have our Great Rite this Samhain, my godpriest who died so I could live. His fingers dance down the backs of my thighs, stopping where they join. His breath plays over my labia, and I shiver.

His tongue laps at the space between them, separating them a millimeter at a time, until finally, he sucks each into his mouth...one, then the other, over and over, teasing my clit between them as he ignores it and plays with the walls that guard it. Finally sucking both lips into his at once, he lets his tongue dance forward to bat it, and I moan aloud with desire.

"My Red, my Lover, my Priest," I purr, "take me."

And take me he does. First with his tongue, licking from opening to clit, and clit to opening, which he licks as deeply as his tongue will reach. It is hard to understand that I am making love to a ghost.

Red pushes my legs back to my shoulders, elongating and tightening my wet pussy for his cock, stretching my hamstrings as he prepares to enter me. I can feel his rod, hard, radiating heat, pressing into my channel, sliding into me, slowly, deliberately, until his bulbous head meets my cervix. My cunt stretches to accommodate him, as it always does. His pubes slam against my clit, as they always do. His balls slap against my ass, delivering the delicious applause they always do.

And my heart sings, racing wildly; my chest heaves with the effort of respiration; lightning fills my vision as thunder claps in my ears, and my sex pulses, my body writhes, my moans become beastly grunts as my pussy spurts nectar all over Red's cock and the candles marking the circle and quarters.

And I float above us and see the robe shifted to cover a girl's body, her face the picture of ecstasy; I hope to be that happy when I die, I tell Red. I raise my hand to stroke his translucent cheek, and realize that my hand, my skin, my body are translucent as well. When my flesh touches his, faint sparkles jump from our union. I look down, and realize the ecstatic girl on the ground is me, and I know I am home.

"I promised I'd reverse haunt you, my darling, and keep you with me until I die. We just didn't quite make the 'old and grey' part."

Laughing, we float up, sparks flying where our lips and fingers touch, raining down on the earth like falling stars.