Glamorous - A Grace Bishop Novel - Chapter 38
© Denise Bossarte
Grace sat at the kitchen
table, a blank piece of paper sitting in front of her, tapping the pen in her
hand against the wood as she gathered her thoughts. She heard the murmurs of
conversations from Danny and the girls floating in the open door from the
living room as he worked to keep them comfortable and entertained.
Danny was turning out to be a great host, easing their fears of
being in another strange place. Even if it was a home rather than an abandoned
warehouse. The tall tales he was spinning were hardly believable. But Grace
suspected most of them originated with stories from the Professor Espiritos he
was spending time with at the colleges.
Grace was trying to figure
out the best way to convince the Glamour to meet with her she could deal with
him once and for all. She decided he had dictated the method of communication
by leaving a note for her on her doorstep. She would reciprocate and leave a
note for him. She would take advantage of his original calling cards by putting
the note out with the single tulip and daisy left on her back porch. They were
the worse for wear, but she thought he would get the point and be curious
enough to read the note.
But how to get the Glamour to be where she wanted him when she
wanted him? He most likely didn’t know about her multiple abilities. She didn’t
want to make a reference in the note she and he were special amongst the
Paranorms in having more than one ability.
Mentally scratching the possibility off her list, she realized
she still would be able to use his double abilities to her advantage. Grace was
most likely the only one who knew of his multiple personalities. She should
include that in the note as she knew from the reading this was something he
didn’t want others to know.
Grace reflected on what Eli
told her about the Glamours in history always becoming megalomaniacal. She
could use the fact that twice now they encountered the Glamour and he had run
from them: once on the street, and once at the warehouse. She would taunt him
with his cowardice. She knew it was better not to remind him of the destruction
of the woman beast. But by inference his running would show he was not strong
enough to protect his most favored creation.
Nodding to herself, she put
pen to paper and wrote.
“To my New Friend,”…
Writing it down brought a shiver of revulsion. But if she was
going to play along with this game and take it over to her advantage, she may
as well go full out. She wrote the note, balancing a tone of mystery, teasing,
and not too subtle threat, ending with what she thought would be most
compelling.
“I challenge both you and
Robyn to meet me at the lake house Monday evening. See the address below. I
will be at the dock at 6pm.
If you are not afraid to face me then, leave a red rose on my
stairs. If you are afraid to come, leave a white rose instead.”
And she signed it “The Aperto Rotto.”
Grace hoped she found the right buttons to push to get him to
come to the lake on Monday night. She hoped she had not pushed too far that he
would to try to do anything to her or her friends before then. She folded the
note and added a piece of scotch tape to the folded edge. She picked up the
wilting tulip and daisy from beside her on the table. Then made her way from
the kitchen and through the townhouse to the front door.
Stepping outside, she looked up and down the street. She
realized he wouldn’t be standing around but she checked on the off chance she
would see an unfamiliar car. It creeped her out she was relying on the Glamour
to be stalking her to get a message to him. But she couldn’t come up with
another way to communicate with him.
Grace bent down to place the note on the top step, using the
tape to attach it to the concrete. She placed the two flowers on top of the
note and then grabbed a rock from the landscaping along the sidewalk to hold
them in place. Standing up, she glanced around one more time, still not finding
evidence of her stalker.
Grace hoped it wouldn’t take long to get a response. But she
realized there was a chance she would get none. She would need to keep checking
the steps until Monday night to see if she got an answer. Then come up with
another plan somehow if this one didn’t work.
Grace turned around and went back inside the house, locking the
door behind her. She stopped in the living room where Danny was holding court
with the girls. Taking a quick head count, she realized there were only nine
girls left out of the fifteen who were helping them at the warehouse. They all
came with Grace when she brought home their ashes. She had opted to have the
ashes with her in the townhouse until she got the arrangements made for their
burial with her parents.
Around half of the girls
moved on between the woman monster’s
death and the care she gave them dealing with their remains. But there were still
nine girls waiting. Once their ashes were buried, some of them might find
peace. But Grace thought there was an option that would help all of them find
some closure and resolution.
She moved to join the group
and took a seat beside Danny on the couch, waiting for a lapse in their current
conversation. Once the room got quiet, they all turned to her.
“I am making plans to draw
the Glamour out. I am challenging him to meet me.”
The girls reacted in multiple ways. Some looking horrified, some
fearful, and some, like Sabra, looking stoic, waiting to hear what she had to
say.
“I am going to force him
to meet me Monday night at the lake house my parents’ owned. It is far enough
outside town we won’t be interrupted. I pushed enough of his buttons for him to
come by himself.”
“Wha’ for? Whatcha goin’
ta do?” Sabra asked in her normal skeptical tone.
“This man is a threat who
won’t go away without intervention. We can’t use normal channels of justice to
deal with him. The Paranormal world won’t deal with him either. At least not
fast enough to make sure other girls or my friends won’t be hurt. That leaves
it up to me to take care of him.”
“Take care of him how?”
Danny demanded, not liking the direction the conversation was going.
“The only way to stop him
is to kill him,” Grace said, her mind made up on the Glamour.
Danny jumped to his feet, astonished.
“Gracie, you can’t be
serious! Your solution is to execute him? You’re talking about outright murder!”
Grace looked up at her brother where he stood over her, angry
and confused. She knew how much he cared about doing the right thing. He
possessed a strong moral compass and he didn’t want her to go to this extreme.
It wasn’t because he thought the Glamour didn’t deserve justice
for his crimes against the girls, for hurting them. It was because he was
afraid of what might happen to Grace. Even if she wasn’t discovered for killing
the Glamour, it wasn’t something that would leave her untouched emotionally or
mentally.
But she was determined. She wouldn’t let this man continue to
hurt girls. Now he was threatening her friends, putting them at risk too.
Everything Eli shared about Glamours indicated he would not stop on his own,
would not stop simply because he was discovered or threatened.
There was only one way to deal with this type of Paranorm and
that was to put him down like the rabid dog he was. Put him down before more
girls got hurt. Especially before he moved on to another city where no one knew
what he was up to and he could continue his serial killing unhindered.
“Danny, think about
everything we know about the Glamour. He will not stop unless someone makes him
stop. He already condemned himself by what he’s done to these girls. I
understand you don’t like me taking on the role of judge and executioner. But
I’m the one who needs to do it.”
Danny sank back down beside Grace on the sofa, working through
several emotions her words provoked. Finally, he reached out grasp Grace’s hand
and gave it a quick squeeze.
“You’re confident you can
deal with him on your own, then?” Danny asked, looking into her eyes,
meeting her determined gaze with a sad one of his own.
“Yes, I am. Meeting him at
the lake means I’ve a method to dispose of the body afterward.”
Danny considered her statement, realizing the logic of what she
was saying and nodded his understanding.
“And I’ll be there as a
backup, right Gracie?” he said, making it more of a statement than a
question.
“Definitely, kiddo.”
Looking at each girl in turn, she continued. “In fact, I want all of you to be there.”
Now all the girls looked startled. But as usual, it was Sabra
who spoke up first.
“Whatcha wan us der for?”
she asked.
“I want to give you a
chance to confront the Glamour before I kill him, the chance you didn’t get
when you were alive. I’m not asking for you to stay when I kill him. But it
would help you move on if you confronted him for what he did to you.”
“The Glamour won’t be
responsive to anything the girls say,” Danny cautioned.
“The point is not what the
Glamour says, or how he responds,” Grace
corrected him. “The point is for each of
you to stand up to him and tell him what you think of him and what he did.”
The girls glanced at each other, not sure what to make of the
offer Grace gave them.
“How’s we supos’d to
confront ‘im like ya say? He can’t see us, ‘member?” Sabra countered.
“Danny, can you can show
them what I mean?” Grace asked.
Danny looked at her for a moment to decide if she was ready to
reveal their secret about him being able to manifest. Grace nodded at his
unspoken question, confirming her resolution to share their secret with the
girls.
He stood up, his mischievous smile blooming in anticipation of
the girls’ reactions. He walked to a knickknack sized crystal on the nearby
bookshelf, placing his hand on it and drawing in the barest amount of energy to
materialize.
There was a collective gasp from the girls, and Sabra jumped up
from her seat and rushed over to him to get right in his face.
“Ya real now, boy?”
she asked, reaching out to toward him. “Otha
peepal can see ya?”
“Yes. I am real enough to
talk with people and move things around, too. Even to eat if I want!” Danny
assured her, his normal upbeat personality coming through in his excitement to
share this ability.
“How long it last? How
long da we get ta say our peace?”
“It depends on how
much energy you take from the crystal,” Danny
said, demonstrating his corporealness by holding up the crystal he used to
manifest. “I can teach you how to do it.
With this sized crystal you’ll have about half an hour to be real again.”
Grace had not been sure it would be possible for other ghosts to
manifest. But she knew Danny would not offer to teach the girls if they weren’t
able to learn how to do it. He would not be that cruel as to get their hopes up
by offering them something they wouldn’t be able to do themselves. If he didn’t
believe the others could also become physical, he would have simply offered to
manifest and speak on their behalves.
“Danny will teach you to
manifest yourselves. I’ll bring your ashes along when I go to the lake house.
Then you can all be there with us. I’ll put enough crystals in the car that you
can each manifest once we’re there. You’ll have time to say what you need to
the Glamour, and maybe I’ll get some of my own questions answered. Then I will
end this.”
“Ok, deal,” Sabra answered for the girls. “We wanna start learnin’ how ta do dis right now.”
Grace wasn’t surprised by how fast Sabra took up the offer and
she wanted to learn the trick from Danny as soon as possible. The other girls
all didn’t look so confident. She knew they might not all follow through and go
with her to the lake. The best she could do was give them the choice; the rest
was up to them.
Grace left Danny taking the girls through how to use the
crystals, and went upstairs to do her yoga, meditate, and then get ready for
work. About two hours later she came downstairs to find Sabra and several other
girls manifested and moving around the room, touching things and picking up
objects.
“We’re making great
progress,” Danny reported. “By the
time you get home from work we’ll have everyone doing it!”
“Great! I’ll leave you to
it, then,” Grace said, grabbing her backpack and keys and heading toward
the door.
Grace wanted to check on the
flowers and the note as she headed out to work to make sure they were still
secure and waiting on the front step. She pulled open the door to have what
must be two dozen loose red roses cascade onto the floor at her feet.
She had her answer from the
Glamour.
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