Arsenic for the Soul (5 page)

“
I need to see
Camilla!”

“
Please turn around and let
us handle this.” Vivian stared anxiously down the hall, waiting for
Camilla to emerge from the apartment and grant her much needed
relief. She spotted her in the shadows, speaking quietly with an
officer. Camilla locked eyes with Vivian and the sight startled
her. She backed away down the stairs, unsure of what she
saw.

All of the blood had been drained from
Camilla’s face. Whatever ghastly crime scene concealed in her
apartment surely left its imprint on her brain.

Dusk fell by the time Camilla shuffled
outside to greet Vivian.

“
Thanks for coming to see
me. I’m sorry about the officers and making you wait. Weird, isn’t
it? I’m so used to interviewing cops but not the other way
around.”

“
What happened?”

Camilla wrapped her jacket tighter
against the baying wind. It took a few minutes to find her
voice.

“
Someone broke into my
apartment while I was away. The deadbolt was on the floor when I
entered. They hurt my cat, too.” Her eyes swelled and cold sweat
beaded on her throat. “I can’t get over the shock of seeing his
body.”

She cast nervous glances toward one of
the windows, where her apartment presumably resembled something out
of a nightmare.

Suddenly, Vivian noticed the pendant
encircling Camilla’s throat. The vial of ashes glimmered where her
red scarf once hung. Gone was the black eyeshadow that cloaked her
emerald eyes. Those orbs looked solemn now in the evening glow.
Sometime over the summer, Vivian noticed a change in her
personality and it stemmed from the moment she finished her crusade
against the Magdalene asylums. It was as if Camilla’s life’s work
ended in that final blow to her family’s legacy—and now she spent
her days in restless confusion.

“
Where did you
go?”

Camilla’s sigh said it all.

“
Vesely Manor.”

“
Again? I’m beginning to
think you have a sick obsession.”

“
I don’t know what I expect
to feel when I go there, but it’s neither helping nor hurting me.
Perhaps it’s a sign that something in my life remains unresolved.
Sure, my family is dead and the asylums are condemned, but this
feeling doesn’t sit well with me. I feel like things are just
getting started.”

“
Here’s an idea, how about
you put all that nervous energy into writing a book? Obviously the
newspaper doesn’t keep you busy enough.”

“
That’s partially the
problem. The police think I have an admirer who likes my articles,
as they lightly put it. But what kind of sick admirer writes
‘sinner’ in blood and leaves it for me?”

“
What?”

“
Sinner. That’s the word he
left behind. And perhaps it’s no coincidence that it was written on
an article about a Magdalene asylum—
one
that I wrote
.”

Vivian balked at the
possibility.

“
You don’t think one of
your relatives is alive, do you? And that he or she wants to harm
you for shutting down the asylums?”

Camilla gazed down the shrouded
streets of the city of a hundred spires. Prague Castle and St.
Vitus Cathedral remained the dominant elements in this eclectic mix
of cyberpunk, medieval, and noir vice. Yet no place here called out
to her more than the home she couldn’t return to.

“
I don’t know what this
means. Perhaps it’s nothing more than a disgusting prank devised to
silence me about the asylums. Either way, the police think it’s
best if I find another place to stay. I’m not too keen on sleeping
in my own bed anyway. The idea of going back in there eats away at
my nerves.”

“
I don’t blame you. So
where will you stay?”

Camilla absently kicked the backpack
of gathered belongings at her feet.

“
I have a few friends I can
call on. I shouldn’t have any problem staying there for a few
nights until the lock is replaced. Then we’ll see what
happens.”

“
No, you’re staying with
us.” Before Camilla could protest, Vivian scooped up the backpack
and hoisted it on her shoulders.

“
Us?
”

Vivian grinned
mischievously.

“
Yeah, I’m sure my mom
won’t mind a troublemaker like you taking up the spare bedroom. We
usually reserve it for relatives, but I guess you’ve earned that
privilege after all we’ve been through, right? You don’t have
anyone else to take you in, do you?”

Camilla restricted her inner circle to
a few close friends, but none of them enjoyed a more intimate trust
than Vivian. After all, their bond was born out of braving the
deadliest ordeals. A friendship forged in scars and scrapes on the
playground had its merits, but it couldn’t compare to a sacred pact
like theirs.

Camilla’s pink lips creased in a smile
that set her eyes ablaze. In that moment, Vivian recognized the
girl she knew who always hungered for life and laughed in the face
of danger.

“
Thank you, Vivian. I
really appreciate this.”

“
Don’t mention it. I’ve
always wanted a little sister to torment.”

* * *

Camilla settled down in the spare
bedroom with a belly full of fried shrimp and mein noodles. Now she
believed the tales about Mrs. Xu’s extraordinary cooking. It had
been much too long since she shared a meal with anyone.

She curled up in the cozy bed when
Vivian, walked through the door clutching a bottle of wine. The
sight of Shiraz teased Camilla’s appetite almost as much as the
traditional Chinese supper.

“
Thank God. I could use a
glass or two after today.”

“
Why stop there? Wine is
only good after the first three glasses,” Vivian chuckled, popping
the cork off and inhaling the decadent scent of blackberries and
plums.

“
So tell me about your
first day at the hospital, anything to get my mind off the
break-in. Any cute guys I should know about?”

Vivian swirled the wine in her
Bordeaux glass as she lost herself in a string of fresh memories.
This day alone had already carved a deep impression in her scarred
canvas of life.

“
You know I’m not usually
one to fall for any guy, but I met someone at the hospital
today—”

“
Well, that’s an
improvement over the bad boys you ogle at clubs.”

“
Oh shut up. Anyway I
wouldn’t call it a romantic introduction. His name is Milo and he
was actually giving me a vaccine when my heart dropped into my
stomach—probably a bit from both fear and attraction.” She laughed
and plopped down on the carpet. “But you should’ve seen him. His
face looks like it belongs on the cover of a magazine.”

“
And we both know how much
you adore the pretty boys. So he works in the blood lab? Does that
make him a morbid soul like you?”

“
No, he seems quite the
opposite. He’s been living abroad in Europe for the past few years.
Can you imagine traveling anywhere you wish? What a thrill it would
be to wander from one corner of the world to the next with nothing
to hold you down.”

Additionally, there was something else
about Milo that she rarely glimpsed in another man.

“
He looks like a sweet and
innocent soul.”

“
And you want to corrupt
him?”

Vivian licked the Shiraz from her
lips.

“
If I can’t help it. Here’s
a toast to the end of our innocence, starting today.”

“
You’re way ahead of me on
that. How about a toast to your first day at clinicals? And your
budding romance with Milo…”

Vivian almost choked on her
wine.

“
What?”

“
Oh sorry, I meant the
corruption of Milo.”

“
Yeah, I should be so
lucky. Well, I’m off to bed now. Save a little wine for tomorrow,
won’t you?”

The door wisped shut behind Vivian,
and suddenly the merriment and laughter was subdued by silence.
Camilla could never thank her enough. She was equally indebted to
Vivian’s mother for her gracious hospitality. Maybe she could let
her guard down and forget about the intrusion of her
apartment.

She flipped off the lamp and doused
the bedroom in darkness. Teddy bears sat on their ornate thrones in
the corner, their beady eyes catching the reflections of street
lights outside. A passing car’s headlights lanced through the room,
dancing across a framed portrait of a much younger Vivian. She was
only five years old in the photograph.

Set in the Prague Carnevale
festivities, Vivian was beaming from ear to ear as costumed and
masked performers paraded down the street. That smile, so jubilant
and full of hope, conflicted with the sarcastic and often
dominating attitude she wore today. Yet, no matter how she moaned
about the world, she couldn’t hide the child-like rapture she
guarded in her heart.

Camilla hoped no one ever shattered
that innocence in her.

She glanced out the window to see the
orange haze of streetlights shimmering through the glass. Black
eyes outside her window also caught the same hellish
lights.

Someone was staring down at
her.

Camilla loosed a bloodcurdling
scream.

She flung herself across the room but
something coiled around her legs. The blankets held her fast as she
landed hard on her stomach. She looked over her shoulder and met
those insane eyes once more.

Those eyes knew her and cut through
the secrets to her soul, dissecting the essence of her being.
Somehow she knew it to be same entity who stalked through her
apartment only hours ago.

She gawked at the shadowy face and its
knowing smile.

Vivian burst into the
bedroom.

“
What’s going on?!” She
took one look at Camilla sprawled on the floor and the dismay
painted on her face. Her adrenaline roared as she reeled toward the
window. Nothing sinister reflected beyond the glass besides the
neighborhood caught in the spell of sleep. The stalker was nowhere
to be found.

Camilla frantically crawled to her
feet.

“
There was someone lurking
outside my window! I don’t know how long he was out
there!”

Vivian surveyed the neighborhood. Her
hairs stood on end at the sound of Camilla’s growling
voice.

“
It was him. The man who
was in my apartment earlier, I know it.”

“
You saw the face clearly?
It was a man?”

Camilla kicked at the blankets still
tangled around her feet. In truth, she couldn’t tell whether the
lurker was a man or woman. “What did he look like?” Vivian
pressed.

“
I don’t know. I’m sorry.”
How could she memorize those details when she was terrified for her
life? She saw the implicit question on Vivian’s face and became
defensive.

“
It wasn’t a nightmare. I
know what I saw. Someone was watching me while I was trying to fall
asleep.”

“
All right, give me a
moment and I’ll call the police—”

“
Don’t.” There was no
mistaking the harshness, the conviction in that word. Camilla held
Vivian in her imploring gaze. “All I’m asking for now is a peaceful
night’s rest. I don’t want to endure any more questions from the
police. We can report this tomorrow. Who knows, maybe it’s just a
neighborhood creep and I’m connecting dots that don’t exist.” She
chuckled lightly. “Maybe it
was
just a dream.”

“
Let’s hope it was a dream
for your sake.” Vivian retired to her bedroom with a bit of shooing
from Camilla.

As Camilla tossed in bed hours, the
lie tasted foul in her throat. Of course it wasn’t a nightmare. She
knew someone had peered through the bedroom window and devised
unspeakable horrors for her.

Worse, she knew beyond any doubt that
it was the same being that trespassed on her apartment. But how did
he follow her to Vivian’s house?

She didn’t know what kind of madness
possessed her, but she soon crawled out of bed and stared at the
glass that once framed a demonic face. She violently thrust open
the window and expected to feel hands wrap around her neck. She
looked down into the darkness. A photograph was affixed to the
outside sill, fluttering in a gale of wind.

Her trembling fingers snatched it up
and she slammed the window shut. Her head was spinning and her
breath became increasingly absent.

The photo was much too dark but she
could make out a few minute details. Candles were lit on a red
satin sheet draped across an altar.

Muddied with shadows, the flames
reflected off a serpentine silhouette resting on opulent satin.
Little else explained what was transpiring in the haunting
picture.

Discover your origins in
the Black Atrium,
read the handwriting on
the photograph.

Camilla’s stomach clenched at the
thought of what she might encounter—if she was foolish enough to
answer this challenge.