Chapter Two

The next morning Esther sat on the girl's couch watching the local news in an effort to get an idea of the area. As she had expected in an area with such a small population, there didn't seem to be much going on at the moment. She had been up through the night, sleep not coming to her since she had just fed, and was feeling energized and restless.

Around nine, AnnMarie abruptly awoke. Esther listened from the living room as the woman stirred up quite a racket in her room, throwing things around and tripping on her own feet by the sound of it. She came out minutes later, grumbling to herself quietly and holding a pair of shoes.

"Everything okay?" Esther asked.

"Yeah, I just overslept. I was supposed to be at work at eight." She said. Afterwards she quietly added; "I've never overslept before."

"Do you feel okay?" Esther asked. "Maybe you're sick."

"I think I'm fine." She said with a frown. "I'm just tired— and I have a bit of a headache."

She sat on the couch and started to lace up her shoes. Esther frowned slightly, feeling a bit bad for the girl. The first visit always took the most out of them. Hopefully she would recover most of her energy by the end of the day.

"Have you decided if you're staying or not?" She asked Esther as she looked up from her shoes.

"I think so," Esther said, sitting upright. "If that's fine with you, of course. I'll pay you rent."

"Sure!" AnnMarie said, her smile lighting up again. "Feel free to make yourself at home while I'm at work. Just don't go in my bedroom, please."

Esther smiled back, though it was a little bit forced. When AnnMarie was gone, driving down the clay road in her old car, she cursed silently to herself.

The woman had told her to stay out of her room, which meant without some careful planning or a lot of work she didn't plan to do, she wouldn't be able to snoop around. It also put a damper on her plans to feed on AnnMarie again that night.

"I'll have to think of some way to get her to invite me back in before tonight," she said to herself. "Though I could scope out some locals. I need to supplement anyway so I don't end up hurting her and causing a stir."

She walked around the small house for a while, gathering bits and pieces of the girl's life, before her thoughts trailed back to the additional second story room she had spotted the night before. She wandered around the small house, but, as she thought, found no staircase. The house was fairly small, maybe a little more than a thousand square feet, and though she couldn't check in AnnMarie's bedroom, she hadn't seen an entrance in there the night before.

"Maybe the entrance is outside?" She said to herself.

She stepped out into the morning light, wincing a bit at the intensity of it, though she did enjoy the warmth. She walked to the back left corner where the room was situated, just over AnnMarie's room, but there was no staircase outside either.

"An attic room, perhaps?"

She walked back inside, grabbed a chair as she passed through the kitchen, and stood in the hallway, staring up at the attic entrance. The cover came off the entrance easily, and the smell of dust and mold was almost overwhelming. There were no stairs, or even a ladder, so she hoped up with one great leap, and hauled herself into the tight space.

There were boxes, here and there, some toppled over, and others stacked neatly in rows. Most were long undisturbed, covered with a thick layer of dust. No light, no windows, and, most importantly, no doors.

Esther headed towards the area where the room was, jumping carefully across the beams until she reached the wall where the room would be. She ran her hand over it, though she didn't expect a secret passage or a false wall, she considered the possibility that the entrance had been boarded up. It was sturdy wood, identical to every other wall, and didn't look like it had been replaced recently.

There had probably never been an entrance to the room.

Experimentally, she tapped her knuckles against the boards. There was a quiet echo, but not much else. She pressed her nose against the wall, and inhaled.

There was the taste of dust on her tongue, and the same musty aroma of a room long unopened, but nothing sinister or telling. It could be nothing, just some unfinished construction, but something about it felt off. It was a cold chill in the air, the feeling that something was just out of the corner of her sight, and an overwhelming feeling of grief. The feeling of unbalance. A feeling they could signify something supernatural.

She tried to reason with herself that it could still be nothing. Her mind could be playing tricks on her. It was hard for anyone to differentiate between legitimate magic and the tricks your own mind could play. That's what made magic so effective.

Still, something didn't seem right.

"I can ask her when she gets home." She said to herself. "It's an honest question."

She hopped down, back into the hallway, and put everything back in its proper place.

She decided to check the bookshelf next, glancing over her collection. A lot of classics, a lot of pulpy mystery novels, and a lot of trashy romances. Pretty standard, particularly for a girl who lived alone and complained about feeling lonely. Suddenly, something caught her eye; a gleaming silver binding, thick and worn. She pulled it from the shelf.

Bartolommeo Brendle's Guide to Demonology, Black Magic, Curses, and the Occult.

Flakes of silver had worn off from the lettering, but Esther knew the title well. She knew someone else with a copy, and she had read through it a time or two. It was a rare text indeed. To see it twice was something special.

It was more of a red flag than the strange room.

She took her phone from her pocket, and dialed Adam, placing the book back on the shelf as she did so. As soon as the ringing stopped, she spoke.

"I need your opinion on a situation."

"Just cut off the head and burn the body. You don't have to call me every time."

"Adam."

"What? You're the one who doesn't even say hello." He laughed.

"Whatever." Esther said. "Listen I've found myself in a mystery of sorts."

"Like a game of clue, or a Sherlock Holmes novel?"

"No, something stranger. I'm staying with this girl—"

He clicked his tongue. "Of course. You and your girls."

"I'm going to hang up now."

"Okay, fine. Explain."

"I'm staying with this girl. She's a little odd. She lives in an old house, out in the middle of nowhere. There's a room upstairs that seems to have no entrance. She has a demonology and magic book. What do you make of it?"

There was silence on the other end for a stretch.

"Maybe she's a vampire. Have you checked her fridge for blood? Does she sleep in a coffin?"

"Adam."

Adam chuckled, ever amused with himself.

"All joking aside, it sounds like she's a witch."

"I would normally have considered that, but I didn't taste any magic in her blood."

"A beginner?"

"That's a possibility, I guess."

"Or maybe her ancestors were witches, and she never picked up the craft. The house and the book could be family heirlooms. Odd behavior could be a coincidence."

"Another good possibility." Esther agreed.

"But that's not what you think, right?"

"...right."

"What is it? Listening to your gut again?"

"I don't know. This whole place has a weird feeling."

"Maybe it's haunted. You should call your priest friend."

"I think I will."

"Jesus Christ Esther, I was—"

"I'll keep you updated on the situation." She said before snapping the phone shut.

However, Esther decided to hold off on calling her priest friend. Instead of jumping the gun, she thought it would be better to have patience and to quietly gather more information from AnnMarie.

AnnMarie came home at five. Esther sat casually on the couch, and glanced up at her as she walked in.

"Hey. How was your day?" She asked.

"Long. I had to work through lunch to make up for coming in late." She said.

"Sorry." Esther said.

AnnMarie eyed her playfully.

"It's not your fault I overslept." She said before walking back into the kitchen.

Esther bit back her smile. She quietly sat in the living room, probably a little too still, listening as she made dinner.

"You hungry?" AnnMarie asked, leaning into the living room from the small archway that led to the kitchen.

"I already ate." Esther said.

"I'll put the leftovers in the fridge, in case you get hungry later."

"Thank you." She said. "It's true. I might get hungry later."

After a while AnnMarie came into the living room with her dinner and a steaming mug. The smell of what was in the mug caught her nose, and she sat up.

"... is that hot cocoa?" She asked.

"Yeah! Homemade." AnnMarie said with a bright smile.

Esther squirmed, and wrung her hands, trying to stop herself.

"... could I have some?"

But of course, it was in vain. When it came to certain things, she was weak.

"Yeah, I'll go get you some."

AnnMarie came back a few minutes later, and handed her a mug of the sweet liquid, topped with tower whipped cream. She inhaled the scent deeply, and tried weakly one last time to convince herself not to do it.

Unfortunately for her, Adam wasn't here to knock the cup from her hands she yell at her for giving into her baser instincts.

She brought it to her mouth, and took a sip.

She could only taste shades of it, really. A hint of chocolate, a slight tinge of sweetness from the cream, but it was still heavenly. Her tongue moved back and forth in delight, and she closed her eyes and drank more.

If there was one thing I should have done more when I was alive, she thought, it was have chocolate.

They sat and had a pleasant conversation against the quiet drone of the local news. Esther forgot all about the strange room as she was too abosorbed in AnnMarie's talk of her daily life.

She listened to AnnMarie talk about her job at a flower shop in town, Esther all the while drinking more and more of her drink, until she lifted it to her mouth and found there was no more left.

"Do you want me to get you more?" AnnMarie asked. She stood up with her own dishes, ready to head back to the kitchen.

"Uh, no thank you. I'm fine." Esther said, knowing full and well she'd already done herself enough harm. Though she did really want another cup.

An hour later AnnMarie went to bed. Esther went to her room as well and sat on the bed. She drew her legs up to her chest, fighting the waves of nausea that washed over her.

She cursed to herself, as she finally accepted that she had sentenced herself to spend the night bent over the toilet.

She was starting to wonder if maybe her luck hadn't been so great after all.