THE SUBWAY COLLECTION-A Box Set of 8 Dark Stories to Read on the Go by Billie Sue Mosiman

Author:Billie Sue Mosiman [MOSIMAN, BILLIE SUE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-05-20T18:30:00+00:00

NEEDING A WITCH

by

Billie Sue Mosiman

Copyright Billie Sue Mosiman 2012

First published in "100 WICKED LITTLE WITCH STORIES," edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg, & Martin Greenberg, as "Gather Round and You Shall Hear," Barnes and Noble Books 1995

Too many people were dying.

Dessy felt Jake's hand brush over her naked left breast, but it was a mindless action. He was deeply entrenched in a paperback vampire novel and not really noticing her. He often did that, touched her as if to be sure she was there, and it made her feel beloved. If she came near him while he worked on the Volvo's old worn-out engine, he would forget the grease on his hands and reach for her hip, patting it a bit, the way you pat the head of a faithful dog. Or he might be watching a late-night horror movie and have his hand pressed between her thighs, warming her. At night in bed he couldn't sleep unless he had his arms cocooned around her body.

"Too many people are dying," she said now, unable to repress her thoughts.

"Hmmm. What people?"

She reached over and took the paperback from his hand. He didn't want to let go so she had to tug at it. He frowned, looking at her in consternation. "What people?"

She ticked them off on her fingers. "Last year I lost Uncle Ray. Remember the drowning accident, the riptide down at the beach?"

She waited until he nodded before going on.

"Then three months later it was my cousin Jamie. It was liver failure, but of course it was AIDS that killed him."

"I don't think I want to talk about this," Jake said, taking back the book from her. "It's morbid."

"Then my grandmother died," she said, pulling down the third finger and holding it to her palm. "I loved my grandmother so much."

"She was old. I liked her too, Dessy, but she was very old." He tried to find his lost place in the book, riffling through the pages until they made a whirring sound.

"Today I found out my cousin Lily has melanoma. Knots rose up all over her neck. She has maybe two months to live."

Now he looked up at her, the book forgotten. "Lily? The one with five kids? Lives in Tennessee somewhere? Jesus."

"Yeah, she called yesterday and told me. Then there's your buddy, Connor. Got himself run down by a Metro bus. Now that's just crazy, Jake. Walking in front of a bus that way. He must have meant for it to happen."

"I sure don't want to talk about Connor." He brought the book close to his face, blocking her out.

He and Connor had been friends for more than ten years.

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