Evil Angel-p

by RD Larson

Terri wants to keep her husband. She wants to keep him close and won't give him a divorce. As she slips further into madness, her rules of right and wrong blur. Will Jack go back for their baby's sake? Or will Terri do something terrible, something irrevocable to keep Jack? Set in Aspen this is fast read perfect for a night alone as long as it doesn't scare you to death.

ISBN 978-1594317200 Women's Fiction / Suspense

Cover art by RD Larson



Chapter 1

January 10: San Jose

Terri Hamilton-Andrews watched the sky gain light from the East. She could see the foothills as turn gold as the sun came up. San Jose was still a microchip boom-town with its buildings and residences spreading away to the Pacific. Terri looked around the condo, her first real home, the first real place she'd fixed up by herself. Her home, she thought to herself, with its attractive kitchen, two bedrooms, bath and a half. It suited them, Terri thought. Her little family. They were a nuclear family like in the news, her husband, Jack, their baby, Lilly made her family. She was the wife and now the mother. The three of them were her true family, more family than her parents or her brother had ever been. Terri sighed and went back into the bedroom. The bare threads of morning tilted around the corners of the blinds. The lemon-colored room seemed to be at the edge of the early California sunrise.

The slender young woman sat down, hunching up in a slipper chair. Her gown was bunched up at her waist, her legs were bent at the knee, the heels of her feet caught at the edge of the chair. She twisted the feathered tips of her auburn hair; a pixie-cut the salon called it. Terri ran a slim hand with blood red nails through her hair again and again.

She watched Jack sleep. Being there, penetrating that intimate privacy of his defenseless sleep thrilled her. She knew how vulnerable sleeping could make him, make anyone, really. Jack was here, alive, but helpless. The terrible fight between them last night played over in her mind.

"The hell with you and all your damn problems--I'm getting out before you suck me dry," Jack shouted at her last night. In the worst hours of her life after a dragging argument, Jack had just gone off to sleep.

How could he? Go to sleep after wrecking her? Oh, god, that shit, that stupid man. She remembered how he had shouted at her. "I'm gone, Terri, leaving you and that's just the way it is!" Jack said. She didn't, couldn't believe him. That he would leave her? Abandon her? Even now, this morning, she couldn't accept that Jack really meant it. He must be trying to trick her or something. He couldn't really leave her, Terri thought wildly.

I love him, Terri thought, even more frenzied, I have to have him; have to be his wife. She groaned to herself, dropping her head in her hands; if he doesn't love me, then I'd just die.

Then quick as a flash she hated, hated him as much as she loved him. Abruptly, she wished Jack would die. Over with, but still--she loved him. Jack just thinks he's in control of their marriage, over their future life. Terri laughed inside. She would never let him go--no, not a chance, Terri said to herself; she would never let him get away from her.

Never, not now, she hated, hated him. Jack, such a goody-goody at heart, said he wanted what best for both of them. What a fool. Together was best for them.

Maybe Jack didn't know that yet, Terri decided. He didn't know the finality of her love for him. He was the only thing in the world for her. No one, only Jack, not even Lilly, the baby, could reach past the dark glass into her secret self. Her Jack was the only one who could. Jack was magic to her. Terri knew he was the one who kept away the Darkness.

That dim glass of her mind put everyone at distance; it was like an old brown medicine bottle. When she peered at life through that glass, everyone made only a twisted shadow. Jack was the one thing she saw clearly. The only thing that made her life worth living was Jack. No way could she ever, ever let him leave her.

As the hands of the clock moved toward it's vertical bisection. Terri heard the baby stirring around in her crib. Jumping up at once, she crept into Lilly's room to bounce the mattress gently until again the baby lay quiet. She just couldn't deal with Lilly right now.

When she returned to her chair, Terri gazed at her husband. Jack's face against the pillow made Terri feel strong. His skin was so beautiful, like brown velvet; yet it felt like silk. She had touched every part of that elegant body. She would own him, own his body again. Jack was so right for her--a perfect, perfect match. He was such a sweet man, so good. So why was he doing this to her? Why?

Terri tried to think about what went wrong. What the problem was. It hurt so much that she closed her eyes. Suddenly in a searing flare understanding hit her.

The Evil Angel must be tormenting, punishing her again. Why else would Jack leave her? It was the only thing that made any sense. The Darkness from the Evil Angel was tearing at her again.

She knew that she had always had everything, that she was spoiled even, because Daddy had made such a ton of money. She knew she was beautiful. People were so jealous of her and it made them hate her. Terri never cared what they thought. Everything had always been there for her to use, to take. Daddy's money and Daddy's power for her to use.

But when she met Jack, it all changed. She wanted Jack. He was the only person to ever give her life focus. She truly loved him. So it was right for them to be married.

Only eighteen months ago her entire life changed. It was an incredible spell that struck her in her English Lit class. Until the very moment she saw her Jack, standing at the front of the class, she had never given much thought to anyone else or anything else; why bother? It wasn't that he was black and it wasn't that he was older. It was more than any earth-bound love; no one else had ever touched her inner soul so deeply. Simply, he was the only one for her, sent from eternity just for her.

Nothing would stand in her way. Nothing could stop her. Nothing ever did. That's not exactly true, she said to herself, but it was true enough that she had never let anyone or anything keep her from what she wanted. So she'd been without want.

At the moment she first saw Jack, it seemed like--Wham--make no mistake--it was love at first site. His calm exterior and his kindness were obvious. When he smiled, she nearly fainted. He was the love of her life. Her savior, really; a messiah to make her live.

Why would the Evil Angel find her again? She'd been so good for so long. Terri tried to remember how long it had been since the Darkness. A long time; a very long time, years even, since the last Darkness. Yes, she thought, as Jack turned over, it had been such a long time since she had hurt anyone.

Jack yawned, his full lips carmine on the inside. He stretched. His dark, close-cropped hair contrasted with the pale yellow pillowcases as he reached his arms forward with the fists clinched in still another stretch.

Finally, his eyes opened. "How come you're up? Didn't you sleep at all?" Jack mumbled, yawning yet again and rubbing his eyes.

"No, my Jack, I didn't sleep," Terri reached out her arms to him from her position in the yellow slipper chair. Her fingers, their red tips flashing, waggled at him, in a gesture saying "touch me, touch me." The short red tendrils of her hair lay damp on her neck and her cheeks. Her pale skin was luminous in the dawn; the hollows around her eyes were marked by shadows. In harsh contrast her pupils were gleaming and huge.

Her white cotton gown was bunched up at her thighs; her heels were up on the edge of the chair. The dark pink slit among the tangled red curls appeared oddly suspended only inches below her chin.

Terri saw Jack turn his head away. But then she saw the family portrait of the three of them, taken in late October, when Lilly was only five months old. It was a stupid picture, she thought now, thinking how happy they all looked, captured by a treacherous photographer. The dark hair of her Jack and the cinnamon curls of Lilly were like painful shots into Terri's mind.

"It just doesn't work for me, Terri. I'm going to Colorado for a few days, just to relieve the stress. I've got to do this. You need time apart from me, too. Time to adjust to our separation. When I come back, I'll move my stuff out. I don't love you; I just can't love you. I tried, I can't." Jack said." It's hopeless to want more so give up and give me my freedom."

She was drained from hearing him repeating everything. Terri didn't believe him. He said again that he meant to leave her; he couldn't go on living with her.

"I am afraid of myself, afraid of how angry I feel. And it isn't fair to Lilly. I'm so angry with you. You're sucking my life out me with your obsession; it isn't normal," Jack went on. Terri closed her eyes and didn't listen. Finally, he stopped saying the awful words.

"You are making a mistake to listen to the Evil Angel. She's making bad, bad pictures in your mind. Jack, don't look away from me. Listen, I'm telling you this because it's the truth." Her frantic hands flew around her face. "You just can't listen to the Evil Angel. Ignore her. Pretend you don't hear her. I am your woman; you are my man. It's the absolute the truth. We're married, married until death-do-us-part, remember? If you'll just stop listening to the Evil Angel, I promise I will do whatever you want me to do; I'll be the woman you want me to be. Anything, anything. Just don't let the Evil Angel take you away from me because I can't survive it." Terri's eyes reddened, filling with heavy tears as she whispered in bitter anguish.

"Oh, shit, that's utter nonsense. There are no evil angels, okay? Nothing like that. Where do you get that stuff? Don't be absurd. It's simple; we just don't belong together. Really, you'd have more fun, do more things with someone more your own age." Jack's voice, angry and indistinct, pierced her. Jack said, "I can't figure out where you get these weird ideas of angels. Maybe your mother isn't concerned, but, my god, I sure as hell am. You're acting crazy. I'm leaving you. That's just it."

"Listen, you, son of bitch, you piece of filthy scum, I do so know about angels and, if you fucking think I am letting you leave me, you are way out of your fucking mind!" She was on him in a heartbeat, her nails extended like claws, arcing them across his chest in wild swift rage. Little droplets of blood scored his chest. Her screams woke the baby, who began to shriek.

Jack pushed Terri away.

Her eyes were wide and staring, thick tears now beginning to fall. Her mouth was hatched open, screeching all of her usual insults. Then she fell silent. She wept, as futile as if she were holding back the day, as Jack left the room.