The Magician's Assistant

[18] Cornelious Returns

          “Where are we?” I asked, peering out the window. Anxiety began picking up tenfold as James’s words replayed through my mind.

          “I’m just driving you to the restaurant,” Jared glanced at me like I had more than one head.

          “We’ve been driving for a while…and it’s getting kind of dark,” I noted as I bit my lip in anxiety. I couldn’t conceal my apprehension.

          “We’ve been driving for twenty minutes, Rachel,” Jared’s voice was entirely condescending.

          Yes, that sounded about right. Why was I acting like such a loose cannon?

          “Right,” I responded with a nervous laugh.

          As if to spite my sanity, Jared took an abrupt turn into a restaurant parking lot. An Italian restaurant, to be specific.

          He parked his car in a very dark section of the lot, away from the other cars. I tried to ignore the spider-like chills trailing along my arms and back as Jared turned off the car and turned towards me. There was a darkness in his eyes that I hadn’t noticed seconds before. That’s because his eyes were entirely innocent seconds before.

          “I want to talk with you,” he said curtly.

          “Talk?” I squeaked.

          “Yes, talk. Perhaps I will start with why I took you out tonight,” Jared drawled.

          Wasn’t it because he liked me? Simple as that?

          “No, not at all, really,” he laughed.

Jared’s teeth gleamed dangerously in the darkness, and I clutched at the door handle. The car door locked instantly, before my hand could even reach it. He had answered my question…and I hadn’t voiced it.

          “Cut it out, Jared. You’re scaring me.”

          “That is the point, darling,” he responded, “Look, I know you know who I am. Look into my eyes and tell me you do not recognize me.”

          When he noticed my hesitance and need to get away from him, he grabbed my arm with a rigid hand. It was warm and uncomfortably clammy. “Go on. Do it.”

          I did as he said, shivering with fear. “I don’t know what I’m looking for,” I whimpered, yanking my skin from his clutch.

          “It is a good thing you are so pretty, Rachel Cooper, because I would pin you as completely useless. Honestly,” he sighed as he said this.

          Shakily, I looked into his eyes again, dwarfed with the sudden knowledge that had piled on top of me. “Cornelious,” I breathed.

          “Bingo,” he bit out.

          My body lurched to the side, and I collapsed against the car door. “Let me out…Let me out now, or I’ll be sick. I’ll scream.”

          Black tendrils of smoke curled around the two of us, making it hard to breathe. The face that I had once recognized as Jared’s quickly morphed into something else. Something terrifying and different, just for the plain fact that it had changed right before my eyes. This wasn’t a dream and I knew it. This was reality and quite honestly, I wasn’t able to take it.

          “What did you do to Jared?” I whimpered.

          “I was Jared.”