Touch Of Death: Face Of Death Part 13

"I'd be lying if I said that wasn't fun." Matt smiled at me. I knew he meant the part about us kissing more than the part where we ran from the cops. I was completely leading him on by making out with him on top of his grave like that. G.o.d, what was happening to me?

"Look, about what happened...I'm confused. I don't know how to handle this double life I'm living right now."

"You still have feelings for me." He said it so matter-of-factly.

"Yes, I do. I won't deny that, but I love Alex. I can't deny that, either. I need time to make sense of what's going on with me." I leaned my head back on the shed. "I need you to stop kissing me. I can't control myself around you."

"Yes, you can. There have been plenty of times that you stopped me from kissing you-before all this and now."

That was true. Before I ran away with Alex, Matt and I had missed out on plenty of opportunities to kiss each other, and mostly because of me. And there was the incident outside the grocery store. I'd resisted the urge to kiss him then.

"You gave in to that kiss in the cemetery because you wanted to kiss me. I know you won't kiss me without wanting to, and I'm not about to stop you if it's what you want."

Man, that was confusing. "You think I brought that on in the cemetery? That was all you."

"You didn't stop me. You kissed me back."

"I know, but you started it. You have to stop that. If I kiss you first, then have at it. Go nuts. I give you permission. But if I don't, please..."

I hated putting these rules on our relations.h.i.+p. It wasn't fair to him. It wasn't fair to Alex. h.e.l.l, it wasn't even fair to me. I was losing it.

"Is this a game to you?" He looked beyond hurt.

"No. I know I'm s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up royally. I suck at being two people. You don't deserve this."

"Want to make it up to me?"

Now if it were Alex who'd asked that, I'd a.s.sume he wanted to make out again. But Matt wasn't Alex. He had more self-control, most of the time anyway.

"What can I do?"

"Make me a sandwich. This Brian guy has the same appet.i.te I had."

I laughed, relieved he'd said something to break the tension.

"Your mom should be at work, right? I didn't see her car in the driveway."

"Yeah. We can go in the back way. There's a hidden key in the lantern."

Matt stood up and gave me his hand. Always the gentleman. He followed me to the back door, and I reached inside the lantern for the spare key. Even though I knew Mom wasn't home, my hands shook as I turned the key in the lock. I was going inside my house for the first time since I'd killed my mom and Alex had brought her back to life. How different would my home look? Would my room still be the same? Would there be any evidence at all that I'd lived here?

Matt put his hand on my shoulder, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. "I'm right here with you."

I nodded and turned the doork.n.o.b. The kitchen looked the same. The table was set with four green placemats. The counter still had a bowl of fresh fruit. That was a good sign. Mom had moved on, continued to live without me.

I walked to the refrigerator and pulled it open. I gasped when I saw several packages of chicken, more green peppers than I could count, and two bags of onions.

"What's wrong? You look like you saw a ghost."

Yeah, the ghost of our last meal together-or at least the meal we'd been preparing when I'd cut myself and bled on Mom, stopping her heart.

"She keeps making the meal we were cooking the night..." I couldn't say it.

"Maybe it's not as bad as you're thinking. There's some steak in there, too. Maybe the chicken and stuff is just her way of keeping you around, you know? Remembering the good times."

"Except it wasn't a good time." My throat burned as I sucked back the tears, refusing to let them out. "She died, and I left."

"Does she know she died?"

"I don't know. Alex brought her back, and we left before she came to."

"So, maybe she's making the meal over and over, hoping you'll come back."

Ugh, this was torture. Worse than I'd thought.

"You could tell her the truth. I believed you. She's your mom. I'm sure she'll believe you, too. You could get a second chance. We both could."

I closed the refrigerator door and walked over to the table, slumping into one of the wooden chairs. "Please, don't use this to try to make me choose you."

"You know that's not what I'm doing."

I did know that. It wasn't Matt's style. He genuinely wanted me to be happy, to have another chance with my mom, to be human again.

I had to know how far this went. How much my mom was holding on to the memory of me. I stood up, letting the chair squeak across the floor.

"Where are you going?" Matt's eyes darted back and forth between mine.

"My room."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

I didn't care at that point. I had to know. I took the stairs two at a time, with Matt right behind me. My bedroom door was shut. I hesitated. Thankfully, Matt didn't push or try to convince me not to do this. He waited patiently, letting me make up my own mind.

I counted to twenty and opened the door. Immediately, I felt the slight breeze coming from the open window. I'd always kept it open, even in the dead of winter. Mom was continuing to do the same. My bed was made, and my desk still had my schoolbooks strewn across it. She hadn't touched them.

I walked to the closet, noticing the faint stain on the off-white carpet from when I'd bled on it while trying to catch the rat I'd brought back to life. As I remembered Mom and me working together, huddled on my bed, trying to catch the thing, I broke down. I fell to the floor, sinking into my misery.

Matt rushed to me and rocked me back and forth in his arms. He smoothed my hair and whispered, "It's okay. Get it out."

I had a lot to get out. I cried huge tears, ones that sucked the air out of my lungs and made me choke. I felt my nose run, but I didn't care. The pain inside me was too much. I had to get it out, like Matt said.

We sat like that for hours, until I'd cried every last tear inside me. Then, we stared out the window, not saying a word. I didn't move at all. I let my body go numb, tuning out feeling to every part of my body. Matt stayed silent, letting me handle this my own way.

Finally, I heard the sound of tires pulling up the driveway. Mom! The little girl inside me wanted to go running down the stairs and throw myself into her arms, but I knew that wouldn't be a good idea. I would never be able to leave her again. Still, could I leave things the way they were? She obviously wasn't getting over losing me.

"Jodi, come on. We'll slip out the window." Matt was on his feet, holding his hand out to me.

"No." I made a split-second decision.

"What do you mean?" He narrowed his eyes at me, trying to figure out what was going through my mind now.

"I'm tired of being two different people. I can't do this to her. She deserves to know the truth."

"Are you sure?" He looked worried for me.

I nodded, even though my bottom lip quivered.

The front door shut, and Mom's footsteps sounded on the stairs. She was coming.

"Last chance to change your mind." This was proof Matt was an amazing guy. If all he was worried about was getting me back, he would've encouraged me to tell my mom the truth. But he cared more about me doing what I thought was best, whether that meant I stayed with him or not.

"I have to do this." I braced myself as Mom reached the top of the stairs. She immediately noticed my open door and turned toward Matt and me.

Her eyes widened. "Who are you? How did you get in my house?"

"Mom, it's okay. It's me, Jodi."

Chapter 16.

She looked horrified. "I'm calling the police." She turned and raced down the stairs.

Matt met my eyes, waiting to see what I was going to do. I rushed from the room and to the kitchen, where I knew Mom would be on the phone.

"Mom, please!" I reached for the phone, wrestling it from her hands.

"911. What is your emergency?" I heard the operator's voice on the other line.

"Sorry, hit the wrong b.u.t.ton," I said and quickly ended the call.

"Who are you people?" Mom's face was red with anger and hurt. "How dare you come in here and talk about Jodi?"

"Mom." My voice shook as I fought the urge to cry. "Please, listen to me. Do you remember what happened the night I left?"

"Get out. I don't know who you are, but I want you gone. Now!" She pointed to the door as if I didn't already know where it was.

"Please, hear me out, and then if you still want me to leave I will. We both will."

"Please, Ms. Marshall." Matt motioned to the kitchen table. "Sit down and talk to us. Five minutes. That's all we're asking for."

Even though Matt was talking, Mom kept her eyes on me.

"I can make us some tea. You always drink tea when you get home from work."

She tilted her head to the side and stared into my eyes like she was trying to see my soul.

"I know I don't look like myself, Mom, but you'd know me anywhere. You have to. You're my mom."

"What happened to you?" She said the words slowly, like they were hard to get out.

"Everything I told you about Alex and me being different was true." I walked around her, placing her cell on the counter and going for the teapot on the stove. I filled it with water and placed it on the burner, turning it on high.

Matt walked Mom to the table and sat down. She waited for me to sit and then finally gave in.

"Alex? That boy who came here after you cut yourself?"

"Yes. He's like me. We're different. Not entirely human. Well, I am human now, but that's a long story."

She shook her head. All this information must have been giving her one h.e.l.l of a headache.

"Okay, how do I start?" Poisoned blood, zombie deer, evil Ophi trying to kill me, Hades taking me to the underworld? Leading with any of those would've sent her over the edge. "Dad," I blurted out. "I met Dad."

"Melodie told me that. She said she saw you. You stole her car and left her at the park." She shook her head, obviously not believing that either.

I still felt awful about what I'd done to Mel. "Yes, I did." I lowered my head. "But, I had to. Mom..." I reached for her hands, but she pulled back. She still wasn't convinced I was her daughter. I put my hands in my lap. "My blood is different than yours, and it's because of Dad. He didn't walk out on you like you thought he did. He had to leave to protect both of us. He's not human."

Mom made a sound like a gurgled laugh. "That I could almost believe."

"He died about a month after I was born."

Her eyes shot up to meet mine. "You said you met him."

"I did. Alex took me to a place. It operates as a school for people like me. They-we-call ourselves Ophi. We're all born under the thirteenth sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus. We're necromancers. I met Dad because we raised his soul." I left off the part about Victoria raising Dad to torture me.

"Okay, that's enough. I've listened. I don't believe you. This is some school prank, and I don't want to be part of it." She stood up and shook her head. "You know, for a moment, I thought maybe you two knew something about Jodi-what happened to her. But you're just messing with me, and that's really cruel."

"Mom, we're not. Please. I'm telling you the truth. I'm Jodi. This is Matt. You remember Matt. I had to raise our souls, so we're in different bodies, but we're still us." She stared at me with a look of horror, but not because she believed me. Because she couldn't believe I'd create such a crazy story. "I died, Mom. I killed myself. The human part of me, at least. Matt died, too. You know that. You were here. Only you didn't know it was because of me. My blood killed him. Just like it killed you."

She shook her head. "I'm not dead."

"Not anymore. Alex brought you back. It's part of what we can do. Alex saved your life, and then I left before I could hurt you again."

The teapot whistled on the stove, piercing the air like an alarm.

"I'll get it." Matt got up and walked to the stove while Mom and I continued to stare at each other.

"Please. If you love me, you should be able to see it's me. Even in this body. Look at me. Really look."

She walked around the table and stood in front of me. Normally we were the same height, but Liz's small frame was inches shorter than Mom.

"I haven't looked down at you in years."