Specter/Part 2

Karla’s eyes flew open -- the scream caught in her throat. It’s just a nightmare. I’m
Ok. I’m here now, at home.




The Indigo woman turned her head to look at the bedroom console. Six-thirty AM glowed on the screen. She scooted out of bed, picked up a remote from the nightstand and turned off the alarm.
Karla walked across the wooden floor of her living area into a kitchenette. A press of her fingers on the first sphere of a triangular pod, started coffee brewing.
She filled a cup with chicory, walked back into the living area and pushed the second button on her remote, activating a blue panel beside the window. Jazz music filled the apartment. Like her bedroom console the unit kept time, transmitted holographic images, and played tapes. Using the third button, she opened the curtains.
Curled upon her futon, the Indigo woman watched as the illuminae changed Topaz’s violet sky into a mellow shade of peach. She thought of the dreams.
For as far back as Karla could remember, she’d had them. Otherworldly, exquisite and always with an unsettling clarity so different from the normal phantasms she read about. When I eat, I wake up full -- and stay that way until lunchtime. If somebody hits me, it hurts like hell…
And her dream lover left her limp with satisfaction, even after she awoke, sure he was still beside her.
At night Karla wrote them down, pouring all of her fears and desires into the notebooks. She spent hours in the library, reading stories of reincarnation and demonic possession, searching for answers. She’d found them too -- dozens of them. But none could satisfy the yearning that burned inside her.

Every time she closed her eyes to sleep they beckoned, calling to her. Mornings, she awoke like a swimmer who’d been underwater for too long, grasping for the fabric
of reality -- moaning with pleasure or trembling with exhilaration.
One night they’re going to swallow me whole. I’ll never wake up or maybe I’ll just fall through to whatever’s on the other side…and this new one, something’s different about it. I know the others, but this one -- this one scares me so bad I’m afraid to sleep.
“What time is it?”
The top left knob of her console blinked. “The time is 7:00 am,” a pert, female voice replied.
Seven o’clock! I’d better hustle! Karla gulped down her coffee, and hurried back into the bedroom to dress.
Tehotep watched the tall, slender woman thumb through her closet. He wasn’t invisible, only dim. As long as he stayed in the shadows, she couldn’t see him. But noise couldn’t be cloaked by magic.
The Indigo woman tossed a red knit, shirt and jeans on the bed, slipped off her pajamas and walked into the bathroom. As she stepped into the shower, the nozzle automatically clicked on, spraying her body with water. He followed, standing just beyond the doorway

Karla finished bathing, and Tehotep quickly moved back into the shadows -- all the while devouring her with his eyes. Her skin, dewy with moisture, looked like melting
chocolate her nipples, blackberries

She toweled off her full breasts and long legs, and he licked his lips, imagining the things he would do with her -- to her -- the endless perversions he’d force her to submit to. Things she’d come to enjoy, when she tried to please him.
The young woman walked into the bedroom. He watched her pull up her panties, hook her bra, slip her arms into the straps. Image after image flooded his mind. Tehotep felt himself harden, a soft groan escaped his lips...
Karla froze, then stared into the corner facing her bed. It’s only a bunch of dirty clothes, you’re hearing things!
In that instant, he appeared. An Indigo man with full lips, slanting onyx eyes and a shaven head. Voluminous garments hung from his muscular frame. Their eyes locked, and she gasped in recognition. The dark man smiled, nodded his head…
And vanished.
Karla gazed at the pile of laundry -- all that remained of him -- and wondered if she’d lost her mind. With trembling hands she finished dressing for work, her thoughts scurrying about like rats in a maze. It’s him! I didn’t imagine it! He was here, but that’s impossible --!
There was a knock at the door, and she jumped. Get it together girl, that’s the twins.
She walked into the living room, picked up her remote and pointed it at the entrance. It slid open and the eight-year-old twins, Carlos Jr. and Ashley, small and brown like their


mother, ran inside. Ashley’s shoulder length braids were tied off with ribbons.
“Good morning Karla,” they sang in unison, hugging her.
“Good morning love bugs. What do you want for breakfast?”
”Waffles,” said Ashley.
Carlos Jr. flapped his hand at his sister. “You always want waffles. Make mine French toast.”
When Karla and the twins’ mother had first become friends, Tatiana and Carlos were both working nights, and she’d offered to make breakfast for their children during the week. That was two years ago.
Now Tatiana worked during the day as a beautician, although her mate still worked evening shifts at the metal emporium. But fixing meals for the twins had become a habit Karla didn’t want to break. She was crazy about them, and Topaz’s food prices were next to nothing.
“Coming right up.” The dark woman took milk and breakfast pellets from her cold box, and slid the nuggets into a diamond shaped oven. In twenty seconds, they expanded with heat.
“Done,” the oven announced. The children sat at the table, just outside the kitchenette.
Karla served them, walked into the living area and took a cipher from the wooden box on the coffee table. She lit it and puffed nervously, combing her fingers through her short, wavy hair.
“Smoking is stinky,” Ashley pronounced, her mouth full of waffles.


“Don’t talk with your mouth full.” How did he get in my apartment? Piss on that! How
did he get out?

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