"By a Thread" - section 5 `Miriam`
I sat in the thick leather chair behind my husband`s desk watching him pace across his office. He`s kept it up almost all night, barely noticing me.
“Darling, keep that up and you`ll pace yourself into a coffin. And heaven forbid we end up in this wretched place together for eternity.” I say to annoyed to keep silent anymore. I snap open the resident report I had been reading and continue to read. But Peter had finally stopped.
"Shit, woman!" he exclaimed grabbing hold of his chest.
"Can`t you at least knock if you`re going to just rustle through confidential files?" I shrugged.
"You seemed a bit preoccupied and I was bored. I can only assume you`re all bent out of shape waiting for that woman`s report. She is a vile creature, isn`t she?" Naturally, my husband shot me a glare.
"Why do you haunt me Miriam? Move on for Christ`s sake!" I grin at his discomfort.
"You can`t kill me twice, dear. Now really, we do need to talk. Our son does not need to get involved in the business. Not like this." Peter walked over to the desk, his annoyance turning into amusement.
"But dear, you are so wrong. He carries your abilities, my little dream weaver. Jesiah will work wonders for this company under our control." I try not to show any sign of my feelings knowing Peter would only try to turn them against me.
"If you so desperately want me to leave you be, let me get the dirty work done. Hell, I`m stuck here anyway. Our son is untrained and unaware of even the basics of what he can do." Peter`s face twisted into a smile.
"You were always so good at the dirty work." He put his hands on the desk, towering over me. I somehow managed to keep my self steady and my hands still. But my soul shook from the stupidity of my plea. My son`s file was gripped tightly between my fingers. That was the hardest part. Materialization had taken me years to get correctly and it was a fragile state still. Peter barely had to pull the file before what little grip I maintained in the physical world faded.
"You see darling, there is one problem. I have flesh and blood here, slowly being bent to the correct shape. So, my answer is no Miriam. The boy is mine. You won`t take him from me again. I can`t believe you thought I wouldn`t find the orphanage you dumped him in." He pulled the file close, cradling it.
"Despite what you have done, he is still my son. Besides that, I’m not in the mood for one of your lectures today. Leave me alone." I let my anger fuel my ability to gain a physical form once more. I stand smashing the chair back into the wall, my arms crossed as the room quivers around me.
"Our abilities are not trivial games to play with!" I spit even knowing my husband would refuse to listen.
"Our son could change the world." Peter had always been to stubborn in his vision of his world.
"Our son is not a tool." My husband, ignoring the continuing shaking of the room, grinned, his eyes showing a frightening drive.
"Not yet." That was it. I couldn`t stand anymore of his bullshit today. I grabbed one of his prized inking pens from the desk as I floated through the hard oak paneling, pressing the freshly sharpened tip to Peter`s throat.
"I could send you to the deepest depths of the abyss, while your body rots with your creatures in the basement." I press the tip further, starting to draw blood as I make my point. His drive slowly dwindled away as he realized he was not stronger than me in this form.
"The nightmares will only get worse. I promise you that. You have to sleep eventually. Feel lucky I don`t want to deal with you in the afterlife. Understood?" I watched as my husband`s body went slack, all motivation draining from him. Good. He still believed me. I pull the pen away, letting it drop to the floor through my fingers, letting the physical form go. I dared him to pick up the pen and swing through the air I had become. Advantages of being dead, I suppose.
He also didn`t need to know, though I could easily could have entered his mind and created the nightmares, I simply got to watch him torture himself. His mind was doing the work I claimed to do just fine on its own. For now, that was all I could hang onto to bargain for my son`s life.