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Dawn G. Harris

The August Special Guest Writer is Dawn G. Harris

Feel free to find out about Dawn HERE

dawn harris

MY GIRL
by Dawn G. Harris

When they woke again, it was early evening and the bright afternoon sunlight had turned into the low, grainy, crimson glow of sunset. Reaching over to him, Clarissa stroked her hand across the width of Craig’s naked stomach. He grumbled as it tickled and rolled over to face her, and opened one eye. He stared at her for a long time as if he didn’t recognize her, or as if he couldn’t believe that she was really here.

“Hi,’ she said. “Had a weird dream.”

“Was just a dream,” smiled Craig. “You’re with me now, safe.”

“It was like it was real.” She kissed him gently on the lips and said, “Oh hey – I bought something from the boot sale for us.” She giggled, as she rolled and reached over the edge of the bed and into her bag, pulling out a figurine. “Look! It’s Cupid!”

“Cupid?”

“I’m going to put it here, by your bed, maybe it’s worked some magic on us!”

“Clarry?” he mumbled with only a slight movement of his lips, and only opening one eye to look at her statue.

“Yes, honey?” she softly replied, placing the figurine down and wriggling over toward him under the covers. “You fancy some more champagne?”

“Mmmm, lovely,” he groaned.

“What shall we do this evening? I could dance, I feel so wonderful,” she said, as she stretched out in contentment.

“Sleep,” said Craig.

*****

She couldn’t believe that she’d spent hours making love to Craig. Her feelings about him at the gallery had been so mixed, but now her passion for him was vivid and clear, as if all her jumbled emotions had fitted together like a speeded-up jigsaw, and she could now see the sharpest, brightest picture of their affection for each other.

“On second thoughts, let’s go out for dinner,” he said. “Somewhere expensive.”

The white bed sheets barely covered the curves of her back, as she lay holding his hand. She rolled over and let the Egyptian cotton wrap around her body as she reached out for a champagne flute that stood on the bedside table. She took a sip, looking at Craig over the rim of the glass.

“You’re so sexy, darling,” she smiled, seductively eating a strawberry from the pallet next to the champagne.

Craig opened his eyes to watch her as she teased her tongue around the tip of the strawberry. ‘Come here,’ he demanded.

A deep operatic voice filled the air as Craig turned up the stereo. “Feel this through your soul,” he said. “It’s my favorite. O Mio Babbino Caro.”

He rolled back toward her and began to caress her soft skin.

They made love again and again, and lay listening to the music in between, holding hands, stroking each other and breathing in the emotion together, synchronised.

“This is what it must be like in Heaven,” she whispered into his ear, and gently kissed him on the cheek. “Everything in Heaven must be flooded with sunshine, with wonderful music playing. And champagne. And strawberries, dipped in milk chocolate. I feel so happy and complete right now. I never want it to end.”

Craig smiled, more to himself than to her. I’ve finally got Clarry. My girl. He turned over, kissed her firmly on her forehead and said, “I love you. Do you know that? I think I always have.”

Clarissa opened her eyes and smiled back at him. She was beginning to think that she might have felt the same about him.

*****

Clarissa pulled the plug on the bath and thought about where Craig might be planning to take her for dinner, although it was getting quite late. She slipped into a grey satin gown that hung on the bathroom door and tucked her wet hair behind her ears. She had used so many sandalwood bath-balls that she could still smell the sweetness on her skin. This man really pampers himself with lovely products, she thought, as the cool satin slipped over her breasts and soft, glowing skin.

She walked back into the bedroom, tying the belt of the gown.

Craig was still on the bed.

“Craig!” she screamed. “Craig!”

She was so shocked at what she saw that she stumbled against the end of the bed, panicking. Craig was lying on his back with his arms raised helplessly in the air, dying. He was drenched in blood.

Both of his wrists were cut open, and blood was pouring down his arms and dripping from his elbows and soaking the white bedding all around him. There were loops and spatters of blood all across the pillows and across the headboard.

“Craig! Oh God, Craig!” cried Clarissa. “Craig, what’s happened?”

Craig opened and closed his mouth, but Clarissa couldn’t hear what he was saying because Pavarotti was loudly singing Ave Maria. She climbed onto the bed and tried to take Craig in her arms, but his blood was pumping everywhere.

“Clar – ry …” he mumbled. “There’s some – body here … somebody tried t – to kill me …”

Clarissa stretched over and frantically slammed her hand onto the stereo off-button three or four times until it was silent. On the pillow, she noticed there was a broken champagne glass, with a bloodied edge and her statue of Cupid splattered with blood.

“Craig, stay with me!” She wrestled herself out of the satin gown and then wrapped it tightly around both of his wrists, pressing it firmly with her thumbs. But she couldn’t stop him bleeding. The satin was slipping and sliming with deep red blood within seconds.

“Who was it, Craig? Craig – who was it? Oh shit, Craig, stay awake!”

She turned her head quickly to look behind her, terrified that whoever had done this to Craig might still be here, in his apartment.

“I – wa – sleep … I didn’t s – see. I only f – felt … Clarry, I’m bl – bleeding to dea – I don’t wa – want t – t – to die!”

Clarissa lost her grip on the blood-soaked nightgown. It was no good, she couldn’t stop the bleeding. She kissed Craig quickly and then she clambered off the bed and grabbed the phone. She dialled 999, her eyes filling up with tears. When the emergency operator answered, it was all she could do to choke out the address.

She went back over to the bed, still holding the phone to her ear. “It’s okay, Craig. It’s going to be okay! The ambulance is coming! Keep both your arms up as high as you can, that’s what they said. Try to stay still. Try to stay calm. I’ll be right back. Two seconds. I promise.”

She kissed him again, firmly and passionately and then stood up, her naked body streaked with impressionistic swipes of blood. She picked up the broken champagne glass and held it up in front of her for protection, and then she walked naked into the hallway, leaving bloodstained footprints across the cream bedroom rug.

The front door was shut, and the security chain was still fastened. She turned around slowly. The balcony doors were still locked. Nothing looked as though it had been disturbed, so it seemed that nobody else was in the apartment. She headed toward the kitchen. Her breathing was becoming heavier and she was increasingly nervous. But nobody was there either, and it was totally silent. She stopped still for a moment or two, and turned on the spot, holding the champagne glass out in front of her with both hands. Scared and cold, shivering, she began to start moving toward the door. She headed back along the corridor, past the kitchen door and toward the bedroom. As she did so, however, she had a feeling that somebody was following her, close behind her. She turned, quickly, but there was nobody there. The only sounds she could hear were her blood-stained feet sticking to the laminate flooring, and her anxious breathing. The door to the coat cupboard was ajar, which made her feel even more uneasy, because she thought he had closed it. She rushed into the bedroom and slammed the door shut.

“Oh Craig!” she cried, with both hands pressed against the door leaving bloody hand prints. For a moment she wondered if she could see the image of an angel’s face in the blood. She closed her eyes, leant her head onto the door and began to cry. “Oh, Craig.”

She almost felt as if she were going mad and heartbroken all in one go. She turned around, and gasped.

Craig was still lying in a widening pool of his own blood, but now his arms had dropped to his sides and his eyes were wide open and he was staring up at the ceiling.

She could see that he was dead.

She felt as if her heart were shrivelling, as if the whole room were closing in on her in time with the increased pace of her heartbeat.

She heard a strange whimpering sound, and turned around, slowly and nervously. Standing on the opposite side of the bed was the boy. With one hand he was twiddling his curly hair around his finger, the blood sticking his curls together. His other hand was pointing at Craig, and his sleeve was stained crimson. Only his fingers protruded from his sleeve and he was holding some sort of blade, but this too was smothered in blood. He suddenly stopped whimpering and looked across at Clarissa. Then he wiggled his fingers at her mockingly, and smiled.

DIVINER by Dawn G Harris (c) 2018

What Graham Masterton told The Horror Zine about Dawn G. Harris:

“Dawn G. Harris is an exceptional new talent in the field of supernatural chillers. She has been writing and illustrating children's stories ever since she was very young, but this year she has been able to bring her experience of life and love and personal loss into creating an adult novel which will resonate with anybody who has ever felt deeply afraid for the people they hold dear.

“What I like most about her writing is its simplicity and its sincerity and also her ability to suspend her readers' disbelief by bringing in proven psychology and authentic historical facts.

“DIVINER will be the first of many novels from Dawn. All the work she does for charity gives her an exceptional understanding of fear and pain, but also of the hope and optimism that people hold out under the most threatening of circumstances. She is now bringing  this understanding into the world of fiction,  in a very different and involving way.” -- Graham Masterton

About Dawn G. Harris

Dawn G Harris, author of DIVINER is a writer, artist and recognised charity manager from the South East of England.

From a young age she has been keenly interested in psychology, nature and science which is reflected in her writing today. She has vast and varied experience in many business fields giving her added insight into human nature and the complications we face.

With her writing she wishes to take people’s imagination to another level when they’re reading, as though they are experiencing a movie-like feeling combining human realities and fiction, taking something away with them from the work she creates.

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