the six blocks, taking care not to trip on the uneven sidewalks on the way back to their tiny apartment behind Verret’s Lounge on Baronne Street.
Each time she’d pause to step around one of the raised edges to avoid tripping, Preston, following right on her heels, would shove her from behind. “Stop wasting time!” he’d shout at her.
The ghostly man following Preston would shove him in a like manner. The first time Samuel had shoved Preston, his hands had passed right through him. But with each subsequent shove, the effect was stronger and stronger. The last shove had almost thrown Preston to the ground.
He’d regained his footing and jerked his head around to see who’d shoved him, but there’d been no one there. Claire’s footsteps echoing behind Preston had reminded him that he’d been in the process of taking her back home where she belonged and with one more suspicious glare at nothing at all, decided that he must have tripped over the very broken piece of cement that Claire had been trying to avoid. Quickly, Preston had spun back around to follow her, not knowing that he himself was being followed just as closely.
Finally they reached their apartment. Preston unlocked the door and shoved Claire inside before stalking inside himself, slamming the door and locking it behind them.
Samuel had no problem following Claire inside and was standing in front of her, facing Preston.
Preston stalked toward Claire. “What the hell did you think you were doing?”
“I told you, I was going for a walk. I was upset after last night and just wanted some fresh air.”
Preston reached out and shoved her shoulder, making her take a step backwards to catch her balance. “Last night was your fault! If you would learn how to do what you’re told, your life would be a lot less miserable.”
“I did. I made you dinner.”
“Yeah, and then you let it get cold. And you didn’t make enough for my friends,” he screamed at her. “You embarrassed me!”
“You didn’t give me enough money for more food. I didn’t know you were going to bring friends home, and I didn’t know you would be so late. I fell asleep waiting. I’m sorry.”
“Not my fucking problem!” Preston yelled at her, pulling back his hand to swing a closed fist at her.
Claire closed her eyes and turned her face away to deflect the punch, but the punch didn’t come. Instead she heard gasping sounds. Cautiously she opened her eyes to see what was happening. Her eyes rounded, and she started trembling at what she saw.
Preston was being held up in the air, his feet off the floor. He was gasping for air, his hands trying desperately to claw at the hand that held his throat in a tight grip. And that hand was attached to a man. A familiar man, a man she never thought to see alive and breathing as he was. Her ghost had come to save her. He was clearly visible, his words clearly heard, as he spoke. “Do not touch her. You are not enough to even step in the dirt that falls from her shoes.”
Preston was turning blue, his breath completely cut off by the hand gripping and crushing everything in his neck.
“He can’t breathe,” Claire whispered.
Samuel didn’t turn to look at Claire. His eyes were locked with Preston’s, and he continued steadily increasing the pressure on Preston’s neck. “Do you care?” he asked her quietly.
Preston’s eyes flashed to hers, begging for her to intercede.
She thought of all the beatings she’d endured at his hands, the verbal and emotional abuse he’d spat at her, of him refusing to allow her to finish school, him locking her away from all she loved and the misery he’d made of her life. “No. I don’t care,” she answered.
Samuel squeezed harder and held Preston aloft in the air until long after he stopped struggling. Once he was sure Preston was no more, he dropped him to the floor.
Then he turned to face Claire. “I’ve waited centuries to protect you. I failed the first time, but not this time.”
“How are you here?”
“You needed me. So I came.”
“Who are you? I don’t even know your name,” she said wondrously, tears still wet on her face, looking at the corporeal version of the face she’d glimpsed in the mists at the cemetery from time-to-time over the years.
“My name is Samuel. I am yours.”
“But, I don’t even know you.”
“You did once. We have always loved each other, but were never free to