Author's Note:
Well, this is it: the last chapter of Melvin's saga (at least, for now). I'd like to thank everybody who has stuck with me as these things have more or less been fairly rough drafts from start to finish, and the grammar, structure, and language in some chapters send shivers of disgust through my gut. Thanks for being patient with me and thanks for your feedback, and I hope you've enjoyed at least some aspect of this little mini-series of mine...
***
Small droplets of rain pattered against the windshield of Melvin's BMW: signs of the returning storm. Apparently, it still had some chaos to spread, unsatisfied by the drenching downpour it had unleashed earlier in the day. Rumbles of thunder gurgled overhead like an upset stomach preparing to unleash its bowels.
Melvin sighed and flipped on the windshield wipers. As if he didn't have enough things to contend with.
He squinted through the darkness of the night, his glasses left behind at the club. Red brake lights and blinding white headlights were nothing but shaky blurs as he passed them, a horn blaring as Melvin sped by, Melvin feeling as blind to the world as he felt blind about the truth concerning Courtney.
Courtney. The mere thought of her sent a depressing weight sliding to the pit of his stomach. The sweet girl who had turned out to be an insatiable sexual vampire, thirsting for satisfaction rather than blood, taking on four men (one of which was Melvin's best friend) at this very moment as Melvin sped through the rain. How could he have been so wrong about her?
Or was the love juice to blame?
Did it matter? The situation had only opened Melvin's eyes to the fact that he had not so much fallen in love with Courtney, the person, as with the mental image, the innocent virgin with the girlish smile, of her he'd created in his head. Her dimples were the cause of this mistake; Melvin was now certain that they were hypnotically cute.
How had things turned so dark for him? Things had gone from the whimsy of a silly fantasy, complete with a sarcastic witch and dreams about humping leprechauns, to the darkness of a Grimm's fairy tale, factoring his ex wife's sudden obsession with him and the lesson of losing Courtney.
A bolt of lightening spliced the night sky with electric fury.
Melvin thought about Morgan the witch's words and the choice he had to make concerning the love juice, and he wondered if he'd ever had a choice to begin with. The witch seemed to have control over the proceedings from the very start, the thought of her always in the back of Melvin's mind.
He slowed the car to a stop and pulled up outside of the witch's shop. He inhaled a slow, deep breath. This was it. Gathering his mental resources (or rather what was left of them), Melvin pushed open the car door and sloshed through the rain, making his way towards Morgan's building in labored, lurching strides.
***
Dim, yellow light filtered through a lampshade of what may have been human skin from the looks of it, but a sense of warmth settled over Melvin as he entered through the door to the witch's shop. Of course, anything would have felt warm compared to the cutting cold of the chilling rain.
Morgan the witch, whose love juice had set Melvin's chain of events barreling into motion, seemed to be waiting for him and smiled at him from her position in a gothic-looking, cushioned chair, the kind of chair you imagined Poe sitting in as he conceived his darkest works. Its frame was polished wood, and the horned skull of some unnamable, huge animal sat on the top of it, its teeth set in an eternal grin above Morgan's head.
The white end of a lollipop stick jutted from one corner of the witch's mouth, and she pulled it out with a wet smack of her lips.
"Cherry. My favorite. Tastes like virginity," she said and paused for Melvin's response.
Melvin heaved a weary sigh as he steeled himself to face her.
"I've made my decision," he said.
"Did you now? Is it sweet Courtney, after all?" Morgan replied, sticking the lollipop back into her mouth and rolling it across her tongue. Her long hair flowed over her shoulders, and her dark eyes twinkled in the murky light. Melvin's gut began to feel tingly. He knew better than to think it was the effect of some spell that the witch was casting; his feelings were all his own.
"Before I tell you, I need to know. Did I ever really have a choice?" Melvin said, peeling his wet coat off. A skeletal hand protruded from the wall from a shiny wooden frame, and Melvin hung the coat on one of its bony fingers.
"Of course, you did. I just happened to know the outcome of your decision before you made it. One of the small perks of being a witch, you know," Morgan replied, pulling the lollipop out of her mouth again and licking it gently and gliding across her full, red lips.
She flicked it with her tongue, sending an unexpected shiver down Melvin's back; then she winked at him and (CRUNCH!) chomped the remainder of the lollipop into bits between her shiny, sharp teeth. Melvin started at the sound of the destroyed candy breaking in her mouth.
"You knew all of this was going to happen?" Melvin said, stepping towards her. Already he could feel himself becoming entranced by the witch, by her beauty and her power, and he shook his head to knock away the clouds and cobwebs that had begun to form there, striving to maintain his clarity of thought. He wanted answers while he still cared to ask questions.
Morgan paused as she chewed the lollipop, crunching it, and then replied, "Not all of it. Your ex wife, for instance. I had no idea she'd have any part to play in this strange, sexual odyssey of yours. The love juice is an unpredictable thing sometimes. But always entertaining."
