“Yes,” I replied quickly while nodding like a bobble head.
“If you need me to stop, just say so.” She approached my armpit with the device. A strange red light flashed, an odd noise sounded, and I recoiled at the sudden jolt. It was like a baby dragon had crawled into my arm and exhaled fire.
“Eeeyoch!” That odd and somewhat mortifying squelch escaped me before I could suppress it.
“Are you all right?” Sadie asked.
“I’m okay.” My cheeks burned after that mortifying squeal. “It was just surprising as I didn’t know what to expect.” I forced a smile. “Now I know.”
I resumed the position of bracing myself, and she pressed whatever button it was that inflicted the torture. The baby dragon lashed out again in its temper tantrum. I forced myself to stay statue still, warning that spastic reactions could end up with me being scarred for life.
In every aspect.
Light, sound, burn. Light, sound, burn.When would it end? Armpits were small, yet they never seemed so humongous as she worked her way through every last hair.
After a thousand ice ages passed, she said, “All done with that side.” She moved to the other one.
Ugh, we were only halfway done. And only with one procedure.
I told myself that it wasn’t that bad. Another voice piped up to say,yes it is. Not only that, it will get worse. Think about the lady parts getting burned.
No flipping way.
What the hell was wrong with Gianna for suggesting this? How did any woman on earth sign up to endure this willingly?
I wasnotany of those women.
Sucking it up, I braced myself to endure the other underarm. After all, I couldn’t leave hairless on one side and sasquatch on the other.
When Sadie praised me for doing so well, a lie she probably told every client, she said, “Let’s move on to the bikini line.”
Burning hair near my sensitive lady parts. Courage leaped out of my body and bolted from the building. I raised my arm. “Sorry, I can’t do it.”
“Are you sure? Why not try it and see? You’ve done so well.”
More lies.
I pressed my lips together. “I just can’t.” Humiliation tumbled forth as I babbled, “I’m sorry, I’m more tense than usual. I had a strange nightmare last night, and maybe I’m still rattled.”
It was a lame ass excuse that sounded even more absurd as it came out of my mouth.
Sadie cocked her head. “What did you dream about?”
That was odd. Most people weren’t interested in other people’s dreams. “It wasn’t really a nightmare because I’d swear I was awake…but… more of a dark sense of being smothered by this, I don’t know, shadow. It seemed to weigh on me. I couldn’t move.”
Sadie stepped back and covered her mouth. “No way.”
Another odd reaction. Ah, what was it about Salem that drove people to act whack-ass weird?
“Yeah.” I wrung my hands together. With a sheepish shrug, I added, “I guess I just want to explain why I’m acting like such a freak.”
Her eyes widened. “It’s strange because my friend told me the same exact thing happened to her two nights ago.” Sadie nodded with a knowing expression. “I thought it must have been sleep paralysis. She was pretty freaked out by it, too.”
“Oh.” My nerves pinged like I’d been struck by ice. Why did this revelation make whatever happened a thousand times more menacing?
“This can’t be a coincidence,” Sadie added.
Those words shocked me as much if she still had the laser aimed at me. “What do you mean?”
