Out Of The Dark (4 page)

Huh?

Rhonda shook her head. "What?"

"It's--it's more like I can suddenly see
pictures. Images that kinda tell me what it is you're saying."

Okaynowthatwasweird
.

Jemmy reached out her hand and Dags took it,
allowing she and Rhonda to help him off the floor. He looked a
little pale--which only added to his striking eyes and dark
hair.

"Lemme see," Jemmy grabbed his left shoulder
and pressed her palm into his forehead. He glanced over at me and
sort of gave me a helpless deer look. "Youse okay--but I'm afraid
Zoë might have opened up your third eye."

Dags nodded and stepped back. I was thinking
he might bolt. And who could blame him?

"What do you mean by images?" Steve said from
his perch beside Nona's chair.

"Well," Dags held out his hands, palms up. "I
knew she was asking me if I could hear her. But what I saw in my
head was a barrage of images of ears and then her face." He glared
at me. "And I do mean a barrage. Please, don't yell anymore."

Yell. I can yell?

I somehow felt comforted. Guilty. But oddly
comforted.

Everyone took their seats again. I sat down
and attacked my breakfast. It was cold.

"Zoë," Rhonda said as an icebreaker. "I'll
handle it. You eat." She turned to Dags and gave him a very nice
reader's digest version of what had happened to us in the past
month. From my meeting TC, to the Reverend Rollins, Hirokumi,
Daniel, Susan, Rai, and then the Phantasm.

I was a little surprised too. I'd told them
all that? Wow. I'm a blabbermouth even when I don't have a
voice.

Dags took it all in, finishing up his coffee.
I did notice he pressed his fingers into his forehead and temple a
lot--like maybe his head hurt.

After Rhonda was done, Dags spoke up. "Okay.
So," he turned and looked at me. "You're a Wraith--whatever that
is--and you can go out of body. That much I've seen."

"And if you did see trouble around the Chief
of Surgery," Nona said as she buttered a biscuit and then put it on
my half-empty plate. "What exactly is it you could do?"

"Nothing," Dags said with a shrug. "I was
just told to watch and observe. I'm not an action hero, or an
exorcist, or…," he glanced at me. "Or a Wraith. I'm just a guy that
sees ghosts. But I was told to log in and report anything
unusual."

Rhonda put her hand up. "So, you were also
paid to watch Nancy's grandfather?" She frowned. "By whom? Who is
wanting to know about Bonville?"

He suddenly looked uncomfortable. "I--I
really don't know. Most of my clients come by the internet. And
this particular one has been pretty interested in this guy for a
while."

"What do they ask you to do?" Mom said.

I wasn't as suspicious as Rhonda--hell--my
biggest client called themselves--themself?--maharba. So--who was I
to judge?

"Well, to keep an eye on everyone around him.
See who pissed him off next and see if they disappear like all the
others."

"And the restaurant?" Mom nudged. "The reason
why you responded to Rhonda's response to Maureen's inquiry?"

Wow. She sounded all professional.

I watched him.

Dags' shoulders rose as he took in a deep
breath and sighed. "Mostly because I knew Maureen. We'd gone out a
few times. After I started there as the loft bartender--I noticed
she never came upstairs. I always had to meet her at the foot of
the stairs. Then one day the manager was there in his office and
arguing on the phone. Most of the staff grew quiet--and I waited
until he'd left before I asked them what was up.

"Maureen and Toby--the main floor bartender
in the evenings--both took me out back for a smoke--them not me--I
don't smoke--and told me about the Shadow People."

"Shadow People?" Jemmy spoke up.

Rhonda gave out the definition she'd googled
before. Jemmy nodded. "Oh I knows about them," she said softly
before setting back. "But that's not what we calls them."

I looked at Dags before shifting my gaze to
Jemmy. I erased, scribbled. YOU SEEN?

"Not seen, but I have heard the stories. They
don't like people much," she said. "When I was much younger, they
was several of them lived in a house over on Clairmont, near
LaVista. Beautiful old house--wrap around porch and a large attic.
There was a little girl lived there about--oh--twenty years ago.
Went to one of those schools nearby, went to the Lutheran church
down from Moreland. I cleaned upstairs in the church three evenings
a week after services and meetings.

"She used to sit out in the sunshine during
the day when it was hot. Sweating. Wouldn't go inside in. Told me
over a lemonade one day that the dark peoples lived in the shade.
And they were mean."

"She saw these dark peoples?" Nona said.

Jemmy nodded. "She said they were in her
house. Said they lived in the attic. And they hated her, and her
family. Wanted them out of that house. She tried to tell her mama
and daddy that, but no one listens to a child."

I grabbed up my board and wrote on it. DID
THEY KILL LIL'GIRL?

She nodded. I knew she would. "Coroner said
she fell down the stairs leaving the attic one afternoon." Jemmy
shook her head. "That's not true. She'd never go into that attic.
They did it--I don't know how. But I was always sure those dark
peoples--or Shadow People--had something to do with it."

"So are they lost souls?" Rhonda asked the
room. "Or demons? Why do something like that? What's their
motive?"

Dags spoke up. "Tim, Steve, have you ever
seen them?"

Both of the ghosts shook their head. "We're
bound here," Steve said and pointed to the ground. "To this house.
There have never been Shadow People in here. But if they exist on
something other than the physical or the astral, then we can't see
them anyway."

"Not sure I want to," Tim said.

Me neither. I was getting goose bumps. Me,
Wraith. Sucker of souls, hear me roar.

Mental Note:
me-ow.

"So there are Shadow People in the
restaurant," Nona said. She picked up her coffee, and I noticed
she'd done her nails. They were painted a light pink.

Since when did mom do her nails?

Dags nodded. "I think there's a link between
them and Dr. Bonville. I'm sure you already know that Nancy's
grandmother disappeared a few months ago. And the seventh employee
to disappear under Dr. Bonville's patronage was Maureen."

Seven? I waved at Dags and held up two
fingers.

He shook his head. "There are only two we can
link directly to Bonville—his wife and Maureen." He shrugged,
anticipating my next question as to how Maureen was connected. "He
was having an affair with her."

Dude was a playah for sure. Wondered what
this Bonville guy looked like.

"So the other five are simply missing?"
Rhonda said, her previous questions about the Shadow People
unanswered.

Dags nodded. "There was talk the others were
somehow involved with Bonville, but no one ever knew in what way.
Since there wasn't any tangible link between them and him?" he
sighed. "They're not really a part of the official
investigation."

I narrowed my eyes at Dags—why did I get the
impression he knew a lot more than he was saying? I mean, not that
I really knew this guy or anything. There was just something…

…odd.

Nona held up her hand. "So you think Dr.
Bonville has something to do with the Shadow People and Maureen's
death as well as his wife's the other missing employees?"

He nodded.

Mom shook her head. "Poppycock."

I looked at mom with shock. Hadn't I warned
her about using words like that? She was so going to get type-cast
like that.

Dags and Rhonda started to protest but Jemmy
held up her hand. "Why you think that, Nona?"

"Because he has the reputation of a magician.
A magician in this day and age--given that meaning--isn't going to
ally himself with Shadow People."

Uh--I scribbled on my board. WHY NOT? And
where did she suddenly get this fount of knowledge when earlier she
didn't know anything more about Shadow People than we did?

Rhonda reached out over the table and flipped
the Big Book open. A few more pages to the right, then the left,
one right and--

"Because it says so right here," she pointed
to a rather ornate page in the book. I stood up and leaned over the
table to see just as Dags, Jemmy and Tim did the same.

"Okay, I can't read that," Dags said in a
dejected voice. "It looks like an ancient dialect of Finnish."

"Actually it's Gaelic," Rhonda said. "First
generation--though not far removed from second gen, B.C."

I could feel the geek-meter in the room rise
to the red-o-doom.

I scribbled and put the board under her nose.
YOU WANT ME SCREAM? WHAT SAY?

"Scream?" Dags looked at me. "You can't talk
but you can scream?"

"You really don't want her to do that,"
Rhonda held out her hand. "Just everyone sit down."

We did.

"Shadow People, otherwise known as Shadow
Folk--according to this tome--are in essence, elemental human
spirits."

Uhm.

What? Wikipedia didn't say that.

And that definition is like a kazillion light
years away from Brownie.

Dags shook his head. "So--what does that
mean? I know what elemental is--being of the elements. There are
elementals that control each of the five realms. Earth, air, fire,
water and spirit."

Rhonda beamed. I mean, she was glowing she
was so happy to have found another information spout. "Exactly. But
Shadow Folk are basically humans who transcended life in this
physical plane, gaining a bit of elemental attachment."

I erased with the back of my hand, scribbled.
THOUGHT U SAID NOT HUMAN.

Rhonda pursed her lips. "No, I didn't say
that. The emails from Maureen said they didn't
seem
human."

Oh. So much for that great memory of
mine.

Steve put a finger to his chin, a sign he was
processing all this. "So how does this happen? This transcendental
mingling of human spirit and elemental?"

I turned my thoughts back to Daniel and
wondered what time it was. I did not like the idea of him being
alone.

"The Book doesn't say. What it does say is
that these creatures have been around as long as the planet
itself--existing before people from what I can tell. And they have
mischievous streaks and are known in several countries.
Domovoi
in Slavic folklore,
tomte
in Scandinavian,
lares
in the Roman dieties, and wirry-cow in Scotland, a
tonttu
in Finland and here--"

We all waited. God she was being
dramatic.

"We call them Brownies."

There was that dead silence again.

"You're shitting me," Dags said in a deep
voice.

Well, so much for Wikipedia. I told you.

"Brownies?" Nona looked at the book. "You
sure you read that right? I mean, your ancient Gaelic is up to
date, right?"

That's about the time it hit me: how come
Rhonda, whom I always assumed was younger than me, can read
Gaelic?

What, do they teach that in schools now?

"Well aren't Brownies supposed to look like
little people?" Nona asked.

And to be honest--I'd kinda had that image in
my head too.

"Well, they might have looked like little
people centuries ago, before the disbelief in magic became the
social norm," Steve said. Everyone looked at him. "But over the
centuries they've become shadowy because of our perception."

"How so?" Jemmy said.

"Well, think of myself and Tim. Not everyone
can see us, even when we pull our energy together and become
corporeal. Which tells me that different people have different
filters. Ways of viewing the world. Much like a channel on a
television."

Dags nodded slowly. "I'm getting there--"

Glad he was. I was still stuck on Brownies,
and I wasn't getting the image of some movie with a Brownie
swimming in a Stein of beer out of my head. Oy.

"Think of it as the picture's only as good as
the television's reception. Bad reception, bad picture. I don't
think we as humans have the necessary capabilities to see them
clearly anymore, so we see shadows. As to what they are--" he
shrugged. "I feel that's still debatable. They might be
Brownies--but I'll hold my opinion on that for now."

Here here. Now where was my watch? I started
to stand up. Nona reached out and pushed me back down with a hand
on my shoulder. Ow.

"So the clearer the reception, the better the
image," Rhonda said. "Well that's easy to understand. And I like
it."

"So we see shadows because we're removed from
their channel," Jemmy said. "So what would Zoë here see?"

I looked at them and blinked. See what?

"Good point," Rhonda propped her elbow on the
table and her chin in her hand. "I think it would be a good
experiment to have Zoë go OOB and take a look inside the
restaurant. In Wraith form she's between worlds, and sees all sorts
of things we can't see."

Blabbermouth.

Dags nodded. "I have the key and the alarm
code. It's no big deal if we leave now and I get there early.
They're used to me opening up to start the dinner shift."

"Let's go," Rhonda stood up.

So did everyone else.

I banged on the table to get their attention.
Well…what do you want me to do? Yell?

They all stopped and stared at me. I grabbed
up the board and scribbled.

NOT LEAVE DANIEL ALONE.

Nona had her hand on mine. "Daniel's not
alone, honey. He's being watched over. He'll be fine."

Watched over? What? I scribbled again. BY
WHO?

"Whom." Dags said.

I glared at him.
Watch it.

He put a hand to his head and closed his
eyes. "I don't even want to tell you what image I just got in my
head."