Out Of The Dark (6 page)

"Hey Zoë," Rhonda called out. "Why don't you
go OOB and take a look? For all we know they're right here and we
can't see them."

Good point. Only--why did I suddenly have
stage fright?

Maybe it was because even though I was now
weird, I didn't like things weird. The Phantasm I'd met a few weeks
back was the icing on the cake to a constant stream of poltergeists
(back in October), succubus, and symbionts.

Oh yeah. My life. Want one?

I looked around the area and decided on a
nice, open spot where I could snuggle my body up behind the piano,
braced by the wall, but not as easy to get too. I nudged myself in
there and lay down.

"What is she doing?" Dags asked.

"You'll see."

And in seconds I was out of my body and
standing up. I sieved through the piano--wood wasn't so bad--and
moved closer to where they stood.

Dags' eyes widened until they looked as if
they were going to explode. His mouth was perfect O. I smiled at
him and nodded.
So--is this what you saw that day at
Fadó's?

He nodded. "Yeah--" he looked me up and down.
"I don't remember the bunny slippers though."

I glanced down at my black bunny slippers and
tapped my feet.
Yeah, this is apparently the uniform my
subconscious likes to put me in. I could look just like I look
right now if you like?

Dags shook his head. "No. The bunnies work
for me." He looked at Rhonda. "OOB. Out of body."

She beamed.

He beamed.

I stuck my tongue out and shoved my finger
inside of my open mouth. Gross you two. Get a room so you can geek
in private.

So--I looked around--concentrating on the
shadows. Oh, I saw things. Gray images of faces, eyes, things that
looked like that classic painting of The Scream. But little Shadow
People? Or wee men in brown suits? Nope.

Until--

"Zoë?"

I knew the sound of that voice. I turned from
where I was at the bar and saw Dags and Rhonda standing near the
stairs, just in front of the cut-through. They were looking at the
opposite wall.

No--not really. They were looking at two very
distinct images in front of the Christmas tree.

Dags, you see them?

He nodded. "I see something. It's not really
people. More like.."

"It's a shimmering in front of the tree."
Rhonda said. "Like heat coming off of hot pavement on a hot summer
day--" she pointed. "Wait, did you see that?"

What I saw was something totally different.
They did look like people--though very small people. No more than
three feet high. They were reed thin in odd places. Instead of
having thin arms and legs, they were thin in the torso, and a
little wider along their arms--and their legs--they had no
feet.

And no faces. Just--well--they looked like
they were made of shadows. And also like we'd discussed at mom's.
Like I wasn't quite seeing them all the way.

Well, you two don't look like Brownies.

And for some wacko reason, one of them paid
attention, because it turned and looked at me.

Yow!

And it had
eyes
. Two pinpoints of
lights and they were focused on me. And they looked--

Menacing.

I could have sworn I heard it hissing.

Oh no you di'n.

"Are they looking at your body?" Dags
said.

My body. Oh good grief no--not again. Another
entity wanting my body to ride around in like Rai had? I started
forward and the one watching me vanished.

And it was in front of me. It didn't have a
mouth per se--but it did have a weird oval shaped darker area where
a mouth should be and the little fucker was batting at me with his
hands.

It never actually touched me--and I almost
laughed at it.

Until I heard Rhonda yell out.

I looked away from the tiny Brute trying to
take me down to see the other one running at Dags and Rhonda. And
too late I realized what it meant to do.

They were standing right in front of the
cut-through. One good shove and it could knock one of them if not
both of them backwards and over the banister. It would take a good
physical knock--but then they had tripped me in my physical
body.

I moved through the little bugger in front of
me as it continued to hiss and flail. I had to get to the other one
and knock it over somehow. I was sure Dags and Rhonda couldn't see
it clearly or they'd be getting out of the way.

Before I could get there a blinding light
stopped me right in my tracks. And it was a painful light--close to
a hundred suns against my skin. I put my hands up to ward it off
and still felt it--almost as if it singed my astral skin.

I managed to look through the light as it
faded--and my jaw dropped to the floor. The little shadow man that
had tried to attack me was gone. So was the other one.

What I saw was Rhonda huddled down on the
floor against the banister. And Dags--

Well Dags was standing with his feet spread
wide, his right hand out, palm facing where the shadow person had
charged him, almost as if he'd meant to push it away. A white light
was dimming from the center of his palm.

WTF?

And then the light was gone. Dags stayed
still with his hand straight out like that for a few minutes. On
his palm I swear I saw glowing, spinning circles before he looked
at me and gave me a very wan smile. Finally he shifted his weight
and stood up straight before cradling his right hand against his
chest.

"I guess I have some s'planin to do, huh
Lucy?"

I glared at him. I don't know how I knew it,
but I knew it. Maybe it was Mom's constant spouting off of things
she knew, or maybe I'd actually stumbled on it in a book. But I
knew
.

I knew it for certain.

I pointed at him
a la
Body Snatchers.
The only thing I didn't do was hiss.
You're a magician!

*****

CHAPTER FOUR

Dags held his hands up. I just stood there in
my all-together-astral with my mouth hanging down to my feet. And
Rhonda?

She was looking at the bartender as if he
were Brad Pitt--with a bugger hanging out of his nose.

"You're--" she twisted her already-peculiar
expression into something else. "What
are
you?"

Dags sighed and lowered his hands. "Hey, I'm
just like you. Flesh and blood, but with a little added
suh-um,
suh-um
in the brain pan that lets me see things." He waved the
index finger of his right hand in the air. "Weird things. Made for
some pretty weird childhood adventures."

"So you see ghosts," Rhonda said. "And you
can like--shoot light at them?" She held her arms out and up in a
gesture of frustration. "I can see ghosts and I can't shoot light
out of my hand."

"That wasn't as cool as it looked. I can
explain how to do that and how it--" he put his hand to his
forehead and stumbled back, his eyes closing.

Look out--he's gonna fall over!

I was beside him before Rhonda could react. I
managed to become solid enough to grab him sideways. He didn't
completely pass out, but it was obvious his knees weren't
working.

Geez--he might be short but he weighed a
ton.

Rhonda grabbed a chair off of a table and
scooted it over. I gave a silent groan as he half helped me get him
into the chair. He bent over at the waist, putting his head between
his knees. The hair from his ponytail splayed out all around his
shoulders, giving a blue-black sheen from the light filtering in
through the window.

Rhonda went to the bar, grabbed a glass from
the overhead shelf. I heard the tink of ice being dumped in and
then the faucet.

Now why didn't I think about doing that? In
fact--

I moved back to my own body and slipped in,
stretching as I stood up and headed to the bar to pour myself a
couple of glasses of ice water. I was dying of thirst. So, I stood
at the bar and watched the two of them as I guzzled.

Mental Note:
water…it does a body
good.

"Thanks," Dags said as he took the glass and
drank down half of it.

Oooh..careful
, I thought as he drank
so fast.
Or you're gonna get--

Dags winced and pinched the bridge of his
nose. "Oh…brain freeze."

I smiled. I liked him. He was a bit weird.
And he might be a little kinky. But I liked him.

Rhonda took the glass back. "So--does that
happen often too?"

"Only when I react like that--on the spur.
I'm not prepared for it." He smiled at her and tucked stray strands
of hair behind his ears. He looked a little pale. And I was kinda
happy that for once it wasn't me recuperating from something.

Eh--give it time. This is me talking
here.

"What do you mean prepared for it?" Rhonda
poked at him. Leave it to the goth-chick. She'd make Batman fear
her.

I finished off my second glass of water and
stuck it under the tap again. This was good water. And I could
probably drink all there was.

"If I'm going to be going into a dangerous
situation, I can usually psyche myself up for that kind of thing.
But I didn't think," he paused. "I really didn't think this time
would be dangerous."

"So those little shadow people don't usually
just bust out like that?"

I drank half of the third glass, only half
paying attention to the two of them. It was kinda boring, and I'd
rather be at the hospital in Daniel's room. There was this nagging
anxiety at the back of my neck--so afraid he'd wake up and I
wouldn't be there. Not only did I want to see those gorgeous blues
again--I wanted to know what the last thing he saw was.

Me--or the Wraith?

I moved the glass away from my face at that
thought and frowned. Since when did I start really distinguishing
me from what I did? Was that such a good idea? And where the hell
was the rulebook for this?

My stomach growled--since I really didn't eat
much cold breakfast. I set the glass down and started looking
around the bar, opening drawers and cabinets. Didn't bars have like
peanuts or something snacky?

"So is it something natural you learned? Part
of your seeing ghosts? 'Cause honestly, I can see ghosts--well most
ghosts. I don't see shades."

"Me neither. I can sense there's something
there--but I can't see them."

"It's really annoying, isn't it?" Rhonda
said.

"Yeah--but what I just did wasn't because I
have some special power, but because I got these--"

I was crouched down behind the bar when he
said that, so I popped up and looked over at the two of them. He
had his hands up, palms facing Rhonda.

Rhonda backed up with her mouth open.
"You--you had summonings tattooed on your palms?"

He beamed.

I frowned. He had what? I moved from the bar
and stood beside Rhonda. Yeah, Dags had some weird concentric
circles tattooed on both palms. There were little squiggles on each
one, a little different. Kinda like mirror images. But even as I
stared at them the images faded to a light red, about the color of
my own mark, and then faded away.

Is that normal?

Dags nodded to me. "Yeah, they do that after
I stop using them. But they're always there. I can
feel
them."

"Do you realize what you've done--how
dangerous that is?" Rhonda didn't seem happy. Should I seem unhappy
too? I mimicked her frown just to be sure. "You could summon
accidentally."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Dags took the water
from Rhonda's hand and finished it. No brain-freeze. "But I didn't
do it."

I pursed my lips.
Well no, you boob. You
can't tattoo yourself. Well, you could, but I doubt the pain would
make it fun.

He looked at me and made a face. "That's not
what I meant. I mean I didn't choose to have these things on my
hands. I sort of got involved in a really weird--group."

A cult?

He gave me that look again.

Hey--you're the one with the disappearing
tattoo on your hand, not me. Cult?

"Well I didn't think it was a cult."

Rhonda gritted her teeth. "Stop that. Now. I
hate it that I can't hear Zoë and you can."

"I really can't
hear
her--"

Rhonda held up her right hand.
Careful--she'll zap you!
"I know that. You've already
explained it. Just get on to why you stupidly have summoning
markings on your palms."

He looked worn out. Really worn out. Maybe
he'd looked like that before we started this little pointless
adventure (forget the almost being nailed by little Shadow Folk
Brownie People), but I hadn't noticed.

"I was stupid--and full of learning magic.
Real magic, not the white light Wicca crap--"

"Watch it." Rhonda said.

"Sorry. But that's how I was thinking at the
time. I thought it would be great to be a magician, you know? Wield
some power."

I looked at Rhonda. She looked up at me. We
both looked at Dags. "You wanted to learn Ceremonial Magic?" Rhonda
asked.

He pursed his lips. "Yeah. I
mean--controlling demons, conjuring spells, defeating
enemies--"

"You've been watching too much anime."

I smiled. My stomach growled. I backed away
and meandered to the bar again in search of peanuts. Maybe some
pretzels. Anything!

"It's really not like that, Rhonda," Dags
sounded sincere. "There's a lot more to it that I just don't want
to go into right now. Needless to say I got into a group in North
Georgia. They also spread into Tennessee and parts of South
Carolina."

I got behind the bar again. Okay, I already
looked at that drawer and that cabinet. So, how about the ones
closest to the brick wall? Couldn't hurt. And to be honest–I wasn't
that interested in ceremonial anything.

I don't mean to come off so flippant. I
didn't want to be here, and it was a little weird watching Rhonda
geek out over a boy--even after she knew I'd seen him half naked.
Eh...I decided to look for food.