I slammed the phone down. “That bastard has something up his sleeve.”
Ravyn nodded. “I’m very interested in what Zenny discovered about him just by touching that front door.” She glanced over to where Zenny had been standing moments ago and did a double take as she realized that Zenny wasn’t there any more. “Hey, where did she go?”
I looked around as well. “Zenny? Where are you?”
No response.
Ravyn shook her head and turned in a circle, looking about the empty room. “She can’t have gone very far.”
I nodded over toward the farthest door in the room, shifting my vision partially into Shadowland. “What’s that over there? I think she’s in there.”
My boots scuffed the cement floor as I walked, stiff-legged to the door, Ravyn close behind.
I pushed the door in, revealing a small back office that I hadn’t seen in my last visit to this shop.
Inside the cramped office, Zenny was kneeling on the floor and rocking back and forth in a rhythmic manner. Her bare hands were clasped together. Her eyes were clenched as tightly as her hands while her lips were moving in sync with her body. Zenny’s gloves lay stacked on the floor next to her. The office itself was lacking in any major furniture, but there was a blizzard of paper scattered about.
Ravyn slipped around me as I stopped at the doorway. She knelt down next to Zenny without actually touching her. “Zenny, what’s going on?”
No response. She continued to sway, her eyes remained closed, and her lips continued to move silently as if deep in meditation or prayer.
I stepped into the room. I reached deep inside the captured memories from Ma Grendel, looking for words in her native tongue. I spoke to her in Arabic. “Do you need help?” I reached out to touch her.
Ravyn stopped me from interrupting her. “No, Rusty. I think she needs to do this. There is powerful magick taking place right now. If we break her trance, there’s no telling what may happen.”
I stood back up and retreated. I let slip the connections between my body and Spirit form and slipped spiritually into the Shadowland. There I saw Ravyn’s fiery red form now focused back on the kneeling form of Zenny.
My attention was immediately drawn to Zenny’s form. Normally, Zenny’s Spirit form ranged from soft, dark violet to deep blue. Right at the moment, however, her colors had shifted to vibrant, pulsating hues of orange and yellow. The glow was strongest at her clasped hands, as if she were trying to contain something very powerful within them.
Using a portion of my essence, I stretched out a tendril towards her hands, getting as close as I could without actually touching her. It was quite difficult to do, because there are unseen fields of resistance between different individual Spirit forms. The resistance can be overcome through force of Will but it is exceptionally hard to push very close to another form without actually completely overpowering that resistance.
The closer I got though, the more I sensed something desperately wrong. I felt an overpowering sense of evil emanating from that source between her hands. I could also tell that she was trying desperately to shield us from the pain that she was so clearly experiencing.
That was enough for me. I snapped back into my body and dropped to my knees in front of her and took her still clasped hands in mine.
“Rusty, what are you doing? What’s wrong?” Ravyn’s voice was cracking with concern.
“She’s got a hold of something. Whatever it is, it isn’t good.” Her fingers were clenched tight. Gently at first, I began to pry her fingers away from whatever it was that she was holding.
Zenny gasped in pain as both her rhythm and her grasp was broken. Her left hand loosed and went limp as I managed to reach inside and grab the object. She collapsed into Ravyn’s arms, her chest heaving, tears running down her face. Her choking sobs were loud at first, but were quickly soothed by a deliberately calm Ravyn.
I opened my own palm and looked at what had caused all of this fuss. It seemed innocuous enough—the small metal head of what looked to be a stethoscope. But turning it over in my palm, the back side of it showed something far more sinister. A small symbol was engraved on the backside. It was symbol that even I recognized. It was a swastika.
“What is it, Rusty?”
Even without slipping into the Shadowland, I could feel the power of the thing. Deep inside of my being, the dark whispers of entities slain and consumed long ago by Ma Grendel awakened once again. Their voices ate at my consciousness, calling out in glee at the discovery of this evil tool.
“Feed us!”
“Let us take them!”
“We hunger!”
I closed my hand around the object and tamped the whispers back down into the bowels of my soul. The realization at what I had in my hands had shaken me to my very core. “It’s something from the Nazi’s. I think it was used by El Diablito in the concentration camps for something, but I can’t open myself to it just yet. It is stirring up things inside me that I can’t risk letting loose right now.”
Zenny had stopped sobbing now and seemed to be resting Ravyn’s arms.
“We need to get back to the Coop and find out what she has seen, both from this damn thing and from the door.”
Ravyn nodded. “Let’s get back there quickly.”
I shoved the stethoscope head into my pocket and reached down to pick up Zenny. “We’re taking the express road back, babe. Don’t forget her gloves.”
I stood up and waited for Ravyn to collect her gloves and join me. I called the Shadow as soon as she was ready. This time, Zombie Air provided direct, door-to-door service right back to Ravyn’s study.
Showing posts with label Hialeah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hialeah. Show all posts
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Opening Gambit...Conclusion
The narrow doorway led directly into a cramped area that was still crowded with bookshelves, although these were now empty, except for dust, cobwebs, and a number of the small, green lizards that were so common to South Florida. They little critters scurried away as I entered.
Bob’s glow shed soft, yellow light upon the room, which only served to highlight how long it had been since any humans had been here. Ravyn and Zenny followed closely behind Bob.
I pushed past the rows of empty bookshelves towards the short hallway that led back to the room where in some small way I had lost a part of my humanity. It was back there that I had succumbed to the drugs in the tea and cookies that El Diablito had given me, only to wake up in the morning to discover the Chakra necklace handing around my neck.
There had been a small envelope with an airline ticket back to Washington and instructions to leave the necklace on at all times. I wouldn’t learn of the true importance of wearing that cursed thing for several more years, but that story has been told elsewhere on this blog.
At the moment, I was more concerned about any surprises the bastard may have left for unplanned visitors than I was about my own checkered past. Collapsed baton still held firmly in my right hand, I edged down the hall, ready for anything…or so I thought anyway.
A second curtained doorway obscured the large room that I knew to be in the back of the shop. I stepped up to the curtain, flicked out my baton to its full extension, and used it to brush aside the raggedy curtains. The only sounds to be heard were the heavy, expectant breaths of Ravyn and Zenny, the skittering of tiny clawed feet as the little lizards sought their refuge and Bob’s happy chirping sounds as he floated above us, happy to be exploring new environs.
When I had last been here, this room had been furnished with a number of mismatched, battered couches lined up along three walls, while the fourth wall had been taken up by a curtained off stage set between two doorways. The center of the room had been occupied by a cluttered table and its own mismatched wooden chairs. Now when I looked in the barren room, I was impressed with its size. It easily took up over half of the room of the entire shop. But what immediately drew my attention was the telephone sitting in the middle of the floor of the vast room.
It was one of those old rotary phones. It was deep red in color, reminiscent of the phones shown in old Cold War movies that sat on the desk of the President of the United States and in the Kremlin.
Bob floated into the room above me and naturally gravitated towards the center of this vast new space to explore, while Ravyn and Zenny slipped to either side of me.
I stood there unmoving, just inside the doorway, staring at that damn phone. There was something very odd about that phone sitting there, but I couldn’t place it immediately.
Ravyn was the first to break the silence of our group. “What is it Rusty?”
“That phone. It wasn’t here before.”
“So?”
“There something wrong with it. But I just can’t place it.”
Zenny touched my shoulder with her right hand and pointed with her left hand. “Why would someone leave an unplugged phone sitting in the middle of the floor?”
I smacked my forehead with my left hand. “That’s it. There’s no line leading up to. It’s not plugged in. They must have just left the old thing sitting there since it probably couldn’t be used anymore.”
Relieved at having figured out what had me so unsettled, I moved towards the phone.
It rang.
It was loud, bell clanging ring that caused both of the gals to jump back and catch their breaths.
It rang again.
I scanned the room with normal vision and then again with eye towards the Shadowland, just to be sure there wasn’t some hidden trap. The only thing that registered as out of the ordinary was that phone. As it rang a third time, I noticed that it glowed with a magickal energy that perhaps explained how it could be ringing without being connected to any actual phone line.
I moved to the center of the room, standing over the phone.
It rang a fourth time.
I reached down to pick it up, reasonably certain that I would be talking to an old foe. “Yeah?”
That familiar cackling laughter came through loud and clear over the phone’s hand set. “So you’ve finally come back home, eh Bones?”
“What do you want, old man?”
His voice took on a serious tone. “We need to talk, Bones.”
“What about?”
“We have many things to discuss, Jason. I understand that you don’t trust me right now, but we need to come to an understanding. I’m not Drake. He’s gone now, so there is a new order to be established.”
“What do you mean?”
He sighed audibly. “Drake was driven by certain things from his past. You know about those things as well as I do now. I don’t have that same baggage that he did. I can acknowledge my failures in dealing with you and your friends in the past and I can move on from them. I would like us to arrange a meeting where we can hash out our differences in an amicable way. I have no desire to keep you as an enemy, Jason; we can do so much more together than we can separately.”
Ravyn and Zenny had both moved in close enough to me now to be able to listen in on the conversation as well.
I looked from Zenny to Ravyn to see if either of them had any input. Zenny pursed her lips in concentration, but just shrugged her shoulders. Ravyn’s eyes were narrowed in concentration as she motioned with one hand that I should keep talking.
“OK, I can see some possibilities. Where would you want to meet with me?”
He laughed. It was a hearty, deep laugh that sounded disturbingly normal for this crazy old coot. “Well, I doubt that saucy, red-headed wench friend of yours will allow me to set the meeting place. Why don’t you ask her where she’d like us to meet?”
Ravyn’s mouth dropped open as she heard that. “Why I never…”
“I think she should come along for our little meeting. I look forward to showing her my hand, thanks to that dreadful bird of hers.”
I waved Ravyn quiet with my right hand, letting the baton slip to the ground next to the phone. “Look, old man, where do you want to meet with us then? It should be somewhere nice and public. I don’t want any damn surprises.”
He sighed again. “Fine, take all of the fun out of this, will you? How about we meet near your hometown, in one of those casinos in Detroit? You name the particular place and time. That should be public enough for all of us.”
I nodded. “Fine. Let’s meet in Greektown exactly 24 hours from now, bring that prick Dick Arnold with you as well.” I looked at my watch to fix the time in my head.
“Done.” The phone went silent.
Bob’s glow shed soft, yellow light upon the room, which only served to highlight how long it had been since any humans had been here. Ravyn and Zenny followed closely behind Bob.
I pushed past the rows of empty bookshelves towards the short hallway that led back to the room where in some small way I had lost a part of my humanity. It was back there that I had succumbed to the drugs in the tea and cookies that El Diablito had given me, only to wake up in the morning to discover the Chakra necklace handing around my neck.
There had been a small envelope with an airline ticket back to Washington and instructions to leave the necklace on at all times. I wouldn’t learn of the true importance of wearing that cursed thing for several more years, but that story has been told elsewhere on this blog.
At the moment, I was more concerned about any surprises the bastard may have left for unplanned visitors than I was about my own checkered past. Collapsed baton still held firmly in my right hand, I edged down the hall, ready for anything…or so I thought anyway.
A second curtained doorway obscured the large room that I knew to be in the back of the shop. I stepped up to the curtain, flicked out my baton to its full extension, and used it to brush aside the raggedy curtains. The only sounds to be heard were the heavy, expectant breaths of Ravyn and Zenny, the skittering of tiny clawed feet as the little lizards sought their refuge and Bob’s happy chirping sounds as he floated above us, happy to be exploring new environs.
When I had last been here, this room had been furnished with a number of mismatched, battered couches lined up along three walls, while the fourth wall had been taken up by a curtained off stage set between two doorways. The center of the room had been occupied by a cluttered table and its own mismatched wooden chairs. Now when I looked in the barren room, I was impressed with its size. It easily took up over half of the room of the entire shop. But what immediately drew my attention was the telephone sitting in the middle of the floor of the vast room.
It was one of those old rotary phones. It was deep red in color, reminiscent of the phones shown in old Cold War movies that sat on the desk of the President of the United States and in the Kremlin.
Bob floated into the room above me and naturally gravitated towards the center of this vast new space to explore, while Ravyn and Zenny slipped to either side of me.
I stood there unmoving, just inside the doorway, staring at that damn phone. There was something very odd about that phone sitting there, but I couldn’t place it immediately.
Ravyn was the first to break the silence of our group. “What is it Rusty?”
“That phone. It wasn’t here before.”
“So?”
“There something wrong with it. But I just can’t place it.”
Zenny touched my shoulder with her right hand and pointed with her left hand. “Why would someone leave an unplugged phone sitting in the middle of the floor?”
I smacked my forehead with my left hand. “That’s it. There’s no line leading up to. It’s not plugged in. They must have just left the old thing sitting there since it probably couldn’t be used anymore.”
Relieved at having figured out what had me so unsettled, I moved towards the phone.
It rang.
It was loud, bell clanging ring that caused both of the gals to jump back and catch their breaths.
It rang again.
I scanned the room with normal vision and then again with eye towards the Shadowland, just to be sure there wasn’t some hidden trap. The only thing that registered as out of the ordinary was that phone. As it rang a third time, I noticed that it glowed with a magickal energy that perhaps explained how it could be ringing without being connected to any actual phone line.
I moved to the center of the room, standing over the phone.
It rang a fourth time.
I reached down to pick it up, reasonably certain that I would be talking to an old foe. “Yeah?”
That familiar cackling laughter came through loud and clear over the phone’s hand set. “So you’ve finally come back home, eh Bones?”
“What do you want, old man?”
His voice took on a serious tone. “We need to talk, Bones.”
“What about?”
“We have many things to discuss, Jason. I understand that you don’t trust me right now, but we need to come to an understanding. I’m not Drake. He’s gone now, so there is a new order to be established.”
“What do you mean?”
He sighed audibly. “Drake was driven by certain things from his past. You know about those things as well as I do now. I don’t have that same baggage that he did. I can acknowledge my failures in dealing with you and your friends in the past and I can move on from them. I would like us to arrange a meeting where we can hash out our differences in an amicable way. I have no desire to keep you as an enemy, Jason; we can do so much more together than we can separately.”
Ravyn and Zenny had both moved in close enough to me now to be able to listen in on the conversation as well.
I looked from Zenny to Ravyn to see if either of them had any input. Zenny pursed her lips in concentration, but just shrugged her shoulders. Ravyn’s eyes were narrowed in concentration as she motioned with one hand that I should keep talking.
“OK, I can see some possibilities. Where would you want to meet with me?”
He laughed. It was a hearty, deep laugh that sounded disturbingly normal for this crazy old coot. “Well, I doubt that saucy, red-headed wench friend of yours will allow me to set the meeting place. Why don’t you ask her where she’d like us to meet?”
Ravyn’s mouth dropped open as she heard that. “Why I never…”
“I think she should come along for our little meeting. I look forward to showing her my hand, thanks to that dreadful bird of hers.”
I waved Ravyn quiet with my right hand, letting the baton slip to the ground next to the phone. “Look, old man, where do you want to meet with us then? It should be somewhere nice and public. I don’t want any damn surprises.”
He sighed again. “Fine, take all of the fun out of this, will you? How about we meet near your hometown, in one of those casinos in Detroit? You name the particular place and time. That should be public enough for all of us.”
I nodded. “Fine. Let’s meet in Greektown exactly 24 hours from now, bring that prick Dick Arnold with you as well.” I looked at my watch to fix the time in my head.
“Done.” The phone went silent.
Opening Gambit...Part 3
I stopped just before I touched the door, hand still extended. “What?”
Ravyn reached out and brushed my arm aside. Her voice grew louder in her impatience. “Don’t you see the damn door isn’t locked? Do you think a Caster of El Diablito’s ability is going to leave one of his haunts completely unprotected? Sheesh! After all of this time and after everything you’ve been through, you were just going to barge in there without thinking, weren’t you?”
I raised my hands in surrender. There was certainly no arguing with her when she was this fired up. “OK, OK. Do whatever you think you need to do to make it safe, I’ll be a good little zombie and wait for the mighty Caster to do her work!”
Ravyn’s eyes flashed as she turned to respond. Her mouth opened as if she were about to respond when Zenny slipped in between us, her back to Ravyn.
She looked up at me with disappointment in her eyes as she placed a hand on my forearm. “That was uncalled for, Rusty. Ravyn is thinking only of our safety.”
Her almond shaped brown eyes reflected a level of sadness that drew me up short. I looked away from her in shame. “I’m sorry Ravyn. I don’t know why I said that.”
Zenny turned to Ravyn and spoke in a very soft voice before Ravyn could reply to me. “Please, allow me.” She nodded towards the door.
Ravyn alternated looking between Zenny and me as she backed away from the door to allow Zenny to use her skills.
Zenny pulled the thin deerskin glove off her right hand and stepped to the door. She leaned in close to the door, placing her palm flat on the door at about ear height. She turned her head to the side as she did and closed her eyes. Her lips parted ever so slightly as she began to concentrate on what the door could tell her.
Ravyn watched her with concern, her own hands clenched with the tension of the unknown that hung heavy in the suddenly silent and still night air. Even the creaking of the sign had finally stopped. It was as if all of south Florida was waiting for the results of Zenny’s contact with the door.
After several tense moments, Zenny stepped back from the door with a sigh. As she turned to face the two of us, she brushed a stray strand of her dark hair back under her hijab. “This door has not been opened in nearly a year. The last people to use it were manual laborers of some sort. I don’t sense any about the door that would be of concern in opening it.”
Ravyn nodded. “That’s good. At least we know it’s safe to open the door.”
Zenny shuddered. “I did get a feel for this person you have called El Diablito.” She looked directly at me. “Rusty, I don’t think that I will ever be able to think of you as Shaitan again. That man has truly earned that name.”
Concerned, I put a hand on her shoulder. “What did you see?”
She shook her head. “That is something we can discuss at another time. Let’s see what awaits us inside.”
Zenny moved to the side, allowing me to reach out to the door as she carefully put her glove back on. She wore them almost all of the time since her talent was always active—giving her impressions and information about everything that she touched, unless she was wearing something as familiar and safe as those gloves.
With my left hand on the handle, I glanced back at Ravyn to make sure that she was ready and then flicked my right wrist to allow that baton to drop into my palm. I let it stay in its collapsed form for the moment.
At Ravyn’s nod, I yanked the door open and slipped into the doorway just in case there was a surprise waiting for us. The dark, dusty interior of the empty shop greeted me with bored indifference.
I recognized the skeleton of the once cluttered shop that I had visited those many years before. But the racks and shelves that had once been full to the point of bursting now stood empty like the bones of a long dead beast picked clean by scavengers.
“It looks abandoned.” I walked in towards the counter where the cashier used to stand. The light switch on the wall next to the ancient cash register was unresponsive.
Behind me, I heard Ravyn whisper. “Bob, you stay close, OK?”
I heard the cheery warble of ‘Bob’ reply as I looked back to see Ravyn on one knee at the doorway of the shop. She had taken her small backpack off and was holding the top flap open so that Bob could float out.
The soft yellow glow that Bob gave off when he was happy to be exploring a new place helped to illuminate the shop further. As Bob floated happily to the top of the room, the harsh, skeletal shadows retreated to their corners.
Ravyn stood up and swung the now empty pack back across her shoulders as stepped into the shop. Zenny followed behind her, smiling in wonder at the bizarre, orb-like creature that was now happily whistling as he drifted along the ceiling.
After taking stock of the clearly empty and abandoned shop, Ravyn turned to me. “You were here once before, can you lead us back to any office he might have had? That’s probably the place where we are most likely to find anything he left behind that Zenny might be able to get a reading off of.”
I nodded and pointed towards the curtain hanging just to the left of the cashier’s counter. “If go through there, we’ll pass through the used book area that he had and down a hall towards the back. There’s a large ceremonial room where he drugged me when he was making my Chakra. There’s a small office and kitchen area back there as well. If he’s been here in the last year, that’s where he’s most likely to have been.”
Ravyn pushed back the holey curtains, putting her hand to her face to protect herself from the dust cloud that act generated, and waved me through. “After you.”
(Conclusion of Opening Gambit due tonight…)
Ravyn reached out and brushed my arm aside. Her voice grew louder in her impatience. “Don’t you see the damn door isn’t locked? Do you think a Caster of El Diablito’s ability is going to leave one of his haunts completely unprotected? Sheesh! After all of this time and after everything you’ve been through, you were just going to barge in there without thinking, weren’t you?”
I raised my hands in surrender. There was certainly no arguing with her when she was this fired up. “OK, OK. Do whatever you think you need to do to make it safe, I’ll be a good little zombie and wait for the mighty Caster to do her work!”
Ravyn’s eyes flashed as she turned to respond. Her mouth opened as if she were about to respond when Zenny slipped in between us, her back to Ravyn.
She looked up at me with disappointment in her eyes as she placed a hand on my forearm. “That was uncalled for, Rusty. Ravyn is thinking only of our safety.”
Her almond shaped brown eyes reflected a level of sadness that drew me up short. I looked away from her in shame. “I’m sorry Ravyn. I don’t know why I said that.”
Zenny turned to Ravyn and spoke in a very soft voice before Ravyn could reply to me. “Please, allow me.” She nodded towards the door.
Ravyn alternated looking between Zenny and me as she backed away from the door to allow Zenny to use her skills.
Zenny pulled the thin deerskin glove off her right hand and stepped to the door. She leaned in close to the door, placing her palm flat on the door at about ear height. She turned her head to the side as she did and closed her eyes. Her lips parted ever so slightly as she began to concentrate on what the door could tell her.
Ravyn watched her with concern, her own hands clenched with the tension of the unknown that hung heavy in the suddenly silent and still night air. Even the creaking of the sign had finally stopped. It was as if all of south Florida was waiting for the results of Zenny’s contact with the door.
After several tense moments, Zenny stepped back from the door with a sigh. As she turned to face the two of us, she brushed a stray strand of her dark hair back under her hijab. “This door has not been opened in nearly a year. The last people to use it were manual laborers of some sort. I don’t sense any about the door that would be of concern in opening it.”
Ravyn nodded. “That’s good. At least we know it’s safe to open the door.”
Zenny shuddered. “I did get a feel for this person you have called El Diablito.” She looked directly at me. “Rusty, I don’t think that I will ever be able to think of you as Shaitan again. That man has truly earned that name.”
Concerned, I put a hand on her shoulder. “What did you see?”
She shook her head. “That is something we can discuss at another time. Let’s see what awaits us inside.”
Zenny moved to the side, allowing me to reach out to the door as she carefully put her glove back on. She wore them almost all of the time since her talent was always active—giving her impressions and information about everything that she touched, unless she was wearing something as familiar and safe as those gloves.
With my left hand on the handle, I glanced back at Ravyn to make sure that she was ready and then flicked my right wrist to allow that baton to drop into my palm. I let it stay in its collapsed form for the moment.
At Ravyn’s nod, I yanked the door open and slipped into the doorway just in case there was a surprise waiting for us. The dark, dusty interior of the empty shop greeted me with bored indifference.
I recognized the skeleton of the once cluttered shop that I had visited those many years before. But the racks and shelves that had once been full to the point of bursting now stood empty like the bones of a long dead beast picked clean by scavengers.
“It looks abandoned.” I walked in towards the counter where the cashier used to stand. The light switch on the wall next to the ancient cash register was unresponsive.
Behind me, I heard Ravyn whisper. “Bob, you stay close, OK?”
I heard the cheery warble of ‘Bob’ reply as I looked back to see Ravyn on one knee at the doorway of the shop. She had taken her small backpack off and was holding the top flap open so that Bob could float out.
The soft yellow glow that Bob gave off when he was happy to be exploring a new place helped to illuminate the shop further. As Bob floated happily to the top of the room, the harsh, skeletal shadows retreated to their corners.
Ravyn stood up and swung the now empty pack back across her shoulders as stepped into the shop. Zenny followed behind her, smiling in wonder at the bizarre, orb-like creature that was now happily whistling as he drifted along the ceiling.
After taking stock of the clearly empty and abandoned shop, Ravyn turned to me. “You were here once before, can you lead us back to any office he might have had? That’s probably the place where we are most likely to find anything he left behind that Zenny might be able to get a reading off of.”
I nodded and pointed towards the curtain hanging just to the left of the cashier’s counter. “If go through there, we’ll pass through the used book area that he had and down a hall towards the back. There’s a large ceremonial room where he drugged me when he was making my Chakra. There’s a small office and kitchen area back there as well. If he’s been here in the last year, that’s where he’s most likely to have been.”
Ravyn pushed back the holey curtains, putting her hand to her face to protect herself from the dust cloud that act generated, and waved me through. “After you.”
(Conclusion of Opening Gambit due tonight…)
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Opening Gambit...Part 2
Ravyn, Zenny and I walked through the cold Chicago air, our feet crunching the crusted snow cover as we moved towards the small stone circle behind the Phoenix Coop. Jim followed behind.
Zenny hugged her arms tightly about her body, her teeth chattering as she shivered. “Why must it be so cold in this place?”
Ravyn reached out to touch her shoulder. “I’m sorry dear, I forgot. This will help.” Ravyn closed her eyes for the briefest of moments, uttering a word under her breath that was lost to the whipping winds. A soft red glow slipped from her hand and spread from Zenny’s shoulder to cover her entire body, fading gently as it did.
Zenny brightened up considerably as the glow disappeared. “That’s so much better. I wish I knew how to do that.”
Ravyn threw back her head in laughter, the sound echoing in the still night air. “We all have our own talents dear. Remember, there are things that you can do that I wish I could do as well. But the key is that we all use the abilities that we do have to their best effect. My affinity with fire does come in very handy in these drearily cold Chicago winters. I can’t wait to someplace where I don’t need to worry about making myself or others warmer!”
I led the way into the circle, passing the large, rounded boulder that I always remembered for the way that Betsy had introduced herself to me by killing and devouring a dark wolf-like Spirit that had followed me back from the Underworld into the Shadowland. I had used this place several times since then as a transit point, but that image stuck with me.
Zenny followed close behind, arms still held about her torso as if she were expecting the cold to return at any moment.
Ravyn was the last to enter, but only after she had turned to give Jim a hug. They exchanged a few whispered sentences between themselves in the darkness, but again the bitter, whipping winds rolling in off of the not so distant Lake Michigan claimed those words, preventing me from hearing what was said.
I leaned over to Zenny and quietly posed my own question. “So how long have these two been acting like this with each other?”
“That is none of my, or your, business, Shaitan.”
I looked at her in surprise, until I saw the sly smile cross her face.
‘Shaitan’ was the name that she had first called me when I had rescued her in the Jordanian desert from a bunch of mercenary contractors hired by Dr. Geek. She had been nearly delirious after having been severely damaged by multiple rapes and by a lack of food and water. She had believed me to be an avenging spirit that she had been praying for. Unfortunately for those mercenaries, that was one expectation that I had lived up to.
She had not called me by that name in many months. She hadn’t, in fact, spoken directly too me very much at all in the months since she had been with Ravyn healing and learning to harness her own magickal talents. The fact that she was willing to now joke with me was very promising.
Ravyn bounced through the edge of the circle and came to a stop directly in front of me, fists planted on her hips. “And just what did you mean by that quip?”
I looked up from Ravyn to Jim, who had his own arms folded across his chest as he looked down at us over his glasses. I saw no support there at the moment.
“I…uh…was just wondering…ah…never mind.”
“Good idea. Now, are you done gawking, or do you a question to ask me directly?”
I held up my hands in surrender. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
She glanced back at Jim briefly, a knowing look passed between them. “Good, then let’s go to Hialeah.”
As previously instructed, both Zenny and Ravyn took one of my hands. I summoned the Shadow, opening the path to the Shadowland, and stepped through.
In that place, this stone ring looked almost exactly the same as it did in the world of the living. Now though, I could see a dark stain on the rock where Betsy had dropped and then consumed that wolf-spirit. Jim’s Spirit form stood there watching us as well. His Spirit form was nearly as large and tall as he was in life, roughly in the shape of a bear, standing on his hind legs. The colors of his form shifted slowly from dark blue to a more violet color as he began to worry about us.
I knew that Jim didn’t have the conscious ability to see into the Shadowland, but it was hard to resist one last nod of acknowledgement as I shifted my concentration from getting to the Shadowland to now moving through it to where we needed to go.
Even though the Shadowland was almost a mirror copy of the world of the living, the world in which we experience on a daily basis, time and distance are different concepts here. Moving from place to place within this realm was both much easier and much more difficult than in the traditional world of human experience.
Here in this transitory place, there are portals to many, many different worlds. Not all of these portals, however, work in both directions. It takes a special skill and recognition of the different kinds of portals and where they might lead that can only be acquired through trial and error.
Luckily, I have a well-spring of hard won knowledge of the Shadowland that I gained first from the remnants of Ma Grendel that I still hold within me, and from my own hard-won experience.
I must admit that being (un)dead helps me to overcome almost all of the mistakes I make when traveling through this place.
When John Red Bear taught me to free myself from the bounds of my Chakra by slip my spirit form into the Shadowland and through this place into the Underworld, he taught me to travel as a Shaman, spiritually.
It wasn’t until later, when I was able to observe Papa Locks use the Shadow in this way that I realized that real physical bodies, living and otherwise, could travel here as well. Upon discovering that I had this ability after my confrontation with Ma Grendel, my existence fundamentally changed.
Once in the Shadowland, I could, as a matter of Will send myself flying at such extraordinary speeds that I could arrive in Hialeah within moments. But by flying through the Shadowland that quickly, there would be a risk of passing through some random portal to a world that I would rather not go to. Because I was traveling with Ravyn and Zenny, and because the places we might end up in were just as likely to be inhospitable to living beings, I couldn’t take that chance, unless it was an emergency.
So instead of a single, speed of thought flight through the Shadowland, I drew a cocoon of Shadow about our bodies to keep us hidden from any of the nasty critters and unassociated Spirit forms (those Spirit forms no longer tied to living bodies—but who have been unable or unwilling to seek the next stop in their Spiritual journey—often called ghosts) and made our journey in dozens of shorter, bouncing flights along paths I felt to be safe.
The whole journey took less than half an hour, although it felt like much more by the time I dismissed the bubble of Shadow and we emerged in the dark alley outside the entrance to El Diablito’s old metaphysical shop, NextWorld in the heart of the warehouse district of Hialeah, just a few miles north of Miami International Airport.
Ravyn was the first to let go of my hand as she stepped away, brushing away the fleeting tendrils of dark Shadow substance that still clung to her clothing as if were stray pet hair. “OK, I like my way a LOT better.” She gave me a wicked grin and winked at Zenny. “Remind me again why we decided to travel by Zombie Air?”
Zenny steadied herself against the hard brick wall of the warehouse with both hands, trying to regain her balance. Her normally dark complexion had whitened considerably, but was now beginning to regain her normal hues. “Is there a better way than this? I did not like that very much.”
I shrugged, brushed myself off and grinned back at Ravyn. “Well, coming into the middle of Metro Miami with either a great big flash of fire and smoke or on the back of a flaming Phoenix might have brought a little more unwanted attention than my way did, but hey, I’m open to better suggestions.”
Ravyn stuck her tongue at me before going over to Zenny and helping her.
Having no tongue to stick back out at her, I turned to check out the door to the old shop. It looked very much like I had left it, several years before, when I first received my Chakra. The Cuban-born cabbie who had dropped me off here seemed to have been quite afraid of this place, or the neighborhood, or both.
I crossed the alley and came to the door that led into the front of the shop. The metallic sign hanging overhead creaked as it swung reluctantly in the stiff night breeze. The door had a simple pull handle, no key hole for a lock and no hooks or latches for a padlock of any sort.
As the gals came up behind me, I reached out to the handle.
Ravyn called out in a hushed whisper. “Rusty, wait!”
(To be continued)
Zenny hugged her arms tightly about her body, her teeth chattering as she shivered. “Why must it be so cold in this place?”
Ravyn reached out to touch her shoulder. “I’m sorry dear, I forgot. This will help.” Ravyn closed her eyes for the briefest of moments, uttering a word under her breath that was lost to the whipping winds. A soft red glow slipped from her hand and spread from Zenny’s shoulder to cover her entire body, fading gently as it did.
Zenny brightened up considerably as the glow disappeared. “That’s so much better. I wish I knew how to do that.”
Ravyn threw back her head in laughter, the sound echoing in the still night air. “We all have our own talents dear. Remember, there are things that you can do that I wish I could do as well. But the key is that we all use the abilities that we do have to their best effect. My affinity with fire does come in very handy in these drearily cold Chicago winters. I can’t wait to someplace where I don’t need to worry about making myself or others warmer!”
I led the way into the circle, passing the large, rounded boulder that I always remembered for the way that Betsy had introduced herself to me by killing and devouring a dark wolf-like Spirit that had followed me back from the Underworld into the Shadowland. I had used this place several times since then as a transit point, but that image stuck with me.
Zenny followed close behind, arms still held about her torso as if she were expecting the cold to return at any moment.
Ravyn was the last to enter, but only after she had turned to give Jim a hug. They exchanged a few whispered sentences between themselves in the darkness, but again the bitter, whipping winds rolling in off of the not so distant Lake Michigan claimed those words, preventing me from hearing what was said.
I leaned over to Zenny and quietly posed my own question. “So how long have these two been acting like this with each other?”
“That is none of my, or your, business, Shaitan.”
I looked at her in surprise, until I saw the sly smile cross her face.
‘Shaitan’ was the name that she had first called me when I had rescued her in the Jordanian desert from a bunch of mercenary contractors hired by Dr. Geek. She had been nearly delirious after having been severely damaged by multiple rapes and by a lack of food and water. She had believed me to be an avenging spirit that she had been praying for. Unfortunately for those mercenaries, that was one expectation that I had lived up to.
She had not called me by that name in many months. She hadn’t, in fact, spoken directly too me very much at all in the months since she had been with Ravyn healing and learning to harness her own magickal talents. The fact that she was willing to now joke with me was very promising.
Ravyn bounced through the edge of the circle and came to a stop directly in front of me, fists planted on her hips. “And just what did you mean by that quip?”
I looked up from Ravyn to Jim, who had his own arms folded across his chest as he looked down at us over his glasses. I saw no support there at the moment.
“I…uh…was just wondering…ah…never mind.”
“Good idea. Now, are you done gawking, or do you a question to ask me directly?”
I held up my hands in surrender. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
She glanced back at Jim briefly, a knowing look passed between them. “Good, then let’s go to Hialeah.”
As previously instructed, both Zenny and Ravyn took one of my hands. I summoned the Shadow, opening the path to the Shadowland, and stepped through.
In that place, this stone ring looked almost exactly the same as it did in the world of the living. Now though, I could see a dark stain on the rock where Betsy had dropped and then consumed that wolf-spirit. Jim’s Spirit form stood there watching us as well. His Spirit form was nearly as large and tall as he was in life, roughly in the shape of a bear, standing on his hind legs. The colors of his form shifted slowly from dark blue to a more violet color as he began to worry about us.
I knew that Jim didn’t have the conscious ability to see into the Shadowland, but it was hard to resist one last nod of acknowledgement as I shifted my concentration from getting to the Shadowland to now moving through it to where we needed to go.
Even though the Shadowland was almost a mirror copy of the world of the living, the world in which we experience on a daily basis, time and distance are different concepts here. Moving from place to place within this realm was both much easier and much more difficult than in the traditional world of human experience.
Here in this transitory place, there are portals to many, many different worlds. Not all of these portals, however, work in both directions. It takes a special skill and recognition of the different kinds of portals and where they might lead that can only be acquired through trial and error.
Luckily, I have a well-spring of hard won knowledge of the Shadowland that I gained first from the remnants of Ma Grendel that I still hold within me, and from my own hard-won experience.
I must admit that being (un)dead helps me to overcome almost all of the mistakes I make when traveling through this place.
When John Red Bear taught me to free myself from the bounds of my Chakra by slip my spirit form into the Shadowland and through this place into the Underworld, he taught me to travel as a Shaman, spiritually.
It wasn’t until later, when I was able to observe Papa Locks use the Shadow in this way that I realized that real physical bodies, living and otherwise, could travel here as well. Upon discovering that I had this ability after my confrontation with Ma Grendel, my existence fundamentally changed.
Once in the Shadowland, I could, as a matter of Will send myself flying at such extraordinary speeds that I could arrive in Hialeah within moments. But by flying through the Shadowland that quickly, there would be a risk of passing through some random portal to a world that I would rather not go to. Because I was traveling with Ravyn and Zenny, and because the places we might end up in were just as likely to be inhospitable to living beings, I couldn’t take that chance, unless it was an emergency.
So instead of a single, speed of thought flight through the Shadowland, I drew a cocoon of Shadow about our bodies to keep us hidden from any of the nasty critters and unassociated Spirit forms (those Spirit forms no longer tied to living bodies—but who have been unable or unwilling to seek the next stop in their Spiritual journey—often called ghosts) and made our journey in dozens of shorter, bouncing flights along paths I felt to be safe.
The whole journey took less than half an hour, although it felt like much more by the time I dismissed the bubble of Shadow and we emerged in the dark alley outside the entrance to El Diablito’s old metaphysical shop, NextWorld in the heart of the warehouse district of Hialeah, just a few miles north of Miami International Airport.
Ravyn was the first to let go of my hand as she stepped away, brushing away the fleeting tendrils of dark Shadow substance that still clung to her clothing as if were stray pet hair. “OK, I like my way a LOT better.” She gave me a wicked grin and winked at Zenny. “Remind me again why we decided to travel by Zombie Air?”
Zenny steadied herself against the hard brick wall of the warehouse with both hands, trying to regain her balance. Her normally dark complexion had whitened considerably, but was now beginning to regain her normal hues. “Is there a better way than this? I did not like that very much.”
I shrugged, brushed myself off and grinned back at Ravyn. “Well, coming into the middle of Metro Miami with either a great big flash of fire and smoke or on the back of a flaming Phoenix might have brought a little more unwanted attention than my way did, but hey, I’m open to better suggestions.”
Ravyn stuck her tongue at me before going over to Zenny and helping her.
Having no tongue to stick back out at her, I turned to check out the door to the old shop. It looked very much like I had left it, several years before, when I first received my Chakra. The Cuban-born cabbie who had dropped me off here seemed to have been quite afraid of this place, or the neighborhood, or both.
I crossed the alley and came to the door that led into the front of the shop. The metallic sign hanging overhead creaked as it swung reluctantly in the stiff night breeze. The door had a simple pull handle, no key hole for a lock and no hooks or latches for a padlock of any sort.
As the gals came up behind me, I reached out to the handle.
Ravyn called out in a hushed whisper. “Rusty, wait!”
(To be continued)
Sunday, January 30, 2005
The Conversation-Epilogue
Once I reached the decision to play along with the Director and take the money he was offering, the rest of that meeting was fairly unremarkable in the content of our conversation. It was, however, very revealing in terms of the documents I was given to review and in some cases sign.
The first revelation came when he gave me a thick memo to review that discussed the training regimen that we had participated in up to that moment, including all of the nutrient supplements that we had been given. These supplements were apparently designed to make certain chemical changes in our bone structures as well as our muscle and nervous systems. I had noticed that over the course of the previous year or two, that I had gained about 20 pounds. Strangely though, my clothes seemed to fit, with only slight adjustments needed in a couple of my smaller suit coats and dress shirts. My shoulders were bigger and my muscles did seem denser. I noticed that the regimen would become noticeably stricter in the coming months, which didn't sit well with me at all.
The next surprise came when he presented me with a schedule, showing the tentative dates for me to make certain trips to a location in Hialeah, Florida, a small suburb of Miami in Dade County that is home to perhaps the largest proportion of non-native born people in the United States, mostly Cuban ex-pats. When I questioned him on the reason for that location, the Director just smiled that evil grin of his and said that one of the experts needed for the spiritual preparations lived there and that he didn't like to travel much.
(I can tell you, that THAT guy was even scarier than Drake...even if he did appear to be a spry little old man more likely to be doting on grandchildren at first. He earned his nick-name, El Diablito-the Little Devil, when he put on his magickal personna. He wasn't Hispanic, but he did have an almost imperceptible accent when he got excited. He ran a small, rather specialized shop in a warehouse district of Hialeah that sold magickal supplies and implements catering to Santeria and Voudoun practictioners in the area. I don't know what the name of the store is now, since he has since sold it and moved away, but when he owned it, it was called NextWorld, Inc.)
Finally, the Driector presented all sorts of forms that appeared to be the actual contract, only it was about twenty pages long with extremely small type. The legalese on this form could choke a lawyer, be I read through the entire thing, making his ass wait while I asked questions to clarify points. He smiled with each answer and that little glow in his eyes growing just a little brighter as I flipped each page after initialling off on it.
Turns out that the deal seemed awfully good when I read it, and who knows, how can I really complain when here I am, over a year after I was killed, telling you all about it?
Well, we'll answer that question together over time as I grow into this new existence and share with you my experiences. So far the results are mixed at best.
I think that just about wraps up this crucial conversation with Drake. This was my first hint at the darkness that lies beneath that cold, evil smile of his, but it wasn't until fairly recently that I have really soured on the bastard, seeing him for the evil little prick that he is. Somehow, I wouldn't put it past him to have had a hand in my death....but if he did, he has hidden it well.
I can tell you, however, that I will never stop looking into what happened that night, and if I find out that he, or anyone else in this program had a hand in that, they had better watch out!
The first revelation came when he gave me a thick memo to review that discussed the training regimen that we had participated in up to that moment, including all of the nutrient supplements that we had been given. These supplements were apparently designed to make certain chemical changes in our bone structures as well as our muscle and nervous systems. I had noticed that over the course of the previous year or two, that I had gained about 20 pounds. Strangely though, my clothes seemed to fit, with only slight adjustments needed in a couple of my smaller suit coats and dress shirts. My shoulders were bigger and my muscles did seem denser. I noticed that the regimen would become noticeably stricter in the coming months, which didn't sit well with me at all.
The next surprise came when he presented me with a schedule, showing the tentative dates for me to make certain trips to a location in Hialeah, Florida, a small suburb of Miami in Dade County that is home to perhaps the largest proportion of non-native born people in the United States, mostly Cuban ex-pats. When I questioned him on the reason for that location, the Director just smiled that evil grin of his and said that one of the experts needed for the spiritual preparations lived there and that he didn't like to travel much.
(I can tell you, that THAT guy was even scarier than Drake...even if he did appear to be a spry little old man more likely to be doting on grandchildren at first. He earned his nick-name, El Diablito-the Little Devil, when he put on his magickal personna. He wasn't Hispanic, but he did have an almost imperceptible accent when he got excited. He ran a small, rather specialized shop in a warehouse district of Hialeah that sold magickal supplies and implements catering to Santeria and Voudoun practictioners in the area. I don't know what the name of the store is now, since he has since sold it and moved away, but when he owned it, it was called NextWorld, Inc.)
Finally, the Driector presented all sorts of forms that appeared to be the actual contract, only it was about twenty pages long with extremely small type. The legalese on this form could choke a lawyer, be I read through the entire thing, making his ass wait while I asked questions to clarify points. He smiled with each answer and that little glow in his eyes growing just a little brighter as I flipped each page after initialling off on it.
Turns out that the deal seemed awfully good when I read it, and who knows, how can I really complain when here I am, over a year after I was killed, telling you all about it?
Well, we'll answer that question together over time as I grow into this new existence and share with you my experiences. So far the results are mixed at best.
I think that just about wraps up this crucial conversation with Drake. This was my first hint at the darkness that lies beneath that cold, evil smile of his, but it wasn't until fairly recently that I have really soured on the bastard, seeing him for the evil little prick that he is. Somehow, I wouldn't put it past him to have had a hand in my death....but if he did, he has hidden it well.
I can tell you, however, that I will never stop looking into what happened that night, and if I find out that he, or anyone else in this program had a hand in that, they had better watch out!
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