Paranormal After Dark

by Rebecca Hamilton

  "You don't tell, I will," Layol warned, and quickly added, "Minus the girly parts, of course."

  "No-you-won't!" Dekram's eyes drove her anger. "We agreed. Not tonight."

  "Sh-yeah, right. C'mon! I totally do not agree!"

  Dekram snapped, "You did! You promised! You said-"

  "I bloody know what I said—that was before, this is now—and Nes needs to know everything."

  "Mother Trudy's stubborn child!" Nesohc snapped, "Out with it, one of you!"

  The girls glared at each other while Nesohc took in a few noisy breathes. Then Dekram's frustration erupted. "Fine! Just fine! But I'll tell him my way!" Brows knit, mouth tight, she turned her gaze on Nesohc. "Things have been really strange at home and at school. I've overheard several conversations that have me thinking the town has some big plan for me. It has to do with the missions and me being a half-breed. I mean, what do we really know about the missions? This is our first and since there are no children in Wandermere, other than our generation, we have only the adults to rely on for answers."

  "You're staaalling," Layol sang.

  "Am not!"

  "Are too!"

  "I am not!"

  "You are too!"

  "I-"

  Nesohc threw up his arms, throat rumbling like a black cloud.

  Dekram's wings leaked pink sparkles. She took a deep breath and meekly told Nesohc about Principle Nrets using the word 'experiment' while hinting to some sacrifice her mother and father had made. She left out the coming of age comment, anything said about Detaf, and the whole sexual behavior thing with reference to Nesohc.

  Layol encouraged. "Tell him the whole conversation between Mrs. Evol and the librarian.

  Dekram sighed. Layol took over.

  "So," Layol summarized, hands gesturing all over the place. "What we have is something to do with her, um, being half Air and Water, the mission thingy, and something about special powers her mother is afraid she'll unleash in the human world. Then there's the town meeting tonight about other issues, like dating, and..." Layol paused, turned away from Dekram's angry expression, and mumbled, "Her coming of age seems to be a concern." Layol ignored Dekram's horrified gasp. "Anyway, I think you get it."

  Nesohc looked gob-smacked. He blinked several times, turned bright red, and finally said, "All righty then, what say we head inside while I process all that info?"

  Dekram whacked Layol's arm. "Could you have embarrassed me any more than you just did?"

  "Don't be embarrassed," Nesohc was quick to say. "It's just a lot to absorb."

  "It's okay, Nes. Maybe Layol is exaggerating." When she turned to dare her friend to say anything she found Layol was hanging back, eyes searching in the direction Fire took Detaf. "Lay! What are you thinking?"

  Layol yelped a turnabout. "Uh, nothing... You two go on in. I'm gonna hang here in case Etah or Detaf come back."

  "When Tink rips off her wings and gives them to you!" Nesohc said, "We stick together, remember?"

  Layol frowned and darted back. "Did you know that if Tink gave me her wings I could become Tink?"

  Nesohc flew toward the corner of the building.

  "Stop stalling with idiotic Internet drivel," Dekram said, pointing in Nesohc's direction.

  Reluctantly, Layol fell in beside her friend and they both followed him toward the entrance. "Guess I'll have to sneak out the window in the ladies restroom," she whispered.

  Dekram's eyes bulged. "You wouldn't dare!"

  "Why not?"

  "Please don't do anything stupid," Dekram managed to spit out before they caught up with Nesohc.

  "I say we have a quick look around," Nesohc said through a smile directed at Dekram, "then head over to spy on that meeting."

  Dekram smiled back, but she was looking at the red neon light flickering off the tethered insects' wings. Before she could point it out to Nesohc, Layol shrieked, "O'mifairygodmother! It's a glittering-X!" She looked at the entrance. "Pixin', impin awesome," Layol said and bolted for the door.

  "Wait for us!" Nesohc yelled, pulling Dekram along.

  "Ah-duh," Layol said, hand swiping over the X. "Like I so totally didn't hear that a zillion times already. I just wanted to check out the door. Look, it's glitter." She turned her hand over.

  Dekram's brow mocked. "You are sooo easily amused."

  "Don't be stingin' me," Layol snapped. "It looks ugly on you." She jerked open the door and the night throbbed a deep repetitive beat.

  The three stepped into a small room with an archway on the far side that led into a hall dimly lit in blue. Painted on the wall on the other side of the arch was a curved twinkling arrow, pointing left. Under the arrow were a gilded etched mirror and a squatty mahogany table with several gold buckets on top.

  When the door closed the odor of damp earth and rotting leaves became stronger. Pictures of fairytale characters animated the walls. Humpty Dumpty fell from the wall over and over again. Tweedledum and Tweedledee danced around a Cheshire cat. Alice bit one cookie and shrunk to the floor, bit another and rose to the ceiling. Jiminy Cricket poked his umbrella into a gilded cage where Stromboli was strung up, making him dance for an audience of wooden puppets.

  "Wicked impy!" Layol breathed in awe, arms spread as she circled. "We fell into the magical rabbit hole."

  Dekram tucked her wings and walked toward the arch. "I wonder what's in those buckets under the glowing arrow."

  "Hold up." Nesohc came to attention. "Let me look first, just in case."

  Layol rocketed right over them. "Crap a toadstool, its glitter!" She reached into a bucket and pulled out a rubber stamp, screeched a giggle and pressed a sparkly pink heart onto her cheek. She repeated the process with a stamp from another bucket and a gold star twinkled on one shoulder.

  Nesohc smiled at Dekram. "Think we should intervene before she turns into a walking day-glow event?"

  "You don't think the sparkles are laced with anything, do you?" Dekram worried a look at Layol.

  Nesohc's eyes followed Dekram's. "I doubt it, but if she starts acting weird…"

  They both giggled.

  "How about if she starts acting normal?" Dekram giggled her way to laughter.

  Layol turned a big grin at them, each hand holding a stamp, and when they popped with laughter, she asked, "What?"

  With uncontrollable giggles, Dekram and Nesohc hung on to each other, wings circling them like fan blades. Every inch of bare skin on Layol's body was covered with pink hearts, green peace symbols, gold stars, purple arrows—like the one on the wall—and a big red circle with a just say no slash. Only, where she'd stamped the circle, it looked like more of a don't touch statement.

  It was clear Nesohc was having a very hard time trying to keep a straight face.

  "Are you finished?" Dekram asked, and quickly captured her lips between her teeth.

  "No," Layol said, "I was just going to finger paint my lips and brows," she wrinkled her face, sending a rainbow of glitter to the floor. "Too much?"

  Nesohc barked a laugh. "Heck no. You can never sparkle too much." He wiggled his nose at Dekram, pulled his shirt over his head, tucked it into the back of his jeans, and grinned. "In fact, how about you paint a target of hearts on my chest with an arrow pointing at her?" He smiled at Dekram by his side.

  Jaws dropped.

  Dekram couldn't take her eyes off the bare stomach above Nesohc's tight low riders.

  Nesohc's smile widened.

  Layol's mouth snapped closed. "Don't tempt me, buddy." She waved the heart stamp covered in pink glitter at Nesohc.

  Nesohc grinned at Layol and pulled the shirt back over his head, wings flashing red as they appeared on the outside of his shirt. He jerked a brush from a can, shoved his face in front of the mirror and painted his lips with blue glitter. He turned and promptly kissed Dekram on the center of her forehead. His smile glittered blue. "There, I marked you. Everyone will know you're mine," he shouted over a burst of music that rushed down the hall.

  Dekram's hea
d dipped toward the floor. His mark. How pixin' cool is that?

  Layol waved a hand down the hall. "Ah-huh, talk about a target. They'll think she's yours and probably fifty others." Two Fire fairies with blue lips and purple brows passed through the arch, gave the three of them a look-over, flexed tattooed arms then headed out the front door.

  Layol breezed down the hall, shouting, "C'mon! There's another arrow with a table under it at the end of the hall."

  Nesohc thumbed the kiss off Dekram's forehead. "How about I write my name across your forehead?" Nesohc teased.

  "Um-"

  "Oh-crap-yes!" Layol shrilled a screech. "They have neon necklaces!"

  As Nesohc took Dekram's hand and pulled her down the hall, she thought, The gods help me, I almost said yes!

  Layol had neon beads wrapped up her legs, arms, and around her neck.

  "You look like Mardi Gras upchucked all over you." Nesohc laughed as Layol extended two hands full of brightly lit necklaces. He took them and put half around Dekram's neck, stretched two around her head like a sweatband and put the rest over his head. He pointed at a big glowing red X at the end of a hall on the right. "That must be the buzz."

  They zipped down a dark hall into a room that pulsed with color, chanting, and a throbbing bass.

  Over the music, the mass chanted, "Buzz on. Buzz on. Everyone pass that buzz around".

  Every time the group yelled 'Buzz on' body parts bounced against partners and fists pumped the air. The room was wall-to-wall packed with undulating bodies. Small particles flickered in the air. Strobe lighting shared the stage with black lights and turned the action into fragmented movement and ever-changing neon symbols.

  Dekram pulled her hands off her ears and shouted, "Anyone see Soahc?"

  Nesohc shook his head. "You want to circle the crowd?"

  Dekram nodded.

  Nesohc pointed along a wall where there was some limited room to move. He headed in that direction.

  Dekram started to follow, but Layol shouted, "Holy crapola, there's Etah," and bolted off in another direction.

  Dekram yelled, "Layol! Wait." When her friend kept moving, Dekram called to Nesohc. They locked eyes, and she pointed behind her. Nesohc glanced over Dekram's head then shouldered a question. Dekram turned around and Layol was lost in the throng of bodies. The room was uncomfortably warm and mingled scents were tainted in sweat. It had a warehouse feel, cement floors, and walls that vaulted high above into darkness; below it was a maelstrom of color.

  Dekram shot toward Nesohc hoping the air was fresher above. It wasn't. In fact, it was hotter and more acrid the higher she flew. "Layol saw Etah and took off after her," Dekram shouted in Nesohc's ear.

  Their eyes scanned the crowd below, but all that was visible was a sea of sweaty, half-dressed bodies dancing so close it was hard to tell what limb belonged to which fairy. Colored light enhanced thick smoke on the dance floor, making it look alive. Responding to movement, it rolled and pulsed around feet, and wafted and waved its way up legs.

  "Don't leave this spot," Nesohc ordered. "I'm going to circle the room." When she nodded, he flew along the ceiling where it met the wall.

  The repetitious beat of the music made Dekram's pulse hammer in her chest. She pulled out her cell phone, hit the camera button, zoomed in and panned the crowd. The back door opened and lit the room with a moonbeam. Dekram swung the cell lens in that direction.

  On the camera screen, Dekram could see that the wall by the door held Etah up. And before she could scan for Layol, Detaf staggered through the back door and it shut behind him, cutting off her light. She stared at the flashing colors on her otherwise dark iPhone screen and huffed frustration.

  Dekram adjusted the camera and followed a wave of pulsing light over the crowd. Soahc's body filled the screen. She was tonguing thick golden liquid dripping down the chin of a Fire fairy. Soahc raised an arm, body sensually rubbing against the Fire fairy's hip.

  Mouth hanging open, Layol, Etah and Detaf totally forgotten, Dekram held her breath, thumb working the zoom button as she caught fragments of movement. The Fire fairy pulled Soahc to his chest, covered her mouth with his—there was tongue action. Dekram panned in closer, mesmerized.

  "I THINK I JUST SAW—"

  Dekram yelped a circle, cell phone flying. Nesohc leapt, wings working overtime, hands juggling the cell. He finally snagged it mid-air. Dekram sucked in several deep breaths, hand rising with her chest.

  "Bury me under a clover patch, why don't cha! What the heck was that all about?" Nesohc pushed the phone into her hand.

  "Etah is standing against the far wall and Detaf just staggered through the back door! But I don't see Layol!" Dekram blurted, shaking the cell in the appropriate direction. "Did you see her?"

  Chapter 9

  "WHAT WAS THE last thing Lay said to you?" Nesohc's eyes searched the crowd for the umpteenth time.

  Dekram's concentration flicked from his eyes, pulsing mirrored color to the beat of the music, to his electric blue lips which seemed to dance as he spoke. "She said, and I quote, 'Holycrapola, there's Etah.' Then she bolted through the crowd."

  From behind, a grim voice said, "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions..."

  Nesohc and Dekram whipped their heads around.

  "Another astute human said that, Oscar Wilde." Mirg pointed at the throbbing throng of bodies below. She was dressed all CyberPunk-Dreadful Dollhouse. "...their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation'".

  Almost everything Mirg wore was black: skull cap, veil attached and pulled low enough to cover one-third of her face; thigh-length lace dress hugging the upper half of her body, flaring at the hips over leggings; dark gray and black argyle leg warmers starting just above her knees bunched at the top of polished military dress shoes, clunky with thick soles; makeup all grim-glamour; sallow skin made even harsher by blue hair so dark it looked black until it caught light; deep gray eye-shadow and burgundy eyeliner dramatizing light gray eyes; shiny black lips floating between her nose and chin. She looked like walking death and just as scary as those dreadful dolls.

  "What?" Dekram asked.

  "One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead." Mirg's vacant eyes glazed over. "He said that too; yes, a very clever man, that Mister Wilde.

  "What are you grousing about?" Nesohc asked.

  "Them." She fanned a hand to encompass the dancing fairies below them. Black-lace covered fingers tapped quivering lips on an otherwise covered face. Mirg sighed. "To be sure, I really must go ask. But I'm afraid Etah's hateful self is dead to us now. However, one would think the death of one's fictional nature is not necessarily a true death." She smiled. "I made that up, just now, all by myself," she mused and flitted off toward the back door.

  Dekram elbowed Nesohc. "Did you see her eyes?"

  "The pupils were dilated," Nesohc said.

  Dekram raised a brow. "Should we follow—?"

  "Absolutely not. We're looking for Lay." Nesohc bounced both palms in the air. "Or did you forget that your gal-pal is out there somewhere? Hopefully, without dilated pupils."

  Dekram pulled her attention off Mirg and gave it to Nesohc. "Lay is too smart to fall into a trap."

  "Grim! Grim reapers are among us!" Mirg belted out over the crowd before she descended near the back door.

  "Right?" Dekram's eyes widened. "We'd have heard Lay a mile away, right?"

  "Calm down," Nesohc said. "We'll find her."

  Dekram's wings vibrated, and red sparkles fell through rays of light below them.

  Nesohc scanned the room again. "Well, she's clearly not down there."

  "I can see that."

  Nesohc tightened his mouth, shook his head. "Why did you let her go off alone?"

  "Sting me! You left me alone."

  "No," Nesohc said, wings zinging. "I thought I was leaving you with Lay."

  "Oh, sure! Go gettin' all emo on me. Not my fault if I follow instructions and Lay doesn't."
/>   "Maybe she went to the restroom," Nesohc calmly suggested. "Did you look there?"

  "Oh, no!" Dekram shouted over the music and around the outburst of lyric chanting. "She said she was going to sneak out the bathroom window to find Etah."

  "But you said she saw Etah by the back door."

  "You don't think she'd go back through the portal, do you?" Dekram asked.

  Nesohc's nostrils flared. He grabbed Dekram around the waist and pulled her above the crowd, toward the front entrance.

  Dekram caught sight of a sign on a wall. "Wait, Nes!—restrooms." She pointed at a neon arrow beneath the sign then yanked free and dragonfly-darted in that direction, Nesohc riding her wings. He came to an abrupt stop and hovered near the ceiling as Dekram slipped through a slightly out of focus membrane that glimmered under a picture of a pink-leather clad Tink in platform hip boots.

  Dekram stopped abruptly inside the restroom, eyes scanning. The room was dramatic; lambent pink tube-lights ran along the ceiling between two rows of stalls and stained the walls pink. The floor was a murky kaleidoscope of reflected color as fairies flitted this way and that.

  Flying over the cubical stalls, Dekram dusted everything with multicolored sparkles as short snappy complaints cut her frustrated apologies. Fairies scattered and darted out the exit like butterflies fleeing a disturbed field of wildflowers.

  A sparkly reflection in the long mirror lining the back wall caught Dekram's attention. Hard to miss those bedazzled Jimmy Choo knockoffs. Even harder to miss the wiggling, heart-shaped, pink clad butt hanging over the window ledge.

  Dekram shot across the room, grabbed her friend's wings, and tugged. "Get back in here!"

  "I'm tryin'!"

  Dekram tugged harder.

  Layol yelped. "Go ahead pull my wings off, why don't cha. Not like I need 'em or anything."

  "We were supposed to stay together." Dekram placed her feet on the wall below the sill for leverage, wings buzzing.

  "Crapolla, that hurts! Stop pulling! Just help me unsnag my dress?"

  "I think I'll leave you stuck right there. At least, I'll know where you are," Dekram taunted.

  "Stinging makes you look ugly," Layol grunted, feet working like a balance weight as her arms reached for the snagged dress.