Paranormal After Dark

by Rebecca Hamilton

  Mouths slack, Dekram and Nesohc stared at Layol for about ten human heartbeats. Then Layol flew to a slatted-metal-ball shaped thing sticking out from the roof. "There's no screen. We're good to go." She assumed a darting position, body bobbing in time with revolving blades inside the exhaust fan.

  "She is so not going to—"

  Layol darted.

  "Huh, guess that'd be a yes," Nesohc said, taking up the same position before the fan, body moving with the beat of the blades.

  Before Dekram could spit out an objection, Nesohc disappeared through the blades.

  "Am I the only one who is absolutely not cut out for investigative field work?" Dekram mumbled with both hands knuckle deep in red curls as she stood staring at the ventilator.

  "Are you coming?" Layol's voice echoed hollowly from the fan, followed by three squeaky sneezes and, "Toad crap, it's so dusty in here.

  Dekram gathered her hair behind her head and leaned closer to the blades.

  "Just do it. Worst scenario, you get a bad haircut."

  Dekram cupped her free hand around her mouth, and audibly mumbled, "Nope, worst scenario, I get sliced and diced."

  "It's like jumping double ropes, time the movement, get the beat, and take advantage of the opening. Simple, you can do it. Be right back, fairy-boy needs my help." Layol answered.

  "Why? What kind of help?" Dekram asked as she paced a circle around the fan. There was no answer other than sneezes that faded into silence. Heart hammering, she continued to walk, angry eyes on the moving blades. "Crap, I was never good at jumping a single rope, never mind a double. And jumping rope doesn't lose you an appendage for a lack in judgment," she groused. Hand on her chest, feeling dizzy, she closed her eyes, tried to catch her breath and when she opened them the moving fan blades looked like Spanish moss swirling around cypress branches in front of a hollow on the tree's trunk. The image made her even dizzier. She reached out, felt bark and with short rapid breaths squeezed her eyes tight.

  "Where are you?" Nesohc asked.

  Dekram's eyes popped open, and she snatched her hand from the feel of cold metal. Nesohc's yummy face flashed between blade movements and erratic images of the swaying moss.

  Layol appeared next to Nesohc, backhanding her pink nose. "She's right there and, look at her, she's never gonna do this."

  "Ya think?" Nesohc panted and tossed a look at Layol that was a tad-bit snarky.

  Layol ignored him. "Calm down, Dek—crap, you look all pasty—'cause we came up with a solution."

  "WE did not," Nesohc said. "I came up with the solution, and hoisted this sucker up here all by myself."

  "Just shut up and let me help," Layol grunted.

  "Well I did come up with it! And you're not helping." Nesohc made a few angry animal noises.

  "Gotta get all techy on me, don't cha?" Layol snorted, and groaned with her effort.

  "You shut up," Nesohc ground out, "and put your wings into it."

  "Like I'm so not doing that already," Layol griped. "It's heavy."

  "No crap."

  Dekram took several deep breaths, partially regained composure, and watched as a round piece of metal that looked like an axle off a human's push toy, popped between the blades and the fan came to a grinding halt.

  Nesohc flew out, wiped the sweat from his brow, waved an arm and bowed. "This way, My Lady."

  "Oh puh-leeze," Layol snapped. "Just push her through."

  Nesohc shook his head, hand on the small of Dekram's back.

  Dekram, eyes glued on the stationary blades, hesitated.

  Layol huffed, grabbed two very real looking blades on the fan and shoved her head between them. "Coming? Or are we all hoping for a decapitation exhibition?"

  Dekram took another cleansing breath, closed her eyes, and darted through, Nesohc right behind her. On the other side, Dekram shuddered, immediately snuggled up to Nesohc, and buried her face in his chest.

  Layol rolled her eyes. "Tink's a big tease!—you are so working that crush thing, gal-pal. Climb all over him why don't cha?"

  Dekram turned bright pink; rapid wings shot her six fairy inches away from Nesohc.

  "She's just too darn easy, right?" Layol elbowed Nesohc and laughed through a sneeze.

  "Can we just get on with this?" Dekram spun red sparkles around the attic, feigning interest, all the while hoping the room wouldn't suddenly turn into a mole hole.

  "It's just so dusty up here." Layol planted her feet on the floor and strutted past, looking like a human.

  "How do you walk in those shoes?" Dekram followed her friend down an oversized set of wooden stairs that wound its way to a massive wooden door.

  "Many, many, years of practice," Layol said with a serious voice as she examined the huge door.

  Nesohc barked a laugh. "Yep, bet your momma said 'no training shoes for my little fairy, gonna break 'er in on the big boys.'"

  Layol did a tongue, tooth-flicking thing and pointed to the keyhole under the door knob, all business like. "Old building—skeleton key lock—we're in luck. You just go at it quick, tuck your wings at the last second, roll, feet go through stacked and… Crap, just watch me." Layol's wings buzzed, she darted for the lock, cocooned her wings around her body, and zipped through the circle part of the keyhole, Jimmy Choo's stacked to clear the bottom slit.

  Dekram and Nesohc shared a bewildered look before turning back to the keyhole.

  "I know—looks difficult—took years of…never mind." Layol's head peeked out from under the door. "You can just slide under here."

  "For the love of Disney, you're the queen of drama." Dekram and Nesohc laid down on the bottom step, tucked their wings and rolled under the door.

  Getting into a vent, however, was another story. They stood in front of the fifth one they'd found on the third floor of the building, with no luck.

  "Why do they have metal screens behind the slats?" Dekram grumbled. "How can they sufficiently cool or heat?"

  "Probably to keep the mice out," Layol said. "Thank the Elements it's not as dusty on this floor." Her nose holes flared with an intake of breath.

  Dekram's jaw dropped. "Glad you mentioned mice before I trapped myself in a dusty and dirty air vent with rodents!" Aware of every hair on the back of her neck, the whole room suddenly moved like heat rolling off pavement and for no more than a second the area where they stood turned into a rotten section of burrowed bark. Dekram's nostrils flared, lashes fanned red-orange bangs in front of frightened green eyes. She swayed on her feet.

  "What? You're not gonna pass out are ya?" Layol asked. "Tell me you don't have a mouse phobia or something?"

  Dekram slowly looked around. I cannot tell them, again, that I'm seeing things. "Um, no, just a little dizzy. I didn't eat much dinner… or lunch." She smiled weakly.

  "Why don't we just fly down another floor and listen to see if we can hear something?" Nesohc suggested.

  Layol caught the pleading look in Nesohc's eyes. "Sounds like a plan since we can't get in here anyway."

  "WE MUST STOP THE FIRE FAIRIES!" came a booming voice through the air vent on the second floor.

  Dek and her friends shot straight up at the clarity of the voice. They stared at the vent and slowly dropped closer until their ears rested against the grate.

  They heard bits and pieces of conversation that echoed and sounded hollow.

  "… over without…" came a woman's weak voice.

  "…they could…" The man's words faded.

  "…ca...not..ch...her…" The gruff voice broke up like a bad cell phone connection.

  "…but they can…" Someone started and then all conversation turned into a mumbling reverberation of many voices.

  "They can what?" Dekram whimpered, wings tucking around her shoulders. "What can they do to me?"

  "You don't know it's you they're talking about." Nesohc quickly offered a hug of reassurance.

  "Oh, c'mon," Layol said. "It's her all right. Boom—end of story. Now, what?"

  Nesohc frowned at
Layol and took Dekram's hand. "Let's just go down a floor and see if we can listen to more of the conversation before we come to conclusions," he coaxed.

  If there really is a first floor, Dekram thought. Crap, if there's even a Wandermere. We could be all be characters in a fairytale—a figment of a child's imagination...

  "You coming?" Layol asked and Dekram's thoughts rode a breeze, like sparkles from her wings.

  …A figment of my own imagination. Dekram tightened her grip on Nesohc's hand and they both followed Layol down a human-sized staircase with old pictures lining faded rose wallpaper.

  Chapter 11

  LAYOL’S WINGS BUZZED with excitement. "At least there are different vent covers on this level and they're not attached to the walls. There's a space between the hole cut into the wooden floors under them. We can get in!"

  Dekram zipped across the hall and got up in Layol's face. "I thought we nixed the air vents with the vermin discussion."

  "Oh c'mon! We can get up close and personal! And it's not like mice eat fairies for breakfast!" Layol looked disgusted. "You watch too many cartoons. Real mice are dumber than a box of rocks. We can pix 'em."

  Nesohc tucked his lips, amusement dressing out the lack of words.

  "I don't like mice. They have horrid teeth, furless tails, and they make disgusting noises." Dekram shuddered. "I'd scream loud enough to wake Sleeping Beauty."

  "What're you going to do when you go on your mission?" Layol enunciated every word. "Wish every predator with teeth or a bird beak out of existence on the other side of the portal? We're talking mice here."

  Nesohc gave Dekram's hand a supportive squeeze. She pulled free and turned on him. "You can jump in any time. I could use a bit of support here."

  Nesohc tilted his head and put on a sympathetic face. "Layol does have a point, albeit dramatically pontificated."

  "Dweeb-boy," Layol started, rolled her eyes and tipped her head from side to side, then finished, "aren't you just gettin' all officious fairy geekster on us—got me searching through my mental dictionary."

  "Pon-TIF-i-cate," Dekram cooed. "To pompously speak about something in a knowing and self-important way." Dekram flipped Layol a half-hearted smile. "Especially when not qualified to do so. Sound like anybody you know?"

  Nesohc raised a brow and shoved a palm in front of Layol's next words. "Okay, enough. Look Dek, I'll have your back. You can do this?"

  Wings vibrated anticipation.

  "This is so karmic," Dekram finally huffed. "Just remember, Layol, there's always a bigger fish."

  "And that makes it an adrenalin-pumping experience," Layol said, finger pointing at the vent. "Revel in it."

  "Next time you can revel alone while you record the adrenalin-pumping experience on your cell. That way I can do my reveling when you get back—if you get back."

  Layol stomped a clunky Choo. "Can we just get into the pixin', impin, elfin vent before the stupid meeting ends?"

  "Fine, but I want to go on record as saying I think this is a stupid idea."

  "Fine," Layol huffed. "Duly noted and etched into my brain cells." She wiggled through the hole under the slatted vent.

  "Why can't we hear them? Are we lost?" Dekram asked from a kneeling position on the backside of the fifth vent they'd tried listening through.

  Layol pulled bits of lint and dirt out of her hair and caught a sneeze. "Complain, complain, complain, will you give it up? How can we be lost? We're still in the building, dummy. It's not like the stupid vent is a pathway to another planet."

  Hovering in the center of the square air vent, thumbs hooked through belt loops on his jeans, Nesohc said, "Maybe the vent we heard them from is directly connected to the one in the room they're in."

  "I'm thinking they're on the basement level," Layol said.

  "Why?" Nesohc asked.

  "No windows, cement walls—you figure it out."

  Dekram puffed curls out of her face, stood and brushed the knees of her black jeans. She abruptly froze, a horrified look on her face, when a black nugget dropped with a soft ping on the metal vent and rolled away from her feet. Back-winging and gulping noisily, she sputtered, "Tell me that isn't what I think it is." She was madly rubbing her hands on the seat of her jeans.

  "Looks like mouse crap to me," Layol said, picking the small tubular object up and rolling it between two fingers. She gave the fingers in question a good sniff.

  Dekram squealed.

  Nesohc yowled disgust.

  "Yep," Layol said, wiping her fingers down the wall of the vent, "that's what it is all right."

  "I am never holding your hand again!" Dekram blurted. "That was tooo repulsive for words. You know there's a disease you can get from deer mice. It can kill you!"

  "Crap is crap. It isn't gonna kill ya."

  Nesohc laughed.

  "You should wash your hands immediately," Dekram ordered.

  "Oh-yeah, like I'm sure they've installed a restroom in the ventilation system, just for us fairies. Any other brilliant suggestions?"

  "Spit on them." Nesohc covered a laugh, puffy cheeks red with the effort.

  Dekram squealed and shuddered.

  "Ssshush," Layol hissed. "We're going to blow our cover."

  "What cover?" Nesohc finally found his voice. "We can't hear them—sure as Santa employs elves—they can't hear us."

  "This is getting old and I bet they've all left," Dekram said. "Can we just leave? At least, you could rinse your hands in the pond."

  "Can we just move on to the next vent?" Layol wailed dramatically.

  "Says the girl with the rat crap on her fingers." Dekram wrinkled her nose.

  "Enough with the rat crap already BEFORE-I-LICK-THEM-CLEAN." Layol leaned into the last five words.

  Dekram gasped.

  "Lick 'em and I'll do your homework for a week," Nesohc bargained.

  Layol turned a look of deep concentration in his direction.

  Dekram's voice forced its way through her fingers, "Nes! Stop encouraging her. She's crazy enough to do it."

  "Do I look like an idiot? Don't answer that. I was trying to figure out a way to fit the word nosegay into this conversation." Layol tapped her foot a few seconds and then huffed. "Okay, Dek, so maybe I went a little too far, but you've been stingin' me ever since we got into the pixin' ventilation system. I just want to hear what's going on. Don't you?"

  Dekram sighed. "Yes, but I don't want to get caught, or run into a mouse." The last five words where small and quiet.

  "Follow me." Nesohc put an end to the argument. "We're going back to that Y in the vent where we took a right and take a left this time. If it doesn't pan out, we're outta here—fair enough?" When there were no objections, Nesohc flew down the shaft the way they'd come in.

  "Sorry I've been so mean, Lay," Dekram said as they slowly moved in the direction Nesohc had gone. "Sleuthing has me all wicked-witchy and feeling guilty and ashamed. I hate sneaking around, lying and spying on people. I feel like I'm stooping to Soahc's level."

  "Sss-okay, I get it, but you have to agree there's something gigantic going on here."

  "I do. I just don't want to be the one it's centered around, or the one snooping to get the answers."

  "What? You want to work for HS, right? C'mon, gal-pal. That's all Human Services does. That's who an Air fairy is. We search out and then spell, charm, and manipulate humans, all in the name of making their world a better place."

  Dekram moaned.

  "Hey, you guys, I found a vent leading down!" Nesohc glowed as he hovered at the end of the shaft.

  Layol grabbed Dekram's hand and pulled her in Nesohc's direction. "Eww-ww-w," Dekram howled and ripped her hand from Layol's.

  "This hand is a rat-feces free zone," Layol sang as she back-winged her way down the hall, wiggling the fingers on the hand Dekram's had just vacated.

  The small light at the end of the vent became brighter as they flew closer, and voices grew louder.

  The same gruff man they'd heard upstai
rs said, "We have a treaty with the Fire fairies. If I agree to do as you are all proposing, we will be breaking that agreement. Do you want to give them access to the human world again?" A mumble-filled pause followed. "Good, because it would most assuredly cause another war. And war brings casualties."

  Dekram and her friends snuggled up to the vent.

  "None of us want another war," someone yelled.

  A woman cried, "We're in threat of extinction already."

  "Need not drive that nail home, woman," a strong male voiced warned.

  "We can't allow any more unbalanced offspring, either!" a man shouted.

  "So we investigate and manipulate and you think that won't bring on rebellion?" a woman snapped, "All for something we don't even know will come to fruition?"

  "She belongs to us!" a deep voice shouted.

  "Yes, she does, and they know that," the gruff voice stated a little less gruffly.

  "If she bonds with one of her tainted friends, something will come to fruition," said a man with a sarcastic laugh. "And how difficult will it be for her to walk away from that?"

  "Is she taking the pills?" the gruff voice asked.

  "Yes, but—"

  Dekram's wings buzzed. "Is that—?"

  "Shush!" Layol hissed.

  "…needs to tighten the girl's reins," a woman interrupted.

  "I will not keep her under lock and key! Her fate is in the hands of the Goddess Aine, not ours. She's taking the pills, Elder, faithfully, every day. However…"

  "That's my mother!" Dekram squawked.

  "…have a concern..."

  "Gee, ya think?" Layol rolled her eyes. "You keep interrupting we won't hear what she's concerned about. Now shuss-ssh!"

  "…powers."

  Soft mumbles wafted from the vent.

  Layol hooded her eyes. "Did anyone hear what she said?"

  "Not me." Nesohc smiled. "All I heard was you."

  Layol grunted a snort. "It wasn't just me! Dek—"

  "So are we all agreed?" the gruff voice boomed.

  "Huh? What are they agreeing on?" Dekram whimpered.

  "…hands. All in favor?"

  "Crap," Nesohc said. "They're voting on something."

  "Duh." Layol smirked.

  "...against."