“Wow Holly, that’s a big whale!” Her evident pride recalled mine when I had made a similar drawing as a child.
She was busy showing me all the little details, including the tiny girl swimming over the whale when the senator came into the commons.
He greeted me heartily. His voice was a lot bigger than his physique. “Mr. Morgenstern!”
I stood up to face him.
As he approached he said, “I’m glad I got a chance to talk to you before I left here.”
He shook my hand (perfectly and warmly) and said seriously, “Finn, I owe you everything. You’ve done a remarkable service for me and for the great State of Ohio. If there is ever anything I can do for you, please never hesitate to ask.”
I blushed and said, “You’re welcome.”
Spring commented, The whole state, eh? No ego here.
I tried not to laugh as the Senator bustled back to the group he had left behind, and headed out.
I shook my head at the strangeness of my life, and my growing fatigue convinced me that I needed to go home. The food had revived me but had not completely freed me from the lead weights around my arms and my eyelids.
I said goodbye to Holly and went to check on Daniel. I stood looking into the cheerful, bright room. The contrast between the happy colors of his room and his thin and tattered orange aura hit me hard.
As with Holly, his aura was flickering around him like a dying fire. It looked even sparser than Holly’s had. His face was gaunt and pale. Anderson had told me that he was in a coma. I had unconsciously shied away from doing with him what I had with Holly. It had been terribly taxing, intimate, and invasive with a little girl. How bad would it be with an adult man? Standing there, I realized that I was especially afraid of doing it with a man. Can you spell homophobia? That’s right, F-I-N-N.
The idea that something like that would stop me from helping a man shamed me. I was tired, but the successes of the day made me believe that perhaps I could help heal people. That was a powerful incentive for my own ego. After all, who doesn’t yearn to make a difference? I also knew he was there, in this condition, because of me—my mistakes.
I sat down next to him and placed my hands gingerly on his chest. Tentatively I pushed my aura out from my hand and over him until he was underneath a golden shimmering blanket of me.
It was nothing like what had happened with Holly. There was a storm of vague images and strong feelings. I felt experiences that had carved themselves into Daniel’s soul. It was a flood that threatened to overwhelm me with its intensity and complexity. Daniel hadn’t always carried the burden of the shadow, so there were both good and bad feelings, but I could see the point in his life when it had attacked him. His feelings, similar to Holly’s, rushed through me: fear, isolation, anger, hunger, and a yearning to be free. With Daniel everything was more intense and convoluted. On top of that, Daniel wasn’t much older than me and his personal demons overlapped mine, so much so that I quickly began losing the ability to differentiate them.
It’s very difficult to put into words what happened, but it was traumatic and overwhelming. I called out for Spring to help me like she had with Holly. Immediately, I felt the flood lessen. Spring told me that it was too much, and I had to pull away. I tried but found I couldn’t. Daniel was holding on to me and pulling me into himself. It was like being sucked into a whirlpool, not to be devoured, but to become irretrievably lost. I fought hard, but Daniel’s need was too much. I could feel my life slipping from me, so I did what was becoming an instinct for me. I formed a golden wall between us and severed the connection, leaving part of myself on the other side. You all know what happened then. It was beginning to be the refrain of my life: The Mighty Finn fainted yet again.
Dr. Anderson and Daniel were looking at me with concern when I woke up. I had a strange feeling of déjà vu, but I couldn’t place what had caused it. My head was throbbing, and I felt weak and hollow. Something was missing from me, forever lost and the feeling left me bleak and sad. I found Dr. Anderson studying me intensely yet again. He asked the obvious question, “Are you all right?” I nodded and then he asked the next one, “What happened?”
I looked from the doc to Daniel. Daniel was awake. His face was still gaunt and drawn, but his eyes seemed less haunted than I remembered. His aura was solid, but it swirled about him as if agitated. It was mostly a bright green, with glimmers of my own golden colors. I had no clue why his original red color would turn green instead of orange, but this wasn’t physics. In metaphysics, maybe that’s what always happens when you mix red and gold.
I checked in on Spring and Gregg to make sure they were okay. They were.
I had to get home, I wanted nothing more than to climb into my tree and…, and then I remembered that it was gone. Its loss hit me again—hard. I could feel tears rising, threatening to overflow the banks of my eyelids. So, I sat up, blinked my eyes rapidly, and shook my head. I had to get home.
I just held up my hand to stop the questions and stumbled out of the room. Anderson followed me, and I had to take the time to assure him that I could drive. He looked dubious but let me go.
I fled home. It was the place where I was loved, the place where I belonged. I needed something to plug the hole inside of me.
Home
When I arrived home, I had stabilized a little, but I was again ridiculously grateful I had a remote control garage door opener. I hopped out of the car, went inside, and the long hug from my mom helped even more. Of course, when I let her go, I received another shock.
She placed her hands on my shoulders. “Finn, Gregg’s funeral is tomorrow.”
I had known that it must be coming soon, but it still hit me hard. What she said next was worse. “Finn, honey, they’ve asked you and Dave to stay away.”
“What? How could they? Gregg was our best friend! He died saving Jen and me! How could they say that?”
“I know, sweetie. It’s not fair, but, in their minds, you’re at least partially responsible for his death and for Jen’s condition.”
I opened my mouth to speak. It hurt hearing my own thoughts being echoed aloud. She stopped me and said, “I know that’s not true. Everyone else knows that’s not true, but we can’t let you go.”
I hadn’t been intending to deny my responsibility. I knew they were right about my part in Gregg’s death and what had happened to Jen, but this cut deep. Anger and resentment rose up and flashed through me, but I handled it in an adult fashion. I ran upstairs, slammed my door, and kicked my furniture until I hurt my foot again.
I could tell that Spring wanted to say some things to me, but I was grateful she didn’t. I did feel her rummaging around in my brain, though. A few hours later, Dave called on my cell. Sulking, I ignored the call the first two times. On the third call, I finally answered it.
“Shit, David, can’t you get the hint? I don’t want to talk.”
“I guess you heard the news about the funeral.” He paused and then said into my silence, “It sucks big fat donkey balls that his parents are such turds, but I have some more important news.”
“What’s that?”
“We’re going to have a wake at Frankies tomorrow afternoon.”
“A wake?”
He said happily, “Yep, it’s scheduled from 4:00 to whenever. It starts at the same time as the funeral. Franky is closing the place to everyone but us. I’ve been calling all our friends to let them know. They’re all going to be there.”
Suddenly, I felt worlds better.
I went down to tell my mother the good news. She smiled a little superior smile when she said, “I already knew about it before you came home.”
“Then, why didn’t you tell me? Why did you have to let me get all bent out of shape? I hurt my foot!”
She smiled wider, “It could be that I felt it would be a valuable life lesson in controlling your temper, or it could be that you never gave me a chance, or it could even be that Dave asked me to let him tell you. It was his idea, after
all.”
I hung my head to acknowledge my inferiority to her wisdom.
“I can’t believe that Franky is going to close the place down on Friday night for us.”
“Well, he was as fond of Gregg as the rest of us. It also helped that your dad went in with Dave’s father and paid him a big chunk of cash.”
That shocked me. “Really? He did that?”
“Really.”
“I’ve got to go thank him!”
I turned to head to the garage when my mother said, “Ah, Finn, you might want to wait for a while before going out there.”
I paused, afraid to ask.
“He, ah, came home with a bunch of guinea pigs.”
I swallowed and agreed that waiting would be for the best. I considered my mother as she went back to her prepping our dinner.
“Mom, you aren’t going to leave Dad because of this, are you?”
“What makes you think that I might?”
“Well, he’s eating live rats and mice and stuff…”
“Finn, I’m not planning on leaving him over this. Does it disturb me that he eats live rodents? Yes. Does it bother me that I may not be able to share a meal with him again? Yes. But, he’s still your father in all the ways that count, and if this is the only way to keep him alive, then that’s what we will do. Besides, he promised never to eat in front of me and always to brush his teeth and gargle afterward.” She repressed a delicate shudder. “Twice.”
That was a relief. The divorce of my parents was not an addition I wanted to add to my guilty conscience. I jumped in and chopped some onions for her. While I was doing that, I asked as casually as possible, “Mom, you always wished you could have a little girl, didn’t you?”
She raised an eyebrow at me. I said, “I mean, you would have liked it, right?”
She nodded. “Yes, I would have enjoyed that.”
“Well, you know I’ve always wanted a little sister, right?”
“No, you’ve always told me that you liked being an only child.”
“Well, uh, maybe that was true for a while, but now I think… Have you ever thought of adopting a little girl?”
She started looking worried. “Finn is there something you are not telling me? Is your girlfriend pregnant?”
I frantically waved my hands to fend off the idea, “Uh, no! No! That’s not it!”
Giggles bubbled up from Spring. Tell him your girlfriend’s babies are all in the backyard.
The thought of saying that to my mother made me shudder even though she might have already put it together from what she knew. I thought back, Thanks for that helpful thought. She giggled some more.
When my mom saw my reaction, she relaxed. “So, what brought all this up, then? Do you have someone in mind?”
I nodded and said in one breath, “Yes, do you remember Holly, the little girl that I almost killed? Well, I was able to heal her and help her, and now she’s a really cool little kid, and no one will adopt her cause she’s too old, so she’ll be put into the foster care system if we don’t.”
Wandering grammar aside, she followed what I was saying. “Let me think about it. I’ll discuss it with your father.”
The First Hunt
Early the next morning, I got a call from Detective Hunter.
I took the phone from my dad and tried to wake up enough to be coherent. “Hello?”
“Hi Finn, we need to set a time to go snake hunting.”
“Can we go tomorrow? Gregg’s wake is today.”
“I’m sorry for your loss, Finn, but every day we wait is another day for him to kill someone else. I don’t want that to happen.”
“I don’t either, but I can’t miss Gregg’s wake. He died defending Jen and me. It’s not till four, but I have to be there by three to help Dave set it up.”
“I understand. Can you come out with me this morning?”
I blinked my eyes and tried to think it through. I failed, so I did the easy thing. “Okay, I can do that.”
“Good, I’ll be by in fifteen minutes.”
“Uh… can we make that a half hour? I still got to get dressed and have breakfast.”
“Finn, it’s already nine! I’ve been up for four hours.”
“Sorry, I’m not a morning guy.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in a half hour.”
I hung up and reflected sadly that it would never work out between the two of us. She was obviously an alien. No human, with the exception of my parents, got up that early.
You don’t have to live with her to have sex with her.
I snorted. “Like that’s ever going to happen.”
“What’s not going to happen, Finn?”
I yelped. My dad was standing next to the bed. He’d been there the whole time I was on the phone, and I never even noticed. “Dad! You startled me.”
“Sorry. What’s not going to happen, Finn?”
“Uh, oh nothing. I was just talking to Spring. She’s getting snarky.”
My dad flashed me a smile. “She must be getting it from you… So, what did Vicky want?”
Uh oh.
Spring’s thoughts were triumphant. Ha! He’s never going to let you go hunt that snake.
She was probably right, but it was too early in the morning to lie. Besides, I didn’t think I could bring myself to lie to my dad about it. Besides, he always caught me when I lied.
“She wants Dave and me to help her take down Erik.”
“What does she think two eighteen-year-olds will do for her?”
I got defensive. “Well, Dave can turn into a ten foot tall bear. He had Erik beat, before Detective Hunter pumped him full of bullets. He can track as a bear, too.”
“Okay, so what can you do for her?”
“Well, I… I can help heal anybody who gets bit.”
I looked for a hint about what he was thinking behind his glasses and found nothing.
“Dave and Jen both would have died if I hadn’t been there… Besides, I…”
“Okay.”
I stopped in surprise. “Okay?”
He nodded. “Okay.”
“Oh, uh, okay then…”
“You’d better get yourself dressed. I don’t think she’s the type of person who likes to be kept waiting.”
This was awesome. My dad was going to let me go. “Thanks Dad!”
When we told her the plan, my mother was not as accommodating. “Oh no, you’re not!”
“But Mom!”
“There is no way I’m going to let you go off and hunt for either a murderer with a shot-gun or a twenty-five foot rattlesnake. Forget it.”
“But…”
“Helen, this is something Finn has to do.”
She whirled on him. “No he doesn’t!”
“Yes, he does, Helen,” said my dad with an even tone. “He’s been the eye of this whole storm from the beginning. He’s eighteen and an adult now. Old enough to do his part.” He held his hand up to stop my mom’s rebuttal. “Besides, he has more than proven that he is better equipped to deal with this than most of the adults around him.”
The doorbell rang.
I looked between my dad’s impassive face and my mom’s angry one. She clenched and worked her jaw and her eyes blazed. She turned her back on both of us, and my dad nodded for me to go get the door. I felt guilty, because I knew my dad was going to get it, but I skedaddled.
I opened the door and followed Detective Hunter. I paused when I actually took a look at her.
Detective Hunter was not in her uniform. Instead, she was in tight jeans and a gray t-shirt. The body revealed by her new wardrobe was as stunning as the police uniform had promised. She had let her hair down from its severe bun. Its rich black shine flowed down her back to end just above her waist.
Spring didn’t give me time to stand there and gawk. Don’t just drool, Finn! Make your move!
That’s when I noticed that we were heading out to an SUV sitting in our driveway.
“Uh, Detective, whe
re’s your police car?”
She answered over her shoulder, “This isn’t police business, Finn. We are here as concerned citizens.”
“Oh.” I guess it made sense. The cops wouldn’t like the idea of their officers taking civilians out hunting shape-shifting, demonically-possessed villains.
“And since I’m not on duty, call me Vicky.”
She opened the door on the driver’s side and indicated for me to get in the back. “Come on, we can talk on the way.”
I swallowed my disappointment and clambered in.
“Mighty!” exclaimed Dave from the front seat. He waggled his eyebrows as Detective Hunter climbed in and thumped her door shut.
“Hey, Dave.” I sat back and started searching for the seat belts.
She said to call her Vicky.
She doesn’t look like a Vicky. She looks like a Victoria or a detective.
Yeah, you’ve got to watch out for those Victorias. I hear they are quite the tigers in bed!
Spring, please? I need to be able to look her in the face!
She giggled again. I wondered what movie that came from.
We stopped at Granville.
“Okay Finn, which way?” asked Victoria.
“Huh?”
“Where should we start looking?”
I shrugged helplessly and shook my head. “How should I know?”
“From what David was telling me, you have some sort of connection with this guy.”
Before I could figure that one out, Dave provided me with the explanation. “You told me that you were dreaming about Erik all the time. I figured that meant you have some sort of mystical connection with him. Either that or you are just really attracted to bald men.”
“I am not! I don’t have any kind of connection with him! For all I know he could be hiding in a sewer pipe, staying at a hotel, or snacking on farmers and watching Animal Planet.”
Dave laughed, and Vicky said, “Dave made it sound like you used magic or something to find Jen, so I thought you could use a spell or something to find Erik.”
Me, or actually anyone, casting spells was a seriously disturbing idea. But, what did Il Saia do to knock me out if it wasn’t a spell? It was just luck that I found Jen… wasn’t it? Feeling very self-conscious, I closed my eyes to see if I had any feelings or visions or something about Erik.
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