Other Places 2: Road Blocks

by P. S. Power

  At least Keeley pretended to go wide eyed, and blushed, but Zack didn't, since... Well, clearly he was a pervert.

  "Don't worry. You look hot. Um, if you two are done? I need to get home. I have work in the morning." His words didn't stop the awkward scrambling, but Kyle stood, then turned and kissed Becky on the lips, doing a better job of it than Zack had ever managed with anyone.

  "Later?"

  She nodded, clearly not thinking at all about her grand love of Mitch. Keeley showed them to the door, and pretended to be awkward, but winked at Kyle on the way out, when Becky couldn't see, having managed to head toward the bathroom.

  "Good, that should about end that. She can see the use of sexuality now at least, I'm willing to bet. Now I just need to get with her and make it seem like this was a wonderful thing and not let guilt set in. Away with you two now... Away." The last bit was said with humor, but loudly enough that it was clearly meant for someone else as well. Becky was too far away however and if there were other people around, Zack didn't know about it. Then, why would he? There were the warps in space and the ones created by people when they moved, especially beings that were powered by magic, but...

  The weird thing there was that he realized that Vampires had to be powered that way, and that was how they moved things, after a fashion, by bending the space within themselves, not by lifting things with muscular power. How he'd missed that before he didn't know. It was so clear, now that he thought about it. He could probably do that himself, at least a bit. He'd opened up little windows to places twice now, and that was moving space around, wasn't it?

  Shaking his head to clear it, he started walking, Kyle following along happily.

  "Becky's nice. I bet I can get her to sleep with me before she does Mitch. It's almost like she doesn't know what a teenage boy is really like inside or something. She keeps talking about him in terms of love, and respect. No matter how great a guy he is, he's still just a walking bundle of hormones and angst. If she put herself forward with him half as much as she did with me tonight, they'd be married by the time they were eighteen." He said it knowingly, as if they weren't about the same age anyway.

  "Oh? And you aren't a bundle of hormones and angst?"

  "Who me? The wonder Alede? Never." The nice looking guy smiled, and made a point of walking a little faster then, as if trying to outrun the obvious lie. It wasn't going to work, since he carried it with him. "So... Zack."

  "Yes, Kyle?"

  There was a weird look and the boy finally smiled a bit and shook his head.

  "Never mind. I'll ask you later."

  Then they went home.

  Chapter thirteen

  The house, when Zack finally got back to it, was both empty of everyone except for Judy, and an unholy mess. It was like a tornado had set down while he wasn't looking and the place had been torn up, spit back out and then stomped by a giant for fun. There might have been a little action from a large tracked vehicle in there too, just to keep things interesting.

  "Surprise!" Judy said it as if he were supposed to be impressed by the whole thing. Oh, he did get the idea, and a lot of remodeling had happened, considering that they'd only just started. It was clear that about twenty people had been in working on things. He could see the rifts and eddies from the movements still. In a concentrated space, one that he was familiar with, it meant a lot. They'd probably even tidied a bit, before leaving.

  The kitchen floor was torn up, but half of it had been replaced with nice tile made of shining wood. The far side of the room was all like that. They had a new stainless steel sink in place, but the water was still off. It was twice the size of the old one, and took up more counter area, which meant the old dishwasher that they'd never used anyway was gone. So was the stove and the refrigerator. The doors were gone from the cupboards too, and all the food had been moved. That was so the insides of the things could be refinished, though so far it was just a mess.

  Judy was smiling, so she saw some kind of potential in it, no doubt.

  "Come look downstairs!" She walked across the room and took him by the hand, leading him to the ugly green carpeted stairs, which smelled a little of damp and had dusty boot prints all over the thing that hadn't been there before. The twelve steps, four of which wrapped around to the left at the bottom seemed the same to him, other than the filth, but once actually down them, he saw it.

  The place has been gutted. It had been four rough looking rooms, and was now two, but the wall that made a little laundry area was new and fresh looking, as well as larger than before. The old washer and dryer were gone and two new, much bigger and more powerful looking machines in silver metal had replaced them. The floor was the same, just being plain concrete, but it was clean and scrubbed, with racks along the wall for hanging clothing up and an ironing station, one that had a table that didn't fold up and three different machines in place for the job.

  Like he ironed anything? It was probably a hint.

  The rest of it was re-paneled and the floor was gone and replaced with what looked like marble tile. It was dark in color, but looked... Good. The only thing it lacked was new furniture. They hadn't had a lot down there, but the few chairs and the old mattress that had been stored there were just gone. Zack didn't ask, since even he'd thought that they belonged in a landfill.

  The blonde actress was wearing sweats, blue work out pants with a light green t-shirt, and had her hair back in a ponytail. Her feet were covered with tennis shoes that had once been all white, but now looked like they'd been responsible for at least a little bit of the dirt on the carpeted steps. She didn't touch Zack at all, but seemed to be excited, rather than seeing the worst part of it all, so he tried to use that mindset himself. Kitchen aside, it did look pretty nice.

  "Okay, I know that it's a bit rough so far, but this is being done at breakneck speed. We actually have some things coming for in here tonight. I paid for the special delivery. It's basically going to be a large sitting room. We'll get a television in and a sound system, in case anyone other than Bey ever uses it, or if he has guests to entertain. A wall of books too. He looks like a reader to me." She buzzed around, heading back up the stairs, her face fixed in a slightly manic and wide eyed grin.

  Once back in the kitchen she waved at the back door, her head not even turned in that direction.

  "Most of the stuff from in here is in the back. I scheduled a pick up every day, starting tomorrow, so you won't have to worry about that. I left the bathroom and living room for later, since we're staying here while the work is happening. So, what do you think? Is it great, or the best thing ever?" There was a hopeful look to her eyes, and he knew that almost anything he did would be wrong.

  He actually felt a little shocked by the sudden changes, to be totally honest and he couldn't lie about it. Mirror Him just chuckled at his discomfort and didn't make a move to bail him out at all, which was a jerk move, for certain.

  Finally, he looked at the kitchen as if thinking.

  "So... are we going out for dinner?" That, even though it was a clear deflection, apparently counted as being nice enough for the moment, since she nodded heartily.

  "That one. You probably won't want to sleep here tonight, not if you actually want rest, I mean. I don't need to sleep, since I got a few of the construction people to take a little break with me. Unfortunately I was recognized and don't know how much longer I'll be able to stay here. I'm thinking that I'll need to get a car and commute from Portland each day, which will buy a couple of weeks. As it stands we need to take a cab to get food, so no one watches you too closely. Vanishing into thin air is a neat trick, but do it too often and..." She didn't explain what would happen, but then didn't need to really. "Let me change really quick? This is the best part of being an actress. If I go out looking like a slob, I'm just trying to hide my identity, not being a lazy-bones."

  It took half an hour, and he was actually kind of hungry, but called a cab to take them to the local Denny's. It wasn't exactly gourmet food, but
Judy nodded and seemed happy enough with the choice, since going to the highest end place in the area would actually be a much larger giveaway than someplace like that. Plus, they had onion rings.

  The meal went fine, for the most part, but the idea that her days of hiding in town were about over seemed pretty clear on the way out, since they were met by a half dozen cameramen. One at least tried to act like he was a legitimate reporter, and actually asked who Zack was, and why she was with him.

  "This is my friend, Zachary." Then, actress and professional or not, froze, which did get Mirror Him to come out and play, his arm going around her playfully.

  "As you might imagine, I've got all the good blackmail material on her. You know, some sex tapes, pictures of her dangling a baby chimp over the Grand Canyon, that sort of thing. This is absolutely not her platonically staying at a friend's house while I sleep on the sofa. Nope. Definitely not that one at all. Also, if you could get captions saying that I'm an internationally known playboy and not just some shlub that works in a candle shop as a clerk? That would be great, thanks." The five men and one woman, none of whom looked very special themselves took pictures, but laughed at the words.

  "So, you're just a friend?"

  MH sighed dramatically and pretended to start to squeeze Judy's butt, but stopped a good foot away and shook his head.

  "Yeah. Her gay friend. Before you ask. I'm trying to get her to help put my new reworking of Dune forward, but so far she thinks it sucks. You know those Hollywood types, always trying to keep the little guy on the casting couch. It's a sad and horrible fate."

  They had to wait for a cab, which meant that the paparazzo were able to keep watching them as they stood there feeling awkward. Judy didn't say a lot, but kept pretending to whisper to him and laugh, her hands on him the entire time. It was pretty clear she was making sure everyone knew he was at least bi, which was sweet of her. Mirror Him was chortling inside however.

  'Oh, like it matters if they think you're a fruit? I'm sorry, I mean... What is the polite word for gay now? Anyway, they won't even get who you are at all. If they do... Well, I told them all about you, so yeah, the chicks won't be banging down your door, but that changes what?' It made a dark and twisted kind of sense, but Zack couldn't help but think that it was still MH just being a dick.

  It wasn't enough to simply go with the first bit? That he had blackmail material and that's why she was with him?

  In the cab it was instantly clear that Judy agreed with his actions totally.

  "That was... brilliant. Now they won't know what to think. Of course the rumors will be that we're hiding our secret love, but I can live with that. On the plus side we can explain our love triangle with Troy pretty easily as well." She laughed, but Zack got the idea, her eyes were going to the back of the drivers head, and this was all a show for him. "Being that they know you like men too, already."

  It wasn't until they got home that she said what she was really thinking.

  "I need to get out of here tonight. This is what I was afraid of. I can't let anything track back to Val or Kait. They're both too good looking for extra press, or being tied to me directly. Thanks for letting me stay? I'll head out tomorrow. After the work is done."

  They'd just left the place open while they were gone and furniture had started to appear in the basement. Judy didn't have a problem with that, but it really left Zack feeling like he was open, and vulnerable.

  Not wanting to seem like he was ungrateful he took her advice, got a pillow, a blanket, and tried to think of a single place he could set up for the night that wouldn't have hammering. The easy idea was a hotel room, but that might not be the best plan ever. Going to Keeley's was possible, he suspected, but he didn't really want to wake up either under the Greater Demon, or having his junk ripped off, because MH was doing her mom while he slept.

  Not having much else to do, he headed to the Mall, carefully, making sure that no one was busily watching him as he did it. At least no one he could see or hear. That meant night vision cameras could be on him, or any Vampire might have been around, if they were far enough away for the eddies and gaps their passing made not to affect the space around them. That and probably dozens of other things. Shifters, Kobolds, whatever they were, or raccoons.

  For some reason he'd never really trusted raccoons. It was probably the combination of being too cute and having that mask on all the time. Like tiny bandits with their too human looking little hands to get into his stuff. On the good side, at the Mall, he was able to see that there was clearly someone watching the back door of Candles and More from inside a big Sedan type car. It was the police officer that had come in to hassle him a few days before. The man with the shaved head and cop face that thought no one would guess who he was.

  It was a bizarre thing, but Mirror Him took over and tapped on the fellow's window, after getting all the way to his car without the man bothering to look at him at all. He was reading something, but that required a book light, which lit his face pretty well. He was alone, so that probably meant he wasn't doing anything official.

  The policeman, a Detective, jumped, and made a startled sound, then tried to start the engine.

  "Officer? Hey!" MH was good at sounding happy about things, but before he could get more than a few words out, the man peeled out, leaving tracks on the pavement. "Jeez, I was just gonna ask if we could sleep in the back of his car. Well, so much for fair weather friends, hey Zacko?"

  He nodded and got control of the mouth, stifling a yawn.

  "I guess. It's a bit strange, someone watching us like that. We need to ask around about it. I wonder if Nikki knows anything?" Zack felt the ripple in space from the Vampire and while it was true that he couldn't tell one of them from another that way in the main, he was willing to bet it was the punk looking girl herself. Turning, he wasn't disappointed.

  "Mr. Hartley. Going to a sleepover?"

  He shook his head, feeling a bit sad about it.

  "Homeless for the night. Remodeling being done at my place. So, I take it that you're watching our friend the bad detective here? Is he a buddy of Detective Bacconi? I thought that was finished now." Bey had warped the man's mind for him so hard that he thought Vampires were just role playing and that Nikki was a cute, but annoying girl that was more effort than she was worth. It should have done the trick, but apparently no one had told this other guy.

  "McKenzie is Bacconi's girlfriend or something. The guy noticed that our Detective friend went from claiming we were a kidnapping drug ring with dead bodies around all over the place, to thinking we just loved to LARP. This is all off the books, but at least this time the guy just thinks that this is a drug den. He does think that Baconni took a payoff, which is causing some friction between them. It's not really a Vampire issue, though clearly it started because of one and no one wants to piss you off in my organization, so I'm looking into it. The problem is that anything I do will probably just make him more suspicious. I've looked into it and the man isn't mentally flexible enough to handle the truth..."

  Most weren't, not really. They thought they were, they wanted to be at times, even. They liked to think that U.F.O.'s and Bigfoot were out there, but if they saw anything too strange, they'd barely have the ability to even remember it the next day. If they could at all. It meant that most people had to spin stories in their heads to keep reality close to straight, which made it ridiculously easy for things to hide, but most of the groups would have actually been fine with Humans having full awareness of them.

  It just wasn't going to happen.

  Richard Swerlin had run as a Vampire and gotten a seat in the House of Representatives based mainly on the fact that his opponent was so creepy that the openly polygamous, obviously unbalanced man was still a better choice. He'd popped his teeth out on national television and run on a platform of trying to get the undead not to feed on the living if they were unwilling... And no one believed him at all. Or at least almost no one had.

  Zack shrugged, his shoulder
s touching the fabric of his shirt, which was probably a bad thing to sleep in, meaning he should have changed first. He was tired though and really needed a place to lay down.

  "I hate this stuff. The things like this. He's not wrong, or, well, he is, but it isn't his fault. Things are weird here and he's trying to find out what. He can't though and we can't tell him, because he just won't get it. He won't be placated easily either, I don't think. Not if there's unofficial stake outs going on. Do you know he tried to buy drugs from me? I get the idea, I look like a tweeker, but still, no means no, and he was really aggressive about it." And, Zack realized as he finally shut up, he was whining. It got him to roll his eyes.

  "Sorry. I need to get some sleep. Any suggestions?"

  She thought for a moment, started to speak and then shook her head.

  "I nearly said my place, but then you wouldn't get much sleep at all. Let's see... The Baron Grande? It's the Massachusetts Node. They have rooms, it's an ancient hotel, if anything younger than I am counts as being antique. Which unfortunately, it does." She winked at him, and patted his shoulder gently, moving closer to him than their three or four previous meetings really should have allowed for.

  "I bet they'll have something for you right now. They're on lockdown too, so business has to be a little slow."

  Then she was gone, traceable only due to the collapsing rent she made in space. It formed in front of her, then faded after half a second as she moved away. He got that it wasn't physical now at least. Shaking his head he wondered again if he could do that too? Not having anything better to try he focused and made an attempt, but it felt like he was just walking to the back door normally. There was a tiny bit of a ripple behind him, when he spun to look at it however. He thought so at least. That could mean a lot of things however. Really, he might always leave that kind of thing and just now have noticed it. He walked away then, and spun again, not doing anything at all, but the only thing that happened was that he felt a little dizzy.