“Is it okay?” Lucy asked.
“I guess so. No weird smells or anything.” It was just a silver flask. There was nothing weird I could detect about it, just that it was sent to me, but that was beside the point.
She crept over to look at it. I held it down to her level. After a minute, she shrugged and sauntered out of the room.
“Okay. Guess it isn’t dangerous,” I said to no one.
The lack of danger still had me nervous. Who had sent it, and more importantly, why? I had a sinking suspicion that phone call wasn’t a prank after all. And if it was connected to the phone call, I was seriously screwed.
CHAPTER TWO
TIME IS ON MY SIDE
So, I threw away the innards of the package, kept the box, and put the flask back in it. Maybe Tabby could make heads or tails of it. I forced myself not to think about it.
I looked at the clock on the microwave. It was only a quarter to eleven, but I was hungry. Part of me wanted to offer Lucy a sandwich or something, but she couldn’t eat. Granted, she’d been like this for awhile, but I still saw her as a kid. A kid who probably enjoyed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Hell, maybe I was getting as food obsessed as her mother was. I could only hope that this all could be cleared up soon. No kid should ever be deprived of chocolate. Or Easter. Or Birthdays. Jesus, I was starting to depress myself.
I knew if Tabby didn’t get her chocolate fix, she was a force to be reckoned with. Maybe it was a good thing that Lucy didn’t appear to get hungry. No sense in tempting fate, though. I was still worried about Tabby’s impending arrival, but it paled in comparison to the weird shit. I’d rather have Tabby around when the weird shit happened. At least she could help me make sense of it. But I better make sure the house was stocked up on chocolate before anything else happened.
I took out a pan, fried an egg, and made a sandwich. It would have been better with bacon, but I was out. Another reason to hit the grocery store. Bacon was a staple.
I walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa. It was an old brown thing I’d picked up ages ago. All of my furniture was old, but it was my style. Lucy was watching some dog show on the Animal Channel. I could approve of that. Dogs were safe. Little kids like them. I could relax.
“When can I go home?” she asked me suddenly.
I froze, my sandwich poised in mid-air. Crap. I had no idea how to answer that. “I don’t know. It’s up to God, I guess.”
Lucy nodded and turned back to the TV. I wished I could do more for her besides give her a place to hang out, but there wasn’t any other way I could help. It wasn’t like I was all that smart or knew what I was doing. If I could make a magic carpet to carry her soul back to her body, I would. Hell, if I could somehow manage to make her body whole and nothing wrong with it, I would. Where were the medi-wizards when you needed them?
I grabbed my phone and called Tabby. I needed to hear her voice. I needed some point of normalcy. After a bit, she picked up.
“What’s up?” she asked.
What was left of my sandwich was staring at me from the plate. I wasn’t all that hungry anymore. Lucy’s question took it all out of me. “You leave yet?”
She snorted. “Uh. No. I thought I told you I’d call you when I left.”
Dammit. I couldn’t just come out and say that things were hard and I was at a loss. If I did that, I’d have to explain Lucy. “Yeah, but weird shit keeps happening.”
I could hear her rustling things in the background.
“Just wait ‘til I get there, okay? It’s not like it’s going to take me forever.”
“Six hours,” I said. For now, that amount of time felt like a lifetime. I knew I was being ridiculous, but I needed her.
“It’s still not that long,” she replied.
“I just didn’t want you to drive at night.” Bad things were out at night. Things I couldn’t control.
She laughed. “No, you’re scared and don’t want to admit it.”
She had me. She was so damn smart. It was hard to hide anything from her.
“So,” she said. “Let me finish packing and maybe I’ll actually get there tonight.”
I sighed. “Okay.” It had to do. She was going to handle things her way, and nothing I said was going to make her change her mind.
She laughed again and hung up. I was starting to wonder when I was going to get my balls back.
###
I’d run out of things to do. The house was more spotless than it had ever been, the refrigerator and pantry were stocked with food. I’d made sure to include tons of chocolate, and I’d made room for Tabby’s things in the bedroom. I was even prepared to haul some of my shit out to the garage if I had to.
It was going to be weird sharing a bed with her again. I missed her smell. I missed her heat next to me. But there was the small problem of Lucy. Most parents did their thing when their kid went to sleep. With Lucy never sleeping, I was going to be a celibate man for awhile. Try explaining that to Tabby. I didn’t even want to think about it. It was stranger still that I was still kind of sticking to the old priesty ways. Though, I had to admit, it was no longer by choice. The usual advantage of being with Tabby was gone, at least while Lucy was with us.
###
About eleven p.m., my doorbell rang. I’d been getting ready to shut up the house for the night and go upstairs to sleep. I looked at Lucy. She shrugged.
I walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. Holy shit.
I flung open the door.
“I was starting to think you’d leave me out there all night,” Tabby said.
I picked up the bag she had in her hand. I couldn’t stop myself from grinning like an idiot. She was here. “I thought you said you weren’t traveling at night.”
I let her enter the house, and then I shut and locked the door behind her. It was such a relief to have her here. Safe.
“You sounded so weird on the phone, I figured I better get it over with.”
“Where’s Isaac?” I asked. He was this goofy cat that liked to rub his eye teeth on your hands if he liked you. I missed his fang-bumps.
“At Mom’s. I dropped him off on my way down.”
That explained it. “Are you hungry?” I asked.
“I’m more tired than anything.” She took off her jacket and threw it on the sofa. I’d pick it up in the morning.
I wanted to kiss her and hold her for awhile, but we weren’t quite that close yet. And with Lucy in the picture, there was no way I was going to expose her to anything she didn’t need to see. That is, if Tabby even made it that far before Lucy got reunited with her body. We’d been taking everything kind of slow this time. Probably for the best with as bad as I had botched things up before. Maybe I’d been too young, or maybe I’d been too green just leaving the priesthood. Having a relationship with her just wasn’t sunbeams and rainbows. Somehow, I never connected with marriage counseling. I had had this weird idea that having a relationship was going to be like something at the end of a sappy movie. Real people had problems. I just hadn’t expected one of them to be me.
“I’m going to bed,” she said. Bed, yeah, I could do that. Eventually.
“Okay. I’ll be up later.”
I don’t know why I didn’t just follow her upstairs. Being chicken shit, probably. I just needed a moment to pull myself together. To get myself centered so I wouldn’t do or say the wrong thing.
Guess the talk about Lucy would have to wait until tomorrow. She was standing near the TV, looking at me. I waited until Tabby was upstairs. “I’ll tell her tomorrow.”
Lucy glared, then she sat back down in front of the TV. I was messing it all up with her too.
“You’re going to rot your brain,” I said.
“I don’t have a brain, remember?”
Shit.
###
I headed upstairs after that. Me staying down there irritating Lucy wasn’t going to solve anything. I knew the conversation with Tabby about Lucy was go
ing to be a disaster. Just like everything else lately.
I walked into my bedroom. The white walls almost looked accusatory. My bed, the judge’s bench. Tabby was pulling up her hair into a ponytail.
“Who were you talking to?” she asked.
Oh, shit. I did not want to do this now. I wiped my eyes with my hand. “I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
Tabby turned around and put her hands on her hips. Her eyes were flashing at me. “Tell me what tomorrow?”
I took a deep breath. “Please. You’re tired.” I could tell the big fight was coming, and I was stepping right into the pile of shit in the middle of it.
She rolled her eyes. “Keeping shit from me isn’t going to make it go away.”
I took another deep breath. “But you’ve had a long day, and you shouldn’t have to handle more on top of what you have already.”
She glared at me. “No, now I’m pissed off.”
I sat down on the bed. When was I going to learn? I wanted to protect her too much, maybe. “This was not how I wanted this to go.”
“You think?”
It was like all the old hurt, pain, fuck-up we’d had before Lucy was crawling up out of the rock it had been hiding under. All of my righteousness, all of my opinions between right and wrong that Tabby had to beat out of me, I remembered some of the stupid crap I used to say. I was such an idiot. No sense in putting it off. Tabby needed to know. “Lucy’s still here.”
“What?”
I sighed. “Lucy never left.” How else do you explain to someone that a spirit had been following you around for about four months? My only strong point was that she wasn’t going to think I was crazy, at least I hoped not.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
Yup. There it was. The doubt coming in. “Lucy’s soul.”
Tabby froze. “You can’t be serious.”
It was time I put it all out. The time for hiding it all was over. I needed to start treating her like the strong person she was instead of the little girl I wanted to protect. “When I did the exorcism…she was separated somehow from her body. Then Peter came—”
“Peter who? Who’s Peter?”
I looked up at her. “The Pearly Gates?” Crap. Any moment now, she’d be grabbing her cell and calling the guys in the white coats to cart me off. Do they even wear white coats anymore?
“You’re shitting me.” Her hands had dropped down to her sides.
“Nope.”
“So, she’s here?” she said it with a hint of interest. Maybe this wasn’t going to be that bad after all.
“Downstairs watching TV.” At least she was when I left her down there. She could be doing who knows what by now. I found it hard to believe that she spent all her time watching TV when I wasn’t around. But what she could she be doing instead? That was kind of a scary thought.
“Can I see her?”
“I don’t know.” And I didn’t. So far, no one had noticed her when I went to the grocery store, but maybe it was possible for someone out there to sense her presence. Tabby would be a good candidate with her witchiness, but I really didn’t know.
###
Before I could stop her, Tabby rushed past me and downstairs. She was going so fast that I was afraid she was going to fall. The stairs were a little narrow, and I’d fallen down them a couple of times myself. I tried to follow as close behind her as I could without killing myself. This was either going to be okay, or completely shitty.
I followed Tabby to the living room. The only thing left on was the TV. Lucy usually went upstairs to bed with me, so I turned that TV on for her, but she’d stayed downstairs. Probably because of Tabby. I couldn’t say whether Tabby would mind or not. That remained to be seen. Lucy looked at us like we were on Mars.
“Lucy?” Tabby asked. I watched her turn her head back and forth in front of the TV.
“Hi,” Lucy said quietly.
Tabby slowly turned her head just slightly toward Lucy’s voice. Then, she froze. “I can see you now,” she said.
I leaned against the wall. Okay, no freaking out. This was going better than I thought it would.
“Is it okay I’m here?” Lucy asked. Her eyes looked like they were on the verge of spilling tears. If she did cry, where would the water go? Would there even be water? I was so confused. The weird meter had just upped its ante.
Tabby nodded slowly. “Just let me know if you’re around. I wouldn’t want to trip over you.”
Lucy smiled. She rubbed her eyes and seemed to relax. “You should be okay. Jimmy hasn’t killed me yet.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. My mind had just completely split in two. I was no longer losing my mind. I’d lost it.
“He is goofy, isn’t he?” Tabby asked Lucy.
Lucy’s whole demeanor seemed brighter. Happier, somehow.
“Uh huh. Very goofy,” Lucy replied.
That was it. I was officially outnumbered by two females. God, help me.
###
Nothing else happened. I slept like the dead. No dreams. No weird noises. It was almost like I had my own little happy family. I knew better. Hell was on its way, and there was nothing I could do about it. The omens hadn’t been about Tabby coming, they had been about something else. Something I didn’t want to deal with, but would probably have to. Lucy stayed downstairs though. Maybe she felt me and Tabby needed some alone time.
The next morning, I woke to the smell of bacon sizzling. I sniffed and opened my eyes, just making sure I wasn’t crazy. Nope, I could hear someone rattling around in my kitchen. Looks like I didn’t have to feed myself this morning. I got up and wandered downstairs. I found them at the tiny kitchen table. Lucy was smiling. A smile on her face was a nice thing to witness
“I see you finally woke up?” Tabby asked.
Well, awake was kind of a misnomer. Moving around was probably a better way to put it. I shrugged. “You make a man bacon, and we’ll come.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Morning, Lucy,” I said and looked down at her. She smiled smugly. Maybe having Tabby here and knowing about Lucy would be good for the kid. Prior to Tabby being here, Lucy just followed me around or watched TV. Maybe it was time I paid better attention. Or it could be the female thing. The mother figure. What was I talking about? I knew nothing about psychology.
“So, is there anything I can help with?” I asked. Might as well make an effort. I couldn’t exactly stand around and do nothing.
Tabby shook her head. “Why don’t you install yourself at the dining room table. I’ll be there in a minute.”
I knew better than to ignore her. I was lucky enough that she was making me breakfast. It still felt really awkward being nudged out of my own kitchen. I went into my “dining room.” Really, it was just extra space that was technically part of the living room. Still, it at least contained an old table.
“Are you okay?” Lucy asked.
I looked up. She was standing right in front of me.
I was starting to think that now that Tabby was here, Lucy was more in tune with emotions. Weird. I gave her a smile. “Yeah. Sure. I’m okay.”
“You don’t look okay,” she said.
She seemed a little sad. I pulled out the chair next to me and patted the seat. She sat down.
“I’m fine. Just getting used to having more people in the house.” It was true. I’d been by myself for awhile. I also had to get used to Lucy taking part of Tabby’s attention away from me. Yeah, it was juvenile, but with my family, you had to fight for any attention you got. It took Lucy being here for me to realize I was still carrying that around with me.
Lucy nodded. “You’re gonna have to learn to deal with it.”
I laughed, I couldn’t help it. It sounded so funny coming from her. “Why do you say that?”
She looked up at me, her eyes wide. “You don’t think I’m going to be the only one, do you?”
I froze. Oh shit. I did not want to be the guy everyone thought was crazy because I
spent all my time talking to dead people. Then there would be these weird movies about my life that would actually be mostly false, but everyone would think they were the gospel truth. Yay, me.
Suddenly, Tabby came in with a big platter of bacon and eggs. Food. Thank God.
“What are you guys talking about?” she asked.
I leaned back in the chair. “Stuff even I’m not ready to deal with.”
Tabby snorted. “You might as well get with it. I don’t think you have a choice.”
I grabbed a piece of bacon and bit into it. The salty goodness made things a little better. Not much, but a little. “Probably not.”
###
“You are going to have to deal with this sometime,” Tabby said after she wiped her mouth with a paper towel.
“Can we let my bacon settle, please?” I really didn’t want to be having this conversation. I wanted to sit back and reminisce about my bacon time. Stupid, yes. But I was a guy. Our brains aren’t programmed to think about intelligent things most of the time.
“Nope. Whether we talk about this now or not, your bacon is just going to have to adjust. I still have a full U-Haul sitting outside.”
Oh yeah. Crap. I’d forgotten about that. The pack horse must do his duty. I downed the rest of my coffee. “When do you want to get started?”
“As soon as possible. If I don’t turn that thing in before closing time, I’ll have to pay for another day.”
I saluted her. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Smartass.”
###
In all truthfulness, it wasn’t that bad. Tabby had a lot of her furniture in storage. At some point, I suppose, we could figure out what of my crap we were keeping. But for now, my stuff would do. The hardest part wasn’t the little bit of furniture or the books. Yeah, they were heavy as hell, but that wasn’t what was weird. When I started hauling in boxes that had Tabby’s witch stuff, well, there was a sort of glow around them. It was like a faint multi-colored bubble. Weird.
“Aren’t you done yet?” Tabby asked from the front door.
I’d been huffing and puffing these boxes around for what seemed like hours now. I was only one person. I needed a team of minions. “With what?”
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