Messiah of Burbank - An Urban Fantasy

by Paul Neuhaus

  Quinn’s voice was ragged and nearly incoherent because of her tears. “Someone. Came. Hijacked. She held onto me. Tried to crush me. I… almost lashed out. I… almost fought to get away. I could’ve killed you. She wanted me to kill you.”

  “You didn’t kill me,” the brunette said. “I’m not dead. You knew you shouldn’t lash out. You knew you would hurt me. I’m okay.”

  Quinn brought her arms up and pulled her girlfriend to her even more tightly. “If you hadn’t come after me, I would’ve been lost forever.”

  “I’ll always come after you,” Molly said.

  Not long into Josie’s sleep that night, Nisha came to her. The two women were not in the cave, they were in a black void with nothing around them. “Tomorrow, you will awaken before the other women in your home. You will go and find a man and he will help you embark upon your next phase. He will show you how to further your studies.”

  Taft was confused and leery. “I can’t do that. Quinn and Molly… They take care of me.”

  Nisha smiled. “Are they the first people to take care of you?”

  Josie shook her head.

  “Have the others who’ve taken care of you done right by you?”

  Again, the teenager shook her head.

  “Understand, child. I’m not trying to hurt you. When you and I have completed our journey together, you will be more than capable of taking care of yourself.”

  The girl hesitated, unsure of what to do. “Who’s this man? Who do you want me to see?”

  The woman made of light raised her right hand, palm up. Above the hand, an image took on shape. It was a bust. A man’s head and shoulders made of light and smoke.

  It was Dr. Terry Truitt.

  8

  Symbiosis

  Once Quinn was calm and reoriented, Molly asked endless questions about her physical state. Was she having any pain? Was her vision clear? Did her head hurt? Did she have any lingering numbness?

  Henaghan confessed to having all those things, but she said she didn’t expect them to last. She was far more interested in talking about her powers and the danger that had intruded upon them the night before. “Look,” she said. “Last night wasn’t a dream. It was the blond I told you about, but she came to me when I was fully awake. That’s a real problem and I can’t have it. I don’t wanna put you or anyone else at risk.”

  Molly rolled up onto her side and said, “Okay, fine, but you’re not going off to live as a hermit in the wilderness.”

  “I guess what I’m saying is, what if I have to use magic? To put a stop to this? To attack the one who’s attacking me?”

  “Didn’t we have a ‘protecting me and mine’ clause in your retirement agreement? We’ll figure it out.”

  “I know we will, but that’s not the only reason I bring it up. What if… I need your help. What if, I can’t do what I need to do because of the whole Overchanneling thing and I need a spotter?”

  Molly smiled. “Look no further. I got your back, bitch.”

  “Good news,” Quinn said. “Don’t call me bitch.”

  The next morning, when the sun was barely up, Molly shook Quinn awake. Quinn sat upright, still twisted round from the night before. “What?! What?!” she said.

  “Get up. Get dressed. Josie’s not in her room. She’s not in the house. Your car is gone. So is the money from the kitty.”

  Henaghan still wasn’t completely lucid. “Josie can’t drive,” she mumbled. “She’s not even two years old.”

  “I’m aware,” Blank said, losing patience. “Get up.”

  Quinn was brought back to the land of the living when Molly threw a dress in her face. The gesture said to her, Oh, okay. Molly’s not fucking around.

  Henaghan spun and threw her legs over the side of the bed. She tried getting the dress over her head but found she couldn’t manage it. Molly was right there to snap at her again. “Put on panties and a bra. You can’t go around flashing the high beams.”

  The redhead put the dress down and fished underclothes out of the nearby chest of drawers. She arranged the steps she’d need to take to become dressed and functional in her head and executed them one by one. “Is there coffee?” she said. “I’ll be in here. I’m gonna get started.”

  “Get started what?”

  “Finding Josie.” She sat herself down in the center of the bed and cleared her thoughts. She had a strong sense of Taft’s aura and figured the girl would be easy to find. Easier than finding Olkin. Even easier than finding Mr. Rabble-rouser. As a Changeling, Josie’s essence was in constant flux. She should stand out like a sore thumb. Henaghan rose up out of her body and through the roof of the home. She rose until the Disney Studio looked like a toy beneath her. She blurred her vision and willed herself to see the signatures of her fellow Channelers. Immediately, dozens of them came into view. In Burbank, in Glendale, throughout the San Fernando Valley. Downtown. Hollywood. There was a thick concentration in the Santa Monica Mountains. Quinn turned in place, willing herself to become an antenna. With each passing second, more blobs of light and color appeared on the terrain far below. While each of them was distinct, none of them were unusual. All Channelers looked superficially similar because all of them operated in more or less the same way.

  But Josie wasn’t a typical Channeler. Her essence was different.

  And Quinn couldn’t see it.

  After Quinn told Molly she couldn’t see Josie’s magical signature, the two women left the house, walked around the corner and went to the home behind their own. They were surprised to find a “For Sale” sign on the front lawn. Molly got the attention of a neighbor watering his hedges. “How long has this house been for sale?” she said.

  The neighbor lowered his hose and thought for a moment. “God. Six months, maybe?”

  Quinn took a step closer to the man. “Who lived here before?”

  “Lily Parsons. For thirty-six years. She was a widow. Then she died. You know how it goes.”

  Henaghan nodded and thanked the man. She and Blank walked back around the corner. “What the fuck just happened?” Molly said.

  “I dunno,” Quinn replied. “I wanna see something.” She went through the gate into their backyard and her girlfriend followed. When they came to the stone wall at the rear of their property, the redhead stood on tiptoe to look over. The back of Lily Parsons’ former home looked just the way Quinn expected it to. Unused and unloved. “Huh,” she said.

  “Is this some kind of Twilight Zone bullshit?” the brunette said.

  “It looks like some Twilight Zone bullshit,” Henaghan conceded. “I wonder if—”

  A voice from above startled both women. They looked up and, there in the tree was Lailah, Josie’s friend. She swung a couple of times and dropped into the yard next to Quinn and Molly.

  “Oh, thank god,” Molly said. “You’re Lailah, right?”

  “Sometimes,” Lailah said.

  Blank didn’t want to think about what that meant so she brushed past it. “Lailah, you’re gonna have to help us out. We can’t find Josie. She’s not in the house and we don’t know where she went.”

  Lailah smiled and threw her long blonde hair over her shoulder. “What makes you think I know where she is? Or that’d I’d wanna tell you even if I knew?”

  Molly shrank back a bit. “Josie’s your friend, isn’t she? Wouldn’t you want to help her?”

  Lailah shrugged. “Maybe I wouldn’t, maybe I would. Maybe I’d just want her to die alone and unmourned like the little sow she is.” Both Quinn and Blank recoiled from the little girl since that was far from the answer either of them expected. Lailah turned to Henaghan and, with Ciara’s voice, she said, “Kiss me. Please kiss me.” Then she exploded in a flash of white light knocking both women back onto the grass. The redhead threw her body over her girlfriend’s and looked backward to the spot where Lailah had stood. Lailah was no longer there. Floating above the lawn was Ciara, naked and shining in the mid-day sun. She smiled and exploded again. When Quinn’s
sight returned, she looked again. This time, where Ciara had been was another woman. A nearly featureless woman made of light. Her only discernible features were her eyes, glowing brighter than the rest of her form. One last explosion and the final woman was gone.

  Quinn rolled off of Molly and laid on her back in the grass for a moment. Molly’s voice came out as a little sob. “What the fuck was that?” she said.

  Henaghan sighed. “Something that maybe should’ve been obvious,” she said. “Ciara, Lailah and Nisha are all the same person.”

  “Who’s Nisha?”

  “The last one. The one made of light. Come on, I’ll explain in the car.” The redhead stood and extended a hand to help Blank get to her feet.

  “Where’re we going?”

  “I don’t know yet, but I already wanna be moving when I figure it out.”

  Quinn and Molly rounded the house on their way to Molly’s Mini Cooper. They were surprised to find Mia standing in their driveway. Molly spoke first. “Now’s really not a good time, Aoife.”

  “Mia,” the girl replied. She was no longer dressed in her Ren Fair clothes and she was dabbing at her eyes with a Kleenex.

  Despite her predisposition toward her sister, Quinn couldn’t help but wonder why Mia was crying. “What is it? Has something happened to David?”

  Mia dropped her hands and threw her head back. She was distraught. “I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know where he is. I haven’t heard from him. I don’t know if he’s hurt or if he’s run away or what’s going on.”

  Henaghan took her sister by the elbows and moved her out of the path of Mia’s car. “Look, I’m sorry. We have an emergency of our own. Josie’s missing. I can’t get into it right now, but I think David’s probably okay. He hasn’t run away. I don’t think he’s hurt. Go into the house and wait to hear from us. I think—I hope—everything’s going to be alright.” Quinn and Molly got into the car and backed out of the driveway, leaving a befuddled Mia to watch them go.

  Molly drove them past the Disney lot. “Where’m I going? Should I take the highway? Should I stick with city streets?”

  “Stick with city streets for now.” Quinn leaned back in the passenger seat and closed her eyes.

  “Who’s Nisha?”

  Henaghan opened her eyes again. “She’s a Deva. They’re from the Astral Plane like the Asura. She’s been on a tear for thousands of years. Covertly trying to undermine the Asura and eliminate all human Channelers. Her plan’s getting pretty close to fruition.”

  “Okay. How’re we gonna deal with that?”

  “We’re not. Before we do anything, we’re gonna find Josie. Gimme a minute, I’m gonna try something I never tried before.”

  Blank looked briefly at her girlfriend. “Don’t overdo. I’m here if you need me.”

  Quinn nodded and closed her eyes again. Her essence rose up out of the top her head and went through the roof of the Cooper. It’s connection to Henaghan’s body caused it to move along with the vehicle. She defocused her vision and soon she was seeing where all the Channelers were in the San Fernando Valley. As before, they were represented by little blobs of light and color. But it wasn’t Channelers Quinn was looking for. What was it Yellen had said? Any Channeler who’s aware of a cloaking device and is looking for it will be able to find it. She still didn’t know what that meant but she did everything she could to attune herself to the notion.

  Then she saw it. It was like a smudge on the topographic map of the Valley. An overlay on a piece of terrain that looked exactly like the piece of terrain it was overlaying. It was like the work of someone new to Photoshop who hadn’t quite learned to hide the edges of their trickery. “Stop!” Quinn said.

  Molly slammed on the brakes and skidded to the side of the road. The angry driver behind them blew past while leaning on his horn. “What?! What’ve you got?”

  “Sylmar. Josie’s in Sylmar.”

  Blank put the car in gear again and barely looked as she merged again into the flow of traffic.

  Molly squealed into the parking lot of Dr. Terry’s clinic and, without even properly parking, brought her car to a stop. Quinn was out and running toward the building almost as soon as their vehicle had stopped. “Why don’t you wait here?” she said over her shoulder.

  “Bullshit,” Molly replied. She slammed her door shut and was soon right on the redhead’s heels.

  The two women reached the front door only to find it locked. Henaghan rattled it in its frame, hoping to draw attention from within.

  “Fuck that. We don’t have time to be polite.” Molly brushed Quinn aside and kicked in the lower part of the door. Glass fell into the lobby. The brunette indicated her boots and long pants and Quinn’s girlier shoes and skirt. “You’re gonna have to start dressing for the job.” With that, she reached into the clinic and turned the lock on the other side of the door.

  As soon as they were inside, Dr. Truitt appeared. When he saw it was Quinn, he raised his hands and his hands caught fire. He had no time at all to unleash his magic since, fast as lightning, Quinn shot a net made of interlinked bars of ice. Not only was the doctor ensnared, he was also stuck to the wall. Quinn went to him, shoving her face into his. “Where is she? Where’s Josie?”

  At first, Truitt couldn’t talk. He had to turn his head to get his mouth away from the surface of the net. “She’s here. In the clinic. You’re too late.”

  The redhead brushed past the doctor into the clinic proper. As Molly walked by Truitt, she very casually punched the man in the face. Hard.

  Henaghan knew that all the workers in the clinic were Channelers so she’d have to be careful. She entered the main room with her hands ablaze. The nurses and the other doctor (a Pakistani man) all looked up, surprised. “Freeze! All of you! Do you know me? Do you know me?”

  Most of them muttered that they did.

  “Don’t fuck with me,” the redhead said. “All of you: into that corner. Pack as tight as you can.”

  The clinic staff didn’t want trouble. They clustered together in the indicated spot. As soon as they were gathered, Quinn opened a portal and sent them through it as a group.

  “Where’d you send them?”

  “Remember that Dairy Queen a few miles back?”

  Without discussing it, both women began sliding the curtains open on the makeshift cubicles. In each cubicle was an addict in various stages of the illness. Men, children, teenagers. The first batch of cubicles did not contain Josie. The last one Molly opened made the brunette gasp and recoil. Henaghan rushed over to see for herself. In that cubicle was a boy in his latter teens. He had all the stresses and strains of a regular addict, but she was also in a state of advanced decay. Quinn squinted her eyes for a closer view. Decay wasn’t the right word. The boy, while still alive, appeared to be partially liquified. Like he’d been digested partway and then spit back out. “Christ,” the redhead said. Then she realized something. The boy was Liam.

  Henaghan and Blank were distracted away from the unfortunate wretch by a loud clatter elsewhere within the clinic. They spun to the source of the noise and saw one of the cubicles had a bright white light shining within it.

  Quinn threw her arms up and a blast of super-cooled air shot outward. When the wind hit the cubicle, it drove the curtain not only inward but upward. Inside, Josie Taft, lying on her back, hung suspended in the air. Behind her was an amorphous blob of white light. From the blob wisps like strands of spiderweb weaved and danced over the teenager’s skin. Henaghan retracted then jabbed out her right hand, palm down and flat. From her fingertips, a thin ribbon of fire flew over Josie to strike the Deva beyond. The flame wasn’t absorbed. Rather it skittered and bounced over the ever-changing surface of the Astral being, doing no harm. The spiderwebs retracted and the white light drew in upon itself, shrinking. “Get behind me,” Quinn said to Molly. Molly was quick to comply, but she stayed within touching distance of her girlfriend.

  As soon as it was fully contracted, the Deva expanded like a m
iniature bomb, throwing off light rather than heat. In a literal flash, the entire room was filled with retina-burning radiance. Both women stumbled backward with their forearms pressed over their eyes. Quinn opened her eyelids again and, at first, all she could see was a swirling pattern of multi-colored dots. When her vision cleared again, she saw the white light was shrinking for another pulse. “No!” she shouted, and she extended her right hand again to spray a torrent of frost. Her efforts were rewarded. The little ball of light was now covered with a thick coating of ice. Somehow it managed to stay suspended in the air despite the weight acting upon it. The light inside the frozen covering continued to shine, shooting refracted patterns upon the walls and ceiling.

  Then the light expanded again with the same rapidity, throwing off the ice. Again, Blank and Henaghan fell back, covering their eyes. Again, Quinn opened hers quicker than she should have. This time, when the dots cleared, she screamed in frustration. Where the Deva and Josie had been, there was now just an empty space. She ran over as if there’d be some trace of her niece and her enemy. There was none in either case. “Fuck!” the redhead screamed.

  “Where’d they go?!” Molly yelled.

  “I don’t know. But we’re gonna find out. Hold on.” Quinn began opening every door and looking in every cabinet. Finally, in a closet next to the water heater, she found what she was looking for. Crouched on the floor was a metal cylinder with copper tubing and a tablet computer attached. The cloaking device. Henaghan raised her hand and made a fist. As she did, the cylinder collapsed in upon itself and threw off pathetic sparks. With that job done, she spun on her heel and went back toward the lobby. Molly was at her heels the whole way.

  When they got back to the reception area, Terry Truitt was still hanging in his net made of ice. Henaghan raised her index finger and pointed directly at the doctor’s eye. At first, Molly thought Quinn was going to chastise the man but then a long spike of hard ice grew from the redhead’s fingertip. It was millimeters from the surface of Truitt’s cornea. “Where did she go? Nisha. Where?”