Terrance ignored her and turned to Shannon. “I think I saw one of those dark watcher things.”
“Of course,” Shannon said. “They’re everywhere. It’s not like we can hide.”
“Then what are our options?”
“I don’t know! I’m following you! You’re the one who is part of a group trying to take on the universe or some other nonsense!”
Karen sighed. “Are you guys just going to yell at each other all night? Because I don’t want that here.”
Shannon looked at Karen. “Do you think I’m evil?”
“What?”
“Like, my job and stuff—does it seem evil to you?”
Karen threw her hands in the air. “I don’t know, and I don’t care! What mess did you guys get yourselves into?”
Shannon pointed a finger at Terrance. “It turns out that Terrance—completely behind my back—has been part of an organization trying to destroy all servants of the Darkness.” Shannon paused for a moment. “Yeah, I guess I can see how that sounds kind of evil.”
“Break up with him, then,” Karen said. “What do you want from me?”
“Well, Lacey, Elissa, and Vicky are after him because he helped slay Amber with the help of”—Shannon frowned—“Talia.”
“Who is Talia?”
“Remember the empowerment ceremony?” Terrance asked. “Talia is the woman they were going to feed to the unnamed beast below our building.”
Karen nodded. “Yeah, you really acted like a complete spaz that day.”
Terrance sheathed his sword. “I saw something evil, and I tried to stand up and do something about it!”
“Behind my back!” Shannon shouted at him. “If you love someone, you don’t sit around thinking how evil they are without saying anything!”
“I know that now, okay? I’m sorry.”
Karen sighed loudly again. “If people are hunting you down, does that mean they’re going to come here and mess up my place?”
“I’m sure Lacey would let us take it outside,” Shannon said. “But if it’s Chet—oh man, I bet Chet is after us right now.”
“Your ex?” Karen looked angry. “You really have to get completely away from that guy.”
“That’s not easy!” Shannon said. “I’d have to quit my job…and I don’t even know if that’s possible.”
Terrance rushed over to Shannon and gently held her. “Maybe it is possible. Maybe we can stand up against all of this, together.” He smiled at her, and she smiled back. She was so beautiful…and her torso was currently naked except for her black bra. “Hey, Karen,” Terrance said, keeping his back to her. “Do you maybe have some pants I could borrow?”
“Yeah, and I could use a shirt,” Shannon said.
“Oh…and a belt to hold my sword,” Terrance added. “And maybe shoes or something?”
“I’ll see what I have,” Karen grumbled and headed to a back room.
Terrance heard an odd meow. “What’s that?”
“Oh. I got a text.” Shannon pulled her phone from her pocket and read the screen, laughing.
“What is it?”
“It’s Lacey. She says they have Lance and are going to start cutting pieces off of him if we don’t turn ourselves in.”
Terrance’s eyes grew wide. “Oh man. What do we do?”
Shannon scoffed. “Oh, they’re just bluffing…most likely.”
“Well, you two have gotten yourselves in quite a mess.”
Terrance and Shannon turned to see a little elf sitting on Karen’s couch in stereotypical green elf clothing, smoking a pipe.
Shannon scowled at him. “What do you know, elf?”
“What I know isn’t the question,” the elf answered. “The question is, what will I tell you?”
“You’re the elf I saw in that office building, aren’t you?” Terrance said.
“I am.”
“And I think I saw you at Lacey’s birthday party.”
He puffed his pipe. “Maybe you did.”
Shannon stood next to Terrance and held his arm, as if holding him back from danger. “Don’t trust him. You can’t trust elves.”
Terrance paused briefly to figure out how to put his question delicately. “Is that like how you think faeries are bad and dangerous?”
The elf chuckled. “Oh no. We really can’t be trusted.” He gave Terrance a wicked smile. “But you’ll deal with me all the same.”
There was a shriek. Karen was standing in the hallway, holding some clothes and staring at the elf. “What is that? And why is it smoking?”
“I’m an elf—my name is Beauregard—and I smoke because it is relaxing.”
“You can’t smoke in here!” Karen shouted.
Beauregard relaxed on the couch. “I smoke where I please. And wherever ‘here’ is, that is where I am pleased to smoke.”
Karen dropped the clothes and picked up a magazine from an end table. She rolled it up and started to approach the elf, but Shannon grabbed her arm. “Don’t. If you make him mad, he’ll just come back here while you’re sleeping and smoke all he wants. You really can’t stop him.”
“I’ll also go through your underwear drawer and steal things,” Beauregard added.
Karen growled and pointed at Shannon and Terrance. “You brought this on me!”
Beauregard puffed on his pipe. “It’s true.”
“Sorry, Karen; we’ll get out of your hair soon.” Shannon walked over and picked up the clothes. She handed a pair of pink sweatpants to Terrance.
“These are pink,” Terrance said after observing their color, which was pink.
“I don’t have men’s clothes,” Karen said. “Those will stretch to fit you. And here’s a belt and some sandals.”
The belt was decorative and girly—but not as girly as the pink sweatpants. With a bit of effort, Terrance pulled on the sweatpants, which came up just below his knee, while Shannon put on the plain white T-shirt. He strapped on the belt, which was so tight he barely got it around his waist, and attached his sword to it. He also slipped his feet into the sandals, which weren’t comfortable but seemed like they’d do for now.
“You two look ready to hit the town,” Karen said. “So why don’t you do that? And take your elf.”
“Do you know where we should go?” Terrance asked Beauregard.
Beauregard looked quite comfortable and not ready to go anywhere. “It depends on what you wish to do. If you wish to surrender to the allies of the Darkness, then I know many places you can go.”
“I don’t want to do that.”
“Then you should be prepared for a fight. I’d start by slaying that one”—he pointed to Shannon—“before she wises up and turns on you.”
“I’m not doing that!” Terrance shouted.
“And I’m not turning on him,” Shannon said, sounding hurt.
“Yes you are,” Beauregard said. “Let’s not operate under the assumption that this thing between you two will end well.”
“Well…what if”—Shannon twirled a lock of her hair around a finger as she thought long and hard about her next statement. “I want to cut ties with the Darkness?”
Terrance was overjoyed at the thought, but held himself back from reacting too strongly. “Are you sure that’s what you want?”
“I think so.” She looked at Terrance, sadness in her eyes. “I didn’t consider myself evil—but maybe I just never thought about it very much. Maybe I didn’t want to. I mean, just thinking of the things I’ve done…the people I’ve hurt. Maybe I am an evil monster.”
“No, you’re not.” Terrance embraced her. “We’ll get through this.”
“No, you won’t,” Beauregard said.
“We will,” Terrance said firmly. “How can she cut her ties with the Darkness?”
“If there is any bit of her left that is not fully owned by the Darkness, and she truly wants to give up her power, she would need to talk to the faeries.”
“Okay. How do we find them?” Terrance asked.
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Beauregard shrugged. “They don’t like dealing with me, so I don’t know. But I think I know who would.” He took out a wallet—normal-sized, not elf-sized—and removed a business card, handing it to Terrance. It was a card for Curtis Dayton’s auto repair shop with his personal cell number written on it—much like the one Curtis had given Terrance when they first met. Actually, it was the card Curtis had given him. Beauregard was holding his wallet.
“Hey!” Terrance snatched the wallet out of the elf’s hands.
“I noticed you didn’t have any cash in there,” Beauregard said, “but it’s customary to tip an elf when he gives you information.”
“All you told me was to contact someone I already knew to contact about stuff like this.”
“It’s customary,” Beauregard said firmly. “I put my card in your wallet. It has my email address on it; you can send a tip through PayPal.”
Karen had settled in a chair across the room and was looking at them like they were an infestation problem. “So are you guys about done here?”
“If we aren’t, are you going to dump coffee on us?” Terrance responded.
“I said I was sorry about that.”
“No, you didn’t actually.”
“Well, you’re friends with that jerk Lance, so I don’t like you.”
“You already didn’t like me even when you liked Lance!”
Karen rolled her eyes. “So it stands to reason that I’d like you even less once I also didn’t like Lance.”
“Well, I’m having a very bad day, and Lance is being tortured by Shannon’s coworkers, so I hope you’re happy.”
Karen raised an eyebrow. “Tortured?”
Shannon shook her head. “He’s probably not being tortured.” She looked at Terrance. “So, want to get going? We stay anyplace too long, Lacey and the others will probably catch up with us.”
“Okay, let’s go.” Terrance took his sheathed sword in hand and checked to make sure his too-small pink sweatpants were on as properly as they could be. “Let’s do this.”
Terrance and Shannon headed for the door with Beauregard following. Shannon turned and said to Karen, “If Lacey comes by, tell her you didn’t see us. And blast her with a shotgun if you have one; that might slow her down.”
Karen growled. “I don’t want more company tonight.”
“Yeah, I know,” Shannon said. “Anyway, thanks for the clothes, and sorry you’re a bitch.”
Karen got up to lock the door as they exited. “Sorry I let Lance talk me into setting you up with Terrance.”
Out in the crisp night air, they stood near Shannon’s Prius, the top now scratched from the chimera’s landing on it. “So where are we going?” Shannon asked.
“I know this guy who leads one of the groups of the Infinite,” Terrance said. “You sort of met him today. Beauregard seems to think he’ll be able to help us find the faeries.”
Shannon looked around at the sky. “Let’s call him from the road.”
“Okay.” Terrance turned to Beauregard. “So, are you coming? ’Cause I don’t think we have a booster seat for the car.” Also, Terrance figured Shannon didn’t want him smoking a pipe in there.
“No, I will depart from you now. Good luck. I hope everything doesn’t turn out as disastrously as seems inevitable.”
“Um…thanks.”
Beauregard quickly strode away, disappearing behind some bushes between houses. Terrance and Shannon got into the Prius, Shannon started up the quiet engine, and they got moving. “You know where we’re going?”
“Not yet. I’ll need to borrow your phone to make a call.” He watched her face for a moment, dimly lit by the streetlights passing by. “Are you ready for this?”
She nodded. “I thought I was fine with what I did—happy about it, even—but I wasn’t always. I once was where you’ve been recently: starting to notice all these things and feeling horrified.” She stared out the windshield, and Terrance got the notion she wasn’t just looking at the road but instead at something far more distant. “It seemed impossible to fight against it, but I was convinced that if you just embraced the Darkness, all the fear went away. But other things went away too. Ever since then, I’ve felt…emptier.”
“Hollow?”
She laughed, though she didn’t smile. “That’s what they call us, isn’t it? The Hollow Ones. We gained so much power in the Darkness, I never really thought about us losing anything.”
“They say we’re infinite beings, so there must be something to us that’s hard to destroy—even with all they’ve done to you. There has to be some way to find the real you and restore it.”
“Maybe. But they’ll be after us, and I have a better understanding than you do of exactly how vast they are.”
“Are you ready to fight them?” Terrance asked.
She glanced at Terrance and smiled. “I thought that would be an impossible thing, but it seems less impossible when you’re not alone.” She looked back to the road. “I don’t think the faeries are going to like me when we find them. And I wonder how hard they’ll be to track down.” She giggled. “This could be like a quest for the two of us. A fun couples’ thing.”
Terrance smiled. “That does sound fun.” He was on the run from forces of a power he could hardly comprehend, but suddenly things were looking much brighter, as if a huge burden had been lifted. “I’ll call Curtis now.”
“I wonder how he’ll react to working with a Hollow One,” Shannon said. “Whatever happens, just promise you won’t let them hack me to pieces.”
Chapter 24
“Hey!” Terrance shouted as Curtis pressed his sword against Shannon’s neck.
“Not so loud.” Curtis kept his eyes on Shannon. “The kids are sleeping.”
Vivian came into the living room and looked at the scene with confusion. “What’s going on here?”
Shannon moved her eyes away from the sword point and smiled. “Hi, I’m Terrance’s girlfriend, Shannon.”
Vivian nodded. “Yes, we met earlier today.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t exactly honest with you about what I do for a living. I don’t work at a coffee shop. I’m actually one of those you call the”—she very slowly raised her hands to form air quotes so it wouldn’t seem like a sudden movement—“Hollow Ones.”
“Oh.” Vivian said, her expression freezing for a moment before she looked over at Terrance. “Oh, I see. Yes, you did allude to some personal situation you were dealing with.” She glanced at Terrance’s pink sweatpants. “And you’ve been having lots of pants problems today.”
“Yes, I have been.”
“Anyway, I’m looking to cut ties with the Darkness and restore my old self,” Shannon said. “Terrance thought maybe you could help.”
“Sorry, I know I already caused a bunch of trouble and got your meeting place destroyed,” Terrance said, “but can you help with this? An elf told us that maybe the faeries would know how to restore her.”
Curtis kept his sword steady at Shannon’s throat. “You can’t trust elves.”
Vivian stepped closer to Shannon. “You really want to end your ties to the Darkness and join the fight against them?”
“Yes,” Shannon said firmly.
“Then we will do what we can to help.” Vivian motioned to Curtis to lower his sword.
Curtis didn’t move. “What if this is a trick?”
“What if it isn’t?” Vivian answered.
Slowly, Curtis took the sword away from Shannon’s neck and sheathed it. “We will do what we can to help. So, can I offer either of you a beverage?”
“Do you have coffee?” Terrance had a feeling this was going to be a long night.
“We’d better get moving again, quickly,” Shannon said. “They have to still be after us. Chances are they’ll soon find out where we are.”
Curtis nodded. “Usually they wouldn’t pursue so doggedly, but I think your involvement may change that. If the Adversary were to lose those he thought were already und
er his power, it could be devastating for him. We should expect heavy opposition.”
Shannon looked pensive. “You think this can be done, though?”
“Our full selves are infinite,” Curtis said. “I wouldn’t expect them to be easily destroyed, even when surrendered to the Adversary. Still, there is no time to waste here. You are compromised while you are under the Adversary’s power—in ways we can’t fully understand. If you are ready to sever that tie, then we set out to do so tonight. We can’t wait.”
Terrance was really wishing he could have that coffee now; he wondered if things were too desperate for a Starbucks drive-thru. “You know how to find the faeries, then?”
“I do. The problem will be those who are pursuing us.” Curtis turned to Vivian. “I guess you’ll need to stay with the kids. Can you contact the others and tell them to meet us at Sentinel Forest?”
“Okay. Except I won’t contact Felicia. She’ll want to help, but she has school tomorrow.”
The idea of getting a posse together was encouraging to Terrance…until he realized Talia would most likely be part of it. “Oh, and you don’t need to bother Talia, either,” he blurted out. “She has already done enough for me.”
Curtis grabbed his coat from the closet. “She’s perhaps our best warrior. We’ll need her.”
Shannon narrowed her eyes at Terrance. “And why don’t you want me around her?”
“Because she’s not exactly friendly.”
“She’s a bit blunt, but she can be counted on to do what’s right,” Vivian said.
Terrance looked at Vivian. “I didn’t already put you at risk by coming here, did I?”
“Don’t worry about me,” Vivian said. “The forces of Darkness are not so foolish as to attack a mother in her home.”
Curtis kissed Vivian. “I’ll be back in not too long.”
“Be safe.”
Curtis smiled. “Safety is evil defeated.”
They headed out of town to an area Terrance was unfamiliar with. First they passed by farmland, then took a dirt road that led them between some grass-covered hills. On the other side was a forest with some of the tallest trees Terrance had ever seen. After they parked, they got out and wandered into the forest, Terrance marveling the whole time at what was above him. The trees were all evenly spaced, as if on a grid, with about ten yards between each one. On the ground around them were mainly grass and a few scattered plants—it was almost like the whole area was landscaped. The trunks of the trees were only about two feet wide, yet they stretched up so far into the night sky that Terrance couldn’t make out their tops. And they seemed to have only a sparse amount of leaves, such that the full moon easily shone down into the forest, bathing the whole area in a blue light. Floating around the trees were what looked like lightning bugs, but bigger.
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