by Adam Dark
Good.
Ben stepped forward, and both April and Peter called his name at the same time. When he turned around to face them, he had to force himself into what he hoped was a reassuring smile. They probably wouldn’t blame him if it wasn’t. “We got this,” he said with a nod. At least he had that—being able to say out loud that it was Ben and Ian, heading toward what was either a demon revelation or a total trap. He didn’t give either of them time to say anything else before he headed toward Lizzie.
The woman’s smile widened as he approached, and she nodded, gently wiggling her outstretched fingers. “You’ll see.”
The green light was completely gone from her eyes now, no matter how intensely he looked for it. So he steeled himself, gritted his teeth, and reached out to take her hand.
It wasn’t quite like Ian pulling him into the spirit realm. It wasn’t quite like anything else Ben had ever experienced. An almost electric jolt went through his body when Lizzie’s fingers wrapped tightly around his, and he hissed in a sharp breath just from the surprise of it. But he could still breathe. He could still see. The woman standing in front of him now did, of course, look exactly like her physical body. But her smile was gentler, calmer, tinged with the kind of sadness Ben imagined only people trapped inside their own bodies came to understand. Every inch of her was lit up by that green light, though it flickered in and out between green and the muted, colorless gray belonging to the spirits of the dead he’d seen in the spirit realm. Only this was much, much brighter. The two glowing colors pulsed and wavered around her, casting a halo around her entire body as if they were flames instead.
“You see it now,” she told him with the same voice the demon had used. But it differed from the demon’s speech just as much as Lizzie’s smile differed from the grin on her face before he’d taken her hand. This was definitely her. And she didn’t look hurt or scared at all.
He still had to ask. “Are you okay?”
Lizzie chuckled a little and nodded. “Better than I’ve been in a long time. They told me I’d find myself again, even if I had to be just a little less completely me.”
Ben blinked. “You knew what was going to happen?”
She frowned at him until she seemed to answer for herself whatever question had formed in her own mind. “But you didn’t, did you?” Ben just slowly shook his head. “Yeah, I think I’d be pretty caught off guard by this too, then.” She gave his hand a gentle squeeze, the flickering green and gray light around her making her curly hair look like it was fluttering in a breeze. “I wanted this. Rufus gave me the only option I had left, besides sitting the way you saw me for the rest of my life. That’s not any way to live.”
“And this is?” He couldn’t believe anyone would willingly accept a demon into their own body, giving it full control over everything for the rest of forever.
Lizzie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “This was my choice. So far, I’m incredibly glad I made it.” She looked him up and down, then broke into a grin. “You’re in something of a similar situation too, aren’t you?”
‘She can see me?’
“You can see him?” Ben asked, his head spinning with the strangeness of this conversation and the tingling crawling up his arm from Lizzie’s grip.
She nodded. “It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Ben just let out a breath of disbelief. “Thank you for helping to make this happen.”
“Uh…” Ben blinked furiously now, feeling like an idiot. Rufus had some serious explaining to do. “You’re welcome.”
“What’s your name?”
“Ben.”
“We won’t forget you, Ben.” Then she actually winked at him, of all things, and released her tight hold on his hand. His fingers slid gently out of hers, and then the gray-green light and the fluttering halo around her faded until he stood in the dark room again, blinking at the same woman who obviously wasn’t the same woman anymore but something else. Someone else. Two… beings in the same body.
‘Well, that hits a little close to home.’
No kidding.
The new Lizzie smiled at him when he stepped back. “Was that enlightening enough for you?”
Ben didn’t think he could actually say anything intelligible right now, so he just nodded. Then he turned around and headed back toward April, unable to do a thing about his own wide eyes and the half-relieved, half-tense smile he offered. She looked like she was dying to know something, so he stopped beside her and just whispered, “Lizzie’s fine, apparently. Totally lovin’ it, I guess.”
“What?” April whispered.
“I’ll… tell you later.”
“Thank you, Rufus,” the woman said, and Ben turned around to look at her one more time. He couldn’t fully comprehend what had just happened, but it sure had knocked all the fight out of him—right along with what little certainty he’d had about how any of this worked.
“You are absolutely welcome.” Rufus nodded again, smiling like he’d just brought a lost kid back to her parents.
“When you need me,” the new Lizzie added, “I assume you’ll know where to find me.”
“I always have,” Rufus replied. When he turned to head for the door, he raised his eyebrows at Ben as if to say, ‘I told you so.’ Ben didn’t even have it in him to be annoyed by that. Then Rufus opened the door. Ben and the others slowly made their way after him, and the man paused just long enough to say over his shoulder, “Don’t forget your box.”
Peter gave Ben a blank look, then remembered what the heck that was supposed to mean. He darted back toward his open metal box on the floor, looked up at the woman standing there, and muttered, “Uh, bye.”
“Have a nice night,” she said with another brilliant smile.
Fumbling to get the box closed again and into his hands, Peter popped back up and walked briskly toward the open door. Ben, April, and Chase were waiting for him in the hallway, watching that last bit of awkwardness on Peter’s part without any humor between them at all. It made sense that they were all just as shell-shocked as Ben was. While Peter didn’t look embarrassed—he hardly even looked angry anymore when he met Ben’s gaze and shook his head like he had no idea what had just happened, obviously—he stuffed the metal box under one arm and pulled out his inhaler for two quick puffs. Then he closed the door behind him, and they all headed back the way they’d come.
Rufus had his hands stuck casually into the pockets of his brown leather jacket, walking with more than enough swagger for a guy twice his size. Nobody said a word until they entered the lobby again, and the only person to speak now was the woman behind the glass partition.
“Have a good visit?” she asked.
“We did.” Rufus turned to her and nodded slowly. “You know, I think today was a really good day for her.”
“Really?” The woman sounded surprised and a little disbelieving, which made sense for all she knew about Lizzie that wasn’t even remotely true anymore. Ben had a feeling she heard people say this all day every day in a place like this, and not one of those visitors’ optimistic reports meant anything compared to Rufus’ massive understatement. But she was also apparently quite good at her job and took what she clearly thought to be just wishful thinking in stride. “That’s good to hear.”
“Yes, it is,” Rufus replied with a cordial wave. “Yes, it is. Have a good night, Glennie.”
“Oh, you too, Mr. Dirre.” She flashed a smile at Ben and the others. Ben tried to return it, but his level of complete bafflement most likely made it look more like a grimace. Glennie’s cheeriness dampened into something like sympathy and maybe even a little pity; she and whoever else worked here were going to find one monster of a surprise the next time they checked in on the resident they all thought had lost all her functioning.
For the first time, Ben found himself wondering why, if everyone knew of Lizzie’s previous, near-catatonic state, she’d been left in a mostly dark room like that, all by herself, with absolutely nothing to pass the time and no one t
o keep her company. Then he couldn’t help thinking about all the other people at Patron Hill who might or might not have found themselves in the exact same situation. It kind of made him nauseous, actually, and he wondered just what exactly this place really was.
Rufus held the door open for all of them again, and when they’d filed out in stunned silence, the man clapped his hands together and smacked his lips. “Anybody hungry?”
“You’re joking, right?” April asked flatly.
Rufus just shrugged, like had hadn’t caught on to her unamused tone at all. “Nope. Everything went the way it was supposed to. Thank you, Ben, for your part in it. Nothing else to do now, and it’s dinnertime.” He looked at them all, clearly waiting for an answer. “Well, you can think about it on the walk back. Pizza sounds good, right?” The man nodded and turned around to lead them down the small concrete path through the business complex parking lot again.
Honestly, Ben would have chosen to part ways with the guy right then and there, but they were all going back to the same place for their cars. So his only option was to pretty much follow Rufus back to the movie theater and try to keep himself together until they got there.
“Dinner?” April muttered, staring at Ben as they headed down the path again.
Ben just shook his head. “It’s really not even close to the weirdest thing today.”
“I know, right?” Chase said behind them, and Peter snorted.
At least they were all on the same page of cluelessness with this one. Ben just wished Chase would quit butting into his conversations with April.
21
Once Rufus told Ben to call him with a decision—when he made it—the man had sped off in his red Ferrari, leaving the four of them alone in the parking lot to decide what to do next.
“Should we call the cops?” April asked.
“About what?” Peter asked, still cradling his metal box and looking like he’d just hit his head on something.
“That woman behind the movie theater.” April frowned at the guys, making it quite obvious she found their lack of compassion in that matter more than a little disconcerting.
“And then explain to them what we were doing rifling through the movie theater’s trash before we found her?” Ben asked. “Look, I don’t like just leaving here there, either, but I’m pretty sure we’d be charged with trespassing or something, right?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Chase said, puffing on his vape.
“Of course it matters.” April folded her arms and stared at the guy. “A woman died. I mean, she was homeless and old, but she’s still dead. We need to tell somebody.”
“Already did.” When no one had anything to say to that, Chase just grinned. “Come on, guys. The Boston PD has an anonymous tip line. I sent that in when we were walking to that Patron Hill place.”
“How?” Peter managed a surprising amount of sarcasm in that one-word question.
Chase looked at him like Peter had just said he didn’t know how to read. “With my phone.”
“It’s not really anonymous, though, right?” Ben said. “Can’t they track where it came from? Like an IP address or your phone number?” Chase raised an eyebrow. “Or cell signal. Whatever.”
“You seriously don’t think I haven’t already taken care of that? Dude, you saw my house. You saw what I can…” Chase swallowed. “What I can get into.”
Ben liked to think the guy was referring to all his illegal activity Ian had pulled up on Chase’s computers, which made him feel a little better because remembering that little fact seemed to make Chase so uncomfortable. “Yeah, I know,” he said, brushing it off. “So the police know, then. Great.” April scowled at him. “Hey, I don’t like leaving her there any more than you do. And if I’d known what would happen to her, I wouldn’t have even…” He sighed. It was pretty pointless to feel this awful about something he couldn’t control at all, but pointlessness had never stopped him before. “I can’t believe that’s what happened.”
“Yeah, and what about everything else after that?” Peter asked, actually looking up at Ben now when he spoke. It was something.
“Dude, I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around that right now,” Ben said.
“You still haven’t told us what actually happened,” April added.
Right. Because Ben was the only person who’d taken demon-Lizzie’s hand and spoken with the real, happy, reduced-to-the-back-of-her-own-consciousness Lizzie. Man, this had been a long day. “Yeah, I have to do that,” he said. “So it was weird when Rufus brought it up… but do you guys wanna go somewhere for dinner and we can talk the whole thing over?”
For a few seconds, he got nothing but blank looks all around.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” April said quickly.
“Sure, okay,” Peter offered at the same time.
“Man, I haven’t eaten since…” Chase puffed out a breath and looked up at the black sky. “Like right before we got here. I’m starving.”
“Seriously?” Ben asked.
“What?”
Ben just shook his head, wondering if the guy had a conscience about anything or if he’d just gotten really stoned before they met Rufus for one heck of an eye-opener tonight.
“Berta’s is just down on Twenty-First,” April offered.
“Whatever works,” Peter said.
“All right.” Chase slapped the hood of his car and nearly skipped to the driver-side door before jerking it open. “See you there!”
They watched him pull out of the parking lot, and Ben took a deep breath before looking at April. The look she gave him was a mixture of intense discomfort and a desire to laugh it off, because honestly, what else could they do about any of it at this point? Especially Chase.
“Right,” Peter said. “Don’t take too long.” Then he took off across the parking lot toward his car, taking out his inhaler again for a few more puffs in the cold night air.
“Okay, come on,” April said, heading toward her own car. When Ben didn’t answer, she turned around and offered him a small, tired laugh. “You look like driving is the last thing you want to do right now,” she told him. “I got it.”
‘She knows you almost as well as I do,’ Ian said, though he didn’t sound in the least bit surprised.
No, she knew Ben much better than that.
‘Oh, come on, man. I’m inside your head.’
Yeah, Ben thought back. But she doesn’t read my mind. You do, and you still haven’t figured out when to stop talking.
They decided in not so many words to talk about anything other than what they’d just seen that night while April drove them for six minutes down the street to the restaurant. Ben didn’t really want to repeat himself for Peter and Chase’s sakes, and he didn’t even know if he had it in him to say everything he had to say twice. This day had packed way too many things into it, and he honestly just needed a little more time to process as much of it as he could before he had to spill it all out again on the table with their food. He still didn’t have as much of an appetite as he normally did, which wasn’t weird anymore after everything that had happened today. But it was a little better than it had been. All things considered, April was doing pretty well now that she knew about Ian, and Peter hadn’t refused to join them for a group chat about what the heck they’d watched Rufus do. So again, after all the confusion clouding up Ben’s mind, things were starting to look up again.
Chase and Peter had already gotten a table, so when Ben and April joined them, they all went through the motions of acting like four completely normal people in their twenties—studying the menu, ordering drinks, smiling tightly in response to their server’s chipper greeting. Ben wondered if there was a place out there where the servers were hired on their ability to just ask quickly what the customers needed, leave, and only come back with food or when someone at the table pressed a button for something. He’d probably even pay extra for that.
Once they had their drinks and their dinner orders in with the kitchen,
the conversation that needed to happen couldn’t really be ignored any longer. “Okay,” Ben said. “Where should we start?”
“That lady in the trash was possessed by a demon, wasn’t she?” Chase asked around his straw as he sucked down the rest of his coke.
“That was literally the most obvious thing about the entire night,” Peter muttered, glaring at the guy.
Chase’s eyes widened, and he sat straight up in the booth, smacking his lips. “Just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page.”
Ben might have told the guy to just go sit at the bar and let the grownups talk, but honestly, his conscience was just a little lighter knowing Chase had alerted the police to the dead woman in the trash behind the movie theater. There were a few small perks to keeping the guy around. He just hoped Chase hadn’t run out useful things, because the guy still hadn’t quite managed pulling his own weight enough to cancel out how annoying he was.
“Maybe you should start with what happened with that Lizzie woman,” April offered, nodding slowly at Ben.
“Sure,” he said. That was as good a place as any. “Wait, first, what did you guys see when that happened?”
“You grabbed her hand,” Peter said, staring at the center of the table. “Then you both just kinda… froze for a few seconds.”
“She was smiling the whole time,” April added. “You didn’t move. But there wasn’t any green light or weird noises or anything. Just you guys standing there like you were about to start shaking hands and then decided not to.”
Well, that wasn’t nearly as weird as Ben had expected. And if they’d seen him standing there for only a few seconds, he’d probably gone into the spirit realm for a little bit. Maybe not entirely, because he hadn’t been there that long. Was it possible to go halfway between?
‘Not as far as I know,’ Ian said. ‘But I’m kind of out of my depth here, too.’
Clearly.
“At least it wasn’t something totally awful,” Ben said, defaulting into his poorly timed humor to try lightening the mood. Nobody laughed, but whatever. “So I took her hand, and it was kind of like going into the spirit realm but not exactly. Nothing really changed around us, like it normally does. I have no idea if you guys were still there at that point, but I saw Lizzie. Like… her spirit.” When he paused, April just nodded to continue, and neither Peter nor Chase seemed either ready to stop him or ready to stop listening. “She looked exactly the same as… well, as her physical body. But it wasn’t the same woman who was talking to all of us. It was definitely the real Lizzie. And she basically told me she felt amazing and happy and that she’d actually agreed to the whole ‘demon taking over her body’ thing.”