Other Places 1: Shortcuts

by P. S. Power

  "It's all percentages. Think about it, you met zero girls for three months and got zero pussy. Now you've met two in two days. Three if you count that old lady. If one in every hundred women or so is willing to sleep with you, why... you should be getting some this year for sure."

  As pep talks went it wasn't that great of one, but coming from M.H. it was practically like the guy was singing his praises. Zack shook his head and left quietly, dressed in Troy's clothing, today in a red cotton blend button front shirt, black slacks and a sharp looking black tie, along with the same dress shoes from the day before. His old jacket went over that.

  It had snowed a little, the road gray, not being totally covered yet, a few flakes falling slowly from above, hitting him in the face. It was refreshing. He could have dodged them all, seeing their pattern, since it wasn't too thick for that kind of thing yet. Zack just walked though, his footprints just appearing in the parking lot after he stepped through. No one would notice, most likely. Or, if they did, they wouldn't care. Footprints just appearing out of nowhere didn't catch attention, because people couldn't explain it.

  It took a lot less time to get the store open and ready that day, since it was about as clean as scrubbing would make it. That just meant he got to spend the morning marking all the candles on the bottom with the correct price. He found the ordering catalog and just followed the suggested retail price in there. It was what he'd charged the men the day before. It was a big job, even given the fairly small space. They had plenty of little stickers for it at least, just sitting under the counter. No one came in or interrupted him all day, and he was finished by four. Then he found the little baskets that people were supposed to use for shopping, actually wicker ones, which were classy looking, compared to the plastic and metal ones most places had. He sat those out and carefully penned a little sign that said, "For Your Shopping Convenience" and taped it over them.

  Then, noticing the mall start to get busy again, he waited, wondering if anyone ever even bought the place as a store at all.

  It was what he was thinking when the woman walked in. She was about forty and looked well enough dressed. A bit casual, wearing running shoes and blue jeans. It wasn't anyone he'd seen before. For a second he wondered if an actual customer had come in, so he smiled at her.

  "Hi! Can I help you find anything? We have baskets by the door, and if you don't see anything you like, we have some ordering catalogues, so don't be afraid to let me know."

  She froze and then shook her head, but did smile.

  "Is Lisa in? She told me to meet her here at five, I'm a bit late..." A hand came out along with a firm handshake. "Deidre. Her girlfriend? I don't know if she mentioned me?"

  Zack shook his head.

  "I can guarantee that in the fifteen lines she's spoken to me, she has definitely not mentioned anyone in particular. Not even herself, except to give her name. Now I know more about her by far, meeting you. Nice to meet you by the way. Please stay and talk to me. I'd bribe you, but I have no money. Want a candle? I can get you a candle..." It was rushed and slightly manic, but it got a laugh.

  "Heh, she did mention that the store part of things was a little slow. You do good work though, I don't think this place has ever looked this good before." She hesitated for a while then made a bit of a face. "I'm a Wiccan, but that's a religious thing for me. I don't really have much by the way of power. I do the spells, but they normally don't work, you know?"

  He nodded.

  "Mage family myself, I even learned the basics when I was a kid, but, well, I was kidnapped, and have over a year of missing time. Whatever happened to me locked that up pretty solidly. I can do a few odd things, but I'm not a real Mage. Good at noticing some things most don't. About the same as you really, I'd guess. Except the part where you have a girlfriend and I don't. That sort of means you win, I think." He stopped, not wanting to inundate the poor woman with the long, and mostly boring, tale of how he was a failure in magic.

  Instead of pity the woman gave him a look that seemed to be peaceful.

  "Well, magic is nice, but as far as I can tell, it tends to make just as many problems as it solves. That's what I use to comfort myself when Lisa whips out a spell that does incredible things and I'm in the background chanting to the goddess, uselessly."

  It was an interesting topic, and he would have continued on in the same vein if a very exhausted looking Lisa hadn't walked through the door just then. There was a stagger to her steps, and a single bruise on her right cheek. It wasn't deep or dark in particular, just enough that it was visible with all the store lights on.

  "Hey..." She was wearing the same clothing as she had been a few days before, though there were smudges in places, especially at the knees. Whatever drugs had been keeping her going were wearing off it seemed, since she could barely stand, and fell into one of his new end-cap displays.

  Deidre got to her fast, her arms going around her, acting as if it wasn't half hug. That was silly, since she'd introduced herself as her girlfriend.

  Mirror Him explained it, getting it before Zack could.

  "One of them is in the closet. I'm betting it's Lisa, since her friend looks like she could be the poster child for bull dykes... Wait, is that an offensive term yet? It's so hard to keep on top of these things anymore."

  It was a crude way for him to put it, but there seemed to be some truth to it. That or Deidre was a stalker that was just claiming that Lisa was her girlfriend. His boss kept looking at him and pushing her away, trying to be subtle about it.

  "Sorry I abandoned you, Zack. I'm surprised that you're still here to tell the truth. Most people would have walked out at five when I didn't show and never came back. Thanks." She looked around blearily and smiled. "God. This place looks like a store for once. Did anything... out of the ordinary come up?"

  It took a second to get what she meant and he nodded which got her to give him a funny look.

  "Yes. While you were gone I staged a coup and named myself assistant-manager. Or at least I'm doing it right now. I mean, how are you supposed to know the difference, right? I also unilaterally decided that we're having Christmas decorations, I need funds for that. Plus I'm giving myself a raise. Twice what I used to make, whatever that was." He was playing, but meant it at the same time. She nodded at each statement.

  "Alright. Sounds totally fair. So nothing else?"

  He could have probably hedged but she'd find out eventually. It was always better to be honest and get things out of the way. Hopefully Lisa would be as reasonable as Bob from the phone had been.

  "Yes, a Mage named Hiram Stone came in to claim asylum, I used the guild rules to settle that problem for him, he'd ripped-off his partner in a criminal endeavor, a shifter named Cyrus? Then I threatened to cut off Hiram's hand and extorted five thousand dollars from him as an arbitrage fee. It's under the till. He complained to the guild, but I actually do have the law on my side. Um, Bob Millhouse called to see about that? He said he'd be in soon. His wife has been really sick. We should make sure they have everything they need. Offer to go clean their house, or shop for them. That has to be really hard."

  Lisa started blinking really fast then and stumbled around the counter to look in the till. Zack pantomimed lifting it so she could find the funds. Those got pulled out, which had her making a troubled face.

  "You got Hiram Stone to part with money? Bonds too? How?"

  That just got a smile and a shrug. It hadn't been hard enough for him to worry over really.

  "I think it was the fact that he thought I might really take all he had on him and still cut off his hand. That's actually about it. Well, I got him and Cyrus to buy some candles. The rest of the time I spent working on the store."

  It sounded boring, but that was work in most places. You put in your time and tried to make yourself useful enough they didn't fire you.

  Lisa stumbled to the back her girlfriend following, looking concerned. A few minutes later she came back, her eyes looking glassy. There was a frow
n on Deidre's face though.

  His boss handed him an envelope and waved at the door.

  "I can take the rest of the night. You go home and use that to get the decorations you want. I can set the sound system in my office to play Seasonal tunes. Is it too early for that?" Freshly drugged or not, she was still unsteady.

  Zack shook his head.

  "Um, unless you have other work to do here, that I can't, why don't you go home and I'll get more hours in, while you go and get some sleep. You look like crap. Drugging yourself this much isn't good for you." He held up his right hand, just in time for her to scowl at him.

  "Excuse me?"

  He nodded.

  "Sure, I mean, of course I will. I get why you're doing it, but you have someone to do the dirty work for you now... and mark time. I need the money and you need the sleep, so you see how this works out? You drop dead and I'm probably out of a job. True, I might also be for saying this, but I did mention I can only tell the truth, right?" He thought that he had, but honestly that was escaping him at the moment. If not there could be trouble. People generally didn't like to hear bad things said about themselves like that.

  Deidre looked at him as if he were a saint though, beaming.

  "See? Zack is good here. Everything seems fine. There was a problem and he totally owned it. Besides you have that other thing to deal with and he's right honey, you have to sleep soon. Let's go home." She sounded like she was begging at the end. It wasn't a pleasant thing to hear.

  Between the two of them he kind of liked Deidre better so far. She seemed sane and stable, as well as kind. That counted for a lot in life, at least if you were smart. It took nearly ten more minutes of assurances and then Lisa promised that she'd be in first thing in the morning, so he could sleep in. Her girlfriend rolled her eyes, which he took as a sign not to trust the words.

  "No need. I get plenty of sleep. I'll open and you can bring me lunch? I've been starving all day, but I couldn't leave." He didn't want to complain about it, since he didn't have any food at home waiting for him either. Whining about things you couldn't change didn't help anything.

  Lisa blinked again.

  "Oh, you can just call down to the food court and they'll bring you whatever you want. They're actually a lot better than you'd think. We have an account, so you don't even have to pay for it yourself. Have friends in, whatever you want." She shook her head, trying to get the cobwebs out. "This isn't a real store, it's technically an embassy. All the places here are. Built on a nexus, since that's the tradition, so that no single group can control them all."

  That made sense. Smiling he started looking for the number for the free food. When he mentioned it, Lisa laughed and got him a large blue binder from her office.

  "This has almost all the numbers of anyone important at all to my job. The food court is on the first page. This is actually Bob's book. You're right about getting with him. I've just been so slammed."

  He believed her, but whatever it was she did, it hadn't crossed his path overly yet. If she was going days without sleep to keep up on it, well that meant it must be decently pressing. More so than a fake candle shop, that was clear.

  Deidre smiled at him and looked grateful, walking out with a small tinkle as the chimes rang. It only took a few minutes for the food to be called in, and twenty minutes after that a very short man with a friendly smile brought a Styrofoam container filled with egg rolls, fried rice and beef strips.

  "I'm Conrad. Call on me and mine at need. You're too skinny. People will think our food is no good here if that keeps on." He smiled at his own words and left, his presence slightly baffling after he was gone. He wasn't a human, Zack didn't think.

  He was short, but perfect in form, like a regular sized man standing off at a distance. It was more like he was a good looking normal person than not, light skinned, but with very normal brown hair and eyes. That and a white outfit for cooking, one that was very nearly spotless. It just didn't seem right.

  Whoever Conrad and his people were, they made excellent fried rice. Zack had just finished it when there was a knock on the back door. He'd seen it before, the big metal thing, but he couldn't for the life of him imagine who it would be.

  Tossing his container and wiping his mouth carefully he ran to open it, just in case it was a delivery, or some Mage that needed something.

  It wasn't.

  When he opened the door it was a very cute looking dead girl that had a pierced nose on the left side and an even more dead man on her shoulder. That one didn't move at all.

  "Um..." The girl stared at him for a very brief time then pushed passed him. "Help?"

  Chapter four

  The outer door shut on its own, swinging closed instantly, in a way that would make going in and out without a key hard to manage. It didn't move fast, but the dumpster was out that way, meaning that when he wanted to tidy things he had to remember to prop the thing open. It wasn't something he'd thought of overly yet, since all he'd really had to deal with so far was a lot of collapsed boxes, which he had sitting in the far corner of the big back room. It was actually about twice the size of the storefront, which was kind of telling if anyone was going to pay attention to that kind of thing. Who needed a huge and empty back room?

  It was obviously for their illegal dancing studio. Covert ballet training or something. Zack didn't smile at his own thought, more interested in the situation unfolding in front of him.

  The thin girl with her piercing and fake red hair stared for about ten seconds. He just waited, figuring that she'd say something eventually. Probably that she had the wrong door and knew it. It wasn't like it could be that hard to find the correct side of the building.

  "Fuck." It wasn't all that articulate, but she sounded pretty heartfelt about the sentiment. "I know that we aren't supposed to do this, but the human police are following me and watching the door on the other side. I picked this fellow up, he'd been jammed under a house. Can you hide him here? Or, freaking hell... He won't wake up for nearly six hours. If the police get to him before that, I'll have to kill them. It's the rule."

  A pounding came from the door then, almost as if they'd been waiting for her to explain herself first.

  "Open up! Police!"

  The Vampire grimaced and started to put the body down. Zack sighed, and moved under it, surprising her. He'd never carried another person through a rift, but there was a first time for everything. Dead bodies in his back room would clutter everything up. His legs nearly collapsed under him as the girl looked concerned, her face baffled as he waddled slowly toward the rift, picking a nice area in an old growth forest that he'd noticed earlier. It took about four seconds, but that meant dumping the man rather unceremoniously on the other side. It was night and cold out, so the fellow should be alright for a while there. Stepping back was easier.

  It really didn't take long, about fifteen seconds for the whole trip. The red haired girl stared at him a bit for some reason, but didn't say anything.

  The police yelled again, so Zack went and opened the door, the man he found not seeming like a cop at all, wearing a decently nice suit and having a short, but expensive looking haircut. He was just about to pound with his fist again when the door opened, nearly hitting Zack in the nose. It wasn't fast, so he had time to get out of the way.

  "Come in? It's pretty cold out there. Please, enter."

  The man stepped in, looking around suspiciously, eyeing the Vampire like they knew each other.

  "You think I didn't see you? Carrying in that body like that Nikki? Oh, yeah. Got you now. Where is it? You and your little friends screwed up this time didn't you?" He glanced around and finally looked at Zack.

  "Who the fuck are you? Ichabod Crane's shorter brother?"

  He didn't answer that, trying to look polite instead. The man growled and started to grab him, but the Vampire girl shook her head.

  In fact the look on her face went hard suddenly.

  "I wouldn't Baconni. You think you understand the gam
e, but not all of the players are people you want to mess with. In fact none of them are, as I've mentioned several times. I can't keep running interference for you. Some people have started to notice and I can't be there all the time to offer protection. I'm not so old I don't have to sleep you know." She looked at Zack and threw her hands up a little, exasperated. "I warned him off of a case a few months back, as a professional courtesy, but he decided it was a good time to start an investigation into what I was doing. It's started to screw with my job."

  Baconni, if that was his name and not some kind of Italian insult, shook his head, but started in on the woman again, instead of him. Ichabod Crane... Did anyone under forty even know who that was? Other than Zack of course, but he read a lot.

  "You can't keep me from finding out the truth forever. Lies about Vampire secret societies won't cut it. What is it, a cult? Some kind of drug empire? Sex trade? I'll find out, and when I do I'm taking you all down." He looked around the largely empty space. "Now, where's that body? I know he's fucking dead, I took his pulse before you ran off with him."

  Zack waved around the room, then walked to the door of Lisa's little office and opened it, surprised to find it unlocked, there was, of course, no one in there. He did the same with the restroom and supply closet. Then he walked with both the invaders into the front of the store.

  "Candles and More. None of the 'more' is a collection of people, I assure you. Now, if you'd like to look around, please feel free, but there isn't anything here other than slightly expensive scented candles and some nice decorations. We do give a discount to public servants however, if you see anything you like. Only thirty percent, so, you know, it's not a bribe or anything, just a little thank you from us to you. For all your hard work and public service." He nearly made a crack about how stupid the man sounded, going on about not believing in Vampires as he stood next to one, but realized that would be a bit mean. If the man couldn't wrap his head around it, then he just wouldn't be able to. Even most people that wanted the supernatural to be real couldn't truly understand it. Not when they were faced with it.