Other Places 1: Shortcuts

by P. S. Power

  She didn't even hesitate to stick her right hand out to shake on the deal.

  "Done. Well, that was easier than I thought. So, what about those Christmas decorations?" She seemed much happier then, even though Calley and the man at the back of the room both looked down, kind of bummed out. that seemed a little off to Zack. He was... When he thought about having to hang out with him he drew a blank himself. Fun wouldn't be the word for it. Or entertaining. Maybe they had the right idea?

  The decorations weren't exactly hard to come up with, since it was a large window display with manikins in it, dressed in the stores clothing, which was pretty nice. He really should have asked for some of that, he realized, but it was too late now. Or, well it was pretty clear that they thought the value of his work was high, so maybe he could add to the fee, but honestly, he should have said that first. Asking for more after the agreement had been made seemed creepy to him. He decided to just get some Santa hats and garlands for the whole thing, some white material to act like fake snow and some strings of lights in red and green. It wouldn't even cost that much. The woman didn't even seem worried about the expense now, so the budget was clearly larger than she'd been letting on.

  It wasn't until he and his grandmother were walking away that he noticed that he was being followed by Calley and his new, rather large, friend. The bearded one.

  They walked all the way back to the store with him, looking down the whole time, like they were little kids in trouble. They did stop inside the door and look around, Calley nodding as she glanced at the tree and all the decorations.

  "Wow. This kicks butt. So... anyway, what are we going to be doing? I really don't mind sex stuff, but I don't want to be food for Vampires if that's alright. I know, cultural prejudice, but..."

  "What?" Zack didn't really get it for a long time but Lynn did, her face rather calm considering what she said next.

  "Dear, you just took these two as slaves, I believe that they wish to know what their captivity will require of them."

  "Oh."

  After a few seconds he nodded and waved his left hand at them.

  "Miscommunication... big time. I was asking you two to come hang out sometimes, dinner, maybe play cards or something. Have a movie night or whatever. It was just a thing to get that lady off of my back. You don't even really have to come, if you don't want to. Still, it would be cool to have some people over, every now and again, and you're both invited."

  That got everyone to stare at him, as if he were stupid or something, but he snorted at them, Mirror Him taking over instantly and without warning.

  "What? Do you really think you have anything I need? I work to pay my bills and get chicks when I want them, crazy or not. I mean seriously, Calley, you'd totally do me, right? Of course you would. My point is that I don't need slaves, or more crap sitting around my house. Money just buys stuff. I have enough now. So, yeah, I mean it, you two just come over and hang sometime and we can tell your people that you're handling things. If it comes up you can help me on some project or whatever. Don't make a big thing of it, because this is America and we don't have slaves here. Also, your boss is a little bitchy. You might let her know I said that, just so she doesn't get confused and think I like her or something." Then, mercifully, he shut up.

  On the good side his grandmother didn't scold him for it, beaming instead and patting him on the back as if he hadn't just been completely rude to both these people.

  "Well, there we go. I'd understood his words to mean something like that too, but it seems your Ambassador is rather more... free with the meaning of things. We should get together soon, all of us. Do you both have someone to bring to the party?"

  The large man who mumbled that his name was Rupert when asked, allowed that he did have a girlfriend, who was a regular human. The idea of bringing her along clearly distressed him a little. Calley wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

  "Nope, not me. Totally free agent. You could set me up with your buddy Troy though."

  Zack wrinkled his nose back.

  "Ask for yourself Bat girl. Don't think that you going out with him means I won't swoop in and pick you up myself either. Just a warning." It was true, on a certain level, but he was trying to sound playful too. The girl just tilted her head a bit.

  "Alright. I can do that, if you want. Just remember, my kind aren't monogamous, so don't expect me to set up house full time. I don't think I could, even if I had to. It really isn't the way we're wired inside."

  He nodded as if it was fine with him, which it really was. The jumpy girl was nice enough, but kind of jangling, it was a thing that could set his nerves on edge after a while, he thought. The whole conversation was a little hard, since his grandmother was right there, watching them all, but she didn't comment on it, just suggesting they all get together on Friday night."

  Counting first in his head and then on his fingers he frowned.

  "What day is that? In numbers?"

  Calley didn't have to check anything just speaking, "the eighteenth. Why, have a date?"

  Zack didn't answer, that would give him plenty of time after all. He didn't have the Demon thing until two whole days after that. It was scary, since he had no clue how he was going to handle it all, but he really couldn't see a way out of it. Not unless he died first, which hopefully wasn't in the plans.

  "Great. Let's do it after nine though, so Hiram and Jelly can come too? New workers at the store. Great people. You'll like them, I think."

  They agreed and got out of the store fast enough Zack felt almost certain the two Shifters kind of still expected to be eaten or something.

  "Well that went well. Are things like that happening to you a lot lately? Maybe you should look in to getting a manager if so." Lynn watched him carefully, as if looking for a sign of weakness or pain. He still hurt, but he was doing better thanks to Wu-Li and time. That reminded him to do his exercises. They didn't take long, only about a minute and a half.

  Then he noticed the picture of an absolutely stunning girl that sat on the front counter. She was at least a nine on a one to ten scale and that was mainly because he docked a point due to her heavy nerd glasses. The lenses in them were pretty thin too, almost like they were almost plain glass. So an incredibly hot girl dressing down on purpose? Written on a yellow sticky note was a single word. A name.

  "Kaitlyn."

  Whoever she was, he knew that she was an Alede, which meant nothing at all to him. His grandparents had taught him about magical law and even how to do some basic workings, but not a lot about their culture, since they'd worked pretty hard to shield him when he was younger and then later, when it was clear he wasn't going to ever use magic himself, they'd tried to focus on whatever he was interested in at the time. He'd read a whole lot of science-fiction in his day, but he had no idea what to think about the girl in the picture.

  Other than that she'd run away from school.

  Taking a minute to get a good understanding of the girl and what she felt like he went to the back room and started to search for her. Nothing happened at first, but as he focused more tightly he finally got something. It wasn't her though, it was a boy with similar coloration. He looked kind of close and was nearly perfect as far as skin tone and build, but that wasn't who he was looking for. He stepped back and frowned, his arm aching just a bit as he tried to clear his mind and try again. And then a third time. The boy was standing in the back of a coffee shop, cleaning up a table. He looked about sixteen or so, which was a bit young to have a real job, but fit the scene he was in pretty well. A lot of younger people started in places like that, at least on television. Finally Zack just stepped through to see if the girl was hidden somehow, maybe... it really shouldn't have happened from any direction. He either saw people or not.

  The strange thing was, up until that time, he'd never gotten it wrong before. It wasn't until he saw the name tag on the guy's chest that he got it. It said his name was Kyle. Kaitlyn and Kyle... This person was both of them. So, some kind of
shape shifter?

  Looking back Zack realized two things. One, he was still in Washington, in Seattle in fact. He could feel that clearly. The other thing was that the rift behind him was completely closed. It wasn't something he'd ever noticed happening before. There was just the faintest hint that it had even been there at all, and even that was fading fast. It was sort of like he'd opened it somehow.

  He didn't know what to say to the boy, who was being stared at by a lot of the women in the room, which meant that they hadn't even noticed a man appearing before them in space. Kyle had, and he looked freaked, like he was going to try and run. Zack was simply not up to chasing him and really, didn't have a reason too.

  "Hey, could you help me? I'm a little beat up." It was still true, though he felt a lot better than he had been. "I'd like a hot chocolate, if possible?"

  He started to reach for his wallet, and realized that he'd left it in his coat pocket. Blushing a little he shrugged.

  "Never mind. Left my cash at work. Are you Kaitlyn?" To anyone watching it had to be an incredibly strange thing to say, but the boy just made a face.

  "Kyle, right now, obviously. Did the school send you? I won't go back. The place is a prison. They were starving us and wouldn't let any of the kids touch anyone. I know it was supposed to be for our own good, but do you know what that does to an Alede if it goes on too long? We go nuts. Then they use it as an excuse to kill us. Claim that we're rogue and that it's our fault. I won't go back. You can't make me."

  It was probably true as far as it went. Zack literally couldn't take the kid in a fight, probably not even if he'd been healthy. The guy was kind of ripped and had calluses on his knuckles. Zack didn't know what that meant really, but it probably didn't mean he was a wimp.

  "Ah. Alright. I was asked by a... friend of your mothers to see if I could find you. Not take you back to school or anything like that. No one mentioned that at all. If it was that bad, I doubt that anyone will try to make you go back. I certainly won't. You could call her and see if things are alright." Zack didn't know. It was weird enough that Kaitlyn was in front of him as a boy, to tell the truth. He didn't ask about it, but the guy sat down, getting a slight glare from the man behind the counter.

  "I know, but... what if she tries to make me go back? I had some trouble, a few years ago. I... let myself go too long without feeding and I broke. I nearly killed a few people when I finally did it. I thought I could handle it, like an adult, but I just couldn't. Starving us isn't the way to teach control though. That whole place is a joke. A thing the council uses to control anyone that might be too strong. Take us out while were young, so that we can't challenge them later."

  If he was supposed to understand what all that meant, Zack was failing pretty badly, still, he had to get home, and the truth of the matter was that he wasn't going to do it while carrying Kyle here through a bunch of rifts, was he?

  "Um, OK. Well, maybe you could give her a chance? I don't know her, maybe she's not a reasonable person? I know, here, can we use the phone?"

  It turned out that they could. The man working there wasn't too pleased by the idea, but it turned out he was just a fellow employee and the boss was an older woman that kept reaching out to touch Kyle covertly. They even got to use the back room. She asked if she could watch, but seemed disappointed when all he needed to do was call Kyle's mother, which Zack did by getting the number from his grandfather and quickly jotting it down on a scrap of paper. Then he made the next call, trying to keep his voice smooth. The woman on the other side sounded... hot. Given what her daughter had looked like in the picture it wasn't hard to imagine that being the case.

  "Hello? This is Valerie Fargo, may I be of... service to you today?"

  "Um... I'm looking for Kaitlyn's mother? This is Zack Hartley. From Candles and More?"

  "Oh! Yes, thank you for calling me. I asked Lenore if she'd see if you'd be willing to try and find my daughter. I assure you that the Alede pay very well for services. I'm willing to offer you... very nearly anything you want, for the safe return of my child."

  "Really? Great. Our demands are as follows then... Ahem." He didn't wait for the woman to speak at all. "First and this is a deal breaker, he, and I imagine, she, doesn't want to go back to the school Kaitlyn was in. I don't know if what I was told about it makes sense, but it's just a school and if she's willing to go home but not there, it seems reasonable to me."

  There was silence on the other end of the phone for a long time.

  "That one might be a problem. Our council ordered her there, after an incident... It wasn't a punishment really, but most kids that end up in a place like Helmsmen don't make it. They have to be... put down." She didn't sound happy about it at all, but she also didn't seem to pick up on the fact that Kyle was right there.

  "Well, call them up and tell them that you got this service from me and if they want my help with anything in the future they'll play ball." He didn't really know how to play baseball himself, since it wasn't a Mage thing. They had other games they learned as kids. Zack didn't know those either. It was just a thing he'd missed from childhood, after he'd vanished like he had. "I'm not trying to blackmail anyone, but that's what's going to happen. Either they agree to let her out of that place, or she and I go so far away that no one can ever find her."

  It was a bit of an empty threat, but the woman seemed to pick up on her daughter's whereabouts then.

  "She's there? Let me speak to her!"

  The manager was watching them pretty closely and seemed more than a little baffled as Zack passed the phone over. He didn't bother trying to convince the woman that she should act in any given way, since it wasn't really up to him to break the laws of any given group like that. He really would take the kid away though, if he had too. Starving wasn't fun and setting someone up to die was... creepy. If that was even what they let the children think was happening, it couldn't be allowed. M.H. seemed to agree, but it was just a sense of things, like a thought, instead of different words. It was something new, but not so much so he couldn't understand the idea. For whatever reason that part of him wasn't getting involved, even though he normally did whatever it took to protect kids.

  Kyle didn't really seem like a kid though, did he?

  More like someone that should be going off to college the next year.

  The conversation got heated and sounded more than a little embarrassing, since within a minute they were arguing about sex and how much he'd been allowed, as well as how it wasn't enough. The manager was handling that part a lot better than Zack was, since she didn't blush at all, just watching the whole scene with increasing tension. It got bad enough that she had to leave after a while. Zack felt it too, a little, but it didn't do a lot for him. It was a wave of sex coming off of Kyle. The poor woman was probably off taking care of that, if he had it right.

  "You don't understand! They were starving us on purpose, they fed us like children and only gave us enough to barely function. I couldn't take it anymore. I was about to break from it and you know what they do the ones that can't make it? Bullet to the brain. They killed Jenny mom. And Doreen. And Kevin. All of them. One after the other. It was my turn next and I wasn't going to make it much longer, so I ran. If you send me back, they will kill me."

  There was crying then and the boy sobbed, sitting on the phone, holding his head, finally, sniffing loudly, the phone was handed back over to him.

  Valerie sounded like she'd been crying too.

  "I don't know what to do. I believe her, but... It's the law. If kids have problems we have to send them to one of the schools. There's no other way. When we used to let people run wild, well, that didn't work. Wars were started, more than once."

  It wasn't a fun thing to hear, but he just shrugged.

  "Fine. Call your people and tell them what I said, see if it works. If not..." He didn't know what else to do, honestly. Other than run away.

  There was a pause and the phone went dead, but music started playing, so that he knew she
hadn't simply hung up. It took a long time, but the manager didn't come back in, so it couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes or so. Finally the woman on the other side got back on, sobbing.

  "They're... they said that she's been put on the list already. Nothing they can do will take her off of it. I told them what you said, but the man in charge of that department... They... have to kill her. She has to go away. Will you take her? I can't ask, I... God. God." There was sobbing for a long time, but another phone started ringing, and a few seconds later he heard the same music as before. It was a very bland instrumental version of a hit from a long time ago, he thought.

  It was kind of boring, which meant he was looking almost exactly at the place that Keeley stepped out of nothingness into. It was kind of cool looking, since reality bubbled there first, then joined into one bulge that let the Greater Demon through.

  "Ah! There you are. Anyway, you were late to our meeting, so I thought I'd come and find you. It's hard to dodge out when I want to visit, so I recommend not trying. I have your suit ready. I can't wait to see it on you. We don't really need to fit it, I was just saying that. Bente does perfect work in clothing." Looking at the boy on the ground she held out a hand, then pulled him to his feet without waiting, as soon as they touched.

  "A succubus? Neat. Anyway, let me make a few calls and get you two back where you belong, so you can try that outfit on Zack. This won't take long."

  Kyle looked shocked.

  "What?"

  She just nodded and dialed a number on her cell phone.

  "Hi, is this Marty Hagman? Oh, great! I need you to strike a name off of your kill list." She held her hand over the phone and made a face, which got a tiny smile from the dark haired boy. "Who am I? That is a very good question. A wonderful thing to ask, honestly. I'm the Mistress of Souls. I'm coming to where you are now, and if Kaitlyn Fargo isn't removed from that list by then, I will kill you, and your staff. Painfully. I don't really want to, mind, because I'm planning to have fun this afternoon, but... Oh? You've already fixed it? Perfect then. I trust I won't hear about this again? She's under my protection, so doing anything to punish her, or her family, will be dealt with, you understand what that means? Good. So nice to make your acquaintance, Marty. I'm sure we'll meet again, soon. Very soon. I wouldn't make any long term plans without asking me first, in fact." There was a sickly sweetness to the whole thing that sounded remarkably genuine. It was bizarre and had to have made the guy on the other end of the phone nearly panic, since it surely didn't sound sane at all.