Lyra's Magic: Witches of Manhattan Book One

by Langley Keaton

  “I’m trying to say that you’ve spent all this time telling me that we’re out of time and we have to go back. Instead of taking the time to tell me that we’re out of time, you could have taken that time to tell me what I need to know.” I was well aware that this explanation was even more convoluted and more word-salad than the first one was, but I hoped that he got the gist.

  “You’ve lost me.”

  I sighed. “I mean to say that we’re spending precious time arguing instead of getting information conveyed.”

  “Okay, I understand now. But, I’m sorry, you’re probably right, but-“

  Just then, I felt a tremendous whoosh, and I felt myself being sucked through a long, long, long tunnel.

  I opened my eyes and saw only darkness.

  I was zipped up in a bag, and I had no idea how to get out of it.

  6

  Oh, this was a fine kettle of fish. A fine one. I was in a body bag, and what? I was just supposed to somehow unzip it and get out of it? I guess it could have been worse. I could have woken up in one of those coolers. I would have had no clue on how to get out of that. Plus, just the thought of being in that enclosed space…I would have freaked out completely. Completely.

  I wondered aloud if Peter would be around to help me out. “Peter, where are you? I need some help here. I don’t think that I can unzip this thing on my own.”

  After I said that, I heard a terrified voice. “What? Who just said that?”

  Oh, crap. There was some random person out there, apparently. That person was going to freak her shit. No matter, she was going to have to be the one to help me out of this.

  “Hey, uh, whoever is out there. I need to get out of this bag.” I was feeling claustrophobic, and I wondered if that was one of the circles of Hell. I imagined that there would be a circle where the irritations turned to fears, and I would be surrounded by spiders and thrown into a tiny room. I shuddered to think of that.

  I heard a high-pitched scream, and then a male voice. “Lorinda, what’s wrong?”

  “That body bag,” she said in a terrified whisper. “I just heard a voice coming from that bag.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. You’ve been working too hard, mate. I think that you need a break.”

  “No, I heard it, I did. I heard a woman’s voice ask for Peter to help her out of that bag.”

  “Lorinda, now, now. You need to go home and get some sleep. And lay off the whiskey while you’re working. I’ll go and find your supervisor and tell him that you’re sick and you need to go home.”

  “But Antoine-“

  “Go. Listen, if it makes you feel any better, I’ll take a look at this body bag and make sure that here is nothing in there but a dead body. I’ll do that after you go and find your supervisor and tell him that you need to go home and rest.”

  I heard some more grumbling and then Lorinda apparently agreed.

  Okay, Lorinda wasn’t going to be the one to freak out.

  Apparently Antoine was.

  “Hey, I need out of this. Seriously. I can’t breathe.”

  At that, the bag unzipped. Thank god I was fully clothed. I was dressed in the same short dress that I was wearing to my birthday celebration, although I had no jewelry or shoes. I guessed that they hadn’t had the time to strip me naked and put me into the cooler. But maybe they only do that when they perform an autopsy. I had no idea how all of that worked.

  To my surprise, I saw Peter’s face looking at me and I sighed with relief. “Oh, it’s you,” I said. “And that’s a good thing it’s you. If it was that Antoine guy, whoever he is, I would think that we’d have a lot of problems.”

  “To say the least.”

  He helped me out of the bag and off the table. “Well, I have no shoes, and no exit plan. I have no idea how I am going to get out of here without somebody running and screaming.”

  I looked down at my body, and, to my surprise, I didn’t see a drop of blood. My clothes even looked intact. “Hey. I was shot in the heart, wasn’t I?” I shuddered. “Goddamn transphobic asshole. He had one of those assault rifles, I think. I’m surprised that there’s no blood and no huge hole in my dress.”

  “Of course your body is intact. It wouldn’t do for you to be walking around with a huge hole in your chest.”

  “You make a point. But how did my body get healed?”

  Peter lifted his eyebrows and smiled. I peered closely at his teeth to see if I saw any vampire fangs, but saw none. So, I was still kinda in the dark as to who this guy was. “You healed yourself,” he said.

  I cocked my head. “I thought that you were going to say that you healed me. How did I heal myself?”

  “Let us get out of here, and then I will explain more about what you are going to expect for the rest of your time on this earth. Which will be many, many years, incidentally.”

  “Oh, good. It sounds like I’m not going to find out about the different circles of Hell anytime soon then, huh? That’s a relief.”

  “I didn't say that, mate.”

  Again with the cryptic messages. This dude was driving me crazy. “Well, then, what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that we need to get you out of here. Nothing more.”

  “Oh, good. Well, then, Peter, how do you propose that we do this? Are you going to turn back into Antoine or whomever and sneak me out?”

  “No. I can’t do that. It’s too risky, and if something happens, then Antoine himself will get into trouble. I’m skirting the rules as it is when I decided to possess his body, but I didn’t know how else I was to calm Lorinda. She and Antoine are very close, so she would listen to him. On the other hand…”

  “A 6’4” strapping vampire with purple eyes probably would have just freaked her out more, so you had to possess somebody she trusted. I get it.”

  He chuckled.

  “So I’m right? You are a vampire, aren't you?”

  “I am immortal. You’re right about that. But I am not a vampire.”

  “You look like a vampire.”

  “How do you know how a vampire looks?”

  I shrugged. “Twilight. Interview with a Vampire. Vampire Diaries. True Blood.” I screwed up my face. “Well, there was also that Bram Stroker movie and all of those goofy ones with Boris Karloff or whomever, and those vampires were ugly. But the modern ones are always beautiful. You know, they’re played by Brad Pitt and Robert Pattinson and Tom Cruise and Ian Somerhalder and guys like that. So, yeah, you certainly do look the part of the vampire.”

  “Boris Karloff never played a vampire.”

  “He did too.”

  “No, actually, he never did. He was in many monster movies and movies about Frankenstein, but he never actually played a vampire. You’re thinking of Bela Lugosi.”

  “Whatever. Are you going to stand here and be pedantic with me, or are we going to get a plan together to get me out of this place?”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here.”

  I had a sudden memory. “You know what? There was this television series called Moonlight. That vampire was the hottest one yet. The dude who played him was Australian. You’re Australian. Coincidence? I think not.”

  “Lyra, you’re doing it again. You are delaying what you should not be delaying by arguing with me about things that don’t matter. Again, I have to tell you that our time is limited. Once somebody comes down here and sees you standing here…” He shook his head. “I always have a hard time trying to convince people that they are crazy when things like that happen. Needless to say, I don’t always succeed, and then I have to go to more drastic measures.”

  “What kind of drastic measures?”

  “Not what you are thinking.”

  I was actually thinking that this Peter guy killed those people who witnessed things like the dead coming back to life, but, on second thought, there was probably some other way to get around it.

  “Listen, Peter, riddle me this. Even if I happen to get out of this morgue without someb
ody seeing me, how is my presence among the living going to be explained away to, you know, the whole world? My death was already reported in the paper, I would imagine.”

  “No. Your mother hasn’t been notified yet. I’ve made sure that she hasn’t been told, even by Jordan and the others who were with you last night.”

  I shook my head. Was it only last night? It seemed, literally, like eons ago.

  “I see. So, the paper simply said that a female victim was shot. Right?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, I was brought here by people. I was pronounced dead by somebody. Right?”

  “You ask too many questions.”

  “You’re kidding me. I’m dead, I’m trying to get out of this morgue without anybody losing their shit at seeing a dead girl walking around, and I’m not supposed to ask questions?”

  “You have to be more patient, Lyra. Let us get you out of here, and all will be revealed.”

  “Somehow I doubt it. You’ve been, so far, the most obscure person I’ve ever met.”

  “Okay. Let’s just start with this. There are powerful people who are protecting you. Now, let’s leave this place.”

  “Not so fast-“

  “Lyra, again, our time is short. Lorinda is due to come back into this room within 10 minutes. Once she does, and she sees you…” He shook his head. “I would hate for that poor woman to have to seek psychiatric help, which is what will happen once I convince her that she’s not really seeing what she clearly is. We really need to get out of here with as few casualties as possible.”

  “By casualties, you mean people who are going to be going to the loony bin once they see me out and about, right?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.” He looked up the light. “Now, I’m going to have to put you up through that ceiling, and we will crawl out of here through the tunnels that are above this room. It’s not ideal, I admit.”

  “Not ideal?” I shuddered. “Are you sure I’m not still in Hell? You seem to know a lot about me, so you have to know that I suffer from a severe, and I mean severe, case of claustrophobia.”

  “You’re not in Hell. The circle where you are surrounded by your fears is the 7th one.”

  “I knew it! I knew that there would be a circle where I would surrounded by spiders and crammed into a small space. Thank god that circle doesn’t happen for awhile.”

  Peter shook his head. “We have five minutes to get into this tunnel above the ceiling and get out of here.”

  “Lorinda is going to come back and see that there isn’t a body.”

  “No, she won’t.”

  “What do you mean she won’t? I’m clearly not in that body bag anymore.”

  “I fixed that.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I put a mannequin into that body bag. Lorinda will never go over there and unzip the bag, because she’s too terrified to do so.”

  “Okay, smart guy, what happens when my ‘body’ is taken to the cooler or whatever, and there’s nothing but a silly mannequin in there?”

  “I told you, you have protectors. That’s all that I’m going to say right now.”

  “Where did you get a mannequin? I didn’t see one just lying around.”

  At that, Peter literally rolled his eyes.

  “What? I asked you a question.”

  “Two minutes.”

  “Okay, okay, I’m going. Jeez.”

  Peter squatted down on the floor and patted his shoulders.

  I shook my head. “Oh, no. I’m not getting on those shoulders.”

  “You must. You haven’t yet realized your magical powers, so getting on my shoulders is the only way that you can get into that hole in the ceiling.”

  “What hole?” I looked up at the ceiling, and all that I saw was a light.

  “That hole,” he said, pointing where there was clearly a hole where, just a second before, there clearly was nothing but a light there.

  “Oh, geez. Listen, I’m not getting on your shoulders.”

  “You are.”

  “I’m not.” Then I lowered my voice, as if somebody was going to hear me. “I’m wearing nothing but thong underwear.”

  Peter gave me a weird look and continued to pat his shoulders.

  “What was that look? Listen, in a dress this tight, any other kind of underwear would have left a million lines. You’re lucky that I’m wearing underwear at all.”

  “One minute,” he said, and then he started to count down. “59 seconds, 58 seconds.”

  “Okay, okay, I’ll get on your shoulders. But you’re coming with me.”

  “Of course.”

  “How will you get into the ceiling?”

  “Too many questions.”

  “Alright.” I put one leg over his neck, and straddled him. My heart started to pound as he lifted me up, up, up into the ceiling. Thank god I wasn’t scared of heights, yet just the thought that I was going to be in a cramped space made me shudder.

  Lucky for me that Peter was so tall, because I was just able to get to where I could hoist myself into that ceiling hole. He put his hands on my ass as my head made its way into the hole and he shoved me into the hole rather unceremoniously.

  “Hey, you’re getting a little ahead of yourself there, buddy.”

  Truth be told, I continued my snark because I was, for the first time in this crazy-ass journey, terrified. I was completely in the dark, and the space that I was crawling through couldn’t have been three feet high. I tried to calm my heart and my breathing, and I soon felt Peter coming up behind me.

  Sure enough, I heard Lorinda’s voice below me. “Hello,” she said tentatively.

  “Who you talking to?” It was the voice of Antoine, the man who Peter possessed.

  “What? I was just telling you about how I heard that voice coming out of that body bag. You said that you would check on it, and you told me to go on home and rest. I was just saying hello to make sure that that poor girl doesn’t come to life again.”

  “Lorinda, you sounding cray. There ain’t nobody coming out of that body bag,” Antoine said.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Peter whispered to me as we crawled along.

  “What?” What I actually was thinking was that this Antoine had a much different speech pattern and used different grammar and idioms than did Peter when he was “playing” Antoine. Peter’s speech was much more formal then Antoine’s was, even if he did throw in colloquialisms from time to time. This Antoine’s speech was much more informal. I wondered how Lorinda didn’t pick up on the difference.

  “Lorinda didn’t know that Antoine wasn’t speaking because she was in such a state that she didn’t think about it. I made a mistake in using my usual speech patterns, I admit. I don’t usually make a mistake like that.”

  Oh, great. Great. This dude was reading my mind. Well, that does it. I was going to have to ditch him the second we got onto regular land. I couldn’t have some guy hanging around who was able to read my thoughts.

  “I’ll try not to invade your privacy in the future,” Peter said to me, as if he was answering my thoughts.

  “Huh. Can they hear us down there?”

  “No. We’re past the point where they will be able to hear us.”

  “Well, then, I need to do two things. First thing, I need you to go ahead of me. I don’t want you looking up my dress.” Actually, I kind of did want him looking up my dress, but I didn’t want to admit to that. But maybe I just did.

  At that, Peter was suddenly ahead of me, crawling through the tunnel.

  “The second thing is, I need you to talk to me. Not many things in this world scare me, but situations like this scare the living shit out of me.”

  “I’ll be happy to keep talking to you, mate. What would you like to talk about?”

  “You can start by telling me how much longer we have to crawl through this tunnel.”

  “Only a few more feet. We’ll end up in the boiler room, and there’s nobody there
at the moment. From there, we can simply go out through the doors that lead to the boiler room, and then we’ll be out of this hospital.”

  I felt a keen sense of relief. If I had to crawl through this tunnel for miles, I probably would have lost my shit.

  “The second thing is, what did you mean back there when you said that I haven’t realized my magical powers yet?”

  “Lyra, let’s not discuss this yet. Let’s get out of this place, see your mother and your sisters, and we can talk about it.”

  “What do my mother and my sisters have to do with any of this?” Was Sybil and Maddy magic too? Did they know it? If they knew it, why didn’t they say something about it? I was suddenly pissed, absolutely pissed, at my two sisters. To think that they might have kept something like this from me…I was going to have to have a serious talk with them.

  “They didn’t know. Your sisters are just as in the dark as you.”

  “Quit doing that.”

  “Quit doing what? I’m sorry?”

  “You said that you wouldn’t invade my privacy by reading my thoughts. You clearly were just now reading my mind, and I don’t appreciate that.”

  “I’m sorry. I will try to tame that inclination from now on.”

  “Try harder.”

  “My mistake.”

  “No, it’s not a mistake. A mistake is what I made when I took that eyeliner out of that store. What you were just doing was a deliberate invasion of my privacy.”

  “Now who’s being pedantic?”

  “Words have meaning.” I couldn’t believe that he was tying to tell me that his rather annoying habit of reading my mind was a mistake, when it clearly wasn’t.

  “It won’t happen again.”

  “Better not.”

  We crawled a few more feet. “Here we are,” Peter announced.

  “Are you sure there’s nobody down there?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “How?”

  Peter sighed.

  “I know,” I said, “too many questions.”

  “Yes. But I will tell you that I can see the future. I therefore was able to make sure that we can step into that boiler room at just the right moment when everyone who is usually down there is taking a break.”