Phantoms of the Otherworld (In Spiritu Et Veritate)

by Reed, Zoe

  Even though I told Wes I’d be right back, I lay on my back on the cold, white marble of the glass room and stayed there. The sky had been slowly turning gray since I’d left the dorms, and now the first tints of orange were beginning to color the morning. I could hear the wind cutting around the corner of the house outside, whistling to me. Telling me in its ominous song that I was truly losing Camille. That the only chance I would get, my chance last night at the show, was gone. I shouldn’t have performed. I should have left with her, done anything other than let her get away, but now she was gone.

  After I’d been lying there for a while I heard a quiet, familiar gait nearing the door, and a second later Wes stepped in, looking down as he stood above me. “Comfy?” I just shrugged. “Is Camille not coming to train?”

  “I guess not,” I told him, still looking up at him from the same spot on the floor, refusing to move. “It’s not like she talks to me about anything.”

  “What’s the deal with you two?” he asked me, and his eyes scanned mine carefully, genuine worry dulling their stony gray color.

  I sighed, and blinked away a single tear so he wouldn’t see it. “Doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, it’s over.”

  Wes mirrored my sigh, but his was deeper. “I think I know what you need.” I just stared up at him, waiting for him to complete his thought or leave me alone. “You need a drink.”

  I pushed myself up onto my elbows, not believing I could have heard him right. “Like, a drink, drink?” He shrugged, and his lack of response informed me that I’d heard correctly. “It’s only seven in the morning.” Despite the fact that I was unsure about the offer, I was interested in why he would even offer in the first place. He just shrugged again, and held out a hand to help me off the floor. “I thought we weren’t supposed to drink?”

  As I finally stood Wes turned back toward the kitchen, me following close behind. “That’s what we tell all you young ones so you don’t get into trouble. What we don’t tell you guys is that our metabolisms are so fast it would take a hell of a lot of alcohol to make Changes hard to control.” After that he paused and looked back at me thoughtfully. “Well, I don’t know about you, since you’re new to it. But seriously kid, I have never seen a more depressed werewolf in my entire life.” He smirked teasingly even though it was true, and I couldn’t help but feel bad that I was starting to affect his mood as well.

  In an attempt to lighten up just a little bit I glared at him. “This isn’t some creepy attempt to hit on me is it?”

  He looked at me for a split second in shock, obviously because he hadn’t expected me to make that kind of comment, but he didn’t try to hold back a laugh. “How old are you?”

  “Seventeen.”

  “Sorry to disappoint, you’re a little young for me.” He laughed again to himself as he turned into the kitchen. “Besides, I’m not really your type.”

  “Yeah, I guess not,” I chuckled as I sat on a stool.

  Wes set two small shot glasses out and reached into the highest cabinet above the refrigerator, pulling out a glass bottle of dark brown fluid. After he pulled the cap off the bottle he filled each of the two shots and then set it aside. I picked up my drink and sniffed it, scowling at the smell.

  “What is it?” I asked, setting it back down with disgust.

  “Come on,” he said in disbelief. “You’re a southern girl, I thought you’d know your whiskey when you saw it.” I shook my head, causing him to eye me suspiciously. “Is this your first drink?”

  I gave a bashful nod. “I had a beer once, don’t know if that counts.”

  “Wow,” he said to himself, and then he threw a drink down his throat and filled the glass again. “When I was your age I was stealing liquor and bumming cigarettes.”

  “You?” I scoffed in disbelief as I watched him knock back another shot. “But, you teach us how to do yoga.” This time my scoff turned to a laugh.

  “Everyone’s got a wild side,” Wes grinned.

  Curious, I picked up my own glass and copied him, taking it down with a single gulp. The second I swallowed it I coughed. It burned at my tongue and throat and all the way down to my stomach, and the underlying sweetness did nothing to sedate it. After the cough I covered my mouth with my hand as I gagged, and my eyes watered at the pain. “That’s disgusting!”

  Wes chuckled as he filled both of our drinks again, and I raised an eyebrow at him. I used to have friends that would get a little more than buzzed after three drinks, and they did it all the time. I’d never drunk before, and wasn’t it supposed to be stronger if you weren’t used to it? Wes seemed to be able to read my mind though, and he shook his head. “You won’t even feel it, I promise.” I shrugged and took his word for it as I gulped down the second one. “So,” he started, and knocked back his own. “You want to talk about it?”

  The reaction to the second drink was the same as the first, and it took me a few moments to recover. “No, not really.” I pushed the glass away from me, not wanting to experience the awful burn again. “You weren’t the best kid, huh? What changed?”

  “I met Eli, grew up,” he answered, moving to sit down across from me. “Finally had somewhere to belong.”

  I’d heard him talk about his life before, how he was bitten and Eli had saved him. “What about girls, I never hear about you guys bringing anybody around. Have you ever been in love before?”

  “We aren’t allowed to bring girls back to the house. It’s too risky,” he told me, playing mindlessly with the cap on the whiskey bottle. “I thought I was in love once. She was feisty.” His lips turned up in a reminiscent smile. “After I was bitten I tried to tell her the truth because, you know, I loved her, and she just thought it was a really bad excuse to break up with her. Man was she pissed. Even threw a glass lamp at me.” He lifted up the long brown hair that covered his forehead and showed me an old, faded scar, and then laughed. “She was always such a bitch. I mean, the sex wa–” he stopped and looked at me, a slight chagrin turning his cheeks a faded pink. “You get the point.”

  “Yeah, I get the point,” I laughed at his minor embarrassment, though I really did like this side of Wes. It was a lot more entertaining than yoga-Wes. “If you really thought you were in love with her, then how’d you get over it?”

  “I slept around a lot,” he told me honestly, and then cast me a scolding glance. “Which I’m not saying is the right way to do it, but it was the only option I saw.” Then he looked at me sadly and propped his head in his hand. “Look, I don’t know what exactly happened between you and Camille, but it’s obvious you’re trying to get your mind off it. If you don’t want to train today, I got a project you can help me with.”

  “Okay, I guess,” I said unsurely, and when Wes got up to leave the kitchen I followed him. He led me back to the glass room and then out the door, to where on the far side of the house there were a few shovels and part of the ground was marked off with little orange flags. “What is this?”

  He tossed me a shovel and made his way to the center of the large oval shape the flags made. “Before all this vampire stuff started happening, me and the others got bored pretty easy. So we started bugging Eli about putting in a pool.”

  “Seriously?” I asked in disbelief. It was so cold right now that I couldn’t imagine swimming, though I was sure it was warmer during the summer.

  “Yeah,” he laughed and stabbed his shovel into the dirt. “He agreed, but said he wasn’t paying any contractors to come and do it. You know, he’s the private type. He said it was fine if we did all the work ourselves. We’re going to dig the hole for it, then Richard, you know Will’s dad, he’s in construction so he’s going to do the cement work.”

  “You got it all figured out, don’t you?” I chuckled as I shrugged off my white jacket, not wanting to get it dirty as we dug, and set it back in the glass room on the floor. “Alright, I don’t mind helping.”

  So I did. I helped Wes dig near the side of the house until about five, when I had to leave b
ecause I’d made plans with Abby. When I got back to the school I changed and washed away all the dirt I could find. As I sat there on my bed, with about ten minutes to spare before she would knock on the door, I pulled out my cellphone, wondering if I should try to call Camille one last time. But I put it away with resolve. There was nothing left I could do, and it was time for me to move on. Not wanting to sit there in silence, I got up and decided to go to Abby’s room early.

  When I knocked on the door her roommate opened it and smiled at me. “Hey, Kyla right?” I nodded with a friendly grin. “Come on in.”

  I walked through the door as Abby was putting on her shoes, and her hazel eyes brightened excitedly at the sight of me. “I was just about to come get you.” She finished slipping on her last shoe and then tugged on her sweater. “Ready?”

  With a nod, I followed her to the door, and before it closed behind us I waved to her roommate. “It was nice to see you again.” The girl smiled and said ‘goodbye,’ and then I walked with Abby toward the elevator. “Does she know you can read minds?”

  Abby shook her head. “No, I don’t really tell anyone who isn’t different, and she’s just a normal human.” She leaned against the side of the elevator as it took us down, and like she usually did she studied me. “Hey, what happened to your lip?”

  “Ah, no, no, no, no, no, get out.” I frantically waved my hands by the side of my head as if that would keep her from hearing my thoughts. Luckily, desperately thinking only of kicking her out of my head kept me from thinking about kissing Camille.

  “Whoa, I’m sorry,” she said, and hastily tried to change the subject. “You studying for midterms yet?”

  The doors opened up to the first floor, and while we stepped off I tried to calm down a little bit. “I’m sorry. It’s just, tonight, could you try to stay out of my head?” I felt bad for asking since I knew she couldn’t control it, so I added softly, “Please.”

  She nodded thoughtfully, watching me with a curious worry in her eyes. “Are you okay? We could go out another night.”

  “No, it’s fine,” I told her with a smile, and in an attempt to calm both of us down I placed my hand in hers. “I want to go.”

  She grinned, and as we got to the car we both jumped in. “You’re going to like where we’re going. It’s nice and loud, so I won’t be able to hear your thoughts.” She still looked a little bit worried, but she kept on the comforting smile.

  “Okay,” I said, and was going to ask where she was taking me, but I knew she liked surprises, so instead I answered her earlier question. “No, I haven’t even cracked a book for midterms yet. You?”

  “I studied a little bit, but I still have a lot to do,” she told me. “How’d the talent show go last night?”

  “Third place,” I blurted in another attempt to keep from thinking about the kiss. Now I focused on that, and wouldn’t let myself think about anything else. “I won third place. A comedian got second and then some band took first. They were last to go and they were really good.”

  “I think I know who you’re talking about,” Abby said with a knowing nod. “They always save that band for last because they always end up winning first. If it wasn’t for them I’m sure you would’ve come in second. By the way, I’m sorry I missed it.”

  “It’s okay.” I tried to keep from thinking about how good it was that she didn’t go. I wasn’t sure why I was trying so hard to keep her from knowing about the kiss, but it was hard work. Feeling my mind slipping, I asked quickly, “Where were you anyway?”

  “I had to run another errand for the council.” Abby looked at me with another inquisitive glance. It had to be obvious to her that I was trying extremely hard not to think about something. “It was a little farther away though, so I didn’t make it back in time.”

  I nodded understandingly. “Did you find out anything important?”

  “No,” Abby shook her head. “Harold was the only one we got anything even worth looking at from. The vampires are doing a good job laying low.”

  “Yeah, no kidding,” I said sarcastically. “I got to ask, where are we going?”

  Abby laughed and pointed out the window to a large, brightly lit building as she turned down the street it was on. “Well, we’re here.”

  We pulled into the full parking lot and I curiously tried to look into the building, but while the outside was bright, the inside was dark. Even from the parking lot I could hear loud music, and my first thought was that it was a club.

  Abby reached for my hand as we got out and began to lead me toward the building. “It’s not a club. Even though I know dancing with me is just your favorite thing.”

  I laughed and rolled my eyes teasingly. When we walked through the front door I couldn’t deny I was a little surprised at what I saw inside. It was dark because there were only a few normal lights, and the rest were black lights. Through the loud music I could hear the rhythmic pings and pongs of the arcade games we passed on our way toward the back of the building.

  “An arcade, huh?” I asked, loud enough so Abby would be able to hear me.

  “I wasn’t planning on playing games. I was actually hoping you’d be more interested in this.” She led us through to the second part of the building, and the music wasn’t quite as loud as the roar of the small speeding engines in this brightly lit area. I grinned as I watched go-karts zoom around the winding track in front of me. “Have you ever been?”

  “No, but it looks awesome!” I shouted as my hand tightened excitedly around Abby’s.

  “Okay come on, I got to put our names in and then we’ll get something to eat.” She started toward a counter and then gave the guy behind it our names. After that, while we were waiting for our turn, we went to the small pizza place that was attached to the arcade. It was still loud enough in the pizzeria from the music that I was sure Abby couldn’t hear my thoughts, and the less I tried to control them, the easier it got not to have to.

  When we sat down at a small table with our slices of pizza I smiled down at the greasy blob of bread and cheese, and then grinned at Abby. “You even got me junk food.”

  “I do what I can.” She shrugged and waved the comment away with exaggerated nonchalance.

  “I never would have known this place was here,” I told her, looking around the arcade and through to the racetrack. “Everything hides behind all the trees.”

  “Gems like this are rare, but there are some fun things to do out here.” She followed my eyes as we took everything in. “I’m glad it’s a school night though, it’s not as crowded as it usually is.”

  I nodded and took an enormous bite of my pizza, making sure to swallow before I spoke. “How many times have you raced?”

  “Quite a few,” she answered, and then cracked her knuckles confidently. “I’m pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.”

  “Oh, is that right?” I laughed, raising a disbelieving eyebrow at her. “I think you’re a little too cocky. I bet I could kick your ass out there.”

  “Care to make a wager?” Abby crossed her arms over her chest in defiance.

  “Okay,” I said, mimicking her challenging position by crossing my own arms over my chest. “What’ll be?”

  She stared blankly at me for a second, and then squinted in thought. “I don’t know. I want an ‘I owe you’, for anything I want.”

  “Within reason,” I said as I tentatively stuck out my hand to shake on it, and Abby nodded. “And I want the same.”

  “Deal.” She took my hand, and as she shook it with an already victorious grin our names were called over the loudspeaker. “You’re in trouble now.”

  We excitedly made our way over to where we were going to get into the go-karts and put on our helmets. There were a couple other people that were going to be on the track at the same time as us, but as we started out Abby and I were side by side. I gripped my steering wheel, staring over at her with a competitive glare. The lights ahead of us flashed red. Then yellow.

  On green I hit the gas,
and the go-kart wrenched forward as it threw me into the lead. I only held my position ahead of Abby for half a lap before the girl cut inside as we made our way around a turn. I didn’t let up though throughout each of the fourteen laps, and I stayed right behind her, occasionally bumping into her and receiving a scowl from the attendant overseeing the race. At the end of the last lap around the track Abby threw her fist in the air, passing a gloating grin back at me.

  “I want a rematch!” I hollered at her through the muffle of my helmet.

  I heard her say ‘okay,’ and we waited patiently at the starting line for the next few people to take the empty go-karts. This time around I took off just as I had before, only now I kept glancing behind me as we made our way around the track, cutting Abby off and stopping her from taking the lead. I finished that race ahead of her, and so naturally we had to break the tie. We went through one more race, of which Abby came out the victor, and she jumped happily as we made our way back to the front desk.

  “Alright, alright. You’re the champ,” I admitted, giggling as I tried to push her shoulders down to get her to stop jumping.

  “Damn straight,” she beamed as she handed the man behind the desk her credit card to pay for our races. He swiped it quickly and had her sign the receipt, and then we headed back to the parking lot.

  “Okay Earnhardt, do you know what you want yet?” I asked as I followed Abby outside.

  “Earnhardt?” She raised an eyebrow at me as we both got in the car.

  My jaw dropped in shock. “Oh come on, you don’t got to be country to know who Dale Earnhardt is.” Abby just shrugged. “NASCAR?”