by JM Guillen
“Elizabeth.” Aidan shook his head. “I hate that nickname.”
“Is that it then? You want to know, and you want me to keep your eight-year-old daughter as far away from these things as possible?”
“That’s it.” Aidan’s voice sounded a touch hopeless. “God have mercy on me.”
For a long moment, Simon only looked at Aiden, searching. Then, he extended his hand.
They shook.
“I’m… certain he will.” Simon seemed uncertain. “Let’s get back to the store. There are some things I want to show you.”
Aiden took his hand, and the men shook.
7
Like a thunderstorm, rapid images shuffled through my mind, as if they were a movie fast-forwarded at twelve times the normal speed. Even though it was impossible for me to pick out specific details of what Abriel had seen, as the images flickered by I knew what had happened in them, in an abstract kind of way.
It felt like someone fanned a pack of cards in my mind or perhaps one of those cartoon flipbooks that everyone made in the third grade.
I watched as Simon took my father back to the store. He introduced Aiden to Abriel, and took him to the attic trap door. They had a humorous moment where my father literally couldn’t climb up the ladder. Even though Simon had informed him about the trickery he had worked, he had never undone his clever little suggestion.
Once he did, the two went upstairs.
The memories flickered by even faster, shadows cast on the far wall of my imagination. I watched the two of them grow close, and become the kind of friends that many men never have. As they explored the shadows of New York City together, Simon grew softer. His focus shifted away from the despair brought by the Silent Gentlemen. With the help of my father, he began to see that many people dealt with horrific things from behind reality, and he had the power to do something about it.
At the same time, my father grew harder. He became a person capable of doing what had to be done to protect the innocent from the uncanny entities that dwelt in the shadows.
I couldn’t help but think about my own training. How Simon and I had done almost the exact same thing, only in Syracuse.
I watched as the pair uncovered a warren of shape-shifting fiends that dwelt in an abandoned building on the far side of Central Park. I remembered how there had been an unliving shade that had haunted a lonely portion of the subway, and how the two had gone to put the spirit to rest. There had been a statuette, over near the Japanese society, possessed by a four-armed wolf horror from beyond reality.
These things and so many more.
A boy had lived over in Queens who could speak to the dead. Problem was, once he spoke to them they didn’t exactly want to go back to being one hundred percent dead.
A murderer considered Staten Island to be his own personal hunting ground. By the time Dad and Simon caught up with him, he had killed seven people. The man had conducted rituals near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and believed he summoned a succubus of some kind, who would grant him unearthly power along with all kinds of earthly delights.
In Chinatown a small cult called themselves, “The Hidden Road.” They believed that the end of the world was on the way. They conducted ritual slayings in order to appease the harbingers of the apocalypse.
Stories piled upon stories. As the years passed, the men began to invest in more weaponry than just Simon’s bizarre, arcane detritus. Guns. Swords. Fucking grenades.
Not that they had been weaponless before. My mentor didn’t exactly teach my father how to create magical trinkets, but he didn’t seem to mind lending them out.
I relaxed into the reverie, and watched with fascination as my father became a man I’d never known existed. He’d started out as someone who had a simple penchant for fantasy stories and tabletop games.
But later, in ways I never understood, he became a true hero.
When my mother fell sick, it practically destroyed him. He blamed himself and continually wondered if, somehow, he had brought home some contagion he’d picked up on his adventures.
Simon told him this was foolish, but my father would not stop punishing himself.
I had never known how much I had never known about my own life. I had never understood that my mother had insisted upon the divorce, in an attempt to protect my father from watching her waste away. In response, he delved deeper and deeper into the uncanny world he had found, to seek a cure that did not exist.
He became a man obsessed. He stopped caring about the good work he’d done, stopped tending to the store.
All that mattered was a fruitless search and a hopeless cause.
***
“Abriel,” Simon quietly whispered. “Come on now, we have work to do.”
How can I ever communicate the sweetness of that one word? Every time Simon called me, it was as if the man sang, as if the beauty of the light within me shone through him. I knew what I was; I knew what he was.
Together we were so much more.
yes, simon.
“This is the day.” We stood outside a large building, where hundreds of people milled about. “Do you remember what we are doing?”
of course. I found the question a bit childish. i know my place here.
“That’s what I want to hear.” He smiled briefly, and stepped toward the doors. “Let’s go.”
I couldn’t help but notice how nervous he was.
By now, I knew exactly what this place was. He’d taken me to this same convention, all those years ago.
Just as it happened then, all manner of people bustled through the crowd. They wore costumes of various kinds of horrific monsters, robots, and people from the reaches of space.
I couldn’t help but be fascinated. I saw no Watchers, however.
“Okay, he’s already here.” Simon nodded. “Perfect.”
shall i go to him now.
“No. He’s still getting set up.” He glanced around. “‘Course, if he is here, then Liz is already here too.”
that was my understanding.
“We’ll wait a bit. Let them get set up. That way, Liz can watch the table while we steal Aiden away.”
Together, we meandered through the crowd and gazed upon ten thousand wonders. Things existed in this place that seemed impossible to understand, games people played with such ferocity that it was as if their very lives depended on it.
When we made our way back to the Knucklebones table, both father and daughter had arrived.
“Perfect.” Simon rubbed his hands together. “Okay, what I need you to do, O Abriel, is to drift over there to Aiden. Once you are there, speak to him.”
understood. I bobbed up and down. Simon had commanded me to speak with Aiden on multiple occasions. what should I say.10
“I want you to tell him that there is an emergency. Tell him I am close by and you will lead him to me. Tell him I remembered my promise and didn’t want to involve his daughter anymore than I had to, so I stayed away.
i don’t know that this is an emergency. I felt uncomfortable. it also isn’t exactly true that you’re not planning to involve his daughter.
“Right.” He shook his head. “Simply tell him I need him. Ask him to step away from the table for a moment because I’d rather not involve his daughter.”
you do enjoy the edge of truth, don’t you, simon.
“Fine!” He huffed. “I need him to come over here,” he said exasperatedly. “Go over there. Say whatever you can in order to get him to come to me. His daughter must remain at the table.”
understood.
I floated through the air, dodging people even though it would not harm them if they touched me. It was more preference on my part. One never knew the sin of a person until one came in contact with them.
Aiden seemed… different. His face haggard, unshaven. It seemed as if he hadn’t brushed his hair in days, and his chin sported the patchy growth some men get when they are unable to grow a full beard.
Exhaustion seeped from hi
s eyes.
aiden. I drifted up next to him, on the opposite side of his daughter.
He simply turned toward me, but did not speak. I knew he couldn’t exactly see me, but because he could hear me, he had a general feel for my location.
simon requires you. I paused, and tried to properly communicate. he asked that i come for you. he thought it best if elizabeth shepherd remained at your table.
That exhaustion in his eyes held a hard edge. For a moment, I thought he might deny me my request, but then he turned to Elizabeth.
I hadn’t seen her in years. I felt surprise at how quickly she had grown.
“Honey, I gotta step away.” He leaned closer and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “There shouldn’t be any customers yet.”
“I know.” She gave him a sunny smile. “Friday at CONsortium blows assholes.”
“Language, young lady.” Even as he chastised her, he held an indulgent smile.
Aiden stepped away from the table.
“This better be pretty fucking important.” His words were like a tightly wound spring of steel. Pain, anger, and frustration lurked behind them.
i simply do as asked.
“Yeah.” He glanced over his shoulder to where Elizabeth sat at the table and leafed through a book. “I know the feeling. I wouldn’t even be here this year if I hadn’t been asked.”
Simon stood closer than I remembered, and lurked behind a rectangular pillar, out of direct line of sight of the Knucklebones table.
“Hey, buddy.” Simon gazed at his friend with his trademark roguish grin. “Wondered how you were holding up?”
“No you didn’t.” Aiden shook his head, irritated. “You wanted to make certain I actually showed up. Even though there are other things I need to do right now, you were showing up to make certain I took care of the business.”
“You know that isn’t true.” Simon rolled his eyes. “The Scions of Babel aren’t gonna fall because you didn’t attend the convention.”
“Then why did you make me come here?” Aiden waved one hand. “Fuck, Simon, I’m busy.”
“Busy? Have you gotten any closer to what you’re searching for?”
“That doesn’t matter!” Aiden hissed.
“Doesn’t it?”
“You’re a right bastard, Simon, but you aren’t this stupid. I know you know what it’s like to lose someone.”
Simon did not respond.
Aiden continued, “You spent your whole fucking life building something that could fill the hole left by Rufus and the D.C. gang. That makes sense to you. You sacrificed. You worked your ass off.” He cleared his throat. “Yet when I try and figure out some otherworldly solution for my wife, you don’t have any help for me.”
Simon said nothing. He simply stared at his friend for a long moment.
“I’m—” Aiden blew out a long breath.
“You’re exhausted.”
“I’m fucking sorry. That was out of line.”
“Yes, that’s true.” Simon nodded. “Yet I forgive you. Do you know why?”
“Why?” Aidan shook his head, half annoyed and half amused.
“Because I’m a wonderful person.” He put one hand on Aiden’s shoulder. “I hope you always remember how wonderful I am.”
“Oh, Christ.” Aiden tried not to chuckle but failed. “What the hell do you want? Is there some kind of nerd-demon planning upon eviscerating the convention?”
“No. But it was important that you come to this place. Not for the store, but because of who else would be here.”
“Yeah?” Aiden asked. “Who?”
“You should know I have a room upstairs.”
“I know I just got divorced, but I’m not ready yet.” Aiden wore a weary smile.
“I’m gonna tell you something, and then you’re gonna want to speak somewhere private. I’m telling you I have a room because once we’re done here, we have a place we can go.”
“Are you about to piss me off?”
“I never know, man.” Simon shrugged.
“At least you’re honest.” Aiden rolled his shoulders and popped his neck in the process. Then he took a breath, and met Simon’s eyes. “Shoot.”
“Abriel.” Simon spoke the word like a beat poet, like someone who knew the rhyme and reason of language itself. “Show him.”
Without hesitation, I dove straight toward Aiden. He couldn’t see me, of course, but the moment I touched him, his back arched and his arms flew out as if he had been zapped with a live electrical wire.
We were intimate.
“You okay, Aiden?” Simon put one hand on his shoulder.
“I…” Aiden glanced around the con, his eyes wide. Due to the light that burned within me, and now within him, he saw the truths that slept within the hearts of the people. “I think so.”
“Well, we can fix that.” Simon’s tone was somehow jovial and serious at the same time. “Why don’t you take a peek back at your table?”
Aiden turned, and I showed him the truth.
For a long moment stunned silence, above the background roar of the convention, reigned. Fear crept along his scalp.
“Wha… what is that?” A voice quavered just a touch as he gazed upon his daughter. He turned toward Simon, and his tone dropped into a dangerous accusation. “Simon, what the fuck is that?”
Aiden now saw his daughter as I did, as I always had. A nimbus of brilliance swirled around her head, concentrated in a starlike shine on her forehead. It wasn’t exactly light, in that it moved like liquid through the air, as much as a shifting, shimmering radiant power.
“That’s Liz.” Simon met Aiden’s flat gaze.
“What’s that above her fucking head?” A high, panicky waver threaded through his words. Even as he spoke, I felt his chaotic thoughts churn in his mind.
No. No, no, no. Not her too! Not after Rita… I can’t lose them both…
“She’s not in any danger.” Simon vacillated with one hand. “Well, not now, anyway. Not yet. That’s why I got a room. I wanted to be to talk to you in private.”
“Not yet?” That panicky keen threaded an octave higher. “Do you have a date? Is there a calendar event regarding the day my daughter’s glowing head explodes?”
“Aiden.” Simon’s deep voice dropped low, flat. “Do you know how long your daughter has appeared like this?”
“Of course I do,” Aiden snapped. “I’m secretly clairvoyant, you see. I’ve known for years but I decided to keep it to myself.”
“Her nimbus shone like that the first time I met her. Abriel could see it all those years ago, the very first day we shook hands.”
“You’ve known?” Horror and accusation both cut through those words. “You’ve known all this time, and you’re just now choosing to tell me?”
“I’d like to invite you to reconsider our first serious conversation.” Simon cleared his throat. “The first day I told you the actual truth about our world and what is in it.”
“Fuck you!” Aiden’s words were venomous. “You don’t get to tell me I wasn’t adult enough to hear the truth about my daughter! That’s not your call to make!”
“What I choose to say is ever my call to make.” Simon’s words chilled the air. “I was your friend then. I’m your friend now.”
“How much time have I lost?” He waved one hand, and behind his mind I felt the ruminating memories of the wife who had divorced him, who would soon be dead. “If you’d just told me, I could have done things differently. I could’ve spent more time with her.”
His eyes were wet.
“Now.” Simon shook his head. “It’s not like that. Liz ain’t gonna die. Not from this.”
“But you said she’s not in any danger yet.” He poked Simon in the chest. “Yet.”
“Your girl’s a bit like Rufus, Aiden.” Simon put his hands in his pocket. “Hell, more than Rufus ever was, if Raziel has it right.”
“Like Rufus?”
“I didn’t mean she was sick. I meant she migh
t be in danger.” Simon took the battered hat off his head and scratched. “You’ve seen what’s out there in the world. All kinds of monsters, sure. But also all kinds of cultists and fucking renegade sorcerers.”
“Yeah?” Aiden didn’t quite follow.
“Well,” Simon nodded toward the table. “How do you think those people got started? You think they just woke up one day and decided to take a big hit off the crazy bottle? No. ’A course not.”
“They started out like Elizabeth.” Aidan’s voice rang with realization.
“Yep.” Simon gave the man a winsome smile. “Thing is, few years ago I saw this little scrap of a girl. Looked like she might have a pretty significant talent one day.”
“Did she.” Aiden took a deep breath.
“That’s a fact. But, her dad was a little bit of a dipshit. He didn’t know the first thing about the crazy shit that lurks behind our world.”
“Okay.” Aiden had begun to catch up.
“Seemed to me, it might be a courtesy to reach out to such a man and make certain he was equipped to take care of his little girl. I mean, I don’t have no family myself. But it seemed like that’d be about right.”
“Yeah.” He paused. “It sure does.” Tears ran down Aiden’s face.
“I got us a room.” Simon put one hand on his friend’s shoulder. “What say we go up there and figure out the best way to make certain your little girl is taken care of for the rest of her life?”
“That…” Aiden turned from Elizabeth to Simon, and then back again. He drew a deep breath. “That. That sounds fucking phenomenal.”
Together, the two men went upstairs.
8
Alicia withdrew from me then and settled back to the far side of the bed. She gazed at me with eyes that held more silver white than hazel. The shadows of the room loomed around us in the quiet, and I couldn’t even hear any traffic outside.