INK: Abstraction (24 page)

“You got it,
boss.” I try not to sound condescending.

“I’m about
to get on the plane, I’ll be back by morning.” I can hear
the frustration in his voice.

“Okay, I’ll
see you tomorrow. I’ll send you a message if there are any new
developments.”

“Carl?” He
sounds young and vulnerable like when I first met him.

“Yes?”

“Please take care
of her.”

“You know I
will.” The call is disconnected and Wes comes out wearing
yellow kitchen gloves and carrying cleaning solution.

“Are Pitch and
Quag not helping?” I ask. Poor Wes always gets the shitty end
of the stick.

“They aren’t
here,” he answers, spraying the concrete.

“Where are they?”

“I’m not
sure, I got a call to meet them but I got lost. I came back here when
I couldn’t get them on the phone to confirm the address.”
He stops what he’s doing and looks up at me.

“Where were you
supposed to go?” It’s all coming together that we were
all meant to be out of the house. Bailey is far more calculating than
I originally gave him credit for. I’m not sure how exactly he’s
been able to fly under my radar. I’ve never gotten anything
from him other than being a little socially awkward and very obsessed
with Shay. This operation puts him at a whole new level from
delivering flowers in the hospital to get into her room.

It makes me question my
abilities. Am I slipping? Will I be able to protect her? There’s
no telling, but I think I may need to take some time to refocus when
McNab gets back. I know he needs me. But I should be on top of
things. I should be fit and in fighting form.

“Hey, what’s
going on?” Eli breaks my train of thought. I turn to find him
bracing himself in the doorway.

“Wes is on
cleanup, McNab will be back tomorrow and we need to get her out of
here for a little while.”

“Where is
everyone else?” He nods his head toward Wes.

“I’m not
sure, I haven’t heard from Harry this morning either, but it’s
early.” My phone rings again.

“Pitch?” I
answer.

“Yeah man, we’ve
got a problem.” He maintains his cool demeanor even though I
can hear the panic and irritation in his voice.

“Of course we
do.” Eli looks at me and shrugs. “What have you got?”

“I think you’re
going to want to come down here.” There’s an echo on the
other end of the line.

“Where are you?”
I ask him.

“We went to the
address you told us to go to.” It’s always hard to tell
whether Pitch is actually irritated with someone or if it’s
just how he talks to people.

“What do you
mean? I didn’t send you guys anywhere.” This is not good.

“You texted us
this morning at four AM. You sent this address and said Wes would
meet us. He never made it, by the way.”

“I didn’t
send you any address.” It sounds like this could be some kind
of setup. “Get out of there…now!”

“Dude, no can do.
This is a crime scene and it’s loaded with huge EMF
fluctuations,” he says.

“I appreciate
your dedication, but I didn’t send you there. I have a bad
feeling about this. You need to get out of there.” I can’t
stress enough the importance of getting them out or they could be the
next victims.

He doesn’t
answer. I only hear a cacophony of noise; yelling, slamming and chaos
coming from the other end of the phone. “Pitch!”

The phone goes dead and
there’s nothing but silence. “Shit!”

“What’s
going on?” Eli steps out the door, noting my concern.

“I don’t
know, something’s happening and I have no idea what it is.”
This is incredibly frustrating. It’s all gone completely out of
control.

Wes comes back outside
looking as white as a sheet. “Are you okay?” Eli asks,
full of concern.

“I’m sorry,
I-I-” He’s fumbling over his words.

“What is it?”
I bark at him.

“I didn’t
realize she was in the bathroom and…” The color returns
to his face in full red blotches that travel up his neck.

“Oh.” Eli
looks at him with a slight smirk.

“I’m going
to make sure she’s okay,” he says, but stops short when a
car pulls in the driveway. “Shit.”

“Shit is right.
You get in there and get Shay ready to go; I’ll keep Trish out
here.” This is the last thing we need is another unknown. We
don’t need Trish seeing the mess in the house.

“Hey meat sac,
Needle dick scurried in the house awfully fast when he saw me. What’s
going on?” Trish slings her giant purse over her shoulder.

“He’s just
leaving.” I position myself between her and the door. Wes goes
back inside. He’s pretty skittish, especially when it comes to
women.

“In a bathrobe?”
She puts her hand on her hip.

“Yeah, well Shay
had a rough night. He’s trying to get ready.”

“I came by to
check on her. She wasn’t answering her phone.” She looks
past me into the house.

“Why don’t
you meet her for lunch?” I’m trying to think of anything
to get her out of here.

“I want to see
her now.” She’s insistent. I dig into her thoughts.
I
don’t care how big this fucker is, I need to talk to Shay. I
need my friend.

“Listen, Trish.
Here’s the thing. She’s still super fragile and isn’t
dealing well with things that aren’t carefully planned. She’s
sort of in a state right now. She’s got an appointment with
Doctor Green at ten, why don’t I have her meet you at around
noon?” I need to be careful with Trish now. She’s pretty
fragile herself. I don’t know what’s going on, but she’s
upset.

She stands and glares
at me a moment before agreeing. “I guess that’s fine
since she’s got an appointment anyway. Tell her to meet me at
the diner on Palm Bay Road, but make it two thirty.”

“Perfect, that
will give her plenty of time to spend with Doctor Green.” I put
my hand on her shoulder, but it feels unnatural touching her. When my
hand makes contact with her a dark chill travels through me. I wasn’t
expecting her to have so much darkness in her. I knew she was
unhappy, but this seems excessive.

“Okay, thanks.”
She softens and the darkness subsides slightly.

“Hey Trish?”
I ask as she’s walking toward the car.

“Yeah?”

“Be careful and
take care of yourself. I’m sure Shay will be looking forward to
seeing you.” I try to find something to say to make her feel
better.

Trish sprays me with a
disapproving look while thinking,
Yeah, fuck you, fatty. I’ve
had about enough of assholes keeping me away from my best friend,
including the loser at my house.

Well I tried. Now back
to the issue at hand. Let’s see how Wes is faring inside with
the bloodbath. I walk in the front door and Shay is combing her long
hair. She’s wearing a long sleeve shirt, which seems to be a
bit much considering it’s already eighty degrees. I’m
sweating like a white mouse in a tampon factory, and it’s only
eight in the morning. “Hey darlin’, you know it’s
hotter than the devil’s nut sack out there?”
Speaking
of Trish.

She smiles sweetly in
response and looks away from me. “I know, I’d just rather
be covered.” She rubs her arms absently.

“Sorry.”
Nice Carl, you idiot. Get your wits about you and think.

“Trish wants to
meet you for lunch at the Palm Bay Diner at two thirty, you up for
it?” I ask, really hoping that she is. It will be good for her
to get out and do something normal.

She looks to Eli. “Is
that okay if we meet Trish?”

Eli’s expression
sours at the thought. I give him a look that says he can’t say
no. “Sure, if that’s what you want.”

Good boy Eli. “Then
it’s a date, why don’t you send her a text confirming the
time.”

Oh shit, text message.
“Hey Wes, what was the address you were texted?”

Wes comes over and
shows me his cell phone. “The thing is this address doesn’t
exist.”

“Okay, get Lori
on the phone and get their GPS coordinates.” This is bad. For
some reason Wes was sent to a different address than Pitch and Quag.
I call Pitch’s phone, no answer, straight to voicemail. Shit.

“Eli, have you
talked to Harry this morning?”

“What’s
going on?” Shay asks.

“No, I haven’t
heard from him. It’s still early though.” He takes a
moment to think about it. “I haven’t heard from him since
last night. I told him to keep Miranda out of here for the night.
I’ll call him.” Eli walks into the kitchen calling Harry.

“Carl, what’s
happening?” Shay asks again.

“I’m not
sure. We were all sent to different addresses. Which in and of itself
wouldn’t be strange, but why would Bailey specifically send us
to different places? It would have been just as easy to get us all
out of the house by sending us to the same place.” I wrack my
brain trying to figure out why he would do that. “You go get
ready, you don’t want to be late for your appointment.”
She smiles and turns to go back into the house.

Wes comes back in the
room with a slip of paper. “Here you go. This is their last
location.”

“Thanks Wes, make
a run with me.” Wes looks at Shay and then the carpet.

“Don’t you
think I should finish this up first?” He holds up the cleaning
solution in the spray bottle.

“Yeah, you’re
right.” I don’t want to leave Shay right now, but she’s
just going to see her therapist. She can handle that on her own.

Shay

Going
to see the shrink is the last thing I want to do. Honestly, when I
play all the shit back in my head, even
I
think I’m
crazy. I hope everything’s alright with Pitch and Quag; they’re
strange, but they are cool guys. I would totally hang out with them
even if I didn’t have a demon with a hard-on after me.

It sounds so
ridiculous, but sadly it’s true. I tossed and turned half the
night trying to figure out how to kill the Specter. Now Bailey is a
threat. He’s ripe with the smell of the Specter; I feel his
presence when Bailey is near me.

Studying my reflection
in the mirror gets more and more haunting every time I do it. I see
things in myself that I either missed or were never there. There’s
a bloodlust in my eyes. Knowing that you’re capable of actually
hurting someone is both empowering and difficult to deal with. If I
had to kill Bailey this morning I would have.

I examine each mark on
my face and find a little dried blood I had missed on my scalp. I rub
it off with a wash cloth. It could be mine or it could be his. I
shudder, thinking of how he felt on me. I should have been able to
protect myself better. I should have known it wasn’t Eli
sooner. This all confirms that I need to work harder, train harder.
I’m going to become self reliant, able to take care of myself.

The reflection staring
back at me is so foreign, like someone I don’t know anymore.
It’s like looking at the memory of Aiden, standing outside
myself looking in. I’m a witness to this spectacular disaster
that is my life. Constantly surrounded by pain and death, I'm a
threat to all of the people I care about. How many have suffered
because of me?

The image in the mirror
sneers at me, mocking me. She’s hardened and I already know
that her decisions are going to be made out of fear. Fear of loss,
fear of being discovered as weak, fear of fading into nothing. Part
of me wishes I could go back into the void, stay and live in the
misery there. Perhaps then I wouldn’t be a danger to anyone.

There I discovered an
ability to deal with that fear. The terror out here of constantly
wondering who will be hurt next runs through me like battery acid and
I have to look away, ashamed of what I’ve become. So battered
and bruised, I look like a victim. In the void, I wasn’t a
victim. I figured it all out there, I learned the Specter’s
game and beat him at it.

That’s it, that’s
the answer. I have to beat him in
there
. I have to take him
out on
his
turf. That has to be how to do it. There he walks
in both forms, solid and vapor. If I can get him to solid form, I
know I can defeat him.

I envision the portal.
The sulfur and rotting peat stench fills the air. A small black hole
appears behind me in the mirror, and it’s growing. A low level
of blue light pours from the spot in long spiking beams that blanket
the room in despair.

I’m impressed
with myself that I can open the entrance to the void. I turn around
to be sure it’s in the room and not just the mirror.
Instinctively I reach up to touch it. My fingers brush the opening
and it feels the same way it felt when I touched a dead rabbit when I
was six. When I touch it again, the coldness flows up my arm, causing
it to be discolored. The gray hue of death travels up to my shoulder.
I jerk my hand away quickly when Eli comes around the corner.

“Shay! What are
you doing?” He looks at me then the portal with a look of shock
and disappointment.

I can’t tell him
the truth, that I want to go into the portal to defeat the Specter.
He’d never understand, and wouldn’t let me go. I catch
my reflection in the mirror and I’m disgusted at the girl
staring back at me about to lie. About to say whatever it takes to
get what she wants, about to be weak and acquiesce to someone else’s
wishes. “I’m going to go back to the void; it’s the
only way for me to defeat the Specter.” The truth clipped the
wings of the lie in the nick of time and flowed from my mouth much to
my own surprise.

“What?” Eli
looks at me, astounded by this revelation.

With my jaw set I
answer him. “I’m going to stop the Specter. I’m
going to do it in the void, the only place where he has a solid
form.”

The pain in his eyes is
unsettling. He’s at a loss for words and he’s taking the
time to craft his response. He swallows down the lump in his throat
and takes my hands in his, hanging his head. “Shay, I
understand you need to do what you think is best.” He pauses
for a moment too long.