Surreal Ecstasy (32 page)

Adim was distracted enough that Ree
was able to get up and stand next to me. "Illusion is his power, and he's
been using it all these years, on everyone."

"Hm!" Ree said from his
throat, highly amused. He closed his eyes and opened them, and we both looked
at the demons as they disappeared.

"Without anyone believing in
them, they don't exist," he explained.

"That's just fucking sad,"
Dess shouted from the other side of the clearing. 

Thank god. I was so worried Adim
had done something to her. "Where were you, Dess?"

"The asshole made me think I
was in a steel cage, unable to get out. It just disappeared."

"Looks like you destroyed his
confidence, babe," Ree said, still watching him, who was on the floor
looking confused.

"MISERABLE BITCH!" Adim
yelled, backing away from us and scrambling to get himself up. "I still
know something that can hurt you. You think you're some kind of human helper?
Well, our side has one, too." His eyes went to Ree's face. "Yeah,
didn't know that, did you,
fading angel
?"

My head whipped around to where Ree
was standing, his face expressing what I was feeling. "He can sense it,"
he said very quietly, more to himself than to me.

"Yes, of course I can sense
it, fucker." Adim was still crawling and stumbling, but he began to smile
cruelly, enjoying our obvious confusion. "I did last time, too, but I
wanted to keep it a surprise for your devoted bitch. And I'm helping you fade,
because you hate me." He began to outright laugh at us. "
I
helped
you fade! Oh, that's poetry in motion. You're starting to become one of us."

He got up, backing away from us,
but still laughing his head off. "But that's not what I was talking about,
Morgan
, ecstasy queen," he spat out. "Do you know she took all
of my ecstasy and was fucked up for days at a time?" he asked Ree.  When
he didn't respond, Adim shrugged and said, "Our human helper is someone
you know. Someone your parents know."

That got my attention. "What?
Who?"

Adim was right in front of where
part of the forest began. He stood in front of it for a moment, holding his
stomach, which I could now see was bleeding. How hard had Ree hit him?

Adim shook his head. "Your
folks don't know about any of this stuff,
any
of this God Generation
bullshit. But their friend is a human helper for the Melted. Ha, ha! That's
fucking great."

"
Which
friend, Adim?"
I yelled, trying to put as much threat in my voice as possible.

"That supposed 'political
manager' guy." He laughed again and began to run toward the trees. "Good
luck with that, bitch."

And before I knew it, he was gone,
trees rustling from afar as he ran off.

Suddenly, I fell to the ground,
physically and emotionally weak.

Milton was the Distinguisher?

"What's a Distinguisher, Ree?"
I asked him, afraid to look at him or Dess or do anything except cry.

The twins ran to my side and tried
to comfort me. "The Distinguisher is the human helper who can tell which
people are Slates, Worthy, and Melted," Ree answered quietly. He sighed
and put his head down, probably still in shock from Adim's confirmation that he
is, indeed, fading.

I saw and heard nothing else except
my sobs and the grass underneath my knees. I cried because the longest romantic
relationship I'd ever had turned about to be made up of illusions and lies, on
top of the abuse and drugs. I cried because I didn't even know who Adim really
was, and I cried because it made me question my own judgment, my own
self-worth.

And I cried because someone from
the forces of darkness was closer to my parents than I was.

After what seemed like a very long
time, I stopped sobbing loudly and retreated into the folds of my mind,
considering all that has happened these last couple months.

There was no going around it
anymore. The God Generation truly was damned. All of us, no matter what anybody
said.

Chapter 21

"So, Morgan. How have you
fared this week?"

I was reclining on a chaise-type
thingy in Dr. Hearse's Lynnwood office, which was surprisingly casual and
laid-back. I had almost forgotten what he'd looked like, or that he even
existed. Too much has happened lately, and it felt strange to sit on a doctor's
sofa and talk about how I've 'fared.'

"Uh, I've been good," I
said in an upbeat tone, hoping to conclude this ridiculous ritual and be on my
merry way.

"Oh, but I'm going to need
more than that, Morgan," he replied good-naturedly. "There are some
things I'd like to discuss with you today, if you don't mind."

I sat up, slipping my hands under
my thighs. "Like what?"

"Well, first things first. How
are you healing, physically?"

I paused for a minute, considering
his question. I was pretty sure he didn't want to know whether or not my body
had replenished its supply of blood.

But what else could he be asking
about? There was no way he could know that just a couple days ago, I'd almost
fought against four demons that weren't really there, not too long after I'd
broken a hotel chair over my demon ex-boyfriend.

I had to admit that I was really
grateful my best friend and boyfriend were wealthy enough where they could
easily rectify situations like this with the hotel. That night, the twins and I
had gone back to the hotel to collect my things and bring me home. The chair I'd
hit Adim with had mostly been intact, except for one leg that had broken off
and a piece of the seat that was splintered.

Ree had gone downstairs to check me
out of the room and apologize to the manager for the chair damage, as well as
compensate handsomely. Dess and I gathered my belongings, which mainly
consisted of groceries. Although she said the food could be quickly replaced, I
still couldn't bear to leave good food behind. We'd gathered everything
together and headed out the door.

I wish Bree had still been around
so I could update her on what happened and thank her profusely, but her shift
had ended long ago and consequently, she wasn't anywhere in sight. I could have
told her manager how helpful she was to me, but since Bree didn't want me
telling other GG members about her presence, I'd probably have to wait until I
was alone before I could call the hotel and either talk to Bree directly, or
praise her to her boss.

Sitting there with Dr. Hearse now,
I realized he'd probably intended to find out if Adim was still abusing me, and
that his question was just his passive-aggressive way of nosing around. Well,
why didn't he just ask?

"I'm actually doing well. I,
uh, have a new boyfriend, and he treats me like gold, and I don't…well, I'm not
going to see my ex-boyfriend anymore—the one who…"

"You can say it. It's okay."
He watched me patiently and spoke gently.

"The one who, uh, used to hit
me and stuff." I stated that last part as fast as humanly possible,
looking at the doc's framed picture of the Eiffel Tower that hung next to the
window, blinking back tears.

Dr. Hearse sat back, obviously
relieved that I'd finally said the words. "I'm very glad to hear you've
made a change," he said in a tone that made me believe him. "Speaking
of which, are you staying away from the drugs?"

I felt like I was meeting my parole
officer. I hoped his next question wouldn't be whether or not I felt I was
rehabilitated and if I believed I would be a useful member to society.

I smiled a little and told him, "I'm
definitely staying away. I haven't thought about taking
anything
in so
long. My boyfriend doesn't do any drugs at all. He doesn't smoke, drink,
gamble, or even curse. You'd never believe it if I told you what an angel he
was."

I added that last bit for my own
satisfaction.

"How are you emotionally? Are
you happy to be alive?"

"I am," I replied
immediately, nodding my head. "This last week has been… monumental. And I
couldn't have experienced any of it if I'd succeeded in killing myself last
week."

"What are your plans for the
future?"

"Well, right now, my plan is
to get a job and just be content being Morgan for a while. I don't really have
anything specific in mind."

He nodded and made some notes in a
little leather-covered writing pad. I couldn't help but wonder what they were.
Would he be obligated to tell me if I asked him?

He looked up. "Morgan, I'm
really proud of your progress. You've begun to understand the value of your
life and the potential of your soul."

My head snapped up at the word
soul
.
"Uh, thanks."

Watching me, Dr. Hearse smiled. "How
are you doing spiritually?"

Something felt strange, but I
couldn't put my finger on it. "Okay, I guess," putting an inflection
on the end so that it sounded more like a question than a response.

"Are you content with where
you're headed in that respect?"

"Spiritually? Well…" I
struggled with this one. What was I supposed to say? It was a tough question,
even without the whole God Generation thing. "I feel like I…like I know
the direction I'm headed in. Spiritually. I'm not religious, but I have a good
feeling about it."

"Are you really aware of the
spiritual nature in the things around you?"

If Dess had been sitting next to
me, she would've probably said something like
OK, doc. Give it up, you
fucking quack. What do you know?

I stared at him, not knowing what
he expected me to say. He smiled at me again and got up. "Would you like
some juice, Morgan?"

"Uh, sure."

He walked over to a mini-fridge,
much like the mini-fridge I'd had at my old apartment. He took out two Snapples
and handed me one. I thanked him and unwrapped the protective plastic at the
top, taking a sip of the delicious diet raspberry iced tea. It was my favorite.

Still smiling, he took my drink
from me and held it in his hands, closing his eyes. After a few seconds, a
transparent mist surrounded the bottle. He offered it back to me, and I took
it, questions in my eyes and mind. I took another sip, so shocked that I almost
dropped it.

He had turned it into wine.

He laughed at my reaction. "Sorry,
Morgan. I definitely don't encourage my patients to drink. In fact, here you
go," he said, and waved his hands over my bottle.

I sniffed at, then drank from the
bottle. It was back to Snapple's delicious raspberry iced tea.

"You…you're…  Wait. What are
you?"

He laughed with a kind of ease I'd
never seen from him before. "Dionysis, the god of wine, at your service,"
he said, standing up and bowing formally to me. He sat back down and smiled at
me.

I made a scoffing noise in the back
of my throat. "You're a Slate?"

"
Harmless
Slate,"
he corrected, taking a sip. From his breath, I guessed that he was probably
drinking some of his own creation. "I just like to do my job and enjoy
being alive on this planet. Not all of us want to be in power again," he
added. "In fact, I don't know of any who do, but I know that's what the
Worthy and Melted say about us."

That whole thing was just a rumor?
Did most Slates really just want to be left alone?

I had to tell Ree about this. I
didn't think I ever considered this possibility, and I wanted to bounce this
idea off him. "How many other Slates do you know of?" Amazed, I took
another sip of my juice.

"Quite a few," he said. "I've
met many throughout the years. Once a Slate Unveils, others are pulled in by
their energy, so there tends to be flocks of them gathered in cities."

"And how did you know you
could reveal yourself to me?" I asked, pretty sure of what he was going to
say next.

"You have this essence, this
unexplainable energy about you that shows you're involved with the Generation.
And I don't want to know how you're involved, not unless you choose to tell me,"
he added, seeing my mouth open to speak. "You'll see. You'll begin to
sense others, but you won't be able to distinguish what kind of being they are,
so be careful."

I nodded, starting to get the hang
of all this finally, my brain comparing notes of all the people of the God
Generation that I'd encountered so far.

"Thanks," I told a
smiling Dr. Hearse. "I'll be careful."

"Good." He waved his hand
quickly over his wine.

"Time to sober up?" I
asked with a grin, eyeing what was probably now juice.

"Yeah," he said
forlornly. "Not to worry, though. I throw quite the party with the best
wine that nobody can buy anywhere. Imagine that, huh?"

I chuckled a bit, remembering what
Erica had said about him: 
Dr. Hirsch is a nice guy. And fun to party with.
I'd
wondered what she saw in him, but in thinking about it, I imagined supernatural
wine was probably quite the aphrodisiac. Besides, in his more natural element,
he seemed a lot more confident and easygoing.

I almost asked Dr. Hearse if he'd
known Erica was Melted, but I held back. I didn't want to get in to it now, and
as long as she wasn't following any of us around, what she did was none of my
business. 

Less than an hour later, we emerged
from his office, talking lightly amongst ourselves. Dess was in the waiting
room, looking bored as hell—apparently she'd been so bored that she'd taken a
bus here so we could ride home together.

I smiled to myself, remembering how
Dr. Hearse felt about her, but as I turned toward him to ask if he remembered
her, it was plain to see that he'd already noticed her, his eyes getting bigger
by the second. "Well, hello there, Miss Rios," he said, extending his
hand to her.

She stood up and took it. "You
recognize me," she accused. "You probably knew who I was the last
time we met, didn't you?"