The Unseen (25 page)

“
That’s pretty bleak.”

“
I know!  It’ll be the same in the afterlife, I’m sure—you’re on your own, nobody from either side shows up to help you.  That’s why you have to try and collect all the power for yourself that you can, no matter where it comes from.  Because you have to take care of yourself.  God won’t help.  God doesn’t care.  God probably doesn’t even know about you.”

“
This is what your church says?” Cassidy raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“
Well, a little bit, but it’s also what I think,” Reese said.

“
Seems like it would be hard to build a church around that idea. ‘God doesn’t care and won’t help, give us money anyway.’ Tough sell.”

“
But it’s true.  Eventually, the lies stop comforting you and you just want to hear the truth,” Reese said.  She reached across the table and took Cassidy’s hand, an unexpected gesture. “That’s what I want to tell you about, Cassidy.  The power is there, for people like us, people who deserve it, people who need it.  We just have to reach out and take it.”

“
Take it from where?” Cassidy asked.  They were interrupted when the food arrived—steaming white chicken chunks for Reese, crispy frog legs for Cassidy.  Cassidy was quick to take a frog leg, crunch it in her mouth, and gesture for Reese to take one.  Reese shook her head.

“
Are those really frog legs?” Reese asked.

“
I hope so.  That’s what you’re paying for.”

“
Ugh.”

“
So tell me the big secret,” Cassidy said. “Where do we get power?  I’m not even sure what kind of power we’re talking about here.”

“
The power to do what you want,” Reese said. “Some of the celestials will share their power with us, if we ask them and if we’re worthy.”

“
What are celestials?”

“
The really powerful ones,” Reese said. “Gods, angels, demons, whatever they’ve been called—the point is they’re the beings with the greatest power.  The ones who will share their power can’t be trusted, either, but it’s the only way to increase your own.”

“
And why are these angels and demons sharing their power with you?”

“
So that they can act upon the earth.”

“
I have to say, this is possibly the strangest church I’ve ever heard of.  No offense.”

“
I understand!  But listen, this is real, Cassidy.  And I want you to be part of it with me.  After what we went through together, I know you need power, too, in case it comes back for us.”

“
Why would it come back?” Cassidy asked. “We’re not going to make another Ouija board.”

“
You didn’t
feel
it,” Reese said. “It’s older than we can imagine, older than the world.  It’s full of enough power to destroy everything that lives, and it wants to come up and out.  It wants to walk in our world.  It’s furious with us for teasing it.  It wanted my body.”

“
That’s why we burned the Ouija board and kicked it out.”

“
But once it’s been in me, it’s easier for it to come back,” Reese said. “I could feel it trying.  That’s when I knew I needed power for myself.  And I want you to share in it, Cassidy.  I can teach you so much.  The church can teach you even more.  We just built a great new campus over in Decatur—church, school, the Regional Leader’s office.  That’s where I’m working!” Reese beamed, clearly proud of herself.

“
You like your job, then?”

“
Oh, of course!  Every moment of my life is discipleship.  I just want you to come and check it out, Cassidy.  No pressure.  It would mean so much to me to get you involved, after everything we experienced together.”

“
No, thanks,” Cassidy said.  She ate her last frog leg.  She was full and happy, and her only goal now was to get out of the place and leave Reese with the bill.

“
Cassidy, please!” Reese said. “Just one time, that’s all.  I can give you the grand tour!”

“
Maybe sometime.” Cassidy moved her crutches to the edge of the seat and pushed herself up to her feet.

“
Oh, let me help you!” Reese hopped up and reached for her.

“
I’m okay.”

“
You’re not leaving, are you?” Reese looked genuinely upset. “I didn’t mean to make you mad.  Are you mad at me?”

“
Why would I be mad?  As long as you stay away from my boyfriend, there’s nothing to be mad about.”

“
I was hoping we could all three be friends, good friends.”

“
You were hoping wrong.  Look, I changed my mind.  You can have Peyton.  I don’t want him anymore, all right?  As long as both of you leave me the hell alone, I don’t care what you do.  He’s a shitty boyfriend, so have fun with that.” Cassidy hobbled to the front door, and a young hostess noticed her crutches and hurried to open the door for her.

“
Wait, Cassidy!” Reese followed her out onto the sidewalk. “You don’t understand.  You’re more important to me than he is.  You’re the one I care about, not him.”

The manager, a middle-aged Cantonese man, ran out and mentioned, rather angrily, that nobody had paid for the meal.  Cassidy continued on down the sidewalk, forcing Reese to go back inside and deal with it.

She moved as fast as she could and made it inside her apartment complex before Reese emerged from the restaurant again.  Cassidy felt a weird sense of triumph at the meager accomplishment.

“
You shouldn’t go yet,” Cassidy’s mother said. “It’s far too soon.”

“
Fridays and Saturdays are our busiest nights at work,” she said. “I can’t afford to miss another weekend.”

It was late Saturday morning, and Cassidy was waiting on the couch, her things jammed into a backpack, her crutches beside her.  Barb was already on the way to pick her up.

“You can’t be on your feet.” Her mother sank into the armchair, sipping tea.

“
I sit when I’m tattooing.”

“
It seems like far too much strain.”

“
Well, none of us are rich, so all of us must work,” Cassidy said, echoing what her mother had said countless times while cajoling Cassidy and Kieran into doing chores.

Her mother laughed a little, shaking her head.

“I liked having you here,” she told Cassidy. “I’m sorry we didn’t see each other as much as I’d wished.  Things were too chaotic at work, but I’ve finally hired a decent night clerk.  I hope.”

“
I’ll visit more,” Cassidy said. “Once I can move again.”

“
Hey, you taking off?” Kieran emerged from his bedroom.  The chain connecting his nose ring to his earring was finally gone, though the rings themselves remained in place.

“
Gotta work.” Cassidy gestured at her cheek. “That’s an improvement.”

“
Yeah,” Kieran said. “I thought about it last night.  Maybe it’s kind of outdated, like you said.”

“
Definitely.  It was good seeing you, little brother.  You should call me more.”

“
Yeah, because you’re blowing up my phone all the time,” he said sarcastically, sinking onto the couch next to her.  He seemed dressed down today, a plain red t-shirt with no melting green alien heads, faded blue jeans.

“
Kieran came home before midnight last night, Mom,” Cassidy said.

“
That’s a nice change,” her mom said. “What sort of good influence has gotten into you?  Next you’ll be doing your homework.”

Kieran shrugged and smiled, but didn’t say anything.

When Barb arrived, Kieran carried Cassidy’s purse and backpack while she struggled down to the parking lot, leaning on the handrail while Barb carried her crutches.

Cassidy stretched her leg in the back seat of Barb’s car, opened the window, and lit a cigarette.  She felt a weight lift off her as they drove out through the broken gate, as though she could leave family responsibilities behind and be free again.

“Feeling better today?” Barb asked.

“
Leg sucks.  I don’t think physical therapy helped at all.”

“
Are you doing your stretching like cute first guy said?” Barb glanced at her in the rearview.

“
No, but I might have to call cute first guy and see if he’ll really trade me some help for fixing The Count on his back,” Cassidy said, and Barb snickered, remembering the story about Ibis’s tattoo.

“
Peyton won’t mind that?” Barb asked.

“
Screw Peyton.  I think I dumped him.”

“
Seriously?”

“
And I had dinner with Reese.”

“
What?  When?” Barb looked over her shoulder at this news, momentarily ignoring the road in front of her.

“
Stop!” Cassidy screamed, pointing.

Barb whirled back and slammed the brakes, screeching the car to a halt.

Cassidy had seen the brake lights flare on a pick-up truck full of loosely roped timber, and she could have sworn it was only inches away and slamming to a halt, and she and Barb would immediately be impaled by long, sharp tree trunks.

Instead, it had only tapped its brakes briefly for a curve and continued on down the interstate.

A deep horn blared behind them, and Barb punched the gas.

“
What the hell was that about?” Barb snapped. “Don’t do that!”

“
I thought I saw something,” Cassidy said.

“
One of your dead crow-vultures?  A giant worm?”

“
I’m sorry.” Cassidy shivered. “Riding in a car still freaks me out.  Mind if I close my eyes so I don’t have to look at the other cars?”

“
Please do that.  And tell me what happened with Reese.”

“
She wanted to get together and talk.  I thought she just wanted to apologize for, you know, sleeping with Peyton, but she was more interested in recruiting me for her church.”

“
So she’s still into that.”

“
It doesn’t sound like a normal church.  She said it was all about increasing your own power, because God doesn’t care about you.”

“
She might have a point,” Barb snickered.

“
Anyway, screw the both of them, Peyton and Reese.  I just need to work and keep my brain busy for a while.”

Barb took her to Neolithic Tattoo and helped her out of the car, saying she would take Cassidy’s clothes back home for her.

Cassidy was relieved to be out of the car, even more relieved when she walked into the familiar, semi-dorky cave environment of the tattoo parlor. 

A couple of other artists greeted her, but Jarvis approached her with an angry look, his arms crossed.

“
I had to deal with a lot of your pissed-off clients,” Jarvis told her. “I don’t like being yelled at.”

“
I’m sorry, Jarvis,” Cassidy told her manager. “I’ve rescheduled most of them.”

“
You could have handled things better.  You had some pissed-off clients.”

“
Sorry.  Like I said—”

“
I need to know you’re dependable.  You can’t just miss work whenever you feel like it.”

“
I told you, I was in a car crash and I broke my leg.”

“
Well, you could have handled things better,” he said again. “I don’t like upset clients.  They throw off my inner balance.”

“
Okay, Jarvis,” she said. “Next time I get into a crash with major bodily injuries, I’ll be better organized about it.”

“
That’s all I wanted to hear,” Jarvis said, sounding completely earnest, not even cracking a smile. Cassidy shook her head as he walked away to the office at the back.

Cassidy felt better when her first client arrived.  Manuel was an imposing man who worked as a prep chef at a sushi restaurant, and he was obsessed with Picasso.  Over the past months, Cassidy had turned his left arm into a kind of Cubist tapestry, one piece at a time, according to Manuel’s direction—a hand here, a female figure there.

He’d brought in a crude sketch of what he wanted and a black-and-white printout of
Head of a Woman
.

“
I want just this eye.” Manuel smiled and pointed at the roughly diamond-shaped right eye of the figure in the painting.

“
Just the one?”

“
Yes.  I like that one better.”

“
Okay...” Cassidy made her own quick sketch and showed it to him.