Through a Lens Darkly
Chapter 4
@copyright 2009 Heather Amaral and Jean Hontz
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Alicia didn't have a lot of
time to think when they reached some of the open markets. Since Etienne had to
stay in the sun to keep his strength up, she figured there was nothing wrong
with getting fresh fruits and vegetables out on the street instead of the
sprayed ones available in the grocery stores. And between concentrating on
keeping the guise in one piece around her and the constant pressure on her mind
of Etienne's presence, there wasn't a lot of room left for her to go over what
had transpired in the last twelve hours.
On top of that she had to remember
to nod politely to the people that waved and said hello to 'Embrey Jacobs', the
man who rented her apartment.
Etienne was concentrating on
keeping his present existence less noticeable. He floated along with Alicia
feeling the sun powering up his magic if not his body. With luck he could at
least form a sort of body soon, rather than wearing the amorphous cloud. Then...
he began to have hope.
It was only a half our out on the
streets when Alicia started feeling the strain of powers start to take a toll on
her. She was starting to think that Etienne's link to her had a small hand in
that but she had to get off the streets soon. Looking at her hand, it was fading
slightly in some places to reveal her hand through Embrey Jacob's. That wasn't
good.
"Sorry, Etienne. We're gonna need
to get out of the sun for a bit." She apologized under her breath to the mostly
invisible cloud that followed her.
-D'accord- he said in her mind.
She noticed he was beginning to have a voice, no longer using hers. It was
distinctly male.
Alicia smiled as they entered the
alley, meaning to say something about fancy French words as her guise fell away.
But the man staring open mouthed at her at the other end of the alley stopped
her dead in her tracks. He was tall, easily able to tower over her, with close
cropped hair and overpowering cologne. All this she remembered from past
experience with the man, just like she knew there was as semi-automatic with a
silencer under his light coat where his hand hovered.
The man's face slipped from shock
to grim satisfaction. "Evans."
She should have run, turned on her
heel to dive back into the crowds, out into the sunlight where his gun had to
stay put under his coat. But unlike the cops, who shouted out warnings, Kyle
Richards would put a bullet in the back of her skull the moment she turned her
back on him.
-Stay- Alicia heard in her mind.
The cloud, which she could barely see, had moved to be between her and the man.
Then suddenly it arrowed straight for him, smashing into him before he could
reach for his weapon. She felt the agony doing it had caused Etienne. She could
see the agony on Kyle Richard's face.
She sank to the ground when it was
over. Even from this distance she could see the dead way Kyle's eyes stared open
at the sky. It was like the churchyard all over again, she couldn't run or even
move. And she mentally spat at herself for being so weak as she watched the dark
cloud that had caused nothing but terror and confusion for her.
The cloud was darkening again,
sinking weakly to the ground. She could still sense the agony in him. Etienne
had used what power he had to take out Kyle Richards.
Seeing Etienne collapse, Alicia
was given some of her courage back and stood, slowly approaching the scene of
murder with uneasiness creeping into her belly. He'd attacked Kyle because what,
he'd read her mind and feelings the way she could feel his? Did he know what
Kyle would have done to her?
Kneeling next to the cloud and as
far she could from Kyle's body, she reached out a hand to touch the coiling
darkness and pulled back at the last moment, remembering what pain had come from
making contact with it last time.
"Etienne?" She asked instead, her
voice a little unsteady.
-Pain- he said in her mind, his
voice gone again, using hers. -Sun.-
"Okay, darling. We're going, we
just gotta take the long way now." She cooed quickly as she reached for her
fallen groceries and started out the side of the alley Kyle had entered and
through a series of back streets and short alley ways, trying her best to spend
most of the time in the sun even though Kyle's appearance had shaken her and
left her on high alert.
The cloud, Etienne, was still
dark and menacing looking, but as the sun hit him it seemed he moved a little
faster, more easily able to keep up with her.
When they reached the apartment
building though, Alicia bypassed her own place and kept going up, taking the
stairs two at a time as she reached a door that declared itself to not being an
exit. She fiddled with the dummy lock on the door for a moment and the sun burst
back in on them as Alicia walked out onto the roof. She slowed and finally let
herself collapse onto an old beach chair with large umbrella jerry rigged to
keep it out of the sun, closing her eyes until her heart stopped beating so
wildly in her chest.
Etienne settled down, basking in
the heat and brilliance. He apparently had nothing to say.
But all Alicia could see behind
her eyes was Kyle's dead stare. The man deserved it and worse, she knew. But it
didn't make it any less horrible.
"Why?"
-You. Afraid.-
"But ya didn't have to kill him."
She argued, sitting up.
-Enemy.-
Her brow furrowed. "That's fair,
but still...please don't do it again, Etienne." She pleaded. "I'm in more
trouble now then I was before."
The question formed in her brain.
It was clear he didn't understand.
Alicia laughed bitterly, digging
in her bag for the orange juice and fruit she'd bought. "Believe it or not,
darling, I've got more problems then just you. Kyle was a bad guy, and a lot of
people are gonna live now that he's dead. But there's more like him and they
don't like me. They're gonna think I killed Kyle now."
She saw his eyes swim forward in
the black soupy mess and stare at her. Then they closed; she sensed his pain
had receded and apparently he slept.
Alicia sighed. "At least you
ain't losing no sleep over it." She mumbled before eating her late breakfast and
stretching out on the chair with a paperback she'd gotten at the convenience
store. Somewhere through a quarter of the book she finally fell into a light
doze.
When she awoke she felt his eyes
on her. Regarding her through the now lighter swirling smoke that hovered over
her. She felt like a specimen pined to a lab table.
Alicia tensed, looking up for the
eyes within the smoke. "Time to go in?" She asked lamely.
-Oui.- He flowed behind her down
the stairs and to the room. Then, once they were safely there, he added, -Desolee.-
She smiled. "Etienne, I'm gonna
take a wild guess here. You're either Creole or French, right?"
She felt his amusement. -Oui-
"Brat." She chided as she put the
rest of her goods in the fridge and switched on the fan, pointing it away from
where Etienne was lurking.
-Oui,- he replied sadly.
"Well at least I'm not listening
to my own voice in my head anymore." She mused aloud, sitting on the bed where
she'd left the photos from last night. "So, have any time to think about what's
going on here?" She asked, waving her hand between the two of them.
-Tied to the tomb first, now tied
to you.-
"But that don't make sense. I've
touched the grave stone dozens of times, even when I was a little girl. I always
thought it was beautiful. Why now?" She asked.
-Kissed the frog.-
"Real funny, Frenchie." She said,
but she still smiled. "Well, last night was the first time I touched it while in
a guise. Maybe that was it." She shrugged. "Wait a minute, why were you
tied
to the tomb? Unfinished business?"
-Punish me.-
Alicia's chest felt tight, the
alley flashing in her mind. "For what?"
-Did not kill them. Will now.-
"That so?" She tried to say
lightly, but a chill had suddenly filled the room and Alicia moved to the
opposite side of the bed without meaning to.
-After we part-
Alicia nodded dumbly, it was
quiet the revelation to realize your ghostly new attachment was a murderer. Then
again, she wondered why it came as such a surprise after the first initial
meeting. The fact that she was barely able to stay awake wasn't helping matters
either. But so far he hadn't wanted her dead, it obviously wasn't a 'break the
bond' option, so maybe...
"Etienne...I'm gonna get some
sleep. I'm still wore out from this afternoon, what about you?"
-Rest. Fine.-
Alicia got up to turn off the
lights and then got into bed, watching the moving blemish in the dark carefully
before sleep finally dragged her away from her worries and into more comforting
darkness.