by Gary Jonas
“A reunion of sorts.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad.”
“Well, it’s good for one party and not so good for the other, and I seem to be stuck in the middle.”
“Do you have to be there?”
“Not much choice.”
“Take Kelly with you.”
“And Brand.”
“That’s about as safe as you can get, then.”
“Hopefully it’s enough.”
She looked at me and seemed to be thinking about that. Miranda would be worried about me, while Persephone would be wondering if I had a trick up my sleeve. “I hope it’s enough too.”
That didn’t tell me anything. I switched tactics. “Let me ask you something.”
“Anything.”
“If you knew two people who had spent a long time in a relationship. A dysfunctional relationship…”
“Is there any other kind?” she asked.
I laughed. “Good point. But if you knew these two people and one of them really wanted to get back with the other, but the one you considered to be a friend didn’t want to have anything to do with their ex, what would you do?”
“Was there violence involved?”
“No physical abuse.”
“Why are you involved in it?”
“The one I’ve just met is very powerful. This person is insisting on the meeting or bad things will happen.”
“What kind of bad things?”
“Death to friends of mine.”
“Including the one you’re supposed to get to the meeting?”
“Unlikely.”
“Does your friend know the position he or she has put you into?”
“I think so.”
“Why would someone kill your friends? That seems excessive. What do your friends have to do with it? Wait a minute. Am I in danger from this?”
“I don’t think so.”
“But you’re not sure. This person wants to kill your friends?”
“Let’s just say that’s a possible consequence if things don’t go well. That’s why I set up the meeting. To keep my friends safe. That doesn’t mean the whole thing can’t go south.”
“You should have Kelly and Brand ready to kill this guy.”
“Guy?”
“Or girl. Which is it?”
“A woman.”
“Who can and will kill people if she doesn’t get her way? Is it her time of the month?”
“Always,” I said.
Miranda laughed. “You don’t really mean ‘kill’ as in dead, do you?”
“You think I’d exaggerate?”
“You already know you’re going to get lucky, so I don’t think you’re angling for a great possibly last night on earth here. Seriously, how dangerous is this woman?”
“She’s the one responsible for all the dead people being up and about.”
“So Zach really had nothing to do with that?”
“Not so much, no.”
“Is she the reason I’m alive?”
“Probably.”
Miranda considered that for a moment, then rose and took her empty plate to the sink. She came back for mine, but I wasn’t finished yet. She sat down and had another cup of coffee.
She shook her head. “I don’t know what to say. If this woman can raise the dead in massive quantities, that means she’s stronger than Von and her team.”
“Oh yeah.”
“Which means she’s stronger than Kelly and Brand.”
“Right again.”
“Which means she could kill you with ease.”
“Unlikely,” I said.
“Unlikely how?”
“She needs me in order to get back with her ex.”
“And who is he?”
“He might be a she.”
Miranda grinned. “OK. So the woman needs you to get back with her ex, but her ex isn’t interested. Why doesn’t she just move on? There have to be other suitors.”
“She likes to get her way.”
“Powerful people usually do. Let me ask you something.”
“Fire away.”
“Again, do you have to go to this meeting? Can’t you just tell your friend to meet the woman and be a stand-up guy? That way you, Kelly, and Brand won’t be in danger. You could stay here with me instead.”
“That sounds nice but it doesn’t work that way.”
“Can you kill her if she tries to hurt anyone? Take out your gun and shoot her in the head?”
“I suspect she’s immortal.”
“Makes a lifetime commitment a bit more serious, doesn’t it?”
“And therein lies the rub.”
“Your friend is immortal too?”
“So far as I know.”
“Do you have any normal friends besides me?”
“You’re not so normal, Miranda. You have a dead woman’s heart, and you were kept alive by magic. But yes, I have normal friends too. I don’t get to see them very often.”
“Why not?”
“Most of them are married with children. Kinda cuts down on the socializing.”
She nodded. “I have friends like that too. I never really wanted kids, though. You?”
I shrugged. “I like kids but they wouldn’t be safe.”
“You have lots of enemies who’d try to get at you through your kids?”
“If I had kids.”
“What about through your girlfriends?”
“That danger does tend to hover like the Sword of Damocles.”
“Are you trying to scare me off?”
“The hair of a horse’s tail isn’t very strong, so that sword could drop at any moment.”
“I spent a week as a dead person. It wasn’t so bad. I got to meet you.”
“Worth every moment of the lack of a heartbeat, right?”
“I could have done without the dead guys attacking.”
“If you hang with me, you’d better expect things like that.”
“You deserve a day off,” she said. “A day without dead people attacking and without immortals having lover’s quarrels. A day to just spend in bed with a lover and escape your life of violence and freaky stuff.”
“Sounds good to me.”
She gave me a sad smile. “Unfortunately this conversation is making me reconsider things. I want a normal life, Jonathan. I want safety and stability. Maybe it’s boring, but at this point, I want boring.”
“I understand.”
“That said, I think that horse’s hair will hold strong for one more day. Just in case this is your last day, let’s spend it like normal lovers. Let’s pretend just for the day that the only magic is that between a man and a woman and that the only danger is a broken heart. I want to find a nice, quiet man to share my life, but today? Today is for pretend. If that works for you, turn off your phone and follow me upstairs.”
She rose and moved toward the staircase.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, powered it off and set it on the table before following her.
For the rest of that day, she was just Miranda and I was just Jonathan and I knew that if I died the next day at least I’d know what could have been had I been born a normal man. We tried to live forever in one day and if you ask me, we succeeded.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The meteorologists were way off base on their weather forecast of snow. Wednesday, it was sunny, and while the temperature was in the high thirties, it felt a lot warmer. Thank you, sun. We’d eaten lunch in the Springs and now stood at the center of the Royal Gorge bridge. The Arkansas River flowed beneath us. It was over a thousand feet down.
Thanks to the sun, the view was breathtaking. The pine trees were still covered in snow and the mountains and the cliffs of the gorge looked like a painting. I stood near the safety fence that ran along both sides of the bridge. I took a moment to enjoy the beauty of nature. Kelly, Brand and Darla waited patiently. It was 2:30, so we’d need to get started soon. I told Darla my plan over lunch and she figured it would tak
e an hour to work up the magic and cast the summoning spell, but that if it worked, our subject would arrive within five to ten minutes of Persephone’s appearance.
Brand walked up behind me and slapped me hard on the back. He looked down at the support struts and smiled.
“You know what would be fun?” he asked. “Swinging from bar to bar on those struts there. You could go across the underside of the bridge all the way from one cliff to the other. The spacing is perfect. Just like the monkey bars back when I was a kid.”
He looked almost wistful and I wondered if he was thinking about how his magically engineered superiority would deteriorate and he’d be a normal person again.
“That doesn’t sound fun to me. Sounds dangerous.”
“Monkey barring across the bridge on the struts is a hell of a lot safer than your stupid plan. You’re going to get us all killed.”
“You didn’t raise many objections at lunch.”
Brand shrugged. “Gotta die sometime.”
Kelly approached and looked at the cliff walls and down at the river. “What time is Sharon coming?”
“Four.”
“I think the bridge closes at four.”
“I think that’s just the rides.”
“You sure about this?”
“Pretty sure.” I knew she wasn’t talking about the aerial tram or the park hours.
“I think it’s stupid,” Brand said.
Kelly didn’t even look at him. “Jonathan, I’ll back your play.”
“There’s still time for you to go back to the car and wait. Esther might like company.”
“Esther might get company,” Brand said.
“Then leave.”
He shook his head. “Kelly backs you up and I’m standing with her. I just want to go on record as saying this is one of the stupidest things you’ve ever come up with and if we all die, I hope you go first so I can at least have enough time to realize I was right.”
“That’s enough, Brand,” Kelly said.
“No, it’s not. You’re blindly following this guy and this is foolish. It won’t work. It’s just going to piss off a goddess and she’s going to kill us all. I think he’s still got his death wish and he’s going to take us all with him.”
“I’m standing right here, Brand.”
“I don’t give a shit.”
“I don’t think it will work either,” Kelly said. “But it might catch her by surprise.”
Might is a five letter word that seems to be synonymous with another five letter word in my experience: never.
Tom Petty was right. The waiting really is the hardest part. We had to wait for Darla to make her preparations and cast her spell. The entire time, I kept second guessing myself. Was this the right course? I knew it wouldn’t work, but I didn’t have another play that I could see without betraying Sharon.
We stood at the center of the bridge. The bridge was about eighteen feet wide, and if we wanted to get out of here, we had more than six hundred feet to get back to the towers. I took a deep breath. This had better work.
#
Show time.
Three-thirty rolled around and a light glowed about fifteen feet from us. A rift opened and Persephone stepped onto the wooden deck of the bridge. Brand stood behind her and kept people from trying to cross the bridge in that direction. Kelly stood behind me, doing the same thing. There weren’t many people, but I wanted all the civilians to be safe.
“Hello, Mr. Shade,” Persephone said. She looked behind her at Brand then turned to look at Kelly and at Darla, who stood off to one side a bit behind me. “You brought friends. How sweet.”
“You’re punctual,” I said. “I like that in a goddess.”
“I’m not really a goddess, but we’ll let that slide. Where is Charon?”
“Not quite as punctual as you, but Charon is on his way.”
Persephone nodded. “You aren’t going to get cute with me, are you?”
“I don’t know. Do you find me attractive?”
“I did last night,” she said.
The impact sent me back a step. “Was she ever Miranda?”
“What do you think?” she asked, and her look told me everything I needed to know. She looked at everyone present. “So we get to wait. I’m familiar with your friend Kelly and her lover, but”—Persephone nodded toward Darla—“who is she?”
“I hired her to help bring Charon. She’s a summoner with DGI.”
“Interesting. Charon still didn’t want to come on his own?”
“I didn’t want to rely on that, so I figured it was best to enlist a helper. Is that cool with you?”
Persephone shrugged. “As long as I get my lover back, it makes no difference to me.”
A shimmering in the air sparked and waved like dancing lightning a few feet in front of me. A rift opened and Charon stepped onto the bridge.
“What the hell is going on?” he asked. He wore the robes of his office and carried his staff. The bottom of the staff dripped with the water of the Acheron.
“Persephone,” I said. “As agreed, I present you with Charon.” I gave him a nod. “Hi, Bob.”
“Shade? Where—?”
Persephone shoved him aside and glared at me. “Wrong Charon,” she said. “Did you really think this would appease me?”
“You said Charon, so I delivered Charon. I told you my friend’s name is Sharon. You should have been specific.”
“And you thought this would make me do a happy dance and let you and your friends live?”
“I figured it would piss you off.”
“So why would you dare to defy me?”
I stood my ground, feigning confidence and wondering what the hell was taking Darla so long. She had to have already pulled up the magic. She knew this was coming.
“I told you before, my loyalty lies with my friends.”
I heard Darla grunt behind me and I felt the summoning spell reverse polarity and expand. It hit Charon first and he phased out of sight, returned to the Underworld.
“Say good-bye,” I said as the wave of magic slammed into Persephone.
She raised a hand, and the magic flared brightly; then with a crackling series of pops and electrical fizzing, it vanished.
Unfortunately Persephone still stood on the bridge.
Oops.
Might and never were still the same in the dictionary of my life. Well, you win some and you lose some.
Persephone pointed at Darla and as Persephone raised her finger, Darla rose into the air.
“Silly little girl, you don’t have the power to send me away. You used up most of your power bringing Charon to this dimension and the rest to send him back.”
“I’m just a hired hand,” Darla said, her voice high and quivering.
“Not anymore.”
Persephone clapped her hands and Darla screamed. Persephone rubbed her hands together and Darla’s bones shattered, fragments breaking through her skin. Once her chest crushed into her lungs and heart, her screams stopped and her body hit the deck like a bowl of chunky soup in a leaky plastic bag. Blood splattered and got on my jeans and coat.
I felt like I’d been hit in the chest with a block of cement. While Darla wasn’t what I’d call a friend, she was a human being, and she didn’t deserve to die such a horrible death. I realized that her death was on me.
Brand raced at Persephone but hit an invisible wall. Kelly charged past me but hit the same wall as if it circled Persephone like a force field. Persephone raised her hands, and both Brand and Kelly rose into the air.
“Let them go,” I said. “I’m the one who defied you.”
“This is true. You thought you’d be funny. Are you laughing now, Mr. Shade?”
“No. I’m sorry.”
Kelly tried to twist free, but it was as if she were caught in a giant invisible vise. Her lips moved, but no words came forth.
Persephone stepped up to me. “I told you before that I could crush you like an insect. You are lik
e an annoying little moth fluttering around the light, but now you’ve got my full attention.”
“So take out your wrath on me. Kelly and Brand were only here to keep people off the bridge.”
“I told you that if you defied me, I would kill all of your friends.”
“That’s not necessary. It wouldn’t help anyone.”
“You are standing between me and my one true love, Mr. Shade. Are you going to call Charon, or Sharon if you prefer? Are you going to help me with the reunion?”
“Let my friends go free, and I’ll get Sharon here within fifteen minutes—guaranteed.”
“I don’t want to wait fifteen minutes. I want Charon here now.”
“Sharon is in another dimension. It might take time.”
“You don’t have time.”
I fumbled for my phone. My fingers shook as I scrolled through my recent contacts. I found the number Sharon had called from and I hit call. They say timing is everything. Perhaps if I’d told Persephone to be here at 3:50, Sharon would be stepping through and all would be OK. Perhaps if I’d left the summoner out of the equation and just handed Sharon over, all would be OK.
The call failed.
“Shit.”
I tried again. I had full signal, but the call would not go through.
“Let me try a text.”
Kelly and Brand still hung in the air, and Persephone’s face took on a reddish tint. I was running out of time.
I sent the text PLEASE COME NOW - J. The top bar read, sending, but it wouldn’t go.
I didn’t know if it was a case of magic blocking the technology or more likely that Sharon was in another dimension and the calls and texts couldn’t get through.
The text failed.
“She’ll be here,” I said.
“I’m tired of waiting.” She snapped her fingers and Brand’s body exploded in a shower of blood, flesh, and shattered bone fragments.
“No!” I shouted. I stared at the mess on the bridge for a moment then looked at Persephone. “Please, you don’t have to do this.”
“You have no idea what I’ve gone through,” Persephone said. “I’ve been waiting for Charon to return. How could he have left me? My existence means nothing without him and you, a mere human, think it’s funny to rub my face in it?”
“That’s not what I was doing,” I said.
“Jonathan Shade, you actually hurt me. I’m not going to kill you. I want you to know that. You’ll wish that I had, though. You’ll remember that if you’d simply been a decent person, you could have avoided the pain and the loss. Say good-bye to your friend Kelly.”
