Finding My Faith

by Carly Fall

  She took a step back and looked over her shoulder.

  “Faith. Really. Why do you think I'm going to take you somewhere? And where do you think I'm going to take you?”

  “Because you're the only one who can see me. I've been trying to get someone to notice me for a day now, and no one does. So it stands to reason that if you can see me, you're dead. And if you're dead and coming after me, that means that you want to take me to my final destination. Or resting place. Whatever you want to call it.”

  He stared at her, surprised by her sound logic. It made sense.

  Smiling, he shook his head. “No, Faith, I'm very much alive. I just have this...ability I guess you could call it, to see spirits trapped in the ether. Like you are.”

  “I'm not dead,” she said forcefully, her panic rising even higher. “I'm not going anywhere!”

  Then she turned and ran through the brick wall of the parking garage.

  Rayner bit out a litany of curses as he made his way to the door. He ran up all five floors, calling her name, but to no avail. He stood on the fifth floor, breathing heavy with his hands on his hips and slowly spun around, looking at all the cars that would be resting in the cement house for the day. She was nowhere.

  Hell, for all he knew she ghosted in one side of the parking garage, then ghosted out the other.

  "Dammit!" he said loudly. He turned to make his way down the ramp when he felt another presence. His skin developed goose bumps. He stopped and slowly turned around. She was here, but he didn't know where. He scanned the area again.

  "Faith!" he called out. "I want you to listen to me. On my life, Faith, I'm not taking you anywhere. I want to help you. I want to try to help you get back among the living! Please believe me. Please trust me.”

  He waited a moment, and when she didn't show herself, he turned back to his trip down the ramp.

  "Fuck this," he mumbled as he pushed his blond hair back and headed for the elevator instead. He didn't have the energy for the walk down the ramp.

  ***

  Faith watched from behind a large concrete pillar as the man began his decent to the bottom of the parking garage, heard him curse, and tracked him as he headed for the elevator. She exhaled deeply and sank to the ground, putting her hands to her head.

  When he had spoken to her, she had panicked and ran. She now realized that he was the same man she had sworn had seen her yesterday.

  And today he could certainly see her. And hear her. Maybe he could yesterday as well, but he hadn't acknowledged her. She wondered why.

  Okay, she needed to think this through.

  She went over the chase as she had run through cars and people, yet he had made his way around them. She had gone through the cement wall of the parking garage, and he had run for the door. Either he was alive and couldn't accomplish such things, or he was lying just to try to get to her.

  If he was alive, maybe he could help her. A little bud of hope took hold in her heart. But if he was coming to take her to the next life, she needed to stay as far away from him as she could. He had said he wanted to help her get back among the living. How would he do that?

  She got up and began walking down the ramp. A red Escalade came barreling up the ramp at her, but she didn't bother to move. She stood in place and watched the car approach, only closing her eyes at the last second. She felt nothing as it passed through her, and she turned to watch it continue its journey. Too bad she couldn't tell the driver he was wasting his time because there wasn't a parking spot anywhere in the garage.

  She continued her walk and wondered what to do next.

  Reaching the bottom floor, she began to make her way to the exit. Another car drove through her, but she barely noticed as she was so deep in thought.

  Faith.

  She stopped dead in her tracks and looked around. He came out from between two cars.

  "I'm leaving," he said out loud. "But I'll be back at the same bench tomorrow afternoon. I hope you'll believe what I told you. I'm not here to take you anywhere, okay? I want to try to help."

  She watched as he stepped out, both his arms down by his side, walking backward. His eyes never left her. Once he reached the sidewalk, he became nothing but a dark figure against the light. He turned and left.

  Shit.

  She didn't know what to do. She didn't know where to go. She had no idea where her body was located. She was a nomad without a home, and she had nowhere to go except back to her apartment. Her roommate would be out of town for a few days, so she wouldn't be disturbed there.

  Chapter 10

  Rayner walked toward the Hummer parked just off of 3rd. He had never had a spirit run from him, but there was a first time for everything, right?

  The thing that had his cage rattled was how much sense she made. Apparently, she had been trying to get people's attention for a while, and then all of a sudden he popped in and acknowledged her, and she ran like a jackrabbit with a coyote hot on its tail, thinking he was there to take her to her final resting place. He had never thought about it that way, and it made sense.

  So, she was pretty and intelligent.

  He felt a smile make its way to his face.

  But back to the important stuff.

  She could possibly give them some clues on where the Colonist was, and that took him one step closer to getting home.

  That was the important stuff.

  He felt eyes on him, and he stopped in his tracks. He looked around, trying to figure out who or what had set off his internal radar, although he had a pretty good idea. He turned around slowly, and there she stood about a half block behind him. Her red hair swirled around her, her dark eyes boring into him. People walked through her, around her, and she just kept staring at him. He smiled.

  Do you want to talk to me? he projected at her.

  She stared at him a moment, then shook her head slowly.

  He nodded. You know where I'll be tomorrow.

  Chapter 11

  “So, did you meet her?” Cohen asked.

  “I did.”

  “What happened?”

  Rayner leaned over the pool table, wishing he had the skills of Noah's mate, Abby. But he figured no matter how much he practiced he would never be as good as her.

  “She ran away from me,” he said as he put the six ball in the side pocket.

  “She what?” Cohen asked, surprised.

  “She ran away from me. Not much more to tell.” He leaned against the wall, watching Cohen aiming for the three ball. He took a swig of his Tequila Sour.

  “So…what's next?”

  Rayner smiled as Cohen missed, lining up the eight ball for a perfect shot. He bent over the table and concentrated on where he wanted the eight ball to end up. A slam-dunk, beating Cohen for the second time tonight.

  “Have you been practicing with Abby?” Cohen asked.

  Rayner dodged question. “Rack 'em again, my man?”

  “So what's next?” Cohen asked again.

  “I got a chance to say a few things to her, and hopefully she listened. I'm hoping to meet her tomorrow.”

  “That's different. I thought you told me they're at your feet begging for help. She ran away from you? What do you think that means? Why'd she run?” Cohen pulled back his cue for a break. Nothing went in.

  Rayner took another sip of his drink, doing a little multitasking, thinking about his next shot and how to answer Cohen's question, deciding which to do first—shoot or answer. He chose to shoot. Nice shot on the two ball in the far right pocket.

  “She thought I was dead. She thought I was going to take her through to the other side.”

  Cohen looked up from the table. "Really? Never heard that one before."

  A few minutes later, Rayner sunk the eight ball again.

  "You've been practicing with Abby," Cohen muttered.

  Hudson came into the room and announced that Noah wanted everyone in the War Room for an info update.

  As they waited for Noah, they discussed what Hudson
would whip up for dinner.

  "I'm thinking tortellini," Hudson said. "With some homemade sauce and garlic bread. Maybe a salad."

  Rayner and Cohen agreed it sounded great. "Definitely a salad," Cohen said, popping a Pringle out of the can he had grabbed from the kitchen on his way to the War Room. "My green levels are low."

  "Your green levels?" Rayner asked.

  "Yeah. When you don't get enough veggies, your green levels get low. When your green levels are high, you feel good."

  Hudson and Rayner exchanged a WTF look.

  “Maybe you should lay off the Pringles and whiskey and you would feel better,” Hudson suggested.

  “Nah,” Cohen said while popping another Pringle in his mouth. “Just need to get my green levels up.”

  Just then Noah appeared on the screen, and the convo about green levels, as well as the potential convo about Cohen's table manners, or lack thereof, went to the wayside.

  After a little idle chitchat, Noah got down to business. His contact at the Phoenix P.D. told him in passing that Faith's parents were coming in the next day to answer some questions about Faith, her habits, who she knows, etc.

  "Obviously, we can't sit in since they don't even know you guys are there. We have to work parallel of the police. They only contacted me for the profiling stuff, and that's the end of my involvement. I was able to piece together a few clues, that a Colonist did this, and that’s why you three are there. I'm going to have our resident computer geek Talin hack into their system and get the transcripts from the parents’ interview. I'm emailing the interviews with the other missing girls’ families and friends. I'm not seeing a link in any of them except the red hair, but maybe you guys will."

  They discussed whether or not any of them should make contact with Faith's parents.

  "I don't think we can," Hudson said. "If we say we're police, it will look suspicious to have two interviews done. We can't say we're friends of hers—we don't know enough about her. I think it's too risky to make anything seem out of order."

  A little idea pinged around in Rayner’s brain. "What time are the parents supposed to be interviewed tomorrow?"

  "Sometime in the morning. I don't have an exact time."

  Rayner nodded. "I may be able to ask some questions posing as one of Faith's friends." And maybe, just maybe, get her to trust him as well.

  ***

  The next morning Rayner walked down the street, a big cup of coffee in his hand. He really didn't like all the frappe this and latte that. He was a simple guy, so therefore he liked his gasoline hot and black. He took a sip of the stuff and smiled. There was almost nothing better than a perfect cup of coffee in the morning.

  As he approached the bench, he looked around the area from behind his sunglasses. He was hoping like hell that Faith had showed up. If she didn't, they were pretty much at a loss at finding the Colonist; they would simply have to hang around and hope he made a stupid mistake.

  He hated that. He liked being in motion, moving forward, taking steps to get to his goal of going home. But those Colonists were a tricky bunch of fuckers. They were smart and good at what they loved to do, which was kill. The only way the Warriors could catch them was if the Colonists made a stupid mistake, or if they left ash at the scene of the crime. Rayner had been up most of the night going through the interview reports from the other missing girls’ parents and friends. Noah had been right—there wasn't any type of connection between any of them that he could find. Except the hair. So, their guy had a redhead fetish. Great. Not like the Colonists weren't messed up enough to begin with. Throw in a fetish or two and you get crazy like you'd never seen before.

  He planted his ass on the bench and took another sip of coffee. If he were to be honest with himself, he also wanted to see Faith again. To know that she hadn't yet gone to the other side, whatever that entailed. Having never been there, he went on the basis that there was an afterlife for humans. All of their religions indicated as much. The people of SR44 also believed in an afterlife.

  Faith made something within him spark—something he hadn't felt in a long time. Like there was...a spark of life? Nah, that sounded ridiculous. He was alive. He didn’t really do much living because he was so focused on his work, but that was okay. He was driven to get to the end of the mission. All these thoughts about sparks and shit was a bit much.

  And frankly, he wanted to lay eyes on her again because, damn it, her beauty was something he had never seen before. Maybe he would ask her why she looked like a Native American but had all that red hair. Obviously, somewhere down the line there had been a big mixing of races. And that hair. Damn. The stuff was thick and lush, and he wondered what it would feel like to run his hand through it, to have it cascading around him as she straddled him, her breasts firm against his chest as she kissed him...

  "Hi."

  Rayner snapped to attention when he heard her voice, feeling like he had been caught jacking off or something. She sat next to him on the bench, her arms curled around her legs, and she rested her head on her knees. And that hair just fell everywhere.

  Hi, he projected. Jesus, she was even prettier than he’d remembered. He fought to put a stop to the train of thought he’d been riding before where they were both naked. Nope, time to get off that track and get back to the station called “reality.”

  She stared at him for what seemed like an eternity. "I believe you," she finally said.

  What do you believe? Man, her mouth looked so soft. Like a nice pillow or a big, fluffy cloud. He felt the front of his pants get a little tighter, and he was so relieved she couldn’t hear his thoughts unless he projected them at her. He had better be careful on what he was sending her way.

  "That you aren't dead. That you aren't here to take me to Heaven or Hell. That you can help me get away from the man who took me."

  He nodded slightly and looked away. Was he really going there? He was getting sexually jacked-up over a spirit? Man, get your fucking wits about you!

  He met her eyes again. Good. Because it's the truth.

  “How do you do it? How do you help me get back to the land of the living?”

  Tearing his gaze away from her, Rayner scanned the streets hoping to see the right words somewhere.

  They were nowhere to be found.

  Let’s just say this…ability…I have allows me to help people like you get from the ether back to the living. His words were laced with lies, and he loathed lying to Faith. But he had to remain focused on the end game: catching the Colonist would be one step closer to going home.

  “How do you do that?”

  He stared at her for a moment. “It’s a…process. A complicated process that I would rather talk about some other time.”

  She smiled slightly and nodded. "Okay. So now what?"

  He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He explained to her that her parents were going to be questioned at the police station, and that he wanted to talk to them about her disappearance under the guise that he was a good friend of hers.

  "They didn't have anything to do with it," she said quietly. "My parents are decent, honest people. But I would like to see them."

  Faith, people have secrets. There could be things your parents are involved in that you aren't aware of. If I could talk to them, gain their trust, maybe they'd be willing to open up to me. You can be there with me, feeding me information that only you and them would know to help make the lie believable. They could have the answer of who has taken you and where you are, but they just don't know it.

  Her brown eyes bore into his soul. He couldn't have felt more naked if he had been sitting on the bench in downtown Phoenix with his dick in his hand. Her eyes ripped him open from the inside, making him feel like a fish that had just been flayed. Like she was seeing all of his secrets, his fears, his...

  "What's your name?" she asked.

  Okay, this was good. She couldn't see everything inside of him. She wasn't privy to the loneliness, the gut-wrenching homesickness he felt tha
t drove him to get home, get back to his forest and never leave again.

  “Rayner,” he said out loud. "Rayner Johnson." He really didn't have a last name, but he and the other Warriors always threw on “Johnson” just for good measure.

  He noticed a couple of people walking by, glancing in his direction as it appeared to them that he was just a guy sitting on a bench talking to himself.

  “Rayner. That's an odd name, but beautiful. What does it mean?”

  He felt himself smile. No one had asked him that question in the two hundred and eleven years he had been on Earth. It means wise warrior.

  He met her eyes, her expression very serious. After a moment, she said, “Good. At this point, I think I need a wise warrior on my side.”

  He bowed his head and said, "Should we start walking toward the police station? I know your parents are being interview this morning, but I'm not sure what time."

  She uncurled herself, stood up, and stretched. Rayner imagined that if he couldn't see through her, she would be an amazing sight of pure feminine beauty—a length of curves.

  They walked down the sidewalk side by side in silence. He felt like a lumbering, giant bear next to her petite frame. For every step he took, she took about one and a half. Her legs were long and lean—the legs of a runner, which she had excelled at during their chase the day before.

  The silence wasn't awkward, but comfortable. Like they had known each other for many, many years and didn't need to fill the quiet with empty words. After a few minutes he asked out loud, “What made you trust me?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “You aren't dead. People see you. I need help, so I need to trust someone. And...I don't see or sense that you want to do me any harm. I always listen to my instincts.” There was a beat of silence. "Well, almost always.”

  “How did...what happened, Faith?” People walked by and looked at him funny.

  She sighed and went silent for a moment. “Those instincts I just mentioned?”