Mind Fray

by Alexie Aaron

  Mia explained the reason, and Mike was surprised to hear that Father Santos was there in attendance. “Didn’t you tell him to stay away?”

  “Yes, but no one listens to me lately. He got back into my good graces by talking Irma into us using her home.”

  “So tell me.”

  “Mike, I think that you’re going to be asked to do something very dangerous. I think you’re up for it, and more than capable, but I wouldn’t be your friend if I didn’t also tell you that you have a choice. You don’t have to do this.”

  “What is it I’m going to do?”

  “Distract Cezar while Gerald reads his mind.”

  “Distract him how?”

  “They haven’t come up with a viable plan yet. I think Gerald’s waiting on Angelo to return with more information.”

  “How did you get Gerald to help?”

  “He offered. Burt’s mad at me. He thinks somehow PEEPs is going to owe him a favor, but actually, I’m taking the favor on.”

  “He could ask for your firstborn,” Mike teased.

  “He’s not Rumpelstiltskin,” Mia said half laughing. “Besides, this Martin kid, by all accounts, is going to be hell-on-wheels. I’ve been trying to give him away to every three-tit witch I’ve come across, but no takers.”

  “How did you get yourself into such a dilemma?”

  “Well, first the sperm…”

  “Mia Martin!” he scolded. “First you won’t talk dirty to me, and now you’re giving me a lesson on sex ed.”

  “Yeah, how did we get on this track? Oh yes. The short version of a long discussion is this: Mike, you seem to be the only one not affected by Cezar. I think it’s because of carrying Joel inside your mind for so long. Bev once told me that when a spirit inhabits your body, they leave some essence of themselves there. Spirits don’t like to step into where some other spirit marked his territory.”

  “You mean Joel peed on me?” Mike asked, appalled.

  “Murphy peed on me. So you’re not alone in your disgust.”

  “I won’t comment on that, Mia,” Mike said. “So, somehow, I’m immune to this mind reader?”

  “Only if you can continue to block him,” she warned. “If not, he may be able to read your recent thoughts, but your memories are protected behind a layer of Joel, and nothing is going to be able to push through that, no matter how strong the entity is.”

  “Gee.”

  Mia was amused. She expected denial, curses, or to hear he’d decided to take vacation early, not gee.

  “I’ve never thought myself to be very valuable, beyond my devastating good looks, that is.”

  “Surprised the hell out of me,” Mia teased.

  “You know, now that I’m valuable, Murphy’s going to have to stop playing all those jokes on me.”

  “I can’t promise you that,” Mia said, hoping he’d change the subject.

  “I mean the manure thing was gross,” he complained.

  “Mike, that was me,” Mia confessed.

  “No, not you? How?”

  “Telekinesis.”

  “Why?”

  “The barefoot and pregnant comment.”

  “It was a compliment!”

  “No, it wasn’t,” Mia argued.

  “I guess it wasn’t. Still, manure. I’m going to have to take you off my Christmas card list,” he informed her.

  “You do that. In the meanwhile, perhaps we could have a truce.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I could tell Murphy about how you…”

  “Truce! We have an accord. You’re some negotiator.”

  “I better get back before Ted wonders if I fell asleep on the toilet,” Mia said.

  “You go. Thank you for calling me. I’m not sure if I’m going to sleep any sounder, but at least I’m up to speed. Goodnight, my darling ex.”

  “Good night, Mike,” Mia said, shaking her head. She ended the call and placed the iPhone in her pocket. She would tell Ted and, maybe, Burt that she talked to Mike. Not the whole conversation but enough.

  “I didn’t pee in your head,” Murphy said. He was standing, leaning against the front doorjamb.

  “I’m going to have to call you Murphy Martin. You’ve picked up some irritating habits of eavesdropping,” Mia scolded.

  “Ted sent me over. He was worried, you were gone so long.”

  “Well, as you can see, I’m alright. I was talking to Mike, trying to explain why I had to discuss his personal business with the others.”

  Murphy nodded. “I failed you.”

  Mia looked at her friend and slowly shook her head. “Failed me? How?”

  “In there.”

  “Kind of sucks coming up against something like that, huh?” Mia said, avoiding the subject.

  “Talk to me,” he insisted, moving quickly, putting a hand on either side of her.

  Mia closed her eyes a moment, choosing her words carefully. “Do you understand how important you are to me?”

  Murphy’s steely gray eyes shone in the dim room. He nodded.

  “I can’t lose you. You’ve become part of me.”

  “But you love Ted,” Murphy added.

  “Yes, I love Ted. But it doesn’t mean you are any less important to me. Just because I choose a human life, doesn’t mean I toss away a person who has been there for me, no matter what. Stephen, you are forever, and I’m just here for a lifetime. Sure, in those lurid novels it seems possible for a human and a ghost, but I’m not that type of heroine. I’m not planning on staying on when my time is up. I’ve had too much exposure to the light to not answer its call when it’s my time.”

  “So, no Ghost and Mrs. Muir,” he said, winking at Mia.

  “No, not even Ghost and Mrs. Martin. We are comrades in arms, friends, fierce competitors at checkers.”

  “That’s only because you cheat,” Murphy said, opening the door for Mia.

  “I do not. How can you cheat at checkers?” she asked, locking the door.

  “Distracting me.”

  “Me!” Mia exclaimed feigning innocence. “Well, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Ted heard Mia and Murphy arguing. He leaned against the truck watching his wife and the ghost approaching, Mia stomping around while Murphy floated beside her. He never would get used to seeing the ease the two had with each other. He wasn’t fooling himself with thinking of the two as siblings. Mia had confided in Ted about her interaction with the ghost when she and Burt were breaking up. She took seriously that she was at fault and promised to be aware that the farmer cared for her. But Mia promised her love to Ted, and he believed her words. He wasn’t going to let his insecurities ruin this marriage.

  “Hello stranger,” Mia said softly as she approached him. “Penny for your thoughts?”

  “Is everything alright? Your dad?”

  “Oh, damn, you thought I was talking to Charles. As far as I know, he’s fine. I was talking to Mike. He asked about our meeting and the discussion that involved him. I didn’t want to talk outside and wake the neighbors. You know how he gets.”

  “Did he flirt with you?”

  “Yes.”

  Ted laughed. “I’m never going to be able to take you for granted am I?”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Mia said, sliding up to him. “Oh, are we talking about my harem?”

  “You have a harem?”

  “Not yet, but when I’m rich…”

  “No, you can’t have a harem. How about a new porch swing instead?”

  Mia smiled. “I’ll take it. Harems are just trouble anyway.”

  “I’m going to hit the sack. I thought I’d curl up on the couch at Irma’s. Can you behave yourself and be nice to Burt?”

  “No.”

  “At least you’re honest. Try to stay calm when you’re disemboweling him, okay? Remember, you’re carrying the next king of the nerds in there.”

  “I’ll be careful,” she promised and handed Ted the key. Mia rose up on her tiptoes and pla
nted a kiss on Ted’s lips. “Sweet dreams.”

  He kissed her back and smacked her backside when she turned to go to the command center.

  Mia turned around and flashed him a sultry look. “Night.”

  Burt was full of questions when she returned. She did her best to answer them civilly. At one point, she was tempted to duct tape his mouth shut, but she bore the running line of criticisms and complaints until he was well winded.

  “Are you through?” she asked.

  He looked at her aghast.

  “Burt, I think it’s about time I ask the questions, and you give me some answers.”

  He opened his mouth, and her eyes flashed yellow. He felt a pressure as if someone was tugging his ear upwards, just like his mother did when he was being a smart mouth. He shut his mouth and gave her his full attention.

  “You see, I’m getting the idea that you hate me. If so, I can’t work with you.”

  “I don’t hate you,” he admitted.

  “Then why are you torturing me?”

  “I’m not.”

  “You are. I suspect that there’s something going on that we have to address. Spill it, Hicks.”

  “I can’t pay the rent I owe you,” he blurted out.

  “I’m not asking for it.”

  “I can’t be in debt to you of all people.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “We used to sleep together, Mia.”

  “I remember that fondly, but what does it have to do with you owing me a little rent?”

  “You castrate me.”

  “I will if you keep talking nonsense. I thought, even when things were roughest between us, that we were still friends. Too fucking bad that I moved on before you did. That I did it twice is my business. I had no intention of making you feel any less. So stop trying to demean me.”

  “I’m sorry, Mia, but I can’t do this anymore.”

  “Yes, you can. Talk to me,” she insisted. “Let’s clear the slate. When I suggested you move into my house, I wasn’t being generous. I was getting you out of the farmhouse where I wanted to be. It’s one thing having Cid and Murphy there, but you too? I’m up to my neck in boy toys as it is.”

  Burt snickered.

  “What?”

  “I thought you were going to say toy boys,” he admitted.

  Mia smiled. “Ted said I couldn’t have a harem, so no toy boys.”

  “Well, that’s not sporting of him.”

  “Old-fashioned type of guy. Anyway, here’s the deal. Pay me when you can. We aren’t hurting for money. Remember, I latched on to a genius.”

  “That you did. I still can’t get over it.”

  “Start,” Mia said and put her hand out. “Come on, shake it. Let’s make this legal. Jake, are you filming?”

  The screen popped on, and a large scene card snapped.

  “I release you from your debts until you’re in a position to pay them,” Mia said.

  “I promise to pay them when I can,” Burt said. “I’m still going to pick on you,” he confessed. “You’re so pick-a-ble.”

  “I’ll fight back, Hicks,” Mia warned. “And I don’t play fair.”

  “Deal,” he said. “I know most of your tricks.”

  Mia’s poker face didn’t let on that he didn’t have a clue what she could do if she put her mind to it.

  Murphy stood watching the spirits at the far end of the empty lot. Rightly, he feared going near them. It wasn’t the same as the woods where the creature only took advantage of the spirits when she needed to defend herself. These souls were lined up as if they were breakfast lunch and dinner. If Ted hadn’t thought ahead, he would have been number fifteen. Mia knew he wasn’t going to succeed and tried to stop him. But she also knew he had to try. He had almost convinced Cezar that he was ineffectual when it came to him. So close, where had he failed?

  Mia’s I told you so hurt. Didn’t she know he was doing it for her? He just seemed to be making a mess of things lately. He knew he shouldn’t have followed her from the command center into the house. Ted didn’t send him. Mia was firm that she wanted no part of a physical relationship with him years ago. Maybe he had been fooling himself. What possessed him to think that if he could grasp the physicality of being soft and solid in this world, then Mia would be his? Maybe he was becoming delusional. Mia said if he went crazy, she would take him out. She promised him. He better not give her any reason to suspect he was over the bend and not coming back. Or he would be tossed into the light with her bootprint on his behind. That made him smile. She may not want to be in his arms, but she still had his back.

  He thought he caught a blurry movement from the line of spirits. He looked again and dismissed it as spectral wind.

  The torture never seems to end. He comes back again and again and feeds off of me. I am not alone in my hell. I can barely turn my head, but I hear them. I hear their prayers. Many are in languages I’ve long forgotten. But the prayer is the same. Deliver me from this torment.

  It seemed so harmless at the time. Just borrow a little of Cezar’s power. He didn’t need it anymore. Beheading was a cruel sentence for a mere crime. Why my cousin felt he needed or earned those jewels still puzzles me. His sister Uta came all the way from Romania to bring me his journals, and she stayed with me to translate his scrawl. I now see it was planned all along. He and Uta, the unholy alliance of siblings. Perhaps the jewels were for her?

  Uta, too, hangs not far from me. I hear her curses when the breeze is right. She curses the soul of Cezar. She, who brought him back from hell, now is nothing more than a feed bag for him. If my mind was not so filled with hate for the woman and her tricks, I would feel sorry for her, as I do the others. But it was Uta who ended my career, my life, and imprisoned me in this torturous afterlife.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Angelo moved carefully through the labyrinth of the vault. He was well aware that the mere motion of his naked body moving past some of the artifacts was dangerous. Each alcove would have to be checked upon his return. It was tedious work but essential for the protection of the contents of the vault and for the protection of the humans who resided on this plane of existence. This was one of the reasons the Brotherhood had most of the least hazardous texts copied to computers. But some things could not be copied, some things were too dangerous. The mere act of drawing a symbol from the ancient tree people of the Black Forest could bring on drought, flood or fire.

  He carried the sealed handbill to the salt and crystal room. There he carefully extracted the plastic-covered paper from the cylinder. He then pondered if it weren’t better to keep it in the plastic cover. He looked over to where the 666th print copy of issue 13 of Wonder Woman was stored. The retriever had kept the plastic cover on and so would Angelo. After he had secured the document by pressing it between two blocks of salt and encasing it in a white crystal quartz box, he checked the other documents stored there. Any discoloration of the white crystal would indicate corruption had begun. When white crystal was used in absorbing evil, it turned black first before it neutralized it and then returned to white again. Living dragons had been kept alive this way in the caverns of Mod for twelve centuries. No one had the heart to kill them. The Brotherhood had a soft spot for flying creatures, no matter how destructive they were.

  Angelo turned east and made his way to the room of the Great Book. It was rarely used. Occasionally, an old one would come to seek out a reference to reassure themselves that their memory had not failed them. Angelo had not used the book before. His mentor felt the young birdman’s talents were better used elsewhere. “Leave the memorization to the weak of body but strong of mind,” he was fond of saying. That was of no comfort to Angelo. Did he mean that Angelo, because his body was strong, was weak of mind?

  The Great Book, named more for its size than the contents within, was actually 106 volumes. The entries were made in dozens of scripts in over 300 languages. Angelo had a good working knowledge of most old languages, so he chose not to ha
ve a translator work with him. The mind readers, although around for centuries before, began to be accounted for in book forty-two. Angelo moved his eyes over the columns of names, surprised to see Shem amongst the ones accounted for. Gabors were much earlier on the list. It began with Radu Gabor, who would be Anatolie’s great grandfather. Anatolie was listed ten Gabors after Cezar. He was the child of Vladimir, the youngest brother of Mazonn, Cezar’s father. Angelo returned to Cezar and found that someone had scratched a thin red line through Cezar’s name!

  To deface the Great Book was considered a crime. Angelo had seen other defacements, but it was done only to reclassify the entry. He took out a magnifying glass and looked at the red line. Sure enough, there were close-set red letters that made up the line. Angelo got up and selected a stronger glass. He returned and placed it over Cezar’s name. It was written in the Brotherhood symbols of light. Angelo translated the text to read: MIND READER BONDED WITH DARKNESS WIZARD CLASS EIGHT.

  “Sounds like Harry Potter will have to be called,” Angelo joked. “What is a class eight wizard?” he asked himself. For that, he would have to return to the book. Perhaps volume twenty-eight would be a good start. He remembered the classes of beings were listed there.

  The book started off with the classifications of Light. He ran his finger down and saw the Light of Everest listed. He smiled, remembering his quest to retrieve a portion of it with Stephen Murphy. He shook himself, forcing the memory away. He had no time for nostalgia, not when his friends were in danger. He found the wizards under Light and Darkness. He moved down through the dark wizards until he found class eight. He glossed over their powers, seeking out what he would need to neutralize a class eight. “Never burn. Power increases when reduced to ash. Behead. Bury head four meters from body. Remove all visceral fluids from execution area. Why?”

  “Because if the blood soaks into the wood and the wood is burned to ash, you have a hell of a problem on your hands,” a small voice said from beside Angelo.

  He turned and looked at the strange, small man next to him. Not recognizing him at first, Angelo searched for his name. He smiled as his memory of the small birdman was brought forth. “Brother Orion, I did not hear you approach.”