by Chloe Garner
“That’s all she told you?” Sam asked again. “Just houses?”
“Just houses. A neighborhood,” Jason said, turning away from his phone. He had called a couple of his friends within the Rangers to figure out who might be in town, and had found one man that the two of them knew in passing who was willing to help.
“Yeah, it’s Sam’s girlfriend,” Jason said. “No, we don’t let her go out working with us; she just went for a walk last night. Didn’t come home.” Jason sighed. “Yes, we’re sure she didn’t just meet someone more exciting. She would have come back if she was physically capable of it.” He considered for a moment. “Probably would have come back, even if she wasn’t completely capable. She’s got a stubborn streak like you wouldn’t believe.”
They finished their conversations and Sam went and stared out the window.
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into going to bed last night,” he said. “She could be dead by now, because of that.”
“She’s a tough chick, Sam,” Jason said. “Don’t count her out yet.”
“What do we do now?” Sam asked, turning his back on the window. “I can’t just sit here.”
“We got looking. We’ll take the car, cover as much ground as we can, look for things that don’t look right. Is there anything she likes to do that she might have gotten caught up in?”
Sam went and grabbed his bag as he considered.
“I don’t know. All she ever does is read and work on her computer and write in her notebooks. I don’t think she does anything. Or maybe she does. I don’t know.”
“It’s okay, man. We’re going to find her. Hell, by the time we catch up with her, we’ll probably have to pull her off of whatever got in her way in the first place.”
Sam nodded.
“She took her backpack, right?” Jason asked. Sam nodded. That was the first thing they had checked.
“Means she’s got her crowbar. No worries.” Jason tried to smile, but it was wooden.
“So we’re calling her my girlfriend, huh?” Sam asked dispiritedly as they got into the car.
“Seems like the simplest thing to do,” Jason said. They left the motel parking lot and down a short stretch of road before they hit the first of the older neighborhoods in the area.
“I feel like we’re looking for a lost dog,” Sam said. “Just going to stick our heads out the window and call her name.”
“You want to put up posters, too?” Jason asked. Sam glared at him. “Look, you want to put in a missing person’s report?”
“Maybe,” Sam said. Jason glanced at him.
“What are you going to put on it? You have a picture of her?”
Sam shook his head.
“You know her last name? How old she is? Where her parents live?”
“Her parents are dead,” Sam said. “When she was nineteen.”
“Jeez,” Jason said. “So with a couple days, Simon might be able to tell us her last name, but that doesn’t give anyone anything to go on. He’ll pay attention to the police. If anything turns up,” Jason paused. “Sam. Sam, he’s the best there is. He’ll find her, if anyone can.”
They drove from before dawn until lunchtime, when Jason insisted that they stop and eat.
“It’s not like we’re accomplishing anything, anyway,” Sam said. Jason slapped him on the back.
“Chin up. Perry’s talking to people downtown who know about the places to avoid, we’ll have new leads in a few hours.”
They sat down in a sunnily-branded chain restaurant and Jason waved at the waitress.
“Listen, honey, we’re kind of in a big hurry. Can I get a burger, whatever, and…” he looked at Sam. Sam shook his head.
“I’m not hungry,” he said. She nodded and attempted a smile, but neither one of them encouraged her enough to finish it. She left.
“So, let’s do this rationally,” Jason said. “Human or special?”
“What?”
“Let’s work through the odds. What are we looking for? Maybe that will help us figure out how to find her. Human or special?”
“Special,” Sam said. Jason thought of her with the goblins and nodded.
“Special. Demon, spirit, human, or creature?”
Sam traced his finger over the paper place mat in front of him.
“I don’t know.”
“She didn’t seem to have a lot of experience with spirits. She let the Nix touch her,” Jason said.
“Yeah, but she traveled by herself for who knows how long. And nothing ever got her, before,” Sam said.
“By that argument, nothing has ever gotten us before,” Jason said. “You don’t know how many close spots she’s been in, before now. I think it could be any of the four.”
“Okay.”
“Memphis. Land of ghosts and…” Jason glanced around them. “Frankly a lot of occult freaks who have no idea what they’re into.”
Sam shrugged.
The waitress brought Jason’s burger.
“So,” Jason said, chewing. “We need to find any active spirits where she fits the profile. What is the profile?”
Sam watched him, then shook his head blankly.
“Come on, Sam. What is a ghost going to take a shine to, in her? Angry? Powerful. Uh… Naive. What? What is she?”
“Optimistic. Generous. Curious. Friendly,” Sam said somberly.
“This isn’t her eulogy, Sam.” Jason snapped. “Sam. Come on. Focus.”
Sam sighed.
“There are certain ghosts who like girls that are built like her. She’s single. She’s an orphan.”
“Good. Right. So we get a list and we start marking them off. Next, witches.” He took another bite. “Damn, this is good.”
Sam stood.
“I’ll be in the car.”
<><><>
“Sam,” Jason said, getting into the car about ten minutes later.
“Enjoy your lunch?” Sam asked softly, staring out the window.
“No, actually. It was really good, and I only got to eat half of it. But I figured it out.”
“What?”
“What we should do next. She put Carter’s number in my phone.”
Sam looked over.
“Yeah. I guess we should call and tell him.”
“No, idiot. We ask him for help. He’ll know how to find her.”
Jason held his phone out to Sam.
“Do you want to talk to him?”
Sam shook his head and looked out the window. Jason sighed and put the phone on speaker and punched Carter’s name to dial. It rang twice.
“Yes?”
“Hi, Carter? We’re friends of Sam’s and…”
“I’m at the airport. Come and pick me up,” the voice on the other end of the phone said. Sam looked over and frowned.
“What airport?” Jason asked.
“Memphis. Where else?” the phone asked, then the line went dead. Jason looked up at Sam.
“That was as weird as I think it was, right?”
Sam shrugged.
“Maybe they’re all crazy,” he said and looked back out the window.
“Fair point,” Jason said, starting the car back up. “You want to pull directions to the airport?”
Sam sighed and pulled out his phone.
“Fine. Reverse out of the parking space.”
“Smartass.”
Sam looked up at him with resignation, and Jason sighed.
“We’re going to find her. Keep it together.”
<><><>
When he got to the temporary parking area in front of the airport, Jason snuck a look at Sam. He was worried. Sam was always a bit glum, but he couldn’t remember ever seeing him this bad. Losing an innocent, sure, even a friend was tough, but they had no clear evidence that Sam-the-girl was dead, and even if she was, they had only known her for a few weeks. It didn’t make sense for Sam to be crashing this badly.
He bit his tongue, not wanting to start another fight, and got out of the car. Sa
m got out and Jason walked around to join him.
“How do you think we tell which one is Carter?” Jason asked, watching the people wandering out of the airport.
“How should I know?” Sam asked. Jason scanned the crowd, then made a sharp, short whistling noise, and jerked his chin toward a set of doors just down from them. A man walked out of the sliding doors without luggage wearing a solid black suit and white dress shirt. He walked directly toward them.
“He looks like he thinks he should have entrance music,” Jason said. Sam snorted a single, short laugh. “Seriously, can you imagine him with Sam?”
Sam shook his head.
“Carter?” Jason asked as the man got to them.
“Not here,” the man answered, getting into the back seat. “Drive.”
“Where?”
“Out. Away from people,” the man said. “I want space to work with.”
Jason opened his door and stuck his head in the car to argue with the man, but Sam cut him off.
“North,” Sam said, getting into the other side of the car. “Just drive north.”
Jason randomly followed a little highway for a couple of miles until they hit a deserted stretch and the man in the back seat swatted Jason’s seat.
“Here.”
Jason bit back a reply and pulled over, and all three of them got out.
“Carter,” Sam said. “I’m Sam, and this is my brother Jason. We’re…”
“You’ve got a blood-binding handprint on your chest and her spit on your eyelids. I know exactly who you are, and I know I don’t care who he is. Spare me.”
Sam looked at sharply at Jason.
“You what?” Jason asked, taking a step forward. Sam’s mouth dropped, but no words came, and Jason shook his head. “What is he talking about?”
“Left. Interesting. Good girl,” Carter said.
“Sam,” Jason said. Carter sighed dramatically and turned, tilting his head to the side and resting his chin on the thumb of his closed hand.
“You’re going to be a handful, aren’t you?” he asked. “Let the grownups talk, would you?”
Carter turned back around and Jason had to brace himself to keep from punching him in the back of the head.
“Right,” Carter said. “No grown ups here, anyway. Explain to me what the problem is.”
“Sam went out for a walk last night and she never came back,” Sam said.
“I don’t see the problem,” Carter said. Jason clenched his fist and fantasized about punching the back of that sleekly-groomed head.
“We think something captured her, or…” Sam said.
“And?” Carter said. “Why does this involve me?”
“We thought you would care, bastard,” Jason growled. Carter cast a disparaging look over his shoulder, then looked sharply at Sam.
“What? You mean to tell me you don’t know where she is?”
“How would he?” Jason asked. “How much more can we spell this out?”
“You didn’t reciprocate?” Carter demanded. Sam took a step back.
“I…”
“You let her pledge, and you didn’t reciprocate?” Carter’s voice rose.
“I didn’t know…”
“You know that what you’re doing is slavery, in the worst ethical form of the idea,” Carter said. “I can’t believe she would…” He paused and put a hand up. “With someone so evil. And she hated me…”
“Look, I didn’t know I should… or…” Sam said.
“Sam, what is he talking about?” Jason asked. Sam glanced over at Jason.
“I was going to explain it, as soon as I figured it out.”
“A pair of baboons. You make monkey noises, and nothing comes out,” Carter said. He came to within six inches of Sam’s chest and looked up at him.
“Where is she?” Carter asked.
“I don’t know,” Sam said.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is she?” Carter was yelling now.
“I don’t know,” Sam yelled back. Sam was backing up, and Carter followed. Jason walked over and grabbed Carter’s shoulder.
“Just hold on a minute,” he said. Carter shrugged away.
“Where is she?”
“I. Don’t. Know.”
Carter put both thumbs in his mouth and reached up and swiped them across Sam’s eyes.
“Tell me,” he said, his voice now even, mocking.
Sam staggered and Jason threw Carter back, grabbing Sam’s arm.
“Sam? Are you okay?”
Samantha sat crumpled against a wall, head to the side, arms wantonly flung across her lap. She drew a sharp breath and looked up directly at Sam. She smiled.
“Sam,” she said. “You came.”
She licked her lips.
“I’ve been here maybe twelve hours, I can’t be sure. It’s a demon. I haven’t gotten a good enough look at him to tell you what he is. He’s over there,” she nodded her head to a corner behind what was probably a closet for a water heater or furnace on a deeply-shadowed wall. He touched my legs and paralyzed them. Carter will know what that means.” She paused. “I assume you called Carter, because you couldn’t be here on your own, but if you haven’t, call him. Please.”
She looked over at the corner where the demon hid.
“I felt you go by a couple hours ago. Maybe fifty or seventy feet away.”
She looked back up at him and smiled again, a thin, drawn expression.
“I can’t get out. He’s afraid of me and he doesn’t want to get too close, but I can’t get away. He’s waiting for me to sleep and then…” She braced herself and looked at him hard. “And then dehydrate. That’s what they do. They feed on the fear that comes with being trapped… Like a bad dream.” She swallowed. “He shouldn’t have been able to… Anyway, that’s not important. Carter will help.” She smiled at him. “Thank you. I need the company.”
Sam tried to pull away, out of the room, so he could see where she was, but he found himself on the highway again.
“So?” Carter asked.
“She’s in a basement somewhere,” Sam said, bending over his knees. “We drove past her once this morning, already.”
Carter nodded.
“Then we retrace your path and find what you missed the first time,” he said.
“We drove for seven hours this morning,” Jason said.
“Then we go do it again,” Carter told him, getting back into the back seat of the Cruiser. Jason followed and opened his door. “Only this time we do it right.”
<><><>
“She said that it paralyzed her,” Sam said as they drove.
“How much of her?” Carter asked. Sam frowned.
“Is that important?” he asked.
“It’s everything,” Carter said.
“Her legs,” Sam said.
“What time did she go out?” Carter asked.
“Maybe eight,” Jason told him, looking up at him in the rearview. Carter blinked slowly, his gaze coming up to stare back. Jason looked back at the road.
“How long has she gone without sleep?”
“She slept all day yesterday,” Jason said, after he glanced at Sam, who didn’t appear to be present any more. Carter nodded.
“Back at that, then.”
“At what?”
“Daysleeping. She doesn’t care for sunlight.”
“See?” Jason said involuntarily. Sam’s head jerked around, his eyes open with an animal fury. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”
“She’s gotten sloppy,” Carter said.
“She’s amazing. Don’t talk about her like that,” Sam said. Carter tipped his head back and to one side, looking at Sam with idle curiosity.
“You’re not okay,” Carter said.
“None of us are okay, today,” Jason muttered. Carter shook his head for a moment, again staring at Jason in the rearview.
“Amateurs,” he said, then sighed. “I’ll never
understand her.”
“At least we care about her,” Sam growled.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” Carter asked.
“You actually don’t seem that worried,” Jason said. Carter shrugged expansively.
“She lives, she dies. These things happen. This way, at least, she’d go quietly. There are worse ways.”
Sam launched over the seat, his seatbelt grabbing him and strangling him as he thrashed at Carter. Jason slammed on the brakes and wrestled Sam back into his seat.
“Sam. Stop it. We’re going to go get her.” Sam shook off Jason’s hands and sulked against the door. “Ignore him.”
“You should probably have him tied to something for the next day or so,” Carter observed. “He’s only going to get worse.”
“He’s upset,” Jason said. “Apparently they were closer than I thought.”
“Has nothing to do with her, actually. He’s fighting a battle with the darkness and…” he paused, pursing his lips slightly as he looked at Sam, “from the looks of things, the darkness is winning.”
“What does that mean?” Jason asked. Carter didn’t answer.
After a few minutes, Jason nodded.
“No, silence is good. Silence is definitely better.”
<><><>
They finally gave up around midnight that night. Sam was huddled, as small as his body got, in the corner where his seat met his door, head resting unmovingly against the doorframe and eyes staring, unseeing, at street after street. Carter had a sharp, disciplined search pattern that hadn’t gotten any less efficient in the ten hours they had been driving, but Jason’s head was on the verge of melting from the focus. He pulled into the motel parking lot, then looked over his shoulder.
“Sorry. I didn’t ask where you wanted to stay,” Jason said. “We slum it a bit.”
“This is fine,” Carter said, getting out his cell phone. He got out of the car and Jason stalled getting bags out of the back of the Cruiser to eavesdrop.
“I got you past the vision. Tell me where she is,” Carter said without greeting. “Scattergun. What a comforting image.” There was a pause. “Well, it would work, wouldn’t it?” Another pause. “She’d get over it.”
He hung up, then closed his eyes, opening them to stare at Jason.
“It’s creepy, how you do that,” Jason said. Carter pursed his lips.
“You aren’t worth it, for her,” Jason said. “You’re holding her back. Remember that.”
