Lies of the Prophet

by Ike Hamill

  “Anywhere,” said Lynne. “I don’t care.”

  “We need someplace safe to question these two. Can we go back to your old house?” asked Carol.

  “No,” said Lynne. She shook her head. “They’re bad. Turned me in.”

  “Well, we can’t go to my house. These two might have friends. Hey, Lynne?” said Carol. She reached over and shook the weary woman. “I think you should stay awake. What if this is like a concussion where you need to stay awake?”

  Lynne tilted her head back and opened her mouth—“Ugh,” she said.

  “Just keep awake. How about Jenko? Do you know where he lives?” asked Carol.

  “Sure,” said Lynne. “Get on the highway headed south.”

  “Is that this way?” asked Carol.

  Lynne forced her eyes open. She started to close them again before she answered—“Yes,” she said.

  “Wait, wait,” Carol said, shaking her again. “Keep ‘em open. Just keep your eyes open until we get there. You need to give me directions, and I want you awake. Tell me about something.”

  “Like what?” asked Lynne. She turned her head towards Carol.

  “How did you get mixed up in this?” asked Carol. “You said you only started seeing things recently? How recently?”

  “I don’t know,” said Lynne. “More than a year, less than two. I think. I’m not totally sure." Her voice faded out.

  “What was your first experience?” asked Carol. She signaled and changed lanes so she could get on the highway. She shook the wheel in the tight turn to make Lynne flop around a little.

  “Uh, Gregory. It was Gregory,” said Lynne. “But I think I could have seen something before that. I’m guessing it all started with this weird dream. It was, let’s see, it was late spring, a couple of years ago. But, like I said, I never saw anything until Gregory that first time. That was really weird.”

  “Tell me about it,” said Carol.

  “It was at this outdoor thing. I was there with a couple of friends. Gregory was there to speak about something, I think he was promoting his first book or something. He was up there talking about his experiences. I’d heard about him on the news and stuff but I didn’t really know very much about him at the time. It was all so new and exciting then, you remember? Everyone was talking about how death was going to end as soon as we all could learn what he’d figured out.”

  “Yeah,” said Carol. “I was wrapped up with this one,” she said, pointing a thumb to the back seat, “but I remember.”

  “Well we went down there to see him. Seems like everyone did. I borrowed a copy of Lies from a friend and I had just started reading it. He came on stage and I was knocked out. I couldn’t figure out how they did the special effects. Everyone else was clapping, but I just stood there with my mouth hanging open.”

  “What were the effects?” asked Carol.

  “That’s just it,” said Lynne. “I don’t think there were any, really. When he walked on stage it looked like fireworks to me. This incredible glitter was coming out from the top of his head and showering down. It was almost too bright to look at. I call it the Sparkle now—it looks like some incredible pyrotechnics or something. Anyway, I turned to my friend Barry and I’m like ‘How do they do that?’ I’m not sure what he thought I meant, but it only took me a few minutes to figure out that he wasn’t seeing it at all. I had to get closer. I shoved between people and got as close as I could. Imagine the guy is just standing there, about fifty yards away, and this big shower of giant bright glitter is forming this huge plume out of the top of his head. It was cascading down his shoulders and flowing over the edge of the stage.

  “Finally I just stopped and watched. Something caught my eye on the right, a floodlight coming on or something, and I looked over. That’s when I saw the monitor. They had these big projection screens set up so everyone in the back could see. I hadn’t been paying attention to them before, but then I saw that they just showed Gregory. Whatever the Sparkle was, it didn’t show up at all on the screen. I looked at the other one and had to back up to check, but there was no Sparkle there either. You could only see it when you looked directly at him. I picked out a stranger who didn’t seem to be paying all that much attention and I asked him. He didn’t see any Sparkle at all.”

  “What did you do?” asked Carol.

  “Nothing,” said Lynne. “What’s to do? I just saw some weird thing that I couldn’t explain and nobody else could see. It was too real and too specific to be a hallucination, so I kinda ruled that out immediately. I got back with my friends and pretty much forgot about it.”

  Carol kept the car at a reasonable speed, just a mile or two above the limit. She didn’t want to raise any suspicions and knew she couldn’t afford to be pulled over with a bound toddler in the back.

  “Then,” said Lynne. She was looking out her window now and appeared to be sitting more erect. “Then I was driving downtown in Portland and I saw it again. There used to be that pretty nice restaurant up on the hill. You know it?”

  “Nope,” said Carol. She shook her head.

  “Well, anyway, I was driving by there and I saw the same thing kinda leaking out from a side window of that fancy restaurant. I thought it was weird, but it was also really beautiful. Once you looked at it, you didn’t really want to look away. I pulled over and milled around on the sidewalk for a second, trying to figure out what to do. Part of me figured that it was Gregory, like he just had some incredible aura or something, but the other part wondered if maybe I was starting to see this Sparkle stuff just randomly. I really wanted to know if it was Gregory or not.

  “They must have been really trying to hide him in there because the restaurant looked closed and nobody answered the door or anything when I knocked. I finally went around to the side to where the Sparkle was leaking out. I tried to see in but they had the blinds all closed. I was going to go around back, but some guy came out of the bushes and escorted me out to the street. I figured he must be part of a security team or something; figured he would just give me a lecture or something. When we got to the curb, he surprised me. He hustled me over to a van and before I could even get out a good scream, he had pushed me inside. We were moving instantly—no chance of breaking free. There were a couple of guys in there and none of them seemed at all surprised to see me.

  “Wow,” said Carol.

  Lynne continued—“Anyway, they wanted to know what I was doing, but I wouldn’t tell them anything. I was too scared. I still thought they worked for Gregory. When they let me go, I couldn’t figure why they weren’t talking about pressing any charges or anything.”

  “They weren’t cops?” asked Carol.

  “No, not at all. They weren’t Gregory’s guys or cops. They turned out to be from this Veyermin group, and eventually I went to work for them.”

  “Seriously?” asked Carol. “Getting abducted by a big van is a hell of an interview.”

  “They were nice enough about it eventually. Even though I didn’t tell them what I was doing, I think they guessed that I had some way of knowing that Gregory was in there. They said they’d been trailing him for weeks and they were trying to figure out how he managed to be immortal. It was all interesting enough, and I guess I understood why they were doing everything at arm’s length. It seemed better than being completely intrusive, in a way. They let me go and I figured I’d seen the last of them.

  “I trailed Gregory for a little while. I just enjoyed seeing that Sparkle. It’s really a soothing thing to see. It feels like a liquid form of power, or something. Like exertion that you could bottle. It’s hard to explain. Anyway, whenever I’d get really close to Gregory by following his Sparkle, I could usually find those guys hiding out somewhere, studying him from a distance.”

  “Interesting,” said Carol.

  “Yeah,” said Lynne. “I gave up when he left town, but whenever he was around, I could just track him down by the Sparkle. I got pretty good at it. Then, a few months ago, they came and told me that th
ey’d figured me out. I never thought about it at the time, but I think they’ve found other people who can see the Sparkle. At the time I just figured they were smart and observant, and had figured out that I had some special ability. Finally, they just showed up and offered me a job.”

  “Tracking Gregory?” asked Carol.

  “No,” said Lynne. “I don’t think I would have taken that job. Gregory was starting to get way too big. He had security that would detain you for almost no reason at all. I didn’t want any part of tracking him, and I don’t think they needed me to watch him at that point. Eventually, someone just gets so famous that you always know precisely where they are.”

  “I guess,” said Carol.

  “What they wanted from me was to go around and see if anyone else had the Sparkle. They wanted to find out if this immortality thing was connected to what I could see, and if there were any more cases brewing. By then everyone was trying to invoke The Passage, so there were plenty of cases for me and Jenko.”

  “What’s the point of looking for others?” asked Carol.

  “If you figure out that it happens in multiple people, and you can figure out what those people have in common, then I think you could figure out how to turn anyone into The Passage,” said Lynne.

  “Ah,” said Carol, “control immortality for profit.”

  “Yeah, probably,” said Lynne.

  “So that’s it?” asked Carol. “You were able to see the Sparkle and they figured it out and offered you a job?”

  “Yeah, pretty much,” said Lynne. “There was an incident, too, but it was nothing really.”

  Carol laughed—“They don’t usually call it an incident if it’s nothing.”

  “True,” said Lynne. “It was nothing to me. How about that?”

  “Fair enough,” said Carol. “So you think Gregory was the first thing you saw but not the first you could’ve seen?”

  “Yeah,” said Lynne.

  Carol glanced over with her eyebrows raised.

  “I don’t know if I can explain it. Maybe it was a dream, or something else. One day I just woke up and sensed that something was different, you know? Like I’d changed, or crossed a line or something.”

  “I definitely know that feeling,” said Carol. “I had that after I went away to school. When I finally realized that I was truly on my own.”

  “Exactly,” said Lynne. “It was like I’d evolved, or matured, or something. And it was overnight. My eyes were peeled for anything that day, and for quite a while afterwards. When everything was normal I would get disappointed. I wanted something to change; I was desperate for it. I knew that it could be wonderful, but I was stuck in the same, everyday, mundane stuff.”

  “How long did that go on?” asked Carol.

  “Oh, forever,” said Lynne. “Like I said, I had that dream or whatever two years ago. Near the end of May—two days before my brother’s birthday.”

  “That’s near Donna’s birthday too,” said Carol.

  “And then I didn’t see Gregory until July fourth last year, you remember when he came to Maine?” asked Lynne.

  “Yeah, sure,” said Carol. “Taurus or Gemini?” asked Carol.

  “Pardon?”

  “Your brother. You said near the end of May. If he’s after the twenty-first he’d be Gemini,” said Carol.

  “Oh, that,” said Lynne. “Yeah, I guess he’s Gemini then. He was born on the twenty-second,” said Lynne.

  “This one was the twentieth,” said Carol. She hooked a thumb over her shoulder.

  “Then that’s the same day that everything changed for me,” said Lynne. “It was two days before my brother’s birthday. Sunday the twentieth. I woke up at ten minutes to six. I never get up that early.”

  “Five-fifty on May twentieth, two years ago?” asked Carol. “You sure?”

  “Yeah, why?” asked Lynne.

  “That’s precisely when Donna was born,” said Carol. “To the minute.”

  “Bizarre,” said Lynne.

  “All that happened four days before the whole Gregory thing started,” said Carol.

  “Gregory? Are you sure?” asked Lynne.

  “Yeah, positive,” said Carol. “I was still in the hospital when that whole thing went down. I’d had a c-section and my husband had just died. They kept me in the whole week.”

  “And he must have been dead for a little while,” said Lynne. “He woke up at his own funeral, right?”

  “Of course,” said Carol.

  “I didn’t really pay attention to all that stuff at the time. I was busy with my own thing. I guess I figured Gregory was just a big media stunt until much later,” said Lynne.

  “Some people still think he is,” said Carol.

  “He woke up four days after Donna was born,” reasoned Lynne, “but if we back a few days off for his organ harvesting, embalming, and funeral, there’s a good chance that he died on the same day that Donna was born, right?”

  “Sure, could be,” said Carol.

  “What if all this is connected?” asked Lynne. “What if my ability to see things happened on the same day that Donna was born and Gregory died?”

  “Sounds crazy,” said Carol. “Lots of things must have happened on that day. Could just be a big coincidence.”

  “Something that Donna said back at the warehouse though. Didn’t she say something about the flower and the vase?” asked Lynne.

  “Vessel,” said Carol. “She said the flower and the vessel shouldn’t be together or something.”

  “That kid, Felix, called me the flower one time,” said Lynne. “The night after I chased Donna through the woods, he showed up at my house and said that the flower could be crushed before it bloomed. So, if I’m the flower…”

  “Then I’m the vessel,” said Carol.

  “Right, a vessel for her,” said Lynne. She turned around and leaned over the back of the seat to see Donna, stretched out on the floor. The little girl was still bound and had tape over her mouth. Her eyes were wide and black. On the seat, Melanie was still unconscious.

  “Great,” said Carol. “You’re a flower and I’m just a walking uterus? Perfect.”

  “Just a theory,” said Lynne. “Maybe the cat is the vessel.”

  “You guys were always together though,” said Carol. “Remember the first time we met? Donna showed up immediately and led you away. I think you were right the first time. She didn’t want the two of us together, and got pretty pissed when we both showed up at the warehouse today. What’s she doing down there?”

  “Just lying there,” said Lynne. “So what does it mean? Your the vessel, I’m the flower, and we weren’t supposed to meet. But now we have and we may have established a connection between us and Gregory. I still don’t see how that helps or hurts. We don’t know why this one keeps digging holes, or what these portals are all about. And Gregory seems to want me out of the picture.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t discuss this further in front of her,” said Carol.

  “That’s a great point,” said Lynne.

  “Are you feeling any better?” asked Carol.

  “Tons, thanks,” said Lynne. “Maybe Jenko can help make sense of all this stuff. He seems to have a pretty good working knowledge of strange stuff.”

  “Too bad we left him stranded at the beach,” said Carol.

  “He’s resourceful,” said Lynne.

  THE WOMEN PULLED IN to Jenko’s driveway and Lynne was feeling fine. Driving and talking, she’d gotten back her strength. Carol was still coming down from the high of Lynne’s healing. They left their hostages in the back seat and left the cat to watch over them while they approached the door.

  Lynne knocked while Carol held open the screen door.

  “You think he’s here?” asked Carol.

  “Maybe he hasn’t gotten back from the beach yet,” suggested Lynne. “He doesn’t look like the type of person I would pick up hitchhiking.”

  Carol smiled.

  “I got a cab,” said a voic
e from behind them. Jenko looked tired and dirty. He stood in middle of the lawn, carrying his black bag. “After I walked a few miles to a phone.”

  “Sorry about that,” said Lynne. “You were going to strand us.”

  “No, I was going to strand her,” said Jenko, pointing at Carol. “Because she was off on some revenge thing. You realize that we just lost most of a day when we could have been figuring out the next move with Gregory.”

  “It’s all connected, Jenks,” said Lynne. “We need your help figuring out how.”

  “I think you two forfeited the rest of my goodwill when you stole my car. Perhaps you should figure things out on your own,” said Jenko.

  “You know where we’ll turn next, right?” asked Lynne. She folded her arms and stood at the top of Jenko’s steps, looking down at him.

  “What, you’re going to Veyermin?” asked Jenko. “You can try, but they’re not going to help you. Trust me on that.”

  “Oh well, we’ll just take our chances,” said Lynne. “Come on,” she motioned to Carol.

  “Hold on a second,” said Jenko, stepping in front of Lynne as she descended the stairs. “You stole my car, now I’m stealing yours.” He held his hand out. “Give me the keys.”

  “Come on, Jenks,” said Lynne. “We’ve got guests in there.”

  “Who?” asked Jenko. He glanced off towards the car. Melanie’s feet were just visible through the window from where he stood. “Who is that?”

  “The source of the answers,” said Lynne.

  Jenko stalked off to Melanie’s car. He put his hands one the roof and peered down in. “Is that the Changeling on the floor?”

  “Yeah,” said Lynne. She came up beside him.

  “And that’s another you?” he asked Carol while he pointed to Melanie.

  “It’s my twin sister,” said Carol. She handed the keys.

  “How did you catch a Changeling? Those things are pretty shifty,” said Jenko.

  “She was just sitting there when we walked in,” said Lynne. “The cat did the rest.”

  “Well let’s get them inside,” said Jenko. “Pull the car all the way back. I’ll go through and open up the back door. We should be able to get them inside without the neighbor’s calling the police.”