by S. M. McCoy
“You make it sound like I could do anything significant to fix anything.”
She nodded at me emphatically. “Yes, you can, and you will. And I will support you one hundred percent of the way. If you want to do this, we need the heirloom your mother left behind with your dad. Seattle then?” She hesitated.
“Seattle,” I agreed, staring into space. I was in shock after hearing everything about my mother: She really was a bounty hunter for the supernatural realm, a rebel against unjust rulers, and she was captured by them. She was definitely still alive. My throat was dry and my gums ached painfully. How would I measure up to such a legend?
The dark angel’s words repeated, “Don’t go looking for your mother, don’t hang out with the serpent, and don’t make me come back here.” He was a part of all of this.
“I can’t make us corporeal without using the Blood Moon Ring. You’ll have to grab it when we get to the storage unit. Your mother left it among her things that your dad probably kept there.”
“Whatever.” I didn’t care how it happened, I needed to figure things out. Not that I was accepting any duties to some rebel cause of vampire ethics, and supernatural balance, but I couldn’t sit around and be a dangling carrot for any of the things that go bump in the night either.
“Grab my hands.”
“Not again…” I sighed and closed my eyes.
“Just look for me. Hear only my voice.” Aislin’s voice was thicker and vibrated in my ears. A light seemed to be moving my way. I felt soft hands grab mine and then she was in front of me…in my mind. The light was still behind her, it seemed to be moving closer, getting bigger.
“Now think of the storage unit.”
I tried seeing something but all I could think of was that the storage unit was outside with rows of orange painted metal boxes with dividers. I thought of locks and the smell of cigarettes.
“I can’t, I don’t remember what it looks like.” I could end up at any storage unit in the world with that type of description. I wasn’t prepared to send myself to somewhere with magic that I wasn’t sure of.
“Think about the apartment then.”
Now that was easy. I had been visiting that place for a couple weeks now. I could see it in front of me. The yellow walls, the gray shag carpet, the broken cabinets, and the big blue sofa chair. I felt like I was as light as a piece of paper; moving my elbow up felt like nothing. Almost ripped my hand free of Aislin because I used the same strength I needed as if my arm weighed something. But it didn’t seem to weigh anything. My existence felt barely there, like a ghost.
“Open your eyes.” Aislin released my hands and I saw that bright light burst behind her in my mind before I opened my eyes.
The place was almost exactly as I remembered it, but the sofa chair had a big “L” couch where it used to be. The cabinets looked like they’d been painted a weird white color done by an amateur who didn’t use any painter’s tape to prevent the splotches and over spray. A wooden divider was inserted between the living space and the kitchen. If it was possible, whoever tried to update the place made it look even worse than it did when I was there last.
“We made it,” I said, disbelieving.
“Kind of,” Aislin corrected.
“You see it too, don’t you?” I asked and turned around, looking at the glory of this stink hole I used to live in and the wonder that it was even worse today. I crinkled my nose, it smelled horrid. I laughed.
“We aren’t actually here. We’re only sort of here.” She paused, trying to explain it more. “Only our minds are here, or our astral selves. We’re actually on a different plane of existence; we can only see and observe here. Interacting without transferring into the corporeal plane isn’t something I can do without using the Blood Moon Ring.”
“So, we’re like ghosts?”
“Yes.” She laughed.
“Do you think we could visit all the haunted spots of Seattle and see if there’s anybody on the astral plane causing it?” I had this urge to go to the famous hotel of Alice Toklas and move some glasses around at the bar. See if she was actually there carrying her parasol through the halls, but on the astral plane.
“No, we are ghosts, or by definition of what homins normally have trouble with when things start mysteriously happening to their cabinets or electronics. Besides, we’re on a mission?” Aislin shook her head at me, and she was right, like always, that I needed to focus on getting the ring then searching through my father’s storage unit for clues to finding Mom.
Her version of the mission was me fulfilling my destiny of being some sort of cleanup duo, and mine was finding answers about my past before it was too late.
“So, we’re ghosts that no one knows about?”
“Pretty much. You’d have to master the astral plane to do more to interact with things.”
“That’s boring.” I sighed.
“It’s real though,” she reminded me.
“Sure, sure.” I waved her off then stood at the door wondering if I walked through it or if I had to open it? Before I could ask, Aislin dragged me through the wall. It felt like that tingly feeling in your muscles that happens when the blood circulates back into your veins after being asleep or kinked funny.
Every step we took was like being on one of those traveling walkways except for every step we traveled a mile and it seemed to veer by like a blurry picture or a sped-up time frame on a movie film.
We stopped at each step to navigate where to go next. Each time the ground solidified again I could see a light burst from my peripherals. It was making my mind hazy trying to make sense of this new plane of existence, the rules weren’t the same here. Weight and gravity didn’t seem to exist, I could feel my feet float from the ground as the sceneries changed and the miles passed by. Time didn’t seem to work the same way either; I couldn’t tell if it was daytime or nighttime. It was like a freeze frame of time from the moment we projected. The world seemed to stop.
“Where are all the people?”
“You only see them if you want to. It can be disorienting to see all the movements the first time you travel.”
“So they’re here right now?” I looked around and I could see blurs in the scenery, they didn’t look like people, like a smudge on a painting. Like something moved, but no shapes.
“I don’t usually like to see them myself, unless a person was what I was looking for.”
“So, you only see what you want to see here?”
“Sort of. It’s more like a filter. They can’t see us, we can’t see them unless we expend our energy to be more attuned to that plane instead of this one. The veil is thinnest on the astral plane, but it’s still a curtain that only we can lift individually.” She held her arm up to stop me from moving again. “I think we’ve found it.” Aislin pointed to the faded orange storage units.
“If I move will I end up somewhere else?” My muscles were stiff trying not to move in case I end up separated from her and lost in the astral plane for eternity. I realized I had no idea how to get back to my own body from here…
“Just move toward the storage units; the astral plane is all about focus on where you want to go.”
I took a deep breath and stepped forward and I slammed up against the door of the small office before falling through it and feeling that weird tingling again.
“How do we find out what unit was his? We don’t get to touch any of the files?” I passed my tingling hand through the file cabinet.
“We are kind of like consciences, muses, or influences on this realm.” She walked over to the desk and closed her eyes. Slowly I saw a blur moving in the background around where the chair was. Someone was there. I flinched, thinking the shadows had found us.
Aislin asked the blur to find the storage unit number for my dad and next thing I knew the file cabinet opened behind me. The labeled files moved and then one was lifted from the rest.
“Woah.”
“I was influencing the clerk in the real world to look
up what we needed. Though to you it might seem like a ghost, but remember that’s what we are right now.” The file opened on the desk and the unit number 304 was circled in red and left open. I saw it and immediately rushed out the side of the wall, not caring about the tingling or the recovery after. I glided through the rows of storage units like a floating ghost. Appearing and disappearing and then re-appearing down until I reached 304.
Here it was. I made it. My answers were behind this hunk of metal wall. It was so close. What would I do when I found them—the answers? It was now a big realization that I had no idea what any answers would mean for me or what to expect. Did I even want to know? I stood there frozen until I heard Aislin’s voice behind me startling me into motion. Forging through into the walls, I came out the other side.
“Crystal.” Her voice was panicked.
And at the moment so was I. She wanted to warn me before I reached it.
I was standing in the middle of nothing but dirt and spiders. Webs were hanging from the ceilings and leaves crunched up with the dirt rustled across the ground. My father had nothing here. We had come here for nothing but disappointment. The heirloom was lost.
Aislin joined me inside unit 304 and stood in the vacant space with me. “It was sold.”
I said nothing, too many thoughts racing through my head.
“The paperwork said your father’s storage unit was sold to a pawn shop because it was abandoned and unpaid.”
“All of it…”
“Auctioned off to the highest bidder.” Aislin nodded and her voice was tense. I knew she was just as disappointed as me.
“Gone…” I fell to the ground and could feel my body grow heavy and sink into the cement flooring like it was melting rubber. Even that didn’t shock me anymore…I didn’t have any left over.
I had to make a choice. In that moment I was making a decision on whether to give up or keep looking. It felt like a sign to me, like the fates that Aislin believed in were telling me I wasn’t meant to know anything.
I stiffened and pressed my lips together hard.
Fates be damned.
“Who won?” I asked, determined to find my father’s things, and essentially the one heirloom he told me I was supposed to come back for. I wasn’t done yet. If only to prove to myself that I was more than just a drug on a string waiting to be devoured by the things that crept in the shadows.
That ring, whatever the hell it was meant for, magic or no magic, was mine. It was meant to be mine, and my father wanted me to have it. Somehow, unexplainably I knew that the damned heirloom would help me find my mother.
The dark angel didn’t control me, and the serpents wouldn’t get to keep her forever. Not if I had anything to say about it.
“Pawndemic, a pawn shop in downtown.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Dragon
The Pawndemic didn’t feel like that far away. After all, travel on the astral plane was a blur of buildings, streets, and signs. I got a little lost in the city, I’d never really gone there that often, always lived on the outskirts where the rent was cheapest. Couldn’t help myself from looking back occasionally to make sure Aislin was still with me, as she didn’t make any footsteps. I knew it was on First Ave…but the problem was that there were different first avenues and a very long road.
“It’s got to be around here somewhere?” Aislin insisted.
“We’re in a weird industrial district…I think it’s less downtown than we thought.”
“It should be close…” She tried to sound assuring.
“How do you know? It all looks the same and my eyes are starting to get tired from trying to focus around all the blurs in the buildings from the passing cars and people.” I didn’t really see the cars or the people, like they were under an invisible cloak but the background distorted every time something moving passed where I was looking. I kept thinking I was in some sort of weird Langoliers dimension like in a Stephen King novel. But if I were…that could only mean it was about to get more creepy than an empty feeling of space and distorted scenery. I could already hear the sound of tearing paper.
“I know. My necklace is glowing stronger the closer we get to the ring.”
“That’s not weird at all.” I sighed.
“You need to accept that your world is a little bigger now, Crystal.” Aislin was fed up with my constant rejection of her magical ways. After all, we were in an alternate astral plane of existence right now; I should’ve accepted it. But the deeper I accepted any of this, the more trouble I seemed to get into. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to look for my father’s things via astral projection. I was just inviting more magical drama into my life.
“Maybe I don’t want it to be.” Bigger than it was.
Aislin pointed to the sign that looked like a zombie infested war plate reading, Pawndemic. Underneath the sign read the slogan, Delve deep into the brains of a pawn and come out with the treasure of a queen. It was…let’s just say different. I mean it kind of worked…they did buy, sell, and trade the lives of many people in one place.
We both walked through the door, literally. I still couldn’t get over that tingly feeling all over my body when I passed through things. A shiver ran down my spine and I heard a little jingle from the door as if I had opened it myself. The bells hung from the door frame so that they were flicked by the edge of the door’s corner announcing a new customer. I looked up thinking it was weird that I could hear them, the bells, when everything else seemed like a muted hum.
It was very silent in the astral plane, and everything smelled like stale moldy bread, or maybe that was just what the pawn shop smelled like. I wasn’t sure anymore since time in this space was tripping me out.
I saw a person behind the counter reading a book. He looked like a kung fu fighter but with glasses, a bit like a strong nerd. Definitely looked like he could kick my butt with the mastery of a martial artist legend. Those biceps were the size of footballs, and they strained against the wrinkled cotton button-up shirt. Bet it was difficult for him to find shirts that fit around those arms…not sure why he didn’t give up and go for the workout muscle shirts just for the comfort, I mean they did call them muscle shirts for a reason and he did have quite some muscles on him. He moved his glasses up his nose and looked up at me…at me! He was looking straight at me, like I was there, like he could see me.
“Good evening ladies.” He said calmly, “Can I help you find anything?”
Aislin looked from me to him, then back to me, just as confused as I was. I almost felt like I should bow or something when saying “Hi” back, from how much presence he took up in the room… Then again he was the only presence I could see in the room. I was actually seeing another person.
“Are you a ghost?” I blurted out.
“Do I look like one?” He smiled softly then looked back down at his book.
“No, but I wouldn’t know what one looked like either,” I said aloud, even more confused.
A quiet chuckle lightly crossed the room to my ears, like listening to it through a can-and-string phone that I’d have made in elementary school.
“I don’t see many people come through that door. This is usually where I come to meditate.” He flipped to the next page in his book.
“Some place to meditate.” Aislin held her arm out for me not to get any closer to him.
“Usually it’s a lot more peaceful than this.” He looked at us. He was right, we would be quite noisy for a silent place like the astral plane. Continuing, he said, “Are you here to do business or just passing by?”
“We’re looking for something,” I answered.
“Ah, business then.” He nodded.
“My father’s things, they were purchased by this shop.”
“I’ve purchased many things. This is true. A father’s things would probably be among them.” He agreed and didn’t even look up from his book.
“You own this shop?”
“You could say that.” He nodded some mor
e.
“Well do you or don’t you?” My voice got heated and he finally looked up from his book and narrowed his eyes at me over thin reading spectacles. It was about time I got a rise out of him. This was important and he just sat there unmoving. The whole thing was making me lose my mind. The slow movements, the fast blurs, the silent but annoying hum in the background that sounds like what people say is the tone people hear of a noise before they go deaf…I felt like I was losing my sense of smell, sound, sight, everything was disorienting and he wasn’t helping one nano-bit.
“My grandfather owns this place. I only recently took up the position of the Great Moon Dragon.”
I laughed and covered my mouth—The Great Moon Dragon.
The air around me became stifled and I choked.
“I will not take kindly to mockery,” he said to me.
I felt the air return to my lungs and my eyes widened, realizing I really did believe in magic because I had no other thought than the kung fu pawnshop nerd literally had control over whether I breathed or not in this part of the astral plane.
“She didn’t mean it. I’ve heard of you…or your grandfather maybe.” Aislin stepped closer.
“He is famous among many gifted individuals as the Trader.”
“The Trader…?” I wondered out loud.
“The Great Moon Dragon only deals business in the astral plane, as a way of protecting his clients. He can find most anything…for a price, or a trade.” Aislin explained to me then looked over at the young and buff new Great Moon Dragon…but I couldn’t call him that anymore, it was too weird sounding. Dragon sounded much more authoritative anyway.
“It pleases me that you knew of my grandfather,” Dragon answered.
“I had no idea you were in a pawn shop in Seattle.” Aislin looked around at the rows of things organized around the place.
“I’m in many pawn shops, but only in one at the same time.” Dragon sounded more confusing to me as he continued to talk.
“So you show up at whatever one someone visits?” I tried to wrap my head around it.
