Psyche Transfixed (First 4 Chapters) (4)
“Uh…I went to court and got emancipated. I can live on my own now. I stayed in the house my parents bought, though.” I nodded. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.” He shrugged. “It’s okay--it’s in the past.” Well, he definitely had a Seer’s way of life down. Seers were supposed to be cheerful and not dwell on the past because they never lived long. It pained me to know that this kid hadn’t yet learned of this fact. I didn’t wish to be the bearer of bad news, either. Again, I found myself cursing Tony for giving me this job. Lighting a few members of the Unknown on fire was one thing, but this? This was something else entirely. Our food came and we ate in silence, neither of us knowing what else to say. We paid the bill, tipped the waitress and left, headed out of town, toward Broken Dale to pick up a few of Matt’s things. “Hey, what’s that?” Matt asked casually, pointing out the passenger window. I glanced over without really paying attention, feeling tired from the long drive in the sun, but my eyes immediately went wide when I saw someone standing there with red eyes gleaming back at us. “Shit,” I cursed, accidentally making the car swerve. Matt jolted in his seat and looked at me with a large frown plastered on his face. “What?” he asked. “What’s wrong? That guy has some cool contacts!” “Those aren’t contacts,” I murmured tersely, looking in the rearview mirror. Two men were on motorcycles. They had helmets on and were following a reasonable distance but I knew they weren’t on my side. The car behind them, a black Mustang, probably wasn’t either. “Then what are they?” Matt asked innocently. “Just…shit!” I growled when a motorcycle passed me--or at least that was what I thought it was going to do. Instead it slammed into my front driver’s side tire, making me veer to the right, toward the fence on the sidewalk. “No!” I snarled, trying to take control of the car again, but it kept forcing me up onto the curb. Matt shrieked with surprise, looking around with wild eyes. Poor kid, my mind thought. Poor kid? I thought. What about poor me? My mind was choosing favorites. I finally managed to regain control of the car and speed up, away from the motorcycle. It circled in behind us and rejoined the other motorcycle and the black Mustang. “What’s happening?” Matt asked shakily, looking at me for answers I was supposed to provide in the safety of my apartment. “What’s going on? Who are those people? Will?” I set my jaw, watching the motorcycle riders in the rearview mirror. “Look, I need you to do exactly what I say when I say it. Got it?” He nodded jerkily. “Okay--get down!” He ducked low in his seat, his eyes wide as he looked up at the roof of the car. I made an unsteady turn into oncoming traffic and swiftly missed getting hit by another car as I turned around. It took the motorcycles and the Mustang and few seconds to follow after me, and by then I was already making another turn. I turned into an alley and abruptly stopped in the middle of it. “Get out,” I snapped at Matt. “What?” he gasped. “Are you nuts?” “Just do it! Get out and hide behind the dumpster--better yet, hide in it!” “What?” “Do it!” I snapped. He unbuckled his seat belt and hopped out of the car, jumping behind the dumpster. I revved the engine and bolted forward, hoping he knew to stay hidden. The two motorcycles followed me into the alley and hurried after me, completely missing the fact that Matt was there, hidden in the dark shadows of the alley. The Mustang pulled into the alley ahead of me and blocked me off. Oh no, I thought with panic clawing at me viciously. I stopped the car--it was either that or hit the Mustang. Either way I was a dead man. Maybe if I left the car, someone could find a use for it. I just prayed Matt stayed where he was. One of the motorcycle drivers stopped their bike and tore open my door, snatching my arm and throwing me out. I hit the dirt-covered ground hard, wincing as a rock scraped up my hand. The person tore off their helmet and I saw their face. It was covered in scars, their eyes a misty, crimson color with orange strangely mixed in, giving it, oddly enough, a golden hue. A demon, I noted dimly as I was kicked in the ribs and rolled onto my stomach, my arms being forced behind me. I felt the chains wrap painfully tight around my wrists. A knee slammed into my back, keeping me pinned to the ground as a hand clasped my hair and pulled my head up. Wincing, I looked to see the driver of the Mustang watching me with narrowed eyes. “Fisk,” I spat venomously. “I should have known.” Fisk grinned. He was a big man, probably about six-foot-five, with short cropped black hair and tired, steel gray eyes that always seemed to be narrowed at me, no matter what expression he wore. His skin was pale and his eyes flashed. “Seer,” he greeted. He knelt down next to me and punched me in the face. I grimaced. “Uncalled for,” I spat. I noticed movement near the dumpster and saw Matt peering out with fearful blue eyes. I coughed, trying to hint to him that he needed to stay put without giving him away. Fisk laughed. “Hurt so soon, Seer? But we were just starting to have fun.” He grinned mirthlessly. “I believe you have someone we want. A small boy, I believe, in his teens. Matthew Hawkins, goes by Matt.” Matt’s eyes went wide at this and he hunkered down even more, for which I was grateful. I looked at Fisk with narrowed eyes. “Haven’t seen ‘em.” Fisk sighed. “I was hoping we could do this the easy way, Seer.” He gestured at the demon on my back. I felt sharp fangs pierce the skin of the back of my shoulder. I couldn’t help but cry out at the sudden pain, the sudden agony shooting through me. “That’s more like it,” Fisk said, amused. “Now tell me what I want to know.” “Don’t know,” I muttered. “Take it or leave it. I don’t know nothin’.” He sighed and patted my cheek. “Seer, Seer, Seer,” he sighed, shaking his head. “Why must you make this so difficult? You know it’s already hard for me not to feed off of you--and now you wish to insult my intelligence?” “What intelligence?” I spat. “You have nothing.” “You just don’t know when to quit, do you?” Fisk sneered. “Very well, Seer, I guess I’ll just have to drain the information out of you.” He narrowed his eyes at me and reached out, touching the top of my head as he looked into my eyes. Sharp fangs deepened in my shoulder and I cried out breathlessly. “Stop,” I gasped. Fisk was an Empath. I could feel my energy being drained more and more, the blood leaving out my back and my soul leaving through Fisk’s touch. Fisk wasn’t necessarily a strong Empath but he could get the job done--and I just so happened to be the job today. The pain slithering through me was immense. “Stop,” I pleaded, struggling to move away. My chained hands stopped me from using them to push myself away from them, and the demon’s knee and teeth in my back weren’t helping matters at all. “Why would I do that?” Fisk asked with a twisted smirk. “I enjoy this a lot, Seer. I wish I could get my hands on that Seraphim Seer, the strongest of your kind. I bet his soul is full…” I whimpered in pain and gasped for breath as my heart raced wildly in my chest, beating so fast that my head went numb and dizzy, lightheaded. I couldn’t think straight and could barely breathe. “Don’t,” I whispered. “Stop.” “Don’t stop?” he asked with a grin. “Wasn’t planning on it!” He sighed heavily. “I’m not seeing the images I want, Seer. Have you gotten better at hiding them?” “Go…to hell,” I growled breathlessly. “Haven’t you heard, young Seer? I just came from there. The Unknown always gets what it wants.” He pulled his hand away from me and I gasped at the sudden release of numbness. Now all I felt was pain as it resonated through my back and through my entire body. I bowed my head as my hair was released by the demon on my back. My forehead touched the cool dirt on the ground and I swallowed thickly, panting heavily. “Kill him,” Fisk said. “He’s got nothing for me and there’s another Seer out there I need to find. Finish him off.” “Don’t you want to feed?” the demon asked, hissing slightly. “I’ve had enough to satisfy me. Finish him off. Now.” I was rolled onto my back. My head spun at this sudden change in position and I blinked up at the demon as it loomed over me, the face of death itself as it grinned. From its belt it pulled out a knife, wiping the blood from its mouth. It positioned the knife over my stomach and sliced. I screamed--I couldn’t help it. Demons always knew how to make it painful without killing someone right away. They were good at that…or bad at it, however you wanted to look at it. I thrashed, desperately trying to get away even as it licked my blood from the blade of the knife. “Stop fooling around,” Fisk grumbled. “Kill him.” “With pleasure,” the demon said. For a moment, I wondered why a demon was working for a low-class Empath. It made no sense. Then again, nothing made sense at the moment. I couldn’t think straight. “Stop,” I gasped as he raised the knife over his head, the blade tip aimed at my throat. I didn’t want to die. The blade started its descent toward my throat. I clenched my eyes tightly closed, knowing what was coming next. “Stop!” a sudden voice shouted. It sounded very familiar and suddenly I was reminded why I’d been in this alley in the first place. Matt came darting toward me and knocked the blade away from my throat. “Leave him alone!” He held himself over me protectively, which completely surprised me. I’d kidnapped him and he was willing to protect me? “What…are you doing?” I breathed, wincing. “I’m sorry,” he said, looking at me guiltily. “I shouldn’t have waited this long--I’m sorry!” “Well, well, well,” Fisk said, snatching Matt by the arm and dragging him away from me. “Is this the Seer I’ve been searching for?” “No,” I murmured. “It’s…another Seer.” “Silence him,” Fisk said in annoyance. I was kicked in the side. Gasping in pain, I felt a rib give way and blood came away on the demon’s shoe from where he’d cut me. “Stop!” Matt growled. “Leave him alone!” “Finish him,” Fisk said, leading Matt away, toward his Mustang. “No--you have me, let him go!” Matt said, watching me with wide eyes. “No, you see--it doesn’t work like that,” Fisk said. The last thing I saw was the knife coming for my chest. Then a sudden flare of immense, fiery pain caught my attention. I screamed, writhing in pain as I tossed my head to the side, wishing it would just end already. “No!” Matt cried. “Please!” Then everything went black as I tasted iron in my throat. CHAPTER FOUR: CAN’T YOU SEE, NIXIE? I was floating. That was all I knew. I was floating in a white haze and I felt completely and utterly numb. The feeling was nice, not threatening or painful and I didn’t feel the need to find out why I felt so numb. I just floated…for what seemed like years, eternity even, I floated. Then I found myself in a room. It was the crystal ball on the table in the center of the room that made me sigh in exasperation. I was at my partner’s place, the Nixie. A woman was sitting in a chair, waiting patiently for my partner to emerge from the room beyond, where he was probably fixing the two of them some coffee. Yeah, I could smell it. I desperately wanted to have a cup but knew I couldn’t. I was here for business, after all. Or at least I thought I was. I actually couldn’t remember how I’d gotten here. All I remembered was a haze…and then I was here. What had happened? I couldn’t even remember what had caused the haze in the first place. “Hey,” I said to the woman when she looked around the room. She didn’t even notice me. Frowning, I walked toward her. “Hey. What gives? Are you blind and deaf?” I waved a hand in front of her face and then scowled. She couldn’t see me or hear me? Shit, this wasn’t good. “I’m a God damn ghost. Just great.” I crossed my arms and skulked in the background like a cheap ornament in the room. I could hear my partner moving around in the kitchen. He called out to the woman and the woman answered, so I knew it was just me. I was the one she couldn’t see--there was nothing wrong with her but there was everything wrong with me. I was dead. Wasn’t I? Did this mean that Seers actually lived on in the After? And if so, why would I show up here? The Nixie barely even liked me--he put up with me but that was only because he had to. I sighed and leaned against the wall. Surprisingly, I could still do that, but when I thought about it I slid right through. The inner workings of a wall should never be seen by anyone except construction workers and I quickly pulled out with a wild gasp. “Note to self: don’t do that again,” I muttered. I listened as the Nixie called the woman into the hallway and wished her good luck on grieving for her dead husband. I looked around quickly, wondering if there were any ghosts besides me in the room. I didn’t see anything, but then again, I didn’t have Nixie eyes. I moved toward the hallway as the door closed and my partner began walking into this room. He damn near walked right through me. “Shit, Will,” he cursed, sucking in a sharp breath as he held onto the doorway for support. “Don’t scare me like that. How did you get in here?” I paused. “Uh…Damien…” “I didn’t hear you come in,” he said, taking in a deep breath. “Sit, I’ll get some coffee.” He always was the polite guy. I reached out to grab his shoulder and stop him but my fingers slid right through him. He didn’t even seem to notice, dressed in a gray hooded sweatshirt and dark blue jeans. I sighed and stayed where I was, crossing my arms as I waited for him. He came back moments later and put two coffee mugs on the table. The smell made me want to drink it but I knew I couldn’t. It would--literally--go right through me. He combed his fingers through his black hair, his hazel eyes trained on me as he frowned. “What you, don’t want coffee?” he asked, and then grinned. “That’s got to be a first.” I shrugged. “Uh…Damien…” I swallowed thickly and shifted my feet. “I, uh…” “Is something wrong?” he asked with a deep frown that carved grooves into his face. He was around my age but sometimes appeared much older. Nixie’s seemed to frown more than most of the misfits in the Underground. “I just…I don’t seem…different to you? At all?” He really couldn’t tell? Was that how it was for Nixies all the time? Now I really felt horrible for all the times I’d quietly laughed when Damien got caught talking to someone that wasn’t there. I felt truly guilty. “Not really,” he said slowly, his eyes scanning over me carefully. “Maybe…thinner. Have you been working hard?” “Damien…” “What’s up? You usually never drop by for a visit.” He frowned. “Does Tony need me to come back to work right now?” “No, it’s not that. He just…” I sighed heavily. “I think you’re going to have to get a new partner.” “What?” he gasped. “Why?”
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