Avel and the Alien, Part 1

Before I split with Avel and went to work for Mr. Oulara, there was about a year when things were good.  Great, even.  I mean, I wasn't treated like a princess or anything, but he didn't run off when the police were coming and stuff like that.

The weather was strangely rainy that summer.  I should have taken that as a clue that everything else would be strange, too.  But, no.  I maintained a positive outlook.  Silly me.

So it was a Tuesday, and we didn't have a con going, which was even stranger that the rain wildly pattering on the windows and roof.  Avel was reading a book about Nikola Tesla, and I was trying to think of something sweet and clever to write in my sister's birthday card.

"What was that?"  Avel shut his book quickly and sat up straight, head cocked to the side in prime listening mode.

"I didn't hear anything," I said, the end of my pen clenched between my teeth.

"It came from the back," he said.

I grunted.  His house was large, and we were in the den near the front of the house.  I have no idea how he'd heard anything.  But Avel stood up and dropped his book on the couch.  "I'll be back.  I'm gonna go check on things."

"Uh-huh," I said, writing You're freaking AWESOME  very carefully in the center of the blank space of my sister's card.

Avel stepped over me and I tried to playfully grab his foot as he did, but he just ignored me.  I labeled the envelope, stuck the card in, and licked the nasty adhesive.  I was pinching it all together to make sure it stuck when I heard Avel scream.

"Meliora!"

I was on my feet and halfway to the back door before he could call my name again.  I was moving so fast I almost forgot to slide the glass door open before I barged through it.

Avel was writhing on the grass, sopping wet.  His hands were clawing at something on his left hip, and he was still screaming.

I blinked in the rain and almost face-planted on the slipperyness of the ground. "What's wrong?  What is it?"  I had to yell over Avel's screams.  I landed on my knees next to him and tried to keep him from writhing.  I couldn't see anything in that dang rain, and he just wouldn't stop moving.

"It's on me!  God! Shit! It's on me!"

"What?"  I reached and rolled him over, half sitting on him so he couldn't twist away.  I could feel something hot and fuzzy stuck on him, just underneath his ribcage on his left side. "Stop moving!"

Avel shuddered and held his arms aloft, struggling not to move.  The fuzzy thing squeaked when I poked it.

I breathed deeply, flinging soaked hair out of my eyes.  The fuzzy thing was literally attached to Avel.  I carefully lifted the fur on the sides and saw that it had tentacles...tentacles that had burned through Avel's t-shirt and were now sinking into his skin.

"Oh, shhhh...oot," I said, trying to not sound too freaked out.

"Get it off!" Avel yelled.

I stuck my fingers under the green fur and pulled.  Avel screamed, and the thing screeched.  The tentacles stretched to their limit but didn't come free.  The thing shivered and pulled itself back down, landing with a THWOP against Avel's ribs.

"I...uh, I don't think it's going to come off."

"Try again!"

So I stood up, got on the same side as the thing, and grabbed it.  And pulled.  And yanked.  And twisted.  But that little booger had a death grip on my boyfriend.  I gave it one last pull, a pull which was so hard and ill-planned that I ended up on my butt on the ground, thunder and lightning overhead, icy rain pelting my freezing skin.

Avel stopped writhing and screaming long enough to yank me up and drag me inside, where we would hopefully have better luck detaching the fuzzy green parasite.  

Tristessa's Story, Part 8

This is the final chapter in a series of 8 posts. I hope you've enjoyed the others. -m

My mother was so weak she couldn't stand on her own, so Ambreel and Ravigie picked her up by the arms and carried her into the house. 

The imaginary children followed me like puppies, their eyes trained on me as though they were afraid I'd leave them.  They made me uncomfortable.  Such wide, scared eyes.  And such blank features. 

I didn't even have enough imagination to give them faces, I thought without much amusement.  But even as I thought it, the children's faces grew even more interesting with different sized noses, freckles, acne... any little thing I could think of to distinguish them, I planted it on their faces.  When I was satisfied, I pulled away from them, feeling faint.

Mama was lying on the couch, and Ambreel was brushing the hair away from her forehead in a way that made me feel like an intruder.  I wanted to go to her, but I felt suddenly shy.  She had not even called to me, so I stayed where I was, waiting.  Ravigie came in then carrying a tray with a bowl of hot water, a towel, and a glass of goat's milk.  I don't know where she found the water, but I remember feeling very angry with her for wasting it on a towel.

"Feliciterra, can you hear me?" Ambreel whispered into her ear.

Mama's eyes were closed, but she swallowed and nodded her head.  Her mouth worked for a little bit, like she was practicing words with her lips still closed.  Ravigie set the tray down and began to wet the rag, but my mother didn't look at Ravigie or Ambreel when she opened her eyes.  She looked at me.

"Tristessa," my mother whispered hoarsely.  Ambreel turned and beckoned to me, so I went to them.  My mother touched my hair and tried to smile.

"You released me," she said, finally succeeding in her smile.

I looked at Ambreel, eyebrows raised.

"It's true," Mama said.  "Thank you for putting on the necklace."

"I'm confused," I said.  "What did I do?"  I reached up and touched the cool stones of the necklace.  They felt like droplets of cold water on my hand.  I smirked, wishing I was touching real water, so I could drink it.

And then, suddenly, I was. 

My hands were wet, the floor was wet, everything was a flood of water.  It was coming out of the necklace.  My mother smiled at me through the torrent.  As every wave of the water hit her, a bruise seemed to be washed away.  Soon there was so much water, so many waves of rushing water, that I closed my eyes and turned my head away. 

Ambreel stood strong through the deluge, his arms around Mama, keeping her safe.  Ravigie was gone, and I was thrown against the wall, drinking it all in.  The water was blue with my electricity, and I didn't want it to stop, but then my mother put out her hand.

"Fermati!"  she yelled.  The waters heard her and stopped their throws.  Her black hair was like a shining blanket over her shoulders, and her smiling cheeks were pink and wet.  No more bruises, no more weakness.  She stood on her own and came to me, giving me the biggest hug I'd ever had, and have ever had since then.

"Oh, Tessa.  My girl.  Thank you for bringing the water back," she said into my hair.  "Thank you."

Ambreel's hand was on my shoulder, a warm connection to the real world.  He knew I didn't understand.  He knew I didn't know what was happening.  "She is the land, and you are the rain," he said. 

Like that explained anything.

But then, just as I realized that Ravigie and the children were all gone, I remembered a day when I was flying over everything, and my mother was with me, and the land below us was green with life. I looked around me with new eyes, and I could feel the weight of the necklace my mother had given me as it hung around my neck.  I knew in that moment that I had almost killed everyone in the world, depriving them of water while I mourned my missing mother.

Ambreel squeezed my arm.  "I didn't think you'd believe me if I'd told you.  You didn't even remember your magic," he said to me.  It almost sounded like an excuse, but it was so true that I couldn't deny him. 

"Mama, can we fly again?" I asked.  It was the only thing I wanted to do.  I didn't want to think about what I had done.  I didn't want to think about Ravigie and the children.  So my mother and I left Ambreel standing on the green hill around the house, squinting up into the sun at us as we flew over the hills, my mother checking her land, me making sure that the rain fell on everyone and everything.

Sometimes I think about that day and I wonder: How much of any of my life has been real?

I suppose I'll never know.

Tristessa's Story, Part 5

Follow Tristessa through her mother's disappearance, bullying, and the mysterious appearance of the shadow-man in Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Satisfaction guaranteed! -m

I couldn't stop thinking about Ambreel-the-shadow-man, as I called him in my head. I began to imagine conversations with him while I was doing my chores. And then I imagined that he brought friends with him, children I might have known while living between the stone buildings in my life with my mother.

I loved imagining the children.  They were sweet and helpful and aided me in sweeping the floor and cleaning out the chicken coop, and they talked about nice things like hot baths and clean toes and dresses that fit instead of hanging on my skin and bones.  Every day I thought of them, they grew clearer in my mind, even gaining personalities and quirks.  I loved the feeling of creating something so useful, and I relished the feeling of electric power I had whenever I was talking to them.

Ambreel was a gentleman and walked with me around the perimeter of the house after Ravigie decided I was allowed to venture there.

"How are you today, Ambreel?" I asked.

"I'm just fine, Tristessa Dellatierre," he said, using my first and last names, which I had almost forgotten existed.

Thinking of that, I asked, "Do you know my other names? I know there are others."

Ambreel shrugged his shadowed shoulders and I felt electricity tickle my palms. "I am in your imagination, Tristessa. You'll have to remember your other names for yourself."

"Thank you, Ambreel," I said. Turning the corner, I almost ran into Ravigie.

"Who are you talking to?" she asked forcefully. The smoke fled to the corners of my vision and the power stopped tingling in my fingers.

"Nobody," I said truthfully. I was talking to shadows and my own imagination.

Ravigie sniffed as though smelling the air and kept her nostrils wide. "You're lying," she said. "I can feel his magic. Where is he hiding?" she added, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards her. I had to stand on my tiptoes so that her vise grip wouldn't break my arm off.

"Who?" I asked as innocently as I could manage.

"Don't toy with me, child. I know his scent and I've heard you talking to him this past sennight. I will not be lied to. Now where is he?"

"He's nowhere," I said. The feeling was gone in my left arm and my calves were burning from standing so tall. "I just pretend to talk to him."

Ravigie looked at me with horror in her eyes. Without another word she dropped my arm to grab my hand. It stung as blood flowed back into the veins. The old woman held my hand up, holding her thumb in the center of my palm and pressing hard.

"Ow," I said. "What are you doing?"

"You're marked," Ravigie said, giving back my hand. I rubbed it and held it safe against my stomach.

"I don't understand," I said, knowing that she meant she could see the designs on my palms.

Ravigie looked at me shrewdly. "Don't use that magic to do anything stupid," she said. Just when I was about to ask another question, she walked away. Like she had told me not to forget to milk the goat. Like what she had just said was the simplest thing.

I cleared my throat and swallowed, letting her leave without a fight. When she was back in the house, I looked down at my hands. Magic? As I looked up again, my eyes drifted over the form of the brown paper package, which was still on the kitchen table. It made me think of the courier who had looked at me with fear, backing away before I had even had time to say hello.

Resolution flooded my mind. If I had magic, then I had power. And if I had power...no one could stop me.

Tristessa's Story, Part 4

Check out Parts 1, 2, and 3 of Tristessa's narrative to get caught up on her journey. -m


The package on the table taunted me. I could hear it: "Triiiiiisteesssssssaaaa.... I'm waiting for yooooouuuuu. Just waitiiiiing. Open me....open meeeeee..."

In any other circumstance, those words would be creepy, even terrifying. But instead of being worried, I was strangely comforted. I was not the only peculiar thing in the village. If I could hear the voice of a brown paper package, then surely there were stranger things than me. For the first time in months, I could feel my spirit lifting.

And then I realized that the shadows on the edge of my vision were not normal things.

The realization came one night when I snuck out of the house. Ravigie was sleeping. I still wasn't supposed to go any further than the front stoop, but being outside at night was the only freedom I had left. And with the package taunting me, outside was the only place that the voice stopped whispering in my ear.

I'd been outside before, on other nights, but this night felt different from the moment my right heel touched the other side of the threshold. I shivered and cleared my throat as my stomach tightened. Something was wrong. Adrenaline beating like drums in my veins, I looked inside, back into the shadows.

Dark smoke poured into my peripheral vision, clouding things until the only thing I could see clearly was the package on the table. Something like the sound of feet scrunching on gravel happened behind me, and I turned back around to face the outdoors. The smoke followed me, taking on the shape of a young man.

The darkness poured first into his shoes, then up to his knees and waist. It was only a nanosecond but it felt like I watched for hours as this person was formed out of the night. When he spoke, I heard my name. "Tristessa."

"Who are you?"

His face was clearer now; I could even see that he had a sort of a nose and broad shoulders on top of a rather lanky frame. "I'm...a shadow."

"I can see that. Is it parts of you I've been seeing?"

"Parts of me?"

"Sometimes there are dark things over here," I said as I motioned with my hands near my temples. "Like shadows." The smoke was making me feel light-headed, though, and I accidentally scratched myself on the forehead.

The man shook his head slowly, and then nodded. "It's possible. Ravigie can sense when I am near, so why wouldn't you see parts of me?"

"What's your name?" I asked. His skin was solid now, and was taking on a tint like the men from Italia. "Why can Ravigie sense you?" I added as an afterthought.

"Ambreel," he said after a moment's hesitation. And then, without warning: poof. The smoke that had poured into the smoke-man Ambreel seemed to shrink, like it was inhaling. With one great explosion, the smoke exhaled and Ambreel disappeared.

My hair was blown back and tears were pulled from my eyes. I held my breath. In a moment it was over, and the shadows were gone, leaving only the blank darkness of the night. I grinned, unexpectantly feeling powerful. My nerves were jumping in my fingertips and my blood was pumping hot through my chest, though it felt different from normal adrenaline.

I stretched my hands, looking in wonder at my palms. They even looked different. What had that smoke done to me? Tiny swirling designs played on my skin like a kaleidoscope. I turned my hands over and looked at the backs of my fingers. Smoke curled around them like tattoos of vines, then sunk into my skin with tiny electrical shocks.

For the first time in almost a year, I didn't miss my mother.

Tristessa's Story, Part 3

Be sure to check out Parts 1 and 2... Tristessa's story begins there. -m


In the days after I threw the egg at the boy, Ravigie refused to speak to me. She was so angry with me for throwing our last egg that she didn't even make me toast for breakfast. She set a cup in front of me, which I had to fill with milk myself. The well was dry; we were lucky that the goat was still alive.

The yard in front of the coop smelled strange, close to something like rotten eggs. Every time I walked past it I held my breath, and soon it became a sort of game to me. In a week I became very good at holding my breath for no reason in particular.

It was at the end of that week that the package arrived. The courier was dirty, sweaty, and smelled worse than I did. But his clothes had once been very fine, and even though he looked ready to collapse, he held his head as high as a prized stallion did during a parade. Ravigie met him at the corner of the property, a little ways away from where the garden of eggs had popped up. I stayed out of sight, watching and listening.

"I have a package for Ravigie," he said. "There's no last name."

"I don't have a last name," Ravigie said, holding her hand out for the brown paper-wrapped thing.

The man held on to it just a second longer. "You are Ravigie?" Disbelief was bright in his voice. He obviously had been led to believe that Ravigie would be housekeeper to some grand woman.

"The only one," she said. "Give it to me, boy." She glared at him so strongly that immediately he handed it over. Ravigie took it and tucked in under her arm, clamped beneath her armpit. "Well?"

The man looked like he was about to say something about being called "boy", but he wisely thought better of it and took a couple of steps backwards instead.

I don't know why, but I chose that moment to come out of hiding. The man jumped when he saw me. I started to smile, to try to clear his mind of worry, but it was too late. His mouth gaped and he staggered backwards, fingers splayed open as though searching for a handhold.

"You..." But he wasn't looking at me anymore, he was looking somewhere behind me. I turned around, curious. Just on my peripheral vision, I saw the flicker of something dark. Trying to follow it, the shadow stayed on the edge of everything, but it took on the form of what could have been a man, or the reflection of a man.

"Me?" I asked once I had faced him again.

He shook his head, turned on his heel, and ran away.

Ravigie came to stand near me, putting her hand on my shoulder and shifting the package under her arm. "Come inside, Tessa."

"Why?" I was looking after the running package-carrier, watching his heels kick up dry dirt clods as he ran back to town.

"Just come," she said, pulling me towards the door. She, too, was looking at something behind me. Looking again, the shadow became only more distorted, seeming to be obscured by smoke. It was certainly the form of a man, but I couldn't see his face.

I shook my head, trying to clear my eyes for another look. "There's someone there, Ravigie," I said, pointing. She didn't respond, but she did pull me swiftly into the house.

The old woman put the package on the table in the kitchen, then sat down on a chair and put her face in her hands. I waited silently for a minute before she lifted her head again.

"I don't want you to go outside for the rest of the week, Tristessa." When I didn't respond, she went on: "And don't touch this package."

I opened my mouth to protest, but Ravigie pushed herself up and walked through the back door to the garden, leaving me in the kitchen. I stared at the crinkled brown paper wrapped around the courier's delivery. It was the first time I had a chance to really inspect it.

The wrapping job was haphazard and sloppily tied with several loops of dirt-caked brown twine. All in all, I believe it was about the size and shape of a dinner plate, and floppy, not like a wrapped box. And I wasn't allowed to open it. After sighing once, I poked it. The paper crinkled and stayed pressed in where my finger had been, a clean smudge on the brown surface. I looked at my finger; it was covered with dust. Wiping in on my skirt, I sat in the chair and stared at the package, thinking about the garden of eggs and the shadows that were flickering at the edge of my vision.

Glass and Mirrors, Part 5

"So? How's my lovely ex-girlfriend?" Avel asked. I stared at him. "Work still interesting?"

"Uh. Yes? What are you doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you doing all this? The road, the theater. I thought you were reformed, Avel," I said. Avel chuckled and put his arm around my shoulders. Crossing my arms, I looked at him as he stared straight ahead. He'd pulled out of the teenager disguise and was back to normal. He took a breath and opened his mouth, like he was really about to answer me.

"What are you doing?" he asked suddenly. He tried to get his arm back from around my shoulders, but I was holding his hand in mine, tightly.

"Tell me, Avel. Tell me what you're doing," I said sweetly. Minty air flowed around us, and Avel's pupils dilated suddenly, and his irises gained a healthy dose of brown. Gradually, slowly, painfully, all of my colors came back. I almost breathed a sigh of relief but the moment was too crucial.

"What I'm doing?" he asked slowly, like his words kept getting stuck in marshmallow sauce. I leaned my head on his arm, looking up into his eyes and smiling with half of my mouth. He tried to pull his hand out of my fingers, but my grip was strong. Avel shifted in his seat. I could almost see all the wheels whirring in his head, trying to figure out what I was doing. We both knew he still had the upper hand. But the chocolate magic was confusing him. The minty smell was nearly overwhelming, enveloping us like a chenille blanket. I reached into my pocket with my free hand and curled my fingers around a small mirror. Avel used to hate mirrors. He couldn't walk in front of them without turning a peculiar shade of green.

Avel shifted again, and as he did he saw light glint off of the mirror's face. In a flash his other hand was over mine, and his cheek was against my temple, holding my head away from him.

"A mirror?" he whispered in my ear. Oh crap, I thought. I swallowed once, hard, and tried to smile.

"Just a mirror. I wanted to check my makeup," I said. Avel snorted.

"You don't check your makeup, Meli. Now, let's look at this," he said, and he threw the mirror in the air above us. It hit something like an invisible barrier and sounded like it shattered, but no pieces came showering down on us like I expected.

After the shattering sound there was a pop so loud it made me jump. I kept most of my focus, though, and still held his hand tightly in mine. I looked up to see what had become of the mirror, and I found myself looking into my own eyes. Avel held his free arm up, perfectly straight, with his fingers splayed. The mirror had grown to be at least 60 or 70 times its original size. It was hard to tell because it almost looked like it was still growing.

He laughed, lowering his arm so that the mirror was straight in front of us instead of above us. Then it was my turn to shift uncomfortably. Avel changed; he still had the same hair and nose, but he seemed older by several years. And then he changed my hair, making it shorter and lighter. I glanced down to look at my hair on my shoulders; it was still dark.

Avel changed again, becoming younger and blond and bespectacled. I became wrinkled and fat, and then thinner with a very low-cut shirt on. I gasped and instinctively went to cover up, which was very stupid. Avel took his opportunity -- in a split second he had flipped himself over the backs of our seats and was kneeling behind me. I have no idea how he did it without breaking his arm, since I was still holding his hand, but hey, the guy could make antiques and skyscrapers out of nothing.

"Relax," he said as he weaved his fingers into my hair. It was a command, and I couldn't help it. I leaned into him, even though my brain was screaming at me. Avel pointed at the mirror, dropping all the disguises and jerking his hand. The mirror disappeared and was replaced with tiny pieces of colored glass which fell to the ground like silver-toned rain. I tried to stand up but Avel snaked his arm across my collarbone.

"Let me go," I said. I felt him shake his head. He was leaning pretty far over my chair.

"Relax," he said again. "Look at the glass. Beautiful." I decided to try one more thing. I had a little bit of magic left from the chocolate bar; at this distance I couldn't go back for more without him noticing. So I swirled it around a little, got a good breath in, and leaned my head back. My nose brushed the skin just above his ear, and I felt Avel pull back a little. I breathed in through my nose, and exhaled softly through my mouth. He breathed in sharply, and I made sure my giggle was short and sweet.

"Losing control, my dear?" My magic glittered strangely in the light reflected from the shards of glass. I placed my lips on his jawline, still using the magic. Avel sank back, landing on both of his knees. Spinning up from my seat, I pulled the handcuffs out of my back pocket and slapped half of them on the wrist closest to me; the other half went on my own arm. He wouldn't look up at me, and I smiled triumphantly. I had him.

A door slammed somewhere in the room, making me jump. "Hey!" yelled Kadey from the employee's only entrance behind me. I turned and waved.

"Here! I got him!" Kadey gave me a strange look, one that made my smile falter as I turned back to look at Avel.

He was gone.

Glass and Mirrors, Part 4

Parts 1-3 are on your left. -m

The most uncomfortable part of having someone else in your head is not, in fact, the simple fact that they are there. It's the nagging fear that at any moment they'll accidentally find that key under the mat in front of the door to the rest of your mind.

Avel had conjured up a leather chair to sit in while he relaxed on the front porch of my mind. I kept trying to push him out, but he had some sort of magic thingie around me, and there was nothing I could do. All of my efforts pushed me further away from him, leaving torn up tracks of sod all over the lawn. He smiled benignly.

"Having some trouble?" he asked.

"Get out of my head!" I yelled. My actual voice, the one Kadey could hear as she sat in the theater, sounded like a muffled mumble. In my head, I was screaming.

"But I like it here," he said, pulling a glass of lemonade out of thin air and taking a sip. Ice cubes clinked against the glass. I threw my hands up into my hair, feeling like I wanted to pull it out. Keeping a wary eye on Avel, I half pulled myself out of my mind so I could look at the theater again. Everything was still in shades of gray, and Kadey had a firm grip made up of freezing, shaking fingers on my lower arm.

"Meli? Can you hear me?" I looked up at her from my slouched position and tried to nod. She at least noticed that I was trying to acknowledge her, and she pointed at the theater screen. At least Avel was still letting me see things, even if the color was sapped. The images on the screen were still making people scream. For a few seconds it was a small child's memory of tripping on the sidewalk, then it switched to a girl stealing jewelry from a department store. Avel was enjoying it way more than he should have, I could feel his self satisfaction practically oozing all around the unsheltered parts of my mind. I decided I needed to do something awkward.

But before I could go back and confront Avel, Kadey's fingers tightened on my arm. I jumped a little, able to move because Avel couldn't guess that I would have been surprised by something Kadey did. Kadey leaned over and put her head close so I could hear her whisper.

"I think I found him," she said. I tried to move my head, but nothing happened. She rolled her eyes, thought for a minute, and then reached into her pocket and pulled out her touch screen phone. The screen was dark and for a second I was really confused, until she held it so that the people next to me were reflected on the surface. "Sorry, I don't carry a mirror," Kadey said. She turned the fake mirror slowly, so that I could look at everyone in its reflection. It was hard to see, especially in the strange light of the theater, but I could at least make out, about three people away, the shape of a teenaged boy with dark hair sitting with his arms up.

I couldn't see clearly enough, and I looked back at Kadey, hoping for an explanation. She nodded, understood my confusion, took one last look at the boy, and copied his pose. Sitting up very straight, Kadey lifted her arms so that her forearms were parallel to the movie screen. Tilting her head back, she half-closed her eyes and bent her wrists back a little so that her fingers were near her eyebrows.

Then, once her arms were in place and she'd peeked once or twice to make sure that she was accurately copying Avel's position, she began twitching her fingers randomly. I swallowed and uneasily began to return to my mind, to confront Avel in his leather chair. My spine tingled. I'd only seen Avel sit like that once before, and it had ended with the other guy in pieces. I mean, literally. Many pieces. And he'd done it to himself, with his own magic.

"Avel, stop," I said. This time there was urgency in my voice. He put down his drink, stood up, and came to me.

"Stop chasing me," he said. I shook my head. "Tell Kadey to leave." I hesitated. He was so close, and even though it was all in my head, I could smell him. He still wore the same cologne.

"You'll stop using their minds as entertainment?" He smirked and lifted a shoulder. "Let me talk to her, at least?"

I opened my eyes in the theater. Kadey was still holding my arm.

"Mmphar," I said on the first try. I licked my lips, cleared my throat, and tried again. "He wants you to leave."

"I'm not leaving," Kadey said. A man screamed from one of the front rows, and we both jumped. I glanced at Avel, the teenaged version of him, at least. He still had his arms up, fingers playing some unseen symphony, and he was still in black and white. Without blinking, I went into the back of my mind, unlocked the trap door, and dropped through, covering my tracks with magic made to look gray. What I needed was a bit of my own magic to take out of my mind with me, but Avel was blocking it all. So, physically, I was screwed. No fireballs or anything cool.

But I could play the word card. Easy.

Quickly I felt into the pantry and grabbed the first thing I could reach -- a chocolate bar. I unwrapped it as I jumped back out of the room and locked the door, shoving it in my mouth just before I got back to the theater. As far as I knew, Avel had no idea what I'd done.

Before I said anything to Kadey, I turned as much as I could towards Avel. He had my English tied up tight in his hands, but he didn't own all the words in my mouth. I could feel the chocolate magic tingling between my teeth, like really strong mouthwash. It even tasted a little minty. I took a very deep breath.

"Ambreel! Arrete!" I yelled. Ambreel Avel Tucker jumped in his theater seat, looked at me, and grinned. The instant he opened his eyes I shut down the walls in my mind, forcing him out. The movie screen went black, and within seconds people began to leave as though nothing unusual had happened.

Soon the theater was completely empty; even Kadey had gone. It was just me and Avel, and he came to sit next to me, stretching his long legs out on the top of the seats in front of us.

Glass and Mirrors, Part 3

Parts 1 & 2 are over there. -m

If I hadn't've been sprinting after the ever-changing form of my ex-boyfriend, I probably would have taken at least a couple of moments to revel in the crazy luck we'd had in finding him in one of the first antique shops we'd tried. Just the ridiculous timing of it all made me grin. But then Avel would try to change his hair color, and my mind would be whipped back to reality. If I didn't pay better attention, my luck wasn't going to stick around very long.

Kadey's feet were pounding behind me, and I could also hear her having a hard time with other people on the sidewalk. I wanted very badly to glance back and check on her, but I had to keep both eyes on Avel. He was heading deeper into downtown.

How had he gotten so fast? Geez. It was like his legs were slurping up the pavement and spewing it out in dust. And I was eating it. My breathing was so labored I was certain that any moment I was just going to collapse, and then we would never find him again, because there was no way that Kadey would keep up with him.

Avel flung himself around a corner, the first one in several blocks, and I pushed harder, trying to keep up. I was only a few steps behind him, but once I came around the curb he was gone. I screamed in frustration. I needed to focus and look for him, but I was breathing so hard that all I was good for was leaning over and putting my hands on my knees. I saw Kadey's shoes on the pavement.

"He's gone!" she said. She was breathing hard, too.

"I know," I said. I took one huge breath and straightened. "You put your arms down!"

"I'm sorry," she said as she warded off a slap on the arm. "They were getting tired, and I honestly didn't think he was there any more!"

"Fine. Ok. Where would he go?"

"Why are you asking me? You're the one who knows him," Kadey said. I could almost hear her adding, You're the one he made out with and almost married....

"Ugh. I know! Ok, let me think," I said. I closed my eyes and leaned against the building. The art museum, movie theaters, restaurants, angsty poet hovels... all these ran through my head. But to no avail. That dang street corner was going to pay for making us lose him. I punched the wall. Ow.

"Hey, that's weird," Kadey said.

"Huh?"

"I could have sworn 46th went all the way through here," she said. Kadey took a couple of steps forward. I'd completely forgotten where we were during our run, but while I'd been thinking Kadey had looked up at the street signs. People rushing to their cars and to the metro from work ran into us from every angle. But we didn't move.

"Where are we?" I asked. I spun and looked at the sign. 46th and Jelly. I looked around, getting my bearings. If this was Jelly, and the sun was there... 46th should go straight through, crossing Linoleum. But a block away was a skyscraper, and 46th turned into a right-or-left choice. A choice that had never been there before. I started running, and Kadey followed me.

"Brace yourself!" I yelled over my shoulder. The transition point was coming up, and there was nothing weirder than passing through one of Avel's illusions without warning. It was like getting hit with a wall of marshmallows. Didn't leave any bruises, but it didn't exactly leave you feeling very healthy. We hit the edge of the illusion at a sprinting speed and I felt my hair get caught in the magical wall. Everything was kooky and soft for a second, and then we were through, and 46th didn't run into a skyscraper anymore.

"Whoa," said Kadey. "That was awesome!" I kept running, but I still grinned at her. I don't know why, but part of me felt a little proud of Avel for being able to pull off something like that. It didn't even occur to me that maybe I should have wondered why I hadn't seen the illusion in the first place. Something that huge should have been obvious.

"There!" I yelled and veered to the left. A gray haze was just disappearing into the alley behind the movie theater. We darted through the narrow opening and were suddenly the only people within view. Something told me that he was hiding in the theater. Avel couldn't have gone far while maintaining that illusion. I yanked open the back door and Kadey and I practically fell into the theater. After the bright sun of the streets it took a while for my eyes to adjust.

Kadey grabbed my arm and I started walking slowly, picking my way around shadowy obstacles. A few seconds later I found another door and opened it. We were in the back of a giant IMAX theater that was filling with people. It was then that I noticed that I wasn't seeing things very well. Everything was black and white and gray. I looked at Kadey. Her normally dark blue eyes were still dark, but they were gray. My hands were shaded, too; the flesh tones were gone. I choked on air in my rush to speak, but by the time I cleared my throat a theater attendant was at the top of the stairs leading down to the door we had just come out of.

"Excuse me, but you can't go down there. Employees only," he said. Kadey and I apologized and mounted the steps, pretending to look for our seats. The attendant wouldn't let us do anything but sit down. Every time we tried to head away to the exit, he corralled us and led us back to the seats. We sat, resigned, and stuck our heads together to figure out a battle plan. I kept staring at my hands in their gray creepiness and at the ends of my hair, which was just plain black. All the richness of color was gone, and I knew it wasn't because I had suffered any trauma. Avel was here and was doing it to me.

"What's wrong?" Kadey whispered. The lights in the room had just dimmed and people were putting on 3D glasses.

"I can't see," I said.

"What!?"

"No, I mean, I can't see colors. Everything's gray and black," I said. Kadey spun around in her chair, trying to look all directions at once.

"My vision's fine," she said. I sighed. If everything was already gray and black, I wasn't going to be able to find Avel. Not a chance. And he knew that. He remembered.

The screen flickered once, and the audience "Ooohed". Every seat was full and I could see two people in the aisle, walking up and down the stairs as they looked for open seats. Immediately I felt guilty, but there was nothing I could do. I needed this seat so I could keep looking for Avel. I tried scanning the crowd for him the way I'd looked for his work in the antique store, but everything looked hazy and gray in the darkness.

I slouched in my chair, frustrated. Kadey was still looking, wide-eyed, at all the people in the auditorium. With no chance of finding him, I closed my eyes. And saw Avel.

"Don't react," he said. I suddenly found I couldn't open my eyes, but I could still hear everything. Avel's voice was coming from just a few feet away. I struggled to sit up, but the weight of magic was on top of me. I was frozen and felt sick whenever I tried to move.

"I said, 'Don't', Meli. Don't move," he said. My mouth wouldn't open to speak. "Stop chasing me." I gave in to the illusion and let down the smallest of my mind barriers, so that I could at least yell at him.

Shoving my own magic back in his face, I said, "Give me back my sight!" Avel laughed, overjoyed.

"Finally! Doesn't it feel good to let it out?" In my mind Avel sat in a leather-backed chair, grinning like crazy as he ran his hand through his hair. "Let's play with them, shall we?" My stomach sank. Play?

The crowd in the theater gasped, and one woman screamed. Avel let me open my eyes to see the screen. The scene was from the perspective of a person walking on a dark road. Footsteps sounded from behind, and the person turned to look. Three thugs in gang gear were following the person; they smiled maliciously. The same woman screamed again.

"Meli?" Kadey said. There was a worried hesitance in her voice that I didn't like.

Suddenly the scene changed and Kadey gasped.

"That's my house," she whispered to me. This time I understood. Avel was ruffling through the audience's minds like they were picture books. Every five seconds, the picture changed, and a different person screamed or at least gasped in surprise. He was still in my mind, and I pushed my way up to his chair.

"Stop it!" I said as I reached out to slap him. But even in my own mind I was slow, and he blocked it before my fingernails could do any damage.