Local Productions

I watched Essie leave. I dared not move or act at this moment.  If I moved it would move.  I wasn't sure if I could stop its hand this time. I wanted to yell at Essie. How dare she? I cared about Gerald. Why would she question that? 

      Did I care about Gerald? I sent him back home where there are horrific monsters that want to eat him. I sent him alone, unguarded and unprotected. I wouldn't have done that a month ago. Was I more desperate? No, it was the angel. 

     This thing, this angel, when it first joined me we were both dying. We saved each other. It told me about the ballet and gave a formula to stop it. But now I was disappearing. The angel was getting stronger, only it wasn't rising it was diving. Every day was a struggle to keep my head above the water. Any frustration and the angel pulled me down deeper and deeper. This thing was drowning me.

       "Essie is cool." Amberley added as she walked. "Ambassador Amberley smoothed things out again."

       "I do care," I added quietly. I was breathing again. Focus on that. Do not go under. New plan, new focus. Do not go under.

      "We know that boss." Amberley added. "And hey Gerald is fine. He will live to steal cigarettes again!"

      "Would you say I am distant?" I asked. 

       "No, maybe adjacent but two steps back?" Amberley said. "There is a hurricane outside. We are supposed to be somewhere and someone has to drive. You make the tough calls." Amberley was in the kitchen making another cocktail. 

      "Do I think so?" I muttered. This pity was getting us anywhere. I needed to focus on treading water. "Essie was right though." I added. I bit my lip in thought. 

       "Yeah, probably. But don't tell her that. She might open a hot line."

       "Our secret." I said.  I pulled a map down from the shelf. "To awaken and summon something from another plane they need to use a nexus point."

       "A what?" Amberley asked. She set her drink down on the corner of the map.

      I used a sparkle marker to mark the map. "They are points of mystic energy where we can reach other realms of existence. There are 27 in total but only 9 of them can be currently used. There is Stonehenge, the great pyramid, Rut Wong Kong, Fengdu City, the black mountain, Puerta De Sol, the Cartago Parish, Taos Pueblo, Mesa Verde, and Fairy Lake."

       "I guess that narrows it down." Amberley said, peering down at the map.

       "It does some,  yes. But we don't have time or money to travel around the world hoping to find the right one. These spells are specific, right components, right time, right place." I added with a sigh.

       "So if we know the who, or the where we could narrow it down."

       "Yes…. Even a list of components." I said as I looked down at the map.

       "Well we know two of those right?" Amberley added.

      "I looked up at her waiting for her to explain.

       "Ummm, me, my heart or spine or uterus and…." Amberley pointed at me. "Angel stuff?"

       I felt the angel stiffen and dive. It was trying to dig itself deep into my body. I gripped the table trying to hold onto my place. Now was not the time to go under.

       "You okay over there boss. "

       "Yes, it just seems you got upon some truths my guest finds uncomfortable." I paused.  "This may be bizarre but it is a good thing.  We know we are connected to this.  We have our ticket…"

      "List in the mail, and now we have to find it. " Amberly finished my thought. 

       "In some ways, yes." I said. "We need to revisit our pasts, follow those connections. Find the data we are missing and strike."

        "The Midnight Quartet making an interdimensional debut" Amberley added with a smile.  "I like it."

       "Don't call us that!" I said with a shake of my head.  In truth I kind of liked it but we were not super heroes. "If anything we are the local bands. But we can use our connections to move up."   

         "That sounds like you have some impossible missions for us."  Amberley added. I can hear the excitement in her voice.  She was going to be dissapointed.

         "Indeed I do." I gave a long sigh. "We return to our roots so to speak. "Try to find a string and see what we can unravel."

        "Sorry to say but my childhood vine was placed under a giant flaming rock." Amberley added. I personally found it hard to believe she had any magic. But if stories were actually true she had a powerful bloodline.

          I used my hand to dismiss the thought. "Your adopted family may have wanted to harvest you for a spell but not this one.  The age is different. Your sexual history has not remained the same.  There are too many unmatchable variables."

        "Yeah I got laid…. But not for sometime." Amberly added.

         "Yes well, I doubt what is left of the town your adopted family is buried with will have many clues." I said quickly. "I am thinking of the place you stayed at before the adoption."

         Amberley covered her face,  wining and kicking like a punished dog.

        "Caretakers know spells. If we can give it what we know it may be able to give us more knowledge on the spell." I clarified.

         "Yeah well…. Yogibah visits tend to get awkward. Goblins don't have boundaries, and no hesitation in placing tongues into places tongues don't belong!" Amberly covered her face. 

         I put my hand on hers and squeezed. "It needs to be done. I will be returning home as well. I also left things behind. People I would rather avoid." I cleared my throat. "Essie is not going to be pleased with her task either, and Gerald well….

       "He is an idiot?" Amberley added. She never missed her chance.

         "No comment, I added.  "But his mission will be no less dangerous than yours."

         Amberly just shrugged. She stared down at the table for a moment. At least she looked up. "Well he better not steal my smokes.  They aren't cheap gas station cancer sticks."

         "And the vodka isn't Fleishman's." I added. "After three years I know how your brain works, focus on the task, stay alive."

          "Yes mom, I will be good." Amberley said. "Staying alive would be easy if I could borrow some handy dandy angelic lead candy." Amberley added.

          Despite everything I felt a smile form on my lips. The pull of the angel lessened for just a moment.  "Let me see what I got a supply of." I said before getting up to head to my room. My head slowly went under the water once again. 

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***