The Pale: Volume One, Jacob Long [best beach reads TXT] 📗

the way to see what Adam had been watching and then sat for a moment, considering the couple.

Finally, the cop said, “Is this what you’re doing with your time? Stalking your ex-girlfriend?”

And just when Adam thought his eyes couldn’t get any wider! His heart started pounding against his chest. How could this cop know him?

The cop looked at Adam and then scanned the horizon again. “Don’t worry. I expected this, but hanging onto her memory is only going to impede you in your duty.”

Adam’s eyebrows furrowed over the top of his bugging eyes. “You work for the Custodian of the Wheel of Fate?”

“I am the Custodian, Adam.”

Adam was quiet, blinking to refresh his drying eyes. Finally, he asked, “How are you here?”

“I transcommunicated myself here much in the same way I did to you, but I took the body of another rather than make my own.”

“You possessed someone?”

“Yes,” the Custodian answered without hesitation or remorse.

“Is he still in there? Does he know that you have him?”

“No. I am not a lowly dislocated spirit who has replaced another soul with my own. I have placed this policeman’s soul in a state of suspension. When I am gone, he will become aware once more, not knowing time has passed at all.”

Adam took what the Custodian said with a grain of salt. “I thought you weren’t going to be able to help me once I got here.”

“I’m not able to help you, not in any meaningful way,” the Custodian replied. “I can only speak with you. I cannot retrieve the disjointed souls, and I will not bring this body into any danger.”

Adam nodded. “You sure it’s okay to be here? To leave the wheel?”

The Custodian looked at Adam, and a short smirk curled the edge of his lips. Seeing the Custodian with a moving face and expressions was bizarre. Adam wondered if the disembodied voice he heard in the other dimension had a form somewhere that could smile and grimace and had been doing so as he explained to this ignorant mortal all about the true nature of the universe.

“The Wheel was getting along just fine before I came along,” the Custodian said. “It will continue to exist long after I am gone. It will continue to turn without its custodian while I take a moment to counsel with its champion.”

“So I’m the champion of the Wheel of Fate,” Adam started. “Did it choose me personally?”

The Custodian watched Christina and Danny. Danny had sat in the swing next to Christina, and they appeared to be talking of simple things.

“Well, I had a little say in the matter as well.” The Custodian turned to look at Adam. “You were chosen for a reason, and I don’t think we were mistaken. For instance, when confronted with a creature that could devour your everlasting soul, you did not cower. Not everyone could have done that. You faced a terrifying opponent—faced death—and even emerged victorious.”

Adam nearly blushed.

“You even accepted the mantle of the champion of the Wheel of Fate,” the Custodian continued. “Whatever your motivations, you accepted the immense responsibility of maintaining balance in the universe. That is no small thing. We saw this quality in you, Adam. The Wheel of Fate and I knew what we were bargaining for when we selected your soul from among the many that swirl about the crucible flame.”

“The Wheel speaks with you?” Adam asked. “It has thoughts and wants and things like that?”

The Custodian shook his head. “Not in a way that you could understand.”

Adam’s face betrayed a little insult.

“The connection I have with the Wheel of Fate is like nothing else in the universe,” the Custodian explained. “There’s nothing you could equate it with. I didn’t understand it myself when the Wheel and I were first joined.”

“You weren’t always connected to the Wheel of Fate?”

There was silence between the two for a moment. The Custodian didn’t seem ready to answer.

Adam continued his musing. “I guess I just assumed the Wheel of Fate was made, and you were right there with it. Hey . . . if the wheel made you and me, who made the wheel?”

The Custodian was getting tired of the conversation. “I think that is a subject for another time. You need to start focusing on your mission here. The world is in no less peril because your heart is pining for this girl.”

Adam looked at Christina. It appeared as if Danny was looking at him again, then Danny returned his focus to what his wife was saying. The man might have done something if a cop weren’t already talking to the stalker. A cop would usually be enough to scare someone off.

“Does Christina have a soul that resonates with mine, like you said? Do she and I belong together?” Adam asked.

“I won’t answer that,” the Custodian replied, “not to satisfy this need of yours to reconnect with the material realm in the same fashion you had before. But if it will help you forget her and focus on your mission, then no, she does not.”

Adam smiled at the Custodian. “That means she definitely does, right?”

The Custodian was not amused. “Adam, stop. Give up this poisonous infatuation. It will only lead to trouble.” He leaned closely to Adam, a gesture Danny probably would have found reassuring had he been watching. “Catch the chupacabra. It is your sole purpose in this life of yours that the Wheel of Fate has spared. And if you fail the Wheel, you fail the world.”

Adam observed the Custodian’s threatening body language out of the corner of his eye. “And just how am I supposed to do that? I don’t even really know how these powers work.”

The Custodian exhaled slowly, either gathering his thoughts or his patience. “The soul siphon was a . . . complicated creation, and so was designing a humanoid body capable of containing it.”

“A humanoid body?” Adam asked. “This isn’t my body? And it’s . . . not exactly . . . human.”

“Of course not,” the Custodian grumbled. “Your body can store and consume energy like no normal human body can.”

Adam stared at the Custodian witheringly, waiting for an answer he could understand. The Custodian was irritated with his attitude. “Souls are energy. They can be measured in calories and joules, just like any other. A normal human body can only accept and retain these values so much, but your body can store more without any ill effects, and it can spend it at an exponential rate.”

“Why don’t I just go and let you sit here and talk? You can spend the whole day just impressing yourself with your cosmic knowledge.”

“I have met fewer irritating men in all my years,” the Custodian snarled. “You can store and use the abilities of many, many people at once. This is what allows you to perform feats no mortal is capable of. This is the power the champion of the Wheel of Fate. This is the soul siphon. You can use it to store the chupacabra’s soul inside your vessel and return it to the great cycle.”

The two stared each other down for a solid few seconds, and then Adam shook his head. “I don’t even have any idea where to start with that.”

“Start with simplicity,” the Custodian said. “Consider this creature’s nature. How does it think? What is its motivation? It’s an animal. It might be a very strange animal, but it is still an animal, just like you. What was the first thing you did when you got back to the material plane?”

Adam answered with his tone still petulant. “I stole some clothes.”

“Why?”

Adam smiled devilishly. “’Cause walking around naked would’ve earned me more attention than I needed right then.”

“Exactly,” the Custodian said. “You needed to blend in.”

Adam sat forward on the bench and stroked his chin. “Yeah. I guess there might be reports of unusual creatures. Or maybe there aren’t. Maybe it’s blended in somewhere. There’s a lot of forests and hills around here for it to hide in.”

“You’re beginning to understand. What did you do after that?”

Adam chuckled. “Well, I kinda stopped off at a club.”

“Well, the chupacabra probably doesn’t have any other chupacabras to consort with. Well . . . hopefully.”

Adam smiled broadly. “Okay, uh, the next thing I did was I . . . I went to Téa’s house.” Adam considered the idea. “I needed shelter. I set up a place to live.”

Adam stood and began pacing slowly, muttering to himself as he always did when he was on to something. “It eats people. It requires privacy to do what it does. It probably has a nest . . . and a hunting pattern.”

Adam turned back to the Custodian as if looking for approval.

“It seems you have your work cut out for you,” the Custodian said.

“Yeah . . . yeah. I mean, his hideout could be anywhere, but it would have to be separated from society. It might roost out in the woods or in the sewers. There are also old abandoned factories and junk like that all over the city. I would need to know if it hangs around here or if it hunts in the surrounding area. Does it prefer humans, or will it eat anything? Does it keep the same haunts, or does it move around? Actually, Téa said it took advantage of an opportunity to escape a hunting party. That was weird. If it’s smart enough to do that, it could be really hard to catch up with.”

The Custodian had started looking at Adam like he was crazy. It made Adam halt in his monologue.

After a moment of just looking at each other, the Custodian said simply, “Huh?”

Adam furrowed his eyebrows at the god in cop’s clothing, wondering if what he’d said sounded stupid. “The chupacabra,” he tried to explain.

The Custodian responded, “I don’t know what you’re . . . how did I get here?”

Adam rolled his eyes as he came to understand that the Custodian had abandoned the cop’s body and simply not bothered to say anything.

“I don’t know,” Adam said. “You just sat down and said you wanted to hear about my screenplay.”

The cop’s expression changed to one of self-deprecation, finding it hard to accept that he’d actually said something that stupid. Writers could go on about their work all day. The cop didn’t even remember most of it, but knew he’d missed a lot. “Well, uhh . . . I gotta get back to work now.” The cop stood to leave.

Adam shot at the officer with his index finger and clicked his tongue. With a wink, he said, “Gotcha.”

The cop nodded in a daze and strolled off, probably to consider medical attention.

Adam watched the man leave and then took one last look over at the swing set. The swing seats were empty, and the couple was nowhere to be seen. It didn’t bother Adam that he’d lost them. They needed to move on with their lives, and he needed to move on with whatever life he had left.

14

The double door was pushed open, and intense daylight spilled over the Shredded metal club’s bar and dance floor. A young man, descended from Vietnamese immigrants, dressed in a sharp suit and wearing expensive sunglasses, marched through the portal. A retinue of thugs, all larger than he, followed close behind, also looking too cool in their designer labeled shades.

The bartender behind the counter paused in his cleaning and called to the group as they passed without even looking in his direction. “We don’t open for a little while yet. Are you here to see someone, sir?” He had all the sunglasses aimed in his direction, but the group never broke stride.

Their young leader spoke with abrasive wit. “Yeah, I’m here to see someone. If I have a task I think you can handle, I’ll let you know. Until then, shut your mouth.”

The exchange drew the attention of Warren, the doorman, who was sitting in the loft office. He poked his head out the door just as Joshua Truong started jogging up the iron steps. Truong looked up to see him. “Warren! Who’s this clown?” He stuck a thumb back at the hapless bartender.

Warren sighed and slipped back into the office. He spoke to the owner, Rick, who was sitting at his desk. “Joshua Truong is here.”

This news made Rick stop with his work and peer over his glasses at Warren. He cursed under his breath and closed his laptop. In another