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

and shook his head as surreptitiously as such an action could be performed.

“With the things you can do, you could be a real force for good. I guess I want to give you a chance to be that,” Lamont finished.

Adam put on a smile. “And I want to be that. Why don’t we all sit down? This is going to take a while.”

Everyone got comfortable. Téa heated herself a package of ramen noodles and offered everyone else some, too, but they declined. Her coffee table was broken, but she didn’t mention it. When she finally sat down in her reclining chair—away from Lamont, where Adam made her sit—and started pouring the flavor packet into the bowl, Adam went about the daunting task of relaying his situation and the events of a span of time that defied quantification because of relative time between dimensions. It was the weirdest thing he’d ever said. It started with the mission in Afghanistan, Operation Lone Prairie, and how he met his end at the hands of Harun El-Hashem. His audience was regaled, repulsed, and sympathetic. Then came the hard part: his life after death. He had to explain the Wheel of Fate, the Custodian, the cycle of life and death, and what the world beyond death was like. He detailed the peril the world could be in, his mission, and why he was sent back. That was when he caught up with Lamont and the events that surrounded their first meeting. He finished by relaying what the Custodian had told him about how his new body functioned, the superpowers that came with it, and the drawback of sustaining himself with the souls or other people.

A quiet followed the end of Adam’s story that made him tense. Lamont looked pensive afterward, but Téa was enthralled like a child being told a fairy tale. “Wow!” she finally said.

Adam smirked bashfully. “Yeah. I’m sorry I lied to you about what I was really doing here.”

Téa’s mood changed in a heartbeat. She almost looked insulted. “Adam, this isn’t a primetime drama! You expect me to whine about how”—there Téa adopted a mocking sob—“you should have told me the truth because I’m your best friend, weh!” Téa shook her head. “Like a damn soap opera! I mean, I used to think that you had just abandoned us for your job and that you were bored with your life here. Instead, you’re a soul-sucking, like, fey-human from another dimension put on earth to hunt evil.” Téa scoffed. “That’s so much better!”

Adam fought a big smile but couldn’t beat it. Téa’s enthusiasm was infectious.

Lamont hadn’t interacted with the group yet. In fact, he seemed lost in his own little world.

“You look like you want to say something,” Adam said.

Lamont didn’t look at him. “I’m still coming to terms with the idea that you say you saw the other side and there was no heaven waiting for you. No god. No angels.”

“Not that I saw,” Adam said.

“No . . . just this big flaming wheel that takes all our souls . . . melts them down, and just puts us back in a body to go again.”

“I know it’s not ideal—”

“It’s farfetched,” Lamont interrupted, “and I admit I have trouble accepting it, but then there’s the other part . . .” Lamont continued his monologue, staring far away. “The chupacabra.”

“Yeah?” Adam asked. “What about it?”

“Christina and Daniel Lacey came to the precinct this morning, saying they saw some kind of monster in their yard. The girl called it a chupacabra.”

Téa and Adam exchanged surprised looks. “It was in the town?” Téa asked. “And it went after Christina and Danny?”

“I can’t really say it went after them,” Lamont answered. “Still, you were sent after this thing, and suddenly here it is? Making a big scene for people you know personally, marking the first real chupacabra sighting in years? Cops don’t call something like that a coincidence.”

“Scary thought,” Téa breathed.

“We need to find this thing,” Adam put in.

“We?” Lamont asked.

“Yeah,” Adam looked at him. “I will probably need help. I know Téa’s on board.”

“Damn right,” Téa said. “My life has never been so exciting. I was literally living my life waiting for something like this to happen. How am I even supposed to go in to work tomorrow?”

“She’s smart—and eager—no doubt about it,” Adam continued, “but I could also use someone like you too. The way you tracked me down, you’ve got skills I need, and resources too.”

Lamont shook his head almost imperceptibly.

“We need to find this thing,” Adam reiterated. “It’s dangerous, and according to the Custodian, it’s throwing the whole world out of whack. You’ve seen what I can do, and someone already said they saw the thing. Now’s not the time for disbelief and indecision. Will you help us?”

“Yeah”—Téa smiled at the sergeant—“will you join us in saving the world?”

Lamont sighed. “I have a family. I already didn’t go back home today like I said I would. I have to think about them. I have to think about my job. This . . . this is all just too much.”

Adam nodded. “I understand.”

“Just . . . let me think about this. I need time to think about it.” Lamont stood and made his way to the door.

Adam and Téa didn’t try to follow or press him. Téa just said, “Goodbye, Lamont,” in her little voice.

Lamont smiled wryly and offered a short wave before he closed the door on his way out.

“I think he’ll come around,” Téa assured Adam.

Adam bit his cheek. “Maybe . . .” Suddenly, Adam jumped from his chair and bounded for the door. Téa almost stopped him as he tore the door open and bounded outside but said nothing. She didn’t know for sure if what he was going to do would help or push Lamont further away.

Lamont was hardly surprised to see Adam run out of the house just as he was about to start the car. He rolled down his window to let Adam say his piece.

“Fisher, wait!” Adam jogged up to the door and leaned down to speak, not winded at all. “I have to tell you something. I . . . I don’t know if it matters to you, but I respect you. I respect your morality and your hardline stance on right and wrong. You’re wise, and you’re good inside, and I don’t know if I am. I’m angry, and I’m impulsive, and I can be stupid sometimes. Sometimes all I have is my gut, and it seems like it’s wrong more than it’s right. And I don’t want to let anybody down.”

Lamont exhaled sharply before he spoke. “It’s normal for a person to question their actions, Adam. The world is a hard place, and it doesn’t make it easy to know what the right action to take is. Every action has unforeseen consequences we can’t even fathom until it’s in front of us. The best intentions can create the worst outcomes, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Sometimes, our gut is all any of us have.”

“See? That’s what I’m talking about.”

“And what I’m talking about is that I don’t have any more answers than you do,” Lamont said. “I’m a little more experienced and a little more cautious, but it doesn’t mean I always know what the right thing to do is. All I know is that your heart is in the right place, I just—”

Lamont cut himself off, and Adam swore he saw the glint of tears barely finding purchase in Lamont’s eyes.

“What is it?” Adam asked.

Lamont exhaled heavily. “Adam . . . uhm . . .” Lamont swallowed, “Look, I want to tell you a story. About a year ago now, me and my old partner were in an abandoned factory. Marco was his name. Good man, not any different than you or me. We were responding to a call about suspicious noises coming from inside the factory. Someone thought they heard people inside, maybe someone was in trouble. It was day, but most of the windows had been boarded up, so it was dark . . . just dark as the deepest pit of hell. We had our flashlights out, but I swear to God or . . . whoever, there was something evil about that place. The darkness seemed to . . . just crowd in on us from every side. Then we heard the noises. They were small, but somehow that made it even worse. It was like there was always something moving just outside of our flashlight beams. It could have been just bums or rats, but I know my nerves were getting the best of me. My flashlight beam was shaking, I got so scared.

“We were moving down the halls. We called out every once in a while, identifying ourselves and asking about inhabitants. Then there was crying, something like whimpers. They echoed. We could hardly tell which direction it was coming from. There was a serial killer at large, kidnapping women and doing horrible things to them. We didn’t know where his hideout was, but me and my partner figured we may have stumbled onto it. Suddenly, my flashlight just barely catches the edge of something, a brief reflection of eyes looking at us. When I swept back to it, some pale, ragged, shambling thing came at me. It wasn’t moving fast, but it wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen before. My partner fired his weapon, just once.”

Lamont paused. He didn’t show it, but Adam had seen enough trauma in his time to know when someone was struggling to keep themselves together, so he was quiet, waiting for Lamont to continue whenever he was ready.

“He hit her right in the chest.” Lamont breathed. “She fell against me and held onto me. I nearly dropped everything in my hands, but she was so light. I’ll never forget how light she was. She was no more than sixteen and probably made even lighter by whatever horrors she’d been made to endure up to that point. She just hung on to me. She looked up at me, and I looked back . . . right into her little eyes. She didn’t look scared or even in pain. She looked . . . confused . . . like she didn’t understand that she’d been hit.” The officer sighed. “Her name was Mikayla Blume. She’d gone missing weeks earlier, presumably another victim of who the media dubbed the Broken Butterfly Killer. She died right there in my arms.”

Adam was quiet for a time. He knew there were no words that would soothe a pain like that, but he didn’t want to leave Lamont hanging there in the silence. “It can be hard to see young people die, especially when that person is . . . an innocent.”

“That’s not the worst part.” Lamont looked to Adam with hard eyes. “The worst part is knowing that if Marc hadn’t pulled the trigger, I would have. He was just a fraction of a second faster than me.” Lamont sighed. “Your new power is like a loaded gun. I just pray that for everyone’s sake—including your own—that you find the wisdom to keep it pointed in the right direction.”

Lamont started the car and rolled his window up. He pulled away quietly, leaving Adam in a street that felt more empty than any he had ever been in before. Adam lingered there for a time. The conversation had drained him, and it took a great effort just to go back into the house.

Téa emerged from her room as Adam entered through the front door. She saw Adam’s face and became sullen. “How did it go? Do you think he might change his mind eventually?”

Adam sighed. “I don’t know. He’s a man of faith. He’ll have to dig deep to make a leap like that.”

“So what do we do now?” Téa asked.

“I don’t know. I think my first priority is going to be keeping you safe. If that guy is as bad as he’s been made out to be, you could use someone like me around.”

Téa smiled. “Ohh, I could always use a guy like you around, but will it be safe for you? What if the news shows up? Or a member of either of our families? What if someone sees you and starts asking questions? It doesn’t even have to be someone close. All it would take is for someone to recognize you. How can you stay here?”

“I have to stay here,” Adam said. “For whatever reason, the chupacabra is here, so here is where I belong, at least for now.” Adam became wistful. “I don’t know if I have it in me to be a hero, but I know that all kinds of sacrifices will have to be made. I can make those sacrifices. I can be strong—what?”

Téa had developed a sour expression. “Urrr, nobody talks like that.”

Adam chuckled softly, cracking a grudging smile. “Thanks, Téa.”

Téa bit her lip. She clearly had something on her mind.

Adam humored her. “What?”

“Do you need to eat?”

Adam smiled. Téa’s indomitable absurdity was making its presence felt. “I don’t think so, at least, not as long as I have soul power to live on.”

“Please don’t call it that.”

“Sorry.”

“What about going to the