cont’d
“Hey, Mikey, Scott,” said Ryan. “Evie was wondering where you disappeared to.”
“Needed some air,” Mike said quietly.
Tommy looked them over, a disgusted look crossing his face. “Hey, I heard you’re a magician.”
“Yes, I am,” Mike replied, just a little too coldly.
Tommy didn’t register it. “Wanna do something with the kids?”
Mike looked back into the house. “Sure, I can do something with them.” Mike smiled. Scott knew what that smile meant.
Following Mike inside, he said, “Mike, don’t do something bad.”
He only gave him that slightly evil smile. He walked into the living room, which was a total ruckus of kids and adults and loud music and yelling. First, he walked over and killed the music. Adults noticed and turned to look at him. Mike clapped his hands. “Ladies and gentlemen and that means you–” he glared at the almost-dozen or so kids on the floor. They stopped immediately and focused on him.
As they did, he searched for ley lines. There wasn’t one here, but he felt it a little bit farther away, measured in miles. It was close to the surface so he didn’t have to dig for it, but it was just the distance he had to deal with. He tapped into it, and the power flowed into him, not as strong as some places, but enough to do these few tricks.
“I was asked to do some magic tricks.” He took off his jacket and tossed it on the coffee table. “I’ll show you simple ones first.” He pushed up on his arms, as if rolling up imaginary sleeves. “Nothing up my sleeve.”
The kids laughed, and Mike turned to look at Junior. “I see something…wait…” He bent over and tapped Junior’s head on the side, while holding his hand over his other ear. Mike gasped, and pulled his hand from his ear, showing him a quarter. “I think there’s more,” he said, and did it again. Two quarters.
“Oh, this could take some time,” Mike said, bending his head to Junior’s other ear and blowing hard – but for people who noticed, it wasn’t in his ear, but in his hair. Junior flinched but Mike kept his hand next to Junior’s ear and they all heard coins falling into his hand.
The audience laughed while Mike handed the coins to Ryan, and the adults applauded. Mike watched as people from the kitchen came in, wiping their hands on towels. Evie, though tired, brightened, and Mike smiled at her, knowing this would make her happy.
He performed a few other tricks, making things appear out of thin air such as a bird that exploded into sparks and fireworks, setting the wood in the fireplace ablaze, changing a one dollar bill into a hundred, and doing a “cut the lady in half” routine using a Barbie doll for a live person.
The kids were eating out of his hand, and he was sweating with the warmth of the room and all its people and the exertion of pulling ley lines. He glanced around the room, and Scott looked at him concernedly. Mike knew he was tired, as illusions and conjurings without runes were difficult for him. Finally, he turned to the group.
“For my final trick…” he said, and looked at the kids sitting at his feet. “Sleep little ones.” He said this in a commanding voice, drawing the last of the ley lines’ power and closing it off. All at once, the kids tipped their heads or fell over, asleep. Even the baby at Melissa’s breast nodded off.
The adults applauded. But the kids didn’t wake up.
Mike went to get his coat. “Wait,” said someone, “they’re not waking up.”
“They’re asleep.”
Awe changed to horror, and Mike felt it change in the room. He had his back to them, and when he turned around some of the mothers were shaking the children. Evie stared at Mike. “Mike..?”
“I’m a magician, it’s what I do.”
“Please, Mike, wake them up.”
“They’ll wake up one hour after dawn.”
“Wake them up now,” commanded a mother. Even Evie started to get a panicked look, when Junior murmured something and turned over, curling into a fetal position.
He hadn’t grounded, so he had enough energy to start the spell, but he would have to use his own power complete it. The audience had gotten nasty, and glared at him.
“Mike,” said Ryan angrily, “This isn’t funny anymore.”
“I did something with them, like you asked.” He turned to Scott. “Love, can you get me one of the tennis balls I packed?”
Scott nodded and made a dash upstairs.
“I only put them to sleep. I thought you’d want some peace and quiet.” He heard sobbing, and saw Melissa was crying.
“We want them to wake up,” snarled Tommy.
“Can never satisfy an audience,” he said, nodding at Scott’s reentry into the room. Mike held his hand out for the ball. Scott tossed it, and Mike easily caught it. “As you wish,” he stated. He bounced the ball twice, and on the third hit on the hardwood floor, it shattered into white light, which flowed up to Mike’s chest, filling him with momentary power. “Awaken little ones,” he said in the same voice, using the same spell in reverse.
All the kids slowly sat up or lifted their heads to see worried and concerned parents hovering over them. The kids looked confused. “Show’s over,” Mike said, and took Scott’s hand, leading him upstairs.
They were sitting on the bed when the door flew open. “Was that necessary?” bellowed Ryan. Evie was right behind him, her hands on his shoulders. “You could have asked us before doing a cockamamie scheme like that.”
“Ryan,” Evie began.
Mike stood up. “You don’t trust me, do you? Do you think I’d actually do any HARM to your children? To my niece and nephew? To your family?”
“We don’t know anything about you. You could be a pedophile for all we know.”
Mike’s eyes widened. “So that’s it. I’m gay and I have to be a pedophile.”
“Ryan!” Evie cried.
“Mike,” cautioned Scott, taking a hold of his right arm, the one that could shoot nether magic.
There was silence all around for a good long moment. Finally Ryan said, “I’m sorry, that was uncalled-for.”
Mike blinked. Hardly anyone ever apologized to him. He relaxed.
“I know you were trying to help, but it scared the shit out of everyone. Please don’t do that again without asking us, okay?”
Mike was stunned. Then he said, quietly, “I’m sorry, I guess I should have.”
Ryan nodded.
Evie said, “But could you do that spell about nine o’clock?”
Mike laughed, “Seriously?”
“I trust you. At least for our two. An hour after dawn, you said?”
“Yes. Refreshed and ready to go.”
Evie nodded her head. “I trust you.”
Mike smiled at her, “Thanks, Evie.”
6.
“Mike!”
The voice was right in his room. He hadn’t thought to put wards up. But then, this voice, this man, would have gotten past his wards.
“Mike, come outside.”
Mike got up, switching on the light and glancing at the alarm clock – it was twenty-minutes past midnight. The rest of the house was quiet, finally, and Scott had been sleeping with his arm around Mike’s chest, but Mike got out from under him.
He went to the window and looked outside, seeing Kael standing there in his leather jacket, petting the two black labs that they left outside in the fenced-in back yard. He pulled on his jacket in lieu of a robe and went downstairs.
“Are you ready?” Kael asked. Then Mike remembered, Kael wanted him for Wednesday night. He didn’t know what for, but now he was wide awake and ready to go with him. After a long, deep kiss, Kael explained: “Go quietly get changed, I need to see if we can find a way to … help. We as in you and I. Help you, the ghosts, the prophecy.”
Mike looked back at the house. “Just us.”
Kael gave him a slow nod, “Oh. we’ll meet folks. Nothing ever easy. They don’t know you like I do. So, yes. But we will be well.” Then he quietly added, “I am going with you to -my- home, my people, my Avestan. You will find it strange.”
And so they went on a strange trip, that although it took about half an hour in the real world, seemed like an eternity.
7.
Mike was exhausted, his emotions frayed. To think that Kael would offer to help carry something for him, not because he owed him, or not because he was looking for a boon, but because he loves him – Mike couldn’t wrap his head around it.
He didn’t tell Scott, he would only hold him and kiss him and cuddle. Scott was confused, but figured that Mike would tell him in due time.
When they arrived for brunch downstairs, it was at the fashionably late hour of eleven. The parents gave him a wide berth, and then he froze.
“What is it?” Scott asked, bumping hard into him.
Standing next to Evie was a darkly blond man, hair thinning, about Mike’s height but fat. They both had their backs to him, and it wasn’t until someone said, “Hey Mike,” that he turned around.
Both he and Evie did, and one could see the resemblance immediately. Though Mike had empty gray eyes instead of this man’s blue, one could see the resemblance in the face, hair and shoulders. Everything else, because of the man’s size, was vaguely the same.
“Dad,” said Mike.
“You,” said the man, coming over.
And that’s when the rest of the family scattered away, except Scott who stood next to Mike.
“Still a faggot?”
Mike glared. “Yes.” I could start a spell right here and kill him.
Said Scott, “I’m his boyfriend, Scott,” and he held out his hand.
The man sneered at Scott’s hand like it was a snake. Scott shrugged and took it back.
Mike whispered something, and Scott ribbed him, but he kept going. “Don’t,” said Scott.
Mike raised a hand, and dismissed something. The quiche burst into flame and people screamed. “They wouldn’t know where to hide the body.”
“You think you scare me, boy?” said the father, “With stupid tricks?” Someone tried to douse the flame with a lid but the flames sucked up onto the lid. The flames spread to another egg dish and a chafing dish, making the Sterno explode.
Through the flames and the chaos, Mike saw Evie crying.
He made Evie cry. He had to stop this.
He put his hand in the flame and sucked the flames within himself. It all faded, restored to its pristine condition – even the Sterno can.
But Evie had turned and ran into one of the side rooms off the kitchen, crying. Ryan followed after.
Mike’s father glared at him. “Now see what you’ve done. All you care about is yourself. You and your stupid orientation’. Couldn’t be like Phllip and – “
“SHUT UP, OR I WILL KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAND!” Nether magic coalesced around his hands, ready to be used.
Scott turned and stood in front of him. “Mike! Mike, you’re not that man anymore!”
Mike slowly let his hands down. No, not here. “I will read your obituary within a year’s passing, old man, and I will dance upon your grave.”
“You can’t threaten me.”
“I just did.” He turned to Scott. “Let’s go.”
Scott turned and looked around, while Mike said nothing and did nothing more than take Scott’s hand and lead him back upstairs. “We’ll stop somewhere and eat and–”
Someone knocked on the door. “Come in,” said Scott cheerfully, belying how he really felt.
The door opened slowly and Evie stood in the doorway. “I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry,” Mike said, looking at the floor.
“You’re more than a magician, aren’t you?”
“I’m a mage,” he said quietly. “Runeslinger. Spellweaver. Necromancer.”
She put a hand on her mouth. “You could have killed him.”
Mike glanced at Scott. “The thought crossed my mind.”
Evie came over to Mike, and she fell into his arms. Mike held her as she cried. “Mikey, what’s happened to you?”
His head bent, and he kissed her hair, closing his eyes tightly. “Things, so many things…”
“Promise me you won’t kill him.”
He cast his head back, opened his tearful eyes and sighed. “I promise you I won’t kill him.” That wouldn’t mean that something else might…
You’re not Grimaulkin anymore.
He sighed, a heavy sigh of a man who wished he could stay in his nature, but who had to constantly fight against it; if not for his own sanity, then for sake of those he loves. “I promise.”
She lifted her tear-stained face from his shoulder. “Do you have to leave? Dad’s leaving –”
“I think I should. It’s not just Dad. I’m causing trouble for you, Evie. It’s best that we go.”
“Come back, Mikey. Come back for Christmas. Nobody will be around, I’ll make sure of it.”
Mike smiled. “I love you, Evie. I’ll come back to visit sometime, but probably alone.”
Evie smiled up at Mike. Mike looked beyond her to see Ryan at the door. “He’s gone, Mike. You can come back down.”
Mike shook his head. “Actually, we have a place to visit, but thanks, Ryan.”
“Sure. Could never stand him, myself.” Ryan gave him a small smile, and left them.
Mike turned back to Evie. “I’ll say goodbye to the kids.”
The two men finished packing in silence. Scott said, wistfully, “I’m gonna miss this bed. Want to buy one for –”
“No.”
Scott laughed, and then shut the door on the way out.
Words: 2295
Total 5221