When I looked again, the guy was gone.
Bill the bird found me loitering and squawked as he landed on the curb. Bill the bird, like me, was a robin. Why not Robin the robin? Take that up with Aaron Honeywell. He named the damn bird, who refused to answer to anything else. I totally forgot I had him hang around outside of Bliss last night in case I needed a look out.
"Hey, Bill. You okay, man?"
Oh great, not only was I the weirdo in the parking lot, now I was the weirdo talking to animals.
Coo!
He leaped forward with a rustle of feathers, pecking my shoe.
"Chill out."
The bird let out a shrill note, flying up. I thought he’d leave but he flew towards my face.
"Be cool, dude! Be cool!"
Bill dive bombed me, a little kamikaze robin taken by some madness. What the hell?
Trying to keep his tiny talons and feathers away from my face, it took a second to register how everything shifted. Suddenly we weren’t in the same parking lot. Day was night, and I was here, but my body wasn’t.
As the mage and human, whenever I saw through Bill’s eyes or we communicated magically, I naturally took the lead. This time Bill threw me into his memories, like he wanted them out of his head and in mine instead.
Everything bathed in darkness, everything still. Occasional shades of grey and endless black in between.
Movement. People.
Two figures tumble into view, laughing and stumbling together. All over each other. They find a secluded enough spot near Bill for all the privacy they need.
It starts fun and sexy, one drawing energy from the other.
I see it, Bill sees it, we see it. Not at first but then a faint glow. The energy appears like water dripping from a faucet, then flowing freely. Then it becomes a raging flood. Energy pouring out and out, so much, too much.
The ecstasy on the victim’s face changes to agony. He tries to push away, tries to scream and can’t. The smaller man’s skin wrinkles and turns gray. He falls to the ground while the incubus adjusts his clothing. He rights his shirt, which had briefly exposed a strange, intricate tattoo, too complicated to really see in the dark.
The killer is a tall man with a head of dark hair. He turns and Bill shoots up overhead, flying away, too scared to face the man head on.
I came back to myself with a jolt, slamming back into my own body. My buzz was gone and my hands were shaking again.
“Holy shit,” I breathed. I started moving just to put some distance between me and the parking lot where I acted like the biggest lunatic on the planet.
The bird showed me what he saw and it played like a movie in real time, like the events I watched happened right then. But this happened last night.
It already happened. There wasn’t anything I could do.He’s already gone.
I hadn’t been prepared to see that, let alone see it happen to someone I recognized. The friendly guy I met at Bliss. Damn, we hadn't even really introduced ourselves. I didn’t know his name. The supernatural newbie who was eager to explore. New to it all and someone took advantage, apparently the same person who’d tried doing the same to me once upon a time.
What Bill saw seemed crystal clear, his fear and focus capturing it all as it played out. But nothing felt quite real until I confirmed whatever he showed me with my own two human eyes.
So, I texted someone that could get me access to the crime scene. He agreed to meet me there and now I had plans for the day.
~
Rob
Access to Bliss and the surrounding alleys had been blocked off, police cruisers and yellow tape blocking the public from the crime scene. So, therewasa crime scene.
Some curious people gathered to watch the techs coming in and out, but the crowd was pretty small. The gray sky overhead and persistent drizzle kept more onlookers away.
