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“Any trouble?”
“Nope. Oh, wait, yes. How many times have I asked to stop working with Reth? Do we need to go for an even hundred?”
“He was the only available faerie transport. And if we hadn't sent him, you would have missed your show. ” A small smile played at her lips.
“Fine, whatever. ” She had a point, after all. “Just, could you send one of the girls next time?”
She nodded. “Thank you for reporting. You may return to your room. ” She turned her attention back to the papers. I started to leave, then paused. She looked up. “Is there something else?”
I hesitated. But what did I have to lose? It'd been a couple of years. Might as well ask again. “I was wondering, you know, about maybe--I'd like to go to school. Normal school. ”
Raquel sighed again. This was more of a sympathetic, I know what it's like to be a human wrapped up in all this nonsense, but if we didn't do it, who would? kind of a sigh. “Evie, honey, you know you can't do that. ”
“Why? It wouldn't be too hard. You could just send for me whenever you need me. It's not like I have to be here 24/7. ” Truth was, here was kind of nowhere. The whole Center was underground. Not much of an issue when you have access to the Faerie Paths. It did, however, lend itself well to the occasional overwhelming bout of claustrophobia.
Raquel sat back in her chair. “It's not about that. Do you remember what it was like before you came here?”
This time I was the one who sighed. I remembered. I had been bounced through the foster care system my whole life, until that fateful day when I was eight. I'd gotten tired of waiting for my newest foster mom to take me to the library, so I decided to go by myself. I was cutting through a cemetery when a nice-?looking man approached me. He asked if I needed help, and it was like he was two people at once--the nice-?looking man and a withered corpse, both there in the same place, the same body. I screamed bloody murder. Lucky for me, APCA (the American Paranormal Containment Agency) had been tracking him and stepped in before he could do anything. When I started babbling about what he looked like, they took me in.
Turns out my ability to see through paranormals' glamours to what they are underneath is unique. As in, no other human on Earth can do what I do. That's where things got really complicated. When other countries got wind of what the APCA had, they freaked out. The UK especially--you wouldn't believe the level of paranormal activity they deal with there. They hammered out a new treaty, forming IPCA (the International Paranormal Containment Agency), the key items in the treaty being international paranormal control cooperation and, oh yeah, yours truly.
So I had to admit Raquel was probably right. My life of containment sometimes sucked, but at least I had a home. One where I was wanted.
I shrugged, pretending I didn't care about school anyway. “Yeah, cool, whatever. I'll talk to you later. ”
I felt her eyes on me as I walked out. It's not that I'm not grateful to IPCA. I am. They're the only family I have, and things are bette
r here than they had been in the foster system. But I've been working full-?time since I was eight, and sometimes I get tired. Sometimes I get bored. And sometimes all I want, more than anything else in the world, is to go on a freaking date.
I went back to my unit. I had a pretty nice setup. A small kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and the main room with my awesome TV. The white walls in my bedroom had long since been covered. One was dedicated to posters of bands and movies I liked. Another was draped with an awesome hot pink and black leopard-?spotted curtain. A third wall was my canvas. I wouldn't call myself an artist, but I had fun painting whatever came to mind--sometimes nothing more than just splashes of color--and changing it when I got bored. The paint was probably two inches thicker now than when I moved in.
I pulled on my favorite pair of pajamas and undid my thick braid. Somehow microwaving dinner and watching a movie won out over doing homework. I must have drifted off to sleep at some point, or maybe I was half asleep, I don't know. But I'm sure I was dreaming, because I kept hearing a strange voice, almost singing. “Eyes like streams of melting snow, cold with the things she does not know. ” Over and over again, that line, in the most haunting way. It was as if the voice was pulling me, calling to me. I wanted to answer. Just as I was ready to call out, another alarm jarred me awake.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and reached over to check my vid screen for an announcement of what was going on. I pulled the screen up, but all it showed was a flashing red WARNING. Lots of help there. I pulled on my robe, grabbed Tasey, and poked my head outside. I knew alarm procedure called for me to stay in, but I wanted to figure out what was going on, and now.
I ran down the empty hallways; strobe lights were going off to warn any paranormals that couldn't hear the alarm, although you could feel the dang thing it was so loud. Reaching Raquel's door, I palmed it. That's the nice thing about being me--all access, all the time. I ducked inside; she was at her desk, calmly rifling through some folders.
“Raquel,” I panted. “What's up?”
“Oh, don't worry about it. ” She looked up at me and smiled. Or rather, the thing wearing Raquel's face looked up at me and smiled. Raquel's face shimmered over--What? I couldn't describe it. It was somehow featureless, with eyes the color of water. If it hadn't been wearing Raquel's face, it would be like it wasn't there at all.
I forced a smile to mask my terror. “Woke me up from the freakiest dream. ”
“I'm sorry. I've got some work to do. Why don't you scoot along?” It went back to the files.
“Sure, as long as you don't need me. ” Turning toward the door, I casually walked closer to the desk. “Oh, Raquel?”
“Hmm?”
I flicked Tasey onto her highest level. “You dropped this. ” The thing wearing Raquel's face looked up as I lunged forward and jabbed it in the chest with the Taser. Its water eyes opened briefly in shock before it collapsed to the ground.
Horrified, I made my way around the desk. I had heard of things that could eat a person alive and wear her skin. The idea gave even me nightmares sometimes, and my life was populated by nightmares. “Please, not Raquel,” I whispered, trying not to throw up. Raquel melted away, leaving the strangest thing I had ever seen. Which, given my job, is saying a lot.
Chapter Two
NOT-?ME AND I
My eyes couldn't seem to focus on the creature. They kept slipping down its sides, unable to find anything to hold on to. It wasn't invisible, exactly, but it was as close as a physical being can be. Imagine trying to walk up an eighty-?degree incline covered in six inches of ice. That's what trying to look at this guy was like.
