Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Riley
“You know it is impossible for you to hide with these things following you around,” Torin says while he plucks one of the souls.
The white orb bobs away, displeased since it seems to only like me for some reason.
I really wish I could help them because while their souls are bobbing around me, their bodies are in the hospital in a coma-like state.
“Torin, I will allow you to ravish my body right here and now if you keep quiet about my hiding spot,” I whisper, even though it’s rather stuffy in here.
Shaarune, Torin’s world, seems to be hitting summer right about now, and it makes me question if we should go suffer in my one-room apartment until it’s over since it has air conditioning.
His interest is piqued, and he shuffles over to where I’ve tucked myself behind a shelf in the giant library in Torin’s palace.
The palace can only be accessed from my world by going through a Door (currently placed in Mickey’s house) that leads to Torin’s realm.
We’d decided that instead of living in my cramped one-room apartment, we would live over here in Torin’s realm where his grand palace sat empty.
“I would love to ravish your body, but Lieutenant Lindsey is here and she’s very intimidating,” he says.
“You are a god. How can you be intimidated?”
“I just am! She walked through the Door and took one disgruntled look at my beautiful palace. While everyone else was going, ‘Ooh, it’s so beautiful’ and ‘Ah, I’m so jealous,’ she was all…
hold on, let me set the scene.” And I watch in horror while he grabs two souls and stuffs them into his shirt so it looks like he has breasts.
I am around a hundred percent certain that torturing the souls that bound after me in this way is wrong, but there’s Torin, running his fingers through his hair and pursing his lips as he tries to imitate Lt.
Lindsey. “‘What an absolute waste of space. How avaricious.’ I don’t even know what avaricious is… is it like asparagus?”
“Yes, exactly like asparagus,” I confirm.
“I thought so. Now come on… you can do it. It turns me on when you don’t let her bully you.”
“I can’t.”
“You can. Here, I will carry you,” he says as he reaches for me, but because I try to crawl away at the same time, he only ends up with my legs, which he lifts up.
It pulls my pants down my ass slightly, leaving me in the strange position people use for a wheelbarrow race when Lt.
Lindsey, Vinny, and Imani all walk through the door, led by Mickey.
“They do this stuff all the time,” Mickey states, as though this is a common occurrence.
“We’ve never done this!” I cry while I try pulling my pants up, but because Torin is holding on so tightly, I do little to salvage the situation.
Kit makes sure to step back so I get a full view of this display as Torin finally lowers my feet and even pulls my pants back up after I’ve finished flashing my coworkers and boss.
“Are we doing a wheelbarrow race at the company picnic this year? If so, Torin and Riley are already practicing,” Mickey says.
“Well… that was a fitting start to what is yet to come,” I declare as I wave toward the table in the library. Honestly, anywhere works as a good spot to ruin my life.
“Far more entertaining than any of the meetings we have at work,” Vinny says.
Vinny and Imani are both agents with the Magical Interference Unit, which I belonged to for around ten years before quitting three years ago when I lost my eyesight. About two weeks ago, I agreed to return in exchange for them helping me heal Torin.
Lt. Lindsey, who runs the meetings that Vinny is dissing, looks less than impressed by Vinny’s dislike for her super old-school PowerPoint slides with no pictures and only text…
lots of text. And it’s always so small you have to kind of lean forward to read them.
I think she believes that means we’re enraptured by them instead of realizing that she’s causing eyestrain.
“Riley, if it helps you feel better, we can all get naked,” Torin offers.
I’m not quite sure how that could help any part of this, but Mickey shrugs for some reason like he’s game.
Everyone has a seat and then proceeds to stare at us. When I don’t say anything, Torin pats me on the back. “Would you like me to tell them?”
“I got this,” I say before taking a deep breath. “I guess I should start from the beginning.”
“From birth sounds like a bit much,” Torin comments.
“No, from the beginning of this,” I say, waving my hands around.
“Ooh, jazz hands,” Mickey says as he jazz-hands me back.
Deciding that Mickey and Torin are no help, I pull my gloves off and toss them onto the table. “About four years ago, any high-level or strong magic I used started causing me pain. It began in my eyes and progressed to my fingers and eventually my feet.”
Imani reaches out and grabs my hand so she can examine the inky stain covering my skin. “What the hell is this?”
“I… don’t quite know.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” she asks.
“Because… I didn’t want to get thrown out of the Magical Interference Unit for being incapable of using my magic,” I admit. “I just… thought if I left and found a way to stop it, I could then return without anyone knowing… but instead, it’s gotten progressively worse.”
“How much worse?” Imani questions as she tries pushing my sleeve up before finding that the stain goes up higher than the sleeve does.
“Beyond… my limbs, it also affects my eyes… to the point where I can’t see anymore without using magic to look through Kit’s eyes.”
“And you didn’t tell us that?” Imani asks in disbelief. “Like… you’re completely blind?”
“Yes.”
“But you can see through Kit’s eyes?” Vinny asks.
“Yes, I use magic to do so.”
Imani looks hurt that I didn’t tell her this sooner, but it’s not like we saw each other as much as we used to once I left the unit. “Why didn’t you tell us?” she asks again.
“This… environment doesn’t always offer a chance to,” Mickey says.
“Don’t you think I heard again and again how I would never amount to anything in this unit because of my lack of physical skills?
It’s so strict and almost… degrading if you aren’t perfect in every sense.
The only reason I scraped by was my smarts, and Riley just didn’t have that to help him scrape by. ”
I narrow my eyes at Mickey. It started off really nice and then turned to shit by the end.
“What Mickey said!” Torin announces.
“Excuse me? I’m smart… ish!”
“He is smart about what food will be best,” Torin acknowledges, which… doesn’t seem to help at all.
Imani sighs and bows her head, telling me that she’s not happy about this but does understand why I hid it from everyone. I think she also realizes that she’d have done the exact same thing. “I’m glad you finally told us; I understand why this would be hard to talk about.”
“Oh, he ain’t done,” Mickey says as Joy and Tommy patiently wait behind him. “This was just like a sampler.”
Lt. Lindsey, Vinny, and Imani all snap their attention to me while they visibly question how this could be a “sampler.”
“Proceed,” Lt. Lindsey says, speaking for the first time since I blurted everything out.
Such a delightful conversation. “Okay, so we know that the god who was involved with the horseman is either using, working with, or controlling the four horsemen of the apocalypse, right?”
Imani nods. “Yep, skip the parts we already know.”
“Well… uhh, so we met Conquest.”
“Sure did,” Imani says as she tries to wave me along. “I’m quite eager for this main dish.”
“So… the horseman that Torin killed… is still alive. I guess it makes sense that you can’t actually kill a being of the apocalypse.”
“So you’re saying we can’t kill them… that is quite concerning. I wonder if we can imprison him,” Imani muses, clearly hoping this is the “main dish.”
“Maybe. That’s all.”
Torin and Mickey give me looks which I shield Kit’s eyes from. She simply takes her paw and sets it on my hand so she can peek over it.
Imani, realizing that I’m not done, gives me a pointed look, but no look compares to the one that Lt. Lindsey is giving me.
“Spit it out,” Lt. Lindsey orders.
“Well, that horseman… possibly reincarnated,” I choke out.
“So we still have four to deal with. But we’ll take care of them all,” Imani assures us.
“Even… if one of them is me?” I ask, cringing a little.
Imani laughs before hesitating. “What?”
“I think it’s hilarious too,” Mickey says, so I throw a pen at him. He would have dodged it, but Joy chooses that moment to hold Mickey’s head still so the pen smacks him on the forehead. “Dammit, Joy!”
“Sorry, I was trying to help you,” she lies.
“Help me, my ass,” he grumbles.
“Are you joking?” Imani asks me.
“Nope… surprise. How delightful, right? Well, this was fun. Glad we had this talk.”
“So… do you remember anything?” Vinny asks.
“No. I had no idea until Conquest told me, and Torin basically confirmed it by saying that the magic which is growing inside me is the same magic Death used on his realm. Oh… and these souls… kind of follow me everywhere. We’re thinking that the stain is caused by being away from my wretched horse…
which I do not want because I don’t like horses. ”
“How can a horseman of the apocalypse not like horses? Like that’s your whole jam,” Vinny says.
He must see my “not impressed” face because he doesn’t ask me more about that. Instead, he goes, “So… where is your horse? If you find it, will it stop the stain from hurting you more?”
“Probably… but the horse is in the god’s world,” Torin replies.
“Can you go get it?” Vinny asks.
“Depends,” Torin says. “We have no idea what we’ll face in that realm. We also have to consider finding the realm that the god will target next.”
“So that’s where we stand,” I say.
The room falls silent while everyone takes a moment to comprehend this and Mickey takes a moment to get comfortable on the chaise.
“Does that mean you’re secretly evil?” Vinny asks.
“No, I’m not evil!” I snap.