Through the Looking Glass

“Stood in firelight, sweltering bloodstain on chest like map of violent new continent. Felt cleansed, felt flat planet turn under my feet and knew what corgis know that make them bark like adorable puppies in the night. Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything else to do. Devise reason later. Existence is random. No meaning save what we choose to impose. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. Was reborn then. Was Elaine. Does that answer your question doctor?”

“No. It doesn’t. It actually raises a lot more.”

“Why not?” Elaine shot up from her laid back position on the leather couch. Across the office sat a man in his mid forties with a quickly graying hairline. Sweat built up around the brows of his forehead as the creases held the stories of many cases he analyzed.

“I need to know if you are still suffering from delusional manifestations of…”

“What delusions?” Apprehensive to other people making light of her reality, Elaine promptly brushed away the doctor’s question.

“The delusions your crazy ass comes up with…” Without thinking the doctor responded in a primal subconscious way.

“You can’t call my ass crazy!” She retorted.

“It’s a special order. The sooner we come to terms with you learning some discretion and…”

“I don’t even know why I had to come here.” Elaine turned back to facing the adjacent wall with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Because the Assembly for Vigilante Awareness filed you as a Class-A menace.”

“What evs.”

“The Council of Concerned Citizens wanted legislation insisting Dallas area sports teams change their names in protest of you.”

“Special interest groups are ruining America.”

“…And the Heroes and Villains United Against Collateral Damage deemed you a threat above global warming and just below giving a billionaire named Ozymadius an island with no questions asked.”

“Haters gonna hate.”

“After years of council as a doctor of vigilantes, I have…”

“Does saying you’re a doctor make your mom pro-choice, or did she just stop having kids?”

“The question I had…”

“What does your dad tell his friends you do? Does he tell them you’re a real doctor?”

“I am a real doctor. You can clearly see the degrees.”

Elaine turned her head to examine the diplomas hanging on the walls. She dug her hand into her pocket and pulled out a crumbled piece of paper and a pen and began scribbling something down.

“Now, if you could tell me about your home life we can…”

“Hey look I’m a doctor now too!” Elaine held up the piece of paper she scribbled “Doctor” on. “I didn’t even have to go to medical school or be smart or anything.”

Enraged at the display of disrespect he experienced in his own office, he grabbed an award on his desk bearing a human brain with an inscription attributing this award to outstanding work in further understanding the workings of the human mind, and in rage threw the small statue through the window. Glass poured out from the fracture and the sheet of glass fell from the top and smashed against the window panel. His strength continued with the rage as the doctor lifted the wooden rolling chair and dropped it on top of his desk. Blinded by adrenaline and rage he stormed out, pushing aside an office receptionist who came into see why the commotion.

“Do you want me to make you a doctor too?”

Due to her counseling session still needing to complete legal qualifications Elaine remained seated on the couch with her legs dangling over the cushioned edge. A draft of air blew in through the shattered window making the room feel much more cool and adequate to Elaine’s tastes. The rustling of papers and occasional raising of voices made the wait anything but tranquil, but in her mind this seemed just fine for waiting.

“Hello, Ms. Angara.” A bun wearing brunette with a grey business suit and the eye brows only a studious crone could afford to be seen with stepped though the door and strode over to examine the desk. Feeling a discomfort in removing the chair from the desk prompted her to take another course to find seating. “I see you’ve met our other staff.”

Elaine remained quietly seated with her arms wrapped around her chest. “He made an impression on the window.”

“I would like to address a few statements.” Under the guise of a caring tone this woman sought to bring reality to Elaine, as harsh at it may seem.

“The other guy didn’t do so well.”

“Your mother walked out on your family.” She said with an objective tone.

"Huh?” Confused by her approach and her methods Elaine tried to understand her angle.

“Your family lost their home because the economy does not support small ranches anymore.” She continued with precision to keep Elaine from putting together why she prodded with those questions and to simply take in the information. “The man you thought was your father is not your real father and that led to your mother’s abandonment of your family.”

“My dad was a corgi hengeyokai who came to Earth after his home was destroyed…”

“No. You are nothing special, but just the product of a torn home and a series of lies.”

Taken by surprise by the harshness of reality and in an effort to escape from any dealings with what transpired, Elaine took to her feet and with one step dematerialized and came into full bearing outside of the office.

She wandered the streets of Chicago for hours. Passing by run down tenements and broken windows with enough light shining through to give hope to anyone trapped inside of the poverty surrounding them. Dirt mixed with exhaust fumes coloring the skies a distraught grey embedding itself within the concrete and metal of the city.

Under the overarching rooftops Elaine found a mirror tenants brought out to the curb for pick up. With the sleeve of her shirt she cleaned the dust encompassing the face of the discarded item. Anything could look back at her from the mirror now. A hengeyokai princess, a girl who died of nothing in Mexico, or a girl who couldn’t face reality, she could be any of them. “I don’t think we can all fit in there.” With her reflexes sharp as ever she drew out a pistol and fired on the mirror. Shards fell heavy on her hearts, turning her delusions to ice, shattering them. Was reborn, free to scrawl own on this morally bankrupt world. Was Elaine.

Chicago: home of annoying sports fans and the Phantoms. Clayton was there to meet with the latter with hopes that none of them were part of the former. It seemed impossible to pass any bar without hearing chants of “Da Bears!” or “Da Bulls!” or whatever, and Chicago had a lot of bars. It was enough to drive any sane human crazy and he wondered, if he took the job he was there to take, just how much he would be able to take before he became a super villain. He would have to put up with it for some time, though. He made a promise awhile ago to the crazed gun-toting Asian cowgirl he was legally married to. It was a promise that, up until that point, he had not kept. Events in Japan and a few other places drew his attention away from it. When she went away, she asked him to join her team of dark, brooding, vigilantes in her absence. Her presence during the New York incident indicated that she was back sooner than expected. He did not want her to know that he hadn’t kept his word; mostly out of fear that she would shoot him in the kneecaps or someplace worse. Aside from Mexican soap stars, she held nothing sacred. So now Clayton was in Chicago to find the Phantoms and make it look like he’d been helping them the whole time before Elaine asked any questions.

The only problem was that when his cellphone was destroyed, Clayton lost his only means of contacting the Black Knight. He would just have to attract their attention somehow. Night was beginning to fall which meant the criminal activity was beginning to rise. He assumed trouble would be easier to find in the seedier parts of town and headed there to do so. Where trouble was, the Phantoms were sure to be found. He just didn’t expect to find it so quickly. Clay turned the corner and there she was: La Chica Loca de Demonio herself. He quickly spun around to go back the way he came. It seemed best to just avoid her until he could officially join her costume crew. She seemed to be extremely interested in some shattered glass on the ground. He didn’t care what it was or why she was so interested, but hopefully she was too preoccupied to notice him while he slipped away.

“Don’t you think it’s a little extensive to have the suite? Why couldn’t we like get a normal room?” Sean asked plopping back into a plush red blanketed bed. Arms crossing behind his head as grey eyes glued themselves to the ceiling. Air-conditioning was doing its job as it pumped sweet cold air into the room, brushing like the embrace of a lover against his naked skin.

”Because I don’t like to half ass things. Beside, we’re the heads of two of the most prominent magic families in the world; we should treat ourselves to nice things.” Aaron answered pouring himself a bubbling glass of sprite as he turned towards the raven haired young man.

”Yeah but it feels a little too much.”

”Don’t be such a whiny bitch Sean. Its not cute.”

”Whatevs.” Sean grumbled rolling out of bed as his eyes caught a glimpse of the hopeless looking sky above through the giant glass window. Bare stomach meeting the soft carpet below

”Now put some damn clothes on. We can’t go out in the city with you naked.” He said sitting on the opposing corner of the bed. Sipping on the soft drink slowly as he fixed his tie with a telekinetic hand. Eyes moving over the multiple burn scars that dotted Sean‘s torso as well as his back and thighs. ”Tommorrow we have a lot of business to deal with,so I want all my sight seeing done today.” Sighing Sean sat up and picked a pair of khaki colored short and a rainbow splattered graphic tee from a pile of clothes, he had thrown not only two hours ago onto the floor. As well as checkered boxers. Quickly putting them on in a haze of exhaustion

”Fine but we have to go to that Willis tower place. I hear its pretty tall.” Sean muttered pulling the shirt over his head as he smacked his lips together.

”Whatever you want.” Aaron shrugged walking over to him and pressing his lips lightly against Sean’s. Walking to a mirror by the door. ” Just get ready quick. Two converse slapped Sean In the face, causing him to curse lightly. Though he didn’t really do anything else as he put them on. With a simple tying of strings he was ready. Aaron smirked, making sure his suit was clean.

”Why the hell are you wearing a suit?”

”Because I feel like it.” That was all the answer he needed really.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sean and Aaron were taking in Chicago for all it was worth. All of its great destinations were victim to their curiosity as they walked about. Sean licking on a vanilla ice cream cone, already half eaten. While Aaron simply sipped down a soft drink Eyes framed in prescriptions glasses as his contacts were beginning to become uncomfortable. Honestly they didn’t know how long they had been walking but Aaron was feeling the fatigue from the hours of walking.

They were ready to take a much needed break from walking or the blonde was; until the most interesting sound caught Sean’s ear. Sure the sound of gunshots were common to a hero of Sean’s caliber (a sucky one.) but he was in the mood to leap into action. To save people and stuff. People were mostly stuck on some sort of sporting event, so they didn’t even notice the sound of the deadly projectile slinger. Aaron personally wanted to ignore it but they had nothing better to do. Sean licked the drop of semi melted dairy treat from the side of his mouth before moving to investigate.

Though to his disappointment and relief it was just an odd Asian girl staring at a mirror. It was broken, most likely by the bullet that caused the sound. Questions rose like a wave at sea and Sean was unable to deny them. ”hey…urm you know its kinda against the law to fire a gun in the city right?” he said taking a bite of his icy cold treat. As Aaron simple stood behind him as if he expected something negative, Though he was prepared just incase. Though nothing less could be expected from the people of Chicago. If it was anything like New York anyway.

Light from the sun bounced off the broken shard in her hand. Beams flickered raced along the bricked walls Elaine ran the light along. With each flick of her wrist she could change the vantage point she wanted to see. People could disappear and reappear and the street always remained the same. Only the people changed; they left. Once the city comes it stays, and it will outlast us all. Everyone came through this city, and it traveled with them.

While time took all those bypassers away into the urban foliage, one man took acceptance to her observation. The quantum observer effect lived up to its theory. "Shit just got real."

"Speaking of things getting real, I'm here." The small orange corgi inhibiting her senses came into her view as she lowered the shard of glass.

"Why is that guy running?" Something about the way he ran tipped Elaine off as her head pivoted over her shoulder so she could watch him.

"I don't know, maybe he's met you, or has some idea of who you are. Maybe he just makes good life decisions." His small legs laid under his sitting body in hopes Elaine would remain stationary for some time.

"Why would that make him run?"

"Do you know what Socrates said about the observed life?"

"Observing him sounds like a good idea." Against the wishes of her companion she stood to her feet and turned to walk towards the street. A voice sounded out from behind her informing her of the city restrictions on fire arms within the city, but Elaine brushed it away as her spirit companion going on about things she didn't care about. "I got this. I'm just going to beat the truth out of this dirt bag, but you sound a lot different when my back is turned." Her palm rested on the chamber of her pistol, massaging her finger over the ammunition dispatch within her holster. Anyone afraid of Elaine must certainly be a criminal. Why else fear the law?

She darted in and out of her jumps placing her in an alley in front of Clayton's course. With a drawn pistol Elaine leaped out knowing she would leave enough of a closing distance she could squeeze off a few rounds before needing to jump to safety. "What are you doing in my city, boy?"

It was even easier than he thought it would be. Clayton went unnoticed while crazy talked to herself. Why did it have to be her? He wondered why it couldn’t have been one of the other Phantoms so he could put his lie into motion instead of come close to getting caught in it. Still, it was the first time he survived a run in with her without acquiring any new injuries, physical or psychological. Small victories.

He would find another area before calling her to tell her she could take his place on the team back. He was sure the Phantoms would back his claims given her probable reaction to the truth.

He neared an alleyway. It would be the perfect escape route if Elaine weren’t standing there with gun in hand blocking his path. He cursed those goddamned shadow-jumps of hers. She wanted to know what he was doing in her city, and probably why he was so clearly avoiding her. Clayton had to talk fast because he knew she would have no problem pulling the trigger. It was an unusual way to treat friends. He was about half sure she considered him a friend, anyway.

“Boy?” He gave a puzzled look, “Well, girl, I’m here in Chicago because you told me to come hangout with your super friends. Remember?” He could never be sure what she remembered. “Don’t tell me you forgot! Well, you’re back now, so it looks like it’s time for me to hang up the cape. Just in time too. Well, see ya around, kid.” His tone was soaked in mock sincerity and if he talked any faster his tongue would surely fall from his mouth. If that was enough to fool her, his promise was kept as far as she knew and he could get as far from her and the city as possible. He took steps forward in an attempt to pass her and get on the next flight back to Los Angeles.

"Well, son, I had to come back because of the lack of respect I get from the ungrateful haters of the world." Elaine air quoted the words haters in a blatant disregard for what she should use those for while keeping her fingers in a precarious spot over the trigger. "So, I decided to try this therapy thing." Again with the fingers, but this time around therapy. "I talked to this guy and made him have a breakdown and then this dumb lesbian came in and told me I wasn't really a hengeyokai princess from a dimension where corgi rule and live in peace." As she finished her explanation, complete with air quotes around the word "peace," her gun abruptly discharged into the air.

Rightfully fearing for her reputation, Elaine tossed the gun towards a new arrival to the conversation. As Sean began to approach Elaine over her gun display, Elaine made a motion only in her best interest. "Now it's your problem." With no regard for anything relating to him, she took two steps and disappeared from the now crime scene, leaving Sean to fend for himself. The gun shot attracted all the wrong attention from all the wrong people. Two police officers began to make their way to ascertain what just happened in the crowd. Neither saw exactly what happened, but the quickest way to call the police is always with a little gunfire.

From the other side of the street, Elaine watched from a tiny bistro. She assumed Clayton would do something to relieve the tension of the situation, and if nothing else Elaine would testify as a character witness at his court day to keep him out of jail. Elaine knew her reputation would probably get him the worst sentence if she defended him, so if summoned she would do all she could to try and prosecute him herself to force a mistrial. These were good ideas, she thought to herself.

"Excuse me miss." A bespectacled man unwillingly sharing a booth with Elaine tried to gain her attention. His tone came as timid as his stature. "We..."

"Shh!" Elaine shouted her silencing gesture to the man, turning his cheeks flush. "I'm busy."

"Well." Words slowly gathered around his mouth. "We were having lunch when you."

"Shh!" Elaine shushed the man again with no regard to him, his lunch, or his poor wife whom gazed on his shock. "I'm seeing if that guy over there who fired that gunshot is part of some sort of bigger plan, like a conspiracy to take down America."

"Oh my, is that possible?" His tone came off as though they were discussing some nonchalant topic such as the weather.

"Oh yeah, your safety in everyday life is completely unprotected. At any moment anyone could kill you for any reason." Elaine assaulted the man with a very confident fallacy. "The police are completely ill suited to do anything to help anyone, and all people with power merely help themselves. You're lucky your still alive to be honest."

"I didn't know it was that bad." Feeling distraught for his curly haired wife whose eyes stopped blinking when Elaine first appeared, the man tried to bring some reason to the conversation. "Is there anything we can do to help you?"

"Start by buying lots of guns. Having a gun is the next best thing to being able to make a positive difference in society. Backgrounds screenings are only necessary if you buy a gun from a shop. There's plenty of drug dealers and other criminals you can buy guns from with no background check. They all hang out in seedy parts of town, so you don't need to worry about the police getting all up in your business either."

"Oh my, I had no idea."

“Well, that sounds spectacular.” Clayton responded to Elaine’s recollection of the day’s events, “But anyway, I’ll --” He was interrupted. Some flippy haired scenster had taken it upon himself to inform Elaine on the dangers of loaded firearms as what was probably his boyfriend stood back and rapidly texted with apparent urgency. Under any other circumstances Clayton would have asked the boyfriend who his tailor was, but it just was not the time.

The couple had no idea what they were getting into, and he was content to disappear and let them find out on their own despite his curiosity over which one of them would be the first to be physically injured.

He continued on his way past the cowgirl when she announced that something was someone else’s problem. He turned just in time to see her toss her pistol directly into kid-with-the-hair’s face before disappearing. His curiosity was officially satisfied. He had to chuckle some at the look on the guys face when the gun connected. Pain could be awesome when it happened to other people. The joke didn’t last very long. Two police officers appeared almost suddenly. They both immediately dropped to one knee and had their pistols drawn. Their time was not bad for stereotypical chubby cops with flat-tops and mustaches. “How ‘bout you fellas drop da gun dere and get yer hands on yer heads.” one of the officers barked with a thick Midwestern accent. The accent made it hard for Clay to take him seriously as he reluctantly followed the orders. “You mind tellin’ us what you boys are doin shootin a gun off in the middle of da city for dere?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, McGuinness, look at the way their dressed.” The second cop spoke with less of an accent

“Suits?”

“Nice suits. Nobody in this area dresses like that, except made guys. These are clearly mob guys!”

“Dat true? You boys some kinda mafiosos?”

Clayton just rolled his eyes and sighed; as if he would admit it to them if he were. It all seemed like a bad joke. He needed to find a way to remove himself from the situation, because getting arrested is never a good thing, and getting arrested by officer fargo is even worse.

"...And once you really start to understand Alex Jones, you'll understand 9/11 never happened." Elaine continued on a long winded rant without anyone asking, or wanting.

"My father died on 9/11." A timid interjection sounded from the small woman across the table.

"I'm sorry for your loss, but your father is a liar." On cue with Elaine's misspoken words of misinformation the woman burst into tears. "I'll let you cope in your ways." And with those words Elaine disappeared from the small diner. A curvaceous crowd set up a trail for Elaine to follow through, keeping her attention focused on the task at hand. It only took her a few moments to hatch together a plan and with a quick step and a newly acquired trench coat, Elaine stepped towards the bickering cops.

"Cool your jets, sergeant..." Elaine strode onto the scene with all the ease and authority of a gruff and ridged desk sergeant that Lethal Weapon and Die Hard could teach her. "McGuiness is a good cop." She kept her hands tucked into the side pockets of the open trench coat, her hat resting along her back with the draw string tethered around her neck. "Detective Angara, HBIC division." She hardly looked older than twenty in normal time and space, but something about the cold colors of a city drew years around the girl's appearance. "You boys know what's going on? Looks like two brothers and a gay guy having some sort of trouble and they ain't needing to go on and have ya'll come in here exacerbating everything." She eyed the cop named McGuiness and lead her next words with her chin. "Look it up boy; that's why you ain't made sergeant yet." Whether or not Elaine's wild assumptions and character passed did absolutely nothing to give her reason to think over her actions.

"Now I think you boys need to be getting back to the precinct. You already missed your anniversary once and if you do it again you know yo wife is going to move back in with her mother again, and what kind of life is that for the kids." She kept her focus in between the officers to avoid hinting at which one she alluded to, thus strengthening her chances of actually landing one of her off chance shots in the dark.

“Hey! That’s dismissive. Just because you don’t understand her doesn’t mean she’s crazy. You don’t even know her. And it’s not exactly teleporting… Well, it kind of is, but you see, she has to-” Clayton stopped himself mid-explaination. Why was he defending Elaine?

“Well if ya aint a mob hitmen, wat are ya den, smartguy?” McGuinness smirked, knowing he had them all figured out. It was going to be a huge organized crime bust, and it was going to firmly establish his reputation as a hero cop. He could see the headlines, “Local Cop Mike McGuinness Finally Proves Mother Wrong.” It was something he’d been waiting his whole life for. There was no way their flimsy story about magic Asian girls would hold up in court.

“Ok, guys, we’ve only got two pairs of cuffs here, and they won’t let us have a car anymore after last time. So we’re gonna have to cuff two of you together and walk you all to the station.” The other cop took control of the situation while his partner day dreamed. It was becoming a recurring thing, and he was getting very sick of it especially since it was only his first year on the force. He stood up slowly and reached for the handcuffs on his belt when someone behind him told him to cool his jets. He quickly spun to face the voice. The Asian cowgirl was not just some crazy story after all. He was about to order her to put her hands on her head, but she just kept talking like some movie cop and he found himself unable to get a word in.

McGuinness was astonished to see a detective from HBIC on his beat. He has no clue what HBIC division was, but it sure sounded important. She even knew his name. It was almost an honor to have someone so much higher up than him know who he was, and that he missed his anniversary last year. She was clearly ontop of things. He would have to find his glorious arrest elsewhere. “Come on, Richards. We godda let da pros handle dis one.” He holstered his weapon and motioned for his partner to do the same.

“I can’t believe this! What are you, dense? Are you fucking retarded or something? She’s obviously the goddamn Asian cowgirl those made guys were talking about.” Richards kept his weapon trained on the newcomer.

“Richards! What did da chief say about racial profiling? Jesus.”

“This isn’t – She doen’t even have a badge!”

“Sorry about him. You know how Rookies are dere, right?” He shook his head, “Come on, Rook, you got a lot to learn about real, honest police work.”

McGuinness grabbed his protesting partner by the arm and proceeded to drag him off away from the situation. It left the four standing alone.

Clayton was confused, annoyed, and just wanted to leave, “Well, that was so fun, I think I’ll just forget it ever happened. Thank you, Elaine, for getting me out of the situation you got me into." His words were staccato in their near confusion. "I hope you, and you two brothers have a nice rest of your lives.” He turned to leave again, determined this time not to let anything stop him.

"Just keep your ears clean and wipe your nose rooks." Elaine gave a fake laugh along with what she thought cops used as small talk. To finish the charade while eluding any suspicions of her not belonging she tried to confusion the rookie by saying words. "Hey, tell Anderson the Bears, Bulls, and Sox all look good to win it all this year." She pointed her finger in a jovial manner offering a cocky laugh old friends would exchange.

Her smile faded as she turned back to the trio, raising her hand on level with her head and pointing her thumb towards the two officers. "Who were those guys?" Her eye brows shuffled as she took into account the ever changing situations and what she needed to do now. "You're not brothers?" She scoffed. "What are you homos?" Not listening for any answer to come back, she turned over to accuse Clayton with the last noun she used. "Now we need to embark on a new..." From the alleyway she caught the form of a man with the same brown cardigan from the man in the therapy session before. Only this time it looked like he brought along a rather large apparatus sitting upon a stand. "Deathray?"

Before anyone could chime in otherwise Elaine made her way towards the alley to abruptly intercept evil. "Nice death ray you got there." Hearing the last voice he wanted to hear ever shot a deep cringe down his back. "I'm guessing you don't have a license for it."

"It's not a deathray, it's an experimental..."

"Death experiment? And I bet you're going to use it on that playground over there." Elaine pointed out the inner-city playground devoid of any life.

"No, of course not."

"Why?" She interjected abruptly. "Are you a bitch?"

"Excuse me--"

"Too much of a bush league villain to kill a bunch of kids..." She gazes over to the block of land and decided to more accurately explain her estimation. "Probably mostly drug dealers and some homeless guys, but at one time they were kids and all time exists superposed within itself, so I guess you are too bush league to kill a bunch of kids. So what's it going to be." Elaine prodded her finger into the man's chest. "I guess you can either kill those kids or go to school and earn a real doctorate, and I think we all know you are cut out for real school."

“Tough.” He replied under his breath to Aaron’s outrage. He knew from experience that the only way to win any of the games Elaine played was not to play at all. Chaos followed her even closer than it also followed him. Life was a perfect storm of senseless bloodshed every time their paths crossed; that the last storm took the life of an innocent girl was something he would have to live with for the rest of his life. Leaving before anything else could happen was the best option for everyone, including the possibly homosexual non-brothers.

He continued down the street past the alleyway where a professor dragged a large apparatus. It looked like a death ray. He made made extra effort to ignore it. Don’t get involved. Don’t get involved. He repeated in his head over and over again as he hurried off. If he hurried, he could make the light rail, and then be on a train home by the end of the night. Clayton liked trains because they had next to no security compared to airports.

Behind him, he could hear Elaine accosting the man with the giant death beam. She was egging him on to fire it at a playground. That would be bad. Still, getting involved would be worse. He was no hero. He continued off for a few more blocks when he felt a tugging pull at his stomach. Was it his conscience? Probably. It was certainly annoying enough. He spun around, determined to stop whatever mad science mishap was about to occur.

He found himself face to face with an abnormally large, pitch-black dog. The hellhound sniffed him curiously before snarling. Its eyes began to glow a deep orange, they almost looked like they were on fire. Clayton would later reason it was the glow of the streetlights reflecting on the dogs eyes, but at the time it made for a fearsome sight. He swallowed hard and took a slow step backward. “Easy, Cujo…”

“Kerberos, wait!” A girl’s voice cried out from around the corner, and she soon followed. She had deep violet hair, and was dressed in a costume; something like your typical stage magician would wear, tophat and all. She skidded on her heels to a stop behind the dog. “Oh, Kirby! Stop it! This isn’t either of the boys in the picture, you silly dog.” She giggled, and the dog calmed itself almost immediately.

“This your dog, kid? You should really keep it on a leash.”

“Don’t worry about him. He just smells magic on you is all.” She giggled again. “Now comeon, Kirby, we’ll have to go looking again tomorrow. You know how Mr. Seth hates it when we’re late for dinner.” She scratched the dog behind the ear and they both disappeared behind the corner they came from.

“Magic?’ Clayton shook his head. He didn’t have time to be dumbfounded. He had to hurry back to Elaine. And hurry he did.