Edited by Kristine Roland

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This text is (c) 2009 by Melanie. All rights reserved.
 
 
Thirty-six

My head was spinning as I was thinking through the implications of the past hour. I didn't know what to do, but I was making a valiant effort not to panic.

I made a brief list, just like I always used to do, to get my thoughts in order:

- Alyssa was no longer a threat
- We still needed to get out of the area and consolidate things
- Stacy had decided to come with me
- There were things to recover from Alyssa's house before she was missed

Not a very ordered list at this point, but a first attempt to put my thoughts in order.

I spoke to Stacy and we agreed we'd have at least a day, maybe more, to get a head start on anyone who might be looking for us. Alyssa must have been working alone, if she hadn't, her backup would have stepped in.

Having Alyssa with us was actually working in our favor; they would be looking for a single woman, not two women and a child.

We agreed that we needed to get fake ID made up, because we could not afford to leave a paper trail. Problem was, neither one of us had ever had to deal with fake IDs before, and magic wouldn't help us here. I had read about reality-adjusting spells, but that was heady stuff I wasn't quite ready to try. Unfortunately, I had never seen a fake ID spell; I doubted there was such a thing. So we had to get fake ID the old-fashioned way; through the criminal element.

Thirty-seven

Elsewhere, Charissa smiled. This was going better than she had thought. That spell was a beauty, good enough that it could have been her idea. This unexpected outcome would make something else a lot easier. Charissa sent out some spells and sat back to watch things unfold.

Thirty-eight

Mike, a drug addict down on his luck, felt compelled to steal a car. Not just any car, it was in an upscale neighborhood he would not normally go to. Tonight was a first. He arrived stealthily, closed in on the car and produced a slim jim he had kept up his sleeve. Within seconds, the car door opened and he slid in, closing the door to make the light go out.

He swiftly detached the snatchbar that was hung from a loop on his belt, twisted the hardened steel screw into the ignition lock cylinder and slid the weight back, hard.

The cylinder popped out with a satisfying crunch.

He used a large screwdriver to crack the top of the glove box off the dashboard, reached in and pulled the wiring harness off the immobilizer. A clamp shorted out a couple of wires and the plug went back on, after that, the very same screwdriver started the car.

He drove off at speed, this was a nice car and he could easily get some good stuff for it.

Mike failed to see the oil slick and lost control of the car, riding up on the sidewalk and hitting a tree straight on. The exploding airbag stopped his head from hitting the window. He swore, grabbed his screwdriver from the steering column and left the car behind, fleeing on foot.

The car, left with the ignition turned on, began to smoke, then flames licked up from under the hood and soon it was burning brightly.

Dave, the fire chief, filled out the forms on the car fire they had just put out. He didn't even realize that he wrote that a female driver had been recovered, badly burned, declared dead at the scene and sent to the morgue.

Jim, the coroner's assistant, was bored out of his mind. He had zoned out for a moment when he suddenly remembered that there was something he had to do. He pulled out a form and started filling it out. He described a woman having been killed in a single car accident and burned beyond recognition. He attached the toe tag to a burned Jane Doe who had come in today and slotted the report into a holder on the gurney.

The dead woman was provisionally identified as Alyssa Harrows, aged 29, by the registration records of the car she was recovered from. A search for dental records was started, but none were found.

Police were dispatched to her registered address, where they found no one home.

Thirty-nine

Charissa looked at her handiwork, and declared it a success. The adult Alyssa's existence was nicely wrapped up, with no one the wiser. She had exhausted her energy for the moment, but she had averted an investigation that could have become awkward.

Forty

“We need to recover Alyssa's books,” I said. “They are a treasure trove of magic and it would be foolish to leave them behind.”

“How many are there?” Stacy asked.

“Erm. About 1500. Give or take two.” I attempted a bit of weak humor.

“Are you crazy? Fifteen hundred books, would you care to tell me where you want to put them, and how you will get them there?”

“I don't know. We have to find a way. It's just so important to have them. They are my only shot at learning magic.”

“I guess they are. But I'm not quite convinced we can do it.”

“We have to. 'If' doesn't come into it.”

“That's what you say”

“Yeah, that's what I say. Now quit arguing and let's put our minds to it.”

“Aren't you forgetting something?”

“What?”

“Someone, really,” Stacy said, “like Alyssa?”

I looked across the room at the naked girl who was blissfully playing with her much too large clothing.

“Oh!” I said.

Forty-one

Stacy got us settled down in her living room and put out some chips and juice. Then she left to get some clothing for Alyssa, because we couldn't really be seen taking a naked girl outside.

Alyssa was rather quiet, exploring the apartment and I only had to tell her to leave the drawers and cabinets closed a few times. She ate some of the chips and I poured her half a glass of juice, which she handled quite well with a bit of help, without spilling any.

I was at a total loss as to what I could possibly do with a child that age, I had been a bachelor and children didn't figure much in my life. No one I was close with had small children, so I was facing a very steep learning curve.

Fortunately, Stacy had returned with some clothing and got Alyssa dressed in panties, a skirt, a shirt, knit pantyhose and black mary janes. She produced a brush and brushed out Alyssa's long hair, and then she pronounced her ready to go out.

Stacy pulled a case from her closet and began packing some things. Clothing, pictures, mementos, everything went into the case in a rather disorganized pile. Closing the case was difficult; it took quite a bit of pushing and pulling to get the zipper to go around. Another one was filled the same way, then she started putting shoes into plastic bags. I grabbed a bag and helped, while Alyssa tried her best to unsnap the snaps on the second case. Of course they were under so much tension that she never had a chance.

Finally, after about an hour of frantic packing, everything Stacy valued was packed up and ready to go. We took the cases and some bags she indicated as being the most important things downstairs and loaded them into her car. I noticed she had also bought a child seat and remarked on that being really good thinking, which made her smile a happy smile.

We went back and loaded more bags into the trunk and the back seat of my car, and then we went back upstairs to survey what was left.

It was still a lot of stuff, and this lot didn't even include anything from Alyssa's house yet.

I said, “Stacy, we need a U-Haul.”

Stacy looked around and nodded, and then she said, “If I rent it and return it here, it won't point to LA.”

I agreed and we set off in her car, because it had the child seat. Strapping Alyssa in turned out to be quite a chore; there were 5 belt ends and no manual. I finally found the right order to combine 4 of them and was able to snap the fifth one onto that. With an audible click, the latch engaged and I adjusted the lengths of the belts. Stacy took a look and chided, “That is way too tight, she can't move at all. You're supposed to secure her, not tie her up.”

Stacy then loosened the belts' adjusters some and got into the driver's seat to drive to the nearest U-Haul rental point.

Stacy rented a Household Mover 24' truck and drove it back to her place, while I followed in her car. We reloaded everything from the two cars' back seats and Stacy's trunk into the truck, and then got the rest of the things from the apartment into the truck as well.

After 2 hours, we were thoroughly exhausted, but Stacy's possessions were in the truck with lots of room left. Stacy wasn't happy about having to leave her car, but it could be traced back to her, so keeping it was not a good idea.

At this moment, Alyssa decided to announce to the world that she was hungry, and we decided to get her some chicken nuggets and fries to take care of the problem. She tucked in and was soon smiling happily again.

Forty-two

Alyssa had fallen asleep in her car seat and Stacy and I were having a talk about what we would do next. She agreed that we needed to retrieve the books from Alyssa's house. While I held that getting all books was the most important thing, Stacy was of the opinion that we could take a selection of books if space didn't allow taking all of them. I argued that I could not possibly make a selection without reading them and that it would be easier to just grab them all.

I found out that Stacy was feeling pretty tired and didn't relish the thought of loading 1500 books, give or take two. I wasn't sure if I could do something about the weight, by magic, but I was sure going to try.

We would have to break into the house, since I didn't take a key when I ran. It was near dusk by now, and we made our way to Alyssa's house. Strangely, her car was absent, we hadn't seen it at Stacy's house either.

I took the truck's tire iron and went to work on the door, which creaked and complained, but finally gave up. The door swung open and the now familiar green shimmer of the wards filled the door frame.

I reached for the spell and spoke the word, making the wards turn off.

Once inside the house, I cast a spell to detect magic and numerous objects were showing in multicolored lights. Her house sure was full of magical objects, but I wouldn't know what they all were. Some might be dangerous in themselves, or lead the Council to us. I decided against taking any magical object unless I was sure what it was.

The study desk, which was also magically warded, yielded an envelope like the one Alyssa had given me, but larger, and it also was filled with cash. A quick count showed about $7000, mostly twenties. I showed Stacy and we quickly stowed the envelope in the car.

I remembered a certain book, which I was allowed to study at one time, and pulled it off its shelf. It contained various small spells and one of them, I remembered, made things lighter. I found the spell and cast it on all the books in the room.

Suddenly I felt very tired, sat down at the desk and passed out.

Stacy was shaking me and I slowly pried my eyes open. “Ronnie, wake up!” she said.

I said, “am 'wake,” and tried to close my eyes again.

“Ronnie!” said Stacy, “get your act together. We don't have all night!”

My mind slowly got back into gear and I stood up from the desk.

Stacy said, “You really had me worried for a bit there. You were out for, like, 20 minutes.”

I said, “I think it's the power drain of lightening all these books. Like my transformation, it seems expending magical energy makes me tired, just like doing physical work.”

I knew that was something I needed to remember, and watch.

We found that the books weighed only a fraction of their real weight now, so we were able to pile them into the boxes that had come with the truck and carry them outside with minimal effort. Because we weren't limited in the height we could stack the boxes, we were able to make optimal use of the space in the truck and finally stowed the last of the books with a little room to spare.

We were both at the end of our rope, having worked for pretty much 6 hours straight. Weight or not, that wasn't easy. We allowed ourselves the luxury of a break and then got into the car and truck and left.

A few miles down the road, we stopped and discussed the next move. Stacy was in favor of getting a motel room, while I would just as soon have driven on into LA. We argued back and forth, and Stacy finally mentioned Alyssa. That won the argument, because I didn't fancy making the trip with an unhappy three year old, which Stacy was predicting we would have on our hands if we didn't find a place to rest.

We used some of the cash to get a room at a motel at the edge of town. The motel featured a parking lot that could not be seen from the street, which would have to be good enough to hide the truck.

We got into the room and fell into bed, Alyssa between us. No one bothered to undress. Very soon, we were dead to the world.

End of part ten