Read Dark Time for Free Online Page B

Choirs. But that, my dear Wraith, is all you need to know.  
    Daniel and I looked around in the dark. "You know TC's going to catch you. Someone's going to notice you're looking at them and not me!"  
    Laugher rang in the dark and every hair on my back stood on end. By then, Zoë, it will be too late, and the strings of fate will have been plucked.  
    I sort of knew when she wasn't there. There was an emptiness that pervaded the space. We were alone. Isolated.  
    "Zoë…"  
    I reached out for Daniel the same time he reached out for me. "I know Daniel. I don't have a god damn idea what the fuck she's doing…but I sure as shit ain't gonna let her succeed."  
    And that's a fact, Jack.  
    Cause broken hearted or not, the Wraith was back.  

7

    Apparently Manuel still had a bit of clout with the Society House staff. I figured it was because he was a Revenant and no one there wanted to make them mad—especially now that they were assembling their own posse up to catch a Wraith. Best to stay on their good side.  
    Daniel and I waited in my body while Inanna did all those things I'd originally wanted to do. Like…take a shower and fix a sandwich. I was shocked at the amount of food Jason kept stored in the kitchen, given that as a Revenant, he really didn't have to eat. Mephistopheles loved a good meal though, and often quelled his culinary appetite by making a gourmet meal. That was Jason wanting to cook. Mephistopheles would be happy going out for just a good glass of wine.  
    She made a roast chicken sandwich with a lot of mayo. Gross? Mayo was gross. It was this jelly like substance made of eggs.  
    Gross.  
    Bibb lettuce, wheat bread, and tomatoes. I wasn't a big fan of tomatoes. I mean…their texture was just…ew? Now fried green tomatoes were the shiz.  
    Inanna didn't visit us again, and no matter how hard I tried to take control back, or contact Geist, nothing happened. I wasn't sure if Geist was gone because of whatever it was that pulled TC away, but it was big enough that he wasn't answering me or Daniel. And Daniel insisted he'd always come before.  
    In fact, Geist had been the one to greet him when he found himself in this place after his body died.  
    "So, did he give you an idea of why you were here? Like this?" We were sitting on the floor, against a black wall not far from where we'd been standing. We still had stage lights on us. Apparently they were a new addition. Kind of like having an eye watching us. And for all I knew it might be. Inanna's eye in the sky. I was leaned up against him and he had an arm around me. I didn't know if the physical sensation was real, but it was enough for me. I'd wanted to be held for weeks…anything to pull me back from that black brink of depression I'd slipped into.  
    "He was kinda vague. I knew I'd died. I knew Gabriel had been the one to snap Inanna's connection that kept me sane. She used an Eidolon, didn't she?"
    "Yeah. But we don't have to worry about those anymore. Or at least all but one. The destruction stone is still out there. I think." I looked over and up at him. He was still a beautiful man, even in spirit. "What else?"
    "He said Inanna managed to grab me after my soul released."  
    "So…you're really a soul, a ghost, and not a memory or something?"
    He shrugged. "Zoë, I don't know. I'm not a part of this. It's all so new to me. I loved being a part of it…for a while. But somehow I knew…"  
    "Knew what?"  
    "That it wasn't going to be forever. That…Inanna had other things in mind. It wasn't something she said, just a feeling I couldn't shake."
    "Was that why you were always brooding?"
    He smiled at me. "Yeah."  
    Manuel returned, with Rhonda's address in hand. Well color me shocked. They really had been keeping an eye on her, even though she was no longer in possession of power. The two left Jason's apartment within an hour.  

    * * *

    Okay…here's the funny part. Rhonda lived in a house three blocks from mom's old shop in