Read The Unseen for Free Online Page B

looked decent, or that it was, at least, actually a hummingbird.
    “ Ooh, that’s awe...some!” the fitness girl cheered.
    “ Thanks.” Cassidy smiled.  It was a hummingbird in flight, nosing toward a blooming orchid, and she’d gotten very intense on the tiny details.  It looked like a photograph.  Cassidy sighed a little and let her shoulders slump in relief.
    “ It looks so real!  I can like see its little wingies flapping, almost!  It’s so pretty!”
    “ So this’ll work?” Cassidy asked.
    “ Yeah, TO-tally!  When can we do it?  I so want this on me!  Remy will be so jealous, it’s way better than her bird.”
    Cassidy opened her notebook and looked for an open time.
    When she left work, the sun had already sunk out of sight, but there was enough of a smoldering red glow that the streetlights hadn’t popped on yet.  She lit a Parliament cigarette and coughed.
    A clump of kids sat on the sidewalk outside, wearing Doc Martins and spiky collars, their hair shaved and colored at random, faces pierced with oversized rings and the occasional safety pin.  They hassled her for change, though their shoes and clothing appeared brand new.  She ignored them.  Sometimes she asked them for change first, just to throw them off.
    Neolithic Tattoo was one slot in a strip mall on Euclid Avenue, surrounded by vintage clothing boutiques, bars, and a shop selling New Age crystals and witchcraft accessories.  The Little Five Points neighborhood was a burst of color tucked among the gray corporate shells of Atlanta, full of head shops, hand-painted murals and beautiful crumbling old houses painted psychedelic colors.  The area was like a garden of sanity to Cassidy.
    She passed a crowded plaza, occupied by street musicians on guitar and tambourine, artists selling tiny paintings on cluttered easels, and a guy with a slightly nervous look selling hand-blown glass “tobacco” pipes.  A palm reader in gypsy wear sat on a blanket, next to a sign offering fortunes for twenty-five bucks.  Teenagers had gathered for the free Friday night entertainment.
    Cassidy should have been working—Friday nights were busy at the parlor.  She was missing out on good cash to support Peyton’s big night at the club instead.
    “ Are you the messiah?” someone asked off to her left.  She paid no attention—it wasn’t such an unusual bit of conversation to overhear on a Friday night in Little Five, really.  Then it repeated again, louder, insistent, and much closer.
    Cassidy turned and jumped a little when she saw the two guys approaching her.  If she hadn’t been wrapped up in feeling guilty about her brother, she would have noticed the two sore thumbs right away.  They didn’t belong among the dirty but brightly colored freakfest assembled here.
    They looked a couple of years younger than Cassidy, maybe eighteen or nineteen.  They were clean-shaven, with preppy-boy haircuts, ties and coats, and polished shoes.  They looked like bland white kids in from the suburbs.
    “ Are you the messiah?” the closest one asked again, pressing a four-color pamphlet against her hand.  The front leaf of the pamphlet read ARE YOU THE MESSIAH? in bold red letters.
    “ Uh, probably not, kid,” Cassidy said. “Move out of the way.  You’re creepy.” The boys were both on the cute side, really, one tall and dark, one muscular and blond, but she didn’t trust the clean-cut and smiling types.
    “ The messiah has been born,” the blond boy said. “Salvation is here.”
    “ Oh, good,” Cassidy said. “Can he deal with my credit card debt?”
    “ He will forgive all debts,” the blond one replied.
    “ Or she,” the dark-haired one added. “The messiah has been born, but has not yet been revealed to the world.”
    “ Great.  If that happens, I’ll know you guys were right all along.” Cassidy veered around them, walking on the very edge of the busy street to avoid them.  She hoped a drunk driver didn’t swerve wide and