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Chapter Thirty Seven
It was a week from the demon incident and Anna was finally feeling like herself again. A little older and wiser perhaps, but her gaiety had returned. The previous night she had still been in a funk- better than she'd been to begin with, but she still felt like there was a shadow hovering over her world which was a fitting way to see it considering the source. The guys had definitely been feeling her lack of enthusiasm and they put an end to it once and for all.
She had been lying on a motel bed (a nicer one than usual since her ordeal had caused the boys to be more concerned about her comfort than their pride) reading a book about a middle aged man who had walked the Appalachian trail. It was amusing and very well written, but her angst was making it hard to appreciate. She was staring blankly at a page when the door burst open and in came the brothers clad only in the most ridiculous matching pants she had ever seen in her life. They were silk and covered with brightly colored cartoons depicting bugs bunny and crew, and they ballooned at the thighs tapering in at the ankles. To top it off they had neon-colored fanny packs tied around their waists and there was a cartoony sounding song blaring from the speakers of an eighties style radio which Will was carrying on his shoulder.
I walk on down the street with my boom box on my shoulder
And everyone I meet, tells me I look sweet
with my ultra cool, rules the school, boom box on my shoulder!
And I get a lot of girls with my boom box on my shoulder
And they tell me I look fine and that I can make them mine
with my super fly oh me oh my boom box on my shoulder!
The vocalist sounded like he'd sucked down some helium, all the while Will and Josh were dancing and swaying their hips, crouching down and twirling and by the time the song ended Anna was laughing so hard tears were pouring down her face and she could barely breathe. She hadn't laughed like that in ages. Even now, just picturing it had her giggling again.
Whoever said laughter was the best medicine had known what the hell they were talking about.
After she’d stopped hiccuping they’d allowed her to take a bunch of pictures of them with her phone, and at the moment she was setting her favorite among them as her background.
It rang in her hand, startling a laugh from her, and she pushed talk, "Hellooo," she sang brightly.
"Wow, you sound good!" Jenna exclaimed.
"Hey! Yeah, I'm great, so tell me what happened, you met her?"
"Yup, I met her. Anna she's fantastic. Right now we're getting ready to go out on a boat with her friends who are also fantastic! I was hoping that I could get you to fly out here at some point and meet her yourself. I have so much to tell you! And she really, really wants to meet you, please don't be mad but I told her about you, but I promise she’s cool."
Jenna had spoken in a rush and Anna laughed as she responded, "No worries, I trust your judgment! I'm ecstatic it turned out well and I definitely want to meet her at some point. How long are you staying with her?"
"I have to go back home and get some things, but at this point I plan to live with her for a while. She invited me and I definitely have nothing better to do. So whenever you can come here...but I hope it’s soon, I really want you to meet her," she repeated.
"That's awesome! What about Jess, are you gonna tell her?"
"Yes, that's part of what I'll have to do at home. Actually Harri wants to meet her, she's had some… well “feelings” about her and she's been in a few of her dreams. She seems to believe that Jess has latent abilities."
"Don't sound so worried."
"I know, I know, but Jess isn't like us Anna, she's afraid of her own shadow."
Anna smiled at that ironic statement. "I don't think you give her enough credit honestly. I know how she can be, but I also know she's been incredibly insightful at different points."
"You're right! And you know what, I'm not actually as worried or uptight about it as I normally would be. Well, I gotta get going, but I'll call you later."
“Chow.”
Anna hung up the phone and grinned. It was nice when everything was on the upswing. She decided now would be a good time to check in with her dad. They still did the weekly calls, Marty currently believed her to be traveling around the country with a group of musicians. He didn't question it and she had the distinct impression that he was relieved she wasn't hanging around the house, thus alleviating any guilt he had in rarely being there.
She dialed him and their conversation was short and sweet. He apprised her of his location, which was now Ecuador, and she made up some silly stories of her travels for his comfort and amusement. They exchanged love and she hung up thinking that someday she would be faced with either telling him the truth or disappearing from his life. But she still had years before it became necessary so no point in worrying about it now.
The guys had taken off earlier to play some pool and she tried to think of something she could do by herself. We're in Lanford North Carolina, she thought, Holly goes to college somewhere in this state. She turned on her computer and map-quested the location. It turned out her friend was about a hundred miles south and she was just about to call her when Will burst into the room.
"We've gotta get our shit together, Josh spotted the motherfucker in a greyhound bus window. He's trailing the dirty bastard in a cab."
The “dirty bastard” was a possessed man that they'd been tracking for the past week in an aging body which made it a serious threat. It was generally in the last stage of life when the demon would do something particularly heinous since it would soon have to leave its current form in search of a new host. They tended to go horrific and grandiose, like a killing spree or a bombing before they departed.
They checked out of their room and threw their stuff in the trunk, heading out in the direction Josh was going. He had a twenty minute head start, so Will pushed the limits as far as he could without attracting uniformed attention, grumbling about traffic statutes. In the last couple of weeks he had educated Anna on the difference between laws and statutes, a God's law versus Man's law ideal that had drastically changed her perception of the things around her. She’d never given much thought to how oppressive it was in their supposedly free society, but after listening to Will’s diatribes she now understood that the notion of Big Brother was not a far off fictional concept. He was alive and thriving in modern America. Of course now that she was no longer quite human it didn't really affect her, which in the grand scheme of things made it easier to see and deal with. She'd like to meet the cop who could arrest her without her cooperation or permission. Not frickin’ likely.
The destination turned out to be ninety miles south of them in a town called Ashlyn and Josh arrived about ten minutes ahead of them. He was following the abomination on foot and just as they were nearing the turn that would bring them to where he was he let out a string of expletives over the phone that would have made a trucker cringe.
"What?" Will demanded.
"He pulled a fucking switch on me, I lost him."
"Shit! He's an old fart on foot, how the fuck did you do that?"
The phone went dead as Josh ran up to the car and climbed in, snapping at his brother. "Don't, all right, he pulled a fuckin' Houdini-you would've lost him too!"
"Like Hell!"
They drove around trying to spot him, but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Ashlyn was a pretty big place, on top of which the weather was beautiful so throngs of people were out and about. Will finally gave up and pulled into a diner.
They ordered food and tried to come up with a plan of action. With nothing to go on but a physical description finding It would not be easy.
Anna’s phone rang and she answered it to the sound of Jenna's fearful and anxious voice.
"Where are you right now?" She demanded.
"North Carolina, why what's wrong?"
"It's Holly! My Aunt had a vision of a mall blowing sky high and she saw a face really clearly, she asked to see pictures of my friends and she said it was Holly! She's going to be in a mall that gets blown to pieces!"
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