Ayumi (c)
Chapter Twelve
By Fiction Writer #13
(rom, paranormal, magic, teen, pt, m/g, first)

I am such an idiot.  I've said that before, but it's true.  I thought Len 
was just being friendly, the cool older guy sharing his beer with a 
younger kid, but as we set up the tent it became painfully obvious 
that he was feeding me beer to get answers.  He asked so many 
questions, apparently trying to trip me up, get me caught in some 
nonexistent lie.  I answered each one he threw at me, never letting 
on that I was onto his game, but it really started to piss me off.  
Thankfully his questions veered away from the subject of Ayumi and 
her relationship to me. 

"Alright, kid, looks like we got this done just in time." Len hammered 
in the last stake for the guy wires. "Here come the ladies... after all 
the work is done as usual."

"I heard that, Len." Carole gave him a hard stare as she led a towel 
wrapped and much warmer looking Ayumi our way.

Carole smiled warmly at me once Ayumi was by my side. "I brought 
her back, good as new."

Ayumi stood on tip-toe to give her a kiss. "Thank you."

"No problem sweetie," Carole beamed. "Here's a flashlight, and if 
you get scared, you know where my trailer is."

Len shook my hand. "Well, I guess I'll see you in the morning."

"Yeah, thanks Len, and thanks Carole."

They nodded and smiled before heading off to their respective 
homes before the pool lights shut off.  Off in the distance Bingo and 
Shelby began barking, but a loud call by Carole silenced the two 
dogs.  The trailer park fell into near silence save for the chirping of 
crickets and high pitched buzz of a mosquito searching for a meal 
near my ear.

"Is this where we're sleeping?"

"Yep." I lifted the blue nylon flap of the dome tent. "You're castle 
awaits, my lady."

Ayumi giggled as she ducked under. "You're silly."

"And you're cute." I couldn't resist giving her little terry cloth covered 
bum a playful swat as she went by, and she squealed.

It was still hot outside, but inside was sweltering.  I rolled up the 
window flaps, praying that a breeze would find its way through the 
mesh screens.

"Euw, I can smell your stinky shirt in here."

"It might not be the shirt." I winced as my own body odor stung my 
nostrils. "Turn on that flashlight.  Len put some stuff in here for us, 
maybe he left deodorant."

"I don't know why you didn't just jump in the pool," she grumbled as 
an intensely bright beam of light sliced through the darkness.

"Shine it over here."

Ayumi knelt with the light pointed at a small brown paper bag filled 
with travel sized soaps, shampoo, and... (Thank god) deodorant.  It 
wasn't the spray kind, so I couldn't use it on my shirt.  In order to 
keep the stink down to a minimum I put the offending garment just 
outside the tent opening then zipped us inside.

"Much better," she grinned.

Len had left us two musty smelling sleeping bags, but the lingering 
heat made sure that they would be relegated to mattresses only.  
Without thinking too much about it (probably the beer), I peeled off 
my jeans and sighed pleasantly as my legs felt the coolest they'd 
been since I hurriedly dressed in the dark hours ago.  I sat in my 
boxers, legs stretched out in front of me, and relaxed for the first 
time in can't remember how long.

Ayumi made a similar move to seek comfort; she dropped her towel 
to the tent floor, revealing her nude body to the slightly blue tinted 
glow of the halogen flashlight.  Seeing her like that reminded me of 
how she appeared when I woke up and found her perched on my 
windowsill, bathed in what I thought was moonlight.  She was 
beautiful.  An angel come from heaven, a nymph from my fantasies 
of swords and sorcery, a memory of a girl whom I had the deepest 
of crushes and my first taste of love lost, she was... my dreams 
come true.

She lay down on the sleeping bag next to me and I joined her.  We 
turned to face each other and she smiled pleasantly.  She smelt of 
pool chlorine, but in that moment I found it intoxicating.  We just 
stared at each other.  My heart began racing... pounding in my chest 
as if it were urging me into action... forcing me to make a move that 
my brain was unable to make on its own.  My free hand reached out, 
touched her shoulder, finger tips sliding on smooth skin, tracing 
down the length of her arm until I found her hand.  She took hold, 
interlaced her fingers with mine, and squeezed gently.  Her chest 
rose and fell rapidly, as did my own.  My mind went fuzzy, all thoughts 
blurred and confused, but what did I need to think about anyway?  I'd 
done enough thinking.  Thinking about how others would feel, would 
react... it was time to stop thinking about them... and start... 
thinking... about... us...

I'm not sure who moved first, who couldn't hold back any longer, but 
none of that mattered; our lips were sealed together once again, and 
this time nothing was going to separate them.  It felt right, like it was 
what we were meant to be doing, like what we were made to be 
doing.  She was everything that I was not, and I was everything she 
needed; two sides of the same coin, flipping through the air in a 
perpetual free fall, neither of us willing or able to call heads or tails.

We rolled, she on her back, me on top.  Her legs parted and I slid 
between them, delighted by the way her thighs captured my waist in 
an embrace of urgency.  I could feel her heat burning against my 
belly, feel how slick she'd become as she wriggled and squirmed 
against me.  Our lips and tongues wrestled, desperately trying to 
convey just how much we wanted each other, just how hungry we 
were for the others body, of how much we needed to be together 
like this.  She broke our kiss and I thought it was over, but instead 
she wiggled her way lower, aligning her sex with mine.  She was so 
much shorter than me that I had to raise myself up on my elbows and 
crane my neck down in order to resume kissing her lips.  She helped 
by tilting her chin up to close the remaining distance, and soon our 
tongues were together again.

She ground her crotch against my hardness, willing it like a skilled 
snake charmer to emerge from the fly of my boxers.  Our hips 
hunched against each other, bruising skin stretched taut over bone, 
but the pain went unnoticed, there was only the building pleasure, the 
rising tide of excitement that threaten to destroy us both in its 
crushing intensity.  I was sliding within her groove, a groove made 
slippery by her desperation.  She was whimpering, I was whimpering, 
waiting... for it to happen.  I shook from head to toe, vibrating from 
the inside out, partly from excitement, partly from fear.  So much 
sensation, so much heat... the thundering in my ears... the ache in 
my balls... I needed so much more... so much more of her... I... 
had to... I had to be inside... I needed to be inside... of her...

My brain started to wake up.  I tried to shut it up, but it wouldn't listen.  
Thoughts crept in, snuck past the defenses raised by lust and 
passion, and my hardon began to wane.

'How do I put it in?  Is it okay to touch myself, or do I just wait until it 
happens on its own?  I know where it's supposed to go, sort of, in 
theory anyway... I've seen enough porn... but this wasn't like that, this 
was totally different.  God, what am I supposed to do?  No one ever 
tells you these things.  Why don't they tell you these things?  This is 
shit you need to know!  Man, I wonder what she must be thinking.  
She must think I'm an idiot, not knowing what to do next.  She knows 
what I'm supposed to be doing, she's not a virgin.  God I feel like 
such a loser.  Why couldn't I have lost my virginity before now?  
Then I'd know what I'm supposed to be doing.  Why is this 
happening to me?  What if I get it in and then cum too quick?  I'm 
close already; I can feel it... too close.  Oh man, what would she think 
of me then?  A minute man, I'm going to be a fucking minute man, or 
worse... I might cum without ever getting in.  She'll laugh at me, I 
know it.  I'll be a fucking joke.  I am a fucking joke.  Even if I got it in 
she'd probably laugh at how damn small I am.  She's had big fucking 
cocks inside her, demon biker dicks, how am I supposed to 
compete with that with my little five and a half inch pecker?  I should 
just give up now, save myself the embarrassment, pull out before...'

Ayumi's tiny hand snaked between our mashed sweaty bodies and 
took hold of my slightly less than hard dick, effectively shutting off my 
brain from further analysis of the present situation, returning me to 
full staff with just a few skilled strokes.  She guided me to her target, 
lined me up, and then pushed herself onto me as far as she could 
manage.  Instinct took over and I gripped her shoulders as I drove it 
home, reveling in the heat, the wetness, the velvet of her insides.  
Nothing I'd ever felt in my life had ever felt so good, and that feeling 
announced itself with a deep guttural groan, a primeval sound that 
issued from somewhere inside of me that I'd never known before.

My eyes flew open as I filled her with the entirety of my being.  Her 
eyes were as wide as mine as we gazed dreamily at each other; 
open mouthed, stunned by ecstasy, frozen in the moment, locked in 
time, joined as one.  It was like nothing I'd ever felt before.  I can't 
even think of the right words to describe it, they all seem to fail.  
Even analogies seem to fall short.  It was... it was... Dude, it was 
awesome!

I pulled out a little... whoah, pushed back in... whoah.  Out, in, out, 
in... WHOAH!  Every movement felt better and better than the last.  
Sex was hot, sex was wet, sex was sticky and slippery, sex was 
scary and fun at the same time.  I hadn't expected her to be so tight 
down there, after all, she had been with much bigger men than me, 
but she gripped me like a vice.  It was a miracle I hadn't popped off 
yet.  There was just enough fear and beer left in me to keep me right 
on the edge without falling off the other side.  Ayumi moved with me, 
echoing the pleasure I was feeling with her own little whimpers and 
contorted faces.  I never wanted this to end, never!

Ayumi demonstrated her hidden strength by rolling us over once 
again, this time with her ending up on top.  She pushed herself up 
until she sat impaled on my dick, then began to rise and fall faster 
and faster.  My mind swam in a daze of pleasure as she bounced up 
and down, her bald pussy swallowing up and spitting out my 
glistening dick over and over again.  It looked impossible to me, 
incredible that she could stretch so much without being in pain, and 
yet she rode me as if there was nothing on this earth she'd rather be 
doing.  She was grinning from ear to ear, even giggled a few times 
as her hair chased her ever changing direction.  It was a sound filled 
with so much pure glee that it infected me as well.  It was like we 
were playing a silly game where the rules were made up on the spot 
and broken without consequences, or two friends dancing like idiots 
when they knew that no one else was watching.  Wild, uninhibited joy.

My hands moved up her body, at first just to steady her as she rode 
me like I was a pony, but then I began to explore.  Her nipples were 
a blur as she moved, but I could feel them as they rubbed softly 
beneath my palms.  She slowed her pace, allowing me to gently 
squeeze the place where her breasts would one day be, but for now 
were nothing more than two slightly raised areas on her chest.  Her 
breath caught in her throat as I caressed them, a hissing gasp 
rasped from her lips as I felt her up.  Her eyes closed tight and her 
lower lip quivered as I rolled the tiny nubs softly between thumb and 
forefinger.

Her wild riding had ceased, but her hips still moved in a twitching 
jerky circular movement.  I hadn't believed anything could have felt 
better than what we'd been doing, but this new motion... oh my god!  
It was like she was a mixing bowl and I was the spoon.  I could feel 
so much more, detect subtle differences within her.  Every once in a 
while she'd shudder a bit and I'd sink a little deeper than I could 
normally reach, then I feel something bump the top of my dick inside 
of her and fireworks would explode throughout my body.  It was like a 
trigger, something that was telling my balls 'Now, do it now!'

It was so hard to pull back, to hold myself back, but I didn't want to 
cum yet, not yet, not until she came first.  I didn't want to be one of 
those guys, one of those guys who doesn't care whether or not the 
one they are with cums or not.  I'd always thought that sounded so 
unbelievably selfish, but now, now at least I could understand how 
incredibly difficult it could be to hold off, to wait your turn.

Thankfully, Ayumi wasn't going to make me wait much longer.

"Oh!  Oh Justin!  Oh!"

Her hands gripped my chest, her fingernails digging into my flesh so 
hard it must have been drawing blood, but I couldn't really feel it.  All 
I could feel was how her pussy started to convulse around my dick, 
how it felt as if an invisible hand were jerking me off from inside of 
her.  Her face flipped skyward and her eyes rolled into the back of 
her head as she began to tremble.  Suddenly the inside of the tent 
darkened as her wings appeared from out of nowhere, stretching out 
as far as the low dome would allow.  They raked against the nylon 
with a vippp sound and shook as furiously as the rest of her tiny 
body.  Though I couldn't see it, I could feel her tail as it beat against 
my thigh over and over again.  It was all too much for me.

"OH SHIT!  I'm... I'm cumming!  GAAH!  Uhgn... Ah!"

My cum raced from my balls and up into Ayumi in spurts so powerful 
I almost expected her to be launched off my body like a water 
rocket.  My pelvis lifted off the sleeping bag and held her in the air as 
I filled her, my hands pulling her hips down, guaranteeing a tight seal.  
After six or seven of the most powerful jets I'd ever fired in my life all 
the strength in me failed and I collapsed back to earth.  Ayumi fell 
back with me, her head landing on my heaving chest as her wings 
wrapped us up in a protective cuddling hug.

We laid there for a long time, she on top of me, me still inside of her 
but softening rapidly.  Neither of us could really speak, at least not 
full sentences.

"That was... oh man."

"Mmmm..."

"Wow..."

"Mmm... hmm..."

"I never... not ever..."

"I know..."

"Was it... was it good for?"

"Uh huh..."

"Good... cause it was... whoah... awesome... for me."

Ayumi made a little giggly sound as she nuzzled my chest.

"And you... you felt... you were so... I mean... wow..."

She started leaving little kisses wherever her lips would allow without 
too much effort.

"Is it... is it always... always like that?"

"Nope." She let out a long contented sigh. "That was the bestest... 
ever."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better."

"Nuh uh." She made something in her pussy tighten up and 
squeezed me. "Mmmm... that never happened before."

"What never happened?"

"The good feeling." She squeezed me again. "I liked that much 
better than icy-cream."

I sighed and grinned. "Me too."

She giggled, which unfortunately caused her pussy to eject my now 
completely soft dick.

"Aww..."

She pouted and I did too.  I never wanted to be outside of her ever 
again, but now we were separated, and even though she was lying 
on top of me it was like a great distance had somehow grown 
between us.  The beer I'd drunk had burned its way out of my blood 
system during our fun, the fires of passion had been quenched, and 
now I was left with my own worst enemy... myself.  Guilt washed 
over me even as Ayumi continued to lay down a trail of miniature 
kisses over my shoulder.  How could I have done this?  How could I 
have had sex with an eight year old?  I'm a sick fuck.  A pervert.  A 
pedo.  If anyone ever found out I'd be fucked royally.  Juvie for sure, 
maybe even real prison once I reached eighteen.  How could I have 
been so fucking stupid!

Zzzzzzzzzzzip!

The door flap of the tent opened before either of us could recognize 
the sound for what it was.  I practically tossed Ayumi off of me and 
dove for my boxers, Ayumi drew her wings down and cringed in a 
corner, but it was all for nothing... we'd been seen.

"Get your fucking clothes on and get out here, now." The man with 
the gruff voice never showed his face in the doorway, but we could 
see his legs as he waited impatiently outside.  He spoke firmly, but 
with a hushed tone, like an angry parent who didn't want to draw 
attention to their misbehaving child. "Move it!"

I got my boxers on despite my shaking.  We were fucked.  I was 
fucked.  Oh shit.  Oh fuck.  Oh damn it!  Why?  Why did I have to go 
and fuck her?  It was hard to pull on my jeans since they were still 
damp from all the sweating I'd done all day, but Ayumi had it worse.

"The shirt," she squeaked in a frightened whisper as tears rolled 
down her cheeks.

Oh shit.  The shirt was outside the tent!

"Can't you?"

She shook her head and whimpered as her wings slumped low. "It's 
not working."

"Okay, hold on."

I crawled to the opening and peeked outside.  It was too dark to 
make out who was standing there, but at least I could see that 
whoever he was, he was alone.

"Get a move on, kid.  There isn't much time."

"I... I just need to get my sister's shirt."

Without waiting for a response from him I dug around in the dark until 
I found it and crawled back into the tent.

"Here, get it on quick."

Ayumi pulled it over her head without any complaints, and I checked 
to make sure she'd completely hidden her wings under it.  Hopefully 
the guy on the other side hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary, but 
I was sure he'd heard us fucking.  He must have, there was no other 
reason for him to be here.  At least none I could think of.  We were in 
deep shit.  Really, deep, shit.

"Will you two hurry the fuck up?"

Ayumi and I looked out and could see his legs pacing back and forth.  
Neither of us wanted to go out there, neither of us wanted to get 
yelled at, but we both knew that we couldn't hide in the tent forever.  
Slowly we made our way through the low opening, Ayumi grasping 
my hand so tightly I was sure she'd leave bruises.

"Jesus, turn that damn light off." The man snatched it from Ayumi 
and snapped the button, preventing us from seeing who he was. 
"Doncha think you've put on enough of a show already?  A bawdy 
fucking shadow theater that was, with a surprise ending that I'm sure 
no one would have seen coming."

Oh damn, he was right.  By leaving that stupid flashlight on, our 
silhouettes inside the tent must have been a sight to see; two kids 
rutting like animals, one of them changing into batgirl at the end.  This 
had just gone from bad to worse.

"Come on." The man headed off into the darkness but Ayumi and I 
remained rooted to the ground. "I said... get your asses moving!"

"What are you going to do with us?"

"Me?" The man walked back to where we stood firm. "I'm going to 
save your ass, that's what I'm going to do.  But if you'd rather stand 
around and wait for villagers to return with their torches, then be my 
guest."

I wasn't sure I wanted to believe him, but the alternative didn't sound 
any better. "Okay, we'll go with you."

"Right, now keep your mouths shut and stick close.  My trailer's on 
the other side of camp, and the natives are on full alert."

The man moved off into the darkness a lot faster than I was 
prepared for.  Thank God Ayumi could still see him or else I would 
have been left to wander around in circles.  We moved at a quick 
pace, but never in a straight line.  The man led us in a zigzag pattern 
through the maze of trailers and trees, pausing every once in a while 
to listen for signs of pursuit or to duck for cover from the other 
residents who seemed to be roaming around in packs of four or five.  
Each of those roving packs was not only armed with flashlights, but 
rifles as well.

After hiding in a thick bush for a few minutes, I finally had to ask, 
"Why are they hunting us like this?  We didn't do anything to them."

"Shhh... No talking."

My eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness, and thanks to the faint 
blue green Northern light filtering down through the tree canopy I 
could follow our guide without much help from Ayumi, though she still 
held my hand.  He moved like a soldier picking his way through a 
battlefield, even used those hand signals I'd seen in all those war 
movies my father liked to watch.  He'd told us to stay quiet, but 
whenever he thought it was safe he'd pass on little tidbits of 
whispered knowledge.

"Try not to look directly at their flashlights or you'll lose your night 
vision."

"Stay low, keep your profile small."

It took forever to cross a distance that should have taken less than 
ten minutes, tops.  The final thirty feet to his trailer took the longest.  
He checked and rechecked every direction, listened closely to every 
little sound, and led us in a circle around the trailer before he was 
convinced the way was clear.  When the time finally came, we bolted 
through an open area and through the aluminum screen door.  We'd 
only just shut his full door when the entire park filled with artificial 
light.

"That was close.  I was wondering when they'd finally turn the pool 
lights back on.  We'll hold up here for a bit, just to catch our breathes, 
then I'll get you somewhere safer."

Ayumi and I squatted on the linoleum tiled floor, panting for breath 
and awaiting our next instructions.  The man had done what he said 
he was going to do, he was trying to save our asses, and I for one 
was grateful.

"Thank you."

"You're not out of the woods yet."

He moved around the small space within the trailer closing all of the 
windows and shutting the blinds tight.  I could finally see our saviors 
face and for a moment I wasn't sure I was seeing clearly.  The man 
moving back and forth so agilely opening cabinets and occasionally 
peeking through the blinds, shouldn't have been able to do so.

"Ben?"

He chuckled. "Guess Len told you who I was."

"Yeah, he did, but how are you... I mean... aren't you supposed to 
be..."

"The wheelchair?"

"Yeah."

He chuckled again, this time a little deeper. "Don't need it, haven't in 
years."

"So why'd..."

"I found out a long time ago that a crazy old combat Vet who got 
discharged for mental problems who sits in a chair is less frightening 
than one who is walking around.  People around here tend to ignore 
me, and that's just how I like it.  No one bothers me about shit that I 
don't give a damn about; they stay out of my business and I stay out 
of theirs."

"You didn't stay out of our business.  I caught you listening in earlier."

"Special circumstances."

"How so?"

"Well, for one," he pointed at Ayumi.

"You knew?"

"As soon as you two walked into the picnic area." Ben pulled up his 
pant leg and showed us his tattoos.  They weren't like any I'd ever 
seen before, strange squiggly lines and intricate patterns that 
wrapped around his calf like a tribal design or something Celtic. 
"They've been itching like a mother fucker, but of course I couldn't 
scratch them or else the others would have figured out I could feel 
below my waist."

I didn't understand what he was talking about, but didn't press for 
answers either.  I went in another direction.

"Faking being paralyzed is pretty fucked up, Dude."

"Yeah, well... so is fucking a preteen monster."

"I'm not a monster!" Ayumi kicked Ben hard in the shin.

"Ow!  Damn it!" He hopped on one foot while clutching his injured 
leg.

"Take that back!" she fumed.

"Okay, okay, fine... you're not a monster.  I'm sorry."

Ayumi huffed and Ben rolled his eyes.

"Christ, toughen up, girl.  There's been a lot worse said about you 
tonight."

"Like what?"

"Well, for starters, that you killed Carole's two dogs."

"I NEVER!" Ayumi looked horrified.

"I know you didn't, you were too busy bumping uglies with him.  But it 
doesn't change the fact that those dogs are dead, and they're not the 
only victims.  Three kids disappeared at some point between the 
pool and their home.  No one's seen hide nor hair of them.  Some of 
the guys went out to look for them and only one came back.  He was 
scared shitless and babbling about," he turned to Ayumi, "please 
forgive the word, monsters.  Something's out there, stalking the 
camp, picking us off one by one." 

"So why are they after us?"

"Carole was worried; she asked Carl and Gary to go check on you.  
They arrived just in time to see you... um... display your hidden 
attributes.  Of course they didn't realize it was you, they thought that 
the creature was in the tent, devouring two more victims.  When they 
came back, your buddy Len fessed up and told them all about your 
little adventure, even showed them that nifty dagger you picked up."

"Oh shit!" I reached back and found my belt loop empty.

"Don't bother; Len swiped it from you when you were setting up the 
tent.  Said he didn't think it was safe for some kid to keep something 
so dangerous."

"That dick!"

Ben nodded in agreement. "I think he took it to impress Carole.  He's 
been trying to get in her pants for years."

"For someone who claims to not want to get involved, you certainly 
know a shitload about what's happening."

Ben sat down on the edge of a seat that wrapped around a small 
table like a booth at a diner. "That's what I do.  I wait, I watch, I 
listen."

Ayumi leaned forward. "Why?"

Ben was silent for a moment, as if lost in thought. "A long time ago I 
did some shit that I'm not very proud of.  It was war, I had orders, 
and I followed them, but... that doesn't make what I did right.  On my 
last tour, I saw things, things that shouldn't have been real but were.  
I killed them, slaughtered them, all because... because I was too 
terrified to do anything else.  But I didn't get them all, and it took out 
the rest of my platoon before coming for me." Ben shuddered with 
the memory. "It left me for dead in the middle of the jungle; my legs 
so badly maimed the medics thought I'd never be able to walk again.  
I was the lucky one, my friends... not so much."

"But... your legs seem fine now."

"Yeah, they are." Ben stood up and moved to a window, slowly 
lowering the blind. "I kinda lost it after what happened.  Lost it so bad 
the army didn't want me anymore, which says a lot about my state of 
mind.  I was discharged to a veteran's hospital where they hoped to 
keep me on enough drugs that I'd forget what happened.  It didn't 
work.  When they got tired of paying for my sorry ass I was dumped 
on the streets to fend for myself, but at least they left me that 
damned wheel chair.

"I wandered around aimlessly from shelter to shelter, not ever sure 
of what I was going to do or where I would stay.  I knew I'd been 
fucked up in the head, that the horrors I'd seen back in Nam didn't 
come back to the States with me, but I kept seeing shit, so I thought 
all the head shrinks must have been right.  It wasn't until I ran into 
others who saw the same shit I was seeing that I realized I wasn't as 
fucked up as everyone thought.  Turns out, that little encounter I had 
in the jungle was traumatic enough to allow me to see through the 
Veil."

Ayumi's ears perked up. "You know about the Veil?"

"Sure do." Ben grinned. "I've spent my second chance at life 
learning everything I could about it, and what it hides.  If I'm not 
mistaken, you're an Etherlithe, right?"

She beamed. "Yes!  Yes I am!"

"Thought so." He returned her smile but when he turned to me he 
wore a look of concern, like he knew something he wanted to tell me, 
but couldn't bring himself to say.  He looked away as he continued, 
"I've picked up some skill using the Art, but nothing to write home 
about."

"So, is that how you fixed your legs, with the Art?"

"No, no... not me, I couldn't even hope to attain that kind of skill.  I 
met someone a number of years back who fixed me up, but as with 
all magic, it came with a price.  She fixed my legs, but I had to make 
amends for what I'd done to her people back in Nam."

"Wait, the thing that killed your buddies and left you to die, fixed your 
legs?"

"Yes." Ben scratched his knee. "But like I said, it came with a price 
tag."

"So what did you owe it, sorry Yumi, her?"

"I had to become a Watcher."

"A what?"  Even Ayumi didn't know what that was.

"A Watcher is someone who studies signs and portents and gives 
aid to the Elohim when needed."

"Elo-who?"

"Boy kid, for someone traveling with an Etherlithe, running from 
Zyrogoth, and carrying a blade of Da'Havros in your back pocket, you 
sure don't know the basics.  The Elohim are all of the beings from 
the other side."

"Other side?  Other side of what?"

"Look, I'm not going to get into all of that right now." Ben rubbed his 
temples. "Just, just relax for a minute while I set up your escape, 
okay?"

He ushered Ayumi and me into the booth seat as he went to work 
moving things off the floor.  We watched silently as he grabbed a 
trowel out of a cabinet and went to work prying up the linoleum tiles 
one by one.  When he finished he stood straight and cracked his 
back.

"There, that should do it."

He moved out of the way revealing the reason why he ripped up his 
floor.  Below the tiles he'd painted a series of concentric circles in 
black.  Lines of varying thicknesses bisected the circles at different 
points.  Wherever circle and line met he'd drawn smaller designs, 
kind of like those he wore as tattoos.  Strange words were also 
written on the floor which surrounded and crisscrossed the face of 
the odd design.

Ayumi's eyes went wide. "A gate!"

"I call 'em portals." Ben smiled. "This will take you to the city, to my 
home away from here."

"You don't live here?"

"Enough with the questions already!  Just come stand here with your 
friend, its time to get going."

Ayumi hopped off the booth and I followed.  She took my hands and 
held them tight. "I never used one of these afore."

"Nothing to it, I'll do all the work.  Just be sure to stay within that big 
circle.  With the Veil acting the way it is, I'm not sure how accurate 
my calculations are going to be, but if you stay right there it'll 
guarantee you won't end up stuck in a wall or dropped from too high 
up."

Panic suddenly filled me. "Wait, what?"

"See you kids, stay safe, and good luck."

Before I could further voice my concerns the world around us blurred 
and smeared as if all I had seen was nothing more than a painting 
whose wet colors were running down a canvass.  The floor dropped 
away from beneath my feet and my stomach tried to follow.

"Oh shit!"

I yelped and pulled Ayumi into my arms, holding onto the only thing 
that remained solid.  The color swirls became darker and darker, 
shifting from the whites and blues within Ben's trailer to blacks, deep 
purples, and burgundy.  I felt like I was falling, but didn't feel the air 
around us move.  Soon the swirling slowed and blurry shapes began 
to appear, but nothing I could make out.  The sensation of falling 
increased as the scene began to coalesce and become more 
defined.  For a split second we floated in the air, then dropped to the 
hard ground.  It wasn't a high fall, maybe three feet at the most, but it 
was jarring enough for us to lose our balance and fall the rest of the 
way onto our butts.

"Where are we?" Ayumi asked as she regained her feet while 
rubbing her sore bottom.

"Good question."

Wherever we ended up, it stunk like rotten garbage.  It was dark, and 
hot.  Above us I could see the Aurora flickering its blue and green 
wispy light, but it didn't seem to be bright enough to reach us.  The 
ground was hard, and after running my hand on its surface, I figured 
out where we were.

"We're in an alley.  I think we made it to the city, but not to Ben's 
place."

"Can we get out of here; it stinks worse than you do."

"Yeah, sure." I looked this way and that, searching for which direction 
the narrow street led. "This way."

Without another word, we set off for wider avenues and, hopefully, 
fresher air.



Continued in Chapter Thirteen....


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Ayumi 12