Downside Ghosts: Unholy Ghosts Part 9

The words died in her throat as he lifted the tweezers from the wound. Caught between the sharp metal pincers was a small, fat worm.

Chess had to fight not to throw up as it wriggled and twisted like a fish out of water. Blood-her blood-dripped from its obscene tubular body. Even as she watched it shriveled, balling itself up like a creature in agony.

Doyle opened the tweezers. The worm fell into the sink, unmoving.

"Doyle, what is that? What the f.u.c.k is that?" Her voice rose to almost a squeal at the end, unnaturally high and loud in the small room.

"I ... I don't know. s.h.i.+t, Chess. Hold still."

"Is it a ..." She swallowed. "A maggot?"

"I don't think so."

He pulled four more of them from the wound before they were done.

Chapter Eleven.

"Know that where you find isolation, where you find emptiness, so you may also find the displaced soul."

-The Book of Truth, Veraxis, Article 178 "Chess, baby. Guess Terrible don't kill you after all." Edsel smiled and leaned back in his rickety chair. Weak sunlight glinted off the silver talismans and tokens dangling from a rack in the corner of his booth and cast bright spots on the tattered burgundy curtains behind him. The city clock hadn't even chimed noon yet, and Edsel's booth was still in disarray.

"You sound disappointed."

"Ain't never disappointed seeing you, you know that. What you need today? You try that Hand yet? I gots some new sleep potions, you interested."

"Sleep potions?"

He shrugged. "Lookin tired, baby."

d.a.m.n it. She should have b.u.mped up before she left the house.

After Doyle finally left the night before, she'd tossed and turned for hours. She didn't imagine many people would be able to slide between the sheets with a blissful smile after watching b.l.o.o.d.y worms being yanked from their flesh.

That image-and several other ones even more unpleasant-chased her into her sleep, and she'd finally climbed out of bed just past dawn.

"I'm fine," she said. "I was actually hoping you might be able to help me with something else."

"Like what?"

She dug into her bag and pulled out the amulet, wrapped in a sc.r.a.p of black velvet so she wouldn't have to touch the metal. Even holding it through the cloth made her skin crawl.

"You recognize any of these markings?" She set it down on the rickety countertop and unfolded the velvet.

"Where this came from?"

Chess shrugged. "Found it."

"Ah-huh." Edsel leaned closer to it, but made no move to pick it up. "Look to me like you best take it back you found it. Don't see no positive in that thing, baby. I feel it vibin at me from here."

"I can't take it back. It's ... it's part of an investigation. None of the marks look familiar?"

"Can't say they does, but ... on the minute. That there look like Etosh. And two down from that, could be Tretso."

"What do they mean?"

"Tretso a b.a.s.t.a.r.d rune, you get me? A combination of two. Intensifies other runes, adds power, but say nothing on its own. Etosh ... it feeds. Directs Tretso to where the amulet maker want it to go."

"So I have two runes here calculated to add power to the others, but we don't know what any of the others are."

"Sorry I ain't better help." Edsel glanced at the amulet again, his lip twisted in distaste. "Don't guess n.o.body could help with that thing, if the Church can't."

They might be able to, if she could ask them. But she couldn't. What was she supposed to do, walk into the Grand Elder's office and tell him she'd found it on the street? Something like this?

She nodded. Her fingers moved slowly, sluggishly, as she covered the amulet in velvet once again. "Thanks anyway, Edsel."

"Your hand right?"

She nodded. The cut on her palm did look less ugly this morning, but she didn't think she'd feel comfortable until it was healed completely. Worms ... her nose wrinkled. "Just a scratch."

"Cool. You know ... now I think on it, could be I know somebody help you with them runes. Name of Tyson, you know him?"

She shook her head. "Is he here?"

"Naw, not here. Don't live in Downside, not even in the city. Old-timer, aye? Got himself a place outside town, by the water. Don't know how to get in touch with him, though. He come by sometimes. Not stupid, Tyson. He come again, I give him your number?"

"You know if Tyson's his first or last name?"

"Only know Tyson. He never say nothing else."

Chess slipped the velvet-covered amulet back in her bag and zipped it up. "Yeah, give him my number if you see him, Edsel. Thanks."

"No problem. Keep it clean, baby." He turned away and started unpacking boxes, preparing for the day's customers, while Chess wandered off through the Market. Terrible was going to show up soon to take her back to Chester today, to hunt for electrical equipment she'd have to pretend not to see or ghosts she'd have to pretend not to be able to Banish.

She stopped and bought a bowl of noodles from a permanent booth not far from b.u.mp's place, and slurped them with chopsticks as she loitered outside the doors. The couches downstairs would be full if she made her way down. They always were on Mondays, no matter what time the day or night. She had ten dollars in her pocket-enough for a long afternoon of soft dreams.

A long afternoon she couldn't have, and as if to confirm that, heavy footsteps sounded behind her and she turned to see Terrible advancing like a tank.

Chester Airport in the sunlight lost none of the feeling of abandoned threat it held at night. The rickety old terminal huddled off to the left like a lonely widower, and the rusty fences looked ready to blow away.

Chess tried and failed to keep from seeking out the spot where she'd found the amulet. What ritual had taken place here, in the dusty gra.s.s?

She didn't think she really wanted to know. She also didn't think she would be able to avoid finding out.

"You wanna check the building again?" Terrible asked as he held open the tear in the fence for her.

"I guess. Don't think we missed anything the other night, though." Chess glanced over at the right perimeter of the field. "Hold on, what's that?"

Terrible followed her gaze, but said nothing.

She wasn't sure how she'd managed to catch it, hidden as it was by the tall gra.s.s as it was, but as she got closer she saw she wasn't mistaken.

The stones formed a rough, loose rectangle, about fifty feet long and thirty wide. Large sections had disappeared entirely, so that only someone carefully looking would have known they formed a shape at all and weren't just piles of rocks. Without the specific angle of the sun she doubted she would have noticed it at all.

"Another building," she said. "I wonder what it was."

"Supplies, could be. Even sleeping quarters. Barracks."

She glanced up at him. "Barracks?"

"Aye, you know. No hotels round here. Pilots they come in, they ain't leaving till morning, needs to sleep."

She stood back up and looked at him. His impa.s.sive face was turned away, studying the buildings just outside the fence. Black sungla.s.ses hid his eyes.

"That's a good idea, Terrible. You're probably right."

Again, no reaction. Chess paced along the remains of the walls, moving stones that looked light or loose enough for her to s.h.i.+ft. Anywhere in this rubble would be an ideal place to hide the sort of equipment hoaxers would need, and with Terrible's attention elsewhere she could cover it back up-if she needed to, if it existed and the ghosts here weren't real.

If he caught her ... She didn't even want to think about that. She hadn't heard from Lex since he'd dropped her off, and she wasn't sure she wanted to. It was so tempting to pretend she'd imagined the whole thing. Too bad she hadn't, and she knew it.

The stones yielded nothing, though, so she left a tiny motion-sensor video camera in the pile closest to the runway and they headed back toward the main terminal building. Chess glanced back, wondering what else hid in the jungle of stiff brownish gra.s.s, what nestled in the ground just outside the field. They'd have to search there, too.

Houses crouched close to the fence, as though they'd been shoved out of the way when it was put up. Duplexes, mostly. Over one door smears of blood remained from the Festival; the residents hadn't bothered to wipe it off when it was no longer needed. Probably figured the rain would get it eventually, and they were probably right. November was usually much rainier than it had been the last week or two.

Someone must have had a window open; the soft strains of a Willie Nelson song drifted toward them like a whisper.

Here and there pitted slides and rusty tricycles dotted the badly tended lawns. Chess could practically feel the cracked plastic of the aged toys beneath her. How many children in these homes were living lives like hers had been, right that moment? Being used as a source of income, and none of that money shared with them?

The buildings sat at odd angles to one another, adding to the air of something seedy and off about the street. One b.u.t.ted right up against the fence, with barely any yard. The next stood a good thirty feet off. "Do you know why the houses are crooked like that?"

Terrible shook his head. "Always been that way, my guess. It matter?"

"Just curious."

Sunlight shafted into the wreckage of the terminal building. "I guess we can try hunting through this mess again." She scanned the ceiling. It was clean, or rather, nothing but cobwebs lurked in the shadows.

They rustled through the garbage again, neither of them wanting to use their hands. This was a waste of time, and she knew it. Something very well could have been planted at Chester, but it wasn't in here.

"That dude last night, he yours?"

"Huh?"

"Mr. Clean you left the show with."

"Doyle? No. Just a guy I work with. How was the show, anyway?"

Terrible grinned. "Dusters always put on a good one."

"I wish I'd stayed."

He lifted his chin in a half-nod. "Missed out, you did."

She rounded the remains of the desk and crouched down. A few drawers remained intact, near the top. Chess steeled herself to open them. Mice liked to nest in places like this, mice and rats and spiders, none of which she enjoyed encountering.

"Amy seems nice," she lied, looking for something to say as she slid open the top drawer.

"She aright."

"Been seeing her long?"

He shrugged.

The drawer was empty. Chess opened the others, finding nothing but dust and dead bugs. Their dry carca.s.ses reminded her horribly of the worms in her hand, and she shut the drawers harder than she'd planned. The last one cracked under the strain and her fist almost went through it.

"Okay, well, I don't see anything in here, so let's look outside, okay?"

"Your show."

The air outside seemed sweet after the dry rot of the terminal. Her nose itched as she handed him another little camera and told him how to attach it to the outside of the building, just under the roof. He didn't need a ladder to do it.

A few feet from the spot where he'd broken the wall to pull her out the other night was an old well and pump. s.h.i.+t. "Um ... you didn't happen to bring any rope, did you?"

"How much?"

"Enough to lower me down that well so I can see if there's anything down there."

"Like electrics and all?"

She nodded.

"d.a.m.n, Chess, you really wanna go down there?"

"Afraid you won't be strong enough to keep me from falling?"

His teeth showed in a grin. "s.h.i.+t. You must joke."

"Of course I'm joking. Do you have rope or not?"

"Could be I do. Wait here."

He headed off back toward his car, while Chess poked around in the gra.s.s some more, always ready for that awful coldness to start creeping up her legs again. At night Chester was like a black hole in the city, devoid of life. Who's to say more rituals hadn't taken place out here? Anywhere you found empty s.p.a.ces you found illegal witchcraft. People did their legitimate rituals at home-money charms, luck spells, easy things that didn't require power or talent. And the Church encouraged it, because when people saw the results of their insignificant spells, their tiny manipulations of energy, it reinforced the Church's Truth; G.o.ds did not exist. Magic did. And the Church was the gateway to magic.