Ghost Light

It was strange having Jinx talk about me like I wasn’t sitting here, just inches away.  But if this was to be Ceff’s first time witnessing my psychometry in action, he deserved a few pointers.  And Jinx was the closest thing to an expert.

Ceff lifted his pant leg to reveal a three pronged weapon—a trident?—strapped to his ankle.

“I will protect her, no matter what comes,” he said.

Ceff stared at Jinx and it seemed like they were talking about more than weapons.

“Guys?” I asked.  “Can we hurry it up?”

My eyelids were heavy and the floor was beginning to feel comfortable, even with the handles of filing cabinets jabbing into my back.  Jinx and Ceff ended their staring contest and Jinx stepped forward.

“Sure thing,” she said.

Jinx handed me the bag.  A small, stuffed animal stared out at me through the clear plastic, its smile stitched in place.

I slid my boots forward and let the bag sit on my lap.  I inhaled slowly though my nose and out through my mouth.  I bit my lip and stared at the pastel blue and yellow monkey smiling out at me.  I had a bad feeling about this.

I unzipped the bag and pulled the child’s toy onto my lap, tossing the bag aside.  My hands shook, but I focused on my anger.  The child who played with this toy was missing, taken from his bed.  I yanked hard on my glove, pulling the leather from my skin one finger at a time.

I didn’t look at Ceff, but I could feel him kneeling before me.  He hadn’t left my side, not yet.  But I knew that what was to happen next would not be pretty.  I just hoped he’d still be here when I came to, though I wouldn’t blame him if he left.

My hand began to glow and I shook my head.  Now was not the time to worry about Ceff.  If he couldn’t handle being with me, then I’d go back to being on my own.  What mattered now was finding the missing children.

I reached out and touched the toy.  The fabric was soft against my bare fingers, but I didn’t have long to appreciate the sensation.  I gasped as my skin began to tingle, as if pricked my hundreds of electrified needles.  There was definitely a memory imprinted here, but it was weak.  It takes strong emotion to leave a psychic imprint on an object.  Either the child had not been frightened at the time of his abduction, or children leave behind weaker imprints than adults.  Since this was my first case involving such young children, I had no way of knowing.

I closed my eyes and took a deep, cleansing breath.  I began tensing and releasing muscles, beginning at my toes and working my way up my legs toward my head.  As I performed the relaxation exercises, I cleared my mind and focused on the object in my hand.  I ran my fingers over the rough stitches of the toy’s smile and the room tilted as if the earth suddenly shifted on its axis.

I slid painlessly into the vision, but the perspective was disorienting.  A child’s mind had formed the memory which made the vision disjointed.  I was in a nursery painted in pastel shades of blue and yellow similar to the toy my hand still held in the real world.

The child had recently been sleeping, the bed still warm where blankets had hastily been thrown back.  The toddler’s heart was racing and something—wings?—thrummed, stirring the downy curls at the back of his head.

I held my mind separate from the child mind of the vision and braced myself for what was to come next.  The child swung his legs over the side of the bed, which I could now see was fashioned from a hollow tree, and reached toward something shining above him.  The child toddled forward, using his wings for balance.  A twinkling light beckoned from a few yards away.  The glowing orb looked suspiciously familiar.

The child was being led from his home by a wisp.

The wisp ducked out through the child’s bedroom door and into a hallway.  The light bobbed and weaved, dancing in the air, but no matter how fast the child ran to catch it, the wisp always remained the same distance ahead.  Pudgy hands reached for the pretty glowing orb, one hand clutching the toy monkey, as the light bounced and wiggled down a long hallway.  At a large wooden door, the wisp shot through the keyhole.  The child ran to the door and fumbled with the latch.

As the child’s toy fell from his hand, the vision faded.  The last image I had was of a young faerie in his pajamas, wandering off into the night.

I tried to focus on the fading image, but black smudges filled my vision.  My awareness was yanked painfully upward and, with a gasping breath, I broke the surface of the vision.  The last of the vision trickled away, returning me to my own body.

I ran my tongue around my mouth, tasting blood, but there didn’t seem to be any lasting damage.  I was even sitting upright.  Go me.

I opened my eyes to see Jinx zipping the blue and yellow monkey into a plastic bag.  She set the bag aside and grabbed a notepad and pen.  I stole a glance at Ceff.  He cleared his throat and caught my gaze.

“We are delighted at your return,” he said.