Requiem of Revenge

Chapter 9

She was gone for several minutes while I drummed my fingers impatiently on the table. Maybe I should just give up and go back…after all, I hadn’t paid her yet. I hadn’t even told her what I needed.

It was settled, then. I would find some other way to find Mike, and not rely on someone I didn’t know and probably couldn’t trust. I would just have to find another way to…

Just then, Linda came back.

The door opened jerkily with a black and pointy high heel.

“I’ve got just one thing,” she smiled.

“Just one?”

She grinned as she dumped an Ouija board onto the table.

“What? You were expecting something fancy?”

Before I could answer, Linda slipped smoothly down into the chair opposite me.

“Alright, who do you want to contact?” she asked, busily setting it up.

“Er…” I had to hope she hadn’t heard of the band, or at least hadn’t cared enough to look up real names.

“Frank Wright.”

She glanced up and surveyed my expression carefully. I shifted a bit in my chair, not sure whether or not to look back at her.

“Okay, then.”

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence as I waited. Once she was ready, the atmosphere seemed to grow more tense.

Her obviously practiced hands slid across the board, back and forth, spelling out the name of the only person who I could trust with the real reason why I was here.

“Really, Mr. Smith, I can help you, really, I can, I just…” she blubbered.

“Just what? You’re just a fake,” I replied, controlling my voice as best I could.

“No, no, I can contact ghosts and spirits, believe me. I’ve done it dozens of times before, please, let me try again, I don’t know what went wrong, it always works normally…” she pleaded, trying to take my hand into her own, cheerful and light demeanor gone.

I yanked it away. “Look, I’m going to go. I didn’t need this anyway.”

“But you did need this…I could tell.”

Fed up and not particularly caring to hear another word, I marched out the door and slammed it behind me, climbing down the steps and back into the street. I didn’t look back.

Damn it, damn it, damn it! I knew this would happen.

We had spent a good part of an hour just staring at the Ouija board, which lay as motionless as ever. I tried to leave after the first thirty minutes, but Linda tried to make me stay and wait. Ha. If Tre was able to make an appearance, he would have come within the first five.

Now I was more frustrated than ever. There was no rational way to do this. Hell, this entire idea of trying to find my friend in a gigantic city wasn’t rational. I was ready to give up.

No options.