Page 83 of The Shade of Things
“Thank you.”
My boss instructed Eli and me to show up in the morning. She and Esposito had a meeting to determine which steps to take next.
Juliette took me aside to say she’d look in on her uncle. I smiled, grateful he had her in his corner.
Since Emmett was going back to Tatiana’s, he carried Daw out to my boss’s gold behemoth of a car and got her settled in the front seat.
Eli and I said goodbye to Teresa and Okeyo. The young woman hugged Eli and me tightly. He told her to call him anytime and that he could recommend a therapist who was excellent at helping Sapiens process the existence of magic.
Okeyo, more formal, shook our hands, though his gratitude was just as heartfelt.
“We’re here for you too,” I said. “Anytime.” We’d given both Teresa and him our contact information.
He gave us a shaky smile. “No disrespect, but I hope to never see either of you again.”
Eli nodded. “Totally understandable.” They shook hands one last time and then we watched Tatiana drive off, wincing as the car lurched and stopped its way to the main road.
I grimaced. Jeez, Tatiana, hadn’t these people suffered enough?
“Then there were two,” I murmured.
“Yeah, but a pretty kick-ass two,” Eli said. “I can’t believe we actually rescued Teresa…” His breath was a foggy exhale in the cool night. Something flickered over his features, then he shook his head. “It’s not over, is it?”
“No. I’ll fill you in on the bigger picture, but what happened to you back in the gym?”
Eli had much the same experience that I did. Darkness, terror, general evil encouraging him to jump. I understood why Emmett wasn’t affected, but why was Laurent the outlier with visions? While I hadn’t asked Teresa or Okeyo, not wanting them to have to relive it, if neither Eli nor I had had visions, then why Laurent? Was it due to his Ohrist magic?
Who could I even ask?
Back inside, Sadie proclaimed that she didn’t want to know any details. We were home and that was good enough for her, but she also didn’t want to do our Buffy rewatch tonight. I couldn’t fault her for that. She took her lucky earrings back, kissed us good-night, and went up to bed. Tomorrow she’d go to Eli’s place for the week.
Jude, however, stayed late listening to the entire story.
We’d broken out a bottle of Merlot at the start of the tale and were well into our second bottle by the time I posed my hypothesis of why the game existed.
“It’s about dybbuks,” I said.
Jude groaned. “Can just one thing in this dang world not be about dybbuks?”
“Between what Ian told us and what Eli and I experienced, I think this Consortium has been running the game as an experiment for decades, adjusting the parameters as needed,” I said. “Dybbuks only possess Ohrist hosts and can’t even do that unless their inhibitions have been lowered.”
Eli slammed the bottle on the table without topping up his glass as intended. “That’s why there were all the mind games and a whole terror campaign? Those fucks are trying to turn Sapiens into hosts?”
“Yeah. Strip away the perception filter so they see magic, then find the right conditions to do the Sapien version of lowered inhibitions. The winner is both primed for dybbuk takeover and strong enough to withstand possession.”
“I wonder if dybbuks are drawn to Ohrists because our magic makes us strong enough hosts in addition to giving them powers once they’re in control of the body,” Jude said. “Otherwise, wouldn’t it be better to possess any human, even a Sapien if possible, then go back to being tortured in Gehenna?”
“You’d think.” I ran a finger around the rim of my glass, my stomach tight. “They almost managed with Daw. Part of a dybbuk slipped inside her but couldn’t go any further.”
Eli swore under his breath. “But it made it that far because she’d been driven insane.”
“Walk me through the gory details,” Jude said. Her expression grew grimmer and grimmer as Eli and I took turns narrating the events. “After all that, the game ends at a playground, the Sapiens sliding into a veritable rebirth in their new, improved form. The transformative journey is complete.” Jude held up her glass. “Evil bastards.”
“Well, they’re hoping to complete it,” I said. “Through physical and psychological terror, the Consortium is stripping the Sapiens down to a newborn state, but thankfully, they haven’t pulled a full phoenix yet.”
“If dybbuks had access to most of the world’s population, the chaos would be unimaginable,” Eli said. “We’d self-destruct.”
“Maybe that’s the point?” I took a sip, letting the fruity wine smooth away some of my jagged edges. “Get rid of the weak and undesirable while rich and powerful Ohrists hide away until the dust settles?”
