I looked down and Lars’s handy work. I wasn’t a tattoo expert but it looked pretty good to me.
“Nice work.”
“I own the tattoo shop, Dead Ink, over in Myrtle Beach, so I've had some practice,” Lars said as he eyed his latest accomplishment.
“Well isn't that convenient.” Dead Ink? Talk about hiding in plain sight. I imagined all the people going in and getting reaper tattoos. Wow, if they had any idea how close to death they really were, I bet they’d rethink the subject matter.
“Do I need to cover it?” I asked as I hopped down off the table.
“No. This one needs to breathe.”
“So what's the deal? How do you two know each other?” Sometimes the best time to ask a question is when you already know the answer. And how honest are you going to be with me? Instinct, of which mine was usually dead on the mark, told me probably not that much.
Fate stepped back from where he’d been peering out the back doors. “Even though the agency will tell you differently, there are certain humans that are aware of us. Lars is one of them.”
Liar. Why am I not surprised? “So what comes next?”
Fate took the lead, as Lars continued to pack up his supplies but was still listening to every word said.
“Now, we lift the veil.”
“What else is there?”
He took my discarded snifter of whiskey, topped it off and handed it to me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I stared at my reflection above the bathroom sink while Fate and Lars waited for me in the living room.
Did I really want to make this choice? My tour guides were proving to be less than honest.
What if I saw something I couldn't live with? But, knowing I'd only be here for a little longer, could I really not do it? Forget about the murderer. This was a chance to see and know the secrets of the universe. Who could walk away from knowledge like that?
I looked at my reflection in the mirror. Not me. I'd been born asking questions. And it was only for a little longer. It wasn't even that much of a risk. I'd be reborn clueless of any of this.
I turned the water on and splashed a little on my face and took a deep breath. I walked into the living room, picked up the snifter I’d left on the table downed the last of it.
“I'm ready.”
Lars nodded and reached for his bag and headed out the door.
“Where's he going?” I asked turning to Fate.
“Prepping the grounds so that no one will interrupt.” Fate edged in closer to me. It was clear he wanted to say something but it took him a minute to get to it. “You sure you want to do this?”
“You’re having second thoughts? This was your idea.” I waited for him to respond. If he kept looking at me like he was now I was going to need another minute in the bathroom.
“You’re leaving after your trial period, right?”
“Yes, yes, yes. Stop asking me the same questions over and over again.” I knew I was being testy, but couldn’t he lay off how much he wanted me to leave just for a little while? I still had intact feelings, after all.
“Okay.” He walked over and held the back door open. “After you.”
We walked out into the starry night. No one was on the beach for miles except for Lars. A black blanket spread out on the sand was surrounded at foot intervals with burning black candles. Black? I would've felt a bit better if they had been white.
Worse than the color, why wasn’t the breeze coming off the ocean causing so much as a flicker in the flames? It should have been impossible to keep them lit, but they blazed straight up as if the wind didn't stir at all.
“Lie on the blanket, in the center,” Lars said.
I moved into place and lay down, feeling increasingly like I was about to be sacrificed.
I didn't become apprehensive again until I saw the knife Lars handed Fate. It looked like it could have taken down a buffalo.
“I'll start the chant. You know what to do,” Lars said.
“Can we use mine?” Fate asked.
Lars looked surprised by the question but then shook his head. “No.”
Fate nodded and took the knife.
“What's that for?”
“Everything has a cost. If you want to see the universe, you need to be connected to it.”
He pointed to a spot near my wrist. “Right here.”
“I won't bleed out?” The spot he pointed to looked pretty close the main vein.
“You might feel woozy but you'll be okay.”
“Did you do this?” I might have felt better with a smaller knife. Did they have to use one that looked like it could amputate my whole arm?
He held up his wrist, Lars who was also listening held up his.
I had agreed to this. I held out my arm and looked away.
I heard Lars start to speak in a language I didn't understand. It didn't matter; I couldn't focus on anything other than waiting for the feel of the knife sliding along my skin, anyway.
A spicy smell hit my nose that I thought might have been from the candles, except then the air started to feel thicker too. It started to feel like breathing in a sauna.
I felt the burn of the knife where it slid across my skin. It was deep and my blood was warm where it flowed over my skin.
“You might want to see this,” Fate said.
I hadn’t planned on looking at my blood flowing out but his words made me curious.
Fate had my wrist slightly raised and I saw the blood flowing out but it wasn’t dropping onto the ground, it was dissolving into the air leaving trails of pink mist. Whatever this process was, it looked like it was in full swing now.
Lars, who had been circling the ring of candles, stopped and made a hand gesture toward the sky.
I looked around and at first I saw nothing different.
“There,” Fate said and pointed to a spot on the horizon. It was dark so I wasn't sure what it was I was seeing at first, when a dark shadow showed over the ocean and disappeared quickly. Then it happened again and I watched more intently. It was like a seam had opened up in the middle of nowhere and a dark shadow appeared. The ocean swelled unusually large in that area and it looked like a riptide had been left in its wake.
Then I saw more of them. Little shadows in all different sizes. I stood and walked closer to the ocean. Maybe I should have been afraid, but instead I was mesmerized.
“You good?” Lars asked Fate from somewhere behind me.
“Yeah,” Fate responded.
I felt Fate lift my arm and wrap the cut as I stood there, looking out. The shadows were everywhere.
He squeezed my hand to get my attention and nodded toward a couple walking down the beach towards us.
“Is it going to be like Maxwell?”
“Remember, I don't see things the way you do. But there’s more. You’re going to see the universe at work.”
It was almost completely dark now so I couldn't see it as clearly as I would've in daylight. The man had a subtle glow to him but the woman appeared dull. As they came closer, I could see the atmosphere around them the way you see heat waves on a hot summer day. As they moved, the clear waves around them shifted with them.
Then some of the woman's dullness seemed to spread toward the man's chest, diminishing the brightness over the area of his heart.
“He'll die next week from a heart attack.” Fate said from next to me.
“You saw that shadow creep toward his heart?”
“No, I saw his fate spreading out in front of him and it didn’t go far. Before this, if it wasn’t a job, you could only see people that had strong karma, in one direction or another. In my case, it was if they had a strong fate.”
“And this?”
“This...” he said as a single older man walked along by himself, with an aura so bright against the night sky it made me want to squint, “is behind the curtain.”
“What exactly am I seeing?”
“The very balance of everything in the world. It doesn't touch us, though. And whatever you do, you can't let on that you see it.”
“Why is it so bad?”
“This, all of this, Lars, seeing the true forces at work, all against the rules.”
“What would happen if someone found out?”