Page 60 of Darkness

And occasionally did some looking himself.

Not since letting himself go, though. Once Craig walked out, vowing he’d never walk back in, why bother? Who gave a rat’s ass if a random hookup found Morrisey attractive enough to be seen in public with. He just needed to be attractive enough to fuck. A hard dick, a welcoming hole. What more did a guy need?

Dark bars gave a definite advantage, scaling everyone upward a few points on the attractiveness scale.

Morrisey’s resolve not to ask personal questions weakened. “Can I ask a question?”

“I’ll answer if I can.” Farren shrugged. “At this point in your training, there are things I can’t share.”

Duly noted. Do you dream of me? I dream of you. “How did you come to be here?”

“With the FBI?”

“That too. But how did you manage to reach this realm? I know what you and Leary said, but what’s the unofficial story?” What are your secrets?

Farren studied Morrisey for several moments. “You read the information we gave you, right?”

“Yes.” Sort of. Not much stuck with Morrisey, especially after a night of drinking. Possibly Farren’s way of ducking the question.

Farren dropped his tones into what Morrisey now noticed was his “teaching tone,” the words sounding well-rehearsed. “Like you, I worked on a case involving multiple victims away from home. I went to sleep one night…”

“And found yourself here.”

“And found myself here,” Farren agreed, waving a hand at his surroundings. “Or rather, I found myself on a street in LA. I stopped to help a young man gasping on the ground in a stinking alley.” Farren’s voice softened, and the vacant look on his face suggested he’d sank deep into memories. After a moment’s quiet, he added, “The man said one thing to me: ‘Please’, though he was technically dead. That was the first time I entered a dead or dying person for information. Not something we did back in my old realm. Then Farren gasped his last breath. I needed a body; he had unfinished business. We merged.”

“What did he want?”

“For me to tell his mother he loved her and to arrange for his worldly possessions to go to her. He left behind enough savings to keep her comfortable in her old age.”

“That sucks.” Lame, but what else could Morrisey say?

“I agree. Nutri… I mean, paramedics revived the body. Although my host’s spirit was gone. I remained. Even with the paramedic helping, I barely survived. Fentanyl-laced heroin.”

“And you caught the dealer.”

“Yes. But since people in LA knew Farren, I needed a different home. I met Leary there, unaware the FBI already had a task force in California. Shortly after my arrival, I started seeing killings caused by those from my realm. Leary was a detective looking into the crimes but not knowing what he was dealing with. I watched him and his team. When the traveler nearly killed Leary, I stepped in. After a great deal of fast talking, he finally believed me. The FBI top brass already knew about travelers, though few from Domus worked for them yet. Soon they discovered dozens of travelers in Atlanta and sent us here.”

So many questions. What was the other realm like? Who had Farren left behind? How much of that world mimicked this one? A memory appeared: Farren drifting among the stars, looking for his family. A memory? Or a dream? “You tried to go home?”

Farren slowly shook his head back and forth. “Sadly, it’s a one-way trip for me. I don't have the power to travel between realms. I believe I was... summoned. Besides, within the next hundred or so human years, Domus will completely fold in on itself. There’ll be no home to go back to.”

Fuck. Harsh. “I’m sorry.” A whole fucking realm collapsing? Damn.

Farren averted his gaze, whispering, “So am I.”

“Did you have anyone left behind? Father, mother, wife…”

Again, Farren shook his head. “No. I had a lover, but we fought.”

What couple didn’t fight? Morrisey and Craig had some doozies. “Over what?”

“Me spending too much time away from home for my job. I accepted a lengthy assignment elsewhere after the last fight. I thought time apart might do us some good.”

Morrisey settled onto the bed, the firm mattress hardly denting under his weight. “You never got back together?”

Farren shut his eyes, pulling in and exhaling a deep, shuddering breath. “No. Remember the analogy, how one day an area approximately the same size as Rhode Island disappeared?”

“Yeah.”

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