Page 582 of Dark Love

Vex doesn’t exist. I am no one, according to the government. It’s time to change that. Time to become a person Dahlia’s family would approve of.

The message I’ve been waiting for clicks through. Why is her face devoid of emotion? Is she afraid I won’t like the dress? Or that everyone else will like it too much and I’ll be crazy jealous. I force my eyes away from her face to the outfit in question.

It’s a deceptively simple dress with no adornments except a thin belt cinching in at her waist. All her skin is covered from neck to knees, which is good.

Try not to think about how amazing she looks and all the men who will be drooling over her while you aren’t at her side.

Vex: Dahl, you look beautiful.

This is it. After today, we’ll be together forever.

Dahlia: Say it again.

Me: LOL you’re a nut, but I think that’s one of the reasons I love you so much.

Dahlia: I loveyou too.

Determination drives me to walk faster than I expected to meet my snitch. Over the years, I’ve developed a series of people that keep me informed. Dahlia would say spy for me, but that infers a bit of legality to what I do.

Nothing about this, even by a stretch of the imagination, resembles legal.

The word of the man I’m about to talk to wouldn’t be trusted in any court of law. Aloysius talks to the people in his head and believes aliens are going to eat his brains if he falls asleep in a bed, which is why he’s lived on the street since I was a kid.

But Al’s also been known to wade into a fight to protect a street kid or anyone in trouble. His aliens might be a little out there, but the street info he gives out has never been wrong.

Slowly, so as not to startle him, I make my way down an alley to the dumpster he’ll be waiting behind. “Hey, Al. I got your burgers with extra onions but no pickles or mayonnaise, two jelly donuts, an apple, and four bananas.” It’s been exactly the same order for decades.

He steps out. “Vex.”

“How have you been?”

“The aliens… I saw the alien’s eyes.” Each word is punctuated with an eye twitch and a finger tap. “They were with her.”

That’s new. Al has never claimed to have seen them recently. It’s always been something in the past or the future. “How many aliens were with her?”

“Two. They took out their tools and hurt her, but she was already dead...” He shakes his head. “…or sleeping. She could have been sleeping. There wasn’t any blood.”

Does he need help? Should I have him institutionalized for his own good? It’s happened before. Cops drag him in every now and again. Then there’s the random do-gooder that finds him passed out on the street. They weren’t wrong. He needs help. But he doesn’t want it, and each time he escapes. I’ll need to have someone keep an eye on him for a little while, carefully though, so he doesn’t get squirrely. “Did they put her in their spaceship?”

Al tips his head at me, leaving it there for a long time. “Are you crazy? They put her in the back of a van tied down on a stretcher.”

Well, that’s certainly interesting. The likelihood that he saw Marlie is slim, but I need to ask anyway. “Is this the woman you saw?” I hold out a clear shot of her that Shock got off of social media.

“Yeah.” His whole body shakes along with his nod. “But she had different clothes on… and no shoes. They took her shoes so she couldn’t run. But it doesn’t matter, she’ll run anyway. Running lives. Staying dies. One after the other, they died. The aliens killed them.”

Something is very different with him. I’ll make arrangements on my way home. Someone can at least bring him food and make sure he doesn’t stop in front of traffic. “Can you tell me where this happened?”

“Better. I can show you. But we have to be very quiet, so the aliens don’t see us.”

***

“Torment, I found the pickup location.” But no Marlie.

“Send me the coordinates.”

It’s a step. There’s a chance, a slim one, but there’s still a chance that Torment might find her in time.

Ballgames And Strike Outs

---