Page 26 of The Mare Rider of Cornwall Cove
“He is!” Phil pointed a finger at me. “I love him, and he’s trying to psychically kill himself by going back to meet with Smoke Man!”
“That’s not what’s happening here,” I interjected, taking a step closer to him. His blue eyes were wide with fright, and understandably so, but he did need to take a breath and listen. Phil wasn’t irrational or domineering, just the opposite. Right now, he was just caught in the grip of terror.
“Really? Then tell me what you two were just talking about if it wasn’t going back to that miserable asylum to cleanse it of that monster. I’m not super smart, Arch, but my ears are damn good.” He flung his gaze to Monique. “Sorry for using cuss words, but I’m really scared and pissed off. Sorry for pissed off. That’s not a nice phrase to use in front of an old lady.”
Monique’s soft laugh broke through the tension like a gentle wind blows away a lingering fog.
“Sorry for calling you old,” Phil coughed out.
“Child, Iamold. Now, please come sit here with us and let us all talk. Come.” She patted the sofa cushion that still held my ass imprint. Sir Thomas arrived with his tail in the air, rubbed around Phil’s ankles and then leaped onto the coffee table. I could see more of the rigidity around Phil’s still tired eyes lessen. Whether it was due to the lilting feminine voice or the affection of a spectral cat, I couldn’t say—perhaps both—but I was glad for it. I’d never dealt with a highly agitated Phil Kestrel before and had no clue how to talk him down. “Come sit. We have things to discuss that you need to hear if you’re going to be dating a man who possesses the spiritual eye.”
“Fine, I’ll sit, but I’m going to sit mad.” He dropped his firm ass onto the couch with such attitude it burped a waft of dusty air into the atmosphere. His arms folded over his wrinkled tee, and he set his kissable lips into a tight line. Still very kissable, but flat.
“Now you sit too, Arch.” She jerked her chin at the small open space on Phil’s left. I sat, hip to hip, thigh to thigh with my man,and watched the ghost cat roll a green bead to the floor, then a yellow one, then a pencil. Cats will cat.
“Damn familiars,” Monique muttered, picked up her pencil and beads and placed them back on the table, then sat back and turned slightly to face Phil. There was little that lived or went on here at the store that this lady didn’t know about. Grandpa and she were quite tight. As I sat there, Phil stared straight ahead. “Now, let me explain what is going on here.”
“I’m only listening with one ear,” Phil ground out.
“One ear is better than none. Now, you know that Archie is a rarity, a special man with an incredibly special gift.”
“I know, and that’s why I love him. He’s so special. And sweet and kind and cute and has the nicest little butt.” My eyes flared, but Monique just smiled softly. “And he’s smart. So, so smart even though he doesn’t see it, but I do, and so do others.” My cheeks grew warm at the praise. Phil glanced at me with such devotion I melted inside. “I love you. I don’t want to see you hurt or anime nose bleeding or having some evil boogeyman thing sink its fingers into your brain. Arch, if the Smoke Man does that to you, he’ll kill your special brain. Then you’ll die. And your light will be gone from my world, and I don’t want to be in the dark again with no one or nothing to hold at night.”
“Oh, baby boy,” Monique whispered as she gathered Phil to her, placing a hand to his sweaty head to guide it to her shoulder. He wrapped himself around her like a vine, his shaking breaths fluttering over his lips as I leaned in to rest against his side. He slid an arm around me, tucking me close, and there we sat, the three of us shaking with emotion until Phil was calm enough to mumble something about wishing his mom had given out hugs so freely. “Well, my family is touchy-feely,” Monique explained as we righted ourselves and sniffled back the tears that had threatened. “So you’re going to get hugged every day and twice on Sunday.”
Phil took my hand as much of the dread left his face. “This family is like the best family I’ve ever had, and you’re the best person I’ve ever loved, Arch. I don’t want to lose any of you. Why do we have to go back? Why not just leave the thing there?”
“Because it’s a danger to innocent teens and other nimrods like us who like to investigate the unknown,” I explained, threading my thinner fingers through his. “Monique says these mare riders can be quite dangerous. They can paralyze a sleeping person, or worse, crush the breath from them.”
“So the stories go,” she quickly interjected. “Sometimes these tales are just that, tale. Stories less educated people came up with to explain something like SIDs or sleep paralysis. Sometimes there is truth to the legends.”
Phil closed his eyes and sighed, his grip pinching my fingers, before his lashes fluttered back up to reveal worried sapphire eyes.
“Couldn’t that just be old-time wives’ tales? Like they used to say cats suck the breath out of babies.” Sir Thomas paused in washing his face to wrinkle his nose at that comment. “Maybe someone just got sleep paralysis or some poor baby died, and they didn’t know about medical stuff and said it was a demon that did it. It could be something like that, right?”
He glanced from me to Monique.
“Yes, it could be, but there can also be a kernel of fact in some of those old wives’ tales,” Monique said, slipping some cards back into a short stack. “My grandmother used to say that eating carrots makes you see better. Well, turns out they have lots of vitamin A, which is important for good vision. So sometimes there are grains of truth in some old-fashioned thoughts. Even if the mare rider can’t crush your chest, it can manipulate a person’s mind, and it can terrorize a human as you know.” Phil went visibly whiter. I gave his hand a squeeze. “No poor kid out there on a dare deserves to suffer through such an ordeal, right?”
He lowered his eyes to our joined hands resting on his meaty thighs. “Guess not.”
“We agree, so, as we have some knowledge in dealing with things from the other side of the veil, it falls to us to clear away dangerous beings. That’s what being a seer like Archie is all about or being a shaman like me. It’s what we do to keep this side of the curtain safe for people. You said yourself that Archie is special, and he is, and this gift from his ancestors is what makes him so unique and powerful.” I snorted. Powerful. Not really. Throwing up, getting nosebleeds, and crying about a headache isn’t exactly what I’d call strong. You never saw Arnold whining about his head hurting. Nope, he just called that alien an ugly mother right to its face. That’s power. Not bleeding on your READ MORE BOOKS tee like a fangirl in a manga.
“No, I…yeah, I know, I get it, but I’m scared for him.” Phil looked from Monique to me. “I’m scared of losing you. These spirits can be violent. And demons? Oh shit, that is next level. We’re not John Constantine. We’re just two college dudes. I know you know a lot, and your Kee book has lots of information, but what happens when we run into a super mean thing that eats us like some fries with a side of aioli?”
I nodded. What he said made sense. “Yeah, I get scared too. I know the risks.” His sour face said that he didn’t think I knew, but I did. “No, I do. My parents died at the hands of a water ghost, according to Grandpa. Some things from the other side are dangerous, no doubt, but so few people know about them or can converse with them that the ones that do should be out there helping keep the normies safe.”
Monique snickered. “Normies.”
“Well, yeah, the normal people as opposed to us weirdos who talk to long-dead redcoats, milkmen, and other spooky sorts,” I said and gave a small shrug. “Phil, we will be incredibly safe and as prepared as we can be. And that will be the rule from hereon out. We research before we enter a haunted or supernaturally charged area. No more last-minute stream ideas. We’re all about due diligence, and that goes for Roxie too.”
“I’m pretty sure Roxie is not going to cook up anything off the cuff from now on,” Monique quietly stated. “That girl was shook. I agree that your streams have to be handled better, and for that, you will need to do a bit of research beforehand. But that’s an easy thing and a problem for later streams. Right now, we need to focus on how to deal with that mare rider before a bunch of kids decide to head out and poke around now that they’ve seen it on your show.”
“Shit,” Phil and I both muttered in unison. I’d not thought of that possibility. “Okay, so what we’ll do is get a short video up on our social media to apologize for the interrupted content last night and add that I’m going back tonight with better equipment and more knowledge. I can set up whatever is needed beforehand and—”
“You’re going to work the camera or fight with the internet booster or finagle the old EVP mic and recorder that I found on sale at that flea market?” Phil asked as his grip was now so tight that my fingers were slightly numb. I wasn’t letting go, though. I could feel the tremors in his hand. They were slight but still there.
“Well…” I fumbled.
