Goddess Unravelled

The Easy Way Out

There was no more mention of her, or the halfmoon order. She cursed again, hand hovering over the keyboard. What did she do now? Should she email the owner of the blog? Was that smart? Then again, why not? It wasn't like he would know who she was. She would just be very careful.

On the side there was a form to email the owner of the site, and under that there was a chat box. She debated for a second, and then typed in her user name as "Jane". Her middle name was ridiculously plain, and no one would associate it with her.

She typed in "Is anyone there?" and hit the "send" button, sitting back to take another long sip of hot tea. It was totally unlikely that anyone, especially the owner of the site, would be awake at three in the morning...

Ding!

She jerked upright in her seat. The curser was flashing in the center of the screen, a new name had come up in the chat box.

Bingo: Hi! Welcome to The God Conspiracy!

Alice paused, hand hovering over the keyboard, pulse racing in her throat. What did she say back? Who was "Bingo"? If he was welcoming her to the site that probably meant he was the owner, didn't it?

She typed back,

Jane: Nice blog! Are you the owner?

She fidgeted in her seat waiting for the answer, resolving that if he answered no, she'd find the owner's email address and send him an email instead. She had to find out where he was getting his information from.

Bingo: Glad you like it! Yeah I am. Questions? Comments?

She took a deep breath and typed a quick answer back.

Jane: Do you know more about the Halfmoon Order?

The answer came back almost as soon as she'd hit 'send".

Bingo: That depends on who is asking.

"Crap," Alice muttered. She tapped her fingertips on the surface of the mug. Did she tell "Bingo" who she was? It seemed risky, since he had an article about her on his blog. But then again, judging by the tone of the rest of his blog, he wasn't the god's number one fan either. Maybe she could risk it...

She took a deep breath and typed with shaking hands:

Jane: I know what happened to Epimetheus.

There was a long pause this time, and Alice shifted in her chair nervously. She could see the curser flashing at the bottom of the screen. He wasn't even typing. What was he doing? She wished she knew how he was reacting. Had she judged him all wrong?

"Crap!" She hovered the mouse over the "X" box in the corner, on the verge of clicking out of the blog and logging off before Bingo could magically trace her and her computer or something.

Ding!

She froze.

Can we meet somewhere?

She sucked in a long breath, darting a look at the bedroom door. It almost felt like she was doing something wrong. She knew Altair would be freaking out right now if he could see what she was doing, talking about making "dates" with strange men on the internet.

She typed back: Where and when?

Bingo: I can come to you.

Alice looked around the apartment as she groped for an idea. There had to be somewhere public they could meet...

A flyer on the kitchen counter caught her eye, and she stood up and walked over to the fridge, leaning against the handle as she read it.

It was a book launch flyer. The same one she'd seen advertised on the window of the toy shop. She stared at the flyer, chewing on her lower lip. It was a busy, well-lit place. They would never be alone. The date was next weekend, and the flyer said the launch was held at the community hall. That was far enough away from the shop to feel comfortable.