Eidolon

Chapter 14: A Plausible Explanation

Cynthia drove down back streets with her headlights off for a while, just in case there were any other police in the area that could respond and give chase. Once she felt confident that they were far enough away, she pulled into a parking lot.

"What are we doing?" Alex asked, looking around.

"Getting pizza, of course," Cynthia replied, even as Alex looked up to see the bright neon sign that said BB'S Pizza in a blocky font.

Alex stared at her in disbelief. "Seriously?"

Cynthia responded with a mischievous smirk. "That's what we told my mom we were doing. It'd look suspicious if we didn't come back with any." She opened the door and got out of the Jeep.

"You don't think it'll look suspicious that we're both completely drenched?" Alex pointed out, following Cynthia across the parking lot.

"I already got that figured out," she replied proudly. "We'll say that we took the pizza over to Anthony Park, so we could eat at the gazebo, but then the lawn sprinklers came on just as we got there." It sounded plausible enough.

"Okay," Alex agreed reluctantly. It felt a bit surreal, stopping for pizza right after battling an angry spirit and running away from the police. The stark contrast between her everyday life and this strange new world of spirits and otherworldly forces was jarring. Is this what her life was going to be like from now on?

They stepped inside the building, tracking wet footprints on the floor, and stood in line behind two other people. The clerk, a heavyset teen with a mop of greasy blonde hair, glanced at them several times, no doubt thinking about how he was going to have to mop the floor once they left.

"One large pepperoni, please" Cynthia said when they got up to the register.

"Uh... that'll be fourteen o' two," the boy said in response, giving them both a strange look.

Cynthia slapped a wet twenty dollar bill down on the counter, then scrapped up two pennies from the tray next to the register and dropped them on top of the bill. The clerk returned six dollars in change, and politely informed them that their pizza would be ready in about fifteen minutes, his eyes still seeming to ask why the hell they were dripping water in small puddles all over the tiled floor.

They stepped over to one of the tables. Alex sat with her back against the wall, while Cynthia pulled one out, sitting in it backwards with her arms crossed and resting across the back, positioned so that she could see the counter when their pizza was ready.

"So what the hell actually happened back there?" Cynthia asked. "One moment, you were talking, and then the next thing I know, bam! Fire everywhere!"

Alex put her head down on the table, burying her face in her arms. She was shivering slightly, her cold, wet jeans and jacket sapping all the warmth from her. "I tried to help him," Alex said miserably, cradling her face in her hands. "But I guess I just made things worse. He literally transformed into a wraith right in front of me."

"Is he still there?"

Alex shook her head slowly, remorsefully. "No, I don't think so," she responded. "I think I, um... exorcised it." She ran the fingers of both hands through her tangled, wet hair and closed her eyes. "So I pushed him over the edge, then killed him a second time, basically."

"I'm not sure you had anything to do with him getting corrupted, actually," Cynthia said. She retrieved her phone from her jeans pocket. Thankfully, her heavy army-style jacket had soaked up most of the water from the sprinklers so it wasn't too wet. She pulled up the photo she had taken in the confession booth at the church. "Look at this."