Open Minds: The Fog

Chapter Nine:Jean*-In Which Tricks are Performed

*Author's Note: The chapter starts with Jean/Jeanie's perspective, then Caliph's.

Jean walked towards the people in the parking lot. She tried to keep a suspicious look frozen on her face. She was panicked. She was impossibly tired from watching the monster watching her. She was desperately hoping that these people would go away and take the monster with them. At the same time, if they were like her and Corduroy, maybe they were worth listening to.

She stopped walking a few feet away from Lexi, Taylor and the other woman.

She was tall and black; the new librarian, probably. Jean didn't visit the library often.

"Right. Straight to it, loves." The woman looked expectantly at Jean. Jean stared back belligerently. "Introduce yourselves. Please." Jean started some more and Corduroy shuffled. Lexi glared at Jean from behind the librarian and Taylor bounced. "Fine. I'll go first. I'm Allison Haunch. My patron -spirit- that gives me powers- does plants and that kinda stuff, but I'm not very strong with that, so I'm a mechanic. I build things. I'm a leader in my organization. Now," She smiled slyly. "Watch."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a sunflower seed; the kind that came in the school vending machines. She crouched down and wedged it in a crack in the asphalt. She held one hand over it and closed her eyes. She slowly lifted her hand and the seed shook. The top snapped open.

A tiny green tendril snaked a few inches into the air. A few more. A little but appeared and started to unfold. Just then, Allison drew her fingers together. The bud melted back into the vine, which suddenly shot upwards and curled around Allison's little finger. Allison snapped the fingers on her other hand and the plant turned to dust and drifted onto the ground. She looked up.

Jean and Corduroy looked on, aghast. Jean thought back a few months, when the changes started. How long had this woman been able to control it like that? Before she could ask, Allison stood and brushed off her knees.

"Lexi's power isn't really something you can see, but as for Taylor, well... Give them a show, hon."

Taylor beamed and winked at Jean. She leaned forward and noticed Lexi do the same.

He stuck out both arms and raised them over his head. As he did so, he began to levitate in the air. Looking down, he laughed.

"Jeez, it has been forever since I got to do this!" He reclined in the air and pointed at Allison. "You, my dear, are looking positively radiant today. The thought of you makes my heart soar!" He flicked his fingers up and Allison rose, much more quickly.

She tumbled a little in the air, giggling while Taylor drifted higher. He rolled onto his stomach. Shouting down, he pointed both fingers at Lexi. "You seem a little down. Boom!" He threw his hands up and laughed again. Lexi flew, upside-down and feet first about five feet in the air. She righted herself and gave him a look. He slowly turned in the air to Jean and Corduroy.

"Hm. Confused? Lost? Stalked? Things are looking up, now we're here!" He spread his hands in a grand gesture and Jean felt her insides go cold. Her heart shivered and her nerves tingled as he lost gravity. She was soon as high as the others, mouth still hanging open.

Corduroy was scrambling and bobbing, trying to touch the ground. He grabbed at nothing and yelled curses in the general upwards direction.

Taylor laughed again and Corduroy settled gently face first on the parking lot. The others fell slowly too. Allison touched down lightly and gracefully, and Lexi more stiffly. Jean's feet touched the pavement and she stumbled, catching herself just before falling.

She straightened and crossed her arms again. This time, keeping her glare was harder. They all looked at her hopefully.

Allison spoke up again. "So? What can you do, Hon?"

Jean thought. She didn't want to seem vulnerable to these people. She didn't want their help. But she needed it, and if the monster going away meant she had to accept them, she would. And some part of her really, really wanted to impress them She decided.

Bending down, she put her hands on the filthy concrete of the parking lot. She felt for the aliveness that stone held. She squeezed her eyes shut and pushed. Her hands slowly sank into the asphalt. She felt the dirt and pebbles lying beneath the parking lot. She willed them to her. Their cold shaped pressed against her palms. She closed her hands and drew them slowly out of the ground. Jean opened her hands, palms up, and the pebbles floated in clusters a few inches above her hand. She closed her eyes again and imagined the rocks squishing together. She imagined the heating up into black glass like in volcanoes. She imagined them forming a point like a spearhead. She opened her eyes.

The rocks had fused, and they were steaming, dark, and vaguely triangular. Jean frowned. They were supposed to be a deadly spearpoint, not an iffy pyramid. Still, she looked up at Allison and the others. Taylor was still floating, but his eyes were wide and his jaw slack. Score one impressed stranger. Allison had stepped back. Her mouth was moving, but no sounds came out. Score two?

Lexi was leaning against the Honda looking impressed and slightly triumphant. Score, well, one half.

Jean pocketed the triangle and shrugged. "What's up, guys?"

Allsion shook her head. "Jeanie, you're very, very powerful. In fact-"

She was cut off my Lexi's scream.

His knowings were bigger and bigger. He looked almost frantically through all of the dim beings around him. None of them were his prey. He knew he needed it now. He needed to take it back to His world. He pawed through the beings with no effect. Then, he felt them. There were the Kinds from before. He saw them through the walls of the building. Sending up flares of energy and there: The gleam. The earth-shine. His prey. He moved as fast as He could. He went through the doors that held the beings in. Earth-Shine was there with others. His food. The Angry and Hungry were huge. That was his food. His. He lunged at it.

Glossary (In Alphabetical Order):

Patron: A being, usually confined to the Fog that puts some of itself or its power into a person, no matter the motive or circumstance

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