Back of the Envelope

Old Post: This story begins here, and the previous chapter is here.

This is Chapter 7 of Eyes in the Shadow, finished Thursday night as I was suffering from massive sleep deprivation from a bout of insomnia the night before. If it seems a bit short, that's because it was supposed to be the second part of Chapter 6, but it got bumped.

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Chapter 7
A Back Door

Ryan pulled to a stop in front of the dormitory.

"I have a bad feeling about this," he said. The day had grown overcast, which didn't improve Ryan's mood.

"Don't worry, it'll just take me a moment to get my stuff," Dominic said as he opened the door and got out.

"You're lucky," said Emily. "Ryan and I never had a chance to pack."

"Yeah, I kind of noticed." Dominic closed the door before Ryan could come up with a good comeback.

Ryan watched him walk off, dodging skateboarders as he darted up the stairs to the dorm. The square building was one of those ugly modern buildings, with a huge glass wall fronting the first floor and stone facing on the four stories above. It looked like just about every other college dormitory. Next to the door was an intercom system, and Dominic punched a keypad and held a brief conversation with someone on the other side before being let in. As the glass door closed behind him, Ryan wondered whether he was coming back. If he was looking for a chance to run out on them, this was it. Do I really think he'd do that? He promised his sister. Ryan wasn't sure, but he did know that Dominic was scared. More frightened than Ryan was, it seemed, and for all the wrong reasons, too. Who the Hell understands religious people?

Ryan kept the car running, figuring that a quick getaway was more valuable than saving gas right now. They were just pulled up to the curb, a little bit past the dorm on their right side, since Ryan hadn't wanted to spend the time to go hunting for a parking lot. The less time we're here, the better. Still, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to find a legitimate parking place. What am I worried about? They can't tow the car while we're in it, and I can always move it if someone complains.

He settled back on the plush cloth seat. After a moment's thought, he began playing with its controls. Ryan'd had scant time to adjust the driver's seat to his liking as in their rush to leave the rental car lot before Red-eyes found them. The seat was still too far back, and he used the seat's electric motor to move it forward, then raise it a little. The car wouldn't feel so awkward now that everything was in easy reach. He considered turning on the radio, but he really didn't have the patience to look for a radio station he wanted to listen to. He never listened to it much anyway, as he found music distracting and talk radio worse whenever he was trying to do something. Ryan could never just listen to the radio—he inevitably got bored and started doing something, at which point the radio was a distraction and off it went. Oddly, he didn't have the same problem with television, perhaps because it engaged his eyes as well as his ears. For that matter, he loved to read, which was all eyes and mind and no listening at all. He just wasn't a very aural person, and that applied to long conversations as well. He could concentrate when he was participating, but his mind wandered whenever he was just supposed to listen. For instance, right at the moment, Emily was chattering about something she and Dominic had done when they were little, and Ryan was trying his best to at least pretend he was paying attention. He nodded and said "yeah" and "huh" in an attentive matter whenever Emily would leave a space for response—which wasn't often—but he couldn't for the life of him remember what her story was about, and tuning in to Emily's words for half-a-minute didn't offer him much clue, as she was talking about how her story had demonstrated the psychology of sibling relationships, still without giving him any hint as to the actual events of said story. He might have been worried about missing the point if he weren't fairly certain that there was none.

Given the scant attention he was giving to her, it was a wonder he noticed when she stopped cold. His automatic "uh-huh" got caught in his throat as he noticed that her eyes, locked on the rearview mirror, were suddenly wide. "What?" She remained silent, her eyes scanning the mirror, her head tilting to get a better angle. "Emily, what is it?"

"Red-eyes," she said.

Ryan's right hand went to the gearshift while his left stabbed the lock button, the automatic lock sealing every door in the car. "Sorry, Emily, but we can't wait for your brother anymore."

"But...," she began, her neck craning further to the left to keep her target in sight, her hand searching for the door lock, "he's not coming toward us. He's going toward..." Her hand found the lock and clicked it open. Rather than waiting for Emily to realize that she had unlocked rather locked the door, Ryan jabbed the automatic lock again. But he had misjudged Emily's intentions. Rather than locking Red-eyes out of the car, she had done exactly what she intended and let herself out, and she was already pushing the door open by the time the lock clicked shut again. "Dominic!" she shouted.

I knew coming here was a bad idea. Both times!

Ryan shifted the car back into park and jerked the key from the ignition. Somebody should teach that girl the value of self-preservation! Ryan got out of the car, wondering how he was even going to spot Red-eyes. Unless he had decided to go noticeable again, Ryan could be staring straight through him as he walked up and snapped his neck. Emily had the hand mirror and was using it to search for Red-eyes, apparently having lost track of him. He could be on top of her before she could even find him! Ryan circled the car to come up beside her. Since he found it difficult to watch the mirror over her shoulder, he futilely scanned the sidewalk.

The dorm had a wide patio fronting its glass wall, and a slightly narrower set of steps connecting the patio to the sidewalk. On either side of the stairway was a grassy slope, still green in the Southern winter, and more grass plus a few shade trees bracketed the patio and its two-foot-high brick wall. Few people loitered in the cold weather, most of them hurrying on their way. However, the skateboarders were continuing their stunts on the patio, one hopping his board from the patio to the sidewalk without touching the intervening steps. He had a rough goatee, a winter hat hiding his hair, a white T-shirt over a long-sleeved black shirt, baggy shorts long enough to come to Ryan's ankles had he worn them, and no protective gear whatsoever. His landing looked good to Ryan's inexperienced eye, so he was surprised to see the young man fly from his skateboard, landing hard on his back against the stairs. His board continued a few inches before bouncing against nothing more solid than air and rolling backwards. What the--? And just like that, Ryan could see him: Red-eyes, standing above the fallen skateboarder, his arms just now dropping to his sides. You miscalculated, didn't you? People usually go around you, even when they can't see you, but it's awfully hard to turn a skateboard in mid-flight. But while Ryan saw him, the skateboarders still didn't. They rushed to their fallen friend's side without a glance for his assailant. For that matter, Emily was still frantically scanning her mirror back and forth. Red-eyes ignored the skateboarders, stepping around them to head up the stairs. Ryan's eyes followed Red-eyes' intended path to the dorm, looking through the glass wall to see Dominic, wearing his sunglasses even inside, coming down the stairs, a duffel bag in one hand and a laptop case hanging from the opposite shoulder.

"Another possibility is that this guy is using you--getting you to run and then following, hoping you'll lead him to something." Or someone. Someone like Dominic. Ryan dropped the keys into Emily's hand as he brushed past her. "Drive the car around back," he said, pointing at the dorm.

"Where? How? Why?"

"Hurry!" Ryan shouted as he sprinted off, making a straight line across the grass and over the low wall surrounding the patio, in a dead run for the door. He passed within ten feet of Red-eyes on the way to the door, close enough to feel his icy aura. Like in the dream. God, I hope I'm imagining it. Ryan would not have been surprised to feel Red-eyes' hand wrapping around his wrist like a manacle, a manacle with razor sharp claws which sank into his skin. He almost looked back, but he didn't dare. I don't want to know how close he is.

Ryan could guess that Red-eyes' intention was to catch Dominic just as he came out the door. If so, his timing was impeccable, which made Ryan's slightly less so. He arrived at the door just before both Dominic and Red-eyes, but when he tried to open it, he found the it locked, the knob refusing to turn. He glanced at the intercom system. It was obvious how it worked: dial the room number and they'll let you in, or, if you live here yourself, slide your ID card in the attached cardreader. It made a lot of sense if you weren't about to be ripped apart by a psychotic mutant demon. Lacking ID card and friend in the building, Ryan could only pound on the door to indicate that Dominic should let him in. While Emily's brother looked confused by Ryan's wild knocking, he pulled the door open anyway. "What--?" he began. As soon as the door was ajar, Ryan shoved his way inside, causing Dominic to overbalance and fall in a tangle of luggage. Ryan heard a distinct crunch, but he didn't pause to find out what Dominic had broken. As quickly as he had flung the door open, he twisted himself around to the other side and threw his full weight against it. The door did not slam shut, as he had hoped it would. The hydraulic door closer resisted his efforts. He could see Red-eyes now, only a few feet from the door, his arm outstretched to catch it before it could latch. Ryan pushed harder, the hydraulics pushed back just as hard, Red-eyes' fingers touched the door... Click. The latch had reached home.

For a moment Ryan thought Red-eyes wasn't going to stop, that he'd just walk straight through the door, but after one more step he came to a standstill. His right hand pressed against the door, his face mere inches from the glass, Red-eyes gleaming—no, glowing, Ryan was sure of it this time. He raised his left hand in a fist and pounded on the glass. Ryan jumped with the glass, but the door held. Red-eyes struck again, and again.

"Are you okay?" Ryan said to Dominic, who was slowly gathering his things and himself from the floor.

"Yeah. Is that Red-eyes?" He gestured to the door.

"You can see him?" Ryan asked.

"He's kinda hard to miss."

"You'd be surprised," Ryan replied. He was going to explain, but hadn't Emily already told this story? If Dominic hadn't believed it, Ryan didn't have time to try to convince him. "I don't know how long that glass will hold. We should go."

"Where? And where's Emily? Is she out there with that?" Dominic asked, still just watching Red-eyes. Ryan had long since gotten used to the empty expression that somehow still conveyed malevolence, so he wasn't interested in staring at him right now, certainly not while he was trying to break through the glass which was all that separated them.

"That way." Ryan pointed to the back. "This place does have a back door, right?"

"I dunno. I haven't really checked." At Ryan's frosty stare, he shrugged. "Hey, I'm just visiting. I haven't been here a whole day yet."

Great, just great! "Well, pray that it does then, `cause that's where Emily's supposed to meet us."

Dominic led the way toward the back, taking Ryan down a long hallway. They passed several closed doors, each with its own number and an eyehole, so Ryan guessed they were more dorm rooms. Behind them, the pounding continued, and he thought he heard glass crack. If this was a dead end... It wasn't. They found a door at the end of the hall, which opened onto a stairwell with flights leading up and down.

"Arghh! Where now?" Ryan asked.

"Down," said Dominic.

"I don't think we want to go to the basement."

"No, I'm pretty sure the ground is lower at the back of the building. If there's a back door, it's down."

"Are you sure?"

Dominic shrugged. "Not really."

"If you're wrong--" Ryan froze as he heard glass shatter behind them. Well, it's not likely I'll get the chance to kill him, is there? "Down it is."

The two hurried down the stairs, their footsteps echoing in the concrete stairwell. Ryan cringed at the noise, but it wasn't as if Red-eyes had needed something as mundane as sound to find them before. At the bottom, they found two doors at opposite ends of the stairwell. Each had a small window, so Ryan could see that one opened into a lighted hallway, the other onto the outside. Relieved, he headed out the back door with Dominic on his heels. They stood on a small concrete porch, with three steps heading down to the parking lot. The lot had seen better days: the pavement was cracked and the lines fading. The cars didn't look much better, mostly small imports five years old or more, probably belonging to the dorm residents. Ryan scanned the parking lot, but he saw no sign of the silver car Emily was supposed to be bringing. Where the Hell is she? He felt something cold touch his cheek, and he slapped it away. Just a drop of water. What, did I think it was Red-eyes, caressing my cheek? He glanced skywards. It looked like there would be a downpour soon.

Dominic adjusted his sunglasses, "Where's Emily?"

"I guess she's not here yet. Oh, wait, is that her?" He pointed to a silver car coming down the road behind the lot.

The two hurried down the steps and sprinted to the car just as the downpour began. They reached the car before Emily had crossed more than a third of the parking lot towards them. Emily pulled to a stop as they both climbed in the passenger side, Dominic tossing his stuff in the back while Ryan took the front seat. Even after such a short time, Ryan's hair and shoulders were damp from the rain. He turned to look at the dorm in time to see Red-eyes coming out the door.

"There he is," Ryan said. "Let's go."

"Where is he?" Emily said as she made a tight U turn. "I can't see him."

"You can't?"

"No. How come you can see him and I can't?"

"I don't know," Ryan confessed. Red-eyes was already down the steps and walking across the parking lot. The rain didn't faze him at all. "But he's coming this way. Let's go."

"Alright, alright," Emily said. "I just hope I can find the way out. It wasn't easy to get back here." The car rolled forward to the edge of the lot, and Emily signaled for a left turn.

"Hurry up," Ryan said.

"There's a car coming." In fact, there was a long line of cars, starting with a Beatle, then an SUV, a pick-up, and...

"Cut them off! He's almost here!"

"He's not even halfway yet."

"Huh." Ryan looked over his shoulder toward Red-eyes again. He was coming quickly, but Ryan admitted he wasn't that close yet. Maybe it was only halfway across the parking lot. But how--?

"I can see him in the mirror, silly."

"I'm not the one acting silly. Halfway across the parking lot is too close. Let's go!"

"Alright. Okay. It's clear now anyway."

As it turned out, it wasn't quite clear. Emily had somehow not noticed the white Saturn that screeched to a halt and blared its horn when she pulled out. This caused her to jump, but thankfully she didn't stop, and she pulled into the road, going very slowly. Rainwater streamed down the window, nearly blinding them until Emily figured out how where the controls to the windshield wipers were located. At Ryan's urging she sped up a little, but it still didn't feel fast enough. Red-eyes was fast, and it wasn't like a thunderstorm was going to slow him down at all. Still, they made it onto Ferst, and from there, they found their way back to the Interstate. Only then did Ryan relax, although with the pouring rain, they were still driving at a rate that felt too slow. It really was growing dark, between the clouds and the early evening.

Ryan looked into the back seat, where Dominic was looking back out the window.

"I know we're going slow, but I think we're still going faster than he can run, Dom." It seemed a bit odd to call him Dom, but it was what Emily used.

"No, I suppose he can't. That was scary, huh?" Dominic took his sunglasses off and cleaned them with a handkerchief. "I can still hear my heart in my ears."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. You did okay, though."

"Thanks, but I just did what you told me." He placed his sunglasses back on his nose. "You're pretty good at surviving attacks by psychotic mutant demons."

"Yeah, I've gotten pretty good at running away. So why are you still wearing sunglasses, anyway? It's getting dark out here."

"Is it? Dark or not, I need them to see. My sunglasses have corrective lenses, and you kinda crunched my regular glasses when you knocked me over."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Heh, I'll live. Emily, can you find your way from here?"

"Well, I can just follow I-20 East, right?" she said. "That ought to get us there."

"More or less."

"Dom, why did Red-eyes attack you?" Ryan said. "Was he after you when we thought he was after us?"

"I don't know. Was he even attacking me, or was he doing something else? Let me think about it, okay? I'll get back to you when I come up with something."

He leaned back and folded his arms, and Ryan turned his attention forward. Emily turned up the heat, but she was unusually subdued as she concentrated on driving in the inclement weather. Since Ryan rarely drove in Boston, he often got rides from others, so he was used to being chauffered. Driving in Boston could be a nerve-wracking experience, but so could riding shotgun if you paid too much attention, so he'd long since become accustomed to zoning out and not worrying about other people's driving. Anyway, it wasn't like he'd be able to help if his driver wasn't up to the task, and he thought Emily was handling the weather fine. After a few moments, he noticed soft snores coming from behind him, and he turned to see that Dominic had fallen asleep. I guess I shouldn't be expecting any more ideas from him right away. Still, that last one isn't bad at all. Ryan leaned back, letting himself be soothed by the car's motion and even the sound of the rain splattering on the windshield. He scratched a bit at the cut on his right arm, which didn't so much itch as tingle, but it wasn't too long before sleep came for him as well.

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This chapter is 3,307 words long, bringing the total length to 23,805 words. One more chapter, and it will definitely be novella length.

Old Post: This is a continuation of the story which begins here. The previous chapter is here.

I've finally gotten back to this story. This chapter is a bit short, since with the move and the new job, I didn't have a chance to work on it until this week, and I only got through about half of what I wanted to write. On the bright side, I have a pretty good idea what will be in the next chapter.

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Chapter 6
Dominic

Boston was an old city, where roads which had originally been paths for cattle had widened until they could accomodate cars--in some cases, only just. These roads followed land contours and property boundaries which no longer existed, making the city a confused snarl of one-way lanes coming together in five and six-way intersections. Ryan had always carefully avoided opportunities to drive in Boston. Atlanta was a new city. Sherman had burned it to the ground during the Civil War, and the rebuilt city had wide, straight roads laid out in a square grid, making it extraordinarily easy to navigate, even for Ryan's atrophied driving skills.

This was good, as Ryan didn't have the least idea where he was going. This was not an important consideration at first, as the initial plan, now that they were in a car without Red-eyes for company, was simply to head northeast and then figure out how to get to Columbia once they were out of Atlanta. While Emily had made the trip between Columbia and Atlanta a number of times, she didn't know the way well enough to describe it to Ryan, as she had rarely driven it herself. Ryan was still trying to decide which direction was north when Emily had an idea.

"Pull over here," she said, pointing to a gas station about a block ahead.

"Why?" Ryan asked. Judging by the boarded up buildings and the rough clothing of the local teenagers, this was not the best part of town.

"I just thought of something. I want to make a phone call."

"Again, why?"

"Just do it," she said, and Ryan obligingly crossed the two lanes to bring their rented silver Chevy Classic into the parking lot. The car felt large and unwieldy to Ryan, but he thought that had more to do with his driving skills rather than the handling characteristics of what was a very nice car. He still didn't know why Emily had insisted that he drive.

Ryan pulled to a stop near the pay phones, and Emily got out. Of the two phones, one of the phones was covered by a black plastic bag affixed with a cardboard sign reading "Out of Ordr" in a black marker. Who the Hell mispells "order"? Ryan wondered. The other was hanging off the hook and the side panels were painted with obscene graffiti, but Emily lifted the receiver and tested the hang-up lever, and once she was satisfied that it worked she deposited a quarter and dialed. Meanwhile, Ryan kept the engine running and his eyes on two large men, one white and one Hispanic, who seemed to be watching Emily. He didn't like the way they looked at her, but he was probably just being paranoid. At least neither of them had red eyes, though their clothes were ragged and their faces dirty.

When Emily was finished on the phone, she returned to the car, and Ryan sighed in relief. "So who were you talking to?"

"I called my brother's cell phone. He went to undergrad at Georgia Tech, and his cell is still a local number. More importantly, I remembered that he had said something about visiting Atlanta. I was right and he's in town now."

"Is he? What was his name? Dominic?"

"Yeah. You'd like him. He's a science type too, plus he knows a lot about theology. I think he can help us, so I told him we were coming to see him. What do you think?"

"I wish you had asked me before saying we'd come for a visit," Ryan said.

"Well, I didn't think you'd have a problem with it. After all, we were going to see my family, and with my brother in town now, it's like God wants us to see him. I really think we should."

"God wants us to, huh? It could just be a coincidence," Ryan said, not really believing it. What were the odds of her brother being in the town they had been forced to flee into after meeting Red-eyes at the airport they were just supposed to have a layover at? The probabilities were too low for this occurrence to be a coincidence, but as far as Ryan could tell, God didn't seem to be the active player here. "Anyway, we were supposed to meet your parents."

"We still can, but we should talk to Dominic first, right?"

So now they were trying to find Georgia Tech, so they could meet Emily's brother at the student union. Ryan didn't even know where in Atlanta Georgia Tech was, but Emily gathered some vague directions by asking random people whom Ryan would probably have avoided, including at least one woman whom Ryan was certain was a prostitute. She wasn't particularly attractive, with her bare midriff bulging with fat and her heavy make-up doing little to hide the acne scars, but that probably just meant she was cheap. She, like everyone else Emily asked, could not maintain her cynicism in the face of Emily's charm. Ryan might have worried about leaving a trail Red-eyes could follow, except that Red-eyes had never had trouble finding them before, and with his unnoticeability issues, how likely was he to be talking to other people? With their help, Ryan was able to get onto I-75, which led them right to the Georgia Tech campus. Mostly, as Ryan still had some trouble finding Ferst Drive from North Avenue, but Emily accosted a few people who looked like students to get more precise directions. There was more grass here, still green this far south, and even a few trees on campus. The roads here weren't as straight and predictable, but the student center wasn't hard to find, and Ryan pulled to a stop in front of it while Emily got out.

There were plenty of people around, and Ryan didn't see the family resemblence so easily that he could tell which one was her brother until the guy seized her in a bear hug. He was a good six inches taller than Emily, and just as blond. He wore sunglasses, and, since the February weather was cool despite the bright sunlight even in Georgia, a long tan trenchcoat. Ryan looked a bit closer, trying to see the relationship in the shape of his face, but his strong, masculine jawline and prominent nose obscured the resemblance. And the way he wore his hair long and tied in a ponytail seemed out-of-line with the impression Ryan had formed of her family. He wondered if he had been unfair. Emily brought the guy to the car, where they sat together in the back seat.

"Dom, this is Ryan," she said, as Dominic unbuttoned his trenchcoat. He didn't take it or the sunglasses off, however.

"Nice to meet you, Ryan. Em said you were a student at MIT?"

"Yes, I'm in Grad school there. I'm doing simulations of semiconductor failure modes."

"Cool. I'm at Stanford studying quantum computation."

"Uh, I think Emily wanted to discuss something else."

"Yes, I did," Emily said. "Ryan, how about you drive us around a bit while I tell Dom about what's happened? I don't know if it really helps, but I feel safer if we keep moving."

Ryan put the car in gear. "Where are we going?"

"Just around. We need to bring Dom back here when we're done."

Ryan hated driving without a clear idea where he was going, but he managed to get off the Georgia Tech campus and merged with traffic. Emily quickly--for her, anyway--told Dominic everything that had happened, starting with her apartment. Dominic didn't interrupt or question her. Glancing in the mirror, Ryan saw him leaning back against the seat, his hands in the pockets of his trenchcoat. With his dark glasses it was hard to tell whether he was listening, or even awake. When Emily finished, he was silent for a moment, then said, "Ryan, is that how you remember things happening?"

Ryan nodded, then realized that Dominic couldn't see him from the back seat, so he said aloud, "Yes, pretty much, although I'm not sure I agree with her conclusions. Don't you believe her?" He looked at Dominic's reflection in time to see him roll his shoulders.

"I dunno," he said. Emily opened her mouth, but before she could speak her brother continued, "I don't think you're lying, Em. It just sounds so incredible. I wish I knew what to make of it."

"You have to have some thoughts," she replied.

"I have some," he said. "They're not very informed, but you told me this stuff because you wanted to know what I think. I certainly don't know what that thing is. Human, demon, mutant, space alien? I wish I could say human, but how it acts hints at... unnatural abilities. I hesitate to say supernatural, as that hasn't been decided yet, but I can't rule it out, either.

"Em and I have had this conversation before, but just so you're clear, Ryan, I do believe in the supernatural, and I very much believe in demons. However, for any single account of demons that I hear, my first reaction is skepticism. Just because I believe they exist doesn't mean I blame them for everything."

Ryan wasn't sure what he thought of Emily's brother yet, but he was relieved that he didn't jump to the conclusion of demon as quickly as Emily had. He'd been afraid that her whole family would be just as devoted to supernatural assumptions as she was.

Dominic continued, "I wish I had a rational explanation for this, but I don't. I do have a thought as to its motivations, however. First, you said it chased you without catching you. It seemed intent on hurting you, but never seemed to do real harm. Then it followed you in the airport, but didn't do anyting to act against you. This makes me very suspicious. I think if it had the desire and ability to kill you, it would have done so by now. So I'm wondering, what if its actions last night were not supposed to hurt you, but scare you?"

"But why would it want to do that?" Emily asked.

"I dunno. Although it does make sense if it's a demon. Demons want to harass people, especially believers, in order to keep them from doing what they're supposed to. Just chasing you out of town may have accomplished that. It may be that he can't do anything more. He may not be able to directly harm you. That's what a lot of Christians believe, although I'm not so certain. A lot depends on how you read certain passages in the Bible, and how much protection against and authority over spiritual beings Christians really have. There is power there, no matter how you look at it, but I've always thought that power is similar to what we have over the physical world: the power of prayer, access to God, not a guarantee of success."

"I'm not a Christian," Ryan said, starting to feel out-of-touch with the conversation.

"Then whatever protection Em has, yours is less. Another possibility is that this guy is using you--getting you to run and then following, hoping you'll lead him to something."

"Like what?" Emily asked.

"If I knew that, I could give you better advice," Dominic replied. "Anyway, a lot of this assumes that he's behaving in a rational and intelligent manner. If he's stupid or crazy, and that applies whether he's mutant, alien, or human, then perhaps his motivations and purposes can't make any sense to us at all."

"And if he's a demon? He can't be insane or stupid then?" Ryan asked.

"Interesting question. I doubt demons can be stupid, but insane? They are spiritual, not physical, beings, but they are fallen, so they are by definition not... right in how they think. That doesn't mean irrational, and since we're fallen, that doesn't make them any more insane than the whole human race. So in that sense, maybe not. On the other hand, they are spiritual beings, so different from us, so far above us intellectually, that perhaps we can't comprehend their logic. Like God, their ways are not our ways. Then again, there is a logic and rationality behind spiritual beings, even if we can only glimpse pieces of it. God is the very source of reason--"

"You're getting more confusing by the second," Ryan said. "Are you saying demons can be insane or not?"

"I guess I'm saying that demons don't have mental health problems like humans, but they may certainly look insane from our perspective. Very little of what they do will look rational to us."

"Which helps us figure out very little," Ryan said.

Ryan didn't see Dominic shrug this time, but he could hear it in the tone. "Sorry," Dominic said. "But this situation already makes very little sense. You know what my suggestion is? If he is a spritual being, the only way to fight him is with God's help. You need prayer, and from as many people as possible. Where two or more are gathered and all that. And if he's not, prayer and lots of people is still not a bad idea."

Ryan tried not to grumble. Dammit! Some guy wants to kill us, and Emily and her brother want to have a prayer meeting. Well, if they're as Holy Roller as they sound, all the snake-handling might scare Red-eyes off. Nothing scares a crazy person like people who are even crazier. Still, even if Ryan wasn't happy with the result, Dominic had approached the situation logically and carefully. His underlying assumptions were different, and while Ryan wasn't about to follow the suggested course of action, some of his conclusions were useful. What did Red-eyes really want?

"Dom," Emily said. "We're going to see Mom and Dad. Why don't you come with us? I think you could help."

"I--," Dominic started but didn't continue for a moment. Ryan glanced in the mirror again, trying to read his expression. The sunglasses made it difficult. "I was going to say that I have a lot to do and really need to get back and all that, but I realized how lame that sounded." He fell silent again.

"I understand," Ryan said. "You're afraid." He tried to keep his voice neutral, but he didn't think he succeeded. You think we're not?

"I dunno," Dominic said. "I wasn't even thinking about how dangerous it was, just how... inconvenient. And it worries me that I could, even for a moment, consider the health and well-being of anyone, much less my sister and her boyfriend, less important than my convenience."

"Wait a minute!" Ryan said, this time looking back. "I didn't say I was her boyfriend. Did she say that? Well, I'm not."

"Sorry," Dominic said. "Uh, maybe you should watch the road?"

Ryan turned back just in time. He swung the wheel to the left, changing lanes without the benefit of checking his blind spot in order to avoid the car merging into the highway. There was a loud hornblast behind him, but no shattering glass or crunching metal, so it looked like their luck had held. Hell, that's the only good luck we've had since this started. I hope we haven't used it all.

Once he could breathe again, Ryan said, not looking back this time, "We're not dating!"

"Like I said, sorry," Dominic replied. "Anyway, now that you mention it, I am afraid. Not so much that Red-eyes might kill me, although that terrifies me too. But I could be coming face-to-face with the supernatural. The world as I know it can, and probably will, be altered by something like that. Will my beliefs, will my faith, survive, or will my whole world come crashing down? Frightening doesn't begin to to describe it."

"I think you need to get your priorities straight. I'm much more worried about the dying part," Ryan said. Besides, at this point, how much is left of what I believed yesterday?

"Maybe, but exactly how scary the dying is depends strongly on what I believe dying's all about."

"Dom, you worry too much," Emily said. "This hasn't affected my beliefs."

"Em, your faith and mine are different things. You never doubt. I doubt in the best of times. I like to think that doubt's made my faith stronger, but it's one thing to think that once you've worked through the doubt, another thing when you're in the middle of it."

"But Dom--"

"I really hate to interrupt your Bible study," Ryan said. "But we're about back to where we're started, at Georgia Tech. If you're coming with us, you better decide now. Otherwise I should drop you off here."

Dominic sighed. "Belief is a decision, faith is an action. I think I have the faith for this. Okay, I'll come."

---

This chapter is 2,862 words long, meaning that the total short story length is now 20,498 words.

Chapter 6 contains an homage in the form of Dominic. I thought it would be fun to give him some superficial similarities to Riff of Sluggy Freelance. That's about the extent of it: wardrobe, hair, and an occasional "I dunno." I might manage to squeeze in a "Let me check my notes," but Dominic is not Riff. He's more me.

I never actually planned for Dominic to take part in this story; he was just going to be the distant source for some of the ideas Emily had to express but which weren't appropriate for her character to actually think. However, the situation required someone who was more open-minded than Ryan and more questioning than Emily. So I brought in Dominic.

I've said before that Ryan is one side of my personality. Dominic is the other. They're both Grad students (as I was when I first wrote Chapter 1), both science people and good with computers. In other words, they're both nerds. But while Ryan is all my cynicism and skepticism rolled into one character, Dominic is a believer. Which doesn't mean that he's not cynical and skeptical, just that they're tempered by his faith. Or maybe they temper his faith. Dominic is a believer like me, complete with my doubts and my struggles. He believes, and he's thought a lot about what he believes, but the actual practice of his faith comes in fits and starts, hindered by his doubts and too much introspection. He tries, though, and sometimes succeeds in modest ways.