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But Allie was off skinjacking, wasnt she? She was practicing her unique talent, so why shouldnt Mikey practice his? And if he changed just a little, at least it would prove that he still could do it! It would prove that being Mikey McGill, the all-American Afterlight, was a choice, and not a sentence. So as he waited for Allie at the edge of the small town, he concentrated on his hand, training his thoughts on forcing some new reality upon himself. It didnt matter what the change was, as long as it happened. He concentrated so hard he could swear the sun dimmed slightly in the sky.
And something happened!
As he stared at his fingers, the skin between them began to grow. He watched in building excitement, as the fingers of his right hand became webbed! True, it was only down at the lowest knuckle, but it had happened--and much faster than ever before. This kind of change would take days to cultivate, when he was the McGill. And it occurred to him that perhaps having been nonhuman for so long, had made him more elastic.
All it took was half an hour away from Allie!
It was that thought that brought his euphoria to a sudden end, because as illuminating as the moment was, it also cast a chilling shadow.
Does this mean Ill turn back into a monster if Im not with her?
Through the space still left between his fingers, he saw Allie, hurrying across the street toward him. The second he saw her, he reflexively hid his hand behind his back. He could have cursed himself for not being more subtle about it.
"Were done here," she said.
"You took way too long!" She shrugged. "Lots of articles to read. " Mikey thought he had gotten off easy, until she asked, "Why are you hiding your hand?"
"Im not. " Still he held it behind his back.
Then she got a troubled look in her eye, perhaps thinking about something she had seen or read during her little skinjacking expedition.
"Lets get out of here," she said. "I dont like this place. "
Mikey glanced at the horse--and thats when she grabbed his wrist, pulling his right hand into full view. He grimaced, realizing he had been caught red-handed--or web-handed, as it were . . . But to his surprise the flaps of skin linking his knuckles were gone.
"Hmmm," said Allie. "Nothing. I guess you were telling the truth. "
He folded his fingers over hers, interlocking them. "What reason would I have to lie to you?"
Allie squeezed his fingers tighter and smiled. "Youre human now; lying is a favorite human pastime. "
As they climbed onto the horse, Mikey decided he must be more human than he thought--because not only had he lied, but he had gotten away with it.
The town soon gave way to countryside, and they came across an old rural route that was no longer a part of the living world. Here, Mikey dug his heels into the horse and the horse took off in a cantor that was so much more efficient, something it couldnt do while plodding through that soft stuff that made up the living world. With Allie so close to him on the horse, Mikey wished he could read her mind, for even with her so close behind him, she felt miles away. He was still frustrated by the time she spent skinjacking, but he knew better than to make an argument of it. Allie was the sharpest, most argument-winning girl he had ever met. He knew she would make a convincing case for why she had every right to skinjack whenever she felt like it, and leave him waiting. After all, it wasnt her fault he couldnt do it.
"If I understood how it worked," she had once told him, "dont you think I would teach you?"
Well, maybe she would, and maybe she wouldnt. After all, he had been a monster and who knew if such power in his hands would be a good thing? Now as he rode up and down the hills of Virginia and into Tennessee, he had to admit to himself something he had been avoiding for all their time together. He was very good at being a monster-- but as a boy he was mediocre at best.
As it happens, Mikeys sense that Allie was a bit distant was right on target. At that moment, her thoughts were wandering far from the horse they rode. Her mind kept being drawn back to the town they had just left, and the one before that, and the one before that. She was relieved to be away from civilization, and yet in her thoughts, she couldnt leave it all behind, because the taste of the living was becoming too tempting--and it was a taste--an inner hunger that was powerful and all-consuming. She felt herself becoming like a vampire, feasting not on blood, but on experience. The silky smooth sensation of flesh. The flavor of other peoples lives. Even now she longed to be wrapped in the living--but she could share none of this with Mikey. He wouldnt understand. Empathy was not his strongest point--even the nature of his own feelings were still a mystery to him, so how could Allie expect him to understand hers? And so even though she sat in a close saddleback embrace, a wall had fallen between them. Allie kept her yearning for flesh a secret, certain that she could control it . . . but then it started to rain.
In life, Allie had always loved the rain. When other people would bundle up and pull out their umbrellas, Allie would revel in the feel of the rain against her hair, against her face. "Youll catch your death of cold!" her mother would always tell her, never imagining that Allie would soon catch her death in an entirely different way.
In Everlost, however, rain was different. It washed through you instead of over you, tickling your insides like an itch you couldnt scratch. It was an unpleasant sensation that Allie had never gotten used to.
As a drizzle became a shower, and the shower became a downpour, Allie longed for the feel of it on her instead of in her. She longed to be wet--not just wet but so completely drenched that the only remedy was a warm fire.
On their travels, they stuck more to rural routes than highways, but the route they now traveled ended at a large lake, with a road continuing to the left and right. They paused for a few moments, and the rain became heavier.
"Which way?" Mikey asked. It was part of Allies job to check maps when she skinjacked, and navigate their course. She already knew that they needed to go to the left, and yet she said, "I dont know, Ill have to check. "
Mikey grunted his disapproval, but Allie ignored him as she dismounted. There was a small boat dock in front of them, and a few hundred yards away, a convenience store and gas station. Needless to say, she had no intention of checking a map. This skinjacking would serve an entirely different purpose, and as Allie made her way toward the convenience store, she hoped she hadnt missed the worst of the rain.
In the store was a tattooed man buying beer. He was a skinjacking possibility, but only as a last resort. The cashier was a tired-looking old woman, whose joints were probably already aching from the weather, and wouldnt appreciate being thrust out into the rain. Allie was beginning to fear shed have to settle for the tattooed guy, but then a woman hurried inside, wearing one of those hideous plastic rain ponchos the color of a traffic cone.
"Wet enough for ya, Wanda?" said the old woman behind the counter.
"Dont mind it; seen worse," Wanda said.
"I hear ya!"
Allie had no idea what had brought Wanda to a convenience store in this weather, but frankly she didnt care. Allie stepped inside her without a second thought, sliding in smooth and easy.
--Rolling rolling--how long them dogs been rolling--long enough to give me gas--or worse--I shouldnt go near those things, no sir--
She experienced the usual moment of disorientation, filled with the static of Wandas thoughts, and then Allie flipped that mental switch that sent Wanda off to dreamland. Instantly Allie knew why Wanda was here. She was hungry--famished--it seemed fleshies were always hungry, and Allie liked it that way! Now in complete control of the woman, Allie looked toward the hot dogs rolling on the stainless steel poles of the industrial cooker. She had already been thinking about them, hadnt she?
"Ill have a cheese dog, please," Allie said.
The old woman was happy to oblige. "Hows Sam these days?"
"Fine, fine," said Allie--and getting bold, she added, "You know Sam--I cant pry him away from the TV. "
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The old woman laughed. "So he watches television now?"
"Uh . . . yeah. Well, weekends mostly. You know--the games. "
The old woman laughed. "Dont that beat all, a dog that watches sports!"
Allie felt her borrowed face flush, and she decided that less is more when it came to living-world conversation. She thanked the woman for the hot dog, paid with some cash from her purse, and downed the hot dog in three bites. Then she headed outside to the main event.
The rain!
It drummed against her poncho, teasing her, daring her to pull back her hood, and she did, closing her eyes and turning up her face to receive it. In an instant her hair was drenched, and rivers of rain ran down her cheeks. It was all she remembered it was! She opened her mouth and felt the drops on her tongue, but it still wasnt enough, so she grabbed the poncho, and pulled it off, exposing her flower-print blouse to the rain. She was drenched, she was chilled, and it was wonderful! All caution had been lost in this glorious moment--she didnt care who saw her, or how wet she got. Wanda would not catch her death of cold. Shed be soaked and confused, but in the end, Wanda would have the benefit of that warm fire to dry her off, as she sat beside Sam, the TV-watching dog.
Allie twirled in the rain, laughing, and dizzy. . . . But then, as the rain began to let up, the guilt began to set in. She had used Wanda to satisfy her own selfish desire. How could she have done that? She had to end this now, and get back to Mikey. Somewhere in her rain dance, she had dropped the poncho, and it had blown to the feet of the gas station attendant, a dozen yards away, who picked it up, and came toward her.
"Looks like you dropped this," he said.
"Im sorry," Allie said. "I got a little carried away. "
"Nothing wrong with that. Not at all, not at all. " He handed her back the poncho, smiling a lopsided smile that Allie could swear shed seen before. "Not from around here, are you?" he asked.
Only now did Allie notice that he was just as wet as she, and didnt seem to care. "Yes, I am," Allie said, figuring that Wanda must live nearby.
His smile got wider. More crooked. "Right, right, but Im not talking about the fleshie," he said. "Im talking about you. "
Then his hand thrust out and grabbed Allies wrist-- grabbed it hard. It hurt--maybe more than it should have because it was the first time in a very long time Allie had felt pain. Fleshie? Did he say fleshie? Then that must mean . . . She ripped herself from his grasp, and turned to run, but then found herself running right into a drenched man in a business suit--a man with beady eyes colder than the rain. "First a candy bar, then a hot dog," he said. "Always hungry, arent you!"
All at once Allie knew where she had seen these two before. It wasnt their faces she recognized--because the faces were different--but their presence was the same. This was the old man and the little boy she had run into in the last town. But they had never been a little boy or an old man, any more than she had been the chubby girl eating a snickers bar. They were skinjackers!
The "businessman" pushed her painfully back against the gas pump, jarring loose the nozzle, which clattered to the ground. "Looks like weve finally caught up with Jackin Jill!"