Page 26 of Seer

He waved this away. “We’re here for you, whether you’re having visions or talking to bird shifters.” He glanced at his phone. “Sorry, but I’ve got to go pick Baz up.” He hesitated. “Cal, do you want us to follow you back to your apartment in case those guys are there?”

Crap, I hadn’t thought of that. “Nah, there are usually other tenants around. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay. But take the day off work tomorrow, okay? Kurt can handle things.” He grinned. “It’ll be good practice for him.”

“Okay.” I was still rattled from my altercation with Shane and Ellis, so I was hoping I wouldn’t have to go confront Greg Shaw until the next day.

We stood up. I left some cash for the tip and grabbed the check to take to the checkout counter.

“Thanks, guys,” I said. “I feel a lot better just having you listen and not tell me I’m imagining it all.”

They hugged me.

Felix said, “You were there for us when we had our crazy times. It’s only fair we do the same for you.”

Steve grinned. “But you owe us big, because your crazy time is exponentially crazier than ours ever were.”

ON DISCORD DIRECT MESSAGES

SUNDAY, MARCH 26

Ellis_DM_Northeast_TXMarch 26 at 9:34am

Shane and I fucked up with Cal. Big time

Shane_DM_Southeast_TXMarch 26 at 9:35am

But I think we can safely say Cal doesn’t resonate with either of us. So there’s that.

Greg_DM_Central_TXMarch 26 at 9:37am

What happened?

Ellis_DM_Northeast_TXMarch 26 at 9:37am

Can we call you?

CHAPTER 8

CAL

A woman saton a wooden bench in a park I didn’t recognize. A walking path wound through dense trees to either side of the clearing where the bench was situated. On the right a large sign chastised dog owners to pick up after their pets.

It was daytime, and the sun was bright, but it filtered at an angle through the trees. The woman’s face was blank, so I hadn’t met her. She was wearing a tank top with a short flouncy skirt and Doc Martens. A denim jacket was draped over the back of the bench. She opened a blue nylon bag and pulled out a plastic food container. I looked around but didn’t see anyone else in the clearing. The trees were too thick to see if we were near a road or parking area.

The woman ate some grapes. After a moment, her body stiffened. She jerked her head to her right, then she exploded off the bench, the grapes and nylon bag flying into the air. She ran to her left, off the path and toward the trees. Her speed was astonishing.

When she was within a few yards of the trees, her back... changed. She had wings, and they flapped furiously, lifting her body off the ground and sending her even faster into the woods.

My view of the trees blurred, like condensation had formed across awindow. The same fog from my previous vision. I strained to see more, but I couldn’t.

The woman screamed. Then she stopped.

I sat up in bed, heart pounding and breathing hard. Blinking to focus, I squinted at the clock. 6:35am.

I threw back the covers and ran to the window to peek through the blinds. It was still mostly dark out. Shit. I pulled my phone from its charger and looked at the forecast. Sunny today. Fuck.

I had no way of identifying the park the woman had been in. I’d never had a vision occur more than about fifty or sixty miles away from me, but there were a lot of parks in that radius.