Shit. I would have just preferred some sort of incantation than having to concentrate like that. No wonder most magic doesn’t use that kind of thing.
Randy shuddered.
Little more freaked out than we’re letting on, huh? Good. I can work with that.
“What’s next?” he asked. “Going to show me his rotting corpse in the ground?”
“Nope. Consider me the Ghost of Christmas Present.”
“I thought you were supposed to be Jacob Marley.”
“I’ve got theatrical range.” Shay shook her head. “As for showing you a corpse, nope. Kind of pointless, don’t you think? I’m more interested in showing you your future. After all, you’re the one who isn’t dead.”
“My brother isn’t either.”
“He’s dead enough.” Shay pointed to Lily. “And the Ghost of Christmas Future over there is going to show you where you’ll end up if you keep looking for him.”
Randy snorted. “The future? Please. Your friend there can’t see the future.”
Lily took a deep breath. A spectral image of Randy appeared near the wall. He sat, leaning against a brick wall. He had a shaggy and an unkempt beard. His clothes were in tatters, and a hand-painted sign was lying on the ground next to him.
HUNGRY AND HOPELESS. PLEASE GIVE. GOD BLESS.
Shay resisted a face-palm. She should have been a little more specific about what image to sell to the man. Whatever happened to Randy Coolidge in the far future, the tomb raider doubted it’d involve him begging on a street corner.
Prison would be nice, but she’d settle for him just leaving Peyton the hell alone.
The incredulous look on Randy’s face suggested he didn’t buy the pathetic vision of the future either.
Time to sell this shit.
“That’s what waits for you if you keep going after the ghost of your brother, Randy,” Shay insisted.
“Bullshit.”
Shay had to give the man credit. Most men would have been more intimidated by the presence of two ski-masked intruders, especially one with a gun. Randy had a definite hard edge his brother lacked.
The man rolled out of bed and marched over to his homeless specter. “This is what you expect me to believe? This is nothing but illusions. Tricks. You think you can impress me with something any half-rate witch could pull off?”
Lily frowned. “Not illusions. The future, you arrogant ass.”
Shay nodded her agreement.
“The future? You expect me to believe you can see the future? You sound like a kid. What, you show up with some twelve-year-old boy and expect me to be scared?”
Lily snorted. She was more insulted at the idea Randy thought she was a tween boy than his disbelief in her abilities.
Shay sighed. Maybe I need to sell the danger a teensy bit more to this asshole.
She marched right up to Randy and slammed a fist into his stomach. He howled and dropped to the ground clutching his middle.
Sometimes a little pain can be clarifying, and this asshole needs to get that we mean business.
“If you’re going to kill me,” he wheezed, “then just go ahead and do it. Like I told you before, I won’t beg. I never beg.”
Shay rolled her eyes. “And I told you already this isn’t about killing you, but if you don’t believe me about the future, why don’t you give my friend here a little test? Something that we can see in the next few minutes. That way nobody has to wait around in the middle of the night.”
Pain still lining his face, Randy managed to sit up. “You can see the future?” He nodded toward a clock on the wall. “In one minute, I’ll stick fingers up behind my back. How many? And thirty seconds after that, how many will I change to?”
Lily scoffed. “That’s easy. It’ll be—”
“Write it down,” Shay commanded. “That way he can’t try and play games.”
The Gray Elf’s ability to see the future had a lot of implications concerning the nature of cause and effect that Shay didn’t even want to think about. She needed to at least minimize the chance of Randy screwing up the use of an already unreliable power.
Shay walked over to a desk in the corner of the room and grabbed an expensive monogrammed fountain pen and a notepad. She handed them to Lily and enjoyed Randy’s glare.
The girl scribbled down two numbers with a frown. She gave the pad back to Shay, and the tomb raider turned it away from Randy.
Only the steady tick of the clock kept the silence at bay as everyone waited. The first minute passed, and Randy held up his fingers. Two.
Shay didn’t react. The next half-minute ticked by, and the man held up five fingers.
Fuck. If I don’t show him, he’ll know something’s up.
Shay turned the pad around. Two and four.
Randy narrowed his eyes. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“She got the first one. She can see the future, asshole.”
“But she didn’t get both, and I’m supposed to believe she can see far in the future? Give me a break.”
Shay handed the pen and pad to Lily. She walked over to Randy and pulled up the bottom of her mask, so he could better appreciate her vicious smile. “Short-term visions are harder than long-term visions,” she offered. She had no idea if that was true, so it wasn’t technically a lie. “But I can tell you something. The future has a way of coming true when people try to help it along.” She lifted her gun. “If you don’t stop chasing this ghost, by the time I’m done your suffering will be the thing of legend. And after I’ve had all my fun…” she pointed the gun at his crotch, and his eyes widened, “I’m still not gonna kill you. I’m gonna leave you broke and alone to rot away in the underbelly of society among all the people you were too smug to even look at before. Your money will be gone. Your influence will be gone. You’ll be nothing but a pile of flesh and bones waiting to die.”
The defiant fire faded from Randy’s eyes, and he swallowed. “What
