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Over the week-end after the accident at the hospital, Colin invites Sylvia over for a little chat and a cup of chocolate. When she arrives at Colin's the house is empty, but there is a nice warm smell of chocolate and cinnamon and oranges.

"Please, Sylvia, come in. I'm here in the kitchen." says Colin from the door to the right.

Sylvia steps into the kitchen, looking frayed and tired as if she's spent the past few nights cramming for an exam or fighting off the flu.  Nevertheless she offers Colin a little smile that doesn't quite lift the corners of her eyes, and her voice is rough, as if she hasn't used it yet today.  "Hi.  Is everything okay?"

Colin's face is still a bit blue around his nose, and he's got wear an unsightly patch on it, but he seems mostly all right.

"Pretty much." he answers. "Please, let me take your jacket and take a seat."

He go hang her coat, and comes back t the kitchen, sitting in front of her, and pours a generous dose of smoking chocolate in a couple blue large cups.

"Be careful, it's still scalding." he warns her, handing her her cup.

He blows a bit on his own, then looks up to her with eyes full of friendly concern.

"How are you?"

"Good," she says without any conviction and busies herself with her mug.  It takes her a while to come up with something more to say.  "I guess everything's back to normal with you?  No missing power, no more bad magic?"

"If by that you mean that I was normal to begin with, of which I thank you, then yes, everything's back to normal. Though I wonder when I'll be able to go out again, without having my mom look at me as if it was the last time she's going to see me."

He blows on his chocolate again.

"I was a little worried about you. You've been put under a lot of stress. Would you like to talk about what happened?"

"That's the rough part, isn't it?  You can't leave the house without worrying that you're worrying them."


Her eyes drift up from the table, flick to his, and fall again.  "Not really.  Is anything bothering you?  You were the one they were after."

"No, they just needed me to break the binding. After they had her powers back they would have been after us anyway. Maybe, if I had my powers then, I could have stopped them. I don't know. No, what's bothering me is that you had to deal with them all, on their ground. I've seen the strain it put on you."

He tentatively takes a sip from his cup.

"What you had to do to them isn't much different from what did to us. But you are very different from them, Sylvia."

"On their ground?"  She shakes her head.


Her gaze drifts up to his face again, and this time it holds.  "You think I'm guilt-ridden?"

"No. I'm afraid you might be scared of yourself. That's different."

He lowers his eyes on the table.

"I know how I felt about myself when Palmer died."

"Scared of yourself?"  She thinks about that.  "Why would you be scared of yourself?  I thought you were chosen by the gods or something.  How can you go wrong?"

"I've been chosen, yes. But I'm still a boy, and after that I'll be a man. I can go wrong. I can do stupid things. What I did Wednesday night was really stupid, for example. But most of all I was worried about what could happen if I lost control of myself. If I turned bad. I couldn't stand that weight, that responsibility. I couldn't trust myself that much."

"Well, somebody has faith in you, right?  If you were chosen?"

"That doesn't help if I don't have faith in myself. I had to learn that."

Long sip.

"Is it my turn to ask questions?"

"What do you think you need to know?"

"Always answer a question with another question. It's a nice tactic. I should learn it too." he says jokingly.

"How do you really feel? Why do you look like you can't sleep?"

"I feel fine.  And I look like I can't sleep because . . . it's been a long week, and I'm still catching up on my rest."  She curls her hands around the not-quite-burning mug in front of her and looks him in the eye.  "Those girls will never bother you again.  You know that, right?  They won't bother you.  They won't even bother each other."

"I know."

He remains silent for a while.

"Look, it's ok if you don't want to talk about it. I just wanted to thank you for what you did, and to tell you that you did the right thing, even if it's probably costing you. I wanted to tell you that you're my friend and I trust you. We may see things differently, but your heart is in the right place. And if you change your mind and need somebody who would listen to you, if you need anything, I'm right here. I'm always here for you, ok?"

"Thanks," she says, subdued but sincere, "but there's nothing wrong, not really.  If I looked a little strange that night, it's because. . . . "  Her mouth rumples.  "People are vile."

"Yes, there are vile people."

He takes another sip of chocolate, and inadvertently draws himself a brown mustache.

"It hit me real hard too. When I stepped into that circle, I was trying to know what happened to them. I used to think that no one of us is 100% bad, that there is always some good in each person... but the truth is that sometimes, a little good is not enough. Some people are rotten. And we can't help them. We just have to stop them."

The corner of Sylvia's mouth picks up.


"You don't think it's everyone?  All of us?  You don't think that every one of us has something we want so badly that we would do anything for it?"

"No. I think very few people would do anything for something they want. A bit more people would do awful things for something they want, but not anything. I think most of us have boundaries we wouldn't let ourselves cross, because we'd just lose ourselves. Because it would destroy the image we have of ourselves."

She shakes her head.  "But, see, you can break anyone.  Take enough away from them, make them hurt enough, or just offer them something they can't refuse.  We're animals inside.  Greedy, vicious animals.  The witches weren't rotten.  They were just human."

At least I know the rubbing off thing goes both ways.  That's a releif.

"I don't think so. I believe hardness or temptation only show us who we really are. We're not animals. We've got a brain. We take our own decisions. Sometimes this is our curse."

Her expression twists a little in annoyance.  Do you listen in on me twenty-four-seven?  She can't be that angry.  He did save them.  But it's her prerogative as a teenager to sass her elders.


She shakes her head.  "Anyone will break down.  It's biology.  Pure survival instinct.  It's just that most of us go our whole lives without ever facing that precipice.  The witches--all that made them different was that they ran toward the abyss and threw themselves in."


Teleported?  She looks at Colin.  "Sarah teleports?"

No, I'm troubled but I'm not yet a degenerate pervert.  After the events at the hospital though I realized something that has disturbed me.  So when I feel you're facing something troubling I peek.  I'll stop if it bothers you.

"A cop sometimes has to shoot at someone. It's part of his job. It's an extreme measure. It's what he does when he's got no other choice. Sometimes we have no choice. But most of the time, we do have a choice, don't you think? Sometimes, we don't want to see that we have a choice, but we do."

He looks down, frowning deeply.

"Jane knew one of them was going to die. But she went on anyway. Our choices, often our most difficult choices tell us who we are."


He looks up in surprise.

"Well, we're not sure. That's what it looked like. How do you know?"

What's disturbed you?  What disturbs the disturbed?  She's a little afraid to find out.


"I'm talking about what guides us--not our noblest motives but our darkest motivations.  They're there.  They're always there.  You can only search yourself and wonder what it would take to make you succumb."


She shakes her head.  "I think that thing, that thing that could make us choose the selfish road, is a lot closer than we'll realize or admit."


"You don't tell me everything," she says with just a trace of rancor, to put him off.  "I'm allowed to keep things to myself, too . . . Spirit Dancer."  In her head, she's giggling.  Spirit Dancer.  I'm afraid to see his costume.

"I don't think I'd want to take something for me. So I wouldn't call it the selfish road. It's more what I would never stand to lose. If they struck at the people I love... I am afraid of what my anger would do. I nearly lost myself in it. But I still think it would me my choice to lose myself."


"Of course you can. But this is about Sarah, not about me. She nearly died, but she didn't. That's all we know. It's not like she wouldn't have told you guys once she figured about it. Besides, she's allowed her secrets too. She doesn't say everything to me either."

He doesn't look bothered by her calling him Spirit Dancer, teasingly or not.

"I don't know," she says.  "We're simple creatures, I'm beginning to realize.  Give us enough power and no threat of consequence, and we're monsters."


"I'm not reading her mind, or yours, if that's what you're worried about."  I'm having it read to me.  Red fish, blue fish, one fish, two fish.

"I don't think so.".

He smiles at her. "Is this the part where we agree to disagree yet?"

"You're not a monster, Syl. I don't think you'll ever be."


"I'm not worried. Just curious."

She gives him that grave smile that's settled on her face so often lately and nods.  She doesn't want him proven wrong.  She wouldn't wish that on anyone.


"Not a monster, just a human being."


She seems to change the subject.  "I don't really understand what the witches took from you.  What was it?"

"A good one, then."


His lips curl into a bitter smile.

"Aside from my pride?"

"They took... part of my power, my link to the spirit realm. The spirit helped us binding them, so they used it to break the binding. It looks like I still had something left, though. The rest came back after Sarah clobbered Jane. Probably they could steal it, but they couldn't hold on to it. I'm not really sure myself. I'm just glad it's over."

"But explain something to me, because I don't know anything about magic--why did they need you that first time?  They didn't take the spirit then, did they?"

He smiles at her.

"I'll try. I think Donnie is the only one who really knows about magic. That's because his magic needs knowledge. Mine is a different branch, it's more about touching and feeling stuff. Pretty much I try and hope for the best."

"I have a second sight. I see magic, I see ghosts, and people's aura. Sometimes I have visions. Most often about the past, once in a while about a possible future.

I guess they sensed me at the party at Elrod's, when I ruined their spell on Rob. Apparently they thought they could use me as a sort of crystal ball, so they laid a trap for me. I don't know what they wanted to see. I assumed they tried to find out something about their future. Who wouldn't do that?

We found out who they were, faced them, they sent thugs against Kel and Donnie, we bound them. Then Something happens. They're mad at us, but they don't know what to do about it. But someone who doesn't want us around helps them, and prepares a plan for them.

I think what happened at school was just a way to get us mad at them. And to take Sammy. Now I'm taking a guess, but I don't think it's too far from the truth. They planned to sacrifice Sammy, and get a very powerful spirit into Rob. But the spirit... well was a sort of family friend for Sammy, so he didn't feel like taking her. And I guess he showed Rob who they really were. The first part of their plan didn't work too well, but the second part was the better one.

They laid another trap for me. They went home, and we knew they slipped into coma. What they actually did was get out of their bodies, so they could pretend to be my spiritual guide. It was a very difficult spell, one they couldn't have done on their own. They lured me on the roof, and when I was mislead into stepping into the circle they left, They stole my power and broke the binding.

Now they had to go back into their bodies. The only problem was that to do that one of them had to die. It looks like it wasn't a problem at all for them. They betrayed her, and six of them woke up with their full powers back, plus what they stole from me. Then we arrive at the hospital, and they throw us into their dreamworld.

From then on, I think you know what happened better than me."

"You think it started out innocently?  You were just a way for them to see who went to what college and who'd marry whom?"


"'Pretended to be your spiritual guide.'  How?"


"Their true colors bled through."

"I really don't know. But there was nothing innocent in the spirit they summoned into Rob. It was eating him from inside! So I'm probably biased, but if they knew how to get me to show them their colleges and their husbands, well they could have just asked. I would have probably been happy to help them. And when we showed up because I wanted to talk with Jane, she tried to get Kel and me expelled. No, I don't think it was ever something innocent. What your mom can do is innocent. And beautiful. They are something else."


"Again, this is something Donnie probably understands better than me. They had his shape, his voice. And I never even imagined there was something wrong until it was too late."


He waits for a while, shaking what's left of chocolate in its cup.

"How?"

A moment of paranoia shows on her face.  Can you prove you're you?


"I helped them express themselves."

Colin thinks about it for a moment, frowning.

"Oh. I see. They couldn't care less if one of them had to die. They weren't exactly best friends, I guess. I can see why they... disgusted you."

She gives him a solemn stare and nods.  "I'd like to start working on something else.  That girl you were looking for, the third rape victim--did you find anything more about her?"

Would you like me to kill someone for you?  Besides, I'm a physical person.  His thing is a bird that only he can see.  Which one of us is in the nut house?

Right.  She could always call him, couldn't she?  Remind me to ask you later if Colin's spirit guy is real or if he's, like, a mildly psychotic clairvoyant.  I'm not sure what to think of this magic stuff, if you can kill it with psychosurgery.

Colin lowers his eyes on the table.

"No. I'm not meant to. Some events are meant to shape us, and I cannot mess with them."

He looks up at her again.

"But I've got something else, though. Remember the bees? The guy who... makes them, is a real psycho. He's got a secret shine to Sammy hidden at school. John and Megan found it and we called the PCD about it, but we still have no idea who the guy is. Only that he's dangerous."

"Otherwise there's also the girl that attacked Breanna during the evacuation, or the guys that brought the sleep gas at school. And the lunchroom cupid. It's not like we ever run out of mysteries."

I hate to ask.  You wouldn't know anything about these people, would you?

"Not to persecute the intellectual elite, but maybe we should ask Dave to dig up a list of PSAT scores for us.  Our bee guy probably got in the top one or two percent, at least in math.  How many NMSQT semi-finalists could there be here, right?  If John Douglas were tackling this, he'd say the guy also has some kind of obvious defect--thick glasses, massive acne, something worse.  At least in his imagination he's got no shot with Sammy.  He'd have to kidnap her."  She reflects.  "Has anyone sat down with Sammy and asked her what friends she had in middle school that she doesn't see too often anymore?"

"Nope. She's still in California. I don't know about his appearance, but this guy... He can't stay away from her. He has to get his fix of her. I'm sure he listens to her playing trombone, so he may go to the band's rehearsals. He also got lots of photos of her. If the police haven't taken them away we could try to see if he follows her."

He frowns.

"And he hates Elrod. He has lost his bees, maybe he saw her when you were under the spell, and she's been away for a while, with Elrod. I think we must be careful, because I guess he's pretty mad now. He might make a move on Sammy, or strike Elrod, or... well maybe me, but I'm not sure he knows I'm the one who called the rain on his bees twice. I think we should keep an eye on Elrod when they're back."

"Can't you ask your . . . um, that guy?"


"As well as a dozen other people.  You know, I sometimes wish I could sense emotions instead of just imposing them.  It'd make finding these people a lot easier."  Her tone of voice changes, as if she's talking to someone else--maybe a deaf uncle.  "Or maybe someone could do a little poking around for us."

It takes Colin a moment to get it.

"Oh, you mean Chris. Sure. I will."


"You know, i asked for that as well, but I can't do it either."


Colin has been talking to the blackbird long enough to understand when someone is talking to someone who's not there. He only arches an eyebrow.

"You saw him," she says.  "Try not to talk about him too much.  There are people looking for him, and I don't want to get him in trouble."

You are about as subtle as a hand grenade in a barrel of oatmeal.  What am I now, your villain detector?

Sylvia isn't sure, but she'd swear there is a touch of amusement in his tone. 

We could just try to find them in the usual way.  Maybe if we chain Donnie, Kel, and Sammy to a stump like in Jurassic Park. . . .

Sure.  Didn't the goat get eaten though?

I always wondered if a telepath could miss irony.

I suppose I could help.  Why am I doing this again?

I'm appealing to your better nature.  It sounds like the set-up for a joke even as the words form in her mind.  How about, 'Because I'm your take-out connection.  I'm your deep-dish dealer.  Cross me, baby, and you're back to frozen vegetables, apple sauce, and anything else you can eat with a plastic spoon'?

She likes him, and her trash talk is just a bluff.  She hadn't realized until recently how much comfort she could take in knowing that someone out there was just as miserable, just as cynical, and just as pig-headedly willing to carry on.

It worked for Pavlov.

"Him who? I didn't see anyone." Colin says, his lips arching into a little grin.

She nods and gives Colin a little smile in return, then presses her lips together like she's searching for a safer topic.  "Did you have plans today?  Going out with Sarah or something?"

"Today I only planned to have chocolate with a friend. I don't do much planning. Well, maybe I do, but not today. Why? Would you like to do something?"

"The whole witch-illusion thing made me think--I would really like to have a normal day.  Something like movies and the mall or--"  She shrugs, staring over Colin's head as if she can see that alternate reality.  "I don't even know what people do for fun around here but chase bad guys and get knocked unconscious.  Is there, like, a skating rink or something?  Can we go to the zoo?"

"We're only a few minutes of train away from the second biggest city in the USA. You name what you want to do, it's there. Somewhere. Do you skate?"

She nods.  "We could call Donnie and Sarah, see if they want to go out.  I don't care what we do.  I just want, for one day, not to talk about powers or dragons or bad guys."  She pauses.  "Unless Donnie's running another game."