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After Seth's show, Colin calls Bobby.  The phone rings a few times and Bobby answers, "Hello."

"Hi, I'm Colin. Am I disturbing?"

"I kinda need your professional opinion."

"Yes Colin, you are a little disturbing, but I'm used to disturbing."  Bobby chuckles, "what's up kid?"

"I had a run-in with a demon. No, let's go in order.

I helped the girl I talked you about. And another one. I took their pain, and have been given the power to give it to someone else. It's a sort of test, to see what i would do with it. I was also given a kind of tattoo. I say a kind, because there was no ink involved, but rather it burned its way up to my skin. I'm told getting tattoos hurts, but not this much or this long. Anyway, it's the Eye of Horus.

I promised to stop those guys, and one of them had something weird about him, so I looked for him, and when I found him I used the eye on him. It's not like anyone explained me how it was supposed to be used. The boy revealed he was actually a demon, and immediately attacked me. So I tried to banish the demon. I tried to do it like I did with the urban spirit when you were here. But it didn't work as I expected. It didn't get the demon out of the boy. It destroyed them both. I was told there was nothing left of the boy, but how can that be possible?

Bobby, You hunt demons, don't you? Please, I need to know if I did the right thing. I need to know if there was really no way to save that boy. Because it sure looked like I killed him."

"Some demons can take on the skin of other people.  Like a mask, only more complete.  They can exist here for a while like that, maybe even years.  sometimes, a magician can summon a demon to do his bidding, but to do that you need a vessel.  some magicians use books and formula that are flawed, you might say they're the oldest form of junk mail.  They give you everything you need, except the right way to contain it.  You use the formula, and bang there is a demon insode you, feeding on you.  If it was a demon, then you did the right think by destroying it.  don't worry too much, the spirits rarely let you do something comepltely wrong."

"It was going so well until you said that 'rarely'. So there was nothing else I could do about it? You do something stupid, read aloud the wrong book and you're gone forever, and a demon uses you body to spread misery around until someone like you or me goes all medieval on him? No, not medieval, biblical. I'm told I summoned a pillar of fire.

This boy has a mom, Bobby. And the way I saw her cry, she really loved him. This may be a relief for me, but not for her. I think I'm going to remember her forever. Why there must be demons? Aren't we humans mean enough to each other?

Also, it means I'm not done with this story. I'll have to find that book and destroy it before it can hurt someone else."

"Probably not you then.  Demons are more fire oriented, so he might have been getting ready to smoke you like a cheap cigar."


"Well, now you're entering into the realm of Breaking and Entering.  Get involved in that and you're asking for trouble kid, just thought I shold warn you.  And, for your own sanity, you might want to stay away from the grieving parents of kids you've vaporized.  They may not fully understand that you vanquished a demon, most people don't see the things we see.  The world is not nearly as vivid to them, and there is a reason for that.  Try to keep that in mind when you decide what to do next."

"Oh."

For some strange reason, this makes him feel slightly better.


"Isn't leaving it around to potentially goad someone else into summoning demons asking for trouble too?"


"How long have you been doing... your job, Bobby? How old were you when you first met a demon?"

"Well, that's assuming it is.  The demon might have destroyed it, because those things can be used to banish them to, sort of like knowing a true name.  It might still be there, but the cops are likely gonna search the room, they might take it as evidence to support your story.  Best to let the universe play out the way it wants to.  Everyone acting with free will, and the widns of the World filling in the gaps."


"I bumped into my first one when I was in Vietnam back in the 60s.  Pretty scary, but you get better at this as you go along, and you have the Blackbird.  He'll help you out, you two will eventually become like brothers in a way."

"Mhm. I'll see how it plays out then. Maybe I'm overreacting, but another boy in my school has died because of a magic book. It's hard to stay calm when people around me die."


"In Vietnam in the 60s? But then..."

Bobby too?

"Bobby, are you sixty? Seventy? How do you look so young? Or is there something I'm missing?"

"Do you happen to know a Jack Donaldson?"

"I'm happy to say that part never gets easy, if that's any comfort.


"Uh, well I died once, and being the U'nonqua has it's benfits.  And I didn't have my soul for a while, which can be a bummer but that sort of makes it hard to die too."


"Of him.  Don't actually know him personally."

Colin remains agape for a few seconds.

"Oh. I'm not sure I'm ready to hear this story. It's just that... the blackbird said there is only one Spirit Dancer, but there are other people that like me are part mortal and part immortal. So it sort of makes me wonder if I..."

"I'm not sure I want to go there either. I asked because, well, I'm fourteen. Most of the stuff that happens to me is probably me looking for trouble, but still the Winds of the World decided to pick me for this role quite young, don't you think? I wonder if it's because of all that's happening around here."

"Did you ever meet the Spirit Dancer before me?"

"Ah, no.  Grandpa met her once I guess, long while back.  I don't think there has been one since the 50s, I'm not positive though."

"Bobby, I have to ask you something."

"If something happened to me, I dunno, if I turned into a sort of monster, or simply if I lost it and started doing wrong things... if I, for any reason, turned evil... would you come and... stop me? I'm asking you. If that happened, don't let me hurt people."

"If you take that turn, I'll be there to call you back.  If you wouldn't come back, I'd stop you."

Colin sighs, deeply, as if a weight had been removed from his shoulders, and he could stay upright again.

"Thank you."

"I can stop being afraid of myself now."

"Anytime."

"Did Viv and and Zoe get the drawings?"

"Yep.  They were very excited to get mail, thank you very much."

"You're welcome. It was fun working on them. I might send more. Better not kangaroos, though, I guess. You can tell them I take requests."

"Not a good plan.  They'll expect something new every couple of days."

"Hehe. You're right. I'll try to surprise them every now and then."

"I'd better go, Bobby. Thank you for everything."

"Anytime guy.  Maybe this summer you can come out for a visit.  I know the girls would love to see you, and you could spend a little time in the sweat lodge with Grandpa.  Maybe help you figure out what direction you're headed in."

"Yeah. I'll try my best to survive till this summer then."