by Christy Shorey and you

ARCHIVE: NOV. 11 edited for spelling and grammar

3438 words

It took a while for Margot to finally regain her latest human guise. She looked at herself in the mirror, trying to tame the flyaway locks of curly hair. The hair was the one downfall to this particular human form, but frankly she had been tired of straight hair after generations of using the form. Plus, the curly hair was unusual, and tended to draw attention, which was a good thing, at least in this time and place. As this world had only mythical dragons, and no actual dragon in it's history, her inherent power over humans was greatly diminished. If she could draw and keep the attention of a human it was easier to make them susceptible to her will.

As much as she hated doing it, Margot found that using appearance to get that attention, and to make a favorable impression truly did help her gain power. Feminine wiles were something of an oddity to her, and at first she was loathe to use them, she thought they made women seem weak, to rely on appearance so much to get what they wanted. To use the hint of sexuality to curry promises and aid from others. She was fascinated to see the effect worked on women as well as men, something Margot considered to be an underlying fault in the species as a whole, and that encouraged such exploitation of looks from the women of the society.

She shook her head. It was still a mystery to her even after having lived on this world for several hundred years, and in dozens of guises, women ranging the levels of acceptability for generations. She usually changed her look after a decade or so, maybe longer if the particular guise seemed useful. She had found her current form both bothersome and fun, but she might end up keeping it for another decade more, beyond the five years she'd already used it.

She brushed a non-existent wrinkle from her skirt, and straightened her top so it achieved the maximum effect of the fashion. A quick check at the time and she was heading out. She nearly collided with Kyle, who was loitering in the hall next to her room.

"You look nice," he said.

"Thank you Kyle. Did you need something?"

"I didn't know if you would need another walk," he said then gave a shrug. "I guess not."

"No, but thank you Kyle. You always take good care of me."

The blond youth blushed a little. "I like doing he," he said staring at his shoes.

"I appreciate it. Listen, Dresden is coming over this afternoon to help me out. I'm afraid that I've left my room, and some of the rest of the house, a bit of a wreck after my change. Will you please help me by cleaning up a little?"

"Sure." Kyle said with a smile. "I'd like that."

"Okay, I'll leave a list on the kitchen table of what needs to be done, just go ahead and check them off as you get them done. Now," she said, and put a hand under his chin, tipping his head up to meet her eyes. "I'm going to leave some things off the list, like my broken table in my room. It's okay that you don't fix those this time. Just do the stuff on the list, okay?"

"Just the stuff on the list."

"Yes," Margot said, and gave Kyle a big smile. "Just the stuff on the list. And don't forget to take a break for lunch."

Kyle's brow furrowed at that. Margot ran her thumb up his jaw. "Don't worry, I'll put that on the list for you, is that okay?"

Kyle gave a relieved smile. "Yes, thank you. I'm...I'm not always good at remembering things."

"That's okay, Kyle. That's my job, and you do your job very well."

Kyle gave a little nod. Margot gave him leave to get a shower and breakfast before starting, and set down to make the list. Once she was done, she headed out, making sure to lock the door behind her.

***

Lacey pounded on the door at the address that Logan had given her. There was no answer. "Logan" she called out, her cell phone still to her ear even as she raised her other hand to pound on the door again.

She had been on the way to his house when he had called, determined to not be brushed off. If he hadn't called, she would have arrived to demand answers. If he did, she had hoped that he would want to meet as soon as possible to continue their conversation.

But when he called, late, he had disappointed her by saying he didn't remember the dreams that she'd had with him in them. When he started on some other conversation, she at first thought that someone else had entered the room, but the tone of his voice was different, and shortly after there was silence.

She remembered what he had said, even if it didn't make sense, but put it aside in her mind to puzzle out later, or better ask Logan what it meant. She was ten blocks from his house when it occurred to her that maybe he'd had another of those episodes that she had witnessed at the tattoo parlor the day before. She had gotten off at the next bus stop to run the rest of the way to his house, knowing she would be there faster than if she waited for the additional three stops along the way.

She pounded on the door, and called out again. Still no answer, either on the phone line or at the door. She put the phone down on the step, and grabbed the handle, preparing to shoulder the door. She looked at her hand on the knob, and tried to turn it, realizing that perhaps it wasn't locked. It was. She braced her feet, and the doormat under her feet skidded as she slammed her weight against the door. She stopped and checked under the mat for a key. No luck there either.

"Logan!" she cried out again, tears of frustration forming in her eyes. Her mind raced through what was wrong with Logan, why he wasn't answering. She pushed those thoughts down and tried to think of a way to get in, instead. What would she do in this case, any of the various Laceys that she pretended to be? Nothing helpful from the veterinarian, or lawyer, the beautician and independently wealthy young woman were equally useless. Then she remembered a little used lie; one that manifested just after her mother had died. The Lacey who was a military girl... with martial arts training. She looked again at the door and took a step back. Taking a moment to find her balance, Lacey let out a cry as she imagined a kiap to sound like, and slammed her foot into the door, landing with her weight behind it near the doorknob.

The door shuttered as the blow struck. Lacey braced herself, and set in with another kick. The wood around the lock gave way on the third kick, and the door swung in. Lacey rushed in to the apartment calling out for Logan. His place wasn't large, and when she didn't see him on the first floor, she ran up the spiral staircase to the upper level. Logan was lying there against the bed. His lips were moving, but no sound was coming out. As she got closer she heard a scared whimper from him.

Lacey rushed to his side, and knelt next to him. She took his shoulders, and gently moved him from where he was slumped to lay him out on the floor. When she got him there, she noticed that he was no longer trying to talk; no longer whimpering. Sweat covered his brow and damped his hair, and she brushed his bangs from his face.

She noticed the receiver near where he had been sitting, and picked it up. She could hear sounds from outside, where her cell phone still sat on the exterior step. She turned off the connection, then turned the phone back on to call 911. She had just gotten the operator when she felt Logan's hand on her arm.

She looked at him, and saw his eyes were a hazy purple, fading quickly to their normal blue from the red she had seen the day before. He was shaking he head, and reaching for the phone. "Logan, are you okay?" she said, and he gave a small smile.

"Never mind," she said into the receiver and hung up.

"I see you found my place," Logan said. Lacey noticed how tired he sounded.

"Are you okay," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder to prevent him from sitting up too soon. "You just kind of lost it there on the phone, and when I got here you were in a real state."

"How so?"

"Muttering to yourself but not saying anything, and whimpering. And your eyes were fluttering. I think they were red again."

Logan cursed at that, and Lacey gave him a small smile. "They're back to that awesome blue they usually are, now."

Logan shook his head. "I've never seen that from the other side, from the view of an observer. I imagine I must have been a scary sight."

"A little. The other side of what?"

Logan closed his eyes, and gave a sigh. He lay there for several moments not saying anything. He brought his hand up to his head, and rubbed his brow, and gave another sigh. "I guess I have to tell you. You really aren't the kind of girl who will just let this drop, are you?" his voice didn't sound hopeful.

"Not at all," Lacey agreed.

"Let me sit up, and get my thoughts together. Do you mind getting me a glass of water? If I was at the hospital they'd tell me it was dehydration, again, so better safe than sorry."

Lacey fetched two glasses of water from the kitchen, and grabbed her phone from the front stoop. She pushed the door shut and put a chair behind it, to keep it closed. When she got back upstairs Logan was sitting against the bed, propped up against a pillow from the bed.

She handed him a glass of water, and sat down across from him. "Sorry about your door, by the way," she said.

He raised an eyebrow at her, leaving the question unasked.

"I, um, busted it in when you didn't answer. You'll have to get a new one, the lock held, but the wood around it didn''t exactly hold."

Logan gave a sigh. "Okay. Good to know."

They sat in silence for several moments, Logan periodically sipping at his glass of water. Lacey was prepared to wait him out, but he finally spoke. "Do you believe in past lives?"

Lacey shrugged. "Not sure. How do you mean?"

"Like the kind where you've died and come back as someone else," Logan said. His gaze was drifting from her face and back to a spot somewhere behind her, like he was afraid to get the full force of her reaction.

"It's possible, I guess." Lacey said, unsure where he was going with the conversation.

"I, well, let's just say I am an avid believer in past lives."

Lacey nodded. "Okay. Great for you."

"Not so much, it turns out," Logan said, finally locking his gaze on Lacey. He looked almost sad as he said, "I am sort of a prisoner to memories of my past lives. Yes, lives," he added before she could ask. "Memories of lives I have lived intrude on my daily life, and I sometimes loose track of the present for the images from these pasts."

"What kind of lives?"

"All sorts. But there does seem to be one similarity to them; I'm trying to figure out what it means. Unfortunately the memories have gotten worse lately, and I've not been able to come back to the present as readily. I ... I think that's what happened today. I remember talking to you, then I was talking to someone else, this memory was more than the flash I am used to getting; I've had this since I was little, longer than I can remember, actually."

"So you were lost in a memory of someone you once were?" Lacey said.

Logan nodded. "Yes. But somehow, Lacey, somehow when you showed up I came out of it. I think..."

Lacey was intrigued, and frustrated Logan had stopped talking. "Yes?" There was no reply, "Logan, what were you thinking," she said, and put a hand on his knee.

Logan shook his head and Lacey saw a flicker of the red in them before he turned his head back to her with his normal blue eyes. "And again," he whispered. "Amazing."

"What? What is it? Were you just in another past memory?"

Logan nodded. "For a moment, yes. But Lacey, you... your touch... somehow, somehow it breaks whatever it is about the memories that has trapped me in them. Somehow your touch frees me."

Lacey sat back on her heals and looked at Logan, unsure if she could believe him. But one look in his eyes proved to her that he believed it, absolutely.

*****

When Dresden finally got home the contents of the box containing his inheritance were gone from the house. The empty box and the letter explaining his portion of his grandmother's estate were in his room, next to the closet. Dresden kicked the box, then flopped down on his bed. He considered calling the police to notify them of a robbery, but he realized that doing so would end him without a place to live as well as three unsavory enemies in his housemates.

Restless, Dresden went to the room next to his, and knocked on the door.

"Who is it," an avian voice cried from the other side. Dresden debated answering it when it repeated its query.

"Um, it's Dresden."

The door opened and Raul stood there, looking up at Dresden with a look of inquiry on his face.

"I was just wondering. My shoes, the ones my grandmother sent? Did Guido take them?"

Raul cocked his head to one side, then finally nodded.   Dresden punched his roommate's doorframe.

"Cool down, big boy," Sally squawked as he brought his fist to his mouth. His knuckles smarted from the contact with the solid wood. Raul watched him for a moment with wide eyes, then motioned for Dresden to follow him. Sally fluttered down from her perch, and followed them as well. Raul lead them down the hall to the master bedroom. When the smaller man went in, Dresden hesitated in the doorway, unwilling to cross the threshold, uncertain of the consequences should he trespass in Guido's room, but his imagination was quite active about the possible ramifications.

"Outta the way," Sally said from behind him, and Dresden looked down at the bird. Raul clicked his tongue at the bird, and she shifted her weight from foot to foot. "Outta the way, please, " she said, and Dresden stepped aside.

Raul was smiling at the bird, and scooped her up off the floor onto his arm, patting her on the head. He handed Dresden a book that he had retrieved from the nightstand. It was an informational booklet from the local bank "So You Want to Start Your Own Business?: Retail" it proclaimed. Dresden could tell from the wear on the glossy pages that the pamphlet had been read and re-read.

He looked down at Raul, unable to hide the surprise from his face. "Guido is opening a store?"

Raul nodded, and took the pamphlet, returning it to the nightstand.

"He's opening a shoe store?" Dresden asked, trying to picture the tattooed man crouching down in front of woman with a shoe measuring device.

Raul nodded again, and Sally chimed in "You bettcha. Yep, you bettcha." Raul closed the door to Guido's room and head back to his own room. Dresden stood there in awe for several moments, unsure what to make of this new development.

He finally wandered back to the kitchen, Guido's normal haunts, and found there was a bad in the refrigerator with his name on it. He opened the bag and found one of Guido's specialty sandwiches in it. Realizing suddenly how hungry he was, Dresden sat at the table and started in on the sandwich. It was one of the most delicious of Guido's concoctions, and unparalleled in any sandwich shop in the city. Dresden mourned his housemate's decision to go with "retail" instead of "food service" for business options.

He was throwing out the sandwich bag, and was about to toss the brown bag in with it when he saw a small piece of paper in the bottom of the bag which he had missed before.

"Good luck with the interview" it said in Guido's small script. Dresden looked at it again, then shoved it in his pocket shaking his head. It seemed more and more likely that he would never understand his housemates.

****

The orientation at the medical center mostly pertained of Margot shadowing the current receptionists to learn what tasks were typically called for. Since she wasn't officially hired yet, Margot wasn't allowed to handle the patient files, or actually speak to the patients regarding anything but scheduling appointments with various doctors.

At lunch she had declined the offer to go with the group of receptionists and a few nurses, much to the relief of the girl who had been training her all day. Instead Margot at a packed lunch, and browsed the medical reference books that were part of the staff library.

She didn't find anything useful in that half hour, but could tell it was a great resource for her to start with. When the receptionists returned, her trainer for the morning came in on the arm of one of the male nurses, and asked oh-so-nicely if Margot wouldn't mind shadowing Rose for the second part of the day.

Rose was, as far as Margot could tell, a transsexual who was preparing to undergo gender altering surgery. She had already started taking a regimen of hormones to make her appearance more feminine, and to prepare her body to go from the masculine one she had been born with to a female one.

Rose was a little cautious at first with the new girl, but by the end of the afternoon, Margot got to see her wicked sense of humor and wonderful insights into the inter-workings of the office, mostly on the social level. Rose was, in short, a terrible gossip who loved to share her stories to anyone who would listen.

When Margot got home, she checked up on Kyle's progress on the house. She had found him outside watering the lawn when she got home, which meant he had made it to the end of the list. Doing a quick check of the house showed all the clean up had been done, and the dishes in the dish rack indicated he had remembered to break for lunch, if the tick mark on the list hadn't already given it away.

She called Kyle into the house when he was done, and asked him to run to the store for supplies for dinner. She gave Dresden a call and asked him if he could come over an hour and half later. He had readily agreed, and seemed genuinely excited to be coming over to do odd jobs.

Tired from her day of training, Margot slipped into golden retriever form; it wouldn't do for her to get lost in trying to maintain such a complex form as a human for too long given how exhausted she was. She wandered around the house as a dog, keeping her eye on the time. When Kyle returned, she asked him to wake here when Dresden arrived, and curled up in the recliner. She woke to the knock on the door, and Kyle poked his head in the room. "I think he's here."

Carefully directing her thoughts to Kyle only, she said Let him in and hoped of the chair. I'll be in my room changing. You can take him to wait in the kitchen.

Kyle nodded, and waited for Margot to get into her room, then he closed the door behind her, and rushed down the hall to answer the second summons at the front door.