“
He did not answer.
Rex did not answer.
“Well, if you’re not going to talk to me, I’m leaving,” I said, and started to walk down the stairs.
Rex growled and whoofed something. A few people near us turned to look, but I couldn’t tell if they spoke dog, or just were reacting to his obviously-threatening tone.
“Stop,” said Reverend Tommy.
“Make me,” I said, over my shoulder, and Rex barked a yapping, high-pitched bark and took a few steps forward. Now more people were looking at us, as Rex got louder and louder.
“I will,” said Reverend Tommy, quietly – but loudly enough that I heard him.
I had my back mostly to him, and I thought that he was being kind of quiet because he didn’t want to attract attention. That seemed to me to be my best chance – he might shoot my dirigible down with ray guns and net me and kidnap me to Chicago when we’re all in some small town, but would he dare do something to me on a public street with all these people around, and their octopi, and the windows where there were maybe more people, doing some crowd watching?
He would, I learned, because I felt a zapping shock and I stopped because I was frozen in my tracks and I looked back at him, able to just barely turn my eyes enough to see him.
Reverend Tommy was standing there, eyes closed, hands steepled in prayer, lips moving silently. Rex stood near him and growled at me. Reverend Tommy’s hands were glowing and incandescent again, and from them, a blue arc of power had leaped and was stretched out towards me.
I rolled my eyes downward a little, seeing my hand and arm and chest, still wearing that too-nice, too-innocent dress that he’d put on me. I glowed blue, the same color that Reverend Tommy’s hands were glowing, the same color of the arc of light that had jumped from him to me.
“PEOPLE OF THE
“
And people were looking. They were congregating around, drawn by the picture of me, I suppose, trapped in blue, and his voice, echoing off the building fronts and the stone steps.
I concentrated as he went on.
“SHE IS
I focused.
“THIS EXISTENCE!” He boomed, and as he said that, there was a crackling peal of thunder that emanated from him, rolling out and resounding back and generally not fading away, and I could hear the murmurs of people getting louder but I didn’t pay any attention to them.
Instead, I used all my willpower and turned around, looking Reverend Tommy in the face.
He was scared. I saw that suddenly. I figured I was not supposed to be able to move and he was scared that I could. The murmurs grew louder as I took a step towards him.
He seemed to get a grip on himself. His lips started moving again. Praying, I suppose. The blue power got brighter. I felt more resistance. My hair was standing on end and my skin felt hot. I took more steps towards him; I was only about two feet away.
Rex was snarling, frothing, and looking from Reverend Tommy to me. The crowd was staying back.
“Do not come closer, harlot!” said Reverend Tommy.
“Quit calling me that,” I said, and I raised up my left hand. I only did it because I knew he was afraid of it or didn’t like it. I raised up my left hand, and pointed it at him, and he seemed, just for a second, scared again, but I give him credit: he got it under control again and I saw his hands press more firmly together. He was going to start praying again. I had to do something.
I leaped at him. I jumped for him just as he closed his eyes and just as Rex jumped at me.
There was a SNAP! I saw a brighter flash of light, even. I felt my hand, my left hand, touch Reverend Tommy’s shoulder.
And everything went black.
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