Page 28 of Hallow Hill at Halloween: Part Two

CHAPTER NINE Running Down a Dream

The instant Rita was freed, Jeff felt two things. First was relief. Good girl, he thought. First try! It made sense to him that Rita would turn out to be psychologically flexible. After all, that’s what would’ve been required of a midlife human who was suddenly thrust into a job overseeing the behavior of a world she hadn’t known existed. And she’d done it brilliantly!

The second feeling was awareness that Rita’s absence had been replaced with the presence of another. He sensed it even before he heard hushed hissing and the friction of scales rubbing against each other, and there was a part of him that was glad the darkness hid her from him. He would gratefully take small blessings when they came his way.

Medusa had rushed to Rita’s prison the instant she felt a void where her prisoner’s constant fear had been. One moment there was a steady diet of terror, the next that feeling was replaced by emptiness. When she arrived, she immediately intuited that she wasn’t alone. Rita was gone, but someone or something else had taken her place. Medusa was even more surprised to find that her own fear was quickly rising to replace her captive’s.

Knowing the other presence was most likely Medusa, Jeff switched into full-on hunter mode. She was silent and still. Waiting in the darkness. Waiting to see what would happen. Waiting for him to make a move, thinking silence would save her from the clever adversary who’d spirited her prize away.

“Is it her?”Jeff asked the gargoyle chieftain.

“Bingo,”Bulent replied. Jeff noted that, in thought transmission, the gargoyle’s voice wasn’t garbled. It was clear as a tenor bell.“When she moves, I’ll follow.”

One of the characteristics that made Jeff one of the most formidable hunters ever was the gift of timing. It had never failed him, and he was counting on the belief that it wouldn’t do so now. There was a trick to locking onto a target. He had to identify every atom of Medusa’s composition accurately in order to mimic it and track her, a practically impossible task for any other creature.

With patience, quiet, and the stillness of a stone, he hoped Medusa would begin to doubt that someone was there. He made sure he was literally part of the environment, by becoming part of the stone wall, indistinguishable from the prison she’d constructed out of anger and madness. To perfectly match the Gorgon’s essence, he needed to touch her which, of course, would trigger flight. That was the tricky part. He required less than a millisecond to accomplish the goal. But if she became antsy and fled before he was ready, he hoped Bulent could take over the hunt. needed a few seconds to prepare for locking onto her composition so that he could follow, no matter how where or how fast she ran.

Medusa sensed there was someone there, but that someone was undetectable. No heartbeat. No breath. Not even a faint vibration.

While she was searching with her senses, deliberating with whatever logic might remain in her head, the brush of Jeff’s sensory reach had gone unnoticed so that he locked on to her essence without difficulty. The chase was on and he could follow no matter where or how fast she ran.

He saw this rundown as a twofold mission. Free the judge. Capture the gorgon. By any means necessary. With acheck mark posted to the first item, he was fully focused on the next.

“I’m locked on,”he said so that only Bulent could hear.“When she moves, be ready.”

“One question,”Jeff heard Bulent’s reply in his head.

“Make it fast. I don’t like distraction.”

“What will you do when we catch her?”

The use of the word “we” brought Jeff up short. He never would’ve imagined a hunting companion, but there it was.“Esme made a suggestion.”

“Hmmmph. Well. Hope she’s a good guesser.”

Jeff said nothing, but had been thinking the exact same thing. Once he had Medusa, what would he do?

Esme had given him a couple of options. He could adopt the persona of Medusa’s sister, Euryvale, and try to persuade Medusa to join her in the Underworld. Or he could adopt the persona of Athena and keep Medusa occupied with conversation while Bulent handicapped her ability to traverse human dreams.

In addition to tracking, the gargoyle had the ability to plant a psychic seed of horror and pain that would be triggered if she attempted it. It was one of the practices that had been outlawed for thousands of years. The Bureau had set up strict rules against magic-kind compromising each other’s abilities. But Bulent had an implied waiver in this instance. After all, the community must have its magistrate.

All in all, he had to admit that he was part of an unlikely, but capable team. The judge had made a lot of friends in her short tour of the supernatural.

Esme had suggested that when, not if, Jeff cornered Medusa that he subdue her by taking on the guise of Athena and promising to lift the curse. He was to tell Medusa that he, as Athena, would turn her back to her original maiden form. She gave him a dust, obtained from one of the most powerfulsorcerers, that would sedate her long enough to return her to prison spirit bound, meaning minus the ability to leave her body.

“I can’t become someone I’ve never seen,” Jeff said.”

“Hmmm. I hadn’t thought of that.” Esme brows drew together. “Can you work from a projection?”

“I can, but if I need to speak it will have to include the sound of her voice.”

“I might arrange that.” Esme had called Evie back and, after explaining the situation, persuaded Evie to transport Jeff to the Delphi Oracle.

After learning where to find the Oracle, Evie took Jeff there straightaway.

“What do you want?” snapped the Oracle.

The Oracle would’ve been beautiful if not for the fact that she was missing the lower half of her body. The half she possessed sat upon a tripod over a crack in the cave’s floor where visible fumes rose and swirled in a dance of dissipation.

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