Page 42 of Monsters of Midlife

Chapter 26

CAROLINE

We took the ferry over to San Francisco. Sophie said it would be easier. I checked her phone as we were driving, because there was a string of messages to me. They were all from Laney. She was freaking out. I looked at the messages and then I looked at Sophie. “I need to answer her,” I said. “She’s not going to rest until she finds out what’s going on with me. She’s my best friend.”

“I totally get,” Sophie smiled, the bay breeze lifting her dark curls. “My best friend’s Ava and when she goes AWOL it totally throws me for a loop.”

“What can I actually tell her though?” I asked.

“Well, you can’t tell her the truth,” Sophie said. “She’ll be out here on a plane in a second trying to understand this world we live in. There aren’t any rules about sharing this world with humans, but humans don’t usually last too long once they find out about it.”

“Why is that?” I asked.”

“Because they get nosy, and they start asking a lot of questions and then eventually something dark and dangerous will get them.” Sophie shrugged. “The supernatural world isn’t really made for people without some sort of connection or power.”

“Is that why Ryder hid me away for so long?” I asked.

“Ryder was always trying to protect you,” Sophie said. “That’s really obvious. The best way to protect a human from the supernatural world is to not tell them about it. But the reality is you’re not human. You are supernatural. So, there is that.”

“I’m just going to tell her I went on vacation with Ryder,” I said. “It’s not really the truth, but it’ll at least keep things in the realm of reality a little bit more.”

I pulled up the text messages and stared at the ever-increasing messages left by Laney.

“I’m still with Ryder,” I wrote. “We decided to take a short trip to San Francisco.”

“Be careful what you write, because she could also be being tracked by supernaturals,” Sophie said. “And if that happens then they’ll find you.”

“You’ve got to text more often!” Laney typed immediately upon receipt of my message.

“I’m sorry.” I typed.

“Nvm. Are you and Ryder like working it out?” She wrote.

“Something like that.” I was being cagey, but I couldn’t tell her much. I didn’t want to put her in danger or let her know where I was.

“I went by your home. There’s a big fence around the hole.”

I glanced out at the bay thinking about the words to say next. “Apparently my house was situated over a giant sinkhole and suddenly sank. It was one of the reasons why Ryder and I decided to get out of there.”

I hated the feeling I got in the pit of my stomach when I was lying to my best friend and not quite telling her the full truth, but like Sophie said, if the demons were really after me, then I needed to do something to help stop them from attacking my loved ones.

“I’m still seeing Magnus!” I could practically feel her enthusiasm across the text. It made me smile. Laney was pretty picky about guys she dated so clearly this Magnus guy must have something special.

“This is our stop,” Sophie said as the boat pulled towards the harbor.

“I’ve got to go. I’ll message you later,” I wrote to Laney. “And tell me all the details about you and this guy.”

“Will do, love you!” Laney sent me a stack of hug and kisses emojis.

The ferry boat slowed down. We were in the Mission District of San Francisco. I only recognized it briefly from a short trip there as a kid with my parents when we’d gone to see Fiddler on the Roof staring Yul Brynner. I’d never quite understood why we had to travel all the way to the West Coast to see a musical, but I think my mother had a crush on Yul Brynner and wanted to see him in person.

“Come on, it’s just this way. Down this alley.” We walked down a small road that led into the industrial section in San Francisco. All the warehouses were all decked out and modernized. It was apparently where a lot of the tech companies were located.

In the center of the gentrified warehouses was a church that must’ve been there since almost the founding of San Francisco. it was built out of wood and in a Victorian style with gingerbread fringe and a tall white steeple.

“Are you telling me that’s a supernatural temple?” I asked. “It looks like a protected heritage site.”

“The supernaturals have been in San Francisco since the city first formed,” Sophie explained. “This was never a church. It was always the Temple Cyrene, for the priestesses.”

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