Flashfire

Ch16

Caleb hadn't been able to bring himself to summon Liam back. The thing with Paul had been a complete and utter failure. It was so spectacularly bad, in fact, Caleb began to question the validity of trying to show Paul in the first place.

Glumly, Caleb dragged out the mop and a bucket, cleaning the floor before he slipped and killed himself. On autopilot, brain buzzing with empty, fleeting thoughts, he went through the process of wiping everything down with a rag. When that was done he turned off the stove that was boiling the rosehip, swept up the tea light candles, and swept them into the trash bin.

"What a waste," he mumbled, staring down at the discarded material that was so simple and yet so precious.

Not wanting the now-soaked dead rat to begin to smell, he pitched the box it laid in with the garbage too. He tied it into a knot and went outside to put the bag into the dumpster. When he turned around and tried to get back in, he realized that he had left his keys on the bar. He sighed in defeat, looking up at the fluffy clouds against the clear blue sky.

"Of course."

Caleb went around the building and went back in through the bar. He locked the door behind him. Originally he was going to do business after Paul left, but now? Now Caleb wondered what the point of any of it was.

Staring out the window, he pulled the golden pull chain of the 'open' sign.

"We're closed..." he said sadly to no one.

Caleb trudged back up to the apartment, feet feeling leadened. Once inside, Caleb went about the task of drying his spellbook with a hair dryer. When that was done, the book cover had curled slightly, and over-all the book was now fluffy, its pages slightly warped and wrinkled.

As he sat on the toilet cover, Caleb flipped through the pages, front to back, back to front. How long he sat there, looking despondently at the pages, he didn't know.

What was Paul playing at when he said the pages were blank? There were words, symbols, diagrams, right there, clear as day! Caleb decided he was going to look into it, because surely there had to be a logical explanation of why he could see the text but Paul could not.

You're going crazy...

Caleb went into the bedroom and stripped off his wet clothes. Not even bothering to redress, Caleb crawled under the thick comforter. He scooped up Liam's pillow, pressed it to his face, closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply.

It still smelled like him.

What would he do when it stopped smelling like Liam?

You're going fucking crazy. There's your logical explanation.

Caleb turned over, wrapped his body around the pillow, and went to sleep, because it was either that or cry.

He didn't feel much like crying.

~

Caleb awoke to the sound of the door buzzer. He peeled open his eyes, trying to figure out if he was dreaming. When it buzzed again he got out of the bed and padded to the door. Holding down the speaker button, he spoke.

"Hello?"

Seconds later, "Hi. Is this Caleb Schneider?"

It was a pleasant male voice. Caleb frowned, just wanting to go back to bed. "Yeah, what do you want?"

"It's the police; my name is officer Johnson. Mind if I come up?"

Police?

Suddenly wide awake, Caleb replied. "Yeah, hang on a second."