Zero Worship: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective #6

Chapter 2 - Cho Ku Rei

..

Zandra shifts in her spot on the couch to get at the sheathed lawnmower knife under her sleeve. Her body feels like it's been unzipped and stuffed with gravel overnight. The sluggishness radiates from places deeper and less familiar than she's accustomed. A hard, sharp cough rattles her joints into motion.

Chad claws at the small-link chain around his neck, gurgling in confusion. Or for help. Or something else.

What's he trying to say?

Zandra doesn't wait for clarity. She hobbles to her feet and shows the knife, despite her eyes not quite ready for the light of day. She can only see Chad and the chain.

Did Bexley finally get tired of Chad's shit?

"No, no, stop!" Bexley says from across the room, away from Chad.

Guess not.

Bexley's shouting isn't for whomever strangles Chad, though.

"Holy shit, put the knife away, Zandra," Bexley says.

Zandra rubs her eyes with her free hand. Now she can better see what's going on. A man jerks Chad up off the floor with a chain beneath the chin. He could be a copy-paste of Chad, albeit with more facial hair. Zandra sheaths the knife, taking extra care not to catch her skin on the edge. It's tricky with shaky hands.

Fuck, my ankle is hurting again.

Zandra coughs into her sleeve.

That's back, too.

"Enough, Ray," Bexley says to the man with the chain. "Don't make me mace you like last time."

"Only way to get th'se junkiesth awake," Ray says and drops one end of the chain, releasing Chad.

Chad shifts to all fours and pukes into a bowl of weeks-old cereal.

Ray laughs and kicks the bowl over. The carpet adds another stain. "That's why they call me Choke You Ray, bitch."

What the hell?

Zandra reconsiders putting the knife away.

"I'm awake, I'm awake. Fuck," Chad says in a sputter, still on all fours.

Bexley yawns and stretches.

Why doesn't she seem concerned?

"And who ith thith?" Choke You Ray, as Ray is apparently called, says at Zandra.

Zandra lets Bexley answer.

"You know that one psychic?" Bexley says.

Choke You Ray looks Zandra up and down. "I thought you were famouth. How bad did you fuck up to be hanging around my stupid ath couthin?"

Ray lisps on the S sounds. Zandra can't see his teeth. She also can't think of a comeback in her soggy mental condition, so she answers with, "You're Chad's cousin?"

"Yeah, and his healer," Choke You Ray says. He touches a hand to a gold necklace around his neck.

Sensing a pattern here.

Zandra notices a pendant hanging off Choke You Ray's gold necklace. It's a symbol she's seen before. Its swirling lines remind her of the contours of a conch shell.

The Cho Ku Rei. In reiki, the symbol focuses energy from the universe.

Reiki being the practice of energy healing.