Shifting Life

6. Third Time Lucky

It was getting old.

Jacklyn glared at Oliver Pantzer's Old World Smoked Sausage Shop. The lights were still out. The closed sign still hung in the door. The door was still unlocked. The GPS microchip still insisted Toby was somewhere nearby.

Jacklyn looked over her shoulder, making sure she wasn't watched by someone.

She entered.

Her bare feet were cold.

The shop smelled worse than last time.

What was that undertone of sweet rotting flesh? Maybe it was time for the world to go vegan? Maybe that was all it was. Her two bodies deciding that for the horse's belly's sake, vegan was the way.

Right now she agreed.

The little white replacement dog wasn't there. For a moment she worried, then she remembered the little white dog bolting out between her front legs after she had pushed the door open with her muzzle. She wished it good luck.

Jacklyn went to the back door and stared down into the darkness.

Third time lucky.

Or something.

For the second time she went down the concrete stairs. She used the cellphone as a flashlight. Why hadn't she thought of that the first time?

She turned on the light in the basement.

Jacklyn hurried past the green steel door of the smoke room. She half expected Petra to appear, but the basement was dead quiet.

The big room looked darker and seemed deserted. Only a few tea lights still flickered. There was no light switch and no electric light in here.

Strange.

Jacklyn circled the room to make sure. She didn't want to miss something in the dark, like a small sack with a tiny gagged dog.

A full circle and she was back where she'd started with nothing to show for.

A shiver slowly trickled down her spine.

Jacklyn crossed the room diagonally. She saw burnt out tea lights in the shape of a circle.

This time she walked closer. Why had Pantzer had a blazing circle earlier? Live sacrifice?

Jacklyn shuddered again.

She looked around. There they were, her abandoned shoes.

She loved this pair of sneakers. She pulled on her purple shoes and felt better immediately.

Pantzer had poured a thin line of white powder to make the circle. She realized his floor art was a circle with a five-point star inside.

A pentagram.

Jacklyn took a pinch of the powder and rolled it between thumb and index finger. Hard and grainy, like fine sand. She didn't need to sniff it to know it was salt.

Something tugged at her memory.

Pantzer had looked her over head to toe when she came the last time. Her toes had been more interesting than her face, judging by the time he'd looked at them. His eyes had flickered.

Alarm?

She realized she'd been walking close to the circle. Being this close to it now, horsey sense was adamant; don't cross the lines.

Like it was an electric fence or something.

Jacklyn tasted the horsey feels some more. There was current, no doubt about it. But it had nothing to with electricity.

Magic.

She growled.

She wished she'd knew more about magic than what she'd gleaned from TV. Working for Veronica should come with a crash course. Jacklyn would have to take it up with her. She didn't look forward to it. Provided she found Toby. Provided she still had a job after this.

Ok. Magic circle.

Maybe they worked like closed circuits?

Jacklyn smiled. Pantzer hadn't wanted her to accidentally mess with his circle.

Horsey sense still told her to stay the hell away. Human sense - or the lack of it - told her it would piss Pantzer off if she did something to his salt drawings.

She put her left foot inside the circle. She sensed the power like a low voltage of emotion. The skin on her foot prickled.

In one fast move, Jacklyn dragged her heel through the salt line and broke the circle.

There was a hiss, like a balloon leaking.

She wasn't sure if she heard it or felt it. Her ear twitched nervously.

The next moment she flew backward as if an invisible, soundless bomb just exploded. Jacklyn hit the wall. Everything went dark.