Unholyverse

~Part 27~

Six months later

"She's not here."

Mikey looked at Frank sideways. Frank took a drag on his cigarette and exhaled, looking back.

"She's here," Mikey said.

Frank looked at Bob, who shrugged and said, "If Mikey says she's here then she's probably here."

"But you've been saying that for the last three days," Frank complained, blowing smoke in Mikey's face. Mikey wrinkled his nose and half-heartedly tried to wave it away. "I'm just saying, we've been sitting here for hours, ok, my ass is completely numb and probably permanently flat."

"It was already permanently flat," Mikey said immediately, then cocked his head slightly, his eyebrows creasing very faintly.

"What is it?" Frank asked.

"I don't know yet," Mikey frowned. Then he said, randomly, "I'm thinking about getting Lasik."

Bob made a face. "That lasers in your eyes shit?"

"My glasses keep getting broken," Mikey said, then slithered off the bench they were sitting on and headed over to a big gaggle of kids who'd just come into view on the other side of the park.

Frank and Bob followed him, but stayed far enough back that it didn't look like they were all together. Mikey had his thing, his Mikey-power or whatever it was, to find these people, and they mostly seemed to trust him but for some reason Frank and Bob didn't have the same effect. Frank understood it with Bob - dude could look pretty intimidating when he wanted to, all beard and Mr. Angry Eyes, but Frank didn't see what was so off-putting about a regular short dude.

Gerard said it was all his tattoos. Whatever.

They could see Mikey moving through the group, pretty much indistinguishable from the rest of them, really. He stopped and touched the arm of a red-haired girl wearing a fedora.

"I hate this part," Bob confided to Frank. "This is the part where fights start."

It was true. Sometimes people - or their friends - didn't like Mikey rolling up all oh, hey, total stranger, let me tell you about how me and my friends can help you with your supernatural woes, and then Mikey might end up with a fist headed for his face. That's why Bob and Frank went with him in the first place.

This time, though, it didn't happen. The girl didn't look thrilled, and she hugged herself with skinny arms while Mikey spoke to her, but in the end she nodded and took the card Mikey held out. Some of the other kids were giving them curious looks when Mikey slipped away to re-join Frank and Bob.

"She'll come in Monday," he said as they started making their way back to the street.

Frank flicked his cigarette butt away. "She say that?"

Mikey shook his head. "She will, though."

"You're so creepy when you're like this," Bob observed. Mikey rolled his eyes.

When they got back to the shop, Brian and Ray were in Ray's room doing...something that smelled really terrible, Frank didn't know. He left Mikey and Bob to fill them in, and slipped into the back room instead, where Gerard was practically hidden behind a huge pile of books on the desk.

"Hey," Frank called, softly, but Gerard still startled and flailed his arm out, knocking at least half the pile onto the floor. Frank laughed and bent down to start picking them up. "Sorry."

"Not your fault." Gerard crouched down to help Frank stack the books up again. His hair was everywhere and he had pencil smudges on his nose. He caught Frank staring and smiled, shyly. "Hi, by the way."