There's an Invisible Man Sleeping in My Bed

Chapter 31

        Colt watched Ruth, taking in her wide eyes and pale cheeks. Her mouth worked for several moments before she managed to force a word out. Even then, all she managed was a drawn out “Whaaa…?”

      He felt Thalia tense beside him. He squeezed her gently, hoping his confidence would communicated itself to her and would reassure her. This wasn’t the first time he’d dealt with this type of situation. Though, thinking back, most of the time it hadn’t ended in any way he could say was actually good…

           Shaking his head to clear away the distracting memories, he refocused on Ruth. She looked to be still half-frozen with shock, her face still trying to imitate the colour of snow. “My name’s Colt. And no, I’m not a ghost. I’m merely invisible.”

         “Invi…invisible?” Ruth whispered, one hand twitching on every syllable she spoke.

        Thalia dragged her eyes up from the floor, gaze steady as she looked at her friend. “Colt’s the one the Builders are looking for. The ‘spirit’ they think’s attached itself to Will. The one Anna told us about.”

        Colt frowned. If Thalia wasn’t careful, she’d end up overloading her friend. And then she’d start muttering about ghosts and haunting, and he’d find himself trapped in something again.

           But as he watched her, Ruth seemed to rouse herself, a touch of colour returning to her face. “The spirit? The one that gives people magic powers?”

         Thalia nodded and Colt snorted. “I don’t give people magic. Though I did pretend to be a ghost once, to help Thorne out of a bit of a snafu. And that can hardly be considered on the same level of distributing powers. I am certainly not a god, I’m not even a demi-god.”

         “So wait, this...you said your name’s Colt?, is the spirit? And he’s attached himself to you, rather than Liam.  And the Builders have no clue?”

        Thalia nodded. Colt was relieved to feel her relaxing a bit, her face losing some of its rigidness as the tenseness drained out of her body. She was the first woman he’d come into contact with who dropped into a blank mask when worried. He almost wished she was the shaking type. The statue version of her unnerved him.

          Ruth spoke, drawing his attention back to her. ‘Ha! Well this gives us an extra edge against those Builder bastards. Let’s see them guard against someone who’s invisible. How are you invisible anyway? When Jo was talking about how you’re not really a ghost, I was curious on how you ended up as a spirit.”

         Colt felt his mouth drop open. In the course of a few sentences, Ruth had gone from immobile shock to bright-eyed interest. No one had ever accepted his existence this easily. Even among people who were used to magic. “Ah…a god took my body from me.”

           “How does that work? And if you don’t have a body, how did you catch Thalia? It doesn’t make any sense.”

           “He’s a telekinetic. It means he can concentrate so he has a semi-corporeal form,” Thalia said when Colt hesitated.

           “Ah. Well that I can understand I guess. How long have you known about him? And how come you didn’t tell me?”

               “A few weeks. And I didn’t tell anyone. First because I didn’t think anyone would believe me and because Colt asked me not to. By the time you’d accepted the idea of the spirit, I was worried about the Builders finding out that Colt’s with me instead of Will. I thought about telling you both. I figured you’d both be safer not knowing. But now…You’re doing better with this than I did at first. Do you think we should tell Will too?”

          The sound that Ruth made, something halfway between choking and laughing, echoed Colt’s feelings exactly. “You think telling Liam that you’ve been…practically living with an invisible man’s a good idea? You think Liam would be okay with it?”

               Frowning, Thalia said “Why wouldn’t he be?”

             “Oh god. I’ve always known you were oblivious to most things that deal with people and their interactions, but I didn’t know you were this bad. Look, telling Liam is a very, very bad idea. He shouldn’t know about your friend unless we have no choice, okay?”

              “She’s quite correct,” Colt added, hugging her with the arm he’d left around her waist. “I think it best we leave your cousin unenlightened with regards to me. It’ll help keep him a bit safer with the Builders still hanging around.”

                  Thalia nodded at that. “You’re right. He’s better off not knowing right now.”

               Privately, Colt hoped she never told William. He couldn’t imagine it ending well. About to say something along those lines, he caught sight of the wicked gleam in Ruth’s eyes as she looked in his general direction. Thalia noticed as well and gave him a sympathetic smile. “I hope you’re ready to be interrogated. I don’t think Ruth is able to pass up this kind of opportunity.”

             Seeing the almost hungry look on Ruth’s face, Colt resigned himself to his spending at least the next hour responding to a barrage of questions. At least she seemed in favour of him and hadn’t spoken of priests and exorcisms. That was enough of a novelty that he’d put up with her questions. Besides, he was fairly sure that Ruth knowing and approving of him was going to make Thalia happy.