Open Minds: The Fog

Chapter Eleven:Lexi-In Which There is a Dialouge

Lexi opened her eyes in the silence. Caliph was gone. She had done it. She had really done it! She had banished Caliph! Taylor touched down next to her. She looked up at him. His expression was impossible to read.

Lexi looked around. Corduroy was still flat on his face. Allison stood in the bushes, stricken. Taylor's blank face had changed to horrified.

"Lexi...." Taylor put a hand on her shoulder.

Lexi looked around again. "Where's Jeanie?"

Taylor shook his head. "Lex, you-"

"Where is she?" Lexi heard the desperate tone in her own voice. Her breath was coming in huffing gasps and her hands shook. "Where did he drop her?"

Tires squealed on the road and a black car sped into the almost-empty lot. Mr. M. practically fell out and ran to Allison. Lexi noted his unusual lack of calm. Allison's head snapped from Lexi to him.

She leaned toward him and murmured something in his ear. He shook his head and said something back, justiculating and pointing at the car he came from. Allison swore loudly. Mr. M. held up a hand and she slumped. She turned to Lexi, her face a mask of dangerous calm. Lexi cowered. God, she had messed up big.

Lexi sat between Corderoy and Taylor. Allison's knuckles were white on the Civic's steering wheel. Taylor gripped Lexi's hand while Corderoy slumped against her, sleeping now. He had regained consciousness in time to be ushered into the car and fall asleep. Mr. M. had driven away again in the black car after convincing Corderoy to get in the Civic.

To Lexi, it seemed an awful lot like kidnapping, but she reasoned with herself; she was saving him.

Alison led the children into their motel room. Corderoy shuffled all the way up the stairs and fell asleep again on Lexi's bed. She slouched on the foot with Taylor and Allison sat primly opposite them on the couch. No one spoke for several minutes.

"When-Why did you-Do even-" Allison dragged her hand down her face. Her left eye was beginning to blacken and her nose had just stopped bleeding. "That was a spirit called Caliph the Devourer. You banished him like you-When were you gonna tell me what you knew?" Her voice was low but sharp at the same time. Lexi wished she would yell.

"I, ah, wasn't going...to..." Lexi mumbled.

Allison's good eye narrowed. "What?"

"I wasn't going to tell you! I don't have to! I'm leading the mission, not you!" Lexi's vision was blurred with angry tears. Her face was hot with shame and the lump in her throat was making her head hurt. Her voice sounded reedy and her words childish, even in her own ears.

Allison took a deep breath. "And I'm your regiment major. I gave you the assignment."

Lexi was shaking now. She was losing. This wasn't supposed to happen. She had to fix it. "Ye-Exactly! You-you gave me the assignment! You're under me! And I-"

Taylor gently squeezed Lexi's hand. She stopped talking abruptly. "Ms. Allistor, If I may?" He looked terrified, but his voice was smooth and calm. Allison nodded. Taylor took a breath. "Lexi and me messed up. Big time. We get it." Lexi looked at him like he was crazy. He was not helping. He just kept going. "We thought we could take care of it. We had a plan. But we calculated the risks wrong. We were sure we could banish Caliph. And-and didn't you see? Lexi did amazing! She banished a bad guy that basically can't be defeated!"

Allison's voice rose in pitch and volume.. "She hid things from me! She put innocent lives in danger! She put our lives in danger!"

"She saved all us and did a spell nobody would have believed she could!" Taylor was shouting now.

"She killed Jeanie Lee!" Allison practically screamed. Lexi sobbed. She hated feeling weak. She hated that Taylor was defending her after she had brushed him off, used him, and manipulated him. She hated that she had failed. She hated that her Patron hadn't given her enough power to help. She hated that she was crying now, tears pooling in her glasses as she bowed her head. Hated those too.

Corderoy sat up groggily. He scrambled onto the floor, kicking Lexi in the thigh as he did. "Stop! What's going on? Where's Jean? What happened to my nose? Where am I?" Lexi stared at him. His curly hair was flat where it had pressed into the pillow. It made him look lopsided.

Lexi's brain began whirring as she stared. His power. Her power. They were opposites. Counters. Counterweights. And what did you need counterweights for? Holding big spells. Impossible spells. Like...Doorways. Entering the Fog was impossible. Suicide. But she had done impossible things before. Where she would succeed gloriously or die. What was one more? She smiled thinly through her tears.

"I-Uh-Allison! Hear me out! I have a plan. And you have to listen to me because I'm in charge of the mission." Lexi's voice was still wobbly and weak, but she was breathing evenly and sat on the edge of the bed, hands folded in her lap. Allison took out her phone. She unlocked it, sighed and turned it off, placing it on the couch. She stared back at Lexi. Taylor twisted his hands. The skin on his palms made a soft sound. Lexi took a breath.

"I need to complete this mission. Alone. Or-at least without more help. If we tell Headquarters now, they'll send me away, Taylor too, and you'll lose your status, for sure. And they'll just let Caliph go. And Jeanie Lee will never be remembered. Nobody to bury. No-one to rescue. But-But if-Well-I have a plan. Doors. Uhm-I can open a door. With Ch-Corduroy." Lexi kept stumbling over her words. She knew Allison would say no. She knew she was done for. But she knew she couldn't give up yet. Not ever. She would die first. That seemed likely.

"I can open a gateway with Corduroy as a counterweight and then someone else to replace me. We can go now, without telling Pule. We'll sneak back into the building and open the door in a BR. I'll go through and we'll find someone to be Corduroy's counterweight to hold it open. It has to be him, though. Because his power is a counter to mine and that will make the door the most stablest. Most stable. I can do it. If I die, no big loss, you guys can cover it up or blame it on me or Caliph or something. But if I do more impossible-new things, then, I'll get a team and my Patron will grant me more power, and-" Lexi stopped mid-ramble. Corderoy had raised his hand. "What?" She shot him a look glowered at him, hoping to intimidate the question out of him. No such luck.

"Why the hell shouldn't I just call the police or, like...I dunno what's going on. I want my nana-" he trailed off. "Wait. Are y'all plannin' to get Jean back?"

Lexi frowned in frustration. She took a deep breath. Resisting a thousand irritated remarks, she said, "Yes."

Glossary (In alphabetical order)

Counterweight: A Projection of similar level but opposite category in in power, used as a balance for performing powerful spells.

Fog, the: The alternate world in which the spirits live; not tolerant of earthly beings

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