At this point you know there drill. I fight a monster and defend my town. Then I find some reason to go to the Oak tree and recharge. And not just any Oak tree, as I found out last week during the whole Gwyllgi-Kelpie situation. No, it had to be the Oak tree in my Mom’s front yard.

I parked in the driveway, the events of the last time from the tree fresh in my mind. Last time I tried several other Oaks before this one, none of them yielding me any magic. So when I finally pulled power from this tree I drew too hard and got way more than I asked for. So much Luck filled me that I’d released it at my car out of sheer concern that if it hit anyone else they’d have died. The Luck had exploded against my Fastback before seeping into it. Without meaning to, I’d given my Mustang a Good Luck charm.

But I didn’t want to charm anything this time. And I sure as heck didn’t want more power. I just wanted healing. I wanted to feel right. I wanted to stop whatever the vampire fangs did to me.

“Stay in the car,” I said to Tain and Rob.

Wasting no time I placed my hand on the weathered bark. Inside I felt the aura of Order thrumming. But for some reason it seemed distant.

I tried to will myself into the tree, tried to make a connection, tried to siphon from it. But the Order within recoiled.

“What are you waiting for, boss?”

I grunted. “It won’t come out. It recoiled.”

“It’s Good Luck, not a turtle in a shell.”

“Yeah, well you’re not feeling what I’m feeling.”

“Try harder.”

I shook my head and gave it a go.

Inside of me something else stirred. It wasn’t from the tree since I hadn’t gotten anything out yet. It was something foreign.

In response the Oak tree drew further away from me, in a magical sense. The aura inside of me and the tree wanted nothing to do with one another. I felt like a hot potato being passed around, and nobody wanted to be caught with me when the music stopped playing.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Last time it was too easy. Now I wasn’t getting anywhere. What the heck was going on? Taking a deep breath I put both hands on the tree and pulled with everything I had.

A blinding flash exploded beneath my hands and I found myself launched in the air. I rolled through the grass until I sprawled on my stomach against the cold cement of the sidewalk. My ears rang for a few seconds and when they stopped I could hear Tain’s muffled barking from inside the ‘Stang. My head hung off the edge suspended above the gutter. I flipped over from my back to my stomach and looked face first into my own reflection in a puddle of dirty water.

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The face that stared back at me was mine, and yet it wasn’t.

Even though I wasn’t staring into a mirror, the puddle was clear enough for me to see that my skin shone pale in the moonlight, my hair whiter than Santa’s beard. But the craziest part was my eyes. Blood orange orbs blazed from sunken sockets.

“Whoa!” I scrambled to my feet in revulsion.

Rob threw an arm around my shoulder. “Are you okay boss? The tree tossed you across the yard!”

I waited for Rob to flee from the sight of me, but after a few seconds of no reaction, I peered into the puddle again. A normal looking me stared back, red-orange hair and all.

Earlier tonight I saw a guy I thought was my long lost dead dad that actually turned out to be a phantom version of myself. Now my faithful Oak tree blasted me across the yard and I was seeing vampire-like reflections of myself that my hobgoblin didn’t notice. Perhaps the vampire’s venom found its way into my brain and was making me hallucinate like a magical drug.

“Help me into the car.”

Rob obeyed.

Tain used the open car door as an opportunity to run around the front yard and mark off all of his territory.

I sat panting in the driver’s seat for a few minutes gathering myself, then whistled for my dog. Tain came back and offered his head for petting. “Well, that didn’t work. What next?”

“I don’t know,” said Rob.

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“That was all I had. It worked last time when the Gwyllgi burned your hands.”

I nodded. “But this time the wound isn’t superficial. It’s something inside.”

“Do you want to try again?”

I shook my head. “The Oak resisted, didn’t like my touch and blasted us back.”

“No, it only blasted you back. Not me.”

“No!” I grunted. “Not me and you. Us.” I jutted my thumb against my chest. “Me and the thing inside.”

The hobgoblin whistled through his teeth. “Not good.”

“Huh?”

“You just referred to the thing within you as a person.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Whatever boss. You said US.”

I tried to object.

“I’m gonna talk to Nehemiah. It’s for your own good.”

“You’re going to tattletell?”

“No. I’m keeping tabs. Just like the wizard suggested. You agreed to this.”

“I did not! When?”

“At the movie theater after Takahashi sank his fangs in you, and you ran off like a lunatic and we found you staring at a wall. Nehemiah told me to keep tabs on you. Charice liked the idea and you did too.”

I scratched my scalp. “I don’t remember that.”

“Obviously.”

Rob agreed to ride with me until I was safe and sound in the confines of the apartment. Then he’d fly off to contact the wizard. I didn’t want him to, but I didn’t have a choice.

Apparently I was losing it.