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The Gift

Richard's Storyline, Chapter 6.5

copyright comidacomida 2018

I could tell he was trying to get under Jack's skin so I cut to the chase. "What am I deciding, exactly?"

"Gimme some Spirit Energy an' I'll get Chase t' not knock over th' place."

I wasn't sure whether such an agreement was more of a business deal or bargaining with a terrorist. Glancing back at Balam, the Jaguar shrugged, not having been able to follow along with the English but it was obvious that he knew a deal was on the table. He eventually offered up an enigmatic "If he is offering something, tell him to make it a Pact."

The Raccoon piped up from beyond Jack. "Sure, kid-- I'll agree to a Pact. Spirit Energy for me an' Chase'll leave the mart without violence. Whaddaya say?"

Turning back around to the Raccoon I frowned. "I don't deal with terrorists. Now you can get him out of there, or I'll tell Jack and Balam here that they don't have to keep being nice."

Phil let out a snyde 'ha' with enough scorn in his tone that I could tell he wasn't about to agree but, if I held out any hope that he would call off the robbery it dissolved when he faced me and hissed, revealing his teeth as he spoke. "That's not how this works, kid. Either you know that and you're fuckin' with me or your Spirit Guide's asleep at the wheel."

His fairly straightforward dismissal of my position left me shaken and, as a reflex, I went straight into information-gathering mode. "What do you mean? Why not?"

Jack remained between me and the Raccoon, but he spoke to me over his shoulder. "No Spirit would willingly spend power to keep themselves from harvesting Spirit Energy without a credible threat."

Phil snapped his fingers and pointed at the Gryphon. "Bingo... an' even if you told these two t' smack me around, I'd put up enough of a fight that they'd waste more energy givin' me a beatin' than they'd get from you outta thanks... so, like th' Red Coat here said, ya ain't a 'credible threat'."

It took me a second to figure out what Phil meant by 'Red Coat' but, considering the Raccoon had already commented about Jack's English accent I was able to put two and two together. What I COULDN'T understand was how to get him to call off the robbery; I didn't like the idea of anyone getting hurt, let alone killed. Looking toward Balam to see if he had any more information I was surprised to find him missing. "Balam?"

Smirking, Phil motioned with his thumb toward the grocery store and I looked just in time to see him disappear through the automatic door which, unsurprisingly, did not open for him. I was just about to follow before Jack spoke up. "Remember his warning, Seer-- a Spirit Guide is seldom wrong about such things."

I had a hard time sitting idly by without helping. "But... maybe I could do something... I mean... get in there before--"

The sound of a gunshot completely ruined any chances of me making my point and Phil, suddenly much more interested in the grocery store than me, gave a casual wave of dismissal and turned around, dropping to all fours as he raced inside. Jack stepped further back and rested a talon on my shoulder. "A Spirit Guide sees truth in ways we cannot understand... we must wait, and hope that whatever Balam has chosen to do will help lessen the harm that--" He fell silent at the sound of another gunshot.

I sat in the parking lot for I-don't-know-how-long, wracking my brain and trying to figure out what went wrong, how, and where. I'd had a chance to influence the events-- I was pretty sure of that, at least. The chaos around me became a blur of motion in the background as I stayed where I was on the curb, lost in my own thoughts. At some point Phil strolled out of the store looking pleased with himself. He hung out near the entrance, right in the middle of the police officers.

Balam, on the other hand, came out of the grocery store just as the ambulances arrived. The police had already been there for several minutes at that point; they'd quickly questioned me but, since I hadn't even been inside they didn't keep me long. I hung out just long enough for the Jaguar to join us and then decided I'd been there long enough. Jack turned to Balam and asked haltingly in Spanish. "What are you doing?"

I realized what the Gryphon meant to ask and corrected his conjugation. "What did you do, Balam?"

The Jaguar answered me cryptically. "Two people were killed before he left."

When Balam motioned behind me I looked toward where he indicated and saw that two stretchers were being loaded into some ambulances; the bodies were covered and the emergency workers didn't appear to be treating the situation as one where every second counted. Sighing, I lowered my head. I addressed the Jaguar in Spanish. "So two people DID die."

His response was calm. "Yes. I made sure they were the right ones."

Not really understanding what the Jaguar meant by that, I looked back up as the EMTs climbed up into the ambulances. Phil lingered near one of the bodies and, as it was raised up into the van he reached down and brushed his paw through the cloth draped over it almost like a raccoon fishing in the shallows; a small wisp of light came away with the gesture. The Raccoon glanced toward Balam, then Jack, then to me and winked before strolling off.

The Gryphon touched me lightly with a talon before pointing at the body Phil had touched. "That is the man-- Chase... that WAS Chase."

I looked immediately to Balam. "You said he was going to kill two people before leaving, but there's only one victim there. Who else did he kill besides that one?"

The Jaguar stared at me as if I'd asked why the sky was blue. In the end, he just pointed at the body. "Himself."

My mind went into neutral for several long seconds as I tried to make sense of what Balam had said. The Jaguar had told me that Chase was going to kill two people before leaving, so obviously that meant he was going to shoot two shoppers before running away but, as I stood there staring at the ambulances pulling out of the parking lot, I did have to admit that Chase-- or, his body at least, was indeed leaving, and if he'd committed suicide then that would have been a second kill.

Maybe it should have made me feel better knowing that only one innocent person had died and my mismanagement of the situation wasn't as bad as it could have been but I still couldn't stop feeling responsible. That guilt followed me home, during which time I wasn't much for talking. Jack tried a few times to help comfort me but nothing could really get me out of that funk. Would things have turned out differently if I'd known more about Spirits? Could I have actually managed to make a deal with Phil that would have left whoever that guy shot alive? I didn't know, and it really got to me.

It was almost ten at night before I finally broke out of my funk, and that was because of Balam. I was seated on my sofa staring blankly at the wall, mind still running in circles trying to figure out where I went wrong when the Jaguar slowly sat down next to me, leaned forward, and purposefully pushed down on the TV remote, using his power to literally Push the button to turn the TV on. He then meticulously hit the three numbers 0, 0, and then 2 to change the channel to evening news, which had just started.

"And, coming up next, the strange story of a failed grocery store robbery where the two dead were the robber himself... and a professional kidnapper. We'll hear about the harrowing experience firsthand from the young woman saved by an unlikely twist of fate, but first, Todd with your local weather forecast."

My gaze slowly meandered from the TV set over to Balam, who reclined on the sofa next to me, eyes facing my way. He waited patiently until I was looking right at him before he explained calmly "You need to learn more, Seer. I will help."

He was right, of course. Thankfully, the following day, he made good on his promise.