Hunted

end up in some way. Sometimes it was something obvious, like cheating or not helping with the housework. Other times it was more subtle. Like not saying thank you enough. Being under appreciated by a spouse was at the root of a lot of divorces.
Not that he was any kind of relationship expert. There weren’t many women who would get the hots for a morbidly obese guy who dressed like a clown and had supernatural powers. And a dark past that kept trying to pull him back into it.
“Changed how?” Hilario said.
“We used to be so happy,” Larry said, a far away look in his eyes.
“Yeah, that’s usually how it starts,” Hilario said, “Why don’t you skip ahead to where it went wrong?”
Larry hung his head. If he’d had blood in his veins, his cheeks probably would have been red.
“She found out I was…I was punching some dough on the side,” he said.
“You were having an affair?”
His head came up. “No, no, no, I would never do that,” he said, “I was making pizza for someone else.” He covered his face with his hands. “In someone else’s kitchen! Oh, my sweet Rachel! How could I have done that to you!”
The ghost sobbed and wailed. He slapped his face over and over, shouting Stupid, stupid, stupid with each slap.
Hilario sighed. And he thought he had issues with food.
The Blackwater Avenue exit was coming up.
Of course! Some part of his brain had been thinking. He’d just take Larry to the Sapphire Witch. She’d take care of this.
Some way or another.
He flipped on the turn signal and eased the van down the exit ramp. The van’s brakes groaned but the vehicle slowed. Ted had switched out the van’s original brakes for heavy duty disc brakes. Something Hilario was eternally grateful for.
“Where are we going?” Larry said.
“To see a friend of mine,” Hilario said, “She might be able to help you.”
Though friend was a bit of a stretch. The Sapphire Witch was more of an acquaintance who might or might not kill him someday. His prescient vision was pretty spotty. Once in a while it worked, but it really wasn’t one of his skills. Though he had a strong image of the Sapphire Witch wielding a wicked looking ax at someone that looked a lot like him.
As long as he was polite, things should be okay. Right?

4
The Sapphire Witch lived in an abandoned tenement building that overlooked the Black River. The reason the building was abandoned was because the Sapphire Witch had driven everyone else out of it. Including the owners.
The owners had been blithering idiots to build on that spot anyway.
The Black River got its name from the ancient black basalt rocks that lined its banks and its bed. The river ran through the Brokken Valley, linking the various little towns along it until it finally came to the city and emptied its dark waters into Korbahn bay and the ocean. The source of its waters came from the glaciers that ground down the sides of the Seven Sisters mountains. Which themselves were all that remained of crater of an ancient volcano.
At least, that’s what the normal world thought.
The truth was another tale from the unseen world. One that Hilario preferred not to think about.
So much to atone for…
The five story tenement was built in a gothic style that should have been ridiculous, set as it was among glass sided modern condos. But instead it looked like a rotten tooth set among the bland smile of the normal world.
This particular tenement sat on one of the thin spots between the normal world and the unseen world. How normals had managed to build it there, he had no idea. Most often, normal humans unconsciously avoided the places where the barrriers between the normal world and the unseen world were thin. Undeveloped lots in cities. Patches of perfectly good farmland that never got tilled. Roads that curved around places for no good reason.
Those were the spots people avoided. Even if they didn’t know why.
He suspected the tenement got built with a little help from the unseen world. Or perhaps the thin spot developed later. Or was created there.
It was definitely adjacent to the dark places of the unseen world. A blister on the normal world’s skin. Waiting to pop.
And the Sapphire Witch sat at the top of it. Riding an unseen wave. Surfing the darkness.
Did he really want to go see her?
He glanced over at Larry. The man’s eyes were bugging out again.
“Why-a are-a we-a here-a?” Larry said.
Hilario clenched his fingers on the steering wheel. Trying to slap a ghost would be stupid. Even though Hilario did have the means to affect spirits. It wouldn’t be very nice.
Old habits were hard to break. He was putting a lot of effort into breaking them.
“Lose the accent, okay, Larry?” He said, “And this is where my, um, friend lives. She can help you find closure. Help you move on.”
Larry gave him a bewildered look. “Move on? To where? Tell me, friend Hilario, you could see those…things. You know what they are. You can see ghosts. And even before I was murdered, I knew there was a touch of something…otherworldly about you. Friend, Hilario, please tell me, is there a heaven?”
That sort of question really sucked.
Hilario thought of the dark places he had been. And some of the terrible things he’d done. Would he ever get to go to the good places? The places of light? He’d heard legends of what was there. But his bosses in the coven wouldn’t tell him anything.
Just keep doing what you’re doing, Hilario. You might get there someday.
“I