You figure you'll never find him. He's got a good head start, especially after Cameron called you back and insisted on talking about Gordon Black--again. Cameron is smart, and you realise that he was just delaying you so you didn't do anything you'd regret.
You call the number that Ethan gave you. Bickelmeir answers after a couple of rings. 'Sean?' He asks, there's a note of surprise in his voice.
'I'm not going to fancy this up Bickelmeir, you've been out at my house. My mom has seen you, and you're worrying her'she doesn't deserve that,' you growl.
There's silence for a moment, and then you hear an engine start, and pull away. 'Fuck, you'd better not be there now, because if you are'' He hangs up on you, and you have to blink in disbelief. "Fucker!" Your face flushes as you redial. It goes to voicemail, and the heat of Sean's temper explodes. 'THAT FUCKING MOTHER FUCKING'FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!'
Other students are looking at you, and you glimpse Lester Pozniak grinning. You close your eyes and take deep breaths, thinking of kittens and puppies as you get into your pickup. You try to calm down as you drive to Salopek, it won't look good if you turn up to work in a foul mood.
******
By the time you arrive at Salopek you've been able to push the anger down, and you're only left with a trace gnarly feeling in your stomach.
You see your old pickup and pull in next to it, and you take a moment to peer through the window. Sean's cleaned up; thrown out all the used soda cans, and burger wrappers that littered the interior. So much for keeping in character you mutter to yourself as you make your way to where the lockers are. You change into work clothes, and go to find your double. The distribution centre is a good place to start as Jack always has something for the pair of you to do.
Through the small window in the door you see a skinny teenager, which you've no trouble recognising as yourself. He's nodding at someone you can't quite see while slowly rocking back and forth nervously. You enter the key code to the building, and he turns briefly as the door buzzes to let you in. You round the corner and pale as you discover it's your dad. "Mitchell nice of you to join us," he says in an impatient tone looking at his watch.
"Uhh sorry sir, had to sort out a family crisis. It won't happen again," you reply.
He grunts an acknowledgement. "I've been telling Will that Andy and Jack are attending a seminar today after reviewing the break in a couple of weeks ago,' he pulls a sheet of paper from his clipboard. 'Andy left this list of tasks for the both of you, make sure you get it done.'
You take the list and study it for a moment. "No problem sir," you reply.
Sean's eyes follow your dad as he leaves, when he's out of sight he turns and asks about Bickelmeir. You tell him you've spoken with him but leave out the fact that you suspect he was outside the house at the time. He doesn't seem entirely satisfied, so you change the subject to the next spell. He's not happy about that either.
You both work through the list of tasks, it doesn't take long. While Sean is finishing off you get the Libra from your locker. Returning to the distribution centre you find a quiet spot, and sit cross legged. As you flip through the Libra the old Salopek booklet falls out'Sean must have tucked it in there yesterday. You look at the new spell and compare it with the previous one. You have to read it several times, it's all very vague and open to interpretation, but finally you convince yourself that there might be a way to skip the need for a living person.
Sean joins you picking up the booklet and flips through it. 'Do the ingredients in the book match with what's in here?' He asks, and you nod. 'That's weird," he says shaking his head. "Have you found out anything about that new spell?'
'Yeah, I think I've figured out a way around the whole living human thing,' you reply.
Sean's face brightens. 'How? I thought it was quite explicit.'
You tap your nose. 'I'll tell you when we get back to the clubhouse; I wanna check something first,' you say with a grin.
******
At the clubhouse you pick up Danny's mask planting it on the golem. Danny reappears with a shocked expression almost falling off the table.
'So tell me about this idea you have,' Sean asks cautiously eyeing the Danny-golem.
You sigh and hook your thumb, 'Move it Danny.' His eyebrows flick, and he jumps off the table. You open the Libra, and flip between the two spells. 'Look at this,' you say to Sean who taps at the book where it mentions the living human. 'Yeah, look at how much dirt is needed for a golem; about four hundred pounds. The new spell only needs a fraction of that.'
'Just forty pounds, with the remainder made up by a person?'
'Exactly.'
'OK, so what are you getting at?'
You beckon Danny over, and get Sean's pocket knife. 'Hold out your hand,' you tell him. You grasp his thumb tightly and draw the blade across its top.
He jerks his hand free. 'Yow! Why did you do that? It really hurts,' he cries with a miserable look on his face.
'I'm sorry Danny.' You take his hand and show Sean, 'See he's bleeding, just like a real person.'
The Danny-golem frowns. 'Fucker,' he mumbles as blood drips on the floor.
'OK, open up Danny,' you say mimicking a goldfish. The golems mouth drops open, and you stick his thumb in. 'And close,' you smile. His mouth snaps close, and he starts to suck on his thumb.
'Yeah, he's not quite real though,' Sean adds pointing at the blood spots on the floor; they're rapidly disappearing.
'Close enough,' you shrug. Danny grins at you with his thumb still in his mouth.
'So he's your substitute?'
'Yeah, you got a better idea?' You reply.
'Not really, but are you sure you want to try it anyway? I don't trust the book, feels like its playing with us; like we're on a hook and its slowly reeling us in.'
You dismiss his concerns, and tap at the book. 'Need some of your hair as well,' you say. Sean pulls a few hairs from his scalp and lays them on the table, and you're not surprised when you see them disappear. 'Get the mask off, we'll need some of your real hair.' He nods and sits in a chair removing your mask, Danny watches him closely as he slumps forward and returns to his original form.
You start to copy out the required sigil on some paper, it's about ten minutes before you hear Sean coming around. 'Holy mother of'' you hear Sean yell. You turn and see Danny is right in Sean's face. Sean pushes the golem away. 'Get the fuck out of my face you idiot.'
You put the traced sigil on the table. 'Danny, come and lay on the table,' you say patting its surface. The golem lopes over and jumps on the table.
'You sure you want to do this?' Sean asks.
You shrug. 'Yeah. Why not?'
Reluctantly Sean scatters grave dirt over the golem along with the other ingredients. Danny's head pops up, 'Is this going to hurt?' he asks, but you ignore him. Sean pulls some hairs from his head and drops them onto Danny's chest. Danny's head pops up again, 'You know what you're doing right?' You just nod pushing his head down.
Sean joins you, and you strike a match and flick it onto the mound of dirt; there's a flash of white light and the dirt explodes into a cloud which covers the Danny-golem in a fine coating.
The creature that lays on the table lets out a gasp. 'Phuuuuh!' A cloud of white ash escapes its lungs and drifts weightlessly in the air above its head. It lets out a low groan, it's head turns to look at you; its ashen white'its bright blue eyes stare at you unblinking.
You feel Sean grab your arm pushing you behind him. 'What the fuck is it?' he hisses over his shoulder.
'How the fuck should I know,' you mutter. The creature rolls off the table dropping to its feet. It's jaw drops open and it groans something. It holds out a hand and stumbles towards you.
'Fuck Will I told you that book was bad news, it's made a zombie or something. Shit, look it's still burning,' Sean says pointing at the creature.
'What?' It says looking down at its smouldering vest. 'Fuck!' It yells and frantically pats the flame out. It looks between you and Sean and grins. 'I guess it didn't work,' the Danny-golem smirks.
Sean lunges for Danny's throat and bears down on him. 'Don't you EVER try any pranks like that again, because if you do I will quite happily rip you apart!'
'It was just a bit of fun, chill out big guy,' he stammers. Sean growls something and pushes him away.
'Just clear up this shit Danny,' you tell the golem. He gives you a salute and starts to clean up. Sean has his back to you, but even so you can see it shook him up a bit. When the mobile in your pocket rings he turns to look at you, he still looks pale.
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