The Missing Bride: a cellphone novel by Alysse Aallyn

Chapter 16 – Dragon Energy

I thrilled to this new
Experience. “Subway’s fine with me,” I said.
“I like to be anonymous.”
“I know the feeling,” said Derek.
“Escaping their surveillance.”
Had Mirabel felt that?
We clutched straps and enjoyed
Studiously ignoring people
Studiously ignoring us.
“So, what’s the deal with that guy?”

Hissed Derek. We had to lean together to
Conspire and I liked that. I
Was dazzled by his dragon energy; just what
We apprentice sorcereens
Require. “You acted like
He murdered her!”
See! He’s psychic too!
He read my face and
Saw the fear. “Don’t worry,”
Said Derek. “He couldn’t tell.

His kind’s just too self-involved. His world is him
And whoever he’s picked
To be his mirror. That guy
Needs too damn much
Gender-affirming care.”
How did snotty Derek
Get to be so well-matured?

“He was with me all the time –“
I excused him – “Unless
They met by night. He
Sneaked out once, I know it.”
“Then he is a suspect,” Derek mused.
“That’s what police will think. They always start
With the fiancé.
Nothing turns folks murderous
Like the prospect of getting
Hitched.

What I want to know is
If he hired a girl
To impersonate your sister.
That would be the perfect crime –
Disguise time of death,
Confuse crime scene, erase
The body. I study
Forensics at the College of
John Jay.” Wow. I’m
Impressed, aren’t you?

We exited the car and rode upstairs.
“I feel that was really Mirabel,”
I told him haltingly,
“Sending coded messages. If only I could
Read them.” In my mind she swelled
To Goddess shape, swirled
Through the air a demi-
Sorcereen.

Speak to me, Mirabel.
Speak to me.
“We’ll check her friends,” said Derek.
Did Mirabel have friends?
That didn’t sound like her –
I must have looked like a stopped clock
As he dragged me out the double doors.

“We change trains.”
More waiting on dangerous platforms –
Hovered over electric holes.
Had I always been this scareable?
Derek was so
Reassuring. Had Mirabel ever felt this impressed
By Verne? I think she went by title,
Cash in hand, rather than cultivate
Her gut instinct.

But climbing into trains is
A skill I didn’t have.
We could sit this time. I mused aloud
“He wouldn’t let me see his laptop
When I tried to track her phone.”
“We should get our hands on that,”
Suggested Derek but I was
Free-associating.

“I had the most awful dream.”
“You believe in dreams?” I almost hit him.
Our first quarrel!
But school prepared me well,
Arguing my point.
“People know things subconsciously before
They know them consciously.”

“OK. Please Explicate this dream.”
“A ruined house – Downtown Abbey on the skids.
Sad and… threatening with lots of
Broken stuff.”
“What prompted that? Was it
Something that he said?”

“He told me Mirabel wouldn’t live there –
Didn’t like it.” “Intriguing,”
Murmured Derek. “Maybe the secret lies in
England. Let’s research
this guy when we get home.”