Four Psychos

Chapter 4

“I’ve told you all this countless times, but this is obviously the first time you’ve heard me,” I decide to inform them at the end of my long monologue.

After recapping my walk down memory lane, telling them how I watched them, when I watched them, how I enjoyed it…I sound like a total crazy girl in the bushes with binoculars and a rabbit. Not that furry-friend kind of rabbit.

I’d like to be able to use that battery-operated-boyfriend I’ve only seen them use on other women. I bet it would be awesome.

But, fortunately, they seem to not give a damn about the creepy aspect.

“If you can’t remember anything, then how do you even know English?” Three asks me skeptically.

Shit. I need to start calling them by their actual names.

“I just know things. They’re not like memories. There’s no recalling a certain thing like that. It’s just like bam; the information is there like it’s been there all along, but I didn’t know I knew it. Sort of like having an emotion and knowing what it is, without having a single memory of when you experienced it before. Things like that.”

They exchange a look.

“She could be another piece of the puzzle,” One says thoughtfully.

“Or she could be here to sabotage us,” Three, the prick, volleys.

“If she was here to sabotage us, she wouldn’t have saved my life,” One, my third favorite, reminds him.

Three has no retort to that.

Damn it. No more numbers.

“You never told us who was who. Just Two and Four. That story was hard to follow with all the numbers,” Jude says, smirking a little.

I told them who One was; they just weren’t paying attention when I referred to him, obviously.

“Are you in my head?” I ask him, since he sort of echoed my thoughts just now.

He frowns. “No.” Then he looks at them.

Then they all look at me.

“What?” I prompt.

“Why would you ask that?” Jude asks me.

“Because I was thinking I needed to start thinking about you with your names instead of your numbers. And you asked that.”

He bristles.

“Anyway, Two’s—I mean, Ezekiel’s room is where I usually stay at night, but I’ll start keeping watch in the hallway instead. Now that you can hear me, I’ll wake you up if I hear anything.”

Now I feel like I can finally do something for them. Protect them even.

“Who’s One?” Gage asks.

“You are,” I say without hesitation, causing his smile to grow as they all give Kai a look.

“I’m Three?” Kai asks dryly.

“The selfish one, yes,” I agree, even give him a little nod.

His eyes narrow, but I ignore him as I go on. “I’d ask you why you all need to share a woman when you have needs to sate, but I don’t really want to question my good luck. As soon as I’m whole, I’ll have you and see if it’s worth all the hype.”

Jude laughs quietly, his eyes raking over me.

“Any particular reason why you’re wearing that? Think it might be what you were wearing when this happened?” Kai asks me, gesturing to my skimpy little lingerie.

It’s been so long since someone could see me, that I forgot they could see what I’m also wearing. Or barely wearing.

“That’s actually one neat thing I learned early on. When I think of something I want to wear, it seems to just be there.”

I imagine a long, elegant silver gown, and it appears, making me look a little classier, if I do say so myself.

Kai takes a step back, and Jude takes a step closer, his eyes hungrily raking over me.

“It’s been my one constant source of entertainment, because I can do it all day and never get tired. I usually dress in something very sexy, just in case my dreams came true of being whole. I wanted to be ready. You know.”

I shrug a shoulder, and Ezekiel lets his eyes wander over me.

I remember that time he bought a girl a red lace slip, and I imagine it. The second it appears, he grips the chair he’s in hard enough to cause it to whine.

That’s certainly a confidence booster.

Jude is more into leather, so I imagine a saucy little leather underwear set that has some straps attached to the lace-trimmed thigh-highs I’m suddenly in.

He instantly grabs for me, cursing in frustration when his hand swipes right through me, and those tingles just tease me all over again.

“Something less alluring would be appreciated right now. If we get worked up, you’ll have to watch us with yet another girl tonight before we even finish this conversation,” Kai tells me flatly.

“I’m okay with watching,” I say with a shrug. “Once you get over the indecency of it, it’s actually pretty hot. Though I admit I won’t be okay with watching once I’m able to be a participant.”

Jude groans. “We have to figure out a way to make her whole.”

“Just because you want to fuck her that doesn’t mean we need to be focusing on her right now. That’s probably what they want,” Kai growls.

“She has nothing to do with them. Whatever she is, it’s linked to our own mystery of who we are. Something is going on, and you know it. Everyone knows it.”

“I don’t know it,” I decide to point out as a pair of fla

“You see the souls but they don’t see you?” Kai interrupts, sounding more curious than hostile for a second.

“Yes. It’s why I have no idea what I am. Clearly I’m not the same as them. And I know you go to this other place, but I have no idea where it is. I just hop a ride when you do your disappearing thing.”

“You can trail our siphons?” Jude asks, interested.

“You call it a siphon? Then yeah; I can trail that. I just have to be close enough when you do it.”

He moves toward me. “Then hold on. We can just ask someone who might know what’s going on.”

My fingers go to his body without hesitation, and Kai snaps at him not to do it just as we disappear.

The wind whirs in my ears much louder than before, and we appear in the back of an alleyway.

“We’re seeing your pawn shop friend, aren’t we?” I ask him.

He doesn’t even bother asking me how I know that.

“Yes,” is his only reply as the other three join us.

Kai stalks forward. “Until we figure out what’s going on, we can’t risk our very important friends by exposing them to a possible threat.”

Jude ignores him, leading the way, and Ezekiel trails me as we walk out of the alley.

I move through the wall of the pawn shop, causing Ezekiel to curse. “She’s going to draw attention. It’s not late enough for this,” he hisses.

Only a few people are on the street. I forgot I could be seen.

They, fortunately, seem too inebriated to notice an apparition passing through walls.

Jude doesn’t say a word, just walks to the back counter where the familiar older man with a broad grin greets him.

“Need another pint of the good stuff?” Harold asks, lifting a bottle of the clear liquid they buy a lot of from here.

Apparently it’s the only way they can get drunk.

“I’ll take two of those and some quick answers about what she might be. We’ll pay good,” Jude tells him.

Harold immediately looks around like he’s searching for something. His eyes pass right by me without so much as a second glance.

“Who?” he asks.

My heart stutters. Have I gone invisible again?