I awakened the next morning with the sun beaming down on me from the window to my right. I instantly covered my eyes with an arm and did my best to roll away in order to avoid the unwanted illumination. It took me no more than a second to realize that I was alone on the large bed.
“Dinah?” I spoke up, and my voice was cut short by a long yawn. I felt like I had slept an entire day, and when I turned and looked at the digital clock that my gracious hostess had sitting next to her lamp, I saw that it was after eleven in the morning. Had I truly been out that long…?
I threw the covers back and climbed off the large bed. I realized I had probably been able to sleep as long as I had due to the fact that the mattress was indeed so damn comfortable. I suppose the fact that I wasn’t used to such luxury helped a bit too, but I was far more concerned about the whereabouts of the beautiful brunette who had given me a night I would never forget.
I reached down and picked up my pajama pants so I could pull them on over my nakedness. As I did so, I called out, “Dinah? Are you all right?”
“I’m out here, Marcus!”
I made my way down the hallway and espied the beautiful brunette seated at her cluttered dining room table. She had a mug of what I assumed to be coffee in one hand and a few stacks of paper sitting directly in front of her. She also had a laptop sitting on the table and looked to be going back and forth between it and the papers.
The wonderful woman had a cerise-colored robe on that had black trim around its outer edges. The material looked to be some kind of satin, and when the sun from the glass wall behind her hit it just right, it was practically blinding. Either that, or maybe it was still too early for me.
“Good morning,” Dinah greeted me with a heartwarming smile that only she was capable of flashing. “I didn’t have the heart to wake you since I figured this was the first decent night’s rest you’ve had in a while. I don’t mean to brag, but I’m sure my bed was a lot more comfortable than your truck!”
“I’d be bragging more about the mind-blowing sex you knocked me out with,” I boosted the mature woman’s ego. I let out another yawn as I informed her, “I think I used muscles last night I haven’t stretched in years!”
Dinah laughed at my statement and then stood up so she could begin making her way toward her kitchen area. “I was going to cook you up some sausage and eggs earlier, but I decided it would be better to wait since I didn’t want them to get cold.” She then glanced over a shoulder at me and flashed me a mischievous grin as she joshed, “I figured if you complained about me not having it ready for you, I’d use the sex as an excuse to calm you down!” She then winked at me.
“I could never be upset with you, Dinah!” I told her. It was the simple truth since any man would be lucky to be standing in her apartment.
“You’d do well to remember that!” The sultry cougar laughed as she ascended the steps and made her way toward her refrigerator. “As it is, you’ll certainly need some breakfast now, so how does that sausage and eggs sound? Would you like that, or something else?”
“You don’t have to cook for me if you don’t want to, Dinah,” I informed my gracious hostess. I couldn’t take my eyes off her and the way her robe only came down to about halfway down her thighs. I wasn’t sure if it was humanly possible, but I think she may have looked even better now than she had the day before. Like a fine wine, she was getting better with age…and she was doing so right before my very eyes.
“Well, I want to cook for you, Marcus. So, you just tell me what to whip up, and I’ll do just that!”
“Sausage and eggs sound great,” I told her as I walked over to the table and started looking over some of the work she had out. I didn’t want to come off as nosy, but I couldn’t help but ask, “What is all of this?”
“Do you promise not to call me crazy?” the beautiful brunette asked as she put some butter in the frying pan she was about to use.
“I think you know me well enough by now to already have that answer,” I firmly responded since I would never insult the wonderful woman.
As she reached for the eggs, Dinah informed me, “That’s all the information I have about every documented legit paranormal or supernatural occurrence in the last thirty years.”
My eyes became wide as I glanced at one printout that looked to be an old-timey photograph of three children. There were two girls and a boy. The youngest girl looked to be about three, and the one standing next to her was a little taller and was probably four or five. The boy stood off to the left of the taller girl, and he was maybe pushing seven. They were all dressed in formal attire, and the youngest girl had a bow in her hair. The photograph was in a sepia tone, so I could only guess as to what colors certain things had actually been, but I don’t think any of that mattered. I think the reason Dinah had a copy of the freaky photo was due to the fact that all of the children’s eyes were completely black.
“I hope I’m not creeping you out,” the wonderful woman went on as she cracked an egg on the side of the pan and released its contents into the skillet, “But after the discussion we had last night, I wanted to dig out some of the information I had so I could show it to you. Again, I’m sure this isn’t your idea of a ‘second date,’ but I was hoping you would hear me out and look through some of it with me.”
“Of course I will, Dinah,” I told the beautiful brunette as I grabbed one of the papers off her table and beheld another disturbing copy of a photograph of a man in one of those twisted plague doctor masks. No matter how many times I saw those things, they always managed to give me the willies. “We both went through some pretty harrowing experiences – yours being far worse than mine, in my opinion – and if we can put our heads together and discover anything that might be beneficial…”
“Is it any wonder I fell for you so quickly?” The sultry cougar cut me off before grabbing a spatula and asking, “How would you like your eggs?”
“Surprise me.” When I glanced over, I could see Dinah smiling as she fetched the sausage. I let her cook my meal in peace as I sifted through one of the stacks of papers she had collected over the years. The woman was obviously determined to prove a point to all the naysayers.
After a stint of silence, Dinah suddenly spoke up, “Marcus?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re really something, you know that?”
Upon hearing the beautiful woman give me such a compliment, I set down the paper I had been looking at and made my way toward where she cooked my breakfast in the kitchen. Since she was facing the stove, I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her so my hands would be on her trim tummy. I then set my chin down on her right shoulder and pulled her close as I jested, “I must be to reel in a catch like you!” I then kissed the nape of her neck.
Dinah reached up and ran a hand over my face while letting out a sensual sigh. She then turned to face me and gave me a quick kiss. As much as I looked forward to the breakfast she was whipping up for me, I would’ve preferred her kisses over anything else. I was certainly hoping to receive more of them, but as she held my cheeks and looked into my eyes, the smiling cougar caught me off guard by saying, “Lovely somniloquy you recited last night, by the way.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s when you talk in your sle…”
“No, I know what it is,” I mumbled without trying to come off as an arrogant smart aleck, “I just wasn’t sure what you meant.”
“Tell me more about this Cassie,” she responded as she turned back to the stove to make sure none of my food was burning. “You mentioned her briefly yesterday, but you didn’t go into greater detail. I’d like to know a little more about her…especially since you were going on and on about her in your sleep.”
I didn’t think Dinah was upset, but I wanted to be honest nonetheless. “She was the last woman I was intimate with before you. She’s a friend who goes way back to my school days, and I care about her still. I’m sorry if that’s weird.”
Dinah shook her head without turning to face me. She continued to cook my breakfast as she responded, “I don’t think that’s weird…I think it’s sweet. A lot of guys talk a lot of crap about their exes, but you seem to be quite respectful of what you had with her. You weren’t kidding about that list of women you still care for, huh?”
“No, ma’am. These women have helped make me into the man I am today, and I could never talk crap about them even if someone wanted me to.”
“I can certainly admire that,” Dinah said as she suddenly turned around and met my eyes. “I don’t mean to pry or anything, but do you happen to have any pictures of any of these women?”
I was a little hesitant at first, but then I held up a finger as if to tell my gracious hostess to wait a second. I made my way to the guest room where I had stored some of my belongings and pulled out a strip of black and white photos from a mall photo booth. I gazed at the four photos and smiled before walking back through the hallway and into the main area of Dinah’s posh apartment. As I made my way up the steps to where she stood in the kitchen, I held up the strip but didn’t hand it to her right away when she reached for it.
The sultry cougar frowned as her robe didn’t leave much to the imagination. Her massive breasts and the cleavage they created were barely covered as she asked, “Are you teasing me since these girls are more than likely prettier than me?”
I held up a finger again, but this time, I did so in a lecturing manner as I told the busty brunette, “First of all, I think all of you are goddess-level when it comes to the beauty department, so don’t you ever say anything like that again, okay?”
Dinah obviously approved of my words as she gave me a satisfied smile. She then attempted to reach for the photos again.
Once more, I pulled the strip away before telling my newest friend, “Now, don’t be offended by anything you see in these pictures, okay?” Since the photos were certainly of a more “adult” nature, I didn’t want Dinah becoming offended. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen certain things she was about to lay eyes on, but I just wanted her to be warned. I knew she could handle what she was about to view as I finally handed them over.
The second the photo strip ended up in Dinah’s right hand, her left went to her mouth as she took a step back. Her fingers weren’t enough to cover the smile that had appeared on her face, and she stared in awe as she checked out the spicy snapshots. “Marcus! My goodness!”
I scratched the back of my head as I watched the frolicsome female study the naughty pics Cassie and I had taken during happier times for us. I wondered what was going through the sultry cougar’s mind since my dick was out for two out of four of the pics.
“My, she is a pretty girl, Marcus!” Dinah complimented my old friend. She then nodded a few times as her face straightened out a bit while commenting, “She has a nice rack on her too…and her cheeks look quite lively!”
Since I knew the pics well, I knew my gracious hostess was referring to Cassie’s lower cheeks and not those on her face. The last photo on the strip was a shot of my hard-on being thumped against my old friend’s hot and bare ass. I’m pretty sure my cheeks were starting to redden.
With a sly smile, Dinah started to make her way over to her refrigerator and grabbed a magnet. “I think we should put this up so we can admire this excellent photography every time we open this door! Wouldn’t you agree, Marcus?”
I made my way over to where the buxom beauty stood and reached for my strip of pictures. “Actually, Dinah, if you don’t mind, I would rather keep them with my things. I don’t want to chance losing them…”
“You wouldn’t lose them if they’re right here,” Dinah told me, but could see that I was serious about wanting them back. She gave me a wry smile while handing the strip back and commenting, “Well, maybe I can talk you into making a few similar pics with me sometime, huh?”
“I would like that,” I told her as the photo strip was returned to my protective grasp.
The sultry cougar continued to just smile at me before noticing that my eggs were starting to burn. “Oh, shit!” She hurried over to them and turned the stove off. “Shit! Sorry about that, Marcus!”
I chuckled and told her not to worry about it. “You could burn everything you cook for me and it would still be better than anything I’ve eaten in the last year!”
Dinah still felt bad about forgetting my breakfast, and she even offered to scrape the eggs out of the pan and start fresh with some new ones. I again told her not to go to the trouble, but she persisted in making sure I had a delectable meal.
Setting down the strip of photos on the opposite counter, I walked up behind Dinah and placed my arms around her again. I could hear the sexy brunette asking me what I was doing with a sensuous chuckle, and when I reached for the sides of her robe and opened it enough to fully reveal her enormous titties, she instantly set the skillet down and let out a receptive moan while letting her head fall back on my right shoulder. I then placed my hands on her overabundant breasts and let them overflow from my grasp.
“Oooh,” the torrid cougar purred as I rolled the bosoms around in my virile hold. I massaged the luscious lumps and felt her teats hardening against my palms. I’m sure she felt the reaction she was getting out of me as something down below began to stiffen and press into her ass.
“Fuck,” I wheezed as I felt her hands come back and begin moving up and down my sides. I continued to juggle her jubblies as her fingers caressed my flesh before going down into my pants. It wasn’t easy for her, but from her angle, the voluptuous vixen tried to lower my PJs as much as she could.
“Fuck it!” Dinah’s shrill call suddenly rang out as she whipped around and dropped down before me with the speed of a lightning bolt. As she descended, so did my pants. My dick hastily bounded out and pointed directly at her.
I watched in delight as the busty brunette took my stiffened cock in her right hand and stroked it a few times while reaching down with her free hand and placing it beneath the bottom of her short robe so she could begin fingering herself. She then spat on my rigid penis in order to rile me up before shoving it down her gullet. “Fuuuck yeah…”
Dinah fed on my pole of sausage as I leaned back against the counter and felt supreme pleasure pulsating throughout my entire body. The sensations that fantastic female made me feel were like reaching beyond the sky…if such a thing can even be expressed in words. It didn’t hurt that the wonderful woman seemed impelled to give me the best blowjob any man’s ever had the honor of receiving as her head thundered back and forth until coming to a stop when her lips were right up against my body. Her eyes closed as she gurgled due to my length being crammed down her throat.
I gazed down at the lovely brunette and couldn’t believe that fate had allowed me to chance upon such a spectacular female. I realized I had fallen for her quite quickly, and I knew part of the reason was due to the fact that not just anybody would offer an outsider such as myself the same amount of kindness she had. She had literally taken a perfect stranger under her roof and given me everything I could ever ask for…including the feeling of being loved again.
My mind went back to the very reason I had up and left Cassie. I had received an unmarked letter in the mail threatening her life from a faceless entity. I had a pretty decent idea that my two years spent with the enigmatic operatives were partly to blame, but that didn’t get me any closer to the actual sender. While I wasn’t a hundred percent certain on whether or not my blackmailer had been good on his or her word, I had a feeling deep in my gut that my amber-eyed friend was indeed still alive. I can’t explain why, but I knew that Cassandra was alive and kicking even though I hadn’t seen her in almost two years…probably with more anger toward me than she ever had before for walking out on her.
It suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks that I was doing the same thing to Dinah.
A shiver ran down my spine as I reached down and pulled my elongated cock out of the sultry cougar’s mouth. As she watched on in confusion, I bent down and pulled my pajama pants back up.
“What is it?” Dinah asked in a bewildered tone. “I was enjoying that…weren’t you?”
“Dinah…I have to go.”
“What are you talking about?” the busty brunette asked as she watched me scamper about like a cornered mouse. “What do you mean you have to go?”
“I…I can’t be here.”
Dinah looked more befuddled than ever.
I began making my way through the large apartment and down the hallway leading to the guest room. I started gathering my things as my gracious hostess appeared right behind me. I couldn’t help but tremble when I turned to face her and noticed that her robe had fallen completely open. She looked fucking fantastic…
“What the hell’s going on, Marcus? If you didn’t want your dick sucked, all you had to do was say so.” The beautiful woman grabbed the edges of her robe in order to pull it closed since she thought she was offending me.
“It’s not that, Dinah…it’s absolutely not that!”
“Then why are you acting this way all of a sudden? Why are you so freaked out? Was it something I did?”
“Not at all. It’s something…it’s something I did.”
Dinah stepped forward to where I knelt on her floor in front of my things. She squatted down and didn’t bother holding her robe closed. All of her goodies were hanging out as she placed a hand on one of my shoulders and looked directly into my eyes. “Marcus, I know we talked about a lot of heavy-duty shit last night, and if you felt that I forced you to jump in the sack with me too soon…”
“Dinah,” I cut the wonderful woman short, “Everything that happened yesterday was perfect. Every minute I’ve spent with you since then has been equally perfect. I would love nothing more than to stay with you for as long as you would allow…”
“So why don’t you?” Dinah took her turn at interrupting me.
“I can’t…” I told her as I lowered my eyes. “I can’t risk putting you in danger.”
“What kind of danger?” the beautiful brunette inquired in a calming tone. “How could your being here put me in any kind of danger?”
I finally lifted my orbs to hers once more as I responded, “Cassie’s life was threatened when I was with her. Someone coerced me into leaving her. He or she basically warned me that as long as I remained with her, her life was in danger. The only reason I left her was to make sure she was spared.”
Dinah’s expression never changed as she appeared to believe my words. She remained fixated on my spheres and queried, “Do you know if your leaving her actually kept her safe?”
I shook my head. Even though I believed that my sudden disappearance had protected her, I didn’t have concrete proof since I never risked going anywhere near her home.
“So how do you know if what you did was right?”
I stared deeply into the woman’s soul as I realized she had quite a way with words. She had a knack for making me stand back from any given situation and viewing it from a different perspective. “Huh?”
“Do you know if Cassie’s still alive?”
“With every fiber of my being, I believe so.”
“Can you be sure that if you had remained with her, something in fact would’ve befallen her?”
I grimly nodded.
“Would you not have encountered the problem head-on and prevented it from harming her?”
“Of course!” I called out since I was somewhat offended by the fact that anyone could think I wouldn’t protect someone I loved. “Had it been in my power to do so…”
Dinah placed her smooth hands on my cheeks to calm me down as she continued to gaze directly into my eyes. Her voice was relaxing as she said, “I’ve known you for a very short time, Marcus Veovin, but I can see that you’re a man who’s not about to let anything unfavorable befall someone you care about. Had you stayed with Cassie, you would’ve done everything you could to keep her safe, and if you’re trying to convince me that you can’t be here with me right now because you’d be putting me in some kind of jeopardy by doing so…well, to that I say, ‘bring it on.’”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing directly from the wonderful woman’s lips.
“I’m sure Cassie would’ve felt the same way,” Dinah went on. “I’m willing to take the risk to have a marvelous man like you around.” She flashed me a wry smile. “You have to stop living in fear, Marcus.”
“Dinah, you can’t mean that. It was a mistake for me to jeopardize you…”
“I think I can take care of myself, stud,” the busty beauty told me before planting a loving kiss on my lips. After she pulled away, she continued to give me a sly grin as she caught me completely off guard by asking, “Have you ever heard of ‘the Rangers…?’”
*
Dinah and I spent hours going through the vast number of documents and notebooks the woman had somehow managed to compile over the last several years of her life. She had so much raw data that it looked like it would’ve taken a hundred years to collect, but she was only forty-one…and she had only been researching all of the odd occurrences since what happened to her back in that abandoned academy.
I was rifling through stacks of papers and reading about all sorts of different paranormal encounters and other supernatural incidents. I wasn’t sure how, but Dinah had put together a compilation of some of the most credible and believable hauntings to take place throughout all corners of the world. She had some of the most compelling evidence I had ever seen, and had I not witnessed the specter of the shadow figure just over ten years prior, I would’ve been converted into a believer based solely on seeing the brunette’s collection of information.
“How did you ever find the time to put all of this together, Dinah?”
My gracious hostess let out a laugh and answered, “Well, when it becomes a life obsession the way it has for me…”
“But you have a job directing at the theatre!” I exclaimed even though I didn’t have to. It wasn’t like the busty brunette didn’t already know what she did for a living.
Dinah chuckled before becoming serious and informing me, “I’ve made it my life’s work to document all of these odd occurrences, Marcus. I know this is going to sound erratically remarkable, but over the last several years, something very peculiar has been going on in our world. I don’t know how to say this in a way that makes practical sense, but the ‘barriers’ between our world and that of the spiritual one have been wearing thin. Apparitions are starting to come through…and are making themselves known to us humans through whatever means we’re able to perceive them. Sometimes we see them, sometimes we hear them, and other times we…” The knowledgeable woman shuddered for a moment before finally finishing, “Sometimes we feel them.”
I’m sure the expression on my face made it appear that I didn’t believe the beautiful brunette, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact of the matter was that since I had seen one of these apparitions she spoke of with my very eyes, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she knew what she was talking about. I also knew that the harrowing experience she had lived through was even more terrifying than what I had witnessed. What I couldn’t wrap my head around was the way she explained matters.
Dinah glanced up at me from where she sat at her cluttered kitchen table. I stood next to her scanning through a document I had briefly seen earlier about entities known as “black-eyed children.” She interrupted my reading by saying, “The world is going through a lot of changes currently, Marcus. I honestly believe that there are hundreds – possibly thousands – of people experiencing encounters similar to those that you and I have lived through, but they’re turning a blind eye to the events because they’re scared of what others will say about them. They don’t want to be outed in public and labeled as ‘crazy’ because they’ve seen or been touched by a ‘ghost.’ They keep things to themselves and try to lead as normal of a life as possible after undergoing such horrifying ordeals.”
“If you feel that so many people are hiding from these experiences,” I spoke up as the buxom brunette glanced across the mountains of papers she had amassed, “Then how do you explain all of this?” I motioned toward the abundance of documents as I asked my question.
My beautiful hostess glanced at me and gave me a simple smile without showing her teeth. “I know all of this and have all of this information because I’ve had a little help gathering it over the years.”
“From who?”
“The Rangers.”
It was the second time she had mentioned the name. Since I had absolutely no idea what Dinah was talking about, I couldn’t help but ask, “Who are these Rangers?”
The blue-eyed beauty grabbed a stack of papers and straightened them out with some help from the table. She then placed them neatly on another pile before facing me again and answering, “The Rangers are an underground group of people who specialize in all of the ‘weird goings-on’ happening around our world during every hour of the day. If there’s suspicion of a ghost or a paranormal sighting…they’re there. If there’re rumblings of shadow figures or poltergeist activity…they’re on top of it. Even if there’s mention of something that may not be supernatural like a cryptid or an abrupt and implausible disappearance, the Rangers show up on the scene to investigate. These brave men and women have dedicated their lives to safeguarding the rest of humanity from what some perceive as petty shams or elaborate hoaxes. They ‘weed out’ the fakers and encounter the problems that are legitimate.”
I raised an eyebrow while asking, “When you say ‘weed out…’”
Dinah laughed in her deeply feminine manner as she waved a hand in my direction and informed me, “I’m sorry if I made that sound ominous, Marcus! I didn’t mean it in the way you may have taken it! They don’t harm anyone, of course! They simply do the research and differentiate between who’s out for attention and who’s actually suffering from hauntings, possessions, or the like.”
“How can they tell?” I asked. “I mean, how do they know if someone is making up what they’re claiming to be true or if it really happened? For example, how would one of these Rangers know whether or not you or I were telling the truth since all they’d have to go on is our word that we were there?”
“They have their ways, Marcus,” Dinah bleakly answered while turning her attention to her opened laptop once more. She scrolled down on the page she was on as she continued, “They know what to look for and how to find it.”
I stood there in silence for a moment as a few different thoughts raced through my head. The first was more baleful as I was reminded of my time spent with the trio of operatives from over five years prior. They had opened my eyes to some of the more menacing things going on in the world and how they believed I was one of the focal points in bringing about an end to such calamities. I was still losing sleep over what I had seen during my time with them, and the very thought of what I had learned while traveling alongside them made me shiver right on that very spot in front of Dinah’s cluttered kitchen table.
Something else that set off warning bells in the back of my head dealt with a couple of people who were very near and dear to me. One of my old friends made it her life’s work to drive around looking for trouble in the form of spirits from the past, and she currently had someone else who was very close to me with her. Just thinking about those two wonderful women had me suddenly on edge, so I couldn’t help but ask my gracious hostess, “Dinah, what about fiends?”
The blue-eyed beauty glanced at me with a quizzical look on her face. “Huh?”
“Demons,” I mentioned the other name for the race of supposedly vile creatures. I know that may sound sacrilegious to most, but I say “supposedly” because I had met one of these “spawns of the underworld” in the past…and she had been beautiful on the inside as well as the outside. She was not the monster people claimed fiends to be. “Do the Rangers have anything to do with tracking down and hunting demons?”
“Actually, yes. They are certainly a rarity and very seldomly show up on our world, but the Rangers deal with demons – or fiends – as well. Anything that may spawn from the depths of the underworld and the god of des…”
I shot forward and placed my hands on the buxom brunette’s shoulders. Her tits were ready to pop out of her robe, but I was able to ignore the sumptuous view since my thoughts were squarely on the safety of two people near and dear to me. “Dinah, if someone caught wind of a fiend hiding out somewhere on our planet, would the Rangers…harm her without first gathering the facts?”
“They always gather the facts before acting, Marcus,” the perplexed female answered me while looking me over. I think she was trying to figure out why I had suddenly become so frantic as she added, “These people are very professional in what they do. They’re not going to go in guns blazing without having all the facts.”
My head dropped and I let out a sigh of relief.
“What is it, Marcus? What has you suddenly so on edge?”
I wasn’t sure Dinah was ready to hear about my time spent with an actual fiend. It had taken place nearly three years earlier, and the remarkable woman had changed my life in the few days I had spent with her. While I hadn’t seen her since that brief stint, I had managed to speak to her on the phone a couple of times when I had called the woman I had left her with. They apparently led a lifestyle similar to mine, and they journeyed from place to place without ever remaining in one location for too long. Fortunately, they did so not because they were running from anything, but because what they did kept them busy. I checked in with them when I could since they both meant a great deal to me.
“Marcus…?”
I suddenly wondered how trustworthy these Rangers actually were. Dinah made them out to be a group of dedicated men and women who protected the rest of the world from the shadows, but I found myself wondering if they were possibly more threatening than anything else. “Do you know any of these Rangers, Dinah? Are they reliable people who play by the rules of society…or do they break them in order to carry out their objectives?”
The bountiful brunette had a look on her face that almost resembled disappointment. For the briefest of moments, I thought she had maybe regretted trusting me with the information she had. “Marcus, they would never intentionally hurt anyone. What they do, they do to protect people.”
I crossed my arms over my bare chest and walked over to the huge pane of glass that acted as a wall. I gazed across the vast horizon of the cityscape and took in all the sights from that tenth-story window. With my back to my newest friend, I finally admitted, “I met a fiend once, Dinah…and she was one of the most wonderful women I have ever known.”
There was silence behind me for the longest time. I didn’t bother to turn to see the quiet woman’s reaction, nor did I look for her reflection in the glass in front of me. I simply continued to stare out across the unending panorama of civilization and realized why I had been steering clear of it for the last several years.
“Marcus, I don’t mean to sound cruel, but you do know that demons have the ability to make normal people like you or I believe them to be something they’re not, right? They come to our plane of existence in order to corrupt us to their way of thinking, and they do so in the name of the De…”
“No!” I called out as I finally swung around to face the brunette who had graciously given me a place to stay and food to eat. “Not Lilith! Lilith was different! Lilith was loving, caring, and humane! She was more human than most people I know, and she suffered through tragedies that no one should ever have to endure! She’s a wonderful person…”
“Marcus,” Dinah tried to regain my attention once more as she spoke up in a neutral voice. “Marcus, are you trying to tell me that you truly met an actual demon?”
“She wasn’t a demon!” I fired back even though I knew it to be true. The negative connotation affixed to that word made me not think of her in such terms, but for better or worse, I knew what she undoubtedly was. My eyes went to the floor as I admitted, “I mean, she is, but she’s not – nor has she ever been – evil.”
Dinah sat in silence for a few seconds again and hardly moved before finally inquiring, “You know an actual demon and didn’t think to tell me this when we were sharing our stories last night?”
I didn’t mean for my eyes to look so cold, but when I lifted them in order to see the woman seated only a few feet away from me, I’m sure she saw a different person momentarily. “I didn’t mention Lilith because the stories we were sharing were about frightening, evil things. That shadow figure I saw over a decade ago scared the shit out of me, but Lilith was the complete opposite. She was a benevolent soul who not only took care of me in the short time I knew her, but also saved my life.”
“How so?”
I scratched the back of my head. “It’s kind of a long story.” And truthfully, it was. I would gladly tell Dinah the whole tale if she actually wanted to know, but for the time being, I said, “My friend Kaede whom I told you about earlier…? Well, she went on to become a paranormal investigator. She’s pretty damn professional about it if you ask me, and she certainly knows her shit when it comes to anything supernatural. I won’t go into all the details right now, but when I first met Lilith, Kaede returned to my life shortly after through a strange twist of fate, and she took Lilith with her in order to help her find a semblance of a normal life. The two of them are still together now, and I do my best to check in on them every now and then from payphones.”
The busty brunette flashed me a playful smile. “You really are against all things technological, aren’t you, Marcus?”
Trying to remain somewhat serious, I told my newest friend, “That shadow figure wasn’t the only thing haunting me, Dinah. As I’ve told you, my old life still follows me to this day, and I’m so afraid that those I’ve left behind will somehow be traced thanks to things I’ve done in the past. If those I love suffer for the actions I’ve committed with the intentions of protecting them…”
Dinah placed an elbow on her table and bent her arm so she could lean on her hand as she stared at me. “Marcus, what if I told you that the Rangers could help you?”
The beautiful female certainly had my attention even though I wasn’t exactly sure what she was getting at. “How so?”
“You’re a lot like me, Marcus. We’re both scared of events that transpired in our past and keep us both from flourishing as people. Yes, I’m still scared to do certain things on my own, but I’d be a bumbling wreck that wouldn’t leave the protection of this apartment if I had never met up with the Rangers.”
“So who are they?” I asked again. “Where are they from and how do they operate?”
“They’re a clandestine group of people who have knowledge and the methods needed to encounter the problems that the law and governments of the world aren’t equipped to handle. They have ‘bases’ – if you will – set up all across the globe and operate from the shadows as I’ve already mentioned.”
“So how the hell did you ever run into them?” I queried. “You make it sound like they’re not exactly doing any advertising on billboards or fliers. How does someone who lives a perfectly normal life like yourself meet one of these people?”
Dinah’s smile continued to be tricky as she admitted, “Roughly six years ago, I was in charge of a play that had a few ghost characters in it. Two of my people played a couple of specters, and they did a mighty fine job of it at that. The production was meant to be a satirical tragedy peppered throughout with some music and comedy, but one of the women in the audience appeared to be quite moved by the performances my cast gave. She approached me when all was said and done and told me that she had never been so moved by such a play. Of course, hearing her praise meant the world to me, so the two of us strolled down the block after the show and went to a coffeehouse even though it was getting late.
“As expected, our conversation started off lighthearted since we hardly knew each other, and as we shared a few stories about the arts and entertainment, the dark-haired woman seated across from me suddenly grew deathly serious when she started talking about ghosts and the afterlife in such a way that had me truly on edge. Sure, we had seated ourselves in a corner away from prying ears that weren’t even there since it was so damn late anyway, but I couldn’t believe she was telling me some of the tales she did. I couldn’t believe that a stranger could so openly trust me with what sounded like some truly horrifying experiences, and by the time she finished, she asked if anything similar had ever happened to me. It may sound stupid, but I opened up with what I told you about last night.
“Something in those bright, blue eyes of that ebony-haired woman told me I could trust her with what had befallen me at those academy ruins. Again, you may wonder why I would spill my guts to a perfect stranger with a tale that so readily bothers me, but I somehow sensed that doing so might actually alleviate some of the burden I had been carrying with me for so many years. I decided to reveal to this woman everything I had lived through…and even told her how on the side, I had been following and tracking paranormal occurrences for years. After admitting that to her, Marcus, she did a curious thing.”
I was so into the story, I’m sure my voice was barely audible as I asked, “What?”
“I invited her over to my place so she could see the fruits of my research. And you know what? She gladly accepted.
“I’m sure it was well past two or three in the morning by that time, and I would’ve put good money on my crew wondering just where the hell I had run off to without helping clean up after the show. Still, I wasn’t about to ignore a person who actually believed in what I was doing and had seemingly encountered a few spirits of her own. I wanted to show her my data and see if she could come up with any conclusions as to just what the hell was going on in our world.”
A long pause came from the brunette that was worse than the “to be continued…” line at the end of a spectacular novel. I could hardly contain myself as I asked, “So what happened then?”
“The woman – her name was Sara, by the way – came to my place so she could see everything I had collected. If you can believe it, there were actually far more boxes of printouts and documents at the time, but Sara helped me weed through the false info and showed me how to spot the fakers. Before long, we had whittled down what I had to this.” Upon speaking her last sentence, Dinah threw her arms up as if to say the information she had wasn’t much.
I chuckled since it would still take me years to read through everything sitting before me. “So how did this Sara know so much about the supernatural and all these other events that people like you or I would perceive as strange? It’s not like it’s something a person can go to school for!”
Dinah laughed at my poor joke and informed me, “I found out later that she dealt with things from the ‘sidelines,’ so to speak. She didn’t work in the ‘field,’ and she was one of the ‘leaders’ of the Rangers, if you want to call her that.”
“And how does one attain such a rank?” I think my question may have come off sounding a little snarkier than it was meant to be.
The blue-eyed beauty shot me a look as if to tell me that I needed to watch it with my sarcasm if I ever wanted to get laid again. She then responded, “Sara had a few of her own experiences after losing a close loved one. She hooked up with the group shortly after and quickly became one of their primary members. As I already mentioned, they have operatives who work in the field and others who work from what I guess you could call a ‘home base.’ She’s situated in that base and does more of the brainwork.”
The mere mention of the word “operatives” sent a chill down my spine. I didn’t want to think about the trio I had at one time dealt with. I know that anytime I mention them, I make them sound like horrible people with even worse intentions, but that was never the case. Still, they were a part of my life I’d rather forget about, so whenever they’re mentioned, they usually leave a sour taste in my mouth.
“Thanks to Sara,” Dinah went on, “I met a few of the other Rangers and was able to associate with some like-minded people for the first time in years. It was so refreshing to speak to people who didn’t think I was crazy, and to be perfectly honest, I gave it a lot of thought after meeting her to packing up my things and moving out east where their main base is located. I thought it would be nice and I’d feel safer to be near people who know how to deal with all things supernatural, but I ultimately decided against it.”
“Why?” I couldn’t help but ask. “I realize this is your home and you shouldn’t have to uproot your life because of an incident that happened twenty years ago, but why did you decide to stay if you thought you would be safer with them around?”
“Because I didn’t want to let fear rule my life, Marcus.”
The way Dinah looked at me as she said that last sentence spoke volumes. I knew she had chosen her words on purpose. She was certainly trying to tell me something.
The beautiful brunette smiled warmly at me as she decided to add, “Apart from paranormal entities and other bizarre oddities, the Rangers also deal with ‘mentally unstable’ criminals. They track down serial killers and other psychopaths who can’t be handled via normal means. We’re talking about some top-of-the-line scum here.”
“So I take it that people like Sara stay at the base in order to do the research and pinpoint where to find the problems…and the other Rangers head out and take care of business, right?”
“That’s about the gist of it.”
“And what about you Dinah?” I asked out of concern for my newest friend. I motioned toward the laptop and all the papers she had set out as I queried, “Where do you fit into the scheme of things?”
“Sara trusted me to relay any information I come across to her,” Dinah answered. “I have an active role in what happens, but I never ‘journey onto the field,’ so to speak. Sara thought it would be best if my identity remained hidden away, so I ‘work from home’ and do my research online and at local libraries.” After telling me the last tidbit of information, the buxom beauty wryly smiled in my direction and pointed out, “I’m sure you could appreciate that last part since you’re so old-school!”
I couldn’t help but chuckle since the sultry cougar had me pegged. “In all honesty, I’m kind of surprised libraries even exist in this day and age!”
Dinah laughed alongside me and faced her laptop as she started typing away and commenting, “If it means anything to you, I’m right there with you!”
END OF PART FOUR OF TEN
