Family Secrets, Deadly Lies

[Tagnizkur]

Marcus, a man of Iroquois decent has had an interesting past 30 years.  You see, he can see ghosts.  Unlike some overpaid actors and actresses he does just see them everywhere and whisper to them.  He can feel them, touch them, talk to them, and live in their world and ours.  Sounds cool right?  Well then guess what, you win the prize for the most foolish twit on earth.  In the thirty years of his life Ghost have been there.  They have been there when he pees, poops, makes love with others and or self, and truth be told that can really do a number on someone.  You see, marcus is a spirit guide like his father before him and their fathers for thousands of generations.  The guides were the tribe shaman.  Many of the times they were there as a person was passing over and could help guide the spirit to the proper place and or tell them what they needed to do.  Even if they came upon a soul who has wandered the guide could help them.    The guides always trained there sons whom by bloodline alone would inherit the power to spirit walk and guide.  Marcus never knew his father or his tribes past.  Marcus was found in a dumpster outside or Old Comiskey

Normally these guides live in small rural areas and only deal with a few.   Yet Marcus lives in Chicago near the old docks in a revamped old warehouse.  The dead of course find him here because unlike the guides before him Marcus seems to be able to just become a doorway and that the dead can use.  A shortcut if you will.  A shortcut with a cost to him.  Every time one passes through Marcus must live their worst pains in life and the suffering of their deaths.  For no soul can pass on if the are burdened with what was.

So now you will know as you read on why Marcus has a chip on his shoulder, a stick up his butt, and just generally hates people.  You ask now why didn't he just end himself..  easy.. the dead are selfish and they wont let him. 

The sun does its impression of a creepy spiders as it slowly crosses Marcus's scowling yet sleeping features.  One dark green eye pops open, the color of which is odd for one of his race.  The single open eyes slowly scans the room looking.  Looking for the tell tale sign that one of them is there watching him as he sleeps.  He hates it when they do that.  Its gives Marcus a better understanding of what a caged animal in the zoo must feel. 

Seeing none of there ectoplasmic trails about and mists he allows his other senses to trickle out.  He doesn't feel suppressing cold air so thats good too.   Yet after dealing with them so long he knows they can hide from the mortal eye so with nothing but a thought he allows his body and mind to enter the ghost world look about and return.  The trip between the realms is very quick when going fully body is indeed but it does always tend to leave its mark in the form of a small annoying itch in the back of his eyes.  One he knows is impossible to scratch.  So he ghosts just a sing finger and jabs the ethereal finger in his skull to scratch the itch

"much better...." he groans.

He stands and plops along to the shower allowing the sheet to fall exposing his tall lean muscled brown flesh to the elements.  A sight he quickly realizes is being admired as he rounds the corner.  For their stands Agatha.  Agatha is a prostitute from the early 1800's who just cant help but to be the first to appear in his day just so she could watch him naked.  You would think a spirit that old would be a little more mature.

"Oh marcus... where were the men like you when I had the flesh I could use for your enjoyment."

"Most likely dead or dying from some disease your nasty crusty self gave them.. now go away.."  Marcus grumbles as he veers around her and into the shower.

[Tagnizkur]

The shower does little to help him, because as soon as he wakes it seems like the ghost prostitute is the least of his problems.   Within seconds faces and bodies begin to manifest all about him as if he set off a flare letting them all know to come.

"Marcus will you let me through today.."

"Come one boy.. Ill make it worth your while.."

"Listen use..  use gots to do this.."

"Let me leave this world.. please.. I am begging you.."

Within moments the voices and pleas become a droning sound much like the white noise of a signaless TV.  Marcus lets them drown each other out taking the noise and filtering it focusing only on the water.  The flowing hot water streams down his body and down the drain.  His cant help but to form an image of all the ghosts doing the same.  A small satisfied smile slowly creeps across his features. 

"oh that would be a good thing indeed..."

His words are a mere whisper that the ghosts ignore anyway.   He finishes the shower and pads to the office in nothing but a towel an still quite soaking wet.  The ghosts follow and it takes all of his will to ignore them and drown them out until he finally reaches his goal.  His iPod.  It powers on quickly and the buds are inserted quickly.  Blaring shrilling screeches of a guitar meets his ears in a drowning bliss.  He looks up and sneers at the ghosts flapping their jaws and thankfully he hears nothing.

With that he sits by the laptops and fires it up.  "Ok lets see if anyone needs a guy who talks to ghosts.."  www.ghostdetective.com is ther waiting as he logs in to see if someone needs his services. 

[Ink Slinger]

Julie pushed the F5 button over and over.  She had not left her computer since she finally broke down and sent the e-mail sometime in the middle of the night.  At least she thought it had been the middle of the night.  She wasn't sure anymore.  She had not slept in...she checked the calendar on her desktop...three days.  She knew she was going to start hallucinating soon, or maybe she already had.

Julie had thought her landlady was kidding when she told her the rent was so cheap on the apartment because it was haunted.  You see, Julie Hart didn't believe in ghosts.  She had been in the apartment a full week before anything weird began to happen.  At first she thought possibly she was just overly tired from work.  She has been putting in twelve, fourteen even eighteen hour days trying to get her photography business off the ground.  It wouldn't be the first time she had worked so hard that she forgot moving her keys or a photo or even her pile of clean laundry.  But then a few days later the radio or television would randomly turn on.  She had called an electrician to check everything out.  When her toilet began making odd noises, she called a plumber who heard no noises and found no problems. 

She was at the end of her rope.  At the beginning of the week she thought she was hearing voices.  But last night, she had seen him.  Julie made it home from her office and as per her usual dropped her purse and camera bag on the couch.  She showered and when she looked up into the bathroom mirror the face looking back was not her own.  It was a man, in his mid-life she guessed, with a full beard.  The only problem, she could see herself through him.  Julie had run screaming from the bathroom and when she entered the living room, there he was sitting on the couch. 

She locked herself in her bedroom and he's just floated right through the door.  The ghost, a man who had been murdered in the apartment, told her about Marcus.  She figured e-mailing what she thought was a hoax website was better than anyone who might send the funny little men in white coats after her.   Her e-mail had been simple.  "I don't know if you're the real deal or just some dumb teenager with a hoax site, but I need help.  There's a ghost in my apartment.  He won't shut up.  He won't leave.  HELP!"  And listed her contact number and address. 

She now sat on her living room floor hitting F5 repeatedly waiting for an answer to show up in her inbox.  Sitting on the floor next to her was the handgun her father had insisted she get a license for, register and learn to use when she moved from their small town to the big city of Chicago.

[Tagnizkur]

Chicago being one of the most haunted cities in the world you would be surprised just how many people contact Marcus daily.  The trick is plucking through the real and the BS.  BS seems to be mainly dumb kids with to much time on their hands.   this being the age of Media one would have thought the teens would be to busy boob tubing and twitting.. or whatever the hell that crap is. 

"crap.. crap... BS.. maybe.. and.. wait..."

Marcus stops at one particular email and in that same instant multiple ghosts are pointing in a very animated way at the screen and the message.  Ok now thats curious.  Usually all they want to do is pester me to get home. Marcus thought has he opens the message.   

"Ghost.. apartment.. help.. and wont shut up..  HA!! sounds like all you Casper wanna bes.   NONE of you ever shut up.. Hell I cant hear a one of you yet I can tell you are all shouting about this message... and hell I cant help but to wonder why."

Marcus reads the message again ignore the muted pleas of the surrounding spirits.  "oh screw it.."  Still wet in his towel he dials this Julie chick.

[Ink Slinger]

Julie nearly jumped out of her skin when the cell phone sitting on her leg began to vibrate.  She looked at the display and didn't recognize the number, but the area code was Chicago at least.  She pulled the headphones off, and despite clattering to the floor next to her she could still hear Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" coming from them.   That's how loud she had turned up the music to drowned out the sound of the ghost sitting on her couch staring at her.  It had be come a test of wills.  He continually talked, and she fought with the last shreds of her sanity to keep him at bay.

She slid her thumb over the display of her touch screen phone so the slider went over the little green 'answer'. 

"Hello?" She said holding the phone to one ear and her hand to the other trying silence the sound of the ghost whose latest attempt to get her to pay attention to him was to belt show tunes.  And not just any show tunes, Avenue Q songs.  Where had he even seen Avenue Q anyway?!  He'd been dead a good thirty years before the show even came out!

A ringing male baritone filled the air behind her singing that song from Avenue Q.  You know the one.  The one about the purpose of the internet. 

Julie glared at the ghost and mouthed "SHUT UP NOW!"  She had tried everything she had ever head on TV or read on the internet to get rid of him.  Banishing him in the name Jesus...bunk.  Rock salt...utter BS too.  She'd even used chalk to draw little symbols around her place.  Either she'd done them wrong or they were utter crap too. 

[Tagnizkur]

"Um..  I haven't even said a word yet..."  Her voice was soft, melodious, sweet, and had an edge like a person about ready to jump off the Sears Tower.  Yeah I know its called the Willis Tower..  But if youre from Chicago.. its the Sears Tower. 

Now dont get me wrong, I know who the woman was saying shut up to..  but, I have become jaded and very much the jag off down through the years of having to listen to the begging whiny obnoxious ghosts..  Hell I had a room full of my own. 

"Marcus Called her.."
"She sounds cute.."
"Is that Albert from back in 1989?"
"He sings good.."

I just glared at them.  They moved back when I had that look.  They know I have a power to enter their world where I can indeed throttle them or lock them in a room in the ghost world.  Its a stupid room with stupid rules because its just like going to the pokey for a 24 hour sleep it off.  Granted they come out hurting but at least I can shut them up that long.. or just concede and send them home.  Which I dont want to do thank you very much.. 

"Ms Hart .. I take it from the horrible rendition of show tunes that you have a haunt...?"  There I go again.. stating the obvious.  Well I suppose someone has to.

[Ink Slinger]

"Oh good god!  You can hear him too!  I'm not crazy."  She gripped the phone like a life line.  "Can you really get rid of him?  Can you really make him go away or shut up or something?!" Her voice was thin, desperate. 

With her free hand she threw a pillow at the ghost.  The action, of course, was useless as the pillow just sailed right through him.  She made a frustrated growl as the spook went right on singing, laughter in his voice now.

[Tagnizkur]

"Yes Ms Hart, I can hear him, and by the sounds of it he is quite flat..."

Believe me if I heard an elephant slowly moaning away in its death throes I would find it more musical than Albert the dead tenant.   Now though, this is where I get to see just how on edge the woman is,, because what I ask next is usually met by a few minutes of silence.

"yes Ms Hart I can get rid of him...  but I will need your address and for you to put the phone on speaker so the ghost can hear me...  Will you do that Ms Hart?  I need to tell him something before I go over there and kick....  talk to it.  Will you do that for me now?

[Ink Slinger]

"You can call me Julie." She said after she wasn't sure how man Ms. Harts.  She always preferred to be just Julie or sometimes Jules.  And she was desperate enough to do anything to get rid of the ghost, including putting her address in an e-mail to website she didn't even bother to check the reputation of.  Though he couldn't see her, Julie was nodding.

"Sure thing, it's in the e-mail my but my address is..." And she rattled it off quickly including apartment number and even her zip code.  She pulled the phone away from her ear, slid the little bar on the touch screen to unlock it and pressed the speaker button.  After a beep sounded on her end she said, "Okay you should be on speaker now." 

She held the phone up, with the mic towards herself and the speaker facing the ghost.  From Avenue Q he segued into Spam a Lot.  "It's been like this for more than twenty four hours.  Any sane person would have just left I'm sure."

The only reason she hadn't was that she had no where else to go and she couldn't afford another apartment.  She had been amazed to find this one and because of the money she would save over the next year she had bought herself a new camera and accessories for her business.

[Tagnizkur]

Marcus just grumbles under his breath as the stupid ghost continues its horrid rendition of the song.  He shoots a glare at the ghosts around him again just in case they want to chime in.

"Albert....  SHUTUP!"

I hear the ghost go deathly (no pun intended but its funny anyway) quiet and all I can hear now is the worried breathing of Julie.

"Albert... I am coming over there..  go back to the other until I get there..  if you dont.. You know what I will do..."

My tone goes very dark as the anger an bitterness of the years gone by creeps into my voice. The damn things have bothered me since birth.  I hate the,, I hate that I am a gateway..  I hate that I have to let them pass if I really wanted to them to go.. but I hate their pain and suffering that I must endure to let them go.  Their memories never leave me.

I noted the ghost hadn't made a peep which means he left. 

"He will leave you be until I get there.  You are not far from me ms... I mean Julie.  Ill be there shortly"  My tone is short but the bitterness they cause.. it just cant be helped.

[Ink Slinger]

She let out a whoop of delight when she was sure Albert was gone.  At least for now.  Relief flooded through her and the silence engulfed her senses.  When she realized she could clearly hear the iPod on the floor next to her she reached over and turned it down.

"Thank you.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She gushed.  "I won't go anywhere."  She disconnected. 

Julie went to the small bathroom and took a very quick shower in peace.  She pulled on jeans and a black tank top.  While she waited for Marcus to arrive she picked up all the things she had tried to throw at the ghost. 

[Tagnizkur]

After she hung up the phone I couldnt help but to quirk a single eyebrow at it. 

"She took that awfully easy.. which means she is a complete NUTBAG.. or she ...  Nah.. she has to be a nutbag." 

I once again give the phone an odd look while the ghosts just all stare waiting, but I fully ignore them and drop the two to get dressed.  Of course the almost automatic while comes from casper the prostitute.  God but she must have been a handful when she was still a meat bag. 

In moments I throw on jeans, tims, and an old Metallica Tee.  I tie my hair back in a quick pony tail after a few quick drags of the brush.   I could ghost to her house but since I think she is a total loon already I would hate to have a raving lunatic suddenly as I just manifest and become flesh in her home.  I know the are and I know the apartment to.  My Ex was a detective on that murder case. 

I open the large sliding doors to he garage.  This is after all a warehouse.   I jump in the old explorer and thankfully due to the hour the LSD is light.  Im there in no time and buzzing her apartment on the speaker phone.

"Maybe she will be a hot nutcase.. that always helps."

[Ink Slinger]

Julie placed the last pillow back on her couch and the buzzer rang.  She didn't know many people in Chicago yet.  She looked at the buzzer a moment.  She had to be crazy for doing this.  She pressed the button.  "Um, hello?"  She removed her finger from the button so the person on the other end could answer.

She patted the back pocket of her jeans assuring herself that her cell phone was there.  It was starting to sink in that she had invited a total stranger from a website into her apartment.  She wanted to be rid of the ghost once and for all though.  She wasn't going to be able to tolerate him much longer. 

Warily she looked around just to be sure Albert wasn't there just waiting to scare her again.  The only things looking back at her were the meager furnishings she'd bought for the apartment.  A couch, second hand tv, small round dining room table with just four chairs.  And silence.  Blissful, beautiful silence. 

[Tagnizkur]

Im telling you.. this is going to turn out to be a troll faced whack job or a gorgeous one.  Because thats what always happens to me.  Its always one or the other.  I attract whack jobs as much as I attract ghosts.  Four of which were standing by watching him.  Must have been gang bangers by their dress.

My thoughts and observations are broken by the buzzer..and wonderful.. now she sounds skittish.. a skittish troll whack job.

"Yes.. Julie this is Marcus Grey, I am here to... Talk to Albert.  Buzz me in?"

Im trying hard to sound social. I hope its coming across as such. 

[Ink Slinger]

She pressed the buzzer to unlock the door.  "See you in a minute." She said into the intercom.   Living on the second floor near the stairs she was certain it wouldn't take him long to make it up to her apartment and she wasn't wrong.  She had just enough time to smooth her hands over her jeans and sweep her long chestnut hair up into a pony tail before there was a knock at her door.

She pulled it open, "Hello and than..." Her words died in her throat when she saw him.  She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting when she opened the door.  Perhaps a man in a khaki jumpsuit with some kind of crazy science fiction looking device strapped to his back.  Time to watch less movies when you expect Egon and Dr. Venkman to show up and get rid of your ghost.  She told herself.  She certainly wasn't expecting a raven haired, green eyed hottie with a sour expression. 

"Uuhh" She shook her head to clear it and swallowed a couple times trying to wet her throat.  "Sorry.  Thank you for coming so quickly." She stepped back further opening the door to let him into her apartment.  "Please come in, Mr. Grey."

[Tagnizkur]

"Uuhh"  "Please come in, Mr. Grey."

During the very quick walk up the stairs my brain was assaulted with probable images of this woman.  I dont know why the mind does what it does but this is just some of the pictures that popped in my skull.

Cruella DeVille mixed with Lady Gaga
Wicked Witch of the West mixed with Amy Winehouse 
Momma Cass mixed with Nanny McPhee (pre good kids)

Oh there were others but it just starts to get ridiculous after a while.  After a quick rap on the door it opens. 

Now, this is where some rather odd things occur.  The brain.. the one upon the shoulders that is is suddenly rendered quite useless.  The body decides this is a good time to do its best imitation of a statue whilst the rest of the known blood flow in the human body goes rushing to a special place on a mans anatomy.  Keep in mind all of this takes place in one one millionth of a millisecond because that ladies is how fast a man can decide that his bed is a good place for you to be in.   

While all of this is going on the body realizes the brain is shutting down do to lack of air and blood.  So it kicks everything back into gear allowing the ears to register she is talking instead of the Charlie Brown adult speaking noise. 

The woman is ..  well..  lets just say.. no cant say that.. Umm  ok HOT!!

"Coming...  quickly.. Right.. I came quick.. that..  "  Yeah, I am Mr Smooth.. I get all the ladies with the magic mouth of mine.    It takes all of my will not to vanish into the ghost world right at the second..  But this is why we men have the crash and burn team in our heads..  their job is to come up with a line to save what little face we may have left..

"Sorry about that, late night, little coffee, and bad traffic makes for an inability for me to speak correctly!"

Stop looking down Marcus.. EYE CONTACT.

[Ink Slinger]

Once Marcus moved into the apartment she shut the door.  She tucked a stray piece of hair over her ear, something of a nervous gesture.  "Heh.  That I kind of understand.  I've not slept in...days.  Every time I came close, Albert screamed or did something to wake me up.  I'm so jittery it's not even funny."  She shook her head.  "But I could make you some coffee if you like." She offered.

She looked back up at him.  Again she was struck by the color of his eyes.  They just didn't seem natural.  "I really thought I was crazy.  And then...you made him stop.  I don't know how but thank you.  I mean really, thank you.  Too much longer and I think I would have found myself in an institution." She chewed her lower lip a moment.  "And I'm going to shut up before I say anything else lame."

[Tagnizkur]

"Its OK I am used to a lot of chatter..."

What seems like an eternity later my brain slapped itself for the statement.  I know I am a jaded jag off an all.. but still.  So as A cover up I quickly tunr the subject.

"Coffee would be fine..  Ill go deal with Albert.  Ill wager a guess and say it was the bathroom he first started bugging you.  Thats where they found his body back in 1984."

My words for some reason come out Bland, or maybe its the fact that I am staring at Albert at this moment.  He is not in the human realm, he remains in the ghost realm.. and well.. he is making very obscene gestures about human contact between two people.  I shoot him a very dark glare which unfortunately is almost in the exact path of Julie.  Yeah, I bet my face looks cute. 

I stretch to my full six foot five height and sorta look away towards the bathroom hoping to save some face. 

"How long ago did he first manifest.  Can you give me an approximate date?"

[Ink Slinger]

Julie's eyes nearly bugged out of her head.  How had he known?  The glare made her shrink away from him a bit and as she realized he was focused somewhere past her she looked over her shoulder.  Seeing nothing she turned back.  Okay maybe this guy is a whack job. She thought and her right hand went to her right rear pocket where her fingers dipped in and made contact with her phone.   Just in case.

"Uh, yeah.  I thought it was just stress and lack of sleep at first.  My hairbrush would be in the wrong drawer or my blow dryer in the floor of the shower when I got up."  She looked at the watch on her left wrist to check the date.  "About a month ago I think."  She made a face wrinkling her little nose and closing her eyes.  "No I can't be more specific than that really.  Working twelve plus hour days for a little more than a month, I've sorta begun to lose track."

Standing at his full height he dwarfs her five foot three inch height.  Julie found it both intimidating, thank you glaring scowl, and attractive.  Great.  The first guy you notice in this town and pay any mind to is a nut job who gets rid of ghosts.  Like the one you're seeing and hearing.  You're both going straight to white padded cells. And on her thoughts rambled.  "The bathroom is the second door on the right." 

The first was a closet and didn't bother asking him to excuse the mess.  Her bathroom was immaculate.  As was her kitchen.  They were the only two places she couldn't abide clutter and mess so they were both always spotless.  Her bedroom door was pulled closed, not that she was trying to hide a mess, but it was currently covered in clean clothes she had just piled in front of her dresser and prints she was arranging and deciding between for a gallery showing.   All of the art on the walls in her apartment were her own prints, as were most of the photos of family and friends around the small place.

[Tagnizkur]

"A month ago you say..?  That sounds about right..  "

You see at times a ghost goes back to where they died.  Not like to just hang around .. for the most part its like what the living do.  They go to a grave to remember.  Well the dead go to where they died for the same reason.   Yet If they find a living person they want to pester them until the go nuts or leave.  Problem is most people dont understand and cant even come close to seeing.  They just get bothered by the noises and such and well, the human mind does the rest. 

However if you are a sensitive, oh LORD are you in for one hell of a nightmare.  They hate you.. they hate that you know they exist... they hate that you can see and hear them.  Well hate may be a strong word.. They are jealous and well just dont like those who know.  Its a slipper slope..

"So Julie.." I say as I start walking towards the bathroom.  ".. who in you family has ever claimed to be a psychic.. witch.. gypsy.. empath.. any of that?" 

As I am asking the question there stands Albert pretending he has someone bent over the sink.  I'm sure you can imagine the lewd act he is portraying with his over the top false thrusts and horseback slapping. 

[Ink Slinger]

Julie paused in the kitchen, her hand on the faucet.  The little apartment meant it was easy to hear one another even separated by the walls between the kitchen and bathroom.  She looked down at the coffee carafe in her hand and back up at the wall puzzled.

"My mother's mother and her sisters," She began.  "They always talk about how..." She affected a poor Romanian accent, "In the old country we could be open about being gypsies." She shook her head and dropped the accent.  "My mother's family are Romani.  Are you telling me all the stories they told me are real and not just fanciful tales to entertain and scare children?"

She quickly filled the pot with water and transfered it to the coffee maker which she turned on and left percolating.  She walked towards the bathroom. 

"I know I inherited my grandmother's restless spirit.  Since I was seventeen and left home I've lived in the same place more than two years.  I chose photography as a career because I can take it with me anywhere and I love to travel."  She paused in the door of the bathroom and studied the large grumpy man.  "I'm a second generation American.  My mother's family came here when her mother was a teenager."

She stood with on hip cocked out and her head tipped to the side.  Her long chestnut hair fell over her shoulder and curled about her arm.  Her brown eyes studied him. 

[Tagnizkur]

I pull the light jacket off revealing long hard muscled arms with wrap around black tribal markings.  To those who could walk the worlds they would see a slight blue glow emanating from them.   Albert certainly does and all of his silly sexual mockery stops dead as real fear fills his portly features.   Most spirits know I am a gateway.  Most spirits know I can go into their world.  Most spirits know I could hurt them and block them from this world.  What very few know or last long enough to tell is I am also a spirit warrior.  These markings are given in the first weeks of birth for both protection and weapons.    I lock eyes with Albert as I begin to speak. 

"Yes Julie, most of your peoples tales are true.  Some of it lacks fact while most of it is hardly known to your kind.  You see some people are born to see them.. to know of them.. and they dont like that much.  Thats why Albert stayed after he came to visit his death spot...  Isn't that right Albert."

As Soon as I say the words Albert fully manifests into our world with a look of absolute fear and horror. 

[Ink Slinger]

Her eyes traced the markings around his muscled arms.  She wondered if they meant something special.  He certainly looked like he could be Native American, though his brilliant green eyes were as puzzling as they were gorgeous.  She jumped and yelped when Albert was suddenly standing in her bathroom.  In her jumping back her arm swung out and smacked the door frame. 

"Ow.  Shit." She stood their rubbing her arm and looking between the two men.  "How did you...?" She suddenly found herself light headed.  She took two steps back and leaned against the hallway wall.  "I think..." She brought her hand up to her head and began doing a calming, deep breathing exercise. 

The padded white cell was beginning to sound better and better.

[Tagnizkur]

"Albert... STAY!!" I growl at him as I see Julie nearly faint. 

"Not moving...promise.."  and that is what he does.

I quickly head towards Julie and gently grab her as she looks like she is about to teeter and fall.

"Breathe Ms Har... Julie.. just breathe...  Albert wont say a word or do a thing.. WILL HE!"  I shoot a glare over my shoulder.   Yet..and this is why we mean get in trouble...  My body is already started the tingles towards center mass and that is just from touching her soft creamy smooth skin.  OH GOD I have to get out of here quick or ...  Dont think it Marcus..  just get the job done and think of dead puppies...

Even though I am trying to do that anyone with ears will hear the slight hitch in my voice.. see the dilation in my eyes.... and the elevated breathing rate.   

"Umm...."  I start to look into her eyes and then slowly down...

MARCUS!!!  JOB... HELLO

"Umm  Yeah.. Job..  its Ok .. let me get him out of here... and then.. then I think we need to talk..."

TALK ONLY... you got that mid section...

[Ink Slinger]

"I'm okay."  She said softly and got her legs back under herself again.  It only lasted as long as it took her to look up to his eyes again.  Her knees went to jelly again.  Up close his eyes where crystal clear, shot through with darker emerald veins in the shining green. 

For all you know he's a whack job!  Get it together! She ordered herself.

"Out.  Right."  She shook her head to clear it.  "Yes.  Please get him out of her.  I'm okay.  At least...I'm pretty sure I am."  Tingles danced up her arms from where their skin made contact.  Subtle signs of her own distraction made themselves known.  The way her breaths sped a tiny bit and her eyes darkened.

"You...you just get rid of him.  I"ll go finish coffee.  Then we can talk and you can tell me what I owe you." She nodded and straightened her back standing up.  After another moment and one more look at his eyes she headed for the kitchen. 

OH MY GAAAAAWD! She mouthed in the kitchen.  Nutjob or not, he was H-A-W-T, hot.  She pulled down two mugs, sugar and the half and half out of the fridge.  She also took the muffins out of the little plastic container from the grocery store and set them on a plate.  Julie fanned herself a few times and gave herself a stern, silent lecture about not getting anything started with this guy.