Disinformation
It was slow at first. An old farm cat here and there; a small dog trotting along a sidewalk in a small town. But the phenomenon was moving, expanding. By the time Rangers Lily Reynolds and Charlie Harrelson left Old Dime Box, new reports were trickling in from La Grange, Temple, Round Rock. It wasn't enough for a panic, at least not yet.
At least not until a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog had been found, stranded and shivering in terror, on top of a house in San Antonio.
At least not until a prize-winning quarter horse ended up nestled in the branches of a post oak tree north of Houston, alive but spooked to near madness.
Not until the public learned that the scrawl - in the tree bark here, in chicken feed there - was now showing up every time:
I WILL TAKE THEM ALL
~~~
As quickly as she'd grown to love Miss Hazel, Lily was glad to be rolling again. Four blown tires and a message on a windshield that had no reason to be steamed over were not her idea of a fun August afternoon.
The closest Texas State Troopers had, true to form, been unperturbed and resourceful. They'd escorted the mechanic and the new tires up from Giddings with nary a grumble, and the Tahoe was now Bastrop-bound. The roasting sun had quickly cleared the scrawl, so it hadn't taken the Rangers much to convince them that the four flats had been the work of some particularly aggressive rocks.
Now, Charlie guided the Tahoe over State Highway 21, silent, staring straight ahead at the road. But Lily could hear the cacophony of his thoughts knocking against each other.
"Don't think so loud, rookie," she said gently. He blinked hard and shook his head as if startled.
"Sorry," he said, once again sheepish. "I guess I didn't realize...wait, can you hear what I'm thinking?"
Lily struggled not to laugh at his panicked expression. "Not all the time," she replied breezily. "Only when I'm specifically tuned in...or when you've got a lot going on in there."
Charlie grimaced and shook his head, more slowly this time. "Well, I've definitely got that."
"I'd be worried if you didn't," Lily said. "This is some heavy stuff when you're new to it. Sometimes even when you're not."
There was a long pause before he spoke again. Lily could tell he was weighing his words carefully, which was certainly to his credit.
"Reynolds?" he said finally. "This...isn't what I was expecting. I mean, don't get me wrong - I'm honored to work with you and I'm proud to be a Ranger, but..."
"You didn't think this was all real," she finished for him, and he paled a bit before continuing.
"I didn't. I thought this was about taking reports of the crazy stuff and finding out the real cause." Charlie swallowed hard, gripping the wheel a bit too tightly. "Well...I guess we are, huh. But I thought, you know...real. Since psychic partners and ghosts and terrifying entities are obviously dem - uh, figments of the collective imagination."
As he blushed at his slip-up, Lily chuckled wryly. "I'm long over being offended by the idea that people like me are possessed, Charlie. And you know what, demons are real, but preachers don't usually really know what they look like." She grinned. "As for ghosts...well, the jury's still out on them, but most of the time they're just like they were when they were alive."
Charlie smiled warily at that. "Okay, I can believe it. But Reynolds -" he stammered, and then: "Lily, I'm sorry. I went into this wrong. But you know how it is growing up here sometimes. I've heard at church my whole life that the only acceptable supernatural is Jesus, and the rest is either fake or devil worship. And frankly, I leaned mostly on fake."
"Most of us do," she said quietly. "But it's different once you see it with your own two eyes. And just remember - this doesn't mean that everything you know is wrong. It just means that you know more than you did yesterday."
"But how can I believe that?" Charlie sighed, a bit mournfully. "Now that I know they've been feeding me lies and half-truths all this time?"
"Don't think of it that way. Most people simply don't know better, and those who do usually just want to protect everyone else. It's easier that way. Safer. Put enough fear into somebody, and you believe it's easier to keep them away from danger."
"But that's a lie too, isn't it."
Lily shook her head. "No. Sometimes it's control, and sometimes it's just plain hope. Most people live on blind faith, in one way or another. Open-eyed faith is a lot harder."
Charlie nodded thoughtfully, considering, and Lily found herself more at ease than she had all day long. The higher-ups had chosen him specifically because he'd have to see things to believe them. Well, it's working so far, she thought, as Charlie made the last turn toward the Bastrop police station.
~~~
On any other day, Lily would have cackled at the photo of a Jack Russell terrier floating three feet in the air, eyes wild, legs akimbo. It was the sort of critter that could get itself into such predicaments - but this time, it wasn't to blame. The owners, blocked from the dog by some sort of thin mist, had at least managed a quick shot from their iPhone.
"And he wasn't hurt?" Lily asked the officer, Kelly Martinez, a younger woman who looked perturbed by the whole thing.
Martinez shook her head. "They took him to the vet when they got back to Houston, faxed us the report and everything. Other than the fact that it literally scared the crap out of him..." and here, she wrinkled her nose in disgust - "he was physically fine. But cowed. He keeps hiding underneath things, the lady said."
Lily flipped a few pages, reading through a couple of reports from other towns. "And what do you think it is?" she asked, pretending to be only half-interested in the answer.
"I’m not sure, ma'am," Martinez replied with a shrug. "My mom thinks it's the chupacabra, but I told her, Ma, it's not sucking blood and there haven't been any goats. Of course my grandmother thinks it's el diablo himself." She rolled her eyes.
"I'm guessing your abuela is good with a rosary?" Lily chuckled, and Martinez raised her perfectly-painted-on eyebrows.
"Sounds like you know abuelas, ma'am."
"A few," Lily said, and they smiled at each other. She waved the papers. "OK if I take these?"
"Of course, that's your copy. And I'll email anything new I get to you, if you don't get it first."
"Thanks, Officer. My partner and I are headed up to Round Rock next, so we won't be that far if anything comes up."
At which point a large projectile crashed through the squad room window.
"What the hell?" screeched Martinez, jumping back three feet and nearly tripping over Lily as a sergeant and two other officers rushed in.
"God damn it, more bricks? Those little bastards..."
"Sarge," Martinez interrupted, pointing. "Since when do bricks have legs?"
Lily looked down at the object, about the size of a half sheet of paper, rocking back and forth in the litter of glass shards. She walked over, peered at it curiously, and reached down.
"Ranger!" the sergeant barked. "All due respect here, but that's evidence. I need you to leave it be."
Lily shot him a sideways glance and ignored him. She turned the thing right side up so he couldn't see the etched words on the underside, and picked it up with both hands. The misty face reformed itself behind her eyes, but she shook the vision away. It was replaced by images, slow-moving, mostly from a ground perspective. Lily felt a mild panic as the view panned quickly upward, and then began to spin...ending upside down, looking at Martinez' Doc Martens.
She sighed deeply. Shit was getting too real, too fast. And whatever the hell was doing this...it was following her, and it was going to start throwing everything it had at her. Like this poor critter, who may well have been as old as Hazel.
Whatever was next, she knew the locals - except Austin and Fort Worth, who had Special Case Squads, aka Weird Shit Brigades, of their own - needed to be kept out of it. Lily wound up her anger and channeled it into a let-me-handle-this energy push. Bastrop's finest looked confused for a moment, then oddly relaxed.
"Well...Ranger," the sergeant said slowly, "I guess you'd better be gettin' on to Round Rock. But maybe you can just...catalog...the evidence before you go?" He scratched his head in confusion, looking at Martinez, who shrugged again.
Lily was halfway out the door before she answered, a wry smirk on her face and determination in her head.
"Sergeant? All due respect here, but this isn't evidence." She held it up in both hands. "It's a turtle."
At least not until a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog had been found, stranded and shivering in terror, on top of a house in San Antonio.
At least not until a prize-winning quarter horse ended up nestled in the branches of a post oak tree north of Houston, alive but spooked to near madness.
Not until the public learned that the scrawl - in the tree bark here, in chicken feed there - was now showing up every time:
I WILL TAKE THEM ALL
~~~
As quickly as she'd grown to love Miss Hazel, Lily was glad to be rolling again. Four blown tires and a message on a windshield that had no reason to be steamed over were not her idea of a fun August afternoon.
The closest Texas State Troopers had, true to form, been unperturbed and resourceful. They'd escorted the mechanic and the new tires up from Giddings with nary a grumble, and the Tahoe was now Bastrop-bound. The roasting sun had quickly cleared the scrawl, so it hadn't taken the Rangers much to convince them that the four flats had been the work of some particularly aggressive rocks.
Now, Charlie guided the Tahoe over State Highway 21, silent, staring straight ahead at the road. But Lily could hear the cacophony of his thoughts knocking against each other.
"Don't think so loud, rookie," she said gently. He blinked hard and shook his head as if startled.
"Sorry," he said, once again sheepish. "I guess I didn't realize...wait, can you hear what I'm thinking?"
Lily struggled not to laugh at his panicked expression. "Not all the time," she replied breezily. "Only when I'm specifically tuned in...or when you've got a lot going on in there."
Charlie grimaced and shook his head, more slowly this time. "Well, I've definitely got that."
"I'd be worried if you didn't," Lily said. "This is some heavy stuff when you're new to it. Sometimes even when you're not."
There was a long pause before he spoke again. Lily could tell he was weighing his words carefully, which was certainly to his credit.
"Reynolds?" he said finally. "This...isn't what I was expecting. I mean, don't get me wrong - I'm honored to work with you and I'm proud to be a Ranger, but..."
"You didn't think this was all real," she finished for him, and he paled a bit before continuing.
"I didn't. I thought this was about taking reports of the crazy stuff and finding out the real cause." Charlie swallowed hard, gripping the wheel a bit too tightly. "Well...I guess we are, huh. But I thought, you know...real. Since psychic partners and ghosts and terrifying entities are obviously dem - uh, figments of the collective imagination."
As he blushed at his slip-up, Lily chuckled wryly. "I'm long over being offended by the idea that people like me are possessed, Charlie. And you know what, demons are real, but preachers don't usually really know what they look like." She grinned. "As for ghosts...well, the jury's still out on them, but most of the time they're just like they were when they were alive."
Charlie smiled warily at that. "Okay, I can believe it. But Reynolds -" he stammered, and then: "Lily, I'm sorry. I went into this wrong. But you know how it is growing up here sometimes. I've heard at church my whole life that the only acceptable supernatural is Jesus, and the rest is either fake or devil worship. And frankly, I leaned mostly on fake."
"Most of us do," she said quietly. "But it's different once you see it with your own two eyes. And just remember - this doesn't mean that everything you know is wrong. It just means that you know more than you did yesterday."
"But how can I believe that?" Charlie sighed, a bit mournfully. "Now that I know they've been feeding me lies and half-truths all this time?"
"Don't think of it that way. Most people simply don't know better, and those who do usually just want to protect everyone else. It's easier that way. Safer. Put enough fear into somebody, and you believe it's easier to keep them away from danger."
"But that's a lie too, isn't it."
Lily shook her head. "No. Sometimes it's control, and sometimes it's just plain hope. Most people live on blind faith, in one way or another. Open-eyed faith is a lot harder."
Charlie nodded thoughtfully, considering, and Lily found herself more at ease than she had all day long. The higher-ups had chosen him specifically because he'd have to see things to believe them. Well, it's working so far, she thought, as Charlie made the last turn toward the Bastrop police station.
~~~
On any other day, Lily would have cackled at the photo of a Jack Russell terrier floating three feet in the air, eyes wild, legs akimbo. It was the sort of critter that could get itself into such predicaments - but this time, it wasn't to blame. The owners, blocked from the dog by some sort of thin mist, had at least managed a quick shot from their iPhone.
"And he wasn't hurt?" Lily asked the officer, Kelly Martinez, a younger woman who looked perturbed by the whole thing.
Martinez shook her head. "They took him to the vet when they got back to Houston, faxed us the report and everything. Other than the fact that it literally scared the crap out of him..." and here, she wrinkled her nose in disgust - "he was physically fine. But cowed. He keeps hiding underneath things, the lady said."
Lily flipped a few pages, reading through a couple of reports from other towns. "And what do you think it is?" she asked, pretending to be only half-interested in the answer.
"I’m not sure, ma'am," Martinez replied with a shrug. "My mom thinks it's the chupacabra, but I told her, Ma, it's not sucking blood and there haven't been any goats. Of course my grandmother thinks it's el diablo himself." She rolled her eyes.
"I'm guessing your abuela is good with a rosary?" Lily chuckled, and Martinez raised her perfectly-painted-on eyebrows.
"Sounds like you know abuelas, ma'am."
"A few," Lily said, and they smiled at each other. She waved the papers. "OK if I take these?"
"Of course, that's your copy. And I'll email anything new I get to you, if you don't get it first."
"Thanks, Officer. My partner and I are headed up to Round Rock next, so we won't be that far if anything comes up."
At which point a large projectile crashed through the squad room window.
"What the hell?" screeched Martinez, jumping back three feet and nearly tripping over Lily as a sergeant and two other officers rushed in.
"God damn it, more bricks? Those little bastards..."
"Sarge," Martinez interrupted, pointing. "Since when do bricks have legs?"
Lily looked down at the object, about the size of a half sheet of paper, rocking back and forth in the litter of glass shards. She walked over, peered at it curiously, and reached down.
"Ranger!" the sergeant barked. "All due respect here, but that's evidence. I need you to leave it be."
Lily shot him a sideways glance and ignored him. She turned the thing right side up so he couldn't see the etched words on the underside, and picked it up with both hands. The misty face reformed itself behind her eyes, but she shook the vision away. It was replaced by images, slow-moving, mostly from a ground perspective. Lily felt a mild panic as the view panned quickly upward, and then began to spin...ending upside down, looking at Martinez' Doc Martens.
She sighed deeply. Shit was getting too real, too fast. And whatever the hell was doing this...it was following her, and it was going to start throwing everything it had at her. Like this poor critter, who may well have been as old as Hazel.
Whatever was next, she knew the locals - except Austin and Fort Worth, who had Special Case Squads, aka Weird Shit Brigades, of their own - needed to be kept out of it. Lily wound up her anger and channeled it into a let-me-handle-this energy push. Bastrop's finest looked confused for a moment, then oddly relaxed.
"Well...Ranger," the sergeant said slowly, "I guess you'd better be gettin' on to Round Rock. But maybe you can just...catalog...the evidence before you go?" He scratched his head in confusion, looking at Martinez, who shrugged again.
Lily was halfway out the door before she answered, a wry smirk on her face and determination in her head.
"Sergeant? All due respect here, but this isn't evidence." She held it up in both hands. "It's a turtle."