Bees Are On The What Now?

Part 1

Tracking the beast that had once been Joseph was becoming much more difficult than she had initially hoped for. In the first frantic days the trail of pain and distress he had left was unmistakable and keeping up with him was easy. She had fancied that he had not completely descended into Specterhood and this path of random violence was the result of him fighting against Grandmothers’ influence. Maybe he was hoping to be destroyed, or that he was leaving a trail for her to follow. But no one stopped him. And as her chances of successfully confronting Joseph increased the trail became more difficult to follow. Was Grandmothers’ demand for obedience too much for him to ignore any longer? She had hoped that wasn’t the case. If she was to have any chance of ever bringing him back he’d have to want it deep down. Perhaps his newfound restraint was a sign that he was gaining more control of his situation. She thought this was too much to hope for which brought her back to the first option. But she had been through this hundreds of times before. Dwelling on it was getting her nowhere.

Brushing the taint of this unproductive train of thought from her mind, Hilary began her breathing exercises. She was becoming much better at the process of projection and didn’t require the use of Pigment any longer. This was fine by her – she had seen the results of excessive Pigment use on her friends in the projecting community and had become convinced that the drug did a lot more than allow a person to project without training. She was better off without it. Tapping Pigment was tapping a weakness, and she had to rely on her strength if she wanted to bring Joseph back. Relying on her darker half was a sure way to fall just as Joseph had fallen.

After a minute of deep breathing Hilary had managed to “go Zero”. She wasn’t fond of this term. She felt it cheapened the experience of separating the soul from its natural container. Unfortunately, in the circles Hilary traveled the term was used almost exclusively and she couldn’t help but use it herself. As Hilary looked down at her own sleeping body she casually wondered why people had such a problem with acknowledging the gravity of experience. Hilary never considered herself the brightest person. She was no philosopher and she certainly wasn’t religious in any identifiable manner, but even she could see the impact that projection and ghosts should have on the world. It should have knocked the world on its ear – proof positive of the spirit world! But the world continued on its course, largely unmoved by the revelation. Certainly cult admittance and religious conversion were at a modern-day high but the result was really quite underwhelming. Much like “going Zero”. Most people acknowledged it on some shallow level, integrated the knowledge into their lives as minimally as possible and never considered the ramifications. Hell, the most significant response by society was the formation of novelty projecting businesses that offered contact with the dead – real, verifiable contact. And they advertised through infomercials at 3:00am. How much more trivial could the response be. Hilary couldn’t understand it at all.

Again she found herself dwelling on things that she had no business dwelling on while she had work to do. She had her younger brother to find and confront and the longer that took the less desirable the outcome was likely to be. After deeply inhaling and exhaling non-existent air, Hilary walked through her door and went to work.