“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Like I said, no one was hurt. Some idiot just fired a gun in the club ”
“Thank god. You should talk to Skye. Or better yet, Maureen’s daughter is a great counselor, and she does phone sessions. I could put you in touch—”
“I don’t need a counselor. I’m fine, really.”I think. “That’s not why I called. Well, I wanted to tell you about that, but I actually need advice on something else.”
“Sure, honey, what is it?” Jacqui sighed. “I can’t believe my daughter survived a club shooting. What is this world coming to?”
“Do you...” Eva winced. Thank god she’d smoked that joint or she never would’ve been able to say this out loud. “Do you believe in supernatural stuff? Ghosts, demons, that sort of thing?”
“Oh, sure,” Jacqui answered without hesitation. “It’s silly to think that what we experience with our senses is the only thing that’s out there. As I always say, we don’t know what we don’t know.”
“Right.” Eva debated what to say next.
“Why? What happened?”
“I... met a guy.”
“Really?” Now her mom sounded excited. “Where did you meet him? What’s he like?”
“We only met once, and then some weird stuff happened, and now I don’t know what to think.”
“Oh, is he a vampire? They’re very sexy these days. No one thinks they’re evil anymore, so don’t worry about that. They’re just misunderstood, of course.”
“I can’t believe you sometimes. Vampires?” Eva scoffed and then stopped dead. She was about to ask her mom if she thought it was possible to have red skin and horns. Why wouldn’t vampires be real? Oh god,werethey real?
“Well, you never know. I’ve seen a lot in my day, and I wouldn’t be surprised. You know I once met a real witch?”
“Really,” Eva drawled sarcastically, and then she froze again. Were witches real? “What about demons?”
“Everyone knows demons are real.”
“They do?”
“Of course. Why? Did you meet one? Are you in danger?”
“I—I don’t think so. I think I may have hallucinated one, though. Or a few. I still don’t understand what I saw, but it’s been driving me nuts for two days and I needed to tell someone.”
“You can tell me anything any time. What did you see?”
She took a breath and then blurted out the entire story from start to finish. “Please tell me I’m delusional,” she said when she was done. “I need to know I didn’t actually see what I think I did.”
“Hmm.” Jacqui was silent for a while, thinking. It was something Eva loved about her parents. She could tell them anything, no matter how unbelievable, and they would take her seriously. They trusted her and were just open-minded enough not to immediately write her off. Some would say they weretooopen-minded, but it was something Eva had never been more grateful for than she was now.
“You’re right,” Jacqui finally said. “It’s important to figure out whether you hallucinated it or if it actually happened.”
“Should I go to a shrink?” Forget that she’d said not five minutes ago that she didn’t need one.
“I don’t think so. A counselor will assume you imagined it, no matter what. They won’t consider the possibility that it was real. No, you need to investigate this for yourself.”
“Okay, but how?”
“Did you make plans to see your mystery man again?”
Eva’s mouth dropped open. “I just told you I thought I saw him as a giant red monster, murdering an ugly troll thing! Shouldn’t I be avoiding him at all costs?”
“You also said you had incredible chemistry, and he was the most attractive man you’d ever met.Andhe carried you out of the bar and used his body to shield you from gunfire.”
