Free Divine_Scream by Benjamin Kane Ethridge

almost constantly. As they passed a pet store and he spotted some aquariums, he thought back to the Kangjuns.
    “So salt water hurts them?” he asked. “The Assembly? That’s why you spilled the fish bowl, wasn’t it?”
    “You’ve finally caught on. Good job, sweets. And let’s say salt water slows them down, but no more. They are sensitive to it because if it is, in fact, actual sea water from the Paled Ocean, it’s beyond dangerous for them, and me.”
    “It’ll kill you and them?”
    “It’ll erase us from every possible reality. Even the smell of fish gets our guard up—if we were to come in contact with it, our bodies would break apart as energy and travel on, like all living things. Death for the Assembly happens almost as rarely as for banshees, and most of the time for them it’s self-inflicted. I’ve spoken with banshees that presided over the deaths of Assembly members however.” The banshee nodded with some occupational interest only she could appreciate. “Fascinating circuits of energy that release, from what I hear. I’d love to see it, but never have. Sorry, talking shop here.”
    Jared smiled faintly. “That’s fine, Banch. So then, the ocean is my only safety from them?”
    “Yes, if you’re submerged in it long enough they won’t want you as a Gift anymore.”
    “They’ll never come back? The sea water’s effects are permanent?”
    “Yes, so it is.”
    “I should be good then, because I’ve been in the Pacific Ocean before, many times as a kid.”
    “But you didn’t have the mark of the Gift yet,” Banch explained. “Any past contact was masked by that. You received the mark a week ago.”
    “And what if I’d taken an unexpected beach trip before they got to me?”
    “They knew you wouldn’t visit the beach—they’ve read the chain of events from the time of the mark until your death, and so did I…”
    “Just as well, I don’t care for the beach.”
    Banch lifted one of her pretty glittering eyebrows. “You don’t? You always paint the ocean though.”
    Jared shrugged. “I’m good at painting the ocean.”
    “And seagulls.”
    He snorted. “You know me well.”
    “That I do. Better than anyone.”
    “Ouch!” Jared bent and rubbed his kneecap.
    “Tender?”
    “Doing fine.” He continued on. “Thank you for protecting the Kangjuns.”
    Her eyes flitted over with tenuous caution. “I can’t guarantee anyone’s safety. I can only do my best. I have no idea what the Assembly’s next two grants could be. They could ask to kill others, they could ask for any manner of weapon from our dimension, or they could simply ask for passage through a corridor shadow and show up right here and now.”
    “Why don’t they?”
    “There’s no way to know they would succeed or not. The Assembly rarely does things that aren’t calculated for specific results. Right now they don’t have a firm lock on your scent, so they would need to guess where to show up and that might waste one of their grants. They won’t do that until they’re very desperate, which is why the closer we get to the beach, the more dangerous and aggressive they will become in attempting to capture us.”
    “I understand… but isn’t there a way we can take their attention away from other people? I mean, this is about me. Not my friends.”
    “I’m sorry. If it makes you feel better, I don’t see any reason for them to kill anybody.” Banch sighed darkly after another moment. “On second thought however, I had no idea they’d do it the first time. That was decidedly unexpected.”
    “Thanks, I feel way better now.” Jared kicked a broken piece of concrete off the sidewalk.
    “Well, take it as it comes, Mister Kare. The truth is a bomb filled with either beautiful confetti or rancid manure. And nobody has control of when the bomb explodes.”
    Jared hung his head and felt even more nauseated than he did a moment ago. If something had happened to his friends, he didn’t know if his