"Phaedra Weldon - Zoe Martinique 01 - Wraith" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weldon Phaedra)

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It was early, and I had time to kill. I'd only been incorporeal for about forty-five
minutes (I have a neato-kazeeto watch a friend gave me that actually keeps astral
time-I have no idea how it works, but it does). The longest I'd ever remained out
of body, without too much physical lethargy later, was four hours. I didn't know
if there was some mystical time limit or witching hour for being astral, but there
did appear to be various physical reactions to being gone longer. The body did not
like having the soul/astral presence/spirit (pick one) away for too long.
It was kinda like having a cat that pushes the plant off of the fireplace mantel
when you don't come home and feed it at the preappointed time. Or a dog that piddles
on the carpet. Seems the body resents being left alone.
Oh-but don't worry. Nature has a way of getting back what's hers. Trust me. Ever
heard of near-death experiences where they mention that silver cord? It's real.
Of course it's a great tether, but as for acting like a bungee cord?
Nada. I haven't had the need to snap back into my body. You can travel back along
it, but the end result isn't as peaceful as just stepping back in normally.
But then again, this really isn't normal, is it?
Let's see, I've had an achy back, stiff joints, migraine, loss of vision (that only
happened one time and it wasn't my fault though Mom's certain I was faking it), and
numbness. Those are the nasty things that've happened when I've been out of body
longer than my personal best of four hours.
I'd been gone much longer. Once. The first time out. It'd been a traumatic experience
(one I don't feel like talking about right now). Mom said it was nine hours.
Nine. My body wouldn't respond to me for nearly six hours after I returned. So for
the world, and the doctors at Crawford Long, I lay dormant, in a coma, for fifteen
hours.
I never wanted to repeat that again. What if I'd been away
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longer? Would I have remained like this forever? A ghost? Spook? Spectral entity?
Something for some paranormal society to capture on film? The feeling when out of
body is kind of hard to explain. The closest I can come to is powerful.
Well, not at first. Takes about five minutes before the powerful part kicks in. In
the beginning it's like finding yourself out on a tightwire strung across two buildings
with no net. Actually-no wire either. You have no idea what it is you're doing. And
all you can think about is becoming a pile of goo on the pavement below.
And then you discover when you fall off that wire (and you will fall off) you float
in midair instead of crash. There's no goo. There's no real danger (none that I'd
seen till that point).
And then you think, this is great! No one can see me. No one can tell me not to
do something. The world is my playground. No rules!
Or so you think. Because reality has a posse that does nothing but bring the old
smack-down on the young and stupid.
That would be me.
And that would be this night, of all nights.
I stood outside the Fox Theatre, the humming and pulsing bulbs from the marquee
above me gave the evening a sort of surreal feel. I was invisible amidst the crowds
of night people. I thought about jumping into a cab with someone and taking a ride.
One of the drawbacks of astral traveling is you can't pop here or pop there.
Ghosts, spirits, ethereal bodies-pick a name-don't have teleportation skills. So
finding a means to get from point A to point B is still a necessity.