Chapter Two
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A light drizzle was falling outside the cab as Toby rode home in the early morning haze. It was the beginning of spring and all about him were signs of new awakenings. The birds had returned from their winter repast and the trees that dotted the street were shaking off their frosty coats of snow, preparing for new buds. What few residents of the city that were out this early in the morning, had shed their winter assembles for the lighter clothing of warmer weather. In the display windows of storefronts were the trappings of the new season. Everywhere around him were preparations for the spring.
Toby's trip back to New York was a long one and though he was exhausted, his mind wouldn't let him rest. It was preoccupied with the dream he had on the airplane. In the past, he would frequently have nightmares about his sister and was accustomed to those, but this one was different. In this dream, he wasn't revisiting past events or watching some terrible scene unfold, it was as if he were living it. And it felt real,horribly real, as if it weren't a dream at all. It felt real and invasive and was strangely personal in its ominous nature. It left him with a sense of foreboding he just couldn't shake.
Unable to disregard his dream, Toby tried focusing on some of the more positive aspects of it. Before it started going to hell in a hand basket, it was for the most part a pleasant enough dream; a dream of hope and joy. It was the path he would have preferred for his life to have taken, before Sarah was stolen away by the Goblin King. Toby cringed at the unwelcome thought. A shudder ran through him as he tried to block out the memory, bury it away back in his subconscious. But still it arose, unbidden, and he couldn't stop himself from recalling that horrible night those many years ago.
It was the worst night of his young life, the night Sarah was taken and he was tortured and tormented to the point of unconsciousness. When he finally awoke after his ghastly encounter with the Goblin King, he went about erasing all evidence of Jareth's visit the night before. The ordeal seemed almost surreal to him as cleaned himself and Sarah's apartment, as if he were in some sort of illusory trance that he would wake up from at any minute. It wasn't until the drive home that the reality of the situation hit him.
Sarah was gone, gone for good and forever, and no matter how hard he prayed it otherwise, he had no means of bringing her back. Jareth had snatched her away without a trace, leaving only Toby to account for her disappearance. And what explanation could he give? There was no excuse (at least no sane one) that he could offer for her vanishing. At best, no one would believe him if he told the truth. At worst, they would think he did something dastardly to her. For Toby, there was no choice in the matter. Despite the way it sickened him to his core, he had cover up the truth of what really happened to Sarah.
It was to be the greatest deception of his life, should he pull it off. Luckily, even in his traumatized state, he had enough presence of mind back at her apartment to realize the necessity of concealing the truth. He had removed all signs of foul play, and disposed of any proof of what happened into a random dumpster along the way. As he drove, he concocted a fictitious version of his visit. He went over it again and again in his mind so that when he arrived home, he was able to nonchalantly answer his parents' questions about his night and how Sarah was doing. He kept just enough facts from the evening (the ordering of Chinese take-out and watching a movie) to lend credibility to his tale should anyone need to check into it. Other than the overwhelming despair he felt, which he carefully concealed from everyone, the cover up was remarkably easy to pull off.
Then he waited.
The first indication that something might be amiss arrived on Wednesday when Sarah's station called his parents. The station's manager told them Sarah hadn't shown up for work for the past three days and asked if they knew where she was. His mother told Mr. Kurtz that they haven't heard from or seen her in the last few days and assured him if they did they would prompt her to get in touch with him. The call was enough to arouse concern about the absent Sarah, and soon they were on the telephone calling her cell and home phone numbers. When they got no answer (as Toby knew they wouldn't) they proceeded calling her acquaintances to find out if any of them had heard from her. Of course, none of them did and after about an hour or so of trying to track her down, Roger Williams decided to make the trip to her apartment. When he found the apartment empty and Sarah's car still in its designated parking spot, worry turned into fear and the alarmed father called the police over his missing daughter and the hunt for Sarah Williams began.
The next day when Toby arrived home from school, he found a police cruiser in the driveway and two officers in the living room talking to his distraught parents. One of the officers, a stout man with pockmarks on his face and THOMPSON on his nametag, questioned Toby about when he last saw his sister. Toby played his part perfectly as he related the story he conveyed to his parents that Sunday, with the appropriate amount of bafflement and anxiety over the situation. He told Officer Thompson about his visit and that she was fine when he left. Though he had practiced his recounting for days in anticipation of this exact moment, Toby was still a nervous mess. He never was very adept at lying yet here he was, testing his ability on law enforcement. He tried to suppress any telltale signs of dishonesty; nervous fidgeting, darting eyes, stumbling speech. He caught himself, only once, wringing his hands like he always did when he was distressed. He quickly jammed his hands into his pockets, inwardly panicking that he just gave himself away. But there was no detection of his slip on the police officer's part. To him, Toby was just showing the customary signs of a worried family member, never suspecting the terrible secret that Toby was hiding. His account was easily accepted and the officers left the Williams' household pledging to do their best on locating the missing woman.
Days turned into weeks then months with no clues to the whereabouts of Sarah Williams. Free now to openly mourn the loss of his sister, Toby was inconsolable over her disappearance. While his parents and Linda (Sarah's biological mother who took a weeklong sabbatical from an off Broadway production of Macbeth to help with the search) still held hope they would find their missing daughter, he knew their efforts were in vain. No amount of posters or outreach from the community could ever bring her back. Sarah was gone and while the biggest fear of the adults in his life was that they weren't searching for a missing person so much as a missing body, he knew her fate and believed it to be far worse than death.
Sarah's disappearance was devastating to them. The holidays were plagued by melancholy for the grieving family. They pushed through Christmas with little semblance of joy; the cheeriness of the season lost to them. Support from friends and extended family members poured in yet regardless of the concern and comfort they offered, the Williamses were grief-stricken.
Especially Toby.
The loss of his sister left him heartbroken and the remorse he felt over his hand in the matter consumed him. Though he managed to go about his home life and school fairly adequately, he was still subject to bouts of guilt and depression. His gloominess dragged on longer than any had expected. Things he originally believed important now felt meaningless and hollow. No amount of prosperity that came his way could lessen his grief over his sister. And there was no lack of good fortune for the Williams family following Sarah vanishing.
Despite the tragedy that befell the family, or perhaps due to it, his parents became closer than ever. While there was nothing they could do to ease their son's anguish, they became each other's support system, the discourse of their marriage cleaved away by the horrible ordeal. Grief had bonded them together and brought about a closeness that was previously absent between them. His mother's former grievances about his father were left by the wayside as she consoled him over his loss. His father relied on her comfort and after awhile, as they came to terms about their missing daughter, it developed from dependence into a mutual respect and deep love. As time passed it helped ease their mourning and strengthen their union and all thoughts of divorce were forgotten.
Though there was no resolve for them over Sarah's disappearance, Toby's parents did set to righting the wrong that their hometown newspaper had visited upon them. After their egregious write up that stated a drunken Toby was responsible for the accident that had taken the lives of Maggie Gillepsie and Sarah's would be movie director, his parents hired a lawyer and sued the local publication. The newspaper, in a panic over the possible lawsuit, sent the Williams family a certified letter of apology for their mistake and offered to settle out of court for the sum of forty-five thousand dollars. Toby was astonished by the amount and thought it more than fair restitution, but the family's lawyer, a barracuda of a man named John Bryant, could taste blood in the water. He persuaded Toby's parents that the offer was an insult to the damages they incurred and to take the matter before a judge. The court date was set and on the day of the hearing, they pleaded their case before twelve sympathetic jurors. The Williams's lawyer presented an abundance of testimony of how, through the newspaper's erroneousness actions, Toby's life was negatively impacted; citing his loss of scholarships, Frank Gillepsie's brutal attack and the alienation of friends and schoolmates that it caused. He even submitted the newspaper's own apology and settlement offer as an admission of their liability in the matter. His lawyer pled such a moving and tragic account of the teenager's plight that during his final summation, Toby thought he saw a tear in the eye of one of the female jurors when Mr. Bryant lamented the trauma Toby endured over the death of Maggie Gillepsie. The defense didn't stand a chance. It took the jury only two hours to declare the newspaper accountable for Toby's pain and suffering and awarded them two-hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars in restitution.
Roger and Karen Williams took the responsible approach and stashed the settlement money in a trust fund for Toby's college. After their lawyer took his arbitrary twenty-five percent for attorney's fees, Toby was left with a little over one hundred and seventy-five grand, more than enough for a decent education. Yet it seemed like the college fund was going to turn out unnecessary. A few weeks after he was awarded his restitution, a certified letter came in the mail. It was from Ohio State, offering him a full ride at their university on a football scholarship and it was not the only one. Two more scholarship offers came in quick procession after Ohio State, one from Rutgers University and one from the University of Maryland, each lauding the virtues of their respective college and with bribes of their own to entice him. Penn State even threw their hat back into the ring, citing their previous scholarship withdrawal was an oversight in the administrations department. And so, the bidding war over Toby's college football career was on.
School continued on much how it had before Sarah's disappearance and the accident that cut Maggie's young life short. It returned to its usual mundane schedule of classes and homework for the teenager. As the school year marched on, he gradually grew to accept his separation from Angie, considering himself undeserving of her affection in the first place. They still had American Lit together though the usually cantankerous Mrs. Bach showed him a little compassion when she agreed to move the boy's seat from behind his former girlfriend to across the room. Valentine's came, with its stinging reminder of love lost. Though he could have easily spent it at the school dance with any number of girls (Gwinny Alders was hinting at him like crazy for a whole three weeks before the dance) he opted out of spending the evening in a gymnasium bedecked with red heart cutouts and streamers. Instead, he spent the night with Shane, who was also mercifully between girlfriends at the time as well, hanging out at his house, mastering the greatest game ever (Halo) on Shane's Xbox. Not the most romantic of evenings but they did manage to annihilate several swarms of the Flood and quite a few Hunters.
The discourse between Toby and certain members of the student body (particularly the girls' field hockey team) seemed to lessen as many of them came to accept that the accident was not Toby's fault. In fact, several of them came to empathize with their distraught classmate over his current plight. There was an outpouring of compassion from the faculty and student body, everyone sympathetic over his loss. Everyone that is, except for Candace Shaw. She continued to despise Toby, still holding him accountable for the accident. She would cast him dirty looks when they passed in the hall and he heard from quite a few reliable sources that she blamed him for Maggie's death. For his part, Toby disregarded her rude stares and vicious slander until one day in the cafeteria when her contempt reached its zenith.
It was the last week of March and Toby was going through the lunch line with his friends when he heard his name being spoken in harsh tones. He turned to look behind him and a few students back saw the owner of the voice was Candace. Some of her friends tried to shush her, whispering that he could hear her. Their appeals had no effect though as she declared in an even louder voice that she didn't care if he could. All her blustering caught the attention of Mike Drewer, who was in line in front of Toby, and he hollered back at her to shut her mouth right now. Candace, a somewhat hulk of a girl to put it nicely, was not about to be cowed and told him to come back and shut it if he thought he could. Mike made a move to do just that had Toby not stopped him, telling him to just let it drop. That could have been the end of the situation, no need for it to escalate any further, if Candace would have let it go.
But the bullheaded girl wasn't about to let it go. Not satisfied with him simply overhearing her cutting words, she decided to address him directly, shouting up to him that it was a pity Maggie was the one to die in the crash and not him. Her brutal declaration had its desired effect. Toby could feel his face flush, not so much from her callous words as from the horrifying memories they evoked, and his previous conviction of ignoring her departed. He angrily set his lunch tray down, prepared to take Candace up on the offer she previously made to Mike, gender be damned, but before he could take a step towards her, an unlikely ally interceded on his behalf.
It was Angie.
Angie was a couple of students behind Candace when the altercation started and had pushed her way up to his agitator. Toby wasn't really expecting her to add on to the tirade but what she did next took him completely by surprise. The normally composed girl was angry, not just angry, she was livid, over what her teammate had said to him. She confronted her friend telling her that the accident wasn't anybody's fault and that Candace needed to quit being such a bitch. Angie's statement startled the larger girl but not for long. She now directed her discourse at this new target, claiming Angie was just taking his side because she used to screw him. Angie's face became a bright red which brought a smug grin to Candace's. Then she made the monumental mistake of reaching out and giving her a shove on her left shoulder. That was all that it took. The next moment, Angie was upon her, hitting and kicking her. Candace was quick to react, trying to ward her off and land a few blows of her own. The shocked crowd parted as both combatants went down, each trying to gain the upper hand and pine the other beneath her. The fight was finally ended when Mr. Grady, the science teacher and that week's cafeteria monitor, broke the two of them up. He pulled them off of one another and escorted the disheveled girls to the principal's office. Toby got a good look at them when they left; Angie's hair looked like it might have had some clumps pulled out but Candace's nose was bleeding in torrents. Toby wickedly hoped it was broken.
The fight landed both girls in hot water. Candace (whose nose wasn't broken after all, much to Toby's disappointment) received a week's suspension for being the instigator in the whole ordeal. Angie got three days of detention for her part in the kerfuffle. Toby was sure that even though her penalty was the lesser of the two, it probably devastated his ex, putting a blemish on her perfect record. But she seemed to take it in stride, her temperament unaltered by the event. She bore her punishment with high spirits and even stated to a mutual friend that she would do it again. That was all it took to confirm school wide suspicions that Angie wanted Toby back. Rumors began to circulate around the school about how Angie was still in love with Toby and that a possible reconciliation was in the works. Several of his and her friends were rooting for them to get back together. Even Shane, who heard of the fight though wasn't there to witness it, happily told him one day that Angie still had the hots for Toby and that he should reunite with his former girlfriend. Many of his friends agreed with the estimation and tried to encourage him to get back together with her. Even Angie seemed to be affable to the concept, if her encouraging gazes and warm smiles were any indication; all he had to do was ask.
But Toby was having none of that. In fact, he refused to take any pleasure in the good fortune that had recently befallen him. His parents reconciliation, his scholarships, Angie's renewed interest were all a constant reminder of the fate that his sister must endure as the unholy price she had to pay for him. The restoration of his wishes, which he once greedily coveted, was now a punishment to him, perhaps even of Jareth's own design. To benefit from them while Sarah was languishing in his clutches was something his principles just wouldn't allow. He believed it would be an affront to human decency and so, he rejected them, refusing to take advantage of the misbegotten gains of his accursed wishes, leaving Toby to bear his own self inflicted suffering which he felt he deserved.
He didn't pursue the new founded affections Angie had for him, the evidence of them made brazenly clear during prom. At first, he had no intention going to the dance, citing he didn't want to go because he didn't have a date, but after much hem-hawwing from family and friends he begrudgingly agreed to go. Practically the whole senior class was present at the dance, some with dates, others going stag with friends. Angie was there in attendance with some of her friends (minus the company of Candace Shaw, Toby noticed) and was seated at a table across the dance floor from him. She was dressed in an elegant white goddess dress, with a silver and rhinestone halter collar. Her hair was up with gentle curls cascading around her face. The sight of her took his breath away and he was painfully reminded of the lingering feelings he had for her. Several of his friends unnecessarily pointed her out to him and encouraged him to ask her to dance. Indeed, it appeared that Angie was trying to entice him into an invitation as well, casting him coy glances and smiling beguilingly at him when she caught his eye. But Toby remained immune to his friends' coaxing and Angie's charm and carefully kept his distance from her, determined to hold fast to his decision. His method almost proved successful until he was approached by the object of his avoidance herself.
Toby was by himself taking a breath of fresh air out on the terrace, trying to clear his head, when she came up to him. This was exactly the thing he was trying to steer clear of but despite his best efforts, here they were alone together. They made uncomfortable small talk about school and the weather, until she shyly popped the big question herself and asked him to dance with her. Toby's determination faltered. After all, what harm was there in one dance? But he knew the consequences that were at stake. A war of desire and remorse raged within him, mercilessly testing his resolve. His head began to swim and his heart pounded furiously as her close proximity brought back emotions he was struggling to purge himself of. He wanted nothing more than to gather her into his arms and whisk her around the ballroom floor, her soft body close to his and her warm breath in his ear. But no matter how tempted he was (oh how he was tempted!) his guilty conscience was stronger. He just couldn't trap Angie again, a pawn of his own selfishness and a prisoner of an avaricious wish. It would be an abomination. With a herculean exertion of will power, Toby declined her offer as graciously as he could.
His refusal crushed the girl. The promising smile and cheery countenance melted from her face like the wax of a candle before a flickering flame. It hurt him to cause her even a moment of pain but, for her own sake, he held firm to his conviction. He knew it wasn't just a dance she was offering; it was her heart as well. He tried to explain that he still had feelings for her but right now he couldn't be with her or any other girl for that matter. He offered her his boutonniere as a testament of his sincerity, pressing it into her numb hands, trying desperately to ease the sting. But the damage was already done. Wordlessly, she quickly walked away, embarrassed and rejected.
It wasn't long before what happened got around. Word rippled through the hall that Angie had asked him to dance and that he had turned her down. It became the scandal of the prom with a virtual line being drawn on the dance floor that he dare not cross. Her friends pulled in ranks and accosted him with sour looks from across the room. His friends were no better, declaring him an idiot for turning her down. Almost all the couples there were whispering about it. Before long, unable to bear the humiliation of it, Angie darted into the ladies room, followed by Jen and Megan, leaving only Toby to endure the stares and murmurings. He left the dance shortly after, alone and miserable.
His relationship with Angie wasn't the only one laid waste after Sarah went missing. His parents' marriage, which he once tried so desperately to save, was now a source of discontent for him as well, a shameful reproach for own his actions. Though he loved his parents and wanted them to be happy, he couldn't partake in the happiness of their relationship. Their bliss was an everyday reminder of what he did, and through no fault of his parents, it became a source of pain for their son. He became reclusive, shutting himself up in his room when he was at home, his remorse and despair overwhelming him. His parents believed that his sudden withdrawal was a result of grief over Sarah's disappearance. They patiently tried to reach out to him, tried to console him through his troubles. But Toby felt unworthy of their comfort and as time went by, a distance formed between himself and his parents. Soon, he had taken to avoiding them and excusing himself from family functions. There was more than a little worry that perhaps his depression stemmed from something other than grief, perhaps it was something more psychological. For a short time (at his mother's insistence), Toby saw a counselor to help him work through his problems. The sessions had little effect on the miserable Toby and all Karen and Roger Williams could do was watch as their beloved son pulled further and further away from them, unable and unwilling to be helped. And this is how he remained, throughout graduation and the proceeding summer; his melancholy was like a voracious beast, consuming all the members of the household. By fall, the rift between Toby and his parents had become so acute that, despite the undiminished love they had for him, both his mother and father sighed a collective sigh of relief when their despondent son left for college.
His malcontent followed him to college as well. He turned down the proffered scholarships, much to his family's dismay and opted to attend Boston College, on his own dime, with Shane. He majored in business instead of following the illustrious football career he once seemed destined for and though the football department wooed him feverishly, he denied their entreaties to join the football team. The aspect of playing college ball, which was once a great source of pride and fulfillment to him, repelled him now. In fact, Toby seemed determined to never play the game again; not for the college, not even the pick up games Shane invited him to in the park. That part of his life was over now and Toby vowed to himself never to revisit it again.
But in many cases, when one door closes, another one opens. Though Toby refused to rely on his skills on the football field to help him through college, he did discover a new talent that was previously hidden from him. Toby was a wiz in his business courses, mastering them easily, and at the end of his four years in college, he graduated with honors. Eager to employ his newly acquired skills, Toby delved into an apparently hopeless venture and using much of his settlement money, bought his hometown's newspaper. The publication was floundering for years since his lawsuit and was a near bankrupted mess. Friends and family tried to caution him away from this ill fated venture saying he would be throwing his money away. But Toby refused to listen to them and after aggressive restructuring and the brilliant decision to take the paper online, he turned it around and it made it profitable. High on his success and not willing to hang his hat on this one accomplishment, Toby expanded his ambitions. He realized the internet was the way of the future for media and launched an adventurous endeavor to build a nationwide syndicate online.
He started small, with a local social media site for his town and surrounding towns, but quickly it ballooned to engulf the entirety of the state. Soon, it proved to be much more than the young man and his modest staff of computer geniuses could handle and he pulled in Shane and some of his old college and high school friends to help him manage the fledgling business. Toby's intuition and business savvy was dead on and national expansion seemed inevitable. But it was more than he could bankroll on his own and he quickly started scouting out investors. The more established companies seemed hesitant, wary of investing serious funds on the young entrepreneur and often sent him on his way without a second consideration. Unfazed, Toby took his campaign to businesses that were a less well-known, just on the fringe of corporate America, and was received more favorably. Recognizing the potential of Toby's enterprise, they eagerly funded him, though modestly. Toby gratefully took their investments, skillfully making their money work for him. His business management was flawless. His network grew and expanded and soon companies that considered him a risk before began to sit up and take notice, pledging him their resources as well. Even though he wasn't on the Fortune 500, Toby Williams was definitely an up and comer with a bright future.
And here he was, returning from California with another group of investors in his corner. But despite his career successes and promising outlook, Toby was still haunted by the past. Even as the passage of time eased some of his sorrow and helped repair his estranged relationship with his parents (though they were never to be quite as close as before) Toby still found his life bittersweet and unfulfilling. Contentment repeatedly eluded him despite his efforts to attain a small fraction of it. He had managed some solace with the companionship of family and friends but there remained a hole in his life that neither his business nor his ill fated attempts at romance could ever fill. It was a desperate longing left inside him after Sarah was taken.
The memory of his sister brought a lump to his throat and a stinging to his eyes. While at first Sarah's disappearance was of great focus and importance, as the years whittled away, attempts at locating her diminished. With no leads to chase down, the police's search efforts gradually lessened until they eventually ground to a halt and stopped altogether. Media coverage, which once frequented the nightly news at Sarah's station, had now waned, becoming a mere point of mention when the anniversary of her vanishing came around. Friends and acquaintances, who once lamented over her mysterious departure, reassembled their lives without her. Even his parents, who still held out hope for her wellbeing, inevitably accepted the fact that she wasn't coming back. It was now going on seven years and everybody in his life seemed to be dealing with her absence and was moving on.
But not Toby.
Even though he knew what really happened to Sarah and that there was nothing the police (or anybody else for that matter) could do to bring her back, Toby was still maddened by how unaffected those around him seemed. Toby couldn't get past his sister's abduction, he refused to; his conscience wouldn't allow it. The events of that night had left him irreversibly scarred. He became obsessed with the thought of getting her back. Somewhere out there, there was someway he could rescue his sister and restore goodness to the universe. He believed this in his heart of hearts and vowed to find a way. No matter how dangerous or impossible, there just had to be a way to save her and in doing so, save himself. But to do so meant defeating Jareth.
Toby felt a hardness form at his core at the thought of him.
Jareth, the great and terrible Goblin King, was the center of all evil in his life. Toby hated him with all the essence of his being. It was a black and burning hate that, if it could travel the time and distance between him and his despised foe, would surely strike the Goblin King dead with its mere force. But no matter how powerful his hate was, Toby knew it would not be enough to overcome his immortal adversary. It would take knowledge and cunning (and no short amount of luck) if he were to vanquish his sister's captor and rescue her from the hell she was in.
So Toby began studying into the myths and lore surrounding the Goblin King, looking for some clue as to how to best Jareth and retrieve his sister. He researched volumes of text, searching for even the slightest reference of the Goblin King. Most of the time, the information was bereft of any importance, the fanciful musings of storytellers and poets. But every once in awhile Toby would come across something of significance, that was darker and more sinister than the rest. These were the entries that caught his attention and while they supplied him with little in the way of rescuing his sister or defeating Jareth, they did give him an insight into this malevolent being.
Over the years, Toby became well versed in the legends that surrounded the Goblin King and though nothing he read about him or his heinous activities astonished him, one thing did stand out. Every civilization he read about seemed to have their own incarnation of Jareth. While he was a known siabhra in Gaelic mythology (how he referred to himself as well), he was called the Alder King, or Erlkonig, in Germanic folklore; a sinister Elven king that lured children to their deaths. The Greeks had a version of him as Phobetor, the embodiment of nightmares with the ability to change guises to interact with the mortal world. There was a personification of him in nearly every culture, Celtic, Roman, Egyptian, but even though he was called many different names in many different countries and attributed with a wide variety of supernatural abilities, Toby could still recognize him. And he wasn't only limited to one continent. His fame spread halfway across the world to North America where he was known to the indigenous people of the Northwest as well.
Toby shuffled his bag on the taxi seat next to him, anxious to explore the turquoise book he newly acquired. There was a reference within its pages that spoke of a demon of Shoshonean mythology named Dzoavits whose picture acutely resembled the Goblin King. This demon, also sometimes called an ogre, kidnapped children and wreaked general havoc on the natives (another blaring clue to his actual identity) until he was confronted by several divine beings and trapped in a cave deep under the earth with his familiars. Dzoavits was a skin walker, a creature with the ability to change into animals, though according to legends his favorite form to don was that of an owl.
It was the bit about him transforming into an owl that gave Toby an odd sensation that he just couldn't shake. It had niggled at him ever since he found the volume in the bookstore. For some odd reason, he knew there was some importance to it but just couldn't place it. Even now, as he mulled over its significance in the back seat of his cab, its meaning was lost to him. Then it clicked into place for him with sudden clarity.
The cab was barely pulled up to the curb of his apartment building before Toby bolted from the backseat, barely pausing a second to grab his satchel and throw a twenty dollar bill to the cabbie. The cabbie hollered out at him if he wanted his change but Toby didn't even hear his question. He rushed into his building, nearly plowing into one of his neighbors as she was exiting. She yelped in outrage but Toby didn't give her a second's notice. It didn't matter to him, nothing mattered to him at that moment other than getting to his apartment.
He knew why he was so uneasy by the transformation thing; he knew what the connection with the owl was. Even more unsettling, he knew when he had seen it before.
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Author's Note: Did a little reworking of this chapter. It didn't have quite the right feel to it, so I dug in and did some rewriting. I like it a lot better now but I am just a lowly scribbler. Let me know if YOU like it better, after all, you ARE the reader and the only one that matters here! ;)
