Unfinished Muse by R.L. Naquin Page A

humans
traveling to and from other parts of the building. I didn’t see
Phyllis anywhere, but couldn’t stop to look for her. Audrey kept
moving toward the front door where I’d come in that morning. She
grabbed my sleeve and pulled me through. I blinked in the bright
sunlight.
    We were not in Topeka, Kansas.

Chapter 8
    I frowned and looked back at the door. The building
behind us was now an abandoned McDonalds. “What just happened?”
    Audrey rolled her eyes. “I touched the door
first. Didn’t they explain it to you in orientation?”
    I shook my head. “If they did, I missed it.
We’re not in Topeka?”
    “No, we’re in Charlotte, North Carolina.”
She waved her arm. “This is the town I’m connected to, right
now.”
    “So, I live in Topeka, but I work in
Charlotte, halfway across the country?” My head felt like it was
full of bees. “What if I went out the door first?”
    “Then we’d be in Topeka. Your base.” She
pointed at a single car in the parking lot as she walked. “Your
assignments will be in Topeka when you’re on your own.”
    It made sense, if I didn’t think about it
too hard. All week I’d been parking on the street in the worst part
of town outside an abandoned building. No other cars were parked
around me, and the only person I saw was that homeless dude who
hung out near the entrance.
    I glanced back at the empty restaurant as I
slid into Audrey’s car. A scruffy man walking a pair of corgis
appeared around the corner. He raised his arm and waved at Audrey,
and she waved back.
    Interesting. Next time I saw the homeless
dude in Topeka, I’d have to take a closer look.
    Unless he was peeing on the wall again. I
did not want a closer look at that.
    Audrey drove us across town with the radio
up loud enough to discourage conversation. I hoped she’d warm up to
me eventually, but so far, I was still feeling a chill from her.
Maybe that was her personality, or maybe she disliked training new
people. Who knew? For now, though, I tried not to rub her the wrong
way. I already felt like I was off to a rocky start at this new
job.
    We parked and left the car at the curb in an
average-looking suburban neighborhood filled with older trees,
two-story houses, and family cars in the driveway.
    “The first thing you need to know is about
parking.” Audrey pressed the auto-lock button on her keys and the
nondescript, blue four door’s lights flashed. “One block up, one
block over. That’s the rule of thumb. Of course, you can’t always
do it that way, but that’s the ideal we strive for. The most
important thing is not to park right out front. Especially since
you could end up going to the same place every day for weeks. Don’t
look like a stalker. Neighborhood watches are filled with
assholes.”
    She handed me a sheet of paper with a name,
address, and description of a person living at that location. The
address was 1311 Oak Street. We currently stood in front of 1214
Elm Lane. I glanced at my high heels and made a face. Then again,
hers were three times higher than mine. She must’ve built up some
stamina to wear the damn things every day.
    We walked one block up, then turned the
corner and walked half a block before Audrey stopped me.
    She glanced around. “Okay. This is where it
gets tricky. Give a little look around to be sure no one’s
watching. It’s okay if they see you. They’ll forget. But if they’re
actually watching you, they might remember.” She looked around
again, then pointed to a spot on my belt buckle. “Now, press that.”
She did the same.
    Absolutely nothing happened.
    “What did we do?” I held my hand out and
examined it. No difference. Not even a fancy shimmer effect.
    She took off again, talking over her
shoulder. “We’re invisible.”
    “I can see you, you know.”
    She flapped her arm at me but didn’t slow.
“Of course we can see each other. We both have belts on.”
    “Oh. Of course.” I directed a scathing look
at the back of her