The Last of the Red-Hot Vampires Read Online Free PDF Page B

I took so long. I had a little difficulty with a right turn…dear god in heaven, what are you doing?” Sarah stopped about ten feet away from me, her eyes huge.
    â€œHallucinating, if you must know, and all because you wanted to see a silly fungus ring. Would you mind taking me to the nearest hospital? My mind is under the influence of some pretty psychedelic mushrooms, and I think I need to detox somewhere quiet.”
    â€œYou’re…you’re raining!”
    â€œNo, that’s just part of the hallucination.” I stopped, a little chill rippling down my back. “Wait a sec…are you saying you can see the cloud above me?”
    â€œOf course I can see it,” Sarah answered, walking around me in a big circle. “I’d have to be blind to miss it. It’s right above you, one cloud, raining on you. Nowhere else, just you. How on earth are you doing that?”
    â€œNo,” I said shaking my head, refusing to believe the impossible. “It’s not really here; it’s just an illusion brought on by hallucinogenic fungus. You must have been close enough to the ring to have breathed it in as well. We should get to the nearest hospital if this fungus is so potent.”
    â€œDon’t be ridiculous, Portia,” Sarah said, coming to a stop in front of me, her face beaming awe and delight. “It’s the faery ring! This is part of the magic, although I have to admit I’ve never heard of rain faeries. Still, even you can’t dispute that this is something well out of the realm of normal!”
    â€œOh, I admit it’s not normal to get high off of fungus found lying around on the top of a hill, but it’s certainly nothing that can’t be explained by an understanding of chemistry, medicine, and biology.” I thought for a few seconds, my eyes narrowing as I mulled over a possible explanation. “It could have been Hope.”
    â€œIt could have been what?”
    â€œWho, not what. A woman by the name of Hope. Perhaps she was real after all. It’s entirely feasible that this whole thing was a setup, you know. She may well have known that there was a fungus here with properties that left someone susceptible to hypnotic suggestion.”
    Sarah fixed me with a confused gaze. “Someone named Hope hypnotized you while I was gone?”
    â€œIt would explain the delusion about the rain cloud. And the lights could have been the hallucinogenic starting to work on my synapses. Yes. I like that hypothesis. I am willing to bet that if Hope hadn’t heard you coming up the hill, she would have tried to rob me. It’s probably some sort of a scheme to fleece innocent tourists. We should definitely report this to the police, after we go to the hospital to get checked out, naturally.”
    â€œPortia, you’re not making a lick of sense,” Sarah said, shaking her head and pointing to where the fantasy cloud hovered over me, still gently raining. “I have not been hypnotized, nor am I under the influence of any drugs, hallucinogenic or otherwise. You have a cloud over your head, raining only on you. You are standing in the middle of a very famous faery ring, and you ate something that grew out of that ring.”
    â€œYou’re right,” I said, stepping outside the ring. The rain cloud followed me. I ignored it as best I could.
    Sarah looked remarkably cheerful. “Really? You admit I won the bet? You concede that this is a bona fide paranormal event?”
    â€œOf course not! I meant that you were right about me ingesting the blades of grass I was chewing on. Not that I ate them per se, but if the fungal spores had been brushed onto them, and I put them into my mouth, it could well mean that Hope had no part in it, and it’s all just an unfortunate coincidence.”
    â€œI think you’d better tell me exactly what happened while I was gone,” Sarah said, pulling out a small voice recorder.