arms were so weak and tingly that it just kind of wobbled in my hands. The lid wavered a little in the air and I tried to steady it. "Now get out of my way."
"I just need to ask you if - "
I didn't hear anything he said after that; the tingling heat in my fingers escalated into an electric buzz running up my arms and into my shoulders that distracted me too much. I could almost feel it in my teeth. What the hell was up with this damn lid? Was it electric or something? I tried to tighten my hold on the handle as best I could, but then ... I don't know if it was the glare of the sun bouncing off nearby windows or what, but despite the shade, something that looked like electrically charged strings of yellow light danced over my hands, and spread out to the rest of the lid, and I screamed and dropped it to the ground with a clang.
Only when it hit the ground, it ... changed. Slowly, the lid curved into a saddle shape, the metal creaking loudly and little sparks of yellow light shooting out of it as it morphed. It rolled around on its ... back, I guess ... for a second, and four short legs squealed out of the edge of the lid. Then, under its own power, it righted itself onto its feet and a short, straight stub of a tail formed at the side facing me. At the side facing the guy, the shape of the top of a terrier-looking dog head formed and then it sort of ... well, for lack of a better term, I'll say it growled at the guy, although that could have been the sound of the mutating aluminum. I don't know. I've never heard aluminum mutate before. Apparently, neither had the guy, because he jumped back a bit, staring down at the thing.
Do you believe in magic? I heard Davina's voice say to me from the far reaches of the night before.
No, I thought back at her.
The aluminum dog growled again, going for the guy.
"Son of a bitch," the guy grunted, stepping back. That's when the dog jumped up into the air, heading for the guy's kneecaps. The guy darted to the side, and in the air, in midjump, the thing turned back into a lid, and it landed on one edge on the asphalt. We both stared at it for a moment as it wobbled like a twirling coin until it finally stopped, flat and dead and still on the ground.
My voice was weak and strained even to my own ears. "Did that trash can lid just turn into a dog?"
There was a flash of something on his face - anger or terror, I couldn't tell, the break was so brief - and then his lips tightened together and his face was stone again.
"Yeah." He swallowed, then met my eyes. "That never happen to you before?"
"Are you asking me if I've ever seen a trash can lid turn into a dog before?"
"No," he said. "I'm asking you if you ever turned a trash can lid into a dog before."
"No," I said. "That was you."
He stared at me, confusion on his face.
I pointed at the lid and repeated myself. "You did that."
More silence.
"Well, it certainly wasn't me," I said, my voice almost making it into screech territory as I said the words. My memory flashed on the tingling in my arms, the weird yellow light that had seemed to come from my fingers ...
"It wasn't me," I said again, trying to sound more forceful, to convince myself. I was almost able to do it. For his part, he just stared at me, seeming just as stunned as I was. After a moment of this odd silence, I remembered that I needed to escape from the crazy guy who just turned a trash can lid into a dog - it was him, it had to be him - and I took a few wobbly steps back, and pointed toward the street.
"I'm going to go home now," I said carefully, "and you're going to go wherever it is you go, and leave me a - "
"No!" He grabbed my arm, his grip tight on my wrist, hurting me. "I need to know if you've seen her."
"Seen who?"
And right then, seemingly out of nowhere, another trash can lid flew over my shoulder, knocked him in the head, and sent him spiraling against