Divided by Magic

by Rebecca Danese

  "Hungry?" David asks us, and we all nod emphatically, making noises that reflect the fact that none of us have eaten in hours. "You stay right there, I’m sure I can throw something together," he says and goes through the same door.

  The room is warm and cosy, and if there wasn’t a constant feeling of panic threatening to consume me I’d probably fall asleep on the leather armchair quite happily. Instead I realise I’m still in some kind of fight-or-flight mode.

  "You alright?" Jer asks, his head leaning back against the headrest. I’d think he were asleep except I can just see the slits of his eyes. A guy used to relaxing when he can between running, fighting and the general mayhem of being an Augur.

  "Yeah, kind of," I say, rubbing my hands over my face. I appreciate how my cheek no longer feels like I was hit by a golf ball and doesn’t hurt to touch.

  Lou snorts, "Don’t lie. You’re completely freaked out."

  "Okay, yes. I’m terrified and freaked out and worried all at the same time. I’m not sure what to do with myself, and I expect some kind of government agents to come bursting through the door any minute," I blurt, angry with myself for being incapable of keeping it together.

  "We’ll get Ella. She can’t be more than a few hours ahead of us, wherever she is. The government won’t be able to find us just yet. No one will be missing that battered little car that we’ve nicked, and by the time anyone realises it’s gone we’ll be somewhere else. Different car, different city. No need to panic, okay?" Lou says calmly.

  "You’ve done this before."

  "When you’re different you get used to thinking differently. No sane person would know where all the exits are in a room at any time. No Normal is going to be worrying about being hunted or chased just because they can’t do what I can do," she shrugs. "But that doesn’t bother me. It’s a way of life and I deal with it better than some."

  "What do other people do?"

  "Oh, I don’t know. They pretend they’re normal, I suppose. Some of them numb it all out —junkies, addicts, bums and homeless. I’m sure a lot of the guys living on the street are Augurs. I was in secondary school with a girl who took pills every day because she said it made her forget that she even had powers. But God knows where she is now. No rehab is going to have her, that’s for sure. Drugs make Augurs unpredictable."

  "I’ve also heard of the Augurs consuming so much energy it practically kills them," Jer comments. I raise an eyebrow at him.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well, just like Lou needs to absorb energy to use her powers, right? There are some that get addicted to that feeling and take so much that if they don’t use it they can die." I wonder what happened to the Magic Circle members that stopped the Underground that day. Maybe they weren't Magic Circle at all but some Augurs that were chasing a high.

  My thoughts wander to all those Augurs who were experimented on with medical drugs, electroshocks and whatever else the scientists decided would be good to do with them. I find myself amazed at their resilience, but it also makes me feel sad.

  "Then you’ve got the Duke," Jer says, interrupting my thoughts. "Someone trying to possibly make a difference and make things better for us."

  It occurs to me that I haven’t managed to tell them anything about what happened before I was kidnapped.

  "I think Edward Clarence was trying to expose the Society," I say suddenly.

  "What? How?"

  I explain my temporary ploy to get into the news office and how Avers was so excited to see me when he thought I was the son of the Duke.

  "I knew he left home at the first opportunity to go and run off with the Magic Circle," Jer says with a hint of distaste.

  "Well, that was partly down to his girlfriend. That and the fact that his relationship with his father is tenuous at best. When he broke into my house this morning he was pretty passionate about the fact that the Duke was up to no good and he was determined to get us away from it all. Well, Ella actually. He couldn’t care less about me," I say.

  "So, the son turns on the father and tries to get rid of the Society. Why, though? I don’t know that the Society has done anything to the Magic Circle, has it?" Jer asks.

  "Edward Clarence isn’t really working for the Magic Circle any more, or so he says. He said that his girlfriend left and there was something wrong with the management of it which has left him on the fence ever since. I feel like there’s something about the Duke he’s not telling me, but I don’t know what."

  "He’s a very secretive man," Lou says, "I mean, I’ve been working with him for five years and I never met his son. He picked me up when I fell off the rails a few years back, homeless, stealing cars. It was just a messed-up time after…" she trails off. A memory that’s better left untouched, I think to myself. The picture of the girl, fifteen, in an encrypted computer file on Avers’ computer springs to mind. Captured, imprisoned and probably experimented on before eventually being released. Jer leans over to her and puts a hand on her arm briefly as if to say, ‘it’s okay’. She gives him a half-smile and shakes her head.

  "Same here. Not breaking into anything but drinking way more than I should and getting into more fights than I could handle. He picked me up, cleaned me up and gave me a purpose."

  I look between the two of them. If one good thing came of FADE I guess it’s that it brought two people, unlikely to have met otherwise, together. An odd match, but a good one all the same.

  "What you grinning at?" Lou asks, and I wipe the smile off my face.

  "Nothing, nothing. Just glad that you guys have each other," I say, trying not to sound too sentimental. Truth is that not having Ella here is like being a ship without an anchor. I feel like everything I’ve done lately has oriented around her, and now she’s not here I’m not sure where I fit in. My self-pity is quickly pushed from my mind when David throws the back door open. I panic momentarily until I see him carrying plates with food on them. Stuff I’m familiar with —sandwiches with cold meats, crudités and dips. He places them down on the low coffee table and heads back to get three bowls of soup.

  "You had all this in your kitchen? Were you planning a dinner party?" Jer asks what I’m thinking.

  "Always be prepared for guests. That’s what my mother says anyway." He smiles and sits down on the floor, helping himself to one of his sandwiches whilst we tuck in.

  "How long have you guys lived here?" I ask between mouthfuls. The soup is like some kind of elixir for my body, its warmth spreading through me and the colour coming back into my face. I had no idea I was so hungry.

  "Three years now in this apartment. But we met when we were twenty," he smiles again. I hadn’t really aged him, but he could be somewhere in his mid-thirties. Mumbe has another ageless face but I’d peg them both at 35 to be safe.

  "And you? Are you originally from London?"

  "Born and raised. My mum’s a West Indian brought up near York. She’d like all of you very much," I look around the room at the people that have become my friends, probably closer than anyone has been in a long time. Unlike my Dad, who would probably go completely mental if he knew I was sitting in a room full of Augurs.

  "Did Ella meet your parents?" Lou asks.

  "No, thank God they’re away right now. I don’t know how I’m going to explain all this to them when they get back. Or if I’ll even see them again," I say a little sadly. Not because of Dad, but really because Mum won’t know what happened, and Dad will be no consolation at all.

  "The war’s not lost yet, Curtis," David says kindly.

  "I know, but I feel like us running away almost means that it is. I did everything I was supposed to," I say frustratedly. "Down to giving the stick to the reporter. But now it’s all a waiting game to see if he’ll do anything with it. Then there’s the Anti-Terror Unit – we’re defenceless against them."

  "It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you’re losing more than winning," David says calmly. "But the thing to remember is that as long as you can do something about it, anything a
t all, it hasn’t beaten you yet."

  I can’t argue with that voice of reason.

  "So, what now?" I ask Lou, who seems to know what we’re doing more than anyone.

  "Now you try and get some rest whilst Mumbe finds Ella, or at least some trace of her. With any luck we’ll be hearing how Carlton Munday has been removed from post in the morning papers and any Anti Terror Unit won’t be able to touch us. We’ll be gone before they know what’s going on."

  She makes it sound so blissfully simple, and although I wouldn’t call her the optimistic type, her certainty puts me at ease. I lean back into the comfortable sofa and allow myself to close my eyes for a moment, blocking out the sounds around me and trying to concentrate on the sound of my breathing.

  "Curtis, wake up!" Lou’s urgent voice breaks the silence and I realise that I’ve been asleep.

  "Wha— what’s going on?" I panic as I see the look on her face.

  "Two black cars have just pulled up outside the flat," she says pulling me to my feet.

  "Lou, we’ve got to go!" I hear Jer calling from one of the other rooms.

  "Is it…?" I daren’t complete the question, but I think I already know the answer.

  "Yes, Curtis. It’s the ATU. They’ve found us."

  CHAPTER 15

  I follow Lou through the door and find Mumbe and David in a bedroom that must face the front of the building. The room is completely dark other than the light coming through from outside. Jer is there with them, peering through the blinds from an angle so as not to be seen, and a shaft of light spills across the wall.

  "Are we sure it’s them?" I ask, trying to keep the fear out of my voice.

  "It’s them. I just saw Steve get out of one of the cars, though he’s moving much slower than he was earlier thanks to Lou," Jer replies. I angle myself next to him to take a look myself and see four figures on the ground far below. Although it’s quite a distance and dark out, I can see the figure of Miss Banks in a long winter coat. Their breath is visible as they breathe in the cold night air and they huddle in their scarves, looking up at the buildings and completely dismissing the stolen Nissan that’s parked outside.

  I look around the bedroom and see an alarm clock on a tidy nightstand. The glowing numbers tell me that it’s 1:00am, so it’s taken them a few hours to find us.

  "How long was I asleep for?" I ask surprised.

  "We all slept for a couple of hours. Seemed like the right thing to do," Jer shrugs as if to say it couldn’t be helped. I feel frustrated that we didn’t just leave and give ourselves a head start.

  David swears and pulls Jer back from the window. "I think they just figured out which floor we might be on, or at least it looked like they were going to try. We need to get you out of here now."

  "Us? What about you?" Lou asks.

  "Like I said before, we’re not going anywhere," he says, and Mumbe nods as if to affirm it. She exhales in exasperation and gives them each a rough hug.

  "I hope you know what you’re doing," she says gravely. They hand us all hats, scarves and gloves, and I put them on followed by my coat which Mumbe hands me.

  "They aren’t disguises, but at least they’ll let you get onto a bus without being spotted for a while," Mumbe says. He hands Lou a piece of paper with something on it that I can’t make out in the darkness.

  "Get to this address and then the rest should be straightforward."

  We let them lead the way out of the bedroom and into the narrow kitchen. Along the left wall is a long worktop in marble with various appliances on it, but at the far end of the kitchen is a glass door, and I can see the balcony from the living room runs along that whole side of the house.

  "Take the fire escape ladder to the roof and do what you can to get yourselves to Acton. Stay out of sight until the first train’s out and then make your way to this address. Beryl will help you from there," he explains.

  "I’ll give Mum some advanced warning," David says, which answers my unvoiced question about who Beryl might be.

  "Thank you, both of you," I say and give them both a handshake, which seems insufficient for everything they’ve done and probably still will before the night is out, but it will have to do.

  "You’re a good kid, Curtis," David says and pats me on the arm fondly. I wonder why people insist on referring to me as a child when I feel like I’ve aged about twenty years in the past few days.

  "Curtis, get your arse up here!" Lou whispers, half way up the safety ladder that leads to the roof. Jer has gone up already, and I’m relieved to find that my leg is working perfectly as I follow behind. I catch Mumbe locking the balcony door from inside and disappearing into the dark of their apartment, which makes me feel sad and I’m not sure why. I push thoughts of how the two of them are going to face up against the likes of the Anti-Terror Unit, but I have hopes that they can hold their own.

  At the top of the ladder is a gutter running along the building which I clamber over and pull myself up onto the roof on my stomach. Jer helps me to my feet, and I take in the view.

  "Wow," I say as the sight of London at night glitters before me. We’re surrounded by rooftops of all shapes and sizes, huge chimney stacks and the combination of old and new tile work everywhere.

  "How’s your parkour?" Jer jokes, and laughs when he sees my face fall.

  "Come on, you two!" Lou says in the darkness, her voice quiet but being carried over the silence around us. London is like a different city up here, beautifully lit up but at the same time almost peaceful. I’d like to dawdle a while longer and enjoy the view, but Lou has already picked her way to the far end of the roof we’re on. She gestures for us to follow and we do so, trying to be as light on our feet as possible. The buildings are terraced here, so there are very few gaps in the row of apartment blocks, but some of the buildings rise up to more than four floors and in order to get to the other side we have to press our bodies against the bricks and shuffle sideways on a large window sill to reach the other side.

  Being in the middle of town, the houses are all connected for whole blocks before they break off into roads below, so we have to cover as much distance as we can above before reentering the streets. There’s the occasional alleyway but nothing more than a single file affair that is easily jumped over, even for a novice like myself.

  "Where exactly are we?" I ask Jer, walking lightly behind him across a long flat rooftop that feels like it must house some kind of office complex below.

  "Near Soho," he says, his breath steaming in the cold night air in front of his face.

  "And we have to get to Acton? Bloody hell, that’s a long way," I say. Lou is a few feet in front of us, her thin frame dealing with the exertion well. I reckon she’s the kind of person who would work out at least a few times a week. Other than my walk to work, I haven’t done any exercise in a while and it’s taking its toll now. The roofs here slope downwards, but there are wide flat spaces on either side, so there’s plenty of space to walk. Some have balconies and extensions built out onto them, but considering the lateness of the hour we’re fairly safe from being spotted.

  "Do you think they’ll be okay?" I ask.

  "They’re made of tougher stuff than us, that’s for sure," Jer replies.

  "They won’t have given us away, but we have to realise that the ATU aren’t stupid. Let’s just hope they aren’t right behind us," Lou looks over her shoulder as if trying to see if we’re being followed and I instinctively do the same. We’re already two houses away from where we started but unfortunately still in sight. I should be looking ahead but something catches my eye from behind the glass. There’s someone there, I’m sure of it, and as I peer into the darkness I think I see the balcony door open. "Oh my God," I say and pull both Jer and Lou down to the floor instinctively without explanation.

  "What the hell?" Lou asks me angrily.

  "Stay down, I think someone is out on the balcony," I whisper. As long as we’re still we should be safe, I hope.

  After a few minutes,
Lou decides to look.

  "Nothing coming," she whispers. "But let’s keep low just in case they’re right below us." We nod in agreement, and she picks out a route that involves minimal noise making but a hell of a lot of climbing under things. Gutters, pipes, people’s skylights all get in the way of a straight route to the end. We have to spend most of our time on all fours, partly because standing up would get us spotted faster but also because it feels almost safer to move that way when there’s so much distance between us and the ground below.

  When we finally reach the last building on the block, my body is aching with the cold despite the winter gear David and Mumbe gave us. The only part of me that still feels warm is my recently repaired leg, which I figure is some part of the healing process.

  "This is it," Lou says as the three of us peer over the edge of the rooftop. There’s a low wall preventing us from falling straight off and I sit down, leaning my back against it for a moment to catch my breath.

  "Do ya see a way down?" Jer asks. I look briefly to my left and right as Lou examines the walls below for some sign of another escape ladder.

  "Nothing down there," she says, sitting down next to me and leaning her head back against the wall. Jer crawls over to us and sits next to her so that we end up in a neat line of exhausted bodies.

  "If it weren’t so freezing I’d opt to stay here until we’re sure the coast is clear," I admit.

  "I think we should keep moving. We’ll be better off on the ground at some point. I’m just hoping that by the time we get there the ATU are long gone," Lou replies.

  "Same here," Jer adds.

  "But it’s not like we can just climb through someone’s window and walk through their house," I point out.

  They consider this for a moment.