by Jen Pretty
“Wait, didn’t I see you in the club tonight?” The man
asked, following me.
Shit
“Sorry, you must be thinking of someone else. Gotta
go.” I picked up the pace, and he didn’t continue to follow.
Thank God.
I wiped the sweat from the back of my neck as I called
an Uber. The street was quiet now. Everyone was either in
the club or had wandered off to find a less crowded place
to celebrate Friday night.
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When the Uber rolled up, I climbed in and gave him
my address across town. Riverside was a small city, but big
enough that public transit was a joke. The diver sang along
to reggae music under his breath while a plastic hula girl on
his dash danced along. The car smelled like pot, but he
seemed coherent. I probably wouldn’t die in a fiery crash.
The streets were quiet at midnight, even on Friday
nights. The moon looked down from its place in the stars,
glinting off the river as we rolled along its bank towards
my apartment. I closed my eyes as we passed the graveyard
and didn’t open them again until the car stopped in front
of my building. I paid the man and stepped out, pulling my
keys out of my pocket and slipping off the high heels in
preparation of climbing the stairs to my apartment.
The sound of late-night TV was leaking out of an open
window in a lower level apartment. I didn’t really know my
neighbours except for David who lived on the top floor.
He was the super, so he came and went whenever anything
broke, otherwise, it was mostly professionals living in the
building.
The silence rung in my ears, making me feel nervous
even inside my locked apartment, so I clicked on the TV
and changed into some fleece pants and a tank top. I
checked the locks on the door and the window before
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curling up on the futon to watch some TV until I drifted
off to sleep.
The next morning, I woke up to my alarm screaming
and the sound of a morning news report.
“Police say they found the body of a woman on the
banks of Trent River this morning. The cause of death is
still under investigation.”
I located the remote in amongst my blankets and
clicked off the TV. I had an hour to get ready for work and
no time to ponder the surge in dead bodies found in the
river this month. This was the first time I had heard of two
washing up on the same day, but there were five already
this month.
I showered quickly and found some clean clothes piled
haphazardly on top of my dresser. Grabbed an apple from
the fridge and was tying up my boots when my cell phone
rang.
“Hey, Dorothy,” I said as I switched the call to speaker
and set it on the table to continue tying my boots.
“Hey, yourself. I hope you’re being careful. Did you
hear the news?”
“Yes, I heard it. I'm very careful.” No need to worry
her. I called her Dorothy, but she was the closest I had to
a mother. She was one of the nuns who helped raise me at
the orphanage and the only one who knew about my little
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magic problem. She never told me how she knew about
magic, but she taught me to restrain it and hide it away so
no one would discover my secret. Magic was not
something ordinary people knew about, but there were
some who knew, and they were the ones I needed to hide
from.
“I should hope so. You working today?”
“Yup, on my way there now,” I said, juggling the phone
and locking the door behind me.
“All right, just be careful,” she said and hung up. My
chuckle echoed through the stairwell as I tucked my phone
away.
“Good morning Selena,” the booming voice of the
building super rang up the stairs from below.
I leaned over the railing in the middle.
“Morning, David,” I replied before scurrying down the
rest of the stairs.
“How are things?” he asked, holding the door open for
me.
“Can’t complain,” I replied, and he smiled as I sailed
through the door and into the lobby. I checked my
mailbox, but it was just fliers, so I left them and waved to
David as I walked out the front door onto the street.
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Work was busy again. Saturdays always seemed to
bring out the families, so I made hundreds of burgers and
chicken nuggets.
“Did you hear about those dead bodies?” This time it
was Georgia who brought it up. It was big news in our city
since we didn’t have much crime. People were throwing
the word ‘serial killer’ around.
“Yeah, don’t go out alone at night,” I said, scraping
grease off the grill.
“No kidding. I asked the boss man to keep us on shift
together.”
“That won't help if you leave me at my place and walk
the rest of the way alone,” I reminded her.
“We can take an Uber then. My father gave me his
account, so I wouldn’t have to walk anywhere after dark.”
Her smile was ridiculous. Her father was a church minister
and had no idea what his little girl did in the dark
nightclubs. He had come into the diner once, and Georgia
pulled out this weird alter-ego that was so sickeningly sweet
I got a stomachache.
“All right, fine,” I said, flicking off the lights and
grabbing a bag of trash. “Call the Uber, I’ll just take this
out, and then we can go.”
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Georgia hopped off the counter where she had been
sitting and grabbed her phone out of her purse. It was silly
to get a ride three blocks but better safe than sorry.
I pushed open the door to the back alley behind the
diner. The various businesses that had back doors to the
alley all used the same three dumpsters. One was recycling.
The law firm always packed it with shredded paper and
the coffee shop topped it off with used paper cups.
Another was specifically for grease from my grill, and the
last was just garbage. I stepped out into the dark, propping
the door open behind me. There was a motion light above
the door, but I had to take one more step before the sensor
would pick up my movement and flick on.
I looked down just before I took that step and saw a
shadow on the ground. I twisted with the bag of garbage
to try to avoid whatever was on the ground as the light
flicked on and I toppled sideways onto the pavement,
landing within reach of what turned out to be a dead cat. I
screamed and rolled away from it. Magic swelled, and I
clamped it back down, averting my eyes. There was
movement at the end of the alley. It looked like the back
of a person, disappearing around the corner. Like a man in
a trench coat.
I grabbed the bag of garbage and threw it towards the
dumpster. Good enough. Then hopped over the poor dead
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open the back door and slid in, locking it behind me.
I took deep gulps of air and tried to calm down. My
hands clenched into fists and pushed the magic back from
the edge. If I had been holding any more magic, I wouldn’t
have been able to keep it under control and would have
had to raise the stupid cat ghost.
“You ok,” Georgia peeked out from the kitchen. “I
thought I heard a scream.”
“A cat scared me,” I said, faking a laugh.
Georgia shook her head. “Well, let's go, scaredy-cat.
Our chariot awaits!”
It took about 4 seconds to get home in the Uber.
Georgia explained we didn’t want to walk at night with the
murderer on the loose and the guy agreed with a solemn
look it wasn’t right for pretty girls to walk home un-
escorted. I rolled my eyes, but Georgia preened and batted
her eyelashes. She never missed an opportunity to flirt.
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” I said.
“Ok, I’m going to my dad’s tomorrow, but call me in
the morning.”
“All right,” I said, shutting the door and fishing my
keys out of my pocket.
The Uber rolled off and left me in the silence of the
late evening. It was more quiet than usual. I climbed the
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stairs to my apartment, lost in thoughts of the man in the
trench coat. There was no way he was out behind the
restaurant. Why would he be? I was just freaked out by the
dead cat. Unless he put it there. He could have seen me the
previous night and known who I was. I ran the rest of the
way and locked myself in my apartment.
My mind was freaking me out. All this talk of serial
killers was making me crazy. I pulled out my phone and
dialled Dorothy, but changed my mind. I pulled a bag of
microwave popcorn out of the cupboard and tossed it in
to pop. I switched the TV on to the movie channel, so I
would be sure not to see any more news. A nice romantic
comedy would help calm my overactive imagination.
I woke the next afternoon to the sound of French
voices on TV. My bleary eyes tried to focus on the screen,
but something hard was under my face. When I reached up
and grabbed it, I realized it was the remote. I snorted a
laugh and clicked the power button. Silence fell, and I
pushed myself up off the couch.
In the bathroom, I looked at myself in the mirror. The
side of my face was a pattern of circles from the TV
remote. I laughed at my reflection and flicked on the
shower. My hair was nearly blonde now, the dye never held
to my hair for long. I would have to pick up dye today
unless I wanted to be noticeable. Plans for the day
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finalized, I had a quick shower and then got dressed to go
to the pharmacy. Grabbing my keys, I swung open the
door, and my magic gathered hard and fast. I looked down
and found a dead rabbit on the floor in front of my door.
I slammed the door hard and gasped for air, clenching
my hands to hold the magic back. Someone knew. There
was no way to deny it now. A rabbit didn’t just walk into
the building and die on my doorstep. I pulled my phone
out and dialled Dorothy.
22
CHAPTER THREE
“Someone knows,” I shouted into the phone as soon as
I heard Dorothy’s soft hello.
“What do you mean?” She asked, her voice rising
quickly to match my own.
“Someone saw me, I think. Then there was a dead cat
at the restaurant, and right now there is a dead rabbit at my
door to my apartment.”
“Damn it.” I had never heard Dorothy swear. The
words just escalated my fear and tension. I tucked the
phone into my shoulder, dragged a suitcase out from under
my futon and stuffed it with clothes. I had no idea where I
was going, but I had to go. Now.
“Come home. Get off the phone with me and call a cab
to bring you here.”
“Ok, ok. See you soon.” I hung up before she could
answer and opened the app to find a ride. It said the closest
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car was seven minutes away, so I continued to jam things
in my suitcase. I tucked a hat on my head, stuffing my hair
up under it and pulled on a big jacket.
When my ride was only a minute away, I slid out the
door without looking at the dead bunny. The echo of my
boots in the stairwell sounded like someone chasing me,
and I ran faster, nearly falling at the bottom when I tripped
on the last step. I slammed out the door of the stairwel
and into the lobby.
David was there speaking with an older woman I had
seen around the building before.
“Hey, Selena. Are you ok?” he asked noticing my
flushed and harried appearance.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just taking some things to my aunt's
house,” I said. He looked perplexed, but I didn’t stick
around to let him ask questions. I bustled past him and out
the front door.
Sitting at the curb was the same Uber driver I had last
time. The plastic hula dancer swayed to the reggae music
inside.
The driver hopped out when he saw me and stuffed my
suitcase in the trunk of his car. It was already half full with
a giant set of wooden speakers, but he managed to fit my
stuff too. I climbed in and gave him the address.
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Dorothy lived in a subdivision on the other side of
town. I leaned back and tried to slow my racing heart. My
leg bounced with anxiety. This was stupid. She wouldn’t be
able to protect me. I should run, not bring danger right to
her door.
I rubbed my forehead. Sparks swirled inside me like a
toilet. I needed to calm down, or it would come pouring
out. I took a few more deep breaths and counted down
from a hundred like Dorothy had taught me all those years
ago.
Calm started to seep in, slowing the fire until it stopped
spitting and just flickered against my surface. The Uber
driver sang along to the music and cruised us across the
bridge to the suburbs. Ornamental trees lined the smaller
streets. They designed the neighbourhood for retired
people with rows of semi-detached bungalows. Hedges
and short fences lined the perfectly weeded gardens and
mowed lawns. People strolled along the sidewalks,
chatting.
The car rolled to a stop; the driver got out and fished
my luggage out of the trunk. I watched the roads for
anyone following us.
“That’s fourteen dollars,” the driver said.
“Thanks,” I handed him twenty, took my suitcase and
lugged it up the few steps to the front door. The afternoon
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sun burned my eyes as I glanced over my shoulder one last
time.
“Selena,” Dorothy’s voice almost brought tears to my
eyes.
I wrapped her up in a hug and then hurried her into the
ho
use, locking the door behind me.
“It’s OK; you’re safe here,” she said. I moved past her,
through the kitchen to the back patio door. It was also
unlocked, so I turned the lock and then set my eyes on the
kitchen window, but her voice stopped me.
“Selena, I have someone for you to meet.”
I turned and standing in the doorway to the living room
was a man holding a broad-rimmed hat and wearing a
trench coat. It was him. I reached behind me and pulled a
butcher knife out of the block, then held it in front of me,
pointed at the man.
“Come over here, Dorothy,” I said, eyes locked on the
intruder.
“What are you doing? Put the knife down!” she
demanded.
“I saw him. He’s the one who saw me, and he left the
cat,” I said, waving her towards me.
The man's lip curled on one side, and I narrowed my
eyes at him, taking a step forward.
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“She’s brave for a Necromancer, Dorothy.” The man's
voice oozed like heavy cream.
“You shut up,” I said, waving the knife towards him.
He bit his lip, hiding a smile and raised his hands in
surrender. He thought I was funny?
“Sweet girl, this man won’t hurt you. If you saw him,
it's because I asked him to keep an eye on you.”
“What? Why?” I asked.
“You have heard about the killings. Those weren’t
ordinary people who died. They had magic, like you. Kind
of.”
All the air left my lungs. There were five people like me
in the city, and now they were dead.
“I thought I was the only one,” I whispered.
The man dropped his hands and let his smile creep back
onto his face. “I’m afraid not. Dorothy did a great job
training you, but she should have alerted us to your
presence sooner. We can help you and protect you.”
I shook my head. “If someone has murdered five other
people just like me, you can’t keep me safe.”
He put his hat back on his head and smiled at me. “Sure
I can.” In the blink of an eye, he was in front of me and
holding the big butcher knife. Then he wrapped his arms
around me, and the whole room went sideways.
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Lights flashed and burned my eyes for half a second and
then I was in a busy room set up with tables and chairs like