by Anh Do
‘Since you aren’t in any pain,’ Sidhana said, ‘there’s nothing for me to prescribe. I’ll refer you to a specialist who may be able to tell you more.’ He started filling out a form.
‘So that’s it?’ said Kelly. She felt nauseous, as if every patient’s worries were becoming her own. She heard snatches of them around her …
… silly nose won’t stop running…
… can’t work if I can’t use my hand…
… this medicine tastes gross…
They closed in, threatening to overwhelm her. Then her mother’s hand on hers felt warm. For a moment Kelly was comforted as Hannah smiled reassuringly – but then she heard her mother’s thoughts too.
Why is this happening to my little girl? We can’t afford surgery and specialists…
Kelly couldn’t get out of there fast enough, almost dragging Hannah by the hand. As they stepped out into the early evening, her head immediately began to clear. Outside, she could still sense other people’s thoughts, but they were much gentler, more like wisps on the breeze.
A suited man walked by, head down, dragging his heels. I have to find another job before we lose our apartment…
A young woman cycled past. It’s not right. He didn’t want to join the KG. They forced him to sign the forms! I miss him…
‘What’s wrong?’ asked her mother, and Kelly realised a tear was rolling down her cheek.
‘I … don’t know … something is … happening to me …’
Did she belong in a psychiatric hospital? Maybe she was just imagining all of this? It couldn’t be real. This kind of thing didn’t just happen out of the blue! A presence closed upon them rapidly, and as Kelly turned, a man in a drawn hoodie ripped Hannah’s handbag from her hand and raced off into the dusk.
Hannah cried out in alarm. ‘Stop!’ Her wallet was in that bag, and all her cards. ‘Please stop!’
Kelly felt a rage – her rage – that blotted out everyone’s thoughts and feelings.
She took off after the mugger.
7
Transformation
The mugger wove between bystanders, clutching Hannah’s handbag to his chest. Kelly’s vision narrowed on him as the world flashed by. The energy flowed through her legs once again as they pumped like pistons.
The mugger darted down a side street. Kelly skidded around the corner after him, and the pavement cracked under her heels.
As she closed in, a strange sensation blossomed in the centre of her forehead. For a moment she was blinded by a brilliant light. Then a pressure that she hadn’t been aware of was suddenly released.
Kelly stumbled to a stop. Confused, disoriented, she reached up to her forehead and was shocked to discover something protruding about five centimetres. She turned to a shop window and could not believe what she saw reflected.
It was a sharp white horn.
As weird as it was, the horn did not feel foreign. It was a part of her.
She heard feet hitting the pavement – the mugger was getting away. She resumed the chase, and on the straight he didn’t stand a chance. Kelly was quickly back to full speed and, as she neared the thief, she leapt and planted a foot square in his back.
With a cry the mugger went sprawling. As he rolled over, she stood over him, fist clenched.
‘You have something that belongs to my mother.’
The terrified mugger slowly raised the handbag. Kelly reached out and snatched it away.
‘I’m sorry,’ stammered the mugger. Now that Kelly saw him closely, she realised he was actually younger than she was. Just a boy, really, a frightened boy. She sensed his hunger, and his desperation.
The Capital was full of people just struggling to get by.
‘You know what the KG do to thieves?’ she said.
The boy started to nod, eyeing the horn protruding from Kelly’s forehead.
‘Lucky for you I’m not the KG,’ said Kelly.
I’m just a girl with a horn sticking out of her head, she thought.
‘Get out of here.’
In an instant, the boy was on his feet, racing into the night.
‘And don’t steal any more stuff!’ she bellowed.
The echo of her booming voice brought her back to herself, and she was suddenly aware of how exposed she was. She spun about, hair whipping, and saw people across the street, staring. One of them had his netpad pointed towards her with the recording light on.
Kelly took a step towards him with a strong urge to smash the pad, but then she noticed security cameras tracking her movements.
She turned and jogged off back the way she had come, now feeling worn out. As soon as she found a dark lane she took it, and the shadows closed over her like a welcoming blanket.
As she made her way back to where she had last seen Hannah, she reached up to her forehead. The horn was still there. It wasn’t painful – it just sat there like it had always been there.
‘Don’t think pimple cream is gonna get rid of this one,’ Kelly muttered to herself.
She snuck back to within sight of the medical centre. From an alley, she spotted her mother being questioned by two Hornets on the street. Kelly fought the desire to run to her, and instead strained to hear what was being said.
‘… get a good look at this thief?’ said an officer.
‘No,’ said Hannah. ‘It was all a blur.’
‘And you say your daughter pursued him?’
‘I … yes.’ Hannah looked miserable. Kelly could sense she didn’t want to tell the Hornets anything, but there had been witnesses and cameras. She had no choice.
‘Sounds like she’d make a great addition to the KG!’ said the officer with a chuckle. ‘Very well, Mrs Swift, we’ll review the footage and get back to you. Go home and wait for your daughter. We’ll be in touch if we have further questions.’
As Hannah stepped away from the officers, one of their comsticks began to beep. The officer drew it out, raised the aerial and listened for a moment. Suddenly, his hand shot out to Hannah’s shoulder.
‘Stop right there!’
Kelly could see the dread on her mother’s face.
‘Some unusual reports have come in about your daughter,’ said the officer. ‘You’re going to have to come with us.’
Kelly told herself she couldn’t take on the KG in the street. It wouldn’t do any good. Right?
All she could do was watch in absolute terror as her mother was led away.
8
A Moment in Time
Stanley leant against the four-wheel drive, enjoying the fading warmth of the engine as a cold breeze ruffled his hair.
It was peaceful in the Glasshouse Mountains. Here, near the northernmost border of the Northern Kingdom, they were far from the grey buildings and traffic-choked streets of its capital. The landscape was pure, unspoilt and serene – a serenity somewhat ruined, Stanley thought, by the presence of fifty or so Kingdom Guards.
‘Stanley!’ barked William.
Sighing, Stanley made his way up to the top of a rise where the Collector stood beside a giant canvas.
‘Yes, Collector?’
‘They say this place is spectacular at sunrise,’ gloated William. ‘And they’re not lying. Do you see that view?’
Dawn was breaking. The sky turned purple and orange, and below, fields of grass stretched to the horizon. In the distance, a winding river sparkled. A herd of red deer strolled towards it to drink.
William grinned, his gaunt, ugly face somehow even uglier illuminated by the light of the new day.
‘Spectacular,’ William repeated. He turned to face Stanley, waiting for the man’s docile agreement.
Stanley bit his lip. ‘Indeed, Collector.’
As he watched the deer, Stanley’s thoughts turned once more to Prophecies and Portents. The graceful deer reminded him in particular of the passage about other, more unlikely beasts.
‘The Golden Unicorn, the Minotaur and the Griffin will be born again as children of humanity’, it read. Was
it even possible, Stanley allowed himself to wonder, that this Golden Unicorn might be hidden down there somewhere? Perhaps one of the beasts might suddenly charge up the hill and skewer the Collector through his worm-bitten heart?
No, Stanley thought. The book hadn’t talked about the beasts as ‘beasts’ per se. It said that an aspect of the mythical beast would take its form in a human being. But how?
The book had also said something about a ‘seeker of things lost’ finding the Golden Unicorn. Who was that? A little voice at the back of his mind whispered that, as an archaeologist, he was a seeker of things lost … but the book couldn’t be talking about him, could it?
Although he couldn’t possibly believe such a thing, Stanley still considered the riddle. The more you take, the more you leave behind? What can this be?
Nothing he could think of seemed to fit. He considered what else he knew.
He had researched unicorns in other ancient works and found many possible descriptions. Everyone agreed the creatures were good and pure, and that their horns held great magic. Some even suggested that unicorns shared a telepathic link with their own kind.
This particular point made Stanley wonder – if the reborn unicorn was human, would they be connected to the minds of other humans?
‘Time to begin,’ said William.
In a now-familiar routine, the gaunt man reached out and swept a hand slowly over the panoramic view. Across the land, colours began to run, as if everything was turning to wet paint. The grasses waved like they were caught in a strong wind as the green bled from them. Distant trees became flying dots, zipping through the air. The deer turned to red streaks. Even the radiance of the sun itself whorled towards them. Vibrant streams of colour flowed through William and onto the canvas.
It was, Stanley knew, just one more moment of time stolen from the entire world to satisfy a single man’s greed. The immensity of the robbery made him grind his teeth. You vile man, Stanley thought. You vile, vile man.
As Stanley stared, he couldn’t help but eye Lucifer’s Ring as it glinted on William’s finger. What if he lunged for it right now? Ripped it off and turned it against the Collector? The fool wouldn’t know what hit him. After all, William’s arrogance made him feel invincible, even if …
Stanley noticed Captain Aiken watching him with her piercing eyes. It was like she knew what he was thinking.
Stanley went to avert his gaze, but Aiken appeared to have already lost interest. She probably didn’t consider him a threat.
Stanley had watched Aiken’s quick rise through the ranks, from junior officer to squadron commander. She’d first caught William’s attention when she delivered him an entire family of albino tigers she’d found trying to hide. Slowly but surely she’d risen to become Captain of his entire army.
Stanley had always wondered what Aiken’s loyalty was born of. Was it power she wanted? Or something else?
A soldier ran up to Aiken and handed her a netpad. Her eyes grew wide. Meanwhile, the Collector’s hand continued to move across a dying landscape.
‘Sire?’ said Aiken.
‘What is it? Can’t you see a great artist is at work?’ hissed William, not looking away from his canvas.
‘I think you’ll want to see this.’
William spun around with eyes aflame. ‘This had better be …’
Aiken held up the netpad.
In the recording, a young woman chased a hooded boy along a city street, her hair flying wild behind her.
‘What am I looking at?’ William growled impatiently.
‘Any second now, sire,’ Aiken said. She fast-forwarded until a blaze of light appeared to shine out from the girl’s forehead, fading to reveal … a bright white horn!
William’s eyes widened. He went to speak, but he was spellbound as he watched the girl move faster than it seemed possible, launching herself at the boy, then kicking him to the pavement.
As everyone looked on in disbelieving silence, the girl stood over the boy, said something that the audio couldn’t pick up, then fled.
‘Is … is that real?’ whispered William.
‘By all reports,’ said Aiken.
‘No tricks? No digital tomfoolery?’
‘Verified by security cameras in the area.’
‘Where?’ demanded the Collector, salivating.
‘The Capital,’ said Aiken.
William turned. ‘Any explanation for this, Stanley?’
Stanley, still in a kind of daze himself, fought to get his thoughts in order. It was her. The whiteness of that horn, like one carved from unblemished pearl, the mane of her golden-blonde hair, her speed … she had to be what the ancient text had described. She had to be the Golden Unicorn!
‘Perhaps some kind of genetic deformity?’ Stanley said, doing his best to sound unimpressed. ‘There have been many cases of—’
‘Nonsense!’ the Collector interrupted. ‘That is no mere disfigurement! That girl has a magnificent horn in her forehead! You saw the light. It must be magic!’
He strode towards the cars, his canvas now forgotten. ‘She will be mine. Ready the jet! We leave for the Capital immediately! Aiken, alert Capital KG!
Capture that girl! Alive, hear me? I want her alive!’
As the group swarmed into activity, Stanley glanced at the abandoned canvas, a half-finished picture of the highlands smeared across its surface. Beyond it, streaks of colour remained in the land itself. Water splashed back across the empty riverbed. Deer ran in panic. The sun returned to full strength as it rose into the sky.
At least, Stanley thought, he did not get it all.
What dark times they lived in when such a thought seemed optimistic.
‘Stanley!’ bellowed the Collector.
Stanley hurried after the Collector, his sadness replaced by excitement. They’d found the Golden Unicorn. She was real! Now Stanley had a purpose, a goal. He would find a way to help this girl and keep her out of William’s clutches.
And then, Stanley hoped against hope, perhaps she would be the one to stop the Soul Collector … once and for all.
9
Clothes and a Couple of Bucks
Kelly slumped behind a dumpster, staring up at the night sky. There was no way to make sense of the past twenty-four hours. She had been questioned by Hornets, grown a horn, run at incredible speeds and developed mind-reading powers. Her mother had been taken by the Kingdom Guard, and they wanted Kelly too.
Kelly wiped away tears. She had to banish the fear that was threatening to overwhelm her. Her mother was all she had left in the world. It’s all my fault, she thought. All my stupid fault.
But in the depth of her despair, Kelly discovered there was a little something buried deep inside her – determination. I have to keep going. I have to keep going so I can get my mum back.
Where could she go? She had no chance of getting into her apartment building undetected. Anyone she was friends with on LifeScape was probably being watched. She toyed with the idea of going to Mr Wong, but she wasn’t sure if his dislike of the KG extended to harbouring ‘persons of interest’.
She thought about her staff locker at Clyde’s. Inside was a change of clothes, a little cash and some muesli bars. She knew the building code too, as sometimes she had to lock up after hours.
It was the best – only – idea she had. Rising, she stretched her legs and gave herself a shake. Then, careful to avoid busy streets, she made her way through the city to Clyde’s back entrance.
The carpark behind the shop was well lit, and above the door security cameras swivelled back and forth. If she was quick, she could run in when they were both turned away and open the door. She figured she had about twenty seconds total. Not enough time for a normal person, but as Kelly was growing to realise, she was anything but normal.
Kelly readied herself, and as soon as the cameras pivoted away, she took off across the carpark. The cameras reached the end of their sweep and began to turn inwards as she slammed against the door and typ
ed in the code. The panel shone green and she pushed through the door, then quickly closed it behind her.
The shop was dark, but Kelly knew it well and made her way along a short corridor to the locker room. At that moment, her locker seemed like a treasure trove.
She changed out of her uniform into trackpants and a poncho – much easier to run in. There was an old cashcard which wasn’t personalised to her, so she slipped it into her pocket. She wasn’t sure how much cash was on it, but she could use it without being traced.
Kelly unwrapped a muesli bar and stuffed it into her mouth – she hadn’t realised how ravenous she was. It was only as she finished up the final crumbs that the thought reached her, as clearly as if someone had spoken.
There’s someone inside.
She spun about, but there was no one there. Her horn tingled – was it like a telepathic antenna?
‘It might be her.’
She definitely heard the words spoken this time, the voice coming from outside.
‘Call for backup?’
‘No. Resources are already spread thin. If it’s her, the three of us can handle her. She’s just a young girl.’ Even if she is some kind of freak, came the extra thought the Hornet didn’t utter.
It was three men, somewhere nearby. When Kelly concentrated, when her own heartbeat wasn’t threatening to deafen her, she could sense roughly how far away they were and in what direction.
Two were at the back entrance, one at the front.
‘Cover both entrances, then we enter.’
If Kelly stayed in the locker room, she’d be like a rat in a trap. She raced down the corridor and out into the main area of the supermarket. She whacked into a discount display in the dark, sending cans clattering to the floor.