Mana Dissociation

by Christopher George

  There was a slight jerk as the car rolled into the traffic. The two in the front seat appeared to be ignoring me as they chatted between themselves. I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying as they were keeping their voices low, but it seemed to be a disagreement of some kind.

  Eventually the policeman who had conducted the interview leaned back and threw a photograph on my lap. It appeared to be a print out of security footage that showed me and Aiden on the street.

  “That’s you, right?” he asked, nodding politely.

  “Uhh, yeah. I think.”

  In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have confirmed that. It must have been taken only seconds before the car accident. As I looked at the picture, I could see that I was running straight into the path of the oncoming car. I wasn’t looking that way though. I was looking behind me. I wasn’t surprised that they weren’t sure they had the right person. They only had a profile shot and it was quite low quality.

  “It’s safe for you to take your sunglasses off, ma’am,” The officer continued. His voice was strange. I couldn’t tell if this was a threat or something else, but it was clear that he expected to be obeyed. I hesitantly reached up and pulled the sunglasses from my face. The driver who was looking via the rear vision mirror cursed and the original police man smiled broadly, “Told you.”

  They didn’t seem at all concerned by my crazy eyes. It wasn’t possible that they could have missed them.

  “Don’t worry, ma’am,” the police man said, his tone suddenly deferential, “You’re safe now.”

  What the hell had I gotten myself into?

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  I had no idea where they were taking me and, every time I asked, they simply said that I was going ‘some place safe.’ Wherever that was. I assumed that this ‘safe place’ wasn’t the same place that they were taking Karen. Why they were separating us, I had no idea. But since I’d lowered my sunglasses, the whole mood of the car changed. Where previously they had been politely intimidating, they now seemed to be going out of their way to see that I was comfortable and content. If that was the case though, then they were doing a lousy job.

  I don’t know how long the car ride went for, but it was clear that we were leaving the business district and heading out into the suburbs. Unfortunately, the drive wasn’t doing my nausea any good and, after a few minutes, I thought that I was going to end up throwing up all over the back seat. Between the sickly feeling in my throat and the pounding headache, I really wasn’t having much fun. I wasn’t sure if the headache was being caused by the bright lights of urban London flashing past me or if my nerves had finally gotten the better of me. In the end, I simply slumped my head back onto the headrest behind me and closed my eyes. This helped a little, although it did mean that I couldn’t look out the window.

  There really wasn’t much to see given how late it was and the fact that I wouldn’t have recognized any of the features anyway. My best guess was that we travelled for about forty minutes. What kind of police station was this far away from the city?

  My fears were confirmed when the car pulled into a small English manor surrounded by a stone wall and security cameras. This place looked amazing. However, the only thing I was thinking now was that this very obviously wasn’t a police station. Where the hell had they taken me?

  The grounds were well maintained and great care had obviously been taken in the design. The car pulled up directly out front of a massive set of double doors that led into the manor. The manor itself towered over us. It was at least three stories tall and built out of a dark bluestone. In other circumstances, I would have been delighted to wander through the grounds. Unfortunately, given the circumstances, I was hesitant to exit the car.

  The driver patiently held open the door for me and even offered me a hand to help me exit the car. The policemen were waiting politely for me to exit. What the hell was going on? This was far different from the attitude they’d had when they were interviewing me earlier. What had changed? They were treating me almost as if I were royalty. That scared me. I don’t know why, but the sudden shift in attitude was scarier than anything they could have said.

  I took the offered hand and allowed myself to be guided from the car. After all, what were my options? Refuse to exit the car? They’d just come get me.

  Once outside, they ushered me through the large set of a double doors into a foyer that was larger than my apartment. I didn’t have much time to look around as they quickly led me up a set of stairs and into a long hallway. The hallway was appointed in much the same fashion as the foyer below. The only exception were several suits of armour that lined the hallway, which led down to a set of double doors at the far end of the hall.

  The whole place had a very strange feeling about it, almost as if I had stepped back in time. I almost expected a flash of lightning and an ominous crack of thunder behind me as we made our way towards the doorway.

  “Please wait here, ma’am,” they murmured as one of them disappeared behind the doors. It was only a few seconds before he returned and gestured for me to enter. I was a little unnerved when they didn’t follow me into the room. They simply closed the door behind me as I entered.

  The room was dark and lit only by a small shaded lamp on the far side of the room. I glanced around nervously. This whole setup was making me feel very uncomfortable. It was almost like those mobster movies where you’re about to meet the head of the family and told you that you have to horribly murder someone. I couldn’t help but let out a nervous giggle at the thought. It was just like me. Here I was in a strange enough situation and I was thinking of tacky mobster movies. I glanced around the room and noticed with some degree of concern that it appeared to be an office of some kind. Large animal heads were mounted to the wall and the whole place looked like it was straight out of a movie. This must have been why my mind had so obviously drawn the mafia conclusion. As I pondered, I remembered a horrible fact. Nothing good ever happened from a meeting with the Godfather. I gulped and cursed myself for letting my mind wander down that path.

  Fortunately, for my nerves, I didn’t have to wait long. Soon the door was behind me was opened and a young girl entered. She couldn’t have been more than a teenager. It was hard to see any details as the light from the hallway was behind her and the only other source of light was that stupid shaded lamp.

  “Miss Wright, I believe?” The girl began. Her tone immediately informed me that my guess about her age had been wrong. She wasn’t a teenager. I couldn’t tell exactly, but no teenager would have spoken with the assurance that this woman displayed. I had trouble placing her accent. It certainly wasn’t British. She spoke almost as if English might have been her second language, but she spoke fluently.

  “That’s right,” I confirmed, “Where am I?”

  “Don’t worry,” She assured me quickly

  “…You’re safe here.” We both finished in unison. This brought a slight chuckle from the woman. I still couldn’t see her clearly through the shadows.

  “That doesn’t answer my question,” I prompted.

  “No,” She continued without missing a beat, “But it’s all I can tell you right now. You’re a little of bit an unexpected complication.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. In my experience, the only thing people did with an unexpected complication was try to get rid of them. This line of thought didn’t help with my worries any.

  The girl moved away from the doorway and over to the window on the far side of the room. This allowed me to see her a little more clearly. I heard the sound of the doors behind her being closed. How had she done that? She hadn’t been anywhere near them. As she’d closed them, I thought I’d caught a hint of a blue flare, but it happened so fast that I could have been mistaken. The whole situation was creeping me out. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that I was seeing things.

  The reason that I thought she was a young girl was that she was of a very slight build. She was Asian. I hadn’t expected th
at. For some reason, I’d expected the owner of this mansion to be English. Now that I came to think of it, I’d also expected a man.

  Now that I could see her, I guessed that she was in her late twenties though I could have easily been wrong. Hell, it was possible that she was older than I was. I’d never been very good at guessing the ages of people that I knew - let alone complete strangers.

  She certainly was pretty. She had a look about her that indicated that you wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of her. Her eyes glittered as they assessed me. It was almost like she was attempting to see if there was any value that could be gleaned from my corpse. She had long dark hair that was cut into a straight fringe across her brow. She was wearing a black shirt and jeans, with minimal makeup and jewelry. Her whole demeanor screamed business rather than pleasure.

  “My name is May Chen,” she began, “And you can calm your fears. I’m not here to kill you. In fact, you will not be harmed whilst you are under my care.”

  This didn’t reassure me very much. The fact that she had mentioned killing me so casually only served to indicate that this had been one of their options. I briefly wondered what would need to happen before it became a viable option again.

  “Why am I here?” I said hesitantly, not overly wanting to push things. If I had thought that she was creepy when she was lurking in the shadows, it was worse now that I could see her face. Her features never seemed to reflect what she was saying. It had all the coldness of a mask, for all the emotion it showed.

  “Two reasons really.” May explained, “The first is that you simply belong amongst us, and we protect our own.” That didn’t help any. Was she intentionally talking in riddles?

  “…and the second,” I prompted.

  “We need your help.” May continued, “We need to locate and recover Aiden Penderghast.”

  “I don’t know where he is,” I instantly snapped.

  “So you say,” May continued unfazed, “But I don’t think you realize how important this is. He’s dangerous.”

  “He’s just some dumb programmer that I work with,” I retorted. How could he be dangerous?

  “No,” May’s words were firm, “He’s a wanted murderer on the run for death of his master.”

  “His master?” What the hell had I stumbled into here? Some sort of strange BDSM thing? What had Aiden gotten me into? He’d murdered someone? How was that possible? I’d be the first to admit that I didn’t know him very well, but I couldn’t picture him as a murderer. It just didn’t seem to fit. He was strange. Sure, he was antisocial. Definitely. But a murderer? That didn’t seem right.

  “It’s very important that we find him before he hurts anyone else,” May continued, “He’s not in control of his powers and he represents a very real threat to those around him.”

  “His powers?” This was starting to sound more and more like fiction, but not well-written fiction. Fiction written by someone who has given themselves a very tight deadline and is paranoid that they’re not going to meet the timeframe.

  “It’s my job to bring him home.”

  “What? So you can kill him?” I murmured sourly.

  “No,” May instantly snapped, “So we can help him. We don’t usually kill our own.”

  “Usually?”

  “It happens… sometimes,” She admitted softly, “in extreme cases.”

  I shuddered as I realized the implications. For her to even mention it, meant that there was a good possibility that they were going to kill him. She wouldn’t have mentioned it unless there was a chance.

  “We need your help, Miss Wright,” May urged, “We don’t want to see any more people get hurt because of his actions.”

  “He hasn’t hurt anyone!”

  “Not true,” May contradicted me immediately, “We’re assuming that he was responsible for the motor accident outside of your hotel. Cars usually don’t just fly into the air like that.”

  I stammered quickly, trying to form words, but May was relentless. I had a feeling that I already knew what she was about to say, but I was shocked to core nonetheless to hear it.

  “The passengers of the car did not survive the accident.” May’s words were soft, but they weren’t conveying any sympathy or consolation. I quickly blinked back several tears. I’d seen them. It couldn’t have been for more than a second, but my mind quickly recalled their terrified faces as their car sailed over my head. I hadn’t realised it although I suppose I should have. Of course, they had died. The car had landed flat on its roof when it had crashed. It would have been a long shot for anyone to survive.

  “He… was trying to save me,” I murmured brokenly, “I ran out into traffic.”

  I think that May was going to respond, but the room tilted at a ninety-degree angle and the last thing I saw before everything went dark was May reaching out to grab me before I hit the floor. I doubted she’d make it. She was an awfully long distance away.

  Just before the darkness took me, I was surprised to feel something wrap around me and lower me to the floor. How had she done that? I never found out.

  * * * * * *

  I woke up on a small couch in the same room. In the far corner of the room, May was standing facing the window. I didn’t think that she noticed that I had woken up, but without turning she indicated that there was a glass of water on the side table.

  I quickly glanced to my left and found the water. Sitting just next to the glass was a small syringe and a mobile phone.

  “We can give you something for the fever that will help,” May commented as my glance paused on the syringe, “but I doubt that you would trust us enough to use it.”

  She was right. No way was I going to let her inject me with anything. God knows what would happen.

  “You have my apologies, I didn’t realize you were going through mana sickness,” Maybe continued, “I would have been gentler, but this really isn’t my area of expertise.”

  I leaned forward and took a sip from the water. It didn’t help much; my head was still pounding.

  “What are you going to do to me?”

  “To you? Nothing,” May replied curtly, “I may do something with you, or for you, at some point, but for now, my focus is on Aiden.”

  “You don’t seem to doing much.”

  “Looks can be deceiving,” May whispered.

  There was something strange about her, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It wasn’t until she turned slightly and I could see the side of her arm that I realised what I was seeing. It was faint at first, but then more clear as seconds passed.

  There was a small particle of light on her shoulder that made it’s down towards her hand. I sucked in my breath. I recognised them instantly. It was the same lights that had been on Aiden and me. I gasped a little bit as the recognition took me. What the hell was going on? I’d managed to chalk the lights I’d seen on Aiden as nothing more than a flicker of lights from the car accident and the lights on me as a bad reaction from a migraine, but this? This was something I couldn’t explain. There was no logical reason why I’d be seeing the same pattern of lights on her. I sat back in shock. What the hell was going on?

  “For the moment,” May said as if not noticing my personal revelation, “You shall return to work. Eventually however, you will need to resign within the next few weeks. Enough time that it won’t be suspicious.”

  “Resign? Why?” I gasped, “I love my job.”

  “You will need to be trained. Without training, you might very well end up becoming the very menace that your colleague is now.”

  None of this was making sense and I certainly wasn’t going to comply with their wishes. Why the hell should I quit just because they told me to? That was idiotic. I’d spent too long at my job to simply throw it all away now. Wasn’t going to happen. Not now, not ever. I could tell that Karen was grooming me to move up in the company. Holy hell! What about Karen? Where had they taken her?

  “Where is my friend? What have you done with her?”

&
nbsp; “Nothing,” May returned simply, “I had my men simply drive her around the block and then back to the hotel. You will return back there in a few hours and you will tell her nothing.”

  “Couldn’t tell her anything anyway,” I grunted sourly, “I don’t understand anything that’s happening.”

  “We will contact you. However, in the meantime, you will take the mobile phone on the counter. You will find my details in the contact list. If I ring, you will answer it.”

  I briefly wondered how we had gotten to the part where she was giving me orders. It seemed that we had skipped a few steps. She’d simply issued me orders and it was obvious that she expected me to meekly obey. I thought about digging my heels in and refusing, but what would that gain me? A part of me still wanting to say something, anything that would put this presumptive woman back on her place, but she seemed to have lost interest in me.

  “A car has been waiting for you downstairs,” May informed me, “When you’re ready, it will return you back to your apartment. I do so suggest that you reconsider the injection,” May continued sweetly, “Mana sickness is not pleasant. Why suffer unnecessarily?”

  I didn’t take her up on her suggestion. I had no idea what her angle was but I didn’t trust her one bit. That seemed to be the end of the meeting. As promised, the cops that had brought me here were downstairs waiting for me.

  “What kind police are you?” I demanded.

  “Oh we’re not police, Luv,” One of them chuckled, “…private security.”

  “You were acting like police before?”

  “Naw, we just let you think that,” The second chuckled.

  “Are you going to take me back to the hotel?”

  “Anywhere you like.”

  * * * * * *

  When I returned to the hotel, Karen gave me another interrogation about what had happened to me and why I had been away so long. As May had indicated, they had simply driven her around the corner dropping her back at the hotel and told her that they had everything that they needed from her.