by J M Guillen
Almost instantly, I felt nauseated, winced, and closed my eyes.
When static faded, the creature was gone.
“I do not like that idea.” I sat there for a long moment and tried to process everything that had happened. Was it possible? Could the Silent Gentlemen actually be searching for someone like me?
Bullshit. I shook myself and then stood. Probably. Probably bullshit.
“It doesn’t matter,” I muttered. “I trust Simon.”
That was the crux of it. I did trust Simon. The man had come into my life and shown me wondrous things, taught me more about myself than anyone else ever had.
“There’s much you don’t know, Liz. I don’t know why your mentor wouldn’t warn you, but somebody’s got to.”
I shuddered as I remembered the creature’s clipped words.
“Not my problem now,” I sighed and stood, resolved to get a move on. We were supposed to meet in the anime room at—
I glanced downward.
The clock read 5:58.
Monster Summoning I
Two worrisome hours drifted by.
“You’re still sulking,” Rehl whispered.
“And?” I glared at him as light flickered over his cheeks and scalp. “Maybe I like sulking.”
“Yeah, that’s it,” he scoffed.
“You guys should be quiet.” Baxter didn’t turn his gaze to us.
“We get to see you a handful of times a year.” One side of Rehl’s mouth quirked up. “You could pretend to enjoy seeing us.”
“I’m not much of a roleplayer,” I sniped.
“Liz.” Rehl rolled earnest brown eyes.
“It’s this situation with my dad.”
“We’ll handle it.”
“Oh, we will?”
“Stop it,” Baxter huffed and leaned over me to be close to both of us. “Here’s what we’re going to do. If Aiden isn’t here tomorrow morning, Liz and I ditch out of the con and head over to Knucklebones,” he whispered harshly. “That way, the Masked Brava here can stop sulking, and we can enjoy ourselves for the rest of the evening.”
“See?” Rehl gave Baxter a wide grin and a pat on the shoulder. “Bax here has it all under control.”
“Maybe.” I couldn’t help but grin.
“No maybe.” Baxter sat back. “It’s solved. Now you guys can be quiet.”
I nodded to myself. Bax’s plan felt reasonable, like a logical and intelligent move, if it weren’t for the fact that I was being stalked by Lorne’s goons and the Silent Gentlemen. Still, I didn’t have a better idea, and this way, I wasn’t alone.
“I found you.” The scratchy words crackled from the porcelain doll’s lips on the viewing screen. Her limbs stretched unnaturally, bent at awkward angles. In front of her, a wide-eyed young man gasped before turning to run. He dropped the ancient book he had used to accidentally summon his undoing.
“No!” he cried and horror sketched itself across his face.
But it was too late.
Over wet slicing sounds, the musical score screeched with tension.
Within moments, the walls dripped with his blood.
“Just badass.” Baxter slumped in his chair to my right, an open box of pizza in front of him. It remained one of humanity’s greatest mysteries how he ate so much but never gained weight.
“Give me a piece of that,” I hissed. Even though the movie was quite loud, I kept my voice down. Aside from me and my friends, one other couple occupied the anime room, and they had fallen asleep. If I had to guess, I’d say they could afford con tickets but not a room, so they ditched out here for a nap.
“Soon,” the doll continued as it waddled over to the blooded corpse, “you will know ecstasy.” She traced one finger through the blood. “You shall understand mysteries than no man has ever grasped.” The finger slowly reached for the corpse’s forehead, where it drew a diabolic sign upon the fallen body.
Those dead eyes snapped open, tremulous. The young man screamed again, in both horror and agony.
Giggling, the sanguine spirit within the doll tore into the young man, preparing to wear the corpse as it had the small manikin.
Usually, I loved anime about demons and gore, but tonight I had other things on my mind. My conversation with the why-won’t-he-be-Silent Gentleman had unnerved me far more than I would have anticipated. The way he casually dismissed my tempest—even before I could truly bring it forth—flipped me right out.
My hackles were still up. So much had happened, all at once. Earlier today, I had a plan and not a care in the world. Now I might be a reality terrorist who consorted with powers best unnamed.
“This is the good bit,” Alicia whispered from the other side of Rehl. “Watch how the writer works in the weird old guy.”
I glanced over to watch my friend slip into her accustomed pose, head tilted to one side, feet curled underneath her, comfortable as a cat.
Envious of her casual contentment, I settled into my chair and forced myself to relax. I wouldn’t get caught off guard again, not tonight anyway. Beneath my hoodie I wore two knife sheaths, cool against my skin. Just having them gave me comfort, even though logically, I knew the truth.
Knives would have accomplished nothing to solve the inhuman problem in my room. Less than nothing. “Garret” hadn’t been concerned about my abilities at all.
The thought made me feel like chewing nails.
I would very much like to offer you a… kind of opportunity, he’d said.
If everything it had said were true, things had gotten even muddier.
On the screen, the corpse shifted and then sat upright.
I shook my head. Simon had always been straight with me. But what if Simon didn’t know everything? Did his trinkets come from some demonic creature hidden behind our world? Half consciously, I touched the hoop earring he had given me and fingered the softly singing symbols.
Empyrean Seals. I frowned, thinking more deeply about everything that Garret said. If he were right, then these symbols might not be crafted from an antediluvian language. I shook my head.
If Simon were scamming me, it was definitely a very long con. I couldn’t see what he possibly had to gain.
Yet the idea of mistrust bugged me. Without Simon, I would be out of my depth, and Mr. Oh-So-Creepy had enjoyed pointing out that maybe, just maybe, I didn’t quite understand everything.
I sat in the soothingly dark room in a cushioned chair and watched an amazing flick with my best friends. I wore the world’s most comfortable hoodie and ate pizza with my wicked iron knives within easy reach.
Yet I still couldn’t find my chill.
The screen flickered static for less than a second, then resumed playing.
Rehl started at the interruption and we glanced at each other.
“Heh,” he chuckled. His lips parted to say something else when it flickered again, six or seven brilliant white flashes of snow.
“Oh.” That wasn’t the television. No, like a horrific strobe light, the world flickered around us, reality trembling and giving way to madness.
Lorne. I sat up straight.
“Fuck me!” I glared around in disbelief. “Could today get any worse?”
“Liz?” Baxter’s concern etched his face. “What’s happening?”
“You can see it?” I turned to him, eyes wide. The flickers increased their speed, and the world trembled and undulated around us.
“What the hell?” Rehl stood, head turning frantically.
I stared at them, frozen. Several times, Lorne’s unreality had pushed its way into my life, but it had always taken just me.
What did this mean?
Alicia screamed.
Silhouetted in the flickering light, a wraithlike, inhuman form hovered in the air. It peered at us intently, and its black eyes held a loathsome interest.
A dark cloak fluttered over its vaguely man-like torso. Slender, gangly arms stretched from its sleeves, but from there, any similarity to humanity ceased. Nothing but
entrails hung from the bottom of that cloak, as if its bottom half had been ripped away.
Horns of mist and shadow wreathed its head, and on its brow, an unfamiliar rune gleamed with a sunset’s fury.
It glared squarely at me, as recognition and stark glee burned in its gaze.
Shit. There could be no mistaking who it sought.
The movie flickered back on, and the spectral thing vanished. The world resumed the surreal mundanity of the anime room.
“Wh—?” asked the young man two rows in front of us. Apparently, Alicia’s cry had woken him. “What time is it?”
He peered around, realized the time, and cursed.
My friends and I sat in mute silence as he shook the young lady. She didn’t care to be roused, but he persisted.
Baxter sat and simply stared at the empty space where the creature had been.
“What. The. Hell. Was that?” Alicia turned to the rest of us, hazel eyes wide.
Rehl placed a hand on Alicia’s shoulder and said something in a low, urgent tone.
“Sorry,” the guy whispered as he led his drowsy friend past us. “Enjoy the show.”
“I think they have the right idea.” I gazed intently at Rehl.
No sooner did I speak, than the world tore itself into rivulets with a resounding CRACK. A maelstrom of muddy twilight and cascading insanity screamed into the small room.
“What?” Alicia bellowed in full crisis mode.
The exiting couple vanished before our eyes. A second CRACK resounded and the darkness fell away. In that fraction of a moment, however…
The room had completely transformed.
Gone was the wide screen television and the padded chairs of the anime room—now we sat in a rundown art deco theater from the 1920s. A large, partially torn screen hung in front of dozens upon dozens of worn red velvet seats. The entire room stank of mildew and rot. Sable darkness surrounded us.
I desperately sought the tempest of strength within me, terrified Garret somehow barred me from the Wind.
He had kept his word. My connection with that infinite maelstrom thundered back, certain as ever. I cautiously sipped at it through my straw.
Breathe, Liz. As I focused, I remembered Simon’s training—meant just for moments like this.
“You think some otherworldly crustacean gives two flying fucks about your nerves?” He stood behind my chair and prodded my back with his cane. “News flash, kiddo. Most fights are won in the first ten seconds. If you’re standing there gawpin’, it’s already too late.”
“Do you expect me to see many otherworldly crustaceans?” I rubbed the tender spot he had prodded.
“Mebbe.” He prodded the other side, and I grunted. “Regardless, you don’t have control, you’re gonna get ’cherself kilt.”
Not for the first time, I experienced a rush of gratitude for the smacks from that cane.
The moment I relaxed, I felt the echoes of Wind, quiet murmurs within my mind. They always seemed so much quieter indoors than out, but Simon assured me this likely had more to do with my own expectations than reality.
“What?” Rehl turned back to me. “Liz, did you say something?”
“Where are we?” Alicia sounded more angry than afraid.
Baxter appeared stunned.
“We need to get out of here.” I leaned over and put my hand between Bax’s shoulder blades. “Like right the hell now!”
The ragged movie screen flickered. In that shimmering, staticy light, the spectral thing appeared again. It floated before us, just a few steps away. One emaciated arm extended toward me.
I marked its position well.
The flickers stopped. The creature vanished. On the screen, the anime played as if on a reel, although shakily, with burned spots in the film.
The corpse of the young, illustrated man stared out at us, his eyes mad with things only the dead could see.
“Hello, Elizabeth,” the character croaked squarely at me. “How pleasant it is to meet with you.”
Reflexively, I stepped back into the bolted seating while my mind fanned through options. I could out run the thing. Rehl had gotten in shape while in boot camp… but what about Baxter? Or Alicia?
No. I couldn’t run. I didn’t know if my friends could keep up.
I needed help.
“Liz?” Alicia’s gaze wandered from the screen, to me, and back again. “W-what is this?”
“I need you to get up and leave.” I didn’t look at any of them, my focus entirely on the screen. “There’s gotta be a door. If—”
“It is folly to assume your friends will be safe,” the young man on the screen sneered, as if enjoying a private joke. “Any of your blood or affection are within his grasp. All tokens went on the board as soon as you broke your word.”
“My word?” A hot flush of anger burned through me.
“This can be simplicity itself, child,” the creature gurgled. “Abide by your oath, and your friends may yet be safe.”
“My oath—?” Panic completely gave way to fury, little more than tinder for the flame. I already knew the truth, but I needed to hear it. “You’re here because of Mister Lorne.”
“At his behest.” The corpse on the screen smiled, its words a rotten croak. The movie flickered again, revealing for a moment the aberrant thing that hung nearby, in defiance of all rules of physics. “I am a courier, little more. It is time you paid your reckoning.”
“Why aren’t you leaving yet?” I harshly stage whispered to Rehl. “You need to—”
“We’re all leaving.” He put one hand on my arm. “Come on, Liz.” He started to move.
“No,” the corpse jeered.
With that one word, something struck Rehl in the center of his chest. Nothing placed the strike, and nothing in the room moved.
Except Rehl.
He flew off the ground, tumbled backward two rows, and landed with a loud grunt.
Alicia and Baxter stared in mute horror.
“Rehl!” I gasped.
Rehl was a big guy, one of the biggest I knew. He served in the Army Reserves, and three times a year he went off and fought in medieval reenactments with other big guys. As far I could tell, that involved beating each other up with actual metal swords while wearing heavy plate mail.
Now he lay sprawled and groaning about ten feet behind us, tangled in the velvet seats.
I snarled at the screen and lost all control. As focus fled, the room exploded into a torrent of Wind, blowing up from behind me.
Yet in my heart, I knew the truth. Even if I could fight my way free, I had no way to protect my friends.
My choices were slim.
Simon, I thought and touched my earring. Cobalt shine burst from the tiny inscriptions upon it. Those sigils pulsed with the echo of Wind that capered behind my heart.
I relaxed into my mind and the tempest that lay there awaiting me. I had no idea if his trinket would work here in Lorne’s mirror-world or even if the magic could reach him…
Yet I had few options. Besides, he had told me that he physically felt it when I used this trinket. I didn’t know how that could possibly work…
But I believed him.
The Seals on the earring pulsed with my storm. They burned and sang. For a moment, the effort felt hard, as if Simon lay impossibly far away. I frantically hoped it would be enough. Was this even New York still?
I squinted and bore down on my focus.
“Simon,” I half whispered, half thought. “I need you. One of Lorne’s creatures found me.” He would feel my fear; he’d told me as much. “I have to do something and others are here. Innocent people.”
Briefly, weak Wind teased my hair. I heard whispers hidden within it, whispers that I thought might be Simon’s.
As always, I couldn’t make out what they said.
“It knows my name,” I thought to Simon almost reflexively. In my panic, a touch of Wind burst through the room.
Message finished, the slumbering power within the jewelr
y fell quiet.
Baxter gasped, startled by the breeze, and then turned to stare at me.
“Will you keep troth, Elizabeth?” the creature snarled on screen.
“Services were not properly rendered.” My tone came out low, calm, but a fluttery terror shivered in my chest.
“That is an opinion.” It paused. “Your opinions are not my concern.”
“How can it—?” Baxter stumbled and almost lost his glasses.
Alicia grabbed at his arm and steadied them both.
The leering face of the corpse flickered on the screen. I cocked my head at it, and Wind, fueled by anger, burst aimlessly through the room.
“Your talents are impressive, Elizabeth.”
“Liz,” I growled.
“Talents?” Alicia turned to me and clutched at her pendant.
“Liz.” The corpse nodded. “Impressive but utterly useless. You don’t imagine Mister Lorne would send a courier who could be affected by your parlor tricks, do you?”
“You can courier my message back to him, but that’s all you’ll take.”
“I’m not here to threaten you.” The corpse on the screen shrugged, a singularly grotesque motion. “You’ll either come with me, or you’ll watch those you care about suffer.”
“Liz?” Baxter remained adrift in his confusion. “What is this?”
I didn’t respond to him. I needed to stall. If I could just keep our creepy visitor talking long enough…
“Let them leave, and I’ll come with you,” I lied. The words felt tight, forced between clenched teeth.
“If you come of your own will, I will harm no one.” The twitching corpse on the screen chuckled. “Of course, I cannot say what Mister Lorne will do. He mislikes loose ends.” Those mad eyes looped around the room, drinking in my friends.
“They are not loose ends!” I narrowed my eyes.
“Come then, Liz.” Laughter capered at the edge of the creature’s eyes. “Be penitent and pay your debt. Perhaps Mister Lorne will show mercy.”
“I don’t—!”
A resounding CRACK echoed from behind us—much the same sound that heralded Mister Lorne’s uncanny nightmares intruding upon my life.