by Jez Cajiao
“Cerin Tima Shel Ma’oush…!” The words were gibberish, but as he cried out the final syllable, the stone flashed with a bright white light, followed swiftly by darkness as I collapsed back onto the bed.
This time when I awoke, I did so gradually. I kept my eyes closed, listening to the sounds around me as my mind tried to kick into gear. I was sitting upright, so I must have been transferred to a chair while I was unconscious. I heard an engine nearby…no, two engines…and a steady ‘thrumm’ filled the air. A sudden shift made my stomach drop. Then it was back, like I was riding a rollercoaster, and a voice nearby complained about the turbulence. I was on a plane, then; that much was obvious. The conversation with the greasy little lawyer came back next, and the only thing that stopped me leaping to my feet was the memory of the threat to kick me out of the plane. I had to find out what had happened to Tommy first, and then I could kick that prick’s head in. I cracked my eyes and looked around slowly. The cabin was dimly lit, with almost all of the window blinds drawn low. A sound nearby made me close my eyes again and feign sleep.
“How much longer will he be out, sir?” a feminine voice asked nearby, before a hand caressed my cheek.
“Who knows? Hopefully not too much longer. I had to use the stone to put him under. Damn fool tried to attack me!” Mr Johannes whined as the fingers slowly stroked my cheek, several days of bristles rasping against their tips.
“He’s certainly handsome enough, just like his brother,” the voice said, and I opened my eyes involuntarily. I found myself staring up into bright blue eyes that looked back in shock before a smile covered her face. “Hello, sir, welcome back to the land of the living! How do you feel? Can I get you anything?”
I blinked at her, ignoring the indrawn breath behind me and the sounds of several people moving around nearby. She was a vision: tall, blonde, high cheek bones, and eyes that a man could fall into and get lost in. Her lips were cherry red, with a perfectly even white-toothed smile. I gazed up at her, trying to find a flaw, anything. As her mouth moved, I noticed that she didn’t even have a single filling. She wore a tight white blouse, unbuttoned low enough to show generous cleavage, with a black coat, a black mini skirt, and golden jewelry to finish the outfit off. All I could do was stare.
“Sir? Are you okay?” she asked again. I realized with a start that she’d been talking before, but I’d totally zoned out and simply been looking her up and down. Get a grip, dude! I cursed mentally, even as I heard Johannes sneer something behind me. Instantly, the woman before me ceased to matter. Instead, the rage started to rise again as I tried to twist around. Finding myself tightly strapped to the chair by wrist, ankle, and throat, I nearly choked myself.
“Johannes? That you, ya wee prick?” I gasped out, shifting so that I could breathe properly again.
“It’s MR. Johannes to you, Jack.” A voice called out from behind me and the beauty was pushed back by a pair of guards that had decided now was the best time to make their presence known.
I looked up at them. Both were at least a foot taller than me, and probably weighed twice what I did, belly and all.
“Alright, lads, I’ve no shit with you, so how about you loosen these restraints and fuck off for a bit? I just need a wee word with Johannes…” I growled at them, and I caught one of them covering a slight grin with an impassive mask.
“Sorry, sir. You’ll continue to be restrained until the Baron decides otherwise,” he said, looking down at me while his companion checked to make sure the straps were all tight enough.
“Settle back and enjoy the ride. We’ve less than an hour to go before we land, and then we see what’s what.” I opened my mouth to speak again, but the woman spoke before I could.
“Surely he can have a drink and some food, Captain? He needn’t be fully released, just a hand…?”
“No chance. If you knew what his brother could do with just one hand, you wouldn’t want to risk it either. Sorry, Melanie. If you want him to be fed, you’ll have to do it yourself.”
“Very well, Captain,” she said, disappearing for a few seconds before hurrying back to my side. She saw that I was trying to speak and, with a nod from the Captain, she loosened the strap over my throat.
I coughed and whispered to her “If you think our Tommy was good with one hand, you’ve seen nowt yet, pet!” and gave her a dirty wink, my cock speaking up before my brain could get back in gear.
To my surprise, she burst out laughing and winked back at me. “I like this one!”
I glanced at the guards, the Captain stifling a grin again, but the second one looked furious. Before I could say anything else, a spoonful of mashed potato was lifted to my mouth. I ate it quickly, my stomach crying out that it thought my throat’d been cut. The mash was followed by buttered carrots, bacon, cabbage, and spiced sausage with a hint of chili and garlic, all doused with a light, flavorful gravy. By the time I’d finished and was able to speak again, I was amazed. The inflight food was the best I’d ever eaten, and the stewardess, if that was what she was, was by far the hottest I’d ever seen.
“Okay, I give. What airline is this? Because, if you’re the inflight entertainment, I’m totally sold.” I held her gaze. When she grinned at me, I looked past her to the second guard and spoke to him next. “But you’re a bit behind now, kid; totally forgot to point out the exits and wish me a happy flight. Your makeup’s good, though. Almost makes you pretty!” My natural stupidity spoke up while my brain ran in circles, trying to figure out what was happening while I hid behind a mask of bravado.
He glowered at me and started to speak, but I continued right over the top of him.
“Now, now, it’s alright. Look, I’m flattered, I really am, but despite the way you keep looking at me, I’m just not interested. I don’t swing that way, mate. No hard feelings and all that, though. Tell you what, you can hold the camera, just no sticking anything in my ass, alright?”
He went scarlet with anger, and I could see both Melanie and the Captain trying to conceal grins.
I looked back to her and winked again. “You don’t mind him holding the camera, do ya?”
“Oh no, not at all!” she said with a cheeky grin, playing the game as I’d hoped. “I don’t mind him watching at all, as long as he holds it steady. None of that shaking around!”
“Glad to hear it! So, what’s your name? As we’re going to be costarring together?”
“Melanie; and you’re Jack, right? Jack Smith?”
“Aye, I’m Jack. Sooo, you met my brother, Tommy, then?” I asked, finally able to get her into the conversation in a way that wasn’t too obvious. I mean, I knew it was still somewhat obvious, but I’d lost my job, had the crap beaten out of me, been kidnapped, and then knocked out with a magic stone. My mind was mush. The only two things I could concentrate on right now were that these assholes knew something about Tommy, and Melanie….well, she was definitely out of my league, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try .
“Don’t answer that!” I heard Johannes call out from behind me, even as Melanie opened her mouth to speak. She huffed in annoyance and slowly shook her head.
“I’m sorry, Jack, I can’t say,” she said quietly, turning away as Johannes said something else to her. I didn’t catch it, but she looked angry, and she disappeared off to the back of the plane.
“You’re a right cockgoblin, ya know that, Jo-jo?” I called out to him.
“IT’S MR. JOHANNES!” he shouted back, and I grinned at the guard captain who sat across from me.
“Nah, it’s not anymore. From now on, I’m gonna call you Daphne! You don’t mind, do you, Daphne?”
There was silence from behind me for a second, until I felt hands roughly grab my seat and Daphne’s face was suddenly inches from mine.
“You DARE speak to me like that one more time, and I’ll..”
“What? Threaten to chuck me off a plane? I’m not totally fucking thick, you prick. You don’t do all this to recruit someone, then let your little errand bo
y chuck them outta the door! Your boss wants to see me, remember! Now fuck off…Daphne!” I headbutted him. It didn’t have much force behind it, especially with the restraint on my neck, but it had enough. He staggered backward and cried out in pain, a bit of blood leaking from his hands where they were tightly locked over his nose.
I’d had time to think by now, and I realized two things. First, these assholes knew something about Tommy, so I needed to find out what it was, and second, my life was circling the drain like a turd with too much fiber in it. Going back was pointless. The best way forward was through whatever was in my way.
He swore and punched me in the gut, once, twice, and then the guards were there, separating us. I, being the responsible and sensible man that I was, immediately blew Daphne a kiss.
He went berserk, screaming and shouting, trying to get at me while both guards held him back.
It took a few minutes more to get things calmed down, with Daphne and the second guard I think I’ll name him grumpy… both at one end of the plane, and myself and the guard captain at the other, with poor Melanie going from one group to the other.
Nobody spoke for a while, but I was sure I heard the guard captain whisper ‘daft bastard’ once we were all settled. His face gave nothing away, though, so I just winked, on the off chance I wasn’t crazy, and settled back.
It wasn’t that long before the plane began descending, and a short while later, I was treated to a very simple set of instructions by my guards. “If you try to run away, we stun you. Speak to anyone, we stun you. Try to attack anyone, we stun you until you’re drooling ten thousand volts. Understand?” the guard captain said, holding up a taser and making it crackle for emphasis.
I grinned and lifted one hand as far as I could. He sighed and nodded at me. “Go on, get it over with.”
“Coolio. So, what if I fart really loud? If that gets someone’s attention, that’s not my fault, right? I don’t get tasered then?” I asked, wondering if I could manage to fart the national anthem as Tommy and I used to. I’d had a load of beans yesterday, so maybe…? Classy gent, I know.
He just shook his head in exasperation and tasered me anyway. I glowered at him once I’d stopped twitching. His friend, ‘Grumpy,’ came up and helped to free me before putting my wrists and ankles in chains and holding the taser up to my face to make sure I understood that he would use it again happily.
“You seem like a bright kid, Jack, but you’re far too much like Tommy. Both fucking stupid and having to push just to see how far you can get, so I’ll make it plain here. You piss the Baron off, he won’t give you a beating or throw you out. He’ll kill you, or more to the point, he’ll make us do it. I don’t need that shit on my conscience, so do me a favor and behave around him at least. Once he decides what happens to you, I’ll fill you in on as much as I can, alright?”
I gritted my teeth and took a deep breath, forcing the anger down as I tried to get a rein on my mouth for a change.
“One condition.” I said.
“Go on.”
“You both call Daphne by her real name, too.”
Johannes started swearing from the back of the plane, before the guard captain let loose a little grin and called out to him.
“Shut the hell up. We don’t need you making this worse…Daphne.”
I grinned at him over the incoherent sounds Daphne was making and swore to be a good boy for a bit. They released the choker on my neck and undid my seatbelt, but the wrist and ankle restraints stayed, making it difficult to walk. When an additional chain was attached from my wrists to the ankles, I had to walk half hunched over. It was uncomfortable, but it wasn’t like I had a choice.
I was quickly escorted from the plane, down a wide set of steps, and into a big black Mercedes parked on the runway. I saw Daphne, Melanie, and someone else getting into a second car, and I looked around curiously. Wherever we were, we seemed to be high in the mountains. Snow covered everything besides the runways and a small row of cheerily glowing windows in a heavily constructed concrete building. It was night now and the snow was coming down steadily. As soon as we were all inside, the cars took off in convoy, and I watched out the windows at the falling snow. I could see the side of the road, illuminated by the car’s lights, which was lined with occasional trees and a lot of snow. That was it. It was damn boring. I tried to mess with the guards, and even question them a bit, but a long look from the captain put an end to that. I’d agreed to be good, I remembered, so I did it, despite how dull it was.
I stared out at the falling snow again and tried to make sense of everything that was happening, I was in their hands, but every time I opened my mouth, I was making things worse. I recognized what I was doing: putting a ‘big man’ front on for everyone, acting like I wasn’t scared. Inside I was completely terrified, but if I let them know, they’d use that against me.
The only weapons I had at the minute were the facts that they wanted me alive for some kind of job, and I was unpredictable. Well, I’d make damn sure to keep that up.
After twenty minutes or so in the car, we finally began to slow. My ears finally popped from the altitude and speed we’d been going, and then a building came into view. It was a bit weird, part alpine ski resort, part gothic castle, and all evil overlord’s secret lair. I grimaced when we came to a stop, and I was half dragged, half led out of the back by ‘Grumpy’. There were armed guards all over the place. I saw maybe a dozen in a few minutes, all standing at attention as we walked in, watching me.
I was led through carpeted hallways, past enormous paintings and marble busts, all of which seemed to show the same man. He was huge and somehow wrong-looking, heavily built, with either really freaky hair or a terrible wig.
Every portrait looked different; here, there was a hint of scales on his skin, there, his eyes were different, the next he had claws…even his hair made me think of the governor from the ‘Pirates’ series of movies, all rolling curls and powder. The only constant beyond the face was the expression on it. Every painting, without exception, made it clear that he looked down on anyone that saw him. Prick.
After three sets of stairs and a dozen rooms later, I was finally told to take a seat in an ornate chair near to the fire. I sat quietly, the events of the last day or so catching up to me, and as much as I wanted to keep up the cocky bravado, I was just too tired. I looked around the room, seeing the gold frames on the paintings, the deep carpets, and the marble that seemed to make up the majority of the room. It fairly reeked of wealth and power.
“So, you said..” I started to ask the captain when he snapped at me to be quiet, and a sound from next door drew my attention. The room had two doors, the one we’d entered through from the hallway, and the second, which opened suddenly.
A tall guy wearing a full penguin suit stepped through and nodded to the guard first, then looked at me.
“The Baron Sanguis will see you now. Come quickly.” With that, he turned around and marched back into the previous room. I felt my arm being grabbed as the guards hauled me to my feet before I could come up with a sarcastic response.
“Remember what I said, kid. Keep it buttoned,” the guard captain muttered as they set me on my feet and gave me a rough shove to get me started. I walked through into the next room. It was larger than I’d have thought at first, maybe twenty meters long and ten across. A huge dining table took up most of the room, with a fireplace on one wall filling the space with flickering light and moving shadows. Once the door behind me closed, the room was returned to eerie gloom, lit only by the firelight and a few flickering candles. I looked around, seeing nobody, but by the fire were two chairs, one regular and the other massive. They were turned away from me, but I saw a hand appear and gesture lazily toward the smaller chair.
I walked forward cautiously, circling the smaller chair and taking my time to look the Baron over as I sat down, promptly being tied in place.
Even sitting, he towered over me, easily over seven feet tall, heavily muscled, with a beer
gut that his tailored clothes struggled to contain. His hair was thick and white, curls falling down to surround the face, and his eyes…his eyes were wrong. The hair was obviously a wig, and the size was weird, but his eyes didn’t belong on anything human. They had vertical slits, like a crocodile’s, golden with streaks of silver through them. The white of his eyes were a dark bloody red hue that reflected the firelight
Even as I hunched back from him in the chair, my eyes roamed over him, observing the other differences. His skin was scaled like a lizard’s, his fingers were longer than normal and tipped with black talons, and his teeth were pointed and sharp like a predator’s. Combined with his eyes and size, I knew straight away he wasn’t human. It wasn’t just a costume or something; no, this was some kind of alien. That was the only possibility. I just hoped he wasn’t going to kill me and eat me. Scratch that, I hoped he wasn’t going to shag me first, then kill and eat me. Or shag me at all. Please god don’t let him want to shag me...
“So. You’re Jack,” he said, sitting back and holding his hand out to the side. Before I could do more than wonder about the mannerism, a short, pretty Latino girl darted in and slipped a crystal glass into his hand. Amber liquid swirled and ice clinked as he took a swig.
I had flinched, hearing a surprisingly human voice come from the creature, and a little of the terror faded, replaced with growing curiosity.
“Aye, I’m Jack. Who’re you, then?” I asked, despite myself. I felt a little fear worm itself into my heart, and ruthlessly squashed it down. The man looked like a nightmare given form, and sounded like Boris bloody Johnson, but despite that, he held the power here, and I didn’t doubt I’d regret crossing him. Keep it cool, dude. Just see what he wants, find out about Tommy, and get the fuck outta dodge…
We stared at each other for a long second before someone moved between us, and before I could do anything, a fist slammed into my stomach, doubling me over in pain. I groaned and looked at the captain as he bowed to the Baron and stepped back.