by P. S. Power
Sweeping seemed a lost cause until people cleared out and reorganizing the shelves made no sense either. It felt to him that the people milled and picked things up because they didn't know what else to do with themselves. Well, he could fix the store later, if they needed to mess it up now in order to gain some small bit of comfort. It wasn't like his normal day was so busy he couldn't find time for it.
A small man, who looked Asian, possibly Chinese, came in at about eight-forty-five or so. After glancing around the shop for a few moments, sizing things up or looking for exits maybe, he headed to the counter. “Excuse me please, but I'm Wu-Li. I believe I 'm expected?”
“Ah, yes I believe you are, Master, if you'll come this way?” Zack hopped up quickly, and led the gentleman to the back.
Something about him seemed... strange. His inner-self moved in near perfect unison with his outer self, which struck Zack as unnatural and a little eerie. It occurred to him that his own Shadow self must be even more off-putting to people than this was. The man just seemed... perfectly honest in everything he said and did. Not a bad thing, just different. Pure. Focused.
Going straight to Lisa's office door and knocking without hesitation Zack called out, “Lisa, Master Wu-Li is here...” The door opened nearly immediately, but instead of letting the Master in, Lisa came out and shut the door behind her.
She'd changed into a white robe-type garment. It looked a little like something Greeks or Romans might have worn in ancient history to Zack. Pretty. It probably had to do with this power raising ceremony thing that they, the Mages, had planned. He wondered if that circle they kept under the rug had anything to do with it?
Lisa passed Wu-Li a photo of a young girl. “This is Jennifer. We have a half dozen volunteers to go with you, but... I don't think we can get you there in time. We can raise the power to open a gate to the local node, but even if we did it within the hour, you may not be able to make it to where we guess she's being kept right now before her father kills her at midnight. They may not even wait that long, midnight's just a guess...”
Zack went cold hearing this.
He felt his pulse start to race without control. It took work to hide the shaking of his hands which he did by holding his arms across his chest, folded. Then taking a deep breath he locked down his fear for the little girl, that anger at her father. It was pure rage really. Then Zack focused his mind as intently as possible, on nothing at all. The shaking eased a little.
The burning desire to harm the man didn't.
This left a few questions for Zack, even though everyone else seemed to understand the situation. For one thing, why did her father want to kill her? The girl in the picture looked maybe six or seven... Why not just sell her into sexual slavery, like normal parents?
Zack caught himself instantly and stopped thinking about that. That wasn't normal and didn't bear thinking about right now.
If they had her picture, why didn't they just find her in the shortcut in front of them and go get her? They were all mages after all. Even a child could do it. He could do it. It was scary to imagine and he started shaking again.
Lock it down, he told himself. Come on, don't freak out here. Ignore this. Don't think about it.
Only... she was just a little girl. Someone had to help her and if these people didn't know how... Glancing at the point above the circle again made Zack feel weak, sick. Anger circled through this too, at a father that would kill his own child like that.
He went back to the front of the shop, shaking harder now, shivering like he stood naked in the snow. Zack felt his breath catch and felt like sobbing. Things, black things, bad things, threatened to surge to the front of his mind. It made him feel things. Horror being the least of them. To get through it he forced his mind to be quiet. Silent even. So carefully not thinking about his own past that he almost didn't notice when the clock struck nine.
Zack locked the door and turned the sign to say they were closed.
Time to go now, he thought. His feet carried him to the back room, almost against his will. It felt strange to him. Like he wasn't really in control of himself. Zack knew he should just go home. He didn't want to go to the back room. The position was store clerk after all, not... whatever it was he was considering now.
Was moron a position you could get for a job? If so, then he apparently had it already, didn't he?
Still he walked. Moving against the current of terror that threatened to overwhelm him, his body trembling in reaction.
The sensation that came over him then felt... strange. Zack's face felt numb, for one thing. Also, he didn't feel like he could control his limbs at all. Almost like he'd become a puppet. Like someone else pulled the strings that made him move now. It was really annoying that whoever that was didn't realize he needed to go the other way. The doctors at the institution would have called it a dissociative state, but they'd have been wrong. At best it was an associative condition.
He associated what that floating glow in the middle of the room contained with all the things he didn't want to think about.
Freaking heck. What part of run away was too hard to understand? Just turn around and flee... God. So stupid. Zack took a deep breath and grinned a little grimly. Three days in to his new job and now he was going to die already? That was so bad that he couldn't even make a joke out of it.
“Lisa, the store's closed now. I'm going to go and get that little girl... I should be back later, I think. I hope so at least. I really need this job, I haven't paid my half of the rent for... months.” Zack heard his own voice, which seemed hollow, if filled with a bit of cheeriness he didn't really feel. It sounded like he was miles away, tinny and buzzing rather than the normal tenor he expected. Turning to the Asian man sharply, Zack held his hand out to take the picture from him. The fellow, who looked about thirty, and felt vastly older, just handed the picture to him without question. Once he had it he stared for a minute, trying to get a sense of the girl. Who she was, what made her... her.
The tiny Shadow came through the picture, crying out for help. Wailing in fear. Terror. He couldn't go to her through a piece of paper, not that he knew of anyway. No one spoke to him or said anything. They were probably used to weird people doing strange things at odd times. Being a Mage could do that to you, he guessed.
He looked up at, then into the space, the void in the air. He gazed into the glow and ripples so hard that he nearly lost himself in it. After a few minutes he could see the girl from the picture, lying chained to a table by a metal collar around her throat. She still seemed scared, and tears streaked her face. The little Shadow-self inside her looked up at him and cried for help again, silently. Afraid or not, going to die or not, he couldn't leave her there alone. Zack wouldn't do that. That was really the only thing wasn't it? They might both perish, but someone was freaking going to try. No matter what it cost.
“Master Wu-Li... there seem to be thirteen people in the room. Other than the girl, I mean. They all have knives that I can see. Silver colored metal, with white handles, kind of shiny. I think there's at least one or two guns, but there could be more. Can you handle that by yourself? I... don't think I can take more than one person with me and we need to go now. They're about to kill her. I may not be able to do anything when we get there... I don't know how to fight or anything like that, either...”
Zack said it without inflection, quietly so that only those closest to him could possibly hear. Lisa was back talking to some other people. Two women and an older man that looked important.
Wu-Li stroked his chin, it seemed more like a habit than anything else. “I should be able to take out ten under such conditions, if they're not great fighters. Possibly more. Less if there are supernatural forces involved.” The man smiled gently. “I think it is worth going, if we can. Death awaits all men, after all. It is not to be feared. Right now my greatest fear is that I will fail this child, not my own death.”
It hit Zack what half his problem was then. He sighed and shook his head.
“My greatest fear is what I might meet in that abyss. I know it's cowardly...” Shaking almost uncontrollably, Zack took the Master's arm in both hands, turned toward the glow in the air, stepped into it, and vanished.
Everything went dark around them. This kind of dark could drink your soul, the voice had said to him. You're just a Human, so protect your soul, by turning it into a single thing, something compact and hard. Burying it inside of you, so deep the Demons couldn't see what you had done. That had been about something else, he remembered. It all came back in a rush. Everything.
He heard it all now, the voice, smooth and deep, deeper than could be heard. Zack heard it anyway. The Shadow, the Big Shadow, stood around him, huge, implacable, protecting him from the vast nothing.
You can do this, little one. The voice, the Big Shadow, told him. Let your inner self grow and spread around this being. If you bring others here, protect them as I protect you now. Do it. Do it or the old man dies now. If he dies the little girl dies as well. DO IT!
Zack made his Shadow-self grow, surrounding the ancient being he pulled with him through the line. Wu-Li, in this place, in this moment, the man held no secrets from him. The hundreds of years he'd walked the Earth opened to Zack, his skills and desires merged and held no mystery. To protect his mind, Zack made himself forget most of it immediately, as he'd learned to do long ago.
Good boy! You remember what I taught you. Now, you'll have to exit the line at the node point, remember? Then you must carry him to the girl. Quickly now, time runs short for her. You'll be in pain when you come out. You must take the pain, and leave the man unencumbered by it so he may fulfill his part in this, but you must not hesitate too long... The Big Shadow pointed without movement, directing him to a place that didn't exist.
There, go out through there, now, that is the way to her. Go!
Zack took a step that wasn't a step toward the point where he needed to go. Will I ever see you again? He asked the Big Shadow.
See me? Yes. I will always be here for you, even when I'm not... But I think this may be amongst the very last times that you will need me. Now go and save the little one from the Monsters.
He finished the step he had started in Washington and came out on the ground in California. Pain coursed through him. He knew it had to do with how long he took to cover Master Wu-Li. It was his trip through the line, so he took the penalty for his failure. The lines didn't allow mistakes. It freaking hurt though. Enough to drop Zack to his knees.
“Are you well. Can you walk?” The old man spoke urgently though quietly. “I don't think we have much more time...”
“Right. Sorry, I messed something up and have to suffer for it, so I learn to do it correctly. Something like that at least. This way.” He took off at a dogged trot, his own Shadow flowing and pulling him toward a shortcut to the girl. At least he hoped it did. The pain receded only slightly as he focused on the world around him. The memories that had been blocked from him had come back, all at once, demanding his attention. Zack knew he couldn't afford the time it would take right then. To think too hard on those things would cripple him right now. Jennifer couldn't just wait, so he made himself set it aside.
“This... isn't going to be fun. I can't explain it quickly. Basically, I need you to hang on to me, and run, keep moving no matter what and don't let go of me. I don't know how long this will take, so be ready to fight at any moment. Got it?”
“Yes.” The word was simple, pure and committed. As if the man just accepted that Zack could do what he'd just said.
Who knew, maybe he could?
Taking the lead, so he could pull the ancient master with him, he leaped sideways and twisted with all his might toward the next gap in reality. Wu-Li, impressively, tracked with him through this, landed on his feet and kept running, hanging on to his belt by a single hand the entire time without more than a light tug at his waist as he changed directions suddenly.
Again he twisted, this time through a tiny Shadow, too small to be seen most of the time, even by him. He could follow it only because the void had caused him to let go of his normal filters, forcing him to see even more of reality than normal. It opened up onto a highway. Because that just had to happen eventually, didn't it? The traffic came at them, but he charged straight at it. He had to get to the girl. To Jennifer. He had to. Because no one had gotten to him. Not in time. He remembered that now. He remembered it all, but he couldn't process it. There would be time for that later.
No twist would do it this time, so he leaped, instead, right at the headlight coming at him not ten feet away. Wu-Li simply leaped with him. He didn't even blink, Zack thought, as they landed. Then he stopped thinking suddenly.
They were in water. Salt water it tasted like as he sucked it into his lungs. Zack started to panic and coughed, his head going under water as a small wave caught him, he kicked, but only made it to the surface because Wu-Li still had him by the belt.
“Can't really swim!” He gasped, even though he tried to keep struggling toward the next shortcut about twenty feet ahead.
“That's all right, I can. Relax now. Roll to you back, arch it and take a full breath of air. I'll push you. What way?”
The thin young man rolled over, arched his back, relaxed and took as deep a breath as he could, fire burning through his lungs for a moment from the first breath he took of water. “Go! The way my head is pointed, about twenty feet or so.”
The Master pushed him, kicking strongly through the water. In about thirty seconds they reached the spot, more or less. Zack fought the burning in his lungs and tried to hold back the panic he felt.
“Grab my arm. I'm going to pull us through. I think this is the last one, we should end up in the room with the girl. Ready”
Grasping his arm firmly with both hands the elder man took a single, very slow, breath. “Ready”.
He rotated his body in a way that couldn't quite count as a flip, turned and pulled, catching a face full of salty water that went into his lungs again, then moving them both into a dark room lit only by candles.
There was time for two heart beats and a loud cough from him as water was forced from his lungs.
Then all hell broke loose.
Chapter six
Wu-Li moved silently, with no yelling or shouting. In that way it wasn't like a good Kung-Fu movie at all. Just in every other way.
He walked across the room. Waving his hand in one direction, a person on that side would fall, even if it didn't make a lot of sense to Zack. Then he'd kick another person to hit a leg at a precise point and someone else would go down. There were what looked like flourishes, except that each of them ended with someone else being hit, so hard that a lot of them didn't get back up.
When a man wearing a flowing red and black robe charged him with a knife, the Master held up his right hand and made a few small circular gestures. At the end of this pattern, his Shadow stretched out of his body, circling into and through the man and into the floor, then came back to his body in a continuous stream.
The man screamed in pain as all of his muscles locked up and he danced backwards like a person with a high voltage current running through him. Or maybe, Zack thought, the man screamed in shock? His Shadow didn't show pain, just looked baffled and worried.
Zack wanted to help, but the pain hit him again. He'd fought it ever since he left the line of darkness, just as he fought not to think about what he had remembered in that place. It had been right to fear it. Not because of what waited him there, which turned out to be a good thing. His oldest and best friend. It was because of what it freed inside of him.
Some things are better left buried. Now it was too late for that. He remembered the void, and remembered what had been hidden from him even there. For longer than seemed possible. The time before the void. Those moments between his being given away and the absolute nothingness that he'd spent so very long in. He focused intently, locking all of this away from his thoughts for the moment, so that he could pay atten
tion to the now.
Zack was gasping and wheezing due to the water he'd sucked into his lungs at the end of last shortcut. If they survived this, he really needed to get some swimming lessons, he decided.
The ancient man had downed four of the people coming at him already, even if it had only been a few seconds. Then moved toward where the largest group of them stood. They mainly tried to run away from him at this point, as everyone that got close to him screamed or fell down suddenly. On the other side of the room a man pulled a small handgun from inside his robes and pointed it at the Master.
“Wu-Li! Left, gun!” The croaking sound apparently had enough force behind it to get his attention, because the old Master dropped to the floor suddenly, in a strange position, his legs spread and balanced on one palm and his feet. A bullet fired into the space he'd just been in. He countered by returning a punch with his free hand toward the man, a kind of screwing gesture, that sent the briefest flash of his internal self toward the robed gunman. A black line of force that struck at the man instantly.
The gunman's face caved in like he had been struck with a sledge hammer, dropping him to the ground, mewling soggily, before he could fire again. It was impressive.
After wheezing a few more drops of water out of his lungs, Zack tried to stand. On his second attempt he managed it and started toward where the little girl, Jennifer, was chained to the stone alter. After a few clumsy steps he saw that a man, one with a beard and freakishly piercing light blue eyes, stood pointing a gun at the girl.
“I do this for my Lord, the only true lord!” The man screamed out loud, as his Shadow self screamed incoherently.
There was no way he could get to them in time. The feet on his legs could barley mange to walk, so running was out already as an option. Even if he could do that, speed wasn't really his thing. Nothing physical really was. In panic Zack tried to copy what he'd seen Wu-Li do with his own Shadow, hoping it would do something, at least. Even a small distraction would be enough.