by P. S. Power
He focused a sudden burst of his inner self, his Shadow, and sent it toward the man. It ripped into him like some kind of clawed beast, then remembering what he'd noticed earlier, Zack wrapped this around and through the man's body, past the floor and into himself again. It got held as long as he could manage. The man had fallen down, but he didn't know what happened after that. He couldn't see the man past the table the girl had been chained to, he could still hear the screaming from the other side.
A few moments later, at least it seemed like a few moments to him, Wu-Li appeared.
“Mr. Hartley, though the being still cries out, I think his soul has departed. You may wish to release your hold on him, unless you plan to use this as a warning to others here that still live?” The older man sounded very calm about the whole thing, relaxed even.
“Right. Sorry.” Letting go felt wonderful... and horrible at the same time. Every nerve screamed, again and again. Not in pain, or pleasure. It was something different. Or some combination of the two. He couldn't tell. Eventually it stopped, leaving him breathless and empty.
Then the world went dark and everything stopped for a while.
He woke to find a small form clinging to him.
“Hello.” He spoke in a soft voice so he wouldn't scare her. He used his Shadow self to say, I'm a friend. Your Mommy sent me. Of course after projecting that he realized that he didn't actually know that Beth, the only name he'd heard mentioned with Jennifer's, had anything to do with being her Mom, or that “mommy” was a good word that would let the girl feel secure.
Still, the girl seemed calmer, so it may have been a good thing to say. Her mom must be a good, normal mother. Not like his had been.
“Are you okay? Don't die. I don't want to be alone again.” Jennifer didn't say this very loud, it had the tone of a little girl whisper, talking to her doll or God.
“Yeah, I think I'll live.” It took some struggling to sit up. “I just fell in some water earlier and I don't swim very well. Hey, have you seen the other man that I had with me?”
She nodded and pointed to a blue painted wooden door off to his right.
“He said if I heard screaming I should cover my ears like this.” Hands covered her ears on either side and she pushed her shoulders up for extra sound proofing. After holding that pose for a second she uncovered them. “I haven't heard anything yet.”
More struggling took him to his feet. He felt like someone had taken turns kicking him after he passed out. He also felt like someone had burned his throat with a cigar or maybe a butane lighter and then fed him hot sauce. Zack realized that all of that would have taken planning, except the kicking part, so odds were none of it had taken place.
He half-fell, half-walked to the door and knocked.
Wu-Li opened it a few seconds later. His face crinkled into a large and genuine grin.
“Good! I see you're recovering from your exertions already. It hasn't even been five minutes yet. We're done here now. I think we should leave as soon as you're both ready. It wouldn't serve to be here if the constabulary arrives.” His Shadow, which had so far acted in nearly perfect concert with his external self turned to him now.
I've killed them all. I don't wish the child to know, but they couldn't be left alive. We have no way to control or punish them for their crimes otherwise. Please don't mention this...
“Right. Give me a few seconds and I should be ready to go... Hey, Jennifer, are you all ready? We may have to walk a little bit to get home, is that okay?” The little girl stared up at him and nodded.
“Very good then.” The old man simply stood. Relaxed and waiting, as if they had all the time in the world. After a few minutes it became clear to Zack that this level of discomfort would have to serve, as it wouldn't be going away any time soon. Not without drugs at least. It was possible to block out the pain, he knew how, somewhere inside, he just couldn't bear to sort out the memories right now. Later, when he'd gotten them back safely, he'd try. He'd start to work back through it all. There was so much, more than was really possible to deal with.
Zack moved toward the door, then remembered that not only did that room hold a bunch of bodies, but going that way would require swimming.
“Hey, Wu-Li, can you get us outside do you think?”
The youthful looking old man, who for all his centuries might be younger than himself, Zack realized, nodded and led them up some stairs. He went first, not finding any resistance to their leaving. All the monsters had been at the sacrifice, no doubt.
Several minutes later, everyone safely outside, Zack found a shortcut that took them all the way into Oregon. This led him to an extended series of links that eventually got him back home and from there he got them all to the mall. They had to walk with him in the lead, and all holding hands, but Jennifer didn't seem to find this unusual.
She also didn't seem to notice the rapid changes in scenery. It took about an hour of walking, mainly because Jennifer didn't have shoes on and while she walked without complaint, it obviously hurt to do so. Wu-Li carried her when they weren't actually going through one of the shortcuts.
They got to the Mall at about midnight, a little before that really, meaning that whole mad dash, fight and him lounging around after, with a complicated trip home, had taken less than three hours all together.
He still had his key to the front door in his pocket, which, considering his swim seemed fortunate, so he just let them all in to the store.
“Um. We're home...” He called out as they walked to the back.
A woman he didn't recognize came out. She had steel gray hair, and a burgundy colored sari on. At least, Zack though it was a Sari. It could have been something else, a loose wrap of some kind? When she saw Jennifer she started yelling “It's Jennifer! They got her in time! Beth, Jennifer's here, she's all right, Beth!”
Beth ran out of the back, knocking over the small table that had been set up as an end cap display in the process and ran straight to Jennifer, nearly pushing Wu-Li over in the process as well. He just smiled though, and stepped back.
“Oh, my baby, my baby!”
“Mommy!” Jennifer grabbed her and instantly started crying.
Zack realized his instinct had been correct, and Beth actually did seem to be Jennifer's Mom. He made a point of filing that away for later, focusing on it intently for a few seconds.
An almost palpable sigh of relief traveled through the crowd as the tensioned ended. Everyone had been on edge for hours now, no doubt.
“I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth... But what exactly happened here tonight?” This came from a man that looked to be about forty, wearing a nice suit, which stood out amongst all the robes and raiment the others had on. He looked like a lawyer.
“We got there and Master Wu-Li stopped them from,” he looked over at Jennifer “doing something bad. If you want to know anything more I think you should talk to him about it in the back room.”
The lawyer looking fellow actually took the hint and smiled a little. “Yes, if you could all join me in the back then, or perhaps Lisa's office, if she'll lend it to the task?”
Lisa nodded and turned, leading the way.
Half the crowd tried to go with them, the other half stayed with Beth and Jennifer. Zack wanted to stay in the store with that group, if he wasn't going home, but several people motioned for him to come with them instead. He shrugged, not understanding what they could possibly want him for.
Plus, it was bedtime.
Lisa had a nice office. Spacious even, though the twenty odd people crammed in made things a little tight. Someone thoughtfully gave chairs to Wu-Li, Zack and a very, very old looking woman. She situated her robes carefully, all eyes upon her. Only when she seemed ready did the suit start talking again. That was polite of him, Zack figured.
“Master Wu-Li, could you share with us what happened this evening? Please start at the beginning.”
“Very well, Mr. Penbroke. At around eight I found myself contacted by you
r representative here, Lisa. She informed me of the situation involving young Jennifer and asked for my assistance, at normal combat rates. I agreed and waived short notice remuneration due to the special circumstances.” Wu-Li filled in the time before the trip from his own perspective, which was different than Zack's, holding a lot more worry from the Mages in the back of the shop. Then he talked about how Zack had come back after closing the store and looked into the void.
“He said something about fearing what he might find within the line, and then immediately took me within it.”
Penbroke held up a hand at this. “You're aware that only Demons can do that, right? Only Demons have the ability to walk the lines under their own power, and only very strong ones can take another being with them, especially on short notice. It takes us days to collect enough energy to open and hold a line and tens, sometimes hundreds of people....”
“Perhaps that is true. I do not know. What I do know is that in that line I felt myself start to drift away. Mr. Hartley then extended his qi, his life energy, over mine to protect me. When we emerged an instant later, he was wracked with great pain. I deal with chronic, severe and even terminal pain in my work as a healer and apothecary. I know the signs. Still, he nearly instantly got up and began to take me through what he called shortcuts I don't know the exact distance we covered going, but I'd guess it was over fifty miles of travel in about seven minutes. I'll have to check some maps and other data to confirm this later though.
“The second to last of these shortcuts took us into a body of salt water. At this point, Mr. Hartley nearly drowned. We made it through and into the sub-basement where Jennifer was being kept, chained to a stone table by her neck.
“We subdued the people there, exactly thirteen and armed as Mr. Hartley had seen. Then after making certain that none of them survived, we walked back here, using more of those shortcuts, rather than a Nexus or line. That took about an hour.”
The old woman looked at her hands, which rested in her lap. After a few moments everyone looked at her. She kept staring at her hands though.
“Mr. Hartley. I wonder if you would do me a favor... I have a trinket I carry with me... would you be willing to carry it for me for a while? It would probably set some minds at ease if you did...” When she turned her hands over, the right one held a necklace with beads on it. They looked like small bones, each inked with complex runes. She held her hand out to give them to Zack.
“What do I do with it?” He asked.
“Oh, if you could put them on, that would be good enough, just slip it over your head, it should be long enough to fit easily.” Her smile felt genuine, but her uncertainty showed on a deep level to Zack. She hid it pretty well from everyone else, looking merely interested, not concerned with the outcome.
He slipped it on as suggested. It didn't have a clasp anywhere. It buzzed with intent, with Magic. Still, that intent didn't seemed aimed to hurt him so he sat waiting for a minute while everyone looked at him, many even seemed to be holding their breath while waiting.
“Very good then!” The old woman said, and clapped her hands together once. “He's not a Demon. We didn't think so, but I had to check, you understand. Until today no one else has ever done what you did except for Demons and to the best of our knowledge your trick with these 'shortcuts' of yours is something even they can't manage. You can take those off if you want, now.” She addressed most of this to Zack directly.
“Did you meet it?” A man's voice came from the back. “In the line, did you meet what you feared would be there? I heard you say something like that before you stepped into the Nexus point...” The voice sounded embarrassed to be asking, but didn't retract the question.
“Oh. That.... yes.”
The Lawyerly Penbroke leaned forward. “What did you meet?” He said this suggestively, as if asking if it had been some kind of monster or Demon.
While Zack had met something like that, that hadn't been what he feared to meet. It never had been.
“I met my missing memories there. I'd been making myself not think of certain things from my past, but I couldn't do that there. Now I remember everything. I... really wish I didn't.”
Lisa's eyes popped open, realizing a bit of what this might mean.
“About when you were missing as a child? About what happened to you?”
Penbroke jumped on this as if it held a prize for him “So, when you were a child you made some kind of deal with a Demon? That's unusual, but I've heard it can happen. What did they make you pay for this ability?”
“What? No, no deals with anyone. I... remembered that my parents sold me on the black market as a child sex slave and being passed around for a year, more than a year, before something rescued me.” Something must have passed over his face then, because even though his Shadow self hadn't reacted to this outburst, both Wu-Li and a tall women standing to the left of Penbroke stiffened in readiness to fight. The woman, a blonde, fingered a crystal held loosely in her left hand. Wu-Li oriented his attention toward her, as if ready to strike her down if she tried to attack Zack.
The old women just reached over and patted Zack's hand. “I'm sorry you had to go through that at all, much less have it wake back up helping one of ours. George here will apologize now and we'll stop rubbing salt in old wounds, isn't that right, George?”
Penbroke managed to actually look chagrined. “Ah, yes, I'm sorry. I was being insensitive and foolish. You're a hero here today, no matter what you are. Please accept first my apology and then my thanks for what you've done.”
“Yeah. No problem.” Zack yawned. “Hey, if there's nothing more I'm needed for right now, I'd like to get some rest. I don't know if I'm supposed to open tomorrow or not, but either way I need to sleep soon.”
Lisa looked at him with surprise on her face. “Oh, I'll open tomorrow. Of course. Come in whenever you feel like it. You deserve a rest.” Her words hung in the air for a time.
The crowd around her looked oddly awkward suddenly, as if it hadn't occurred to them that he still had to work the next day. He couldn't quite place their thoughts, and had too little energy to bother checking in with their deeper selves. If they wanted him to know, he figured someone would tell him, eventually.
He stumbled up, said good night and made his way out the front. He got a hug from Jennifer as he walked past and another from Beth. A third woman also gave him a hug. Which baffled him a little, as he had no clue about her identity. They did let him get to the door after that, so it was fine.
Ten minutes later his head hit the pillow. Three minutes after that, sleep hit him.
Hard.
Chapter seven
A night full of dreams in which he relived every bad memory from a very bad time in his life didn't do much to restore Zack's energy. It did get him up early though, so there was a silver lining there. It just turned ten when he decided that trying to sleep more would just lead to bad things anyway, so instead he decided to get up.
Climbing out of bed he managed to go through all the early morning motions. Washing himself with hot water for about ten minutes, trying to loosen up the stiff muscles in his back and neck, which had been strained sometime during the night. Either during his trip or as he tossed and turned later. His lungs hurt too, probably from the inhaled water. He tried to remember to get swimming lessons when he could afford it.
After shaving and dressing he headed to the living room and plopped down next to Troy on the old sofa they had found sitting on a street half a year before, who had a game control in his hand, though the game didn't move on the screen. Paused probably.
“Hey, are you working today?” The game controller held loosely, jiggling up and down a little as his bare foot fidgeted on the floor.
“Yeah, I'm not opening today though. I'm heading out in a few minutes.”
Shadow Troy looked at him, seeming a little worried. We need to talk money now...
“Oh, yeah! Hey, wait here a second. I have some money.” Zack went to his room an
d searched his pockets for the money he gotten the other day from Lisa as an advance.
Returning with it in hand he gave it all over to Troy. The bills were damp from being in his pocket when he went swimming. Grinning he told Troy about being dunked in water the night before by accident. It would dry, he knew.
After counting it, Troy glanced up at him and set it aside. “That's great! With that and what I can put in this month we'll be all caught up on our bills, if we can just come up with two hundred more. We have a week, so it should be doable if we hustle. I should be able to cover it actually, if tips are good. Cool. Looks like things are coming together finally.”
Nodding at the other man, Zack sat down again. “That's an advance on my next check that Lisa gave me. I don't know how much more I'll have left after that, if anything. I'll try to think of something so that you don't have to work so hard. You've been carrying me for months now.”
“Don't sweat it, man. You'd do the same for me and you know, that which does not kill us makes us stronger and all, right?” Shadow Troy looked over at him with a sly glance. “Tell me, any ladies catching your eye at work? This Lisa sounds nice for instance, giving you money already... I know I'm a fan. Any others calling to your little Zack?”
Troy had moved into his “playful” mode. The only things Zack could do right now required him to either walk away quickly or go with it. Since exhaustion made running too much work at the moment, sharing seemed the order of the day.
“Well, the girl from the frozen yogurt place seems nice. She's the manager there actually. Her name's Claire. She's brought me a couple of ice cream things. Frozen yogurt, I mean. Anyway, they were really good. There's this caramel thing she brought me yesterday... so wonderful.”
The inner Troy stared at him with a leering grin.
“Oh, and I met this really nice girl, Hilda. She's foreign, German or something, I guess. She works at the Gym. That's about all so far, at least to talk to.”