Fisher And The Bears

by T Hodden

  “So when he was experimenting with the Thunder Cage,” I realised, “he intended to use it at some point to take over another body?”

  Ted nodded. “Makes you think. What did Damon mean by asking if he knew Doreen?”

  “Wishful thinking?” Damon offered a smile. “But thank you for now making me paranoid. Come on Jenny. We can pick up Mabel Take her somewhere far away from all this. Somewhere safe.”

  “So he could be anybody?” Ginger scratched his nose. “So how do I know who to cleanse with fire?”

  As Damon and Jenny left, Doreen sat beside my bed. She put her fingers on mine and asked a lot of questions about how me and Jenny became friends, and went from friends to something else, then back to being friends. She gave a sad shake of the head.

  “The bears are your family.” She said after a lot of thought. “If she were ever meant to be more than friends she would have found joy in becoming part of a larger family. Not fear.”

  “Good job I found you then.” I said with what I hoped was a charming smile.

  “Yes.” She nodded enthusiastically. “It is. Clearly you can't be trusted on your own and need me to look after you or this happens.” She gave a clucking of her tongue. “If you will let me?”

  I nodded. She smiled. We sat in silence a while watching television.

  Clarumcoma stopped by considerably later. Maybe he was watching for when the bears gave in to tiredness and either went home or to find a vending machine, or perhaps he just sensed when I was alone with Doreen. He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, looking at the chalk and the fire-safe candle with an understanding nod.

  “I have tracked your nemesis to the end of his trail. I found the empty office where his packages had been posted from and where the artefacts he had obtained had been kept. All traces of his occupation had been surgically removed, all clues destroyed, but for this.” He held out an envelope with my name written in block capitals by a felt tipped pen. He opened out a piece of paper that had been folded three times. A message was typed on it:

  King. I sense the precautions you have taken, and that your ursine companions even now take at your home. I am not so foolish as to enter your trap. But I know you will enter mine. You have run the gauntlet and you know now what I seek and can deduce why. I can not afford your interference and I do not expect your silence. So I see only one path open to us. You will come to me.

  You will be destroyed.

  “That is Mandrake.” Doreen spoke quietly. “I can sense it. I can feel it in my bones.”

  “What is it he wants?” Clarumcoma asked evenly.

  “A new body.” I said. “An upgrade. The Knights Azrael predicted somebody with a specific genetic sequence. Maybe they did not understand their code, but they knew it was a person. A person whose bloodline, whose genes, would let them do something particular.”

  “Like free Amduscias from hell?” Clarumcoma stroked his chin. “For was it not said in the Creed Of the Order Of Azrael, that 'The Blood Of The Innocent Shall Free The Enemy and Bind The Enemy To Be Destroyed Or Enslaved?' Ah. Yes.”

  “How did you know that?” I asked , feeling a lump in my throat.

  “You hired me precisely because I know things. But that is an accurate translation?”

  “Yes.” I admitted.

  “And this Jean Gnome that the Knights predicted, that is the Innocent? It is his blood that can let out the Demon, or kill it?” Doreen widened her eyes. “And I know which the Mandrake would choose.”

  “Genome.” I said, finding a definition of the word on my phones browser and showing her. “But yes. Mandrake wishes to inhabit a body that will allow him the ultimate power over Amduscias, The Enemy, and with that power there is no limit to what Mandrake could do.”

  “So why bring Fish into it at all?” Ted poked his head around the door, a stethoscope still plugging his ears, trying not to look like he was listening in. “Running the gauntlet seems to suggest that he was deliberately testing Fish. Sending him very dangerous enemies...”

  “To see if he was the one who could banish Amduscias!” Ginger gasped.

  “He thinks Fish is the chosen one?” Tiger shrugged. “Poor man really is mad isn't he?”

  “I am not the chosen one.” I said.

  “No. But he thinks you are.” Ginger looked worried. “What if he is the chosen one?”

  “I am not the chosen one.” I said. “Why would I want the power over a demon? I have never destroyed a soul, only ever sent them to the Other World, and I don't exactly want Amduscias coming to town either.”

  “Which makes you perfect for the chosen one duties.” Ted said. “Ah. But it doesn't matter does it? All that matters is a very nasty person believes it and will hurt you for it. Who knows what he might do to try and draw you out of the protection we gave you here?”

  My phone started to ring. Doreen stared at the picture of a cartoon hippo on the screen and the identification of “The Ex”. She shrugged.

  “Hello Jenny dear.” Doreen said brightly.

  “Is Fish there?” Jenny sounded well past her wits end. “Something has happened. We got home and there were all these photos in our letter box. Photos of me and Mabel around town. Somebody was following us. Taking pictures. On the back it says that something may happen if King doesn't go on stage tonight.”

  “But he can't.” Ginger whined.

  “The fool. He must know you can not travel in your condition. It would be nigh on suicide.” Clarumcoma agreed. “There must be something else.”

  “It does not matter.” Doreen set her jaw and looked at me. “He threatened a child. He can not harm me. The stage would be the Half Penny?”

  “Doreen wait!” I shouted, but she had already blinked away.

  “Sit back down.” Clarumcoma ordered as I tried to swing my legs out of bed. “You need time to heal. I will fetch her back. I will explain to this man why you can not attend.”

  “So you are in danger over Doreen?” I shook my head. “No. This is a trap. I need to be there.” I lay down and closed my eyes. “Do you still watch Sire? I do not believe you would tell me of this game and warn me to prepare just so I could lose. He has changed his pieces on the board. He has changed his tactics and you need me back in the game.”

  I opened my eyes. I was in a hall full of board games and a short man with a mop of hair and an ageless face fluttered around me with the energy of a dynamo.

  “Or perhaps I thought it was important that he really did believe you were the Chosen One.” The Grey King muttered, sliding pieces around one of the boards. “Just long enough for all his plans to be wasted. Even if a few pawns need to be sacrificed.”

  “You would let an innocent child be at risk?” I said, barely able to contain my anger.

  “To keep this prophecy unfulfilled?” The King dug his thumbs under his braces and looked at me. “To keep the Arch Duke Of Hell from claiming Earth as his own? Perhaps I would.” He paused and his tone softened. “But I hope never to find out.”

  “I am not the Chosen One am I?” I asked.

  “No. But I had to drop enough hints out there, over a few thousand years to make sure he thought you were. He went looking for cursed items and I nudged ones towards him that were connected to you and your line. An old enemy of your predecessor. The camera he helped create to which you would bond so easily. She surprised me. I wasn't expecting her to jump around. Then again I was not expecting the child to be on the table.”

  “Why risk Mabel then?” I asked. “If I am not the Chosen One the worst he can do is eat my soul and inhabit my body. Then he loses because I am the wrong one.”

  “There are two forms of exorcism.” The Grey King said. “One sends the entity back here, to which ever corner of the Other World they belong in. The other destroys them. Why do you always choose to contain and never to destroy?”

  “Why should I kill if there is another way?” I whispered.

  “And if there is no other way?” He asked.
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br />   “I hope I never have to find out.” I said. “I will do everything I can never to find out.”

  He fished a phial of liquid gold from his pocket and tossed it to me.

  “This will knit your skull back together and heal your wounds. It is a boon offered only once in recognition of your service and that of your ancestors. I offer it to you trusting you will do everything you can to stop the Mandrake.” The King smiled. “Drink up. It is rather pungent. The product of a Philosophers Stone no less. So a little rare.”

  I am glad it is only offered once. I swigged down the large tablespoon of liquid metal and it felt like the inside of my skull was being arc welded. I howled and dropped to my knees to thrash about. When I opened my eyes I was on the floor of the hospital. I looked at my hands. The scars that had been there since I was seven, were gone. I touched my head. The bruises, scars, cuts and scrapes were all gone. I was reborn.

  “Interesting.” Said Calumcoma.

  “Yes.” I wheezed trying to get rid of the acrid fumes that filled my lungs. “That is one word for it.” I snatched my clothes from the back of the chair and the bears all turned their backs as I hopped around, getting out of the backless gown and into enough clothes to not be arrested in the street. “Right you lot head home. I have to go and meet this Mandrake before he does anything to Doreen, or Mabel, or anybody else. Somebody ring dad and warn him. Doreen can fade out and back in at home, but Dad will still be closer to the theatre, maybe he can cut her off at the pass.”

  “Do you have a plan?” Ted asked.

  “Not yet. Working on it.” I shouted over my shoulder as I ran for the door.

  *

  Dad did not beat Doreen to the pier. He was waiting for me outside. So was Jenny.

  “Tell her should be at home looking after the kid.” Dad said.

  “You should.” I agreed as Dad unlocked. Doreen did not have to worry about doors of course. Not if she was determined. All Ghosts need to access their full suite of spooky powers is enough willpower, and Doreen had buckets of that.

  “She is safe.” Jenny promised. “But anybody who threatens her deals with me. Got it?”

  “Got it!” Dad said, swinging the door open. We all ran towards the stage. As we emerged from behind the curtain we all froze. Doreen was kneeling on the boards, pale and shivering. Around her were lines of chalk and runes of charcoal. Black candles belched foul smelling smoke from their blood red flames.

  “What is this?” Jenny asked, her eyes wide.

  “No!” Dad was furious. “No! Who does this. We have to douse the candles. Now.” He and Jenny ran between the candles, pinching out there flames. I dug in my pockets for chalk and knelt by the edge of the circle.

  “Doreen. Look at me.” I said softly. She looked up at me, her eyes wide and her expression pained.

  “This circle. It is... I can feel it eating away at me.” Her voice was dry and rasping.

  “It is a kind of exorcism. It destroys a soul rather than sending it to the Other World. But it takes time. I can undo it. Me and Dad, we are good at what we do.” I scribbled the spell furiously around the circle, trying to create the spell that would restore her. “I am not going to give up hope. I promise you I am going to fix this.”

  “He said you could not.” Doreen whispered. “I am sorry my love. But Damon was right. You can not know my true name now. But you know his.”

  “Damon.” I nodded. “I know your true name. It is Doreen Grey. What ever else you might have been once. Who ever else you might have been. You are Doreen Grey. And I will save you.” I scratched that name into the spell and muttered the rites.

  It did not work.

  I tried again, pricking my thumb on a needle and adding my own blood to the spell.

  It did not work.

  “Promise me you will find love.” Doreen whispered. “Be happy.”

  “No!” I shouted and pressed my hands against the edge of the circle. But it was like thumping my hands against glacial ice. Solid. Cold. Unyielding.

  Doreen did not fade from my presence. As her image vanished into smoke and sparks and her unearthly scream echoed around us she was torn from my soul. I could feel her ripped out of my heart and cast into oblivion. The circle closed.

  “I didn't ask for this.” Jenny whispered. “Please believe me this was not what I was promised. This is not what I wanted. I would never have helped him if I knew this was what he would do. Please.”

  “If you knew?” I felt a white hot rage blaze inside of me. My fingers clenched into a fist. “Mabel was never in danger was she?” I turned on Jenny. “Damon. Oh I know his true name now. Too blooming right I do.” I stared at the Ex with absolute fury in my eyes. Dad put a hand on my shoulder tried to ease me away. “You have no idea what you have done. This is worse than murder. When he murdered her she moved on somewhere else. Now she has nothing. She has ceased to be. There is no Other World for her. She is gone. Not waiting on the other side of a veil. Not in Heaven, or Hell, or reborn in the love of her family. She is gone. More dead than a coffin nail.”

  “No.” She agreed softly. “I don't understand.” Jenny ran. She turned and fled, tears in her eyes.

  It was the only time the bears had understood what 'No Bears' meant. I was grateful for that at least. They had been spared the torment of seeing Doreen torn from existence.

  I did not cry.

  I was too angry for tears.

  My Sweet Horde

  Miss Sussex stared at me and tried to wave a hand in my direction.

  “You should be in bed Fish. You should probably be in an surgery.” She said. “What kind of example is this to be setting the bears?”

  “Ginger.” I shouted as I flew through the old hotel. A paw tugged at my trouser. “Ginger.” I said more calmly and dropped him my keys. “I want you to open the shed. I want you to find the saws, swords, maces, flails, strimmers, chainsaws, explosives and fireworks. Everything I ever said was too dangerous for you to play with.”

  “Er, how hard did you hit your head?” Mac asked from a safe distance.

  “I want every bear we know armed and very dangerous and in a mood for fighting.” I declared. “I want each and every one to be carrying the most dangerous weapon they can get their paws on and I want them all aimed at Mandrake.”

  “Where is Doreen?” Mrs Sussex asked, trying to sound kind.

  “She told me wanted me to find love. To be happy. Then she was torn from reality. And seeing as she is the only person I want to be happy with...” I stopped myself from thinking. “I don't want any of you to have time to think. If you think you get to be sad. Where as right now all horror and grief and bile in the pit of your stomach should be anger. Anger.”

  “No.” Tiger folded her arms. “That is not how you of all people do things. Who did this.”

  “In part? Jenny.” I swallowed down swear words. “She was sorry for it. God knows what she thought she was helping achieve, but Damon was Mandrake and... He thinks I am somebody special. So right now we go spring his trap and we give him the last thing he expects.”

  “But you and a van load of us are the first thing he expects.” Ted said, worried. “Even if we do have a few more toys than normal.”

  “You are right.” I tapped my lips. “Okay, so the Scare and Crow we met. The Crows were actually magpies right?”

  “Because despite the name the magic could work on any given bird.” Ted nodded. “Hawks. Eagles. I know a particularly nasty raptor from Africa.”

  “And I know an even better one from about sixty five million years ago.” I said. “Which will have him beat.”

  “You can not seriously think you can unleash a Scare and Crow?” Mrs Sussex crossed her arms. “I will not allow a flock of dinosaurs to ruin my kitchen.”

  “You are right.” I nodded. “We need much more. Where did I leave my annotated copy of the Complete Lovecraft?”

  “Fish?” The voice from the door was very small. I turned and stared at Jenny.

 
“No. You don't get to explain yourself. You don't get to make excuses.” I waved a finger at her.

  “He said he could free you of the curse. Of the bears. You could have a normal life. Before I fell for him, while we were just friends, he was talking about making things perfect for us. For me and you.” She said gently. “I thought a normal life would be a parting gift to you.”

  “A normal life?” My laugh was bitter. “You mean boring? Normal? It isn't mine. I don't get to go home at six for supper in front of the news. Because this hotel, these bears, this duty, this curse is my life. The cruelty of the curse is not having this. It is never being the one who chooses when I give up.”

  “And your plan,” Tiger said, “wasn't exactly heavy on the choice either.” She looked at me. “What happened to Doreen?”

  “She is gone.” I said. “Wasted away. Not sent to the Other World but destroyed.”

  As one the bears began to chant. A low growling sound with stamping of feet and scraping of claws. A lamenting song I had never heard them sing before. The harmonies bounced off each other and resonated down to the bone.

  “What is that?” Sussex whispered.

  “War Prayers.” I said. “You destroy a bear and you declare war on the horde.”

  “I'm sorry.” Jenny said. “Really really sorry.”

  “Don't be telling us you are sorry.” Sussex said at last. “Be telling us where your fancy man is.”

  “The Azrael Church.” Jenny said. “He said you would go looking for him there.”