by A. J. Locke
I kept my hood drawn over my head, and had also added a pair of sunglasses I’d found in my car as I tried to get closer to the beastie. I looked suspicious, but hopefully not recognizable, and everyone battling the beastie was too occupied with it to pay me much attention. The beastie was in the middle of the street, surrounded by gun fire, and it suddenly did a spin on its pointed lower half that whipped up a strong wind that knocked everyone, including me, down. I hit my head against the side of an upturned car and was stunned for a moment as pain rippled through me. I struggled to my feet and started making my way toward the beastie again, one hand holding my aching head, the other clutching the binding rune.
The number of officers and necromancers battling the beastie was rapidly decreasing, since not everyone got back up every time it unleashed a whip of wind. I had a hard time getting close. I needed to reach it with the binding stone to absorb some of its energy, then it would connect with my power, which was already active in the stone. I had learned this after the ordeal with Michael. Ilyse had urged me to find out as much as I could about everything that had happened, so we had eventually uncovered how he’d been able to bind beasties.
As I dove out of the way of a truck the beastie flung, I wondered if Micah was here. Had Ethan been able to get hold of him? It didn’t help that playing dodge and weave with the beastie was overexerting me. My body ached terribly. I was weakening, but kept pushing forward.
I pulled out my gun and fired at the beastie, directly at its face. I hoped this would annoy it enough so it would turn its attention to me, and I could try to draw it away from the officers and necromancers. There was too much debris for me to get close to it so the beastie would have to meet me half way. Plus, there were gaping craters in the ground that I didn’t have time to try and get across.
My tactic worked. The beastie reared up and screeched, then whipped its head around and focused on me. I had just finished putting a new clip of bullets into my gun, and after firing a few more shots at its head I started running. The beastie came after me, and needless to say it was much faster than I was. It slammed into me and knocked me down, and I felt its sharp claws ripping my clothes to shreds and digging into my skin. I screamed out in pain but rolled to my feet, trying to ignore the feeling of blood dripping down my back. I kept an eye on the ghost monster, which was coming for me again. The binding rune was pulsing in my hand and my power was going through it like a circuit. I held my hand up, and when the beastie was almost on top of me I dove out of the way while reaching for it with the binding rune. As I hit the ground, I was happy when I felt the binding rune jolt and start to grow warm. I’d captured some of the beastie’s energy.
I crouched behind a car, hearing the beastie screeching not too far away as it tried to find me, and waited impatiently for the binding rune to do its thing. A few tense moments later I felt my energy and the beastie’s bind together, and my body jerked as the connection spread through me. I was now in control of the beastie. I could feel it. I stood up, but because of the tremendous dust storm the beastie had whipped up I could hardly see it. I wordlessly commanded it to stop.
Immediately the beastie stopped screeching. I almost collapsed in relief but I wasn’t done yet. I couldn’t just leave the beastie standing here. My mind raced as I tried to figure out what the hell I should do with it. I couldn’t very well take it home and try to hide it in a closet or something. Then I realized that we were right near the Hudson River.
“Do not hurt or kill anyone again, do not destroy anything at all,” I whispered to the binding rune. “Jump into the river and hide yourself under water until I say so.” The beastie immediately sprang up into the air and was gone. It wouldn’t drown because technically it wasn’t alive. It was an entity formed from a ghost, so I would just let it stay in the Hudson until I could figure out what the hell else I could do with it.
When the beastie disappeared, the dust cloud had still been thick, which I was thankful for because it hopefully meant that no one saw it jump into the river. I hid behind a car, ignoring the pain in my body as much as I could, and waited for the dust to settle. Once it did, I was able to see the officers and necromancers who’d been battling the beastie looking around with their guns on the ready.
“It’s gone.” I was close enough to hear a couple officers talking.
“We must have finally done it in,” the other officer said. That was all I needed to hear. Hopefully the prevailing story would be that the rune bullets had taken the beastie down amid the cloud of dust it whipped up. Now I had to get out of here. I had long lost my shades and my hoodie was a shredded mess so it was just about useless. I heard sirens in the distance which meant more police were arriving, along with paramedics. I needed some patching up myself but I couldn’t get it here. I made my way back to my car as quickly as I could. Tackling the beastie plus the ever present effects from the Rot were trying to take me down but I had to get home.
There were still a lot of people on the scene, which I was thankful for because it helped me go unnoticed since the police and medics were preoccupied with helping the injured. I struggled through the debris as best as I could, but wasn’t able to avoiding tripping about a dozen times.
I suddenly slammed into something, no, someone, who grabbed me by the upper arms to keep me from falling. Renton looked as surprised to see me as I was to see him. He was a necromancer with a rune gun, sure, but I wouldn’t have expected to see him on the scene here, especially since he was a government official and battling ghost beasties wasn’t part of his job description.
“Selene! Are you all right? You look hurt, what are you doing out in the middle of this?”
“It’s kind of my job to be out in the middle of something like this,” I said. Renton was still holding my arms, and I was glad because standing still made me feel the pain from my injuries more strongly. I didn’t want to collapse completely. Not until I had gotten home.
“I came to help as well,” Renton said. He looked over my head to where the beastie had been. “The beastie was tougher than usual so I thought they could use as many extra rune bullets as possible. It seems the beastie was finally brought down.”
“Yup. Thankfully.” I really hoped my command that it stay hidden would hold. I had never done this before, and I didn’t know if giving one command was enough or if I would have to keep telling it to stay put. “I’d really like to get home, so if you don’t mind…”
“Maybe you should go to a hospital instead,” Renton said. “Or at least see a paramedic at one of the ambulances here.”
“Thanks, but I’ll be OK.” I tried to stand on my own but my vision crossed, and I stumbled as soon as I took a step. Renton kept me from falling to the ground.
“Are you sure? Is Micah with you?” He looked around as though he thought Micah would materialize.
“No.” I tried to keep the tightness from my voice. “But I’m fine, I just need to get…” I stopped and coughed for about half a minute. “Home.” I once again tried to stand on my own so I could get to my car, but my stupid body just did not want to work with me. I once again collapsed into Renton’s arms.
“Selene you are in no condition to drive yourself home,” Renton said. “Let me help you to your car.”
“Fine.” I could accept that much help. Renton started helping me to my car, but just then my stomach heaved, and I pushed away from him, fell onto all fours, and threw up on the sidewalk. I felt even worse when I saw that the upchuck included blood. Renton helped me up, and I didn’t have the strength to feel embarrassed that someone I had only just become acquainted with was seeing me in such a horrible state.
After helping me into the backseat, Renton leaned in and placed something cool in my hand. He closed my fingers around it.
“A Regeneration Rune,” he said. “Are you strong enough to channel some energy into it?”
“Yeah.” It took a few moments for me to concentrate but I was able to activate the rune. Warmth immediately spread through my
body, and within seconds I started to feel better. The intense pain from the beastie’s claws on my back subsided, as did the pain in my head. The only thing that remained was a faint feeling of nausea and that was probably because the nausea was due to the Rot. Unfortunately, Rot symptoms were beyond the Regeneration Rune’s capabilities. Renton took the rune from me.
“How do you feel?”
“A lot better,” I said. “That rune is amazing. Thank you.”
“You still need to rest, so will you allow me to drive you home?”
I wanted to protest but he was right, my wounds were healed but I was exhausted from tussling with a ghost monster.
“OK, thanks.” I handed my car keys to Renton, and slumped over.
The drive home felt like it took an eternity. Renton periodically asked if I was OK and if he needed to stop the car, but I told him to keep going and directed him to my house. Micah called, and was profusely apologetic about not being able to come and help me. Apparently Ethan hadn’t been able to get hold of him until the news reported it was all over. I was pissed off at his flakiness again, but told him to just meet me at my house. Ethan had also called Ilyse and told her I had gone to try and deal with the beastie so she was also on her way to my house. After I got off the phone with Micah, I texted Ethan and told him to hide Marcus in my bedroom. I knew Renton was Micah’s uncle and was a nice guy, but at the end of the day he was still part of Tielle’s team of watchdogs and it was better to keep Marcus out of the equation.
Once we arrived at my house, Micah, Ilyse, and Ethan came running out and helped me inside while Renton followed. Ethan gave me a slight nod to indicate that Marcus was off the radar, and I hoped he would keep quiet until Renton left.
After I cleaned up and Ilyse drew ghost energy off me, I felt even better. Eating Ethan’s lasagna helped too.
We were all convened in my living room watching the news report on the beastie’s rampage. I kept my eyes glued to the television hoping I didn’t catch sight of myself. Luckily, there was never clear footage of beastie attacks because news crews tended to find their equipment crushed if they tried to set up nearby, so there was only choppy cell phone footage by people who were too dumb to run for cover. I didn’t see myself. The news reported that the beastie had eventually been brought down so it didn’t look as though there was suspicion of an anchored beastie being around. No one had seen it disappear into the Hudson.
“Selene, I’m not a fool.” Renton’s voice made all of us jolt.
“What?”
Renton looked at me steadily from the armchair that was adjacent to the sofa Micah, Ethan, and I sat on. Ilyse came in from the kitchen with cups of her soothing tea then sat down in the armchair opposite Renton.
“The news is reporting that the beastie was brought down, but I was on the scene long enough to know that rune bullets were having no effect. Even on the strongest beastie the amount of rune bullets that were used would have brought it under control. And I happened to note that the beastie very suddenly went silent and disappeared. Which is not typical when a ghost beastie fades. Plus, you were there when you had already gone home for the day so you would not have been one of the necromancers who got sent to the scene. Needless to say, I have some suspicions about what just happened.”
I exchanged looks with Micah and the others. An attempt at lying would be lame and transparent, but I wasn’t exactly eager to confess to Renton the whole deal with Isabelle.
“Is anyone going to say something?” Renton asked, raising an eyebrow. I realized that the four of us had just been sitting there staring at him dumbly for an awkward amount of time. I leaned back and sighed.
“You can trust him,” Micah said. “He won’t tell Tielle.”
“I have enough suspicions of my own that I could spin a story to Tielle that won’t work out in your favor,” Renton said. “But that’s not my game here. I want to help you.”
“It’s not that easy to trust anyone who’s part of Tielle’s team,” I said. “Even if you are Micah’s uncle.”
“I understand,” he said. “So why don’t I prove myself first?”
“How so?” I asked, frowning slightly.
“One of the reasons I was eager to be part of the team that came here to keep an eye on you was because I wanted to see if I could find a way to save you from the Rot.”
“Really.” My frown turned into a look of surprise.
“Micah is all the family I have left and you are someone he loves very much. I would love to be able to help you, Selene. I don’t see you as the menace everyone else does, and with my knowledge of runes, I found saving your life to be a challenge I wanted to take on. So behind Tielle’s back I have been working on a project specifically to save your life.”
“But why not tell Tielle?” I asked. “She’s unpleasant but I don’t think she would be opposed to curing me of the Rot.”
“Because I know she would not approve of funding this project. It is very costly and requires resources she would not approve of giving me access to. So I am funding it myself.”
“So you’re risking your career and your bank account for someone you just met?” I said. It was hard to believe.
“Someone I just met who means a great deal to my nephew,” he said. “If you don’t believe I am doing it for you, then believe I am doing it for Micah. He has been tirelessly helping me, which I believe has caused some friction between you two.”
I turned to Micah. “That’s the reason you’ve been so dodgy? That’s what you were doing just now?”
Micah nodded. “I’ve been helping Renton research and gather materials, and sometimes that involves taking trips outside the city. I’m sorry I had to lie.”
“We didn’t think we should say anything unless we actually came up with something.” That was from Ilyse.
“You’re in on it too?” I asked.
She nodded.
“I’m almost afraid to ask, but have you come up with anything?”
“I feel confident enough to say that we are on the cusp of something,” Renton said. “We’re close.”
“Really?” I turned my wide eyed look to Micah, who smiled and took my hand, giving it a squeeze.
“We think so. Very close,” he said.
“I can hardly believe that.” I released a breath and ran my fingers through my hair before looking at Renton again. “All I can say is thank you for even trying. And putting yourself at risk to do so.”
“I truly hope I can help you,” Renton said. “And I hope I have proven I can be trusted,” He looked at me expectantly.
“All right, I’ll share too. That beastie was the result of a ghost that belonged to a young girl I found buried in my backyard. Someone wanted to make her ghost anchored, but obviously did not know the risks of her ghost turning into an anchored beastie. I had previously done some investigating and found out the name of the girl and her family, so when I heard her parent’s names on the news as early victims, I knew who the beastie had originated from. So I grabbed a binding rune—yes I am illegally in possession of a binding rune or two—and went to deal with the beastie.”
“Unbelievable,” Renton said. “Where did you send the beastie?”
“Into the Hudson,” I said. “And there it will stay unless by some miracle someone figures out a way to get rid of an anchored beastie. But even though I was able to take care of Isabelle’s beastie, there’s still Andrew and—” I cut myself off and bit my lip.
“And?” Renton prompted.
Damn it my slip up had been caught. Although maybe it would be OK to tell Renton about Marcus now that I knew he was taking a personal risk to try and save my life.
“Marcus, come out, it’s all right,” I called over my shoulder. Moments later Marcus tentatively floated into the room.
“Um…hi.” He seemed even more hesitant at all the new faces.
“Micah, Ilyse, Renton,” I said by way of a quick introduction. “Marcus is another anchored beastie.”
�
�You’re saying this man’s body was also buried in your yard?” Renton asked.
“Can I still even call it a yard at this point?” I muttered. “But yes, that’s what I’m saying. Though it probably would not have happened if the expensive alarm system I just had installed was working.” I gave Ethan a look, and he looked away.
“I’ve already worked with Marcus to find out what his unfinished business is. He needs to give a ring that’s on his corpse to his exgirlfriend. Super romantic, I know. Anyway, once we get that taken care of we can at least ensure that Marcus doesn’t become an anchored ghost monster.”
“That would be nice,” Marcus said nervously. Just then Renton’s phone beeped with a text message, and after he checked it he stood up.
“Tielle is looking for me,” he said. “So I have to leave. I’m sure she will have her own suspicions about the beastie and where it went, but I will try to deflect her suspicion from you as much as I can.”
“Thank you, Renton, I really appreciate that.”
“Of course,” he replied. “Can you recommend a car service? I drove your car home, hence mine is still in the city.”
“I’ll drive you to it,” Ilyse offered, getting up. Her face was grave, as it had been recently. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a genuine smile from her. She came over and gave me a hug.
“I will see you soon,” she said. “Don’t go fighting any more ghost monsters; you need to conserve your strength.”
“I’ll try. Maybe you can put a memo out there to the ghost monsters and tell them to leave me alone.”
She flashed a smile, gave me another hug, and left with Renton. Once they were gone, I flopped back down onto the couch and Micah sat next to me. Ethan curled up on one of the armchairs and Marcus hovered nearby. I glanced at him.