Gaslit Revolution

by Jason Gilbert

  “I’m okay,” she breathed. “I’m okay.”

  Kane looked at Wil. She’d turned her back to them, her body tense, trembling. She worked her hands, opening her fingers as far as they would go, closing them back into tight fists over and over again. Kane looked at Chris. The newsie’s eyes were on Wilhelmina, wide and fearful as he stepped back, his hands up in defense.

  “Wil,” Kane said. Tabitha touched his arm and nodded, motioned for him to go to Wil. Kane obeyed, moving towards the Marsh Witch as he spoke again. “Wil? We’ll find her. We’ll get her back.”

  Wil rounded on Kane, her eyes wide, glowing red with fury, her teeth clenched, blackened and grit as she stepped towards him.

  “We?!” she snapped. “She my responsibility! I take that girl under my care! Into my circle! Make her caretaker for my familiar!” She jabbed a finger at her chest with each sentence, stepping closer until she was a foot away from Kane. Close enough to smell the pluff mud aroma on her dress and the rot on her breath. “I don’t remember no peckerwood Magician boy havin’ a damned thing to do with it. Other than bring trouble with him wherever him go!”

  Kane looked at Chris.

  “Grab that gas lamp. We’re going back up.”

  Wil huffed, began backing away from Kane as the shadows grew darker behind her, reached for her.

  “You make your own way back through them tunnels. I got my own way.”

  The shadows swirled around Wil, enveloped her, receded back into the abyss with nothing left but two barefoot prints on the ground where she’d been standing only seconds before.

  “Shit,” Kane muttered.

  “What the hell was that?” Chris asked. “I’ve never seen that!”

  “Calm down,” Kane said. “She does that. It’s her way of teleporting. And there’s no telling where she is. We need to get back up there.” He turned to Tabitha. “Can you walk?”

  She nodded.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I’m starting to feel better already.” She put her hand on her cheek. “Oh, Kane, that poor girl! He took her!”

  “Who did?”

  “Chesterfield!”

  Kane looked around.

  “It doesn’t make sense. Why take the girl?”

  “Unless they know something about your friend,” Chris said.

  Kane rubbed his forehead. How could he be so stupid?!

  “Shit. Shit!”

  “What?” Chris said. “Shit what?”

  “Chesterfield knows about Wil,” Kane said. “Can you teleport?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Head up to the surface. Get everyone ready to move down here.” Kane turned to Tabitha. “We need to find Wil right now. She’s walking into a trap.”

  “Wait a minute,” Chris said. “How does he know about her?”

  Something popped above them, above the ground. Another pop. Another. More. Rapid, one right after the other. Kane sent his hearing upwards. Screaming. Move. Get away. Clear out that building. Let him go, he’s gone. Shots fired.

  Shots fired.

  Kane pulled his hearing back in and spun on his heel, facing Chris, his tone hard as he barked at him.

  “No time for that! Get up there and get those people into the tunnel!”

  Chris nodded, muttered something in French, and blinked out of sight. Kane went back to Tabitha, putting his hand in his pocket and activated his amulet. He cast his Ethereal Fire, then looked at her.

  “Straight up,” Kane said. “Right into it. Are you ready?”

  She nodded, took his hand in hers. She looked grounded, determined.

  “After what I just went through, I really need a good fight. Draugalega Ferðast!”

  Kane grit his teeth against the cold rush as they were lifted off the ground, the ceiling coming at them quickly, past them, the street under their feet as the cold dissipated as fast as it’d come. He had a split second to see that they were in the middle of the street, not far from the grocery. Kane ducked and flung a charged fireball at a group of soldiers caught off guard by the two Magicians that’d just materialized in front of them. The blast caught one square in the helmet, exploded, sending his group into the air along with his body parts. People ran through the streets, screaming, calling out to others to follow them, children crying in terror as more Special Forces stormed the neighborhood, shooting up buildings, peppering the crowd as they ran for the Walking Bridge.

  One side. The troops were only attacking from one side.

  They were herding them.

  Tabitha hurled an ice spear at another soldier rushing them, his blunderbuss aimed high. It went through his stomach as she sent another one at his partner. The second shot didn’t have time to form a spear, the blast freezing the man’s armor until his leg crumbled into frozen bits of copper and meat. He howled in pain, only to be answered by a bullet to the helmet.

  Kane looked up. They were in front of Ralphie’s. He heard Bette’s voice from above.

  “That one’s on the house, honey!”

  Kane nodded to her, then looked down just as the diner door blew open, wood splintering, glass shattering as Ralphie stormed through like a runaway freight train. Two soldiers that had been making for the diner ducked the debris as Ralphie came right at them, reached out and grabbed each one by the head. He clashed their helmets together repeatedly until they dented and cracked. A few more ran at him, guns blazing. He dropped one corpse to the ground and ran at them, using the second as a meat shield as he barreled towards the others and began to bludgeon them with their own comrade, swinging the dead man around like a club. More came. Kane saw them take aim, Ralphie too busy beating the others to a pulp to notice. He called over his shoulder.

  “Tabitha, cover me!”

  Kane threw a sizable fireball at the man in the lead, caught him solidly in the face. Another fireball found its victim’s chest. Gunfire rang out. Kane cast his Ethereal Shield, the bullets stopping a foot from him, melting in the shield’s heat. He hurled another fireball at them, this one charged. It struck the fire hydrant on the corner, sent chunks of cast iron in every direction. Water erupted from the stump where they hydrant had been, shot at least two stories into the air before it began to rain down on them.

  “Kane!” Tabitha shouted. “Get out of there!”

  Kane looked just in time to see Tabitha run into the center of the falling water. Troops took aim as she crouched down. He looked up at Ralphie.

  “Ralphie, move!”

  The cook dropped his man-bludgeon and took off at a sprint, bowling through two soaked troopers as more surrounded them, their guns aimed at Tabitha, water dripping from their armor. Kane tried to back away, ran into a soldier with his blunderbuss aimed at his gut.

  “Freeze, Shepherd!”

  Kane grinned at him.

  “No, you.”

  Kane swept his arm over his head as he ducked, his Ethereal Shield wrapping around him. Tabitha’s voice rang out above the roar of the water and rain.

  “Geðveikur frysta!”

  A ring of blue energy spread out from Tabitha’s crouched form, the water on the ground freezing in its wake. It hit Kane’s shield, going around the fire as it went through the soldier next to him. The others in the area screamed and cried out as the water on their armor froze over, their joints stiff as copper went to bluish white, droplets turning into icicles, shouts and calls for help choking off as their throats froze shut. The water spout froze from the ground up, stopping in time, now a white tree of ice. The blast dissipated. The area was quiet, ice deadening sound.

  Kane stood, killed the shield spell, the cold hitting him like a punch to the gut. He went to Tabitha, who stood and looked around at her handiwork.

  “Ghostly Freeze. Reminds me of Christmas,” she said with a grin as she began to sing in a small voice. “Up on the house top, reindeer paws…”

  Ralphie moved back towards them, bumping into one of the frozen troops as he went. The soldier fell back, hit the ground, and shattered into bloody ice chunks.


  “Oops,” he said, his tone rich with sarcasm. He spat on the remains. “Bitch.”

  Kane approached him.

  “Ralphie, there’s an evacuation.”

  “I know,” Ralphie said. “Bunch of people just left outta here. Subway, huh?”

  “Better than going head on,” Kane said. “Can you help them get the people out? Look for a guy named Chris, tell him I sent you.”

  Bette wandered out from the diner, looking around at the wreckage before smiling at Tabitha.

  “Love what you’ve done with the place, hon.”

  Kane looked at Bette.

  “How many more rounds you got?”

  “A few dozen,” Bette said.

  “Good, you might need it.” He turned back to Ralphie. “Have you heard anything about the hospital?”

  “Nothin’,” Ralphie said. “I know I saw a group of streeters headed that way.”

  “Those might be Chris’s people. Good.” Kane turned back to Tabitha. “Can you get them to the Walking Bridge? I’ll go look for Wilhelmina.”

  She nodded, her mouth turning down to a small frown. She stared at him, her blue eyes large and full of worry. He knew that look.

  He didn’t want to leave her, either.

  Kane grabbed Tabitha by the arm, pulled her to him, kissed her full on the lips, held her close to him. She returned the kiss, went to put her arms around him, but he pulled away before she could. He couldn’t let her. He knew he’d never leave, never go after Wil.

  Lose his chance to stop the insanity.

  “We’ll continue this conversation when I get back,” Kane said, smiling at her. He heard Bette gasp.

  “Oh, Ralphie, aren’t they adorable?!”

  Another explosion sounded in the distance. Someone screamed from the same area. The scream was immediately cut short.

  “I think I just found Wil,” Kane said, looking back to Tabitha. “Go. I’m right behind you.” He let her go and took off at a run towards the sounds of men screaming, gunfire, and destruction. He wiped his amulet, the thing warm to the touch but surprisingly not overheated, then redrew his rune. He knew he’d want it fresh for the fight.

  A different sound came at him from the other side of the block. Wilhelmina’s cackling echoed all around him, the sound thick with madness and bitter anger. He crossed the street, looking around as he went. Open doors and empty buildings moved by as he ran towards the general store. It looked as if word had spread quick, and Chris’s people were starting to evacuate everyone.

  Almost.

  More sounds of combat and dying came from the right. Kane took the corner, bolted down the street towards the hospital, his lungs on fire from running for so long, his legs going sore, heavier with each step. He heard Wil’s voice carry over, echo off of the buildings in the now empty neighborhood.

  “Good thing we near a hospital,” she said. “Gonna fill up them meat lockers if you don’ tell me where. She. Is!” More screaming. A sickening crunch. The scream cut short. “How about you, sugar? You gonna crunch like a Fiddler Crab or sing like a Blue Heron?”

  Kane saw a shadow near the hospital, something long and snakelike wrapped around the shape of a man. The man twitched, the sound of bones breaking loud and wet, the human shape going limp.

  Kane got close enough to see Wil by the Emergency Room entrance, a long vine sprouting from the ground and shooting after another soldier as he tried to scramble away. He ducked it, saw Kane, ran for him.

  “Help me,” he shouted to Kane. “God, she’s killing us all! Sh–” He stumbled and hit the dirt, Wil’s possum squeaking angrily at his feet where it’d tripped him. Vines grew out of the street, wrapped themselves around the soldier’s arms and legs, pinned him down. The possum turned and ran to Wil, who plucked it up off the ground and tucked into her arms as she walked casually towards the soldier. She looked at Kane as if her eyes were daggers.

  “The hell you want, Kane Shepherd?”

  “You’ve got to get it under control,” Kane said. “We’re leaving. You’re no good to Lexi dead.”

  “Hmph! Who gonna die?” she snapped, biting off the sentence. “Who gonna kill me? I done kill ‘em all, they come after me. This the only one left.” She put her free hand on her hip. “An’ I ain’t goin’ nowhere without that girl.”

  “There are more,” Kane said as the soldier struggled against his bindings, begged Kane to help him. “They’ll be here soon, and they’re armed. We’ve got to move.”

  “She killed them all,” he said, sobbing inside his helmet. “Christ, she killed them all!”

  “Just your group,” Kane said to him. “You were trained to kill Magicians, not her kind. You’d better start talking.”

  “I don’t know anything, man, I swear,” the soldier said.

  Wil grunted, then flashed an evil grin, her voice suddenly syrup and serpentine.

  “Take him glove off, Kane Shepherd. I make him talk.”

  Kane knelt down and pulled the glove off the man’s hand as Wil dropped the possum. The animal ran up to the soldier, screeching as it charged him, locked its teeth into the meat on his hand. It writhed, jerked meat loose as the trooper screamed and flailed. Kane watched as the possum let go and ran back to Wil. It looked at its victim and let out a long screech.

  “You carry a curse now, boy,” Wil said, sauntering up to the soldier. “You and my familiar connected.” She looked down at the possum, grabbed one of its front legs, and snapped it with a flick of her wrist.

  The soldier screamed again, his arm suddenly snapping, bending in an unholy position, bone breaking underneath armor.

  Kane looked down at him. He knew they needed to leave, but he also knew Wil. The only way to end this would be to hurry it along.

  “Start singing, birdie,” he said. “Where’s the little girl? Why’d Chesterfield take her?”

  “I don’t know,” the soldier said, his voice breaking, his breathing rapid from the pain. “He said something about–something about the witch.”

  “Here I am,” Wil said. “Now what you want?”

  “Where’s the girl?” Kane asked again.

  “Chesterfield,” the man said. “He’s keeping her with him.”

  “Where is he?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Kane looked at Wil.

  “Break his leg.”

  “No!”

  “Then think real hard,” Kane said, not holding back his anger as he knelt down, got close to the man’s face. “Where’s your boss? Where’s Chesterfield?”

  “Back in the city! Something about the old subway entrance!”

  Kane’s blood went cold. Tabitha. Antonia. Ralphie. All of them were headed into a trap. He stood and looked at Wil.

  “Son of a bitch,” he said. “All those people.”

  “So?” Wil said. “All them versus one asshole.”

  “He’s a Blood Priest,” Kane said. “That’s a lot of people he can drain all at once. Including Lexi.” He stepped closer to her. “Don’t think for a minute he won’t kill a child. You know better than that.”

  Wil looked back down at the soldier, her face twisted in wild fury as she snapped the possum’s other arm. The soldier cried out in agony as his arm contorted, the sound of bone snapping in two. The possum shrieked, the sound not from pain but full of rage, its eyes locked on the man weeping on the ground.

  “What the hell?” Kane said, looking from the soldier back to Wil. “What the hell did you do that for?”

  She shrugged, the gesture nonchalant.

  “Him could’ve told me that from the start.”

  Kane shook his head and looked back down at the man.

  “How does Chesterfield know about Wil?”

  “Informant,” the man said, his voice strained and raspy. “On the inside. Don’t know who. We get the…information through telegraph. Morse Code. I swear. It’s all I know.”

  “Then I’m done with you,” Wil snarled behind Kane. He looked just in time to see
her pull a knife from the folds of her dress.

  “No!”

  She rammed the blade into the possum’s stomach, both the animal and the soldier screaming as she worked the blade upwards. Flesh gave way, the possum’s innards spilled to the ground. Kane looked back at the soldier, saw his stomach open. His intestines spilled out as he turned onto his side, tried to move his broken arms against the vines that held him fast to the ground. He gagged and went still, dead in a lake of blood on the street.

  “Hmph,” Wil said, tossing the dead possum to the side.

  Kane rounded on her.

  “What the hell did you kill him for?!”

  Wil gave him a dismissive wave, nudging her chin in the direction she’d tossed the possum.

  “Him be alright in a minute. Once he realize the spell broke.”

  “I’m talking about the human being you just killed,” Kane said, pointing at the dead soldier on the ground.

  “Oh, that,” Wil said, looking down at the body. “I was done with him. Didn’t need him tellin’ his friends what we talked about when they found him with two broke arms.”

  “It was unnecessary,” Kane said, angry. “He couldn’t fight back.”

  She moved to him, her face close to his, her eyes steel as she spoke.

  “It was complete necessary,” Wil hissed. “I do us a favor, Kane Shepherd. Him men find him, and he talk. Besides, them arms no good. Would’ve left him cripple the rest of him life.” She stepped closer to Kane. “But him boss got what’s mine. And I’ll kill anyone who stand in my way.” She narrowed her eyes. “You strong in ways, Kane Shepherd, but you weak were it count. Gonna have to grow a pair, you.”

  “Not by needlessly killing. He was defenseless.”

  “You done kill plenty of these men. What makes this one different?”

  “Those were in combat,” Kane said. “I wouldn’t execute anyone!”

  She grinned at him.

  “You wanna beat the devil,” she said. “Send him packin’ with all his demons? Then you gonna have to be willin’ to be a devil yourself.” Her eyes flashed. “This ain’t no ordinary fight, Kane Shepherd. It’s your life and death now. And the life and death of the people you love.”