by Jamie Davis
It was late, and despite her earlier desire to think things through, all she wanted now was to get some sleep. Maybe if she sorted things out overnight in her dreams, they would look better. She’d see if her subconscious mind had an answer to all the questions going through her head.
Quinn hadn’t gone more than three blocks back up the street when something cold and sharp pressed against her neck, startling her to the point she swerved.
A man’s voice whispered in Quinn’s ear from behind, “Don’t slow down, keep driving. I’ll tell you where to go.”
Oh, my God, she had known it was a bad idea to drive into the city this late at night alone. She usually had more street smarts than that. Now someone had snuck into her Jeep and was trying to…well, she didn’t know what.
Quinn sucked in a sharp breath as she regained control of the vehicle and looked into the rearview mirror. She recognized the ball cap, although the face was still hidden by the visor’s shadow. It was the vagrant from the crime scene.
Clearing her throat, Quinn said, “Look, I don’t have a lot of money. I don’t know what you want from me, but I’m sure we can come to an understanding. I’ll give you what I have.”
“I won’t hurt you as long as I get the answers to the questions I have. Now shut up and drive.”
Quinn didn’t know what answers he wanted from her—and it was a small relief if he was telling the truth about what he wanted—but he was still holding a knife to her throat.
She kept going up the street, searching her mind for some way to disable her attacker. Her mind rolled through her options as she drove through the dark residential streets. It was likely he’d make her drive to some secluded area where he could ask his questions or worse. She couldn’t let that happen.
As the Jeep approached the highway, she shifted toward the on-ramp. The deep, gravelly voice hissed in her ear, “No! Stay off the highway. Keep going straight, then take a left at that traffic light up ahead.”
“Tell me where you’re taking me. I’m not gonna let you drive me somewhere you can just kill me and dump my body.”
The man chuckled. “You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that. You’re not too smart, though. I’m the one with a knife to your throat, and you’re trying to make demands of me?”
“If all you want is information, just ask me your questions while we drive, and then I’ll let you out.”
“Not here. Take a left at the light and keep driving. There’s a city park with a public lot up ahead. Park there, where we can have some privacy.”
Quinn grimaced. This was exactly what she’d feared.
As she turned left and headed down the street, she saw the parking lot ahead, next to a baseball diamond. The area was open and well-lit, but a stand of trees nearby would be a great place to hide her body if that’s what he wanted to do. At this hour, it was unlikely anyone was paying any attention to the parking lot.
“Pull into the entrance and drive to the back corner. No one will bother us there.”
Quinn did as the man said, as she started to form a plan to get away from him. She drove up the slight incline into the lot, letting her left hand drop down beside her seat and rest there while she steered with her right hand.
When she pulled into the parking space, Quinn stomped on the brake so hard the Jeep jolted to a sudden stop. At the same time, she pulled up on the seat handle with her left hand. As they both lurched forward and then back with the sudden stop, she pushed back hard with both legs, reclining her seat against the attacker in back.
When he grunted in surprise, she lifted her left leg and planted a foot against the dashboard, then pressed backward with all her might, slamming the seat back into the man and pinning him to the back seat.
He immediately began to twist, trying to get out from under the front seat. Quinn wrestled with him for control of the blade, successfully pulling it away from her throat before it could cause more damage.
A warm trickle of blood flowed down her neck to drip onto the headrest, but it didn’t feel like the wound was serious. The knife hadn’t done much damage during their gyrations.
Quinn renewed her struggle to control the weapon. Even with two hands, though, she was hard-pressed to hold the knife at bay. The corded muscle of his forearm might as well have been an iron bar. It resisted her efforts to pull the blade more than an inch from her neck.
Luckily, she’d managed to trap his other arm behind the seat so he couldn’t bring it to bear, at least not yet.
The problem was, they were in a stalemate.
Quinn wanted to escape the vehicle but couldn’t let go to try to open her door or unbuckle her seatbelt so she could slip away. He was too strong. The instant she let go, he’d plunge the knife home and end her.
As she struggled to gain more leverage, the man wriggled behind her.
Quinn lifted her right leg up to push against the dash along with her left. Using both legs, she pressed back harder. If she could just hold him off a little longer, she might be able to come up with a plan to disarm him and get away.
Realizing it was a desperate moment calling for desperate action, Quinn tilted her head forward. She opened her mouth and bit down as hard as she could on the hand holding the knife.
The coppery taste of blood washed across her tongue as her teeth broke the skin.
The man howled in pain but didn’t let go of the knife. Quinn bit down harder, grinding her teeth in as he strained, trying to break free of her hands and teeth.
She continued to press down with her teeth, tearing the skin and muscle of his hand, and finally, the knife fell away.
The blade dropped to the floor beside the seat, out of sight and reach.
Quinn let go of his wrist with her left hand and reached out, trying to open the door. The instant she let go, though, the man overpowered her. He slammed his forearm against her head and yanked back, pulling his arm free.
Quinn was stretching her left arm to reach the door handle when he punched the side of her face.
She glimpsed it coming out of the corner of her eye and twisted to the side at the last second, so the descending fist landed only a glancing blow.
The impact still struck with enough force to cause Quinn to see stars. She gasped in pain as he crashed his fist into her face and head again and again.
Twisting around in the seat to get away from his blows, she groped to the side, trying to reach the door’s handle. This time she succeeded and managed to pop the door.
Swinging her legs around and leaning forward, Quinn reached for the doorframe to haul herself out of the Jeep. A bloody hand clamped down on her shoulder, holding her back, followed by another.
With two hands clamped on her shoulders, the man pulled her backward and sideways into the car so that her back slammed painfully against the center console. He’d finally managed to free himself from the front seat.
Now the attacker leaned over her while she flailed at him, kicking out with her feet in a futile effort to gain purchase door frame.
The man pressed down on her chest with his bloodied right hand and raised his fist, ready to slam it into her face again.
Then he stopped.
Quinn winced, expecting the blow to land any second.
Instead of striking her, though, the eyes peering out from beneath the baseball cap’s visor stared down at her.
The raised fist beside his head opened, and his index finger extended, pointing downward.
“Where did you get that.”
“Where did I get what?”
Quinn glanced down at her chest and realized he was pointing at her pendant.
“Look, it’s just a silver pendant, but if you want it, take it and get out of here.”
“I don’t want it. I want to know how you got it.”
“I got it from my parents, okay? Just take it and go.”
“Who are your parents? Where did they get it?”
“Look, I’m not here to tell you my life story.”
T
he man growled at her. “Where. Did. You. Get. It?”
“It was left with me as a baby. I’ve been told it was the only thing I had when they found me. Look, just take the pendant, take my wallet, take my Jeep. Just leave me be.”
The man leaned forward, giving her the first good luck at his face. The light shining in from the parking lot lights illuminated his features.
The skin on his face had the look of worn leather. It was tanned and aged and had fine wrinkles, especially around the eyes and at the corners of his mouth. Several days’ worth of stubble covered his jaw, and he had a narrow white scar across the bridge of his nose and down his right cheek.
“If you answer my questions, I won’t hurt you. I told you earlier, I just want answers. I don’t want your money. I don’t want your Jeep. I don’t want you. I just want answers, now even more than before.”
“Fine. Let go of me, and I’ll give you your answers.”
The man grinned and shook his head. “I’m not stupid, you know. I’m not letting go of you. You’ll just run away and make me chase you.”
Several long seconds of silence passed between them.
Quinn realized they’d reached an impasse. He couldn’t let go, and she couldn’t get away. At least he’d stopped punching her.
She sighed, giving in for now. “What do you want to know?”
“I want to know what you were doing back there.“
“Back where? You mean, back on the street where that man was killed?” Quinn wondered what the hell this guy had to do with that. He couldn’t be a cop. She could spot a cop from a mile away. Maybe he was some kind of private investigator. “I was just out for a drive and saw the police lights. I was only curious.”
The man’s nostrils flared and he shook his head again. “I can tell when you lie to me. Tell me the truth. There was something about you. I sensed it when you bumped into me. I don’t know how, but you had something to do with what happened there. You know who killed that man.“
“Look, if you think I killed him, I didn’t. I just saw the thing on the news and wanted to come down to see where it happened. That’s all, I swear.”
The man tilted his head to the side and drew a deep breath through his nose. He smiled. “You’re lying. I can smell it.”
Quinn started to laugh, then got the sense from the look in his eyes he wasn’t kidding. He flared his nostrils again as if trying to discern even more about her. Of course, that was ridiculous.
He seemed to believe it, though. He’d also been correct so far.
“I was curious about how he died. That’s all. Now let me go.”
“If you keep telling the same lie, we’ll be here all night. Since you won’t answer that, maybe you’ll explain to me again where you got the amulet.”
“What? Why are you obsessed with my pendant? I told you, when I was abandoned as a baby, it was the only thing with me other than a blanket, a note, and the clothes I was wearing. I was left at a fire station here in the city. I never knew who my parents were. All they left was this pendant and a note that said, ‘Her name is Quinn.’”
“When was this?”
“Eighteen years ago, why?”
He lifted his gaze and got a distant look in his eyes, as if he stared out the windshield at something far away. Quinn craned her neck, trying to see what he was looking at.
Realizing he was distracted by something, she tensed, preparing to pull away.
His grip tightened before she could move a muscle.
“Don’t. Let me think. None of this makes any sense.”
“None of what makes any sense? You’re the one speaking in riddles.”
The man looked down at her. “If I let you up, do you promise not to run away? I’m not here to hurt you, but I need answers. I know you’re involved somehow with what happened back there. I have your license number and enough of a description that if I gave it to the police, they'd surely track you down. Something tells me you don’t want that kind of trouble.”
Quinn thought about that. She didn’t have much love for the police. They would take one look at her juvenile record as a runaway, a shoplifter, and her other, similar crimes and make assumptions about her involvement in the man’s death. She wasn’t even sure there wasn’t any physical evidence tied to her at the scene. Quinn didn’t want to take the chance.
She accepted now that she’d been there, somehow. She still didn’t understand how she’d gone from being inside a virtual reality simulation fifteen miles away, well outside the city, to being in the middle of a downtown neighborhood.
Quinn considered the matter of the missing time she couldn’t account for. Could they have somehow transported her downtown, used some sort of hypnotism or drugs to make her forget the trip, and then return back to the test center in time for her and the others to all wake up?
It seemed far-fetched.
Quinn didn’t want to take the chance that it had all been real, though. The police wouldn’t take long to figure it out either if this random homeless guy had seen it.
Quinn relaxed her tense body. “Okay, I won’t run as long as you don’t try to hurt me anymore.”
The man nodded and slowly released his grip on her shoulders. He pointed to the passenger seat beside her. “Slide over there. I’ll climb into the driver’s seat. Then we’ll talk.”
Quinn pushed herself up and over the center console, swinging her legs around until she sat in the passenger seat, facing front. She put her hands on her knees, the fingertips of her right hand inches from the door’s handle. She was ready to pop it open the instant he made another move in her direction.
She watched his every move as he slid behind the steering wheel. He raised the seatback until it was in position, then pulled the driver’s door closed.
“Let’s start with introductions. You said your name is Quinn?”
She nodded. “And you?”
“My name is Clark, and until now, I thought I was the last survivor of the local hunter clans.”
Chapter Eight
Quinn waited after his pronouncement, expecting him to say more in explanation. The whole thing was cryptic, to say the least.
Clark stared at Quinn, his eyes boring into hers as if mining for unspoken answers in response to what he said.
Quinn glared back at him. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
Clark gestured at Quinn’s pendant. “It should. You’re wearing a hunter’s amulet.”
Clark reached under his collar and fished out a silver chain only a little thicker than hers. At the end of the chain dangled an amulet identical to hers, and he turned it to show her both sides.
Quinn looked at him after staring at his silver pendant for what seemed like forever. Time seemed to stop as she met his tired, dark eyes. “How? How are they the same?”
“I don’t know. I thought they were all destroyed during the purges that started twenty years ago. It could be a knockoff, but I don’t think so. Let me ask you a question. Has the amulet ever done anything strange or felt odd any time when you were touching it?”
Quinn didn’t answer. What had once been a childhood fantasy about a magic charm left to her by her parents was really a secret tool she’d used to keep herself out of trouble.
When she didn’t answer right away, Clark snorted a laugh. “Your silence is all the answer I need. Now I know it’s real.”
Irritation bubbled up inside Quinn. “How do you know? I didn’t say anything.”
Clark lifted his amulet to dangle from his fingertip. “This amulet and others like it are infused with powerful protections and charms. They shield me from spells or attacks that might influence my mind or injure me in some way. It’s not foolproof, but it gives me an edge against surprise attacks, both magical and mundane. It can do other things, but only for those trained in its use.”
He nodded at Quinn’s pendant. “Even for an untrained person or child, the protections would operate at some level. The magic is quite intuitive.”
/> Quinn shook her head. “Magic? You expect me to believe magic is real, and you have some sort of mystical powers.?”
“You don’t believe me?”
“Why should I?”
“Because you reek of it, and powerful magic at that. You’ve had at least one major spell cast on you in the last twenty-four hours, if not more. I can sense that much. Then there’s your association with the attack on the councilman. I was shadowing him, offering what protection I could when I was available. He slipped away from me today, as he liked to do sometimes. By the time I caught up with him earlier this evening, he’d already been attacked and killed. Bystanders said they saw nothing. A few claimed to have seen shadowy, ghostlike figures clustered around the victim.”
Clark growled, “Whoever they were, the attackers disappeared without a trace. I found trails leading away in two directions, but they ended a few steps away from where he was killed. There was no evidence left at the scene. I tasted the residual magic that remained, though. It had the same taint as the spell that’s been cast on you.”
Quinn shook her head and laughed. None of this made sense. A few days before, she would have assumed Clark was an insane homeless person.
After the events of the night, she wasn’t so sure.
Quinn didn’t know what was real anymore. Her experience today with the VR system at VirSync, the strangely related death of the city councilman, and now these crazy claims by Clark, a man who thought he could smell magic on her, shook her understanding of reality to its core.
Quinn reached for the door handle. “This is all too much. There’s no such thing as magic. I need to get out of here.”
As she did, Clark waved two fingers of one hand in a circular movement, and the door locks engaged. She tried to unlock the door, but it wouldn’t open for her, no matter what she did.
Quinn spun to face Clark. “How’d you do that?”
He smiled. “Magic, what else? You may try to deny its existence. Most people do, but that’s because they don’t know about the hidden battle going on out of sight all around them. A fight happening in the sort of dark shadows most people avoid.”