by K T Kaye
“On paper Alexander is more qualified but Angel is just...she’s just better. She cares about all the members of the squad and she knows how to get the best from us. She goes on every mission, unless she’s ordered to stay behind and, when that happens, she stays in the operations room and oversees everything.”
“Also Alexander disappeared for almost nine months,” Bertie added, bringing us our drinks.
“Oh yeah,” Elsa exclaimed, “I totally forgot about that!”
“What happened?” I asked.
“Alex just disappeared one night. No one saw him go. The Colonel wouldn’t talk about it. It was really weird.”
“Yes then Angel went on that horrific zombie mission,” Bertie continued, “And Alexander came back.”
“What exactly happened on that zombie mission?” I asked, “Ethan mentioned it the other day.”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“I’m not going to freak out.”
Well I might, I added internally.
“Okay so this mission is considered the worse mission in the base’s history,” Elsa explained, “This happened when Angel and Sophie were in Wildfire Squad. The mission was to rescue a group of humans who had been taken by a cult of vampires as blood slaves. The squad arrived and freed the humans.”
“Then out of nowhere the squad gets attacked by zombies. Six of the squad die in the first five minutes. Jin (have you met Jin yet, he’s a lovely lad) got badly injured, so Angel had to literally drag him away from danger, while trying to save the humans,” Bertie continued.
“At this point Jin noticed that the zombies are wearing execution tags. Ah, zombies must be executed. It’s the law. So these zombies should have been executed but they hadn’t been, they had been purposely let lose.”
“Why would someone do that?” I asked.
“Well it turned out...” but before Elsa could tell me more Angel appeared behind us.
“Piper at your three o’clock,” she whispered.
After working out which way was ‘three o’clock’, I watched the Pied Piper as he sat himself down at a small table in the far corner of the tavern.
“So how are we playing this?” Elsa asked.
“Elsa ‘zoom’ over there and sit on that seat next to him. I’ll go opposite and Jason you at the end. Keep your guard up, he may be old but he’s fast.”
Angel nodded to Elsa and they both zoomed over to the Piper. I followed, sitting down next to Angel. The Pied Piper was not what I had expected. There was no brightly coloured outfit or army of rats behind him, there was just a deflated looking man. He wore all black and although his face was battered, he still looked young. His sad cold eyes stared at me.
“Piper, you’re under arrest,” Angel announced firmly pulling out her ID badge, “Jason, time to make your first arrest.”
Angel nodded to Elsa. Elsa took hold of the Piper and pulled him to his feet. Angel handed me a pair of chains. Now I won’t lie to you, I was very excited about making my first arrest. Police officers always look so cool when they arrest the bad guys in movies! I took the chains and placed them over the Piper’s wrists.
“With the power the Emperor has given me, I place the Pied Piper under arrest for crimes against the paranormal empire,” I locked the chains, “You have the right to remain silent and the right to legal representation.”
The moment I finished speaking, the Pied Piper broke the chains and escaped. I ran after him not wanting my first arrest to end in disaster. The Piper was fast, and I was in danger of losing him. The Piper turned left and headed down a small alleyway. I followed him. The alleyway seemed to come to a dead end but the Piper, being a fey with magic and everything, just decided to run up the side of the wall, as you do!
I looked up as the Piper ran across the roof tops. I sighed and looked around. There was a box on the opposite side of the alleyway. Standing on the box, I pulled myself up onto the roof. No one else had decided to take the roof that day so it was easy to spot the Piper. Despite being slightly concerned that I might fall through someone’s roof, I ran after the Piper. However I quickly realised that I was extremely bad at running. I stopped, out of breath and exhausted.
“I need to start going to the gym,” I panted, “Ah he’s getting away. Someone stop him! Oh wait there’s no one around. Great. What am I going to do!? We have doctors at the base right? I think I might need one. Whoever said running was good for you, was lying! Who am I talking to? Oh I’m talking to myself, that’s not good. Right I really should do something as he’s getting away.”
Then an idea popped into my tired mind. I pulled out my crossbow and with shaking hands, I pulled the trigger.
The world seemed to move in slow motion. The small dart zoomed through the air and hit its target. The Piper fell. I ran (well to be honest it was more of a fast paced walk) over to the Piper, locking him in chains the moment I arrived.
“With the power the Emperor has given me, I place the Pied Piper under arrest for crimes against the paranormal empire,” I gasped, “You have the right to remain silent and the right to legal representation.”
“Well done Master,” the Piper nodded, “You win.”
“Great,” I muttered, although I wasn’t sure what game we had been playing.
I then realised that shooting the Piper may not have been my best idea, for now the Piper couldn’t walk. With some difficulty, I gave the injured Pied Piper a piggyback. Getting down from the roof with the Piper on my back was much harder than I had anticipated however, after twenty minutes of failure, I managed to get both myself and the Piper safely off the rooftop. Once my feet were firmly planted on the ground, I headed, with the Piper on my back, to the tavern. I was surprised to see Angel and Elsa sat at the bar looking totally relaxed.
“I told you he would do it!” Elsa exclaimed as I walked over to them. Elsa held out her hand and Angel handed her a fifty-pound note.
“What is that?” I asked.
“Oh, we had a bet on if you would catch the Piper or not.”
“What!?”
“It was a test stupid,” Angel muttered as she grabbed the Piper and put him on the floor. She glowed white then pulled the dart out of the Piper’s leg and began to heal his wound.
“What do you mean it was a test?”
“When I visited you in hospital what did I say?”
“Err you warned me that this world was really dangerous and said some other scary things.”
“Well…okay fair enough I did say that, but I also said you had to prove yourself worthy of being in my squad. That’s what the test was for. To see if you were good enough to be in my squad. Luckily you succeeded.”
“So if I hadn’t caught the Piper I would have failed?”
“Correct.”
“Then what would have happened?”
Angel didn’t answer. She just smiled and handed me something. I looked down and in my hand was a Lightning Squad ID badge.
“Welcome to Lightning Squad.”
8
‘The Power of the Pipe’
Although he had caught the Pied Piper, due to his lack of training Jason wasn’t allowed to take part in the Piper’s interrogation. This task fell to Angel and Alexander. The pair had dragged the Piper into the interrogation room, which had a table and two chairs in the middle of it and a one way window on one wall. Once the Piper was securely chained to the table, Alexander joined the Colonel in the next room where they could oversee Angel’s interrogation. Angel sat down opposite the Piper. She flicked through an orange folder and then, after five minutes of painful silence, she spoke.
“You have lived a very interesting life,” Angel placed the folder on the table and studied the Piper.
“Do not believe all the things you read,” the Piper muttered.
“Your name is Jamison Pied, correct?”
The Pied Piper smiled, “I have not been called that for a long time.”
“But it is your name?”
“Correct
.”
“So Jamison, let’s talk about your crimes. There’s so many, I’m not sure where to begin.”
“The very beginning, I hear, is a very good place to start.”
“Indeed. Let us go back a few hundred years then, to your most famous crime. You went to Hamelin to help with the town’s rat problem, correct?”
“Correct.”
“You, and your magical pipe, succeeded in getting rid of the rats. The Mayor of the town refused to pay you, so you enchanted and kidnapped the town’s children, correct?”
“No.”
“No?”
“It is correct that I succeeded in getting rid of the rats. It is also correct that I enchanted and kidnapped the town’s children.”
“So you confess that you are guilty of abducting?”
“But I did not kidnap them because the Mayor refused to pay me!”
“Then why did you take them?”
“Because he tried to kill me!”
“Who did? The town’s Mayor? The town’s Mayor tried to kill you?”
“That is correct.”
“Why?”
“Because I am fey, and he was human. Do you know who the Mayor of Hamelin was at that time?”
“No, I don’t. Who was he?”
“His name was Nikolaus Achterberg.”
“That name sounds familiar.”
“When the fey realm and the human world were at war, that man led the battle of High Rock Hill, that battle I am sure you have heard of.”
“Yes, I’ve heard of it, hundreds of fey died in that battle. But the human world and the fey realm were no longer at war when you got rid of the rats.”
“Just because we were not at war does not mean we were at peace.”
“So, the Mayor used you. He made you get rid of the rats then he tried to kill you, so you abducted the town’s children?”
“Correct.”
Angel paused for a moment then asked, “Why were the children returned? You returned all of the children, but one, after almost a month, why?”
The Piper smiled sadly, “Because she asked me to.”
“By she, you mean the girl that wasn’t returned. That girl, was the Mayor’s daughter, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Why wasn’t she returned?”
“Because she did not wish to leave.”
“You and her, were a couple?”
“Miriam, she became my wife.”
“I see. So you ran off into the sunset together. Happily ever after,” Angel mocked.
The Piper laughed, “Happily ever after! If only it was that simple. He followed us.”
“The Mayor?”
“He followed us, and he stole her away. To catch me, he claimed that his daughter had been bewitched and the only way to free her was to have her executed.”
“He killed his own daughter!?”
“He was going to.”
“But you saved her?”
“Correct but there was a price. I was a child during the war between us and the humans. The human army came to our village one night and killed many of our people. I was injured. My injury affected my ability to use magic.”
“The pipe, is that the only magic you can do?”
“That and a couple of basic spells. I knew that my minimal powers would not be enough to take on Achterberg. So I got help. There was a witch that lived close to Hamelin. She gave me some of her magic, however in return I was supposed to give her my pipe once I had rescued Miriam.”
“Given that we have your pipe in lock up, I assume you didn’t live up to your side of the deal.”
“It was not intentional. In order to escape, we ran far from Hamelin, things were so chaotic that I just forgot.”
“What was the price?”
“The witch cursed me. No matter how hard I try, I cannot die. The curse, I believe, is called ‘Undying Misery’. Have you heard of it?”
Angel nodded, “So the great Pied Piper of Hamelin cannot die and must live forever in misery. How tragic.”
“I watched Miriam and my children all die. I watched my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, my great great-grandchildren...”
“All die? Yeah, we get it. I am sorry. Watching that, must have been awful. However, it doesn’t excuse the crimes you committed after their deaths!”
“I did not care. I did not care what I did or what I used my powers for. I had lost everything. I was alive, but I was not living. When you have lived for as long as I have you realise that this world is filled with cruel and horrible people.”
“So what? If you can’t beat them, join them? How pathetic,” from the folder Angel pulled out a piece of paper, “Here’s a list of all the crimes you have been accused of. Cross out the ones you didn’t do.”
Angel got up and was about to leave the room when the Piper asked, “Finished already, Samantha?”
Angel turned quickly, feeling sick to her stomach. She stuttered, “What did you call me?”
“Your name.”
“What?”
“You know a lot about curses, don’t you?” the Piper smiled.
“What are you talking about?”
“You were cursed by a memory loss spell, correct?”
“How did you know that!?”
“Because I was there when it happened?”
“What?”
“I was there when you were cursed.”
“This is...”
“You do not believe me,” the Piper smiled then softly started to hum.
“No, I don’t. I have no idea how you found out I was cursed but...can you stop humming!?” Angel snapped.
The Piper simply started to hum louder. The hum scratched the inside of Angel’s ears. The tune made Angel feel dizzy. There was something sickly sweet about it. It sounded familiar.
“What are you doing to me?” Angel gasped, “Alexander!”
“Relax Samantha. I am not here to hurt you.”
“I need to get out,” Angel tried to get to the door, but her legs felt as though they were sinking into quicksand. Angel fell to the ground. The world around her spun. The tune was getting louder and lounder.
“Alex!” Angel tried to shout but the words died on her tongue.
Angel looked up at the Piper and noticed that between his lips was a small musical reed.
“The pipe,” Angel gasped.
The Pied Piper smiled.
And Angel fell into darkness.
* * * * *
Angel awoke in a room she didn’t recognise. It was dark, lit only by candlelight. Angel pulled herself to her feet. The room was filled with shelves that were stacked full of old books and jars filled with eyeballs. Angel headed to the door but found that it wouldn’t open. At that moment she heard talking behind her. She turned and found the Pied Piper sat at a round table with a woman. The woman had her face covered by a long purple cloak and spoke in a soft voice.
“Hey Piper, what do you think,” Angel went to grab the Piper only to find that her hands fell straight through him.
He wasn’t real.
“This is a memory,” Angel realised, “He’s trapped me in a memory. Okay. Okay Piper I’ll play along, what do you want to show me?”
“Seer,” the Piper in the memory whispered to the woman in the cloak, “Have you found one?”
“You still wish to die?” the seer asked slowly.
“Yes. Have you found one cursed like me?”
“Yes and no.”
“What does that mean?”
“I have found one who will be cursed like you, but she has not been cursed yet.”
“Where is she? When will she be cursed?”
“Soon. In a couple of days. Poor child.”
“Child? It is a child?”
“A child with a great destiny. One that she cannot outrun. This child is different to the others. She is not only cursed but powerful. She is the…”
Suddenly someone banged on the door.
“Open
up! This is Captain Hardwick of Thunder D.D Squad,” came a shout from behind the door.
“Damn it!” the Piper hissed, “This girl, where is she?”
“In three days, she will get cursed in the Night Forest.”
“The Night Forest, thank you,” and with that the Piper and the memory faded.
The next memory took Angel to a place she knew well. The Night Forest. Home to the Night werewolf pack. Angel’s home. Angel followed the Piper.
The Piper was also following someone.
He was following a young girl with long blonde hair. The girl hadn’t sensed his presence. She was covered in blood and bruises. The number 1147512 had been recently burnt onto one of her arms. The girl was limping and stumbling. She was also crying. The Piper felt sorry for her but didn’t dare get any closer. The girl finally collapsed. The Piper was about to go over to the child when the girl’s body started to tremble. The girl glowed white as her body started to twist out of control. She transformed into a lion and then a bear, then a rabbit, then a dragon, then a unicorn and then she started transforming with such speed that the Piper could no longer tell one creature from another. The Piper followed at a distance as this hurricane of creatures rampaged through the forest.
Deeper in the forest a small human child was playing by a lake. The constantly transforming girl headed towards the human child. She transformed into a vampire and bit down into the human child’s neck. The child yelled in pain and fell to the floor. The girl let the child go and watched as the human ran. She then transformed into a large white tiger. The tiger raced through the forest. It pounced on top of the human child and dug its claws into the child’s thin flesh. Breaking the skin, the blood spilt across the floor. Then the girl transformed again, and again, and again. It was a blood bath. Only when the human child was unrecognisable did the girl stop.
The girl changed back into her original form and stood looking at the destruction she had caused.
The girl sobbed, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean too. I’m so sorry.”
Angel watched as the Piper pulled out his pipe. He brought it to his lips and began to play. The soft deadly tune reached the girl’s ears. She swayed to the music slightly then stumbled to the ground. Her body began to glow once more but this time she didn’t transform.