by K T Kaye
“What is he doing to that kid?” Angel wondered aloud, “Who is that kid anyway?”
“Samantha!” someone suddenly shouted.
The Piper quickly stopped playing and the girl returned to her senses. She ran towards the lake but before she could reach it, a fork of red lightning hit her back. The girl fell to the ground, gasping for breath. She crawled across the mud.
“Where are you going Samantha?” from behind a tree a woman stepped into the Piper’s view. She had long blonde hair that was slowly going grey and her eyes were a dark green. Her lips were blood red and smiling. She wore a long old-fashioned black dress and a red cloak. The woman hit the girl with a second red lightning fork. The girl screamed, as she did so the ground shook.
“What is she doing here?” Angel stuttered, “Who, who is that kid?”
“I’m impressed Samantha, I really am,” the woman laughed walking through Angel as she did so, “You’re more powerful than I had expected. You can even kill people now.”
“I didn’t. I didn’t mean too,” the girl whimpered.
“That doesn’t matter. The fact that you can kill, that’s what matters,” the woman smiled, “You’re a murderer now Samantha, just like me.”
“I’m not like you.” The woman walked over to the girl and grabbed her by her hair, pulling it back so that the woman could see the girl’s face.
“How pathetic. It’s time to go home, don’t you think? We can use you now.”
The girl laughed, “You can’t use me, if I’m dead.”
With that the girl grabbed a dagger from the woman’s belt and stabbed it into her own stomach. The woman dropped the girl in surprise as the girl began to bleed.
“You stupid girl!”
“Samantha!” a male voice shouted.
The woman knelt next to the girl and whispered, “I can just heal you.”
“And I can just stab myself again,” the girl hissed.
“If you’re not going to work with me willingly then I’ll just…”
Before the woman could finish, she was grabbed and thrown across the forest. A man had appeared. Neither the Piper nor Angel could see his face. It was carefully hidden behind a hood. The man went over to the girl.
“Samantha.,” the man muttered in a low tone.
“Get away,” the girl hissed.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to save you, let me take…” the man went to remove the dagger, but the girl stopped him.
“No! Let me die. Please.”
“Sam,” the man was thrown into the air and then crashed to the ground.
“What do you think you’re doing here prince!?” the woman shouted.
The man got to his feet, “Leave the kid alone.”
“Why would I do that? She’s finally ready. She’s finally perfect! She can kill now!”
The man punched the woman’s face. The woman stumbled back. She raised her hand and tree roots rose up from the ground, wrapping around the man’s legs.
The woman then turned to the girl. With a click of her fingers, the dagger flew from the girl’s stomach into the woman’s hand. The woman then hit the girl with two massive black lightning forks. The girl screamed, and her body trembled. She was lifted into the air. A black mist twisted around her, covering her body from view. Then with a crash the girl slammed to the ground. The blood on the forest floor began to move. It slid over to the girl’s hair and dyed it blood red.
“What did you just do!?” the man shouted.
“I saved her life,” the woman then added, “Oh and cursed her.”
“Cursed? What did you do?”
“When Samantha awakes, she won’t remember anything, not even her own name. A clean slate, I will be able to make her do anything I want.”
“Why is her hair?”
“Oh, that’s a little extra something I’ve added to the curse, to make sure she does what she’s told. The colour will fade as the curse settles.”
“I won’t let you take her,” the man crashed out of the roots that were holding him back.
“Why are you being like…Oh, oh this is funny!” the woman laughed.
“What is?”
“You can’t see it! You don’t know why you’re protecting her, do you?”
“Enlighten me.”
“She’s…”
“Get off my land!” came a shout. The woman and man turned to find themselves surrounded by werewolves. Only one was in human form.
“Pops,” Angel gasped. The man stood in front of her was David Night. Her adopted father, “Wait then that means that kid is…”
“Wolves,” the woman hissed, “This doesn’t concern you and your puppies, Night!”
“I disagree,” David snapped, “This is my land. Anything that happens on my land is my concern. I will not have demon worshippers here, so leave now before I let my wolves rip you to pieces.”
“Please rip her to pieces,” the man smiled, “You’d be doing the world a favour.”
“You!” David exclaimed in recognition.
“Tell your pack to kill this woman. Me too, if it makes you feel better but leave the girl. She has nothing to do with this.”
“How cute,” the woman hissed. The woman then raised her arms and sent lightning forks in multiple directions. The werewolves charged, and chaos followed.
Not wanting to get caught in the middle of it, the Piper ran away, and the memory faded.
* * * * *
Angel opened her eyes and found herself on the cold floor of the interrogation room. She could feel tears running down her cheeks. The Pied Piper was still sat chained to the table. Angel could hear Alexander banging on the door behind her.
“Alex!” Angel shouted.
“Angel, are you alright? He’s done something to the door, we can’t get it open,” Alexander shouted.
“What have you done? You said you didn’t have any powers!” Angel turned to the Piper.
“I do not,” he replied.
“Then what have you done to the door?”
“That,” he smiled, “Is just a little trick I picked up.”
“How much power does your pipe have?”
“More than you can possibly imagine.”
“You didn’t get caught, did you? You let us catch you. Why?”
“Finally, you start asking the important questions.”
Angel sat down opposite the Piper once again.
“What did you just show me?” Angel asked.
“How you got cursed.”
“That girl, that was...”
“You? Indeed, it was.”
“No way!”
“Ask your father if you still do not believe me.”
“This is mad,” Angel laughed, “This is...when you played the pipe to the kid in your memory, what were you doing?”
“I was implanting a tune into her head. A tune I could then reactivate when I needed to. That’s how I made you enter my memories. The tune allows me to have complete control of a person’s mind. The enchanted party becomes a slave to the music of the pipe.”
“Is that your fancy way of telling me that right now I am completely at your mercy?”
“Correct.”
“What do you want from me!? You obviously got caught for a reason, what was that reason?”
“I came here so that you would kill me.”
“What?”
“I will only die if someone who has been cursed, by a witch of the same bloodline as the one who cursed me, kills me.”
“So, the woman who cursed me, was of the same bloodline as the witch who cursed you?”
“Correct.”
“This is madness! This is,” Angel laughed, “I’m not going to kill you!”
“What you just saw must have been difficult to watch. If you have any questions about that memory, please ask?”
Angel paused then asked, “What happened after? After the wolves came?”
“I quickly left as you saw. I was originally planni
ng on returning to the forest and making you kill me, however that wolf pack tighten their security making it impossible for me to enter. Years later I saw a newspaper article about the D.D squads first female captain, I recognised you.”
“And started planning this?”
“Correct.”
Angel dropped her head to her hands and muttered, “I stabbed myself.”
“Indeed, you did.”
“What did they do to me?”
“I do not know but clearly it was not something pleasant.”
“My hair colour, it was dyed with actual blood, she said it would fade.”
“Clearly the curse never fully settled, which must be why your hair never returned to its natural colour.”
The door to the interrogation room suddenly began to glow purple.
“Ah, it seems that we have run out of time,” the Piper sighed, “For showing you that memory and for what I am about to make you do, I am truly sorry.”
“Make me? What are you talking about?”
The Pied Piper once again brought the pipe reed to his lips and began to hum. Angel’s head felt like it was going to explode.
“What are you doing!?”
“Please stop resisting me and relax, this will all be over soon,” the Piper whispered. The hum got louder and the tune more painful. Angel’s body shuddered and trembled. Her hand moved, without her permission, towards her gun.
“No, I am not going to kill you!” Angel shouted as she tried to fight the power of the pipe.
“You do not have a choice.”
The tune got louder and louder to the point where it was suffocating. Before she could stop herself, Angel grabbed her gun, aimed for the Piper, and pulled the trigger.
There was a deafening sound of a gunshot.
Then it went silent.
And the Pied Piper of Hamelin died.
Angel stared at her hand and then at the Piper’s blood that wallpapered the interrogation room. Angel cried out as she fell to the ground.
“What have I? What did he?” Angel gasped. She didn’t even register that Alexander had kicked the door down or that the Colonel had charged into the room.
“What did you think you were doing!?” yelled the Colonel. He grabbed Angel by the neck and pushed her up against a wall.
“I didn’t…”
“You! You are supposed to be a captain, yet you allowed your mind to be controlled by a damn flute!” the Colonel banged Angel’s head against the wall then he let her go, she slid down to the floor.
The Colonel looked at Angel then turned to Alexander, “Take her to the lock up.”
9
‘Were-maids’
The lock up was a square white room with a small bed (on which Angel was laying on) and a glass roof, so guards and on watchers could look in on their prisoners. Angel used to think the lock up’s design was perfect for housing prisoners, however after being locked inside it for several hours, her opinion of the lock up’s design swiftly changed. Staring at four white walls was incredibly boring! Not only was it boring but it also offered Angel no distraction from the whirlwind of thoughts that echoed around her mind. She couldn’t stop thinking about the memory the Pied Piper had shown her.
“That girl was me. If that girl was me then that means that I killed a human child. No. That can’t be true, I would never do that! That woman, that witch! Who is she? What does she want from me? Samantha, is that my name? If it is, I hate it! It’s a horrible name! Who was that man? His voice, his voice is so familiar. Ah! I need to get out of here. I need to talk to Pops! He was there, he will be able to tell me, whether this memory is real or not,” Angel thought aloud.
Then one of the walls opened and someone walked into the cell.
“Am I being released?” Angel asked.
“No,” Alexander answered.
“Fantastic. How is this situation my fault? It’s not like I asked the Piper to implant his pipe’s tune into my head!”
“What exactly happened?”
“The Piper implanted the pipes tune into my head. Which meant that all he needed to do was hum the tune with the reed in his mouth and I would become enchanted. Why did he have a reed? The pipe doesn’t even need a reed!” Angel ranted.
“When did he implant the tune?”
“In a time I don’t remember.”
“Before you were cursed?”
“Exactly, the Piper has had this planned for over a decade.”
“The Piper showed you something, didn’t he? Something from before you were cursed.”
Angel remained silent.
“Angel,” Alexander spoke softly, “What did you see?”
“Something,” Angel muttered, “Alex, do you have your phone on you?”
“No, I had to hand it in before I came in here.”
“Of course, you did, damn, I really need to ask Pops something”
“I see,” Alexander mumbled as he sat down on the end of Angel’s bed, “The Piper said, what he showed you, Angel, what you saw, was it you getting cursed?”
Angel nodded. There was a moment of silence before Angel asked, “Alex, if you had lost your memories, and you found out that those memories might be painful, would you still try to recover them?”
“I’m probably the worst person you could’ve asked,” Alexander muttered, “I have a lot of memories I’d like to forget. What exactly did you see?”
“Once I’ve confirmed it’s real, I’ll show you.”
“Angel, some memories are forgotten for a reason. If these memories are painful then maybe its best that you don’t remember them.”
“I used to think that too, however now I just get this feeling that there’s something important hidden amongst those lost memories.”
“Maybe there is but there also…”
“Alex what is it? The other day, that warlock’s card, does the name Samantha mean something to you?”
“No.”
“You reacted to it.”
“No I reacted to you,” Alexander turned to face Angel, “That name. That name scared you. When I found you that day, you were in pain and you were screaming, then you saw that card and got scared.”
“That was…”
“I’m worried. Angel, I’m worried about you. I don’t want to see you like that again and if these memories are painful, I don’t want to see you in pain. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
There was silence. Alexander stared at Angel. His eyes softly traced Angel’s face, studying her tired expression. Alexander and Angel had an odd relationship, one that could not easily be defined. A strange tension hung in the air whenever they were alone, it often felt like at any moment one of them might burst. Yet strangely this tension wasn’t uncomfortable. If anything the pair were most relaxed in each other’s company.
“I’m your captain, remember?” Angel smiled breaking the silence, “It’s my job to be worried about you, not the other way around, but thank you.”
“For what?”
“Just, for everything. The Pied Piper situation, what’s going to happen?” Angel asked, changing the subject.
“I’m not sure. The Colonel is furious and so is the fey court.”
“Great,” Angel sighed. A bell sounded.
“Times up. I’ll try to talk to the Colonel,” Alexander got to his feet, “I’m not sure when I’ll be able to visit again, I’m being kept pretty busy.”
“How are you finding being captain?”
“Tiring,” the bell sounded a second time, “I’m going to have to go, before they try to drag me out. I’ll see you soon.”
With that the wall opened and Angel was once again left alone.
* * * * *
After several days of staring at white walls alone, Angel received another visitor.
“What mess have you gotten yourself into this time?”
Angel looked up and smiled, “Jackson!”
Jackson Night was tanned and muscular with a mock of brown-hair and a pair of fr
iendly brown eyes. He was dressed in a pair of denim jeans and a crisp white top with a pair of battered sandals covering his feet. The captain of Alpha Squad stared down at his sister.
“How are you pup?” he asked.
“Bored. Extremely bored!”
“Well, luckily for you, I’ve managed to persuade the Colonel to let you out of here,” Jackson smiled.
“Really?”
“You’re free to go. Well, free to leave this cell anyway. You can’t leave the base.”
“That’s fine, if I can get out of this room, I’m happy.”
* * * * *
As Angel and Jackson stepped out into the crisp morning sunlight, they both transformed into their wolf forms. Angel was a medium-sized white wolf and Jackson a large grey and brown wolf. As the pair raced towards the forest, they were pounced upon by two more wolves. Ethan, in wolf form, was small with grey fur and sneezed continuously whilst Roger was large and had light brown fur. In wolf form, the Night pack had the ability to talk to each other using a telepathic link, known as the wolf bond.
‘Angel! You’re alive!' Ethan telepathically exclaimed, then sneezed.
‘Yes, obviously,’ Angel thought to him.
‘How are you feeling?’ Roger asked.
‘I need a good run.’
‘Then why are we just standing here like lemons?’
Roger ran into the forest. Ethan howled then followed his brother happily. Jackson and Angel quickly followed. There was no feeling Angel could compare to running through the forest. The wind running through her fur seemed to blow all the twisted cobwebs in her mind away. The smell of the rain on the leaves and the tiny footsteps of squirrels in the trees became beautiful music that awakened Angel’s tired body. After a while the wolves stopped in a clearing and transformed back into their normal forms.
“I had to explain to Jason yesterday why werewolves transform back into their normal forms fully clothed,” Roger stated breaking the silence.
“Did he think we ripped off our clothes and ran around naked?” Ethan laughed.
“Yeah!”
“How did you explain it?”