“This might be a trap,” Randell said from the back seat.
Alleye strained to search out the windshield. “Chew think, Einstein?”
“Wouldn’t be the first one tonight.” Kennedy opened her door.
Alleye popped the latch for the hatchback before slipping out of her side of the car.
The snow had stopped falling. Kennedy scanned the sky; she spotted the flakes gathering on a shield spell overhead. She assumed the huge dome trapped them inside the stadium.
More lights turned on, including the huge field lights, lighting the entire stadium. Kennedy risked a glance at her phone. Thankfully, it still worked. It told her 2200. Time for her meeting with the outcast students.
Blinded by the lights, she shielded her eyes to see in the new shadows created by the grandstand awning. She couldn’t see who waited for them, but there were bodies standing and watching, mere shadows in the shadows. Someone played with them. Worse, Kennedy had a hard time picking out the scent of magic. The storm and the spells being cast masked the scents.
The public address system crackled to life, and the organ started playing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” The song sent shivers up Kennedy’s spine. Her feeling of dread only deepened when the organ shifted from the happy song of summer into a demonic rendition of Bach’s fugue, someone had a flair for the melodramatic.
Kennedy called out, “Oh, come on. Can’t we just get this over with?” She launched a bolt of energy at the nearest speaker. The blue arc of magic overloaded the system, sending sparks flashing into the night. A chain reaction of blown speakers popped sparks the perimeter of the park.
“That will show them,” Randell grumbled from near the rear of the car.
Kennedy didn’t mean to blow out the whole system, but her spell grew more powerful. Randell might be correct: the storm might be affecting magic as well. “Can we stop this game, just come out and show me who is behind all this bullshit? I haven’t slept since you torched off the fireworks last night.”
People started walking onto the field. From the beginning, Kennedy knew these were humans. The scent of them made that obvious. They started to stream out of the dugouts. The pupils of their eyes had turned milky white, dead looking.
Alleye squealed, “Zombies! Destroy their brains.”
Randell growled, “That is impossible.”
“Don’t hurt them! These are people, they aren’t dead… just under someone’s control.” Kennedy hated someone playing on her role as a protector of the peace. It was against her nature to attack the norms. She wanted to protect them.
The zombies didn’t attack, but they did make an effective wall barring any quick escape. The three backed out on the field, keeping a good distance between the advancing force of zombies and themselves. The snow slowed down the shambling mass that pushed them into left field, with the Green Monster to their backs.
A strange voice called out from the Green Monster, “It took you long enough to get here.”
Kennedy recognized the creepy voice from Faneuil Hall. It was the voice in her head that taunted her. The sound still grated on her, giving her pause. She turned, and there on top of the tall green wall stood a Leprechaun, red coat and all. On either side stood Trinity and Dani, both bound and gagged. Any spell Kennedy cast stood an outstanding chance of catching her brother and sister in the wash. She lacked the fine control she needed to pick off the one in the center.
“Sorry about all the games, but I needed to keep you and your coven out of my hair while I played my moves and enacted my plans,” the little man shouted down at her.
Randell shouted, “You need to stop this, the world is about to end.”
The short man laughed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were in charge… Be a good boy and fetch.” He pulled the staff from behind the wall, made a ball of energy, and threw it off into the crowd of white-eyed zombies.
Randell succumbed to his ingrained instincts and ran off after the ball. The people filling the floor of the stadium let Randell pass.
“You’re right, though, the time has come to get this over with. You and the witches were my one wild card. For some reason, you are lucky… but the time has come for you to make a choice.”
“If you are offering a chance to join you, then never.” Kennedy stood defiant.
Alleye whispered, “Don’t be so hasty, hear him out.”
Kennedy shot her a look of death.
Alleye answered, “Right, sorry.”
“I don’t even know your name.” Kennedy shouted, “Stop being a coward and tell me who you are.”
“My name is inconsequential. You have never heard of me.” The short man motioned with his fingers. “Better to hear from a friendly voice, don’t you think?”
Tom stepped from out of the shadows. “Hello, Kennedy.”
“Mother…” She never finished her curse. Her mind worked hard to find a way out of this mess.
“You need to listen to what Vita has to say… He has better answers than anything else we have heard.” Tom’s words rang hollow, but there was a fire of conviction in his eyes. “The Authority, the courts, even the norms all want to keep us down. It is time to join forces and unite, time to destroy the status quo.”
Kennedy pleaded, “Tom, please, no matter what this thing has told you, he is lying. The universe is about to end, and he is the cause.”
“No, little witch, you and your kind are the cause of all of this. It is the curse that was laid on you so long ago that has kept me from reaching my potential. Once you are all turned to my side or dead, magic will return, and I can finish what I have started.” Vita looked out over the humans that had stopped within an arm’s reach of the pair. “I tire of all this. Grab her.”
Kennedy blasted off her shield of force spell. The first three rows of humans flew into those who walked up from behind. Kennedy didn’t want to hurt the people who had fallen under Vita’s spell, but she couldn’t let the world end without trying to stop the insanity.
Kennedy and Alleye did their best to fight off wave after wave of flesh that came towards them.
Vita motioned with his right hand. “Bring the first.”
The second in command of Kennedy’s coven, Johan, was brought to the edge of the green wall.
“This is what happens to those who refuse to join my cause.” Before Kennedy reacted to the threat, Vita took the staff and blasted a hole back to front through Johan’s chest. He slumped to the ground.
Kennedy screamed and let loose a blast of energy toward the Leprechaun. To Kennedy’s surprise, the flash of energy hit the creature, picked him up, and threw him out of sight.
The wash from the spell also picked up Dani, Trinity, and Tom, the force powerful enough to throw them head over heels out of sight, scattered in different directions.
Flaming Goblin arrows flew into the mass of humans attacking the pair. Kennedy did her best to protect the norms, but several were struck and caught fire. The snow did little to stop the flames on some, much clothing made of flammable material. Men and women dropped when the arrows struck.
“Stop in the name of The Authority. You are all in violation of the open use of the magic act. Cease and desist or be held accountable.” The Goblin Hooper came from under the scoreboard, his pistol and badge held high. He waved it in the general direction of the field. There were simply too many targets to focus on. Several Goblin agents followed him and opened fire on the archers.
“Chew kind of late to the party, aren’t chew?” Alleye shouted while fighting off the hoard of norms.
“What in the hell is going on?” Hooper tried to cover the norms, but there were too many of them.
“Watch out,” Tom shouted from where the blast had carried him.
Vita rose from where Kennedy sent him flying.
Hooper leveled his gun at the creature who held the staff. Kennedy caught a quick glimpse. It no longer looked like a Leprechaun. Now it was tall and slender. If she didn’t know better, it was Sybil’s
brother.
Hooper and Vita fired at the same time. The special issue sidearm of The Authority agent was made to affect all normal Fae, with some effect on humans as well. The blast sent Vita flying.
The shillelagh fired a concentrated beam of magic. The blast hit the wall directly under where Hooper and the other Goblin agents took up position. In a flash, a ten-foot section of wall vaporized. When the smoke cleared, Kennedy didn’t see anything remaining of the agents. Only the melted plywood of the wall remained.
After the last blast, the zombies had fallen in the outfield. Now most of them were lost in the deep snow. The snow also helped to put out many of the fires.
Kennedy spun around. The sound of Tom landing from the heights of the Green Monster in the snow took her by surprise.
“What the hell is Vita?” Kennedy asked before Tom fully regained his footing.
A howl came from beyond the grandstand behind them. Something had caused Randell to shift. It sounded like he was on his way back.
A sinister chuckle rained down on the three from the cheap seats above them. “I was once a star!” Vita shouted from the shadows.
“Will this thing not die already?” Alleye bent over, trying to catch her breath.
“Anything you do here will not matter. You’re too late. Soon the Seelie and Unseelie Courts will destroy each other. That will give rise to the outcasts to take their place.”
Kennedy held the spell she had ready to blast the creature with. “You did all this for a change of leadership?”
“Hardly, that is only a happy byproduct. I did this so I could become alive.” Vita stepped out of the shadows, and for once Kennedy saw his true self. A ventriloquist dummy stood before them, his tuxedo smoldering and scorched from the fight.
“Wait a moment, I know you.” Kennedy had seen the thing on stage before. “You’re Potato-Head Joey… I remember you from vaudeville. You're nothing but a doll… a p—”
The Joey doll used the staff to throw a strap of metal over Kennedy’s mouth and around her head.
“Don’t you dare call me a puppet.” His wood mouth clicked when he spoke.
“Chew prefer dummy?” Alleye’s words were met with another metal strap.
“What I was will not matter shortly. Soon I will become a real human. In every sense of the word. None of this would be possible without the staff, and your help, Tom.”
Tom shifted from helping Kennedy to facing the toy on top of the wall. “What are you talking about?”
“You should ask the Goblins.” Vita looked over at the smoke hole where Hooper once stood. “Oh, sorry. Never mind. I have no time for this.” He leveled the staff at Kennedy and shot a beam of light into her chest. “Time for you to die and for me to live.”
Kennedy felt her heart race as the youth was pulled from her body. She felt her life force drain, being used to charge the demonic doll into reality, into being a real human. She did the only thing she could think of. With all her might, she pushed off the ground and launched herself into the air.
Below her, she watched as the charging wolfman Randell ran into the beam. Alleye pulled Lola and dropped the pistol. Hitting her foot, the gun fired a shot into the air.
Free of the influence of the staff, Kennedy leveled her most powerful spell at the doll.
Time dilated, events unfolded around her, but Kennedy was unable to cause any real effects to change. Reality had been put into motion. From her vantage point above it all, Kennedy watched the events unfold.
A blast came from the hole melted in the center field wall. Hooper was missing an ear and looked badly burned, but he leveled his attack at the doll.
The echo of the gunshot bounced off the shield keeping the snow out. Kennedy watched the ricocheting bullet hurl toward Joey. Lola’s stray bullet hit the staff Joey held right between his hands. The energy from Hooper’s and Kennedy’s attacks struck Joey full in the chest.
There was a flash of light. Joey the vaudeville ventriloquist’s dummy disappeared in the explosion of light.
Before Kennedy sailed backward through the sky, she spotted the dummy’s head fly off the body. It reminded her of a champagne cork launched into the air the night before. Perhaps she imagined all that.
The shield over the park dissolved with the explosion. Behind second base, she landed in a heap of snow-covered bodies. Kennedy lost her breath from the impact. Her head swam, mostly from the burst of magic she’d received, but her emotions ran all over the place.
The Green Monster was gone. The blast from the magic staff destroyed the famous left field wall and the seats that stood on top.
Her brother and sister had been on that wall when it exploded. Flames covered the park. She felt hands gather her up from the snow and carry her out of the destruction. She fought to focus her eyes on anyone, but no matter how hard she tried, her head kept lolling side to side.
She now felt truly alone.
Chapter 17:
Her body felt alien to her. After so many centuries in the same child’s body, there was little she didn’t know about how she should react to any given situation. Even with the unexpected surge of magic that just flowed through her, she didn’t expect the experience to affect her in such a way.
A nude Randell and a fully clothed Alleye carried her, each by one arm. However, there were others that moved through the bodies and snow with them. She fought hard to focus her mind but had little luck. For some reason, her clothes fit her too tightly, her chest was tight. She fought hard to even catch a breath. Bending her arms and legs became a challenge.
Rather than fight the snow back to the grandstand, the pair took them out the new opening blasted in the left field wall that opened onto Lansdowne Street.
“I need to stop…” Kennedy had to struggle to get the words out. Her mind flooded with emotions, she struggled to form the words.
“Sista… chew need… wolf boy, hold her.” Alleye didn’t wait for Randell to take all the weight. She walked over to one of the many shops along the way and kicked in the door.
The ragtag group of survivors piled into a Red Socks souvenir shop.
Kennedy slumped to a padded bench inside the door and tried to throw up, but her stomach was empty. She only suffered dry heaves. That was when she realized why she had such a hard time breathing, and why her mind felt so fuzzy. None of her clothes fit.
During the fight, she developed a more mature body, and all the problems that normally took years of puberty to adapt to hit her at once. She had grown several inches in height, as well as developing breasts and hips she never had before. Gaining weight from under a hundred pounds to over one-twenty messed with her sense of self. Somehow, she felt her hormones battling in her brain as she fought to maintain her thoughts. Even simple movements caused lightheadedness.
“I need a moment.” She stood and stumbled her way toward the dressing rooms. First, she lost the coat. It was once baggy, now she struggled to remove it.
Alleye came behind her, arms loaded with clothes she’d pulled off the racks.
In the dark store, the full-length mirror caught her off guard. She did a quick turn rather than face the stranger who stared back at her.
Alleye gently moved her to a dressing room, shoving an armload of clothes her way. “Try these on, sista.”
Kennedy was thankful for the pitch black of the dressing room. For so long, she had yearned to grow up. Now it had happened, she was afraid to see what monster she’d turned into.
Thank goodness, Alleye had the common sense to hand her a wide range of baggy workout clothes. The new body would need to wait.
The urge to throw up hit her once again. Her brother and sister had been on the wall when the staff exploded. Tom was nearby as well. He’d gone missing, as far as she knew. Her mind was clouded, either from the magic or the change… She needed time to adapt and heal, but time was in short supply.
Randell spoke to her from outside the door. “Check your cell… We are running out of time. I think we have
everyone here.”
“Yeah, okay… I’ll be right out.” She pulled the cell and pistol from her pockets. That was what her life had come down to. Two personal effects that didn’t belong to her, stolen clothing, and no family. Her life turned into a mess. She fought the urge to cry. She knew it was the new chemicals flooding her brain. She needed to get a grip quickly, or more people and Fae would die tonight.
Randell continued from the far side of the door. “Hey, listen… after this is all done, you want to get a coffee and some breakfast? I’m starving. If we survive, of course.”
The words were so simple, they made Kennedy laugh and cry at the same time. She opened the door and found Randell dressed in similar Red Sock attire. She buried her face into his shoulder to hide her tears. She fought to get the words out. “Yeah, if we are alive when the sun comes up, we can grab a bite to eat.”
“I hope it’s before then. I’m starving.”
Alleye came from the shadows and hugged both of them. Her arms, her entire body, still dwarfed both of them. “Me too… I know the perfect place, good donuts and coffee. We need to go now. It will be midnight soon.”
Kennedy fought the urge to blow her nose on Randell’s shoulder. Rather, she picked a sweatshirt that hung from a nearby rack.
“Wait a moment, if the dummy is dead, why haven’t we reverted back to normal reality?” Kennedy searched her friend’s faces for an answer.
Randell offered up, “Perhaps it has something to do with Newton’s first law. We need something to react with… something to force us back into reality.”
“Or this is reality all along and chew just grasping at straws…”
Kennedy shook her head. “It must be the energy from the upcoming battle. That hate and fear have locked us in this alternate plane.”
“Or Alleye is right, and we are just screwed,” Randell said.
Kennedy backhanded Randell in the chest. “No… I need to have the hope that all this death wasn’t in vain. We can still fix this.”
Outside, the snow had stopped, but it was still dark. Midnight approached. Hooper stood next to over a dozen creatures shifted into human form.
Kennedy Awakens Page 14