Last Car to Annwn Station

by Michael Merriam

  I wish I knew more about mortal magic. I’m starting to understand some of this. They’ve corrupted the Cn Annwn, so I’m guessing it has something to do with Gwynn ap Nudd or with the Courts. Mother would have figured this out weeks ago. Of course, Mother would never have gotten caught.

  She told me to stay out of the human realm. She warned me, but it kept calling to me. I had to see the place where I was born. Stupid, really. I hadn’t gone more than ten steps before they captured me.

  I’m going to lie down before Elise comes back. I need to rest. I need to cry.

  Mae opened one bleary eye. The room was cast in shadows, the barest amount of light bleeding through the window blinds. She was lying down, stretched out on her side in bed, warm and relaxed. This was, to her sleep-muddled mind, a vast improvement over the uncomfortable propped-up position she had been in when she drifted off to sleep, Jill’s head still in her lap.

  Thinking of Jill made her remember last night’s rather intense conversation and she wondered groggily what state Jill would be in when she finally awoke. Mae had a vague, dreamlike recollection of Jill sitting up and a soft rustle of clothing in the dark as she slid down into a more comfortable position and drifted back to sleep.

  Mae came fully awake when she heard Jill’s soft snores and felt the warm pressure on her back. Jill was spooned up against her, right leg on top of Mae’s legs, right arm around Mae, right hand on Mae’s breast on the outside of her T-shirt. She could get used to this, she decided.

  Mae raised her head from the pillow, seeking a clock. There was not one this side of the bed and she had removed her watch when she changed clothes before the movie. She laid her head back down and considered her next move. The thin light peeking through the blinds told her Jill was probably running late for work.

  She lifted Jill’s arm, intent on rolling out of her grasp.

  “Um-mm,” Jill murmured, shifting toward Mae and attempting to pull Mae back to her with her leg. “Stay.”

  Mae managed to wiggle out of Jill’s embrace. She sat up and looked at the alarm clock. “Jill. Jill, you need to wake up.”

  “Don’t wanna. Lie back down.”

  Mae gave Jill a little shake. “Jill, you’re already ten minutes late for work.”

  Jill pulled the covers up over her head. “Then it doesn’t matter. Late’s late. I’ll call in sick.”

  “You’ve taken a day off this week already.”

  Jill flipped the covers down and glared at Mae. “Being an adult sucks. Could you start some coffee while I hit the shower?”

  Mae stood up. “Sure. You need to hustle. Come on! Up!”

  Jill sat up and rubbed her face. “You’re a completely different person in the morning. An evil person to be exact. Go make coffee.”

  Mae marched downstairs, stopping off at the bathroom on her way to the kitchen.

  While the coffee dripped into the carafe, Mae searched the cabinets for something Jill could eat on her way to work. Faced with the choice between granola bars and frosted strawberry toaster pastries, she chose the latter. She coaxed a cup of coffee from the gurgling machine, spooned in some sugar and started back up the stairs. Jill exited the bathroom, wrapped in a bathrobe and furiously toweling her long hair.

  “Coffee,” Mae said, handing her the cup.

  “Thanks. Do me a favor?” Jill asked, releasing her wet hair from the towel. She took a slurp of coffee and reached for her comb. “Can you drive me into work? I hate letting other people behind Maddy’s wheel, but I think this constitutes an emergency.”

  “Um, actually, I can’t.”

  Jill hesitated with the comb. “You can’t drive a stick?”

  Mae shook her head. “No.”

  “Okay then.” Jill twisted her hair into a bun. “Well, I’m not paying to park downtown, so I’ll just be a little later. Can you grab something I can eat on the bus?”

  “I’ve got a packet of toaster pastries for you.”

  Jill dived around Mae and into her closet. “You rock,” she called out.

  “You want me to fill your travel mug?”

  “Yes, please. I’ll be right down.”

  Mae dashed down the stairs and filled Jill’s mug with hot coffee. Within minutes, she heard Jill near the door, putting on her winter gear. “Here you go,” Mae said, passing a frazzled Jill the mug and the shiny packet of pastries.

  “Thanks,” Jill stuffed the packet into her coat pocket and grabbed her small purse. “Mae, promise me you won’t go off on any adventures until after I get home.”

  “Promise.”

  Jill opened the front door. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  Mae started to wish her a good day at work when Jill suddenly leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek.

  “Thank you for last night.”

  Jill vanished out the door into the falling snow before Mae could react.

  Faced with the pleasant prospect of a day inside, Mae decided not to shower or change until an hour or so before Jill was due to come home. She made herself toast, fruit, yogurt and coffee for breakfast and climbed upstairs.

  Sitting on the edge of the futon, Mae considered the mess in her room. Two hours later she was almost done cleaning up. She was putting her underwear in the small dresser when her cell phone rang. Mae did not know the number. She considered letting the caller leave a message, but realized it might be Jill calling from work. Mae pressed the talk button.

  “Hello?”

  There was a loud hissing, as if the caller were standing outside in a stiff wind.

  “Hello? Is anyone there?”

  “They have her.”

  Mae felt her body grow cold. “Who is this?”

  “They have her.”

  Mae thought the voice might be a woman or even a girl. She could barely hear it over the blowing and hissing. “Who do they have? Who is this?”

  “Hurry. She won’t last.” The voice faded out with a wheeze and the connection died.

  Mae dialed the number for the Government Center’s central switchboard. She waited impatiently for the operator to answer and barked out her request to be connected to the law library before the woman could finish her greeting. The office answering machine picked up. Mae left a message asking Jill to return her call on a matter regarding a volume she wanted to check on. Mae hoped Jill would understand the urgency in her voice.

  Mae waited for a few minutes, and then dialed Jill’s cell phone. It rang twice before the mechanical recording spoke over the phone.

  “The voicemail box of the customer you are attempting to reach is unavailable at this time or the customer is out of the service area. Please hang up and try your call at a later time. Thank you.”

  Mae hung up and decided it was fine to panic, at least for a minute. She tried Jill at work again, with no answer. Dropping the phone into the pocket of her sweats, Mae raced to the bathroom, stopping long enough to splash water on her face and tie her hair back into a short ponytail. She dashed back to her room and changed into jeans, a navy blue cable sweater and heavy wool socks. She scooped up all of her loose change and dropped it into her pocket. Her keys and her wallet went into the messenger bag. Mae bolted downstairs, grabbed her heavy coat and ran out the front door.

  Mae jogged through the deepening snow toward the bus stop. She shifted through the people bundled up against the cold, pushing her way to the corner to catch the bus into downtown, reaching the stop seconds ahead of the bus. Settling on a bench as the bus bounced and swayed along, she opened her bag, looking for her phone. After a moment of fruitless searching, she realized she had left it in her sweatpants and swore softly to herself.

  Transferring to the train, a short ride brought her to the Government Center. Mae hesitated. If she was spotted by Donald or any of her office mates, there would be questions. Mae decided there was nothing for it. She walked in the front doors. At the security checkpoint she nodded to the guards, put her bag on the belt and walked through the metal detectors.

  “M
a’am? I’ll need you to step over here, please.”

  She turned to the guard who spoke. “Is there a problem?”

  The guard took her bag and pointed. “If you could step over here, please?”

  She followed the guard to a folding table. He opened her bag and withdrew the pepper spray. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but this item is prohibited inside the building.”

  Mae sighed. She had forgotten she was carrying it. County policy allowed for personal defense sprays, but you had to check them with the guards. “I’m sorry, I forgot. Can you store it, and I’ll pick it up after I’m done?”

  The guard gave her a sour look. He placed the little can in a box and passed her a numbered receipt.

  “Thank you. Is there anything else?”

  The guard gave her one more suspicious look. “No, ma’am.”

  Mae walked to the elevators, resisting the urge to look over her shoulder. She could feel the man watching her. She pressed the up arrow and waited patiently. When the elevator arrived, she squeezed aboard. At the top floor she was the last person riding.

  It took only a moment to find Jill. The black-haired woman looked up at Mae’s approach.

  “Did you get my message?” Jill asked.

  “No. I ran out of the house so fast I left my phone.” Mae took a steadying breath. “I was worried about you.”

  Jill looked around as she steered Mae to a corner. “What happened?”

  Mae told her about the phone call.

  “Well, I’m fine. So your mystery caller must have been talking about someone else.” Jill paused. “Unless it’s an attempt to draw you out into the open for some reason.”

  “Shit,” Mae whispered. “I have to get out of here. I’m supposed to be on vacation. If someone sees me—”

  “It’s a public building,” Jill pointed out.

  “Yeah, but I don’t want to draw attention.”

  “All right, go home. I’ll bail out of here as quickly as possible.”

  Mae turned to leave. She saw her supervisor enter the library and spun back around, facing Jill and placing her back to Donald. “Shit. That’s Donald. What’s he doing?”

  Jill glanced over Mae’s head. “Coming this way. You know, he’s been trying to get into my skirt since I started working here.”

  “I’m pretty sure he’s in bed with the people who wanted me to drop the Arneson case.

  He’ll want to know why I’m here. He’ll probably report it to Backstrom. What am I going to do?”

  “Follow my lead.”

  Jill smiled broadly as Mae felt Donald’s presence at her elbow.

  “Mae? What are you doing here?” Donald asked.

  Mae turned to face him, trying to think up something plausible.

  “She brought me something from home,” Jill said. “You know, something—necessary.”

  Donald glanced from Mae to Jill, confusion plain on his face.

  Jill turned back to Mae. “Thanks again. I know it’s damned cold, and the snow’s coming down in buckets but, well, I didn’t expect to start a week early, and the ladies’ room was out again.”

  “Oh, not a problem,” Mae said, picking up on Jill’s approach. Most men would rather strangle themselves with their own ties than discuss feminine hygiene products.

  “Um…” Donald said.

  Jill flashed a winning smile. “All right then, I need to get back to work.” Jill reached out and grabbed Mae’s hand, giving it a little squeeze. “I’ll be home on time tonight, assuming the buses keep to schedule. Do I need to stop at the store for anything? Bread, milk, Halloween candy?”

  Mae gave Donald a quick glance out of the corner of her eye. He looked like someone had walked up to him and smacked him with a dead fish. The same recklessness she had felt during her confrontation with Hodgins welled up inside of her. She decided to press the advantage. Maybe he would be too stunned or embarrassed to question her further.

  “No. We should be set for a few days.” Mae stood on her tiptoes and gave Jill a quick kiss on the cheek. “See you tonight.”

  “Bye,” Jill said, her eyes alight with mirth. She turned to Donald. “Sorry about that. What can I help you with?”

  Mae used Donald’s momentary confusion to make her exit. Slipping out of the library, she made herself walk and not run back to the elevators. She retrieved her pepper spray from the guards in the lobby and stepped back out into the freezing late-October afternoon.

  She climbed aboard the train and took a seat, shivering from her short exposure to the outside temperatures. She looked around, surprised that she was the only person in the car. The snow was falling in heavy sheets, and the train was moving slowly along the track. A burst of cold air swept through the train, making the hair on the back of Mae’s neck stand up. Three figures wearing hooded sweatshirts had entered the train. One of them sat down immediately while the other two walked toward her. Mae shifted, placing her back to the wall of the train car. She fumbled in her bag, grabbing the can of spray. She kept the can in her bag where they could not see it, but she could draw it out in an instant. The figures walked past. One sat on the bench nearest the exit. The other turned and looked at her, red eyes standing out against the white, dog-like face.

  Mae realized they had neatly cut her off from the exits.

  A fourth figure entered the car and settled across from her. Screwing up her courage, Mae looked up at the person. The cold, gray eyes of William Hodgins regarded her.

  “Hello, Mae.”

  Mae looked forward, unwilling to meet the man’s gaze, afraid he would trap her again. She swallowed back the fear-induced bile rising in her throat and took a shaky breath.

  “Nothing to say, Miss Malveaux?” Hodgins’s voice came harsh and raspy.

  “Are you here to kill me?” Mae asked in a soft voice.

  “Yes. I’m sorry, Mae. You’ve left me with little choice. You’re too inquisitive. You know too much. I cannot allow you to oppose us.”

  “How do you plan to do it?” Mae reasoned that the longer she kept her opponent talking and distracted, the higher her chances of something happening in her favor.

  “I promise it will be quick and relatively painless.”

  “Well that’s a mercy.” Mae looked past the two hounds in front of her, watching with their glowing red eyes. She knew she was going to die, but she would not make it easy for any of them. She found the trigger of her pepper spray and withdrew the small can from her bag, keeping it from sight.

  “It’s time.” He stood, drawing the round crystal from his pocket. One of the hounds stepped forward. “Goodbye, Mae.”

  Mae exploded out of her seat, letting all the aggression she had learned playing hockey with the neighborhood boys come to the fore. She hit Hodgins hard with her shoulder, lifting the man from his feet and slamming him into the opposite wall. There was a sharp cracking noise and a raspy exhale.

  Mae turned to the hounds in front of her. They were between her and the nearest exit. The one standing rushed her as the others left their seats. Mae pulled the pin from the can and aimed at the hound closest to her, squeezing out a stream of chemicals. She rushed forward, holding her breath and squinting her eyes.

  The first of the two-legged Cn Annwn fell to the floor of the train car, writhing in pain and trying to cover its face. The second creature was on her as she changed the direction of her spray. It caught her arm with its claw-like fingernails, ripping into her heavy coat. Mae twisted and struck with her knee, as she had been taught in her self-defense class. The thing gave a short bark and stepped backward. She jabbed the can of spray into its face and held the trigger down. It backed away, howling, covering its eyes. She pushed past it as her spray ran out.

  The train stopped and the exit door opened. Mae could see safety, a snowy platform full of pedestrians, only a handful of feet away. Another of the hounds came in behind her. It caught her around the waist and bore her backward. She stumbled, slamming into the side of one of the benches. The hound’s face c
ontorted into a dog’s head.

  The train door hissed shut and the machine started moving again.

  Mae lashed out with her arms and legs, trying to force the creature off. She raised her arm to cover her face and it bit down. Teeth sank into her coat, driven by powerful jaws. They punctured the fabric and tore into Mae’s arm.

  Mae screamed. She brought her other hand up and raked the creature across the eyes with her nails. It released her arm. Mae tried to twist away, seeking the door, wanting to get out of the car. She braced a foot against the side of a bench and pushed hard, driving the creature back. There was a snapping noise as they hit the edge of the opposite bench, and the creature yelped once before it went limp and slumped to the floor.

  She straightened as another of the dog-men lunged at her. Mae swept her bag off her shoulder and swung down with it, catching the hound across the side of the head. The creature fell, stunned. Mae caught a glimpse of William Hodgins, sitting on the floor, holding his left arm close to his body.

  The train stopped. Mae lost her footing and crashed to the floor. She crawled and dived toward the door as it swung open. Leaping forward, Mae fell into the packed snow and ice on the platform at the feet of a group of waiting commuters.

  Mae rose to her hands and knees, looking up. The two surviving hounds exited the train and turned toward her.

  She scrambled up as the shocked group of waiting riders backed away. Sprinting up the street toward the warehouse district, she ran hard and screamed for help, hoping to draw attention. She heard a shrill scream behind her and realized that someone must have climbed onto the train and found the dead body.

  Mae saw two more shapes come from between buildings in front of her. She turned right and dived into the crosswalk against the light. She heard horns and what might have been a car riding up onto the curb and striking a pole, but she kept her focus on getting away. She chanced a glance over her shoulder. There were five hounds now, and they were closing in on her. Mae tried to put on a burst of speed, desperate to reach the police station only two blocks away, but her feet lost their grip on the icy sidewalk. She tumbled and rolled forward. The hounds surrounded her.