~*~
Theo came out of the Fade with a sense of foreboding: the building in front of him was an old warehouse on the river and it was an unlikely address for Felix Alinson, one of Holiday's survivors, but that is what the computer had provided.
"This does not look good," Remy sounded Theo's disquiet for him. "Wanna call for backup?"
"We need more than our feelings to go on. Let's check it out first," Theo decided, his talk with Swanson giving him the shivers all the same.
"You okay?" Remy checked for the umpteenth time since they'd left the bookshop.
"Overactive imagination," Theo replied, looking up at the broken windows that were reflecting the distant lights of London. "Swanson was going on about ghosts and I must have let it get to me."
"Ghosts and you didn't think to share this before?!" Remy objected.
"It was just a hypothesis, and anyway, magic needs somebody living to direct it," Theo tried to be sensible, even though in the face of the hulking old building his non-logical thoughts were having a field day.
"You and I both know strange stuff happens all the time at Blackwood," Remy countered, clearly more willing to follow the flight of fancy than Theo.
"We live in a magical epicentre, of course stuff happens," Theo countered.
"You know what I mean," Remy growled back through gritted teeth.
Theo just gave his brother a stern look for that, neither of them needed histrionics if they were going to locate Felix and either eliminate him from the enquiry or arrest him. Remy fidgeted under his gaze, made a face, but finally grumbled, "Alright, let's get in there, but if that bloody Ouija thingy goes all phantasmagorical on our arse, I get the 'I told you so's for the next 50 years."
Ignoring Remy, Theo led the way up towards what looked like it had once been a loading bay. The steps up the side were crumbling concrete and the metal handrail wobbled when he put his fingers on it. Carefully, he let his magical senses out in front of him, but the hatch to which they were heading was as dark to his talents as it was to his eyes. Leaving the vague lighting of the open ground behind, Theo pulled out a small torch and flicked it on. The blue-white light lit up a corrugated metal shutter in their way, however, one side was buckled inwards from some previous entry attempt.
"Can you make that bigger without blowing a hole in it?" Theo turned to Remy and indicated the half-made gap.
Remy rolled his eyes, but then held out his hand. With his senses still open, Theo's world lit up yellow with Remy's power for a moment and Theo heard metal groaning. As the magic faded back to background level, Theo blinked and was greeted by a gap, highlighted in a vague yellow glow, now big enough for them to slide through.
"Thanks," he nodded to Remy and then ducked into the building.
Theo stumbled forward as his torch beam disappeared into wide-open blackness ahead. He could feel the space around him, even though he couldn't see it and the unknown brought Theo to a stop, the hairs on the back of his neck rising. He was glad when Remy stopped beside him and they both stood there a moment, listening to each other's breathing. A long way away, a boat's horn echoed down the river, but it was faint compared with the immense silence in front of him and Theo blinked into the shadows that swirled outside the reach of his torch.
"Nice place Felix has," Remy muttered. "Tell me again why we didn't pick one of the survivors to visit who lives in a nice ordinary semi?"
There were no signs of habitation in the near vicinity, not even someone living rough, so Theo let sense and his nerves get the better of him.
"Maybe we should wait for backup."
He and Remy turned in unison and Remy made a step towards the exit first. However, the jangle of a chain overhead caught Theo's attention and, on pure instinct, he grabbed Remy's voluminous jacket and yanked backwards. Remy smashed into him and they staggered more sideways than backwards, but as they vacated the spot a large crate crashed down in their place, throwing musty air and splintering wood out over them.
"Bloody hell!" Remy exclaimed, stuttering to a halt and sinking into a defensive position, magic flaring in Theo's senses.
However, the only thing that greeted them as the smash echoed away to nothing was a cackle of laughter.
"Felix?" Theo called, ice running up and down his spine.
"Well, we're in the right place then," Remy relaxed out of his fighting stance when nobody appeared and glanced back at the wreckage of crate and contents that was now blocking their exit.
Theo took his phone from his pocket and unlocked it.
"Bollocks," he swore as it blinked 'no signal' at him. He held it up for Remy to see and told him, "We're on our own."
"I'll save the 'I told you so's for later," Remy told him and scowled.
Theo was saved from eating humble pie when any more discussion was interrupted by the sound of running feet heading away from them. He was on his toes immediately and Remy stayed right next to his shoulder, which, when running blind into the inky blackness was one hell of a comfort. The hard slap of his leather boots on the concrete drowned out the soft pads of their quarry, but Theo felt the world close down around him and his torch beam began to pick out flashes of shelving on both sides, forcing them straight towards the back of the building.
"Felix Alinson, police!" Theo tried again, but his voice just echoed off the rising struts of metal that had them confined.
"I don't like this," Remy warned and as if to prove him right, suddenly the torch lit up the recesses of another large crate immediately in front of them.
Theo skidded to a halt and half turned, but not in time to stop him from slamming into the crate, shoulder first. His whole body jarred and the wind flew out of him, leaving him gasping and, what was worse, the small torch went sailing up and onto the top of the crate. Theo didn't have enough breath to swear again, but in the stream of light now streaking over their heads, he could see the grimace on his twin's face that expressed everything he was feeling. Remy was hunched over, his hand to his nose and it took Theo a moment to realise that his brother had not been as lucky as him in the collision: Remy's nose was bleeding. Quickly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a packet of tissues, fumbling with them in the shadows below the crate.
"Here," he offered out the two that came out at once.
Remy took the tissues, putting the whole clump to his nose and glaring at Theo.
"Next time I say 'back up', Mr Brand New DI, we're calling them," Remy growled.
Theo stayed silent and let the ire run out of Remy: it didn't take long, it never did between them, and then Remy sagged against the crate.
"Well, can you reach the torch?" he grumbled the last of the pique at Theo.
The crate was nearly as tall as them and Theo had to stand on tiptoe to look over the top. What he saw was disappointing: the crate was as wide as it was tall and the torch was teetering on the other side.
"Give me a leg up," Theo replied.
Remy huffed and checked the tissues. The nose-bleed appeared to be over, so he stuffed the tissues in his pocket and, linking his fingers, put his palms out to Theo. A quick step and a hoist and then Theo was belly-over the top of the crate. However, he was just putting his knee up onto the scratchy wooden planks to pull himself the rest of the way when he saw a flash of white caught in the torch beam. Theo realised it was a gloved hand when the fingers closed around their only source of light and snatched it off of its perch.
"No!" Theo yelled, lunging at where the torch and thief had been, but he only touched empty air.
What light there was went out completely then and, frustrated, but blind, Theo could only listen to those footsteps running away from him again accompanied by spine-chilling laughter.
"What? What?" Remy demanded, sounding so close he had to be half hanging off the crate.
"Torch is gone," Theo replied and heard Remy hiss.
However, it was the distinct jangle of chain from immediately overhead that caught his attention and it meant more than any alarm
bell. The strange positioning of the box had been suspicious, but with his associations to that noise, Theo's flight instinct kicked in.
"Back!" he yelled at Remy and then dived forward off the crate.
The Diablo Ouija Page 3