Xanthic waved us to silence and lent forward gripping his small plastic cup filled with brown lukewarm water masquerading as coffee.
"You were in no danger." he said as if we were all here simply enjoying the drinks.
"What do you mean no danger? " I erupted. "HE." I pointed at the thing introduced to me as Ludo who just leaned back in his chair with a sheepish grin while playing with his beard. "He drugged me, took me from my bed, laid me out in God knows where, talking in some Hell-spawn tongue and was going to eat my brain or something. "
What I wanted to do was run out of this noisy cramped café at the entrance of the hospital. The harsh electric lighting reflecting badly off all the white plastic tables hurting my eyes and forcing me to look upon the two figures in front of me or face a modern kind of snow blindness and not try to look elsewhere to detach myself from the situation. One my saviour, the other my attacker but both my only oasis of colour in a sea of artificial light and glaring plastic.
"Please, I will explain things to you and that is hard when you are drawing attention to yourself." Xanthic said looking at me and realised I had risen from my chair. I sat down, folded my arms tight across my chest and sliding as far away from Ludo as I could. O.K I was being a little childish but hey, I am the injured party around here.
''Long story short as we haven't much time here and I am needed elsewhere; so shut up, stop pouting like a fish and listen.'' Xanthic began one of his monologues, you can feel the weight of centuries within his wisdom but I always thought back to the stubbornness I fell into during lectures from my foster father when I screwed up as a skinny snot nosed kid.
"Ludo here is one of Us here on Earth and I trust him as far as I trust anyone born of an Other, which usually isn't that far but Ludo is a Poenavore, an Under Fae. They are related to the other Extraxi in some mix or other that I'm at a loss to understand, but it works for them so c'est la vie."
"What the Hell is a fairy Deadmother doing in a bloody children's ward anyway; I thought the master plan was to hunt out these freaks and kick them back down the hole they crawled through." I hissed through my teeth as I tried to keep a smile aimed at Ludo.
"Not exactly and you know it, we investigate the machinations of those who I am tasked to, Others whose plans are not aligned to my Lords and Masters wishes and if they do not agree then we kick them back down the hole, or the bits of them we can find if the Lords and Masters catch up with them first. Or we simply track down what we are told to and if anyone gets in our way it gets a little grey." Xanthic shuffled in his seat and pulled at his lapels on his jacket and then settled into his seat to continue his input. He was centre of attention, a place he frequently aimed to be.
"We all have to eat you know." said Ludo under his breath
I almost stood and punched him in the face. I'm sure the half rotten maggot filled flesh would have splattered under my blow and his brain would have fallen onto the plastic fake wood floor; But I could hear the tempo of the musical aura of Xanthic start to pick up which was usually a sign of imminent danger or that he's getting annoyed - or both.
"Ludo is a Poenavore, they eat pain, feast on the suffering of agony. Many of their kind cause a lot of pain to people, animals or whatever they can get their claws into. The smaller ones in their inexperience are very fierce, they rip into flesh to extract pain by the handful, but some grow old and cunning and have learnt the bitter sweet pain in mental suffering and cruelty of the mind. They whisper in the night that your wife has been unfaithful or your Boss will give your promised promotion to that Bitch in accounts. They start off small but by the time they finish with you there is nothing left, well sometimes a bloody heap under a bush, but mostly just a shell of a person too paranoid and stressed to function. And that's why I have to hunt them, not because of what they do but because they do not leave the soul in a state it can be corrupted or coerced to discolour through acts and deeds suggested by other Others on my side of the dispute."
A spotted teenager pushed a brush along the floor leaving a wake of crumbs and napkins behind him, the general cleanliness improved by virtue of hiding the rubbish under the tables. As he came closer Xanthic eased sideways over the arm of his chair and whispered words never heard but felt deep and clear. The youth stopped, dropped the broom to the floor, stormed towards the teenage looking manager trying desperately to look middle aged in an over sized shirt and incorrectly rove tie, shoved him two handed against the counter, turned and thundered out of the café ripping his sweat stained uniform polo shirt and discarding it in, according to the sign above it, the 'self service waste disposal stand' by the door.
"What was that all about?" Ludo asked. "I thought you had given up on playing with the mortals." This got Ludo my best funny look although he didn’t show any signs of recognising it.
"Got to keep my hand in." shrugged Xanthic, "You never know it might do him good to get out and look for a real job."
"That poor boy, what did you do to him? You haven't damned him into inciting violence have you?" I asked unbelieving my own eyes even though, like the majority of the clientele of the café, I had followed the whole performance from start to finish with my mouth open.
"The boy is an innocent, or as innocent as a teenager can be with enormous levels of hormones coursing through his system. No, he wasn't my target, just had to light the blue touch paper, sit back and enjoy the show."
The manager-lite had continued to react to the shove and now I looked back could see he had lost his footing, grabbed the glass counter front and got one foot under him before slipping on a napkin dropped by a customer in a hurry to grab a coffee, doughnut and run. A hollow 'donk' sounded as he hit his forehead against the glass leaving a greasy mark adorning the fresh cake display-case. A laugh was quickly issued by the customers all around and then just as quickly muted when the red faced young man turned to face us all. He busied himself trying to get to his feet, pull himself together and look unperturbed over it. A young waitress rushed over and tried to assist get him upright and kissed him on the cheek; suddenly the mood changed. What started in shock and them humour turned into a group embarrassment. Another girl, this one from the back of the shop ran over after hearing the commotion, took one look at the waitress who had just pulled away from the kiss and slapped her hard around the face. She then recoiled her hand and thumped, who we found out to be her imminent ex-boyfriend.
"Bastard!" was the only clear word I could make out, but the additional slaps from both girls around the guys head rang out loud enough to carry the full meaning of the conversation.
Xanthic had started talking again and I reluctantly turned my attention away from the three way personal Armageddon. Ludo saw me looking blank and continued the conversation as if nothing had just happened.
"I got to the point where I had lived amongst humans for over a century and made a few friends........." he paused and looked up. Behind him the fight was getting more intense and the heavily sweated shirt and tie wearing teen found that as the two girls were now focusing on each other he could stand slightly away from the scene distancing himself from it. He cracked open a bottle of cola displayed on the countertop, looked at his watch and walked away.
Ludo carried on. "One of my friends had a child, I was asked to be a Godparent, I was shocked as you can imagine but I couldn't attend the Christening. Nothing to do with the church you understand, that doesn't work on our level, but I had a holiday booked to go back home to the Old Country. When I got back all the celebration had turned sour, the little darling had been ill, meningitis. It hit hard and fast and every time I saw the baby after that it was drugged up on medication and in a troubled sleep or crying in the arms of its parents who were crying just as hard. There was no time, after that my friends were never the same." Ludo shuffled in his seat and gazed over each shoulder and bent his shoulders in further. "Then I thought I would help. I fed from them and eased their pain; taking enough to help but forcing myself not to take it all and break them. They couldn
't cope without their grief and when they found out they .......did not take it easily. They cursed me for not helping their child and letting him pass in pain and threw me out of their lives. After that, whether it was the curse or just the intensity of their words but I could never go back to my old life of hunting the streets at night, influencing drunks to argue or fight for my diet. I took a job as night porter here and sit with the children and make their time easier by removing their pain. I'm not expecting a medal but if I can help a child sleep at night then that's enough for me."
The story continued and it was explained by my two companions that Ludo was now rejected by the bigger two sides of the eternal light/dark, heaven/hell, yin/yang or them and us disagreement. The other Poenavore see him as a traitor to the old ways and the good Fae, angels and Angels see his actions as preying on the weak and innocent. Xanthic says he supports him because some of the innocents recover and grow up to be brought unto the dark where they would have been retired pure in their hospital beds; but I like to think it’s because although he is a.........creature of the dark, he has a soft spot for us all really deep down. Really, really deep down.
"So why the did he have me in stinking place with all the voodoo crap?" I politely enquired of my employer. "That sure as hell didn't feel like he was working for the Angels in any way shape or hairy arsed form!"
"You were attacked...." started Xanthic.
"I know, by him." I was struggling to keep my temper here, can you tell?
"No," spluttered Ludo louder than he meant, but with a force of nature under it that I slipped back in my chair chastised and shamed by the word.
"There was another, I can feel them here, somewhere. They are taking too much, feeding off the vulnerable. I think they have been hurt, and hunting easier prey. It is dangerous, injured and willing to fight for survival It went for you and poisoned you. I was pulling its contamination from you or you would have died and it would have fed from your remaining time."
"And that's why we are here." said Xanthic, elbows on the table now with hand under his chin. "That's why you have the blade. Its blessed and cursed and almost unique in this part of the world. It will prove invaluable in what we need to do, and soon. I've already dispatched something with it but I feel like I've come in halfway through all of this and trying to catch up. I don't know enough about what is going on yet."
I went cold, ice flowed through my spine. I had the knife, it was.......somewhere, so why didn't I take it with me when I went off on my solo adventure, I had looked through my stuff and........
The look on my face obviously alerted my companions as they both hunched forward closing the distance between us and asked me almost simultaneously if I still had the blade.
I had to confess that I did not, not on my person, and I couldn't remember where I had put it. Then it came to me, it was under my pillow, my pillow that was NHS issue and they had a tendency to change anything that had trails of dried blood running across them. I orated my concerns over the whereabouts of the knife-thing Xanthic had given me. Xanthic jumped out of his seat, which fell backwards and bounced of a couple on the next table who looked over in surprise and disgust. Xanthic was already striding to the exit.
"We have to find the blade and retrieve it NOW." he said; Ludo and I were quickly on his heels behind him.
As we left, the trails of brass and stringed instrumentals building tempo within Xanthic's mood fell away in our wake. The manager of the hospital café was on his mobile, presumably to head office or a more senior manager demanding the sacking of two of his staff fighting during a shift and in this action making his soul and the world a little bit darker.
We had arrived back at my hospital ward at pace, but slowed when we heard the commotion emanating within.
11:50
BQ was calling for a nurse, everyone was calling for a nurse, the police or in one case their Mum. Luckily this being the NHS under a Conservative Government, not member of authority was present to answer these calls. But why disappoint them?
Xanthic, already in the lead increased his pace and burst into the ward through the double doors and demanded in a tone of voice so commanding it had an immediate effect.
"Can someone tell me what is going on in here? The rest of you return to you beds."
It was incredible to see, but all twelve adults put their heads down and shuffled away like four years old’s caught out of bed by their parents.
"Who are you?" asked BQ, the only one who - I was later informed, was too closed minded to anything other than his own little internal world to fully bend to conformity.
"I am a Doctor and I am telling you to get back into your bed." even my knees started to bend forcing me to reach out for support; the cold bony hands of Ludo who caught me snapped me back into reality - and sent a chill up my spine.
"Is he really a Doctor?" I whispered to Ludo.
"Yeah, I think he is. He walked into a local university one day, solved a student infecting fungus problem, taught them something about space dimension and walked out with an honorary doctorate."
"Oh, I always wondered how you got one of those."
"Now what is the meaning of this fuss?" asked Xanthic in his best old School Master tone as BQ sat back onto his bed. BQ, with fingertips only as if scared to make physical contact with the object resting upon, held forward his hands, whereon, balanced like the scales of justice, sat a dirtied knife. This one was nothing special just an old kitchen knife with a blunt serrated blade with teeth missing. It had an old dirty and faded wooden handle with a rivet missing and a prominent bend to the last inch of the dull blade.
Xanthic took it from him in a handkerchief which he flourished and then made disappear, with the knife, in a second. With the knife gone the temperature in the room increased and the anxiety of the inhabitants dwindled in equal measure.
A nurse walked in, one of the big old fashioned matron types from black and white TV. As broad as a sofa and just as well stuffed. She looked around with a grimace of one drawn rapidly from an importance engagement for a trivial matter only to find that matter less trivial or nonexistent upon arrival. She was not happy and wanted a focal point to display this fact on and with a gaze that took in all her domain her eye settled on Xanthic in his most unhygienic oily black leather long coat, frayed and ripped through lifetimes of wear and toil.
"Just who........" she managed to get out before Xanthic expertly turned upon his heels and faced her, a winning smile displayed across his expressive face; his eyes betraying the smile with his true emotions for her at this time but the smile was enough to win his faces argument.
"Dr Abaddon, here for my rounds and you have urgent matters elsewhere that need your expert attention." the smile was static throughout his speech.
"Um yes, there are......." the nurse looked confused, "Who did you say you were again?"
"I am here to help." Soothing tones came from Xanthic who turned to the nearest bed and deftly took up the clipboard hung there and the medical notes it held, he lowered his head and read them. "My work here is to save life, or at the very least prolong it. Now go about your business so I can go about mine." Xanthic dropped the clipboard and as it fell it hooked back over the bed and rested.
We were left alone and I swear the nurse almost curtsied as she left. I stepped forward to my allotted bed and began to search where I though the blade could have fallen; I lifted sheets and pillows and kicked my bag laying under the bed to one side but could not find it. Xanthic stayed my hand by placing his on my arm and said into my ear not to worry about looking any further. I obviously looked puzzled - or confused, which is my normal state with the majority of matters concerning Xanthic. Into my hand he placed his handkerchief, it flowed across my outstretched fingers as soft as a mist rolling across a field, but when the last of the silken fabric brushed the tips of my hand a weight grew there and under the silk as it whipped away with a twirl by its owner's hand, a knife appeared. It was not the wooden handled kitchen knife of the
one taken, this one was an antique. It looked to my highly untrained eye to be a bayonet; I've seen similar but only on war films with heroes dashing around Europe at some point in recent history. The blade I might add was as sharp as a brick and probably just as hard to stab someone with, at least with the weight I could do serious damage by hitting someone over the head with it.
"The task before us still stands. Somewhere close is something feeding off innocents and we must locate it with haste and bring it to an end." Xanthic looked into my eyes. "But for now you are tired, you are drained, have been drained by the very beast we search for. This tells me it is known to you and you have met and have been recognised as a threat." He looked over me, my hair, my face, my neck and body. "Our presence here has been noticed, it has attacked and lost. So does that mean it will flee and find a new source of succour or dig in and fight for its territory?"
A two tone alert siren sounded out of a voluminous jacket pocket. Xanthic stopped talking, looked at his chest and put his hand inside his coat. Silence soon followed and Xanthic looked up gravely.
"It appears I have urgent business elsewhere of the utmost importance."
"What's going on? What was that noise?" I asked, totally unfamiliar with the alarm and not wanting Xanthic to leave me here alone. This was also a concern to Xanthic himself as he continued.
"It’s a couple of hours until nightfall. I doubt anything further will happen until the dark has settled over the land. I will endeavour to be back here before that happens, but what I need you to do; what I need you both to do is find something to narrow down the suspects, without becoming the main course!" he looked at Ludo and myself then again at Ludo. "You keep her safe you hear me, whatever happens she is to remain untouched. I cannot stress this point enough."
"Lying, cheating and Under Fae I maybe, but I will do my best Sir." Ludo puffed his chest out which is not a good look in a hospital issue dust coat. Stood in the shadows as he was he almost looked handsome - but probably only if there was a female bear looking for a flea ridden and balding mate.
Diary Of An Occult Resolution Assistant Page 3