Wicked Folk

by Jamie McFarlane

  "Don't be ridiculous. No one is listening to your conversation." Jardeep's voice caught me off guard. "To answer your question, you vanquished the demon with your spell. Even the least sensitive among us felt that surge of energy. It is the simplest explanation, backed up by facts."

  I nodded.

  "We had cameras all over the place," he answered. "Believe me, if that demon was still here, we'd be dancing to a different tune."

  A paramedic approached, looked at the four of us, and took charge. "You need to sit down." He gently guided me to the edge of the stage. "Let's give him some space."

  "What about Thea?" I asked, over the man's shoulder as he pealed back my ruined shirt.

  "They're cutting her out of the brambles now," Anderson said.

  "What will happen to her? And what are you going to do about all of the Dark Folk who helped them?"

  "She'll be tried for her crimes," Anderson said. "By a jury of her peers."

  "That should be interesting," Gabriella said. "Not sure she has many peers."

  "It's something we know how to deal with," Anderson said. "As for the rest of the Dark Folk, the cave contains a trove of evidence and once we lock in on one person, we'll leverage them to roll over on the others. Believe me, we'll undo the entire wicked mess."

  "Up here," the paramedic ordered as a gurney arrived. He'd successfully laid gauze on my chest and handed me an ice pack for my head where I'd struck the bleachers. "You're going to need stitches and staples, but I think you'll be okay."

  "What about Petaluma?" I asked Anderson.

  "I'll leave her out of it for now," Anderson said. "I'll have to follow the evidence, though."

  I shook my head in understanding. I guess I couldn't ask for more.

  "Where's Lace?" I asked as we started rolling out. I was glad to be lying down.

  "On her way to the hospital," Gabriella said. "She wanted to come help you, but I might have sic'd a paramedic on her."

  "Up," the paramedic directed, pushing my gurney into the back of the waiting ambulance.

  Gabriella put her hand on my gurney, essentially stopping its movement. "I'm coming along."

  "Fine." I heard the paramedic say with a sigh.

  I wasn't sure if it was exhaustion or something in the IV, but the next thing I remembered was waking up in a room at the hospital. Gabriella had reclined a guest chair in the semi-private room and was fast asleep, holding my hand. When I rolled my head over, I found that Lace was in a similar bed a few feet away.

  "Hey stranger," I said.

  "Felix, you are awake. How are you feeling?"

  "I think the better question is, how are you?" Her leg was in a cast up to just under the knee.

  "Anything is better than that cage," she said. "This will heal. Is he truly dead?"

  "I saw it for myself," I said.

  "I'm so relieved," she said, although I caught a touch of sorrow in her voice "I just … I just don't know …"

  "Willum was family," I said. "I'm sorry for my part in this."

  "It's not that," she said. "I've just been running for so long. I don't know what to do now."

  "You're welcome to stay on at the shop," Judy said from the doorway.

  "Lace, you'll not be getting rid of us easily," Gabriella added groggily. "As it turns out, I happen to know of a beautiful little apartment that's coming available in Leotown."

  "Yeh barely know me," she said.

  "Wait. What apartment?" I asked. "Does this mean you and Clarita are going to finally move in with me?"

  Gabriella smiled.

  Great Escape

  "I need to get out of here," Lace whispered. "The people who saw me in that cage know I exist now. They will come for me."

  "Willum is dead," I answered, reassuringly.

  "That is the problem. Willum had control of the council and with his death, they are back in charge of the Dark Folk," she said. "My ma lived apart from the Dark Folk because she was a threat to them and they wanted to kill her. Once the clan discovers I made it out of that cave alive, they'll come for me, too."

  "I thought your mother was the queen."

  "With her gone, that title falls to me. The elder council will look to remove me as they did her."

  "Do you really think after all the trouble the Dark Folk just stirred up, they'll come for you?" I asked.

  "Trouble follows the gypsy clans, Felix. This is nothing new to them," she said. It didn't escape me that she didn’t consider herself a part of the Eppy clan.

  "You feel good enough to move?" I asked.

  "You, my good man, have an appointment with a plastic surgeon this afternoon, so I don't think you're going anywhere." Jason, the duty nurse sauntered into the room, speaking to me and then to Lace. "And you, my friend, could well have an infection from your injuries. So I'll need you both to sit tight until the doc visits. Now, let me get a look at this." He crossed the room and pulled at the bandage on my chest.

  "I'll take my chances," I said grumpily. Because of a possible concussion, the nurses hadn't let me sleep until midnight and I was tired of being woken up every two hours.

  "Just hang tight. The whole hospital has been crazy - some sort of problem out at Eppy Faire. News is saying a madman had a gun and took hostages," he said, then paused, looking guilty. "Oh crap, you were probably out there. Was it bad?"

  "No idea," I answered.

  "Your chest looks better, although that's not saying much." He moved on. "You're going to have a nasty scar and these are wicked looking scratches. Your skin was torn in several places. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were mauled by an animal."

  "My sister, Maggie. Do you know where she is?" I asked.

  "No Maggie is on this floor," he said. "Same last name?"

  "Yes."

  He typed on the tablet he'd set on my tray. "There's a Slade admitted on fourth floor."

  "Is she okay?"

  "I can't share information about another patient."

  "What's on the fourth floor?" Gabriella asked, standing up from the chair where she'd been dozing.

  "A little more security," he said, cautiously.

  "I'll go," Gabriella said.

  I pulled the IV from my hand. "No. This is crap."

  "Hold on there, Mr. Slade. You've had a nasty bang to the head, we can't have you falling on us." Jason gently placed his hands on my shoulders.

  "I'm okay." I pushed a small compulsion at him to back up my words.

  "You’re probably right," he replied. "But orders are you need to stay in bed until the doc has a chance to check you out."

  "When will that be?" I asked.

  "Shortly." The lie was easy to read. From the corner of my eye I saw Lace waggle her eyebrows and slowly slide from her bed. The movement caught Jason's eye and just as he turned toward her, she vanished.

  "Shit, where'd she go?" He spun, searching the room frantically with his eyes. The only telltale was her IV line which made an unnatural bend upward and disappeared from sight. If Jason had been expecting some sort of magic, he might have had a chance at locating her.

  "Maybe she went on a snack run?" I asked innocently. When he turned, I tapped the bandage on the back of my hand where my IV had once been. Lace must have seen me because her own line slowly lowered and then hung free.

  "She shouldn't be up," he said, worriedly, applying a new dressing to my chest.

  "Said something about cafeteria," I said. "She can't be too far ahead."

  "Dammit."

  I chuckled as he left the room in a rush. From a plastic bag sitting at the end of the bed, I pulled my jeans and belt out and slid them on. Each movement felt like I was reopening the wounds on my chest, but I was not interested in waiting any longer. "Shirt?" I asked.

  Gabriella handed me a black t-shirt with a large brown bunny on the front. The caption read 'Some Bunny Loves Me.' I looked at her in shock. Was she kidding?

  "Sorry, it was all they had in the gift-shop," Gabriella said with a huge smile. "And Judy s
aid Merritt would see to getting your truck back - maybe tonight."

  I pulled out my phone and brought up the car-service app. From the corner of my eye, light shimmered around Lace's figure as she slowly moved and extracted clothing from her own hospital supplied personal-effects bag. It was a remarkable spell; it wasn't that she became visible when she moved, as much as it appeared the camouflage spell took a moment to catch up with her movements.

  My gaze must have lingered a bit too long as Gabriella slapped my shoulder. "Stop staring," she reprimanded.

  "That's serious magic," I said. It was a shading of truth and I was certain Gabriella caught it. Lace was too young for me, barely twenty-one, but her outlined figure was … well, I suppose you see the problem now.

  Lace chose that moment to drop her spell and considered me, smiling. "We should get going."

  "A car will be here in fifteen minutes," I said, twiddling my fingers to cause my plastic admittance band to fall off. Lace struggled with her own before I did the same for her. "Let's find Maggie."

  I stuck my head out of the room and was pleased to see a stairway door down the hallway only a few feet away, with no nurses in sight.

  "Get a chair for Lace," Gabriella whispered, apparently reading my plan and recognizing that I hadn't considered that Lace's leg was in a cast.

  "Won't work," I said, knowing the elevators would take us past the nurse's station. Pain coursed through my chest as I attempted to place my arm around Lace and help her walk. My plan was quickly falling apart. There was no way I would be able to help her down stairs. "Shit. Stay here."

  I snuck out into the hallway and walked past several open patient rooms. Each room was occupied, but none had a wheel-chair. I grimaced as a nurse I wasn't familiar with walked busily past. When she didn't pay me any attention, I continued down the hallway, finally finding a wheelchair just past the nurse's station.

  I was just about back to the room with the chair when Jason's voice caught me from behind. "Hey, you there." The sound of jingling change warned me of his hurried approach. "You need to get back in bed."

  With a sigh, I looked into the room I was just about to pass. An elderly man slept on the first bed, connected to an array of machines. I twisted my fingers and pulled at the leads with my telekinesis. I must have hit the jackpot as all of a sudden alarms and buzzers went off, making a tremendous racket.

  "I think he's choking." I pushed Jason again with suggestion. A pang of guilt tugged at my conscience. I didn't like using suggestion on innocents.

  Jason sprang into immediate action. "We're coding!" he shouted down the hall and sprinted into the room, a wave of concern radiating from him. My guilt deepened – he was obviously very dedicated to his work.

  Wasting no more time, I spun the chair into the doorway of our room. With Gabriella's help, Lace sat heavily and I pulled back out of the room, pointed us down the hallway and adopting an unconcerned look, pushed Lace past the flurry of activity I'd caused.

  Once on the elevator, I hit the button for the fourth floor, but it refused to illuminate.

  "Must be locked out," Gabriella observed.

  I punched the lobby button as Jason rounded the corner in a hurry and looked into the elevator car. He'd figured out my ruse and I wondered just how far he was willing to go to get me back in my room. He rumpled his eyebrows in confusion and turned away, sprinting down the hallway.

  "My people call it shadow walk," Lace said once the door closed.

  "I can't even feel an energy drain when you do it," I said.

  "Ma always said it was my one real gift," she said.

  I pushed her into the hospital's bright lobby and out the sliding glass doors. A black sedan pulled up just as we did.

  I waved at the vehicle and the driver returned my wave. "I think our ride is early."

  "Do you know where there's a medical supply?" I asked as he stepped out of his car. "We need to get crutches."

  "Don't they rent those here?" he asked, hustling around the rear of his vehicle to open the back passenger side door.

  "It's complicated," I answered, helping Lace into the back seat.

  "Sure, no problem."

  "Meet back at Judy's shop?" I looked back to Gabriella. "I'm going to find Maggie."

  Gabriella looked from Lace to me and then nodded. "Don't get into trouble."

  "No promises." I tried to hand her my credit card but she just shook her head. It was a conversation we'd had a number of times. She made good money and until I gained access to the trust left behind by my mother, she was better funded than me.

  After closing the door on the vehicle, I walked back into the hospital and up to a pudgy, middle-aged man seated at the information desk. His demeanor was friendly as he set down the newspaper he'd been reading.

  "How may I be of assistance?" he asked.

  "Maggie Slade?"

  He punched the information into his computer. "You are?"

  "Her brother," I said.

  "Would you mind if I saw some ID?" he asked. I'd been in enough hospitals to know this was an unusual request. I didn't, however, feel like pushing it with him, so I handed him my driver's license.

  "Why the ID check?" I asked.

  "Standard procedure," he replied, stiffening slightly. It was a good tell, honest people generally didn't appreciate lying. "I'll have to call Dr. Hornbeck."

  "Is something wrong with Maggie?" I asked.

  "Sorry, I don't have access to that type of information," he said.

  "What's on the fourth-floor?" I asked.

  He sat back, surprised by my question. "Uh, well …" he stammered. "Mental health services. But it's restricted access. If you'll have a seat, I'll call her."

  "Sounds good." I walked toward the chairs he indicated. As soon as he looked away, however, I diverted to the stairwell and climbed up to the fourth floor. As expected, the door was locked and further announced that an alarm would sound if it were opened. So much for a quiet escape.

  I made my way back down to the first floor and took a seat. The receptionist caught my eye and gave me a quizzical look, but turned back to his newspaper. Twenty minutes later a haggard looking woman wearing a white lab coat approached.

  "Mr. Slade?" she asked. The smile on her face didn't reach her eyes as she shook my hand in greeting. Without waiting for me to reply she pressed on. "We're very worried about Maggie. If you'd follow me."

  "Worried? I know she got bumped around pretty good," I said.

  "It's not that," she waved a card across an electronic sensor as she held the fourth-floor button down. For her, it illuminated and the elevator started to rise. "How long has Maggie been anorexic?"

  "I don't think she is," I said.

  "Your sister is five-foot two-inches and weighs eighty-five pounds," she replied. "There are few other explanations."

  "I see," I said. "Is she awake?"

  Hornbeck closed her eyes and shook her head affirmatively. "She’s asking for you. Mr. Slade. You need to understand; her body is eating itself trying to keep her alive. If we hadn't intervened when we did, she would most likely be dead. As it is, I'm surprised to discover her organs are in as good a shape as they are. She needs help, Mr. Slade. Anorexia is a serious disorder and one that most don't easily recover from. Your denial is not helpful."

  "Is she eating?" I asked.

  Hornbeck sighed, leading me from the elevator through a short lobby and past an unmanned, glassed-in reception counter that would have looked at home in a police station. "She's currently being fed intravenously."

  "And asking for food," I finished her sentence. "Doctor, she needs more calories than you're supplying. She also needs protein."

  "In her shape, her stomach would not be able to process food in any volume."

  "That's true if she was anorexic," I said. "Maggie suffers from a rare, as yet, unnamed condition. Her body burns through calories at a rate beyond anything you've ever seen."

  Hornbeck stopped me in the hallway, placing her hand o
n my elbow to turn me. "You can't be sucked into this, Mr. Slade. According to Maggie, you're her only family. She needs your help and without it she will die. You cannot be drawn in to her fantasies."

  "I'll do everything I can for my sister, but you're not listening," I said. "What is the next level of food once you get past intravenous?"

  "Depends on the patient," she said. "But in her case, I'd consider a nutritionally balanced, liquid shake."

  "Try her," I said. "If she can't hold it down, I'll do whatever you ask."

  "She can't."

  "Only if you're right," I said.

  Behind Hornbeck, someone pounded on a locked door. The sound muffling in this place was pretty good, but I heard Maggie's voice and she wasn't happy.

  "I'll allow eight ounces," she said.

  "Sixteen," I negotiated, refusing to use my compulsion.

  "She can't possibly … fine, sixteen. But then you'll work with me." Hornbeck turned and unlocked the door.

  Maggie sat on a bed, dressed in scrubs instead of a gown. I had to agree with Hornbeck on one thing, Maggie looked terrible, her face sunken and gaunt, shoulder bones poking up into the fabric. She glowered at Hornbeck, but smiled when she saw me.

  "Get me out of here, Felix," Maggie implored, opening her arms for a hug.

  "You nearly killed yourself," I said. "You weren't supposed to come."

  "Gabriella followed the team in," she said. "I couldn't let her go by herself."

  "How are you feeling, Maggie?" Hornbeck asked louder than necessary and ignoring our conversation.

  "Hungry. I asked for real food hours ago and you still have me on this," she said, pointing to a translucent bag.

  "Felix suggested we try you on something a little more substantial. Do you feel up to trying a shake?" Hornbeck asked.

  "I'm up for steak and pizza!" Maggie retorted.

  "We talked about this, Maggie," Hornbeck replied. "Your stomach can't possibly process complex food yet. We need to train it slowly."

  "Tell her, Felix," Maggie said. "She won't believe me."

  "Vanilla or chocolate?" I asked. Hornbeck was already being pushed further than she was comfortable.

  "I'll take three of both," she said petulantly.