Balance - Book 2

by Marc Dickason

CHAPTER 10

  After another cup of coffee, brain singing with caffeine, I headed to Manipulation and Influence. As always I made an attempt to prepare myself on the walk, drifting up the Academy corridors with head bowed and eyes locked on the floor. Classrooms slipped by and groups of chattering Cadets nodded greetings. I nodded back.

  “Hello, Jet Clarence,” one young female Cadet said. “Skip washing day?”

  “Hello,” I responded, skirting her and continuing on my way.

  I felt calm upon arriving outside the double doors. The terrible images of the previous night were fading, falling into the depths of my mind where they were filed under ‘Recognised, but best thought about as little as possible. Unless necessary.’

  I pushed open the doors and stepped inside. But the moment I did the now recognisable sensation engulfed me, more powerful then it had been before. The hall seemed saturated, as if the entity had gathered in my absence.

  I stood for a moment and fortified myself, feeling the energy twist and curl, eagerly probing for an entrance. It attempted to penetrate my mind with a root but I resisted, regardless of what Benny had said about it being a ‘completely harmless Spell’. Upon being rejected the invisible energy receded.

  As before none of the others present seemed to notice the energy, with nurses and Cadets going about their business in ignorant bliss. But it didn’t take long to realise a number of those occupying the beds were noticing the Spell. There came flickers and jerks of movement everywhere. A pale body jolted here, another spasmed there, off to my left a skeletal woman seemed to be attempting to sit up, then went limp again. The contrast to normal activity was, to say the least, jarring.

  My eyes focused on a nurse, attempting to spot signs of urgency. There were none and I assumed the situation to be under control.

  “Just a Crowd Surfing Spell,” I muttered to myself, heading for Linda, “Whatever the hell that is.”

  Each step was accompanied by the sensation of moving through clouds of invisible smoke, felt rather than seen, and as I arrived at Linda I had an irrational urge to dust off my clothing.

  “Hello, Linda,” I whispered.

  Linda said nothing.

  “Are you causing all this nonsense? Putting out a weird Spell?”

  The sensation had not increased in her vicinity. It rather seemed to be emanating from everywhere at once.

  Linda managed to be even more unpleasant in appearance than previously; resembling an anorexic spiralling beyond the point of no return. A nurse was hovering nearby and I got her attention.

  “Is she okay?” I asked. “She seems very thin.”

  “She gets fed same as everyone else,” the nurse replied, tapping a medical bag beside the bed, “Everything required for sustaining the human body. It’s natural for a patient to lose a bit of weight in the first few weeks. Nothing to worry about.”

  “Okay. And this business?” I gestured around at the hall.

  “Yes, it’s a bit alarming but not at all a concern. We’ve been informed by the Specialists it’s just a harmless spell working its course. A Crowd Surfing Spell. It will wear out in a few hours, a few days at most. Your friend here has been especially restless, though. A real firecracker.” She smiled. “I had to give her a shot.”

  “Alright. Thank you.”

  The nurse nodded and returned to her duties.

  “I’ll see you soon,” I said to Linda, “You put some effort into thinking about where that white wall is. Okay?”

  It was time for training and I headed to the bed of Judy Carlson.

  “Good morning,” Gibson said as I approached. “My, you do look a little run down today. Burning the midnight oil?”

  “Yes,” I responded, “Late night. But I’ll be fine.”

  “Excellent. Been a rather eventful day around here.”

  “So I see.”

  “Your friend Linda and Miss Carlson have been especially energetic.” He chuckled. “Perhaps you invigorate them.”

  I frowned. “My mentor, Enforcer Kingston, said Linda is incubating the Crowd Surfing Spell.”

  “That may well be. But it really doesn’t matter one way or the other. Waste of time and resources confirming the source of the Spell. It will burn out soon and all will return to normal.”

  Judy jerked on the bed beside us.

  “Is it safe in there?” I asked.

  “Oh, it will be fine I assure you.” He cleared his throat. “Something else: I took the liberty of preparing your application for specialising in Manipulation and Influence, Jet. I realise it’s perhaps a bit presumptuous. You are of course under no obligation to sign them. I’m just letting you know that the forms are already completed. In my office.”

  I nodded, acknowledging that the previous night had made spending my time in a hall, with near-corpses, an infinitely more attractive option. “Thank you, sir. I think I may just take you up on that.”

  His smile was pure elation. “I’m very glad to hear that, Jet. We’ll be seeing a lot more of each other then, after you achieve Senior Enforcer status. But that won’t take long, not for you. Then we’ll do amazing things in this hall. Help more people then you could have thought possible.”

  “Yes, sir. That sounds great.”

  “Alright, let’s not dawdle. Whenever you’re ready please begin. Afterwards I will ask a few questions. Your performance will be based on your ability to answer them correctly.”

  “I know. Thank you, sir.”

  I stepped forward and gazed down at Judy.

  It was a particularly dark night and the already inky gloom was made more pronounced by a canopy of leaves veiling the moon. Thick tree trunks, stretching up on all sides, stood motionless and crowded the sky, not stirred by even a faint whisper of air. I had never seen a foreboding forest in Judy’s mind before.

  For a moment I could not locate the girl and cursed myself, thinking I had done the Spell incorrectly. But then came a rustling from nearby; feet disturbing dead leaves. I strained my eyes and made out a figure floating between tree trunks.

  “I’m coming…” a voice whispered, “I’m coming…”

  I approached, my own feet shushing through the leaves, and cringed at how deafeningly loud it seemed. Judy drew nearer and fell into focus. She was staggering away from me, pale body dressed in a white ladies nightgown. Despite far more disturbing images I had encountered in this realm, my skin tingled at the spectral effect.

  “I’m coming…”she murmured, thin voice lost in the trees, “I’m coming, please wait for me…”

  I followed behind at a slow walk, weaving between tree trunks in her wake. Time drew on. We walked for ten minutes with Judy never looking anywhere except directly ahead. The ambience was undeniably creepy, but I soon began to enjoy the pleasant stroll through the woods, despite us not seeming to be going anywhere in particular. Then, as I was starting to wonder where the demon was, there came a distant rustling behind me.

  “Oh there you are,” I muttered to myself, glancing over my shoulder.

  Ahead Judy halted in her tracks, head slowly turning to reveal a mask of terror where her face should be. Her eyes searched into the darkness, ignoring me.

  “Who’s there?” she mewled.

  There was no response. I followed her gaze and saw nothing but the vague shapes of trees.

  “Who’s there?” she repeated, raising her voice.

  The sound of rustling emerged again, reminiscent of a radio tuned to a dead channel. Feet, or hooves, were disturbing the dead leaves.

  “Mommy doesn’t wanna ride.”

  The words came twisting through tree trunks and assaulted us from every angle. But…

  I cocked my head, listening. Had there been something else below? Another voice, below the first? Faint and distorted, but there?

  As expected Judy shrieked and clapped her hands over her ears.

  “Oh God! Oh God, not you!” she screamed, “Not you! Not now! I have to get there! I have to find the white wall! Leave me
alone!”

  My eyes were bulging and heart hammered. The white wall? How could this woman possibly be connected to Linda…?

  I glanced around desperately; terrified the demon would emerge and steal away the moment.

  “Where is it, Judy?” I whispered, “Where is the white wall? Where is it?”

  “Mommy doesn’t wanna ride, baby,” the voice came again.

  And something else beneath it. “…but daddy said mommy didn’t want to ride…”

  Judy looked at me as tears streamed down her cheeks, mouth flapping. She then turned and bolted into the woods. Her bare feet kicked up flutters of leaves.

  “Shit!”

  I gave chase. Ahead, glimpsed like a fish in murky waters, her body weaved through the trees, breath audibly hissing like a steam train.

  “Mommy doesn’t wanna ride baby.”

  “…but you could hear her, Judy, you could hear mommy calling to you from the house…”

  Behind came the sound of hooves thundering on dirt. And a distinct cracking of branches against a body in motion. This was odd, my frantic mind told me, since the type of trees had no low branches. And this meant a head must be brushing through the canopy twenty meters above...

  Tree trunks whipped past in the darkness as the chase continued. I pursued, but it soon became clear I was chasing nothing. Judy could no longer be seen. The sounds of the demon’s pursuit had also faded, and I took it as a sign the scene was over. I stopped, hands on knees and shoulders heaving.

  “Shit.” My mind raced. “What the hell is going on?”

  For a minute nothing more occurred. Then came a new sound from somewhere in the gnarled tree trunks. The whimper of a woman as she cried. My head snapped up and I strained my ears. It came again, distant but unmistakable; a sniffling sob.

  I moved towards it, tree trunks sliding by again, and the sound grew steadily louder.

  Finally a structure loomed from between the trees; the white wall. As previously it stood with no purpose and attached to no other building, being simply a brick wall alone in an alien environment. Judy was curled up at its base. Her body heaved as she cried.

  “I’m here,” she wept softly, “I’m here. I found it. Why aren’t you here?”

  I watched, wrestling with thoughts, mind exploding with a hundred questions I wanted to ask. But I resisted, not sure what any one question might trigger. Keep it simple, keep it gentle…

  “Where is it?” I asked, kneeling beside her, “Where is the white wall?”

  Her head tilted up.

  “I’m not supposed to tell,” she said, “it’s a secret.”

  “You can tell me, Judy I’m a friend.”

  “You’re a friend? I don’t know you.”

  “I’m a friend. And I need your help. I need to know. Please tell me, Judy. Please.”

  “A friend?”

  “Yes. Please tell me.”

  She opened her mouth, but what emerged was a shriek so piercing I was certain my ears would bleed. Her eyes fixed on a space over my head and I turned. But at first I saw nothing but a pair of tree trunks that seemed to have snuck up on me. It was ten full seconds before I realised the tree trunks were, in fact, the front legs of a horse.

  “Mommy doesn’t wanna ride, baby. Mommy doesn’t wanna ride.”

  “…you wanted to go to mommy. Didn’t you? You wanted to go to her. But daddy just said…”

  Above us the tree canopy rustled as first the snout then whole enormous head of the creature pushed through the branches. I gaped in disbelieving horror; its full height must have been over thirty meters, a size that would put full grown dinosaurs to shame. Beside me Judy screamed and screamed.

  The head descended, gargantuan white eyes fixed on Judy.

  “Mommy doesn’t wanna ride,” the voice thundered, “It’s just you and me…”

  “…but daddy just said…”

  There came a wet smacking as thick lips parted and a dripping tongue emerged, extending towards the girl. She covered her head and howled.