Dreadmyre

by J A Raikes

  “Yeah, uhh, well…”I cleared my throat, it suddenly having become incredibly dry and began again. “So we were pursued by a Voidkin from Dr. Fleming's home all the way over here. We managed to secure transportation on a supply freighter and Harris here,” I thumbed over towards him, “er, Mr. Archer, I mean, was able to get us to the station here pretty quickly. On the way, several more Voidkin attacked the freighter and we barely made it out alive. That said, just before we reached the elevator, er...lift... to come up here, two Voidkin swooped down and grabbed me and took me to a landing on a different level.”

  The Council members listened intently as I recounted the story. Many of them leaned forward, taking in every detail.

  “They took me to an outcropping on a building and dropped me there and out of the darkness some creepy really pale guy dressed in all black appeared and talked with me. Before I could have much conversation with him, Dr. Fleming and this kind lady here stepped in and attacked the Voidkin to help me get away. After that, we zipped on up here and here we are.”

  There was a brief moment of silence as I finished and then Elston’s shrill voice cut in. I almost winced as he spoke. “You mean to tell me that the Voidkin simply apprehended this young fellow and then a Felmaven just talked to him?” His voice was dripping with incredulity and disbelief.

  “No, there is no way.” Elston shook his head and crossed his arms. “I just simply don’t believe it.”

  Lydia shot him a glance that could’ve killed a small animal. “Well believe it, Elston,” She said as her southern accent punctuated every word, clearly irritated with the man.

  “Giles and I both saw the Voidkin and something else between the two before we opened fire on them. We weren’t about to let them devour this young man and so we didn’t exactly stop to ask questions.”

  Ekorius Blackwell sat up straight and glared back, but said nothing in reply.

  A tall, slender woman with long brown hair, in a golden dress with red shapes writhing throughout stood, raising a finger to politely interject.

  “Ah, yes, Ekorius Percipity Emerson. The floor is yours.” Lydia offered with a gesture toward the woman.

  “If it truly was a Felmaven, we can no longer sit by studying our books. Quick action is necessary or the entire city is in immediate peril.” Her voice was surprisingly deep and smooth, but still feminine.

  “Percipity is right!” another Council member added. This man, a short, wiry fellow with an eccentric outfit of a bright rich blue from head to toe, stood out from the rest in his attire because his did not seem to reflect the same kind of style that everyone else did. I was sensing a Victorian theme among the fashion styles of the people of in this city, but this man was dressed entirely differently. He wore a more modern style of suit, but it was far too large for his frame. He couldn’t have been more than 5’3” and weighed maybe a buck twenty five. He had to constantly push up the sleeves of the jacket for his hands to even stick out. The shirt he wore was the only matching attire to everyone else - white and billowy linen and puffing out of every hole or spot it possibly could. The shirt was held back by a vest of the same blue as the rest of his suit and it was in a word, awesome. His hair was going everywhere and reminded me of a young Albert Einstein, with dark brown hair and a carefree appearance.

  At this declaration, the Council broke out into boisterous conversation about what to do and how to fix the problem. Everyone spoke over the top of one another and nothing was getting accomplished. Perhaps thirty seconds or so passed and Eva, Harris and I simply looked to one another and shrugged.

  Finally, the tall woman from before slammed a fist down on the boardroom table and everyone abruptly stopped talking.

  “We aren’t getting anywhere and time is precious!” Her smooth voice streamed out like warm butter, but there was a firm edge to her tone.

  “We need to find Galen and we need to find the perpetrators and stop this nonsense at once. Our most skilled teams have neglected to check in and for the time being we must assume the worst. We shall thank the Ember if, when this night is over, they return to us safely but for now we must continue as if they will not. I say we vacate the chambers except for a small band of us who will remain behind to monitor for any call-ins. The rest of the council should split up into teams and investigate the most important venues. As the Proterezar, it is our duty to exercise our talents to not only lead these people but to protect them. If our expert teams have been unsuccessful, we must assume the mantle ourselves,” she continued.

  “Very well then,” Elston’s stringy voice cut in. “I will stay here and monitor. Along with Kingsley and you, Percipity.”

  The strange little man in blue nodded and Percipity raised an assenting hand, palm up.

  Giles chimed in next, “August, myself and Lydia will head for Thornsby. If he is injured, I’ll be the most apt to help him.” He got to his feet, adjusting his jacket.

  “Ferris, Nan, Upton, Simone and Felicity, are you alright to set out to the last known locations of our ‘most-wanted’ list of Lusynos wielders?” Giles asked, turning to the other Council members standing by. “You’re welcome to stick together or split up.”

  They nodded and immediately went about gathering their jackets and other belongings. They all seem loaded for bear, collecting up knives, swords, guns and a few other strange looking implements that didn’t make sense to me. Frankly, I was simply impressed with how quickly the team went from bickering and arguing to concluding a direction to go and simply picking up without hesitation. Perhaps there was something to be said for their leadership after all.

  “Each team should check in as soon as they’ve made contact or reached their destination,” Giles said, his eyes scanning the room as he prepared himself. “More communication is always better, and we’re going into this without much information. Check in often and don’t do anything that might get you killed. Try to stay off the trams and take surface streets as often as possible. Mass transport is not reliable and we know from the kid’s trek here that the Voidkin are out and about near the Lightrail. Use the Network to get around if need be, it seems to be the safest.”

  I stood back and watched Giles giving instructions. He really knew how to command a room and it seemed he was actually in charge of the entire Council.

  “Make sure you have each other’s backs and, everyone…” he said, putting a firm hand out in front of him like a stop-sign. “...come back safe.”

  I looked around the room and everyone’s eyes were on him, steeled and intense. The excitement in the air was palpable, but not without a hint of reservation. From the sound of it, this sort of expedition had never been necessary and this crew, while formidable from the looks of things, didn’t seem like they’d done much by way of battling nightmarish flying creatures from the Void.

  A moment passed and Giles’ words hung in the air. Then, as if on cue, everyone grabbed the remainder of their belongings and headed out the large metal doors.

  Giles turned to go first, strapping on a dark vest and shrugged into a thick leather duster. His whip was easily accessible through the front of the duster and he also had a small gun at his hip. He slung an army-green pack over his head and across his shoulders. On the front flap, a dark green cross was embroidered on the pack, and I assumed it was his medical supplies.

  As he marched toward the doorway, he passed the three of us, standing to the side, allowing the Council members to exit the building.

  Eva turned to her dad, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet.

  “What about us dad?” She asked, rocking back and forth on her toes in excitement.

  “You lot are going to stay here where it’s safe,” Giles said, a hand outstretched toward us as he spoke.

  “I’m not about to put you into any more danger and this is going to be a very dangerous job. You’ve already been hurt once today and your mother would never forgive me if I allowed you to get harmed on some foolhardy errand you’re not trained for.”

 
; “But -”

  “No, Ev. This is not the time or place for you to test your skills. I know you’ve been working on your Adrinyn but I can’t just allow you to go out when it’s this dangerous,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. There was tenderness in his eyes as he spoke.

  “Stay here where it’s safe and perhaps there will be something you can help the other Proterezar members with while I’m gone. Besides, Finn has no training and can barely walk and Harris is still recovering from his injuries just like you are.” He squeezed her shoulder, leaned over and kissed her cheek and without another word, headed out of the room.

  Her face fell and she stopped bouncing excitedly.

  “Not the time or place, cogswallop,” Eva muttered under her breath as she scowled at her father’s back.

  Her ranting continued, turning to walk past me and Harris. “Well, I’m not going to just sit around and be babied by a bunch of old and pretentious has-beens that were -”

  “Eva, please,” Harris cut in, his deep voice soft but commanding. “We barely made it here alive. All three of us are hurt and there is no telling what is going to be out there waiting to pounce.”

  Her glare shot toward Harris, but he looked at her with earnest. She sighed and her expression softened.

  “I suppose you’re right,” she acquiesced. “But hanging out with Elston and Kingsley is the last thing I want to do. Maybe there’s something else we could do to help out.”

  “I vote for sleep,” I said, raising a hand, index finger extended. “I don’t know about you two, but I’m exhausted. Plus, my nerves are shot. I still have a million questions but I don’t know where to begin and I can barely think straight.”

  Eva and Harris looked at each other and something transpired between them, but nothing was spoken.

  “I’ll show you to a room. They have cots here for extended Council meetings when the members might be deadlocked in a discussion or something,” Eva offered. “I think I’m going to stay up and try to figure out how to help from here. I’ve got too much adrenaline to stop moving right now. Besides, the medic advised me to stay awake for some time while the swelling on my head goes down.”

  “Smart,” I said, nodding.

  Harris folded his arms across his chest. “I’ll stay here and see if the Council members need any help. I’m not really the type to read through a thousand pages of boring Council documents, but I’ll see what I can do.”

  We walked slowly out of the Council chamber and back into the hall with the portraits. The lift downstairs was at the far end of the hall, but we turned back to the corridor that the nurse had brought me down before.

  “This must seem unreal to you,” Eva offered as we walked. She held onto my arm and allowed me to use her to balance as I walked uneasily down the hallway. It was quiet in the building and there was something peaceful about the stillness.

  “Well, in a way, yes. And also, no.” I said, tilting my head back and forth as I spoke, weighing the gravity of my situation.

  “You see, where I’m from, they have these things called movies. They’re like these portraits out here but they move and have sound and people pretend in them and create all sorts of stories that you can watch and be entertained by.”

  “It sounds similar to our Ocular Projection Mods. You can get an Aug which allows you to see projected images in front of your eye that aren’t real but instead is more of an augmented reality scenario you can experience. They’re just for fun and mostly just kids are getting them,” she said, brushing a stray red hair behind her ear.

  “Yeah, sorta. I guess. I don’t know, but that sounds pretty cool,” I shrugged, continuing my explanation.

  “Anyway, in movies, it was really popular for a while for people to pretend that it was the end of the world and various scary creatures were coming out of the ground or a portal from Hell or something and terrorizing the world.”

  Eva looked perplexed. “Why would anyone want to pretend it was the end of the world? That sounds awful!”

  “Well, the world I live in doesn’t have the real threat of nightmare creatures coming and overtaking the city and there’s a level of excitement and thrill that people seek by going to the movies. They’re able to imagine themselves in the scene without real danger and mostly people go to just be scared for a few hours and then move on with their lives. It’s an adrenaline junkie kind of thing.”

  “Oh I see…” Eva’s voice trailed off as she chewed on her lip.

  “I used to enjoy those movies when I was younger. Going with my friends and seeing who would get the most scared and then trying to freak each other out on the way home was always a lot of fun.

  “Now, though, this isn’t fun,” I continued, “This is terrifying. And I have never been as legitimately scared in my life as I was earlier this evening. The Voidkin in the house, the bar, attacking the train and then being literally confronted by a small horde of them? No thank you.” I waved my free hand in a gesture wagging my finger. We turned a corner and headed down another long hallway.

  “I’m having a hard enough time trying to wrap my head around being here in the first place. I still have no idea how I got here and why I’m here. But then adding the Void to the whole experience has been almost more than I can take. And then to top it off, I somehow miraculously recovered from my injury.”

  “Oh that’s right,” she said, her accent seeping through her words. “I forgot to ask how you were really walking.”

  “The nurse was about to help redo my bandages and freaked out, called in your dad and he and Harris discussed what I had looked like and then looked at my back and arm and they’re completely healed. Just one big scar left in its wake. And a crapload of soreness.”

  Eva stopped abruptly and looked at me wide eyed.

  “You’re completely healed?” Her voice was a mixture of astonishment and utter disbelief.

  “Yeah,” I replied, laughing a little as it came out. “And I have no idea how or why either.”

  She started a moment longer and her eyes flicked over my body as she turned to continue walking.

  “Well, that is definitely a surprise. And a good one at that. Tonight has been really hard and I’m glad something good has happened in all of it.” Her voice was distant and she picked up her pace slightly.

  “We’ll be to the quiet room in just a moment. All of the comms are down so if you need me or someone for whatever the reason, you’ll have to call from a hardline. There will be one in the room on the wall next to the restroom. Just pick up the receiver and it should connect you to the Council chambers right away. Take all the time you need.”

  I smiled at her and thanked her and she left me at the door to the quiet room. I turned the knob and pushed open the door. It was dark inside and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust, even though the light in the hallway behind me wasn’t all that bright to begin with. There were bunk bed style cots lining the walls of the room. Nestled in metal frames and wooden borders, the beds looked relatively comfortable and my guess is that they weren’t used all that often. At the end of each cot, a pile of folded blankets and several pillows were available. To the right, a doorway opened into a bathroom area with sinks and I’m guessing a toilet or two somewhere over there. The room itself wasn’t very large and it had the same feel that everything else did that I’d seen so far - there was a level of antiquity tempered with a refreshing newness as well.

  I shuffled over to one of the nearest cots and tumbled into the bed. I landed on my back and winced as a dull ache rippled through my muscles. Oops. Yeah forgot about that. It’s kind of surprising how quickly when you recover from something that the pain and sensitivity you have subsides. You know when you have a sore throat and all you can think about is that pain and every swallow is an experience in torture? Two days later, you are over it and you completely forgot that swallowing was anything different than normal. It’s surprising to me that our bodies work that way and it's pretty awesome.

  I leaned down, gr
abbed a pillow and a blanket and got settled to get some much needed rest. My head barely hit the pillow before I fell fast asleep.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  I awoke and sat up. Looking around there was light everywhere. Beads of white light dotted the floor of the quiet room. The door was shut. It looked like someone had poked holes in the floor and light streamed through from below. The other beds in the room were gone and the walls seemed far away. The beads of light on the floor began to grow. Soon, light covered the entire floor. I placed a foot off the bed and onto the floor. It was warm and I could feel the heat radiating up my leg. I swiveled off the bed and stood up.

  “Hello?” I called out. No response.

  As soon as I was upright, the bed behind me sank into the light and within a moment the entire room was filled with bright light. I looked around me but there was nothing but light. Left. Right. Up. Down. Nothing but light.

  Soon a small bead of red-orange light shone on the floor and started to take shape. It spread in twists and curves and carved beautiful ornate designs with the light. I stood staring at the growing forms of the red-orange light, mesmerized by its beauty and intricate design. Several moments passed and the basic contours of the room took shape again as the colored light swiveled around the walls and ceiling of the room, encasing me in a beautiful box of red-orange glow, intermingled with the bright white light of the room.

  The light pulsed and warmed the entire room comfortably. My skin felt warm and something stirred inside me. I throbbed for more of the warmth and more of the serenity.

  Then, I saw a black bead rip from the red-orange light and dance across the room. It swirled around the room and shot in front of my face into the wall nearest to me. The black bead embedded itself in the curved patterns of the colored light, and soon the colored light began to fade to darkness.

  The darkness spread quickly and the red-orange light receded. The beautiful patterns of light became dark tendrils, painting across the walls, ceiling and floor. The black seeped from the patterns and infected the white light of the room as well. An inky blackness began dripping from all sides and started to pour over the entire room and over me. I tried moving and getting out of the way, but there was nowhere to turn. The black ooze dripped and spread like a tidal wave and soon there was nothing but black, save for the one square of red-orange light I was standing on.