by Paula Mabbel
Jenson looked around the small room that he had been renting at the back of a cheap motel. The whole place smelled damp, and the wallpaper was peeling away from the walls, but he’d been staying there for years and, as dingy as it might have been, it felt like home to him.
He had very few possessions because he had very little need for them. He had no interest in comfort. His only interest was in tracking down his brother. Jacob was the key to everything. He pulled out an old leather duffle bag that had started to wear thin and unzipped it. It was empty, but that was about to change. He pulled together the few belongings he’d kept over the years.
He looked over the small collection that he’d acquired during his life. He doubted that there was any worth in the pile to anybody but him. There was an old movie stub from George and the Dragon, a shoelace that he’d been given by a girl from one of the homes he’d live in and a whole bunch of other useless stuff that marked out the steady passing of his days.
He filled the bag and walked out of the room without giving it a backwards glance. He couldn’t afford to be sentimental. He’d been sitting on a dormant mission, but all of that was about to change. He could feel his sense of purpose coming back to him in waves with each step he took forward, and when he’d finished signing out he felt lighter, almost.
The journey back to Southside was going to be a long one. He’d used the little money that he earned from bar work to pay for his lodgings and food, so he’d be taking the many miles by foot, but that didn’t matter. Every step he took had purpose, every mile he crossed was taking him closer to his brother, and that was all he needed.
Early evening was spreading across the tops of the trees at Southside, when a dark figure showed up at the end of its driveway. Jenson slowed down his walk and stepped with care so that he could avoid slipping against the loose gravel that had been poured down in abundance. Southside looked different, but the air still felt the same. It was almost as though all of the fear and misery had gotten stuck in the atmosphere, the trees and the grounds of the orphanage, a permanent scar in the fabric of the world that would make you pay attention to the horror that had taken place there, even if you didn’t want to.
The building at least looked more welcoming. The dark purple, peeling paint was gone. The old sagging roof had been replaced, and a long extension had been fitted to the side. It looked modern almost. Jenson stopped on the whitewashed porch and breathed in the tainted air before he brought his hand down onto the solid wooden door. He could feel it wavering under his touch, as it vibrated and screamed out a stern knock that couldn’t be ignored. A shuffling of feet from behind the door told him that he would soon need to explain why he had shown up without so much as a call ahead, and he tried in the few seconds he had to mentally prepare himself.
The door opened and a stern-looking man gazed at Jenson with a bitter disgust that seemed uncalled for considering their level of familiarity up to this point.
“I’m Jenson. I’ve been in search of my brother for a while now and records have led me to believe he once stayed here. I was hoping I might be able to find out where he moved on to?”
“Do you realize that this is an orphanage full of kids? Do you realize that the smaller ones are getting sent to bed at the moment, but they’re now refusing to go in case they miss their chance of getting adopted? You don’t just show up at an orphanage unannounced.”
“I’m sorry that I’ve caused a disturbance,” Jenson said quickly. He could feel soft lines starting to burrow into his forehead as he frowned. “I’ve just been looking for my brother for so long.”
“Well, you better come inside then.”
******
Toby pulled the collar of his coat further up, so that the icy nip in the air couldn’t touch his bare skin. It was cold. It was so cold that plumes of his breath hung in the air in front of his face as he walked quickly down the dark side streets of the city. He was on his way to a very important meeting, a meeting that was held once a month in a dingy little bar on the outskirts of town. He turned the corner in front of him and scanned a half broken-up wall that looked as though it was being held together by old posters.
He was there, and he was glad for it. He had never been a fan of the cold, and winter in New York was terrible for icy winds and snowy paths. He shuddered as he briskly knocked on a door that looked like it had been boarded up from the outside.
“Password,” a voice croaked from the other side.
“Lemons.”
Toby stepped back as the door slowly opened, revealing the dark room that was hidden on the other side. His eyes strained as he walked in and tried to get used to the sudden change in lighting. He could hear the soft buzzing of conversation coming from down in the corner of the room, and he followed it almost blindly, until he had reached his friends.
“It’s good to see you, Toby,” a blonde-haired witch said as he sat down on a stool next to her.
“And you,” he replied with a friendly smile.
“Well, now that the group is all together we can begin,” a sober-looking man with a beard said from the front of the group.
Toby turned to focus his attention on the speaker, who he knew as David.
“I’ve got some big news tonight. I got a phone call earlier today from Southside. A man with bright orange eyes turned up there.” He paused, so that the audience could quickly and excitedly discuss what he’d just told them. “Now, I don’t need to tell you what this means for us all,” he started up again. “That doesn’t mean to say, though, that we should all go rushing up there. We need to be smart about this. We need to plan how exactly we are going to capture it.”
“Excuse me,” Toby said, as he cleared his throat, so the group would divert their attention to him. “I don’t mean to sound funny, but why are we capturing him? He’s good.”
David frowned as though he was disappointed with Toby. “No dragon is good, Toby. It’s just that some are less evil than others.” David’s eyes were filled with pity, and Toby could feel a small fire start to ignite in his stomach at his detest over being talked down to.
“I think you’re wrong,” Toby said defiantly.
“And what exactly do you know?” David asked Toby sharply.
Toby looked around at the small crowd, who were all focusing on him. He felt like a spotlight had been pointed directly at him. He could almost feel the heat from the imaginary bulb as he shifted awkwardly in his seat. “Well, I’ve met him, so probably more than you,” he muttered.
The group came alive with muted whispers over what they had just heard. Toby had been coming to the meeting for some time now, but he’d always been very quiet. The group’s members weren’t even sure if he actually had powers. All they knew was that somehow he knew about the magical world.
There had been suspicions about him at first. His glowing orange eyes hadn’t helped matters, especially considering the fact that orange eyes were known to be an identifying feature of dragon shifters, but they had quickly come to realize that whatever he was, he certainly wasn’t a danger to them.
“I’m sorry, did you say you’ve met the dragon?” The blonde-haired witch asked him with a somewhat skeptical look.
“Sure, I mean it was about ten years ago now, but he helped me out. In fact, I’m playing it down, he saved my life. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be here, so I’m going to need somebody to explain to me why you are planning on capturing him as though he is some kind of animal?”
“It is not up to you to question our methods. You either get on board or you leave,” David said with firm, unmoving eyes.
“That’s fine,” Toby said as he stood up and walked away from the group. He’d only joined them so that he had a chance of finding the boy with orange eyes who had saved him. Now that they’d done that, he had no use for them anymore.
He walked quickly out of the bar and back onto the sidewalk, where the wind was still unrelenting in its mission to spread its icy fingers over everything in reach. Toby walk
ed quickly. The meeting with the group was playing on his mind. He could feel a sense of urgency wash over him.He would need to find the man before they did.
The sharp grasp of anxiety ran across his chest as he realized that finding him would mean going back. It had been ten long years since he’d faced Southside, but avoiding his past was no longer an option.
*******
Jenson walked away from Southside feeling confused and deflated. He’d found his brother’s papers. He’d been right about him being there, but there had been nothing to indicate where he had gone next. In fact, there was nothing to indicate that he’d ever left. The thought of how Southside used to be pulled at his mind, and for a brief moment he considered the fact that his brother might never have made it out of there alive.
He quickly shook that idea off, though. His brother must have run away. It would have been impossible for the humans who used to run the place to have harmed him. He was a shifter. His strength was parallel to none.
Jenson stopped at the end of the driveway and listened out into the darkness. There was something to the air that didn’t feel right, a movement from a noise that shouldn’t have been there. He tried to focus in on the sound that was making his gut turn over. He found a car driving in his direction that was still a few miles away and realized that was it. No one would be driving this way so late at night without a reason, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was that reason.
He took off back towards Southside, but then turned at the building and headed into the dark woods. He’d spent most of his time in the woods when he’d been staying at Southside. He could still remember the layout pretty well, and he didn’t waste any time in heading back towards the city. He crossed the passing car a mile or so into his journey, but the driver didn’t see him creeping in the shadows.
Jenson looked up at the sky. He wasn’t happy with the bright stars twinkling above him. Being able to see them meant that the forest was running out and he’d soon be visible to any person who might be trying to find him. There was nothing he could do, though. His lead had been a dead end and now he didn’t know what he was going to do, other than go and try to get his old room back at the motel.
He stepped out of the overgrown bushes and headed back to the roadside. There wasn’t enough coverage from the trees to make it worth his while anymore. His ankles were sore with cuts and grazes he’d suffered from tearing through the overgrowth, but he ignored the burning sting that he could feel emitting from them.
“Stop! You have to stop,” a voice called from behind Jenson. Whoever was calling out to him sounded panicked, and he couldn’t help but listen to the demand.
He stopped and turned around so that he could see who was approaching him. He felt his eyebrows rise up quickly in surprise, as he took in the orange-eyed man standing in front of him. “I’ve seen you before,” he said as he tried to place the face. “Southside?”
“Yes, you saved me the night of the fire, and now I’m going to repay the favor.” Toby’s eyes looked wild, almost savage in his panic.
“I don’t understand.”
“You don’t need to. Just come with me, now.”
Jenson looked at the man who he’d known as a boy. He could see the panic and fear in his eyes, but he didn’t sense any danger. “Okay,” Jenson said with a quick nod, and then he gestured for Toby to lead the way.
They walked in silence for some time. The late night sky was slowly turning into a pink haze above their heads. The cold winds of yesterday had calmed their passions. Jenson tried to work out where they were going, but Toby’s constant turns and twists made it impossible. They finally stopped, though, when they’d reached the edge of the city and they’d walked down a sidewalk that was trimmed with what looked like derelict buildings.
“We’re here,” Toby said in barely a whisper. He turned and walked up some crumbling steps that looked as though they were ready to totally give up and collapse.
Jenson sighed as he followed him into the dark and dangerous-looking building. “Are you going to explain what’s going on now?” he asked when he’d closed the door, or he’d closed the door the best he could considering it no longer had hinges.
“I know this is going to sound crazy, but there is a group trying to capture you. They believe that you’re evil. I know this because I was one of them, except I’ve never thought that you were evil. I just joined them because I wanted to meet you again. I wanted a chance to say thank you for saving my life all those years ago, but then I heard about you being back in town and what they were going to do, and I knew it was my responsibility to help you.”
None of what Toby had said made any sense. How had Toby’s group found out about him? What had made them think he was evil? Why were they trying to capture him? He thought about asking Toby all the questions that had risen up in his mind, but he knew that the answers would only lead to more questions, and he didn’t have time for that. Instead, he asked the only question that truly mattered to him: “Have they ever caught a dragon before?”
“I’m not sure,” Toby stuttered. “They seem organized though, so it wouldn’t surprise me.”
Could it be? Was his brother being held captive against his will? “How long had your group been around?” he asked as he tried to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.
“I’m not sure,” Toby said quickly.
“A rough idea?”
“I’m not sure, but, I mean, at least fifteen years.”
That was all Jenson needed to hear. It had to be them. They had to be the reason that his brother had disappeared from Southside never to be heard of again. “I’m going to need you to get back into their good books,” Jenson said as he started to stitch together a plan in his mind.
******
The atmosphere in the room felt thick and intimidating. The last time that Toby had walked into a meeting he’d been welcome, but his entrance was only met by frost now. He took his seat next to the blonde-haired witch, but she acted as though she couldn’t see him.
“What are you doing here?” David asked him with a tone full of accusation.
“I wanted to know how your search went. I’ve been thinking about my reaction, and it was wrong. I should have trusted both you and the group in your decision to capture the dragon. I shouldn’t have questioned your methods. I was just eager to meet with the dragon who I thought had saved my life. Surely you can understand that?”
“I can, but you must learn to trust those who know more than you. This is not the first dragon we have gone to capture, and with good reason.”
“This is not the first dragon you have come across?”
“It is not.”
“Did you manage to find the dragon at Southside?”
“We didn’t. He’d gone before we arrived, and we couldn’t find his trail.”
“That’s a real shame,” Toby said slyly. “I would have liked to meet with a real dragon. I’m sure you can understand the lure considering the similarities that I share with them,” Toby explained as he gestured up to his eyes.
“We have all been curious about that,” David said as his eyes fixed onto Toby’s. “If you wish to speak with a dragon, I’m sure I could arrange a meeting. You will need to promise something in return, though.”
“Anything.”
“You must share with the group what he tells you. He has refused to speak to us over the many years that we have held him, but you might be able to draw words from his vocally dry throat.”
“You have my word,” Toby agreed quickly, although he had no intention of sharing anything with the group.
“Then follow me,” David said as he walked away from the group and into the darkness.
Toby followed him warily. He’d never been this far back into the bar before. He’d never had a reason to. The sound of David’s footsteps quickly became his marker for where to step as the blackness consumed him, and then David’s footsteps stopped and a heavy-sounding lock could be heard clicking into place.
“Be careful, and don’t get too close,” David warned, pushing Toby into the room.
Toby watched as David closed the door, and the he turned back to the shell of a man who was sitting in chains in front of him. “Can you speak?”
The man said nothing.
“I know your brother, and he’s been searching for you,” Toby said in the hope that it might reach some part of the man that his madness had left behind.
The man still said nothing though.
“I know Jenson and he is looking for you. I’m a friend, we want to help,” Toby said slowly as he edged closer to the man.
The man lifted his eyes from the floor. He looked at Toby curiously, as though he’d never seen a man before. Toby could see a calculated look in his eyes that didn’t suit the madness that otherwise filled his image.
“Bring my brother to me,” he croaked. His throat sounded tight. His voice sounded weak. He dropped his eyes back down to the floor and made it clear that the conversation was over.
Toby knocked on the door, and it was opened quickly. “He refuses to speak,” Toby said convincingly. He shrugged his shoulders and then let them fall, as though he was deeply disappointed.
“I thought as much.” David nodded in a knowing kind of way and then led the way back to the group.
The meeting lasted another hour before Toby could slip back into the city. He walked quickly away from the bar, but kept his eyes behind him. He was unsure whether the group had truly bought his act, and he wanted to be sure that he didn’t lead them straight back to Jenson, who was still staying in the old house. He turned a corner and the house filled his sights. He checked behind him once more before he walked up the stairs and pushed open the heavy wooden door that worked more like a jigsaw piece.