by Noah Layton
‘Don’t worry about that,’ I said, approaching my building. ‘We’re gonna bring this coven back to where it should have been in the eyes of the High Order.’
‘You really think so?’
‘Let’s find this guy first. The moment we do, we’ll take him down. That’ll put us back on the map in no time.’
A few minutes later and I was entering the lecture hall, shifting carefully into a seat on the far-left, out of sight of Winslow. Even if he decided to try and find me in the theatre, I had stationed Scarlett behind a tall guy in the row in front, blocking her from view.
I kept glancing around, keeping an eye out for anything that might scream suspicion or perhaps whisper it, but nothing came into view. We were safe… For now.
‘Hey, bud.’
I almost shat myself at the sound of Joe’s voice as he appeared seemingly from nowhere, sliding into the seat next to me.
‘Hey, man. Listen, sorry I haven’t been in contact with you over the last few days. I just, uhh…’
‘What? Oh, hey, don’t worry about it. You’re a big guy, you can look after yourself.’ He let out a sniggering laugh.
‘Right,’ I smiled. I figured he would be a little mad at me for the lack of contact, and usually his obsessive personality would come flying out in the form of a torrent of nagging – but he seemed to be forgoing that for passive carelessness.
Basically, an easier way to make me feel bad.
‘Where are your books?’
‘My books? Oh, I uhh… I slept in.’ I was about to ask what was up when he looked past me at Scarlett. ‘Say, who’s that?’
Great…
‘Oh, I, uhh…’
‘You gonna introduce me to your friend, Tom?’
I clenched my eyes shut as Scarlett spoke, feeling my cover being blown bit by bit. There was no way that this façade could be maintained in the real world for any decent amount of time. Now I understood why the witches kept to themselves. Real life was too complicated.
‘Scarlett, this is Joe, my roommate. Joe, this is… Scarlett. My… Friend.’
They shook hands over me, exchanging the usual pleasantries.
‘You’re gonna have to excuse me,’ Scarlett continued, ‘I just need to visit the restroom.’ She shot me a wink as Joe and I stood to let her past, sitting back down after she had left through the door.
‘So where’d you meet her?’ Joe asked, grinning uncharacteristically at me.
‘Just in town. She was with a few friends at a bar… Kind of the reason that I haven’t been around for the last few days.’
‘Right… You’re gonna have to excuse me to, man. Nature calls.’
Joe took off, leaving me alone in my seat.
Which is why it was weird when he came scurrying back into the lecture hall, sitting down at a seat on the opposite side of the aisle less than a minute later.
I looked over at him as he took his books out of his bag, setting them down on the desk. For a second all I could do was frown over at him in confusion before I left my seat and crossed to where I sat.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Hey! I didn’t even see you.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘You just came and sat next to me over there. How come you switched seats?’
Joe looked about himself in confusion before frowning at me with a raised eyebrow.
‘Is… Is this some kind of elaborate joke? Tom, I just got here. Some asshole in a hoody in the hall basically groped me when he knocked into me and sent my bag flying…’
I frowned back at him as he straightened his books on the desk, setting his bag on the floor-
Wait… What?
He didn’t come in with a bag.
Some asshole in a hoody in the hall basically groped me.
It can even allow a being to change their form into that of another.
My eyes went wide with realisation.
I dashed up the steps, bursting through the doorway just as Winslow’s voice rang out through the lecture theatre speakers. The posters and doorways that surrounded me on both sides blurred by in a haze as I sprinted to the women’s bathroom.
I didn’t hesitate for a second at that worldly symbol that kept all men from entering this forbidden realm – with my new strength I almost threw the door off its hinges, smashing into the bathroom and looking about frantically.
Even though this room was entirely unfamiliar to me, I didn’t need to look – I could see the event that I was most terrified of taking place right in front of me.
At the other end of the bathroom, opposite the farthest stall, Scarlett was being held captive by none other than Joe, her hands bound with spinning ropes and her mouth gagged.
But it wasn’t Joe – I knew exactly who this was.
And he was about to finish his spell.
‘…Oraculum con valistidar nox burensi…’
I sprinted forwards.
There was perhaps five seconds of space between I and them, but it was more than enough time for the Purple Man.
He raised his hand, a jar of blood in it, and poured it over he and Scarlett.
My witch cried out, tears rolling down her cheeks as she called out inaudibly for me.
I reached into my jacket, pulling my staff free and commanding the words I needed.
I jolt of lightning flew through the air, straight for the Purple Man’s head, but it went straight through his briefly transparent image, smashing into the wall and collapsing into nothing.
They vanished as I reached out a hand, rushing into nothing but the vapour of the dropping blood as I stood in the bathroom, panting deeply, droplets of red landing on the shoulders of my coat as the soles of my boots squelched against the spilt life force of some unknown citizen, killed in the name of kidnapping one of my witches.
Chapter Thirteen
It is… Where all group amongst those of their kind… Where the four corners meet, and the warriors strive to stay beyond the edge… Where the jesters circle, starting with an attack and attending with a slide…
The sprint back to the coven had been a complete blur. By the time I reached the front door, slamming my fists against it and dashing inside, I was a mess of blood and sweat and frenzied, furious thoughts.
Twenty minutes after I had broken the news to the girls, we all stood over the kitchen table, poring frantically over volumes and tomes with hands that were only just stopping their fearful shaking.
I had been too angry to be of any use, though. The girls got to work, while I stumbled upstairs like a drunken man, staggering into my shower in darkness, fully clothed, and sitting beneath the lukewarm water in a state of total despair.
It took a while for me to pull my clothes off, get the blood cleaned off from my skin, and change into something fresh. By that time I still didn’t feel any better.
After the shower I slumped on the edge of my bed, hardly able to move.
I had fucked up… I didn’t even realise anybody was capable of fucking things up this badly, but clearly I had managed to pull off that feat. What the hell was I thinking in taking Scarlett out of here?
Now she was…
I checked my watch. I tried to cast the thought out of my mind but to no avail, burying my face in my hands.
58 minutes. That was how long it had been since I had gone running into the bathroom and seen the Purple Man take off with Scarlett under the guise of my best friend. I had been checking my watch, my phone, every available clock in the house at every opportunity that I got.
I knew the statistics. The longer a kidnap victim was missing the higher the likelihood that they would never be found alive.
And that was just in the human world – I dreaded to think what the hell the statistics were when it wasn’t a Mexican cartel involved, and instead said kidnapping was perpetrated by a maniac who could use blood to commit all kinds of murderous, torturous, mind-bending shit.
; I gulped hard, hearing the door open and looking up to see Lois coming into the room. She had been crying, that much was evident from her sore eyes. I hadn’t cried since I was 18, and I wasn’t about to start now, but the whites of my eyes were filled with a stinging wetness that I was struggling to shut down.
‘Are you okay?’ She asked.
‘No. Not in the slightest. Are you?’
‘No.’
She came and sat on the bed next to me, looking straight ahead into nothingness just as I was. There could have been a stack of diamonds in front of me, a troupe of clowns or a poisonous snake. It wouldn’t have made a difference. I could hardly register anything save for those same damned words from the Devil’s mouth rolling over in my head.
‘This is all my fault.’
‘You can’t say that,’ Lois consoled. ‘We weighed it up. We knew the risks. It was just as good of a plan as staying here.’
‘I just… Wanted to keep everything moving. Oh, what the fuck am I talking about? I’m an idiot. I’ve been here for what, three days? I can’t do this… I’m not cut out for this, Lois.’
‘You are. You just said it. Three days. In that time you’ve commanded spells, learned how to fly a broom, mixed potions, saved my life twice… Not to mention protecting this coven and…’
She paused, before a prolonged silence stretched out between us.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter,’ I continued. ‘Whatever strength or bravery I put in to all of this is completely fucking gone. Scarlett is gone… He’s probably…’
I tried to cast the thought of whatever could have been happening to her out of my mind again. Some sick and twisted poison in my head kept bringing back the thought of her body, bled dry on a slab somewhere.
I wanted to throw up at the image.
‘Tom… Tell me something. What was it that first caused you to end up on our roof?’
‘What?’
‘You didn’t land on our roof for nothing. You went through the trouble of climbing up there for a reason.’
‘To get my Dad’s baseball.’
‘Was it a special baseball? Like… Well, I don’t know any famous baseball players, but was it thrown by one, or hit by one?’
‘No. It was just… Important to me.’
‘So you went to the trouble of poisoning yourself on the vines along the outside of the house, standing on a roof without any protection and fighting off a monster that you thought was fictional just to get a baseball back? Just because it was important to you?’
‘It’s the only real part of my Dad that I have left. He pitched me that ball when I played as a kid.’
‘And you did everything you could to look after it, even when the odds of getting yourself killed were pretty damn high. Just like you did everything you could to look after us, and the odds of getting yourself killed facing off against blood magic wielders or falling off a broomstick hundreds of feet in the air were much higher than the little home invasion you pulled off a few days ago.’
‘Right,’ I said, forcing a smile. ‘Didn’t do much good for the baseball, though, did it? I couldn’t even look after that, never mind one of the witches in the coven.’
‘Your coven,’ she corrected. ‘This place doesn’t belong to you, but you’re the master of the coven now. You’re our warlock. And yes…’ She reached to her side, fumbling for something in the folds of her robe and revealing it before me. ‘You can look after the things that you care about.’
I never thought I would have been so happy to see the faded white leather of a baseball, but the stretched stitching, grass stains and worn signature of my father were unmistakable and undeniable.
I took it from Lois’s hand, clenching it tightly in my grip before throwing it up and down.
I hadn’t played in years, but I could still remember the games as a kid… God, what I wouldn’t have given to go back there.
Where the four corners meet, and the warriors strive to stay beyond the edge… Where the jesters circle, starting with an attack and attending with a slide…
Four corners. Bases.
The edge. Running.
Jesters. Hitters.
Attack.
Hit.
Slide.
‘That’s it…’ I muttered in disbelief.
‘That’s what?’
‘Scarlett…’ I shouted, leaping up from the bed, and clenching the baseball in my fist. ‘I know where she is.’
***
‘A baseball field? Are you fucking kidding me?’
Brianna synced her tablet up to the TV in the living room, looking between I and Lois in confusion.
‘Four corners,’ I repeated, ‘strive to stay beyond the edge, the jesters circling… It’s talking about a baseball field. The four corners are the bases. Staying beyond the edge is obvious, that’s just running the edge. And the jesters are the batters, making a mockery of the basemen. They attack and they slide home. How the hell did I not see this before?’
‘Probably because not as much was on the line a few hours ago. Your brain’s kicked into overdrive. A good thing, I’ll say, seeing as we don’t know shit about baseball…’
‘I’m gonna need some advice here, guys,’ Brianna cut in. ‘I’m no genius about baseball either but I’m gonna go ahead and guess that there are hundreds of fields in the state. Where do we start? What am I looking for?’
I stared back at that blinking key prompt in the search engine bar, waiting for us to give it instructions. How was I supposed to narrow this down?
‘Fields within ten miles,’ I said. ‘Even if he did teleport away, he won’t want to waste a drop. He’ll be going to somewhere nearby.’
Brianna tapped it in. ‘Six fields in a ten-mile radius from here. We’re still spread thin…’
I scanned the TV screen, looking the names of the pitches up and down…
There.
I stepped up to the screen, pressing my finger against the final entry.
The Paterson Warriors Ground.
The warriors strive to stay beyond the edge…
‘That’s it. That has to be it. What are we waiting for?’
I turned to go but the girls remained in place, sharing a quick glance.
‘What is it?’ I asked.
‘Are you ready for this?’ Lois asked. ‘I don’t doubt your bravery. You know that. But if anything goes wrong and we get into fight, which is pretty damn likely to happen…’
‘We could give him it,’ Brianna said in a hushed tone that I heard easily, bringing Lois’s attention back to her as she wrapped her fingers around her arm.
‘Is it worth the risk?’
‘Come on. Do you really see anybody more worthy lying around?’
‘What are you talking about?’ I said from the archway to the hall. ‘What risk?’
Lois shot me a look up and down, as if she was making one final evaluation of me before nodding at me to follow her.
A moment later we were back in the first-floor dressing room, one of the first places in the house that I had come to with Scarlett when I had first arrived and she had greeted me with the jacket that I wore now.
‘Every old coven has a Master’s Staff,’ Lois said, closing the door behind her as we entered the room. ‘It’s the weapon of a warlock, and it’s passed down through the ages. One coven, one staff. All of the others we’ve given you were standard, expendable weapons… But this one is different.’
She and Brianna crossed to a wooden panel opposite the door, both pressing their hands flat against the surface of it. I watched in awe as they drew away, the outline of their handprints remaining in a fiery shape that glowed with brief embers before vanishing.
Within the wooden panel there was a clicking and a twisting of a myriad unseen mechanics, whirring and shifting before a thin, straight crack appeared along the centre of the panel.
They swung back like doors on invisible hinges to reveal a staff that was truly unlike any other that I had seen in the house. Standing b
etween five and six feet, it hovered quietly in mid-air. Despite being worn by decades or even centuries of use, it’s power was more than evident from the sheer gravitas that it sported; atop its oaky form the wood splintered off, wrapping around a large gemstone that glowed with an almost nuclear blue light.
‘You have been inducted as a warlock, making you the master of the witches of this coven,’ Brianna said, her voice taking on a serious tone. ‘But your induction can only be truly complete when you wield the weapon that has graced the hands of the warlocks that have come before you. Command its strength, and show yourself as our master.’
‘That’s an easy decision,’ I said, looking between the girls.
‘That’s not everything,’ Lois said. ‘There is a power residing within this staff that can only be wielded by a man with enough fortitude to do so. If not…’
She took a deep breath, looking me up and down again.
‘If not,’ Brianna finished, ‘there’s a chance we could be cleaning you off the walls if the power overloads you… What’s left of you, anyway.’
I looked between the girls, feeling my heart pound in my chest, then back to the staff. Its power seemed to emanate from its form, the cracks in the wood bearing their own confident strength and energy, challenging me, taunting me.
‘We’re wasting time,’ I said resolutely, stepping forward without hesitation and wrapping my fingers around the wood.
I pulled it towards me, and my vision was obscured completely by a blinding white light.
For a few moments I was floating on a plane of nothing, just a pair of eyes in the void. I thought back to the flight on the broomstick, feeling like I was a speck of dust on the wind.
‘Am I dead?’
I spoke the words, but there was no sound greeting my ears in response.
Great, I thought. The girls are probably clearing my guts off the walls right now… Or screaming because they’re covered in bits of me… And Scarlett… Will they be able to save her?
I didn’t even care about what had happened to myself anymore. All I wanted to know was whether they would get her back alive…
A high-pitched ringing suddenly filled my ears. I had heard once that people rescued from execution by hanging often heard a similar sound because of the senses being shut off, or something along those lines – one of Joe’s obscure facts. Was this the same thing?
