by Giger, S. L.
At three in the afternoon, everybody got off work. People streamed out onto the square and blended into one big crowd with an armed person from the VPC every few meters. It was mandatory to assemble there no matter what age. In the stream of people, I caught Sam’s glance who gave me an encouraging nod and then made his way toward me.
“You go stay with your family somewhere in the back. I’ll be near the stage.” I said before he could offer to stay with me. I had to minimize any distractions.
“Okay”, he said, his eyes wide. “Good luck.” He squeezed my shoulder and then his blonde hair disappeared into the crowd. I found Gregory close to the stage. We didn’t exchange any words, but his grave look must have mirrored mine. There was no time for making mistakes now.
The stage was equipped with a microphone, a row of chairs, and a few cameras. It was built to the back of the gym and I assumed they’d enter through the side door that led out of the gym and then climb up the stairs on the side of the stage.
Intently, I listened out for new heartbeats arriving. Without bringing Alex here, they can’t have his execution after all. Finally, the familiar strong beat of Alex’s heart entered my radar and I soaked it up as it came closer. The speed with which it was approaching told me that they were bringing him in a car. At least according to the vitality of his heartbeat, they hadn’t been torturing him during the past days, which had been one of my worst fears. However, he was nervous. Like anyone would be who knew he was being brought to his own execution. Hearing him like that didn’t help to calm down my own nerves either. I tried to focus on my breathing and kept it calm and steady. The people around us were murmuring about what was going to happen. I felt that Alex was close now. As I had anticipated, in the gym behind the stage. Apart from his heart, I now also felt two heartbeats which were completely in unison. “They are here,” I said so only Gregory would hear me. I looked around, but it wasn’t possible to see outside the fence due to all the people on the square. Even if I couldn’t see them, Luke, and Melissa and probably also Samantha would be there, somewhere.
Someone from the VCP whom I hadn’t previously noticed stepped onto the stage. He stepped behind the round shaped microphone, which squeaked a moment before he spoke. “Good afternoon on this special day here in Orleans. We are a well-functioning shelter without any flu cases or other horror stories. Our shelter is here to protect our people and we want to continue doing so.” He took a breath. “Unfortunately, we’ve created quite a few negative headlines in the past days. A black sheep who actually didn’t even belong to the city of Orleans but came here from Boston, created some confusion much to the annoyance of you, the dutiful citizens of Orleans.”
Some people imperceptibly shook their heads but of course, nobody dared to interfere. Even if they didn’t agree it was better to stay quiet. Because if anybody said anything, they’d be the next one up on stage. So, the speaker continued with his hypocritical speech without being interrupted.
“This is why we’ll set a warning example today. It’s nice that all of you are here.” I sharply exhaled. Everyone around the world must know that we were forced to attend.
“To watch the execution of Alex Thatcher who has to answer for treason.” Then the speaker smiled as if he had a very special treat for us in store. “I’m very pleased to announce that we have some high guests to attend this execution. Please, give a warm welcome to Dr. Palmer and his close team.” He stepped away from the microphone and applauded. Others joined in cautiously.
I clenched my jaw and my expression hardened when I realized the person leading the group who was coming up on stage was Roisin. She knew Alex! How could she be so close to him and not have rescued him even before getting on stage? She walked across the stage in her black business outfit and took the first chair. Then she scanned the audience, finding my glance and reciprocating it without batting an eyelid. Had they brainwashed her or how could she be so cold?
The others took their seat as well. It was a security guy next to Roisin with his hand around a pistol, wearing a bulletproof vest, then Dr. Palmer and another security guard. Monica built the end of the row. She had her hands clasped together in her lap, a deep crease between her eyebrows. The rest of her face was stretched back tightly due to her black hair being in a tight ponytail. She was wearing a dark suit as if going to a court hearing. I glanced to the ground trying to swallow down my hatred against that woman. My emotions would only distract me.
All heads were turned to the gym door again as Alex stepped through it with his hands cuffed together. Anybody in the audience saw how he nervously chewed on his necklace, but I knew he was safely keeping the magical whistle in his mouth. I watched in sorrow as a VCP officer shoved him up the stage with the gun that he pointed at Alex’s back. The gun Alex would soon be shot with anyway? He motioned for Alex to stand at the right side of the stage, right in front of Roisin. Alex looked above our heads, his chest rising and sinking in a quick interval. He was concentrating hard on breathing through his nose and not accidentally blowing into the whistle. Still, I had hoped he would see me in the audience and could calm down a little because he’d know we were here to help. Now that everybody I needed was gathered together in such a nice assembly it was my turn to do my job. Gregory turned his head toward me to give me a prompting look.
I shut my eyes to block out the visual distractions and tried to focus on my inner energies. But I still heard how Dr. Palmer stepped to the microphone and greeted everyone.
“I’m not pleased at all by attending such events. We are a modern and civilized society where such measures should not be necessary.” He spoke with his distinctive nasal voice. “However, sometimes unfortunately, like today, it’s necessary to remind the world that crimes can’t go unpunished. That we have to live by rules to ensure the security of everyone.”
I couldn’t concentrate on myself. Suddenly, doubt spread within me and my knees grew weak. Panicking I opened my eyes again. What if my singing wouldn’t have any impact on any of them? I didn’t even hear what Dr. Palmer said anymore there was so much static noise in my ears. Then I watched in horror as Dr. Palmer stepped back in front of his chair, giving a nod at the VCP police officer. He raised the gun and pointed it at Alex’s head. All the power had left my body. I couldn’t even bring myself to dart forward and shove him out of the way. My body was paralyzed because I knew it was too late. In a second, I’d watch them kill the love of my life.
Roisin opened her mouth. Either she said wow or now, but nothing made sense because a split second later the deadly gunshot sounded.
I watched the bullet fly to Alex in slow motion. I could clearly see the bullet because my eyes were trained to find me a path when running on super high speeds. Alex' eyes were wide with horror, the whistle still in his mouth as the bullet approached his forehead. However, about half a meter in front of his head, the bullet seemed to stop in midair as if by ghost’s hand. Alex brought both his hands forward as if he was touching a wall and then took a step to the side a tremble going through his body. The shooter lowered his gun, confused as to why Alex wasn’t dropping to the ground yet. Then, the bullet suddenly accelerated again, but with less speed than before, dropping somewhere to the ground behind the stage. The sound disappeared in the confused whispers and movements of the audience. Never had a shooter missed his target at an execution and now, nobody knew how to react in the first moment. Monica stuck her chin out, her eyes on the whistle in Alex’s mouth. Then she and Dr. Palmer laughed in unison, which awoke me from my petrification. “Your luck is over now. There are more bullets than whistles,” Monica said to Alex. After that, I shut my eyes and finally managed to not think about what was happening on the stage in front of me.
I was so grateful to those wizards who had given us the whistles. For giving me this split second of a chance to try again and do it right. All at once I thought about the stories I had heard or people I had met who had suffered because of Monica in the past year. I took a deep breath. I could do i
t. I could stop her. I thought about my many hours of practice and how I had managed to find that stream of energy which I needed for singing. Alex always had faith in me and I couldn’t let him down now.
The biggest weight lifted off my shoulders when I realized I had established the connection. My body sent out vibrations of an orchestra playing an unfamiliar but emotional melody. It swallowed up all the other noises letting my song be the only sound across the square and even past the fences. Nobody was speaking but they all listened with open mouths. The police officer was mesmerized and had the deadly gun pointed to the ground. Alex was gawking at me with an open mouth – the whistle had dropped out of it – and with the same dreamy expression in his eyes as everyone else in the audience. Including Monica, Dr. Palmer, and Gregory. But I had no intention to stop singing even though we’d need Gregory to re-hypnotize Dr. Palmer. Now that it was working so well, I’d be able to walk Alex out of the shelter and once I’d stop, everybody else probably would wake up from being enchanted. However, when I approached the stage, Roisin had already taken Alex by his handcuffs, leading him down the steps. Sirens obviously weren’t affected by my song in the same way as everyone else. She gave me a kind smile, helping for further relief to spread inside me, because the Roisin I knew was back. Everything would turn out well now. Alex stumbled after Roisin, never taking his eyes off me.
By then, I noticed that I was being pushed from side to side. It didn’t come from the vibrations my body was sending out but from the people around me who were trying to get closer to hear better. If it continued like that, they might suffocate me. Another glance at the stage made me blink in wonder because Monica’s chair was empty. She had magically disappeared. Before I could wonder where she had gone a fog spread around me and the people disappeared, helping me to breathe better again. Through the fog, I saw Monica who did not look happy at all. She had her arms crossed in front of her like a sulking child. The odd thing was, she didn’t acknowledge my presence. As if she didn’t know I was there. I realized the Orbiters or Serena must have brought me into this parallel sphere to witness whatever was about to happen with her now. I stopped singing to hear what she had to say.
Chapter 20
Monica knew she had been defeated. She didn’t stomp or kick or look for a way out but simply waited with a clenched jaw. Did she know where she was and that she was about to hear her verdict?
“Monica”, it echoed from around us as the Orbiter with the poetic voice spoke. “We ask ourselves one question. Why did you do it?”
“Oh, brother, you should be smart enough to figure it out yourself, shouldn’t you? Especially given the fact that there are three of you.”
Had I heard correctly? Why did she call him brother? I took a few steps closer.
“So many innocents have suffered and died because of you. You can’t have done all that because of jealousy?”
“Jealousy?” she spat. “I only did what was right. They chose the wrong sibling to become an Orbiter all those years ago. Why should this be reserved for men if the woman in the same family is more powerful and intelligent?”
“You have always been pulled to the dark side, Monica,” the Orbiter with the loud bass voice said. “Taking your magical powers away should have been enough to prevent the world from getting harmed by you, but we underestimated you.”
An evil light flickered in her eyes and she stuck her chin out. “I thought I’d show you that even as a normal human with only my knowledge, I was more powerful than the whole magical world combined.”
“But at what cost? What did you get out of it? Now it’s all over after all”, the third Orbiter whispered.
“It will take you a while to clean up the mess,” she said matter of factly. “Still, it’s a bit irksome that a weak Siren without any unique skills, except her singing, has led to my downfall. From what I understood, there were no more singing Sirens.” She pressed her lips to an even flatter line, seeming angry at herself.
I rolled my eyes. Singing was quite an exceptional skill enough for me, thank you. And obviously, it had gotten me far enough.
“It appears you aren’t omniscient after all”, her brother said. “You must know I never wanted this for you. You could have had a powerful position in the ministry. However, -”
“I should have had your position and you know it,” she yelled. Yet, it didn’t have much impact as the sphere she was in was so vast it sounded as if her voice came from far away.
“No, we stay with our decision that with the trinity we form now, we are complete”, the voice whispered. “This time, you, unfortunately, crossed the line and we can’t let you go back.”
“Boohoo.” She said sarcastically. “I’ve demonstrated what I wanted to.”
“That for a small amount of time, you created hell on earth for everyone but then, good won over bad in the end?”
“No, of course not”, she said angrily.
“However, that’s what you’ll be recalled by in the history books. For the world, this was a short glitch. Nothing to worry them in the long run,” the Orbiter whispered in an icy voice.
“You could have had a much bigger and longer impact by using your knowledge for the good,” her brother added.
“Whatever. So, rob me of my memory now and make my soul a restless wanderer in the nirvana of parallel universes.”
“Indeed, it’s how we usually punish crimes. Yet, you wouldn’t suffer because of that. A punishment needs to be felt as one.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“We will place your soul inside a lantern which will be positioned at the office of the head minister of the wizarding world,” the Orbiter’s voice boomed threateningly. “You’ll keep your memory and will be surrounded by the most powerful wizards, but you won’t have any influence over it. This is an eternal sentence.”
A vein on the side of her jaw started to pulsate and she slowly shook her head. “You know I’ll find a way to get out”, she whispered, scared.
“You won’t. We’ll make sure of that.”
“You can’t do that! Keeping my memory would be against your sacred rules.” Her eyes widened in a frenzy.
“Oh, the rules state a punishment has to be fair and severe for the one who receives it in order to answer to their crime. For you, a memory loss would not matter because you think you have reached what you wanted. But to have to witness how the world resurrects itself after what you did and to see all your efforts were in vain, will be a punishment for you.”
“No”, she groaned through gritted teeth.
I swallowed. I would have preferred if she had lost her memory and we could be sure that nothing of her insane personality would be present. But of course, once more, nobody asked my opinion. They really didn’t seem to know I was there. Better for all of us because I might have interrupted their conversation with angry shouts quite a few times. Had all our troubles been because of a family feud? A feud which one of the Orbiters even started? That’s why they never gave me any closer details about who we were fighting against. Because they were afraid, we’d find out exactly that. The Orbiters, the ones who should protect our world and make sure nobody gets too powerful to be able to hurt others had truly messed up.
Apparently, I had seen enough because the fog lifted. Just before it disappeared completely, I saw a projection of Serena and Rey, or actually Eddie who smiled and waved. A bit perplexed I waved back until their image disappeared with the fog. I was standing on solid ground again.
Humans moved around me in the square of the shelter. They were dismantling the stage and many people were busily carrying things around. Nobody even paid attention to me. Did they not remember that I had enchanted them all? I didn’t see Gregory anywhere, but Melissa and Samantha stood inside the fence as well, talking to each other. I joined them only to realize Samantha was saying strange and unfamiliar words while not actually looking at Melissa who was nodding her head from time to time. Melissa smiled at me with a sparkle in her eyes. Obviously, Sa
mantha was still busy with creating her memory spell and Melissa was pretending to speak to hide suspicion. I didn’t want to distract Samantha and walked away, exhaling while some of the tension in my shoulders loosened up. It had worked. The people didn’t seem confused about anything and moreover, there was a cheerful atmosphere in the shelter. Yet, my nerves couldn’t be calmed down so easily. Where had Roisin taken Alex? I listened out for him but couldn’t hear his heart within the shelter anymore. I clenched my jaw and strode toward the firehouse. I had to get out of here.
Before I entered the building, Sam crossed my path.
“Nathalie”, he said, clearly surprised to see me. “Since when have you been here?”
I smiled, studying his face for a moment, whether he was being serious. Had the memory spell worked further than the execution? “Only a couple of days,” I said carefully.
“Odd that we haven’t seen each other. It’s not that big of a place. But it seems like you have arrived at the right time,” he laughed.
“You are in a good mood,” I stated.
“Well, yes, now that it’s safe to go home. None of us was expecting Dr. Palmer to announce that. I bet the VCP here were surprised too.”
“Probably,” I smiled, sending a silent thank you to Samantha that her memory change spell had worked so well. “So, you think we can leave the shelter again if they said that it’s safe to go home?”
“Yes, that’s why everyone is packing up,” he narrowed his eyes a bit confused. “Haven’t you been listening to a word they said?”
