by Kevin Lawler
Elodie looked over, hearing the cart jostle and probably feeling herself watched.
“It’s just the cleaner,” Will said, “Listen, let’s go out now, nobody’s going to notice if you cut early today.”
“I can’t,” she said, “I really do have a meeting to go to.”
“If you say so,” Will said, and he pulled her in close to him. She looked up at him, patiently, expectantly, and in return he kissed her. She looked ridiculous with her punky hair, being kissed by a man in a suit.
Winter sat on her haunches on the ground holding the sides of the cart. She saw the heels of Will’s leather dress shoes as he walked away down the hallway. Elodie had disappeared from the doorway.
Chapter 23
Meadow gripped her hand around the folded limbs of her crossbow. She was still hallucinating. She needed something to hold onto, to reassure her that something was real in this experience. What if the grip was imagined? She gripped tighter. What if she wasn’t there at all? What if she was walking at home in her backyard, imagining that she was here?
“Let’s go around this corner,” said Topple.
Meadow was having trouble recognizing faces. Topple’s face blurred as she spoke, and Topple’s clown makeup only made it weirder. Topple’s face dragged around like a glitched video.
Ohhh, Meadow thought. She was going to have to sit on this one better. She didn’t want to freak her teammates out. She had been through worse, right? She was still tired from staying up, but she had been able to work through that, at least when that was her only affliction. She felt deflated now.
Hallucinogens were supposed to be cathartic right? At least that’s what she had heard. If she got free therapy out of the experience maybe it wasn’t as bad as she thought. She knew what was bugging her, and it was Phil. Even in this altered state she couldn’t bring it up to the surface to grapple with it. It was there floating around in her insides and it made her spine tingle. She was used to this kind of disappointment, no longer a girl really. Like something had been stolen from her. Meadow was happy to be hallucinating because she knew it was cover for how she was really feeling, and the way that she was really feeling right now was that she wanted to break down. She tried to keep her face composed, then suitably delirious for a tripper, whatever it was that wasn’t going to give her away.
Meadow rounded the corner.
Cadets.
Five of them stood there in the hallways, three in front and two behind. They were waiting for them, but at the same time they looked surprised to see them. Nobody was prepared to run. This was going to be a fight.
Louisa called her dogs as Topple charged down the hallway. The two cadets to the left began casting the same long-duration, relatively weak missile spell.
Winter and Meadow stepped back behind the hallway wall for cover. Meadow saw Winter struggling to get her crossbow going. She reached out to help her but then pulled her hand back as her vision blurred. Meadow had stepped back to get her crossbow ready, too, so Winter could just watch her. They really should’ve done this before.
Meadow unfolded the limbs of her crossbow and put the front with the stirrup on the floor. She stepped the ball of her right foot into the stirrup and pulled up on the stock with a snap. The snap radiated from the string in visible waves. She brought the crossbow up and nocked one of the small arrows and came around the corner.
Topple was in the air and coming down fast towards the two cadets on the left. When she hit, she hit them with the bottoms of her feet. One foot connected with each and each hit discharged a yellow starburst. It was a counter for weak spells that Topple knew. Pink lights trailed after the cadets as they fell, tracers from their failed spells.
Pfft went Meadow’s arrow. It caught the third cadet straight on through the side of her nose. She dropped. The cadets behind her ran. The struck cadet was on her side on the floor. The arrow stuck out of the front of her head.
Meadow regretted it immediately. “We should help her!” she said.
“We can’t help her,” said Topple. Topple was still catching her breath after the spell. She nudged the cadet with her foot but the cadet didn’t move.
Meadow watched for movement. She saw Louisa’s dogs Okeechobee and Okoboji bound over the body and down the hall after the cadets. Meadow heard the snap of Winter’s crossbow.
“They burned people alive, Meadow,” Topple said, “Come on.”
Meadow grimaced but came on. She looked once more at the struck cadet bleeding into the carpet.
The dogs caught a fleeing cadet and dragged her down by the sleeves of her arms to the floor. Small as she was, she might’ve gotten away, but Louisa came up fast behind her with her knife out. She stepped on her as she went, not even bothering to stop and stab her, and raced on down the hall with her knife after the last escaping cadet.
Winter was coming up to the cadet, carrying her newly cocked crossbow. “You tried to kill me!” she said and she emptied the crossbow point-blank into the cadet’s diaphragm. The cadet convulsed. Winter gave a defiant look and then ran on down the hall after Louisa. The dogs were still pulling on the sleeves of the cadet. Winter stopped at the turn to call the pig, who came out dazed, and then she kept running. Meadow came up to the cadet Winter had shot and pulled the blood-soaked arrow free.
Winter tried not to think about what she had done. They had put all the familiars away so they could move more quicker and unseen. The next room they were in was some kind of archive. It had old filing cabinets and piles of books. Bookmarks were hanging out all over the place and there were scratched notes lying around full of question marks about the contents, references to offsite archives.
On the side was a large glass-faced cabinet with paper cubbies stuffed with dried plants. Winter thought she recognized some of them, ingredients for woad. She touched the serrated stripe on her face.
Topple went through the cabinets. Meadow saw her and began digging through the goods herself. Soon Winter was and they all were.
Inside of a brown paper box marked “Verflucht” Winter found a necklace. She pulled it out of the box by the clasp and at the end of black-enamelled Figaro-link chain drooped a sizeable hunk of clearest quartz.
“Ooo,” Winter said, looping it around her fingers. “It’s not bad. Do you think it’s magic?” Winter was still feeling left out from the jewelry distribution earlier.
“It probably is,” said Meadow, her eyes getting big, “Is it glowing or am I seeing that?”
“You’re seeing that,” Louisa said.
Winter took the necklace in her two hands and put it on over her head. The gemstone felt poky on the sensitive part at the base of her throat. She relaxed her hold on the chain and let the stone droop down deeper onto her chest.
“It looks good on you, Winter!” Meadow said, “Can I try it?”
Winter beamed and tugged on her new find. She went to pull it off but the chain stuck on her ear. Then she went to pull the chain off a different way and it stuck in her hair. Winter played with the clasp behind her neck but couldn’t get it to unlatch.
“Sorry, I’m having trouble taking it off,” she said.
Meadow’s mood turned. “Oh, hm, maybe you should keep it.” She seemed to have lost interest in the necklace.
Winter felt itchy where the necklace touched.
They left the archive and attempted to keep pushing up. In a hallway they heard conversation coming around the corner and to be on the safe side they hid in one of the office rooms. The room looked like some kind of waiting room with a second door in the rear that led to another room. Louisa was being jittery. There was an rolling office chair near a water fountain on the left wall and a fire extinguisher on the right. Winter decided to see if it might be better for them to hide in the rear room.
Winter pushed the handle down and opened the heavy office door. In the center of the room resting in a nest-like pile was a giant skeleton. The skeleton saw Winter and rose, revealing itself to be bird-like. The eyeless beak
looked down on Winter. Winter shut the door and backed away. The bird was already coming at the door. The handle on the door jiggled as if about to open and Winter rushed back to it, gripping it. The bird was immensely strong. Winter felt herself about to lose. She squatted on the floor and positioned herself under the handle to get enough leverage. Winter pushed up with her palm into the long office door handle. She felt the crook at the end biting into the skin of her palm. Looking over the handle into the window she could see the skeleton bird staring down at her through the squares of the thin wire grid inside the plexiglass. It opened its mouth to screech. Its beak was tall and slender, but still thick, and top-heavy, like one of Meadow’s tinsnips. The skeleton bird rammed the hook of its shear-like beak into the glass, leaving white trauma patterns.
Louisa rushed over with a wooden chair and began situating it under the handle so Winter could move. Louisa wedged the chair under the top of the handle and Winter felt the pressure lift from her hand. She rolled out of the way past Louisa and got up, rubbing the indentation in her palm. The giant skeleton rammed the door with the side of its body, shaking the frame. Then it lifted its foot and raked the window with its three clawed toes. Three scratches ran through the trauma patterns in the glass.
On the other side of the room where they had entered the door flew open and Violet entered. She slashed with her knife. The string on Meadow’s crossbow cut and whipped her on the cheek. Violet kicked Meadow in the wound on her leg and Meadow fell. Then Violet rushed to the center of the room to meet Topple. Violet’s knife came down at Topple but Topple parried or dodged. Topple was at her best but struggling and Violet’s carefree aggressive style made three attacks for her every one.
Winter feared Topple was going to get stabbed and die. As close and Violet and Topple were fighting, it was not safe to take a shot at them. Louisa was going to try anyway. She lined up a shot with her crossbow.
“Don’t stick me, Louisa,” Topple said, struggling.
Violet put a slice on Topple’s arm.
Winter stalked hesitantly from the door with her knife out to see if she could get an opening. It didn’t look like she was going to get one, but then Topple flurried at Violet and it turned Violet’s back toward Winter. Winter moved to strike. Violet parried another overhand cut from Topple and then she looked away from Topple to see Winter. Violet mockingly rubbed her shoulder. Topple’s knife was coming at her again. Before shot could connect Violet disappeared in space and reappared by the right wall. Topple’s knife cut empty air fast, making an audible whiff. The shot was open for Louisa. She fired a crossbow quarrel at the reappeared Violet, but Violet had pulled the fire extinguisher off the bracket and caught the bolt in the barrel of the tank. White powder shot from both sides of the tank where the quarrel had hit. The geyser of dust coated Violet as she raised the extinguisher over her head and made a two-hand toss. The spinning barrel glanced off Meadow’s forearm, but the powder plume caught her in the eyes. She stopped her advance and rubbed at them.
Violet ran around the outside of the room towards Winter. Topple tried to intercept but Violet slashed to make space. When she had reached the barricaded door Violet lifted up and gave a straight heel kick to the back of the chair knocking it sliding forward out from under the handle and across the floor. She turned and gave a jumping roundhouse that caught Topple in the jaw. The handle on the door slowly rotated towards the floor. The latch bolt disengaged and the door came slightly to, and then the door was thrown fully open as the skeleton bird dived head-down into the room then raised and snapped its beak in fervor at the open air.
Violet put her arms out to say, “look what I’ve done,” with the knife hanging loose in her hand. She resumed her grip and fell in behind the bird, slashing playfully to taunt them. It was clear the she wanted Topple and she moved to engage with her. Whatever the skeleton bird knew, it knew not to mess with Violet, and it went after Winter and Louisa as they scattered around the room. Winter hugged the wall in the opposite direction to get away. Louisa leapt over a chair and panicked and called her dogs. “You get those rashes taken care of?” Violet asked.
Violet drove Topple back. Between dodging slashes, Topple awkwardly reached up to use her hairpin. It seemed to flash for a moment but then fizzled. Topple through the hairpin down in disgust. The smell of scorched hair was added to the room. Topple scrambled low to get away from Violet.
The bird turned and stopped. It had taken notice of Meadow. Winter hooked around the wall to where Meadow was hunched over clearing her eyes. The bird was coming to strike at Meadow. Winter ran and dropped her knife and picked up the extinguisher from the ground and ran in front of Meadow. The bird’s beak punched into the metal. Unspent powder floofed from the hull of the barrel. Winter hadn’t been hit. She was stunned by the close call. She let the extinguisher and the weight of the still-stuck extinguisher pulled the beak of the skeleton bird down to the floor. It whipped its head around trying to free its nose of the extinguisher. The greyhounds bit at the massive hindlimbs of the bird, too small to really slow it down.
“Go to the water fountain!” Winter said. She pushed Meadow in that direction. But Meadow went wide, closer to the center of the room. Violet passed in front of her as Topple and Louisa drove Violet backwards with slash after slash.
The bird was still incapacitated. Winter picked her knife back up and stabbed at the bird’s head. But the knifetip only glanced hard off its skull and nearly cut Winter as it deflected.
Meadow was still stumbling around nearly to the wrong side of the room and so Winter went to her and began guiding her back to the Water fountain.
“It’s OK,” Meadow said, still unable to see. She shook Winter’s grip and stopped in the middle of the room. She took a big breath and calmed herself. She rubbed the pommel of her knife once. Then she turned and thrust behind her as far as possible. It was then that Violet blinked into the way and took Meadow’s knifethrust across her stomach.
Violet took it silently and hobbled toward the door.
“You got her,” Louisa said.
Then the beak of the bird came down behind into Louisa’s back.
“Louisa!” Topple said.
The two dogs Okeechobee and Okoboji jumped and bit into the bird at the neck and ribcage. It was enough to stop it from hitting Louisa again. The bird stumbled towards the back of the room trying to shake the dogs. When the bird had shaken them free they circled it, trying to draw it away. Louisa slouched after them as the dogs went through the door in the back, but it was all she could do to pick the chair up and put it under the door handle again.
Topple went to finish Violet but Violet grimaced and blinked again and was gone.
Winter looked in through the window. The bird was savaging the corpse of Okoboji as Okeechobee bit at it uselessly to get it to leave his mate alone. Winter couldn’t watch. She turned away but kept hearing.
Meadow was at the water fountain splashing her eyes. Louisa slouched back toward the office chair on the left side of the room.
“My dogs.” Louisa sat crying in one of the spinning office chairs. Meadow looked over newly able to see. The trapped bird scratched at the window while Topple tried to apply pressure to Louisa’s wound.
“Get off me,” Louisa said, pushing Topple and Meadow away. “Great, just great.” Something was obviously wrong with her lung and it was affecting the way she talked. Even so there was no mistaking the resentment in her voice.
“You let her get away. She’s going to bring them here before you get to Agnes. It’s over for you now. Just like Reveille. They’re going to kill you. You already got Cal killed,” she said, “My friend Cal killed, and now me. Just perfect. You rocket scientists. Real pros. Oh, look around, a roomful of geniuses.” When she said the “f” in “roomful” the first bit of blood spittle sprayed with her words. “Cal had made it for years. It took all of your combined genius to get her killed. And you had the foresight to recruit this one, the witchlet with no experience.” Louisa looked
directly into Winter’s eyes. “With the abomination!” Her messy hair dangled over her eyebrows and the blood spittle formed a trail on her chin. “There was no reason for us to continue. And now I’m dead. For you. I don’t even know you. I don’t even know who you are. You runt. You idiot.” Louisa reached to where she had been wounded and pettily flung the blood at Winter. Winter felt it spot her face but she didn’t shy away. “This whole thing, ridiculous,” Louisa spun in the chair, “I can’t believe this. To die like this. I hate all of you, I’ve always hated all of you, I’ve never liked this, I’ve never liked being a witch, I didn’t choose this. Topple, you are insufferable and you suck. Nobody likes you and the only reason you are around is to be a tool so we can get things done. Meadow, you are a limp washcloth and not even very good at what you do. But at least you are limp enough to get people to like you.” Louisa blew a raspberry that sputtered blood.
When Louisa had died Meadow picked up her crossbow. Then Meadow and Topple went over to check her pockets. From their quiet attitudes, and the looks on their faces as they checked their friend over, Winter could tell they had been affected.
“When people die,” Winter started, “sometimes they say things they don’t mean. My grandpa was this way. He said terrible things. Horrible things. They don’t mean it. They can’t help it. She didn’t mean it.” Winter wasn’t sure if she was right.
