by T J Trapp
“What kind of message?” Alec asked.
“Here, I will show it to you.” Celeste pulled out her cell.
“It is starting. The elves have begun their Grand Cull,” a man’s voice intoned. “I fear for your safety. I sent a message to Professor Smidt first thing this morning to tell him that the orb resistance has activated. He can help you find a place to hide from the elves. Don’t go to school or work or anyplace else today before you see the professor.
“Later today, you will probably see stories on the news channels of the first of the giant elf beasts. They are called ‘hydra.’ I expect they will release several per day until there are a couple of hundred of them rampaging across Earth. The elves use the hydra to panic the orbs so that it is easier to perform the cull. I understand that the current elf plan is to harvest a couple of billion orbs from Earth to turn into new drones. Usually after a Grand Cull, civilization collapses. You can expect that your life will be drastically altered.
“If these elves behave like usual, expect them to aggressively attack anyone who might oppose them. You will be a target and will be at great risk. Anyone with the name of ‘Alder’ will be a target. Anyone associated with the ‘Alder Institute’ will be a target. Your friends who gave you the special ring will be a target because of their experiments.
“Please follow the professor’s advice and attempt to stay hidden from the elves. The cull will be over in a couple of decades and then you can be part of the new civilization.
“Good-bye, my little pet. As you know, I am very fond of you. However, in the months to come, I will be very busy. I regret to tell you that I may never see you again.
“That’s the message,” Celeste said, turning off the device. “Uncle Al is a little crazy, but this message is more than a little scary!
“Giant beasts – the end of the world as we know it – that all sounds like science fiction! I can’t imagine hiding in some damp cave for twenty years while civilization crumbles, and then crawling out to pick up the pieces! Why – I would be almost forty! I would be ancient!” She pulled back her short hair and shook her head. “And – what did he mean – he ‘may never see me again’? He’s the only family I’ve got.” She wiped her hand over her eyes. “He’s never told me before that he is ‘very fond’ of me. Or called me any little cute nickname.”
“Anyways, I tried to message him back,” Celeste continued, “but all I received was a message that his cell no longer functions. I don’t know any other way to get ahold of him. I was a little creeped out. I didn’t know what he meant, or what he wanted me to do.” Celeste stopped for a few seconds and looked like she was about to burst into tears. “The reference to my ‘friends’ would be you – he thinks you are in danger also. Uncle knew about the ring. The reason I told him about the ring was because of the crystal flower you made.”
Alec and Erin glanced at each other.
“Oh?” Alec said.
“Uncle Al came to visit me about a week ago. I never know for sure when he will show up – sometimes he schedules a visit months in advance, and other times, he just pops in. So this time, he just pops in. Uncle noticed the two crystal flowers that I had on the mantle – I put the one the professor gave me, that you made, next to the one that was my mother’s. It’s hard not to notice them. In the sunlight, they reflect back and forth and almost seem to glow when they are together. He went over to the mantle and looked at them a long time, and then he asked me where I got the second one. I told him that you had made it, at the museum, using dark energy, and had given it to Professor Smidt, who gave it to me. He picked it up and turned it over and over and was muttering something that I couldn’t understand. Almost like it was in another language.
“Then he asked me if you had given me anything else unusual. I started to say no, and then remembered my ring. I have been wearing the ring you gave me all the time, because the world seems so much crisper when I wear it. I showed him the ring, but I didn’t take it off. He looked at the ring closely and nodded his head. Then he said something that didn’t make any sense.”
“What did he say?” asked Alec.
“I don’t remember his exact words, but it was something like: ‘I thought he might have returned. That would explain it.’ I didn’t know what he was talking about.”
Alec sat back in his chair, wide-eyed. ‘Uncle Al’ knows about me!
“Was that the end of the cell message?” he asked Celeste.
“So then I hear this part of the message.” Celeste touched her cell one more time and the voice resumed.
“If you become desperate, cell this coded number. It will direct you to assistance.”
There was a static click, and the cell message ended.
Celeste looked at them, confused. “That was the entire message. What was I supposed to do? I stewed over the message after I finally woke up and heard it. Uncle Al is a little crazy and I was scheduled to run the museum this morning. I decided to go ahead and run the museum. That’s when things really got weird.” She grabbed a paper napkin and wiped her nose.
“So this morning, like I said, I was supposed to open the museum, and I went in as usual – but I am always late and so of course I was running late this morning. I went by Professor Smidt’s office at the Alder Institute to get the keys to the museum. When I got there, people were sprawled out all over the floor! I didn’t see Professor Smidt, but I recognized some of his grad students, who I work with, passed out by the receptionist’s desk, and she was also sprawled out on the floor. There were hats and cells and glasses all over the place where they’d dropped them.
“And there’s this woman standing in the room. I’d never seen her before, and she was sort of looking at the people on the floor, and there were a couple of men who were kneeling over the grad students. I thought that maybe there had been a gas leak or a buildup of that carbononox gas.”
“‘Carbon monoxide,’” Alec said.
“Yeah, that one – or some toxic spray or insecticide or something like that – and I asked if I should call for emergency assistance. I could see that one of the men was putting something around the necks of the guys on the floor. I thought maybe it was some sort of emergency medical device like an AED or a breathing tube.”
Celeste was getting breathless as she recounted her story. “And then the woman turned around and looked at me – she seemed surprised to see me – and then she began to really stare at me. She seemed to be really concentrating on me. And then – it’s really odd, I know – but it was almost as if I could see lines swirling all around me. Going through the air!”
Erin gave Alec a startled look.
“After a second,” Celeste continued, “the woman stopped concentrating – it was like she was expecting something to happen that didn’t happen – and motioned to one of the men. He got up from the floor and started to come towards me. I panicked! I was only a step from my office door, so I ran into the room, slammed the door, and locked it! The man tried to open the door – when it wouldn’t open, he started battering it down with a chair.
“Then the door started to break and he made it into my office. I reached for my pistol – I know I’m not supposed to have it at work, but I do. I tried to shoot at the floor to scare the guy. But the idiot pistol wouldn’t work! It just clicked and clicked! I was so scared!
“I threw the pistol at the guy and it hit him in the side of the head, and it slowed him down. That gave me enough time to open the window and climb out the window and run. I didn’t know what was happening or what was going on.
“I went to the student union and found a place to sit and think. The longer I thought the more confused I became. I tried my Uncle and his cell was still disconnected.
“I didn’t know what to do, so I celled the assistance code that Uncle Al left. I got a voice that said, ‘type in the password.’ Uncle Al didn’t say anything about a password. So I just made one up. You know, ‘1-2-3-4.’ The voice said, ‘thank you,’ and then disconnected my cell. I
was in a panic and tried the number again. All I got was a message that said the number was no longer in service.
“You were the only ones that I could think of who could help me. That’s when I messaged you to see if you could meet me here at the café. I thought this place was far enough away from Professor Smidt’s office that I’d be safe here.”
“Quite a morning,” said Erin sympathetically, “but it doesn’t explain the handcuffs.”
“It gets worse. After I messaged you, I figured I should report what was going on. I went to the campus police office. But it was just the same there! Several people were lying on the floor and another person was being brought in and placed on the floor. All of them seemed to be knocked out. Just like the people in Professor Smidt’s office!”
Celeste began to sniffle as she continued her story. “Then I tried to talk to one of the campus officers. Instead of listening, he handcuffed me and told me to shut up and lay down on the floor with the other people. I could see a second guy coming alongside and putting some sort of band thing around everyone’s neck, like the guy in Professor Smidt’s office was. The guy ran out of the bands at the person next to me. When he went to get more bands, I figured I had to make a break for it, so I got up and ran. By the time the guy realized that I was up, I was out the door. I think one of them followed me. But lucky for me, there was a big crowd of students outside because classes were just changing. I hid my handcuffs under my sweatshirt and joined a group of students. I managed to get lost in the crowd, and then ducked between a couple of campus buildings and came over here.” The stress had been too much for Celeste and she started to cry. “What is going on?” Alec took her in his arms and held her and let her cry against his shoulder.
“That’s why I was so late.” She continued to sob. “I don’t understand. What is happening?” She looked at Alec, then Erin, tears still running down here face. “Do you understand it?”
“Unfortunately, we do,” Erin replied. “Those people were bad people from another place – they were the ‘elves’ that your uncle talks about. The lines that you sensed from the elf woman in your office are the force lines that the elves use to control people. Your ring protected you from the lines. That’s why she couldn’t control you – why you didn’t fall asleep like everyone else there.”
“My ring? The one you gave me? It saved me?”
“Yes,” Erin answered. “The ring is special. It does not work that way for everyone. But for you, it does. With some training, you might be able to do some of what the elves can do. You have the right blood.”
“My blood?” Celeste sniffled. “You mean, my DNA?”
“Sort of like that, yes,” said Alec.
Celeste blew her nose on another paper napkin. “Somehow, I can sense that you are telling me the truth, but it just doesn’t sound real. I mean – ‘elves.’” She wiped her eyes and looked at Alec. “I can also somehow sense that you know a lot more than you have told me.”
Alec replied, “It is true that we know much more than we have told you. We were waiting for the proper time to talk about some things and it had not yet come. You would not have believed what we had to say, if the time was not right.”
“I can somehow sense that what you are telling me is true.”
✽✽✽
The waiter came up to them and looked at Celeste, placing a glass of water in front of her. “Does the lady want anything to …” Then his eyes rolled up in his head and he slumped onto the table, landing on Erin’s empty pizza pan with a clang! Celeste’s glass of water went flying, along with the dirty plates from Alec and Erin’s lunch.
Celeste jerked away from the young man, and then they became aware of a cacophony of falling chairs, glassware, cutlery, and china smashing to the tiled floor all across the small café. Alec grabbed the waiter and stopped his fall, then let him slide softly into a chair; the three realized that the restaurant customers and wait staff alike were all slumping in a dead faint, then falling to the floor, blending in with the puddles of beer, cola, water, and half-eaten sandwiches. Alec shook the waiter and his eyes rolled open, then he lost consciousness again and slipped from the chair onto the floor with a dull thud.
Erin grasped Celeste’s arm tightly. “Can you feel the lines being twisted? That is the work of an elf mother – an elf woman.” Erin pointed towards the front of the restaurant. “She is out front. I can sense her location and you should be able to also. She has two clutchmen out front with her and a third one is lurking in the back.”
Celeste nodded, trying to stifle her sobs. “Why are we the only ones awake?”
“Our rings give us protection against the elves.”
“Uncle Al was right. He said the ring you gave me was a far more precious gift than I could imagine.”
Erin nodded. “He was right. Yes, it is.”
“Let’s go,” Alec said. “We are going to escape out the back. They have followed you here – and we are not going to let them have you. We are probably going to have to fight them, but it would be better in the back alley than in a place with so many innocent bystanders. Someone might get killed in the backlash from the twisted lines.”
Erin hugged Celeste and felt the young woman tense in her arms, her tears now gone. “Time to be strong,” Erin said. “We will prevail.”
Celeste took a deep breath. “I am so sorry,” she blurted. “I didn’t mean to cause this. I didn't mean to put you in the middle of this kind of trouble.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” said Erin. “The elves are doing this.”
“‘The elves.’” Celeste shook her head. “Uncle Al warned me to flee before the elves located me, but I didn’t believe the fantastic story he told me.”
“Look around,” replied Erin and nodded towards the roomful of people laying on the floor. “Believe.”
Alec pulled Celeste towards the kitchen, continuing to hold her hand as they stepped over a comatose server with a small trickle of blood coming from a gash on the side of his head.
Erin sensed. “The elves know we are still moving. They will sense us when we go out the back. The clutchman will be ready for us back there.”
The three of them moved through the kitchen. Erin pulled two large knives from a rack and slipped them through her belt, and Alec took a heavy copper pot as he walked past an open shelf. Celeste looked at them in amazement.
“You think that you are going to defend us with kitchen knives and a pot? Don’t you have your pistol?”
“We are better-armed than you think, but the Great Wizard senses that the little death rods will not work here. The elves have a device that stops them from functioning. That’s probably why yours didn’t work. These elves are well-protected. They are wearing diffuser amulets to protect against dark energy and rings to protect against twisting lines.”
They reached the door that led from the kitchen to the back alley. Alec focused as he stepped out the door. A clutchman stood waiting on the asphalt surface, a short sword in one hand and a heavy club in the other. But as the clutchman stepped forward towards them, the pavement became soft and his foot slid about three inches deep into the now-soft and -sticky material. The asphalt began to steam and bubble; the clutchman tried to pull his foot out, but it was stuck. As he pulled harder, his foot slipped from his embedded shoe and he lurched to one side, his balance gone. Alec took the opportunity to bang the clutchman on the head with the copper pot. The clutchman fell forward, face first, into the hot sticky asphalt. He struggled for a few seconds and then went still, the hair on his head beginning to singe and mat. Celeste carefully followed Erin around the sticky patch and out into the alleyway, looking back twice at the body that was now half-buried in hot sticky asphalt.
“The other three are moving around the building to find us. Stay with us and out of the way of the elves. We will take care of them, but you need to protect yourself.”
Erin moved around the side of the building and put herself between the elf mother and Celeste. The mother an
d her two remaining clutchmen came into view; then the mother stopped, concentrated, and started to twist the lines. Erin also stopped and started to concentrate, twisting the lines back against the elf woman. The lines slowly started to respond to Erin’s efforts. The two clutchmen came steadily forward, stepping in front of their mother. They were armed similarly to the first clutchman, each holding a short sword and a club. Alec stood confidently with his copper pot, ready to oppose them. The clutchmen were not particularly fazed by Alec’s culinary weaponry and moved steadily forward.
Alec focused and sensed that both clutchmen were wearing diffuser amulets. He changed his focus, then released the energy. A loud bang rang out, echoing off the alley walls, followed by an intense downdraft of wind. Both the clutchmen were knocked to the ground. Alec focused again, and this time created a large rock, suspended briefly in mid-air. The rock accelerated, then landed on one of the clutchmen with a thud. Erin was now twisting the lines around the mother; the down-draft had caused the mother to lose her concentration. As Erin prevailed, the lines snapped with finality and the mother lost all semblance of life. The remaining clutchman rolled over and got up. He looked at the others and started to charge towards Alec. Erin swiftly took one of the kitchen knives from her belt and hurled it at the clutchman; the knife was not as finely-honed as her battle weapons, and being poorly balanced, only grazed the man’s side instead of delivering the fatal blow she intended. Enraged, the clutchman turned toward Erin and started to attack her. Erin nimbly side-stepped his first thrust and left her second knife buried to the hilt in his stomach. The clutchman dropped his weapons and fell to the ground. Erin picked up his sword and, raising it high, administered a killing blow.
Celeste was glued against the brick wall of the back of the restaurant, her eyes wide open, mouth agape. Erin wiped the sword on the dead man’s shirt, then tucked it into her belt.
