“Run! Keep running!” the girl shouted as she followed a somewhat taller older boy as they both tried to avoid colliding with people on the street, “Enrico keep running!”
“Amelia, I assure you that is not a problem!” he shouted back at her, though didn’t look over his shoulder as he kept a bundle clutched against his chest, his eyes focused on what was directly in front of him, “What was that thing?”
The girl did make a quick glance behind them, she wanted to stop running because her legs and lungs were both on fire, but the tingling feeling running down her spine motivated her to keep moving. It was getting closer, no matter how much they ran, it was still coming, and it wanted them, or at least what Enrico was carrying, “Not exactly sure, but I have my guesses!”
“Not comforting!” the boy called back, making a sharp turn into an alleyway to catch his breath, and also to look at what he had with him. The silvery ball looked to be seamless, but there were all sorts of etchings that covered it, “Though it does make me curious as to why that man had this, or what it even is.”
She nodded, her eyes moving quickly between the street and her companion, as she tried desperately to catch her breath, pressing her hands against the skirt she was wearing, some of her black hair falling in front of her face, “Yeah, I agree. It just…I told you it felt bad.” Amelia looked up at the young man, Enrico was roughly two years older than her, he and his sister Maria had come to London from Spain when she was twelve, and the two of them had been nearly inseparable since, especially after he had returned from a visit to his parent’s home a year prior to their current predicament, “That guy had those tattoos too, I’ve seen the symbols before, he was a bad man.”
“That is fine,” he nodded, moving the ball around in his hands, “I really need time to study this though, and running is not very helpful.”
“I know, I’m sorry, but we just need to keep moving,” Amelia spun around and looked back to the street, “It’s getting closer, we need to go.” They both moved back onto the sidewalk as screams started getting louder, “Time to run again!”
“Agreed!” Enrico nodded once, quickly wrapping the ball again in his jacket and bolting in the direction they had been running, “Where are we trying to go anyway?”
She followed him, a list of locations running through her mind, “The church? That seems like a good place to go!” They continued to run until they came to a crossroads and were forced into a more open area, and unfortunately by that time the screams had reached them, which caused the people around them to panic. Amelia caught up to Enrico, trying to not lose him in the chaos, but she did turn when there was a roar, and the ground shuddered under her feet, “Enrico keep going!”
“What exactly do you plan on doing?” he skidded and looked at her, his dark eyes wide, though also focused on the growling that was coming towards them, “I do not want to leave you.”
As the people dispersed around them, a large beast broke through the line, wherever its feet touched on the ground, it looked to be burning, smoke rising up from the cobblestones. It had a pair of wings that still had what looked to be ash drifting off them with every movement, its claws reflected the sunlight similar to metal or glass, its teeth were stained with what appeared to be blood, “Insects, return what you have stolen.”
Amelia found herself somewhere between fight or flight as she heard the demon’s voice that seemed bellow with darkness and malice, which was causing her to freeze in place, “No, the man who had it had a demonic tattoo on his wrist, and that, whatever it is, has etchings all over it. I’m not going to just hand that over to something like you.”
The demon growled again, its wings knocking another couple of people that were still running down to the ground, “If you don’t give it back to me, I will take it from you, and your hands along with it.”
The need to run was slowly falling away, anger replacing it; the demon was threatening Enrico, and Amelia decided that was unacceptable. She watched as people ran past her, all of them in a panic and desperate to get away from the monster that had risen from their nightmares. She saw the butt of a pistol under the vest of a terrified man as he got close to her, and with a quick pivot and a moment she wasn’t sure was insanity or defiance, she reached out and grabbed it just as he ran passed her, pointing the weapon square at the demon, “I won’t let you touch him!”
The monster raised wrinkled its brow; a deep chuckle coming from somewhere deep in the pit of hell it had been summoned from, “You do know that will do absolutely nothing to me, don’t you?”
“Amelia, what are you doing?” Enrico gasped from behind her, still holding the ball tightly against him.
“I told you to get out of here!” she shouted back to her companion, praying as hard as she could that the weapon was actually loaded, but still she glared at the demon, refusing to give any ground, “As for you, I told you I won’t let you touch him and I swear on my life that I won’t let that happen!”
“I suppose that means it’s time for me to do some exterminating,” the demon reared back, bringing one of its claws up above its head, intending to slice into the small framed teenager, though it hesitated as the gun was fired, a bullet lodging itself into its hand, “Yes, I definitely think it’s time I took care of you, pest.”
She skidded back and fired the gun a couple more times, with each shot her heart pounding more as the demon got closer, with it never once stopping or even so as much flinching with each hit, “Stay back!” Amelia never made any movement to run, though she wished she had when the back of its hand made contact with her left arm with enough force to send her nearly ten feet to the side followed by the rocket of pain that shot up it and down to her ribs.
“Amelia!” Enrico shouted when he saw her thrown like a child’s rag doll. He glanced down at the ball he was carrying, then back at the demon, “Stay back! I will break it!”
The girl grimaced as she tried hard to get her breathing to return to normal, but every movement hurt, she could also feel the fear building up again as the demon turned its attention back to the young Spanish man, “Enrico run!” She winced as it felt as though her bones were just sharp edges digging into her flesh. Amelia used the elbow of her good arm to push herself up and once again point the gun at the demon, “I said don’t touch him!”
With a lurch the demon looked at her, baring its blood colored teeth as it grinned, “So you are a cockroach indeed. I suppose I’ll have to crush you under my feet to make sure you’re actually dead.”
She tried kicking at the ground to try and gain some space, but the pain it caused made it nearly impossible to get enough strength behind it to actually move. Amelia wanted to run now, to scream, and cry out in fear and pain all at once, but couldn’t. She fired the gun until it did nothing but click as she pulled the trigger, then finally she screamed just as the demon was about to dig its claws and teeth into her flesh. Again she watched as it froze, though this time it was because of smoke rising up from its skin and wings, “What?” The demon turned to see what had caused it pain and Amelia could see several crossbow bolts imbedded into its back, along with burns and boils.
The demon roared again as more smoke started to rise up from its body, until it fell to the ground, though still struggling. Several men stepped out from the alleyway, some dressed in rather well-to-do clothing, all of them holding crossbow with glass vials attached to them, several whispering in Latin under their breath as they continued to fire. They did so until the demon was nothing more than ash and a burned spot on the cobblestone. One man with light dusty brown hair stepped out to the front of the gathering and looked at the girl that was still on the ground, “Are you hurt badly?”
“Who wants to know?” Amelia looked at him suspiciously, giving a glance at Enrico as he hurried over to her, and she did her best not to wince too obviously as he helped her off the ground.
He looked at the girl, walking closer to the two of them, “My name is Reginald, and my friends got word there was a demon in the area. It
appears we arrived just in time.”
“Yeah, ok, thanks,” the girl nodded, still eyeing the man that had introduced himself as Reginald as he got closer, “So that was a demon then. Good to know I was right.”
“Yes it was, and if the two of you aren’t busy, I would like for you both to come with me,” he looked between the two teenagers, “It won’t take long, I assure you.”
Enrico looked at the man, then back over at Amelia as a bit of blood ran down her left hand, “She is injured, we will talk to you only if you can also get her healed.”
“Of course,” Reginald gave a small smile, “We will make a stop at the House of Masks first and have a necromancer heal your girlfriend up, that is not a problem.”
They both tensed and blushed at the word and immediately Enrico made absolutely sure not to look at her, “She is not my….ok, yes, we should get her healed, then we can go talk about whatever you wish to discuss.”
Amelia had never been to the House of Masks before, and she did her best not to stare at the people wearing the masks that gave the magical house its name. She had heard they were reanimated dead, and they gave them masks to protect their families from further grief. The feeling of the bones knitting together wasn’t nearly as painful as she was expecting, but the tingle it caused made her shudder. She’d always been sensitive to magic, or things similar to demons or faeries, she just wasn’t used to it being cast on her. The magicians were nice, but the plants that died gave her an image she didn’t much care for. The large house Reginald took them to was well kept and once they were inside it looked more like an office building rather than a place people would come to discuss simple things, “So this is what it looks like inside. I’ve never been in here before.”
“This is the house of the Lamplighters,” Reginald took them to an office and sat down behind a large desk, “Now then, will you two please tell me your names?”
“I’m Amelia Helstrom, and this is Enrico Petri,” the girl answered first, pointing over to the taller boy sitting next to her, “You don’t need to go into a whole bunch of explanation about the Lamplighters to me, my parents are members.”
The man raised an eyebrow in surprise at the girl, the boy glancing up from the silvery ball he was still holding for a moment before going back to obsessing over the etchings he now had time to study, “They are? I haven’t met anyone with the family name Helstrom before.”
“They were reassigned to Rome a few years back,” she explained calmly, looking up at the man, “So I wouldn’t be surprised if you hadn’t met them. They taught me some stuff, but I’d never seen a demon before.”
Reginald thought for a long moment, tapping the tip of his pen on the desk, “You were the one that fired the gun,” he watched as the girl nodded, “Tell me, where you frightened?”
“Of course I was!” she gawked, looking at the man as though he were a lunatic, “Who wouldn’t be? I just wanted to stop it because it would have hurt Enrico, he’s just a metal mage, and that thing didn’t have any metal on it. He wouldn’t have been able to do anything to it.”
“I could have hit it with this,” Enrico held up the ball a bit, as though to show he wouldn’t have actually been useless.
“Alright, tell me, both of you, and I know this may be odd, but neither of you lost control of yourselves during that situation, that is a trait most people twice your age can’t attest to,” Reginald explained, leaning forward a bit, “Amelia you already have some knowledge, you just lack experience. Enrico, by the way you’re looking over that object, I get the impression you aren’t exactly dense, tell me what you’ve learned about it so far?”
The younger man looked forward at the one that had invited them in and set the ball on the desk, “I believe it is meant to transport something. The etchings are so that the center of gravity is always constant, so that whatever is inside is perfectly protected from breaking, or really much movement whatsoever. This one here,” he ran his finger over a rune that looked to be jagged with two lines jutting out to either side, as he did. it glowed and seams started to pull apart until the metal had moved to the side and the hollow insides lifted up a small vial of green liquid, “as you can see, was the trigger to open it. I believe that is nitro glycerin, so please be careful.”
“So it was a bomb,” Amelia spoke a bit breathlessly before the realization sank in and she sat up in the larger chair, looking to Enrico with her eyes wide, “I let you carry and run around with a bomb!”
“It is fine, like I explained, the ball’s center of gravity was always constant, so there was no risk of it detonating,” he looked back at the girl, the evenness in his voice somehow calming her down, “but yes, you did tell me to run around with a bomb.”
The man looked between the two teenagers as though trying to figure out which one would be the best to talk to before shaking his head as he looked to the silvery ball, “How did you two manage to get that thing anyway?”
“Oh, that makes sense you would want to know that,” Amelia sat back in her chair, once again making herself comfortable, “We were looking for some place to eat while Enrico was taking a lunch break. We got to this little restaurant when I noticed something was off. Enrico saw the ball first because some guy had it at the table with him. I saw the man’s tattoos on his wrist; my parents had shown me a few things to look out for when I was little so I recognized one of the symbols as one that comes from a pact with a demon. I decided that was a bad guy, so I told Enrico to get the ball away from him and I sort of made a scene and yelled the guy was a demonologist.”
The young Spanish man nodded, “I called the sphere to me, then we both proceeded to run when the man started chanting to himself.”
Reginald stared at the two of them, though some of his attention was locked on the vial of explosive that was sitting on his desk, “That settles it then,” he looked over at Amelia, “How would you like to join us, as a Lamplighter? I can make sure you get the best training this country has to offer, we’ll teach you absolutely everything you could ever need to know about what you will face out there.”
She stared at the man, trying to figure out if it was some kind of joke, adults were strange sometimes, most of those times she didn’t care for them, “You are aware I’m sixteen, right? Do you really want some kid showing up all the grown-ups? Also, what about Enrico? He just started his own business, and he’s a brilliant inventor, would he be helping too?”
Her suggestion piqued the interest of the man further and he looked over at the Spanish boy who had suddenly turned an amusing shade of red, “Is that true?”
“I-I do not know about ‘brilliant’, but yes, I am an inventor. I just finished my apprenticeship recently and was able to get a lease on a building,” Enrico nodded, though he was obviously embarrassed by the sudden attention.
Reginald nodded, folding his hands on his desk, “Who did you study under, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Mr. Gerald Youngsworth,” the boy answered quickly, “He invented the Etheric Projector, and is the leader in similar technologies.”
“Yes, I know exactly who that is,” Reginald was unable to hide how impressed he was by Enrico’s education, “MI6 has worked with him on many occasions for commissions.” He thought for a moment before nodding, “Tell you what, you can both join up, if you’re interested of course. Enrico, I’m sure we could use your expertise for equipment and the sort, I can make sure you have a nearly constant source of income from those jobs, I can also likely get others for you as well.”
“That would be wonderful,” the Spanish boy’s eyes lit up with excitement before he turned his attention back to Amelia, “What do you say?”
“Who would I be working with?” the girl tilted her head curiously, though she still seemed a bit suspicious at the invitation, “Is it like the police where I would have to work with a partner? Who would I report to?”
“Generally we do prefer our field units to work with a partner, it’s safer considering the line of w
ork,” he took a deep breath when he saw the girl’s expression didn’t change, “As for who you’d be reporting to, that would be me. I’m the head administrator for the London branch of the Lamplighters, Reginald Moore.”
She thought about it for a few moments, looking down at her knees as the options ran through her mind. She didn’t want to work with a stranger, she would rather her partner be someone she trusted, not just someone assigned to babysit her, “I want Enrico to be my partner, would that be ok?”
“Are you sure?” Enrico looked at her a bit surprised, “I would not think you would want me in the field.”
“I don’t,” she shook her head, smiling softly as she looked back to Reginald, “and he doesn’t have to be, but this way we could work together. He could be field support, he’s already going to be supplying the others, no harm in letting me have it first.”
The older man obviously didn’t care for the idea, but after a few moments of thinking he nodded, “I suppose that would be the only way to get you on board.” He smiled when he saw the two teenager’s faces light up, “Give me your contact information and come back here tomorrow morning, we can work out the details.”
“Sounds good to me,” Amelia grinned as she stood, waiting for Enrico to follow suit. They were instructed to leave the device there, but only after Enrico had reactivated the rune to make sure it wouldn’t explode at an inopportune time. As they got outside and waited for a carriage to pick them up, she looked up at the sky, “This is exciting. I hope I can do a good enough job to make sure you’re safe. I almost failed today.”
“You did perfectly fine,” Enrico gave a soft smile her way, “I did not even get touched, just like you said. If you did that without knowing what you were getting into, I cannot imagine what you will be able to do once you are fully trained.” He looked over as the carriage rolled up and let her climb inside first as he gave the driver instructions to get to his new business’ location, “Though, I will be honest, if you are doing all of the work, I will feel kind of useless. You should not feel obligated to protect me, what about yourself?”
Amelia thought about that for a moment before smiling at her companion, “What about all those things you’re going to build? Won’t those do it? If I have to keep them on me all the time, then it would be like you’re always protecting me.”
Again he blushed, making sure his hands were placed firmly on his knees as he nodded, “Alright, I think I like that. We can keep each other safe then.”
“Of course,” Amelia smiled, there was something about making him embarrassed she found incredibly amusing, and it also kept her mind off of how he looked when he smiled at her. It always made it difficult for her to concentrate on anything else. She smiled at him as the carriage departed from his shop, it was far passed the time for her to be at home, and she just hoped her caretakers would believe her when she told them what happened.
The older woman jumped up from her chair as the door opened and she hurried over to the smaller teenager, “Where on earth have you been? We’ve been worried sick about you!”
“I’m sorry, Anita,” Amelia did her best to resist pulling away as the woman made sure nothing was out of place on her, not even the golden butterfly that held her collar closed around her neck, “I’m fine, really.”
“Harold and I heard about a monster in the town square, when you didn’t come home we started thinking the worst,” the old woman frowned just before pulling the girl into a tight hug, “I was scared to death.”
“Yeah, it was crazy,” When she was finally able to, Amelia stepped away from the woman, looking up at the portrait that was hanging above the fireplace. The couple in the picture looked so proud and stoic, her father in his military uniform, her mother in a beautiful blue and gold dress. It hurt to look at them, and each time she tried desperately to remember exactly what her father’s voice sounded like, along with her mother’s perfume, and it scared her that she was starting to doubt whether or not she was right, “I met other Lamplighters today.”
The old woman was quiet for a moment before taking a deep breath, “Oh? Did you see them after the authorities stopped the monster?”
“They stopped the monster after I shot it,” Amelia turned and looked to the woman, “They asked Enrico and I if we wanted to join them.”
Anita stared at the girl, blinking to try and hide the fear in her eyes, “Both of you? Did you accept?”
The girl nodded quickly, “Yeah, Enrico and I are going to be partners. I’m kind of excited, and a little nervous, but I figure if I do well enough, I can see mom and dad again. Maybe they’ll send me to Rome too so I can work with them.”
“Maybe. I’m sure you’ll make them proud no matter what though,” the old woman nodded, smiling sadly as she watched the girl head for the stairs, “Are you going to bed already?”
Amelia stopped half way up, looking down the banister at Anita, “Is that ok? I’m not really that hungry.”
“I suppose after a day like today it can’t be helped,” the woman nodded, moving over to fold the blanket that had been over her knees, “Good night Amelia, sweetest dreams my dear.”
Personal Investment
Uncrossed Paths Page 4
