The Cost

by R. W. Holmes

  Zinerva, seeing her goal before her, ran forward all too eagerly, which prompted one of the security officers to step forward.

  “Hey!” he snapped at Zinerva. “What are you-,”

  Zinerva leaped at the guard and grabbed hold of his shirt so that they were eye level with each other, before hocking back and spitting a monstrous loogie directly in his face. She dropped down and laughed as the guard took a step back in stunned silence, before she turn and ran away.

  “That little bitch!” the guard cried out as he wiped his face and threw the contents to the floor with a resounding Splat! With murder in his eyes, he drew a telescopic baton from his belt and whipped it open. “I'm gonna kill her!”

  The other two guards looked to each other worriedly as the first took off after Zinerva, and then quickly, and recklessly, did the same.

  “Now” whispered Shay. “This is our chance.”

  The group sneaked through the open checkpoint, just before one of the two guards giving chase to their own colleague said, “Someone has to keep watch over the gate!”

  The responsible guard returned immediately, convinced that they'd averted disaster, but Gael and the others were already long gone.

  Zinerva, meanwhile, led the guards on a chase through the halls, and out to the cafeteria, where she ended things in spectacular fashion by snatching up a knife from someone currently enjoying a late night snack and then hurrying into the womens bathrooms. They were empty, as they typically were that late at night, and the sound of the angry guard had just caught up with her.

  “Showtime...” she said mischievously.

  The guard entered the bathroom after Zinerva, and pointed his baton at her angrily.

  “Grabbing a knife?” he said with a chuckle. “That's intent to harm a sec-,”

  The soft shticking noise of Zinerva plunging the knife into her own neck made the guard jump. Horrified, he threw his baton away and dived forward to catch Zinerva as she fell.

  “L-Listen” Zinerva rasped, her mouth now filled with the very blood she was choking on. “None of this happened. You imagined all of it.”

  The guard looked down at Zinerva in bewilderment, before crying out as she let go and burst into flames. Everything, from the blood on the knife, to the blood that had gotten on the guard's shirt had burned away in mere seconds. When the guard who had gone to stop his colleague from killing Zinerva finally arrived, he saw nothing but his peer kneeling on the floor before a small pile of ash.

  “Oh come on...” he said drearily. “Is someone starting fires in here now? Or do people not know how to empty an ashtray correctly?”

  The first guard, the one who had seen Zinerva killed herself, looked back at the second in horror. “I think I need to see a shrink.”

  Outside of the college, everyone stepped aside so that Gael could call Zinerva back to them.

  “Knife” Gael said to Jacky.

  “Why my knife!?” snapped Jacky.

  “Because Emily is busy pointing her knife at you” said Gael.

  Jacky rolled her eyes and tossed Gael her knife, which he lazily caught by the blade and quickly drew across his palm.

  “Geeze... I picked the wrong kind of thing to summon” Kennedy remarked apprehensively. “There has to be an easier way to draw blood.”

  Gael vanished before everyone's eyes, and a moment of silence passed before he came roaring back to reality. He landed square on his feet though, without any dramatic skidding across the floor, and with Zinerva already seated atop his shoulder.

  “We forgot something” he said immediately.

  “Yeah, you're naked” Shay said to Zinerva.

  “Don't act like you're not impressed” Zinerva replied proudly.

  Shay flicked her wrist and tossed another sprig of fairy dust at Gael and Zinerva, making them invisible once more. “Your confidence is very inspiring” she said lazily.

  “So we're all invisible now” said Kennedy. “Doesn't that mean these 'Rileyans' or whatever can't find us? Aren't we as good as free?”

  “R'lyehans” corrected Jacky.

  “My mouth won't make that noise” countered Kennedy.

  “It doesn't mean we're safe, no” said Emily, to answer Kennedy's original question. “We're not dealing with humans, you need to know that from the start. These people are literal monsters, and what they're capable of is largely a mystery until we meet them firsthand. They aren't even summoners; everything they might have with them they simply brought along from Earth.”

  “What the hell would they have with them?” asked Gael.

  “If they brought anything, telling you about it isn't going to help” Jacky replied pessimistically. “The damn R'lyehans are already hard enough to kill on their own. Did I mention they're biologically immortal?”

  “As in unkillable, or unaging?” asked Cypress.

  “The latter” said Ginger. “They're human, or part human, but you're better off as thinking of them like fae or demons. After their human lifespan runs out, they stop being human altogether.”

  “Emily, have you even talked to them about this yet?” asked Jacky. “About what the Fae and the R'lyehans are even fighting over? About why we can't have Hell getting back into the game?”

  “Alright, ditch the 'we' when you're talking to me” said Emily. “And no, I-,”

  The others became nervous as Emily stopped and looked about herself, but the crowds in the concourse were largely oblivious to the group as they passed. Most of them had their eyes glued to TV screens or their cell phones, and so were completely oblivious to Jacky's and Emily's ramblings.

  “Okay, whatever, we're just walking right now anyway, right?” Emily said uncertainly. “So here's the deal, this 'game' Jacky keeps referring to, it's over souls. The Sídhe, The Secret Glade, The Mysterious Forest... honestly, most people just say Fairyland because the other names have cultural backgrounds and they're not actually 'the place'. Regardless, it's an afterlife. The R'lyehans don't care for the afterlife, hence their living immortality. And Hell? Well... it's pretty obvious why the Fae don't want them back in the game. Fairyland is filled with hedonists.”

  “Wait, what about heaven?” asked Gael. “Is that a thing too? Are there angels?”

  “No one has ever seen an angel” replied Shay. “But sometimes people destined for Fairyland; very, very good people; don't make it. Oh, and supposedly an archangel killed Lucifer, and Lucifer was certainly around for a while.”

  “Michael killed Lucifer” said Zinerva.

  “It's the only story the horsemen have shared for as long as any demon alive can remember” added Cypress.

  “So hold up, that's really what this is all about then?” asked Kennedy. “About going to heaven, or Hell, or never dying, or apparently fricken Fairyland. But what does that have to do with anything?”

  “Hell operates under a mandate” replied Emily. “I think...”

  “It doesn't” Zinerva interjected knowingly. “War is just doing this because he's bored. Everyone in Hell who mattered has wasted away, and our brave leader has been dead for Millennia.”

  “Well, it did operate under a mandate” Emily continued awkwardly. “Now it just... I guess even though Hell is back, they don't actually care. It's very strange, and kind of, uh-,”

  “It feels kind of like I came here and lost six colleagues for nothing” said Jacky.

  “Yes, that” said Emily. “Anyway, for the Fae and the R'lyehans, it's about bolstering numbers. Believe it or not, Fairyland is a place you can go even if you're not dead, but it's very dangerous. We have enormous stockpiles of food for outsiders because if you eat anything native to there, you're no longer allowed to leave. You have become of Fairyland, a fae yourself, and over long enough period of time, you also become a true fae.”

  “Whoa, hold up” said Gael.

  “Yeah, does that mean,” started Kennedy, his hand halfheartedly outstretched to Ginger and Shay.

  “Ginger Callow,” replied Ginger. “I was a Phar
macist who, very responsibly, would sneak 'treats' for herself from the pharmacy. That was four hundred years ago, and I don't remember any of it, because Fairyland food has the wonderful side effect of wiping your memory. My adoptive fae family told me what I used to say from before I became Ginger the Elf.”

  “So you're, like, completely a different person?” asked Gael. “Isn't that worse than dying?”

  “No, you idiot, I'm not a completely different person!” snapped Ginger. “I remember my real mother's face, and I know I still act the way I used to, and I remember what my first dog was like... Oh, and I know more the closer we get to Halloween.”

  “In Fairyland, they say they invented the tradition of handing out candy to children on Halloween so that the fae could visit their old homes in secret” Emily added with a smile. “Personally, I'm holding out hope for heaven, but Shay likes me and getting adopted by royalty is a pretty good alternative.”

  Gael and Kennedy exchanged a pair of slightly perturbed, but otherwise grounded glances with where they knew each others voices to be coming from.

  “You know, Jacky, I don't think anyone in Hell wants to infringe on your turf these days” said Kennedy.

  “I'm well aware of that now, yes” said Jacky. “But my bosses are the great kings and queens of Fairyland. All I'm promising right now is to play nice until we've all landed somewhere other than Enterprise Island and gone our separate ways.”

  “You can ask Emily and Shay” added Ginger. “The Fae keep their word.”

  Emily tapped Shay's shoulder, who went ahead and dragged her summoner over to a still-invisible Gael so she could whisper to him.

  “The Fae like to say that a lot” she said quietly. “Don't listen to them. They pick their words very carefully, and always leave a loophole to change their mind. Think half-truths.”

  “I like half-truths” Zinerva whispered from Gael's shoulder. “She's using the word 'landed' ambiguously, I think. She might turn on us the moment we're somewhere other than Enterprise Island.”

  “I hear whispering” said Jacky.

  “Good for you” replied Gael, before turning back to where he thought Emily was and whispering, “Do you always keep your word?”

  “Of course” Emily said smartly. “Why do you think I haven't actually promised her anything?”

  The exit to the concourse loomed just ahead, and Ginger hopped forward out of Jacky's arms and revealed herself to speak.

  “Something's not right” she said quickly. “Look at what I'm doing right now. Notice anything strange?”

  The others looked around, and immediately noticed what Ginger had: the people of Enterprise Island were wholly absorbed in their media devices, and every single one of them wore a distraught look on their face. Those that traveled with friends whispered feverishly among themselves, while some of the lone onlookers seemed distraught and frantically trying to contact their friends and loved ones as well.

  Ginger vanished again, this time via her own fae magic, and said, “I'm going on ahead to take a peek. No one is trying to get out of the college concourse, so I think there might be another security checkpoint ahead.”

  “Oh...” Zinerva murmured unhappily. “I don't have anything silly to do for this one.”

  “What did you do for the last one?” asked Shay.

  “I may have ruined a security guard's life” Zinerva replied honestly. “He'll probably repress the memory, if he's lucky.”

  As Ginger crept forward, still invisible, she began to feel a peculiar sense of uncertainty and dread welling up within her gut. Her mind raced to the millions of things she could have done before going to investigate, like checking the news everyone was so engrossed in, or convincing Zinerva to do it, on account of her being more expendable.

  Ginger pushed past her doubts though, and successfully crept up to the large, arched gap in the great steel wall that separated the college concourse from the rest of Enterprise Island. She spied more concerned people eyeing their phones and whatever TVs might be present, as well as the crime scene in the fountain where Deacon's kelpie had been slain, before finally setting eyes on the one thing out of place.

  It was a man wearing a wide-brimmed hat. His head wasn't down liked before, though, and it wasn't obscuring his face. It was staring straight ahead, directly at Ginger.

  The others found Ginger, no longer invisible, sprinting back to them with madness in her eyes.

  “THEY'RE HERE!” she screamed at the open air. “THEY SAW ME! THEY KNOW!”

  Shay dropped the invisibility on herself and the others despite the attention Ginger had just drawn to them and looked to Emily.

  “We have to move” Emily said quickly. “And fast.”

  “She's right” Jacky said as she led the charge out and scooped up Ginger. “There's only one exit to the concourse. We're trapped if they call for backup.”

  Gael and Kennedy exchanged nervous glances, as did their demons, and the four followed their dubious fae friends out of the concourse and out into the open. The man in the wide-brimmed hat was still there, but he did little more than grin at them as they sprinted by.

  “Gah!” Jacky cried out in frustration. “If I had my gun, I could-,”

  The sound of a gunshot rang out, and the man in the hat collapsed backward and into the fountain.

  “Go” Cypress said to the others, the barrel of his Glock still smoking as he held it aloft in his outstretched hand. “I'll lead the security away. It'll be fine if they catch me.”

  “You're a fucking legend, buddy!” Kennedy said as he and the others continued their escape once more. “I mean it! Stay safe!”

  Cypress stared back at his summoner placidly, but only after watching him go did he realize that he himself was smiling over the the whole affair. He knew not why, but also knew he didn't have the time to contemplate it, and instead ran in the opposite direction as a flustered, already tired group of security officers arrived to give chase.

  For Gael and the others, things grew more grim. The groups of people looking at their phones for updates on the news had turned into wildly fearful throngs that stampeded randomly after hearing a gunshot ring out from where things were supposed to be safer.

  “Someone get your phone out!” snapped Ginger. “We need to know what everyone is afraid of.”

  “I'm already on it” replied Kennedy. “There's fires breaking out, and apparently an entire building has gone down. No one knows why, but the people who never saw the thing are saying it 'sounded' like a monster.”

  “What about the people who saw it?” asked Emily. “They can't just be silent on this.”

  “They're too terrified to talk” said Jacky.

  “Wait, how did you know that already?” asked Kennedy.

  “Because that's what happens when something other than a summoner sees one of their monsters” replied Jacky. “Being pulled across the cosmos on your first summoning, it does something to a person. It makes us tougher somehow; more resilient to the R'lyehan's terrifying effect.”

  “So what you're really saying is that seeing their messed up stuff makes a person shut up and pretend it never happened?” said Gael.

  “Yes” Jacky and Ginger replied in unison.

  “That explains why I've never heard of them” said Gael.

  “Oh no, you've heard of them” insisted Emily. “Trust me. They stole hiding in plain sight from the Fae.”

  The city began to open up as everyone progressed, and they found themselves at the center of Enterprise Island in an area known as The Colonnade. It was here that Enterprise Island's eight major roads intersected to form a rectangle around a great capital building lined with marble pillars on all sides. This one structure housed everything, from courthouses, to the government offices, to the police station, and even the DMV.

  Which was still unbearably slow.

  “Holy shit” Gael said as he and the others came to a stop. “I didn't know we had that many security officers.”

  The others lo
oked on grimly as veritable hordes of police and security officers set up barricades and donned riot gear. Every SWAT team in the city had been deployed, and the ominous smoke of distant, burning buildings filled the horizon opposite the college concourse.

  “How many R'lyehans are attacking?” asked Zinerva.

  “I don't know” Jacky replied grimly. “I got a call that a bunch of them had been seen departing Earth, but it was described as less than ten.”

  “How do ten R'lyehans turn Enterprise Island into a war zone!?” exclaimed Kennedy. “This is fucking crazy!”

  “We're also not allowed out” Gael said as he eyed the security blockades being erected in the distance. “I don't think the starport is even operational right now.”

  “It's not, the air traffic controllers are dead” said Jacky, who had her own phone out now to better check the news. “But there are ships there, and I know how to fly them.”

  “Me too” added Emily. “So don't start acting like we need you.”

  Jacky glared back at Emily, while Gael, still looking over the area for any help they might be able to find, turned his attention back to the group so he could offer some cohesive words.

  “No one here among us showed up and started killing a bunch of innocent people just for seeing them” he said stoically. “Now if you're done glaring at each other, we need to use what we've got here to our advantage. This is the safest place in the city, right? They can't touch us here, so we're going to sit down, look at our options, and-,”

  Gael's monologue came to an abrupt halt as a wild, piercing screech erupted from a rooftop on the opposite side of The Colonnade. All eyes, summoner, pedestrian, and security officer alike, turned to look at the source as it lurched its humongous, amorphous form back from its perch atop the building.

  “What the hell was that?” Jacky and Emily whispered fearfully.

  The building in the distance shook, and a black mass of writhing, gooey tendrils leaped from its roof in a great, arching bound. Its body stretched with the leap, and maintained contact with the building as it propelled itself outward several dozen feet, before finally releasing its former perch and soaring out into the air and towards The Colonnade.