Kennedy Awakens

by Greg Alldredge

  Alleye asked, “About what?”

  Kennedy reached over and pulled a few strands of hair from the woman’s head.

  “Ouch, damn it, that hurt.”

  Kennedy held up the hair. “This is an intention spell. If the hair smokes white, her intentions are pure… black, not so much.” The blue arc of power flicked briefly, vaporizing the hair into a white puff. “Satisfied?”

  Decker nodded.

  Kennedy reached out and, with a flick of her wrist, pulled several strands of Decker’s hair as well.

  “Damn it, that hurt,” the older man cried.

  “Turnabout’s fair play.” Alleye chuckled.

  The strands smoked white under the arc.

  “Just to provide a level playing field.” Kennedy pulled a few of her own hairs and produced a white smoke as well.

  “Great… now we know we are all pure of heart…” Decker raised his eyebrow but didn’t question the witch more about the cross-dressing cab driver. “Why’d you call this meeting? Tell me what you learned.”

  She had no proof for her theory, or the cause, but she needed to warn the city the shit was about to hit the fan. “The Fair Folk have called out the Sylvan for a fight to end all fights, tonight at midnight on the Back Bay Fens. As far as I can tell, the outcasts are not involved and are staying on the sidelines.” She took a risk and told him the rest. “Someone is causing all this…” She rolled her eyes toward the sky. “I don’t think either group has caused the storm or the strange…”

  “Darkness? No, I agree with you.” Decker chuckled. “At least there was no rush-hour traffic this morning…”

  “I need to speak with the outcasts to see where they fall or if they are involved. Maybe we can use them to talk some sense into the others.”

  “I doubt that…” Decker pressed several keys in a row. The elevator started moving down. “I brought you here for a reason.”

  The elevator passed by the last MBTA platform, and the number counter went blank, but the elevator kept heading down.

  “I tell you this now, but if you repeat it, I will deny I told you and never trust you again. I think all the Goblins have called in sick today. Something like the blue flu. They might not be behind what is going on, but they are not helping to stop it. You are about to learn one of the best-kept secrets in Boston.”

  Kennedy didn’t find it amazing that Boston had secrets. She knew most of them already. Living as long as she had, there was little she didn’t know about if she wanted to learn the truth. The elevator door opened, and the witch needed to stifle a gasp of amazement. There, before her eyes, opened up a brightly colored world of a city under the city she’d grown up in. The doors opened onto a street lined with three-story-tall buildings. Strings of colored lights stretched overhead, casting a festive glow below.

  However, the smells of the place caused her to stumble. The underground city contained a myriad of scents, from the meals last cooked to the hundreds of different outcasts who lived life here underground. Kennedy found no way to separate out the different scents. Overwhelmed, she covered her nose with the back of her hand in a vain attempt to slow the overload on her nose.

  “Welcome to the outcasts’ public housing project.” Decker chuckled. “A place any creature can call home, and no one knows your name.”

  Alleye asked, “But how?”

  “You don’t really think they spent twenty-five years and twenty-five billion dollars on a mile and a half tunnel, do you?” Decker shook his head.

  “The Big Dig was a cover for this? How did you ever keep it covered up?” Kennedy asked.

  “You of all people should know, with the right magic, anything is possible.” Decker stepped out onto the empty street. “Here, all outcasts are allowed to live. The Authority keeps the peace.”

  “And the Goblins are your inside men…” Kennedy added.

  “More or less, yes. I normally don’t come down here, but I wanted to check on Hooper.” Decker walked backward while he talked. “This is normally one of the most exciting parts of the city. This is their main street.”

  “It looks wonderful, but where is everyone?” Alleye asked.

  Decker paused and turned a full circle. “Now, that is odd. This place should be packed full of outcasts going about their lives. It is near lunch.”

  Kennedy had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Maybe they all called in sick as well.” She searched Decker’s eyes for answers. “If The Authority runs the show down here, what do the people who live here have in their lives?”

  “They have a place to call home, a safe place. What more could they want?”

  She found his lack of an answer was more troubling than the lack of creatures that should be on the streets.

  “What is this?” Alleye pulled a piece of paper from the nearest wall. “Sista, this looks like chor friend.”

  Alleye held up the paper, a picture of Tom, huge bold letters superimposed over his face. The End Is Nigh.

  Kennedy said the only word that flashed into her mind, “Shit.”

  Decker grabbed the paper. After a quick inspection, he scanned the empty streets once again. “Well now, this can’t be good.” He started walking deeper into the city. “Let’s see if we can find my partner.”

  “You know the Goblins might be behind all this.” Kennedy reluctantly followed behind the agent.

  “Only way to find out is to ask… nicely.” Decker picked up his pace through the empty streets.

  Chapter 13:

  Kennedy couldn’t believe the size of this underground city. “I know you hope to find Hooper at home, sick in bed, but we need to discuss a few issues here.”

  Decker headed down a side alley. With no cars, the streets were more paths in a medieval city than the congested roads aboveground. “Like what?”

  If not underground, this might be a cozy place to live. Kennedy could never handle the constant darkness, but it was warm, compared to the blizzard outside. “You said something was stolen from The Authority. Would that something happen to be some sort of staff?”

  Decker stopped, hesitated a few beats, and moved to a doorway. “Not sure what you’re talking about. Can you be more specific?”

  “Still playing games, I see…” Alleye said as they followed the man up a flight of steps.

  “Fair enough.” Kennedy didn’t want to disclose everything she knew, but Decker was playing tight-lipped, and she needed answers. There were too many unanswered questions floating about. “The Fair Folk chanted something about a shillelagh. I saw someone use a weapon that might be described as a shillelagh cast magic from the top of the Zakim Bridge. You told me items went missing with Tom. Please tell me what The Authority lost. It might help piece things together.”

  The agent stopped in front of a door number 266. He looked her straight in the eye. “If something went missing, it would be against Authority regulations for me to discuss it with you.” He pounded on the door. “Hooper, it’s me, open up.”

  The silence was his only answer.

  He threw his shoulder into the door and bounced off. “Damn, that is a strong door.” He rubbed his shoulder with the other hand.

  Kennedy sighed. “There is no one in that apartment. Let me, before you hurt yourself…” She glanced at the lock and snapped her fingers. The door remained locked.

  Alleye exclaimed, “Damn… that would be a nice skill to have… if it worked… Let me try the old-fashioned way.” The driver pulled a snap-gun from her pocket, and with a few clicks of the trigger, the lock opened.

  “Maybe I’ll teach it to you one day.” Kennedy chuckled. “And you can teach me that.”

  Decker was too busy pushing his way into the rooms to join in the banter.

  Alleye and Kennedy followed the man inside. The rooms were a mess.

  “Either Hooper needs a maid, or this place has been tossed.” Kennedy stood back and watched Decker check from room to room, calling for Hooper.

  “Empty… this isn’t lik
e Hooper. He is normally very neat.” Decker stood in the center of the trashed living room, hands on hips.

  “Or as neat as a Goblin can be?”

  “Need you always base your comments on race?” Decker went to check the windows. “Locked…” he said to himself.

  “I can’t help it if your partner is bent. He made off with your precious shillelagh and now he has disappeared. Admit it, your Authority got played by the whole damned Goblin race.”

  Decker turned, his eyes flashing in the dim light, his jaw clenched. “Listen, I know you have a thing against outcasts… Goblins specifically, but you need to understand you can’t just lump them all together. They are individuals just like humans and the other races. I have spent my adult life working with Hooper. If he were crooked, I’d know it… We have worked too long keeping…” Decker cut himself short.

  Alleye stepped between Decker and Kennedy. “If chew want our help, chew need to spill your guts already.”

  Decker paused and went to the window. “For a moment, let me tell you a tale. Several hundred years ago, a group of men started searching for and collecting magic items. The goal was to make the world safer. The thought was to destroy them, but once they started collecting them, they learned there was no safe way to destroy magical items without some major events happening, hazardous destructive events. These men started working with the Goblin outcasts, those who wanted to live in peace. They shared a common goal to find, collect, and warehouse magical items until a safe way was discovered to dispose of them. Along the way, certain pacts were made with other races, including humans and witches, to help limit the amount of dangerous magic that permeated the Earth. All this to keep the peace.”

  Kennedy listened but didn’t believe what she heard. She saw no way a secret this huge could be kept for so long. Unless these men had the help of many magical creatures providing the coverup. Perhaps the rumors she’d heard were true. Kennedy asked, “You really are experimenting on others, aren’t you? You use magic to cover your tracks…”

  He glanced over his shoulder and watched her standing in the center of the destroyed room. “Me, personally, no. Remember, this is all hypothetical. I can only tell you the history, as I know it…” He turned back to the window. “Now assume someone discovered the location of one the storage warehouses, broke in, and made off with several powerful items. What would happen to the world as we know it?”

  “That’s insane.” Still, Kennedy forced herself to listen.

  “Ah, cabrón, maybe it is time for the world to go back to the natural way of things. Magic will always find a way.” Alleye backed to the door and popped her head outside, checking the hall.

  Decker shook his head. “The Authority has kept the world safe for centuries, long before you were born, Kennedy. Over the centuries, they have morphed and changed names, but the mission has remained the same, protect the world from the horrors of magic.”

  “At all costs…” Kennedy finished the thought for him. “The witch trials… they were part of the magic suppression, weren’t they?”

  Decker hung his head. “I wasn’t around then, but it is my understanding, anyone that wouldn’t play along was dealt with, violently if need be. Just like today. If you upset the system in place, the system fights back to maintain the status quo.”

  “Your system is killing the witches, killing magic.” Kennedy flexed her hands.

  “I can assure you, any unintended consequences are better than the alternative. Powerful magical items must be kept safely out of reach.” Decker turned and faced the pair. “The question is, what will you two do, now, with this information.” Kennedy noticed the man held a wicked looking pistol in his right hand. It was larger than the SIG she carried in her coat pocket. Definitely not the standard issue .38 revolver he normally carried on his hip.

  “I cast a spell… your intentions are good.” Kennedy watched the man. “I know you didn’t bring us here to kill us.”

  “My intentions are pure for the survival of mankind. That is my only concern. No matter what, we need to control the amount of magic in the world. Please try to understand, this is for the good of everyone.”

  Kennedy tried to get her shield spell prepared, but she found the magic didn’t answer her call.

  “Your magic will not work down here. There are magic suppressors built into the structures to protect the system. You just don’t want to understand.” He pulled the slide back, chambering a round. “I wish we could have worked together on this. We would make one hell of a team.”

  A shot rang out from behind her. A dot of red appeared on Decker’s forehead; his brains sprayed on the wall behind him. Kennedy spun around, and there stood Alleye with her pistol smoking in her hand. “Sorry… I was going to tell him to stop, the gun just kinda went off.” Alleye dropped the twin to the pistol Kennedy carried. The thud on the wooden floor was muffled by the ringing in her ears from the gunshot in such an enclosed space.

  The gun no longer a threat, she covered the few steps to Decker’s side.

  “Is he dead?” Alleye asked. Before getting her answer, she retreated to a sink in the kitchen and spoke between throwing up the last of her coffee. “I swear, I didn’t mean to shoot… the gun just went off.”

  “Yeah, he’s dead…” She knew of no magical creature who could survive a headshot like that. It would take a spoon to put his brains back inside his skull. Kennedy wasn’t sure if Decker would have killed them both or not. In the long game, it didn’t make a difference now. He pulled his gun, things spiraled out of control, and the threat got him killed.

  She moved to the gun on the floor. There was no way she would abandon Alleye like she had Tom. There was still a chance they could escape a charge on this one. The rooms were a mess. The dampening field kept her from casting any coverup magic. The best they could do was distance themselves from the scene of the crime. Put it a finer way, they needed to run away.

  The ringing still haunted her hearing, but they had overstayed their welcome. Kennedy rested her hand on Alleye’s shoulder. “We need to leave. If anyone is around, they will come to find out who fired that shot.”

  “I need Lola… Carlita’s twin.”

  “I got it. Better if I hold it for now, don’t you think?” Kennedy didn’t want the gun to pop off on accident again, once was enough.

  Alleye nodded as Kennedy locked the door behind them. “Where we going now?”

  “We need to gather our forces and stop the attack tonight.” Kennedy led the way back to the elevator.

  “Chew think we have a chance to stop that?”

  “If The Authority gets involved, we both know they will come in with guns blazing. It will do whatever it feels is needed to shut down this abuse of magic. I think they have proven they have little value for the individual life to protect the status quo.”

  “And chor friend? The cute Asian guy?”

  The mixed-up events of the night caused Kennedy to question Tom’s possible role in the whole crazy proceedings. The flyer proved he had something to do with what happened.

  It would have been nice if Decker revealed a bit more before Alleye dotted his eyes. The missing outcasts only led her to believe the Goblins were in this conspiracy to the tops of their short little heads.

  To complicate matters, Kennedy always thought the Sylvan and Fair Folk were the largest contingents of the aligned creatures. The size of this secret city under the streets combined with those creatures who lived mixed in with the humans above made Boston a powder keg. If the pent-up anger of the outcasts was no longer contained by intimidation and coercion by The Authority, there was nothing to keep the city from tearing itself apart.

  The elevator door stood open where they left it. “We will see what we find out. Now I think I need to return to school.” Kennedy pushed the button for the top floor of the parking garage and their Gremlin. “I need to find a friend, maybe he can help.”

  Alleye asked, “Is he cute?”

  Kennedy took out her bus
ted phone and inspected it. “Kind of not bad, nerdy cute.” The phone still didn’t turn on.

  “Innocent, just like I likes them…”

  They walked the short distance to the car. “You got a radio in this thing?”

  “Chew mean like AM/FM?”

  “Or satellite… yes.”

  “No, only my eight-track. It’s all I ever need.” Alleye smiled. “Why?”

  “I was wondering if we are the only people awake. Where are all the humans? We both know the storm didn’t make them all stay home.”

  Alleye shrugged, seemed she didn’t have a good answer either.

  Chapter 14:

  Kennedy half hoped the rising sun would cause the storm to weaken, but if anything it grew worse. “Take us over the Charles, I’m looking for a college student. I bet he is over the river.”

  “Why?” Alleye asked while she banked north past the Millennium Tower.

  “He struck me as one of those rich kids that go to MIT or Harvard.” Kennedy regretted her words as soon as they left her mouth.

  She never realized she harbored so much hate in her heart for so many different people. The list seemed to have grown over the years. Had she grown to hate everyone and everything? Maybe it was the cold wearing on her heart. She wanted to be somewhere warmer, out of the snow.

  Could a witch get seasonal affective disorder? The more likely answer was she was a bitter 327-year-old woman wrapped up in a prepubescent body with no real way to banish her demons. Some things exercise couldn’t fix. Time had turned her into a cranky old woman.

  She tried to soften her words. “We get closer, I got a way to track him.”

  Oddly enough, Alleye smiled and nodded.

  Kennedy was happy for the quiet. The dead agent would surely lead back to them. With no witnesses, in the past, they might escape questions, but with the constant monitoring by The Authority, Kennedy couldn’t imagine there was no recording of the three together. It would all be hard to explain. Even if she didn’t fire the shot, she witnessed Alleye kill Decker. They were both going to be placed high on The Authority’s most wanted list. Only this magical storm protected them from persecution.