The Stranger Times

by C. K. McDonnell

  The chanting stopped abruptly. In front of Moretti, who now beamed the grin of a demented Cheshire cat, a column of water rose up from the font, standing steady. Not because it was frozen; it was liquid that had decided the laws of gravity did not apply to it.

  ‘And there we go,’ declared Moretti, gleefully clapping his hands. ‘We are ready! Ladies and gentlemen, please make sure your tray tables and seats are in the upright position – we are coming in for landing.’ His hand wafted through the air and the dagger with the serrated blade leaped from the ground and rotated slowly in the air beside the column of liquid. ‘All we need now are the blood donations from our three plucky volunteers. But in which order? Oldest first? Bit ageist. Ladies first? A tad sexist. We could go by type? Most common to rarest.’ He gave Stella a gleeful smile. ‘Or we could …’

  ‘Just get on with it, Moretti,’ said Xander. ‘This is not good for the boy.’

  ‘I don’t tell you how to lackey. Don’t tell me how to—’

  ‘Greater Manchester Police, you’re all under arrest.’

  Moretti and Xander spun around to see the man Stella recognized as DI Sturgess. He was standing to Stella’s left, barely in her field of vision, and he was holding his ID open above his head.

  ‘Stop what you are doing immediately. We have the building surrounded. Hands in the air.’ He hesitated and pointed at Moretti. ‘Not you. Hands by your sides.’

  Xander glared at Moretti. ‘I thought you said this place was secure?’

  ‘I said hands in the—’ The words died on Sturgess’s lips as the knife zipped through the air and came to a stop inches from his forehead. Stella saw him try to dodge it, but with another wave of Moretti’s hand, he seemed to go as stiff as a board, his mouth frozen open mid-word.

  ‘Relax,’ said Moretti. ‘He wouldn’t be coming in here alone if he really had back-up.’

  As Moretti spoke, Stella felt unseen hands touching hers. Hannah’s face appeared in her field of vision and her colleague briefly touched her finger to her lips. Stella glanced at the backs of Xander and Moretti, who remained facing away from her, distracted by Sturgess – his hand still raised in the air, holding his ID aloft. The only eyes on her were those of the boy, who looked on without saying or doing anything. Hannah’s hands tugged at Stella’s cuffs and she felt a tiny vibration of metal scratching on metal.

  Stella watched the blade fly back to land in Moretti’s hand, and the figure of Sturgess began to lift off the ground and drift slowly towards Moretti, Xander and the boy.

  A waft of BO and whiskey reached Stella’s nose. Banecroft.

  ‘We need to make sure we’re not compromised,’ she heard Xander say.

  ‘Calm down,’ said Moretti, taking something from his pocket and dangling it in front of Sturgess’s face. ‘Watch the birdie and—’

  Xander and Moretti took a step back in surprise as Sturgess’s head suddenly started to spasm on his neck, as if he were having a seizure that affected only one part of his body.

  ‘Well, now,’ said Moretti. ‘That really is interesting.’

  Xander went to speak and Stella noticed his head twitch, as if he’d spotted something out of the corner of his eye. He turned in their direction.

  ‘MORETTI!’ Xander’s scream was surprisingly high-pitched.

  Stella felt something being slipped into the pocket of her jeans and had just enough time to register the terror on Hannah’s face as both she and Banecroft rose into the air, frozen in their crouched positions. Stella felt her own body sag as hope was replaced with despair.

  ‘You people,’ snapped Moretti, ‘are getting really annoying.’

  Xander moved towards the boy in the wheelchair. ‘That’s it. This has been compromised.’

  ‘SILENCE!’ screamed Moretti, his face now bright red from exertion and agitation. ‘Do you really want to go back and tell your boss you walked away when the boy was about to be made immortal?’

  Xander said nothing.

  ‘Exactly. So shut up and let me handle this.’

  He waved his hands in the air, like a conductor managing an orchestra, the knife his baton. In response, the figures of Hannah, Sturgess and Banecroft all straightened out and stood to rigid attention before him, like soldiers on parade, albeit ones standing three feet in the air.

  ‘You people,’ Moretti repeated. ‘You need to stop interfering in things that don’t concern you. As far as rescue plans go, this one is essentially the classic “Look, your sneaker is untied”. Pathetic.’ He pointed at Sturgess. ‘And you, who are you working for?’

  Moretti waited for a moment. ‘Oh,’ he said, realizing why a reply wasn’t forthcoming. He clicked his fingers and all three of their heads moved, freed from whatever force had rendered them immobile.

  ‘Lovely to see you again,’ said Banecroft.

  ‘You will speak when spoken to or else I’ll put this knife straight through the woman’s throat.’

  Moretti gave Banecroft the opportunity to open his mouth and close it again. ‘Wise choice,’ he said, before pointing at Sturgess. ‘Now, you – who are you working for?’

  Sturgess looked confused. ‘What?’

  Moretti spat out the words slowly, as if speaking to a confused child. ‘Who. Do. You. Work. For?’

  ‘The Greater Manchester police force.’

  Moretti raised the knife and pointed it at Hannah. ‘Don’t play games with me.’

  Sturgess looked baffled.

  ‘He doesn’t know,’ said Xander.

  Moretti turned his head to look back at Xander. ‘Is that even possible?’

  ‘Clearly.’

  Moretti shrugged. ‘Hmm. Interesting.’

  He dropped the coin on its chain and dangled it in front of Sturgess. Once again, the detective’s head started to spasm violently.

  ‘Please. Stop!’ begged Hannah.

  And just like that, it did. Sturgess slumped forward, unconscious, as if someone had flicked a switch and turned him off.

  Moretti stepped forward and tapped the top of Sturgess’s head with the edge of the knife. ‘C’mon. Out you come.’

  Hannah gasped as the hair on the top of Sturgess’s scalp started to move. The skin began to part and up popped an eyeball on a stalk. It spun around, looking in all directions.

  ‘What in the—’ said Hannah.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Banecroft, ‘I don’t know if that’s an STD, but you probably want to get yourself tested.’

  Hannah said nothing. She was too busy concentrating on not throwing up.

  Moretti held the blade directly in front of the eye. ‘And who do you work for?’

  Sturgess’s mouth moved and a voice came from him, though it was clearly not his own. ‘That is none of your concern.’

  ‘I beg to differ.’

  ‘Mr Xander’s employer already has enough questions to answer without adding damage to the property of another member of the Council.’

  Xander threw up his hands in irritation. ‘Wonderful!’

  Moretti lunged the knife at the eyeball, which dodged backwards.

  ‘Leave it,’ shouted Xander. ‘What’s done is done. Finish the procedure. My employer’s instructions were very clear. Save the boy.’

  ‘What about these two?’ said Moretti, waving the knife in the direction of Hannah and Banecroft.

  ‘We,’ said Banecroft, ‘are employees of The Stranger Times, which is protected under the terms of the Accord.’

  Xander rolled his eyes. ‘Of course you are.’

  Hannah looked at Banecroft in confusion before adding, ‘So is Stella. She works with us.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Banecroft.

  ‘Is this true?’ asked Xander.

  ‘Ahhh,’ said Moretti, ‘that explains what happened when we met before. When my powers didn’t …’ He trailed off and looked up at Banecroft. ‘Wait. Why were you protected before and yet—’

  ‘Yes,’ said Banecroft ruefully, ‘looks like I picked a very bad day to leave my totem at home
. Anyway, as we said – protected. So just let us go and we’ll be off.’

  Moretti tossed the blade into the air. It came to rest hovering at Banecroft’s throat. ‘I’m going to enjoy killing you slowly.’

  ‘Not now,’ said Xander, his patience running thin. ‘Complete the making and do what you like with these two after.’

  Stella felt tears begin to run down her cheeks. Without thinking, she raised her hand and brushed them away.

  She could move.

  How could she move?

  In all the confusion, she had somehow not noticed. Her hands were still chained, but she could move. The thing she had felt being slipped into the pocket of her jeans. Something metal. She brought down her hand. A key – like one of the big brass ones Grace had for the door of The Stranger Times.

  On unsteady legs, she got to her feet.

  ‘We need to …’ Xander’s words died away as he caught sight of Stella.

  She took a step forward and, after coughing to clear her throat, said, ‘Let them go.’

  Moretti turned to look at her. For the first time, she saw fear in his eyes.

  ‘How did …?’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Banecroft. ‘Silly me. I didn’t leave my totem at home – I slipped it into Stella’s pocket. Doesn’t that mean your jiggery-pokery no longer works on her?’

  Stella shifted her hands and looked down at the manacles binding them. ‘Just let everybody go.’

  Xander backed away.

  ‘It’s all right,’ said Moretti dismissively, ‘she can’t control her power. She’s useless.’

  Stella looked around her. ‘Just … Please. I want to go home.’

  Moretti laughed. ‘Oh dear, how pathetic.’ He waved his hand and the plastic chair pushed into the back of her legs. ‘Sit down. There’s a good girl. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.’

  Stella felt panic rising in her. She didn’t know what to do. There was nothing she could do. She looked from Hannah to Banecroft to the two figures chained to the wall. It was all too much.

  She looked down at the chair behind her.

  ‘He’s right,’ Banecroft chimed in. ‘Sit back down like the silly little girl you are. Bloody useless.’

  Stella’s head snapped up as if she’d been slapped. She glared at Banecroft, and she could see Hannah doing the same.

  ‘We went to all this trouble and you can’t even save yourself,’ Banecroft continued.

  ‘Vincent!’ exclaimed Hannah.

  Moretti laughed. ‘Someone doesn’t like losing.’

  ‘Stupid, pointless child,’ Banecroft carried on. ‘Letting everyone down, again.’

  Hannah’s head whipped back and forth between the two of them.

  ‘Shut up,’ whispered Stella.

  ‘No,’ said Banecroft. ‘I won’t. Thanks to you, I’m going to die. Hannah’s going to die. Simon died.’

  Moretti clapped his hands gleefully. ‘Tough love!’

  Stella could feel the rage building in her chest. She took a step forward. ‘That was not my fault.’

  ‘It’s all your fault,’ said Banecroft. ‘You are worthless.’

  Hannah looked at Stella, her mouth suddenly dry. ‘Yes, you are.’

  Stella flashed a hurt look at Hannah, bewildered by her betrayal.

  ‘Moretti …’ Xander’s voice sounded a warning.

  Moretti stopped clapping and the smile fell from his face.

  ‘Thanks to you,’ continued Hannah, ‘this man killed Grace!’

  ‘No!’ screamed Stella.

  The feeling began to surge through her. Uncontrollable. The cuffs on her wrists fell away and she strode towards Moretti.

  ‘You killed her!’

  Moretti’s hands were a blur in the air. Random hulks of furniture began to rise and fly towards Stella. She let out a scream, and all of it – wood, fabric, metal – disintegrated and fell to the ground as dust.

  Hannah, Banecroft and the unconscious form of Sturgess dropped to the floor as Moretti backed away from the advancing Stella.

  ‘No, don’t. I …’

  Stella spoke, more to herself than anyone else. ‘She was a nice lady. She was good to me. She took me in. YOU. KILLED. GRACE!’

  She was dimly aware of Xander standing to her right, waving his hands in her direction. She shot out her own hand and a shaft of blue light sprang from her fingers and sent him pinwheeling across the room. Moretti’s hands flapped about in the air above him, no longer casting, now just the actions of a desperate man looking for help that would not come. In the background, Stella could hear Hannah trying to talk to her, but her words were rendered unintelligible by the roaring sound in her ears. Stella raised her arms and felt the thing – the thing that scared her more than anything – rising within her once again.

  And then …

  A sudden feeling of emptiness washed over her. What had been rising didn’t calm so much as disappear entirely. There was no sound. It was as if the universe had frozen itself into one moment.

  And then the large metal doors behind her blew in.

  CHAPTER 48

  As the smoke around the door cleared, a dozen armed men in balaclavas rushed in, a clamour of voices screaming for everyone to get on the floor. Hannah, already on the ground, stayed where she was. She looked up to see Stella standing above them, looking down at her own hands as if in a daze, before being slammed to the floor by two of the storm troopers in balaclavas.

  ‘Leave her alone!’ shouted Hannah, but then hands were on her too, roughly turning her over, pinning her arms behind her back and cuffing her. Her face bashed against the wet concrete floor. ‘Ouch. Go easy!’

  Hannah’s experience with handcuffs was limited to the two occasions when she had been arrested recently, and one other incident when she had tried to do something a bit different on her soon-to-be ex-husband’s birthday, which had been excruciatingly embarrassing for everyone involved. While those experiences hardly qualified her as an expert, these cuffs felt different.

  Thicker, heavier and somehow colder. The word ‘manacles’ popped into her head but she wasn’t sure if that was right either. They felt like more than just metal.

  She looked around to see Banecroft, Moretti, and even the unconscious form of Sturgess being similarly hog-tied. In the confusion, Hannah turned and saw Stella looking at her. She felt horrible about what they had done to her, but belatedly she had caught on to Banecroft’s idea. Grace had told them that Stella’s outbursts were related to her losing her temper.

  Grace.

  ‘Stella! Stella!’ Her young colleague seemed to focus and looked at Hannah in surprise, as if only just realizing she was there. ‘Grace is fine. I’m sorry. Grace is fine.’

  Stella closed her eyes.

  Before Hannah could say anything else, the lanky figure of the man called Xander was pushed down on to the ground between them.

  ‘This is a mistake,’ he was saying. ‘I am one of the …’

  He stopped speaking as the circle of gun-wielding men parted and a diminutive figure walked in. It took Hannah a moment to process. The last time she’d seen Dr Carter was at her brief appearance in the police station to inform her she was free to go. She had struck her as an odd but weirdly cheery woman. The juxtaposition of that memory with the sight of the woman now surrounded by storm troopers was jarring to Hannah’s sleep-deprived brain.

  Adding to the surreal nature of proceedings was the pair of red-haired boys who flanked her, holding out their hands with strained expressions on their faces. The children looked about twelve and appeared to be identical twins.

  Dr Carter turned to the nearest storm trooper. ‘Well?’

  ‘Containment confirmed, ma’am.’

  ‘Excellent. You can relax, boys.’

  The two children dropped their hands to their sides. One of them wobbled unsteadily on his feet.

  ‘Very well done, my darlings. Mummy is very proud of you. You can go wait in the car. Maranda?’

 
A matronly woman appeared, took each of the boys by the hand and led them away.

  Dr Carter raised her voice without turning around. ‘And don’t let them play with the radio!’

  She looked down at the figures on the ground. ‘Honestly, a dampening field that big, they’re going to be overtired and grouchy all week. I’ll have to crack and take them to Nando’s.’

  ‘Can I just—’ started Moretti.

  ‘No,’ said Dr Carter, and gave a small wave of her hand. Moretti’s voice was instantly silenced.

  ‘If I may …’ began Xander.

  This interruption, Hannah noticed, was not met with the same hand gesture. ‘No, Mr Xander, you may not. We shall discuss the actions of you and your employer later. Right now, we have guests.’

  Hannah looked at Xander’s face. He looked like a man who could see a great deal of awkward conversations in his future.

  ‘Yes,’ said Banecroft, ‘and while I hate to pile on, Dr Carter here is our lawyer. I don’t know about anyone else, but I intend to sue for emotional distress.’

  Dr Carter giggled – at least that’s what Hannah assumed the noise that came out of her mouth was. It sounded more like someone strangling a chipmunk.

  ‘Ah, dear Vinny. Charming as always.’ Dr Carter pointed at Banecroft, Sturgess and Hannah. ‘That one, that one, that one, we’re throwing back.’

  Two sets of hands grabbed Hannah under the arms and plonked her firmly on her feet. A second later, the cuffs were released. She stood beside Banecroft, rubbing her wrists. Two of the storm troopers hauled up Sturgess and then had to catch him as he began to slump to the ground.

  ‘Oh, for …’ said Carter. ‘He’s unconscious, you ninnies! Take him outside and give him a cup of tea.’ The storm troopers did as instructed and began to carry the senseless form of Sturgess back outside.

  ‘He needs to go to the hospital,’ said Hannah.

  Dr Carter looked at her for the first time. ‘Oh, dearie, believe me when I say that’s the last place he needs to go. That thingy in his head, with the … y’know.’ She crooked her arm up at the elbow and mimicked the roving eyeball with her hand. ‘It will kill its host – by which I mean him – if it thinks it is in danger.’