Devil's Gambit

by Nicholas Woode-Smith

  Colin didn’t stutter once during his explanations. Neither did he sound nervous. He sounded like a man with a passion. It was honestly quite appealing, and it helped me forget all my teenage angst and uncertainty at this rendezvous. Drinking coffee with someone with such passion and knowledge was worth it even if nothing else came out of this.

  As was a common trope in my life, however, Colin was interrupted by the barely muffled screams of people just next door. Without thinking, I knocked over my chair in my hurry to stand up. Colin stood as well, but with more grace.

  The screaming rose in volume and pitch. I listened closely. It had to be next door. The fast-food place, most likely. I tried to distinguish between human screams and other sounds. Besides rapid footfalls and the usual cacophony of human-made chaos, I could not hear the cause of the commotion.

  “What is it?” Colin asked, noticing my thinking face.

  “I don’t know…” I replied, my voice cold and professional now. It was the type of voice that often chased people away. I almost kicked myself, but then noticed that Colin didn’t seem shaken by it.

  “A monster?” he offered.

  “Maybe. I’m going in.”

  I expected some sort of argument, or at least some indication of discomfort. I could not help but recall my first date with Andy, which had been interrupted before it started by the mimic, and my blood-soaked dress. Rather than do anything that I expected, Colin nodded, sternly.

  “I’ll back you up.”

  Back me up? I looked him up and down. Suit and tie. Expensive dry-cleaning. His hands were clenched, but he wasn’t shaking. I looked at his face. He was serious.

  I nodded. “Let’s go.”

  Colin threw some money at the waitress as we ran out. I had already drawn my knife – a medieval style dagger called a seax. It was sharp and hardy but wasn’t comparable to my now lonely dusack short sword. I hoped it’d be enough.

  People who weren’t scattering in every direction, pale as sheets and covered in other people’s blood, were milling about the entrance of the fast-food joint, trying to take a look inside. Cops hadn’t arrived. Of course, they wouldn’t. Even when I was being called in after the fact, I tended to arrive faster than the cops.

  “What is it?” I asked a bystander, the only guy who didn’t look like he was about to vomit up his lunch and breakfast.

  “Some sorta monster,” he said, a quiver to his voice.

  “What kind of monster?”

  I must have been as scary as said monster, as the man flinched. I rolled my eyes. Colin touched the man’s shoulder.

  “We need to know what we’re up against.”

  The man looked at Colin’s hand on his shoulder and then visibly calmed.

  “I don’t know. But it was not like any sort of undead you see on the news. I think it is a spirit. Some people ran right through it.”

  Just my luck. Spirits were bad enough to get rid of with the right equipment, but a spirit that was killing people and me with none of my exorcism gear…

  “We’ll need silver if this is a spirit. May be a wraith.”

  Colin nodded. He looked confident in my prognosis. He shouldn’t be. I’d never fought a wraith before. I only knew a bit about them. Mostly that they were probably the most dangerous spirit you could run into.

  “There’s people still in there!” a woman screamed. I looked through the glass door. I couldn’t see any monster, but the floor was covered in blood and dismembered corpses. A young man and woman were crouched behind the cash counter. They looked like they’d seen a ghost. I suspected they’d seen much worse.

  I gritted my teeth. I needed to go and get silver, but what if I took too long? I watched the pool of blood on the tiled floor grow ever larger, seeping into the cracks and staining the white tiles red.

  “Kat,” Colin said. “I’ll go find some silver.”

  I looked at him, a bit shocked. I’d forgotten he was there. I shook myself out of my despairing reverie.

  “I need any silver you can get. It is the only thing that can make contact with ethereal flesh.”

  Colin nodded and, without further hesitation, ran back into Café Henna. That left me with what I did best. Hunting, and trying not to die.

  I muscled past some bystanders, seemingly paralysed with fear, and shoved the glass door open. It was quiet inside and the outside world became muffled when the door closed behind me. Right now, I wished that I’d memorised some purification spells. More and more, wizardry would be helping me not get myself killed. That was ignoring all these weird instinctual purification spells I’d been incanting these days. Couldn’t rely on those, though. A wraith could spit me while my brain was still figuring out I was in danger.

  I heard a squelch as I stepped forward. I looked down. Thank Athena that I wasn’t squeamish! The thing I’d stepped on looked like it might have been a lump of flesh in better days. Now, it looked like something an indie horror film director would use. It was disturbing how cheap real life special effects often looked.

  “I don’t see anything,” Treth said. He was obviously talking about the monster. Not what it had left behind. I fought the undead for a living and seldom did I ever come across scenes like this.

  I took a step forward, ignoring the squelching, wet, stickiness underneath my feet. The living staff behind the counter poked their heads out. I stopped and motioned to my eyes. The staff were as white as snow. The man ignored me and just stared. Shock. The woman was not much better but glanced to the side. That was all the warning I needed.

  I dove forward as a roiling mass of spectral skulls, spikes and blades tore the air where I’d been standing a moment before. I sprang up from my new position and turned around to examine my assailant.

  For something that was a spirit, it looked pretty solid. It hovered above the ground and wore torn, black drapes over a malformed body. Underneath an equally torn hood, its face peeked out – if I could even call it a face. It looked like someone had given a metal skull three long fangs and then squished it into a mask. This was no mask though. It was floating just in front of the rest of its body, and I could see nothing behind it. Most menacing of all, however, was its two arms, bearing claws as long and as sharp as swords, dripping with blood.

  It stared at me unblinkingly, twitching its sword-like fingers in minor spasms. Its black drapes shifted sharply and unnaturally. As if there was something roiling underneath.

  It fit the description of a wraith, but the descriptions could not do it justice. Waves of pure anger and malice emanated from the creature. Its every move was one of either calculated extreme violence, or the catatonic twitches of a highly distressed beast.

  The main question was: how was I going to defeat it?

  In a silent flash, it was before me. I ducked just in time as it raked the air, slashing a few strands of hair off my head. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be noticeable. And hopefully, I’d be alive to care that it was noticeable after this was all done.

  I slashed towards it and felt only cold. An intense icy shock shot up my arm and I almost dropped the knife. This was not my type of prey.

  “Run!” I yelled. The woman showed indications of doing so, but the man remained still. I bit my lip in frustration, dove underneath the wraith as it attacked my last position and ran towards the far end of the room. The wraith considered me with its dead, hollow lack of eyes. I felt a bead of sweat run down my forehead.

  Where was Colin? Where was the silver I needed? And what the hell was I doing here? Was I even getting paid to do this?

  The wraith twisted its head and looked straight at the staffers behind the counter. The woman flinched and fell backwards.

  Without hesitation, I charged forward as the wraith turned towards its new prey. Along the way, I sheathed my knife and grabbed a plastic food tray. Wraiths could only be hurt by enchantment or silver, but they were still semi-physical. That meant that I could still block their path. With only a moment left before the wraith’s blade-fingers made co
ntact with the stunned man, I felt just a bit of pressure as I knocked the creature’s hand out of the way using the tray. Even through the plastic, I received the chill that had shocked me earlier. I let out a squeal and dropped the tray. The wraith considered me for a second, and then drove its claw through my skull.

  At least, that’s what it intended. I only moved my head at the last moment and lost only a bit of my scalp, the blade glancing off the side of my skull. I already felt the blood pooling over my ear. I caught a glimpse of my own blood and flesh matted hair flick off the wraith’s blades.

  I stared at it, racking my brain for a solution. A way out of this. The wraith brought back its claws, and I realised that I had no solution. I prepared my body for another evasion, knowing all too well that the wraith had me pinned.

  Black smoke rose from the wraith’s back and it let out a shrill and head-piercing wail. I saw a silver dessert knife embed itself in the creatures back. It wasn’t a clean stab, but it was good enough. I rolled and found myself standing next to Colin, carrying a plastic bag of silverware.

  “Sorry I’m late,” he said, passing me the bag.

  I felt the air sting the injured side of my scalp. I’d need to spend a chunk-load of my savings to get that healed. Would probably need to accept the Citadel’s payment. So much for honour and principles.

  The wraith ceased its scream and twisted its head on its body to stare right at us. I dipped my hand into the plastic bag and brought out a collection of silver cutlery and even a silver-plated watch. I threw the stack at the wraith. It recoiled at the blow, black smoke bellowed from welts opening in its ethereal and monstrous flesh. It was hurting, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough. Wraiths were hardy spirits, even against silver. I took out a silver plate and passed the bag back to Colin.

  “Keep it stunned.”

  He nodded and took more silver projectiles out to throw. I tested the edge of the plate. It wasn’t sharp, but it’d do.

  Colin let out a volley of silverware and I charged. Even in its painful throes, the wraith managed to scrape my shoulder, adding another cut to the jacket and another scar on my already scarred upper arm. I didn’t stop. With two hands, I brought the plate above my head and then swung down on the wraith’s skull. I made contact and the silver dented, yet I felt no resistance. I swung again from the side and felt the same. No resistance, as if hitting only air, but a dent appeared. Only the fact that the wraith wasn’t slicing me indicated that I was doing something right. I swung again, and again, until the plate was twisted and morphed into a little ball. The wraith had shrunk down with every blow, until it was the size of a child, floating meekly just above the ground. I drew my knife and held its point against the now malformed silver plate. The wraith’s skull face was on the other side. Like driving a nail with a hammer, I used the sharp pressure of the knife to insert the last bit of silver into the wraith’s spectral being.

  It burst into a puff of black smoke. There was silence and I felt the intense pain of my head injury start to ignite in earnest as I panted out my adrenaline.

  “So, when’s the next date?” Colin asked, panting just a bit himself.

  I bit my lip and then burst out laughing.

  Chapter 13.

  Party

  Colin had been a literal lifesaver with the silverware. It had taken him some legal wrangling and (admittedly) quite a bit of lying about bylaws to get the stuff, but the point was that he got it. The reward from the City was good enough to cover reimbursing the owners. I offered Colin a cut, as was professionally expected. He graciously declined. I used the rest of the pay to contribute to my medical expenses. Was going to leave two scars, but my hair would be able to grow over the head cut. In the meanwhile, I wore my hair to the side to cover some unflattering stitches. Well, shouldn’t complain. It could have been much, much worse. Even so, I spent a lot longer in front of the mirror tying my hair just right so that most of the stitches would be covered.

  Conrad didn’t give me much time to recover. While he was upset with me for delaying the payment from the Titan mages, there were still monsters to hunt.

  So, that brought me to a revenant, stalking people by the fens of Lakeside. Had never fought one before, but it was still my cup of tea. All rotting flesh, sinewy, with bones sticking out of it. Revenants were undead. Typically, undead which had been dead for a long time. Think of them like zombies, but a lot more rotten and a lot angrier because of it. This revenant had stuck its hand out of an old grave lot. Some freak necromantic ritual from miles away hit it and rose someone’s grandpa or grandma from the grave. Couldn’t really tell which. It didn’t look human anymore. Lucky for me and the residents, it also lacked a pair of particularly human limbs – legs. When necromancers brought revenants from the dead, they tended to use their powers to enhance the body parts that were left. Not with this specimen. It was as rotting and as cadaverous as the day before it started screaming.

  I found the thing crawling along the ground, scraping itself along the grass by the lakes and swampy marshland of the Lakeside suburb. Was easy to find. People were watching it from afar, as if it was a distant car accident or a street performer. I made my irritation known as I walked past the crowd of onlookers, considered the hissing, gurgling and stinking wretch before me, and then skewered its head.

  The crowd dispersed sluggishly. There was an air of disappointment about them as I snapped a picture of the revenant and watched my pay get deposited into my account.

  “I think they wanted more of a show,” Treth commented. I heard distaste in his tone. My sentiments exactly.

  We travelled in relative silence back home. I managed to hitch a ride back with one of Hope City’s rare buses. Much cheaper than a taxi. I really needed to get a car or bike…

  In the almost empty bus, I could not help but feel a tad melancholic. It didn’t help that the sun was considering setting, turning a blue sky and yellow light to a more sombre orange and red. This melancholy grew. What was the cause?

  Was it the revenant? Did its pathetic form trigger some sympathy in my cold and battered heart?

  Can’t be. I’d seen much worse. I’d done much worse. I felt the same about the revenant that I did about all undead. At best, a cold indifference. At worst, a vehement hatred.

  What I was feeling had nothing to do with the revenant.

  Was it, then, worry about something happening in my life? I did not know what. Things were going fine, relatively. I was on good terms with Trudie again, I was chatting with Colin online every night, my bank balance was good. Duer had cleaned my apartment’s weyline so well that Pranish even asked to come visit so he could enchant stuff using the local magic supply.

  Life was, as far as I could tell, pretty good. Just needed to wrap up this business with the Citadel. I’d come to my senses and agree to be paid eventually.

  The bus stopped in Rondebosch and I got out to walk the rest of the way. My bag of gear felt oddly heavy on my back. I’d put my sword in it. My lonely sword. Really needed to go get another one.

  The street leading up to my apartment building was quiet, as usual. I heard some birds tweet at a cat. It wouldn’t be Alex. He didn’t like leaving my apartment. The local cats were mean.

  I arrived at the foot of the stairway leading up to my floor and let out a heavy sigh.

  “Happy birthday, Kat,” Treth said, quietly.

  Yeah, that was it.

  I scaled the stairs and came face to face with my apartment door. I messed with my keys and then opened the door.

  “Surprise!” bellowed out of the door like a shotgun blast. I would have jumped if I hadn’t been stunned.

  Trudie came running towards me, holding Alex. She was wearing a dark red and grey plaid skirt with black knee-high socks.

  “Happy birthday!” she squealed, evidently more excited about my traditional rotation around the sun than I was. Alex meowed at me as I reached to stroke him.

  I looked past Trudie’s shoulder into my apartment. Behind her wa
s a motley crew I’d never expect to congregate in one place. A bunch of people from so many different parts of my life I’d forgotten they were from the same city.

  Just behind Trudie was Pranish, beaming like he used to. Andy stood next to him, with his friend from Miriam’s party. And speaking about Miriam, there she was, wearing her vampire black petticoat. Next to her was Brett, Guy and even Cindy. And to top it all off, there was Colin, wearing a casual t-shirt and jeans that made him looks years younger.

  So many people. So many parts of my life.

  “Don’t cry,” Treth said, more to himself than to me. He had the start of a sob in his tone.

  “How?” I asked Trudie, who beamed at the question.

  “When I fixed your phone, I may have given myself access to your contacts. I invited the top contacted people.”

  She frowned. “Most didn’t respond.”

  That was to be expected. Most of my contacts were temporary clients whom I hadn’t even met.

  “Most contacted?” I asked, ignoring the blatant invasion of my privacy. “Where’s Conrad then?”

  “Your smarmy boss is going to meet up with us later at the Gravekeeper.”

  I smiled. “Got this all worked out then?”

  Trudie smiled ear to ear. “Yep.”

  Trudie cajoled me into the room. I shut the door behind me and put my bag down in its usual spot. My guests started to hustle in to greet me and, in an unconscious daze, I greeted everyone.

  “Happy birthday, Katty,” Brett teased.

  “Surprised you?” Guy added with an almost childlike grin.

  Cindy hugged and simply said, “Happy birthday.”

  “I thought it was only fair I attend one of your parties,” Miriam said. I called her prof. She grinned and rebuked me.

  Before I could get to Colin, Trudie wrangled Andy and his friend into my way. I looked at Trudie’s smile and decided to be polite.