by Sean Stone
8
I was expecting a result within a couple of hours but I was left disappointed. Not so much as a twinge. I kept busy looking over the files again. The last kidnapping had happened four days ago. On average they seemed to occur five days apart. So a kidnapping was due any time now. By the time the sun was going down I was getting hungry. I didn’t keep much food at home so I headed out. I went to Muggs, ordered my usual chicken burger and then sat down in my usual booth. Far too predictable, I know, but I’m a creature of habit.
Above my head was a dangling golden bell which had been hung up along with all the other Christmas decorations. I had no idea what was christmassy about a bell but then the same could be said for half the decorations I could see. Not too far away there was a toy soldier dangling from the ceiling. What’s that all about? The bell was annoying me so I incinerated it. I had half a mind to do the same to the other pointless bits of tat all over the ceiling but I resisted the urge. I’ve got nothing against Christmas decorations, it’s just the cheap looking ones that have no obvious relevance that piss me off.
“Bobby says you’ve gotta replace the bell,” the waitress said when she brought my food over.
I sighed. “Add it to my bill,” I said. I couldn’t imagine that it had cost that much. It wasn’t even a real bell, it was made of foil. Bobby was always charging me for things I destroyed. Unfair really.
I ate in silence, watching everybody else go about their lives in the pub. I like to people watch sometimes. There’s something fascinating about watching somebody live their life completely ignorant to the fact you’re watching. That probably makes me sound quite creepy. That’s not how I meant it.
“I thought I’d find you here.” I looked up and saw Matt standing at the edge of the booth.
“I thought you was done with me,” I said bitterly. I finished the last bite of my burger and then pushed the plate way.
“Not yet.” He grinned and slid in opposite me putting his beer down on the table.
“What happened in the meeting?” I kept my tone even. I wasn’t happy with Matt. It was weird because I knew that he was in the right and had technically done nothing wrong but that didn’t change the fact that I was so annoyed with him for threatening to be done with me. I don’t take rejection very well.
“Clara said she was impressed with my hacking skills and then she promoted me.” He was smiling like the Cheshire cat.
“What?”
“I know. I thought I was getting fired or worse. Instead I’m now an IT specialist. I get my own office and everything.” I was too bitter to share in his joy. And confused. Mainly bitter though.
“What do you do now then?” I hate vague job titles like “IT specialist”, it doesn’t tell you anything about what the job actually is. I had an aunt who was a hygiene control assistant. I went to work with her one day and it turned out she was a cleaner.
“Whatever assignment Clara Winters sends over. At the moment she has me re-encrypting all the old SIT files so they can’t be hacked again. Obviously I’ll still be able to hack them but I’ll make sure no-one else can.”
“Good. Good. I’m so happy for you. If you’ll excuse me.” I started to stand.
“Eddie, what’s wrong with you?” Matt asked. He grabbed my arm and pulled me back down.
“What’s wrong with me? We’re done remember? You’re angry with me. I’m a shit friend who only thinks about himself. Have you forgotten all that?” I asked snarkily.
“Ed, I never said you were a shit friend. I was angry earlier because—”
“Save it, Matt. It doesn’t matter. Looks like you’ve done quite nicely thanks to me. Got yourself a nice promotion. Hell, if it wasn’t for my enemy putting that aitvaras into your house you never would’ve got a job at Winters Research in the first place,” I said.
“What is wrong with you? You’re not yourself. Is this…” he leaned forwards and lowered his tone, “…the darkness?”
I snorted. “The darkness. The darkness.” I chuckled quietly.
“You need to get this sorted. You need help. Maybe Clara can help you,” he suggested.
“Oh, Clara? The woman who had me chained up and kidnapped. No, I doubt she’d help me. She wants me to help her. First I solve the little kidnapping case and then I get to do the real work. If not, Rachel gets let loose. But at least you got a nice promotion.”
“This isn’t you at all. The darkness is controlling you. You must know that what you’re saying isn’t true,” Matt said. He was shaking his head slowly.
“Stop shaking your head at me,” I snapped. “There is no darkness. This. Is. Me.” I jabbed my finger on the table with each word for emphasis.
“You’ve got your faults, Ed and you can be a right bastard at times. But you are not this malicious. You’re not nasty. Not to me, anyway.”
“Aren’t I?” I leaned in closer. “I constantly put you in danger, don’t I? I put your girlfriend in danger too. Everything I do is a self-serving act. You are nothing but a side-kick to me. Someone who’s there when I need them. That’s what you said earlier, isn’t it?”
“No. It isn’t.” I could see he was hurt. I should’ve been ashamed to have made my best friend feel that way but instead I was enjoying it. I was feeding off the wounded expression on his face.
“Well how—” A sharp pain in my head cut me off. I grunted and clutched my hands to my forehead as the pain swelled. It was like a thousand tiny ants burrowing their way from the centre to the front. It was almost impossible to think.
“Eddie?” Matt said but I barely heard him.
“What is happening?” I screamed above the pain. Then came the answer. Dozens of high little voices, children’s voices, all saying one thing, over and over again; “Panomie, Panomie, Panomie.” The name went around and around on a loop. Never ending, never even slowing.
“Eddie, are you alright?” I looked at Matt. His face was filled with concern. My anger was gone now and if I hadn’t been in so much pain I might have been able to feel the regret a bit more.
“Matt— I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—” I screamed as another burst of pain struck me. “Gotta go!” I yelled and then ran out of the pub.
9
I staggered down the street whilst several bewildered pedestrians hurried out my way not wanting to encounter the crazy man who was clutching his head and grunting. I jumped in the first taxi I came across and yelled: “Penenden heath!” at the driver. She looked like she was about to throw me out but when she looked in my eyes she must have seen that that wasn’t an option. She stepped on the accelerator and sped all the way there. I was fairly certain she was going well above the speed limit and each time I let out another screamof pain she sped up. No doubt she just wanted shot of me and traffic laws didn’t concern her until I was gone.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather go to the hospital?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “The Heath.” We passed through the barrier of my spell and into the Panomie zone. I could tell we were in the zone because my pain vanished in an instant. It was such a beautiful feeling to not feel like your head is being ripped in five. I really do take not being in pain for granted. I leaned back against the seats and let out a heavy sigh of relief. I saw the driver eyeing me in the rearview mirror but she chose not to say anything. I appreciated that.
Instead of the agony there was a strange tingling in my head now. It felt like a small cord was attached to my brain and somebody was tugging it ever so slightly. Trying to lead me somewhere. I had wondered how this spell would work. Obviously the farther from the site I was the more pain I’d be in. Now I was in the zone the tugging sensation would lead me right to the place.
I paid the taxi driver and hopped out. She was gone straight away. I mean really, she did not hang about. Probably thought I was mental. The tingling-tugging sensation led me through the streets like a magical sat-nav and then all of a sudden it was gone. I guessed I was in the right place. It had led me to a house on Fara
day Road. This must be where the name had been mentioned. To test my theory I walked over to the house next door and the tingling returned pulling me back to number 1. This was the place alright.
The driveway was large, it had four cars parked on it and had room for at least four more. The house was massive too. It wasn’t a mansion but it was certainly bigger than the house I lived in. A lot bigger. I was fairly confident that the owners were rich. I doubted their money would help them with what was coming though. I still doubted that I could help them but Kent Police were paying me a fair amount of money to at least try. I stepped into the small tidy porch and knocked three times on the dark wooden door. A minute or so passed and then I heard locks moving and the door swung open to reveal a thin man with a hideous tash. I don’t know why some people think they look nice. Anybody with a tash ought to be set on fire. And no I don’t think that’s harsh.
“Yes?” he said snootily, looking down his long nose at me.
I opened my mouth but realised I had no idea how to start this particular conversation. “I’d like to talk to you about your daughter,” I said. I watched his eyes bulge angrily and realised that that was not the way to begin. “Okay, that sounded bad. What I mean is I’d like to help prevent something horrible from happening to her.” That wasn’t any better.
“What on earth are you talking about, man?” he demanded. I could tell that he was dangerously close to hitting me. That would not end well for him.
I held my palms up in an attempt to soothe him. “Okay, wait, let me explain. Have you heard your daughter say the name Panomie?” I asked.
His brow furrowed in suspicion but his anger seemed to subside ever so slightly. “Suppose I have. What do you know of him?”
“I know that he’s real and your daughter is in danger if she’s met him.”
The man narrowed his eyes and stared at me as if he was trying to see into my mind. “I suppose you’d best come inside then.”
The bloke led me through to a spacious sitting room in which sat a woman I presumed to be his wife. She was sitting in a comfy looking armchair doing some cross-stitch whilst watching television. It looked like Eastenders. As we entered the room she looked up over her glasses at me.
‘Who’s this, Oscar?” she asked in a voice which sounded like it belonged to somebody much older than she looked.
“Oh, uhh, who are you?” he asked, turning back to me.
“I’m Eddie.”
“Eddie,” he said my name with distaste. “I’m Oscar and this is my wife, Flora.”
“Mrs Lilac to you. Why is he here?” she asked Oscar as if she couldn’t trust me to tell her the truth.
“He knows about this Panomie,” Oscar said. “Do have a seat, Edward.” He gestured to the sofa and then sat down in the armchair next to his wife. I sat in the very centre of the sofa, grinning at the fact that he’d lengthened my name because the shortened version was obviously too common for him.
“I don’t quite know why you’ve come or how you know of him but Panomie is not real,” Flora said. “He’s our daughter’s imaginary friend.” She looked at me as if I was simple-minded.
“You’re not the first set of parents to believe that. You are the first to be warned before it’s too late though,” I said.
“Warned of what? You said our daughter was in terrible danger,” Oscar said.
“Oscar?” Flora said, aghast.
“Have you heard of the recent kidnappings in Maidstone?” I asked. They both nodded. “Well, the police haven’t released this bit of information but all of the children mentioned a man named Panomie before they were taken.” I waited patiently for their silence to subside and some sort of a reply to come.
“Are you the police?” Flora asked.
“No, I’m not.”
“Why aren’t the police here?”
“They don’t know your daughter’s being targeted yet. I’m here to stop Panomie. The police hired me.”
“That is absurd,” Flora said. “He’s clearly insane,” she added turning to her husband. Flora was clearly going to be difficult.
“Then how does he know about Panomie?” said Oscar. “How do you know she’s being targeted?”
“I… I heard her saying his name.” The truth was too much to tell them. I could tell they wouldn’t be able to handle it. Magic is not something to be reviewed lightly.
“Have you been spying on our daughter?” Oscar asked.
“No! Well, yes, actually I suppose I have in a way but not like you think.”
“What kind of a disgusting man are you?” Oscar was up on his feet and I knew that the conversation was over. I needed to pull him back in before he threw me out.
“Oscar, you need to listen to me. Panomie is a gnome — I think — and no matter what you do he will take your daughter. But I’m a warlock and I can help you.” My words were met with stunned silence.
Two minutes later I was standing back on the driveway. “And if you ever come back here I will personally see to it that you spend the rest of your years in prison!” Oscar yelled before slamming the door in my face.
I should have decided what I was going to say before I’d gone in. I might have been able to plan better. I went and sat on a bench on Penenden Heath. I watched the vast empty field and waited. I knew what was coming. Oscar would phone the police for two reasons. The primary one would be to report me but he’d also try to see if there was any truth in what I’d told him as well. The police would not confirm anything I’d said because it was all classified information but they would send an officer out to interview the Lilac family. Word would quickly get up to DCI Richards who was the commanding officer on the case and he would come out here personally knowing that he would find me. Trust me, I’m right.
Twenty minutes later a police car went down Faraday Road. Five minutes after that the unmarked car I’d come to know as Richards’ stopped at the edge of Penenden Heath. He stepped out and after a quick look around he saw me. He shook his head slowly in despair before approaching. I was about to get a telling off.
“What the actual fuck?” he said when he finally reached me. I explained everything that had happened and when I was finished he shook his head again.
“You’ve made a right pig’s ear of this, Eddie.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Why didn’t you call me first? I could have come with you and they would have actually listened.”
“You can explain things to them now,” I suggested.
“No, it’s too late. They’re livid. I’ve got uniform in there calming them down. And I can’t tell them about Panomie. I’ll be out on my ear.” He turned away whilst he thought things through. “You’re positive that girl is next?”
“One-hundred percent.”
He turned back to me. “Alright. The parents are worried about you more than anything so I’ll tell them I’m putting a guard on their house in case you come back. That way they can be watching for any suspicious behaviour and they’ll tell me if Panomie comes.”
“They’ll never know when he’s coming. The kids’ own parents never know,” I said.
“What do you suggest?”
“I need a bug or something in their house. We just need to wait for the kid to be given the ring. Then we’ll know he’s coming.”
“Eddie, there’s no way I’ll be able to get a bug,” said Richards. “I work for Kent Police not MI5.”
“If I give you one will you put it in the house?”
“Sure,” he said after a moments thought.
It didn’t take long for me to whip up a magical bug. I stole a mirror off a car and enchanted it to allow me to see through it via a second mirror which I also stole off the same car. Richards was not amused but he didn’t stop me.
“Where the hell am I supposed to stash this?” Richards asked holding it up. It was far too big to hide.
“Anywhere,” I said. “I’ve put a little cloaking spell on it. As long as they don’t touch it they won’t see it. A high place would be bes
t.”
“I’ll do this, but you need to call me the moment you hear about the ring.”
“I will,” I promised.
“The very moment,” he said, pointing his finger at me.
“The very moment,” I repeated.
Two days later Oscar and Flora’s daughter came in from playing on the Heath with an ugly engagement ring which just so happened to fit her tiny little finger perfectly.
10
I didn’t find out until evening. I hadn’t been sitting in front of the mirror every minute of every hour, I had other things to do. I still needed to find the cure for the darkness remember? I’d learned from watching over the last couple of days that Agatha— yes I know, horrid name for a child— played in the woods by Penenden Heath. That was where she was meeting Panomie. I’d used that in my plan. Tonight I wasn’t just going to thwart the little bastard’s plan, I was going to catch him.
