“We’re here to help,” Alice said.
“Put those away, morons!” Garrick said to the beat cops and shambled over to the three of them.
He glared at them with blood shot eyes.
“One of you want to tell me what the hell is going on?”
Never had Alice heard more colorful language than she did from Garrick in the ten minutes it took to catch him up on what was happening.
“And you’re just telling me, now?” His frown made him look more like a bulldog than ever.
“Until we had something concrete—” Alice said.
He muttered more curse words and began barking orders for someone to call the station for all the gas masks they had. Some of the officers looked at him like he was crazy, while others shot sideways glances at the three of them.
“Okay,” Garrick said. “We’ll go in ten minutes, as soon as those lazy idiots at the station get their asses in gear and send the damn gas masks!”
Garrick coordinated with another man on how to subdue the few left on the roof just as ambulances pulled up. Alice tried not to think about what they’d find inside.
What they could’ve done to Uncle Logan.
She shook herself and shoved the thought away. He was fine. He had to be.
High pitched screaming echoed through the courtyard and Alice saw a woman, her face bloodied and clothes torn, come bolting out of the front door. She was batting at something none of them could see, crying for help.
A police officer ran up to her, but she began clawing at him. It took three more to drag her away. As they stuffed her into a squad car Alice heard her say something about a monster in a three-piece suit and hat, with huge metallic eyes and a snout.
A sickening chill snaked its way through her body.
“She’s here.”
“Who?” Garrick demanded.
“Phantasm,” she said, eyes glued to the door where the woman had come from, half expecting to see her materialize.
“We can’t wait, we need to get in there now!”
Alice sprinted past the police, ignoring the shouts from everyone that told her stand back and wait. She couldn’t wait. If Phantasm was here, then her uncle was in more danger than just from the gas.
She was only a few feet away from the door when a strong hand jerked her to a stop.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Lionel said, lips pursed as he clenched his jaw.
“You want to get killed?” Marco said.
“Uncle Logan and those people in there, don’t have ten minutes! If Phantasm is here, then we can’t wait for them.”
“If Phantasm is here,” Lionel said. “Maybe you shouldn’t go in. It’s only been a few days and what if you see her and lose it? Shadow and I can do this.”
“No, I’m not abandoning Uncle Logan. I can’t stand out here and wait for someone to tell me he’s alright.”
“Alice-” Marco said.
“No! I’m going in there and I’m going to find him and that’s the end of it!”
“If you don’t cool it, I’ll lock you in one of the squad cars!” Garrick said, rushing toward them. “You want everyone here to know who you are under that thing?”
Alice shook her head.
“Then, cool it! You’ll do Logan no good if you lose it in there, got it?”
“Yes,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Gas masks are here,” Garrick said. “We go in two minutes. Get yourself under control or I swear—”
“You’ll lock me a squad car, I got it.”
Garrick glared at her before turning away and barking orders for someone to start handing out the masks.
She paced on the sidewalk, doing her best to breath deep and even. There was enough chaos erupting around her, Alice knew that adding to it in any way wouldn’t help.
“I’m sorry,” she said to Lionel and Marco.
Lionel nodded.
“Garrick’s not wrong,” Marco said. “You can’t go off half-cocked in there.”
“I know, I just…”
Marco frowned at her. She wanted to calm down, but all she could think about was Uncle Logan.
But it’s not just him in there. There’s other people that need my help, too. He wouldn’t want me endangering them to save him.
“I’ll be fine,” she said after a moment. “I promise.”
A group of about a dozen police officers ran up to where they were standing, Garrick in the lead.
“We’re going in through the lobby,” Garrick ordered. “Then up the stairs to the second floor. This is where most everyone would have been at the time of the attack, so be careful!”
“Remember,” Lionel said. “They’re under the influence of something extremely powerful. No killing, and try not to wound them too severely. Get as many out as possible. Leave anyone you see in a suit and gas mask to us.”
A couple of the officers rolled their eyes, others glared at Lionel. Alice wondered if they would be a hindrance or a help, but there was no time to think it through.
The lobby was eerily silent, tendrils of gas curled around their ankles. Alice could see smears of blood on the walls, as if someone were wiping their hands. As they walked down the hall toward the stairs, someone had written shaky fragments of words on the wall with a marker. At least, she hoped it was a marker.
As Lionel pushed open the stairwell door, the sounds of sobbing echoed around them. It was hard to see at first, because someone had damaged most of the lights. The sobbing was joined by a dull thumping sound. They climbed the first set of stairs without seeing anyone. But once they’d turned the corner, Alice felt her insides freeze.
Someone was doubled over on their knees, covering their face in their hands, like a child hiding from nightmares. As Alice stepped closer, she could see that it was a woman, papers scattered around her, the smell of urine stinging Alice’s nostrils. The lights flickered, but she could see well enough to notice missing clumps of hair from the woman’s head. She was muttering something and when Alice stepped closer to try and hear it, she felt a drop of something wet on her face.
Looking over, she found the source of the thumping sound and where the drop had come from. A man was banging his head on the bars of the stairwell, blood from the wound he was inflicting splattering around.
“Shadow, can you—?”
But Marco was leaning on the wall, hands clutching the side of his head as if he were in pain.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“It’s...so strong. Not just these...more...so many more...”
His eyes snapped shut and he began to breath heavily.
Alice looked to the officers waiting several steps away.
“You three, get these two out of here, now.”
They hesitated.
“What are you waiting for?” Garrick asked.
They ran up the stairs and Alice hoped they didn’t pay Marco much mind.
“I told you—” Lionel started.
“You usually do,” Marco said, his voice strained. “I-I’m sorry, but I don’t...need a lecture.”
The woman whimpered as one of the officers lifted her up, but the man who was banging his head let out a wail, as if he’d seen something truly awful. He broke free and charged for Alice. His hair stuck up all over his head, blood tinted half his face red, some of it getting on his teeth as he snarled at her. She stared in shock at the ferocious animal of a man before her.
Then, her instincts kicked in and she shot a Serpent bite into the man. He took a few more steps toward her before stumbling to a halt and falling to the ground.
At first Alice assumed he’d been knocked out, like most people, but then, the man started to convulse.
“Oh God!” she said, reaching for him.
“Get out of the way!” A police officer pushed her and picked the man up.
Garrick fixed her with a hard look.
“Nice job.”
“I-I didn’t know...”
“Yeah
, well, now you do. Let’s move.”
She turned to look at Marco, but jumped back when she saw the shadows writhing around him.
Alice took Marco’s face in her hands.
“Look at me.”
He shook his head.
“Look at me.”
After a moment, he opened his eyes. They were completely black and she could feel him shaking with the effort to hold onto his control. A primal fear tried to take hold of her and she forced it back. Marco needed her.
“Breathe with me,” she said. “Look in my eyes, focus on me, and breathe.”
He did, fast at first, and then slower, until the darkness receded from his eyes.
“You can do this,” Alice said.
His eyes held hers and he nodded. As she stepped away, Alice glanced at Lionel, who was staring at Marco with concern etched on his square face.
She wanted to tell him that they didn’t need his protection, that he didn’t have to carry the burden of their safety on his shoulders, but what would be the point?
“C’mon,” she said to them, walking on ahead.
They found three other people in various states of terror throughout the stairwell. One of them needed to be handcuffed and carried over an officer’s shoulder, while the other two merely whimpered. When they reached the door to the second floor it was held open by a dead body, the head was a mass of blood, tissue, and broken bones. Alice’s mind immediately conjured up the man Lionel had beaten to death, and when she looked back at him she knew he was thinking of it, too.
The fact that the three of them weren’t exactly in the best condition to be doing this made Alice take a moment to calm her runaway pulse. This would’ve been hard in the best of times, but now...now, she needed to focus. She needed to find Uncle Logan and help save as many as possible.
And, if given the chance, take down Phantasm before she turned this gas against anyone else. The thought of facing her brought a heady mix of terror and determination.
Drawing her batons, and forcing any worries or fear out of her mind, Alice stepped over the dead body and into a huge, barely-lit room.
She expected...well, she wasn’t sure. Chaos? People screeching in panic? More dead bodies?
It was much dimmer than the stairwell, even with the windows letting in some of the late afternoon sunshine. Desks here and there had been up-ended, tossing paper everywhere. Pencils snapped under her feet as she tried to walk carefully into the room. When the wind caught a few sheets of paper, Alice jumped at the rustling sound, and then felt profoundly stupid. As her eyes adjusted, she could see a pile of something in the middle of the room.
There were many people huddled under desks, some inflicting wounds on themselves. Others were mumbling or singing, a few cried hysterically. And scattered all around were bodies. The officers started evacuating the ones who were unconscious, but still alive. Alice looked as close as possible at the ones near her. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to find Uncle Logan among the wounded or not. What was the best option? Half insane, or clinging to life?
Her grip tightened on the batons the closer she got to the middle of the room, sweat tickling her back, her stomach tightening with the expectation of a fight that had yet to manifest.
“Shadow?” she asked without turning around. “How many people, can you tell?”
She heard ragged breathing behind her, his voice was strained.
“Three...dozen? It’s hard to distinguish. The fear...it’s...”
Dark, shadowy wisps rolled past her legs, and then retreated.
“Soothe those that you can,” she said, then turned to Garrick. “You need to start evacuating when he calms them. I don’t know what we’re going to find in the middle there or up on the third floor.”
Garrick nodded and began radioing for help.
Lionel stepped up beside her, tension coming off him in waves.
When they reached the center of the room, Alice stared in confusion at what she saw. Dozens of desks, chairs, even typewriters were piled up into some kind of...
“Chair fort?” Lionel said, his voice disbelieving.
Alice stared at him, and then they burst out laughing.
Until half a dozen crazed men and women came rushing toward them, their battle cries shattering the silence.
A young woman threw a letter opener at Alice, who dodged it just in time. Another took her by surprise with what looked like a chair leg, smashing it down onto her back and sending her to her knees, where she kicked the woman’s legs out from under her, then punched her.
A man then grabbed her from behind, but Alice threw him over her shoulder and kicked him in the face. A solid punch to her side made her gasp, and she just barely managed to block a punch to her face. Two more people grabbed her, holding her arms while someone punched her in the stomach. Alice kicked the knee of one of the men holding her, his grip loosening. She then punched the other man holding her in the groin, and then the face. Picking up her baton where she’d dropped it, she slammed it into the stomach of the woman rushing toward her with a coffee pot.
As if the display of violence had awakened some of the others in the room, more men and women began to crawl out of their hiding places.
Lionel gave her a nervous glance as the circle of men and women tightened around them.
“Shadow!” she yelled.
She felt the chill a moment before a rushing wave of shadows swept past her. They engulfed the crazed men and women, drowning them in a sea of darkness.
She stared at it, not believing what she was seeing.
“Shadow, that’s enough!” Lionel yelled.
But the shadows didn’t dissipate; if anything, the darkness became more dense.
“Shadow, stop!” Alice yelled.
As quickly as they had appeared, the shadows were gone.
Alice and Lionel stared around them in disbelief. The mob, who’d been rabid just a moment ago, were all lying on the floor, their faces serene as if sleeping.
Lionel bent to check the pulse of the two nearest him.
When he met her eyes, he nodded and Alice felt her body slouch with relief.
“What the hell was that?” Garrick asked.
Lionel started to answer when the stairwell door slammed opened.
Phantasm stepped through, flanked by a dozen goons of various sizes. Alice could see the gas mask clearly under the black fedora, gleaming metallic, as if it had been painted and polished. The black and red suit was perfectly tailored to hide any indication that the person under it was a woman. Alice hadn’t noticed the gloves Phantasm wore before, the dark red material giving off a wet sheen like they’d been dipped in blood.
Glancing at Lionel, whose gaze swept the room as if he were looking for something, Alice realized that Marco and some of the other police officers hadn’t made a sound. She scanned the room, but couldn’t see a sign of them.
“Well,” Phantasm wheezed in her distorted voice. “I am so happy you could come to my little party.”
It was a strange feeling to know that Victoria was behind that terrible mask. For a moment, Alice wished she could reason with her, appeal to the good woman who might still be inside. But then, she remembered Aunt Diana bleeding to death in a dirty alley and the feeling of terror and weakness that Victoria had inflicted on Alice with the Fantasy gas.
Someone whimpered nearby, followed by snarling words from someone else. Alice looked around at the bodies lying either unconscious or dead.
She did this, all of it. No matter what she was like in the past, she’s a villain now.
“Is that what you call it?” Lionel asked.
“Actually, more of a gardening session. Getting the ground ready for planting.”
“Planting what?”
Phantasm wagged a gloved finger.
“It’s a surprise.”
That’s when Alice saw a shadowy figure moving behind Phantasm and her men, followed by two others. Maybe if they could keep her talking...
“How i
s this getting the ground ready?” Lionel asked, hands clenching into large fists.
“You don’t garden, do you? When you want to plant, you have to clear the ground, get rid of the old, the dying, the weeds.”
“The newspaper fits that description?” Alice asked, as two more shadows moved into position.
“Yes and no.” Phantasm took one step toward her. “I like to be efficient. This is, what’s that saying? Ah yes, two birds with one stone.”
“You enjoy making innocent people kill each other?” Lionel asked, his voice strained with anger.
“I simply release the truth inside.”
“Who asked you to?”
“I think,” Phantasm said. “That you are stalling.”
The officers and Marco sprang into action, attacking the goons. Lionel lunged for Phantasm, but she was quick on her feet. She stepped onto a nearby desk, launched herself from it, and began jumping from chair to desk to chair until she was several feet away. Alice felt her anger boil up and ran after her, Lionel’s warning shouts distant in her ears.
She followed Phantasm’s example, using the wrecked furniture like stepping stones, until she was across the room and looking into Uncle Logan’s office. A thought that maybe he was safe created an instant of distraction and Phantasm punched Alice’s side, the blow sending pain up her body and around her back. There was no way that thin, delicate Victoria would be able to do that kind of damage without physical enhancement.
Shock quickly gave way to anger and Alice whipped her baton around, connecting with Phantasm’s stomach. She stumbled back, but quickly recovered.
Alice needed to expose some skin to get a serpent bite into Phantasm’s body, and so, swinging the baton toward Phantasm’s face as a diversion, she swept her legs out and pinned her. But Phantasm made a surprise move, wrapping her long legs around to flip Alice onto her back, batons flying from Alice’s hands.
She’s a good fighter. I hadn’t expected that.
Phantasm punched Alice in the face and she felt an explosion of pain her eye. She tried to flip Phantasm onto her back, but her legs wouldn’t reach. As another blow fell, Alice decided her only hope was to get Phantasm talking until she could find a weapon.
“What are you planting?” she asked, as her fingers touched the baton where it had fallen.
Serpent's Sacrifice Page 31
