Council of Peacocks

by M Joseph Murphy

  “You did what?” David felt his mouth go dry and knew there was no way he was going to be able to eat the chocolate bar now. “You can do that?”

  Jessica started pacing again. “Well, obviously he can do it or he wouldn’t have just done it. Loser. Keep up, will you?”

  “Again with the no-rude rule. In case you forgot, I’m not the heroic type. I am not above hitting little girls, you know.”

  “Please, keep quiet! Jessica, behave yourself. He obviously has no idea what’s going on.”

  “What is going on?” David found it hard to concentrate on the drama being played out before him. Something kept drawing his attention away. He found it hard to focus on anything.

  Jessica cupped a hand to her mouth and whispered as if she did not want anyone to overhear. “Todd thinks Wisdom’s gone crazy.”

  “I did not say that!” Todd realized how loud he was, moved to within a few feet of David and continued at a barely audible volume. “I didn’t even think that. Remember, be careful what you think around here. Having said that, I can feel him, Wisdom. He’s all over the place. His anger, actually I don’t even think anger is the right word. It’s like the kind of rage you see in caged tigers, when you just know they would rip you to shreds if it wasn’t for the bars keeping them in.”

  “So how is that different from yesterday?”

  Jessica walked over to him and punched him in the stomach. “Stop being stupid. Maybe we should have gone to Josh instead.”

  “Don’t do that again.” David resisted the urge to smack her upside the head, and then decided there was no reason to resist. He slapped the back of her head, not hard, but enough to set her ponytail swinging. “And if you want to go see blondie, be my guest. Let him be all heroic and noble.”

  Jessica, her face turning steadily red, raised her fist again. Todd grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away from David. “We don’t have time for this. I’m glad you two have bonded so well, but you can act like brother and sister later. We are going to see Josh, but you were on the way to him so we thought we’d come get you first.”

  “Come on, Todd, let’s just leave the baby alone.”

  “Jessica, enough!” Todd’s voice rose above a whisper again.

  Behind them, someone cleared their throat.

  ***

  Josh was confused. “Jared, what are you doing in here?”

  Jared’s upper lip twitched and the light in the room dimmed ever further. “I don’t see what’s so special about you. But Propates says you can’t be allowed to stay here anymore. He says you’re dangerous and I have to bring you in. You don’t look so dangerous to me, though.”

  Josh licked his lips and backed up. He quickly searched the room, looking for a weapon. Then he saw it, exactly where it was last night. Now he just had to make his way over to it before….

  Jared rolled his eyes. “Idiot. I am a mind reader, you know?” He looked over at the letter opener on a nearby desk. The sharp blade jumped into the air and flew toward Josh. Josh threw himself down and rolled back into the bathroom, losing the towel in the process. He got to his feet and closed the door just as Jared approached it. Luckily for him, he was able to get the lock in place before Jared could reach the handle.

  Josh backed away from the door and stared at the handle. For a moment everything was completely still and silent. Then, with a small popping sound, the handle dropped off the door and landed on the tiled floor with a clink.

  “If there was ever time for a miracle,” Josh said, “this would be it.”

  ***

  “Mr. Ross?” The Chinese man had returned. He stood just outside the lunchroom and David was now fully aware of a small protrusion under his suit jacket that could only be a gun. David looked back at the other two. Jessica put a finger to her lips and Todd just shook his head.

  “Answer him,” Todd said.

  “What?” David asked.

  “Just answer him. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  David turned back to the Chinese man and smiled. “Yes. I’m Mr. Ross. Can I help you?”

  “I heard voices.” The man’s voice was dark with strength and menace. It left David feeling like he was back in school and being sent to the principal’s office. The Chinese man slipped into the lunchroom and looked around. “Where are they?”

  “Where are who?” David stared at Todd. He stood exactly where he had been, right hand pressed to his forehead, left hand held out before him, fingers stretched and palm pressed outwards. But the guard’s eyes did not seem to land on him.

  “I saw them when I passed by before. The other Anomalies. Where are they?”

  David shrugged and tried to look innocent. He also tried to keep his eyes from straying to the other two. He had never been a very good liar. “Oh, them. They left. Don’t know where they are now. Really. But there’s no one else here, right? I mean, you’re here and I’m here and we can see each other. You could see someone else if they were here and since there is no one you can’t see them. That means there are no other people, or another person here. Are you sure you saw them before? Maybe it was shadows or…I’ll just shut up now.” Five words in, David realized he should have just shook his head and kept quiet. As it was, he just let his voice fade away before his rambling looked any more suspicious than it already had.

  The man looked at David and slightly shook his head. Then he walked back out into the corridor and disappeared again. When he was gone, David let out a breath he was not aware he had been holding and wiped his forehead with a shaking hand.

  “Don’t do that to me again.” He walked briskly away from the door and stood in front of Todd. “I don’t think I’ve got a heart condition, but I’d rather not find out.”

  “Wow,” Jessica said. “Nerves of steel. Can’t wait to see you in the battlefield.”

  “Jessica!” Todd lowered his hands and sat on a nearby table. “Can’t you go back to the way you were yesterday? You were actually tolerable then.”

  “How did you do that?” David kept looking back at the door. He was sure the man would be back any second now. “It was like you were invisible to them.”

  Todd smiled. “It’s easy once you know what to do. You just alter the way their brain interprets the signals the eyes send it. You make someone see something that isn’t there or make them not see something that is there. Bethany used to be really good at doing it. I always told her the two of us could make a mint as international thieves. You know what she said? She said it was too dangerous. Irony is she’d still be alive if we had.”

  “We don’t have time for this, Todd.” Jessica crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the ceiling. “Wisdom’s almost ready.”

  “Ready to do what?” David looked at her, but once again his eyes refused to stay focused on her. Something was distracting him.

  “That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you.” Todd rubbed at his eyes and got to his feet. “From what I can read from the crap he’s throwing off, Wisdom plans on attacking the Council of Peacocks. And he’s going to use us as the weapons.”

  David raised his eyebrows and felt his mouth go dry. He kept looking at Todd, expecting him to say he was joking any minute now. When that did not happen, he lowered his eyebrows and felt the strength bleed out of his knees.

  “I think you’re right. I think Wisdom has gone crazy.”

  ***

  The door swung open slowly.

  Josh backed up until his back struck the back wall. He licked his lips – too dry – and tried to focus. ‘Think’, he thought. ‘I’ve faced Edimmu, escaped a slaughterhouse and broke a demon’s neck. One little boy should be no problem.’

  Only it was. Josh had no idea how he did the things he did. He had never called them up at will. They just happened. Miracles. He was just extremely lucky. Or was he? Back in the Laurentians, the chains fell out of the wall when he thought about them. The car drove on missing wheels because he wanted it to. The pitchfork stopped in mid-air when he willed it to sto
p. Back in high school, at the bush party when he killed Edimmu, he made a conscious decision for his hand not to burn. And when he was a child, hit by a bus, had he not thought, just the moment before impact, please don’t hit me, please don’t touch me? Was it really that simple? Did he just have to will something to have it happen?

  The bathroom door hit the inside wall, bounced slightly and settled into place. Jared stood in the empty frame, smiling.

  “Yeah, not so tough at all,” he said. Jared looked over to the shower and the taps spun alive. Hot water spurted from the nozzle, filling the air with steam. Jared looked over to the sink and spun the hot water tap so hard it flew forward and struck the side of the shower.

  “What are you doing?” Josh tried to back up but there was nowhere else to run.

  “Calling them. Don’t worry. You’ll be home soon.”

  Josh found it hard to see now. The bathroom filled with steam impossibly fast. Jared was a blur of shadow that seemed miles away. A sound like the rapping of a lead pipe against ceramic tiles built from a distant echo to a loud ringing. Josh looked around for the source of the sound and noticed the mirrors. They were completely covered with mist except for a small vaguely circular patch that was dark, like a skylight looking up at a starless sky.

  “You’re calling the Edimmu?” Josh realized how naked and powerless he was and wondered if they would still look at him with love now that he had killed their kind.

  “No,” Jared answered, his voice faint, like a whisper from a dream. “Not them. I’m calling the others. Like I said, you’re heading home. Back to your father, Ehpslab.”

  Josh looked at the circle of darkness. Strength drained from every inch of his body. He saw now what was making the circle. A hand, covered in red blisters and pussing sores was wiping the mist away from the other side of the mirror.

  “No!” Josh jumped up. He suddenly knew beyond a shadow of doubt that he could not allow the creature on the other side of the mirror to make that circle any larger. If it was big enough, something would come through into this world, something he knew he would not be strong enough to fight. He focused on the mirror and channeled his fear. With a sharp deafening crack the mirror shattered into hundreds of pieces. He could feel the glass wanting to shoot out in all directions, to fill the room with shrapnel, but he kept it in place. The glass settled gently around the base of the floor.

  Josh clenched his fists and turned to the doorway. The mist had dissipated. He saw Jared clearly now, saw the expression of shock and fear dawning on the young boy’s face. Then Josh pushed with the force of his will and Jared flew back twenty feet and hit the wall in the bedroom. Pictures fell to the carpeted floor, glass shattering. Jared slid down the wall, shook his head and then jumped quickly to his feet.

  “I am so going to kill you,” Jared said.

  Before Josh could react, Jared stopped and slowly turned to look at something to his right. Someone was in the door to his quarters. He could feel them. Could feel her.

  “Jessica,” Josh said and ran out of the bathroom. He was just in time to see Jessica jump into the air. The air around her turn to puddles and eddies of darkness and quasi-solid shapes. Then the darkness shot out from her and hit Jared square in the chest. It twisted around his body like pythons, squeezing and crushing his body. Then, with a final sick wet crunch, Jared’s body bent backwards at a ninety-degree angle, breaking his back. A second later the legs bent sideways at the knee. Two more wet crunching sounds. For a moment, Jared’s body hung suspended in the air. Then it collapsed and was still. A thin stream of blood trickled out of his left eye.

  “Oh my God,” Josh fell to his knees. He could not take his eyes of the dead body. ‘He was just a kid,’ he thought. Then he looked over at Jessica. She stood in the doorway with Todd and David. No one seemed to notice that Josh was naked. They were all looking at Jared’s corpse.

  “Humph,” Jessica said. “Never liked him that much, anyway.”

  ***

  Wisdom arrived several long minutes later. No one had called him. He had just felt the use of power and the coming of death. Wisdom spoke briefly with Garnet who had arrived alongside him, making arrangements for the removal of the body. Josh dressed in the bathroom but did not trust himself to speak yet. When he came out, Elaine was there questioning the other Anomalies. Everyone fell silent as they became aware of him. Josh stared at the spot where Jared had hit the wall, where Josh had thrown him with a power he did not understand. Then he sat in a chair and told everyone what had happened.

  In the end, Wisdom shook his head and turned to Elaine. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. You understand what I’m saying, Elaine?”

  Just for a moment, Elaine’s eyes went wide. Then she nodded. “Perhaps we should talk.”

  Wisdom nodded and left the room without another word. Elaine followed.

  Jessica snuck to the door, looked up and down the hallway, then stepped back inside and closed the door.

  “Okay they’re gone,” she said. “We can get back to business.”

  David blanched. “Jesus, Jessica. Can’t you give us a few minutes?”

  “No, I can’t. We’ve already wasted enough time, thanks to Jared.”

  “What the hell did you do to him, Jessica? How is that even possible?”

  Jessica punched David in the arm. “Here we go again. Just deal. He’s dead. Get over it.”

  David swung his hand toward Jessica, obviously trying to smack the back of her head. Jessica saw the movement and ducked out of the way.

  “You know child abuse is against the law.” Jessica put her hands on her hips. She could not have looked more like a child if she'd been trying.

  “Not in this country. Now be civil.”

  Jessica cocked her head to one side. “You’re lying. Child abuse is, like, illegal everywhere. Isn’t it? He is lying, right, Todd?”

  Todd exchanged a look with Josh that nearly sent him laughing out loud. He covered his mouth with his right hand, realizing any sign of amusement on his face would just send Jessica over the edge.

  “Let’s not find out.” Todd said tactfully, stepping between the two of them. “Jessica does have a point, though. We did come here to tell you something, Josh. And I’m sure this thing with Jared just made everything that much worse. Wisdom is on the verge of a meltdown.”

  “I told you he thought Wisdom was crazy.” Jessica stuck her tongue out at David.

  “I did not say Wisdom was crazy. He’s just not overly sane right now. He plans on attacking the Council of Peacocks and he’s going to use us as weapons.”

  Josh put a hand on the dresser drawer for support and took a deep breath. “I was afraid of that.”

  For a moment, no one said anything. Jessica glared at him while David and Todd exchanged a long silent look.

  Finally, Jessica spoke. “What do you mean, you were afraid of that? You knew this was going to happen? How could you?”

  Josh rubbed his hands over his face. He looked over at his bed and realized he had been very right about this day. He should have stayed under the covers. “Have a seat and I’ll tell you. Wisdom came to me last night. Well, he came to my dream. Anyway, this is what happened.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  By the time Josh finished telling the story of what had happened last night, everyone in the room was wide-eyed and speechless. David chewed on his nails, slowly shaking his head, while Todd just stared off into a corner. Jessica did her best to pretend his story didn’t faze her. She nodded and rested the index and middle fingers of her right hand on her chin in a fairly good imitation of Katie Couric interviewing a celebrity. However, she cleared her throat far too often and kept tapping her left foot on the carpeted floor. She was nervous. Josh did not have to be psychic to see that.

  “I had no idea Wisdom could do something like that.” Todd rubbed his palms against his pants, his eyes still focused off in the distance.

  “Let’s be honest, Todd,” Jessica said, clearing her throat again.
“We don’t really know what Wisdom is capable of. We’ve never known, not really.”

  “True. I mean, I knew he was powerful but to enter someone else’s dream like that, make Josh see the things he saw?”

  “It’s like he’s Freddy Krueger or something. Spooky.” David spoke through his fingers, not bothering to take a break from his nail biting. “Here we are, all signed up to do whatever he wants us to, and we know nothing about him.”

  “Speak for yourself.” Jessica flung her hand away from her chin, a smug expression forming over her face. She turned away from Josh and focused on David, the act setting her ponytail flopping behind her head. “We know lots about Wisdom.”

  “Like what?” David started pacing now, still chewing away. “He’s a man with lots of secrets and a whole bunch of money and some sort of mysterious power that lets him do things no one should be able to do? Hell, that describes Donald Trump. What I mean is we don’t know what he is. He could be the devil himself for all we know. Who’s to say we’re not on the wrong side? Maybe the Council of Peacocks are the good guys in this.”

  Josh leaned back on the bed and cupped his hands behind his head. “Don’t think so. There is the whole making deals with bloodsucking reptilians and pussing demons. Not to mention how they keep trying to kill us.”

  “Maybe they should!” David let his hands drop away from his mouth and stood there, stiff, each breath he took heavy and pointed.

  “Maybe they should kill us?” Todd turned away from the corner. Josh could not read the expression on Todd’s face. There were bags under the heavy-set man’s eyes Josh had not noticed before. Todd’s eyes moved rapidly in the sockets, as if trying to take in every part of David all at once. “You think because we’re part demon, maybe we deserve to be, what, exterminated? Like vermin or something? Is that what you’re saying, David? Christ!”