by Safari,B. C
‘Oh, spare me your higher-than-thou morality complex!’ spat Felix, ‘I was a young parler and Cato took me under his wing. He taught me everything I know! He was a great man for the most part!’
‘So you’re still working with him, huh?’ muttered Junior, shooting Felix another hate-filled glower.
‘In all honesty, I don’t even know if Cato’s alive… I heard he died over 50 years ago.’
‘How?’
‘He was captured and killed by other parlers, of course,’ huffed Felix, ‘it was presumed that Cato’d gone on a bauchering spree to acquire the powers of other parlers. But knowing Cato, he would not endeavour such a suicide mission without a definitive goal. We’d fallen out of contact by this time… it was the late forties, and I was voyaging the Caribbean islands with some buccaneers stationed in Jamaica…now that was awfully fun.’
‘Get to the point,’ muttered Sasha, on edge.
‘Anyway, I received word that all parlers were to go into hiding because there was a baucherer loose. So, like most parlers did, I faked my death, changed my identity and headed back for England. Only, when I arrived – I found out that it was Cato who everyone was running from...my old friend Cato!’
‘That explains the deaths and disappearances in 1947!’ exclaimed Junior, ‘parlers were going into hiding, forced to fake their own deaths. That’s why Arthur Mannox and his wife forged their deaths at the Willow Lodge.’
‘Correct,’ grinned Felix, ‘it was a chaotic time, there was a large sector of parlers dead set on capturing Cato and killing him for his crimes.’
‘What made them think that it was Cato committing bauchery. After all, it could’ve been any power-hungry parler.’
‘Well,’ smirked Felix, ‘Cato’s signature was that he scorched his victims from the inside. It’s quite a spectacular skill. He would leave them dead behind the eyes, so they would look like they’d frozen to death…the meres would never be able to detect it. The victim would seem like they’d died of natural causes.’
Shuddering as his memory of Allan Roterbee’s corpse replayed, Junior muttered, ‘is there any possibility that parlers could be faking their deaths this time around?’
‘If you’re asking in regards to the death of your father, I’m afraid you may not like the answer I give. Arthur Mannox was really murdered, as was Headmaster Williamson. That’s why I travelled back here in the first place…to see if it was really true, to see if Cato was truly at large again.’
‘Did you know about the vault beneath the headmaster’s office, before?’ asked Charlotte, studying Felix Corneli dubiously.
‘I had never seen or heard of the existence of a vault before yesterday night.’
‘Lies!’ snarled Sasha, ‘then why did you disappear after they uncovered the vault? Why were you running when you saw us looking for you? You’re working for Cato, just admit it!’
‘I am not!’ cried Felix, ‘I fled from the chamber because… because I didn’t realize who you really were.’
‘What – do – you – mean?’ mouthed Junior.
‘Well, the doctor seemed to imply that you are the twins of the prophecy, the elected ones… the pair that will break the dark curse.’
‘So you believe all that mumbo jumbo?’
‘Of course!’ spewed Felix, ‘finding out that you were the elected ones as well as the kin of Arthur Mannox was too much to learn in one night!’
Sasha crossed her arms apathetically, ‘that still doesn’t explain why you fled!’ she snapped.
‘I was overwhelmed!’ howled Felix, ‘bear in mind that I have a grisly reputation as one of the most dangerous parlers of all time. What if word got out that I was frolicking with the elected twins and their mere friend. That would not do well for my reputation at all… I’ve spent hundreds of years building this terrifying alter ego, I wasn’t going to give it all up. Finding out that you were Arthur’s children …now that was an unanticipated revelation.’
‘You know our father?’ shot Charlotte, ‘Allan Roterbee?’
‘I knew Arthur Mannox,’ corrected Felix, ‘at least before he was Allan Roterbee. I was assigned his mentor during his transition, I taught him how to control his power. Our paths crossed a few times after that, but I can’t say our relationship ended on the best of terms…we were acquaintances, at best.’
Felix shot his favourite, freakish grin. Somewhere in the last ten minutes, the young man had become as handsome as he was annoying. The redness around his eyes had started to dampen, and soon, he had the same angel-like guise with which the trio had first encountered him.
‘Look, the real reason I ran is because I was scared,’ sighed Felix. ‘I was scared because, if Cato is alive, and he wants what’s in that vault, he’ll be looking for you.’
‘Why would you be scared of Cato?’ chortled Sasha, ‘you’re his friend. You’ve killed people like me. You and Cato killed meres together.’
‘Yes, Cato was my friend, and yes… we killed together!’ ejaculated Felix, ‘but he and I had an unsettlement many years ago. I was excommunicated from his inner circle…the book didn’t explain that part, did it? Cato taught me that all meres were greedy and selfish, and they would persecute me as a witch if they ever discovered my ability. I hated all meres with a passion, and yes, I slaughtered them. But as I travelled the world, I began to see that not all meres were the same. The Japanese were exceptionally kind towards me.’
Kissing his fingers suggestively, Felix murmured, ‘and the women… the women were just from another world!’
Charlotte, Junior and Sasha each cringed a little.
‘Anyway,’ chortled Felix, strangely pleased by their discomfort, ‘I began to feel that Cato’s views were a little radical, and his longing for power was becoming unhealthy… you can only guess what happened next.’
Gasping at his own narrative, Felix cried, ‘he said that my loyalty to him had dwindled and when I denied it, he tried to kill me!’
In the short time they had known him, it was easy for Sasha, Junior and Charlotte to infer that Felix was a fan of theatrics.
‘Can you believe it?’ the wide-eyed parler whimpered, ‘my own friend, Cato, wanted me dead!’
Chortling melodramatically, Felix cried, ‘haha! that’s the pro to being invisible. You see, when I discovered what he was planning, I fled from Cato at once. Got onto the first ship to Jamaica and stayed there until I was ordered back to England.’
The young man sighed, clearly exasperated by his own narrative, ‘anyway, long story short, Cato wants me dead and that’s why I can’t linger around the two of you.’
Shooting Charlotte and Junior an accusatory glare, Felix muttered, ‘from what the doctor said, Cato’s looking for you. If he finds you, or us, we’ll all be dead!’
‘So you’re just looking after your own ass!’ barked Charlotte.
‘As self-regarding as it sounds, yes,’ grinned Felix, ‘I’ve lived a good 200 years, travelled the entire world…life is precious, I don’t want mine to end.’
‘It’s what you deserve,’ scowled Sasha, ‘you’ve killed so many others. You deserve to be killed.’
‘I deeply regret all my wrongs,’ muttered Felix, as lines of sorrow worked across his childlike face.
‘Then prove it!’ shot Junior, ‘if Cato wants us, he will be coming soon. You said that you helped our father access his abilities. Stay and help us! If we are the elected ones, our power could surely triumph Cato’s.’
‘You underestimate Cato’s power,’ muttered Felix. ‘He’s got 3000 years’ worth of experience killing folk like you and I.’
‘But you could help us!’ cried Charlotte, ‘if you flee again, Cato will find you and kill you regardless. Help us and we will protect you.’
‘You do not understand what you are asking, child.’
‘If you truly regret the crimes you committed in the past, then you’ll stay,’ said Junior. ‘You’ll stay and help us defeat Cato.’
&
nbsp; Felix hovered indecisively, deep in thought. Lines of distress worked between his brows. How was he to train a group of teenagers who had only learned of parlery last night? Could their powers ever match Cato’s? What if it all ended badly… What if Cato won?
Sucking in a laboured breath, Felix finally muttered, ‘very well…but this is only because you’ve given me no choice!’
‘Good,’ smirked Sasha, ‘you don’t deserve one.’
He scowled back, irately, ‘I have not trained any juvenile parlers since your father. I need to know what I’m working with.’
Each member of the trio stared at Felix, modelling stark, blank expressions.
‘What exactly are your powers?’
‘I can see things … things of the future, apparently,’ muttered Charlotte.
Three sets of eyes rolled to Junior.
‘I’m not sure yet, but I think it has something to do with time …freezing time.’
‘Interesting,’ hummed Felix, buoyant once more.
Stretching forth his hand, the freakish blonde man announced, ‘say hello to your new instructor.’
‘Just out of interest,’ muttered Charlotte, accepting Felix’s handshake, ‘what power did our father possess?’
‘If I told you,’ snarled Felix, ‘then I would surely have to kill you.’
Chapter thirteen
‘Lessons from the Invisible Man’
The Willow Lodge was slowly changing. The once-desolate dining room table was now surrounded by life every suppertime. One evening, Charlotte could’ve sworn that she heard the doctor playing music from his study. Dwayne-the-gardener would occasionally stay for tea, and when he did, he added a surprisingly pleasant dynamic about the dinner table. Though Dr. Willow would never be a man of many words, he had come to a silent agreement with the Roterbee twins. These days, he needn’t say a word and both Charlotte and Junior could guess exactly what he meant to say. Charlotte had recently alleviated the duty of collecting the Shorebridge telegraph - every morning - from Luchia. She would collect it from the shabby letterbox and place the newspaper directly into Dr. Willow’s hands, and he would silently gesture his thanks. A few days after she’d made it a routine, the doctor actually uttered, ‘thank you, Charlotte’ and one day she believed she heard him say ‘thank you, dear.’ But, from the mechanical manner which the doctor resumed a cold countenance, Charlotte doubted whether she had heard him right. With all this new change about the cottage, it was no wonder that neither Dr. Willow nor Luchia noticed that Charlotte had been taking twice the amount of dinner and still managed to sweep her plate clean. Or, that the milk, which usually lasted the week, ran out within two days. They didn’t even notice that a pair of Dr. Willow’s best polished shoes had gone missing. The presence of the mysterious invisible man, Felix Corneli, was at heart of these changes. Felix had calculatedly spread his time between the Willow Lodge and Sasha’s home. At the Willow Lodge, he was positively undetected by everyone except Junior and Charlotte, which made his presence some sort of inside joke. One evening, Felix batted Dr. Willow’s head repeatedly at the dinner table. After dinner, the doctor, who had no idea what had come over him, complained of severe headaches. Felix saw it as revenge, for the callous way Dr. Willow often talked to Luchia. The invisible man watched them every day, by the staircase, bickering about one thing or another. The doctor was almost always in the wrong but too proud to admit it. At the same time, Felix had recently launched intense ‘power development lessons’, which had, thus far, been completely unsuccessful. Every evening at 7.30 pm, after supper was done, Sasha would curl through the twin’s bedroom window and the training session would begin.
‘Close your eyes and just feel it, like lightening pulsating through you…channel your power as if you’re channelling lightening.’
Circling the room hyperactively, Felix explained, ‘it’s like when I become invisible, I have to channel that power from the surroundings.’
‘I can’t do that,’ grumbled Junior, ‘it doesn’t work like that for me.’
‘Of course it does!’ beamed Felix, ‘think of your body as a magnet, and your ability as the metal… it will be drawn to you naturally.’
‘Enough with the cheesy metaphors,’ panted Charlotte, irately, ‘you’re only confusing me more.’
Mimicking Charlotte in a high-pitched voice, Felix sang, ‘enough-with-the-cheesy-metaphors …until you learn to channel your abilities, I’m afraid there is not much I can do for you.’
‘I am getting a little better,’ said Junior. ‘This morning I needed sugar in my tea, and I did it again. Everything kinda, sorta froze…like slow motion. It was brilliant, I walked over to the kitchen and got the sugar, all within a split second!’
‘Excellent!’ grinned Felix, ‘that’s progress… you must have been so fast that I didn’t even see you pass!’
‘I can’t seem to channel anything,’ muttered Charlotte, ‘and I’ve taken off the Roterbee necklace, so that can’t be it.’
‘Don’t be so downcast about it, young one!’ cheered Felix, ‘your skill is very unique. Visions may appear to you when they are ready, as opposed to when you are ready. With time, you will learn to manipulate them.’
Charlotte sniggered at the idea of Felix, who looked but a year older than herself, calling her ‘young one’; she would probably never get used to the freakish blonde boy. Junior, however, was easily captivated by Felix and the adventurous tales of his last 200 years. Being a parler was exciting, and Junior often wondered why his father would ever choose to conceal such a world. By his own desire, Allan Roterbee had assumed the life of a filthy-rich, uninteresting mere, when he was something far more spectacular. Junior did not know why his father ever strayed from parlery, but from what Felix described, he was certain that Arthur Mannox was part of the sector who ‘were dead set on finding and killing Cato’. No doubt, Mr. Williamson and Bart Bold were also part of this group. And Cato, who presumably never died, avenged their attack by bauchering Allan Roterbee and Mr. Williamson in cold blood. This theory seemed to be most true, albeit far too confusing for Junior to ever fully understand. One thing that he did know was that Cato was prepared to kill for whatever Mr. Williamson was hiding in the vault beneath his office. The only qualm was that the murderer needed Charlotte and Allan Junior alive to acquire it.
‘What does the ‘elected ones’ really mean,’ asked Sasha, gazing at Felix, fixedly, ‘how do they break the dark curse.’
‘You’ve read the legend,’ said Felix. ‘The king cursed all parlers to be restless wanders over the earth until ‘we’ will be plucked from it. The literal meaning is that we will be ‘frozen in time’ from the age that we transition.’
‘So you do live forever!’ cried Sasha.
‘That’s not what I said,’ snapped Felix, ‘on the contrary, parlers do have a life span, albeit a great deal longer than meres. No one knows how long we can live, but Cato has more than 3000 years… he’s one of the oldest.’
‘There are more like him?’ shot Charlotte.
‘I’ve never been so fortunate to meet the other originators, but Cato is very old indeed. That’s one of the reasons why other parlers suspected him for bauchery in the 40’s. You see, when a parler becomes very old, his powers dwindle, and more often than not, natural death will follow. After surviving three millenniums, Cato was probably too afraid to die. So, he sucked the powers of others, hoping that it would keep him alive for another century or so…at least that’s what they say.’
‘So parlers can die naturally, like humans?’
‘When we become old, and our powers dwindle, we die, just like meres. The only difference is our version of old is well past 1000 years.’
‘The prophecy says that parlers will search for death but it will not come,’ said Charlotte, ‘meaning that they cannot be killed.’
‘Killing parlers …well that’s a topic for lesson ten, dear child. Let’s just focus on mastering your powers for now
.’
‘This is just as important as mastering our powers!’ exclaimed Junior, ‘if we’re to stand a fighting chance against Cato, we need to know everything about parlery.’
‘Very well,’ surrendered Felix, ‘what exactly do you want to know?’
‘How do you do it?’ whispered Charlotte, ‘how do you kill a parler?’
Mounting the bunkbed dramatically, Felix muttered, ‘it’s an extremely difficult thing to do… such a crime is against nature.’
Felix drew back his sleeve and acted the words as he said them, ‘you have to reach through them…plunge your fist through the parler’s chest and grab hold of the heart. When your entire hand has gripped the heart, you incinerate it by focusing all energy to your palms. The blood will trickle out slowly, only it’s not red… it’s silver.’
Smirking at the trio’s sudden gasps, Felix exclaimed, ‘it’s awfully gory… you see, a parler’s power is contained within their silver blood.’
‘So how do you commit bauchery?’ breathed Junior, somewhat nauseated, ‘how do you steal a parler’s power.’
‘That’s the complicated part,’ sighed Felix, ‘once a parler dies, his power is either dispersed to the environment or absorbed into the nearest living soul. Cato always caught his victims alone, so that he, alone, could suck up their powers.’
Felix cleared his throat dramatically and bellowed, ‘however, when a parler is killed in an urbane manner, or dies naturally, his silver blood (which contains his power) is poured into a clear glass bottle which will be buried alongside his corpse.’
‘So that’s how Cato committed bauchery, by incinerating his victim’s hearts and absorbing their powers?’
‘Partly,’ muttered Felix, ‘but by the end of Cato’s reign, he’d become so well versed in killing parlers that he needn’t touch them. He scorched them from the insides with his eyes…his power was unparalleled.’
Glancing between themselves, each member of the trio suddenly realised that going against Cato was not going to be an easy task. With Junior scratching the surface of his abilities, Charlotte still unable to control her own, and Sasha a defenceless mere, the odds were not looking good.
