The Madness Project (The Madness Method)

by Bralick, J. Leigh

  “Do what?”

  “Shut down like that. I know you’re hurting. Pretending you’re not won’t make it gan away.” I bent my head. “Believe me, I know.”

  He got a strange, dangerous look in his eyes, and he drifted a step away from me. “Would you rather see me at the edge of a roof again?” he asked, his voice melting into the shadows, and he strode off without another word.

  I watched him go. Everything inside me was screaming at me to chase him down, except some wee part that was just so tired of following after him. A minute and he’d disappeared through the gate, and I let out all the breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.

  I’d almost reached the front steps to the Hole when Coins shot out of the shadows and grabbed my arm.

  “You let him run off?” he asked, scowling. “I think he wanted some company.”

  “Bog off, Coins,” I said. “Shade can handle himself. He doesn’t need me nannying him all the time.”

  He whistled. “Bit tetchy, eh?”

  “He doesn’t want my help,” I snapped. “He thinks he doesn’t need anyone!”

  “Oh,” he laughed. “Don’t think that’s how it is, not a bit. Doesn’t want help? Sure. Thinks he doesn’t need it? Not a chance. But that’s prob’ly got him scared more than anything. Who likes admitting they need help?”

  “That’s stupid,” I said. “Sounds like a stupid thing boys would think.”

  He grinned and held up his hands. “True,” he said. “Guilty as charged, right? Now, come on, Hayli, let’s go find Shade.”

  He sauntered off toward the gate, and I muttered under my breath and ran after him. We caught up to Shade just as he reached the Bricks’ alley. Coins sidled up alongside him and threw an arm around his shoulders, startling Shade a bit more than I’d expected, but he just smiled faintly at Coins and ignored me completely.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Coins asked.

  “I don’t have one.”

  I snorted. Shade shot me a surprised glance, which at least got me feeling a bit smug. When we got to the Bricks’ door we found it closed up tight, and I couldn’t even get a sense if anyone was inside. For a while Shade paced back and forth, but when I thought he’d finally give up and go home, he stalked up the steps and pounded on the door.

  Nothing happened for a tick, then I caught a bit of shuffling inside and a voice called, “Pass?”

  Drat, I thought, but Shade smiled.

  “Straw,” he said.

  Silence. Then something rasped inside the door, probably a bolt being drawn back, and the door swung open to pitch darkness.

  “Shade! You!” the voice cried. “Get in here. Who’re they? Oh, well, bring them in too.”

  “Hullo, Tam,” Shade said, which explained why the voice sounded familiar. “What’s going on?”

  We all piled into the building, and soon as the door settled shut, Tam flicked on a torch. He stood all alone in the entry there, and I couldn’t hear anyone else moving about in the shadows. I wondered if all the other Bricks had gone, and if they had, where?

  Tam smiled and clasped Shade’s hand, but his eyes narrowed when his torchlight flashed over me.

  “You again,” he said, and sighed. “Fine.” He rubbed his hand over the back of his head. “You better not be wanting aught from us. We can’t give it.”

  “Is everything jake with you lot?” Shade asked.

  Tam muttered and turned away, waving us after him. We’d barely moved to follow him when someone shouted down the hall, and a noise like shattering glass ricocheted through the emptiness.

  Tam flinched. “Dan’ make a sound. Coolie’s swacked again, I reckon. He’ll zotz us all if he sees you here.”

  “Because?”

  “You’re not one of us,” Tam said, and shrugged, like that made all the sense in the world. “Stars, it’s been hell around here.”

  “What happened?”

  I wondered if Coins or Tam could hear the tightness in Shade’s voice.

  “Div’n you hear? Our supplier kicked.”

  “He died?” Shade asked, sounding surprised. “What does that mean, for you? Do you all need anything?”

  Stars, I thought. He’s good.

  And the notion made me hesitate.

  Lying comes so easily to him, doesn’t it? So why do I trust aught he says or does? For all I know, every single thing he says to me could be a lie…

  “You dan’ get it,” Tam was saying. “He wasn’t that kind of supplier.”

  “Are you in some kind of trouble, then?”

  “See for yourself, and you tell me,” Tam said.

  He pushed open a warped door and held it for all of us to enter. A wide, half-broken window let in the heavy wind and the sporadic flashes of lightning which, along with the brightness of Tam’s torch, showed us a couple other shapes in the empty room—one sitting in the middle of the floor, the other stretched in front of him.

  Shade stared in silence at the two figures, but I couldn’t stop staring at Shade. His face was torn with pain, his hands knotted at his sides, and as long as I watched him, I didn’t see him draw a single breath. Finally I shifted my gaze to the two figures. The one crouched on the floor was the little boy I’d met with Tam, but the other one was a girl, deathly pale and thin as a reed. I swallowed and crept a step closer. My eyes hadn’t tricked me. Her throat and arms were mottled with livid bruises, and under her thin shift, her hollow chest never moved.

  “Oh stars,” I whispered. “She’s…”

  “They did this to her,” Tam said. “They did.”

  “Liza,” Shade said, and knelt down across from the little boy. He placed his fingers against the girl’s throat, but he had to know she’d been long dead. “Who did it?”

  “Y’know what she was.” Tam’s voice caught in his throat. “It drove her mad, when the boys scattered and the supplies dried up. She went straight to the sugar dealers begging for sweets.” He shook his head, dragging the backs of his fingers across his mouth. “And they’d kill every one of us if it suited them.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Shade murmured, standing up.

  Last night the crow had heard Shade’s bravado, talking to Kantian about taking care of Joren. Now all I heard was sadness and the sting of regret.

  “Yeah, well,” Tam said. “What’s it to you?”

  “You took me in when I had nowhere to go,” Shade said. “I don’t forget a kindness.”

  “Saying you’re sorry is fine, but sorry dan’ buy apples.”

  Shade hesitated. I knew I should let him get it sorted, but he couldn’t say aught about Joren without making Tam think he knew a whole lot more than he was letting on. And even though the little voice in my head told me that was his problem and he should figure it out himself, I just couldn’t do that to him. Not when I could see that desolation in his eyes.

  “Well,” I said. “Let me see if I can figure this out. Alby Durb was your supplier, wasn’t he? There’s been rumor all over the streets about how he turned up dead.”

  I caught Shade staring at me, but I couldn’t let myself glance his way. Tam studied me, suspicious, but the little boy wiped his cheeks and nodded.

  “That was him,” he said.

  “Zip, shut it,” Tam snapped.

  And Coins—I wanted to hug him for being such a clever eavesdropping nosy-beak—pitched in, “Alby Durb? Heard some talk about him myself. He bossed it over a fellow named Joren, right? Stuffed suit who runs the buyers’ ring?”

  “How the hell’d you know that?” Tam asked, wide-eyed. “I div’n even know that…”

  Coins grinned, looking insufferably pleased with himself. “I know!” he exclaimed. “I impress myself too, sometimes.”

  Tam muttered a curse and paced a few steps. “But what does it matter?” he asked. “Coolie’s scared white by that crew, so bad he can’t sober up to face it. He’s good as abandoned the rest of us. Half of us have scattered or gone missing. Some of us…” He turned his head to stare at the girl,
and the little boy sniffled quietly. “Some div’n make it. So what’re you planning on doing about it?”

  “Said his name was Joren?” Shade asked. His voice sent a prickle all through me, because I’d never heard him that angry before. “Suppose I’ll be paying him a visit.”

  “You’re not serious?” Tam asked, but the laugh died on his lips when he realized no one else was smiling.

  Shade took two steps toward him, face like flint, eyes blazing. “Don’t ever ask me that again.”

  He bent over the girl’s body, placing his hand on her forehead, then reached over and gripped Zip’s shoulder. I barely heard him murmur,

  “I’ll set this right.”

  Then he spun and stalked out of the room. We all gaped after him, until Coins caught my gaze and jerked his head toward the door. I sighed and nodded, and set off to chase Shade down. Remembering what Tam had said about Coolie, I didn’t try shouting after Shade, but it didn’t matter. A door down the side corridor slammed open, and a wash of torchlight flooded over me. I blinked and shielded my eyes.

  “Who th’ell are you?” someone bellowed from behind the light, words slurring. “Wha’re y’doing?”

  Shade froze by the door, staring back at me.

  “Hayli!” he hissed.

  I waved my hand at him, trying to make him leave, but the dundering idiot wouldn’t go. The man with the torch was barreling toward me, boots thundering in the empty corridor.

  “Hayli, c’mon!” Shade called. “Run!”

  “Don’move,” the man shouted, and then he was in front of me, torch in one hand, revolver in the other, its muzzle wavering somewhere in front of my head.

  All my blood washed away in a rush of cold. The man was dead skunk drunk. He couldn’t know what he was doing. I swallowed hard and held up my hands, as if that would make any difference, watching from the corner of my eye as Shade came storming back toward us.

  “Don’you come—” the drunk man started, but he choked on the words because all of a sudden Shade was right there in front of him, with the biggest rifle I’d ever seen aimed straight at his chest.

  “Drop the gun, Coolie.”

  “You!” the man cried, squinting at Shade through the shadows, forgetting he had a torch to see with. “Whaddyou want? Get outta here, scram…”

  “I said, drop the gun,” Shade growled, pulling back the rifle’s bolt. “Now.”

  The man stared at him for what felt like ages, then he muttered and shoved the revolver into the holster at his belt.

  “Hayli,” Shade said, never taking his eyes from the other man’s face. “Get out, now.”

  Something about his tone launched me into motion. I shifted around behind him, then rabbited for the door. From the front steps I watched Shade take down the rifle and throw the parts on the ground, while the drunk man gaped at him all in a stupor. For a few seconds they just glared at each other, then the man turned and slunk back down the hall. Soon as he’d disappeared, Shade came striding back toward me. But he didn’t even glance at me, and didn’t slow down a jot, but just pushed through the door and out into the street.

  He seemed to know the minute I started following him, because he held up his hand and called, “Go back to the Hole, Hayli. Don’t even think about following me.”

  “Why not?” I shouted, running to catch up, shielding my eyes from the biting wind.

  He turned so sudden-like I stumbled a step back. Somehow I could’ve sworn I saw his white tattoo gleaming, like it was all lit up by the rage inside him.

  “Don’t question me.” His jaw tightened, he gritted his teeth. “I don’t want to be…” he started, and failed. “If anything happened…”

  Failed again. For just a tick he wavered there, his gaze locked on mine, then he shook his head and turned away.

  “I won’t follow you,” I whispered to the night. “But I’m still with you.”

  Chapter 2 — Tarik

  I’d taken refuge on the front stoop of an abandoned shop, waiting for the sound of following footsteps that I knew were coming. But when I finally heard them, I could tell even from my distance that they weren’t Hayli’s. And even though I’d been so sharp with her, I felt only a keen disappointment that she’d actually done what I’d asked. I’d told her not to follow me; all I’d wanted was for her to ignore me.

  After a few moments Coins sauntered into view, passing under a street lamp and taking the opportunity to stop and peer around. He caught sight of me almost at once and strolled over to lean against the wall beside me, thumbs hooked in his belt loops.

  “So,” he said. “What’d you do to Hayli?”

  I sighed and tilted my head back. “I sent her back to the Hole.”

  “Why?”

  I let out my breath; I couldn’t find my voice. Coins watched me patiently for a bit, but when I still didn’t answer, he slid down to crouch beside me.

  “You’re blaming yourself for the girl, aren’t you,” he said. “Think she’s dead because of you.”

  How could I not? I turned away to stare down the midnight street.

  “It’s true, isn’t it?” I asked. “And Coolie…”

  But I couldn’t finish the sentence. I just remembered seeing him with a gun trained on Hayli, and how I’d almost killed him. How I would have killed him.

  “That girl, Liza?” Coins said, surprising me that he knew her name. “She was dead a long time before you met her. It was just a bit of time, right?”

  “I don’t accept that,” I said.

  “Well.” He pulled out a half-burned cigo and fumbled in his pockets for a matchbook. “Got a light?”

  I hesitated. I had Dr. Baisell’s ferrosteel lighter in my pocket as always, but I couldn’t lend him that. Stars, I couldn’t imagine how curious he’d be about it. So I just shrugged and shook my head.

  “Oh well,” he said, and threw the stub into a puddle. “Can’t stand the things anyway.”

  I gave him a look.

  “They’re beastly hard to ignore though, right?” he said, flinging up his hands. “Well, so, Joren. Don’t suppose you’ve got the first idea what to do about seeing him, eh?”

  “Not really. But you’ll come with me.”

  He laughed. “Suppose I will.”

  “I’ll get a few of us together. Just have to get word to him somehow that he needs to see me.” I chewed on one of my nails while I thought that over. “Not sure how I’ll do that.”

  “Is that a not-so-subtle request for my help?” Coins asked.

  “Will you do it?”

  He gave me the two thumbs up sign with a wicked grin. I reached over and punched him in the shoulder, hard.

  “Ow,” he said. “Sorry, couldn’t resist. Listen, Shade. About Hayli.”

  I sighed and dropped my head in my arms. How could I explain to him that Hayli was an impossibility for me? That I could never be the person for her that…that I wanted to be? I didn’t even know if she wanted me to be anything to her. She seemed to like me well enough, but I’d be damned if I knew how to read how she treated me. Girls were an enigma.

  “She’s a canny lass,” Coins said. “Like a little sister to me. I don’t like seeing her hurting, right? So what’s your game? Can’t you see how she much she cares about you?”

  A sudden warmth rushed through me; I forced it away. Steeled my heart.

  “Hayli is quicksilver to me,” I said. “A beautiful danger. I can’t afford…I can’t let her get close to me.”

  “Why not?” Coins murmured, watching me curiously.

  “Because,” I said, and closed my eyes. “Because she makes me forget.”

  * * * *

  Joren agreed to meet us in an empty warehouse two streets south of the Troyce & Fallon, in the middle of the day when we would have no need for lamps or torches. The daylight was the only thing about the meet that I liked. The warehouse stood deep in the abandoned sector of the city, where no one ever visited—especially not the police—and the building itself was far too bi
g, far too cluttered inside for comfort. I’d gone down to survey the place the day before. No one had to tell me how much danger we’d be in, but I didn’t suppose we had any choice.

  The morning of the meet, I called Coins, Jig, and Anuk together up in the enclosure. I think Jig was a bit surprised that I’d invited him, but he had a code of honor I could respect, and I knew that he wouldn’t compromise the lot of us because of some old injury to his pride. He leaned back against the wall with a rather frigid scowl, though, doing his best to ignore Coins who yammered on about nothing in particular.

  “All right, listen,” I said, silencing Coins. “Coins and I are going to meet with a fellow named Joren. Thought I’d ask you two if you’d like to come along. He’s gotten a bit too tall for his hat, and he’s been riding the Bricks down the rail ever since Alby Durb kicked.”

  Jig snorted. “You think we care what happens to the Bricks?”

  “Rivano does,” I said, and left it at that.

  “What’re you going to do about it, Shade?” Anuk asked. “We’re not exactly in a position to negotiate with anyone who’s got real power in this town, so.”

  I met his gaze coldly. “I am.”

  Coins cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t question him, right?”

  Jig and Anuk exchanged a glance.

  “So you’re just ganna waltz in and tell him to leave them alone?” Jig asked. “You really think it’s that easy?”

  “That’s right,” I said. “Stay behind if you’re not man enough to come along. But I’m leaving now, so make up your mind fast.”

  I turned before Jig’s anger could flare up. If he couldn’t lash out at me immediately, I knew it would just push him to follow me and prove me wrong. Coins sauntered along a step behind me, but I didn’t turn to see if the other two were coming.

  After a moment Coins whistled a bit and murmured, “Well aye. Here they come.”

  I smiled and led the way down to the warehouse. My gut gnawed at the frayed edges of my nerves, tying all my insides into knots. Tarik’s hands would be shaking, and I let them shake, but Shade kept his chin up and his hands free at his sides, and stalked straight for the open door of the warehouse.