Hidden Magic

by Melinda Kucsera

  He could take no more and collapsed to the floor, his mind going blank.

  Something wet and hot brushed against his face and Felix jerked awake. A large, scruffy dog was licking his face.

  ‘Hey!’ He yanked his head away and waved his hands at it. It yelped and ran away. It was still raining and the stench of the dumpster filled Felix’s nostrils. He grimaced against it and pulled himself up to his feet. He looked at his watch. He’d lost about an hour. The back door of the museum burst open and he leapt back into cover. The old man with the staff came out on his own, a scowl etched onto his leathered face. Rapid footsteps splashed in the wet road and Felix peered carefully out to see a skinny lad running down the street. He had rat-like features and was dressed all in black. The old man looked towards him and the lad skidded to a halt beside him, pausing to catch his breath.

  ‘No change,’ he gasped.

  ‘Shadow’s Step said they’re looking into it,’ the old man said in a gruff voice. He passed his staff from one hand to the other. ‘Come with me.’

  ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘No questions.’ They set off up the street, towards the missing neighbourhood. Felix carefully peeled himself out of his hiding spot and followed them at a good distance. They turned the corner and he ran to reach it as quickly as possible. He looked carefully around it and saw them crossing the road and heading for the road that Felix couldn’t go up. He dashed after them. The traffic had picked up some speed since earlier and he jogged across between passing cars. He got to the corner the two men had turned, and looked carefully around it. They were marching up the middle of the road, the old man’s wooden staff clunking on the ground with every alternate step. Felix gritted his teeth and set off after them. They came to a halt suddenly where the street ended. Felix stopped stock still, hoping they wouldn’t turn around and see him. He looked for somewhere to hide but was completely exposed. Huge metal shutters covered entrances to the warehouse to his left and he lurched sideways to tuck into what little cover there was. He kept one eye on the odd couple, who just stood there staring. Felix’s vision blurred suddenly. There had been another street running across the end of this one, he was sure of it, but as he stared it all went hazy. There was nothing there. No street, no traffic, no sky; nothing. He groped in his jacket pocket for his cigarettes and fished one out of the packet, along with his lighter, without even looking. He popped the cigarette into his mouth and held his lighter halfway up to it. His gaze was still fixed on the blank space beyond the two men. The one with the staff held his arms up as if placing his palms against a wall, the staff still in one hand. Felix watched in awe, unsure of what he was seeing.

  ‘Humans are getting turned away from the border, they aren’t seeing this,’ the young, ratty lad said softly. But his voice carried down the alley straight to Felix. He was seeing it. He hadn’t got close enough to get turned around this time. He felt as though he had walked in on a couple having sex. Dirty and horrified and yet unable to look away. ‘Ragged Edge, what’s happened to the people in there?’

  A good question and one Felix desperately wanted the answer to. What was with the weird names? Hang on… humans?

  ‘Have you tried crossing the veil?’ The old man glanced at his companion and Felix pressed himself back against the shutter gently so as not to make it rattle.

  ‘What veil? There isn’t one here.’

  ‘Well, no. But have you tried?’ The lad flashed the old man a withering look. He took a step forward and there was a ripple in the air. He was standing in the nothing and as Felix stared he saw something materialise in the distance. A bizarre landscape of crystal. It was pink and blue and white and utterly breath-taking. The ground was rough beneath the lad’s feet and beyond him were what looked like hills of quartz. Julie kept a few pieces of the stuff around her house. She liked clear quartz and amethyst. This looked just like them, but not just little fragments, a whole field of it. The lad stepped back to his companion’s side and the crystal rippled away to nothing again. The cigarette dropped out of Felix’s mouth to the ground, landing softly in a muddy puddle. He glanced down at it and let out a small sigh.

  ‘Happy?’

  ‘No. I think I know what’s happened, but we need to go in there to investigate properly. You game?’

  ‘Sure.’ The two of them took a few steps into the nothing and again the crystals appeared. Felix stared in wonder as they set off cautiously into the bizarre landscape without a backwards glance. He took a few steps towards them but stopped the moment he started to feel the sickness creeping up on him. He stepped back and felt a little better. He looked up again and saw the two men walking away from him shimmer and shift. Their dark figures morphed, their clothes vanished, as did the old man’s staff, and in place of the men were two large dogs. They had dark, shaggy coats and alert ears. Felix blinked several times and gawked after them as they trotted away into the haze.

  He staggered backwards, stunned disbelief washing over him. He turned and fled from the alley, bursting out into the noisy street. He grasped for the wall and steadied his breathing. The world was falling apart right around him and somehow he felt that he was the only one who knew that everything was wrong.

  Chapter Three

  Felix paced his flat, no clue where to even begin processing everything that was going on. He had been alternating between watching the news and repeatedly calling every person he could think of. The local news reported the collision with the lorry and a few other things, but made no mention of the missing area of Caerton. It was as if it wasn’t even happening, or that people simply couldn’t process it enough to even talk about. He supposed it was the latter. If there had been any doubt before seeing the men turn into animals, he knew with absolute certainty that there was something supernatural at work. He had uncovered a hidden world of magic right under the noses of the people living here.

  How far did it extend and what was to be done about it?

  It was dark outside now and he went to the window to see if anything was different. Would the old man with the staff walk by as usual? What was he really and what did he have to do with the missing place?

  He and his companion had certainly seemed immune to whatever power was causing this mess. Felix rubbed his face and the thought struck him: Could those creatures, or others like them, be responsible?

  He dropped his hands and gazed at his reflection in the glass.

  His mind suddenly made up, Felix turned, grabbed his phone and keys and stormed from his flat. He had to act. He had to find Julie and bring her back. Above all, he had to stop those creatures from harming anyone else.

  It was a cold night and he gripped his jacket around him as he marched up the cobbled hill into the oldest part of the city. The narrow streets were packed with small shops in buildings that seemed to crowd overhead with their wonky Tudor beams and upper floors bigger than the ground floors. He passed a pub overflowing with drinkers all talking animatedly. The tantalising smell of burning cigarettes tempted him as he walked through the smoky street, but he hadn’t sparked up all day and he wasn’t going to cave in now.

  Down a narrow passage between two buildings, Felix could hardly see where to place his feet, but he knew it like the back of his hand and made his way quickly away from the bustling pub and into a back street that was still and quiet. One dull street lamp lit the wet cobblestones. Felix jogged over to the single shop that stood on this out-of-the-way street. It was dark inside. The shop had closed for the night, but Felix knocked hard on the wooden door. Inside the darkened window was a display of dark hoodies and t-shirts, cargo trousers, boots, lighters and other smoking paraphernalia. He hammered on the door again and a light flicked on in the back of the store.

  ‘What do you want?’ shouted a gruff voice from inside.

  ‘Ray! It’s Felix. Open up will you? I’m freezing my nuts off out here.’

  ‘What the hell are you hammering on my door for?’ Ray grumbled as he unlocked the door. He opened it and
Felix slipped inside. Ray closed and locked the door again. The army surplus store was one of Felix’s few haunts beyond the confines of his flat.

  ‘Ray, we go back a long way and I wouldn’t be here asking for your help if it wasn’t an emergency.’

  ‘Sure,’ Ray said, nodding and looking Felix up and down. He was in his late forties, balding, and carrying a little extra padding around the middle these days. ‘What’s up?’

  ‘I need to find my sister. She lives in St. Catherine’s.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘St. Catherine’s. You know? The area of the city that’s disappeared?’ Felix frowned at Ray’s bewildered expression.

  ‘What have you been taking, mate?’ He cracked into a grin and let out a low rumble of laughter.

  ‘Nothing. What do you mean? How can you not know what’s going on out there?’

  ‘Business was a little crazy this morning, but it all died down after lunch. I haven’t spoken to anyone but you in a few hours. What’s going on?’ Ray’s laugh had died and he looked concerned.

  ‘A whole borough of Caerton has vanished. No one can get in or out of it. My sister is wherever it’s gone. I have to find her and make sure she’s safe.’

  ‘Of course you do,’ Ray said, frowning. He patted Felix hard on the shoulder and Felix sighed with relief. He wasn’t in this alone. ‘What do you need?’

  ‘Supplies. Weapons.’

  ‘Mate, I don’t have anything—’

  ‘I know about your back room.’ Felix cocked an eyebrow at his old friend. Ray hung his head and clucked his tongue.

  ‘Of course you do. Come on, then.’ He led Felix to the back of the shop and through a narrow door into a hallway. A curtain was hung across the end of the hall and Ray brushed it aside. A heavy door stood behind it and he flicked through a keyring that jingled with all of its keys. He found the correct one and unlocked the door. The two men filed into the back room and Ray flicked on the light. A bare bulb hung in the centre of the ceiling and cast its yellow light over racks upon racks of guns, grenades, knives and armour. ‘Felix, you can’t be serious about that missing neighbourhood thing. I’ve never even heard of it.’

  ‘St. Catherine’s? You’ve never heard of it at all?’

  ‘No. I feel like you’re pulling my leg.’

  Felix stared at his friend, unsure how to react. Could it be the effects of whatever supernatural thing was at work?

  ‘I’m not. I’m serious. Have you ever seen something so strange that it made you question everything you thought you knew?’

  ‘I can’t say that I have. But I believe you’re serious. Who you going after with this gear?’

  ‘I’m not sure yet.’ Felix turned his attention to the weaponry. He grabbed an armoured vest and flipped it over to examine both sides. ‘Is this bulletproof?’

  ‘Just stab proof. You expecting to get shot at?’

  ‘Not really, I guess. This’ll do.’ Those things had claws, but probably not guns. He grabbed a rifle from the rack and looked it over. Ray watched him with a bemused smirk. Felix didn’t care much whether Ray believed him or not, as long as he let him borrow the equipment. ‘I’ll get it all back to you and pay you for any ammo I use. Is that okay?’

  ‘Fine. But if you leave a great big trail of corpses, do me a favour and leave me out of it.’

  ‘That seems fair.’

  ‘Felix, have you considered the possibility that you’re losing your grip?’

  ‘That was my first thought. But no, I know what I saw.’ He put the rifle into a large bag, along with some smaller weapons, several boxes of ammunition for the various guns, and the armour.

  ‘Don’t get caught with that,’ Ray said as he showed Felix out, locking the door again behind them. Felix waited while Ray unlocked the front door of the shop and lingered when it was opened for him.

  ‘If you don’t hear from me in twenty-four hours, assume I didn’t make it.’

  ‘What have you seen that has you thinking like that?’

  ‘You wouldn’t believe me.’ Felix stepped out into the dark street. ‘Thanks for this.’

  ‘Sure. Good luck. I hope your sister’s okay.’

  Felix gave one last nod of appreciation then set off, his head down, towards his flat. He avoided the busy street with the overflowing pub, taking a longer route through the darkened backstreets and alleys. He felt the shadows pressing in on him, almost clawing at him. His throat felt tight, his muscles taut and his jaw clenched. He was like a panther about to leap into action and every nerve tingled. He hadn’t felt like this since getting home. It was both familiar and alien to him after months of sleeping on soft beds and being idle. But he felt more like his old self again. It wasn’t lost on him that he hadn’t smoked anything all day. He’d never lit that cigarette in the alley. He hadn’t had a drink either. He had a purpose for the first time in months.

  But he couldn’t allow himself to think of any of this madness as a good thing. There was no bright side to this sinister activity.

  He reached his flat and unpacked the bag, laying out his supplies. He had no idea how any of it would help, or who he was going after. Those creatures he had followed were unnatural enough, but they didn’t seem to be behind the disappearance of St. Catherine’s. They were investigating it, the same as him. For the briefest moment, Felix considered working with them, but the thought vanished as soon as it entered his mind. They may have a similar objective, but their motives and methods would be incompatible. This was personal for him. This was about finding his sister.

  He quickly typed a message to Emma.

  Hi. I might need your help. When did you last fire a weapon? Felix. He hit send but didn't wait for a reply.

  He tugged off his jacket and put the armoured vest on over his shirt. It was a little tight on him and he sucked in his gut to fasten it. It would have to do; he made a silent vow to get back in shape. He went to his room and found a jumper to put on over the armour. He could hardly walk down the street with it on display. Back in the living room, he loaded the guns and checked them all over. Everything looked like it was in good working order, but he wouldn’t know until he tried to fire one of them. He tucked a handgun into the back of his jeans, under his jumper. He put the knife in a holster around his ankle and the rifle back into the bag.

  His phone lit up with an incoming message and he hastily read Emma’s reply.

  That sounds serious. I’m not sure I can help with that. Have you considered calling the police?

  I think this is a bit beyond them.

  If you say so. Please be careful.

  He was alone, then. It was with fierce determination in his heart that he set off back to the street where he had seen the creatures cross into that strange place. As he neared the end of the street he felt that wave of dizziness sweep over him, but he fought it, resisted with all his might. He had seen the truth. He knew what lay ahead and he held on to the belief that he would be able to get past this supernatural barrier without getting turned around.

  His faith paid off and he walked on, straining against the pain. It was like walking through a wind tunnel. Some invisible force was trying to push him back, but he put his head down and forced his way through it. He stumbled forward as the resistance suddenly gave way and he looked up to see the blankness ahead of him. A dark hole in reality with nothing beyond it. He stared, open-mouthed, and reached out a steady hand. He stepped slowly forwards and groped in the air for something solid, some sign of a barrier. But there was none. Felix’s feet inched forwards and he lowered his hand as he stepped blindly into the nothing.

  His foot met a solid surface and, slowly, the darkness became pricked with glittering stars that reflected on the glassy surface upon which he stood. Everything glistened softly and his breath caught in his throat at the beauty of it all. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that he wasn’t in the familiar world any more. He was somewhere else. He looked over his shoulder and could see the street he had left right there, as if lo
oking through an arch. It was bathed in orange street light, the wet road glistening. In the distance, cars rumbled past on the main road.

  Drawn on by some compulsion that he couldn’t rationalise if he tried, Felix walked slowly away from the street, further into this strange place. A soft voice inside his head urged him on. His sister could be here. This place had swallowed St. Catherine’s, he was sure of it. Somewhere, all of the people who had vanished were hiding, or unconscious. He had to find Julie and get her out of here.

  His eyes adjusted to the darkness and he walked on over the increasingly rocky terrain. He could see cliffs in the distance and smaller hills in front of them. Little wisps of coloured light drifted through the air and he heard soft whispers on the wind. A shiver ran through him and he slowly manoeuvred the bag over his shoulder and eased out the rifle. He held it up and proceeded cautiously.

  Felix hadn’t gone far when the landscape around him began to shift. Out of the darkness emerged buildings that came into focus as he drew closer. There was an old pub with a smashed window and boarded-up door. Inside was black, as if it had been burned-out. He dimly recalled seeing it before not far from his flat. It was on the dual carriageway that led from the city centre out to St. Catherine’s. He looked over his shoulder and saw a tarmac track stretching out behind him, as if he’d been walking along it. He passed the shell of a building carefully, listening out for signs of danger. A block of flats rose up behind the pub and opposite was a row of small, terraced houses. It was St. Catherine’s, agonisingly familiar and yet utterly derelict. He turned a corner and approached the block of flats slowly.