by DM Fike
“Oh yeah!”
Vimp’s eyes glowed in the tunnel. He skittered to the edge, skipping down into a brightly lit room. She creeped after him, eager to get out of the shaft. Once she had her feet firmly planted on the ground, she peered back inside to see Kay struggling midway through.
“My wing’s stuck,” he grimaced, yanking his torso.
Avalon threaded her arms back through to help him. Her face brushed cheek-to-cheek with his as she attempted to free him. Her fingers found his wings stuck around a loose bolt holding the metal sheets together. Kay grunted, his breath hot down her neck, but she managed to untangle his wing from where it had snagged. Avalon grabbed Kay’s forearms and helped him scoot the last few feet into the examination room, where they nearly knocked off the framed jungle picture on the wall.
“I refuse to enter that path again,” Kay declared once back on his feet. He grabbed his wing, rubbing a spot where it had folded in two.
“You find another secret entry point, and we’ll try it your way.” Nobody motioned Avalon toward the workstation.
Avalon powered on the computer, grateful when it loaded swiftly. It asked for a username and password, but fortunately, James’s info had been stored on the computer, so she simply accepted his current login credentials.
“Please work,” she whispered to the thumb drive. With bated breath, she plugged it in.
The computer searched for the new drive. A dialog box popped up, making Avalon’s heart sink, but it wasn’t the same error message as before. It asked her how she wanted to view the files. Avalon clicked an option, and two folders popped on the screen, one with her name and one with her mother’s.
Kay and Nobody huddled behind her. Vimp sat on her lap, tail twitching and tickling her bare legs.
Avalon clicked on her folder first. A series of subfolders appeared with dates for names. She clicked on a few of them and found they contained the normal AEG scans and treatment files Nobody had stolen in physical form. She could not, however, find any of the files signed by the mysterious “B.”
“Get to the new stuff,” Nobody complained.
“I want to make sure everything matches, but the most important files are missing.” Avalon remembered James always made physical copies of his notes. “Maybe Saluzyme doesn’t keep digital copies of the files we’re searching for.”
Nobody growled. “If that’s true, we’re bread. Actual paper copies of this stuff could be hidden anywhere in this den of deceit.”
“Hidden,” Avalon repeated. “Hold on.” She remembered from a class she’d failed last semester that not all files displayed automatically in subfolders. She right-clicked the folder with her name on it and clicked on its properties. Running through the tabs on the window, she found a box labeled “Show hidden folders.” She checked it and applied it to the folder.
The folder reappeared with more subfolders, the new ones semi-transparent and with names consisting of random letters and numbers that didn’t make sense. Avalon clicked on one and found a picture file contained within. She clicked on it.
A snapshot of the cloaked girl took over the screen, almost movie-like in its quality.
“Bilbo!” Nobody shouted in triumph.
Avalon clicked through the other semi-transparent files in her folder. Each one contained a picture or medical notes by “B.” Everything Nobody had stolen was there.
“Now on to Mom’s.” Avalon clicked on the Marjorie Benton folder. She clicked the first semi-transparent subfolder, and biting her lip, selected a picture file.
A ghostly face dominated the screen, eyes pure black with stark white cheeks, its features twisted in agony.
Everyone jerked away from the computer screen, Vimp going so far as to jump off her legs and huddle underneath the computer.
Avalon forced herself to examine the ghastly image. The blurry picture had few distinguishing characteristics, as if it had been taken with a flash camera in a dark hallway, but the face did seem feminine with fuller lips. The eyes, however, were hollow, whether due to the light source or because the person had no pupils, it was hard to tell.
“Who is that?” Kay whispered.
Avalon clicked on the accompanying text file inside the folder. It read, “Patient sees Subject #1 in increasing distress.” It was signed “B” with a date a few months before her mother’s death.
A cold chill ran down Avalon’s spine. Had this phantom haunted her mother while she was visited by the demure cloaked girl? Was this why her mother woke up screaming in the middle of the night, refusing to tell either her husband or daughter what had spooked her?
Avalon clicked through other hidden folders, each one showing a picture of the ghastly face. The closer the picture was dated to her mother’s death, the angrier and fiercer the ghost became, teeth bared, sometimes staring straight into the camera, as if daring them to come closer. A slight green pallor also increased at the edges of the images.
In the final picture, the one taken a few days before her mother passed away, the ghost was so close to the camera, all it showed was one fathomless eye. B’s final note on this read, “Subject #1 in extreme distress. The Entelegen is not ready, so we will attempt a final manual extraction.”
“Extraction?” Nobody asked, his voice a squeal.
“What does any of this mean?” Avalon slapped one fist down on the table in frustration. They had searched through all of the files and hadn’t come any closer to unraveling what had happened to her or her mother. Just more questions.
The sound of a car door slamming jolted them away from the computer screen. Kay ran to the exam room’s windows and looked down into the parking lot below.
“A large man approaches,” Kay said as Avalon and Nobody hurried to investigate. On the asphalt below, Boxer strode from his black SUV toward the front entrance.
“Not that guy!” Nobody moaned, rubbing his leg. “I’m not sure if my thigh can take his vice-like grip again.”
“We must have set off an alarm. We gotta get out of here.” Avalon ran toward the ventilation shafts.
Kay grabbed Avalon by the arm. “Not through there again.”
“It’s no good anyway,” Nobody said, still peering out the window. “More black cars are pulling into the lot. We’ll be seen.” He led them into James’s adjacent office. “I think there’s an emergency staircase on the top floor.” They filed past the vine-covered desk toward the door that led onto the top floor’s landing. Nobody pushed the door to the outside open. “We can escape from—”
A loud cracking sound snapped into the air, cutting him off. Nobody slammed into the half-opened door and he fell into the dark room, leaving a splotch of blood in the door frame. Vimp screeched and immediately went to his side, a dark smoky bubble forming around them.
“Nobody!” Avalon raced to the gremlin, trying to touch him through Vimp’s bubble, but her fingers couldn’t pass through. Something sharp and shiny had pierced his shoulder.
Kay put himself between her and the new threat, his sword in front of them. “Who goes there?”
Bright lights flooded the space in a series of harsh clicks, illuminating the plants swaying under the air conditioner vents. Avalon blinked against the brightness and saw Desert Rose among the foliage, a stark monochrome of white and black against green.
“You,” Desert Rose breathed. Lowering her sparkling hands, she stared at them in shock.
Kay charged without warning, a primal yell emerging from deep within his chest. He closed the distance, sword raised for a blow that Avalon thought would lead to his opponent’s evisceration.
At the last moment, Desert Rose brought her arms up in a cross in front of her, coated in a thick sheet of ice. Kay’s sword slid off harmlessly to one side, providing her the opportunity to knock him back with a kick. Kay fell backward to the carpet. Desert Rose threw one wrist out to the side, an ice shard forming in her grasp. She plunged it down toward his neck.
“Kay!” Avalon screamed.
Kay dance
d on the balls of his feet and twisted so that the shard passed harmlessly in the space between his torso and arm. He beat his wings into the air, kicking Desert Rose’s new weapon out of her grip as he launched upward. The ice shard shattered into a thousand glittering pieces beneath him. After a tiny retreat, he lurched forward again to send an electrical shock into Desert Rose’s arm.
Desert Rose reeled but managed to plant one foot behind her and maneuver her icy arm to block another sword thrust. A wry smirk, almost playful, flashed across her face, and she attempted to head butt Kay. He dodged it with inches to spare.
Kay and Desert Rose executed this attack-and-defense dance, hurtling sharp edges and bursts of magic at each other, neither one gaining much ground before the other would find a way to rebound. They battled through the various obstacles on the landing, sometimes knocking over a plant or kicking a pot into one another’s path for a temporary advantage.
Avalon pursued the pair, arms raised and a hesitant magic gathering in her gut. She wanted to help, but she had no idea how to get a shot in. One false strike could upset the delicate balance in Desert Rose’s favor.
Her hesitation cost her any chance to help as meaty hands grabbed her from behind, lifting her off the ground, arms pinned to her sides. “I’ve got Benton,” she heard Boxer yell as she struggled in his grasp.
Kay now had two objectives, neither of them compatible. He attempted to change directions and charge toward Boxer. Desert Rose took that split second to strike him on the back of the neck with her solid ice arm. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious. She stared down at him, an unreadable expression on her face.
“No!” Avalon screamed.
They’d all been taken out, except for Vimp, who maintained the barrier over a prone Nobody. The demon hissed as Boxer approached the doorway. His large boot stomped on the smoky bubble. The blow bounced off harmlessly, Vimp snarling like a cornered raccoon as Boxer continued his attack on the shield.
“He can’t keep it up forever.” Desert Rose crossed the room to Boxer. “The vimp’s magic will wane, and you’ll be able to reach his master.”
“Take her downstairs, then.” Boxer released his hold on Avalon so she hit the floor. Before she could get her bearings, Desert Rose had an iron grip on her, right at the Miasmis injection site. Hot pain ripped through her body.
“Don’t try anything stupid,” Desert Rose told her as a foreign heat clouded Avalon’s senses. “Or I’ll kill the fairy.”
Desert Rose dragged Avalon over to where Kay lay, near one of the large floor-to-ceiling windows, then released her hold. Avalon had her back to the window as Desert Rose hoisted Kay over one shoulder, his arms and wings flopping behind her beautiful hair.
“What are you doing?” Boxer asked. “You need to escort Benton downstairs.”
“This place has been compromised,” Desert Rose declared. “You take care of Nobody. I’ll handle them.”
Before Boxer could protest, Desert Rose lifted one hand and shot an ice ball at the window, shattering it into a million glittery pieces. The mercenary lifted her foot and kicked Avalon so hard, she flew out the now broken window.
Pieces of shattered glass nicked Avalon’s arms and face as she plunged into freefall, Boxer’s scream of rage echoing in her ears. Her back slid across something slippery and wet. Avalon glided at a dizzying angle downward on this strange new surface, faster than the first incline on the Serpent.
Avalon hit the blacktop of the parking lot with painful road rash. Her dizziness made it difficult to get a grip on reality. Looking up, the enormous ice slide Desert Rose had created twisted from the top of the Saluzyme building down to the street below. Before she remembered she needed to escape, Desert Rose had that fiery grip on her again, tossing her into an SUV trunk next to an unconscious Kay.
“If you cross me, I will kill you, orders be damned.” Desert Rose smacked Avalon’s wrists together and formed icy handcuffs to bind them. She did the same thing to Avalon’s ankles and slapped the trunk shut.
Desert Rose had the SUV on the road and speeding away in seconds. As the miles ticked by, Avalon regained her wits. She rocked about wildly in the trunk, trying to find a position that wouldn’t jerk her around like a rag doll. When she managed to stabilize herself, she scooted over to Kay’s still form.
“Kay?” she whispered. “Are you okay?”
She thought she saw his side rise with breath, but it was hard to tell with his body rolling around the trunk.
Avalon’ brain went into overdrive, trying to come up with a way to get out of this mess. She attempted to peer out the black tinted windows of the SUV, but Desert Rose shot a warning plume of fire. “Don’t you dare attract attention,” she ordered from beyond the upholstered seats. “And if I detect even a hint of magic, I will ignite this car’s fuel and kill both of you.”
“You’ll die too,” Avalon yelled back.
“I can take the heat.”
She probably could. Avalon lay back down, watching exit signs for the freeway whiz by. She went over every option. No scenario ended with her and Kay alive. Her best bet was a surprise attack once Desert Rose re-opened the trunk. She furiously rubbed her ice handcuffs into the scuffed trunk carpet, hoping to melt it faster with friction.
Desert Rose steered off the freeway before too long. A familiar Fantasma billboard near the park entrance flitted past, the dragon mascot flashing its goofy peace sign. Avalon couldn’t imagine why Desert Rose would bring her back to the amusement park.
The car took a sharp turn and trudged up an incline. Avalon lost her balance and did a full spin backwards as the ascent steepened. The angle threw Avalon into an uncomfortable corner, Kay slumped over most of her torso as he settled against her.
The car leveled out for several seconds, then suddenly skid off-road, then back on an incline. Desert Rose killed the engine. She jerked open the trunk, and both Avalon and Kay tumbled out due to gravity. Avalon coughed as dirt caked her face. She realized that they had driven to one of Fantasma’s overflow parking lots, off to one side against a slope of a hill. The lot was full of cars, the park in full swing for the day.
Avalon tried to get to her feet, but Desert Rose pinned her down with a foot on her back. Boot never wavering, Desert Rose reached down to throw Kay back over her shoulder. She gave Avalon a warning stomp before releasing the pressure. The ice restraints melted in a rush, freeing her hands and feet. Avalon groaned as she crawled on all fours.
“Get up,” Desert Rose commanded.
“But… I don’t… work today,” Avalon managed to wheeze.
“You’ve been hanging around that gremlin too long.” Desert Rose gave her another light stomp. “Get up. You are going to do everything I say.”
Avalon shakily rose. “Or the fairy dies, right?”
Desert Rose said nothing, but her arms tightened around Kay’s waist.
Avalon slowly opened and closed her sore fingers, trying to regain all feeling in her extremities. “People will notice us.”
“Then you better keep up.” Desert Rose dashed, not toward the main gate but back around the park, along a perimeter fence with no visible entrance. Avalon didn’t know what she intended to do until she stopped near the kiddie rides, the least crowded area of the park. Desert Rose opened one palm and released a long fiery blast that softened the metal until it sagged. She then alternated to an icy breeze, giving it a frost sheen. Then, in a football tackle rush, Desert Rose burst through the brittle material onto the other side, creating a human-sized hole.
Avalon gaped at her nerve. Park patrons paused to stare, mothers leading their toddlers far away from them, but no one stopped her as she zipped between the crowd. Avalon ran to catch up.
Logan saw them as they raced past the employee lounge. His eyes widened to cartoonish levels when he recognized Avalon. Avalon swallowed her terror as she pursued Kay’s unconscious body draped over her attacker.
The mercenary stopped at the Hall of the Mirrors entrance, taped off with e
mergency signs. She ripped the tape aside, motioning for Avalon to join.
“Stop!” someone shouted behind them. Logan and three other park employees ran down the pavement toward them. Avalon bolted after Desert Rose into the Hall of Mirrors.
Avalon avoided bits of broken glass and charred roof remains to keep up with Desert Rose. Desert Rose wound through the area of the exhibit that had not been struck by lightning, finally stopping at the back of the maze, where children climbed the final ladder to go down the tube slide, exiting the exhibit.
There was nowhere else to run.
Desert Rose grabbed onto something hanging from a gold chain around her neck. “Climb.”
Avalon looked at the slide, then back toward the mirrors as the boards trembled, the feet of park employees navigating the maze toward them. Their reflections made them appear in triplicate, all the more menacing. “Where?”
“Go!” Desert Rose pushed her, cheek first, into the ladder. Avalon took the hint and shuffled to the top.
“Slide!” Desert Rose commanded behind her.
Avalon sat at the top of the slide, trying to shake the absurdity of it. A light shimmered inside the tube. Beyond that, sneakered feet approached. Fantasma staff was waiting for them at the bottom.
Well, at least she’d be rescued. Avalon slid toward them.
Avalon plunged into the darkness of the tube, waiting to be grabbed by the park employee at the bottom. A shimmering light blinded her, making it impossible to see. She hit bottom and landed face first into something unbearably cold, goosebumps forming all over her bare arms.
Whistling winds danced in Avalon’s ears as she pushed herself out of the snow. Her hair whipped in her face and she stumbled forward before someone grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her back up.
She found herself staring into a bottomless chasm between two icy cliffs.
Desert Rose pulled her back toward safety, then tossed her into a new snowbank. As Avalon struggled to free herself, Desert Rose put two fingers to her lips and sent a sharp whistle shrieking along the landscape.
