Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling

by Andrew Dobell

  It had been dulled for those last few weeks after Georgina had left, but that had been understandable.

  She missed AJ and Georgie and Stuart, they had made this job almost fun at times. These days, things were not so good. They’d found a new patch, eventually after a number of run-ins with other working girls. They were nothing if not territorial and protective of their patch. They’d also had a few issues with potential new Pimps, most of which seemed to want to just get them hooked on the drugs they sold and take more than their fair share of the money.

  They’d had it good with Stuart, dear god they’d had it good.

  She looked up at her apartment block, and then looked around her, looking both ways down the street looking for that damn stalker.

  He’d been sniffing about saying he was a Private Detective, a PI looking into the death of Stuart. She’d smelled a rat though, his whole demeanour, his strange accent and condescending attitude, not to mention that the incident had happened about six months ago.

  Satisfied that the stalker had gone, she walked up the steps of the buildings stoop. She had an apartment in this tenement, several floors up with a crap view. They were not on a fashionable street, they were not in a nice area and the apartment could barely fit her in, let alone more than one person.

  But the place was hers and for that she felt grateful.

  As usual, a couple of teenagers in hoodies sat on the stoop, she knew them to say hi to and they barely acknowledged each other as she walked up the steps and into the lobby after using her key to get in.

  It smelled of stale urine in here, a rancid small that lingered in your nose even after you left the area.

  She rode the lift up to her floor and stepped out, walking along the dingy corridor listening to the sounds of human life coming from the apartments all around her. Kids shouting and screaming, couples arguing, TVs and Radios blasting out. It wasn’t quiet in here. She approached the corner to the stretch of corridor she lived on and once more felt the strange dizzy sensation that the world had suddenly tipped sideways while all about her the shadows seemed to move but didn’t.

  She steadied herself using the wall as it passed and paused for a moment before reaching the corner and looking down the length of corridor ahead and seeing the man again, at the far end, just stood there, watching her.

  The door to Jade’s apartment lay between them, part way down the corridor towards to man, although closer to her than to him.

  She looked back to the lift, and then to her door and the man beyond. She had her key ready in her hand and felt sure she could get to the door, unlock it and get in before he reached it.

  She ran, as fast as her heels allowed and quickly reached her door. The man seemed to only just start to move, putting one step in front of the other in a slow walk as she easily slid her key into the lock and turned it. The door swung open and she moved inside. A glance up revealed he still had a long way to move to reach her. She smiled, and closed the door as she moved inside the apartment.

  But the door stopped short, hitting the man’s shoe as he thrust his foot into the doorway, preventing the door from closing.

  Jade pushed once as she stamped on his foot, trying to get him to move it, but it didn’t budge. Suddenly the door felt like it had been kicked from the far side, throwing Jade into her small apartment.

  She landed on the floor on her back in a heap, a small cut on her forehead from where the door had hit her.

  The man stepped inside and shut the door behind him. He wore a long sandy coloured coat over dark clothes beneath, and he even wore a Fedora hat today. His outfit stood in sharp contrast to her tight top, heels and tiny skirt that did nothing to hide her modesty while she lay in an ungainly position on the floor.

  She backed up away from him, using her hands and feet to scoot backwards along the floor. ‘What do you want?’ She asked.

  ‘To talk, just to talk,’ he said, smiling.

  ‘We’ve talked already. I have nothing to say to you.’

  ‘We’ll see, I think you know more then you’re letting on and you’re going to tell me, but not here, we need somewhere a little more private,’ he said as she listened to the raised voices next door. They could almost hear every word.

  ‘What?’ she said as he lunged forward and punched her hard on the side of her head.

  She woke up with a stinging headache and a throbbing pain in her temple where he’d punched her. She tried to move, to bring her hand up to her head but found she couldn’t.

  Panicking, she woke up quickly as suddenly she saw movement through her tear filled eyes as freezing cold water hit her in the face and chest.

  Shaking her head from side to side to get rid of the excess water she quickly took in the dark room she sat in, tied to a chair. Her legs were up on a table so she sat with her legs out straight in front of her. It looked like some kind of basement maybe, she’d never seen it before but there were no windows, only one door out of here and lots of bare brickwork.

  The man stood in front of her with an empty bucket in his hands which he dropped to the floor as she looked up at him.

  He’d removed his coat and hat, wearing only a white shirt and dark trousers and shoes as he scowled down at her. He had swarthy skin and dark hair, looking very Mediterranean in complexion.

  ‘Jade is it?’ he said. ‘I’m Vito, and I have a few questions for you.’

  Jade noticed he’d partially stripped her, leaving her in just her underwear as she shivered where she sat.

  ‘Fuck you,’ she spat.

  ‘No thanks,’ he said. ‘I tried talking to you on the streets but you were rude and I just wasn’t getting anywhere, so I decided that we needed to have a little alone time, just you and me, if I were to get any answers from you.’

  Jade saw another chair in front of her, facing her and a small table next to it. She could see a pair of pliers on there, a drill, a hammer with some nails, and even a scalpel. She swallowed, as the weight of the situation started to dawn on her. But maybe he was bluffing, trying to scare her into talking, and not intending to use any of these things at all.

  ‘I ain’t got nothing to say to you, so do your worst.’ It was part bravado, part disbelief and part pride that had been speaking so far, and she wasn’t about to let this little shit scare her into submission with empty threats.

  ‘Really, OK, let’s not hang around shall we,’ he said as he sat down in front of her and looked over the tools on the table next to him. ‘Hmm,’ he said, as if wondering what to choose from. She watched him carefully, trying to gauge when he would reveal the bluff but finding him difficult to read.

  He picked up the pair of pliers then, and tested their movement, he smiled and looked over her hands and feet. Her eyes darted from him to where he was looking as she started to realise what he might actually do to her.

  He moved in close to her feet and felt the length of her nails with his finger, settling on her big toe.

  ‘So um, you know, maybe we can…’ she said, but he raised a finger to silence her. Would he do this? Would he actually torture her and not ask a question first?

  Taking hold of her foot, he brought the Pliers in close and even though she did her best to struggle, he soon had the pliers gripping the free edge of her nail and held it tight.

  ‘Heh, um, let’s not be hasty here..’ she stammered, panic rising inside her now, would he do it?

  He pulled, hard, and Jade screamed as the pain flooded her body. It left like he’d ripped her whole toe off it felt so intense. Tears filled her eyes meaning she couldn’t really see much at all, just a blurred mess and maybe some movement.

  She couldn’t talk, she just screamed and roared as loud as she could, hoping that someone might hear her. The man talked to her but she couldn’t make anything out at all, she wasn’t really listening. Moments later she realised he had her other big toe nail in the grip of those pliers. She’d only just come to this realisation when he ripped that one free as well.

  The
pain and the fear she felt as she cried and tried to make her voice heard outside this room meant she didn’t take much notice of Vito and what he was doing. Moments passed and then suddenly she realised he’d moved and had sat right next to her and even now he had hold of one of her fingers.

  ‘No, no no not my fingers, please no, don’t, don’t do this, please, I’ll tell you anything you want, anything, I don’t care, I don’t, no, please. Please,’ she said as she felt the pliers grip the nail of her middle finger on the right hand, and pull.

  He’d pulled four nails in total, two toe nails and two finger nails before he stopped and let her calm herself. No one had heard her, no one had come to save her, she was totally at his mercy, and he knew it.

  She’d stopped crying, and had just started to catch her breath, but she looked up to the ceiling. She didn’t want to look at her fingers or toes. The pain had faded a touch, but not by much, she still felt like her digits had been pulled off, not just her nails, she knew they hadn’t because she could feel them and wiggle them, her fingers and toes were still there.

  ‘So Jade. I have some questions. Do you still have this silly sense of loyalty to your old friends or will you answer my questions?’

  ‘Do I have choice?’ she muttered, feeling exhausted.

  ‘Of course. You don’t have to speak to me. You have plenty more nails left and I’ve not even started with the drill yet. Would you like to talk to go for round two?’

  ‘Ask your fuckin’ questions,’ she said.

  She’s been gone for a few days now, it’s strange, Jade is never away this long without letting us know where she is or if something’s the matter.

  That man has been snooping around again today with his Private Detective badge and dodgy accent. He seems really interested in AJ and where she’s gone too. I’d like to know that myself as she disappeared pretty quickly.

  Stuarts death didn’t help matters either, I have no idea where we’ll find another guy like him, it’s been tough out there these past few weeks.

  Where the hell are you Jade?

  - The diary of Renée

  Report

  The Vatican, Rome

  Mid-September

  Vito had been back in the Vatican for only a few short hours and had been catching up on his sleep, the jet lag wasn’t too severe but he felt tired all the same. He knew that Mary Damask would want a full report and a chat with him as soon as he could make it, so, on the plane back from the United States he had chosen to write up this report rather than sleep. Once the report was done, he had managed to catch a few hours’ sleep before the plane finally put down into Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport, where upon landing he had been picked up and taken back to the Vatican.

  Once back inside the holy city he passed by Mary’s office and left his report with the secretary before heading to his quarters and looking forward to a relaxing few hours’ sleep. He saw no need to see Mary right this second, she would need to read his report first anyway, and besides, he knew she would be swamped with other work as well. So Vito had decided to take a nap and see if he could grab a few hours before the call came through from Mary.

  Vito had showered, crumpled into bed and fell asleep in moments. He must have been more tried then he had thought, and the sleep was dreamless and relaxing, for the most part. The only thing Vito could complain about being that it was much too short, the nap ended up being only a few hours long, not nearly enough to fully get over his jet lag as he still felt tired. He had been awoken by the insistent hammering of a clerk who had been sent to find him by Mary. She apparently wanted to see him right away and didn’t seem to care that although it might be mid-morning for her, it felt like some bizarre unknown hour for someone who’s sleep patterns had been sporadic at best and non-existent at worst these past few weeks.

  Now in a different time zone, his mind had finally given up trying to figure out what hour it was, especially after his body clock had been further confused by this short nap.

  Strangely though, once he had risen and begun to walk around a little bit pulling on his robes so that he looked somewhat presentable to the Grand Inquisitor, he quickly lost that feeling of fatigue. He might not agree with the time on his watch, but he felt alert and actually mildly refreshed.

  Vito stood in front of the mirror in his bathroom and looked himself up and down, he looked presentable and ready for the meeting with the Grand Inquisitor. Looking at his reflection, he couldn’t help seeing the lines on his face from the years of service he had given the church.

  Although fully awake and looking vaguely presentable, his lack of sleep was etched into his face making him look sunken and hollow. There were dark bags under his eyes, while his eyes themselves were heavily bloodshot.

  It was at times like this that he jokingly wondered if God might be punishing him somehow, but he knew he had his limits, and there was no need to push them. Anyway, it could be easily fixed, and with a short Prayer, Vito had called upon his Divine Power and washed away the jet lag. It was a last resort, the Disciples were taught at an early age not to use His power frivolously or for personal gain and vanity. Just because you were now capable of astounding things didn’t mean you should rely on that power, or allow it to corrupt you.

  The Disciples had seen many of their members lost to the other side due to the way the ability to use the Divine Power affected your mind. If you weren’t careful you began to think yourself above others and more than just a Human being.

  Every Disciple was strictly trained and taught how and when to use the Power, and more importantly, when not to use the Power. Personal grooming being one of those things which they frowned upon.

  Vito knew these things and typically paid heed to them. He certainly wouldn’t usually use the Power to see off tiredness or to make himself presentable for a meeting, but he figured this was a little more than usual circumstances and saw no harm in doing so this once.

  The Disciples kept a number of Gifted Monks within their ranks for a few reasons and purposes, they almost never went out into the field and if they did it was usually as part of a much larger group. They performed a few tasks in the Vatican itself, one of which was to monitor the area for strange uses of the Divine Power and for incursions by Magi.

  There were plenty of attacks in the Vatican’s early years, but as the church grew and the Vatican became the heart of the Catholic Faith, these attacks lessened and became much less successful as its defences grew. In recent decades there had been very few attacks at all. Many Gifted Inquisitors considered the Vatican their home, and the combined power they could bring to bare in the Vatican was substantial enough that even the most reckless and powerful Heretics thought twice about taking the Vatican and the Disciples on. Such an attack would be suicide and impossible to cover up, the secret of the Magi would be out and the burning times wouldn’t be far behind.

  The Magi had learnt their lesson the hard way centuries ago when the Inquisitions hunted them down. There had been several public Inquisitions throughout the churches life time, each of them serving a purpose of the time in their own right, but they also covered up a much more secretive Inquisition as the Disciples of the Cross moved within the ranks of the Mundane Inquisitors hunting their Magi prey.

  Vito often wondered what it must have been like to live during these times, when the Disciples worked much more openly and the Church was a true power in society. Only a few hundred years ago the Church had been a major international power that could topple kings and put others on the throne, but that had been a long time ago, and now the church seemed impotent and powerless on the board of international politics.

  Disciples were still there however, working in the shadows and fighting the Devil worshiping Witches and Warlocks of the world.

  Vito loved being out in the field, taking the Word of God to the Godless and showing them the Way, the Truth of the world and bringing them back to the fold like lost lambs. Every Magi repented his sins and cried for forgiveness whe
n the cleansing flames slowly burnt away their taint.

  The girl he’d been hunting in New York, the victim from the alleyway, had been called Amanda, and already it was clear to Vito that the Demon Horlack had not actually attacked this Amanda at all. It had been dark when this occurrence had happened, and the witness likely suffered from shock, after all, it isn’t every day you see one of Satan’s own in your very street.

  No, to Vito it was very clear what had been happening, Amanda had clearly summoned the Demon somehow and been gifted with Dark Magic before killing her Pimp.

  Two things then happened, one after the other to interrupt Vito’s chain of thought, firstly Vito’s sensitivity to the Divine sensed a working of the power in the room, one which he had been expecting and recognised as soon as it happened. One of the monitoring Monks who kept an eye on uses of the Divine Power in the Vatican was scrying into the room to check out the Magic that Vito had used moments ago. Intuitively feeling where the Monk’s senses were looking into the room, he turned and waved at him in a light hearted manner. A moment later the Divine Power faded and Vito was alone again. The Monks were nothing if not efficient and scrupulous.

  Then the second disturbance was another urgent knock at the door to his room as the clerk was getting impatient.

  ‘I’ll be right there.’ Vito answered, and did one quick final check in the mirror before quickly leaving his room and heading along the corridor towards where the offices were, the clerk leading the way. It was about eleven a.m. and the sky looked bright but milky white with a blanket covering of cloud that the sun lit up, it still looked cool outside and Vito felt glad he wouldn’t have to leave the warmth.