Mage Catalyst

by George, Christopher

  “You thought I was going to attack you?” I pressed, confused.

  I’d never been called threatening in my life. It was a complete shock that anyone would consider me dangerous. I didn’t know how to respond.

  “I didn’t realise you were simply out of control,” she said sharply, as if in some form of reprimand.

  I didn’t have an answer to that either. I wasn’t even sure what it meant. How was I not in control? I wasn’t surprised by the accusation, I’d been accused of being out of control by a string of high school teachers for years.

  I was pondering the implications of this when I had a sudden feeling that someone was standing right behind me. I’ve always had a nervous twitch in my shoulders, especially when someone is standing behind me. My nervous shudder was unusually strong this time, causing my whole body to jump, which in turn caused me to shudder in pain as my ribs shrieked in complaint.

  The person turned out to be a busboy who just wanted to collect the empties.

  “Smooth,” the girl said, once the guy had left. “What’s with the twitch?”

  “Always had it,” I replied. “Dunno why.”

  “My name is Renee by the way,” she said, offering a handshake across the table.

  “Devon,” I replied, flipping her hand over and kissing it lightly. I did this gingerly as every movement on my left side felt like a knife in my ribs.

  “Wow! You are a smooth one, aren’t you?” Her eyes softened for the first time since we’d met. The change made a huge difference to her whole face. If I thought she was beautiful when she was mad – well, when she was smiling she was breathtaking.

  “It’s a pity you’re not older,” Renee continued.

  Renee was twenty-four, had her own apartment in the city and was studying Film Studies at Melbourne University. Her grandfather apparently came in from time to time to check on her, but other than that she was pretty much her own boss. I learnt all this by asking direct questions and receiving very short answers. Renee wasn’t exactly forthcoming with information. She was really making me work for any personal information. I had the feeling that she walked away knowing a lot more about me than I did about her.

  I could feel her eyes drilling into me during our conversation. It was like she was taking me apart and learning how I worked – taking my secrets and making them hers. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling as such but it was a little confronting. Most of her questions seemed related to the blue particles and how I’d come to possess them. At first she had seemed angry at my vague answers, but she soon obviously came to the conclusion that I was too witless to lie and genuinely didn’t know more than I was saying.

  There was urgency in her questions and a brisk harshness. She was desperately trying to find something out about me and I could tell she was getting more frantic the longer our conversation went. I wasn’t quite sure how to broach the subject so I just went for plain brutal honesty.

  “So can you teach me to use this… thing?“ I gestured with my hand causing a flash of particles to spark. “You obviously know how to use it.”

  “I could.” She smiled devilishly. The smile never reached her eyes though. There was fear in her eyes – I’ve never seen fear like that. It was quickly replaced with her twisted grin, but I saw enough to recognise it for what it was – terrified fear. Renee was desperately afraid of something and didn’t want anyone to know about it.

  “…but I’m not going to,” Renee finished lightly.

  “I thought your grandfather taught you!” I complained.

  “Yeah, he did,” she said disarmingly, “…but we don’t really have time and besides your friends have found us.” Tony and Sarah had just walked through the doorway from the stage area, heading our way. I cursed under my breath.

  “Dude! Do you have any idea how long we’ve been looking for you?” Tony boomed as he walked towards us. “You totally ditched on us.”

  I mentally tried to tell Tony to take a hike.

  “Yeah, sorry,” I grumbled. “I got... distracted.”

  Renee’s eyebrows shot up in response. I desperately wanted to ask Renee more questions, but I couldn’t with Sarah and Tony around. I think Renee knew that too; in fact I’m pretty sure she was counting on it. She didn’t look at Tony or Sarah.

  “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got an early start tomorrow,” she said. “It was nice to meet you, Devon.” She smiled as she rose to leave. “I’ll just leave you here with your friends.”

  “Okay… See you,” I said sullenly.

  Renee gave me a piercing look, grabbed her bag and headed for the door. I sat there in stunned silence for a few seconds before I leapt out of my chair after Renee.

  I wasn’t going to let this opportunity get away from me.

  I caught her by the time she’d reached the street. In a daze of teenage hormones I caught up to her and pulled her to me, pressing her against my chest as I pulled her in close, she wrapped her body around mine and I felt her hands wrap around my neck and pulled against me in turn.

  Our lips met with stunning force and I could feel the blue halo particles in our bodies collide. My breath disappeared in an instant as I was sucked into the oblivion that was our kiss. Intention, thought, desire were all swept away with the single fact of our lips pressed firmly against each other’s.

  I could almost feel the blue particles in our bodies entwine and form a pattern around our bodies, joining us, binding us, and jumping from body to body in pattern. I could feel our bodies unite in a single purpose, I could feel her under my skin through the blue lights and I knew she could feel me too. She was inside me now and I was inside her and there was nothing that I wanted more. When we broke, there was a dull silence. The loss of the connection to her filled my soul and I was weakened by it, my essence drained – incomplete.

  “You’re cute, but you’re much too young and you’re really not my type,” she whispered, her eyes twinkling with mirth.

  She was trying hard to keep things light-hearted, but I could see the loss reflected in her eyes too. She covered it up well but I noticed that she hadn’t let me go yet.

  “Can I at least have your number?” I pleaded shamelessly. I breathed a sigh of relief as she disengaged from my arms to draw a pen from her purse and scrawled down a number on an old receipt.

  “See you, Renee,” I murmured as I watched her turn to leave.

  “See you, Twitch,” she called back, and then she was gone.

  I returned to the table with a look of pure ecstasy mixed with stunned shock on my face to apologise to my friends. Sarah and Tony glanced nervously as I approached the table. It had been obvious that I was limping slightly. I sat down on the table with a noticeable exclamation. Sarah’s face immediately crinkled in concern.

  “Are you okay?” Sarah asked gently.

  “What? Oh? Yeah, I just fell down earlier,” I replied quickly.

  “Oh.”

  Tony and Sarah exchanged glances again. I didn’t take much notice though, I was too lost in my own thoughts of Renee. I wondered if it would be too soon to call her tomorrow morning or if I had to wait the whole three days after the date thing?

  * * * *

  “Ullo, is Giuseppe’s Pizza! Can I take your order?” A fake Italian accent boomed down the line with startling volume.

  “Uhh… hello... is Renee there?“ I hesitantly asked, already knowing that the answer would be no.

  “No, is no Renee here, only pizza!” the voice returned. “You order now, no?”

  I switched off my phone in disgust. She had given me a fake number. Who does that? And a pizza place? If I wasn’t so invested in this woman I’d have been howling with laughter.

  I had woken up about twenty minutes before and tentatively inspected myself in the mirror. I hadn’t had time to do it properly last night when we had returned home. I’d definitely sprained my wrist. It was horribly swollen and was starting to throb uncomfortably. Complete with the wrist I also had bruising all down my left side –
deep purple bruises that started on my chest and spread around my lower back.

  It hadn’t looked like it was this bad last night. On the upside it didn’t appear that I had actually cracked any ribs – they were just bruised. Painfully bruised, but not broken. That was lucky at least. It was no longer painful to breathe, only slightly uncomfortable.

  The smell of cooking bacon slowly wafted into my room and brought me staggering out into the living room. I hurriedly threw on a T-shirt to cover the bruising. I was greeted by the sight of my dad standing over the stove with Tony sitting on the table next to him, chatting amicably. Tony and Dad had always gotten along famously.

  “Morning Dad.” I groaned as I limped over to a chair and tentatively sat down.

  “Rough night?” he inquired, looking me in the eyes.

  “Yeah, I fell down a flight of stairs,” I lied quickly, nodding to Tony to collaborate in the lie.

  “Stupid bugger, he saw some chick he fancied,” he said.

  I gave him a sharp warning look.

  My dad smiled as he began dishing up. “I always had a soft spot for ladies I shouldn’t have.”

  I said nothing in response. I wondered if he was referring to Mum.

  “So what do you boys have planned for the day?” Dad asked.

  “I’ve got to be home relatively early in the afternoon,” Tony stated in between mouthfuls. “Got this family thing this evening, I’ve got to look my best.”

  “That’ll take some doing,” I muttered under my breath, although of course everyone heard.

  “What about you, Devon?” Dad turned to me.

  “Nothing much, Dad, just thought I’d hang out,” I replied.

  “I’d like you to come to dinner tonight. There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

  Great, this meant one of two things: either Dad had another date he wanted me to meet, or he was career hunting for me again. Either way, it meant a painful night. Dad must have picked up on my lack of enthusiasm because he didn’t press the issue further.

  “Well, boys, on that note, I think I’ll see you later. I just need to pop into the office for an hour or so.”

  That meant Dad would be gone for the rest of the morning and probably most of the afternoon too. Tony left shortly afterwards. I offered to walk him down, but changed my mind after considering how much trouble I had getting to the door. I’d only slow him down.

  “How are your ribs?” he asked. He gawked when I pulled up my shirt to show him the bruises.

  “Shit,” he breathed out.

  I stared at him.

  “What happened?” he asked. “Did you fall down a flight of stairs like you said?”

  “Yeah,” I mumbled. It was obvious I was lying.

  Tony slowly nodded. It was the first time I had kept anything from him and I felt a little sick at the idea of starting now. I’d have loved to be able to tell him what was going on, but that required something I didn’t have – an understanding of what was going on.

  “Well, see you, dude. I’ll see you at school.”

  I’d usually go wander around the city for a while when I was bored. But I couldn’t really leave the apartment in my current condition. I’d already seen all of Dad’s movies on numerous occasions so I didn’t really feel like watching a movie.

  And I was too distracted anyway to focus on a movie. I couldn’t stop thinking about Renee. Every train of thought led me back to her. I imagined her when I closed my eyes and I could almost still smell her fragrance on me. I remembered her lips on mine, the way it felt to hold her against me.

  I pictured her standing there outside the club smiling at me. Then I remembered her in the alley with her hands held forth and blue particles whipping out to strike me down.

  Could I do that?

  Surely not?

  Why not?

  I wouldn’t want to attack anyone with it, but surely it could do other stuff, move things? Lift things? That sounded pretty cool. My face twisted into a curled grin at the thought of all the fun I could have with that kind of power.

  My sprained wrist disrupted my train of thought with a violent throb. I looked down and began to lightly stroke it, trying to massage away the discomfort. That only partially worked, but it did make me feel a little better.

  Once the pain subsided in my wrist I began to contemplate the lifting stuff concept more. Renee had technically lifted me when she had attacked me – so therefore it must be possible.

  With my logic figured out, I tried to visualise how she had actually got the particles to come from her hand like she had. I went over the scene in my mind again and again until I could almost see the scene on the inside of my eyelids.

  She had flexed her fingers and the particles had run down her arm to her hand. The more I thought about this the more I could feel the particles buzzing up and down my arm. It was as if they were preparing for something.

  Time to give it a go.

  I reached out and wiggled my fingers – nothing happened. Okay, I hadn’t seriously expected that to work anyway. I tried pointing my forefinger and said, “Abracadabra”, half thinking something might happen. I felt very foolish but no-one was around so I concentrated and tried something else I had seen in movies. There was an empty glass on the table about two metres away. I focused on it and thought about it moving as hard as I could.

  Nothing, not even a twitch.

  It took me a good hour before I could even get the blue particles to move with any degree of control, and even then I had to calm myself and breathe steadily. Fortunately I had plenty of time to practice.

  I kept focusing on my breath while observing the particles of light.

  In.

  Out.

  In.

  Out.

  Eventually, I could feel the particles begin to move in a pattern of sorts, with a degree of control. I could force them to slowly slide down my arm and then back up. It took about another hour before I felt I had it. Yet no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get them to leap from my hand into that whip-like thing that Renee had used.

  Okay, this was getting frustrating. I reached out my hand, straining against the couch, focusing intently on the glass. Zip. Nothing. Infuriating.

  I strained with my fingers stretched to their apex. I could see the particles swirling down my hand and across my fingers. Try as hard as I could, I just couldn’t get them to leap from it.

  Then it happened. On the out breath – when I had expelled everything.

  It felt as if I’d reached my hand through a wall made of water. It gave way before me with laughable resistance. I watched with glee as the particles trailed out from my fingers a few centimetres, curling in on themselves into a tight spiral.

  It snapped back and dissipated almost immediately – but I now knew it could be done and that was enough.

  I tried again.

  It was easier this time. The particles crept from each outstretched finger on my hand, slowly forming something akin to a backbone of particles. They were always in motion, swirling in a circular pattern outwards from my palm. It was so slow at the start but then gained more speed. The particle slivers merged into one solid thread – similar to what I’d seen Renee use, although far less impressive and painfully slow. But it was a start.

  With a grunt I snapped my arm forward while flicking my good right wrist and saw the particle whip flow from my fingers. The thread almost immediately dissipated and I felt a shock ripple up my arm. The pain wasn’t too bad, certainly nothing compared to the bruises I was currently sporting on my left side. The shock of the sensation running up my arm was more disconcerting, however. It had caused my arm to go rubbery and limp for a few seconds.

  I instinctively recoiled, which caused my back to spasm as it was pulled and led to more complaints from my bruised back muscles. This wasn’t going well. Giving myself a few minutes break, I leaned back down on the couch to rest. I watched intently as more particles spread down my arms towards my wrists. They were slowly circling in t
ight ovals around the joint of my wrist and then around down into the palms of my hands. Taking a deep breath to ready myself I thrust my hand with a quick flicking motion, palm up at the glass.

  It worked! The particles immediately formed a thread of light that lashed from my hands and out several metres. I’d done it! Speed appeared to be the critical component here. This was going to make it difficult to control, but it must be possible! After all, Renee had done it. I tried again.

  Damn it! I had missed but I had the distance about right. It took me several more tries before I clipped the glass by accident, causing it to wobble and then eventually fall over. The glass rolled over and threatened to fall off the edge of the table. It was at this point I realised that I could potentially cover the floor with shards of broken glass. Cursing myself for my own stupidity, I went and grabbed a plastic mug from the kitchen.

  It took me several more minutes to repeat the success of my previous attempt. The particle whip now leapt from my fingers with a reliable ferocity and smacked the cup firmly, causing it to fly from the coffee table and smack with a resounding thunk against the window on the far side of the room.

  It took even more time to try to slow the particle whip to a speed that I could control without slapping the mug off the table. It was infuriating – if I made the particle whip move too slowly it would dissipate, too fast and I wouldn’t be able to control it.

  I was so frustrated with the mug flying off the table that I ended up fetching several more mugs and placing them in even intervals. This way I wouldn’t need to get up quite so often as I telekinetically scattered mugs about the apartment.

  I was up to my fifth and final mug when finally I managed to slow the whip enough to wrap it around the mug. I was promptly greeted with a shrill shriek of complaint as the plastic mug simply collapsed in on itself as the particle whip tightened around it. The shards of the mug scattered out in an explosive pattern across the surface of the table as the mug exploded under the stress.

  Damn, that wasn’t even close to what I was trying to do.