by Sean Stone
“What’s up?” I asked. My phone was already in my hand and I was about to call Derek to arrange my nighttime vigil.
“I want to come,” she replied. Finally she managed to sort her jacket out and put it on properly. Although in this heat she hardly needed it.
“Really? Why?” I asked. Naturally, I’d love to have her company but I wanted to know why she wanted to come along. I think I had the right to know.
“I could do with a bit of excitement and you look like you could do with the company,” she replied. I was hoping she’d say because she wanted to spend time with me but it didn’t look like that was going to be the case. Unless it was the case but she didn’t want to admit it.
“Excitement? I’m going to be looking for clues in a dark park. Not much chance of excitement,” I replied. I don’t know why I was trying to put her off when I really wanted her to join me. I could definitely do with the company.
“You’re searching for a kidnapper. It’s exciting, trust me. It is compared to watching telly with my mum whilst my dad coughs his lungs up, anyway,” she said. I don’t know if she was trying to make me feel sorry for her but it certainly worked. I couldn’t abandon her to that fate. “Plus, the less time I spend in the house the less chance I have of getting sick,” she added.
“Alright, come along then. But you better not be easily creeped out because this place is bound to be eerie at night,” I warned her. Big open parks always tend to be creepy at night when there are no other people about.
“I’m not,” she said raising her chin confidently.
“Fine. You’re driving.” I don’t know why I needed to tell her she was driving, I can’t drive so I certainly wasn’t going to be. Actually, I can drive, I proved that last month when I nicked Killian’s car, but I’m not legally allowed to so I try not to make a habit of it.
I called Derek from the car and told him I needed access to the park. He wasn’t very impressed when I told him I didn’t know how long it’d take or when I refused to tell him exactly what I was going to be up to. Still, he agreed to meet us at the park with the keys so he couldn’t have been that put out.
I realised my mistake as soon as we arrived. Ashley was a very attractive girl and Derek was a massive lecherous pervert. This would not end well. Now don’t get me wrong, all guys are perverts to an extent, but Derek… He was something else.
We met Derek at the gates and to my surprise he said nothing. He gave Ashley a very long look up and down but not a single dirty comment fell out of his mouth. Maybe he only did it out of earshot. Thank God for that because that would have been awkward. I explained that we’d be investigating the park for the night and then held my hand out for the keys.
“No,” he said. He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. “I’m afraid I cannot entrust you with the keys to the premises. Only I can hold the keys because I am the key holder. I would be remiss in my duties to hand them over,” he said. He actually puffed his chest out in pride at being trusted to look after a set of keys. He was a very odd man.
“Derek, I am not doing this investigation with you. No way,” I told him. There were few things I would rather do less than spend the night with Derek in a dark park. Especially not with Ashley there too.
“Oh, no. Of course. I have no intention of going into the park whilst you investigate,” he assured me and I did little to mask my relief. “No. What I’ll do is I’ll let you in and then I’ll have to lock the gates behind you. When you’re finished just come back to the gates and I’ll let you out again.”
I stared at him blankly before speaking. “To be clear, you want to lock us inside the park? The same park which almost certainly contains a supernatural kidnapper?”
“That’s right,” he said and nodded his head. His eyes wandered over to Ashley and he gave her another long once over. He didn’t even try to hide it.
“Well alright then,” I said adding some false enthusiasm to being locked up with whoever or whatever was trapped in there. Ashley looked at me nervously. “I warned you,” I told her before she could speak and she said nothing.
Derek showed us through the gates, which wasn’t so high that we wouldn’t be able to climb out again. He locked it behind us and after having one last lingering look at Ashley’s body he went and sat in his car. Honestly, he got more pervy looks at Ashley in the last ten minutes then I’d got the entire time I’d known her. I wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or revolted.
“Let’s get on with it then,” I said and we headed into the park.
We stopped a few feet away from the gate and I pulled my latest invention out of my jacket pocket.
“What the hell is that?” Ashley said with obvious derision. To be fair, it did look like a child’s art project. It was basically a light bulb on a stick. It was actually a crudely made magical wand which I’d magically attached a small 40 watt bulb to.
It’s easy enough to make a wand if you have the skills. Any wood can be used but some wood types are better than others; more potent. Now, it isn’t like Harry Potter where you use a wand for all your spells. If you’ve been paying attention you’ll already know that because so far I haven’t used a wand even once. In fact this is the first time I’ve mentioned them. Wands can be used for different things. Some sorcerers use them as a way of boosting their power, others use wands for specific spells. I designed this particular wand for one purpose only.
“It’s a magic detector,” I explained to Ashley. “The wand is designed to detect foreign magic and the bulb will light up when it does. The closer we get to the magic the brighter it will glow.”
“It’s glowing right now,” she pointed out. Her faith in my invention was clearly lacking.
“Well, yes, that’s because you’re here,” I told her.
“You’re here too.”
“The wand doesn’t recognise my magic as foreign. And in a moment it won’t think of yours as foreign either.” I held my invention out base first to her. “Take the bottom.”
“Why?” She asked skeptically. As if I was trying to trick her! Like this was some sort of pull my finger gag!
“So it can learn your magical signature,” I said in exasperation.
She took hold of the wand and waited. A moment or two later the bulb flickered twice and then went out. She returned the wand.
‘There you go. If it lights up again it’s because somebody else’s magic has triggered it,” I said.
“Or because it’s shoddily made,” she jibed.
“When do I ever make shoddy things?” I demanded. To say I was offended would be an understatement.
“Oh, I don’t know, how about the time you put a protection spell on your storage unit and that dimwitted newbie broke straight through it,” she shot at me. Burn.
“Well—”
“Or, how about the time you designed an invincibility spell for a maniac and accidentally ended up making him super strong as well?” she continued.
“Now hang on!” I protested. “That was a very complicated ritual and some side effects were to be expected.”
“How about all those mind control inoculants that don’t work?”
“You’ve made your point,” I said grumpily. If there’s one thing a creator hates it’s having the flaws in their creations pointed out to them.
“Good. So we can agree that there’s a high chance your latest… thing won’t work?” she said, nodding her head at my crooked stick with a light bulb attached.
“I agree to no such thing,” I said sulkily and began walking away. She hurried after me.
The first thing I did was walk over to where one of those nasty hand-burning symbols was. My hand was still throbbing a bit but I’d managed to dull the pain a little. Before we’d even got that close the lightbulb was shining brightly in the darkness.
“See,” I said smugly giving Ashley one of my annoying faces. I have a few of those. This one was my smug mixed with superiority face
.
“Yeah, yeah,” she said; it was her turn to be grumpy. “Shall we get on with it?”
We began walking through Mote Park quietly. Once we got far enough away from the symbol the bulb went out and I wished I’d brought a torch. The ones on our phones would have to do. Mote Park was actually much nicer at night. Much quieter without all the other people here. Much more relaxed and private. The only sounds were the light breeze and the occasional rustling of leaves. Until we got near the lake and then we could hear water making watery noises as well. The darkness added to the splendour of the park at night. It really was a shame that it closed at dusk so few people would experience what we were.
“It’s a bit chilly,” Ashley said despite her jacket.
“Really? You’re cold?” I asked. I found it hard to believe that she could be cold in July even if it was night time. Especially since a massive heat wave had just come over from Spain and turned England into a near tropical country. It was over thirty degrees on one of the days and I had to have six showers! Us Brits cannot tolerate heat at all. It wasn’t that hot now but it wasn’t cold either. Then again, I never feel the cold, not even in Winter. Well, no that’s a lie. I do feel the cold when it’s really cold, but I mean it has to be freezing. Only when other people are freezing their bollocks off do I feel a bit nippy. Suffice it to say I did not feel anything in the way of coldness at that moment in time.
“That’s what I said,” she replied with extra sass.
“Well just do a little heat spell,” I said and carried on walking.
“A little heat spell,” she repeated quietly.
“You do know how to do one, right?” I turned to her and saw the sheepish expression on her face. “I thought your parents started teaching you everything when you was a kid?” Margie had told me so many stories about her training.
“Yeah, but it was all complex stuff. They never taught me anything basic,” she replied. “It was all conjuring fire and controlling the elements.”
“You can control the elements?” I said in awe. That was something I wanted to learn.
“No. They tried to teach me. I never managed it,” she replied sullenly.
“Right, well just imagine heat flowing through you and… You know. Shaboom,” I said. That’s how I did it. That’s how I did all simple spells. I just willed them. They didn’t even take much thought. But then I did have a pretty good teacher. Good in the sense that they were good at magic not that there were a good person, but let’s not get into that.
“It’s not working,” she said after barely more than ten seconds.
“Did you actually try?” It didn’t seem like it.
She let out a loud and very aggressive sigh. “Of course I did.”
“Alright, alright. You just need to relax. Here.” I tucked my wand-bulb away and took her hands and pushed them together beneath my own. At first she flinched from the shock of me grabbing her hands but she didn’t pull away. Her skin was smooth as silk. She clearly moisturised. “Close your eyes,” I said and she obeyed. “Picture something hot. Fire perhaps,” I suggested.
“Funny,” she snarked.
“Just imagine the heat and then push it through you. Control the magic. Mould it,” I said. It was a basic lesson which I’d always assumed Ashley could do. Thinking about it, however, I’d never seen her cast many spells. She’d cast the invincibility ritual that I’d designed but she had the instructions clearly written out and she’d been channelling me at the time.
She breathed out and her warm breath washed over my face. That would usually have grossed me out but because it was her it didn’t. I noticed that we were standing very close. I don’t know which of us had moved, maybe both of us, but we were now only a few inches apart. I felt heat radiating from her hands and knew that she’d done it. Her eyes flicked open and met mine.
“It worked,” she said quietly, full of pride.
“I noticed.” I smiled back at her.
“My parents spent so much time trying to teach me the complex stuff they forgot all the basics. Because I couldn’t do the hard stuff I kind of lost confidence in myself and they gave up on me. Or I gave up on them. I don’t really know,” she admitted. Her voice was only a fraction more than a whisper. It made sense. When I’d first met her she’d been willing to give her magic up. Maybe if she had more confidence in her abilities she would have been less willing.
“You only lack the confidence, Ash, not the ability. Trust me,” I told her, matching her gentle tone.
“My parents don’t really have time to teach me now, though,” she said.
“I’ll teach you. I know more than enough to teach you a thing or two,” I said.
She let out a small grin. It was adorable to see. “Really?”
“Absolutely.” My eyes flicked down to her lips. So pouty and red. I thought about leaning in and having a taste. I was sure in that moment that she wanted me to. Why else would she have stayed so close to me, her hands in mine for so long?
“Do you need to still hold my hands?” she asked but made no movement to pull them away. It didn’t matter, her words had killed the moment.
“No. No, of course not,” I said and quickly released her. I took several steps back in my haste to be rid of the awkward feeling I was suddenly riddled with. Apparently I was wrong in my estimation of her feelings. We got moving once again.
We didn’t talk much as we carried on walking through the park. I think we both felt a bit awkward over the… whatever it was that had happened between us. Or didn’t happen between us.
“What exactly are you hoping to find?” she asked as we neared the retirement village. If I ever retired I wouldn’t mind living there. It looked like such a quaint little area. Not that me and quaint go together all that well.
“Anything really. Anything that can lead me to the kidnapper,” I said. I thought I saw the bulb flicker with light but when I looked down it was still as dead as ever.
“What will you do when you do find them?” she asked.
“The person who hired me wants me to kill them,” I explained. “Too complicated otherwise.”
“The town council hired you to murder someone?” she said in shock.
“I don’t think they see a supernatural being as a someone,” I said. That was the sad truth about some people. They saw the supernatural as creatures. They didn’t realise that some of us were humans too. We’re just enhanced.
“That’s disgusting,” Ashley said. Her face wrinkled to show her distaste.
“I know. But that’s the way some people…” I trailed off when I saw the bulb come to life. Brilliant white light shone out, whiter than the bulb was capable of. Much whiter. “See it does—” I started to boast but then the bulb smashed to pieces and a quick burst of flame incinerated the wand. I let go just before the flames reached me. My hand had been through enough trauma.
Ashley raised an eyebrow at me and I waited for the taunt. “Who doesn’t do shoddy work, eh?” she said smugly.
Although smugness was one of my many traits I really found it deplorable in others. I opened my mouth to say something witty but was interrupted by a hideous, un-human shrieking sound that filled the air.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“What was that?” Ashley asked aghast as we both looked in the direction of the scream.
“Not human,” I replied. It wasn’t close either. That meant it wasn’t screaming at us. It sounded like it came from the north end of the park. “It sounded like it came from that way.” I nodded and then began walking in that direction.
“Is it a good idea to walk towards the scream?” she asked. Her nerves were taking control of her. Understandable really; she was standing in the place from which people had been abducted by something supernatural which had a monstrous set of vocal cords. That didn’t matter though, because I had a job to do.
“I am here to kill it,” I reminded her. Although I hadn’t planned on killing it so soon. I
’d hoped I could build up a nice fee first.
“I know but we’re unarmed,” she said.
I wiggled my fingers at her. “No we’re not.” A sorcerer is never unarmed. Rachel taught me that.
“Fine. But if anything happens to me…” she left it hanging and huffed after me. I might’ve felt bad about dragging her towards the danger but she had chosen to accompany me. I’d warned her of the risks.
We agreed it was best not to talk as we hunted the thing. We didn’t want to draw it to us. It didn’t make any further noise which made it tricky figuring out where the original cry had come from. We crossed the river and headed to the trees behind the little railway thing that kids ride on. Kids as in children not baby goats. I saw no signs that anything had been there and was just looking for a new direction to go in when Ashley gasped. I looked over and saw her green eyes wide with fright and her skin as pale as a clown. I followed her line of sight and saw what had scared her. Splattered on the base of a tree was dark red blood. The screaming thing had definitely been here and by the looks of things it hadn’t been alone.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“No idea. But I guess I’d better find out. You can stay here if you’d prefer. Or head back to the gate and Derek will let you out,” I said. I was scanning the trees and now that I’d seen the first splattering all the other splurges of blood were standing out. They were forming a nice little trail. Just like Shay’s trap, only this time Rachel wasn’t behind it.
“Split up? Yeah right. That’s the start of every horror film,” Ashley muttered and followed me into the trees.
We crept through the trees as quietly as possible so as not to attract the attention of the screaming kidnapper. The blood led us deeper inwards and the quantities of red grew the further in we got. What confused me was that whatever or whoever was bleeding, and I assumed it was a person that the screamer had taken, hadn’t made any noise in response to being attacked. Eventually the blood stopped. There was one last splattering around the bottom of a large shrub and that was it. The trail died.
