Modern Merlin

by Jason Paul Rice

  “It was cool. I’m not denying that. But that was off in some crazy fantasy land that I was doing all that stuff. Let’s say I come face to face with George. How do I know if any of that stuff is going to work?” Mike tasted his coffee and it needed a few more scoops of sugar.

  “You don’t. And that’s what separates magicians, mages, witches, warlocks, and, of course, wizards. The successful ones are the ones who truly believe. You’ve learned that already. I would ask you to try your skills right now, but magic is not to be wasted or used for show.” Alayna chugged most of the steaming liquid and slammed her mug on the table.

  “What about when you lit your finger on fire and all that other stuff you did when we first met?”

  Alayna smiled, her cheeks rosy and eyes wide from the rush of caffeine. “That was necessary because you wouldn’t have listened to a ravishing woman in a beautiful dress without the magic. Am I right?”

  Mike tried to drink his coffee as fast as Alayna had, but had to stop. He had never really liked the flavor of coffee, and although sugar helped, he still hadn’t acquired an appreciation for the taste. However, he enjoyed the jolt from the roasted beans. “I’ll give you that one. I was hardly listening to you after the magic stuff. I was pretty baked, too.”

  “Regardless, it was necessary. If you don’t believe the magic will be there, it won’t. Just like the famous quote, ‘Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right.’”

  “What?”

  “Come on, you have to understand this with your raised level of intelligence. It means if you think you can do something, you can. But if you don’t think that you can do something, you’ve already lost the battle. That doesn’t encapsulate self-doubt and fear, which are very natural responses to difficult situations. The bottom line is that if you believe in yourself, anything is possible.”

  Mike clapped his hands. “Great pep talk. I have to get ready for dinner now.”

  Alayna stared at him and shook her head slowly. A single tear ran from her right eye. “I’m done chasing you now. If you want another lesson or any help from me, you have my number. Don’t be a stranger.”

  The faerie kicked open Mike’s front door and left without closing it. Mike didn’t really understand his Jekyll and Hyde mood swings with Alayna. Deep down, he feared that she would abandon him like his father had, and didn’t want to get attached to her. He also feared that his Jekyll and Hyde personality came from his father. All his awful tendencies came from his father.

  Mike went into his room to get ready and noticed a stack of old books about magic on his bed. With the coffee still coursing through his system, he sat down and cracked open one of the books. He felt immediate guilt for snapping on Alayna, and tried to block it out by reading and thinking about dinner at Emily’s house.

  Chapter 22

  MIKE SAT ACROSS THE table from Emily and ate his Caesar salad. The aroma of barbecue sauce and cinnamon-cherry scented candles filled the small dining room. Emily stood up and lit four more blue candles on the table then dimmed the lights on the crystal chandelier.

  Mike asked, “So do you know where you want to go when we get that money?”

  “Some city. Any city. We just need to get out of this shithole of a town. My business is dead. You don’t really have anything holding you back, either.”

  Mike nodded and took a drink of his Cabernet Sauvignon.

  Emily pushed her salad around with her fork. “I was thinking Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. They are the closest two cities that I would want to live in.”

  Mike said quickly, “Pittsburgh.”

  “Is that a statement or question?”

  “Yes.” Mike smiled. “It’s a statement. I like Pittsburgh. I already root for their sports teams anyway. I think we should go to Pittsburgh.”

  “That’s fine with me. How is dinner?” She lowered her eyes.

  Mike chewed up a piece of the tough chicken breast drenched in barbecue sauce and swallowed. “It’s all great. Even the green beans that I don’t normally like.”

  “Is the baked potato soft enough?” she asked excitedly.

  It wasn’t. “Uh huh. Tastes fine to me.” He smiled.

  “Good. I thought I might have taken them out of the oven too soon. Pittsburgh. I’ll bet they have plenty of businesses that need a good educated woman. What are you going to do?” She put more butter on her baked potato.

  Mike hadn’t really thought about it. He didn’t have many skills that could be applied to a technical job. “I don’t know. Last job was demolition.”

  “So what, you just destroyed buildings? That sounds like fun.” She guzzled the rest of her wine and poured another glass for herself.

  “It wasn’t bad. I just don’t know what I am good at.”

  A seductive smile came across Emily’s face. “I know something you are really good at.”

  “Would you want me to do that as a living?” Mike smirked.

  Emily shook her head slowly, some of the purple liquid leaking from the corner of her mouth. She wiped it away with the back of her hand. “Of course not. I’m the only one you should be pleasing like that. I hope.”

  Mike peered through the candlelight and made eye contact with Emily. “You have nothing to worry about in that regard. I’m not messing around.”

  “Good. I don’t want to scare you but for the sake of conversation, do you want to have kids?”

  Mike thought for a few moments because he had never considered the question. “Yes. I don’t know if I am ready for them right now, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a couple of little Mikes running around.”

  She tilted her head to the side. “What if it’s a girl?”

  “Then a couple of little Michelles running around wouldn’t be that bad, either. Wouldn’t know what to do with a girl, though.”

  She giggled. “Yes, you do. Pretty much the same things you would do with a boy. You will still be changing diapers and tucking her in at night. I think you would make a great father.”

  “Thank you.” Mike regarded those particular words as the best compliment he had ever received. But he wanted to change the subject before Emily asked him about his family. “Has Tucker answered his phone yet?”

  She shook her head rapidly. “Nope. Fill up that stomach because we might need to go in this time. I really don’t want to but if that son of a bitch is going to hold out on our money, we might just have to take what is ours.”

  “If that’s the way it’s going to be, then I guess we have no choice,” Mike said, trying to sound tough. He forked a couple of buttered green beans into his mouth.

  Emily took a sip of wine and smiled, exposing her purple teeth. “What do you want out of life, Mike?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Come on, you have to know what you want out of life.”

  “How about you go first?”

  She tapped her fork on her lip in thought. “I want to get out of this town, for one. For the most part, I just want a normal life. These past few years have been so crazy. My family abandoned me. Everyone at the company hates me. I just want to find a guy to have fun with. Live life. Nothing too crazy. No fame or fortune necessary.”

  “Me, too. I don’t need anything fancy, either.”

  She dug her fork into the baked potato and held the piece in front of her face as she blew on it. “I don’t know. I look at you and I see this, like, glow of gold around you. Like a surrounding halo for your entire body or something. It sounds so stupid when I say it out loud, but I just see you as, like, this superhero or something. You know, like Thor or someone like that. You have that look.” She shoved the potato into her mouth and turned away, embarrassed.

  Mike blushed. “Thank you. Not sure about all of that, but thanks. I did think of something I want out of life. I want to help people. People like you and me. Whose families have been busted up and might need some help. Doubt it will ever happen but it would be nice.”

  “Why do you doubt it? I’m finding out pretty fast tha
t you’re a great guy, whether you care to acknowledge it or not. Some people have untapped potential. It can come out at any point from childhood to old age or sometimes not at all. I think you still have some untapped potential to discover.” She shrugged her shoulders and took a healthy gulp of wine.

  Where had he heard that before?

  Mike’s mind drifted off to thoughts of his future with Emily. A few kids at the house with a picket fence. Cookouts with the neighbors. And, of course, helping children in need.

  “You okay?” Emily waved her hand in front of Mike’s face.

  Mike shook his head to clear the cobwebs. “Huh? Sorry. You got me thinking about some stuff there.”

  “It’s alright. Are you done eating?”

  Mike had a little bit of his baked potato left and a few green beans. “I’m good. Why don’t we kill this bottle and go to Tucker’s house?”

  “I should call him a few more times before we leave. Give this guy one more chance.”

  Emily pulled her phone out of the back pocket of her jeans. She sent the call and put the phone up to her ear. Several moments went by then she abruptly said, “It’s Emily. Calling again. I’m going to come by your house if you don’t answer this time. Hello? I’ll see you in a little bit then.”

  She ended the call and slid the phone into her back pocket, shrugging. “Not home again, as I’m sure you picked up on. Let me give us a refill.” Emily grabbed the red wine and poured each stemmed glass about three-quarters full. She shook the empty bottle around and set it back on the table.

  Emily held her glass in the air, and Mike raised his, as well. She toasted, “To us. To getting this money and getting out of this town. To starting a new future together.”

  The two glasses met with a ring in the middle of the table. Mike focused on a dying candle flame and took a drink. He downed half of the peppery red with notes of black cherry. The tannins had dried his tongue and mouth out, and Mike quenched his thirst with the glass of water.

  They finished the wine and jumped into the Jeep. During the ride, they passed an energy drink back and forth so that they would remain sharp. The sugary liquid dried out Mike’s mouth even more and gave his tongue a leathery feel.

  Mike’s nerves and the active ingredients in the energy drink conspired together to make his hands shake. He shifted around in the passenger seat, and his palms started to leak perspiration. The new wizard sensed dark energy. He hadn’t been trained in the subject yet, but his gut churned, trying to warn him of bad spirits.

  They arrived at the tarot card reader’s house and pulled into the driveway. The garage door was still open, exposing Tucker’s red van. Mike opened the car door with a shaky hand and walked slowly up to the front door with Emily.

  He knocked on the door. “Is that better? That wasn’t a cop knock, was it?” Mike stepped back and looked around the neighborhood of nice houses.

  “That was good. Good job.”

  Nobody came to the door, so Mike knocked louder. Still no answer. He peered into the window near the front door. The only room he could see was dark.

  “Looks like we are going to have to go in. Are you ready?”

  Mike had hoped she wouldn’t utter those words. “Does it matter?”

  Chapter 23

  EMILY LED THE WAY INTO the garage with Mike right on her heels. The hairs on his head tingled as her hand landed on the silver doorknob. She turned the knob and gave Mike a thumbs-up. As Emily pushed the door open, a foul smell rushed through the opening. Mike covered his nose and gagged.

  They entered the house, and the malodor of sour cat piss and human waste only intensified with each step. Emily used the flashlight function on her phone and searched for a light switch. Mike ran his hands along the walls, looking for some electricity to guide the way.

  Emily said, “Eureka. I found one.” She clicked the switch, and a dim light flickered on.

  A long hallway appeared in front of them with doors to different rooms on the right and left. Emily guided the way with her phone, and she ducked into the first room on the right. Mike followed her in and found a light switch near the door well.

  He flipped it on and the light exposed a dirty living room with old couches and chairs. A rectangular wooden coffee table sat in the middle of the room with more than ten cigar butt-filled ashtrays scattered on its surface. Mike’s heart kicked into overdrive, and his leathery tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. He softly bit his tongue to release some saliva, but it wasn’t exactly a quenching waterfall.

  Through all this Emily seemed so calm. Mike wondered how she could do it. Jealous thoughts crept into his head.

  They went into a room across the hall, and here a different stench dominated. His olfactory senses detected the scent of Houlihan’s Square.

  Panic unevenly jumped though his body like a drunk person on a pogo stick. Emily flipped the switch on the wall and screamed. She turned and buried her head into Mike’s chest. Behind her, Mike froze on the spot. He couldn’t shift his eyes away from the mangled body of Tucker McSeamus.

  He had heard the stories about the victims’ bodies, but nothing had prepared him for the gruesome sight. Tucker sat in a leather recliner soaked in blood. All the flesh on his legs and arms had been stripped clean from the bloody bones. The murderer had left the tendons and connective tissue intact to keep the bones connected.

  Tucker’s bloated face, stained with dried blood, appeared to be smiling. Mike patted Emily on the back. “It’s alright. He can’t do anything anymore.”

  Emily broke away from Mike and searched around the room. “I can’t find that bag of money in here. It was in the basement last time I was here.” Emily’s phone beeped. “Shit. My battery is about to run out. I won’t be able to use the flashlight on my phone apps. Get out your phone.”

  “Mine’s old as shit. I don’t even have that flashlight function on my phone.”

  “Worthless,” she mumbled.

  “What did you just say?”

  “Nothing. Let’s get down to that basement before my battery dies.”

  They frantically searched around the dark house for light switches and a door to the basement.

  A booming howl came from the depths below. Emily grabbed Mike’s arm. “What was that?”

  He could feel her pulse on his biceps. “I don’t know. It didn’t sound happy. That’s all I know.”

  “Guess we found it.” Emily pointed at a door marked with an arrow pointing down.

  Mike unsurely grabbed the glass knob and turned. He pushed.

  “RA RA RA RA RA RA RA.”

  He immediately let go of the knob and took a step back into Emily, who hooked her arms around him. His heart felt like it was going to leap through his ribcage and into Emily’s palm as something or someone snorted loudly from the basement. He wondered if whether he could use magic to calm the animal, or what he assumed to be an animal.

  He tried to relax and find the current of magic that had ran throughout all of history. He opened up his soul and attempted to harness the steady wave. Emily broke the hug from behind and tapped him on the shoulder.

  “We have to go down there. I’m glad I brought this now.”

  Mike felt a piece of cold steel pressing against his forearm. He didn’t need any light to know that it was the gun. He snatched it with his other hand and flipped the safety off. Mike didn’t know if it was the stream of magic or just extra confidence because of the firearm, but his reluctant feet sprang into action.

  But he stopped in his tracks again when the rabid barking erupted again. The disturbing sounds increased with each additional step, until Mike couldn’t see anything.

  He turned around to grab Emily’s phone to get a better view.

  Her flashlight died and her phone made the goodbye beeping melody.

  The basement door slammed shut, cutting off the last trace of dim light from above, and effectively shot a lightning bolt of terror up and down Mike’s spine. Mike stood still, paralyzed in fear. His shaky
hand pointed the gun in the area the growling was coming from. He sensed the wild beast getting closer, and pulled the trigger twice.

  Silence.

  A rush of relief hurtled through Mike’s body. He reached out for Emily, and the invisible predator erupted again. Mike accidently fired the gun again, out of fear. The rumbling of the animal rose to a deafening racket.

  Mike got to the bottom of the steps and swiped his hand over a patch of wall. Was that a light switch? He pushed up on the stubborn switch until he heard a distinct click. A small chandelier flashed into life. Mike pushed Emily behind him and put two hands on the gun.

  Together, carefully, they moved around the room, making sure to leave no parts of it unexplored.

  The basement had a stocked bar to the left and stacked cardboard boxes around the rest of the room. When Mike pushed a wall of boxes over, he exposed a silver animal cage with two strange animals inside. They looked like a beefier version of a coyote. Both beasts had wild yellow eyes and were foaming at the mouth.

  Mike pressed the safety on the gun and put it in his pants pocket. Emily darted toward the far corner of the basement.

  “Holy shit, there it is.”

  Emily was pointing at a black duffle bag overflowing with cash. Mike joined her. They stuffed the loose bills into the case and tried to zip it up. They had to jam the loose money in as they went, closing it little by little, and finally sealing the bag up completely.

  Mike backed up into the cage and heard a piece of metal hit the ground. Not thinking much of it, he turned around and noticed he’d knocked the loose lock out of place. Both animals sprang toward the door of the cage. Acting quickly, he dove toward the door, meeting it at the same time as the two rabid animals.

  “RA, RA, RA, RA, RA.”