Pear Town was down under. A city underneath another city. Cops didn’t go there. The ones who did never came back. It wasn’t just police officers either. Many had gone into Pear Town never to be heard from again.
Pear Town lived by its own rules and they didn’t like strangers. It’s where those who had no use for law or order had escaped to hundreds of years ago, and they had no plans to come back up top.
A bunch of cops and law enforcement agencies had tried to shut it down once long before I was born.
From what I hear, the death toll had been great on both sides, and since then, Pear was weary of anyone coming in trying to infiltrate their town. So, they did everything they could to keep outsiders out.
Every single time I’d gone down there, I’d had to fight to come back. Not that I went often, but if someone owed me money from a card game, or had stiffed me in some way and thought they could escape to Pear Town and I wouldn’t follow, well let’s just say they found out quickly how wrong they were.
If Pear had been Laurel’s last stop, who knows what really happened to her?
I walked closer to Xavier. “If you go down there, be prepared to fight.”
He didn’t look bothered in the least. “I know all about Pear Town, darlin’. You don’t have to warn me. I’ve been there my fair share of times.”
A feeling of vague uneasiness washed over me. Who was this guy? How did he know about Pear Town? Was he from there?
The questions were endless, but unfortunately, we didn’t have the time. I gave him the once over and he stared back, unflinching. I had to ask. “Are you from there?”
“I’m from many places, darlin’, but Pear Town ain’t one of 'em.” He inhaled a big gulp of air. “I get around. Ain’t many places I ain’t been.”
Well, that sounded ominous. We’d talk about it another time. For now, we had work to do.
3
There were many ways into Pear Town, lots of holes in the ground and secret gateways. If Laurel had gone in through Almaegrow, then we would too. I knew a spot.
Through WayWay’s house. I pulled out a twenty. You couldn’t get into WayWay’s house for free. He was used to people traveling to and fro and usually kept two men guarding all exits. I paid my money and so did Xavier and Twist.
We were led down the basement stairs and then down another pair of steps. There was an elevator at the bottom and we paid another twenty just to ride.
I rested my head against the wall and sighed. This was so not how I’d seen my night going. All I’d wanted was to go home and enjoy my new friend. Now here I was, entering Pear Town not even sure if I’d make it out alive.
No streetlights dawned the street. So, with the exception of a few porch lights, we were in total darkness. A few houses sat on either side of the street, a convenience store on the corner.
From the back of the store came two girls and a guy. All three carried baseball bats. Not regular bats. No, that would have been too easy. These were static bats, covered in barbed wire and carrying an electric charge.
From a house across the street came two more guys and another girl. Their eyes blazed and their skin lit up blue and crackled like a live wire.
We were going to have to fight. There was no way around it. This. This right here was why I hated coming to Pear Town.
There was always a battle. No way to avoid it. Why the hell had Laurel thought it was a good idea to come here? As far as we knew, she could have been killed the moment she’d stepped off the shaft.
Twist pursed his lips and blew out enough wind to lift himself off the ground. He turned in a rapid twisting pattern, whipping up a gust and knocking the three with electric skin off their feet.
Xavier crisscrossed his arms, and the static bats turned to frogs. Stunned, the three Pear residents from the store charged. I quickly tossed them across the street then lifted them in the air and dropped them to the ground hard.
They jumped to their feet and spread out. The female pointed her finger, and a blast of electricity hit me in the chest and knocked me to the ground.
I hit the pavement with a grunt, the asphalt scraping my face and smashing my arm. It felt like I’d bathed in fire for a week, but I didn’t have the luxury of indulging it. They were coming for me. All three of them. I had to get up.
Their heavy boots stomped around me. I was in too much pain to move, so I did the only thing I could from my place on the ground. Using my TK, I balled my hand into a fist and cut off their air supply.
They grabbed their throats, choking and gagging. One of the men fell to his knees, his breath coming in short gasps. The other two stumbled but still managed to stay upright.
I had to get them down, but by now my hand was shaking bad, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep my hold on them for much longer.
I needed help. I looked to Twist, who had the three with electric skin caught up in a whirlwind. Xavier’s focus was elsewhere as well. His hands turned in a series of complicated motions, which meant he was ready to transmute the hell out of someone.
I turned my attention back to the two who still hadn’t hit the ground. Their knees had buckled, but that was about it. Cutting off their air wasn’t working. So this time, I went for the eyes.
The female was the stronger of the two, so I flexed my fingers, and her eyes exploded out of her head. She dropped to the ground, unmoving.
The last guy standing let out a howl like a wolf and then came at me full force. A tree branch by my hand turned into a long silver sword and I worked myself to my knees.
I waited until he was close enough and then stabbed him through the gut. The blade sliced into him, making a swooshing sound as it went. It came out on the other side and I let the handle go, just in time to see him fall.
My hands were covered in blood, and I wiped them across my pants, realizing how disgusting it was. It made me want to choke.
The smell alone was enough to keep me bent over the toilet for weeks. No longer able to stay up, I fell backwards on the street, exhausted. I’d thank Xavier for the sword later. For now, I just needed to rest.
Twist kept his windstorm going and Xavier released his hands, turning the last three into rats. They fell to the ground and then scurried away. They’d turn back in a couple of hours. Transmutation didn’t last forever.
Hands on his knees, Twist let out a deep breath. “Shit. I thought they had us for a minute.” They’d been six against our three, but we’d worked together as a team, which is probably why we were still standing and they weren’t.
Xavier’s chest barely moved. He didn’t have a hair out of place, and his clothes were still neat and unruffled. He looked like he had just taken a stroll around the block instead of been in a street fight with six to three odds.
I took a moment to get my bearings and then came up to a sitting position. The nerves in my arms felt like they were on fire and my face tingled and burned.
No one else came out of the shadows, which was good because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to fend them off if they did.
Xavier and Twist checked our surroundings. Finding nothing, they both came to stand above me.
I could take a hint. Not able to justify sitting any longer, I came to my feet. My legs wobbled and crusted blood stuck to the side of my face. My arm hung at an unnatural angle, and the pain from that had me taking short breaths. The quicker we ended this the better.
Xavier put his arm around my waist, holding me upright as we walked down the street. Any other time I would have rejected the help, but right now I was just glad that he’d offered.
Our eyes scanned our surroundings making sure we were alert for anything. In Pear Town, you had to constantly be on your guard.
The farther we walked, the heavier and more oppressed the air became. The scent of rotted food and animal feces permeated the air, filling our nostrils and making us gag.
It was never a smell I could get used to, but one I knew to expect whenever in Pear Town.
Misshapen buildi
ngs and rundown homes greeted us from both sides of the street. Rats and other type rodents scurried about, rustling through the discarded trash that lined the road.
I had a few friends in Pear Town and figured it was best to talk to one of them instead of romping about undirected and getting into more fights.
Sheena owned a beauty shop in downtown Pear. Her customers were mostly strippers from the club next door coming in between sets to get their hair, makeup, and nails touched up.
On the weekend, Sheena took verve pills. Depending on their dosage, verve pills could keep you up for days.
Sheena’s shop, The Wrap Around, never closed on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and Sheena herself never slept on those days. Servicing one customer after the other, she was almost like a machine in her efficiency and professionalism.
The building in which she housed her business was a small two-story clapboard. The shop took up the first floor. Her living quarters covered the second.
We slipped in through the side door. The place was a little cramped, but she still had six booths set up, a sitting area, a kitchen area, and multiple hair washing sinks. Brown and beige wallpaper decorated the walls, the floor the same color.
Sheena had a worker on either side of her. One doing nails, the other doing hair, and Sheena herself doing a client’s makeup.
Blush brush in hand, she looked up when we walked in. “Come to get your eyebrows plucked? They need it.”
I waved her insult away. “Hey, you know Laurel, right? Twist’s sister. You seen her lately?” The woman in the chair bit her bottom lip, then diverted her gaze to the floor. The air shifted to tense, and I knew right away she knew something.
Sheena shook her head. “Nah, I ain’t seen her. Look I got clients lined up out the door. I gotta get back to work. Your papers are in the back room.” She dropped the brush and assured her client she’d just be a minute.
She let us through the door that led to her private residence and closed it firmly behind us.
She talked in a hushed whisper, her voice short and frightened. “Look, I saw her go in the club a couple of weeks ago. There’s a new player in town. Been taking over all the major money-making businesses.
“This one is smart. There’s no strong arming going on. Lots of money’s being exchanged. You know how we get down in Pear. Someone coming in and trying to violently take over we’d crush 'em. They went a different route, though, and they’re making progress. “
I thought about that. The strategy was smart. “So they’re still taking over, just going about it in a way that keeps the people happy and their pockets filled. When all is said and done, though, this person will still own most of Pear Town.”
She nodded. “Folks in Pear Town are pretty smart. We know exactly what they’re doing. But these people are ruthless. Try not to sell and everything you love mysteriously disappears. It’s a bad business, but no one can prove that they’re the ones doing it.”
She stopped for a minute and turned all her attention to Twist. Her face softened, and her eyes spoke of the heartbreak she might have seen reflected in his. “Leave this alone, Twist. Go home. There’s no good that can come from you pushing this.”
I gave her a sharp look. Something about her words and her stance put me on guard. Sheena had always been straight with me, so this was more than a little disconcerting. “Sheena?”
She wouldn’t even look at me, but her voice was strong when she spoke. “Just get the hell out of here. Go home.” She walked out the door without looking back.
That left me stunned. Just what the hell was going on down here? I wondered if they’d approached her about selling yet. She’d carefully managed to keep the discussion away from her own business. I couldn’t help but wonder why.
We stayed in the back room, not sure of what our next move should be. I took a seat on the steps that led up to her apartment.
One of Sheena’s work girls came in, a basket in her hand. She handed it to me, and then walked back out, never uttering a word. I shook my head, talk about dramatic.
4
Sheena hadn’t batted an eye when she’d taken in my rumpled clothes, limp arm, and battered and bruised face. Probably because that’s how I always looked when I saw her.
There was always a fight to get into Pear Town. She knew this. So I guess she just had a basket ready for whoever might come stumbling through her door. That, or she’d taken one look at us and decided we were in need of some serious help.
The basket held several bottles of water, three verve pills, a couple of rags, alcohol, and antiseptics. I threw a pill in my mouth and washed it down with some of the water. The rest of the water I poured on one of the rags and used it to wash my face and hands.
The verve would not only pep up our energy, but also escalate the healing process. It didn’t take long to take effect, and I could already feel my body tingling as the pill worked its way through my system.
Twist swallowed his pill and then poured the rest of the bottle over his head. He shook his hair from side to side and water splattered on my face and neck.
I wiped it off with my rag and tried not to call him an asshole, as I was sure he’d done it on purpose.
Xavier took his pill dry and put the unopened bottle in his back pocket. “So we go to the strip club then?”
I looked to Twist. “Can we safely agree now that I didn’t kill your sister?”
“Why send me her fingers with a picture of you circled, then? What do you have to do with all this? You have to know something.”
I wasn’t sure if that meant he believed me or not.
Xavier took his water out and downed it in one gulp. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and then dropped the empty bottle back into the basket. “I think it’s a trap.”
I thought about that. I guess it could be a trap. Anyone who knew me knew that I hung out at Jinx’s.
Anybody who’d ever been to Jinx’s knew that Twist worked there. So it wouldn’t have been too hard to get us both together.
The question was why? Also, what did Xavier have to do with all this? Was it a coincidence that he’d just happened to pop up tonight of all nights?
I ran a hand through my hair. “How are we going to play this? Somebody obviously wanted us here. Let’s go find out why.”
I stood. The verve had taken its full effect by now and it felt like my insides had been hit with a bolt of lightning. That’s the thing about verve. You had to do something with that energy, if not, you’d be literally bouncing off the walls.
The club was right next to the shop, so we didn’t have far to walk. There was a fifty-dollar cover charge, which we paid at the door.
The smoke hit me as soon as I walked in, but instead of sending me into a coughing fit as it normally did, the verve in my system made it pass through me like a crisp breath of fresh air.
No one danced on stage, but the tables and chairs were full. Which meant they were probably between set takes. We’d only walked about three feet when a clean-shaven man stopped us from going further.
I didn’t clock him as a resident of Pear Town, and I wondered if he was a part of the group in the process of trying to take over. “You don’t look like you’re here for the show.”
I didn’t try to deny it because he wouldn’t have believed me anyway. “We’re not. We’re looking for a friend. Laurel. Last place she was seen was here.”
His face stayed impassive. “Think I know who you’re talking about. Follow me.” He walked toward the back.
Unease made my steps slow. That was way too simple and everything in me told me it was a trap. He led us to a red door at the end of the hall and opened it.
“Be ready,” Xavier whispered under his breath, but loud enough for Twist and myself to hear.
Twist went in first. His sharp intake of breath had me charging into the room, Xavier right behind me.
I stopped short when I saw what was before me. I was sure my eyes looked as if they were ready to pop out of my
head. They sure felt like they were.
Twist was on his knees, face buried in the lap of a woman sitting behind a massive desk. That woman was Laurel, and she had all her fingers and looked alive and well. Twist was weeping openly and repeatedly saying that he’d thought she was dead.
Something soured in my stomach as I took in the scene before me. Twist was ready to get his heart broken again, I knew it as sure as I stood there.
The fact that she was the one sitting behind the desk, that she hadn’t let him know that she was alive, that she’d appeared at the same time as this new adversary, filled me with cautious hesitation.
Her eyes locked with mine, and I almost flinched from what I saw there. Emptiness. She looked empty and devoid of any feeling.
Had she always been that way? I’d never really paid attention. “Whose fingers did you cut off and why the theatrics?” I asked, because those fingers had been real, which meant that somebody was dead. The photos they could have manipulated, but not the fingers.
She knocked her brother away and stood. “Would you have come if I’d sent you an invitation to a tea party?” She shook her head. “Sorry, dear, I don’t do tea parties.” She sounded deranged, especially if she thought that shit made sense.
She walked to the front of her desk and sat. “You have to die, Leah.” She shrugged as if this was completely out of her control. “Sorry, I don’t make the rules.”
Beside me, Xavier bristled and I put my hand on his arm to tell him to chill. We needed more information. Right now, I had no clue what we’d walked into.
“Laurel?” Twist came up from his spot on the floor. He wiped his eyes with his shirt sleeve then looked from me to his sister. “What are you doing? Why did you let me think you were dead?”
She didn’t even look at him, just raised her hand and blasted him with wind so strong that it had to be hurricane force.
It lifted him in the air and banged him against the wall. He fell to a crumpled mess on the floor and for his sake I needed him to stay there.
He wasn’t dead. The verve in his blood stream would protect him, but she hadn’t known that. If she was willing to kill her own brother…
A Magical Reckoning: Magic and Mischief Book 1 Page 13
