A prickle ran up his arms and he stopped pacing to look ahead up the path. A slim man with dark skin and piercing eyes approached, a small smile playing at the corner of his mouth. Ragged Edge relaxed a touch and opened his arms to greet his friend. The two men grasped each other by the forearm and Ragged Edge patted Shadow’s Step on the shoulder.
“Brother,” Shadow said.
“How are you?” Ragged Edge asked as they released arms.
“Good, puzzled, obviously, but good.” He glanced towards Two-Doors-Down and gave the youngster a nod. “Doors.”
“Shadow.”
“What can I do for you?”
“Have you managed to learn anything about this business?” Ragged Edge jerked his head across the river towards St. Catherine’s. The view across the river looked normal at first glance, but it was perfectly still. On the opposite bank there wasn’t a single moving car or person in sight. “Warden didn’t have much luck with Fortune.”
Shadow’s Step chuckled and shook his head. “I wouldn’t be an Alpha for all the gold in Valhalla.”
“It does tend to cause problems trusting others, doesn’t it?” Ragged Edge said with a resigned cluck of his tongue.
“But no, we really haven’t found much. There are myths of such things happening, but nothing concrete, as far as I can tell. It’s possibly the work of a powerful demon. I wondered if something big crossed the veil and caused such bad damage to it that St. Catherine’s got sucked through the hole.” Shadow’s voice had such a deep, soft quality that Ragged Edge always found himself leaning in to hear him clearly. He nodded along to Shadow’s words.
“We found terrible tears and a gaping wound that you could see right into Hepethia through. Most unusual. But Hepethia seems relatively untouched by the event. The human element isn’t in that realm. If it did indeed get sucked across the veil then it went somewhere beyond our reach. It’s an interesting theory. Have you been over there?”
“No. We scouted across Red Bridge but no further. The barrier is turning humans around. There were several serious crashes yesterday. The authorities have closed the bridge, declaring it structurally unsound. So, no one’s getting close enough to experience the disorientation now.”
“Humans,” Ragged Edge said with an affectionate smile. Shadow chuckled. “Well, we should all be vigilant and keep one another informed.”
“Of course. I’d better get back. Good to see you,” Shadow said. Ragged Edge grasped his forearm again and they exchanged solemn looks.
Shadow’s Step turned and strode away, back into his territory. Ragged Edge watched him go, chewing over his thoughts. Doors cleared his throat and the old man looked at him, half surprised to see him standing there.
“Right. We’d better get going ourselves.”
“He is so odd.” Doors was frowning and still watching Shadow’s Step departing.
“We’re all a little odd, my boy. Come on.” Ragged Edge set off, stomping his aching feet and tapping his staff on the ground beside him on every alternate stride.
Felix released Emma, gently placing her feet on the ground. He stroked her hair and smiled down at her. She smiled back at him, a dreamy expression on her face.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” she said. Her voice was deep and husky.
“That was my plan, to catch you off guard.” He grinned. Felix lifted his gaze to the narrow street around them and saw that they had moved further away from the main road. He looked over his shoulder and looked straight into that eerie blankness. Emma gasped and he returned his gaze to her. She had a hand pressed to her lips and was staring past him.
“Where’s the street? What am I looking at?”
“This is what I saw last night.” He took her hand and together they walked a little closer. There was no crushing dizziness, they weren’t turned back. Nor was there a gaping hole in the fabric of reality. There was something like a scar hanging there; a faint line, shimmering slightly. It was as if the hole had been stitched up. He reached out a hand and ran his fingers through thin air. “So odd.” His voice was barely above a whisper.
“How can this be real?” Emma said.
“Have you ever seen anything like this before?”
“Never.”
“What about odd people? People with funny names, or who can do things that no person ought to be able to do?”
“What do you mean?” Emma gave him a bemused sort of smile. “Felix? Have you seen something else?”
He wasn’t sure what she would make of the rest of his story. He was afraid of pushing her away. Yet, here she was.
“I’m afraid you’ll think I’m crazy.”
“With what we’re standing in front of right now, I think I’d believe just about anything you told me.” She gestured towards the emptiness before them and Felix had to laugh. It was a surprising sound in the peculiar quiet of the street.
“Last night there was a hole here. There was this blank space and just here, where this line is, there was what looked like a tear and through it I could see stars. I went through and there was this whole other world. The ground was like crystal. As I walked along it started to look like bits of St. Catherine’s that I remember, but derelict, ruined. Like some sort of post-apocalyptic future. Then I saw people and they could turn into wolves. I ran back out of there and went home. That was when I called you.”
“Felix.” Emma stared at him, her eyes wide, her cheeks flushed. “That’s incredible!”
“Do you believe me?”
“Yes, I do. But I also understand why you were reluctant to tell me.”
He had missed out the part about shooting one of them. He wasn’t entirely proud of that part.
“I thought Julie would be through there. I was sure of it. But there was no sign of life at all, apart from the werewolves, or whatever they were.” He felt ridiculous saying the word out loud. “But now that the hole is gone, I have no leads left, no hint of how to find my sister.” A tremble leaked into his voice and he felt his cheek twitch, as if tears were moments away.
“There must be other people with missing friends and family. You won’t be the only person in the city in this situation. You need to find them.”
“How?”
Emma pulled her phone out of her pocket and loaded up a social media app.
“What hashtag do you think would cover this? Missing in Caerton?”
“Try it.” He watched as she searched. A great long list of results came up and Felix stared with disbelief at all of the conversations that were happening. Post after post showed photographs of missing people, questions about places that he remembered from his childhood, people begging for information. Below them were comments that were heart-breaking; comments of hurtful disbelief and ridicule. The people who were not missing anything personal from their own lives simply refused to accept that anything was wrong.
“Cut it out, stupid. There’s nothing wrong with Caerton.”
“What a load of bollocks.”
“Stop whining and get over it.”
“This is awful.” Felix shook his head and looked away.
“Always look for the helpers.”
“Sorry?”
“It’s why I joined the army, Felix. To be one of the helpers, one of the heroes. Whenever tragedy strikes, you will always see people running in to help. Ignore the people denying the problem and look for those who are trying to help. There’s a meeting this afternoon at a church hall in Old Town for people with missing friends and family. You should go.” Felix looked at the post she was indicating and saw where the meeting was being held. It wasn’t far from his flat.
“I will. Thanks. You have to work, right?”
“I do. I’m sorry.”
Emma looked back up at the strange, empty street. She took another step towards it and held out her hand. Felix watched, apprehension bubbling up inside. What if she got sucked into oblivion? But nothing happened. She withdrew her hand and shook her head in mild disbelief. She turned to him an
d stepped right up into his personal space. He stroked her hair and kissed her again, though with less intensity than before. This kiss was soft and tender, one full of promise. She stepped back and gave him a stunning smile.
“Talk to you later.” She turned and walked back towards the main road while Felix stood staring after her, surprised and more than a little happy.
“Don’t get distracted,” his dark passenger sneered.
“I’m not,” Felix replied. He set off walking after Emma but turned the opposite way at the end of the street. She was heading for a bus to work, he was heading back into Old Town for the church she mentioned. “You got us through the dizziness, didn’t you?” He spoke under his breath, unsure whether he really needed to speak out loud to the thing in his head.
“You’re welcome,” the voice replied. “You finally said it out loud, what they are.”
Felix didn’t reply. The pavement was bustling with people going about their mundane lives. He walked quickly past them, weaving through the gaps. He avoided the back street past the museum, even though it was the most direct route for him to take and went instead to a major road further along that took him almost right to the church. It was too early for the meeting, so he stopped at a sandwich shop for some lunch. He sat on a low wall outside the shop, next to a bare tree and watched the world go by as he ate. Every person that passed him could be one of those things, he thought. Every person that served him in a shop or pub. They could be everywhere.
Was it them who had repaired the hole? Had they done it just to stop him getting back through it? They had to be looking for him, after he shot one of them. It suddenly occurred to him that he might be in danger. He swallowed a particularly tough lump of bread and cheese and looked anxiously up the street.
“They aren’t everywhere,” the voice in his head said. “There aren’t that many of them. You’ll know them when you see them now, you’ll feel their presence. Most humans get uncomfortable around them, but now you’ll know why.”
“What are they?” Felix asked through a mouth full of food.
“I told you, shapeshifters. You chose the word werewolf. That’s close, but not all of them take wolf form, just the ones you saw. They are predators and they will hurt you if they find you. But don’t worry, I’m hiding you. They won’t find you as long as I’m with you.”
“And what are you?” Felix patted his mouth with a napkin to hide his moving lips.
“Ahh, now you’re asking the right questions. I’m your guardian angel.”
Somehow, Felix thought, I doubt that.
The church was one of those red brick buildings that you didn’t instantly recognise as a church. A big sign out in front gave it away. Felix walked up to the front door and paused, his nerves twisting around in his stomach. He could hear voices murmuring inside and he pulled open the door. Inside was a small reception area with a dark red carpet and that musty bible smell. Opposite was a set of glass doors into the main hall of the church. A small cluster of people was gathered around at the far end of the hall, near to the steps up to the altar. Felix went inside and several heads turned as he opened the door.
The outer door opened behind him and a tall, thin man with a receding hairline walked in. He was dressed in jeans and a thick, red Parka. Felix held open the glass door for him and gave the man a polite nod. They walked down the aisle together and someone raised a hand to greet them. The thin man brushed past Felix and approached the woman who had raised her hand. They embraced and sat down together in the second row.
It was quite a modern building and the seats were wooden benches with soft, red cushions on them, rather than the old-fashioned style of chunky wooden pew. There were high windows over the altar, spilling light down into the hall in which Felix could see specks of dust swirling.
A few other people filed in after Felix and he scanned the room, doing a quick headcount. There were almost twenty people there. One woman standing at the front appeared to be the one who had organised this meeting. People seemed to gravitate towards her. She was about fifty, with slightly greying blonde hair. She was very thin with a serious, lined face. She looked like someone you wouldn’t want to cross. Felix liked her already. He moved into a pew behind everyone else and sat down, looking with discomfort at the neat row of New Testaments that were tucked into the back of the pew in front.
People took their seats and the apparent leader cleared her throat from her position in front of them.
“Thank you all for coming. I think we’ll get started. I assume that you all have missing friends and family and that’s why you’re here today.” There was a ripple of murmurs of agreement. Felix stayed silent. “My name is Mary and my husband, Roger, works nights at one of the docks. He never came home yesterday morning. He would normally travel through that place—” Her voice strained and she tensed her neck as she said the last two words, as if it hurt. “— to get home.”
“St. Catherine’s,” Felix said, his voice echoing around the hall. Everyone turned to look at him.
“I’m sorry?” Mary said.
“That’s the name of the place that’s gone missing. St. Catherine’s. Did no one else remember it?” He looked at the blank and puzzled faces around him.
“That rings a bell, I think.” Mary frowned. “Yes. It does.”
A few people started to nod and whisper words of agreement.
“I grew up there,” Felix said. “With my sister, Julie. She still lives there but I live just up the road from here. She was meant to meet me yesterday but didn’t show up. I got worried and have been trying to get to her ever since. I managed to force myself to remember things, even though it hurt and made me sick yesterday.”
“Yes! I had that too!” someone called out from the front row.
“Me too,” several people said at once.
“Has anyone contacted the police?” Felix asked.
“I tried,” Mary replied. “They told me I had to wait twenty-four hours. So I did and I called them again and they laughed at me. They didn’t know what I was talking about.”
“Awful.”
“Shocking.”
“Terrible.”
“Have any of you tried to get into the place that’s missing?” Mary asked.
There was another round of nodding and muttered remarks about getting turned around and sick. Felix shifted his weight and stretched his bum knee, which clicked loudly. It hadn’t been bothering him so much lately, but this was the longest he’d sat still for two days. A few eyes turned his way. He glanced awkwardly around, unsure how much he wanted to share with a room full of strangers.
“I got turned around too.” Something made him hold back the full story. Maybe it was his hitchhiker. He knew he didn’t want to mention the hole in the world, or the shooting; but he even felt uncomfortable talking about the eerie blank space in place of the street when you got too close. No one else was volunteering that information either.
The meeting went on with no new revelations or innovations. Felix was beginning to feel like he had wasted his time. There was a great deal of arguing about what was causing it and what they should do, but there were no real action steps agreed upon.
The tall, thin man who had come in with Felix stood up with his lady friend and filed out of the row in front of Felix. The two men caught each other’s eye for a moment and there was something in that look that made Felix get up and follow them out. He couldn’t have explained it on pain of death, it was a gut instinct. He followed them into the reception area, where they stopped and were whispering hurriedly to each other. Felix came to a halt beside them and they fell silent. The man looked Felix up and down.
“What did you make of all that?” Felix asked.
“A lot of hot air.” The man had a coarse voice. The woman beside him avoided Felix’s gaze and wrapped her arms around herself.
“They did all seem a bit clueless. Do you know anything that wasn’t mentioned in there? Any insights you didn’t want to share with everyone?�
�� Felix asked.
The woman looked surprised and looked up at her companion with wide eyes. She was short and mousy and wore a wool poncho over a tie-dye top and black skinny jeans. The man frowned and took a deep breath.
“Let’s talk outside.” He was looking past Felix into the church. Felix glanced over his shoulder and saw everyone else moving up the aisle.
“Sure.” He brushed past the couple and opened the door. They followed him and the three of them moved around the side of the church, away from the busy main road with trucks rumbling past. There was a pretty garden path leading to a car park and Felix led them all the way to the end, where there were no parked cars. He came to a halt and turned to face them. “What do you know?”
“You first,” the tall man said.
“All right. I got past the dizziness and up to the edge of what’s missing. There’s just this sort of blankness. Like a painted wall, but without substance. It’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.”
The two of them exchanged raised eyebrows.
“We saw that too. We crossed the river further north and made ourselves push past the barrier, or whatever it is,” the woman explained. “It’s our dad. He’s in a home there. He has no one else. We have to find him.”
“I’m George, by the way,” the man said, extending a hand. Felix shook it. “This is Helen.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Felix.”
“You’re ex-military, right?” George said, looking Felix up and down again. Felix nodded. He didn’t really want to get into his past with these people. “Thought so. It’s the way you carry yourself. I don’t suppose your training ever prepared you for anything like this?”
“Not exactly.” Felix said with a snorted. “Have you ever encountered other odd things?”
The brother and sister exchanged glances again and Felix watched with interest to see if they would share what was obviously on both of their minds.
“We think this is connected to other things, yeah,” Helen said after a moment’s pause. “There are a few of us in Caerton who get together sometimes at this pub in the city centre, The Cross Keys. We talk about some of the stuff we’ve seen.”
Wayward Magic Page 50
