New Wave Detectives 01: Punk Rock Theatre

by Brian McLellan

  ***

  Before Cris let James into the apartment, he paused at the door and said, "So you didn't believe in any of the stuff Maggie was into?"

  James wasn't sure how to answer that question. Lighting candles with Maggie's friends had been a way to escape the bad times, to pretend to live in a world of where things didn’t seem as transient. He said, "Are you telling me that everything we were doing with Maggie was real?"

  "I'm not sure. I wasn't there, remember? I was late to this party. But I remember Natalie saying that you were one of the most talented of the five, after Daniel and Maggie."

  He opened the door and led James up another flight of stairs.

  Cris paused at the top step and looked back at him. "Can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure?”

  “What was Daniel like back then?”

  "I don't know. He was friendly, nice to everybody. I probably would have tried harder to stay in touch with him if I hadn't been such a moody loser."

  Cris laughed at that, as if at some private joke.

  He and James stepped out into a cramped room covered in books and bookshelves and papers. There was a desk and a couch, both barely visible beneath stacks of binders and papers. Light streamed in through closed blinds, falling over a young woman sitting cross-legged in front of an ancient-looking computer monitor.

  She had sharp features, and close-cropped blond hair. She wasn't wearing any make-up, and it gave her face vulnerability. But when she turned to look at them, there was an anger and an iciness in her eyes that offset that vulnerability in a big way.

  "And then we were two," she snarled.

  "What?" Cris said, stopping in his tracks. "Michelle still hasn’t come back?"

  "I think she was snatched. I think we’re what’s left."

  "Well, hey!" Cris shouted. "Why don't we just pack it up, then?!"

  James stood in the doorway, unsure of what to do or how to proceed.

  The woman looked back at him. "Who is this?"

  Who’s that?” Cris shouted, his voice leaping a couple of octaves. “That’s James Jordan! He was one of the originals!"

  "He doesn't look it." To James, she added, "Do you know anything?"

  James stared at her, and then glanced at Cris. He held up his hand, holding his index finger an inch away from his thumb. "I'm this close to taking off. I came here because I wanted to find out what happened to Maggie."

  The woman looked him up and down, and then turned back to the computer. "He doesn't know anything,” she muttered.

  "Wait," Cris cried. "James, wait. We're just upset because Michelle hasn't come back yet, and we don't know where she is. Let's start over." He tapped himself on the chest. "I'm Cris and this is Jo. We're what's left of the Rosecrest Research Institute."

  Jo looked up and said, "We’re being picked off one by one and we can't even call the authorities to do anything about it. We can’t even call our parents and tell them we might not be around tomorrow."

  "Because of the Heedless," Cris added.

  James shook his head. “I thought the Heedless were something Maggie made up," he said. "In her stories."

  "She did make them up,” Cris said. “And in the stories, they were, like, I don’t know, elves or something. But when these malevolent spirits first got in contact with us, they started calling themselves that, like they needed some identity.”

  “What do they want?”

  Cris shrugged. “Who knows? Raise an army of the dead?”

  Jo spoke in a low voice. "After you left the group, Maggie and everybody just kept practicing witchcraft. They spoke with spirits and cast all kinds of spells.” She shook her head. “You should have been at the Rosecrest Institute in those days. The three of them, Maggie, Natalie and Carol—they were wonders. The police were always contacting them for detective work all the time. They were good.”

  She grimaced, looking away. “Then last year, Maggie M helped seal away a dark entity with the help of Natalie and Carol. After that, Maggie vanished, and then Natalie and Carol vanished. Natalie had been so close to finding her, too. So you’re the last of the original five."

  "Well, what about Daniel?" James asked. "He was supposed to meet us at Hell's Gate. Maybe he knows where they are."

  Cris and Jo exchanged a worried glance. Jo got up and reached through the pile of books for a beat-up pair of shoes.

  Cris leaned forwards and said, "James, did Daniel… contact you?"

  James blinked. "Yes I told you that. He's Elise's brother. He called to tell us that he's in town."

  "James," Cris said, "Daniel's the enemy. He works for the Heedless.”

  A chill crept up James’s spine. “What?”