As the inspectors bundled them into a van, Scarlet couldn’t take her eyes off her counterpart. Her eyes flicked about like a deer in the headlights and she kept mumbling under her breath. What was she going to do?
The van was dark and smelled of sweat. It reminded her of the changing rooms at school. She was shoved in first, but Skinny resisted and spoke louder, her mumble becoming a casting. Scarlet gasped just before a night stick cracked across Skinny’s head. She slumped forward as the man who had hit her growled into her ear.
‘Don’t even think about it. You ain’t done anything wrong yet, so why ruin it now?’
Skinny was dumped on the floor of the truck and the doors were slammed shut. Scarlet slid off the seat and lifted Skinny’s head into her lap. She had a moment to think about the insanity of having her own head in her lap before the van lurched away and they both slid until they hit the back doors.
Skinny’s eyes fluttered open and she stared up at Scarlet. ‘They’re taking us to a camp. They’re going to hide us.’
From the shaking in her voice and the quivering chin, Scarlet assumed that was a bad thing. Being hidden didn’t sound all that bad. ‘What does that mean?’
Skinny sat up quickly, groaned, and put her head in her hands. ‘It means we disappear. No one hears from us again and that’s it.’
‘So what actually happens to us?’
‘I don’t know.’ She started to cry, big heaving sobs that Scarlet recognised only too well.
‘How can you not know?’
‘Because no one ever finds out. No one ever escapes or comes back.’
She buried her head and Scarlet moved back to the seat. This wasn’t good news, but having to deal with the sound of her own crying, which was horrible at the best of times, was too much. She stared through the tiny barred window on the side of the van. The streets they drove through were familiar, save the lack of people. Those she did see were going about life quite normally. Where was the magic?
How, in a world where everyone did magic, was no one doing it? The van halted and she examined the road outside. There were more cameras, CCTV on, like, every lamppost and shop and even the bins. Someone was watching everything. It could be big brother, it could be father Christmas. Then again, it could be more of the nasty sods that had chucked them in the van. Inspectors. This was a strange world.
She blinked. She’d just thought this was a strange world. Not, oh my god I’m in another dimension and how the hell did I end up here? Oh no, just, this is a strange world. When did this become normal? She really wanted to be freaked out but it was the coolest thing ever. Except for the being in the back of a van. Maybe she should leave.
They moved again and she pulled the ingredients out of her bag and laid them out. The shifting floor made it tough but she got it pretty close to right. She began to cast, but seconds into the chanting her head swam and she badly needed to vomit. The casting faltered and she swore. She took a few breaths and tried again. Same thing.
Skinny smiled sadly. ‘The vans are coated. No one knows what they use but you can’t do any magic.’
‘And you’re only telling me this now because?’
Skinny shrugged. ‘What’s the point? It’s over. We’re dead.’
Scarlet squinted at her and shook her head. Was she really this dramatic? ‘Why?’
Skinny almost leaped from her seat, hands shaking, before she subsided back against the door of the van and laughed in that way people do just before they shoot themselves. ‘You don’t come from here, you don’t know what it’s like.’
‘But you can all do magic. Why haven’t you changed things?’
‘How? We’re tracked, every second of our lives. Everything we do is monitored. They test us, whenever they want, just to make sure we’re still loyal.’ She spat out loyal and looked down at her hands. ‘I could make a pretty good illusion when I was six. I could make fire when I was eight. Only I couldn’t do it in class, because it was dangerous, and I couldn’t do it outside because magic’s forbidden on the street and mum gets pissed if I do it at home…’
Scarlet looked at the floor of the van, frowning. They could all do magic. How did this place suck this badly if they could all do magic?
The van lurched to a stop and the doors dragged open. Skinny was taken beneath the arms and pulled out and the doors slammed closed again. Scarlet threw herself against the doors, thumping on them with her fists. ‘Let me out, bloody let me OUT.’
The van pulled away and she moved to the window, pressing herself against it. She just made out a struggling body being carted away through a gate bordered on both sides by high fences. She slumped down from the window onto her knees. The van turned a corner and she was flung sideways and slammed her hands against the floor.
A cold settled over her, like she’d come out without a coat. Actually, she had come out without a coat. She should have learned by now. Where had they taken Skinny Scarlet? That was her fault, completely her fault. And maybe Martin’s, but mostly hers. She sniffed, admitting for the first time that now might be a good time to be scared.
She pulled her phone from her pocket. No signal. No 3G. She shoved it back in, resisting the urge to chuck it at the van wall. This wasn’t fun any more. The van came to a halt, the doors opened and a face appeared. Warmth flooded her as the familiar sight of Martin filled her vision.
‘Thank god, it’s you.’
His eyebrows raised slightly before he spoke. ‘Welcome to the extra-dimensional holding cell. You will remain here until the decision is made regarding your termination.’
‘Martin?’
But he’d turned away, not an inch of recognition on his face and the masked men appeared, hands reaching for her.
Next Instalment Friday 11th April
