Skinny Scarlet stood before them, tears running tracks down her cheeks, gun pressed to her forehead. Martin who wasn’t Martin was smiling, though the expression went only as far as his mouth. His eyes were dead and his breathing shallow. His arm shook and the blood was still wet on his shirt.
Red took her knife out and placed it on the concrete. The champion turned to her. ‘Is this the man?’
‘Yes, but don’t do anything, he’ll kill Scarlet.’
‘This is the girl you wished to rescue?’
She nodded, trying to remain calm as her pulse reached drum and bass velocity. The champion nodded and turned back. He pulled his sword from the scabbard and every person in the alley gasped. The blade was black. No, that wasn’t right. The blade was the absence of light, like something had cut out a sword-shaped hole in reality. She felt dizzy just looking at it.
He placed it on the ground, the sound it made as it scraped along the concrete reminding her of the sound mum made when dad left. A sort of keening howling sob that seemed to go on forever. She shivered. Red took a step closer, muttering in her ear.
‘Can you do the fog again?’
‘Yeah, should be able to. They’ve got lots of guns.’
‘We have a champion the likes of which neither this nor any other world have ever seen. Bring the fog, Scarlet, and we’ll do the rest.’
She dug through her mind, placing her fingers against the spell book and began to chant.
‘I wouldn’t advise that, young lady.’
She stopped, glaring at the council member who’d stepped past Martin who wasn’t Martin and was watching her like a hawk. Did hawks watch a lot? What did they watch? TV?
‘We have put spells in place. Your magic will not only malfunction, but also cause you some considerable pain.’
‘What do you want?’
The man looked shocked, spreading his hands open before him. ‘What do we want? We want peace to return to our lovely city. We want to be rid of the two of you who have taken it upon yourselves to break a number of laws. You who were so generously allowed to leave our world despite breaking those laws.’
‘Okay, I didn’t break any laws, not the first time. But the point is, you can’t just lock someone up for helping someone. Scarlet’s not done anything wrong.’
The man turned to her skinny counterpart, eyebrow raised. ‘She has done a great deal wrong, haven’t you my dear.’
Skinny shuddered and grasped her hands before her. Scarlet ground her teeth together, muttering under her breath. ‘What the hell can we do?’
The champion spoke, so quiet she thought he was talking to himself. ‘Should I kill them now?’
‘Sorry?’
‘Should I kill them? You will be unharmed.’
‘What about Skinny, I mean Scarlet?’
‘That is who I meant. She is you. The dimension means nothing to me. I look at her and I see every you.’
‘Oh god, you poor thing. Don’t tell me they’re all skinny.’
She could feel the look, even with his back turned. ‘Well?’
She glanced at Red. She gave the slightest nod and Scarlet sighed. She was being asked if it was okay to kill someone. Of course it wasn’t.
‘Please come forward. Should you come quietly, we will find a pleasant way of ending this affair.’
Scarlet heard what Red had been talking about earlier. The man had death in his voice. The pleasant way of ending the affair would be death. It might be a simple quick death instead of something grisly and horrible, but it would still be death.
‘I have little patience for you. Please step forward.’
‘Do it.’
Everything seemed to happen at once, probably because it did. The champion moved, one hand scooping up the sword. It scraped as he lifted it from the ground and the sound made her knees wobble. She heard a shot and her eyes went to Skinny. The world slowed down. She blinked and the champion was there, his sword going straight through Martin who wasn’t Martin’s face.
Scarlet screamed, her eyes fixed on Skinny who fell forward, hands outstretched. Another gun roared and another and Scarlet felt something shove her in the back. Red leaped over her, blade once more in hand. Seconds later the council man who’d been talking was staring at the stump of his wrist as blood blossomed from it like flowers.
The champion was a blur, but his sword was crystal clear, flashing this way and that. Something hit her on the face and she jerked, touching it. Her fingers came away red and she scrubbed at her cheek. Skinny was crawling across the floor toward her and she did the same.
They met in the middle and Scarlet pulled her into her embrace and covered her head. There must have been bullets flying above, but all she could see was the sword, painted red. Somehow the darkness was visible, even through the blood. The sound as it moved through the air was the sigh of a parent when they received the letter from the front line that told of their child’s death.
She didn’t know where the thought came from, but it was all she could focus on. Then it was over. Red stood among bodies, shoulders and chest heaving, eyes fixed on the champion. He was still again and she was relieved to see his sword back in the scabbard. He turned to Red and nodded, just enough for Scarlet to understand something very cool had just gone on.
She looked at the body nearest them and realised it was Martin who wasn’t Martin. Half his face was obscured, ripped away and blessedly drowned in blood. But one wide open eye stared at her. She swallowed, saliva flooding her mouth, then pushed Skinny away and threw up onto the concrete. She wasn’t unhappy when Skinny did exactly the same thing.
Red took her gently beneath the arms and hoisted her to her feet. She took a step, wobbled and sat down. The smells burned her nostrils and it was strangely hot. She fanned her face and spat, trying to get rid of the taste of vomit. The champion strode over and stopped before her.
‘It is done.’
‘Yeah.’
‘I will return. I am needed.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Well met, Scarlet Rose.’
‘Yeah.’
Hang on, how did he know her name? She watched him step through the portal and realised it really didn’t matter. He probably knew her bra size as well. She turned to the others and raised her hands. ‘Ready?’
They both nodded. Skinny was pale and shaking and Scarlet knew exactly how she felt. The smell made her stomach do cartwheels. She laid out the ingredients and stepped back, checking her work. Content she’d got it right, she cast, holding the image of her room firmly in the front of her mind.
The light grew and grew until the three of them could walk through it. She took one hand in each and stepped through. Her computer whirred from her bedside table, as though pleased to see her and she threw herself face down onto the bed. She stretched out her arms, trying to hold the entire mattress. If she held on hard enough they couldn’t remove her. She could spend the rest of her life here. Mum could spoon feed her and operate the computer for her.
Red cleared her throat and Scarlet sat up, blushing slightly. ‘Sorry, it’s a thing.’
Skinny stared about, eyes wide in wonder. ‘This is my bedroom.’
‘Actually, it’s mine.’
Skinny looked at her and burst into tears.
‘What’s wrong, what is it?’
‘I want to go home.’
‘You’re kidding me.’
Her shoulders hitched, great balloons of snot exiting her nostrils. ‘I, I, have to go home. I need my mum.’
‘Okay, now you really are kidding me.’
The crying didn’t stop and Scarlet shared a glance with Red. The leather bound champion, mmm, leather, had found her Disney teddies and was inspecting them curiously. She thought for a moment about being embarrassed and decided against it. When you lost the magic of Disney, you got old. There was no shame there.
Her counterpart was still crying, building to hysteria, and Scarlet groaned. Then a knock sounded at the door and all three of them jumped. Baloo the bear rolled across the floor and fetched up at her foot, staring up at her with wide cotton eyes. She nodded to him, chin in hand and shouted ‘Come in.’
The door pushed open and Mum walked in. She took in Red and raised an eyebrow, looked across at Skinny and her face went pale, before she finally turned to Scarlet.
‘Busy day, love?’
‘Mmm.’
‘Well, there’s a man downstairs who says he’d like to talk to you.’
‘Who is he?’
‘I’m not sure, really. He said he’s from the council of magic. Did you know there was a council of magic? How did they keep that one secret?’
A shiver ran down her back. She was home, this was a different council. ‘They go underground. It seems to work for some reason. What does he want?’
Mum, whose eyes still flicked between the three of them and whose hand shook where it gripped the door knob, smiled. ‘He said something about a scholarship. Apparently you’ve visited them before? He said they want you to come back and study and that this seemed a good time now that your Master has moved on.’
Next Installment Friday 2nd May
