Part 26

In my younger, cleaner, I would have made a move on her.  I was stronger then too.  I try sitting up and grunt at the pain in my side.

“Careful, you’ll bust a stitch.” The doctor says.  She is young, at least ten years my junior, and smiles as she approaches the bed where I lay.

“Simone,”  I manage, giving her the best smile I could manage, which appears as more of a grimace as I lowered myself back onto the cot.

“Charles,” she says with a tone of admonishment, “Your friends would not tell me what happened, but whatever it was, you need to be more careful.”  She picks up the clipboard that is tied to the foot of my bed and makes a note on it.

“How long have I been here?”

“About three hours,” came a voice I recognize as belonging to my brother.

I glare at Simone who shakes her head, “He is listed as your emergency contact, I thought he should know that you had taken a knife that missed your kidney by less than an inch.”

“Don’t worry, I haven’t told mom yet.”  Jason says, stepping further into the room.

“I’m fine,” I say, taking a deep breath and let it out slowly through my teeth as I sit up.  I swing my legs over the side of the bed and rest, staring at my brother.  “How many stitches?”  I ask Simone.

“I said take it easy,”  She snaps at me, but her face softens.  “You’ve got twelve.  Do you know what you were stabbed with?”

“No clue.”

“Ok, I’ll leave you for now, but don’t go anywhere.  You were stabbed, the police are going to want to talk to you,”  I roll my eyes at this and she looks at Jason, “I’ll just be down the hall if you need me.”

“Thanks,”  He says and steps aside so she can leave the room.  Once she is gone, he addresses me,

“What are you messed up in, Charlie?”

“I told you the last time that I saw you, the less you-“

“Cut the crap.  I’ve been trying to find you since the other day.  I woke up the next morning and drawn on my window in black ink was the Wheel.”

“Wheel?”  I ask, and then remember.  I reach for the card in my pocket before remembering that my coat is not on.

“They even signed it with my signature!”

Something moves in the doorway over his shoulder, and he catches my glance in that direction.

“Back to finish the job?”  Jason says as he pulls a jewel-handled knife from his pocket and turns to greet our new visitor.

“No,”  I shout as Mary shies away.

Quickly Jason hides the blade under his jacket as Simone joins us.

“Is everything all right in here?” She asks, eyeing my brother and Mary.

“Yeah, everything is fine, thanks.”  I tell her and she raises her eyebrows but I nod.  “It’s okay.”
Her head bobs slightly as she snorts and leaves the room. 

“Jason, this is Mary, I suspect she is one of the reasons why I made it here.  Mary, this is my brother Jason.”

“Brother?”  Mary asks and I nod while Jason mumbles an apology. 

They eye each other suspiciously while I lower myself to the ground, leaning heavily upon the bed for support.  My knees start to buckle and they are both by my sides, Mary on my left, Jason my right, but I manage to stay upright.

“You going to tell me what’s going on now?”  Jason asks as I sit back down on the bed.

I ignore the question for a moment.  “Where’s Benny?”  I ask Mary.

“Having his arm checked out a couple of rooms down.  The doctor’s think it’s broke.”  She responds.

“Ok,”  I inhale deeply, hold the breath and let it out through my nose.  “First, answer me this.  You said the Wheel of Fortune was drawn on your window, is that all you noticed?  Anything else about it?  Or have you noticed anything missing over the last few days?”

“No, quite the opposite,”  Jason says, pulling a cardboard box out of his jacket.  “I found this yesterday morning inside my store, sitting near that skull you almost knocked over.”

I motion for him to hand it to me and he does so before crossing the room and leaning against the far wall.  I open the box, revealing what looks to be the rest of the Tarot deck that the Wheel of Fortune in my possession came from.

“Everything but the Wheel is there,”  He says, answering the question before I can ask it.  I fan through the cards anyway, and then square the deck and replace it in it’s box, making a mental note to add get the Wheel of Fortune the next time I have my coat on.  I toss the box to Jason who catches it and replaces it in his pocket.  “Okay, where to begin?  I guess it started just a few days ago really. I ran into Mary…”  I went through the entire ordeal, leaving out the bits about us moving around via sphere, or glossing over how we got from one place to the next, remembering how disturbed he had been when I conjured the fire.

I sit and rest while Jason mulls the tale over in his head.  Finally, I slide off of the cot, catching myself on it’s edge as my legs begin to wobble.  “Mary, help me get dressed will you?”

She hesitates, but pulls open a cabinet where my jacket is hanging. 

“What about my shirt?”

“Um, It was covered in blood, I think they threw it away.”

“They told me you’d need another shirt,”  Jason says and takes one from inside of his jacket, throws it to me.

“Anything else in there?” I ask, struggling to get the shirt over my head.  Finally, with Mary’s assistance,it slides down over my face and Jason is holding a pack of cigarettes. 

Mary drapes my coat over my shoulders and I am slowly, painstakingly so, making my way across the room when Benny barges into the room and throws the door shut. 

“We’ve got to go!”  He grabs Mary and me, and it is all I can do to grab ahold of Jason before we are gone.

Part 25

The Devil’s Rib Cage.  I could not have named this place better myself.  The walls are buttressed like an old mine shaft, the ancient wood bowing significantly under the weight from above and the walls, pocked with crevices and cracks, emitted steam like a pot of boiling water.  Forming an oppressive cloud that hung about the ceiling , the vapor had the three of us were perspiring within minutes.  I still had not figured out what was causing the red glow, and as I wiped sweat from my forehead for what felt like the thousandth time, I stopped trying.

“I don’t like this place,” Benny said, dabbing at his forehead with a crumpled piece of cloth.

“At least you’re not screaming like a girl again,”  I reply.

“Stop it,”  Mary glares at me.  “You both are welcome to go back, especially if you are going to fight like kids.  I agree with you, Benny.  I don’t like this place either.”  She takes the lead, negotiating a right turn, and then a left, the ever present red glow illuminating the way. 

It was not long after that we reached the first branch.  The tunnel splits off to our right, the light in it fading out to a dull green somewhere off in the distance.  I had to bend over sharply in order to fit in it, although Mary was short enough that had she let her hair down, she would have been able to stand upright, or at least only had to crook her neck slightly.

“No, I can’t think it’s down that way.  The red light continues this way,”  She says, pointing down the tunnel we are already traversing. 

A distant shout from down the red to green tunnel startles us.  A form resolves itself out of the shadows moving toward us at a fast clip.  “Move,”  I say and we break into a run, following the caverns ribs further from the Walking Rocks.

I think I make out the word ‘wait’ echoing down the corridor toward us but I do not hesitate, running just fast enough to avoid stepping on Benny’s heels.  “Come on,”  I say, looking over my shoulder.  I do not see our pursuer yet, but I can still make out the side passage we have left behind.  We take a sharp right, the glowing red rocks still with us.  We continue running, coming to another turn, round it and skid to a stop, almost running Cyrus over.

“I said wait,” he says with a wolfish grin. 

“How-  How did you find us?”  Benny stammers, pulling Mary back behind him.

“Freak Beans, how good to see you again,” Cyrus says, extending his hand to my companion who shrinks before the extended appendage as if it was a red hot poker. 

Mary glances at me and I shrug and shake my head slightly.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you Charlie.”  He says, turning his attention to me. 

Mary uses the distraction stepping around Benny and delivering a kick between Cyrus’ legs, but the man deftly shifts, absorbing the blow with the inside of his thigh.  His face contorts for a brief second before returning to the wolfish grin.

“Is that any way to treat your future husband?”  Cyrus says, stepping toward her, his still extended hand reaching for her collar.

My blade is in my hand and I have it leveled at his chest before he can make contact.  “Close enough,”  I say, ignoring the sweat that has dripped into my eyes.

Cyrus snorts and steps back.  As he does so, he reaches over his right shoulder and grasps what looks like a piece of rebar that is strapped to his back.  As he extends his arm I see that it is indeed a piece of reinforcing steel, the ridges giving it away.  He holds the stick before him and it is then that I realize that its tip has been sharpened to a long point.

Mary and Benny step back, leaving only a few feet of open stone separating Cyrus and me.  I cast a quick glance to my right and my left, trying to gauge how much room I have to move.  I am glad I did, because as I refocus on my opponent, he takes a step forward, his weapon swinging at me in a sidelong arc.  I dance to my right and back a step, the tip narrowly avoiding my coat as it flows with me.  I swing the blade clumsily with all of my weight behind it, throwing myself off balance and stumbling toward Cyrus.  He tries to dodge but we collide and collapse in a tangle of limbs.  We both let go of our weapons and proceed to claw at each other until suddenly Cyrus slacks off.

“Enough,”  Mary says, her booted heel pressed firmly against the side of my foe’s head. 

I get in one last jab as I try to extract myself from the jumble and take one in the ribs myself. 

“I said enough,” Mary grinds her foot against Cyrus’ ear and he stops.  “I will never become your wife,” she spits at him. 

“You are lovely when you are mad,”  Cyrus says, his smile returning. 

Mary spits again, but before the glob has made it to its target, we are all blinded by the flash of a bright light.

“Damn it,” I gasp, rolling off of my stomach and rubbing my eyes.  “He gone?”  I ask as a pair of hands grasps me under the arms.

“Yeah,”  Freak Beans says, lifting me up with his good arm.  I immediately sag against him and he curses as I bump into his injured elbow. 

“Sorry,” I say, trying to straighten myself up and failing, slumping all the way down to the ground.

“You're bleeding!”  Mary exclaims.  The cold stone floor is cold against my cheek.