Volumes 3 and 4 - Slawter/Bec

“I’ll check with the guys who were on duty this morning,” the guard says, rolling his eyes slightly. “If they’ve seen her, I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks.”

The guard leaves. Class ends. Kuk hurries out to search for his sister.

“What was that about the D warehouse?” Bill-E asks, hanging back.

“Nothing. I just thought they might not have looked there.”

Bill-E squints suspiciously. “I know you too well, Grubbs Grady,” he says in a bad Bela Lugosi accent. “You wouldn’t have said something like that without a reason. What are you hiding from me?”

I consider telling him what I heard Tump Kooniart say. But I’m still smarting from my previous humiliation. I don’t want to reveal my fears, only for Kik to turn up, leaving me looking like a paranoid maniac.

“It’s nothing,” I say, unclenching my fist to lay my pen down. “Let’s…”

Grey liquid drips from my hands on to the table. Bill-E pulls a face. “What’s that?” he asks. “It looks like mercury.”

I don’t reply. I’m staring at the liquid, the last few drops dripping from my fingers, black ink bubbling on my palms. It’s the remains of the pen. The steel ballpoint which I was holding.

I melted it.

→Night falls. Kik hasn’t been seen all day. Kuk’s not the only one worried about her now. Her father’s frantic. The search has intensified. The security forces have been deployed in earnest. Davida even suspended shooting so everyone could join the search parties and help.

I’m with a group exploring the eastern end of town, going through all the real buildings, checking behind the façades of the fakes. Trying to focus on the search. Trying not to think about the pen and how I melted it. But I can’t not think about it. There could be a scientific explanation. But I’m certain the melting had nothing to do with science. It was magic.

I’m not a natural magician. Dervish told me that only one or two real magicians are born every century. There are others like Dervish and Meera Flame – mages – with the potential to perform acts of magic, usually with the aid of spells. I could maybe do that. But I never have. I’m not keen on magic. Plus, there hasn’t been time. Dervish was a zombie for more than a year and he’s not been up for teaching duties since he recovered.

So how did I melt the pen?

There’s only one answer I can think of. When demons enter our universe, they affect the area where they cross. They’re creatures of magic and that magic infects the world around them. When my parents were killed, I was able to tap into the magical, demonic energy and use it to escape. I did it again later in the secret cellar, when I fought Artery and Vein.

I think that’s happening now. There’s magic in the air—the magic of demons.

→We don’t find Kik. The search concludes after midnight. Everybody turns in. Most people reckon she ran away. The guards say they’ll search for her beyond Slawter tomorrow, take Kuk and his father with them.

I haven’t told anyone about my fears. No point—I’d only be laughed at. But I can’t sit back and do nothing. I have to try to help Kik, assuming she can still be helped. So I track down Dervish. He’s been searching with Juni and a few others. Him and Juni aren’t an item yet, but they’ve been spending more and more time together, and she’s with him now. He says she’s helping him cope with his nightmares, that she’s taught him how to control his dreams, to keep the monsters of his subconscious at bay. But I think he’s more lustful than grateful—he’s practically bathing in that new aftershave now!

I get my story straight before I hit Dervish with it. I say I saw Kik yesterday, near the D workshops. Tell him I think she found a way in, that she’s hiding inside, possibly trapped. “Maybe something fell on her. She could be pinned to the floor, crying out for help, nobody around to hear.”

Dervish doesn’t think she could get in—security’s too tight. But Juni says they should check it out. “It’s the one place we haven’t explored. If she did somehow sneak in and had an accident…”

Neither Juni nor Dervish has the authority to enter the D workshops, so we go to Davida. We find her in her office, discussing the next day’s shoot with Chuda Sool. Davida’s tired and irritable—the delay has put the company behind schedule. She hears us out, then shakes her head. “We already checked. Grubbs mentioned the D earlier, so the guards who were on duty this morning – and last night – were questioned. They all said they hadn’t seen her.”

“But they wouldn’t have if she snuck in,” Dervish presses.

“Impossible,” Chuda says and I catch him shooting a glare at me. “There’s no way into the D warehouse other than through the doors. We constructed it to be impenetrable.”

“But –” Dervish begins.

“No!” Chuda snaps, staring at Dervish directly.

Dervish stares back at Chuda, his pupils widening. Then he smiles and shrugs. “Guess we were wrong.”

Chuda nods, his eyes still fixed on Dervish. “I guess you were.”

My stomach tenses. It’s not like Dervish to back down so easily. Is Chuda controlling Dervish’s thoughts? Was I right about the browless assistant director? Is he in league with demonic forces?

Before I can challenge Chuda, Juni speaks up. “We need to search there,” she tells Davida. “Or, if you won’t allow us in, send in a team of guards and tell them to fine-comb the place. Because if Kik is in there – and a determined child can always find a way in, no matter how tight the security – she might be in trouble. If we ignore that and something bad happens to her…”

Davida sighs. “Chuda, assemble a team of guards and –”

“I think you should oversee this personally, Davida,” Juni interrupts. She smiles sweetly at the glowering Chuda. “No offence, Mr Sool, but you’re too convinced the girl isn’t there. You might just take a cursory glance around, then quit.”

Chuda bristles angrily and squares up to Juni. Before he can start an argument, Davida says, “We’ll have no infighting, thank you. Chuda, please assemble a team for me. I’ll go with them into the D workshops and make sure every room and cupboard is scoured methodically. Is that acceptable, Miss Swan?”

“Perfect,” Juni smiles and we file out. I walk just behind Dervish, studying him carefully, worried about what might be going on inside his head.

→We wait outside the warehouse while Davida and the guards search for Kik. Juni is concerned about Dervish. She asks if he feels all right, if he has a headache. She saw it too, the exchange between him and Chuda. I doubt if she understood it the way I did, but she knows – or senses – something isn’t right.

It’s after 2:30 in the morning when a yawning Davida and her guards emerge. She shakes her head, exasperated. “No sign. We checked everywhere.”

“You’re sure?” I ask.

Davida doesn’t answer. “We’ll search the surrounding countryside tomorrow,” she tells Juni. “The girl probably had an argument with one of the other children and took off in a huff. Maybe she’ll turn up by herself.”

I smother a snort. “I doubt it!”

→I set the alarm back an hour and sleep in late. Stare at the ceiling when I wake, tired and grumpy, finding it hard to get out of bed. Wondering what to do about Kik. Ideally I’d like to tell Dervish what I heard Tump Kooniart and Chuda Sool saying. Insist that Emmet was butchered by a demon, and Kik…

But I spoke to Emmet. He wasn’t killed. Unless…

You can do just about anything with movie technology or magic. Maybe Chuda Sool was also eavesdropping with Tump Kooniart when I told Dervish and Juni my fears. Perhaps he intercepted the call and faked Emmet’s voice, using either a mechanical or magical vocal distorter. Difficult—but not impossible.

I grab my trousers from the chair at the foot of my bed, dig my mobile out of the pocket and dial Emmet’s number. There’s no dial tone at his end. His phone’s turned off or he’s somewhere without a signal.

I get up, dress and head for class. I think about asking Juni for alternate phone numbers for Emmet and his mum, but she’d probably want to know why I was looking for them now. I don’t want to reveal my suspicions to anyone in case I end up a laughing stock again. So, at the end of lessons, I casually ask Miss Jaun if she has Mrs Eijit’s number. I say I’ve been trying to contact Emmet on his mobile but haven’t been able to get through. Miss Jaun searches her list of names, then calls the number out to me. I thank her and dial it as I head for lunch. Dead, like Emmet’s. I try his number again—the same as earlier.

It might not mean anything. Then again, it might.

→I try the two numbers several times over the course of the day. Not a peep out of either. I dial directory enquiries and get their home number. Ring it, only to find that the line has been disconnected.

One last try. I remember Emmet telling us about his local school. Again I use directory enquiries, then call and ask if I can speak with Emmet Eijit. I say I found his mobile phone and want to return it. The secretary says Emmet’s not at school, he’s making a film. I say I thought he’d finished and returned. No, she says, he hasn’t. I ask if she’s sure, if maybe he’s back home, just not at school. She says definitely not, she knows his mother.

I stare at my phone a long time after that, certain I’ve been tricked. Emmet and his mum are still here, along with Kik—but not necessarily alive.

* * *

→Night. Kik hasn’t been found. The search teams return at seven. Kuk and his father aren’t with them. The searchers say Mr Kane and his son have gone home, in case Kik heads there. I groan when I hear that. I hope it’s true. I pray that it is. Not just because I don’t want Kuk and his dad to be dead—but because if it’s a lie, it means the guards who were with them are part of a cover-up. It means it isn’t just Chuda Sool and one or two others I have to be wary of. I might not be able to trust anybody in the entire cast and crew.