Special Eyes Chapter 12

Jackie jumped with a start, startled by the loud bang of the doors shutting behind him. Even more startling was the sudden plunge into darkness as the doors not only cut off his only means of leaving the room, but also the room's major light source. There were still plenty of lights in the room, but most of it from large, black cylinders hanging overhead on sets of skeletal iron bars attached to the ceiling were concentrated on the black stage up ahead. 

Even when his eyes adjusted to this mix of light and shadow, Jackie could make out only the faces of the people immediately around him, most of them young. The rest of the crowd looked like black shadows to him. But one shadow had the clear, defining shape of a long, bushy beard which meant there must be a couple of adults attending as well.

All of them, like Alice, must have special eyes. 

Speaking of Alice . . .

Jackie looked right and left, scanning his surroundings through the mirror lens of his sunglasses, which he kept on despite the darkness. But to his disappointment, he could not find any resemblance of her among the crowd. With no other choice, he tried furthering his search by wading through the thick pool of people, whispering "Sorry, excuse me, sorry . . . " to every man and woman be brushed past. 

Suddenly, the chattering which filled the room like white noise ceased and all was dead quiet. Jackie was still halfway to the stage, but he quickly stopped and followed everyone else's eyes to the stage where a man in a long, flowing black gown over his Gathering t-shirt and jeans now stood. It was Zak.

Jackie's heart leaped to his throat, and he quickly ducked behind a girl a head taller than him to hide as Zak looked at his audience from right to left. Satisfied he got everyone's attention, the leading member of the Gathering held up a silver microphone close to his lips and began to speak.

"Alright, alright, alright. Looks like we've got a full house here today. What a crowd! For that, let's all give a round of applause to our recruiters."

He pointed to the sides of the room where men and women in Gathering t-shirts lined up. Light flashed over them to expose their proud, beaming faces. Among them, Jackie noticed, was Taylor.

Scattered applause broke the silence over the crowd and then erupted to fill the room with noise. Jackie only lightly clapped along as he kept a nervous eye on Taylor, hoping she would not notice him, that his outfit was enough to hide himself from her.

"Alright, that's enough of that," said Zak, getting everyone's attention back. "Now, some of you aren't new to these gatherings. You all know what's up. But I also see we got a bunch of new faces here. Nice!

"For all of you newbies in the building, thanks for coming. I know it wasn't an easy choice. Some of you might still be feeling a teensy bit nervous or doubtful you made the right decision, probably thinking stuff like, 'What the hell did I get myself into?' But don't worry. You did make the right choice. I promise. The fact you found this place proves that you're one of us. 

"Look around you. Really, look around you. Every last one of you have something special, something you've never been able to tell anyone about before without being judged as WEIRD, or STRANGE, or just downright CRAZY!"

He spat the words "weird", "strange", and "crazy" while lurching forward, his voice filled with clear resentment. Zak spoke as if from experience. The audience could all sense it and a sense of kindred spirit. Jackie could see it in the eyes of the boy to his left and the girl to his right. It brought in himself a sense of dread.

"Well, I'm here to tell you the time of being alone is over. The people to your right and the people to your left, they know what it's like. They know what you are going through. They know because they have gone through the same thing. I have gone through the same thing. Don't believe me? Then check this out."

Zak snapped his fingers and the curtains behind him flew open. Nothing came out of them, but the room was instantly filled with screams of horror. Some members of the crowd stumbled back. Others fled for the doors. Jackie was nearly knocked off his feet by the girl.One man, the bearded one, reached into his suit as if to pull something out. 

Zak looked calmly at the mayhem he had caused. He called for everyone to settle down.

"Okay, okay. Don't worry, guys. Don't worry. He won't hurt you. Sit!"

There was a groan of wood.

"Now, hand!"

Zak reached out his hand to the empty space next to him. 

Whatever was happening slowly got the crowd quiet, and the fear on their faces turned into awe.

"Now lie down!"

There was a thump, followed by gasps and cries of disbelief from the audience.

Jackie couldn't see anything except Zak on that stage, but he knew that the Gathering's lead recruiter was not alone. An invisible monster, one of the Gathering's so-called pets must be what everyone else was seeing.

"As you can all see, he's not dangerous," Zak said. "And I know you can see him. Big, covered in red fur, got one horn and one eye. One arm's a crab claw, the other's a horse leg and hoof. The guy's a really big and really freaky-looking cat. Yeah, that's right."

He looked into each and every one of his audience's dumbfounded faces. 

"I can see him too. See? You're really not alone anymore. You are home."

The members of the audience all looked at one another, more amazed than before. Jackie made eye-contact with the boy who looked at him as if discovering a long-lost brother.

Oh, now I feel bad, Jackie thought. He flashed the boy an awkward smile, and the boy reciprocated with a big grin full of adoration. The boy, by the way, was thirteen. I feel really bad. 

"But all this would not be possible if not for one man," said Zak, regaining the audience's attention. "One amazing man who had a vision to create something great for people like us, by people like us. This one man aims to bring us all salvation."

Excited murmuring erupted from the crowd now.

"Sorry," said Zak, "wish it was, but it's not me."

His joke elicited giggles. 

"Anyway, I've kept you, and the big guy, waiting long enough. So get ready and give it up for our leader and founder, THE WIZARD!"

"I gotta hand it to him," said Jackie to the guy next to him as they both clapped with enthusiasm, one faux and the other genuine. All around them, people were clapping hard and cheering like fans of a football team at the end of a triumphant game. "He sure knows how to get a crowd going."

The boy nodded in agreement.

Zak also clapped, microphone tucked beneath his armpit. He stepped aside as another man came on stage. 

This must be the guy who created the Gathering, Jackie thought. For a wizard, he certainly doesn't really look . . . wizardly. He looks more like a regular middle-aged guy.

Like the rest of the Gathering members, the newcomer on stage wore a Gathering t-shirt over a pair of baggy jeans and white basketball shoes. He was pretty big with a noticeable belly. Strands of gold covered his head while a deep shade of pink colored his round face. Jackie was a bit too far to see his actual eyes, but a giant poster with the Wizard's image rolled down from the ceiling to reveal a pair of sapphire-blues staring back at the crowd.

After accepting the microphone from Zak, the actual Wizard turned and began to speak.

"Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Now, I know you all just heard all this already, but seriously, wow! What a crowd. You know, when I started this Gathering project, I didn't expect it to grow this big, so it's really amazing to me see so many faces here. Pretty soon, we're gonna need to find a bigger place. I guess it just goes to show that even if you think you're all alone in this world, that there's no one else like you, who can really understand what you're going through, you're dead wrong.

"Now, I'm sure a lot of you newbies in the crowd are probably wondering to yourselves, why am I being called the Wizard? Well, let me tell you - No, wait. Better yet, let me SHOW you."

He tossed the microphone aside, but instead of hitting the stage floor, it remained airborne, assumed by Jackie to be in the hand - correction - crab claw of the invisible monster now. The Wizard spread his arms out and as his hands slowly rose to the ceiling, so did everyone else. Including Jackie.

"Whoa!" He cried out in surprise. By now, being lifted off his feet was nothing new to him. But this was the first time that NOTHING AT ALL was doing the lifting. Jackie felt nothing at all was holding him up. No invisible arms, nor any kind of string. It was as if gravity itself no longer existed in this room.

And then the Wizard dropped his arms, and everyone fell back down. Some stumbled and fell into another person's arms.

"Phew!" The Wizard let out heavy breaths and wiped profuse sweat from his brow. "Sorry, guys. Give me a minute to catch my breath."

Without the microphone, his voice was faint, but it was still audible.

After a few more seconds, the Wizard straightened up, more composed.

"No strings, no monsters, no trick," he said. "That was pure magic, true magic. True POWER! MY POWER! And it can be your power too. I can teach you."

If he didn't have everyone's attention before, he got everyone's attention now. Everyone was interested to hear what he had to say. Jackie could hardly blame them. Anyone would be hooked on the idea for a chance to learn how to use real magic.

"I can teach you how to move things with your mind, how to control creatures like my friend over here . . ."

The Wizard jabbed his thumb at the space with the free-floating microphone.

" . . . and so much more. No more will you have to live in fear of monsters only you can see. No more will you have to endure contempt and ridicule by people who don't even understand what you're going through. No more being passed around from house to house like some piece of decoration that doesn't fit in or belong. I'm not just offering to give you power to use however you like. I'm offering to give you the tools to take back control of your life!"

The crowd was abuzz with even more excitement now. The Wizard was even better at riling them up than Zak was. He himself, it seemed, was getting riled up by his own speech.

"So I ask of you," he shouted, pacing from right to left, "who will join me?"

Someone to the left roared back, "I will!"

"And me!"

"Me too!"

"Count me in!"

"We all will!"

And the room erupted in cheers and applause once more. Pretty much everyone had bought into the Wizard's sales pitch. Everyone, except for Jackie who lost interest in the speech when he remembered what he had come here for. He looked right and left again but still could not find any sign of Alice among the audiences.

Just where could she be? He wondered.

Oblivious to the one member of the crowd ignoring him, the Wizard continued.

"Now, it'll take more than learning a few magic words to get where you want to be. But if you work hard, study seriously, you could find yourself up here with me and with them."

On cue, six individuals walked up on stage from the right and joined Zak in a line. They were a mix of boys and girls, and all wore matching Gathering t-shirts. But over those t-shirts, they had on black gowns as if in a school graduation ceremony. One of the boys had an extra gown draped over his arm which he handed over to Zak to put on.

When the last of the six gowned figures stepped into view, Jackie nearly fainted. He was shocked by who had shown up. 

This was who he had spent days searching for, throwing himself into danger and at odds with the law to find. He had hoped and prayed all this time to find her alive and well. Every waking second, he imagined reuniting with her in every possible way he could think of. But never did he imagine reuniting with her like this. Never did he think he would find up on that stage with the rest of those shady Gathering guys, Alice.

And yet, that is exactly who was on stage right now: Alice, in a Gathering t-shirt and a black scholars gown, as a member of the Gathering herself. 

<== Chapter 11                                                                                                           Chapter 13 ==>

Special Eyes Chapter 11

Saturday has come once more. But instead of standing behind a cash register while wearing a jungle green apron, Jackie leaned his back against the purplish polished wall of a business center building while dressed in his stepfather's baggy, faded blue jeans, Red Sox sports jacket, and Red Sox baseball cap. Over his eyes were a pair of impenetrable mirror-like lenses with a goldish tint and beneath his chin was a size extra-large cup of diet soda which he sipped with a long, plastic see-through straw. 

He wasn't actually drinking, though. Only pretending. If he had actually drank from that huge cup, he would have needed to use the restroom, something he could not afford to do right now. So, using his breath, he held the soda in the straw to create the illusion he was taking a short break, when really, he was waiting.

As he bent sideways and craned his neck to peek out, he focused his sight on a boy who was about his age lingering at the edge corner of a sidewalk while a big red hand flashed on the sign on the other side of the road over cars zipping back and forth. If Jackie was right, the boy would lead him (at last) to the Gathering's meeting spot.

But how did Jackie find this boy? It was quite simple, really.

Unable to go in person to check out the spots the Gathering had taken for their recruitment efforts, Jackie resorted once more to using the internet. Whatever free time he had was spent hunched over a laptop in his dimly lit bedroom while blue light reflected off his computer glasses.

Although he narrowed down his search to the last couple of days, social media yielded hundreds of posts. Most were just mentions of their activities, just like before. He scrolled past most of them without much of a glance.

Jackie wasn't interested in simple text posts. What he was looking for were pictures. Pictures of the Gathering. Pictures of the people who had their interests piqued by the Gathering. And pictures of the people who were likeliest to join the Gathering. 

He found a few candidates who reminded him the most of Alice, showing clearly that they had the same kind of eyes she did. Using their pictures, he found their profiles and from there, determined that some had other plans today and wouldn't go to the Gathering, some openly didn't trust the Gathering and warned fellow peers to stay away from them, and some who stayed silent.

Of those who stayed silent, there was one boy Jackie found who he thought was his most promising lead to the meeting. The way the boy stared at the flyer showed Jackie how interested he was in the Gathering. And there were enough pictures of his neighborhood in his profile for Jackie to use to figure out where he lived.

Although it was essential to finding his friend, it was honestly scary to Jackie how easily he found out where a complete stranger he never met before lived. He didn't even need to put in a lot of brain power. Just a few clicks of his mouse and a little bit of typing.

"I'm starting to understand why a lot of people keep calling technology scary stuff," he had muttered to himself. "Damn, I'm glad I only post pics from Comic-Con."

So, after borrowing some of Arnold's stuff to make a sort of disguise, Jackie headed off to the boy's house. His journey started at the crack of dawn and he reached the neighborhood of dismally gray and black houses about half an hour later. It took about another two hours of waiting before his target emerged from the house with potted weeds lined beneath the first floor windows.

From there, they both traveled on foot. They left the neighborhood and passed by a district of less savory bars and abandoned shops. Past a street littered with smashed-up food containers and flattened cardboard, was where the cleaner area claimed by business centers began.

After crossing the road, the boy led Jackie all the way to the other end of the area, leaving behind the splendor of shiny corporate towers to an avenue where conditions once more declined. It wasn't as bad as the other district, but quite a few shops, Jackie noted, were closed for good and sealed off, awaiting, possibly futily, for new owners.

He slipped into a nearby alley and peaked out to observe the boy, who had not yet realized he was being followed. Jackie watched the boy turn to one of the abandoned buildings, a small, box-shaped place with just a first and second floor, made of brick that still had its vivid redness. 

The boy took out a Gathering flyer, looked at it and then at his phone, clearly checking to make sure he had the right place. He then put both phone and flyer away, and walked inside.

Jackie's heart raced.

This is it, he thought. I'm finally here. I finally found the Gathering's meeting place. And with luck, I'll find Alice too.

He looked around to make sure the coast was clear. And then he rushed out of the alley, boldly walked to the building and reached out to open the front door only to find, to his horror, that there was no front door. All the windows and where a door should be had been replaced by wood boards.

Jackie tried pushing on the boards to see if they would open up. But none of them budged. He stepped back, scratching his head, partly being puzzled and partly being frustrated. 

He was so close. To finally find the hangout of the Gathering, certain he was of that, only to have his way blocked by a bunch of two-by-fours.

"How did that guy get inside?" He wondered aloud, staring at the boards barring his way. "That guy slipped in no problem. I saw it with my own eyes. Could I have gotten the wrong building? Maybe he went into the one next to this and it just looked like he went into this one."

He shook his head furiously. 

"No, that can't be. This building is definitely the one. He was directly in front, standing where I'm standing now."

And then it hit him. He smacked himself on the forehead.

"Duh! It's magic! Probably the same kind on the flyer. The entrance is there. I just can't see it. But then . . . How the hell do I get inside?"

Jackie rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 

"Oh! Pets!"

He was thinking of the pets that Zak mentioned, the invisible monsters that had apparently been lent to him by the Gathering's leader. Maybe they were the key to all this.

"Okay, Jackie," he whispered to himself. "You got this. Just act natural."

He took a deep breath, took a brief look around before stopping his gaze at the left top corner where the door would be.

"Hey," he said sharply. "You mind letting me in?"

There was no response. What he was talking to, as far as he could see, was just a brick wall.

He scowled. 

"You know the big guy's expecting me. He won't be too happy if I keep him waiting. Or should I say if YOU keep him waiting for me."

He put everything he had into mimicking the attitude of a mean girl. Heavens knows how many times he's seen a mean girl attitude in action.

He crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the pavement. "Well?"

There was a click and a creak.

Jackie turned to see that the wood boards disappeared. The windows had glass again and a pair of doors, one of them pushed in. A quick look into the lobby showed that the building was not abandoned. It never was. 

He stood, dumbfounded. The supernatural was nothing new to him, but stuff like this still made him speechless. How could it not? The building had completely transformed in the literal blink of an eye.

A smile crept on his face. A very big one. He wanted to whoop with joy, for he had finally reached his goal for the last week. But now was no time to celebrate, he knew. The battle was not over. No, it had just begun. 

That said, he could not stop himself from letting out a giggle that, if he were honest with himself, was very creepy.

He forced down his smile, cleared his throat  and straightened up. After giving a stiff, "Thank you," he walked inside and the door closed behind him. 

Before going any further, Jackie took another look around the lobby. There were three sets of round glass coffee tables, each with a pair of basic wood chairs with cushioned seating at the left side of the room. The right side of the room had a long table covered in white cloth with a banner that cried out, "Welcome!" Next to the table was a huge ceramic container covered in Chinese artwork drawn in blue meant to house large ferns, except now was empty.

Voices in excited chatter brought Jackie's attention the double doors at the back of the room. That, he figured, was where he needed to go.

So, steeling himself for whatever was ahead, he walked into the room. As soon as he passed the threshold, the doors slammed shut at his back. 

<== Chapter 10                                                                                                             Chapter 12==>

Special Eyes Chapter 10

Jackie blinked, bemused. "The what order?"

"The Black Tortoise Order," Daisy repeated herself. "It's sort of like a club in China which uses Xuanwu, the Black Tortoise that guards the North in Chinese myth as its symbol."

"And this club has something to do with beating up invisible monsters?"

Daisy nodded. "Yeah. But they're more than just invisible monster hunters. They're a gathering of sorcerers."

"Sorcerers!?" Jackie's eyes flew up in surprise. "Like magic sorcerers?"

Daisy nodded.

"Like wave around a wand, turn people into toads? Those kinds of magic sorcerers?"

"That's more of a Western thing than a Chinese one," Daisy said. "But close enough.

"The Black Tortoise Order, like Xuanwu from myth, is an organization of magic arts users tasked with protecting the northern regions of China. There's also the Azure Dragon Order that protects the east, the White Tiger Order that protects the west, and the Vermillion Bird Order that protects the south. As you can probably tell, they're all based off of creatures from Chinese myth based on the directions of North, East, West and South. There's a fifth organization called the Yellow Dragon Order whose territory is smack dab in the middle of the four. They come together to form a bigger organization called the Four Corners Union, which is meant to protect the country as a whole from threats most people can't handle."

"The magic kind," Jackie guessed.

"That's right, the magic kind," Daisy admitted. "But magic's not as great as Disney movies make it out to be. Honestly, it's more like the kind of stuff you'd find in a horror movie."

"But you can do magic, can't you? It's thanks to you that no monster's gotten in this building, right? This store and home has always been the only place that Alice could really relax in. That had to be because of you."

"I wasn't really trying to help Alice," Daisy confessed. "It was more for me and my kid."

"But you did help create a place where Alice could truly feel safe," Jackie pointed out. "And I need you to help her again. If you can see these monsters, you can see through the trick the Gathering used to hide where their headquarters is. You can rescue Alice!"

But Daisy shook her head.

"I'm no hero, Jackie," she said. "I'm just a shopkeeper with a kid, who can see things most people can't. I can do some things to keep the monsters away, but that's it. I can't swoop in and battle bad guys or cut down evil."

"But you're a member of the Black Tortoise Order! You said so yourself!" Jackie could not help but raise his voice, making Daisy to raise her own.

"I quit the order, Jackie!" she yelled. "I couldn't handle it, so I quit, packed my bags and moved away. I couldn't handle the stuff the Black Tortoise Order deals with, I can't help you right now deal with the Gathering. Especially if they're as bad as I think they are."

"What do you mean?" Jackie asked.

Daisy took a deep breath and sighed.

"That guy you mentioned," she said, "the one with the cane. There's only one member of the Black Tortoise Order who goes around carrying one, the Rat."

"The Rat?" Jackie parroted quizzically.

Daisy nodded.

"The Black Tortoise Order, the Azure Dragon Order, the White Tiger Order and the Vermillion Bird Order all have a tradition of naming their three strongest members after the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. For the Black Tortoise Order, that's the Rat, Pig and Ox. And the Rat is the most dangerous of all twelve. He only shows up when something really bad is going on, the kind of bad that'd take an army to deal with, the kind of bad that could . . . That could lead to the end of the world."

Jackie stared. "You think the Gathering's out to start the Apocalypse?"

"I don't know," Daisy replied softly. "But whatever they've got planned, it will be devastating and a lot of people are sure to get hurt."

"Then all the more reason we need to rescue Alice now," said Jackie. "If you can't join the fight with me, at least tell me where I can find them so I can find Alice myself. You must have seen one of their flyers. You must know."

But Daisy shook her head. "No, no, no, no, no. Did you forget what happened just an hour ago? You were this close to becoming monster chow."

She pinched empty space beside her head.

"But-!"

Before Jackie could argue, Daisy cut him off.

"No buts! The police are on the case already and I hear they got a guy who specializes in cases like this. And if the Rat is also involved, it's just a matter of time before Alice is found safe and sound."

"But you just called the Rat one of the most dangerous guys in the world! There's no way Alice is safe if a guy like that is involved. There's no way she's safe now with a gang of crazies you think is out to spark the Apocalypse!"

"Neither are you!" snapped Daisy. "Believe me, Jackie, I want Alice back as much as you do. But the best thing we can possibly do for her is wait and let the police do their work."

Jackie shook his head and then stood up.

"Forget it," he said. "You got things you need to worry about; I get it. If you're not going to help, fine. I was already on my own, anyway. If that's the way it's gotta be, that's the way it's gonna be."

"Jackie, where are you going? Jackie! Wait!"

Daisy stood up, but she was too late. Jackie flew from his seat and stormed out of the building from the back exit. He already disappeared around the turn by the time she reached the door. Leaning against the doorframe, she sighed and pressed her thumb and forefinger against her temples, feeling the onset of another headache.

"Mommy? Is everything okay?"

Daisy took a deep breath before turning to her daughter.

"It's nothing sweety. Go get cleaned up for dinner."

She shut the steel gate and then the door as she retreated back into the kitchen.

**********

As Jackie hurried down the mostly deserted street, he pulled out his phone, scrolled down his contacts list and then hit the call button by a number.

After putting the phone to his ear, he said, "Hey, Mr. Waller."

"Jackie?" exclaimed the accountant's voice. He was both confused and disturbed. "How'd you get my phone number?"

Jackie replied back, "The police station's emergency call tree on Arnold's phone."

An exasperated sigh came through the phone. Finally, Waller grumbled, "What do you want?"

"Tell me how to deal with the monsters," Jackie said bluntly.

Again, Waller sighed. "Look, kid-"

Jackie cut in and said, "If this is a lecture about how I shouldn't stick my nose where it doesn't belong and leave it to the grownups because it's too dangerous, save it. I already got one today. But the thing is, I'm already in heaps of trouble. Just an hour ago, I got attacked by one of those invisible monsters you insisted you can't see and don't exist."

"What!?"

"Yeah. So instead of snubbing me again, I'd really appreciate you telling me something useful."

"You want my advice, just stay away -!"

Jackie cut Waller off again. "Stay away from the Gathering. Yeah, yeah. Too late for that. Anything else?"

Waller groaned. "Ugh! Fine! If you already got jumped by one of those pests, I guess I got no choice. Salt, iron and silver. The stuff works on them like Kryptonite to Superman."

"I was hoping for a little something more magical, like uh . . . a spell or enchantment, or something."

"Tough luck," said Waller. "I ain't a wizard. You want something magical? Try looking for Hogwarts."

"Okay, so salt, iron and silver. I'm guessing for iron, what you get at the pharmacy's not going to cut it."

"Nope. Wrong kind of iron. Silver's the best, but iron's probably cheaper and easier to get ahold of. Salt's weak sauce compared to the other two, but good enough to buy you time for a quick getaway."

"Got it," said Jackie.

"Seriously, kid, stay away from the Gathering. Don't dig yourself deeper than you already-!"

Before Waller could finish, Jackie hung up. And then he made another detour before finally heading home. What kind of detour you might ask? Let's just say there was something that he needed to buy at the supermarket.

<== Chapter 9                                                                                                        Chapter 11 ==>

Special Eyes Chapter 9

"Like I said," said the old man. "Mere. Parlor. Tricks!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

He swung his arm to the side. Although he was not close to touching the wall, it caved into a big dent as if something big had hit it. And then he swung his arm the other way and a deep dent appeared on the other wall. Finally, he lifted his arm up and brought it down. His fingers were feet away from it, but the pavement in front became a crater with a diameter of five feet.

When the old man let go, Jackie could see lines of displaced water appear, as if massive fingers clawed at the wet pavement. To further cement their nature as fingers, the lines were accompanied by the scraping sound of scratching nails.

The man watched coldly from beneath the brim of his hat as the lines turned clockwise over to Jackie and the Gathering boys. And then he bent down and grabbed empty air near the ground, lifted his hand up and swung it back down. 

BOOM!

Water droplets splashed up along with clouds of white mist and dust. Cracks from the crater spread.

The scratching continued, but pitifully slower.

Zak and his cronies stood, their faces aghast with fear. The man turned his gaze up towards them and they flinched back.

"You claim to have power, but it is not even your own. You merely use parlor tricks to bewitch creatures you could not possibly understand as you are now, who hold the real power but act the part of obedient circus monkeys. Pathetic!"

Venom flowed out of the man's mouth as he advanced towards the boys. He spat the last word and gave the space beside him a vicious stomp. Hot air suddenly blew out of nowhere and brushed against Jackie's face. It was a long flow. Jackie couldn't help but feel like it was a soundless scream of agony.

No, that was exactly what it was. A scream of agony. Whatever was there but could not be seen was feeling pain. A terrible amount of it. And Jackie could not let it continue.

He sprung up and yelled, "STOP! THAT'S ENOUGH!"

The man was about to stomp down again, but stopped and then threw Jackie a cold gaze. His foot, clad in a glistening black penny loafer, hovered over the space where the invisible creature lied.

Zak was the first of the Gathering trio to snap out of his stupor. And he was the first to turn and run. The pitter-patter of his feet awoke Ted and Marshall and they quickly followed after him.

Jackie and the man watched them go out of sight before returning their attention to each other. To Jackie's relief, the man gently lowered his foot back onto the pavement and resumed resting both hands atop his cane. However, Jackie cut his relief short when he turned his attention to the invisible monster and crawled over to it to ask, "Hey, you okay?"

He, of course, could not hear or see anything. And for a moment, all was quiet. Then came a short, hot breeze and slowly, splashes of water trailed off. Jackie took that as a sign his question was answered positively and let out a pleased, "Phew!"

"Why do you show concern for that thing?" the man asked Jackie. "It is a monster ordered to hurt you."

Jackie angrily glared back. "You said so yourself that it got bewitched to doing what those jerks want. It didn't deserve all that pummeling you gave it."

The man fired back, "It was a threat that needed to be eliminated."

"It's a living thing, not some kind of demon from Hell."

"You would not think that if you knew what it looked like."

Already fed up with the argument, Jackie tried to pivot the topic to something more important. 

"Seriously, dude, who are you? Not to sound ungrateful or anything for saving my life just now, but I want answers and you're clearly someone who has them."

The man scoffed. "I do not need to tell you anything. But out of courtesy, as a gentleman, let me give you this warning: you are messing with forces beyond your understanding. Give up and stop, or meet a terrible fate."

"Thanks for the warning, dude," said Jackie, "but I've already heard it before. It never stopped me before. It's not gonna stop me now."

"Why go so far?"

"To find my friend."

"Is this friend so important to you that you would put yourself in danger for?

Jackie nodded in response.

The man turned his nose up. "Then I have nothing more to say."

"That's fine," said Jackie. "I learned plenty from you already."

The man raised an eyebrow and then turned around. He strolled away, making distinctly different tap noises with the soles of his shoes and the end of his cane. 

Jackie watched until the man was gone, and then he started heading out as well. But instead of going home, he went straight back to Chinatown.

**********

Daisy was in the middle of tallying the day's sales when a loud banging at the steel rolled-down gate startled her. She jumped and whirled around. Her hand grabbed the metal baseball bat leaning against the cabinet next to her. But then a familiar voice called to her from outside and she relaxed a little. 

"Hey! Daisy! It's Jackie! I need to talk to you!"

Still annoyed, however, Daisy marched over to the front red doors, pulled them open and peeked through the outer gate's spy hole. Sure enough, there was Jackie standing outside. He banged the gate one more time and called out, "Hey!"

Daisy quickly jabbed the white intercom button with her thumb and snapped, "Quit it! You're disturbing the neighbors! What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you," Jackie said again.

"Can't it wait until tomorrow? It's Seven o'clock already. You should be home by now!"

But Jackie replied, "No, it can't."

Daisy considered telling him to go away, but then he reached into his pocket, pulled out a piece of paper, unfolded it and held it up.

"What's this?" Daisy asked. To her, it looked like a pencil drawing of a small circle stuck beside a bigger circle with two squiggly lines drawn across.

"It's a tortoise with a snake around its shell," Jackie explained. 

"Congratulations," said Daisy. "You drew Xuanwu. What about it?"

"I remember you keep a big medallion hanging on you computer monitor with that tortoise on it," Jackie said. 

"Xuanwu is a big part of Chinese culture," Daisy pointed out. "I got lots of things with the tortoise on it."

"Yeah, but the medallion's design is just like the design on that old dude's cane."

Daisy's blood ran cold.

"Did you just say 'cane'?" 

Jackie nodded. "Yeah."

There was a short pause and then instructions for Jackie to come in by the back entrance. He did as told and strolled over to the back of the building where he was greeted by another steel gate. The door behind the gate sung open spilling out light. Daisy pushed the door all the way to the wall but opened the gate just a crack wide enough for Jackie to slip in.

The door was a direct entrance into the kitchen. A small space from the beginning, it was absolutely cramped with the round dining table in the middle. Three chairs surrounded it, one of which Daisy drew out for Jackie to sit. She took the other.

As this was his first time in the kitchen ever, Jackie looked around in wonder. It was just an ordinary, maybe slightly dirty kitchen, but he could not help but be curious. 

"Where's . . .?" 

He was going to ask where Daisy's daughter was, but Daisy abruptly cut him off with the answer. "She's in the living room, drawing. Dinner's usually another thirty minutes from now so I haven't got the table set yet. But enough about her."

She locked her eyes on Jackie's. 

"Start talking."

So Jackie recounted to the shopkeep his encounter with Zak, Ted and Marshall. He left nothing out. Not how he was chased by an invisible monster, nor what happened to that monster when the man with the cane showed up.

Daisy rubbed her temples, suffering from a great big headache the story had caused.

"And then he said, 'Then I have nothing more to say.' And I said back, 'That's fine, I learned plenty from you already.' And that's because I remembered where I saw that carving on his cane before. It was an exact match for the carving on a medallion you sometimes had with you. Which means you and that guy are connected somehow. I'm guessing because of that, you can do the same kind of things he can, see invisible monsters and beat them up."

"Let's . . . put aside all that crazy invisible monster talk for now," Daisy suggested.

But Jackie was having none of it. "No, I don't think so. You have special eyes just like Alice. Or you at least know something about them. I'm sure you also have some way to track down the Gathering."

"The same Gathering that just attacked you half an hour ago? You still want to find them after that?"

"If Alice is where they are, then yeah," said Jackie.

"Are you being serious right now? No, don't tell me. I can tell by the look on your face you really mean it."

With a sigh, Daisy leaned back, facing up at the ceiling with her hands pressed over her eyes. And then she sighed and straightened up.

"Fine," she said. "I'll tell you everything."

She gave the door to the living room a quick glance, and then took a deep breath before confessing.

"I was once a member of the Black Tortoise Order."

<== Chapter 8                                                                          Chapter 10 ==>