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.
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