As soon as Arthur Liu was gone, Jackie collapsed, rolled onto his back and laid on the floor.
"Jackie!" Alice lost count how many times she got scared out of her mind at this point. With a shriek, she rushed over to Jackie's side and dropped down next to him. But to her relief, he was still conscious and looked back at her with a weak smile.
"Hey," he said, voice soft and cracked. "Been a while. What've you been up to?"
Alice laughed through a sob. She sniffed back a runny nose and responded, "You moron."
Her smile quickly faded, and she bit down on her lower lip, riddled with guilt.
While most eyes were on the duo, Donatello Putts once more started crawling for the nearest exit. But his way was blocked by Tom Waller, who stood over the Wizard with a scowl.
Arms crossed over his chest, Waller said, "Don't even think about it."
He proceeded to throw some salt from a Ziploc bag on the Wizard, dampening whatever supernatural powers remained. As an added measure, the accountant gave the cage with eyes all over a look and asked it, "You want some of this?"
The cage monster did not and scurried out through the kitchen door, abandoning its master for good.
At that moment, dozens of police officers stormed in, led by Arnold.
"Jackie!" Like Alice, Arnold was horrified to see Jackie lying on the floor and rushed over to his side. He looked his stepson up and down, glad to see Jackie still conscious but still overwhelmed with worry. The police officer was pained to see Jackie's injured leg and then flared with resentment when he heard Alice's voice call out to him, "Officer . . ."
His anger dissipated however when his eyes caught sight of the dark rings under her teary eyes, the deathly paleness of her face and the shallow, but bloody scratches around her neck. But still, he glowered at them both, as he must and said to them, "You two are in big trouble. You better be ready for what's coming."
Jackie and Alice nodded, and Arnold called for an ambulance.
Jackie and Alice were taken to the hospital at the east side of the city. Needless to say, Jackie had to stay overnight and recuperate from his injuries. Alice did as well at the insistence of a doctor out of precaution.
Donatello Putts was taken to different hospital to the south where he was watched twenty-four, seven by officers in tactical gear. The police officers had been warned of how dangerous the Wizard was and never let down their guard, which Donatello didn't mind, fearing the return of the scary enforcer with a sword, Arthur Liu. Once he recovered enough, which was shockingly fast to the doctors' astonishment, he was formally arrested and moved to a jail cell.
The doctors over at the eastern hospital experienced astonishment of their own thanks to Jackie. Despite being landed on by a huge piece of stage equipment that must weigh a ton, the bones of Jackie's injured leg remained intact. In fact, come morning time, the leg looked good as new. It was baffling to everyone, Jackie included who experienced the pain firsthand. It hurt so badly, it had to have been snapped in two.
But X-rays don't lie, and Jackie's showed his leg was perfectly fine. There wasn't even so much as a bruise on it, which should be pleasing but left both Arnold and Alice frowning with concern. Waller too, when he heard.
So, after a night's rest and further examinations in the morning, both Jackie and Alice were allowed to leave the hospital in the afternoon. Arnold was still technically on vacation so had the time off to take Jackie home. Alice expected to be picked up by Granny Tsing but was surprised by both of her parents showing up as well.
George Tsing, a professional filmmaker, was supposed to be in South Africa creating a documentary while his wife, Joan, was supposed to be in France for corporate business consultation work. Apparently, as soon as they heard that Alice had gone missing, they immediately dropped what they were doing to head back home. Or at least they tried to.
George was stranded in a village for a couple of days because his car broke down and there was no one who could fix it but himself. Joan's assistant bought the wrong plane ticket, and she ended up stuck in Puerto Rico after her purse with her passport, phone, and credit cards got stolen. Eventually, George was able to get his car repaired and Joan was able to get her belongings back (don't ask how), and both made it to their respective airports to get on the next flight home.
Although it sounded unbelievable, Alice was certain those were not mere excuses. If they had been, both her parents would be suffering from Granny Tsing's infamous, utterly painful ear twists. The true matriarch of the family was none too pleased by how long it took the couple to return home when their only child had been abducted.
Alice thought she was going to get the punishment of a lifetime for running away and getting mixed up with a dangerous group like the Gathering. But instead, as soon as the Tsing family members all laid eyes on each other, Alice found herself buried beneath her parents and great-aunt in a group bear hug.
Jackie, on the other hand, spent hours and hours listening to Arnold scold and lecture him the moment the door to their home closed behind them. His internet privileges remained revoked, and he was allowed only a basic flip phone to make calls with. The phone, Jackie was quick to notice, had a tracking device stuck to it.
A new week had started when Jackie could finally return to school. He went down ahead of Arnold and found Alice waiting outside of the apartment building.
Alice quickly turned away when she spotted Jackie coming out of the lobby. She was still not able to look Jackie in the eye without her feelings going into turmoil. Honestly, she had planned never to see Jackie again, feeling it was no longer right for her to be with him after the predicament she had put him through. But as if able to read Alice's mind, Granny Tsing pulled her aside earlier this morning and gave her a warning.
"Do not try and avoid Jackie," she said. "Especially do not think about running away or disappearing. That boy dove into Hell to find you. And he will do it again if that's what it takes. If you really care about him, then there is only one thing you can do. Do you already understand what that is?"
Alice did.
As they had always done before the whole Gathering incident, Alice and Jackie walked side by side. Much of the journey to school was spent in silence, heavily awkward silence. There were street noises of course, like passing cars, or the chatter of fellow pedestrians on their phones, but all that was counted as part of the quiet atmosphere around the two friends. Alice never looked Jackie's way once, but she could feel his eyes on her, which just made things very uncomfortable. She wanted to break the silence badly, but she had no idea what to say.
No, wait. There is one thing she could say. Something she had to say.
"Sorry," she said.
It was barely a whisper, but Jackie heard. "Sorry for what?" he asked.
Alice frowned. Is he seriously asking right now? She wondered and was tempted to see but resisted and decided to assume he was.
"You know," she mumbled, gaze moving skyward. "For the whole Gathering thing. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have gotten mixed up in that mess and ended up in the hospital."
"It's no biggie," said Jackie. "You were just looking out for me. If anything, I'm the one who should be sorry. You wouldn't have thought to see what the Gathering was like if I was a better friend."
"What? No!" Finally, Alice whirled around and faced him. "You were the best friend I could possibly have! In fact, you're more than just my best friend. You're - !"
She stopped herself.
Jackie gave her a puzzled look. "I'm . . . ?"
Turning beat red in the face, Alice turned away, muttering, "Never mind."
"You okay, Alice?" asked Jackie. "You're looking rather hot right now."
"Damn it, Jackie! Yes, I am!" Alice knew what he meant, but she still felt extremely flustered.
Jackie was doubtful she was being truthful and gave her a piercing stare. "You sure about that?"
"Yes, I'm sure!"
Alice needed to change the subject, and she desperately looked around for inspiration. She found it right at their heels.
"Psst! Jackie! Don't look now, but we're being followed."
Jackie gave Alice a sideways glance. "Human or Egregor?"
"Egregor."
"What kind?"
"A huge skeleton."
"Oh, no need to worry then. That's just Boney."
Alice stopped. "Boney?"
"Yeah, I told you about him before. We started off on the wrong foot, but now we're friends. Ain't that right, Boney?"
Jackie flashed a smile at the skeleton monster lumbering behind him. The monster nodded back.
Jackie first spotted Boney crouching low at the hallway outside of Jackie's room during lights out. Of course, seeing a huge skeleton lingering in a dark hallway was startling and he had never seen what Boney actually looked like before. But Jackie knew who it was right away and invited him in for a late night chat. Since then, Boney had stuck to Jackie like a dog stuck to its owner. Of course, much to Jackie's regret, Boney had to stay outside. The apartment's size made it an unsuitable living space for the immense skeleton. It was a miracle it was able to navigate the hospital's narrow, low-ceiling hallways.
Alice looked at Boney with very mixed feelings. On one hand was apprehension from years of bad experiences with its kind and knowledge that Boney had once tried to "unalive" Jackie, as the boy himself put it. But on the other hand, Boney helped Jackie and was even now keeping the other monsters away. She didn't need to be on Jackie's level to notice that.
But I can do the same just fine on my own now, she thought with a little pout.
"Actually," Jackie suddenly spoke up, "that reminds me . . ."
"Reminds you of what?" Alice asked, returning her gaze to him.
"There's something I wanted to tell you. It's something I realized while I was looking for you?"
Alice was curious, but also a little afraid. But still, she mustered her courage and timidly asked, "What?"
And then, to her surprise, he held her hand in his. His hand was very warm.
Jackie flashed Alice a smile, leaned closer until his mouth was at her ear and whispered into her ear, three words.
An instant later, Alice's already flushed face turned several times redder.
**********
Ten o'clock in the morning, Tom Waller strolled into a quiet cafe, the interior of which was designed to look like an elegant, classic shop made out of woodwork. After a brief word with the waitress, he was led to an outdoor porch where he found Arthur Liu flipping the page of a hardcover novel beneath the shade of a brown umbrella.
The novel appeared to have been borrowed from a nearby library. It had the telltale glossy sheen of clear plastic wrapping, and a white square label at the bottom of the spine. Waller recognized the title as a story by a modern writer set in the world of Sherlock Holmes.
Seeing Waller's approach, Liu closed the book and set it down next to his cup of coffee.
"Thomas," he said, "fancy seeing you here. Please, have a seat."
To the waitress, he requested a second order of coffee for Waller as the accountant got settled down. Once the waitress was gone, the two men went straight to business.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Liu inquired.
Scowling, Waller replied, "You know already what I want. Give it to me straight Liu, what are you really doing here? I know you didn't just happen to show up when the Gathering started making trouble. And I know guys of their level usually don't even make it on your radar. Putts' plan was doomed from the start. The only reason the locals in the same business as you didn't do anything was because they saw you snooping and figured they could kick back and relax while you did their work for them."
"A fortunate thing for those children who had fallen under that so-called Wizard's influence," said Liu. "Hopefully, with Jackie Li's show of kindness, they won't stray to darker paths."
"If not his nice guy shtick, then you scaring the pants off them should do the trick," Waller pointed out.
"So you realized my intentions back then." Liu took a sip of coffee, savored the flavor and then set the cup down. "Very well. I suppose you have a right to know since your territory was mixed up in this matter of mine. But before I proceed, may I ask how much do you already know?"
"Only that a few years ago, that idiot Putts was just a normie with no powers whatsoever. He never had the kind of eyes that could see pests." The pests Waller was talking about were, of course, the Egregors. "But then he somehow got his hands on a PDF file full of legit magic spells and potion recipes."
"Did he say how he obtained that file?"
Waller shook his head. "Doesn't remember. The Chief grilled him, himself, so I think it's true."
"I suppose I have this Chief to thank for this meeting? I was not exactly hiding, but I was surprised you found me when I only decided to visit this establishment on a whim. He seems formidably skilled."
"Yeah, well," Waller shrugged, "we both needed answers anyway."
"Then I will give you them now," Liu stated. "My true purpose in coming to this city was to hunt down a merchant. This particular merchant makes his living by selling supernatural knowledge. He sells them to the desperate, the uninitiated, and the untrained. To 'normies', as you would put it. I trust you can imagine the sort of damage that could cause?"
Waller nodded. "Yeah. The only thing worse than a wizard, is a wizard that doesn't know how to be one."
"Which is exactly the sort of wizard Donatello Putts revealed himself to be," said Liu. "Although it is true his plan was doomed to fail, had Jackie Li not intervened, that fool's misguidance would have had children jumping to their own destruction, which, as far as you and I are concerned, is plenty damaging."
"I still don't see why you had to come all the way out here," Waller pressed. "What business is it to you what happens this side of the world?"
"Make no mistake, Thomas," Liu stressed, his face and tone grave. "My homeland will always be my top priority. That said, the lives of all innocent people is a concern of mine. And I also strongly believe that what happens on one side of the world can have an effect on the other. By ensuring balance remains in other countries, I protect my own. But that is difficult at this moment because of this merchant roaming about, uncontained by borders and picky with his customers in the worst possible way."
"And does this merchant have a name?"
Liu shook his head. "No, he does not. At least not any that I am aware of. He, she, they are clever enough to hide all traces of identity, going as far as to erase their customers' memories. I doubt questioning Putts myself will yield anything more than what your Chief unearthed already."
"So we got a troublemaker running around here, teaching idiots how to pull off real magic for a couple of bucks while being smart enough to stay under the radar even from you." Waller felt the onset of a headache. He was grateful that the waitress chose then to show up with his coffee, which he finished in one gulp. As soon as the waitress departed again, he concluded, "And what those idiots do with all that magic learning usually ends up becoming big disasters."
Liu nodded. "That about sums everything up."
"Well, that is just terrific!" Waller sounded the opposite. He went slump in his chair and then flipped open the menu, feeling the need for something sweet. On Liu's dime of course. But as he tried to decide on a specific dessert, something else important crossed his mind. "There is something I don't get."
Liu stopped just as he was about to take a sip of coffee and looked up. "And what is that?"
"I got a good look at Putts' setup at the restaurant, but as far as I could see, there's no way any stray pests could've gotten in. And the guy might be a moron, but he's no slouch with keeping his pests on good behavior."
"I agree Donatello Putts has taught himself well in the art of taming Egregors, but what is your point?"
"My point," said Waller, "is that it's weird that one of those small pests made that stage light fall, like Jackie said happened. It makes no sense if that moron was in complete control of the place. And it's not like he wanted any of his followers squashed. At least not until after they started to have second thoughts about him. Unless he slipped up somewhere?"
Liu shook his head. "I may have arrived late, but I can assure you that is not the case. Big or small, his control of the Egregors was only shaken after he was inflicted injuries. And even then, they continued to act only on his orders until prompted to leave like you did that cage mimic. Could Jackie Li's mind be playing tricks on him at the time? He was, after all, in a considerably bad condition."
"Do you really believe that?"
Liu confessed, "No, I do not. There is something I neglected to tell you. While I had my confrontation with Donatello Putts, I sensed the remnants of energy in the air separate from the Wizard's. I had thought it belonged to one of his superior apprentices, but it did not match anyone present in the room at the time. And with this mention of yours of a misbehaving Egregor, I have my doubts this energy belonged to an apprentice at all."
"So someone hightailed it before you showed up," Waller concluded. "Someone with their own agenda. That merchant you were talking about, maybe?"
"Unlikely," said Liu. "He never stays to see what his customers do with their purchases, seemingly uninterested in the consequences. No, this energy belongs to another party with their own schemes and goals."
"And we know nothing about them or what they want." Waller sighed. He really needed something sweet now. "Why can't anything ever be simple?"
Empathetic, Liu shrugged. "That is just the way the world works. It is all a clash and mix of different motives from different people and groups that cannot help but step on each other's toes as they each pursue their goals. That was how Jackie Li got involved in this affair."
"Well I hope for my sake, and Jackie's this is the last we'll have to deal with them."
Somehow, Liu thought to himself as he watched Waller hail the waitress to make his dessert order, I seriously doubt it. After all, Jackie Li has talent that could change the world. And destiny is not about to allow that talent to go unused.
<== Chapter 24 Book 2 ==>
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