As the monster sped down the empty road, Jackie clung to the monster's neck, which felt thin, rock hard and jagged. It felt like hugging a giant neck bone. Chances were, he really was hugging a giant neck bone. He suspected, rightfully, that the monster was a giant, living skeleton.
It mostly looked like how a human skeleton would look if picked clean and polished to an ivory white shine. But both its hands and feet were clownishly big for its size and within each of its eye sockets was a ball of blue light. There was also a faint line across one of its legs where Arthur Liu had snapped it in half. The leg since had fully repaired itself.
Spotting cars going back and forth on the road up ahead, Jackie got worried about being seen riding on an invisible monster. He wasn't sure how he was going to explain it to anyone if he ended up filmed and the video went viral. But his ride was way ahead of him and turned to a red brick building and leaped.
"Whoa!"
The monster climbed up the building's walls, its fingers clinging to the bricks like the sticky fingers of Spider Man. After reaching the rooftop, it gently poked Jackie's chin and lifted it up. Jackie understood what it was trying to say and clenched his teeth, bracing for what he was sure to come.
Once more, the monster jumped, soaring towards another rooftop. It ran to the edge and jumped again. Like this, the monster and Jackie went from one building to the next. No one below noticed the flying boy, too busy with what was ahead to look above. The wind whipped his face and swept his hair back, swaying up and down with each jump.
To be perfectly honest, despite the grim mission he was on, Jackie found the ride exhilarating. The way it tore its way forward was just awesome. But as he looked down below, he spotted someone walking down the street, a familiar small person he had met before.
"Hey! Drop me off in the alley up ahead! There's someone I need to talk to!"
Sure enough, the monster obliged and dropped into an alley between a red brick building and one that looked like a vanilla-colored woodwork house in the front. It gently put Jackie down and he sprinted out to meet the younger boy he had encountered at the Gathering's gathering. The boy was probably headed to do the Ritual, which Jackie could not allow.
"Hey!" he called out.
The boy face immediately turned displeased and he circled around Jackie in a run.
"Hey, wait!" Jackie ran after the boy. "Hold up!"
"Leave me alone!" the boy snapped.
He tried to put as much distance between himself and Jackie, but he was no match for the older and taller boy. Jackie was able to close the gap in an instant.
"Listen, kid!" he shouted. "I know what you went through was bad, but that Ritual is not going to make things better. A lot of people are going to get hurt by it. It's wrong!"
Finally, the boy stopped and whirled around with a retort. "The only people getting hurt are the bullies who started it! Are you saying what they did to me is not wrong?"
Jackie shook his head. "No, bullies are definitely wrong. But that doesn't make the Ritual right! Haven't you heard the saying two wrongs don't make a right?"
"That's a stupid saying," the boy said. "And so are you!"
"Hurtful!"
"Go away," the boy told Jackie again. "Go away and stay away. If you know what's good for you."
He turned and started running again. Jackie didn't follow this time, but he still had something left to say.
"He's wrong, you know!" he shouted to the boy. "The Wizard's wrong! Not everyone in the world's against you! You're not alone!"
The boy never looked back. He kept on running until his shrinking back became nothing to Jackie.
Having said everything he could to the younger boy, Jackie was about to go back to the alley when he heard clapping, slow and sarcastic, from behind. He turned and gave a cry of both surprise and a bit of disdain.
"What are you doing here, Mr. Liu?"
Arthur Liu, the Rat, ceased clapping and rested his right hand on his cane while his left hand went behind his back.
"I heard a commotion and came to see what it was about," he said. "I found your attempt to appeal to that child not to do something foolish rather touching."
Jackie frowned at Liu's clear-as-day mockery and was not in the mood for more.
"Just tell me what you want, or I'm leaving now," he said. "I haven't got all day."
"Evidently not," sai Liu, with his nose turned up.
Jackie took a step.
"I am aware you have discovered the location of the Ritual and you are on your way to stop it," Liu said. "Take me there and I will help you."
Jackie wasn't sure how the old man knew, but he had a feeling something supernatural was involved. He eyed the famed Rat with suspicion and asked, "What do you plan to do when you get there? How do you plan to stop the Ritual?"
"I will kill the Wizard and all else who tries to complete it."
Jackie always suspected that was what Liu was going to do, but to hear the gentleman say it in such a straight and immediate manner was just chilling. It sent shivers down the teen's spine.
He could not stand to be with this dangerous man for a minute longer, so he quickly swallowed his fear and looked Liu in the eye before answering, "No. You want to find the Gathering, do it yourself."
"Why do you refuse my offer to help?" asked Liu. "You clearly stand no chance against that Wizard. You must understand that."
Because you're a bloodthirsty maniac, Jackie thought. But instead of saying that aloud, he fired back, "Why do you want to help me? You can clearly find the Gathering on your own. You showed us back at the old Putts Amusement Center. Why do you care about me so much?"
"If you must know, it is because I sense something special in you," said the Rat. "Potential to do great things. You have talent that could change the world. I want to teach you how to unlock it and how to use that talent for the greater good."
Sounds like the kind of scam a supervillain would make, Jackie thought. He wasn't buying it. And he's wasted enough time.
"No thanks. I already got plenty of good teachers back at Colbert High School. Anyway, this has been a productive chat, but I really need to go now so . . . Good bye!"
And then he fled back into the alley. As he did so, Arthur Liu called out with one final warning.
"Mark my words, Jackie Li! You cannot help those children. You cannot help anyone the way you are now. Only with power can you hope to stand against the forces of evil. Only with power can you hope to accomplish anything!"
Jackie didn't listen. Once he was deep in the alley enough, he called for his invisible friend, which he decided to name Boney. And then, once again, Jackie was flying over rooftops as the sun began a rapid drop into nighttime. below the horizon.
Arthur Liu did not bother to follow. As Jackie correctly pointed out, he didn't need to. Instead, he shook his head and sauntered off, muttering to himself, "Such a foolish and naive boy."
**********
Alice followed her fellow Acolytes through the back rooms of the restaurant. After crossing the massive kitchen, they entered what would have been the main dining area, twice the kitchen's size and left barren after being shut down.
The dining area had become just a stretch of gray concrete underneath everyone's feet. But overhead were stage lights attached to a system of metal bars hanging from the ceiling, covering from one end of the room to the other. To the right was a grand stage, big enough to house a Broadway musical, but left dark and gloomy as all lights were concentrated on the center of the room where the Wizard awaited.
Already, the majority of the Gathering had arrived, standing in circles around the Wizard, who, himself, stood atop a huge circular formation of drawings and writings that no one, not even the Wizard himself, could read. A single strip of concrete divided the Wizard's followers, allowing the Acolytes a way forward to join him on the mysterious and chilling piece of art, which was drawn in red.
Alice doubted it could be anything else other than paint or ink, but it still made her skin crawl to look at. She and the others stood around the Wizard in each of seven circles drawn within the greater one. An eighth circle at the heart of all those scribbles was where the Wizard stood.
He looked around and beamed a big, tight-lipped smile to the crowd. And then he raised his hands in the air and said, "Well, we're here. It's finally happening. Are you all ready for some revenge?"
Cheers came from the crowd. "Yeah!"
"I can't hear you!"
"YEAH!"
"Then let's do this!"
The crowd went wild. Alice couldn't understand why these guys were so hooked when it was obvious just looking at the drawing beneath their feet that something bad was going on, but she joined in the revelry as hard as she could to keep up the illusion she was still on their side. One eye stayed on the drawing, which she guessed was a pivotal part of the Ritual.
If I can do something about these scribbles, she thought, then it's bye-bye Ritual.
It was obvious just stomping on and scrubbing her feet over the writing would not be enough. This was good paint the Wizard used. But that wasn't going to be enough protection against what Alice had in mind.
She had learned much from her time studying in the Wizard's house. And there was one spell she obsessively practiced which she thought would be perfect for the mission she set herself on. Her fervent work left her with deep, dark circles under her eyes and a head foggy from sleep deprivation, but it will be worth it if she could destroy that evil artwork. All she had to now was wait for the perfect opportunity when everyone was too busy casting the spell to stop her, which won't be long now.
"But before we do get started," said the Wizard, "I gotta say, I'm really proud to be here and see all you people here with me. When I started this Gathering thing, I never imagined we'd grow to be as big as we are now. But we did."
"Come on . . ." Alice tapped the heel of her foot impatiently. "Come on . . ."
Her fingers wrung, itching to act and weave together some fire, but the Wizard continued regardles.
"Now, I know you all are eager to get started right now. I am too. But there is still just one more little thing that needs to be done before we can actually do that."
Alice internally groaned. The guy just can't stop being a showman, she thought.
But then he turned around. His eyes landed on her and then Alice was suddenly pulled back and thrown in a cage that suddenly appeared at the edge of the circle. She was suspended in the air in the cage by red silk ribbons around her wrists, waist and throat. The door slammed shut and eyes blinked open on the iron bars, revealing the cage's nature as an Egregor.
Alice tried to pull herself free, but of course the ribbon held strong. She stopped at the sound of approaching footsteps and looked to see the Wizard grinning at her. Dread bubbled up from the pit of her stomach, but she tried to play dumb and cried out in dismay, "What the hell, man? What's going on? Why'd you just throw me in a cage?"
The Wizard chuckled. "Oh, Alice, Alice, Alice. You can drop the act. I've known for a while now what you've really been up to. I must say I'm disappointed. We might have only known each other for a few short weeks, but I really came to like you. You're a hard worker and I admire that. It's like looking in a mirror seeing you set your sights on something and going all out to accomplish it. It's just too bad what you set your sights on was betraying me."
Color drained from Alice's face and the Wizard grinned.
"Wondering how I know? Well, I'd like to say it was thanks to my good looks and my gooder brain."
He paced around the tent, eyes staying glued on Alice.
"But really, I'm just careful. I got eyes and ears everywhere. And one of those ears happened to overhear a little bit about your plans to stop the Ritual in its tracks. Too bad though. Even if you did manage to light this place on fire, that's not going to stop us. Because we are special. We are the Gathering. And there's nothing stopping us from getting our revenge."
He stopped where he began, in front of the cage and pressed his face against the bars, still smiling but with no sparkle in his eyes. Only venom.
"Least of all, mine!"
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