When the elevator doors parted ways, the first thing Jackie saw were the glass doors that led into the desolate dining room. He could see that it was packed with people, most of them he had seen before at the amusement center. The window pane, though slightly smudged and dusty, also gave him a clear view of the stage where he could see Alice squirming around while seemingly floating in midair.
His first instinct was to run straight through the front door to get to her, but he stopped when he realized that there was no way he could crash through the thick glass pane. The metal frames also looked more than sturdy enough to hold against the strongest tackle he could pull off. He had to find another way in and fast. It was obvious by the way everyone had their eyes closed that the Ritual was now underway.
His eyes scoured the entire inside of the restaurant through the window until they landed on the flap doors leading into the kitchen. The bit of light spilling out through the tiny round windows of the kitchen doors was enough to tell Jackie what he needed to know.
He stepped away from the door, looked right and left, and then raced down the left hallway. The right was just a wall with the painting of a clown juggling colorful balls outside a yellow and red striped circus tent.
Towards the end of the corridor, he found a door, plain white, with a red sign. Bold white letters read: "No trespassing! Staff Only". This door, he could kick open and he did, ignoring the sign that forbade his entry. After crossing through the kitchen like Alice did earlier, albeit more frantically, he slapped the flap door as hard as he could with both his hands.
The door banging against the wall accomplished just what Jackie had hoped for and the Ritual was stopped. For now, at least.
Jackie wanted to ride the momentum, but he had to pause to catch his breath before glaring at the Wizard.
"Stop right there, Wizard! Or should I say Donatello Putts!"
Heavy silence hung over the entire room for a moment. It was then broken by the Wizard who gave a slow clapping and a sarcastic, "Wow, you know my name. Really impressive, Jackie. What gave it away?"
The Wizard was only being rhetorical, but Jackie answered anyway.
"Well, all the places you used for your operations belonged to the Putts family. I thought it was a long shot at first. But when Alice showed up at the warehouse, it pretty much confirmed that the Gathering, or at least one of its members, was connected to them. The Putts family used to be really, really rich. You have a watch that's old, but worth a lot of money. Your first name starts with the letter D. Public records on the internet showed that the last known member of the Putts family was a guy named Donatello who publicly blamed all the people slandering him for the family business going downhill after he took over the reins and vowed revenge. But really, it was your own fault for being a bad businessman who did things that hurt a lot of people. That's why you lost all those lawsuits."
Slowly, the Wizard's face twisted, and his cheeks flushed red. The anger and rage he showed frightened Alice, not because he looked frightening to her but because she was sure that he was going to strike Jackie down with a bolt of lightning now.
The Wizard, Donatello Putts, really wanted to do just that. But luckily for Jackie, Donatello remembered that he had an audience. And Donatello knew better than anyone that the key to keeping the audience on your side was to keep cool and confident. He chose his words carefully before speaking up.
"That's some big mouth you got there, kid. But that's all you got. Yeah, I'm Donatello Putts. My family used to be really rich. And yeah, all that money went down the drain under my watch. But it definitely wasn't because I was a bad businessman. It was because of lies perpetrated by those I thought were my friends, by people I thought I could count on. Who here understands what I'm talking about? Isn't there anyone else here who went through the same thing? Betrayed, spurned and lied about because they were different?"
Whispers among the crowd, a fire lighting in the eyes of his followers brought a smile on the Wizard's face and he pressed on the attack.
"Isn't that why we're all here? To get back at the people who betrayed us? Who shunned us? And speaking of being shunned, aren't we also here to take for ourselves a place in this world that refuses to give us one?"
"That's not true!" Jackie cried out. "Not everyone in this world's your enemy! You guys, all of you, still have people who care about you!"
"Oh, what do you know?" Donatello Putts snapped. "You don't understand us. You don't understand what it's like for us! Any of us!"
"I do!" Jackie said. "I do understand!"
But Donatello fired back, "No you don't! You could never understand!"
The crowd roared with agreement.
"Yeah!"
"You don't belong here!"
"Go away!"
"That's right! Go away!"
The Gathering all together chanted, "Go away! Go away! Go away!"
Despite the overwhelming rejection, Jackie did not back down.
"Revenge is wrong," he insisted. "It's not going to make things better."
Then a girl's voice called out, "You can only say that because you don't know what it's like!"
"But I do!" Jackie shouted. "I do know what it's like to be rejected, to be called a liar even though I've been telling the truth all along! To be bullied even though I was just trying to do the right thing!"
"Oh yeah?" went Donatello Putts. "Well, whoever called you a liar's right! There's no way you could ever know what it's like!"
"But I do!" Jackie still insisted, more desperately.
The Wizard opened his mouth to argue some more, but then a girl's voice called out again, "Then prove it!"
"Yeah," said Donatello Putts. "Prove it!"
"But you can't, can you?" the girl continued.
Donatello parroted her. "You can't, can you?"
"I don't think you even WANT to understand!" shouted the girl.
"I do!" Jackie cried back. "I do want to understand!"
"Then prove it!" the girl shouted again. "Prove it! Prove it! Prove it!"
The others chanted with her.
Jackie shouted over them, "Then tell me how! I'll do it! Anything!"
"Oh, anything, will you?" Donatello said with dramatic intrigue. "Then . . ."
"Oh!" cried the girl. "I have an idea!"
Throughout this whole time, she was indiscernible within the crowd. And she remained indiscernible save for a pale hand that beckoned the Wizard to come. Donatello obliged and bent down to hear what she had to say, which only he could hear as it was whispered into his ear.
Jackie noticed Donatello hold out his hand as he straightened up. The girl, whoever it was, must have handed something to the Wizard which he clenched in a tight fist as he walked over to Jackie.
Alice followed Donatello Putts' movements with her eyes, not liking one bit the wicked smile on his face. It was the biggest smile she had ever seen on his face yet. And it alarmed her to see some of the most hideous monsters she's ever seen before slither out of the air ducts and the restrooms. They followed close at the Wizard's heels, but never daring to overtake him as he approached Jackie.
A mighty wailing escaped the ribbons around Alice's mouth. She wanted to yell at Donatello and to order him to stay away from her friend, the boy she had grown up with and was the most important person in her heart. And she wanted to scream at Jackie to run away, to leave her behind and save himself. But she couldn't create any words with her voice with her lips sealed shut.
And deep down, she knew neither of the men she wanted to shout at would listen to her anyway.
Donatello stopped short a couple of feet away from Jackie.
"You said you'll do anything, right?" the Wizard said to Jackie. "Anything to show you want to understand us?"
Jackie stared into Donatello's eyes, which were full of undisguised malice. It didn't take a genius to figure out the Gathering's leader had something nasty in store for him. But he couldn't back down now.
Much to Alice's dismay, Jackie nodded and said, "Tell me what I gotta do and I'll do it. Whatever it takes to prove that I want to understand and that I do understand."
"Oh, it'll be easy," said Donatello. He uncurled his fingers to show a small glass bottle laying on its side on his palm. It was brown with a black bulb on top. "This bottle contains some very special medicine for the eyes. Magically special. One drop in each eye, and you'll be able to see the things we can see. For a brief, TEMPORARY moment, you will have special eyes and can see all the invisible monsters people like you refused to believe in before!"
Jackie was not surprised. He could tell right away the bottle contained eye drops. The black bulb was a huge giveaway, showing the bottle's cap was a dropper. Additionally, he noticed the way members of the Gathering shifting around while flashing uncomfortable grimaces on their faces, which indicated that some very ugly guests had decided to join the party.
At that point, it was pretty obvious to Jackie what Donatello Putts had planned. He planned to scare Jackie into proving himself wrong. But the joke was on him. To be able to see the same things Alice could was one of Jackie's greatest wishes. He was always curious to know what the monsters were actually like. But more importantly, he always thought that being able to see the things Alice could, would allow Jackie to better understand and help her.
But just for verification, Jackie asked, "So all I gotta do is put those in my eyes and I can see what you can?"
Donatello nodded.
"And it's only temporary?"
Again, Donatello nodded.
"What if I want it permanently?"
A muffled scream of dismay came from Alice, but no one looked her way.
"All you have to do is put drops in a second time," the Wizard answered. "But I doubt you'll want to do that."
"We'll see," Jackie said.
Lacking any hesitation, he snatched away the bottle, twisted it open and held the dropper over his eye. Both the tube and the liquid inside were clear. With practiced hands from the frequent need of relief drops when he was younger, Jackie gave the black bulb a slight squeeze. Two droplets fell out, both twinkling like diamonds against the white light shining from the ceiling. One fell into his left eye and the other fell into his right. They both felt warm, likely from the heat of Donatello Putts' hand.
Jackie blinked a couple of times as twisted the cap back onto the bottle, keeping his face parallel to the ceiling so that the droplets wouldn't fall out and go to waste. Seconds passed without anything happening. And then -
"Argh!" His eyes burned. "OOOWWWW!"
And they hurt badly.
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