Morgan stared at the empty space where the mysterious masked witch stood moments before. Numb in the head from all the extraordinary (and absolutely, terrifyingly, scary) things that had transpired a few minutes ago, she didn’t feel like moving at all until once more, she heard crunching leaves and snapping twigs accompanying approaching footsteps. She turned expecting to find that gentleman the witch mentioned. But instead, to her surprise, she found Circe running up to her.
"There you are!" Circe stopped and bent down on buckled knees, gasping and wheezing. Her face was pink and she was drenched in sweat. She looked as if she had run the whole way up the hill and into the wilderness without stopping.
"What are you doing here?" Morgan asked.
Her bewilderment annoyed Circe.
"I was looking for you, of course!"
It was a good thing she found that mutant bird with red feathers and a crocodile head loitering on a tree branch at the edge of the wilderness. Without its help, she doubted she could find Morgan so quickly.
Morgan, surprised and confused, asked, "Really? Why?"
"Because," Circe answered hoarsely, "even though I really, really hate you, you are not worth a guilty conscience."
"A guilty conscience?"
After recovering enough breath, Circe explained how she had to fight off a pair of vampires who attacked her after mistaking her for a werewolf because of the smell from Roger's room and how she feared Morgan would be attacked for the same reason, which was why she rushed to find her. But looking at Morgan now, Circe had to ask: "Were you just rolling around in the mud?"
"No! Of course not!" Morgan shouted in dismay.
Then came her turn to tell her story. She gave Circe a brief summary of her own encounter with vampires and how she was saved by a mysterious witch.
Circe listened feeling a mix of horror, relief and intrigue. She was horrified to find out how very close Morgan came to losing her life, relieved she got out of trouble unscathed, and was intrigued by the appearance of a masked savior. Who was that witch? She wondered. And then she thought, Well, that’s not important right now.
“Come on,” said Circe. “We should get going before those vampires decide to come back and finish what they started.”
But Morgan said, “Oh, we don’t have to worry about that.”
“We don’t?” Circe looked at Morgan, puzzled. “Why? How can you be so sure?”
“Because of the gentleman that’s supposed to be coming.”
“What gentleman?” Circe asked.
Before Morgan could reply, a voice cut in and said, “I believe that would be me.”
The girls were both startled and jumped. They turned to see who had spoken and found a man in a trench coat and short brim hat standing a few feet away with one of his gloved hands resting atop an elegant T-shaped cane. His face was Asian and middle aged. His accent gave away that English was not his first language. When he took off his hat in a polite gesture, his black hair was exposed, swept back by gel.
Morgan had never seen this man before, but she could tell by the way he was dressed and standing that this must be the gentleman that the witch had mentioned earlier.
“What are you doing here?” Circe cried out in surprise and fear. Unlike Morgan, she had seen this gentleman before. He had shown up out of the blue, pulling a sword out of that cane of his to chop down Donatello Putts. He didn’t do that in the end thanks to persuasion from Jackie and Tom Waller, but he made it clear to everyone in the room that he would not be so nice next time.
“I noticed a disturbance in the air and came to see what had happened,” explained the gentleman. “Imagine my surprise to see a familiar face here. I hope this does not mean my warning to you and the others have gone unheeded.”
He gave Circe a piercing stare that made her blood run cold. She shivered, but resisted the urge to look away.
Morgan looked from the gentleman to Circe. “Uh . . . You two know each other?”
“To an extent,” said the gentleman. “And you are?”
Morgan told the gentleman her name.
The gentleman nodded his head and gave his own self-intro. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Morgan. My name is Arthur Liu, a visitor from far away, here to investigate disturbances of the strange kind. As I mentioned earlier, I noticed one here and came to see what happened."
"Well, actually-" Morgan stopped. She remembered what the witch had said: that this guy was supposed to be a good guy, but also scary dangerous, especially to monsters. He didn't look all that scary or dangerous, though. Actually, now that she thought about it, how could she be so sure this guy is actually the gentleman the witch was talking about? For all she knew, the witch could have been talking about a completely different gentleman. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry and not say too much this time.
"Yes?" asked Arthur Liu. "Is something wrong? You are suddenly quiet."
A quick sharp elbow from Circe snapped Morgan awake. "Oh! Sorry! Right, where was I? Oh, yeah! You wanted to know if we saw anything strange, right? Sorry, but nope. Nothing strange here. Not a single strange thing."
Arthur Liu stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Really? Nothing at all?"
Morgan nodded her head so hard and fast, she was afraid it would fall off.
"And what about you?" Arthur asked Circe.
"I just got here," was her reply. "And you know that I see strange things every day right? What exactly kind of disturbance are you looking into now, anyway?"
"A monster had been pulled into our world,” said Arthur. “Someone had done it on purpose. I don’t know why, but I cannot ignore it.”
Oh, this guy's definitely the gentleman alright, thought Morgan, now sure. He's definitely talking about that Grim Reaper monster the witch had called out to scare the vampires.
“I don’t get it,” said Circe. “You’re talking about Egregors, right? I thought Egregors are just invisible to most people, but you’re telling me they actually come from another world?”
“Their invisibility is a complicated thing,” said Arthur. “Yes, they can touch things and move things around even while invisible. But at the same time, they are like ghosts. Humans do not notice them and they do not notice humans. Most of the time, anyway. But a magic spell like the one I sensed can change that, and it will lead to widespread chaos if left unchecked.”
“I . . . don’t understand a single thing that just came out of your mouth,” Morgan said honestly. “But I can tell it’s supposed to be something bad.”
“It is,” said Arthur. “I’ve seen the damage such a thing has caused.”
He took a look around and then looked up at the trees before lowering his gaze to the ground where several thick branches laid scattered.
“Quite a lot of people got hurt,” he continued. “Many died. A whole city was basically wiped out.”
He returned his gaze to the girls, particularly Morgan.
“By the way, you mentioned expecting a gentleman to show up. Not to sound like a narcissist, but I assume that gentleman is me. How did you know that I was coming?”
"Huh? Uh . . . Well . . . " Morgan struggled to come up with something, but it was hard for her to think on the spot. That was when Circe came to the rescue.
"We actually weren't expecting you," Circe said quickly. "We were expecting a teammate."
Arthur tilted his head to the side. "A teammate?"
“Yeah,” said Circe. She threw Morgan a meaningful stare.
Morgan didn’t understand what Circe was talking about, but then it dawned on her and she added to Circe’s lie with a rapid explanation. “Oh! That’s right! Teammate! You hear about that guy who went missing? He was last seen around this area. Me and Circe here are part of a group of volunteers who’re out looking for him. We all split into teams. Everyone’s been calling him a gentleman because of how he’s like, a real upstanding kind of guy.”
Arthur rubbed his chin between his fingers again. “I see. That would explain why there are so many signs of people passing through this far out of civilization. And why you two are here.”
“Y-yeah! Yeah!” Morgan affirmed eagerly. She was excited to see him buying the lie.
But then he pointed out: “But it seems like you two and I are the only ones in the entire hill. I find it hard to believe that just three people alone, and two of them very young ladies at that, would be responsible for looking through so wide a place. That sounds, dare I say, dangerous and irresponsible?”
“That’s because . . . Well . . .” Morgan faltered. Now what? She wondered throwing a look at Circe.
“The others went home already!” Circe swiftly blurted out. “But we decided to stick around a little bit longer. The others didn’t like that, but we were able to get them to let us keep looking thanks to the gentleman volunteering to look after us.”
“And where is this gentleman right now?” asked Arthur. “Why is he not with you?”
Unbeknownst to each other, Circe and Morgan both had the same exact thoughts: Why won’t this guy just stop asking questions and go away already?
“He needed to go get something from the car,” Morgan said. “That’s why he’s not here right now. But he should be back soon.”
That was as big a hint as any that she wanted Arthur to go away. But to her annoyance, he continued to poke holes in the girls’ lies.
While bending forward over his cane and tilting his head sideways, he said, “Oh, but how odd. I saw no cars on my way here. Does that not mean there is no gentleman here at all?”
It took all of Morgan’s willpower not to scream at him to leave already. Circe shut her lips tight to stifle a groan.
Arthur Liu chuckled. "Well, no matter," he said, straightening up. "I think I've teased the two of you enough."
The girls blinked. "Teased?"
And then it dawned on Circe. "You knew we were lying from the beginning!"
"Of course," said Arthur. "I already know exactly what's going on. I know that a high ranking vampire was murdered by a werewolf, angering the other vampires of the city to go on werewolf hunts. And I know that the two of you were attacked because you carried the scent of a werewolf on you, which I believe is from the missing boy you two are looking for."
Furious, Circe demanded, "If you knew everything, why play these games?"
Arthur shrugged. "It's amusing to watch children like yourselves struggle to outwit me."
Never before did Circe want to punch someone in the face so badly. Not even Morgan infuriated her this much.
"I'm sure I don't need to tell you this," Arthur continued, the amused twinkle in his eyes gone, "but you two are getting mixed up in something very dangerous. You should stop while you can. Because the next time you get in trouble, there might not be anyone to rescue you."
That actually sounded like good advice to Circe. She was all for stopping. However, to her dismay (but not surprisingly), Morgan replied: “Thanks for the warning, but I’m not going to stop.”
Stone-faced, Arthur asked, “Is that boy really so important to you? He is a werewolf. For all you know, he could be a mindless beast now, dead entirely except of body."
"That boy has a name!" Morgan said heatedly. "It's Roger! And yes, he is that important to me. I love him! It doesn't matter if he's a werewolf or not. And I know he is still alive. Not just in body, but mind and soul!"
Arthur sighed and shook his head, as if in pity. "So stubborn."
And yet, as he turned away, Circe thought she saw hint of a smirk, as if things were going the way he wanted it to.
"Very well," said the man with the cane. "I have given you my warning. Whether you heed it or not is entirely on you. As are the consequences of the choices you make from it. I have wasted enough time here."
Without another word, he spun at his heels, turning his back to the girls and walked away. The girls watched in silence until he was gone.
At that moment, Circe faltered. She had gotten dizzy, not realizing she had been holding her breath for too long. She quickly gulped in some air, and then sighed in relief before looking up at the sky which was rapidly turning dark.
Turning to Morgan, she said, "You can stay here all night, if you want, but I'm heading home."
And that's exactly what she did. Morgan followed without a word.
Thanks to the help of her freaky little guide, they navigated through the wilderness and made it back to the viewpoint without any problems. But as soon as she stepped onto the pavement, Circe abruptly stopped. Morgan didn't and bumped into her.
"Ow!" Her nose hit the back of Circe's head hard. "Damn it! What did you do that for?"
Circe didn't answer. She didn't even notice Morgan. Nor did she pay any attention to the ten-foot tall skeleton with comically large hands and feet standing in front of her. Her eyes were fixed ahead at the much smaller and less robust figure standing next to the skeleton.
No way, she thought. This can't be happening. He can't be here. Why is he here?
He, standing before Circe, shivering in the cold air that was only getting colder with the approach of night, was Jackie Li.
<== Chapter 11 Chapter 13 ==>
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