WnW 3.9

I’d questioned Alek before on why we were running homemade obstacle courses in the trainyard. If the point was simply to become more in sync with Nell and get better at Shaping, surely it would be less of a hassle to do it in a gym. The answer became clear as I hurtled a chest-high fence and used the branches of a backyard tree to reorient towards my prey. Fast adaptability. The gym couldn’t provide the unknown factor that made it impossible to plan ahead. My body felt light and moved easily through places I’d never been before. My eyes followed the motion of the grass, only briefly glancing at the obstacles before letting my muscle memory handle the rest. It surprised me how easy it was. A spontaneous dance, with emergent footwork.

The ‘snake’ turned a sharp ninety degrees and disappeared through a tall hedge. I found a gap and burst through to the other side. A startled yelp greeted me. A middle-aged man clutched a wooden mallet with a long handle to his chest. I ignored him and scanned the grass. Brightly coloured balls littered the yard. One of the balls rolled, bumped by an invisible force. I took off after it. The man reached out half-heartedly as I passed.

The flattened grass made a path to a fence on the other end of the yard. I could see a ripple of motion going up the painted wood. Not entirely invisible then.

I didn’t have time to rest the sturdiness of the fence, the snake thing was fast, it wasn’t slithering so much as just moving in a straight line, like a hose being spooled in. I jumped up and over.

A startled couple shrieked in fright as I landed on their picnic table, then sprung off it, disturbing their glasses of wine. The snake thing slid through a gap in a fence that was too small for me to follow. I was losing ground. Just as I used an electrical box to springboard over, the snake took another abrupt turn and I struggled to follow.

Through a treeline and then around the side of a house. Someone shouted at me to stop. I could just barely keep the thing in sight. Then the snake hit the edge of the yard and the sidewalk, the outline disappearing as the grass sprung back upright. I slowed down as I reached where it had disappeared.

Sweat stung my eyes as I scanned the neighbourhood for any unusual movement. Despite the heat, I felt cold. A Shape had been watching us. What were their motivations? Was it them, the shadowy organization that had used Nell for some strange purpose? A dull pain ached between my eyes. I closed them and tried to come up with steps that could solve this problem. Had our conversation given anything important away? Did they know where me or Nell lived? A groan escaped my lips and I rubbed my head. Mac was always so much better at coming up with a plan, with creative and effective steps.

Mac had once devised a simple method of communication during classes. Through tapping different coloured objects on our desk we could say different things. Blue meant bored. I tapped that one furiously most of the time. Yellow meant something funny was going on. We made it a kind of game to see if the other person could get what was funny. After class we would burst out laughing as we discovered how off we had been from actually talking about the same thing.

“So am I going to have to call the cops or…?”

I shook my head and looked to my left. A young woman sat on her porch, phone in hand, eyeing me with annoyance. I hastily stepped forward onto the sidewalk, swaying a little in disorientation. A pulse of urgency hit me and I recognized the source. Nell, did you see my memory? 

As I walked, I saw something green sprout up from the grass beside the sidewalk. The stem grew upwards, unfolding into a flower in seconds, like I was watching a time-lapse. The flower had wide, bright red petals. They were also asymmetrical, petals going from wide on one side to gradually smaller and more closely bunched together on the other. A teardrop… or an arrow. I followed the line of where it was pointing. Another red flower stood in contrast to the white house it grew beside.

Everything clicked into place and I glanced around quickly before trespassing once more. As I reached it, another flower caught my eye, sitting atop a fence, growing from a vine. I climbed up and crept along the fence, balancing easily. A few yards over, I spotted something.  Under a tree with bowing branches, crouched a small figure in a black hoodie. Their back was to me and a semi-circle of flowers surrounded him, pointing in accusatory red.

I lowered myself down from the fence without making a sound. Approaching the figure with soft steps, I tensed myself, ready to fight or run if I had to. When I was a few feet from them, I cleared my throat.

The hooded figure sprang to their feet in surprise, elbows raised away from their body, as if they were a criminal caught in the act. Then they turned around to face me. It was a young teenager, with brown skin and eyes that grew fearful with recognition.

He opened his mouth but his voice couldn’t seem to come out, just letting out a wheezy breath.

This wasn’t what I had expected. I decided to speak first, “Let’s skip past whatever ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ speech you’re currently creating in your head. We both have abilities, you used yours to spy on me and I used mine to find you.”

The kid’s eyes darted to and fro, obviously considering making a break for it. Then his shoulders slumped in defeat. “Okay,” he said, pulling off his hood. There was a red bindi on his forehead.

I was beginning to calm down. He seemed cooperative and if he had allies, they weren’t here. “What’s your name?” I asked.

“Peep,” he muttered, eyes cast down.

I doubted that was his real name, although the appropriateness of it didn’t escape me, causing me to smirk slightly. “Hi Peep, my name is Nick. I suspect you knew that already.”

He winced and nodded. He had his shoulders hunched and head tilted down, trying to be as small as possible. He was looking anywhere but at me, with his hands behind his back.

“I have a feeling that you didn’t spy on me for yourself.”

Peep didn’t say anything.

I sighed and brushed my hair out of my face. “And who would that be?”

He remained very still, not fidgeting or even shifting position.

I decided to go on the offensive. “You’re hiding something else from me, aren’t you?”

His eyes widened further.

“Show me your hands.”

He shook his head, mouth drawn in a tight line. It looked like he was perhaps working up the courage to try something. Let’s nip that in the bud. I raised a hand, making sure Peep was looking at it, then cause a spear of bone to shoot out, halting in front of his face. He yelped and I glanced towards the house to make sure we weren’t about to have the cops called on us. Then I looked at him pointedly. “Hands.”

He brought them forward, clenched into fists. Then he splayed his fingers revealing… nothing. There was nothing in his hands. Annnd we’re back to square one. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get him to tell me anything and if I didn’t, I would eventually have to give up and let him go. I wasn’t going to take any hostages and I also wasn’t going to hurt him. As I contemplated what to do, I noticed that one of his fingers was tattooed. A simple tattoo, just a black band around his index finger, around the second knuckle. The significance of the tattoo dawned on me in small pieces. A ring. A lie. A man who had more plans for me than I’d thought.

“Did Alek make you spy on me?” I asked quietly.

The look on his face told me all I needed to know.

“Please don’t hurt me,” Peep’s voice shook.

I retracted the bone and stepped back, giving him some more space. “You’re part of the Rings.”

He nodded, some strands of black hair falling in front of his face.

“Did Alek tell you why he wanted you to watch me?”

Peep somehow managed to look more uncomfortable at that question.

“What?” I asked.

“How well do you know him?” Peep asked. “Cause I’ve known him for a while and he’s tripping.”

“Hm? Like he’s on drugs?”

Peep shook his head. “He’s all over the place. He’ll be calm and collected one moment, and then he comes to find me later and he’s fuming mad. Then I’ll call him and he’s practically sobbing on the phone. I’m just trying to keep my head down and make money. He’s been a part of the Rings for a long time, since before they split. That seniority gives him a lot of sway with others. I don’t want to get on his bad side so I just do what he tells me to do.”

Perhaps I should have been thankful for this turn of events. At least it wasn’t them.

“Do you know anything about his girlfriend? Alek said she’s a Witch.”

“He told me to ask around a while back.” Peep shrugged. “But no one who actually will talk to me knew anything about it. He’s acting wild, man. He told me to pay extra attention to your face. Didn’t tell me why. You aren’t the first person he’s told me to watch like that.”

I examined Peep’s face, trying to tell if he was still hiding anything from me. In many ways he was opposite to how the media portrayed the Rings: violent criminals who wouldn’t hesitate to cut you if it meant getting your wallet. Peep seemed more interested in just not getting hurt while doing what he was told. He wasn’t wearing anything expensive or flashy either, it seemed like he needed the money for something. I just hoped he wasn’t involved in any of the more indefensible things I had heard about. 

Sillwood was a city of extremes. Heralded as a place of scientific progress for medical tech, while also being a hotspot for parties fueled by illegal substances and trafficking. This explosive growth meant that regulations and policing hadn’t kept up and so the Rings flourished.

Peep eyed me cautiously. “Can I go now?”

I sighed. “Yeah.”

He flipped up his hoodie and glanced around. “You aren’t going to tell Alek I told you those things, are you?”

I gave him a small grin. “Not if you don’t tell him about me either.”

Peep nodded emphatically.

“Alright, we should both get out of here before we get mauled,” I said, gesturing towards the house where a small pug had been scrabbling at the glass sliding door for the last few minutes. It was frothing with excitement.

We parted ways and I met back up with Kay and Nell.

“Did you get them?” Nell asked.

I massaged my neck. “Yeah. It was a kid, ordered by Alek to watch us. Hopefully that’s the end of it.”

“If that’s true, it’s awfully good timing,” Kay said. “With school starting tomorrow.”

I groaned then turned to Nell. “Give me a couple days to figure everything out, then we’ll go with plan B.”

Nell’s eyes widened. “Are you ready?”

I looked down the road, watching the heat shimmer. “Yeah, it’s about time I have a talk with my dad about his old workplace.”