WnW 4.12

Graham listened as we filled him in on what we knew about Helen. That she had been Alek’s girlfriend and a Witch with the power to impersonate people and now she had gone missing, according to Alek.

“It seems we need to have a chat with Alek,” he said. “His behaviour is getting more and more suspicious. The main point of issue is that he said he doesn’t know you. He wouldn’t do that for no reason, it isn’t like he doesn’t admit to his crimes, in fact he often boasts about them. He’s planning something and it’s related to Helen.”

“He seems obsessed with her,” I said.

“Of course he is,” Nell said. “She’s his Witch. They share an emotional link just like us. If she truly went and vanished on him, that would be incredibly disconcerting. A Witch and a Wolf don’t just split because they’re distant.”

I looked at her. “Is there any way a Wolf and a Witch split?”

Nell looked away. “I’m not sure. I wasn’t taught about Wolves. She didn’t want me to have one. I still don’t know why.”

“Seems simple to me,” I said. “It keeps you isolated, alone. Easier to control.”

“Maybe.”

Graham rose from his seat and moved to exit the room. “I will try to contact Alek and have a talk with him. I’ve known him for a while now, perhaps I can discover his intentions. Both of you should just focus on preparing yourself for our contact with the Red Ring. It’s never easy with my brother…” He paused at the door. “There is one way that I know of for a Witch and Wolf to disconnect. If one of them dies.” With that said he left.

I sighed and pushed my hair out of my face. “Even if we find Helen, how will we deal with a Witch? You can’t Shape them, right?”

Nell nodded. “I can sense them just like anyone else, but my grip slips right off of them. But if we can capture her, maybe we’ll get some answers about Dice and Organ.”

We returned to the hangout room. Zola was at the kitchen counter, making himself a sandwich. Vanessa was sitting on a chair, tapping away at her phone and AJ was sitting on the couch, watching the T.V. There was an excited young man on screen yelling and gesturing at the camera. Behind him was a slideshow of photos, most were impressionistic smudges of light and dark but a few managed to capture a pale long-limbed creature moving on all fours with a head that hung lower than the body.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“ParaVid,” AJ responded without looking away.

“Creepy.”

The overly emotive man and the cheap-looking editing choices gave the video the same vibe as staged celebrity drama yet the images remained unsettling with the knowledge that they could be real.

I sat down next to AJ and let the narration wash over me without really absorbing what was said.

Vanessa was talking to Nell and her hyperactive way of speaking blended into the video. That was until I heard her ask, “So are you two dating?”

Nell pulsed with surprise. “Huh?”

“Alek was dating his Witch, right? I thought maybe all you guys were like that. Given how intimate your connection is.” Her voice was teasing, obviously trying to get a reaction out of Nell.

“No, we’re not dating,” Nell said slowly.

“Really?” Vanessa’s robotic prosthetic whirred as she stood up. “Surely you’ve thought about it, right? I mean, how could you date anyone else when you are literally in the head of another person?”

“I- I haven’t thought about it,” Nell said defensively. “Nick and I have bigger problems right now.”

“Sure, but at some point one of you is going to want a relationship.”

“That’s not- I don’t…” Nell was flustered by the line of questioning, her emotions felt like turbulent wind, blowing chaotically in every direction.

Vanessa sighed dramatically. “Here I thought I would get some steamy ideas for my next fanfic. That’s how B and I met, though they wouldn’t want me telling you that.”

I looked over and Vanessa was fanning herself with her hand and grinning.

“When are we going to meet this mysterious B?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

Vanessa shrugged. “They don’t like showing up in person, so it’s pretty rare. B is smart like that, keeping regular and crime life separate. They’re actually the one that got me involved in all of this.”

Zola leaned over the kitchen counter. “Oh? I have not heard this story. All I know is the Boss was furious at you two when you started.”

Vanessa cackled. “B and I siphoned money electronically from one of Sullivan’s casinos. B is a brilliant coder, but they needed someone to occasionally access the hardware. I was always talking about how I needed money, so they asked me. I got caught eventually. B made Sullivan’s life hell, flashing his face on displays inside his casinos with dumb catchphrases, like ‘piggy wants money’. She’s the one who convinced Sullivan to let us work for him. Sullivan eventually caved and paid us to do similar things to his enemies. I had no other prospects, so it ended up being a good deal actually.” Vanessa rubbed her fingers together. “The pay is great. You could drop out of university if you wanted to.”

“And you only have to risk your life occasionally,” Zola sardonically added.

Somehow, the notion didn’t seem that ridiculous now. I found myself thinking less and less about school with every day. My thoughts would drift to this new world I found myself in. My grades were suffering for it, but I found it difficult to care.

Nell was more important. I wanted to give her closure to her fucked up past. 

“I heard Graham is bringing you two into the Old Town,” Zola said, wrinkling his brow. “I do not envy you, it is crazy in there.”

“Graham has an interesting history,” Nell said. “He’s been through a lot.”

“He doesn’t talk about it often, but I can tell that even after all this time, he still feels the guilt of letting his students take Dice,” Vanessa said, in an uncharacteristic serious tone.

“You might run into one of them,” Zola said. “I hear he works for Graham’s brother in the Red Ring. The rumours are he has a nasty Shape.”

I was stuck thinking about the third student, the one that wasn’t fortunate enough to stay human after taking the Dice. “Do we know what happened to the student that turned into an Aberrant?” I asked.

AJ and Zola shook their heads but Vanessa remained as still as a statue.

“Vanessa?” AJ asked, noticing her odd behaviour.

She closed her eyes. “Okay, listen, I do know something. Graham made me promise not to tell you guys.”

“Snitch,” AJ said.

Vanessa feigned a punch at him. “I’m not. I’m only telling you guys cause I feel like maybe you could do something about it.” She moved over to the T.V. and paired it with her phone.

“A few months back, Graham asked me to do some digging on a rumour about a monster lurking in the woods around the city. There wasn’t much to go on, but I managed to get a local fan of mine to do something stupid.”

She hit play on a video. A chubby bearded man took up most of the frame, with a canopy of branches above. He was navigating the forest by flashlight. “Thought I heard something from over here…” he muttered, shifting the point of view so we could see the direction he was walking. The tall branchless trunks somehow looked like iron bars in the dark, like the whole forest was a cage.

The camera was picking up whatever he was hearing, although faintly. A kind of whispering hiss that could have been wind blowing against the microphone of the camera.

The camera swivelled to view a tree up close. The cameraman placed his fingers along a crack in the bark. There were several long vertical fissures in the tree, along with some more localized dents in places.

The hiss grew louder for a moment and the cameraman jerked the camera into a different direction. After a moment of heavy breathing, he pressed forward. I found myself tensing the muscles in my neck. His footsteps were too loud. He needed to be quieter.

“-you?”

The cameraman whirled and stumbled, before fixating the view on a particular tree. His breathing grew fast and shallow. The lens focused on the trunk and the paltry light from the stars above gave it an outline.

Something emerged, sliding around the surface of the bark. Shadows slithered into place, looking like giant snakes and the tree started to crack from the pressure. One from one side, four from the other. The surface of the beings were ridged like crumpled paper and there was a divot at the front of each. I realized with a shiver what I was looking at.

The divots were empty nail beds. Each of the snakes were part of a whole. The giant fingers curled tighter around the tree, making the wood groan like it was in pain.

“Is it you?” A voice like wind hissing through a narrow crevice asked the question.

“N-no!” The man cried out. 

The fingers reacted, biting deep, sending the cracks shooting up like lightning.

The camera became a blur as he ran.

The sound of the tree crashing down echoed after him until the video cut out.

The five of us were silent, eyes fixated on the black screen. I was left with the chilling revelation that this Aberrant could talk. 

“Then…” AJ said slowly, “that day that I saw Graham slip into the shop, all battered with his clothes torn. He went looking for it?”

Vanessa nodded. “He didn’t tell me what happened, but he sounded defeated. I don’t think it ended well.”

“Did the cameraman survive?” Nell asked.

“Hm?” Vanessa blinked as if just considering it. “Oh, yeah he’s fine. The Fingers didn’t chase him, it just let him go.”

I exchanged a look with Nell. That wasn’t typical. I had thought maybe the monsters that Organ had sent after us were different than the Aberrants I had fought with Chase, but this one seemed to have some intelligence as well. And another thing was bothering me…

“How did something so big survive in the woods for all this time?” I muttered. “It’s been alive for years. Surely it has to eat something? But then, if it was active so close to Sillwood, surely it would have been noticed by now?”

Vanessa nodded, biting her lip. “I thought so too. Which is scary, because the only other thing I can think of is that someone is feeding it.”