WnW 5.10

“Kill Nick.”

Spike’s grip on me stiffened as he heard those words.

Sullivan laid his hands on his lap. He frowned as his eyes flicked over to me. “The Wolf? Why? What do you stand to gain?”

Helen flashed her perfectly white teeth at him. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about it, Sully. There are bigger games at play than just one city.”

Sullivan didn’t seem happy. Good. Fight back.

“While his application was unwelcome at first, Nick has proven himself to be a useful asset to me. He has a knack for salvaging bad situations and his existence as a Wolf is a reassurance to my men that we have heavyweights on our side of the battle. His Witch on the other hand is long overdue a reckoning.”

“What? Why?!” I exclaimed.

Sullivan eyed me. “I wondered if she had told you what happened that day we first met. My men told me what happened after we had left. I ordered her to handle those black bug creatures you had brought to our territory. The monsters had gotten a few of my men, crushed their limbs. Your Witch turned them into a trap for the beasts, a giant plant that would catch and digest them. Some of them were still alive before she Shaped them, according to the reports.”

Ugly emotions dredged their way up, strangling my attempts to think of an escape plan. Was that true? I thought about how she had dealt with the Jiezhi.

“I see your poker face hasn’t gotten any better, Nick. Despite sharing a connection with her, it’s clear you don’t know her very well.”

“You’re wrong,” I muttered.

“I trust my men to report accurately. She was going to be punished for toying with their lives, it was only a matter of ironing out the details.”

“I can’t think of a better punishment than to slaughter her Wolf,” Helen said with a singsong lilt.

Sullivan shook his head slowly. “I can’t agree to this without knowing more. Why are you meddling? What do you gain from turning my loyal men into Shapers?”

“Oh, Sully. You make it sound like I want to control your group. I don’t. I just want you to put up a proper fight. As it stands, you have no hope to even last a day against your enemies.”

He gritted his teeth and sharply tapped the table with a finger. “I’ll rephrase. Why do you want me to have a fighting chance?”

Helen was quiet. 

Sullivan went still, his eyes widening. A vein bulged on his neck as he sputtered out the words, “You can’t fool me, Witch. My father is long dead. You wear his face like a mask. If I were more attached to him, I would have killed you for such an indignity.”

Helen leaned forward. “It hurts, doesn’t it? To hear those words from your own dad? But I promise you, Sully. The pain is important. He gave you the role. He’s the reason you’re so careful with every step you take. Brace yourself and cast away your careful plans. Embrace the pain, like ripping off a band-aid. You will get used to the new normal, I promise. Soon, it will feel amazing.”

Sullivan’s lips were drawn into a tight line. His face was pale. “So you want the city to burn.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve kept my territory safe from anarchist criminals and the biased heavy hand of the law. You will harm so many people who just desire safety.”

Graham was in tears, pawing at Helen’s chair. I felt sick.

“It was my fault,” he wept. “You’re right. I deserve this.”

She brushed off Graham’s pleading hands from her armrest.

“They’ve been promised a happy life if they just follow all the rules. Sign here, stand here. Do what we say. It’s bullshit. I know better. And the only way I can convince everyone is if the whole thing topples.”

Sullivan opened and closed his mouth wordlessly. Then he turned to me and I saw it in his grey eyes.

“Fuck you,” I spat.

“Everyone dies at some point. I’m sorry this had to be your time,” he said without inflection. Then he turned in his seat to motion to the person at the stairs behind him.

“You’re wrong about Nell.”

Helen pushed against the table with her shoes, tilting her chair back on its back legs and laughed. “That was a juicy tidbit! Woopsie! Looks like you’re all out of allies, Nick. Even your Witch doesn’t seem to be the friend you thought she was.”

Spike still held me tightly by my arm and shoulder. My hunger burned beneath the spots where his hands rested, the fire held back by the thin cloth of my shirt.

“Remember this situation, Spike?” I murmured as I watched three men with pistols walk into the room. One of them held a plastic tarp. “It feels familiar.”

“Yeah,” he said curtly.

“I don’t know what happens after this, but I can promise you the Outcasts will be caught in the middle. I don’t want them to suffer.”

“Yeah.” Spike’s hand drifted up to my bare neck. The fire flared at his touch.

“Didn’t learn your lesson the first time?”

“Guess not. The Outcasts are my first priority. So you better ruin some plans.”

“Count on it,” I said and pulled at Spike’s flesh.

He staggered back, slutching his slightly bloodied hand. Helen’s head snapped around in alarm. “Sullivan!” she called out. 

The three men raised their pistols.

I was already armored and moving when they fired. An impact struck me like a hammer, spinning me around by my shoulder and I fell to the floor. Bullets whizzed above my head. I Shaped Locust Legs while the table blocked the gunmen’s line of sight.

Graham was on my side of the table too. He reacted to the gunshots, ducking down and looking around the room with fresh eyes, as if seeing it for the first time. He locked eyes with me.

“Sullivan!” he roared. “Explain yourself!”

His words were weirdly distant, like I was hearing him from afar. Instead, I heard quiet whispers close to my head.

“I’ve got him,” a voice said.

“Good, tag out when I say,” said another.

Glancing over my shoulder cost me precious time. There was nothing there. The voices… felt different than Helen’s usual tricks.

One of the gunmen got an angle on me.

Move. Now.

I launched upwards, smashing into the crystal chandelier that hung from the ceiling. The shattering was again distant and mostly sounded from my left ear. I clung tightly as the chandelier swung and rotated from the collision, glass shrapnel raining down on the gunmen. They fired while shielding their faces from the glass shards. Sullivan cowered behind them, attempting to retreat further up the stairs.

Bullets rang sharply off the metal. My ears rang as suddenly the sound of gunfire intensified. It was like someone had cranked up the volume. The whispering was gone and now I could hear the creaking of the chain links of the chandelier, just before a clear and final plink as the chains gave way under the strain and gunfire.

I braced myself, expecting the lurch that comes when gravity takes hold. Huh? I could see the table getting closer, but it didn’t feel like I was falling. I couldn’t even tell if I was still holding onto the chandelier. Instead, the only sensation at my fingertips was something smooth and flat. My back felt like it rested against a cushion.

I spun in the air, experiencing it all like a surreal dream. My head was pulled back as my momentum was halted by the table. I felt no pain. Glasses of alcohol were tossed into the air around me. I could hear the shouts of the gunmen, dangerously close. Pushing it all aside, I rose and threw myself at the nearest assailant. My efforts were clumsy. The ghostly sensation of cards rifling between my fingertips was distracting.

We collided and fell to the ground. Instead of feeling the carpet, I felt my finger tap against a table that wasn’t there. I rolled with the man, clutching at his gun arm. Despite the sensations mismatching what I was seeing, I was stronger and eventually wrestled my way on top. My antler plunged into his arm, making him contort his face in pain. I tried to stand and tipped to one side. My sense of balance didn’t line up to what I was seeing.

I turned towards the other gunmen just in time to see the gun muzzles flash. My body pitched forward and I couldn’t catch myself. It should have felt soft, but it didn’t feel like anything. Pulling myself up without sensation to guide me, I was met with the sight of Nell. There were two of her. One was bleeding, bits of glass stuck in her face, with one of her eyes closed. The other was reloading her pistol. She regarded me solemnly as she let the spent magazine fall to the floor with a gentle thud.

“Don’t fight back,” Nell said, her expression pained.

“But if I don’t, I won’t see you again,” I said, trying to rise. My legs weren’t working as they should.

Nell pulled back the slide on the handgun. “I don’t want you to see me.”

“You don’t mean that.” Tears stung my eyes. Her every word struck home.

“I do,” she said. Her finger closed on the trigger.

A white object hit her in the side. The gun fired. A chunk of carpet was torn open right beside me.

Helen hissed in frustration. “Idiot!”

I turned to see Spike on the other side of the room. He lowered his arm which had one less spike in it. “I can’t tell which one is him. Is this the power of the Ghost Queen?” he asked in a deadpan voice.

When I looked back, Nell was gone. One Ring member lay clutching his side. The other struggled to see me with glass in his eyes.

Sullivan was shouting from the top of the stairs and I heard footsteps coming down. I needed to get out, now.

I grasped the carpet and hauled myself under the table. I still felt the cards in my hands. Helen’s doing? I thought she deceived with the faces and voices of people I knew, not whatever this is.

“Stay right there, Nick,” Graham said. I could see his Oxford shoes facing the table.

“You’re an illusion,” I said, panting as I crawled towards him.

“An interesting theory, but no, I’m not a creation of Helen.”

“Your words are.”

“What are you going to do if you get out of here? You have no allies to save you. You’ll run fruitlessly through the streets, calling for her name. She won’t respond and the result will be the same.” Graham’s voice was full of disappointment.

Even if it was fake, it hurt in my chest to hear that from Graham. Still, I wasn’t going to let it end here. I pulled myself closer.

“Let’s talk about this, Nick,” Terry said. “We’ll find a way to work this out.”

I just chuckled and moved forward.

“Nick. Please!” Vanessa’s voice was tearful. “I don’t know what they’ll do to us if you don’t surrender.”

“Vanessa wouldn’t beg like that,” I called out. A bluff. I didn’t know that.

Locust Legs. I looked down to find something to brace against. My leg was bleeding. I’d been hit by a gunshot at some point. That would help explain why I couldn’t walk, even if I couldn’t feel the pain.

“Nick.”

I paused. That voice was AJ.

“Nick, aren’t you a hero? Why are you betraying us like this?”

Pain exploded in my leg. I yelled and clutched it. I could feel everything now. The hot bullet still in my leg. The soft material of the carpet against my cheek. But I couldn’t see any of that. First my hearing, then my sense of touch, and now… Instead I saw a hand of cards. Ace of diamonds. Three of clubs. Hands that weren’t my own held the cards. They were wrinkled and veiny. My vision glanced upward without me moving my head and I saw two old men sitting across from my around the table. They exchanged knowing glances before returning their attention to the cards.

I chuckled. Oh. Helen wasn’t the only Shaper at play. “See no evil, huh?!” I shouted across the room. It was strange, hearing my voice clearly, yet having the vision of a body that sat at the other end of the room.

My swapped vision left its fixation on the cards, glancing over. I saw myself, lying huddled under the table, which had partially collapsed from the chandelier’s fall. Thugs surrounded me, preparing their weapons for a final assault. No one had turned against me. Helen stood a ways back, looking smug. Spike and Graham stood near the doorway. The others I had heard weren’t here.

I heard a distant whisper of admonishment. My vision returned to the cards. But that split second of clarity was all I needed to orient myself. My feet pressed up against the collapsed portion of the table and a table leg.

Sullivan’s three old gamblers had inadvertently foiled Helen’s power. She hadn’t used it on them, so they had given me a glimpse of reality. “None of you are real,” I breathed in relief. 

And before the illusions could protest, I launched myself off, shooting between a pair of legs, tripping them in the process. I skidded along the smooth carpet. Gunfire erupted in the room, filling the air with reverberating bangs. A pair of strong arms wrapped around me, raising me to my feet, guiding me forward. My hands found the doorknob. Thank you, Graham. I pulled myself through the door.

The vision cut off and I found myself in a hallway lit by that single pathetic lightbulb. Richard caught me before I collapsed.