The subway train screeched to a stop behind me. A fresh crowd of people exited it and hurried towards their destinations, jostling me where I stood. A few turned to stare at my bloodied arms, before turning and hurrying away, not wanting to be pulled from their own worries and schedule by a stranger with strange wounds.
The arrival was a clue. Time had passed, even though it felt like seconds since I’d stepped off.
I need to get out, was a thought I had. But it was overwhelmed by a much larger thought, one that dashed aside my immediate concerns. Where was Nell?
Where was she? I blinked. What had happened to bring me to this moment? My arms throbbed cold and hot, like I was holding ice to a burn. I needed to escape. I stepped forward, trying to maintain that goal in my mind. But which way? Where had they taken her? Nell. Someone bumped into my shoulder roughly and I was lost again, like I had been bowled over by a wave, with no idea which way was up.
Left with nothing but a vague feeling that I was being eaten, bite by bite.
I started forward again, seeing a security officer. I opened my mouth to shout, then closed it. What was I going to say? I turned aimlessly, searching for something. People’s faces became a blur. All the while, Nell’s emotions grew weaker with every pulse.
The exit… Up a small set of stairs and straight ahead, I could see the revolving door that was the entrance and exit to the station,. Light shone from outside like I was looking at the sun from leagues beneath the surface of the ocean. It won’t work. I knew that the second I moved towards it, I would forget again.
“Excuse me, young man?” An old lady looked at me with concern in her eyes. “You’re bleeding quite heavily.”
I looked down at my bite-ridden arms. Only one thing was in my mind, screaming over and over. Where is she? “I’m looking for someone,” I mumbled out the words.
“I think you should look for medical attention first, dear. Those bites look nasty.” The old lady reached into her bag and withdrew her cellphone.
I reached out and grabbed the lady’s hand, stopping her from calling anyone. “She’s very important,” I said, my words slurred. I met her eyes, “to me.”
The lady regarded me kindly. “Well you aren’t going to find her if you bleed out here.”
I shook my head, feeling delirious. I couldn’t trust her.
“Is she really worth losing everything for?”
My eyes widened. Something fit into place, like I’d been waiting for someone to ask that question. What was I hesitating for?
I answered, “Yes.”
Then bones erupted from my skin.
The lady screamed in terror and threw herself away from me. My vision shrunk as the helmet and mask locked into place around my head, leaving slits for eyeholes. I moved, breaking the joints of the armor free. The sound of the crackling spread a reaction through the crowd. People began to panic around me, pushing those in front in an effort to get away. The sea of people parted, leaving me in a circle all to myself.
I caught a brief glimpse of the man in the shark mask, retreating with the crowd.
He was more of an opportunist than a predator it seemed. I staggered towards the exit, uncoordinated from the blood loss. The mass of people fleeing blocked the light from the exit. The bravest among the crowd had taken out their phones to record me.
How would the media spin this? There would be plenty of sources of footage, too many to dismiss as a computer generated hoax. Was I a misguided actor? A terrorist? A halloween enthusiast?
I tried to shake the idle thoughts and focus. It wasn’t important. Nell was what mattered. And I couldn’t feel her anymore. My head was fuzzy from blood loss and perhaps from the power of the Shark.
As I labored on the stairs to the exit, people hurried to leave, pushing those in front of them. This only hindered the process, packing people against each other, inhibiting movement and making others stumble. The revolving door was being pushed on the right and the left, going nowhere. I reached them and the fear of my approach made the people react even more mindlessly, like a cat stuck with a paper bag on its head. They could have easily moved to a different exit, if they were in their right minds.
“Move,” I said, even my mouth feeling sluggish and unwieldy.
A man attempted to throw his body against the glass, but he only bounced back, cursing. I grabbed him by his jacket and tossed him behind me. A woman wearing a sleeveless summer dress leaned against the glass, sobbing. I grabbed her shoulder and flinched. The fire was there immediately at my fingertips, waiting to consume. She screamed. Someone else grabbed me from behind in an act of heroism. The fire played there too, where the bare skin of his arms and chin touched my body.
I needed to find Nell. These people were obstacles to that goal. I let the fire touch them.
The world around me sharpened into focus. My fatigue lifted and I could finally think straight. My hand left the woman’s shoulder, leaving behind a fresh red handprint. The man recoiled in pain, clutching his bloodied arms to his chest. Their stolen flesh slipped in between the bones of my armour.
I drew back an armored fist and drove it forward through the glass. The pane broke and I stepped through. The people inside the quadrant I’d broken into cowered down. I stepped on their backs and limbs to reach the other side, breaking through this one as well. Blustery wind rushed into the subway station as my armoured feet crunched the glass on the sidewalk.
It felt so strange to be out in the open with my Shape. People stared as they hurriedly crossed the street. Others walked right past, clearly not making the connection between the distressed noises emanating from the subway and me. A car with tinted windows sped past, giving me the briefest glimpse of my appearance. A flash of a pale silhouette, a crown of wicked antlers extending from my helmet. The way the antlers curved organically as they settled into place around my body made the Shape seem much less armour-like and more like a foreign organism. I made an effort to reabsorb the horns on my head. When had that become a part of my Shape?
I took stock of what had happened. Nell and I had exited the subway and I had been attacked by an unknown assailant whose Shape was a memory-stealing bite. He’d said something to me, but I couldn’t remember what. I couldn’t feel Nell, which meant that I’d either been stuck in that loop for a while or they’d transported her by car to somewhere far away. Nell’s range was massive at this point, but I couldn’t say how much of the city it spanned. One kilometre? Two? Five? It likely wasn’t more than that, unless her growth was exponential. I could rule out the immediate downtown area, but that left way too much of the city.
I heard sirens in the distance, getting louder. It was time to move. I began to run in the only direction that made sense. Towards the entertainment district, to the casino strip. Sullivan’s base of operations. I had the suspicion that we weren’t the only one attacked today. A few blocks down and I realized my phone was buzzing in my pocket.
Glancing around, I darted into an alleyway and retracted my armour to withdraw my phone. It was Graham. I tapped answer.
“Graham, it’s-”
Graham cut me off, “Nick. I need you to drop everything and come to Sullivan’s.”
“It’s the Jiezhi-Fedyaev alliance, right?” I panted. “They’ve started.”
Graham was silent for a moment. “What? The meeting… It’s about that, but I haven’t heard of any attacks yet.”
“They took Nell-” emotion choked me as I spoke.
“Oh… That’s bad. Shit. Nick, you need to come right away. We’ll figure out a plan to get her back.” Graham’s voice was strained.
Something about Graham’s voice made me pause. “Graham. Why do I need to come? Sullivan has never asked for me to be present at these meetings.”
“Your presence here has been requested.”
“Who?”
“It’s best if you see for yourself.” With that, Graham ended the phone call.
I lowered the phone from my ear. So many unknowns. So many questions that I dreaded the answers to. Had anything changed since Cathrow? Everything was spiraling out of control. So take it back. I Shaped up and took off towards Sulivan’s hideout.
Cars honked and people shouted as I ran past, but now that I’d gone and worn my Shape out in the open, I didn’t care. The most important thing was to be never caught unawares again.
When I arrived, back at the familiar alleyway entrance, I found Richard guarding the stairway to the hideout. The black metal of a poorly concealed submachine gun glinted from where Richard held it beneath his coat, ready to draw. He recognized me and some tension left his shoulders.
“Oh, it’s you, Nick.”
I reabsorbed my helmet as I approached the stairway. “What’s happening in there?” I asked.
Richard scowled deeply, his mouth twisting into a snarl. More than his usual anger. “Nothing good. The fucker’s making deals with the enemy.”
“Sullivan? With who?”
Richard shrugged. “I didn’t see a Ring tattoo, but I know she ain’t one of us. Does it matter? None of those bastards deserve to share a drink with us. Not since the split.”
“Keep an ear to the door,” I told him. “I don’t like where this is going.”
Richard adjusted his grip on his gun. “You don’t need to tell me that. One wrong word and I’ll be in there in a flash.”
I took a deep breath, staring at the unassuming metal door. “Counting on it,” I said as I pushed it aside.
The hallway inside was empty. The single lightbulb hung dimly above, dusty patterns on its surface giving the walls a shadowy texture. I walked to the end and entered Sullivan’s den.
The inside was just as I had left it last time, a restaurant atmosphere of red carpet and softly clinking glass. I was unsure if someone was eating out of sight or if the chandeliers above were making the noise. A wide dining table was filling the open space where Sullivan had injected that unfortunate soul with Dice. Sullivan sat on the other end. He gazed at me with steely eyes. Spike stood at his shoulder, his normally concealed Shaped arms in full view, quivering at every movement. Graham sat in the seat to Sullivan’s left. A single chair stood with its back to me. It was filled, but the back was high enough that I couldn’t see who it was.
Sullivan spoke, “If it isn’t my feral dog. The side table was taking bets on if you would show up.”
I glanced over to where the same three old men sat around a gambling table, playing cards. They furtively exchanged money.
Sullivan continued, “And yet you again show up with only one half of a whole.”
I tried to speak calmly, but the words came rushing out anyway, “Did Graham tell you what just happened?”
“He has.”
“The Jiezhi and Fedyaev’s are being more targeted with their first move than we thought. Nell-”
The person in the chair leaned to the side and looked over their shoulder. It was a beautiful woman with shoulder length blond hair and tan skin. She wore an evening gown. She eyed me with a satisfied expression on her face. “Hm? The alliance? No. That was me.”
Sullivan’s face twitched, a rare reaction. “We are in the midst of a discussion with this unexpected guest, the Queen of the Ghost Ring.”
The words had barely left Sullivan’s mouth when I lunged for her. I hadn’t even taken my first step forward when a spike stabbed into my arm. My knee hit the carpet as I staggered from the blow. Spike had his arm raised, his face held a dark expression. He matched my gaze with his quivering eyes.
Sullivan spoke coldly, “My previous descriptor appears to be apt, Nick. Restrain yourself or I will be less than gentle in doing it for you. Although that particular revelation was news to me as well. Hardly a good starting point for the proposition of an alliance.”
Helen lingered on me, a disdainful expression on her face. “Oh, I’m full of bad ideas, Sullivan. But I think you will find my deal too good to fold on.”