In the two days since the search for Jeremy had begun, nothing had been found. Woodward had confirmed with the vendor that he had seen Jeremy on the sixteenth and sold him cigarettes. The vendor had also revealed that there had been a fight between five men on the main street nearby his stall, and he believed Jeremy to be one of those five men.

‘A four-on-one,’ Cecilia had murmured to me when I had told her. ‘It’s cruel…’

It was. Whatever had happened here had been brutal, whether or not Jeremy was involved.

‘The vendor said that Jeremy was alone,’ Woodward had relayed to me and Cecilia on Friday night. ‘If Jeremy were involved in that fight, then he was the one fighting the four.’

I stood at the intersection on the main street, in the exact spot where Jeremy had last been seen.

‘A nearby resident said she was doing her shopping when she saw someone who matched Jeremy’s description ‘fighting four adults and blowing things up’,’ Woodward had told me mere hours earlier. ‘She described his spells as ‘looking like fiery dragons’.’

‘This is where the fight was, right?’ I said to Charlotte, who had joined the search party at the same time as I had.

‘Apparently,’ she sighed. ‘A four-on-one…Who in their right mind would do that to a kid?’

‘There isn’t a word in the English language to describe those kinds of people,’ I said quietly. ‘Do you have any idea where he might be?’

‘No clue,’ she shrugged. ‘But Mr Fowler should be here soon; that should help.’

Mr Fowler was going to use a powerful incantation. He had been chosen as he was one of the few people in RoCity powerful enough to even know the spell. I was told that the spell could, in a sense, ‘replay’ events. Yeah, it barely made sense to me either.

The two of us, along with the dozen-or-so other people that were in this squad of the search party, waited patiently for Mr Fowler, who arrived only five minutes later.

Mr Fowler was still an impressive figure to me. He had been my first Science teacher at RoCity, and I could not see why he chose to teach Science of all subjects when he was one of the most powerful wizards that I had ever met.

He was a thin man that stood at a towering height of well over six feet. His long black hair fell down to his shoulders and over his face in strands. On this particular day, like on most other days, his lips were almost white from how tightly they were pressed together, and his dark brown eyes were serious, so serious that one could not be blamed for mistaking him as angry.

It struck me that he was wearing something formal, even on a Saturday. He wore all black: a black shirt tucked into black trousers that descended sharply towards his shiny black shoes. And, to complete the picture, a black cloak covered his thin back.

‘Do I have to wait for a command, or can I begin as I see fit?’ he said coolly, smirking at me to let me know that we were still on good terms after the Robert fight.

‘Begin whenever you’re ready,’ Charlotte answered. ‘We’re all here.’

‘Monday the sixteenth, correct?’ Mr Fowler asked quietly, looking at me.

I nodded. ‘That’s when he last messaged Cecilia. At about four in the evening.’

Mr Fowler turned his back to us, drawing his long black wand.

He waved the wand a few times, and I inched forward to get a better look. Careful not to disturb him from such a powerful incantation, I saw that his eyes were closed and his lips were moving so slightly that I had to blink twice.

‘…Memoria Resurrectio…’ I heard him murmur. It was the quietest I’d ever heard a person speak. ‘…Memoria Resurrectio…’

At first, nothing happened. Then, my jaw, along with everybody else’s, nearly hit the floor.

Starting from a few feet in front of Mr Fowler, translucent silver people had begun to appear. They appeared to be moving backwards, in reverse, as though Mr Fowler were rewinding an old video.

It was a spooky sight. The entire street was covered in ghost-like figures. The street’s memories.

The apparitions moved rather quickly, so fast that they were practically blurs. I saw dozens of ghostly faces hurry backwards about the street before walking out of range of the spell.

Before any of us even realised it, an explosion played in reverse. A towering white fire expanded and then disappeared just as fast.

Then, Mr Fowler did the magical equivalent of pressing pause.

‘Four in the afternoon,’ he said, his voice strained. ‘Now we wait.’

The memory resumed. All anybody could do was stare at this strange rendition of the past and wait until Jeremy walked in.

That explosion had worried everybody. Everybody had seen it. There had only been slight damage and disruption here when the search began, according to General Woodward. What could have happened?

Then, I saw him. On the left, right on the border of the spell’s range, I saw the ghost of Jeremy’s past begin to walk towards the site of the explosion.

‘There!’ I called, pointing.

The spell faltered, almost like a glitch on a screen.

‘Sorry, sir,’ I murmured awkwardly. ‘But Jeremy’s entered the frame now.’

Everyone turned to look at him. A cloud of smoke was just beginning to leave his mouth. He looked peaceful.

Maybe he just got caught in the explosion. Maybe he was in a hospital somewhere recovering from his injuries.

There were two things that made this theory impossible. Firstly, he would have surely been found by this point if he were just in a hospital.

And, secondly, an angry man was standing barely a foot away from Jeremy. And this man was staring straight at him.

‘Resume it,’ Charlotte said quietly.

We all watched, in rapt anticipation, to see what would happen next.

The spell could only replay visuals, so we could not hear what happened, but it was obvious that it was bad. The man’s lips moved, causing Jeremy to turn and say something in return. Jeremy appeared to offer the man his pack of cigarettes. The offer was met with a swift punch to the side of Jeremy’s jaw.

‘Remember his face,’ I heard Charlotte say quietly to someone else behind me. ‘He’s gotta have something to do with this.’

Three other men joined the man that had attacked Jeremy.

‘There,’ I breathed. ‘There’s your four and there’s your one.’

The man that had punched Jeremy said a few words, and Jeremy drew his wand. I was praying to the Gods that Jeremy didn’t fire first.

A few more words were exchanged. Then Jeremy fired a spell. I do not know what spell exactly, but my guess would be Velere. It had to have been that because the instant the spell made contact with the man, he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Jeremy said a few more words and then began exchanging spells with one of the other men.

It was a ferocious duel. I hadn’t seen people move so fast since Grandad had fought Amy. Although all the spells appeared to be white with only varying brightnesses, I could tell that they were powerful.

At one point, Jeremy’s opponent tossed his head back in what was evidently immense pain, and the duel stopped.

He had beaten two of them. What could have possibly gone wrong?

One of the men said something, only a few words, and Jeremy threw a plank of wood at him in retaliation. The plank turned to ash before it even made contact with the enemy.

Then we found out what had happened to cause the explosion, and this time it wasn’t in reverse.

A beam of light shot from the tip of Jeremy’s wand. It sailed through the air, hitting the ground in front of the four men. As it hit the ground, the explosion expanded rapidly.

Through the dust cloud that followed, three spells flew at Jeremy. In return, he created a shield by using a spell that I’d never seen before.

Jeremy ran forward, blindly shooting spells into the dust. Then he created a huge fire. It impressed me, and I was watching days later.

When the fire died down, three of the four men stood in front of Jeremy. The fourth was behind him.

‘He can’t see that guy, can he?’ I said quietly.

‘No chance,’ Charlotte whispered.

The man behind Jeremy was holding a sword. I almost didn’t want to look. It was in that moment that I was glad Cecilia wasn’t here. I didn’t know exactly what was gonna happen next, but I could tell that it wasn’t gonna be pretty.

A few words were exchanged between Jeremy and the three other men. Without warning, in the middle of the conversation, the fourth man took Jeremy’s left arm cleanly off, causing the entire search party to wince.

Jeremy wheeled around on the spot. And, right as he was evidently about to fire a spell, one of the men behind him pointed their wand at Jeremy’s back. His body was tossed high into the air before crashing into the walls of one of the nearby buildings.

The party’s heads merely followed Jeremy’s helpless body. We were powerless.

Jeremy slowly got to his feet. Even through the spell, I could see the pure rage coating his face.

He stammered a few words, before setting off the largest explosion I had ever seen. Perhaps it had been that one that had caught everyone’s attention, after all. And he was still going. Before the explosion had even died down, he fired a spell into the mess.

‘Oh, Gods…’ Charlotte breathed, and I could see why.

One of the men was now standing behind Jeremy, and he was holding a large brick. Predictably, he slammed this brick into the back of Jeremy’s head as hard as he could.

Jeremy staggered forward, but he fell to the ground shortly after. Right in front of the other three waiting men. The fourth man joined shortly after.

The four men said a few words before one of them spat on the back of Jeremy’s head. Another grabbed Jeremy by the hair as one of his friends shoved a binbag over his head.

They each grabbed a separate part of Jeremy. One grabbed his legs. Another grabbed his remaining arm. The other two grabbed the back of his shirt.

Jeremy was hoisted into the air. Then they Dis-Apparated.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Nobody in the search party said a word. It was hard to even think. No thoughts even came to mind after witnessing what had actually happened on Monday.

‘I’ll be the first to say:’ I began slowly, ‘‘What the fuck?’’

‘Where could they have gone?’ Charlotte asked quietly as Mr Fowler got rid of the spell.

‘Well, they kidnapped him,’ came a voice from behind me. I didn’t have the energy to look and see who had spoken. I felt sick. ‘I would say either to his base or…the forest.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ a woman’s voice hissed. ‘Why would they take him to the forest?’

‘Finish him off,’ said the original voice. A general cry of disapproval stopped him from continuing.

‘I’m going to the forest,’ I said quietly. ‘I have to check. I can get an aerial view. If I find nothing then I’ll swoop over the entire city.’

‘Albert, don’t you dare,’ Mr Fowler murmured. ‘Not on your own.’

‘Then come with me,’ I continued, just as quiet, as I unfolded my wings. ‘I promised someone that I would find Jeremy. And I will.’

‘It’s not often he makes promises,’ Charlotte reasoned. ‘But don’t fly all the way there, I’ll Apparate you.’

‘Thanks,’ I said determinedly. ‘Who else is coming?’

‘I believe we are all bound together, Mr Santrrer,’ Mr Fowler said coolly. ‘I think we all must come.’

As everybody prepared to Apparate to the forest, I made a silent prayer to the Gods that we found him safe and sound. For starters, I didn’t want Cecilia to get hurt. And, of course, I didn’t want anything to happen to Jeremy. He was my friend.

‘Ready?’ Charlotte said quietly, wrenching me from my thoughts.

‘As ready as I’ll ever be.’

We Dis-Apparated.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw the forest. Dark trees towered over the entire group, casting a cold shadow over us all.

‘Whenever you’re ready, Prime Minister,’ someone murmured.

My wings were already unfolded. All I had to do was jump and flap. What was stopping me?

Charlotte elbowed me gently.

‘You okay?’

I nodded.

No, I was not okay. I felt horrible. Only the Gods knew what I’d find in that forest, if anything at all.

That was right. I might not even find anything. Why was I so worried? I could literally just see the forest exactly how it normally was.

But, of course, there was that familiar dark feeling encompassing my entire body. Something bad was in that forest. I did not know whether it even had anything to do with Jeremy, but I would be a changed person once I left that forest.

I took a deep breath and jumped into the air. Hovering above the group for a moment, I tried to compose myself.

‘How are you supposed to see through the canopy?’ someone called up.

‘Enhanced vision,’ I replied weakly, just about loud enough for them to hear.

I gave a great flap of my wings, shooting myself up so that I was just above the top layer of the trees.

Then, I began my flight.

As I glided gently above the forest, I desperately scanned the floor for a sign. Anything. Or nothing. I would have been happier with nothing.

I could see a few small animals running about along the grass and the branches of the trees. Carefree. Innocent.

The memory of the street kept replaying in my mind. The explosion. The fighting. The bag over Jeremy’s head. My heart ached at the thought of what Jeremy could have possibly been thinking as everything went dark.

What could he have thought? What could one even possibly think in that scenario?

He had fought well. He had been destined to lose. A four-on-one. If I ever came face to face with the men that had taken him, then they would need Olympus’s help to stay alive. I would-

Something caught my eye.

It was only visible for half a second before I flew past it, but it made my stomach flip.

‘Please…’ I whimpered as I halted in the air. ‘Don’t…’

All the praying to find nothing had been worthless. If I had seen correctly, even if it didn’t have something to do with Jeremy, it was not a good thing in the slightest.

I eased myself towards the ground, taking care to not catch my wings on any of the branches. It was tough, but I reached the ground rather quickly.

I didn’t want to move. I stayed completely still for a few seconds, frozen with absolute terror.

Surely, I was mistaken. It was not what I thought it was. I had been flying pretty quickly, I could have easily seen it wrong. Taken it as the wrong thing.

Nothing was stopping me. I remembered the direction of it. I turned. I began to walk.

Why? Why did I have to be the one in this situation? Why was I in this damned forest now?

The smell hit my nose first. It smelled like a strange mixture of rotting meat and mouldy fruit. As soon as it hit my nose, I thought about turning back. The smell was vile, to say the least. So vile, in fact, that I could only think of one possible source.

I sped up. Apparently, I had landed further away than I thought. Or maybe I was going the wrong way. I prayed that it was the latter, but the fact that the smell was getting worse did not give me high hopes.

My body fell to the ground. Hard. I’d tripped on a stone in my run.

‘Piece of shit…’ I growled as I got back to my feet.

I resumed. But this time, I walked.

My mind was racing. I didn’t want to believe it. There was no way. But what I saw had to be the truth. An ordinary person may have seen differently, but I had enhanced vision. There was simply not a chance in the world that I hadn’t seen it correctly.

The world seemed to gradually get quieter as I walked. I couldn’t hear as many animals scurrying around. Fewer birds seemed to be singing. Even the breeze seemed to lessen the closer I got to what I had seen. The source of that smell.

It had been in a clearing, I knew that much. I had to get to a clearing in the forest, and then it would be right in front of me.

‘Come on…’ I said quietly, growing almost impatient. ‘Where are you…?’

Uncontrollably, I began to pick up the pace again. My leisurely walk turned into a light jog. Then a faster jog. Then a run.

With every step I took, with every breath that entered my nose, that damned smell got worse. At some point, the smell seemed to be coming from a slightly different direction, so I altered my course.

‘Where are you, man?’ I breathed. ‘Come on…’

I came into a clearing.

The grass at my feet was the most beautiful shade of green imaginable. It danced gently in the breeze, swaying to and fro easily as the warm rays of sunlight fell upon it, scattered by the leaves of the trees.

A bird flew from a branch somewhere to my right. Innocent. Carefree. It glided up and out of the clearing, never to be seen by me again.

I couldn’t take my eyes off it. As much as I wanted to. I could not peel them off. I was fixated.

A corpse.

The body in front of me was battered, bruised, and mutilated.

It rested against a tree, as though it had been sitting in its final moments, or had been placed there like a puppet.

A left arm lay on the ground next to it. From where I was standing, I could see that the body was missing its right hand. The hand was nailed, nail-less, to the tree above its limp head.

Half of his right leg lay about a foot away from the rest of his body. The left foot sat next to it.

About half a dozen teeth were scattered around the corpse, and I could see their original homes inside his hanging-open mouth. Speaking of which, his bottom jaw had a huge chunk missing from it.

There was an eye missing, too. It rested on the body’s lap, alongside both ears.

A huge chunk was also missing from the body’s left side as though it had been deliberately carved out. His clothes were torn and burned slightly in places. Ordinary clothes. For an ordinary person.

I took a step forward, reaching my hand out towards him.

Then I fell to my knees.

‘Did…’ I managed. ‘Did you…give them a good fight?’

It was definitely Jeremy. The eye on his lap was definitely his. It was that same shade of blue. And that dark brown hair on top of his head…it couldn’t be anyone else.

Images flashed through my head. The night that the two of us had spent on the roof. The day we’d met. He’d been so scared to say his name. He thought we’d hate him.

I do not think he expected me to be the first to cry at his death.

The grass beneath his body was dark. Coated in dry blood. As was the tree that he rested against. Its beautiful brown bark was stained with innocent blood.

Clutching at the grass beneath me desperately, I let a single tear fall from my face.

I had a signal to give out. I had to let everybody know.

I had found him.

Tightening my gut, I extended a single blade of grass into the sky. I made it wider and twisted it, causing it to look like a giant beanstalk. I hoped it was enough to let them know to come here.

The cracks that followed told me that they had indeed seen my signal.

‘My Gods,’ I heard Mr Fowler gasp. ‘How did they even think of this?’

Another tear.

I, too, was asking myself that question. How could they be so sick in the head? Nothing made them do that. I heavily doubted that Maltor specifically ordered them to maim his brother. They had done this of their own accord. And they would pay. Heavily. Their blood would spill. They would fall by none other than my hand.

A rustle in the bushes made me look up. It had come from the direction of Jeremy’s body.

The creature that emerged from the bushes horrified me, and I had just seen my friend’s mutilated corpse.

I had read about them in books. ‘Death Striders’. They were magical creatures attracted to the presence of death. They fed on corpses, especially larger ones.

It looked like a giant, skinless moose. Its flesh was red raw and baggy, sagging low like the fur on those ugly dog breeds. It stared at Jeremy with hollow black eyes before prodding him with its nose.

I rose to my feet.

‘How much of the damage do you reckon was done by those things?’ I heard someone whisper.

I placed my hand on the grip of my sword, bending low.

‘Grass Breathing, Ninth Form,’ I murmured. ‘Forest Whip.’

I shot forward, bringing my sword up in a beautiful arc as I did so. Following my sword, a few blades of grass elongated and sharpened. Together, these forces cleanly took the head off of the Death Strider.

I sheathed my sword again.

Jeremy’s body invaded my peripheral vision. I couldn’t escape. Even after I left the forest, the sight of it would haunt me until my final breath.

Gods, I had to tell Cecilia. She would be devastated. I wouldn’t give her all the details. For her sake.

‘Should I see what happened?’ Mr Fowler said quietly.

‘There is no need to, sir,’ Charlotte replied, even quieter. ‘I believe it is quite obvious. At least don’t do it while Albert’s here.’

I couldn’t think. My breathing felt constricted. Jeremy. He was dead. Maltor had to be behind the scenes. He had ordered the murder of his own brother.

I couldn’t get the image of his body out of my head. The bruised, blood-covered, mutilated mess. It was as though his killers had wanted to see just how much the human body could take.

‘I’m going home,’ I said quietly. ‘I don’t want to be here anymore. You guys don’t need me, do you? I found him, just like I needed to.’

‘Yes, you can go,’ Charlotte replied softly. ‘See you later, Albert.’

‘See you, guys.’

Never before in my life had I taken off so fast. I extended my wings, leapt up from the ground, and flapped myself above the forest before anybody else could even say another word.

Jeremy was dead. It didn’t feel real. How on Earth had they got him? Part of me wanted to know, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stomach watching the replay.

I soared high over the Valley, wanting nothing more than to just go to bed. But it was the middle of the day. And I had news to break. It was time to ruin my girlfriend’s day.

When I landed in front of The Tower, I felt like both crying and vomiting. I was in a state of such mental exhaustion that I was mildly amazed by the fact that I had done neither yet.

The image of his body had not left my mind. It never would. I had never seen a worse sight, and I had split someone’s head open a few months ago.

When I walked into the lobby of The Tower, my heart sank when I saw Ethan and Cecilia sitting on the sofa. When they saw me, they both leapt up.

‘How’s it going?’ Ethan asked excitedly. But then his face immediately dropped at seeing my expression. Cecilia continued.

‘I messaged Jeremy again earlier but he still hasn’t responded,’ she said hurriedly. ‘Have you found him? Does he have his phone?’

I stared at the floor. How the fuck was I supposed to tell them?

They were the first two of many. So many more people needed to be informed. I dreaded each and every one. Why did I have to do this?

‘What is it?’ Ethan asked slowly. ‘Why do you look like that? What happened?’

Cecilia seemed to take a closer look at my face. Upon a mere two seconds of inspection, her face dropped, too.

‘Albert, w-what is it?’ she managed.

‘Did you find him?’ Ethan asked.

Neither of them would stop.

‘Yes,’ I mumbled, my voice so quiet that even I could barely hear it. ‘I found him.’

‘You found him?’ Cecilia said, her voice suddenly filled with hope. She barrelled into me with a hug. All I could do was weakly wrap my arms around her in return. ‘Thank you!’

Ethan was watching me strangely from behind Cecilia’s back. Why couldn’t he be as hopeful as her? Why was he so insistent on being in a bad mood from the start?

‘What’s the catch?’ he muttered. ‘You wouldn’t look like that if you just ‘found him’.’

‘You’re not lying are you?’ Cecilia said, her voice a bit muffled. ‘You did find him, right?’

‘I did. In the forest.’

That was it. Ethan’s face went slack. Cecilia gradually pulled out of the hug so that she could look me in the eyes.

‘What the fuck do you mean: ‘in the forest’?’ Ethan spat.

I didn’t say a word.

‘Come on, Albert!’ he continued, louder now. He was evidently losing his patience. ‘Just rip the bandaid off!’

‘Jeremy’s dead.’

Maybe I should have been a bit more considerate of their feelings, but I did exactly as Ethan said. It may not have been the best for Cecilia, but it was the only way I was getting the news out.

‘It was four men most likely linked to Maltor,’ I continued. ‘They fought Jeremy in the Western Suburbs and he held his ground pretty well for the most part. They’re the ones that killed him.’

Cecilia looked like she was about to burst into tears. As an attempt to comfort her, I wordlessly took a step forward and pulled her into my arms.

‘I’m sorry,’ I breathed into her ear. ‘But he fought. And he fought really damn well.’

As I stood there, with Cecilia in my arms, I suddenly found it incredibly hard not to cry. I knew I couldn’t. What gave me the right to cry? Cecilia had just lost her brother, for Titan’s sake. I had no right to cry when there was someone right in front of me that had it miles worse.

Ethan bit his lip.

‘Maltor did this, huh?’ he growled quietly. ‘Do me a favour, would you, Albert? Kill that wanker the moment you see him.’

I nodded slightly.

I could tell Cecilia was crying. Her shoulders were giving gentle shakes, and she was trying to hide her sniffs, but she wasn’t succeeding.

After I had gestured for him to leave, Ethan walked around me and Cecilia. He thumped me on the back gently as he passed. Then he walked through the front doors of The Tower.

‘It’s just us,’ I whispered. ‘You don’t have to hold it in.’

And she let it all out. Right into my shoulder.

The tears flowed from her eyes as though she had not cried ever before in her life. And, as hard as she tried to keep herself quiet, there was no hope. She had lost her brother. I could only imagine what she was going through.

I did not have the heart to tell her what state we had found him in, and I doubted I ever would. It would destroy her.

Biting the inside of my cheek as hard as I could, I just barely held in my own emotions. It was overwhelming. And he wasn’t even my brother.

There were a few instances where Cecilia tried to form words. But she simply couldn’t. Never before had I seen a person so overcome with emotion than in that moment.

The lift doors opened. Harvey stepped into the lobby.

He opened his mouth to speak but then saw me and Cecilia. He closed it promptly.

He knew. One look at his face told me as much. His brow furrowed slightly at the sight before him, and then his face went slack.

‘No…’ I saw him mouth.

Times were changing. This was the first major death of an amount that only Time knew.

I gripped Cecilia tighter.

How the hell had they gotten him? And why in Titan’s name did they think they had the right to do what they did to him?

I would see the end of it all. I would kill Maltor. I would make sure that Jeremy’s death was the last.