The door to their room opened and people poured in. Very large people, at least as large as the monk, tall men and women with broad shoulders flowing around the table in the middle of the room until no more of them could fit in. They were dressed in quasi military uniforms, cargo pants, matching polos, and disturbingly, stab vests. They swarmed around Amy, Thomas, and Baron, grabbing their arms but saying nothing.
A woman with a grip like a dog’s maw twisted Amy’s arm painfully behind her back. Amy screamed at her, thrashing against the woman. ‘‘Let go of me you goon! What the hell is going on?’ Baron had two goons to deal with, one on each side, lifting him completely off his feet as he fruitlessly kicked and jerked. Thomas was being led somewhat more gently towards the door. He looked lost and offered little resistance. Brian and Jim stepped aside to make room for what felt like an infinite number of giants as all of them were forced to march (or float in Baron’s case) towards the exit.
‘You probably should have mentioned you met the monk before… or maybe not at all,’ said Brian. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Sorry about what? What the hell is happening?’ yelled Amy, she kicked and writhed but her goon had her completely immobilised.
‘You can’t do this! This cannot be legal,’ protested Thomas. ‘Are we being detained? Are you actually detaining us this time?’
Brain and Jim looked small and slumped, their eyes were dark and they looked as shaken as Baron. ‘It’s gone way past that,’ said Jim in a small voice. This was somehow more disturbing than the goons. They were forced out of the room, down a corridor, and into another room with a thick metal door. The room stunk, a cloying smell of rotten flesh. Waiting for them inside the room were two more people in the same matching polos but noticeably thinner and more haggard looking. Amy recognised the worn out look and smug attitude immediately. Magicians. Most of the goons stayed outside with only the four restraining them and the two magicians entering the room. One of the magicians handed a pile of some black cloth to one of the guards and said ‘Let’s get this over with.’
One of the goons Baron took the cloth and shook it out. It was a bag, a hood Amy realised. A hood with no holes for a mouth or eyes. And a hood with no eye holes meant one of these scrawny pricks needed eyes off him so he could do some magic. Judging by the speed with which things were progressing and the number of goons present, that magic was not going to be anything good. Baron looked up at Amy with panic rising in his eyes.
‘They’re scared!’ he said. Amy realised he was right, they were scared, everything about how they were acting read as panic. But why? What possible threat could Amy and her team offer? They couldn’t do magic, they couldn’t even run a business properly. Scared was bad, fear made people do desperate things. Amy scanned the room. It was an actual cell, concrete floors, a bunk, a toilet, a sink with a tap. The tap was running. A collection of billiard balls was arranged on the bed. Conditions. And in the corner was a pile of black… something. Birds, Amy realised. That was the source of the smell. Dead birds. A collection of dead crows, at least ten, piled in a corner. Storing dead crows was illegal. It was illegal because only one category of magical effects required dead crows. A category that degraded a human body so much that it usually ended in death. One of the goons restraining Baron used his free hand to pull a hood quickly over Baron’s head. Another guard pulled a hood over a terrified looking but still silent Thomas. Amy screamed, a primal scream that surprised even her, she tried to wrench her body free but the woman holding her had full control. One of the magicians approached with a hood. He looked her in the eye and she redirected her kicks from her goon towards the magician.
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He stayed out of reach of her flailing legs and said to the goon ‘Can you control her please?’
Amy’s goon forced her down to her knees. She could see Baron thrashing with equal desperation and even Thomas was now shouting and trying to resist his captor, but to little effect. The magician approached with the hood and said ‘You know why this has to happen.’
‘No I don’t you bloody idiot! We have NO idea what is happening!’ Amy shouted. The magician pulled the hood over Amy’s head. It felt rough against Amy’s face. The hood didn’t block out all the light but she couldn’t see through it, despite the roughness of its weave. It muffled the sounds of Thomas and Baron’s struggling but didn’t eliminate them. And it made no difference to the smell of rot from the corner.
She heard the magician say ‘Close your eyes.’ to the goons. Amy tensed. Then her stomach clenched. Even through her terror she recognised the sensation. ‘Here it comes,’ she thought. There was a flash, even though the hood it was blinding. Amy could hear shouting, not from Thomas and Barron but from… the goons? The magician? Another clench in her stomach and suddenly she was off her feet, for just a moment she was in the air, then she hit the ground, it felt like she landed on her goon. Incredibly, her goon still had that iron grip on her arm. There was more shouting, panicked, she could hear banging on the door. Her goon’s grip fell away. Amy reached up and pulled off her hood, staggering to her feet. She was facing the door, which was still closed, her ears were ringing and the room seemed impossibly bright. She could dimly hear people shouting and banging on the other side of the door. Her stomach was wrecked and she still felt widely nauseous. She fell onto her hands and knees and threw up violently, spilling what used to be coffee and pastries all over the floor. It did not make her feel better. She raised her head and wiped her mouth, squinting against the glare she saw nothing but chaos.The goons and magicians were scattered across the small room, unconscious or maybe even dead. She could see Baron and Thomas, who also seemed to have escaped whatever knocked out everyone else and were pulling off their hoods. The sink was on the floor. It had been ripped out of the wall.
‘What the actual… what happened?’ she gasped.
Thomas and Baron just looked at her, mouths open, not saying anything.
‘Are you guys alright? We have to get out, we have to find another way out of this room!’
Thomas and Baron continued to say nothing, mouths still open.
‘Guys! We have to get it together! We can’t get out through that door, is there another way out of here?’ Amy’s nausea was not getting better and she felt another cramp coming on. Thomas pointed at her. His mouth continued to gape. Amy realised he was pointing behind her. She turned her head. Behind her, floating just in front of the rear wall was a white disc that stretched just short of the height of the room. It was the source of the glare, emitting a pulsating and stuttering light that was spinning wildly. She thought she could see a figure in the glare, impossible to resolve against the unnatural backlight. Someone else apart from them had survived the chaos. Or, she realised, had caused the chaos. The figure stepped forward blocking out a little more of the light and allowing her to make out some details in its silhouette.
Recognition bloomed and Amy spoke. ‘Greg?’
End of Part 1
Part 2 starts January 13