The savory phantom taste of the Arroz con pollo dinner his mother made kept Zeke company as he took on dish duty after the end of the meal.
In Eldora Morata’s house, no dishwasher was allowed, even if they had one in pristine condition, just waiting to do something useful with its uneventful existence. Since she never had one as a child, then for sure her kids would be put through the same “discipline” (she’d call it instead of “unnecessary torture,” a term coined by an unfortunate 12-year-old Ugo who said it aloud one time and then caught a flying slipper to the ass).
Zeke’s svelte mother, with black curls more voluminous than his, entered the kitchen and approached him by his side. She put one hand on his shoulder as he rinsed the suds off some glassware.
“Did you get taller, Ezequias?” Eldora asked in Spanish.
“No, only AJ did,” Zeke answered in Spanish, and the two continued speaking to each other in the language.
“Well, I just feel like there’s something… different about you. I think you have more confidence!” Her black curls bounced up and down as she shook with excitement. “You’re going out so much more and have more female friends. First that cute little blonde girl and then that beautiful, cheery Japanese girl.”
“Mom, I already told you they’re just people we met back when we worked at Heath’s Sports Bar,” Zeke said, placing the last wet cup onto the rack. “Nothing is going on….”
“And soon, you’ll be off to college. Oh, my Ezequias is becoming a man!”
Zeke shook his head and moved onto the plates.
As he cleaned, he thought more about college, thanks to his mother putting it on his mind, and for some reason, he allowed the thought of Isaac to weasel its way in. He wondered if the Vicar even thought about college at all.
Isaac had shown up to school after the Christmas break, and like always, Zeke avoided him like the plague. Still, he made no advances on him or anybody else from his friend group. For months, Zeke expected Isaac to approach him with a deranged request to avenge Yaalon and Kian or something, but it never came.
“Listen, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about….” She glanced back at the swinging kitchen door and lowered her voice. “Doesn’t Ugo seem strange to you these days?”
“This is Ugo we’re talking about, Mom. When is he not being strange?”
“And that’s the strange thing!” She said as she pointed at him. “It’s strange that he isn’t being strange.”
It was a mutual understanding between them that “strange” meant “downright disgusting.”
“His father was the first to notice and told me about it. One time, when he was out with him, a college girl from somewhere in Europe walked up to them and asked Ugo directly if he knew the way to the new thrift shop they had opened. He said that Ugo gave her one look and then stared at his phone as he brushed her off. Saying: ‘I don’t know.’”
Zeke stopped washing and looked at Eldora.
One of Ugo’s main creeds was to always take advantage of a beautiful girl looking for directions. He claimed it to be on the list of possible ways he’d meet his future wife. It was among the top five sandwiched between getting drunk at a bar and competing in a Black Souls trivia championship.
“She even asked if he would help her find it,” Eldora added. “He declined.”
“Maybe she wasn’t his type?” Zeke said this, knowing it was a useless argument since every girl was Ugo’s type.
Eldora put a hand on her hip and gave Zeke a look. “She was a hot redhead, wearing a low-cut tank top and shorts.”
Zeke was concerned about his stepfather explaining that detail to his mother and Ugo ignoring thighs and cleavage.
“Okay, maybe Ugo was just pretending to be uninterested because Dad was there.”
“Since when did that ever stop him?” Eldora said, throwing her hands into the air. Her light brown eyes remained wide throughout her rant like a deranged conspiracy theorist. “Remember when he tried to hit on your cousin? In front of the entire family? On the Thanksgiving table? While we were praying? And then kept going even when your Uncle Pablo had that heart attack scare.”
“Oh, my God, Ugo is dying.” Zeke stroked his chin. “Maybe he has a brain tumor.”
Eldora glanced at the door again and brought her hand to her lips. “Do you think Ugo has a girlfriend?”
“I think the brain tumor is more likely,” Zeke said bluntly and returned to washing a couple of plates left. He noticed his mother pace back and forth, lost in thought with her curls bouncing, reminding him of himself. Once he finished, he stacked the wet plates on the rack, waiting for Ugo to do his part and put them away. Then, Zeke grabbed the rag, dried off his hands, and cleaned the sink.
His cell began to chirp.
Eldora stopped and gave Zeke a smug smile. “And your phone has been ringing a lot more lately. Is it a new cute girl for your little group?”
“It’s probably just someone from school,” Zeke said, taking the cell out of his pocket. “Regarding a project or something.” He checked the caller’s ID and felt the breeze in his gut as it showed the name of the intruder who had attacked them earlier. It had been a couple of days since they last spoke to each other.
“Doctor, doctor! It’s an emergency!” Yuri exclaimed from the other line as Zeke answered. “It’s go time! So, can I see you all? Even though I can’t see?” He released laughter that had Zeke pull away from the cell.
He could see his mother wearing a face of concern as Yuri’s boisterous laughter could be heard from the cell, and it wasn’t even on speaker. Zeke bet that even Ugo and his stepdad in the dining room could hear it.
Once Yuri settled down, Zeke cautiously inched the cell back to his ear. “Where?” he said in English.
“Cold Phoenix Mall,” Yuri said. “Get here quick.”
Zeke hung up, maintaining his English as he said, “I need to go.” Then he walked past the swinging door.
Eldora followed Zeke into the dining room as he interrupted Ugo’s conversation with Gerardo.
“Mora,” Zeke started. “We gotta go.”
Ugo got up without protest.
“Whoa, where are you two going?” Gerardo asked.
“Science-homework-project thing. Our group ran into some problems, and they need our help.” Zeke looked back at his bespeckled stepdad with an impressive and out-of-place physique for a dentist.
“But Ugo doesn’t take AP classes like you,” Eldora said to Zeke, crossing her arms.
Zeke hissed at the blunder and then eyed Ugo for support. Before he could say anything, Gerardo raised his hand.
“Listen, guys, if you want to go out and just mess around, then do it,” Gerardo said. “No need to lie about it. It’s a school night, so be home before 11—”
“10,” Eldora corrected.
“Be home before 10 pm,” Gerardo restated, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
The boys nodded and started for the staircase. While they changed and put on their jackets in their room, Zeke sent a text to the Occult Doctors group chat alerting everybody of Yuri’s emergency call and to meet up at the arcade. Naomi replied with several GIFs of people giving thumbs up. Aida sent a video of a snake mating ball—where almost a hundred male snakes wrap themselves around a single female and engage in combat to win her over.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
She then texted: I JUST FOUND THIS VIDEO. ISN’T NATURE BEAUTIFUL! (I’M ON MY WAY, BTW).
Zeke texted Yuri where to meet up, put his cell away, and then grabbed his medical bag.
As the boys exited the bedroom, walked down the staircase, and approached the front door, Eldora stopped the two in the entryway by calling from the dining room: “Ezequias.” She neared them, glanced at Ugo, and gave Zeke a woeful look. “Take care of your brother, okay?”
Ugo glanced between the two and said, “What?”
“Nothing,” Eldora said, blew them a kiss, and waved. “Just go, have fun, and be safe!”
The boys waved back and stepped out the door. That was as far as they were going to go. Zeke crouched while standing on the doorstep with Ugo. He took out a piece of chalk from his bag and handed it to his brother.
Zeke grabbed a rag and a water bottle from his bag as Ugo drew the sigil. When Ugo finished, he opened the door. On the other side was the empty and nearly defunct arcade in Cold Phoenix Mall.
Showing some brotherly courtesy, Ugo held the door open for Zeke as he stepped through. Then Zeke gave him the rag and water bottle to clean the chalk off the door—their neighbors believed the Rosarios to be criminals; there was no need to add “witches” to their long list of unwanted titles.
They were in the corner of the arcade where the bathrooms were. Zeke and Ugo had stepped out of the boys’ bathroom, and then Naomi and Aida came out of the girls’ bathroom from the Infirmary.
The Infirmary was basically the girls’ home. Aida moved into the Infirmary to keep Naomi company and to man (woman) the place in case they caught wind of any supernatural cases in the middle of the night.
Aida was pressing down her messy, black hair.
“What’s up with your hair?” Ugo said, closing the boys’ bathroom door behind him,
“I can’t find my favorite brush,” she said, frowning. “I think I left it somewhere on my farm. Anyways, let’s go.”
The gang moved towards the arcade entrance, which was filled with old-school fun. They encountered Yuri walking in their direction with a white cane. Once again, he was rocking an all-black outfit.
“Oh, you’re here!” Yuri stopped. “Great!”
Zeke eyed his all-white cane, reserved for people with no usable vision. “Do you need that cane?”
“Hey, I’m a blind guy. I am allowed to appropriate my own culture as much as I want,” Yuri said and laughed, “but no, I don’t need it. I just like the aesthetic, just like how I dig the rockstar look but couldn’t play an instrument to save my life.”
“How do you see then?” Naomi asked.
“Well, Naomi, there’s Mana everywhere, even in this Realm, and with it I can see the soul essence that every being emits, the spiritual aura that permeates through the realms, that can also be found in objects.”
Zeke remembered Titania, Queen of the Fairies, using the same method to see when she had that worm inside her. Meaning just like her, if Yuri ran out of Mana, he would be completely blind, and that cane wouldn’t just be for show.
An old man’s grunt loud enough for people outside the arcade to hear; had everybody jump and turn to the counter.
“When did you get in here?” the old owner, who was at least a million years old, said from behind the counter.
Ugo snapped his fingers and pointed at the owner. “We were always here.”
The owner narrowed his eyes, processed the information, and then conceded, “Okay.”
“Was that the Surgeon’s magic?” Yuri asked.
“No, he’s just really old.” Ugo looked at Naomi. “Hard to believe he is a lot younger than you, though.”
“So, the girl is here?” Aida asked Yuri.
Yuri nodded. “I got a tip from some demons.”
“Where are they?” Naomi asked.
“I don’t know the exact location, but they are in this mall and perhaps for a short time, so we need to split up and find them.”
“If they are already here, then we should be able to sense them,” Ugo said. “I remember Gill saying his Container was cursed. It constantly exuded Black Magic and couldn’t be cloaked. What gives?”
“Hm. That’s true. Something’s fishy,” Zeke said.
Just as Zeke and the group started moving towards the doors, AJ appeared behind them. “What’s the plan?” she asked.
Zeke, alongside the group, halted and looked back at her.
“Sorry, I was just helping my dad find his glasses,” AJ said.
Zeke’s mouth fell open, staring at AJ, realizing he completely forgot about her. He shook his head and summarized the situation quickly for her.
“Okay, let’s split,” Yuri turned and stopped, “but not literally, which I can do. I can also do the splits! Wanna see?”
“How about after we save your friend first?” Zeke said.
“Right!”
Zeke switched the medical bag to his other hand. “Okay, I’ll take the store side on the third floor, and Mora will take the food court side.”
“I’ll take the second floor!” Naomi said while bouncing and raising her hand like a first grader asking to use the bathroom.
“I’ll search the second floor, too,” Aida said.
“I’ll check the massive EarlyBird supermarket on the ground floor,” Yuri said.
“Okay…” Zeke said. “AJ, that leaves you covering the rest of the ground floor.”
“Wait, what do we do if one of us finds the girl?” AJ asked. “What if she’s with Gill?”
“We can engage them because that’ll make their Mana energy surge,” Zeke said. “With or without their Garbs out, it should be easy to follow since they’ll be the only other source of Mana aside from us—making it a beacon. We will come and help.”
“But wait—”
“No more talking! This is an emergency!” Yuri said and sprinted off.
Zeke followed suit and exited the arcade with Ugo, Naomi, and Aida.
----------------------------------------
Doing his part in the operation, Zeke scouted the shops on the third floor for the girl. As he moved quickly, he stayed attentive to his ethereal senses but couldn’t detect any nefarious Black Magic.
After checking several shoe shops, he went into a place more welcoming for him and populated with kindred spirits—Bertrum’s Bookstore. It differed from the mall’s comic shop, with its vintage European aesthetic, gray color palette, and earthy, smoky smell.
Zeke walked across the gray wood flooring, scanning his surroundings. There were no gaudy decorations like loud posters or tacky memorabilia. There were only shelves and books, as there should be.
He searched the place, feeling his mood lighten as the attic-y smell of the place increased the deeper he explored. He reached a section with old college-level medical books on either side of the bookshelves.
Zeke’s mind did a great job of pulling his attention away from the urgent task at hand and directing it at one of the 99 other problems that polluted his brain. He put down his medical bag, grabbed a book on internal medicine, and leafed through the pages as he wondered if it would make more sense to forget about med school, focus on supernatural medicine, and expand his operations to other Realms. Sometimes, they’d find creatures from other Realms in the Human Realm that needed treatment. Still, maybe he needed to actively station himself out of his home and connect with otherworldly communities to wash away the bad reputation of being a Tainted Generation member.
A surge of Black Magic cut off his thoughts. Zeke whipped back and stared at the back of a young man in a refined blue plaid suit, grabbing a book from the shelf.
The sumptuous suit, the fancy shoes, the sophisticated whisky perfume, and the Black Magic all pointed to Gilliam Destrian, but the young man's body type was wrong. He was skinny, thin as a rake.
And then he spoke with his distinguishable British accent.
“Oi, mate, no need for us to confront each other like we’re in an action flick, yeah?” he said and opened his book. “Relax, Azaekias, continue enjoying your book. Let’s talk.”
Zeke twitched at the uncaring mispronunciation of his name and leafed through a couple more pages, pretending to be reading. There was definitely nothing until Gill made his presence known. He got past his exuding Black Magic problem, but how?
The two spoke with their backs facing each other.
“What are you doing here?” Gill asked.
“Just came here to hang out at the mall,” Zeke said. “This is my city, after all. I should ask you what you’re doing here in Winterberry.”
Gill snickered. “Unlike you, I’m not going to lie. I’ve come here to close a deal.”
“A deal…?”
“Yes, a deal. Giving someone exactly what they want in exchange for their soul.”
Zeke shivered as he remembered being warned not to sign anything Gill gave him. He didn’t understand what it meant at the time, or maybe he did and tried to convince himself he didn’t because it was just too horrible to believe it was that.
But now he had confirmation from the man himself.
“How did you trick some poor sap into selling his soul?” Zeke hissed.
Gill turned a page. “I made it perfectly clear to the man. I don’t trick anybody, Azaekias. Some people are just weak and act on that weakness. If you ask me, I think that’s the strongest thing a person can do.” He slammed the book shut and increased his output of Black Magic. “Are you now going to tell me why you’re here to stop me, or will the answer be as unoriginal as I imagine it?”
Zeke raised his head from the book and put on an angry look. “Gill… where’s the girl?”
Gill sighed. “Unoriginal, it is, then.” He snickered again. “Oh, that’s another thing I came here to do. Give her one last outing before it begins. But why do you care? You believe her to be some innocent girl who needs saving?”
“Innocent or not, anybody who has been forcefully inseminated with the Rebirth Seed of a powerful demon needs to be saved from the likes of you, Gill.”
“Do you believe you can stop me?” Gill said.
“I have to try.”
Silence filled the room, and Zeke felt his heart racing. Slowly, he put the book back in its place and raised his hand, pointing his pinky and ring finger upwards.
Zeke took a deep breath.
He spun back and extended his fingers at Gill just as he did the same. The two struck each other in the chest, ejecting their astral forms as their physical bodies slammed back into the bookshelves.
“Vesklepios—!”
“Torzelas!” Gill said while making devil horns.
The fight in the Astral Realm was on.