I

Though it was only around four, it was already getting dark in Hogarth as they walked through Norah’s neighborhood. Paul suggested they bring some weapons with them in case they had another run in with the grateful undead, which left him with three teens walking the streets with sharp objects they had no idea how to use.

A car horn beep caused Halle to swing her axe around her head screaming for about the fiftieth time. She’d been on tenterhooks since they’d left the apartment, with every snap of a twig or barking dog fraying her nerves, and everyone else’s along with them.

Why do we have to be here anyway?

“If this is too much for you, you could go home, Halle”, Norah gave her a pointed look.

“I told you to stay out of my head!” said Halle, threatening Norah with the sharp end of her axe.

“I told you I can’t help it!”

Josh stopped suddenly, “Whoa, whoa, you can hear our thoughts now?”

It suddenly occurred to Norah that this was the first time she’d heard someone in hours, and those she had heard seemed oddly far away. As if she were hearing them from underwater. Norah glared at Halle, “It’s not always, but yes”.

Josh’s face flushed through several emotions before landing on excited, “Can you hear what I’m thinking, right now?” He leaned his head close to hers with a big smile on his face.

“It doesn’t work with everyone…” Norah leaned back with a grimace.

Josh frowned, “But you can hear her, so is it like a woman thing?”

Norah paused to think, “No, it’s not a woman thing. It’s more like… people with a particular energy”.

“Your abilities certainly do have a curious presentation”, said Paul.

“Oh, they certainly do have a curious presentation”, mocked Halle, swinging her axe around, “Who are you Edgar Allen Poe?”

Paul narrowed his eyes at her, “Norah’s right, don’t feel you have to stay on our account, Halle”.

“Yeah right. Like I’m gonna leave my best friend to get killed by some freaky thing, no thank you”, Halle grabbed Josh by the arm, but it seemed more for her benefit, since he was quick to wriggle out having barely dodged being scalped by her axe swinging.

“I think they’re right, it’s not like you know how to use that thing anyhow”, said Josh with a laugh.

“Oh yeah?” Halle stopped abruptly and slapped the long curved knife out of Josh’s hands so that it clattered onto the ground by his feet, “Looks like you’re not so hot with that thing either”.

Josh snatched the knife off the ground, “You don’t have to be childish”.

“You started it.”

“I think that’s maybe enough with the bickering”, said Paul, who’d been pulling platoon leader, scanning the darkness as they walked, “Wouldn’t want to attract something to attack us now”.

This shut them up immediately and the group huddled closer together as they walked.

Norah maneuvered herself beside Paul, hoping to have a quiet word with him, “You don’t really think something will attack us, do you?”

Paul shook his head, “I think in all likelihood your little display at the industrial park would deter anything from making another attempt flippantly”. This made Norah feel slightly better.

“How far is your place, Norah, we’ve been walking forever?” said Halle, having graduated from afraid to haughty.

“It’s not much further, another street over–”, a shock jolted through Norah and she gasped.

“Hey, your eyes did that black thing”, Josh raised his knife, as if he intended to swing it.

Paul stood up straight in preparation, “What is it?”

“I’m not sure, but I can feel something”, Norah’s skin was crawling.

Without knowing why she sprinted to the end of the street from which she could see her house. The front door was wide open.

“Mom!” Norah ran towards the house, with the others hot on her tail, as she crossed through the front doorway.

The house was filled with a strange vibration, energy was pouring from somewhere within, and it rattled inside Norah’s head like a swarm of bees, “Mom?”

“Norah, help!” Mary sounded frightened.

Norah rushed into the lounge and skidded to a stop upon seeing her mother being held by an attractive but dead-eyed woman, while a balding, ginger man with thick glasses sat smirking at her from an armchair. He was wearing a purple cape and looked as if he was headed to a wizards convention.

“Hello, Norah”, he said, “So good you could join us”.

“Let her go!” Norah summoned the energy for a fireball when a fist slammed into her stomach, sending her hurtling into Paul, Halle and Josh and knocking them all to the ground. When Norah looked up a man was standing over her, he was dressed in a dusty but well-tailored suit, his eyes were also dead and glazed over, just like Mr Morrigan’s were.

“Norah, run!” Mary struggled against her captor, who had a knife pressed to her throat, the woman pressed the knife more firmly against Mary’s neck leaving a small cut.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Norah got to her feet and cued up another fireball, “I said let her go!”

Glen tutted, shaking his finger like she was some naughty child, “Uh uh, if you want to see your mother alive you'd better come find me!” he gave a theatrically enormous laugh before raising his hand and they all shimmered away – Mary included.

Josh looked pained as he extracted himself from the huddle of legs and arms, “Friend of yours?”

“I'm guessing that's our necromancer”, said Paul, shoving someone’s foot out of his crotch.

“You must have really done something to piss him off”, said Halle.

Norah began pacing the room and ringing her hands with agitation, “God, why does this keep happening to me?”

“Well, no sense losing the plot, we need to think of a plan”, Paul was dusting himself off ambivalently.

“Doesn’t this all seem a bit elaborate?” said Josh, causing the group to stare at him, “I mean, if his aim is to kill you wouldn’t he have just done it?”

“That’s a good point”, Paul rubbed his jaw in thought, “He must have another agenda. We might want to take some time to try to understand his motives”.

Norah scoffed in disbelief, “Take some time? Are you serious? He has my mom, what if he hurts her?”

Paul was rolling his shoulder around in its joint with a pained expression, “He needs her as leverage right now, I doubt he’s planning to hurt her yet or he would have done it already”.

“Doubt isn’t good enough, I’m not betting my mom’s life on your gut feeling, what if he turns her into one of those… things”, Norah yelled into thin air, “Braran!”

Paul tried to grab Norah by the arms to calm her down but she pulled away from him, “Don’t be hasty, we don’t know what we’re dealing with yet”.

“Yeah, be reasonable, we could be walking right into a trap”, said Halle, while swinging her axe in a circle.

“I don’t care, we have to do something”, snapped Norah, “Braran!”

“Why do you keep yelling Braran?” said Josh.

“He’s a friend”, Norah was flitting about the room calling out his name, “Braran!”

Halle leapt back when Braran shimmered into the room beside her, he looked tense, “What's wrong?”

Josh’s jaw dropped and he stared at Braran, “Whoa, that guy… that’s an attractive guy”, he said quietly to Halle.

Norah rushed towards Braran, “I need your help. A necromancer took my mom”.

“A what?” He raised his eyebrows in feigned surprise, “What are you going to do?”

“I need you to do that thing… sniff him out.”

Braran glanced at the others as if this was information he didn’t want divulged to strangers and he lowered his voice, “To do what exactly? How are you going to go up against a necromancer, just you and a bunch of kids?”

“Hey, I’m just a kid and I can be pretty lethal when I want”, Norah retorted.

“Yeah, and this guy’s, like… thirty”, Halle gestured to Paul, “Plus, he’s a demon hunter”.

“I’m twenty-three”, Paul replied with some offense.

Josh and Halle both cocked their heads at him, “Really?”

“I hardly think that’s of any concern right now”, said Paul, crossing arms.

“He’s right. Every second we stand here arguing is one more second my mom’s in danger”, Norah gave Braran a sharp look, “Are you going to help me or not?”

Braran scowled, diverting his gaze to the ground, “Fine, I’ll help. But if they can’t keep up don’t expect me to hang around. I’ve got my own problems to deal with”.

Braran moved to the center of the room and closed his eyes, a shimmering pulse bounced off him and disappeared into the ether as the air in the room began to vibrate. Paul watched the display with a look of morbid disgust.

Paul grabbed Norah’s arm and pulled her aside, “You can’t actually be serious, he's a demon”.

“What choice do I have? He's the only person who can help us.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing…”

Braran turned around and gave Paul a nasty grimace, “Are we doing this or what?”

“Yes!” Norah stepped towards Braran and watched as he continued to shoot waves of energy out in a ring around him.

Braran opened his eyes, “I’ve caught the scent. It’s an area with an old junkyard nearby”.

“That’s Gowery Park out on the west side of town”, said Josh excitedly.

“I’ll head there now, you should meet me”, said Braran.

Norah gave Paul and expectant look. He sighed deeply and crossed his arms, “Fine but we should go now, before it’s completely dark”.

“Why does that matter?” said Halle.

“Necromancers draw their power from the moon”, said Braran, preemptively cutting Paul off.

Paul held his eye, “Yes, it's when his powers will be at their most potent”.

Norah moved to stand between them and grabbed Paul’s arm to end whatever standoff they were having, “Let’s get going”.

“I’ll shimmer ahead and see if I can get a better read on her. I’ll intervene if I can”, said Braran, he and Paul were glaring at each other like two lions preparing to spar.

Norah gave a grateful sigh, “Thank you Braran. We’ll be there as soon as we can”.

Without another word, Braran vanished.

Paul turned to Norah with a grave look, “I hope you know what you’re doing”.

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II

Mary felt queasy when they reappeared in the middle of a dusty, abandoned theater. The feeling was like an out-of-body experience mixed with a severe head rush. It was like everything began to vibrate and suddenly they were somewhere else. When they emerged on the other side Mary was thrown to the ground.

She scrambled away from her captors, “Where? Who are you people?”

As Mary scurried away she bumped into something soft and found herself face to face with a filthy, maggoty corpse. A whole pile of them. She screamed, prompting Glen to cover his ears momentarily. He was busy with other preparations and was no longer interested in her.

With a flick of his wrist Glen summoned his imbecilic helpers, “Tie her up”.

The thralls began trying to surround Mary, who landed a few good kicks before she was apprehended. They flipped Mary onto her front so that she could be hog tied. The corpses reeked and with all the dust flying into her mouth Mary felt ready to vomit.

As they were wrapping rope around Mary’s wrists, Braran appeared from thin air in that swirly manner in which they’d all arrived, frightening Glen who hadn’t been expecting him. “Do you always have to sneak up on me like that?”

“Shut up, we don’t have much time. Norah and the others are on their way.”

“Others? There’s weren’t meant to be others”, Glen sounded apprehensive.

“Don’t sweat it, it’s a bunch of hapless high school juniors. It’ll be like swatting a fly”, Braran watched as the idiot thralls wrestled with Mary in a clumsy attempt to restrain her.

“Please help me!” she yelled to Braran, causing Glen to scowl at her.

“Jesus Christ, would you be quiet!” Glen rubbed his temples irritably, “Remind me again why I can't kill her?”

Braran studied Mary thoughtfully, “Because Norah will sense it. You want her to turn up, don't you?”

Glen threw his head back and huffed, “Fine but the second we strip her powers that noisy wench is going on my slab”.

Mary screamed managing to kick Carolyn onto the floor, only to be wrestled down by the male thrall, who wrapped the rope around her arms as Carolyn rolled on the ground like an inverted turtle. Mary wasn’t going down without a fight, screaming and kicking endlessly.

“Would you shut her up, please!” yelled Glen.

Carolyn placed her finger over Mary's lips, and tried to making a shooshing sound but ended up just dribbling spit everywhere. Having confused Mary into silence, Carolyn looked to Glen for further instruction.

Glen pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation, “With a gag, Carolyn”.

Seeming to understand this, Carolyn tottered off and returned with an old rag. Glen ran his hand over his face in irritation, downing a large whiskey before smashing the glass on the floor.

Mary struggled as the thralls tried to tie the piece of fabric over her face, “You won't get away with this! My daughter, she'll come for me!”

Glen knelt before Mary with a huge grin on his face, “That's what we want you silly bint!” Before landing a hard punch into her jaw and knocking her unconscious.

Braran sniffed the air having sensed something, “They’re close. Get ready. I’ll be back soon”, he shimmered away.