Charmed

Friend is Foe

Rudo’s limbs moved in automation. She saw nothing. Perceived nothing. In the space of a heartbeat, the world around her moved in slow, ragged motion. One, two, three bounds, through the light of the car's headlamps she sailed.

Her feet hit the pavement and normal speed resumed. Exhilaration numbed her senses. She held in an excited whoop electing to grin instead. Pursuing psycho sorcerers wasn't so objectionable after all. She'd never felt so alive.

Impending death - zero. Rudo - one.

She took a breath to gather herself.

Re-instituting her psychic channel, Rudo activated the tattoos on the palms of her hands. Inked with magic suffused henna, these invisible spell tattoos would transfer to their target and from there do the deed. Rubbing her palms together charged the tag inlaid in the nullification spell. To cast it was a simple matter of contact. If nothing else went wrong. This night was doing a spectacular job of turning simple chores into death races.

Her body ached from a combination of physical exertion and battle worn spirit energy. Though steady, her psychic channel was weak. She wouldn't be able to maintain it.

She slowed into a trot two paces behind the psycho.

He walked on, casual-like, backpack sagging, head lowered as if in tune with some beat no one else could hear, oblivious to her presence and mission.

Perfect.

Saying a silent prayer, Rudo fell in beside him. She tilted forward on her next step, a planned fake fall that morphed in a snap into reality. She yelped and flailed seeking stability. With split second reaction the sorcerer grabbed her shoulder to right her. She welcomed his assist and in a show of fluster made contact with his backpack.

Life draining energy seeped into her and her skin tickled. She released a short burst of magic through her palms. The tattoo exploded from her skin in a tinge of spidery tickles, a crackle of static and snapped onto the bag.

Success.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Rudo said swaying. "Oh dear. I'm so clumsy. Tripping over nothing like that."

She laughed away the tension coiling in her chest. Logic bid her quit the area with haste. The longer she stayed the higher his chances of figuring out her bump was no accident.

"Thank you. I should go." She said and attempted a friendly grin.

Their eyes met.

Rudo shunted the part of her brain that began screaming to a corner of her mind and masked her terror with an even wider porcelain smile. This was it. He'd explode.

She should have called Tinashe when she had the chance.

The sorceror shifted. Every muscle in her body clenched. He seemed as if he'd step forward and choke her but instead pivoted on his feet and stalked away.

Rudo gagged on a rush of air and pushed through to the other side, using will to propel her, one wobbly step after the next through the heaving throng. Out of the path. Up the stairs and into the nearest wall.

She shuddered and dailed Tinashe, instilling what remained of her courage into her voice. "It's done."

"Good job. I'll pick him up."

Any other day Rudo would skip at Tinashe's praise. He so rarely gave it. Yet all she could see were the psycho's dead eyes. So tainted that nothing remained inside him but a hollow bridge to the Further and all its terrors.

She shuddered again and hugged herself.

"Hey. Are you alright?"

Rudo looked up and met Gladys' gentle regard. "I'm fine. I think I just had a brief panic attack. Exam fever." Rudo smiled and used the pretext of dusting her clothes to steady herself. She transitioned from sorcerer tagging Court mystic to wide eyed uni fresher. Well, not so wide eyed.

Gladys’s expression warmed. "Stress will do that. It might help if you went out once in a while."

"I'll be fine." Rudo waved Gladys's concern away. "Going out?" She asked.

"You should totally come. It will be fun. Like old times. A night on the town. It's bound to be fun even without Gideon."

His name tugged at a melancholy cord deep within her. She laughed to shoo thoughts of him away. "I don't want to impose. I should go and rest anyway."

"Don't be silly. It's a Friday. You can sleep tomorrow." Without waiting for an answer Gladys hooked her arm into Rudo's and led her away. "I just need to use the ATM and then we can do something about your outfit."

***

Chisomo maneuvered the car into a space at the end of the lot. It would have to do for the time being. He wouldn't risk losing her just to find a parking space, an impossibility on campus at this time of day.

An ethereal glow alerted him to her proximity.

He turned off the ignition and sat frozen now that she was within reach. Not that logic had returned and rid him of his fanciful desire. No. Fear of striking out kept him there, sweaty palms glued to the wheel. Striking out? Nonsense! He hadn't struck out with a girl in years. Thirteen being the age at which he’d last suffered rejection.

Good God! What is it that paralyzed him so? He need only step out, walk up to her, charm her, and he'd have his fill of her extraordinary soul.

A muffled bang followed by a strange scraping noise like the winding of an uncoiled jack spurred him to action. He leaped out of the car to find a security guard squatted at his rear right tyre.

"What are you doing?" Chisomo asked.

The guard shot him a shriveling glance and continued the work of clamping the car. "You can't park here."

"Were you lying in wait?"

Chisomo rubbed his temples. He'd have to pay the fine after he found the girl. He spun on his heels.

"Your car will be towed." The guard's warning reached him over the murmur of night noises.

Chisomo took an abrupt turn. "You're kidding right?"

The guard pushed up and faced Chisomo, shoulders square. Clearly he took pleasure in inflicting little hardships on people who had what he'd never have. Classic inferiority complex. A negotiation of any kind was out of the question.

"Fine." Chisomo threw his arms in the air. "I'll get it when I come back."

"Tomorrow." The guard said.

"Excuse me?"

"If your car gets towed you can only get it tomorrow. You should go and pay the fine now."

Triumph tugged at the guard's features. Chisomo had no time for guards and their petty egos. He'd lose her. Even one so extraordinary would be hard to find in the thousands of students that went here.

Chisomo bridged the space between them. The guard stiffened and flexed his arms in response to the perceived challenge. Yeah as if he'd have a chance of victory in actual combat. Chisomo latched on to his arm.

"Let go of me!" The guard took a swing at him with his free hand.

Chisomo dodged, and locked the guard's assailing arm under his armpit. With his free arm Chisomo squeezed until his nails dug into the guards arm and the pain forced him to look up.

"You are going to remove the clamp. You are going to let me walk away. You are going to forget this ever happened." Chisomo said maintaining eye contact.

By the fourth word, the man had ceased his cursing. Mesmerized, he gazed into Chisomo's eyes. With each word he fought a little less til the last ember of defiance died. He went limp. His mouth drooped into a submissive half drool and satisfaction spread over his features.

Chisomo released him. The guard nodded, sporting a dopey smile on his mouth and bent down to remove the clamp.

Explosive pressure crushed Chisomo's skull. The edges of his vision darkened. He stumbled. The force released him in a surge that churned his insides and awakened a ravaging need that shook him senseless.

He leaned into the car taking short bracing breaths.

The perils of using compulsion in the absence of s****l attraction. He was doing so many stupid things today. Diverting from routine. Acting on impulse.

She better be worth it.

Clamp removed, the guard ambled off still swimming in a complex mixture of submissiveness and contentment. Chisomo rolled his shoulders and searched for the enticing glow. He smiled. The girl with the blazing soul crossed the lawn in front of him headed to the sports hall, hand in hand with another girl.

Odd. Was that other girl’s soul missing?

***

"How is Gideon these days?" Glady’s asked.

"Um." Rudo's mind clouded. "Ok." She cast a glance to the Finance bank building and willed it to move closer.

"Oh. I'm so sorry. I'm being inconsiderate going on about Gideon like that."

"It's okay. It was forever ago."

A lifetime ago. Once when she'd participated in the vibrant uni life. An excited teen off by herself for the first time. They'd done it all, her, Gideon and the girls. All before the real school work started and stole the nights. She didn't see much of the girls outside of class nowadays. They were all so busy and she? Well, she was busy keeping the Further, the spirit realm's influence at bay. Little time existed for activities outside her work with the for-profit semi-legitimate Witch Court.

No. That wasn't it.

She could find the time to see the girls if she so wished but then they might end up like Gideon, or worse.

She was glad when her phone rang. “I need to take this.”

“No worries.”

The bubbly girl skipped to the ATM and Rudo retreated to the a space between the building and a utility shed. “What’s up?”

"Where are you?" Tinashe asked.

Rudo wrinkled her brow at the urgency in his voice. "Finance bank. Why?"

"Don't move. It wasn't him. He's not the spell caster."

The line disconnected. Rudo stared at the phone. Not him? She'd scented the charms. Matched the mauve spell residue to the backpack's contents. She'd read his aura. Almost suffocated under its dark weight. She wasn't some incompetent noob.

A loud thud caught her attention. Gladys! She sprinted to the ATM and stumbled upon a sight too bizarre for words.

Gladys bent over the night guard sprawled on the gravel, the energy of his soul flowing into her through the hand she’d placed over his heart. Rudo stared at the sweetest girl she knew drain a man and her knees locked and kept her from doing what her mind wanted.

She took a shaky step backwards. She might have a chance, however slight, to escape. One sorcerer had already extinguished her magic. She was defenseless here. Gravel crunched underfoot. She winced and came to a sculpted halt.

“Don’t go away dear. We are going to have fun remember?”

Rudo called for a response, any words to counter this new fiend. This unknown foe she’d once called friend. A strangled wheeze escaped her mouth.

Gladys c****d her head and laughed. "You look stunned dear. Did you like my boy toy? He's so loyal, offering to be bait like that. It's so nice to find good help don't you think?"

How could she have missed this?

Rudo bid her heart to calm and read Gladys aura. She extended her senses and nothing. As clear as spring water. Except. Something felt askew.

Where the hell was Tinashe? He should be here by now.

"How could someone as nice as you make those horrible charms?"

Gladys snorted. "Nice? You still think I'm nice? It's all in the game. I had to fit in or no one would buy my product."

"But why Gladys?"

A week ago Rudo had received the commission to track down some good luck charms originating from her campus which it turned out weren’t so good. The users bought themselves destruction. She'd walked through the makeshift clinic, past the howling patients, unable to comprehend how much cruelty it took to destroy so many lives.

"For power of course. Why else do we do the things we do? Then you started messing with my product. I was so pissed! But now I have you." She advanced and pinned Rudo to the wall of the shed. "I see you now hunter."

Rudo met the crazed gaze of the gentlest girl she'd ever known and she too saw her, It, for what it was.

"I see you and I will use your bright soul to reignite my spell. I can almost taste you."

Gladys bit at the air inches form Rudo's face, a sardonic grin on her face, transformed from docile girl into ravenous spirit.

Show no fear.

Rudo set her jaw and held Gladys' demented gaze. It flicked a mottled deathly gray tongue on its lips and reached into her, past the fleshy confines of her body into her soul. It cut into her like a million sharp knives, hacked her apart, ripped her soul and swallowed it piece by piece. Yet her spirit could not escape her body and seek comfort. Trapped. Forced to suffer spirit, body and soul.

"Won't you fight back pathetic hunter?"

Rudo opened her mouth to scream. To plead. To tell the spirit it had made a mistake but only drool came out.

She was no hunter, just an aura reader way out of her depths.