And Ruin Followed Behind Her

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I reappeared with Chuck at Elka’s tea shop, hovering over an antique table which held a collection of collectibles, from magic mirrors to crystal balls, and crystals of all colors and sizes. For an instant, I hovered in midair, suspended in space. Then, we fell. Chuck and I crashed onto the table and our weight smashed the table into pieces. Mirrors broke, and crystal balls rolled every which way.

Elka rushed to my side from her place behind the register, gasping the question, “Oh my god. Are you okay?”

My adrenaline shot me upright. “I’m fine, but Chuck...I thought I could get him to the hospital, but I ended up here. Please, you have to help him.”

Elka looked at Chuck, bleeding out onto the table. “There’s nothing I can do.”

“Yes, there is—you can get him to the hospital.”

“I don’t do that,” Elka said, shaking her head. “Not in public.”

“Then now is the time to start,” I shouted at her, pounding my fist into my palm.

“It’s too dangerous!” Elka hissed. “What if somebody sees me?”

I grabbed her by the shoulders. “If you don’t do this, he’s going to die.”

Elka turned her eyes to Chuck and sighed. “Fine. Stand back.”

I crept behind the register. A bright, purple light filled the room, and Elka and Chuck were gone. It looked like the sun erupted on Earth for a moment, and then vanished from sight.

For a long time, all I could do was stare at the spot where Chuck’s blood soaked into the floor. Watching the blood stain on the carpet wasn’t going to accomplish anything, but I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about the fleeting nature of life. If I had just turned away from the park, Chuck wouldn’t have gotten shot. I made a stupid mistake, and it might cost a good man his life.

I should never have walked across the park. I was always so careful, so precise. Elka got me in a tizzy with her talk of magic and I forgot myself and the real terror I faced in Chandler.

Elka, the magic pixie. There was no denying it now. She was for real, which means everything she told me was real.

For the first time, I took a real look around Elka’s store. It was a full of hooky collectibles and weird “medicines” from around the world. There were bottles labeled with handwritten names like Love Potion, Draft of Sleep, and Luck Potion.

I wondered how many of the potions she sold were actual magic and not just flavored water. I suspected she kept the real stuff in the back, where discerning eyes would be able to take a better look.

Walking behind the beaded curtain, I stepped into the back room. The shelves lining the hallway were filled mostly with clean, new bottles and charms. However, mixed in with them were dusty old bottles—their labels almost completely faded with time. I picked one up and brushed off the dust. It read: Elixir of aging. Add one drop for every year you want to grow older. Use potion of de-aging to reverse effects.

I put down the bottle. The last thing I wanted to do was grow older or younger. I could barely deal with my current age. I kept walking down the hallway. Crystal balls and magic rocks speckled the shelves. A large blue pouch, adorned with moons and stars, seemed to call to me. I reached out my hand to pick it up.

“That was Zabina’s,” Elka said from behind me. “She was carelessly struck down by her daughter, Akta, one of the last pixies.”

I turned to her. “Akta...I saw her in that book. She was a great monster hunter, yes?”

“Hunting monsters does not make one great, but she was the best there ever was, until she was betrayed. Inside that pouch is the last of the pixie dust in the known world. I have kept it safe for as long as I’ve been able.”

“Then why is it sitting on a shelf in the back of a tea shop?”

Elka let out a laugh. “That is a good question. It, like many things in this shop, are best left hidden in plain sight.”

“What does it do?”

“It helps pixies disappear at will.”

“But...I didn’t need it, and you didn’t, either.”

She turned toward the front of the store and gestured for me to follow. “No. In the end, pixies relied on it because we’d forgotten the old ways. The dust was only a crutch that prevented us from embracing our true power. Some pixies were even powerful enough to use other people’s thoughts to let them teleport.”

I didn’t care much about pixies just then. My mind was consumed with thoughts of my friend. “And Chuck? Will he live?”

“I don’t know,” Elka said, pursing her lips. “I am not a doctor. I left him in the front of the hospital and watched as they wheeled him inside. I did all I can. You did all you could as well.”

“I should go to him,” I said, heading for the door.

Elka grabbed my arm. “He’ll be in surgery at least a few hours. If you go, the men who did this will find you. That I can guarantee.”

“The men hunting me,” I said, ripping my arm away. “They won’t stop. They told me they were after me because I could disappear.”

Elka nodded. “That makes sense. Tell me. Did you see a patch with a bloody dagger on it dripping onto a red star?”

I thought back to the school and the leather jacket Big Jim and his cronies wore. “Yes. I did see a patch like that. The men in the park had jackets with that symbol on it.”

“I thought so. You see, they’re part of an ancient order called the Cult of the Blood Dagger. They’re trying to bring magic back to the world.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” I replied.

“Yes, that is the kind version. Unfortunately, they’re trying to use that magic for their own means, by opening a portal to Hell and unleashing the damned upon Earth.”

“Why do they need me for that?”

“Long ago, all creatures had a spark of magic in them. Then came humans. In their jealousy of our powers, they hunted our kind until, over time, too few of us remained. We had the power, but humanity had the numbers, and they overwhelmed us. As our kind faded from this world, magic left the world as well...leaving only tiny traces behind, like the ones at the mystery spot, or in our blood.”

“Still not sure why they want to kill me.”

“Magic, in its rawest form, exists only in Hell. Or, what you know as Hell. Back when monsters roamed it was just called the underworld. There was no Heaven or Hell back then, just the underworld and Mount Olympus. All monsters were sent there upon their death, and they reside there to this day.”

“And that’s what these men want to open? A portal to Hell?”

“Yes. That is their aim, but to open the portal to Hell, they need two things: a place on Earth with an unnaturally deep connection to magic, like our mystery spot, and a spark of magical energy to bridge the gap between our worlds and act as a catalyst to open it, which lives in our blood. That’s why I have been hidden for so long.”

“We’re all drawn here, all magical creatures...” I took a deep breath, enraptured by this new understanding.

“Not only here,” Elka replied. “There are many spots around the world, and we are drawn to them all.”

“I want to learn from you.”

Elka rubbed her hands together. “Then we should begin. Pick up Zabina’s pouch.”

“Are you sure?”

“Lesson one: don’t question me. Now, pick it up.”

I put my hands on the pouch and felt its weight in both hands. Time and debris hid the blue of the pouch under a layer of gray. I stuck my hand inside, mostly grabbing at air, but finally found a layer of pixie dust at the bottom.

“There’s not much in here,” I said, peering into the bag.

Elka nodded. “Then we must make it count.”