Wizards

CHAPTER 4: Explosion in the Alley

It all went from zero to crazy for Rei. All she knew was that she saw something she wasn't supposed to see. It was just an accident for her to be in the Norris Mansion and now they were telling her that she's one of them. Rei didn't believe it. She didn't want to believe anything they've said in that briefing room. For all she knew; maybe they're planning to harvest her organs or something.

     Shame that when she was just about to get excited to know more about this place will she realize that she has to go. Everything in this world was just starting to amaze her; the floating light orbs, the great garden, and magic! All of it was a dream come true. But the one thing that's occupying her mind was that she needs to go home. She just has to go to the forest, and luckily, find the portal back home . . . or at least that was the plan.

     Rei knew she could do it, escape. She had a lot of practice with Sister Annie back in the Kid Ranch. In fact, growing up in the orphanage taught her a lot of things, including this ability of her to feel if a person was good or bad. It wasn't accurate but most of the time she's right. Meeting different parents every day taught her to look in their eyes and see deeper than their fake smiles. And something from someone she can't pinpoint in those Casters and Death Squad doesn't feel right. It felt dark.

     While walking in the hallways of Guild Tower with Karen, Rei was quiet, devising an escape. Jump from the window? Just make a run for it? Knock Karen out and run?

     Seeing how Karen speaks to the director, how she quickly followed the director's orders, avoiding making a mistake, paints quite a picture about her.

     It was clear for Rei. There's a huge chance that Karen was gullible, and there was one way to find out if it was indeed the case.

     Rei stopped walking and holds Karen by her shoulder.

     "Ms. Karen, I need to use the restroom," she asked politely.

     "Ms. Griffin, there is one in your room —"

     "Sorry, I kinda need to go now," said Rei.

     Rei waited for an answer.

     Was it luck that Karen said that she needed to go as well? Whatever it was, it played well for Rei. And they went to the nearest restroom. She got in first and she waited for Karen to go in one of the stalls before quietly going out in hers.

     Sneaking out from someone like Karen was a piece of cake. Rei walked fast, found the stairs, and goes down from there.

     Staff was scarce in the area but she still has to be careful. What's the worst thing that could happen if they saw her escaping? They'll bind her? Put handcuffs on her?

     Rei heard footsteps from the corner and, as fast as she can, she hid behind a huge plant in a pot so huge it was bigger than her.

     "You just have to find a fire escape. Surely people don't go there very often," she said . . . to herself.

     But do they have a fire escape? I mean they're wizards after all. Do they need a fire escape? She thought

     She didn't have many choices but to trust her instinct. And so she did. She did not care much about whether she'll go left or right because all that matters was the fire escape. And indeed after several turns, she saw the sign that made her lips spreads wide.

     She goes in and made her way down, exiting to the ground floor. Carefully, she moved, avoiding eye contact with anyone, not causing any kind of move that might catch attention. She relaxed.

     Seeing that there were people who were dressed up like her, not a leather jacket or uniform, made it easy for her to blend in until she reached the main entrance of the building.

     Tiles were colored black and white, huge pillars that were made of black marbles lined up from the front door, huge windows, and automatic doors. This place looks more like a hotel than a "headquarters" of law enforcers.

     Rei looked up. Even her sight couldn't even reach the top of the Guild Tower. But she saw was a piece of the sky that was, from her position, in the size of a coin.

     The middle of the Guild Tower is open? She thought. You could literally fly your way out from the middle of the building.

     She kept on walking and did it; made it to the ground floor and almost out of her "captives". Nobody even noticed her disappearance yet. And by now she's expecting an alarm, like from the movies when the bad guys noticed when their prisoner escaped. But there wasn't any. It's as though nobody cared.

     She reached the doorway and at the first glimpse, she realized that there was no huge gap between this world and hers. There were people; in fact, there were far too many magic people than she's ever imagined. There were cars everywhere as well. The structure of the cars here was just like in her world, but the design was nothing she has ever seen before. The headlights were blinking. The doors were opening automatically. Some of the drivers were not even driving at all! And she saw wizards got off their cars and left them to drive on their own.

     They're just normal. . . . she thought. Kids were crying, people laughing, and teenagers walking together while sipping chocolate in plastic cups. It all seems normal if you disregard the fact that they can use magic.

     "Rei!" A cheerful sound, a friendly voice.

     But Rei felt a chill ran up her spine that made her run. Was that Jovial? It was too late to turn around and look now that she got far from running. She doesn't even know where she was going. She was just running, turning into random corners, into random alleys, she was just running until she felt the need to breathe.

     "Well, look what we've got, boys!"

     Rei jumped. She looked in the direction where she heard the voice. A huge man came from the shadows of the alley with four other men, all in rugged clothes. Everything was dirty; their face, their clothes, their teeth — them, basically.

     "Please! Stay away from me!" Rei struck a fighting pose.

     "Oh! No wand, boys! This one's a crippled witch! Easy meat," he said. "Aren't we lucky?"

"I... I,"

     Rei ran. As for the five men, they laughed. They let Rei ran to lengths before the one in the middle, who appears to be the leader, said calmly. "Grab her."

     All of them started chasing Rei, except for the leader who stood there and watched.

     She hasn't even caught a break yet from running out of the Guild Tower. Now she's running again but from obviously dangerous people. Looking back, she saw four men running towards her. One of them even screamed. "We're coming to get you!"

     All of them laughed.

     Rei's legs were starting to ache, and she's slowing down. She can feel her heart pounding harder than it should and she can feel her head pounding hard as well. It felt like something wants to get out. Something inside her was surging.

     This thought was cut off by the presence of the leader of those men behind her. He was standing in the direction she was running. Standing in the middle of an alley, the leader in front of her, four men behind her, and nowhere else to run to. Rei fell to her knees.

     She shouldn't have run from the Guild Tower. She shouldn't have gone to the Norris Mansion in the first place. She shouldn't have followed Eliot.

     She blamed herself for the mess she's now in.

     She screamed for help but no one came.

     "No one can hear you, kid," said the leader. "Nobody enters here because this is ours. No one would dare."

     Rei was still screaming for help and the thugs kept on laughing, even mimicking her cry for help.

     "Help, heeeelp," said one of the four men behind Rei while the others were laughing.

     Suddenly everyone stopped laughing; the leader stared at her and said, "Get her."

     One of the men behind Rei stepped one foot and then goes flying, hitting his back on the wall behind him.

     From above the alley, a tall man in a long black coat with long silvered hair, descended, landing beside Rei.

     Everyone looked at him, stunned by the presence of the man known as the "Silver Hero", Rei knows him as Niflheim. All of the rugged-looking men raised their wand and points at Niflheim. They were shaking.

     Niflheim flicks his wand, Rei was sent beside the wall.

     Everyone, as if Rei's sudden movement were their cue, sends a bolt of magic towards Niflheim. None of it hits Niflheim as he danced around, dodging everything and not striking back.

     Niflheim, with a smirk, flicked his wand, sending a strike back without uttering a single spell.

     A rope shoots from his wand and bounded one of them. Flicked again, and the other flew back. And flicked again, sending the other down, stiff as wood. He then points his wand to the leader.

     "Run," he said.

     The leader ran and never looked back, leaving Niflheim, Rei, and his knocked-out followers.

     "You alright, Rei?" said Niflheim.

     "W-what's happening to me?"

     Niflheim looked at Rei who was pulsing blue aura out of her body.

     "Your mana is leaking," he said, rather calmly.

     "What? I . . . I . . . I'm sorry!" Rei cried. "I just want to go home!"

     The pulsing aura grew bigger. Rei's body numbed, her eyesight blurred, her skin was burning. Although she can see Niflheim, he was but a shape in her eyes.

     Niflheim jumped back and moved his wand in a circular motion as if he was drawing a dome.

     "Imbarria Complitis!" he bellowed a few times as he watched Rei grab her head, crying in pain louder and louder.

     The aura that was coming out of Rei pulsed violently, faster and harder and larger, until it got thick and started getting smaller, going back inside her.

     Before Niflheim could react, the aura that was then inside Rei bursts out, exploded, destroying the barrier that he cast, sending him flying backward. He still manages to land on his feet. After finding his balance, he glanced at Rei, in a small crater the explosion made, besides the wall that was almost destroyed, Rei was, and again, unconscious.