Gloom Rising (The Book Wielder Saga 1) (15 page)

Inside, the Mayor had ordered the Freaks to drag the bodies of any still intact victims into the Gloom. Winston’s mind flashed with an idea that could salvage some of the night before more Inquisitors arrived. “We should escape into the Gloom, Lucius.”

Lucius was shouting for Mages to quickly dispose of the remains of friend and foe alike, and he didn’t quite catch what Winston had said. “Sorry, what?”

“If we escape into the portal, I can close it behind us and then open another one from the Gloom version of the Hotel Noir directly into ours. If any more Inquisitors arrive we’ll be long gone and there will be nothing to expose our world.”

That’s brilliant!” Lucius said astounded. “Good thinking, Winston!” He shouted the plan to everyone and they began assembling at the portal entrance.

“I can’t wait to show you my lovely city!” the Mayor said merrily to the gathering Supernaturals, “and I have a big treat for you all, a big treat indeed!”

Winston noticed the human fork truck drivers hiding in between some boxes. “You guys won’t last long in the Gloom. Get the vans we came in loaded with this stuff – it doesn’t have to be neat, just has to go in. When you’re done, drive it to the Hotel Noir as quick as possible. Lewis, you go with them, and if anything goes wrong use your book to get in the Gloom. Save yourself first and then as many reagents as you can carry. Don’t forget, the others will die if they’re left in there too long.”

“Okay, sounds like a plan,” Lewis said, and began helping coordinate the loading.

Some other strong Supernaturals came and helped to quickly shove the Gloom crates in between fork truck journeys. When they were done Lewis and the humans sped away from the destruction, and the others stepped through the portal into the Gloom.

Winston and the Shadow Circle entered the Gloom, and after the last of them had entered he closed the portal behind them. It was the first time in history that a Supernatural had set foot in the dark mystical realm, and they suddenly went from battle-worn and exhausted to energetic and full of life. The Gloom appeared to affect the Supernaturals the same way the real world affected the Freaks.

The big Spidercars that were loaded with candy were waiting patiently in the dust and rust covered Gloom warehouse, and they now also had the creaking, twitching, moaning bodies of the Inquisition shock troopers laid on top of the boxes. The Mayor waved them along as he walked briskly out of the half demolished building and into Gloom City.

The Supernaturals looked around with awe; although their surroundings were dank and dismal, it was buzzing with unseen magical energy. Freaks looked down at them from the rundown buildings with surprised and excited faces.

Alexander pulled a notepad and pen out of his coat and began making observations. “This is fascinating.”

“You’re such a nerd,” Brooke joked playfully. She leaned in and gave him a kiss. “But I like it.”

He blushed. “Saving my life and kissing me in the same day – I’m going to have to make this up to you.”

“Yes, yes you are,” she said seductively.

Veronica skipped along holding Winston’s hand. “So this where you Book Wielders go? Not that easy on the eyes, but I’ve never felt so good.”

Puppet Freaks started coming out of the buildings, some using the doors and others climbing out of windows, and gathered by the side of the road to watch. It started to remind Winston of a parade.

The Mayor burst his hand into one of the boxes and began throwing handfuls of sweets to his people. “Delicious treats and sugar packed sweets from your beloved Mayor and my boy Winston, the conveyor of candies!”

The Freaks quickly grabbed and shovelled the real world food into their mouths and went wild with delight, chanting ‘Mayor’ and ‘Winston’ as they walked down the street towards the Gloom equivalent of the Hotel Noir.

The Mayor encouraged Winston to throw some too. “This is good for publicity my boy, good for publicity indeed!”

The crowds dissipated as they came to a street of ruined theatres, cinemas, and shattered shops. From his real world bearings Winston knew they weren’t far away from the street that the hotel was on, but the Mayor brought them to a halt.

“Go get Miss Aurorana and her needle maidens,” the Mayor said to one of his guards. It ran off in a comical fashion into the largest theatre, which had a broken sign reading ‘Marionettes Playhouse Theatre’ above it.

Soon after, the guard ran back out of the theatre, and a group of female puppet freaks clothes in grimy yet fancy dresses walked gracefully behind him. They had relatively glamorous hair styles, some form of makeup, and beautifully crafted facial features, although they were covered in stiches where they had been extensively modified. They carried buckets of black Gloom water, wicker baskets filled with dirty balls of thread, bits of material, and long sharp needles.

Behind them strode Mortissa Aurorana. She was a tall woman, face mostly covered in a hooded cloak, and her puppet body was squeezed tightly by a black and white corset which plumed out into short pleated mini skirt. The lower half of her looked beautifully human but as scarred and stitched as her needle maidens. She was armed with a wide range of knives, daggers, pins, and needles that were strapped to her body wherever they could be.

“What a looker, huh? You won’t find a more beautiful bunch of ladies in all the Gloom! Oh no, you won’t!” the Mayor said to Winston excitedly.

“What do you want of me?” Mortissa asked in a horrifyingly distorted voice.

“We’ve brought you a new project my girl, that we have!”

The Freak guards tossed the groaning Inquisitors over to Mortissa and her girls. They looked over the half dead soldiers, running their fingers over their rusty power armour and poking at their guns.

“I can fix them up but you’ll need someone from Pollutia if you want to get the guns working,” Mortissa said to the Mayor.

He nodded excitedly and the needle maidens got work. They pried the sturdy high-tech helmets off the shock troopers, revealing their vulnerable aged and withered heads. The Mayor’s attacks had sucked the life out of them just as it had done with their armour.

“Unhand me, foul creature!” one screamed. “May the light of the Twin Goddesses judge you without mercy!”

The others cried, wailed, or were too withered to do anything but to moan.

“Start with the feisty one,” Mortissa said ruthlessly, “and let the others watch what fate will befall them.”

Two smiling needle maidens held the man’s head still as he screamed a tirade of pious threats and religious phrases, and a then third straddled him, prying his mouth open and reducing him to angry muffled shouts. Another walked over with a bucket of Gloom water and poured it over the trooper’s face. He glugged and choked as the corrupted fluid washed over him, and the needle maiden straddling him put her hand over his mouth and pinched his nose, forcing him to swallow. Winston remembered what Lewis had said about how the Gloom water had tasted and did not envy the Inquisitor one bit.

The needle maidens released the man and left him to choke, gargle, and spasm on the ground as black veins started to pop up on his face. Mortissa kneeled beside him with a basket in one hand and a large thick needle in the other. She brutally jammed the needle into one eye and popped it out of the socket. She opened her mouth to reveal very human and well-kept teeth, and slowly put the eye into her mouth like it was an olive on a cocktail stick. A trickle of fluid ran down her chin as she deliberately chewed it, savouring every moment, and then she did the same for the other one. Reaching into the basket, she produced two glass spheres and forced them into the empty sockets. With great strength, she yanked his teeth out one by one with her fingers and chucked them in the basket with the other bits and pieces. She plucked out eyebrows and lashes, ripped and sliced skin, tore out his tongue, stitched material on, and artistically placed thread features.

The rusted armour creaked and whined as the newly formed Freak trooper picked himself off the floor, walking towards the Mayor and giving a salute. It was hard to tell that he’d ever been human.

“Good work, my girl! Good work indeed!” the Mayor said, dancing on the spot.

Everyone was speechless and mortified, and yet they watched in fascinated horror. A transition from human to Freak had never been seen or even heard of. It was a horrific transformation, and one that Mortissa and her maidens repeated on the other five Inquisitor shock troopers.

“How does she do that?” Winston asked, eyes wide with shock.

“She has power, my boy, old power from way back when everything was still a bit fuzzy. She left the others of her kind, the ones that looked like you before they went all nasty and became bloody Demons, to watch, study, and chat to us lot. She got a bit
too
fascinated with us, if you know what I mean? So when her face and body started to go all messed up and demon-like she started replacing them with bits of us, and whatever and whoever she could get her hands on. All that’s left of the old her is her head, so she’s more like us than one of those scummy scumbags. I do hate Demons, indeed I do!”

“The Demons used to look like us?”

“Didn’t you know that, my boy? I thought everyone knew that!”

After Mortissa and her girls had finished their work, the Mayor paid them off with a large quantity of candy and continued escorting them to the hotel.

“Wasn’t that a show and a half, everybody? A show and a half indeed!” the Mayor boomed to the Supernaturals. “I told you I had a treat lined up for you and I delivered, didn’t I?”

After what they had just witnessed, everyone did their best to pretend they’d enjoyed the procedure, with big fake smiles, enthusiastic nods and thumbs-ups being given generously. The Mayor looked very pleased with himself.

When they had finally arrived at the hotel, Winston and Lucius shook hands with the Mayor and both sides agreed on continuing and expanding their business relationship. They all entered the hotel, and the tall Freak with the long grubby top hat was at the reception desk just like before.

“Ah, Mr Reynolds, welcome back,” the Freak began. “Will Sir be staying with us again? And do your many friends require rooms too? We have plenty of vacancies!”

“They’ve all got a free pass, Lanky. That they do!” the Mayor said, passing him a few sweets. “Any of Winston’s friends are always welcome free of charge; the rest you can kill or eat or whatever.”

Lanky tried a sweet, leaving the plastic wrapper on. He crunched it up with his big square teeth and looked like he’d just snorted a line of Rushdust.

They parted ways with the Mayor and Lanky. Winston advised that they take the stairs, so the whole gang quickly stepped up the concrete staircase with its many fluttering Blightmoths. Mage lights were summoned to light the way, and when they finally reached the top floor Winston opened a portal into the real world.

As soon as they were all back on the top floor of the Hotel Noir, Winston collapsed the portal and their phones started beeping excessively. Lewis had made it back okay and wanted them to come to the garage as soon as possible. Without a moment to lose they proceeded to meet him, this time taking the cosy real world elevators, and rushed to see Lewis and check on the goods.

In the underground garage the big vans were parked ungracefully together, their back doors wide open, and some of the grim looking Gloom crates had been offloaded and opened. The humans struggled to get more boxes off so the Supernaturals took over. Lucius himself tipped the drivers generously with more cash than they’d probably ever seen, and they left quickly, feeling lucky for their lives and extremely rich.

Lewis was clapping slowly. “Good job, guys! Good fucking job!” he said cheerfully. “You have got to see this!”

“Was there any trouble on the way back?” Lucius began concerned. “Were you followed?”

“Nah, not at all. The streets were dead – if there were any more Inquisition wankers about we got here way before they were dispatched! So relax boss-man, and come see your haul!”

They walked towards the open crates, hearts beating heavily with anticipation, and looked inside to see if all the effort was truly worth it. There was a small crate completely filled with Crimson Blightmoth wings, a larger one stashed to the brim with Nightmare Nettle, another big crate contained a stack of Ashrooms, and that was only the start of what they had offloaded.

They cheered and continued opening the crates with as much excitement as a child opening presents on their birthday. The night would lead to the biggest, most lavish celebration the Shadow Circle had ever had.

Chapter 6:

The Inquisitor General’s Report

Inquisitor General Alice Eve stood in the cockpit of the airship behind the pilot and co-pilot as they tapped the blue holographic and touch screen controls. She wore her usual uniform of her shiny white officer’s trench coat, black shirt, boots, and trousers, with a white tie. She’d decided to wear her chestnut coloured hair in a bun and to wear her glasses over her dark brown eyes to further her formal look for the meeting. They had just passed over Galleon Anchorage and looked over the vast and Inner Sea. It was a glorious sunny day so the water was calm and peaceful. It helped her nerves as she tried to process the malevolent things she had seen.

She clutched her handheld computer device, a thin flat screen that had a touch sensitive interface, called a ‘HCD’ for short. Amongst other things, it featured state of the art short-range wireless data transmitting; this was how she had her evidence, and it was all that kept her from believing she was completely mad.

In her white trench coat was her notepad, the thing she had that she shouldn’t, the leather-bound book that she had found and had transformed into a stylish journal when she’d picked it up. It whispered to her and tempted her to read its pages, but she had never caved into her foul temptations and opened it. She couldn’t bring herself to destroy it either, though. Every night she would pray to the Twin Goddesses for guidance and ask for the strength to rid herself of the strange book, but if anything it had the opposite effect. She would usually fall into a peaceful sleep and awake uncaringly, and it would only be until later in the day when she realised the book was on her person that the pattern of thought would repeat. Was it an evil object or was it a sign from the Goddesses? Was she supposed to open it or fight the temptation? But the strange book was the last thing on her mind right now.