Shadows of New York (8 page)

“No, thank you,” Josh replied.

“Britney, why don’t you get us some milkshakes?” suggested Cleo.

Britney looked from Cleo to the back of the office.

“We don’t have them here,” said Cleo patiently, “you’ll have to go around the corner and get them. A chocolate for me. John, what kind would you like?”

“My name's Josh.”

“Oh, right. Sorry. What kind?”

“Vanilla, please.”

“A vanilla for Josh. Lindsay? Milkshake?”

“No,” came Lindsay’s voice from her workstation.

“Alright then, Britney. One chocolate, one vanilla, and whatever you’d like.” Cleo handed her some money. “And don’t come back without them.”

Britney didn’t look happy, but she took the money from Cleo and went slowly out the door. Once outside, however, she moved fast, as though eager to get back as fast as possible.

Cleo leaned back in her seat and said with a contented sigh, “The place around the corner isn’t open yet today. It’ll take her about a half hour to find someplace else.”

Josh didn’t quite understand. “You don’t want her working?”

“Oh, Josh, it’s not like she’d get any work done this morning anyway. Not with Aiden here.”

“I don’t get it.” Josh pulled up a chair to sit at Cleo’s desk.

Cleo waited until the sound of typing came from the still-occupied cubicle, then lowered her voice to say, “Well, those two that work here, Lindsay and Britney? They’re what we call Imaginary groupies. Do you know about the Imaginary World?”

Josh nodded. “Yeah. Aiden, Larry, and Steve told me a little bit about it.”

“Oh, you know Larry. How’s he doing?”

“Good, I guess.” Something popped into his mind, and he added, “Aiden gave him your phone number the other night.”

“And he hasn’t used it yet?” Cleo looked disappointed.

Josh regretted saying anything about the note. To change the subject, he asked, “So about the groupies?”

“Right, the groupies,” said Cleo, looking down at her desk. “About the groupies,” she repeated, this time looking at Josh. “They’re regular people like you” (it registered in Josh’s mind that she had said “like
you
,” not “like
us
”) “that have somehow found out about the Imaginary World and are, well, really big fans. These two, I like to call them Team Aiden and Team Larry.” At Josh’s puzzled expression, she explained, “They’re werewolf and vampire fans, respectively.”

It made sense. He had heard about things like that, where two groups hated on each other over pretend characters. He wondered if the rivalry was even more intense with real people. It had to be like his father, a Yankees fan, and his uncle, who loved the Red Sox. As brothers, they got along fine as long as baseball wasn’t mentioned.

“So what are you?” Josh asked.

“Pardon?” Cleo raised an eyebrow.

“You’re not a regular person, are you?”

There was a pause while Cleo drummed her fingernails on the desk. She said, “No, Josh. I am, in fact, Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.
The
Cleopatra.
At least, that’s who I originally was. Now I’m Cleo Chickaboom, half owner of Staffing Solutions.”

Josh studied the smiling woman across the desk. “You don’t look like a mummy. Are you some kind of ghost?”

With a smile, she answered, “No, Josh, I’m what you’d call a reanimation. In current terminology, a zombie.”

Josh looked closely at her, checking for what his video games taught him were the normal signs for detecting a zombie. There were no large patches of skin missing. There were no arms detaching themselves. And, most importantly, there was no moaning for brains.

“Why aren’t you moaning for brains?” Josh asked.

This caused a high, twittering laugh from Cleo. “Oh, Josh, we aren’t like that at all. Well, not anymore. That came from the old mummy days when, as part of the mummification process, the brain was removed. When we came back to life, we sought the bits and pieces that were taken out. The second-hand brain I ended up with, unfortunately, wasn’t a perfect match. I forget stuff all the time.”

The phone rang. Lindsay picked it up before Cleo had a chance. A moment later, Lindsay called, “Cleo, Mr. Pitt’s on line one.”

While muttering something about “another one” under her breath, Cleo reached for her phone, but stopped halfway there. “Could you hang on a second, Josh?”

“Sure.” It occurred to him that everyone up front would be busy and this would be a good chance to sneak a peek at the back rooms. “Do you have a bathroom I could use?”

She pointed toward the back as she spoke into the phone. “Darling, how are the wife and kids?”

Josh set off, snooping. He poked his head into the room Cleo pointed to and saw what looked like a break room. A round table sat in the middle, and cabinets and a refrigerator lined the back wall. An open door near the fridge led to the bathroom.

Instead of heading for the bathroom, Josh went through the door he had seen Aiden use.

He found himself in a long hallway. The wall on his right only went up to his chest. From the other side of the half-wall, he heard Siegfried. “Mr. Midnight's been having some kind of ripple effect on the Real World. That day when you stopped a robbery and had a run-in with those punks later on? That was just the beginning. Events like that are becoming more common. You have to be more careful with those kids.”

Crouching down and creeping forward, Josh peeked over the top of the wall, looking down into what appeared to be a gymnasium. Standing in the middle, on a blue-matted area, was a large, hairy beast. Only the fact that it was wearing Aiden’s clothes made Josh recognize his nanny. Siegfried strode toward Aiden, carrying what looked like a pair of shiny gold gloves.

“Sunguard gauntlets,” Siegfried said as he came to a stop in front of Aiden and held them up. “The only thing that can touch a wraith. You try your teeth or claws and you’ll go right though like he’s not even there.”

Aiden took the gloves and tried putting them on. With his werewolf paws, he wasn’t able to do it.

“Yeah, I thought you’d have trouble like that,” growled Siegfried. “You’ll have to put them on before changing. Or I can ask around for ones that’ll fit better, but I doubt I’ll find any. I had enough trouble finding these.”

Aiden grew less hairy. His snout turned back into a nose. It took about three seconds, but human Aiden reappeared, putting the gauntlets on without a word. Once they were in place, he changed back again.

Josh knew that he was a werewolf. He had been present for a transformation, but his eyes had been closed. This time, he saw the change. Aiden began by lowering his head and hunching his back. His arms flexed like a bodybuilder showing off his muscles. Aiden’s T-shirt strained at the seams as his muscles bulked up. Every exposed bit of skin grew long brown hair. With a pained expression, his face took on the appearance of a wolf, long and scary.

“You’ll want to watch out for the wraith’s hands,” continued Siegfried, “they have a nasty habit of turning into blades when you’re not looking. You can’t touch them, but believe me, they can touch you.” Even from this far away, Josh could see Siegfried’s thumb trace the path of one of the many scars on his face.

“Alright, Frank, let’s go,” Siegfried called. Josh looked around, trying to find Frank, but Aiden and Siegfried were the only people in the room. Then he saw it. From the corner, something emerged. It was as if a man-shaped shadow had stepped right off the wall and began a slow walk toward Aiden.

Calling it a shadow wasn’t quite right. Every shadow Josh had ever seen took the shape of whatever it lay across. This one occupied its own space, its arms and legs moving back and forth as it walked. Josh lowered himself an inch or two until he was just able to see over the wall.

“Begin!” shouted Siegfried.

Without warning, Aiden let out a fierce growl and sprung forward, his body a blur, gloved paws leading the way. The shadow moved partway through the floor so that the gloves passed harmlessly over its head, and Aiden ran right through it. By the time Aiden stopped and turned around, he had a sword-shaped shadow hovering inches from his face. Josh couldn’t be sure, but it almost looked like Aiden’s eyes darted in his direction for a fraction of a second.

“Pathetic!” barked Siegfried. “You can’t charge straight in like that. For now, the best you can hope for is to keep up with him and hope he makes a mistake. Force his hand and take advantage of his mistake.”

In reply, Aiden let out a short series of barks and growls.

“Fine,” said Siegfried with a nod.
Of course
he would speak Werewolf.

Aiden stretched and shook his arms, bouncing on the balls of his feet like a boxer. He hunched forward.

Siegfried once again yelled, “Begin!”

It was a replay of the first time. Aiden launched himself forward, and the shadow shrunk. But Aiden didn’t pass through the wraith, instead coming to a sudden stop just in front of him. His right arm swung upward, the golden gauntlet catching his opponent just under what Josh would call his head, sending the shadow flying backward, flattening against the wall and disappearing.

“Slightly less pathetic!” bellowed Siegfried. “Good contact, but he would have gotten away. You okay, Frank?” he added when the shadow once more stepped from the wall.

A quiet murmur came from down below. Josh couldn’t make out the exact words, only that it sounded like a whisper carried on the wind, coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

“Begin!”

For the third time, Aiden dashed toward the wraith. It didn’t shrink this time. Instead, it shot toward Aiden. When they came together, the shadow-blade-hands were a frenzied whirlwind, slashing up and down, left and right, back and forth. Aiden’s gloves moved just as fast, dodging or parrying each strike. The gauntlets and shadow blades met with hollow thuds. Aiden reached and somehow managed to grab the wraith by what Josh would call his wrists. The two opponents stood struggling, one trying to escape, and the other trying to maintain his grip.

Over Aiden’s fierce growls, Josh heard Siegfried say, “Almost good, but what are you going to do now? Let go with either hand—excuse me, paw—and he runs you through.”

The struggle came to an end, Aiden and the shadow standing side by side, listening to Siegfried.

“You need to—”

Josh didn’t catch what Aiden needed to do. A hand on his shoulder made him jump. Turning around, he saw Cleo motioning for him to come back up front.

He followed, finding Britney in her cubicle and a vanilla milkshake waiting for him on Cleo’s desk. He sat down across from her, his eyes on his cup to avoid the disapproving look she was sending his way.

“That was fast,” he mumbled. “I thought it would take a lot longer.”

“I had a milkshake finder app on my phone,” came Britney’s voice.

“She heard werewolves like milkshakes,” Lindsay scoffed.

* * * *

The walk home was quiet. Two blocks away from the apartment, Aiden said, “That wasn’t cool, Josh. I thought we had a deal. You were supposed to stay up front.”

It wasn’t getting caught that upset Josh the most. It was the hurt tone in Aiden’s voice. “I’m sorry, okay? I just needed to know what’s going on. I know this Mr. Midnight guy is real.”

Aiden stopped walking and looked at Josh. “You don’t need to worry about him.”

“But you and Mrs. F-G worry about him, so I worry about you guys.”

The disappointment seemed to drain away from Aiden in an instant. He walked to a nearby bench and patted it for Josh to sit down next to him.

“I can’t be too mad at you. I did a lot worse when I was your age. It’d be that pot calling the kettle black thing,” said Aiden with a small smile.

Josh sat and stared straight ahead at the passing cars.

“Okay, you’re right,” Aiden continued. “He’s real. And he’s got the whole Imaginary World worried. And he’s right here in New York. So maybe you deserve to know. Ask me anything. I’ll try to answer what I can. Just, you know, don’t tell Mrs. F-G we talked about him.”

“So, um, he might try to steal your soul?” asked Josh in a quivering voice, getting right to what he wanted to know the most.

“No. Larry was joking. Mr. Midnight doesn’t work like that. He takes away what you might call our powers. He makes us human.”

“You wouldn’t want to be human again?”

“Maybe sometimes,” said Aiden with a wistful look. “There’s a lot of both good and bad that comes with being what I am. I’ve only been like this for a few years, but, for good or bad, this is me now.”

The two were quiet for a few minutes, each lost in thought.

“So, any more questions?” Aiden finally asked.

“I guess not,” Josh answered, his mind whirling with all that he’d seen and learned. “At least, not right now.”

Aiden shook his head. “Josh, man, I have to admit that I’m a little surprised. You haven’t thought to ask me why I’m being trained for this in the first place.”

“You mean there’s more to it than just learning to protect yourself?” Josh had assumed that wraith training was being offered to any Imaginary creature who wanted to learn it.

“Oh, yeah.” Aiden’s voice carried a note of determination. “There’s more to it than that.”

Josh sat in quiet thought for a minute. “Oh, I know!” he said. “It’s what you said before, about how sometimes you have to stand up for the people you care about, no matter what.”

“Well, that’s a big part of it, I’ll admit. And I’m darn proud of you for remembering what I told you. It’s very, very important.” Josh felt proud of the praise. “But there’s one more thing.”

“Okay, I give up. Why are you wraith training?”

“Because I’m gonna catch him.”

This wasn’t an answer Josh was expecting. Everything about Aiden so far had been about defense, about protecting him and his family.

Aiden waited a few seconds before continuing, looking at Josh’s mouth open and close as he searched for something to say. “At least, I’m gonna try. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a wraith in action,” he said with a hint of sarcasm, “but they’re wicked fast. Just about the only thing faster would be a werewolf. So when the Imagine Nation put out a call for volunteers, I thought I’d—”