The Havoc Chronicles (Book II): Unbound (12 page)

By opening night, I was feeling confident and excited. I knew my parts backwards and forwards. I was ready to show everyone what we’d been working so hard on.

Amy, on the other hand, looked positively green. Not with envy, but more like someone who just got off a giant rollercoaster and was stumbling around looking for a place to throw up.

“Why do I let you talk me into these things?” she said, as we put on our stage makeup in the girls' changing room. 

“You just have opening night jitters,” I said. “It’s perfectly normal. You’ll do fine.” Looking for a way to distract her, I said, “Have you made any progress with Josh?”

Amy scowled. “No. Stupid boy only has eyes for you. He’s completely blind to all my hints and suggestions.”

“Well, please keep trying,” I said. “Honestly, you’re doing me a huge favor.”

“I will. But I’m going to have to switch to tougher tactics if this keeps up.”

When the curtain went up I was pleased to see Mom and Dad in the audience, as well as Mallika and Kara. For the first time in the history of our musical productions, we actually sold out opening night. Part of it was because we had a diverse cast this year and were pulling in friends from more than just the drama kids, but I was pretty certain that the real life love drama between Josh, Rhys, and myself had brought in a few people.

The play opened up well enough, with no major mess-ups or forgotten lines. When it came time for me to sing the Simple Joys of Maidenhood, I felt more alive than I could remember. I sang with all my energy, but in the back of my head, I couldn’t help thinking that Guinevere was a bit of an idiot for wanting men to fight over her. I still loved the song, but these days I looked at it differently.

Actually, I felt pity for her. At that point in the play she was young and naïve, an insecure girl who simply wanted to feel loved and desired. She was too inexperienced to know the pain her actions would cause.

She learned by the end.

The song “What do the Simple Folk do” was supposed to end with Josh holding me tenderly in his arms as the curtains closed. Instead, Josh bent down and kissed me gently on the lips.

I was so shocked that I couldn’t help pre-zerking, but I held off reacting as the crowd burst into applause. Once the curtains had closed though, I let Josh have it.

“You idiot!” I hissed. “What was that?”

“Sorry,” he said, his grin clearly showing no remorse. “I just got caught up in the part.”

I punched him in the shoulder - forgetting that I was pre-zerking. He staggered off-balance for several steps and fell to the floor, clutching his arm.

His expression wavered from shock, to confusion, and then I saw his eyes widen with fear momentarily. He gave me a confused look and walked off without saying anything.

The prop people needed to prepare the stage for the next scene, so I stormed off the stage. I was angry about what Josh had done – wasn’t it some sort of sexual assault to kiss someone without their permission? – but I was even more angry with myself for losing control. I hadn’t meant to hit him very hard, but when you add in the pre-zerk...

Plus, that look on his face had me worried. I had only seen him look scared once before: right after our first kiss, when I had almost killed him. Was the haze wearing off? Could it wear off? There were so many things I didn’t know.

My thoughts were interrupted by a scraping noise and a gasp from above. It was faint, even to my pre-zerking senses, so I doubted anyone else had heard it. I looked up toward the system of scaffolding and catwalks that formed a sort of metallic web overhead.

The noise came again. It was coming from stage-left, but wooden walking planks prevented me from seeing the source. I had a bit of a break before my next scene. On impulse, I walked to one of the ladders leading up and started climbing.

Using my pre-zerking reflexes, I quickly ascended the ladder and stepped onto the web of catwalks. It was dark up there, but about twenty feet away, at the edge of the stage I saw a flash of red and movement in the shadows.

Grateful for my increased balance, I ran toward the disturbance. As I approached, I had a difficult time understanding what it was that I saw. In the dim light I made out three separate images – a bucket filled with some sort of red liquid; Ginger Johnson, lying flat on her back and thrashing around; and a black monster that looked like shadow come to life and was apparently trying to eat Ginger.

I really didn’t like Ginger. Even so, I didn’t hesitate to act. I sped across the catwalk and pulled the creature off of her. It thrashed about, clearly upset to be taken from its prey.

The thing was jet black, a darkness so deep that it blended perfectly with the shadows. An almost skeletal head filled with sharp black teeth snapped and twisted, trying to reach me, but I held it firmly by the throat. Six legs with sharp claws flailed in a vain attempt to rake my flesh.

Ginger scrambled back, almost knocking over the bucket of red liquid – was that paint? – a look of terror in her eyes. She held a hand to her throat where red marks and bloody scratches welling showed she had been attacked. She breathed in small gasps, a look of pain accompanying each wheeze. 

The creature’s skin had a slimy texture, like holding a frog. As I squeezed, I felt something break, and instead of simply compressing the creature’s neck, my hand squished through it like demonic play dough. Bits of the creature oozed through my fingers, leaving my hands clenched into a fist around nothing. Unfortunately, at that moment, the creature solidified again, trapping my fist within it. I threw up my arms, trying to fling the creature off me, but it held fast, keeping my hands trapped together.

Slowly, the creature wrapped its six legs around me, stretching and oozing to surround me. Its head twisted one hundred and eighty degrees on its neck so that I stood face to face with the creature, my hands still trapped together, and my body completely enveloped.

I didn’t want to fully ‘zerk in the middle of the school with Ginger watching, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t have helped anyway. On instinct, much the same way I had fought the Bringers the first time, I tapped into my Binder powers. Instead of trying to pull free, I attempted to cast a snare. 

I pushed hard, willing the tendrils to come and wrap up the creature. To my surprise, instead of entangling the creature, black tendrils burst out of it, shattering its hold on me.

The creature fell onto the catwalk. I took a staggering step back, hands still held out, casting the snare. The thick tendrils looked almost grey in comparison to the pure blackness of the monster.

Where the tendrils touched the creature, a faint acrid smoke wafted upward. It struggled against the snare, and then began convulsing. Finally it lay still, the blackness fading from it, revealing a greenish mound of nasty ripped apart monster.

A vibration of the cat-walk alerted me that we were not alone. I turned around to see Rhys running toward me in full ‘zerk, Kara cradled in his arms.

He set Kara down beside me, and she bent to examine the creature. Rhys dropped the ‘zerk – apparently not caring that Ginger was there – and pulled me into his arms.

“Are you all right?” he asked. “I felt you pre-zerk, but I figured you were mad about Josh kissing you.” His eyes darkened. “I will have a talk with him, by the way. But when it didn’t stop I figured something was wrong and texted Kara to come back-stage.” He looked at the bound creature. “What is that?”

Kara shook her head, her face pale. “I think we need to get Mallika up here.” She looked up at me. “But you both need to get back down to the play. I’ll clean up here.” She jerked her head towards Ginger. “And take care of her.”

I nodded numbly, reaching out and embracing Rhys. He bent down and gently kissed me. Together we climbed back down the ladder to the stage.

Amy saw us coming down together and rolled her eyes. “You couldn’t wait until the play was over?” she asked, giving me a wink.

We made it through the rest of the play without incident. I noticed Josh holding his right arm awkwardly and wondered how badly I had hurt him. Part of me felt guilty for it, but another part of me was really mad at him for kissing me like that and thought he deserved what he got.

It took me a while, but by the time Rhys sang “If Ever I Would Leave You” I had once again completely submerged into the part of Guinevere. Watching Rhys sing the words of Lancelot, I couldn’t help but cry, tears cascading down my face as he sang of undying love. The end of that scene got particularly loud applause.

After the final scene, I went out to take my bow with a mixture of relief that everything had gone well – if you didn’t include the monster attacking Ginger in the middle of the play – and sadness that opening night was over. The other performances would be good, but nothing was ever as exciting as opening night.

When Rhys, Josh, and myself all held hands and bowed as Mrs. Abrams had showed us, I was pleasantly surprised to get a standing ovation that seemed to last for ages. As soon as the curtains closed, Josh let go of my hand as if it were something hot, or dangerous. He didn’t say anything to me, and marched straight out of the auditorium and into the main lobby where the cast could go meet family and friends.

Rhys took my hand and together we walked out into the chaos, listening to hundreds of people congratulate us on our performance. At any other time I would have reveled in the wonderful post-production euphoria, but instead I wanted to find Kara and Mallika and ask what had happened to that creature.

Fortunately, Kara found us. She pulled me in for a hug and whispered, “Don’t worry, it’s all taken care of.”

I gave her a quick squeeze before she moved on and let others congratulate us. A few moments later my mom and dad came down the hall, a large bouquet of roses in Mom’s arms. She handed them to me and gave me a hug and a kiss.

“Oh, Madison,” she said. “You were wonderful! I could practically see the tears in your eyes when Rhys sang to you. You have a real gift.”

“Yes, you do,” said Dad, and he hugged me, too. They gushed over my performance for a few minutes before stepping back to let others congratulate Rhys and me.

“We’ll see you at home,” Mom said as they left.

We spent the next half hour socializing with various friends, well-wishers, and random audience members who wanted to meet the cast before we went back into the dressing rooms to change.

Mallika and Kara met us in the lobby and we all went out to the Range Rover together. We talked on the way, but only about inconsequential things. None of us wanted to be overheard discussing what had happened on the catwalk.

In the back of the Range Rover, the dead monster lay wrapped in a blue tarp, a rancid smell wafting up from its corpse. Mallika and Kara had managed to sneak it off of the cat-walk and into the vehicle during the play.

“How did you get it here?” I asked.

Mallika smiled. “We’re stronger than we look.”

I blinked. “What does that even mean?”

“She means we used the binding to move the wee beastie,” Kara said. “Mind over muscle, you know.”

“No, actually I didn’t know,” I said. “I had no idea you could use a binding to move objects.”

“I’m more interested in what it is,” said Rhys. He turned the ignition and started the Range Rover. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

Mallika and Kara both looked at each other.

“The ‘what’ isn’t much of a problem,” Mallika finally said. “The bigger questions are ‘how’ and ‘who’.”

Rhys fixed Mallika with a fierce stare. “I’ve never questioned you before about Binder secrets,” he said. “You know I trust you and respect your loyalties, but we can’t let Binder politics to get in the way of our work here. Madison could have died up there, and an innocent girl – well, sort of innocent – could have been killed.”

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. Everyone had warned me there were secrets and political games between the Binders and Berserkers, but this was the first time I had been directly affected by it.

“Believe me,” said Mallika, “no one is more shocked about what happened than I am.” She put a hand on Rhys’ shoulder. “Do not worry, we will tell you all, as we would have even without your rebuke. I do not forget that we are on the same side, Rhys.”

Rhys squeezed Mallika’s hand. “Thank-you.”

“The creature Madison killed is called an Azark,” Mallika said. “It has the unique ability of being invisible to humans, and Berserkers as well.”

“But I saw-” I began.

“You are a special case,” said Mallika, holding up a hand to cut me off, “and ordinary rules do not seem to apply to you, my dear. Other than you, no Berserker or human can see an Azark while it is living. The only ones who can see a living Azark, are Binders.”