Chapter 5
#5 of Tales of Woe
So, I just spent two or three hours drawing... and then realized I couldn't take a good picture of it due to the elongated shape of the paper. So I thought I'd upload the next chapter, instead! And I swear, chapter nine is when we return to the good ol' folks we actually know.
Chapter 5 of Tales of Woe
Psijius, September 27th 2016, 4:55pm
I was running for my life. Now, most people would think this tedious and ridiculous, but personally I had some reasoning. First off, just because one can use magic better than most others doesn't automatically give them the right to neglect all other aspects about themselves. Second, I hadn't used magic in eleven years, blowing off the cell door was about as much as I was gonna do for the day. Magic wise, that is.
Whoever had blown the hole in the wall to help me escape had fired in the wrong direction. That, or every direction lead into a sleeping quarters of armed guards with guns and bullets that hurt. Luckily, the same coyote who'd blew open the wall had blown open the wall behind it as well. I managed to escape with my nine companions as a hand grabbed me by the leg, and I inadvertently dragged her with me.
See, normally I would've kicked off, but being that the hole in the wall led to a thirty foot drop and I'm not an immoral fuck, I thought it wise to... well, at the very least, preserve my own longevity by letting the kangaroo land first. Of course, I didn't think that, well... she might be smart enough to know how to survive such a fall, and better yet, use it to throw me into the hard cement below.
I tried getting up but she set who massive foot on my back and pushed me back down.
"And just where do you think you're going, Psijius?" Her voice rang with an inarguable sense of shear mockery, and I turned my head back just enough to glare at her.
"You know, I didn't do anything wrong!"
"And breakin' out of prison isn't wrong?"
"And blatantly manipulating someone with illusion magic isn't either?" Her eyes widened and she raised her foot off of me. I got up and we continued to stare awkwardly at each for a moment. "... How'd you know? I've been using this spell for the past twenty years." I saw as her younger features diminished, revealing scars, stitches, cuts, and burns so deep you could see the bone. She was missing both eyes, and bits of her nose were missing.
"Simple, you haven't changed in ten years, Adeline."
"You knowing my name isn't creepy at all."
"And you calling me by mine isn't?"
"It's on your-"
"It only says Alan P." She seemed flustered by my response, and I continued, "You know, I can make that permanent."
"No, it's not me. It's actually the same spell my grandmother uses. It's her, a hundred and thirty years ago."
"Ah. Well, maybe it's time this city gazed upon something new."
"Are you flirting with me?"
"I don't know, is it distracting you from-" She grabbed my wrist suddenly and I dropped the gun.
"Fix me, and I'll help you."
"Help? No, you don't want to help me."
"Psijius, I'm not stupid. I know that bad things are coming if they broke out. If I help you, there's a chance at me saving my son. He doesn't know..."
I thought for moment. If I helped her, it could be one step towards taking me out of this mess, but she'd get in my way before I killed Cipher. If I didn't, she'd grab the gun and kill me here and now.
I noticed a little twinkle in her eye before she said, "Yeah, you know you have no choice but to help me."
"Fine. Can we go? I'm not exactly liking being here when-" I side stepped within a second of a guard's bullet shooting past me. "That."
"Right, fine. Come on, let's go." She grabbed her gun and shot off eight rounds at the hole in the wall as she walked past me, shoving me to the ground again. I scrambled off the pavement and followed her to her car, where she drove us to a hotel and got us a room.
Once we were in the room I inquired about our location, "Why didn't we just go to your place?"
"My kid's at home, he's not gonna take to well to me having known about magic his whole life and not telling him."
"Well-"
"And he's sixteen, he'd think you were my date or something if I brought you home out of nowhere."
"Right, but this hotel is filthy. Hardly the place you'd want to be for having your body sewn back together." I gestured to the dingy hotel room, the discolored carpets and faded wallpapers. It radiated that run down feel, despite the functioning ceiling fan and the view out over the streets of the glimmering city. Right across the park I could see the BGaTE Inc. building and High Rise right next to it. They were installing cell towers on top of every building, so the shadows of huge cranes stuck out over the park and drenched half the sky scraper utopia in darkness.
"Think of it this way, you're closer to your enemy."
My eyes widened when she said this. I turned around and starred her in the eyes, "How did you know?"
"My strength is the mind and illusion. I was scouring your motives while you followed me here."
"Oh, great, so I have no secrets around you."
"Of course you don't, why would you want to?"
"You know, I'm not bad with the mind either. Let's see, you said you have a child, I don't see a ring-"
"That's not mind work, Sherlock."
"Neither is knowing I have an enemy. For all you know, my enemy could live in New York."
"I simply meant that you're out of prison and I'll let you go, but now that I know they live here..."
"God damn you, woman."
"Oh, don't you know how to intrigue the ladies?"
"Well if I really wanted to, I'd just make them fall in love with me."
"Make? Oh, even you, Psijius, the great and powerful, couldn't make someone fall in love with you."
"Wanna bet?"
"Sure. If you can make me fall in love with you by the end of the night, I'll marry you."
"Well who's to say I want you to love me?"
"You wouldn't want a young woman like me?"
"Young? You're kid's sixteen, you must've been married for a year or two before even getting pregnant, and then before that there must've been college and-"
"Let's just say I never got a senior year for a reason."
I barely understood what she meant by this. I didn't go to high school, or middle school or elementary school. Not to mention, I was a bit distracted by the dark figure that was petting her head. "... Huh?"
"Senior year of high school? I was seventeen, Alan."
The dark figure turned around and looked at me for a brief second. It looked familiar, and I was sure I knew who it was when it winked at me before vanishing through the wall. "Oh god, I'm... I'm so sorry..."
"Don't be. Feel sorry for the guy who was put in prison for it."
"... Oh. So you're what, thirty six?"
"Thirty three."
"Oh..." I paused for a minute, to assess what I'd just witnessed. Dark figure, touching... Yup. She's gonna die. God damn you, Cid... "You're lucky I like sad stories."
"Why's that?"
"By the end of the night, you'll have a fiancé."