"The Cave of Hours"
May. 13th, 2022 12:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dochermes"The Cave of Hours"
6/22/2014
I.
"All my stories are absolutely true," announced Haley. "Especially the parts that contradict each other."
Over in the passenger seat as they bombed along Route 32, Timothy Limbo did not know how to respond to that. Conversations with Haley produced that result in him sometimes. He looked over to see if he could tell whether she was serious.
At nineteen, Haley Lawson was cute rather than gorgeous, a tall leggy young woman with rich chestnut hair tied back in a thick pony tail. Her best feature was a pair of huge lime-green eyes and they were concealed behind reflecting sunglasses at the moment. She was wearing her Windcatcher costume except for the cape: long-sleeved white pullover with a wide blue ring around the collar, snug blue shorts with a white stripe down either side and white trainers. Her legs were deeply tanned, as she had been working on that.
"So, anyway," she ranted on, "My uncle Jimmy dug out the Flame Gem. I ever tell you about it? It's like my Air Gem. Hang on!" She swung around a sharp curve and drifted way too far into the other lane before correcting. Fortunately there was no oncoming traffic.
"Maybe I should drive on the way back...?"
"Why? So, when Jimmy showed me the Gem, I asked him to give a demonstration. He had a heckuva time getting enough fire from that thing to light a cigarette. He said he hadn't used it in years and was out of practice. I can't imagine that, can you? Owning that talisman and just stowing it in a desk drawer! Dang! When he was young, he used it the way I use my Gem, he was a sort of secret super-hero, he could surround himself with a nimbus of white hot fire so bright no one could recognize him and he could make cars blow up or melt through steel doors, I have no idea what he got so so boring and dull..."
"Red light!" yelled Timothy.
They squeaked to a stop at the light barely in time. Signs on a post gave directions to nearby town, including an arrow pointing right and TILLSON 9 MILES. Timothy exhaled with genuine relief at coming to a stop. He was five years older than Haley, only an inch or two taller than her five foot eight. Timothy had a mop of bright yellow hair that kept hanging down over his long narrow face. Even without his Harley, he was in his usual outfit of black leather jacket over white T-shirt, jeans with one knee worn out, and heeled cycle boots. "You were getting a little too excited there, Hales."
Signaling right, Haley swung over on the road toward Tillson. "Nice countryside. I'm a Long Island girl, you know. We say 'Guyland,' like it's one word. You said you've been to this Street Fair before?"
"Every year," he said. "My high school pals always made it a point to meet up. I don't expect too see that many today, you know.. people get jobs, move away, start families...."
"Get tangled up in the Midnight War, join the Kenneth Dred Foundation, become a Knight of Tel Shai and spend every night chasing monsters and maniacs..." she continued in the same blase tone.
That made him give a sharp barking laugh. "Oh, Hales! So true. Three years ago, I thought I'd end up a mechanic at some bike shop, drinking beer in a trailer park every night with a fat but good-hearted wife, watching stupid TV like a million other half-alive dudes. But things turned out different."
"Yoiks, look at the crowds. Say, Tim-Tim, maybe we should park here. I don't think we'll find a closer spot."
Still a mile from the center of town, they saw both sides of the road were lined with car and trucks and vans. There was an opening just big enough for the KDF Mustang they were driving. While Timothy held his breath, Haley pulled next to a Dodge pick-up, parallel parked back into the space behind it and ended up perfectly positioned. The car behind them could still easily pull out.
Timothy unsnapped his seat belt. "Not bad, seriously."
"I am an excellent driver, definitely an excellent driver," she said. "Reckon I'll leave my cloak folded up in the back seat, but at least I have the Air Gem on a choker under my shirt. You packing your gear?"
"Yeah. Even on a day off. I've got the anesthetic dart gun where the back of my jacket hides it, I'm wearing the Trom armor under my clothes and my pockets are so crammed with gadgets that I almost forgot my wallet."
"The life of a hero is suffering and hardship," she laughed, hopping out. "Come on, let's pretend to be normal for a few hours."
Strung across the main street was a banner, TILLSON 87TH ANNUAL STREET FAIR. After passing a few quite posh houses, they found sidewalks and parking meters springing up. The town had a hardware store, a couple of boutiques, a nice little Italian bistro with an open air court, a bar called UNCLE JERRY'S, a library set back off the drag with its own parking lot. And there were people everywhere. The chatter was lively but not oppressive.
"Good to get out of Manhattan for a day. Boy, that sunlight is warm," Timothy said. "What do you think of these?"
Stopping at a booth run by an old lady with gleaming white hair down to her waist, Haley sniffed. "Native American jewelry, says it's made in New Mexico by a Hopi craftsman. Silver and turquoise. Sure, it's beautiful. But I don't want to start carrying things around just yet. Maybe on the way back?"
"Sounds reasonable. There's a palm-reader over there. Oooh, fried dough with powdered sugar. I could be forced to eat a little of that!"
The Windcatcher smacked him affectionately high on the back. "Sometimes I think your brain is actually part of your stomach. Maybe the other way around. But... it does smell tantalizing."
"Heh, expect to sample everything, I made sure to bring a lot of singles and fives," Timothy began but he was cut off by a voice calling his name.
"Tim! Hey, Tim, it's me, Gabby!" A petite young woman with wavy brown hair and oversized round-rimmed glasses came sprinting toward him. "Tim! Are you here for the Haunted House?"
II.
"Gabby! Oh My GOD!" yelled Tim as the girl leaped up and wrapped her arms around him in a ferocious hug. He lifted her off the ground and swung her slightly from side to side with her legs dangling free.
"I haven't seen you in years," she laughed. Disentangling, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek and turned toward the watching Haley. "Hi. Tim and I went to school together before he moved down to the big city."
"Howyadoin," the Windcatcher responded, holding out one hand for a polite shake. She was six inches taller than the girl and smiled down at her. "My name's Haley. I actually work with Timothy at the Kenneth Dred Foundation. You said your name is Gabby?"
"Gabrielle Elizabeth Marchetti! I'm starting Monday at the eye clinic uptown. Filing clerk and schedules. Yeah, Tim and I have known each since, I don't know, we were in diapers." Gabby was pretty enough, with beautiful olive skin and delicately curved lips. The round glasses didn't show just how large those dark brown eyes were. Maybe twenty-four like Timothy, Gabby was wearing tight dark purple jeans and a loose white linen blouse with puffy sleeves and a square neckline. A fine-linked gold chain hung low around her neck and a brown handbag was slung over one shoulder.
It was the cheerful grin flashing perfect white teeth that everyone noticed. Not smiling back was difficult for even the grumpy. An elderly couple trudging past visibly cheered up when they saw Gabby's face.
"I try to come up for this fair every year," Timothy said. "A break from Manhattan where you have people knocking you down as they run by and the air smells like bus exhaust. How have you been, Gabby?"
The young woman gave Haley an uncertain look. "Ummm... I don't want to make things awkward. Are you guys, like, together...?"
"No, no, just friends," Haley too hastily responded. "Timothy and I are taking a break from research which involves filling out reports and looking things up in dusty old books crammed with tiny little print you can hardly make out. He said he was coming up here and I forced him to take me along."
"Oh. Yeah, I read all about this Kenneth Dred Foundation when Tim first said he was working there!" Gabby said. "Supposed to be the leading source for information on the genuine supernatural. Wild stuff. I gave myself the creeps reading some of the articles you guys have published online. Brrrrr..."
Timothy found himself smiling down into Gabby's beaming face and he looked back at Haley. "Aww, to be honest, ninety-nine per cent of what we investigate turns out to be nothing. Only the weird bits get any attention. So, Gabby, you here with anyone?"
"Me? Nah? My friends wandered off in a group, they're looking for a place to smoke if you know what I mean. Listen, Tim.. Haley... it's odd you two came here this year. Do you wanna see the Cave of Hours?"
The two KDF members exchanged a quizzical look. Then, venting an exaggerated sigh, Haley said, "The Midnight War will NOT leave us alone. I swear, we're pulled into it no matter what we do. Come on, let's just have some fun first."
"I guess we should wander around before going there," Timothy said. He brushed his hair back out of his eyes with his hand, even though it promptly fell down over his forehead again. His eyes were dark blue, wide-set and friendly. "You know, we can check out some of the booths, maybe get our palms read or try to win a stuffed bear by betting on a wheel."
Gabby raised a single emphatic finger. "There go my friends. I'm gonna tell 'em where I am, be right back."
As she dashed away, Haley gave Timothy the sweetest smile imaginable. "Cute little bug. If you like them flat-chested."
"Aw, come on, Hales. She's a sweetheart. Gabby did as much of my chemistry homework as I did. She's the only one from my hometown that I kept in touch with. For a while, anyway."
"Yeah. Seriously," Haley continued, "I've drifted away from most of my old friends too. Our KDF lives are so crazy and to be honest, so dangerous that I don't want to tell anyone about them."
Gabby returned but with a slower pace and a face that had sagged into worry. "Say, could you guys give me a ride to Milford later? My friends are taking off."
"Sure," Timothy replied.
"Not a problem," added Haley. "Something wrong?"
"I don't know. Tina feels funny, she's tired and achy and says her head is pounding. She's usually healthy as a mule. Maybe she ate something."
"That IS odd," Timothy said. A familiar jolt of combined uneasiness and excitement was stirring in the back of his mind. "You know, did she go to this Haunted House you told us about?"
"She did. The Cave of Hours. And the others with her said they hated it."
III.
"Maybe we should at least take a look at it," he said as he realized both girls were staring expectantly at him. "You said it's at the end of the street?"
"Yeah. Right before the Two-Ton Bridge. There was an unused field there and they claimed it." Gabby took his arm gleefully and started tugging him along. Timothy glanced back and saw Haley was making a goofy face at him that consisted of rolling her eyes up until the whites showed and then protruding her lower jaw. Exactly what she was implying by this eluded him.
The first item that sidetracked them was the 'Human Gyroscope.' This was a set of three metal hoops moving independently, each with a fifteen foot circumference and with a seat fastened in the middle. Haley insisted on trying it as if her life depended on the experience, paid the fee, got strapped in and was whirled first front over bottom and then left over right, then in a series of several directions at once. The high-pitched screaming and shrieking which she produced seemed enough to set off car alarms but then everyone reacted to the ride this way and no one in the area noticed.
As she was released, the Windcatcher reeled drunkly around, grabbed a stranger's arm for support and finally got her bearings. "Woo. Woo-HOO!" she yelled. "That's the stuff. C'mon, Tim, your turn."
"Oh, I don't know..." he mumbled as the two girls paid for his ride and helped strap him in. He made sure there was nothing loose in his pockets, as the ground showed quite a bit of change from previous riders and which little kids were eagerly snatching up.
Tim clenched his mouth tightly and managed to keep from yelling during the wild ride. He noticed that Haley was adding some extra push to the spin. When it was over and he was unstrapped, Timothy remained determined not to stagger. Instead, he turned to one side and threw right up into the grass by the side of the road.
"Heh heh. That'll slow your reunion romance," Haley chuckled. Gabby rushed to get some paper towels from a hot dog stand and gave them to Tim so he could clean up. Not much had gotten on him, just a little backsplash on his boots which he wiped as best he could before heading over to an open-frame trash barrel.
"Hey, Tim, did you have scrambled eggs for breakfast?" called Haley. "This is all yellow."
After he was done apologizing and the girls assured him that it probably happened to lots of people, they started back on their way. The crowd was not dense enough to be uncomfortable and featured a mix of dating couples, oldsters and families with little kids who were so worked up they ran back and forth for no particular reason.
Haley and Gabby decided to get two chili dogs each, saying they understood if Tim wasn't interested. He did buy a bottle of club soda to keep rinsing out his mouth and spitting into the bushes. After her first bite, Haley groused, "This is cold."
"Mine too. What a rip-off. Let's go get our money back."
"No, wait, I've got a litte trick." She stared Gabby in the eye. "Promise to keep a secret?"
"Sure. I guess. Yes."
"All right." Haley Lawson held up her chili dogs and drew on her Windcatcher ability. The ancient Eldar talisman on the choker under her shirt siphoned blisteringly hot air from near an active volcano in northern Japan and swirled it around her food. A pleasing aroma and visible steam rose from the dogs. "That's better."
"Do mine, do mine!" Gabby held out her chili dogs and watched the process with widened eyes. As soon as the dogs cooled, she took a tentative bite. "Oh yeah. That's the ticket. So, Haley, is this some paranormal ability you found in your KDF work? It's amazing."
"Mmmph grbnnn," Windcatcher replied, then finished chewing. "Yeah. We've picked up a few useful tricks here and there. Nothing earth-shaking but we DO want to keep them secret, you understand?"
"Absolutely, sure. I promised." She was about to take another bite when her eyes moved questioningly toward Timothy.
"What? Oh, me? Errr, I can't do anything as dramatic as Haley. My power is more, I dunno, subtle."
"He's too modest. For once. Listen," Haley leaned over toward Gabby and lowered her voice. "Tim can create these little whirlwinds that go anywhere. Whatever they see, he can see. He's sat in his room and watched a surfing competition in California as if he was there. He can find anything you lost."
"Really? Wow. That could be SO useful. Wait. Let me try something." Gabby scampered along the side of a parked SUV, made sure she couldn't be seen and then hurried back. "So, what did I just put over there?"
Timothy had to smile at her enthusiasm. He had felt so jaded lately that it was refreshing to see someone being excited. He held up an open palm and a barely visible vortex shimmered in the air. Shaped like a tornado which stretched up and then contracted, not easily seen even by someone looking for it, the Casper whirled around and hummed over to the other side of the SUV.
"Welllll," Timothy said, "What I see is a little plastic case on the ground. White, round. Your contact lenses?"
"They ARE! They are!" Gabby grabbed him from behind him with both arms around him and hopped up and down. "I didn't want to wear them today because it's so dusty out. That's why I've got my glasses on. And you saw the case." She dashed off to retrieve her item.
"Sable would be really ticked off about us revealing our abilities this way," he muttered to Haley.
"Feh. We're not hurting anyone. She's your girlfriend, anyway," the Windcatcher chuckled.
"Sadly, she was never my.. oh, hey, Gabby. Think we should check out this House of Horrors now?"
"Yes, yes, I want to see how you guys operate. This is beyond cool. You're like super-heroes. My heart is pounding."
Haley finished her chili dog, wiped her mouth and found a trash basket for the debris. "Seriously, none of this is going on your Twitter or your blog or anything right? You said you'd respect our secrets."
"I promise, I promise. But I am dying to find out what's going on," Gabby pleaded. "Pleasssse..?"
IV.
At the far end of Tillson, with the Catskills rising blue in the distance, was a vacant field. No one had even tried to develop it for years. Here was parked a big tow truck and an eighteen foot rectangular trailer painted midnight blue with a few gold stars and spangles. A sliding corrugated door at the back end was guarded by a collapsible booth in which an old man sat and tapped his fingers as he smoked a vile stogie.
On top of the trailer, supported on two foot high posts, was a black banner with white lettering THE CAVE OF HOURS - MOST TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE SHORT OF DEATH ITSELF. A pair of narrowed yellow eyes with cat's-slit pupils glowered down from the middle of this banner.
No line had formed, even though the rest of the fair was crowded and getting more lively as the afternoon went on. With Timothy and Gabby behind her, Haley Lawson approached the attraction and slowed to a halt well before reaching it.
"Sheesh, I have to say that's a strange-looking House of Horrors," she admitted. "Don't the slogans usually promise 'Thrills and Chills' or 'Hold Onto To Your Boyfriend' and make it sound like fun?"
"I asked Gina what was in there and she said she didn't want to talk about it," Gabby said. "The outside is WAY beyond spooky-looking, don't you think?"
Beside her, Timothy Limbo gave a start and lowered his hand. "Now, I really am getting worried. A Casper came running back to me. Well, not running. But I asked him to get into that trailer and snoop around and he was too afraid."
Turning her head, Haley seemed to have lost some of her usual sublime confidence. "Really? That doesn't happen too often."
"You ever see a frightened dog come yelping into the house with his tail between his legs? That's how my Casper was acting." Timothy straightened his leather jacket, stood up taller and smacked his hands together. "Now I'm mad. You guys wait here, I'll buy a ticket and find out what the story is."
"Let me go," Haley said. "I'm more powerful. Well, I really AM. You can't summon a tornado or cause a blizzard but I can. If there's anything malevolent in there, I should be the one to face it."
Timothy hesitated. For a long moment, the two of them stared each other down. Then Gabby stepped forward and took his arm.
"Let it go, Haley," she said. "He's a boy. He doesn't want to let a girl do something dangerous while he stays safe. It's the way they're brought up."
She squeezed up tight against Timothy. "The two of us will go in there. We're not gonna get killed, there's a town police car right down the street. But if anything bad does happen, then Haley can use her tornadoes and blizzards to rescue us, right?"
Looking down into her eager face, Timothy said, "Oh, I think I better go in by myself. You're a civilian."
"If you leave the two of us out here, we will gossip about you," Gabby promised.
"Damn right," Haley added. "I'll tell your little girlfriend here all kinds of embarrassing stuff about you. Remember the night you stepped out of headquarters to pick something up and the wind blew the front door shut and it locked you out and you only had a bathtowel..."
"All right! Stop!"
"Or the whole incident when that baby Dragon got attached to you and followed you everywhere and you made a little bed for it in your room..?"
"I get it. Okay. Gabby, let's buy some tickets." He led her across the dry dusty field toward the exhibit. As they approached the ticket-taker booth, Gabby said in a low voice, "Now I really need to hear about the Dragon that wanted to be your pet. You mean like an Iguana?"
"No, it was four feet long and we fed it cow bones," Timothy said. To the man in the booth, he raised his voice, "Um. Hi. Two, please."
Seated on a stool behind the counter, a middle-aged man raised his head as if waking up from a nap. The long straight black hair blended into the chest-length beard so well that it was hard to mark a dividing point. From an unremarkable face, a sharp pointed nose stuck out like a blade. But the blue eyes which fixed on Timothy and Gabby were clear and bright but remarkably unfriendly. "Five dollars each."
"Sure. Here you are." Timothy handed over a ten and received two stubs torn off a roll of perforated orange cardboard. Each stub had only a number printed on it.
"Simply walk through if you can handle the raw terror," the man announced. "The exit door will open for survivors." Although the old man's voice was jovial, no trace of humor reached his eyes. They remained cold, even when landing on the piquant little face of Gabrielle Marchetti, who invariably made strangers smile.
"Yeah, thanks." Timothy glanced back at Haley, who threw him a mock salute with two fingers to her temple. He stepped over to the plain metal door marked ENTER in ugly red letters and opened it. A gust of stuffy foul air rushed out.
Still holding his arm tightly, Gabby said, "Jeez, your biceps are like marble, Tim. When did you start working out?"
"Oh, a couple years now. Here we go."
V.
"I'm ready," she answered. They crossed into an alcove divided by black sheets from the room beyond. The door closed behind them. Only a vague hazy light showed through the sheets. Timothy pushed through and they stood in a strange chamber as their eyes adjusted to a dim blue nightlight down by the floor.
The House of Horrors was made to look like a cave, the rounded rock walls evidently of plaster made slimy with some oil. A skull missing its lower jaw sat in one corner, several other human bones were scattered about. High up near the ceiling, rat squeakings sounded. Ghostly wailings echoed. As they got their bearings, they heard a low unpleasant chuckle from the alcove where they had entered.
"Oh, this doesn't seem so bad..." Gabby began to say just as the floor tilted beneath them. They windmilled their arms to successfully stay on their feet. On the wall to their left, two yellow eyes large as dinner plates lit up, then narrowed in a hostile manner.
"Something feels odd," Timothy said. "Do you smell anything bad?"
"Yeah," she replied, finding his arm again. "Kinda sour. Maybe someone left a hamburger here overnight or something. Look out!"
They both crouched as a whooshing disturbed the air where their heads had been. "What the hell? Did this place try to brain us with a club?"
"Tim, this is NOT fun! I don't know what I was expecting but this isn't it!"
"You know what, let's give it another minute and then beat it." He moved further toward the rear of the compartment where another black sheet was hanging. A spotlight clicked and a large symbol in deep red filled the space from floor to ceiling... an oval with an inverted V crossing it at an angle.
"Red Sect!" Timothy snapped. "That's it. We're out of here!" He yanked the sheet to one side and slammed his palm against the horizontal bar which opened the red door. Outside was the late June sunshine of a beautiful afternoon, as normal and reassuring as anyone could desire. Timothy and Gabby hopped out, skipping the two steps, and strode quickly away.
Spotting them, Haley rushed over. "Well? Well?"
"Not at all what I was expecting!" Gabby told her. "It wasn't scary so much as just...strange."
"We saw the symbol for Red Sect, Hales. You know what that means."
The Windcatcher looked from Timothy to Gabby, studying their faces. "You guys are white as a piece of paper. Better sit down. Here, away from that place." When they had all dropped down to the dry grass, Haley said, "Red Sect is always bad news. I guess it's true, Tel Shai knights are drawn to Midnight War crap even when they aren't looking for it. How do you guys feel?"
"Frankly, I'm exhausted," Gabby Marchetti admitted. "It's like I ran a mile. My knees are weak." She leaned up against him. "That smell. Do you think there's a gas leak or something? Should we tell the police to check it out?"
"No." Haley had seated herself facing them with her legs crossed in a lotus. The pale green eyes showed anger rare for her. In one hand, she was holding the flat metal device called a Link. "I ran the license plate on that trailer. The name of the owner is a cover of course, but it was enough to point me to who that geezer in the ticket booth really is."
"What kind of phone is that?" asked Gabby. "It looks pretty cool."
Disregarding the question, Haley said, "Get this, Tim. That guy is Milton Lundborg, age eighty-three. One of the few living survivors of the original Lundborgs. Gabby, let this sink in. That horrible old man selling tickets is from a family of sorcerers. Warlocks. Black Magick practitioners, whatever you want to call them. He victimized you."
"Eighty-three? Really? He looks maybe late fifties, sixty or so to me. My uncle's that age and he has the same white specks in his hair." Gabby tried to get up, groaned and plopped back down again. "I hope I'm not coming down with the flu or something."
Timothy abruptly snorted and forced himself up to his feet, helping Gabby rise as well. "Now I'm mad. I get it. Haley, you must see it too. That Lundborg has set up a sort of gralic leechery in there. He's siphoning off life force from some of the customers, not all of them, just one or two. That's why he looks younger than he is."
"I was thinking the same thing," Haley Lawson nodded. She rose up to stand with the nimble ease of youth. "He's stealing lifeforce."
"Should I be freaking out or what?" asked Gabby. "If I hadn't seen what you two are capable of, I think I'd make some excuse to run home. This is crazy talk."
"I bet we have each lost a year or two of our potential lifespans," Timothy told her. "Goddamit, what a filthy racket. That Lundborg travels the country sucking up lifeforce and staying younger indefinitely."
Gabby's face fell as it all sank in. "That is so wrong on every level. What are you guys going to do? Call the cops? The FBI?"
"There is a little trick I've been practicing," Haley said. "Maybe it'll work this time." She got down into a lotus again, facing the CAVE OF HOURS trailer. The ticket-taker was studying a newspaper and paying them no attention. "This is going to take a lot of concentration. I need you two to be quiet."
"Not a problem," Gabby promised. "But I have a feeling whatever you're planning is gonna be GOOD!" She and Timothy moved back behind Haley and sat down on the grass to watch.
Closing her eyes, Haley focused her thoughts as strictly as she could. The ancient talisman she wore enabled her to summon air masses from anywhere in the world. Over the past few years, she had increased the amount of air she could summon and she had sharpened the precision with which she could shape it. But it was hellishly difficult. If her attention faltered or her determination slacked, the results were a disappointing fizzle or a destructive backlash. This was something she had been researching and had been wanting to try.
First, a tunnel of freezing air rising right above the CAVE OF HOURS, at least a mile high....
As Timothy and Gabby stared in fascination, dark heavy clouds started sweeping in from the south. A breeze stiff enough to move their hair whistled by. Moisture accumulated until their skin felt damp. Gabby opened her mouth to remark on this but kept silent. To her immense relief, Timothy put an arm across her shoulders and squeezed comfortingly.
High overhead, a rumble sounded. The sunlight was being overcast by angry black clouds directly above them. Haley seemed to be hardly breathing.
Jumping out from the ticket booth, Milton Lundborg jabbed a furious finger at them. "Tel Shai dogs! Oh, I know you. Your deaths will be long and miserable." He glanced up at the clouds boiling above, then ran into the trailer just as everything turned a blinding white. Thunder sharp as a whip cracking deafened everyone. The CAVE OF HOURS flew apart with fragments spinning away and flames breaking out in the interior. If Lundborg screamed, no one could have heard it over the ringing in their ears.
A few seconds later, the fair-goers were running over, yelling over each other. The police car from halfway down the main street started up its lightbar and swerved in a U-turn to start crawling through the people filling the street. Timothy gave Haley a hand getting up, and the three of them managed to mingle with the confused crowd enough to work their way back and off the field without being questioned.
After they walked a block back to the now abandoned booths and attractions, Haley Lawson fell onto a sidewalk bench as her legs gave way. "Man! Never again. I don't think I had any control over that bolt. It could have hit us!"
"Not something I wanted to hear," Timothy told her, rubbing a finger in his ear. "My hair is still standing up. Gab, how are you doing?"
The young woman's glasses had fallen off at some point but she had kept hold of them and now wiped fog from the lenses with her sleeve. "I.. I don't know. I should be getting all hysterical and wetting my pants or babbling nonsense. That was the scariest thing I ever saw. But, you know, it was also awesome."
Haley managed a shaky smile. "Now I know what Mom meant when she passed the Air Gem to me. She said great power should be used as sparingly as possible. Whew. My hands are shaking."
"At least that Lundborg rat won't be stealing any more years out of people's lives," Timothy said. "Gabby, you want to get going? I think we need a quiet ride in the country to let this all sink in."
Despite everything, Gabby grinned. "Sure. This fair is kinda done for the day, dont'ya think?"
4/8/2020
6/22/2014
I.
"All my stories are absolutely true," announced Haley. "Especially the parts that contradict each other."
Over in the passenger seat as they bombed along Route 32, Timothy Limbo did not know how to respond to that. Conversations with Haley produced that result in him sometimes. He looked over to see if he could tell whether she was serious.
At nineteen, Haley Lawson was cute rather than gorgeous, a tall leggy young woman with rich chestnut hair tied back in a thick pony tail. Her best feature was a pair of huge lime-green eyes and they were concealed behind reflecting sunglasses at the moment. She was wearing her Windcatcher costume except for the cape: long-sleeved white pullover with a wide blue ring around the collar, snug blue shorts with a white stripe down either side and white trainers. Her legs were deeply tanned, as she had been working on that.
"So, anyway," she ranted on, "My uncle Jimmy dug out the Flame Gem. I ever tell you about it? It's like my Air Gem. Hang on!" She swung around a sharp curve and drifted way too far into the other lane before correcting. Fortunately there was no oncoming traffic.
"Maybe I should drive on the way back...?"
"Why? So, when Jimmy showed me the Gem, I asked him to give a demonstration. He had a heckuva time getting enough fire from that thing to light a cigarette. He said he hadn't used it in years and was out of practice. I can't imagine that, can you? Owning that talisman and just stowing it in a desk drawer! Dang! When he was young, he used it the way I use my Gem, he was a sort of secret super-hero, he could surround himself with a nimbus of white hot fire so bright no one could recognize him and he could make cars blow up or melt through steel doors, I have no idea what he got so so boring and dull..."
"Red light!" yelled Timothy.
They squeaked to a stop at the light barely in time. Signs on a post gave directions to nearby town, including an arrow pointing right and TILLSON 9 MILES. Timothy exhaled with genuine relief at coming to a stop. He was five years older than Haley, only an inch or two taller than her five foot eight. Timothy had a mop of bright yellow hair that kept hanging down over his long narrow face. Even without his Harley, he was in his usual outfit of black leather jacket over white T-shirt, jeans with one knee worn out, and heeled cycle boots. "You were getting a little too excited there, Hales."
Signaling right, Haley swung over on the road toward Tillson. "Nice countryside. I'm a Long Island girl, you know. We say 'Guyland,' like it's one word. You said you've been to this Street Fair before?"
"Every year," he said. "My high school pals always made it a point to meet up. I don't expect too see that many today, you know.. people get jobs, move away, start families...."
"Get tangled up in the Midnight War, join the Kenneth Dred Foundation, become a Knight of Tel Shai and spend every night chasing monsters and maniacs..." she continued in the same blase tone.
That made him give a sharp barking laugh. "Oh, Hales! So true. Three years ago, I thought I'd end up a mechanic at some bike shop, drinking beer in a trailer park every night with a fat but good-hearted wife, watching stupid TV like a million other half-alive dudes. But things turned out different."
"Yoiks, look at the crowds. Say, Tim-Tim, maybe we should park here. I don't think we'll find a closer spot."
Still a mile from the center of town, they saw both sides of the road were lined with car and trucks and vans. There was an opening just big enough for the KDF Mustang they were driving. While Timothy held his breath, Haley pulled next to a Dodge pick-up, parallel parked back into the space behind it and ended up perfectly positioned. The car behind them could still easily pull out.
Timothy unsnapped his seat belt. "Not bad, seriously."
"I am an excellent driver, definitely an excellent driver," she said. "Reckon I'll leave my cloak folded up in the back seat, but at least I have the Air Gem on a choker under my shirt. You packing your gear?"
"Yeah. Even on a day off. I've got the anesthetic dart gun where the back of my jacket hides it, I'm wearing the Trom armor under my clothes and my pockets are so crammed with gadgets that I almost forgot my wallet."
"The life of a hero is suffering and hardship," she laughed, hopping out. "Come on, let's pretend to be normal for a few hours."
Strung across the main street was a banner, TILLSON 87TH ANNUAL STREET FAIR. After passing a few quite posh houses, they found sidewalks and parking meters springing up. The town had a hardware store, a couple of boutiques, a nice little Italian bistro with an open air court, a bar called UNCLE JERRY'S, a library set back off the drag with its own parking lot. And there were people everywhere. The chatter was lively but not oppressive.
"Good to get out of Manhattan for a day. Boy, that sunlight is warm," Timothy said. "What do you think of these?"
Stopping at a booth run by an old lady with gleaming white hair down to her waist, Haley sniffed. "Native American jewelry, says it's made in New Mexico by a Hopi craftsman. Silver and turquoise. Sure, it's beautiful. But I don't want to start carrying things around just yet. Maybe on the way back?"
"Sounds reasonable. There's a palm-reader over there. Oooh, fried dough with powdered sugar. I could be forced to eat a little of that!"
The Windcatcher smacked him affectionately high on the back. "Sometimes I think your brain is actually part of your stomach. Maybe the other way around. But... it does smell tantalizing."
"Heh, expect to sample everything, I made sure to bring a lot of singles and fives," Timothy began but he was cut off by a voice calling his name.
"Tim! Hey, Tim, it's me, Gabby!" A petite young woman with wavy brown hair and oversized round-rimmed glasses came sprinting toward him. "Tim! Are you here for the Haunted House?"
II.
"Gabby! Oh My GOD!" yelled Tim as the girl leaped up and wrapped her arms around him in a ferocious hug. He lifted her off the ground and swung her slightly from side to side with her legs dangling free.
"I haven't seen you in years," she laughed. Disentangling, she gave him a quick peck on the cheek and turned toward the watching Haley. "Hi. Tim and I went to school together before he moved down to the big city."
"Howyadoin," the Windcatcher responded, holding out one hand for a polite shake. She was six inches taller than the girl and smiled down at her. "My name's Haley. I actually work with Timothy at the Kenneth Dred Foundation. You said your name is Gabby?"
"Gabrielle Elizabeth Marchetti! I'm starting Monday at the eye clinic uptown. Filing clerk and schedules. Yeah, Tim and I have known each since, I don't know, we were in diapers." Gabby was pretty enough, with beautiful olive skin and delicately curved lips. The round glasses didn't show just how large those dark brown eyes were. Maybe twenty-four like Timothy, Gabby was wearing tight dark purple jeans and a loose white linen blouse with puffy sleeves and a square neckline. A fine-linked gold chain hung low around her neck and a brown handbag was slung over one shoulder.
It was the cheerful grin flashing perfect white teeth that everyone noticed. Not smiling back was difficult for even the grumpy. An elderly couple trudging past visibly cheered up when they saw Gabby's face.
"I try to come up for this fair every year," Timothy said. "A break from Manhattan where you have people knocking you down as they run by and the air smells like bus exhaust. How have you been, Gabby?"
The young woman gave Haley an uncertain look. "Ummm... I don't want to make things awkward. Are you guys, like, together...?"
"No, no, just friends," Haley too hastily responded. "Timothy and I are taking a break from research which involves filling out reports and looking things up in dusty old books crammed with tiny little print you can hardly make out. He said he was coming up here and I forced him to take me along."
"Oh. Yeah, I read all about this Kenneth Dred Foundation when Tim first said he was working there!" Gabby said. "Supposed to be the leading source for information on the genuine supernatural. Wild stuff. I gave myself the creeps reading some of the articles you guys have published online. Brrrrr..."
Timothy found himself smiling down into Gabby's beaming face and he looked back at Haley. "Aww, to be honest, ninety-nine per cent of what we investigate turns out to be nothing. Only the weird bits get any attention. So, Gabby, you here with anyone?"
"Me? Nah? My friends wandered off in a group, they're looking for a place to smoke if you know what I mean. Listen, Tim.. Haley... it's odd you two came here this year. Do you wanna see the Cave of Hours?"
The two KDF members exchanged a quizzical look. Then, venting an exaggerated sigh, Haley said, "The Midnight War will NOT leave us alone. I swear, we're pulled into it no matter what we do. Come on, let's just have some fun first."
"I guess we should wander around before going there," Timothy said. He brushed his hair back out of his eyes with his hand, even though it promptly fell down over his forehead again. His eyes were dark blue, wide-set and friendly. "You know, we can check out some of the booths, maybe get our palms read or try to win a stuffed bear by betting on a wheel."
Gabby raised a single emphatic finger. "There go my friends. I'm gonna tell 'em where I am, be right back."
As she dashed away, Haley gave Timothy the sweetest smile imaginable. "Cute little bug. If you like them flat-chested."
"Aw, come on, Hales. She's a sweetheart. Gabby did as much of my chemistry homework as I did. She's the only one from my hometown that I kept in touch with. For a while, anyway."
"Yeah. Seriously," Haley continued, "I've drifted away from most of my old friends too. Our KDF lives are so crazy and to be honest, so dangerous that I don't want to tell anyone about them."
Gabby returned but with a slower pace and a face that had sagged into worry. "Say, could you guys give me a ride to Milford later? My friends are taking off."
"Sure," Timothy replied.
"Not a problem," added Haley. "Something wrong?"
"I don't know. Tina feels funny, she's tired and achy and says her head is pounding. She's usually healthy as a mule. Maybe she ate something."
"That IS odd," Timothy said. A familiar jolt of combined uneasiness and excitement was stirring in the back of his mind. "You know, did she go to this Haunted House you told us about?"
"She did. The Cave of Hours. And the others with her said they hated it."
III.
"Maybe we should at least take a look at it," he said as he realized both girls were staring expectantly at him. "You said it's at the end of the street?"
"Yeah. Right before the Two-Ton Bridge. There was an unused field there and they claimed it." Gabby took his arm gleefully and started tugging him along. Timothy glanced back and saw Haley was making a goofy face at him that consisted of rolling her eyes up until the whites showed and then protruding her lower jaw. Exactly what she was implying by this eluded him.
The first item that sidetracked them was the 'Human Gyroscope.' This was a set of three metal hoops moving independently, each with a fifteen foot circumference and with a seat fastened in the middle. Haley insisted on trying it as if her life depended on the experience, paid the fee, got strapped in and was whirled first front over bottom and then left over right, then in a series of several directions at once. The high-pitched screaming and shrieking which she produced seemed enough to set off car alarms but then everyone reacted to the ride this way and no one in the area noticed.
As she was released, the Windcatcher reeled drunkly around, grabbed a stranger's arm for support and finally got her bearings. "Woo. Woo-HOO!" she yelled. "That's the stuff. C'mon, Tim, your turn."
"Oh, I don't know..." he mumbled as the two girls paid for his ride and helped strap him in. He made sure there was nothing loose in his pockets, as the ground showed quite a bit of change from previous riders and which little kids were eagerly snatching up.
Tim clenched his mouth tightly and managed to keep from yelling during the wild ride. He noticed that Haley was adding some extra push to the spin. When it was over and he was unstrapped, Timothy remained determined not to stagger. Instead, he turned to one side and threw right up into the grass by the side of the road.
"Heh heh. That'll slow your reunion romance," Haley chuckled. Gabby rushed to get some paper towels from a hot dog stand and gave them to Tim so he could clean up. Not much had gotten on him, just a little backsplash on his boots which he wiped as best he could before heading over to an open-frame trash barrel.
"Hey, Tim, did you have scrambled eggs for breakfast?" called Haley. "This is all yellow."
After he was done apologizing and the girls assured him that it probably happened to lots of people, they started back on their way. The crowd was not dense enough to be uncomfortable and featured a mix of dating couples, oldsters and families with little kids who were so worked up they ran back and forth for no particular reason.
Haley and Gabby decided to get two chili dogs each, saying they understood if Tim wasn't interested. He did buy a bottle of club soda to keep rinsing out his mouth and spitting into the bushes. After her first bite, Haley groused, "This is cold."
"Mine too. What a rip-off. Let's go get our money back."
"No, wait, I've got a litte trick." She stared Gabby in the eye. "Promise to keep a secret?"
"Sure. I guess. Yes."
"All right." Haley Lawson held up her chili dogs and drew on her Windcatcher ability. The ancient Eldar talisman on the choker under her shirt siphoned blisteringly hot air from near an active volcano in northern Japan and swirled it around her food. A pleasing aroma and visible steam rose from the dogs. "That's better."
"Do mine, do mine!" Gabby held out her chili dogs and watched the process with widened eyes. As soon as the dogs cooled, she took a tentative bite. "Oh yeah. That's the ticket. So, Haley, is this some paranormal ability you found in your KDF work? It's amazing."
"Mmmph grbnnn," Windcatcher replied, then finished chewing. "Yeah. We've picked up a few useful tricks here and there. Nothing earth-shaking but we DO want to keep them secret, you understand?"
"Absolutely, sure. I promised." She was about to take another bite when her eyes moved questioningly toward Timothy.
"What? Oh, me? Errr, I can't do anything as dramatic as Haley. My power is more, I dunno, subtle."
"He's too modest. For once. Listen," Haley leaned over toward Gabby and lowered her voice. "Tim can create these little whirlwinds that go anywhere. Whatever they see, he can see. He's sat in his room and watched a surfing competition in California as if he was there. He can find anything you lost."
"Really? Wow. That could be SO useful. Wait. Let me try something." Gabby scampered along the side of a parked SUV, made sure she couldn't be seen and then hurried back. "So, what did I just put over there?"
Timothy had to smile at her enthusiasm. He had felt so jaded lately that it was refreshing to see someone being excited. He held up an open palm and a barely visible vortex shimmered in the air. Shaped like a tornado which stretched up and then contracted, not easily seen even by someone looking for it, the Casper whirled around and hummed over to the other side of the SUV.
"Welllll," Timothy said, "What I see is a little plastic case on the ground. White, round. Your contact lenses?"
"They ARE! They are!" Gabby grabbed him from behind him with both arms around him and hopped up and down. "I didn't want to wear them today because it's so dusty out. That's why I've got my glasses on. And you saw the case." She dashed off to retrieve her item.
"Sable would be really ticked off about us revealing our abilities this way," he muttered to Haley.
"Feh. We're not hurting anyone. She's your girlfriend, anyway," the Windcatcher chuckled.
"Sadly, she was never my.. oh, hey, Gabby. Think we should check out this House of Horrors now?"
"Yes, yes, I want to see how you guys operate. This is beyond cool. You're like super-heroes. My heart is pounding."
Haley finished her chili dog, wiped her mouth and found a trash basket for the debris. "Seriously, none of this is going on your Twitter or your blog or anything right? You said you'd respect our secrets."
"I promise, I promise. But I am dying to find out what's going on," Gabby pleaded. "Pleasssse..?"
IV.
At the far end of Tillson, with the Catskills rising blue in the distance, was a vacant field. No one had even tried to develop it for years. Here was parked a big tow truck and an eighteen foot rectangular trailer painted midnight blue with a few gold stars and spangles. A sliding corrugated door at the back end was guarded by a collapsible booth in which an old man sat and tapped his fingers as he smoked a vile stogie.
On top of the trailer, supported on two foot high posts, was a black banner with white lettering THE CAVE OF HOURS - MOST TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE SHORT OF DEATH ITSELF. A pair of narrowed yellow eyes with cat's-slit pupils glowered down from the middle of this banner.
No line had formed, even though the rest of the fair was crowded and getting more lively as the afternoon went on. With Timothy and Gabby behind her, Haley Lawson approached the attraction and slowed to a halt well before reaching it.
"Sheesh, I have to say that's a strange-looking House of Horrors," she admitted. "Don't the slogans usually promise 'Thrills and Chills' or 'Hold Onto To Your Boyfriend' and make it sound like fun?"
"I asked Gina what was in there and she said she didn't want to talk about it," Gabby said. "The outside is WAY beyond spooky-looking, don't you think?"
Beside her, Timothy Limbo gave a start and lowered his hand. "Now, I really am getting worried. A Casper came running back to me. Well, not running. But I asked him to get into that trailer and snoop around and he was too afraid."
Turning her head, Haley seemed to have lost some of her usual sublime confidence. "Really? That doesn't happen too often."
"You ever see a frightened dog come yelping into the house with his tail between his legs? That's how my Casper was acting." Timothy straightened his leather jacket, stood up taller and smacked his hands together. "Now I'm mad. You guys wait here, I'll buy a ticket and find out what the story is."
"Let me go," Haley said. "I'm more powerful. Well, I really AM. You can't summon a tornado or cause a blizzard but I can. If there's anything malevolent in there, I should be the one to face it."
Timothy hesitated. For a long moment, the two of them stared each other down. Then Gabby stepped forward and took his arm.
"Let it go, Haley," she said. "He's a boy. He doesn't want to let a girl do something dangerous while he stays safe. It's the way they're brought up."
She squeezed up tight against Timothy. "The two of us will go in there. We're not gonna get killed, there's a town police car right down the street. But if anything bad does happen, then Haley can use her tornadoes and blizzards to rescue us, right?"
Looking down into her eager face, Timothy said, "Oh, I think I better go in by myself. You're a civilian."
"If you leave the two of us out here, we will gossip about you," Gabby promised.
"Damn right," Haley added. "I'll tell your little girlfriend here all kinds of embarrassing stuff about you. Remember the night you stepped out of headquarters to pick something up and the wind blew the front door shut and it locked you out and you only had a bathtowel..."
"All right! Stop!"
"Or the whole incident when that baby Dragon got attached to you and followed you everywhere and you made a little bed for it in your room..?"
"I get it. Okay. Gabby, let's buy some tickets." He led her across the dry dusty field toward the exhibit. As they approached the ticket-taker booth, Gabby said in a low voice, "Now I really need to hear about the Dragon that wanted to be your pet. You mean like an Iguana?"
"No, it was four feet long and we fed it cow bones," Timothy said. To the man in the booth, he raised his voice, "Um. Hi. Two, please."
Seated on a stool behind the counter, a middle-aged man raised his head as if waking up from a nap. The long straight black hair blended into the chest-length beard so well that it was hard to mark a dividing point. From an unremarkable face, a sharp pointed nose stuck out like a blade. But the blue eyes which fixed on Timothy and Gabby were clear and bright but remarkably unfriendly. "Five dollars each."
"Sure. Here you are." Timothy handed over a ten and received two stubs torn off a roll of perforated orange cardboard. Each stub had only a number printed on it.
"Simply walk through if you can handle the raw terror," the man announced. "The exit door will open for survivors." Although the old man's voice was jovial, no trace of humor reached his eyes. They remained cold, even when landing on the piquant little face of Gabrielle Marchetti, who invariably made strangers smile.
"Yeah, thanks." Timothy glanced back at Haley, who threw him a mock salute with two fingers to her temple. He stepped over to the plain metal door marked ENTER in ugly red letters and opened it. A gust of stuffy foul air rushed out.
Still holding his arm tightly, Gabby said, "Jeez, your biceps are like marble, Tim. When did you start working out?"
"Oh, a couple years now. Here we go."
V.
"I'm ready," she answered. They crossed into an alcove divided by black sheets from the room beyond. The door closed behind them. Only a vague hazy light showed through the sheets. Timothy pushed through and they stood in a strange chamber as their eyes adjusted to a dim blue nightlight down by the floor.
The House of Horrors was made to look like a cave, the rounded rock walls evidently of plaster made slimy with some oil. A skull missing its lower jaw sat in one corner, several other human bones were scattered about. High up near the ceiling, rat squeakings sounded. Ghostly wailings echoed. As they got their bearings, they heard a low unpleasant chuckle from the alcove where they had entered.
"Oh, this doesn't seem so bad..." Gabby began to say just as the floor tilted beneath them. They windmilled their arms to successfully stay on their feet. On the wall to their left, two yellow eyes large as dinner plates lit up, then narrowed in a hostile manner.
"Something feels odd," Timothy said. "Do you smell anything bad?"
"Yeah," she replied, finding his arm again. "Kinda sour. Maybe someone left a hamburger here overnight or something. Look out!"
They both crouched as a whooshing disturbed the air where their heads had been. "What the hell? Did this place try to brain us with a club?"
"Tim, this is NOT fun! I don't know what I was expecting but this isn't it!"
"You know what, let's give it another minute and then beat it." He moved further toward the rear of the compartment where another black sheet was hanging. A spotlight clicked and a large symbol in deep red filled the space from floor to ceiling... an oval with an inverted V crossing it at an angle.
"Red Sect!" Timothy snapped. "That's it. We're out of here!" He yanked the sheet to one side and slammed his palm against the horizontal bar which opened the red door. Outside was the late June sunshine of a beautiful afternoon, as normal and reassuring as anyone could desire. Timothy and Gabby hopped out, skipping the two steps, and strode quickly away.
Spotting them, Haley rushed over. "Well? Well?"
"Not at all what I was expecting!" Gabby told her. "It wasn't scary so much as just...strange."
"We saw the symbol for Red Sect, Hales. You know what that means."
The Windcatcher looked from Timothy to Gabby, studying their faces. "You guys are white as a piece of paper. Better sit down. Here, away from that place." When they had all dropped down to the dry grass, Haley said, "Red Sect is always bad news. I guess it's true, Tel Shai knights are drawn to Midnight War crap even when they aren't looking for it. How do you guys feel?"
"Frankly, I'm exhausted," Gabby Marchetti admitted. "It's like I ran a mile. My knees are weak." She leaned up against him. "That smell. Do you think there's a gas leak or something? Should we tell the police to check it out?"
"No." Haley had seated herself facing them with her legs crossed in a lotus. The pale green eyes showed anger rare for her. In one hand, she was holding the flat metal device called a Link. "I ran the license plate on that trailer. The name of the owner is a cover of course, but it was enough to point me to who that geezer in the ticket booth really is."
"What kind of phone is that?" asked Gabby. "It looks pretty cool."
Disregarding the question, Haley said, "Get this, Tim. That guy is Milton Lundborg, age eighty-three. One of the few living survivors of the original Lundborgs. Gabby, let this sink in. That horrible old man selling tickets is from a family of sorcerers. Warlocks. Black Magick practitioners, whatever you want to call them. He victimized you."
"Eighty-three? Really? He looks maybe late fifties, sixty or so to me. My uncle's that age and he has the same white specks in his hair." Gabby tried to get up, groaned and plopped back down again. "I hope I'm not coming down with the flu or something."
Timothy abruptly snorted and forced himself up to his feet, helping Gabby rise as well. "Now I'm mad. I get it. Haley, you must see it too. That Lundborg has set up a sort of gralic leechery in there. He's siphoning off life force from some of the customers, not all of them, just one or two. That's why he looks younger than he is."
"I was thinking the same thing," Haley Lawson nodded. She rose up to stand with the nimble ease of youth. "He's stealing lifeforce."
"Should I be freaking out or what?" asked Gabby. "If I hadn't seen what you two are capable of, I think I'd make some excuse to run home. This is crazy talk."
"I bet we have each lost a year or two of our potential lifespans," Timothy told her. "Goddamit, what a filthy racket. That Lundborg travels the country sucking up lifeforce and staying younger indefinitely."
Gabby's face fell as it all sank in. "That is so wrong on every level. What are you guys going to do? Call the cops? The FBI?"
"There is a little trick I've been practicing," Haley said. "Maybe it'll work this time." She got down into a lotus again, facing the CAVE OF HOURS trailer. The ticket-taker was studying a newspaper and paying them no attention. "This is going to take a lot of concentration. I need you two to be quiet."
"Not a problem," Gabby promised. "But I have a feeling whatever you're planning is gonna be GOOD!" She and Timothy moved back behind Haley and sat down on the grass to watch.
Closing her eyes, Haley focused her thoughts as strictly as she could. The ancient talisman she wore enabled her to summon air masses from anywhere in the world. Over the past few years, she had increased the amount of air she could summon and she had sharpened the precision with which she could shape it. But it was hellishly difficult. If her attention faltered or her determination slacked, the results were a disappointing fizzle or a destructive backlash. This was something she had been researching and had been wanting to try.
First, a tunnel of freezing air rising right above the CAVE OF HOURS, at least a mile high....
As Timothy and Gabby stared in fascination, dark heavy clouds started sweeping in from the south. A breeze stiff enough to move their hair whistled by. Moisture accumulated until their skin felt damp. Gabby opened her mouth to remark on this but kept silent. To her immense relief, Timothy put an arm across her shoulders and squeezed comfortingly.
High overhead, a rumble sounded. The sunlight was being overcast by angry black clouds directly above them. Haley seemed to be hardly breathing.
Jumping out from the ticket booth, Milton Lundborg jabbed a furious finger at them. "Tel Shai dogs! Oh, I know you. Your deaths will be long and miserable." He glanced up at the clouds boiling above, then ran into the trailer just as everything turned a blinding white. Thunder sharp as a whip cracking deafened everyone. The CAVE OF HOURS flew apart with fragments spinning away and flames breaking out in the interior. If Lundborg screamed, no one could have heard it over the ringing in their ears.
A few seconds later, the fair-goers were running over, yelling over each other. The police car from halfway down the main street started up its lightbar and swerved in a U-turn to start crawling through the people filling the street. Timothy gave Haley a hand getting up, and the three of them managed to mingle with the confused crowd enough to work their way back and off the field without being questioned.
After they walked a block back to the now abandoned booths and attractions, Haley Lawson fell onto a sidewalk bench as her legs gave way. "Man! Never again. I don't think I had any control over that bolt. It could have hit us!"
"Not something I wanted to hear," Timothy told her, rubbing a finger in his ear. "My hair is still standing up. Gab, how are you doing?"
The young woman's glasses had fallen off at some point but she had kept hold of them and now wiped fog from the lenses with her sleeve. "I.. I don't know. I should be getting all hysterical and wetting my pants or babbling nonsense. That was the scariest thing I ever saw. But, you know, it was also awesome."
Haley managed a shaky smile. "Now I know what Mom meant when she passed the Air Gem to me. She said great power should be used as sparingly as possible. Whew. My hands are shaking."
"At least that Lundborg rat won't be stealing any more years out of people's lives," Timothy said. "Gabby, you want to get going? I think we need a quiet ride in the country to let this all sink in."
Despite everything, Gabby grinned. "Sure. This fair is kinda done for the day, dont'ya think?"
4/8/2020
