The Jekyll Legacy
Chapter Chapter Nine
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Victorian alchemy meets modern science and magic.
What could possibly go wrong?
Gather my children and you shall hear,
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863)
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Looking like a demented child’s image of a half-pint werewolf, Na-Noc trotted down the wide paths of his personal hell. The creatures here were different than the humans he was used to seeing, or even the Dark Gods and their minions. In fact they were even different from each other, with few looking even vaguely similar. As dusk approached, even more creatures could be seen, each more fearsome and demonic than the next.
Hunger was once again Na-Noc’s primary concern, because the battle with Akcuanrut, D’lon-ra and their minions had taken so much out of him. He was, even now, still smaller than a bunny rat cub and no match for these hellish creatures. This was especially true because they all seemed to be traveling in groups — another sign of the fearsome nature of this place when even the demons needed to travel in packs.
There were smaller creatures about, but Na-Noc needed mass and he needed it fast if he was going to be able to survive here. Additionally, if he absorbed some of the intelligence and knowledge of these demons he might learn how to survive in this world.
Hugging the sides of the castles where there was more shrubbery to hide him, Na-Noc searched for his next meal. It was just past dusk when he finally found a target, a small orange furred demon about his size. Absorbing it would almost double his mass and the next creature he ate could be large enough to bring him back to his original size at last.
It ambled down the street, apparently unaware of Na-Noc’s presence, stopping to receive tribute at castle after castle. Each stop brought it closer to Na-Noc and he licked his chops and salivated in anticipation. A half dozen castles away, three castles away, two castles away.
Na-Noc adjusted his crouch infinitesimally in order to be better able to lunge out from behind his shrub, grab the small creature and carry it back to his hiding place to be absorbed at his leisure. That’s when the benighted fur ball glanced at something on its wrist and trotted off to the corner instead of down the path to Na-Noc’s waiting pseudoclaws.
With a cry of anguish he considered charging out into the open to grab the creature. That was, until he recognized the white haired man the boy had approached, Akcuanrut.
“You did what?!” The volume of Rhea’s voice was sufficient to rattle the car windows.
“Well, you said you’d do anything to make sure our team won.
“But… but… but….” Rhea was in shock at what Selene had done to her. Finally, she took a ragged gulp of air and screeched, “But a date? You know how I feel about bein’ seen in this body. I’ll be a laughingstock. You’ll be a laughingstock. We’ll never….”
“Yeah, yeah. We’ve been through this so many times I can’t count. You made a promise, and I expect you to keep it. If you make me, I’ll tell everyone you broke your word.”
“So? No one knows who I am. We’ll get the Jekyll formula on Monday and I’ll be me again instead of — this….” She gestured to her body’s new curves.
“But I’ll know. I’ll know that you wouldn’t keep your promise when the chips were down.”
“So?”
“So, I’ll tell everyone.”
“And get yourself locked up in the nearest funny farm?”
“And provide proof.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I’ve already appealed to your sense of adventure, to see what it’s like on a date from the girl’s point of view — but you must have lost that back on that other world. I’ve appealed to your sense of honor, hoping you would keep your word once you made the promise — but you’re telling me you have no problems reneging on your word. I’ve pleaded with you, as my best friend, to come and back me up — but our friendship doesn’t seem to mean much right now, despite all those years I went along with all those hare-brained invention schemes of yours — at great personal risk I might remind you. Remember, I’ll be there too, and while I really do want to do this, I really don’t want to do it alone — so sure, sure I’d tell everyone, and sure, I’d provide proof.” Selene folded her arms and glared back at Rhea.
Incongruously, Rhea’s first reaction was amazement that Selene had actually managed to present that soliloquy in one breath, especially since this was, by far, the most she’d said since the transformation. Unfortunately, the meaning of Selene’s words then sunk in and Rhea uncomfortably realized that Selene was right. She had promised, albeit foolishly, and without a full understanding of the implications of her promise. Even worse, Rhea realized that her best friend had every reason to expect Rhea to join her. They had been friends all their lives and Selene had always been there for Rhea. Despite her angry words, Rhea still doubted that Selene would actually follow through on her threat to tell the world about the Jekyll formula. She was living proof of the pandemonium it could cause, a teenage boy who was genetically a female barbarian princess with near superhuman strength and warrior skills. However, it did make Rhea realize that Selene really did want to do this dating thing and that regardless of Rhea’s opinion on the matter, Rhea owed her.
Slowly, Rhea deflated back into the car seat, tears streaming down her eyes. “Okay. I’ll go,” she whispered.
Akcuanrut was amazed. The outside world was even more fantastic than the kitchen and the workshop. The castles were so plentiful; there was no place for the serfs to till the soil, other than decorative grasslands kept too short to provide nourishment for a rabbit. The roads were made of some hard substance that would undoubtedly split the hooves of draft horses, and they used lights without flame.
The people seemed familiar, although most were smaller than the people of his land. At least they had arms and legs with few exceptions. Also, eyes and ears were the norm. Clothing was another thing though. The colors, the designs; it was like a rainbow of different outfits, again with few duplications.
Akcuanrut had followed the other beings of the area, walking along the white strip beside the road until he reached a corner. He was standing there trying to decide which way to go when he felt a gentle tugging at his robe.
Looking down, he saw one of the small creatures looking up at him. The creature was wearing a white robe similar to his, but had strange reptilian hands and a short, squat head with big, pointed ears and a furrowed brow. The color of its skin was a deep green with faint traces of gray white, as if it were quite old. The overall impression was of an aged, but extremely knowledgeable creature.
“ ’Cuse me, Mister,” the little creature said, it’s voice childlike, but with a strange hollow echo. “Would you help me cross the street?”
“What do you wish, strange being?”
“I wanna cross the street,” it pointed to the black surface that the “cars” preferred. “I can do it myself, but Mommy said I hadda get help.”
“Certainly, small being,” Akcuanrut responded with more assurance than he felt. “Which way do you wish to go?”
“That way,” it pointed. “I’m goin’ home now.” It sounded so happy to be going home, Akcuanrut felt a momentary twinge of jealousy, wishing that he too could return home.
The small being took his hand and tugged him towards the street. Akcuanrut followed, a bit uncertain of what to do about the “cars,” but there was nothing to worry about. They stayed between some white lines painted on the “street” and the only “car” that approached, slowed and stopped as it came near them.
“Thanks, Mister,” the small being spoke again as they stepped onto the curb again. “I’m Yoda. Who are you?”
“I am Akcuanrut, Dean of the Emperor’s College of Wizards and Advisor to Emperor Elvi of Myriad.”
“Oh wow. That sounds cool, but I don’t know him. What movie is he from?”
“Movie? Like on the TV?” Akcuanrut had learned a bit from listening to the twins. “None. I am from another dimension.”
“Oh, like Doctor Weird, the comic book guy. I like movie characters best of all.” Yoda sounded disappointed and didn’t speak for a while, just holding Akcuanrut’s hand and walking along.
They crossed two more streets like that before coming to one that was much larger. Akcuanrut confidently stepped out onto the blacktop despite the many cars rushing by when Yoda tugged his arm.
“The light, Mister. It’s gotta turn green.” The small creature looked at him as if he were a crêtin.
“Huh?” Akcuanrut searched about looking for something that would turn green before he realized Yoda was pointing at a box hanging above the middle of the street with three globes. Facing them only the red one was lit, but there were two others of indeterminate color and on the side facing the moving cars the bottom light was lit, and it was green.
“But it is green,” Akcuanrut pointed.
“That’s for the cars. The red one is for us,’ the small being stood patiently.
As Akcuanrut watched the mysterious lights, the green light facing the cars went out and the light above, a yellow one, went on. Akcuanrut watched in amazement as the cars began to slow and stop. Moments later, the yellow light had gone off and a red light went on. At the same time, the red light facing them went off and the green light below it went on. Akcuanrut stood, fascinated by the changes and trying to figure out what had happened to stop the cars when he realized that Yoda was tugging at his sleeve again.
“Let’s go before it changes again.” With that the small furry creature led Akcuanrut across the street while the cars waited patiently for them to complete their crossing.
Four castles down from the light Yoda suddenly let go of Akcuanrut’s hand and bolted towards the front portico. At the castle entrance, Yoda turned and waved, “Bye, Ack… bye, Acky.” Then he was gone.
Akcuanrut stood wondering what to do next. Doing a search for magic sources, he found one — and it was close, very close. Smiling at his good luck, the wizard headed down the white way toward the building with the large steeple on top.
“So we’re all agreed here?” The others nodded and Herbert Lanyon smiled prettily. “Then to summarize, George will prepare a power of attorney for Herbert and I to sign, have it notarized at his office and then go to the bank for the backup copy of the formula. That will be much easier than having either of us go, and less embarrassing than asking Aunt Agatha Lanyon to fax us her copy, since the family had agreed never to use the formula at all, and I’d have to explain what Rhea, Hastie, actually did with it, not that she’d have any trouble believing it. Akcuanrut is worried that he may have great difficulty being able to find sufficient magical energies on this world to return the Heart of Virtue to his world so, as a matter of courtesy, Emily and I have agreed not to use even that small amount of possibly-unrelated centaur magic needed to appear human. With the formula, we can return to our original shapes and then I can get to work on the TSP device so Akcuanrut can get home — even if he can’t find enough magic to do it on his own.”
“Come to think of it,” George asked, “where is Ack… what did you say his name was? I’d like to talk to him about wherever he came from.”
“I think I saw him heading towards the kitchen an hour or so ago,” Emily answered. “Rather than have one of us wreck the new tile floor with our hooves, would you please ask him to come out here, George?” With a nod, George sauntered off.
“I have a more basic question, dearest,” Lucille spoke up. “What is this TSP thingee you’ve been talking about?”
“You weren’t listening, were you, Lucille?” Herbert was a bit hurt that her wife’s best friend had not paid better attention to her narrative, although as she thought about it, she realized she should have been used to it by now. With a tired shake of her head, she explained again.
“The TSP ‘thingee’ is a Trans-Spacial Portal. To use layman’s terms, it was supposed to function something like the transporters in StarTrek, a method of moving objects from one place to another by dismantling their individual atoms and then recreating them in another….”
“Dear?”
“Yes, Emily?” Herbert turned towards her wife. “I was just trying to explain the TSP to Lucille.”
“And I’m listening quite intently, Herb — I mean Emily.”
“No, you’re not, Lucille,” Emily laughed. “I’ve known you much too long for you to fool me. I can see that slightly glazed look and you’re playing with that one curl of your hair again. What were you really doing, planning tomorrow’s wardrobe?”
“No!” Lucille was indignant, “of course not. I was… I was….” and then she started laughing. “My Gawd. It really is you in that body, isn’t it, Emily. I didn’t really believe it until just now.”
“I apologize, Herbert,” she turned to the female centaur. “Emily is correct. I really wasn’t paying full attention to your explanation, but the transporter explanation was sufficient for my needs.”
Turning back to the male centaur, she good-naturedly slapped his arm. “But you, Emily. How could you give away our feminine secrets like that?”
Emily gave a deep gravelly chuckle. “Have you noticed that I seem to have a rather unique perspective on that at the moment, Lucille? I imagine that the Men’s Union will be filing a grievance as well.”
Just then, the door burst open and George came barreling back into the garage, a little winded, either by worry or the rush back to the garage. “I can’t find him!” he said.
“What’s that, George?”
“I can’t find that Akcuanrut friend of yours.”
“Did you check upstairs?”
“I checked every room, including the bathrooms and the closets. I also checked the basement and I even checked the back yard. I’m afraid he’s gone.”
“Oh my,” Emily gasped, holding his hand to his mouth. “He’s not familiar with this world, and he’s fearless. I hope he’ll be all right.”
“We’d better find him. Emily and I will check the neighborhood on foot. George, you and Lucille take your car. Everyone take their cell phones and call if you spot him.”
“Right. Come on, Lucille. You drive while I check to see if he’s been picked up by the police.”
“What about the girls?” Emily asked. “What about Rhea and Selene — I mean Hastie and Jack?”
“I’ll call them right after checking with the police,” George called back from the car as it pulled out of the driveway.
“Tim and Phil will meet us at the entrance to the school in a few minutes. Are you ready, ‘Nancy?’ ”
“Well, let’s see, Selene. Are my pants clean? Oh, sorry. I’m not wearin’ any damned pants. Is my skirt too long? Humm. No skirt either. Well, is my leather bikini coverin’ everything it needs to cover? Just barely. No prob, Selene. Ready as I can possibly be.”
“Lighten up, ‘Nancy’,” Selene laughed. “We’re here for the Halloween dance. Let’s have fun and win the award for best costume, just like we’d been planning to do all week, and it was your scheme, if you’ll recall, to do just that. It seems a shame to go to all that trouble and then just give up because you’re ‘chicken.’ ” She made a few ‘clucks’ to remind Rhea of her former attitude. “What’s the matter, Rhea, can’t handle the heat once you’ve landed us back in the soup again?”
“Uhhummm.”
“Yes, ‘Nancy’?”
“Wouldn’t it help to have a damned costume in the first place? We look like refugees from an X-rated movie. There’s no way they’re gonna let us into the dance dressed like this. I wouldn’t be surprised if they call the cops and have us arrested for tryin’ to corrupt the morals of minors.”
“Oh, come on. As cute as we look, they’d let us into the Vatican, just to say hello, and we’d both get waved to the front of the line if they had any fancy nightclubs here in town like they have down in the ‘Big Apple.’ You know, deep down, you’re dying to go to this dance. Like I said, calm down. The guys will be here any minute.”
The cell phone in the leather shoulder pack Selene carried started chiming.
“Saved by the bell,” Rhea cheered before smiling beatifically upward and clasping his hands together in prayer. “Thank you, lord. Thank you.”
“Relax, Saint Joan. It’s probably a wrong number,” but Selene took the sack off her shoulder and rummaged through it for the cell phone.
“Hello?”
“Oh, hi, Dad. What’s up?”
“He is?” Selene asked worriedly.
“You did?”
“We’ve got Rhea’s car and we’ll start looking for him immediately.” Selene silently replaced the phone in the pack and shouldered it before turning back to Rhea.
“Are you enjoying keepin’ me in suspense? Give already,” Rhea demanded.
“It’s Akcuanrut.”
“Yeah?” Rhea gestured for Selene to elaborate.
“He’s missing.”
The rubbish-filled alley was deserted except for the two teens wearing rubber Halloween maks and cursing as they attacked a metal door with a crowbar. Na-Noc stood at the alley’s entrance and checked for other ways out, but there were none. If he could get to at least one of them before they broke through that door, he could be near full mass; two and he’d be complete again.
It always seemed to take so much longer to absorb the minds of his victims and the voices of the incompletely absorbed warred in Na-Noc’s head. He had never tried to absorb this many diverse creatures in such as short time. The mind most harmonious to his current need won and he assumed the shape of Vfrgoysl.
“Hey, Blackie.”
“Shut up an’ push, dumbass.”
“Blackie,” the voice was more urgent.
“What the hell’s the matter with you, Ralph?”
“I heard something.”
“It’s probably just your mother with a John.”
“Screw you, Blackie. I told you never to talk about my mother that way. Anyway, I heard something. Really I did.”
“Aw right. Let’s check it out. Whaddja hear?” The door was forgotten as they stared at each other.
“I dunno. Like a —like sump’n’ strange. From back by da street,” Ralph pointed.
“So, like I said. Check it out.”
“I ain’t gonna check out nothin’. You check it out.”
“Oh, crap,” Blackie spat. “You are one freaking chicken. Ya know dat, don’t ya? Come on.” With that Blackie grabbed Ralph’s jacket collar and dragged him along towards the alley entrance. They got four steps before Ralph screamed and pulled away.
Looking up, Blackie screamed too.
They were still screaming when the three-foot-long cockroach that had skittered up the wall to their left chittered happily from about six feet over their heads, and then jumped down on them and the screaming stopped abruptly.
“Hey! Where are you ladies going? I thought we had a date.”
The shout was from Phil Cohn, dressed as a Scottish highlander, who had just finished parking his car. Tim Walsh exited the passenger side door a moment later, smoothing out his colonial gentleman’s frock coat and knee-length breeches outfit.
Selene and Rhea stopped trotting through the school parking lot towards their car to wait for the two football players to catch up to them.
“We do — I mean we did,” Selene stumbled over her reply.
“Well, unless I’m mistaken, the dance is the other way.” Tim pointed back at the school and smiled disarmingly. “And why did ‘we do’ change to ‘we did’?”
“Yeah! We had a date,” Phil chimed in, looking disappointed. “Just like a girl to back out at the last minute,” he said. “You just found out that I’m Jewish, right?”
“What? Are you crazy?” Selene said. “Look, we’re sorry, but we’ve got a very real emergency back home. Ack….”
Rhea had covertly elbowed Selene in the ribs.
“Ah… an old friend of our parents has gone missing and… unh… we’ve got to help find him. He’s a little… dotty… so we really need to help find him before he gets into trouble.”
“Yeah,” Rhea added her agreement, trying to look more disappointed than she felt.
“Tim?” Phil Cohn turned to his teammate questioningly.
“I’m in, Phil. No way I’m missing out on a date with a couple of hot chicks like these two just because of some female emergency,” was his immediate response.
Phil cringed and rolled his eyes for the sake of the ‘hot chicks’ in question. Then he shrugged slightly, moving slightly away from Tim to put a little symbolic distance between them. “Shut up, Tim.”
“Do you know what they’re talking about, Rhea… I mean Nancy? Do we know any ‘hot chicks?’ ” Her tone was glacial.
“Not a clue, Selene. They obviously have us confused with someone else, possibly one of those bimbos you see in those trashy movies they sometimes play at the drive-in, if you care for such things.”
Selene turned back to the two boys. “So who exactly are you guys talking about?”
Phil tried to be apologetic. “Look, I apologize for Tim here. You know how some football players sometimes get when they’ve been hit on the head too many times. Please don’t think he’s an complete idiot just because he talks like one sometimes.” He glared at Tim. “When he takes his medication, he sometimes seems almost human.” He glared at him again.
“Yeah, Nancy, or Rhea, whatever you say goes,” Tim said. He held his hand in front of his heart and addressed Rhea directly, “I swear I didn’t mean anything mean or degrading to women. My brain was just knocked for a loop when I saw how beautiful you were, so my mouth just ran away with itself. You know how guys are sometimes. Forgive me, please?”
Rhea looked at him suspiciously. “You try anything funny, Mister, and I’ll break your arm, but I guess you deserve a second chance, just one, because you upheld the honor of the team.”
Phil said, “Look, Selene. I know you’re in a bind, but you’re our dates, and guys don’t run out on their dates when they’re in trouble. I know you said that Rhea, or Nancy, whatever she’s called, would go out with me if I threw a pass instead of trying to run out the play, but — no offense, Rhea, because you’re really beautiful, just like your sister here — I wanted to go out with you, Selene, because you’re wicked smart and… you’re beautiful, and something just clicked when I saw you, so I gave my date with Rhea to Tim here, because he’s the guy who actually caught the ball. We don’t care whether we go to the dance or somewhere else, but we aren’t just dropping you like hot potatoes because you have a little problem. We want to help you, and I think we could. We came in Tim’s car, so if you’d like, we could split into two groups and cover twice the territory. Plus, it would be safer if you could concentrate on looking for your friend while we guys drive.”
“Exactly, babes,” Tim chimed in. “So who do we need to find?”
“Give us a minute, guys.” Rhea pulled Selene a dozen or so feet away the boys and whispered. “We’ve got a problem here. How do we tell them we’re searching for a white-haired wizard from another dimension?”
“We don’t.”
“So you’ll politely tell them ‘thanks, but no thanks’?” Rhea looked relieved.
“Nope. I’ll tell them what I already implied; he’s an eccentric and slightly slow uncle who doesn’t know the area and could get into trouble if we don’t find him. We do owe them the date, you know, because they made your play for you, and we promised.”
“Oh, shit. And I suppose you want to split up too so we can cover more area?”
“I hadn’t actually thought of that,” Selene responded cattily, “but it’s an excellent idea. We’d be able to cover twice as much ground, and with both of us able to focus on finding the wizard instead of worrying about running into trick or treaters, it would be safer for all of us. Plus, we’d have the best chance of finding Acky before he gets into trouble. Do you want Tim or Phil?” After only a millisecond of polite hesitation, she said, “Never mind. I’ll take Phil. You can have Tim.”
Without waiting for a response from the sputtering girl, Selene strode purposefully back to the guys as Rhea muttered something about her enjoying this entirely too much.
“ ’Girl talk’ over?” Tim’s wink, designed to show that this was meant to be humorous, turned into an “oof” and he found himself on the ground looking up at an angry Selene.
“That was just to save time and make sure you believed Rhea… Nancy, when she said she’d break your arm, because if she doesn’t, and she can, I will. Don’t even think of trying any macho games with either of us. Now, if you’re still interested in helping, we’d really appreciate your help.” Selene waited for their responses, tapping her foot impatiently.
“Selene, I’m at your service,” Phil said, “and Tim has not only apologized, but will receive a severe thrashing from me once Rhea-Nancy’s done with him.”
“Great. I’m going with you, Phil. You can drive. Nancy here will go with Tim — who’s going to be a perfect gentleman,” she glowered briefly at Tim, who was still getting back up and brushing himself off. “We’ll tell you what’s happening on the way.”
On the way to the cars Phil smugly poked Tim in the ribs and stage-whispered just loud enough that the two girls heard too, “I told you that macho bull of yours wouldn’t work with these girls.”
Finally feeling sated from his double meal, Na-Noc moved on to his second objective, to find sufficient magic to help him overcome that benighted Akcuanrut and regain the Heart of Virtue. The magic nearby was strong — he could feel it, the strongest he’d felt since being dumped on this hell-hole planet — and close, very close. Assuming the shape of one of the creatures that had captured his interest, and then been caught by his appetite — a human with stooped shoulders, wavy black hair, bushy eyebrows, receding forehead, pointed nose, and black stubble on his protruding chin, he hurried towards his goal.
Rounding the corner he could see it, a huge building, bigger than any of the castles about it. This one even looked a bit like a castle, made of stone, with a tower, crenels and clerestory windows. Power rolled out from it in waves, crashing against Na-Noc and making him feel giddy. This was enough power to defeat Akcuanrut and still have enough left over to return home without the aid of the Dark Gods.
Still, Na-Noc held back. Something was wrong. It was too easy. With the patience of a skilled predator, he examined the situation, patiently waiting to discover where the trap was; the trap that had to be there.
That was it! The creatures of this world walked past it, but didn’t enter. He would have to wait until someone dared enter so he could learn from them how to survive the ordeal. Modifying his shape to that of a bench beside the white path, Na-Noc prepared to wait patiently for what he needed — and maybe snatch another snack or two as he did.
Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002 Jeffrey M. Mahr — All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2012 Levanah Greene — All Rights Reserved
Comments
The Evil that grows!
Na-Noc is going to be a bigger problem than I thought. I believed without magic he would gradually lose himself since his small body couldn't maintain his intelligence in a rational universe besides being a formless blob. It appears that we're going to get a horror movie here, "The Return of The Blob!"
The girls adventure with boys is looking to be interesting. :)
hugs
Grover
Good Times at Orbit High
If Na Noc keeps on growing, he will become a big problem that they can't handle.
May Your Light Forever Shine