Anna's Hope Episode One (11 page)

The new
Anna lifted her chin and stared
at the gloomy sky.

Bringing a hand up, she rubbed her
chest.

She walked home.

“
I want you to tell me how I
would do it.” Anna crossed her arms and stared down at
Luminaria.

The possessed cat was seated on her velvet
bed, an imperious look flashing in her golden-green eyes. “I don’t
see why you want to know. You’re such a tame witch.”

“Just tell me how I would lure that dark
wizard.” Anna paced back and forth through her lounge room, her
socks snagging against the dirty carpet. No matter how much she
cleaned this place, it went straight back to being a
tip.

She’d walked all the way home, bogged down
by her thoughts.

By the time she’d made it in the front door,
she’d decided to give it a try.

She would attempt to track down that wizard.
But she wouldn’t do it alone. She wasn’t that stupid.

“Why would you want to associate with such
a deviously evil wizard, anyway?”

“Because there’s a bounty out on his head.
He’s … horrible. He’s sacrificing witches for some kind of
spell.”

Luminaria snarled. She may be currently
stuck in the form of a cat, but underneath, she was still a
witch.

“You can help me catch him,” Anna offered,
halting her frantic pacing to stare at Luminaria
hopefully.

“And what would we do with him
then?”

“Hand him over to MEC.”

“I can think of other things to do with a
wizard who sacrifices witches,” she said darkly.

“Ah, I’m sure you can. But you don’t need
to share. Plus, when we hand him over, we’ll get a reward, and I
can buy you all the tuna you want. So what do you say?”

Luminaria looked calculating, her golden
eyes darting from side to side, as if they were beads on an abacus
sliding down to count her options. “I say yes.”

Anna
made a success fist behind her back
and tried not to smile too obviously. “Alright. You’re coming too,
though.”

“Excuse me?” Luminaria trilled.

“I don’t want to do this on my own. In
fact, it would be plain stupid to go in there without someone
watching my back. And before you shout at me, think about it. This
will be the most fun you’ve had in decades. I’m offering you the
opportunity to mingle with a real dark-arts professional. Granted,
we’ll have to arrest him. But at least you’ll be able to stand
inside his evil chapel and soak up the vibes.”

Luminaria looked
thoughtful. She
even brought up a paw and tapped a claw on her chin.

“This guy has enough dark magic to summon
a soul catcher. That’s a lot of power. The place will be seething
with it.”

Luminaria’s whiskers twitched
as
her mouth
kinked into a manic grin. “It sounds delicious.”

“It will be. And all you’ll have to do is
come with me and … help me out.”

Luminaria narrowed her
previously saucer-like eyes. “And why would I care about what
happens to you? If you die – no,
when
– the contract ensures I’ll be shipped back to
your mother. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I like her
more.”

“You care about me, because I can give you
what you really want. And I’m not talking about tuna casseroles and
a seat in the sun. If you stick with me and help me out, I can take
you to the darkest places around. I can let you rub shoulders with
all the evilest people in Marchtown. Sure, I’ll have to arrest them
after you meet them, but you’ll get to see what you miss the most –
the dark side. And you won’t be breaking the law; you’ll be helping
enforce it. So there’ll be no repercussions for you – just
fun.”

Luminaria’s mouth jerked loosely open, her
pupils dilating. She looked like a cat who’d spied a whole mound of
sleeping mice.

“What do you say?”

“I say
yes,”
Luminaria spoke around a devious
smile.

“I thought you would. So you’ll tell me
how to find him and you’ll help me catch him?”

“Oh, yes. I’ll take you straight to his
door, child. Then we’ll break it down and marvel at what nefarious
achievements he has amassed.”

“Before arresting him,” Anna reminded
her.

Luminaria t
witched her whiskers. “Yes,
yes, whatever. Now leave me alone. I must cleanse my mind of any
vestige of the light so I may seek out the glorious
dark.”

“Okay … so you’ll know where he is by
tonight? It’s only that we have to do this quickly – we can’t let
him kidnap another witch.”

“Do not pester me – I’m working.”
Luminaria flashed her tail. “And yes, we will act tonight. I will
feast upon his dark prowess, before punishing him for sacrificing
witches.” She snarled.

Anna
nodded, padded out of the room, and
clapped her hands together quietly.

Finally, something was going right.

Who knows, if she managed to pull this off,
maybe she could make her way as a bounty hunter in Marchtown.

Then again, if she failed, she could
die.

….

If she survived, however, she could prove
everyone wrong. Aaron, Scott, her friends and family – everyone
thought she couldn’t do anything.

It was time to
show them she
could.

“
Are you sure this is going to
work?”

“Do not question me,” Luminaria snapped as
she prowled the mouth of the dark alley.

Anna
stood in the shadows, her hands in
her pockets and her head tucked firmly into her collar and
scarf.

She wasn’t scared. She was cold.

Though hanging about in dark alleys as a
young witch wasn’t recommended, she wasn’t defenseless. She had a
cat possessed by a dark criminal mastermind. While Luminaria would
love to be mugged, the mugger wouldn’t love it.

The terms of Luminaria von Tippit’s
heirloom contract were simple. She could only use magic if she was
attacked with magic. Starvation, sickness, or misfortune could not
be fought with a hex or blessing. She couldn’t use a quick curse to
slow down a mouse. No, she could only reply with a fireball if one
was thrown at her.

Despite that limitation, in many ways she
was the perfect person (cat) to have watching Anna’s
back.

Luminaria snarled into the
darkness.
“I
can sense dark magic. Far off,” she sniffed the air, her long
silver whiskers catching the moonlight, “but still strong enough to
taste.”

Almost on cue, Anna sneezed. She reached
into her pocket and drew out a hanky.

“This way.” Luminaria trotted off, her
tail high in the air.

Anna
plunged her hands further into her
pockets and tried to ward off the chill by jittering under her
coat. It wasn’t a particularly cold night, but her muscles were
still locked with an icy rigidity.

The longer she was out here, the more the
reality of the situation sunk in.

She was tracking down a seriously strong,
seriously bad wizard. On her own with nothing but a possessed cat
for back up. While Luminaria was strong, it was still a huge
risk.

Oh god I hope this
works
, Anna
thought as she winced,
I really don’t want to die.

She followed Luminaria’s trotting form.

Anna
’s only comfort was that the soul
catcher wouldn’t be there. The wizard would have to find another
sacrifice before he could call it again. If Anna got there before
he could, she had a chance at winning this.

If she was late … she’d run away.

It was a plan, of sorts.

Luminaria took her on a circuitous route
around the back alleys and laneways of town. Though occasionally
they came across some pretty shoddy looking types, all it would
take was a well-placed evil insult from Luminaria to see them run
away.

It took half an hour or so, but soon they
came across a strange building.

It was low
and shaped like an ordinary
house, yet it was squeezed between two huge brick buildings, their
sidewalls towering high above the house’s sloped roof and
chimney.

You didn’t need to be a genius
to
realize
this house was out of place. You did however need to be a witch to
realize it was riddled with magic.

Anna
patted at her nose as she held back a
sneeze. “Okay, so he’s in there?”

“Yes. Or at least something terribly dark
is in there.”

“…
You haven’t taken
me on an evil sightseeing tour, have you? We don’t have any time to
waste; we can’t let him grab another witch. If he calls that soul
catcher—”

“Relax,” Luminaria huffed. “He’s in
there.”

Anna
tipped her head back and breathed.
Then she winced. Then she took a hesitant step towards the house.
“What is that place, anyway?”

“Oh, it’s probably a bar.”

“What?”

“All truly evil types tend to do their
best work in bars, where alcohol and peanuts are in ready reach.”
Luminaria trotted forward, heading towards the front door. She had
to leap over a white picket fence to reach it.

Anna
carefully opened the gate and
approached the house with extreme caution. She kept looking over
her shoulder as if she expected the place to disappear or a hail of
demons to rain down on it from the clouds. Which, to be fair, were
both possibilities.

As Luminaria reached the front door, it
opened with the kind of creak you associated with crypt doors. A
seriously gaunt man stepped out. His eyes were so sunken and his
skin so sallow he looked like a skeleton wearing a skin suit. He
opened his mouth to say something, probably along the lines of ‘go
away.’

He didn’t get the chance. “Get the hell
out of my way,” Luminaria snapped as she trotted past him. “Come,
vassal.”

Anna
didn’t lower herself to mutter a
‘yes, master,’ but she did hurry up the path after
Luminaria.

The gaunt doorman didn’t stop them.

Once they made it through the front door,
everything changed.

She expected a hovel of a house with a few
tables and a couple of cases of fuel-strength ethanol.

What she got was a proper bar. One that
didn’t fit in the space allotted by the house.

If she weren’t a witch, she’d scratch her
head. Instead, she scratched her arms as they started to itch
horribly.

“This way, slave.” Luminaria darted
between the patrons.

If the bar last night had been bad, this
place was evil with a capital E, underlined and accentuated with
neon arrows.

She recognized every patron she passed –
all of them had their faces up on wanted posters in the MEC
HQ.

She couldn’t arrest them all, and she had
to keep focused.

She was going to catch that wizard. She
made a fist as she followed Luminaria all the way to the back of
the bar. “You, sit there,” Luminaria gestured towards a booth. It
was suitably gloomy and dank. “I must investigate.” Luminaria
darted away.

Though Anna wanted to follow, Luminaria
had already wended through the patrons’ legs and out of
sight.

With a nervous sigh, she sat down at the
booth.

Her body was tense. Of course it was. She
was on a stakeout with a possessed cat and no back up. She brought
a hand up and pushed it over her face.

“Hiding isn’t going to help,” someone said
as they sat down beside her.

Anna
jumped, yelping into her
hand.

A man leaned down on the table, his face
coming into view.

It was Scott. And he looked pissed.

“What are you doing here?” Anna yelped
with surprise.

“Saving your ass before it gets kidnapped
and sacrificed,” Scott hissed as he leaned towards her.

“But, but, how did you find
me?”

“I followed you.”

“What, why?”

“Because, despite your allergies, you’re
kind of resourceful, Anna Hope Summersville. I had a feeling you’d
find that wizard again. But I wasn’t going to let you do it
alone.”

Anna
opened her mouth. She wasn’t sure
what to say to that. “… So you’re going to help me?”

He laughed quietly.
“Hell no. I’m going
in there – you’re going home.”

She crumpled her brow. “This is my
operation. I found this place,” she whispered so no evil patrons
could be disturbed by the bounty hunters arguing in the corner and
ruining their night.

“No you didn’t – your cat did. I watched
her. She’s pretty useful. I mean, that doesn’t make up for her
shocking personality. But she could be kind of handy sniffing down
bounties.”

“I’m not leaving,” she ignored his banter.
“I’m going to prove—”

“You don’t have anything to prove,” he
looked at her evenly, “to anyone. And don’t live your life like you
do. Anna, you seem like a sensible girl. Do you really think going
after this dark wizard is a good idea?”