Page 45 of The Society of Unknowable Objects
“Frank!” Magda gasped.
“What does it matter?” he said. “I’ll not have you killed over it.”
“So what does it do?” the man demanded, inspecting the chess piece in his open hand.
“You can control people,” Frank said. “Move them as you want. Like chess pieces on a board.”
The man nodded, tongue flicking across his lips. “An item like that could be very useful indeed.”
Frank murmured unintelligibly, slumping visibly and closing his eyes. It seemed to Magda that all the life, all of the essence, was draining out of him.
“Frank?” Magda said, shaking him lightly. “Frank!”
“What about the box?” the man demanded. He kicked Magda’s foot sharply to get her attention. “What does the box do?”
Frank opened his eyes to answer. “It holds a weapon,” he said. “A weapon that can kill anyone.”
The man’s eyebrows rose slightly as if surprised.
“Take it,” Frank murmured, closing his eyes again. “It belongs to someone like you. Take it and go.”
The man moved away, but Magda didn’t pay him any attention. She shook Frank, trying to keep him conscious. There was so much blood on his neck, and his face was so pale now.
Frank can’t die here, he can’t leave you alone with this man, with so many questions unanswered.
She glanced across to the intruder, now at the table, and saw him open the box. He stared inside for a moment, then his jaw went slack, dropping open. He grunted, a sound like he had been punched in the stomach, and the box dropped from his hands to clatter on the floor. He dropped to all fours, vomit splattering and pattering on the floor.
If you are going to do anything, do it now!
Magda grabbed the pendant around her neck, concentrating all of her will, all of her racing, chaotic thoughts. She flew, throwing herself at speed through the air at the man, using her body weight to drive him sideways across the floor before he could recover, the gun skittering away in the opposite direction. She lay on top of him, the pungent smell of his sweat mixing with the acrid stench of stomach acid, the heat of his body radiating up to her. The man grunted in surprise, but immediately a hand clamped around her neck.
Didn’t think beyond step one, did you?
The man jerked sideways, rolling Magda until he lay on top of her, his forearm pressed into her neck, his teeth bared. Thoughts crashed together in her mind as panic took over, as her body tried to fight or flee and found it could do neither.
“I’ll fucking tear you apart!” he growled. “You and him both!”
The man glanced up towards Frank, and Magda saw all the fury vanish from his face in an instant. He stared silently, mouth falling open, and she felt the pressure against her neck relax ever so slightly. Magdadidn’t concern herself with what he had seen; she concentrated once more and lifted herself off the floor with the pendant, sending the man tumbling sideways back towards the Impossible Box. Then she was on her feet and she saw what had so distracted the intruder. Frank was gone, vanished!
No time! Move! Run!
The man grunted on the floor behind her, coming to his senses and grabbing the Impossible Box with one hand. She sprinted towards the exit, knowing that he didn’t have the gun and couldn’t shoot her in the back. She heard a muttered“Fuck!”but didn’t look back as she yanked open the door and rushed upwards, the flight of stairs seeming much longer than it ever had before.
Come on, Magda, run! Or use the pendant, you daft thing! You can fly!
She stumbled over her feet, grabbed the pendant, but in her panic she shot straight upwards and banged heavily into the ceiling above the staircase before dropping like a stone back down to the stairs.
Oh god, oh god, oh god!
There was noise behind her, movement and the thumping of feet as the man chased. She saw him as a silhouette in the doorway at the foot of the stairs, backlit by the lights of the basement. And then she tripped, her tired legs not quite making the final step, and she spilled onto the floorboards of the shop, banging her chin, biting her tongue, and winding herself. Her mind screamed at her to get up, but none of her limbs seemed responsive. Then the man was on top of her and rolling her over, a huge, powerful shape of anger and violence, hot breath on her face and a hand around her neck, white teeth glowing in the darkness.
“Going to fucking kill you!”
He pressed with the hand on her neck, compressing her windpipe. Stars erupted in her vision.
You’re going to die here. This man is going to kill you just like he killed James. This is it, there is nothing more after this.
The awful, imminent finality chilled her blood. She wondered where Frank was, and hoped that he was okay.
