Page 75 of The Society of Unknowable Objects
“Imelda had the coin,” the man said, his voice oddly singsong now. “The coin lets me move the rocks and the ground.” He lifted his eyes to stare at Owen from beneath his brows. “I’m going to bury him,” he said, his voice almost a whisper.
Dread filled Magda as Lukas closed his fingers over the coin. The ground rumbled beneath her feet, the earth unsettled. It felt as if the whole world moved, and the same bird with its clarinet call hooted in the night, as if it too could feel it.
Down the street, Magda saw Henry stop suddenly, arms out at her sides like a novice ice skater trying to balance. She looked back over her shoulder to Magda, a question in her eyes. Magda wanted to tell her to run, to help James, to do anything, but before she could find the words the road split apart violently, a giant mouth opening, asphalt tearing and earth and rocks tumbling and dust and dirt coughing up into the air. The crevice appeared directly beneath where James and Owen were wrestling, and both men tumbled into the darkness, separating as they fell.
“James!” Magda screeched.
She tried to run forwards but she found immediately that she couldn’t move.
“I’d like you to stay there,” Lukas said behind her, and Magda’s scalp prickled in horror.
In front of her Henry wobbled on one foot, arms up at her shoulder level, but then she too tumbled into the darkness as the crack spread, as if itintentionallysought to catch her. And then the road snapped shut like a crocodile’s mouth, Magda’s friends gone, crushed in the darkness.
Magda wanted to scream and yell and collapse in despair, but she couldn’t move. A single tear trickled down her cheek, tickling her, and she couldn’t wipe it away.
Lukas walked around in front of her and showed her the chess piece in his right hand, while his left hand disappeared into the bag on his hip.
This is magic,Magda thought to herself, in a voice that sounded more like Frank’s than her own.This is what happens when people use the artefacts. It ends up like this. Madness and violence and the world bent out of shape. This is why we lock them away. How could I have been so stupid to think this was exciting? How was I so naive?
Lukas smiled at her—a smile of happiness, not malice, like they could finally be alone without the distractions—and it was worse because Magda couldn’t look away. From his bag he removed the Impossible Box.
“That man brought me this,” he said, and he sat down cross-legged on the road in front of Magda, the world washed in thin red light from the taillights of the crashed car. He opened the box and peered into it. Magda waited for him to vomit or to faint but to her astonishment nothing happened. His eyes darted around, like he was searching a pantry for a specific tin of food.
“There are so many items in here,” Lukas said. “I haven’t even started exploring them. I like the items. They make me happy. Like friends. I’ve never really had a friend. Or family. I’ve always been alone. I was...” He frowned, like he was thinking of a word he hadn’t used in a long time. “I was anorphan.”
Who is he?
He dropped his eyes to the box and closed it once more, resting a hand on the top for a moment. “I sometimes wonder what it is like to have a family. I used to watch people. I’d walk to places where people lived so I could watch men and women with their children. They seemedhappy.” His expression darkened, the smile evaporating. “But they don’t like me to be around. They don’t like to look at me.”
You make people feel ill! I want to vomit right now! What am I going to do... Henry and James... they might be alright. Annie must have called the police... but how far away will they be? And what will the police even be able to do?
Lukas’s gaze crawled down to Magda’s chest where the necklace lay beneath her pullover.
“You have items,” he said. “I can sense it. I canseeit.” He turned his head to face down the road, to the scar-like seam in the asphalt where the crevice had appeared. “Your friends had items too. I will get them later.”
He stood up and stepped in close to Magda, the scent of his sweat and unwashed body and filthy clothes filling her nose. She wanted to fight and run, but she could not because he was controlling her with the chess piece, just as Frank had controlled everyone in Regent’s Park.
“Give them to me,” Lukas said, his breath on her face.
God, I’m going to be sick. I’m going to vomit and choke because I can’t move.
“The magical items,” Lukas pressed, flat eyes glinting in the thin red light. “I’ll look after them. I promise.”
There must be something you can do!
But there was nothing. All she could do was think.
Maybe thinking is enough.
On the occasions when she had flown, she had always held the pendant in her hand, but did that matter? The pendant was against her chest, touching her skin. Did she really need to hold it in her hand to make it work?
She tried to concentrate through the fear, searching for those bubbles of gravity. She focussed on the feel of the pendant against her chest, that heavy, cool weight. It was difficult at first, as if her own mind wanted to resist her, but Magda persisted. It was like concentrating on an optical illusion to force her brain to see it a different way. And then, suddenly, it was easy, and the bubbles were all around, tangible and real.
She thought about flying off, lifting herself into the sky just bythought, but somehow that was too much like running away. She did something else instead—using only her mind she pushed away the bubbles of gravity below Lukas. Using only her mind, she made him fly.
He didn’t notice at first, perhaps because he was focussed on the pendant she wore. But then she saw him realise that the ground was receding beneath him, six, then ten inches. Lukas jerked and both of his arms pinwheeled backwards, like he was trying to regain his balance. The chess piece flew out of his opened hand and dropped to the road.
Magda gasped, suddenly released, and stumbled backwards, her knees collapsing beneath her. On the ground, on her elbows, she concentrated on keeping Lukas in the air, barricading the door in her mind against all of the fears and worries that beat upon it, threatening to overwhelm her. “Give me my mum’s bag,” she shouted at Lukas. “Drop it down. Otherwise I’ll just let you float off into space.”
