“Hickory dickory dock...” the woman began. A man, with an almost identical face, stood just behind her. She was looking down at her captive, a woman with red hair and green eyes, with a blank look on her face.
The woman tied up in the chair was dressed for business. A white, button-up blouse, red tie, and black vest that matched her pencil skirt, high heels, and stockings covered her body and rope covered up over top of that. Her wrists were bound behind the back of the chair, pulled back and tied to her bound ankles, keeping them up so she was on the tip toes of her heels. More rope framed her chest and tightly pinned her arms to her sides and two more coils kept her thighs together above the knees and held her waist to the back of the chair. Duct tape was wrapped around her mouth, holding in a wadded up cloth, and taped around the back of her head over her shoulder length, red hair.
“The mouse went up the clock...” the woman in front of her continued.
The woman was small but currently towered over the confused private investigator she stared down at. She wore a white lab coat and spoke coldly, writing something on a clipboard in front of her. She always seemed to speak in strange nursery rhymes. Her twin brother, the man looming just behind her, spoke almost no words at all.
They both dressed like scientists, or doctors since they wore stethoscopes. Though neither of them checked her heartbeat. But underneath that.... they wore lederhosen. Like they were at some kind of German folk festival. Or came straight out of a fairy tale.
Strangely, they both seemed to have abilities as well. The woman following them, they one they had captured, was a private investigator from out of town named Cheryl Sterling. She had been hired by a wealthy client who wanted someone to look into her son’s disappearance. The man had been a victim of malpractice years ago by a pair of siblings, doctors, whose last names were Schultz.
It was odd, but Cheryl had found herself following a literal trail of breadcrumbs, wondering just what in the world these two were doing. The next thing she knew, she had been knocked out by... something. She wasn’t sure what. And then tied up and gagged on a wooden chair.
The two doctors didn’t seem interested in doing anything to Cheryl. Just... observing her and taking notes and speaking in strange rhymes. She could only wonder what they were up to and had seen nothing of the missing man.
Cheryl got her answer, however, when she saw the man walk over to a closet with an ornate wooden door. A plaque on it read ‘The Oven’ and inside... she saw him. Cheryl couldn’t tell if he was dead but he didn’t even look human at that moment. Like he was made of... gingerbread?
The large grandfather clock behind Cheryl sounded it’s bells, ringing only once. The woman continued writing on her clipboard and spoke again.
“The clock struck one...” She eyed Cheryl for a moment. “The mouse went down. Hickory dickory dock...”
What in the world... Cheryl thought to herself. What are these weirdos planning?
What Cheryl didn’t see was how large the closet was and the strange army of people, turned to gingerbread, awaiting their commands. She had no idea that these two were scheming to set them upon the oblivious populace of Weston, with funding and help from Silver, to essentially bring about some sort of bizarre, fairy tale apocalypse upon the city.
Hansel and Gretel Schultz Needed to be stopped. And Cheryl was the only one who knew where they were. She didn’t know what they planned to do with her but she knew it wouldn’t be good. If only someone else knew about them...
...
Meryn had heard nothing for weeks. Not a peep from Silver. No one so much as tried to bust out The Jeweller after she was put back in jail, held by the Weston Agency themselves in a secure location. Nor did Jonas seem to find anything. And, as weird as it felt to think... she was bored. Needing something to do, Saira would help her train but, really, she was getting concerned. Last time things went quiet, Silver went after Saira. She hated when things went quiet...
“Jeez, these are depressing...” Saira said from across the room.
Meryn looked up and saw her girlfriend thumbing through a thick book. Beside her was a copy of Aesop’s Fables and in her hands were the Grimm Fairy Tales. “I can’t believe they always made these seem so... happy. Seriously, have you ever read the stories all these fairy tales come from? They’re messed up.”
“I’ve heard worse stories back home,” Meryn said. “Some of them were even real.”
Saira glanced over the book toward Meryn. “Wow... remind me... why would I want to visit your home again?”
“It’s not dangerous. Although I’ve heard Taria is having her troubles... But it’s not all dark tales. And besides. I’d be there with you.”
“To protect me from the dark tales?” Saira said, smiling sweetly.
“I suppose,” Meryn said. “I have faith in Taria. She’ll put things right back home. Wish I could help her. It’s been too long since we played cards together.”
“Isn’t she the on you always win money from? I doubt she wants to play cards with you anymore!” Saira said.
“Oh, she does. But she and I have a lot in common. Like not admitting when we like something, for instance...”
Saira giggled. “Well, I’m working on you,” she said.
Meryn scoffed. “Working on me... I’m not an engine, Ms. Mechanic.”
“I’ll show you an... engine...” Saira said, stopping herself short. “That sounded more flirty in my head...”
“Go on and keep reading your fairy tales,” Meryn said. “Leave the one-liners to me.”
“Like I want to go back to this... seriously. You ever really read about Hansel and Gretel?”
“Not really...”
“I mean, holy crap, it’s just full of cannibalism and murder. Like, an evil witch in a gingerbread house fattening up two children to eat them. And then they push her into her own oven and she burns to death. Like this is grim stuff.”
“It’s in the name of the book,” Meryn added.
“What? Oh... yeah. You’re right, I guess it is. Extra ‘m’ though...”
“Still seems like a warning to me. Why are you reading those, anyway?”
“Well... I heard about these two German doctors who used to work in town. They were messed up. Media liked to refer to them as Hansel and Gretel and I thought I’d read the stories again to try and figure out why.”
“Any clues then?” Meryn asked. She recognized the names from the files in the lab Silver used. They were supposed to be enhanced by her blood. So she was interested in what Saira was suddenly talking about.
“Apparently they were a bit obsessed with fairy tales like this. For what they used to do to their victims.”
“I heard about that. Trying to turn them into wolves and whatnot. Messed up stuff,” Meryn said.
“I guess I wanted to know if these tales were as messed up as the stuff they did and... damn. I regret ever looking at these...” Saira said, closing the book and placing it down on the table beside her.
“So... any reason you wanted to know about those doctors?” Meryn asked.
“Um... well... I’m just worried,” Saira replied. “They sound like something that you’ll have to deal with and I don’t want you to get hurt. They’re... god, Meryn, they sound terrifying.”
“Saira...” Meryn crossed the room and sat down next to her girlfriend on the couch. “It’ll be okay.”
“Oh god... you are going after them, aren’t you?”
Meryn let out a short breath. “Their names came up before. In the lab where Silver enhanced all those people like Sonny Davis and The Jeweller. They were the last two names.”
“Oh, Meryn, you need to be careful! Call in backup. Make sure that cop knows. And Jonas. And your dad. And your friends. And-”
“Saira.”
“What?”
“It’s okay...” Meryn ran her hand through Saira’s hair and leaned in close, kissing her on the cheek. “They’ll know. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Promise?”
“Yes. I promise.”
“When you go after them... call me when you’re done? To tell me you’re safe?”
“Of course. I promise.”
Saira threw her arms around Meryn’s shoulders. “I’m sorry... I don’t know why I’m so worried this time it’s just... they’re real monsters, Meryn. Probably the worst people you’ve faced.”
“Among them, yes,” Meryn said, leaning back and holding Saira’s hands. “But they’ll go down like all the others. That’s a promise, too.”
...
It was two days later when Meryn got the call from Mac. An out of town private investigator had been reported missing. She had been looking into the Schultz twins. Meryn suspected who it was but said nothing to Mac. She just went in, making sure everyone Saira wanted to know was informed about what she was doing. With three people backing her up, ready to move in at a moments notice, Meryn went in alone to an office building near the coast.
It was a former dentist’s office but the place had since been cleared out and was officially marked as ‘for lease’ though it seemed nobody had claimed it since the dentist had closed up shop. There were reports of strange sparkling trails of what people were calling ‘bread crumbs’ leading to this office. Not everyone followed them, of course, but the way they sparkled would almost hypnotize others and they would just walk inside and then wouldn’t walk back out again.
She noticed a skylight on the upper floor of the building that led into what used to be a room for patients. It seemed like not only a potential way into the building but also a chance to see inside without being spotted. So Meryn grappled over to the building and knelt down close to the skylight, pried it open, and listened carefully.
Inside, she heard a woman’s voice. She had a light touch of a German accent. And... there was another. A woman as well. She was... grunting? Her voice sounded muffled by something. The second woman didn’t sound particularly distressed just... annoyed. And Meryn could guess why. The woman with the accent was reciting nursery rhymes to her over and over.
“A wise old owl lived in an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke. The less he spoke, the more he heard. Why can’t we all be like that wise old bird?”
“Mmmrrrpphh...” the second woman growled.
The woman speaking seemed to be taunting the other woman with that rhyme. But why? Meryn peered inside and saw what was happening and sighed to herself.
Indeed there she sat, bound and gagged once again. Cheryl Sterling still wouldn’t leave this city, it seemed, and now she had found herself in trouble. Again... The other woman was a familiar face as well; one Meryn had committed to memory. “Gretel Schultz...” she said to herself. “But where is her brother?”
He was a noticeable absence in the room below her where Cheryl struggled against the ropes tying her to the chair and grunted into the duct tape wrapped around her mouth. The only odd thing she noticed was an empty bird cage just behind Gretel. Meryn watched the room, trying to spot ‘Hansel’ as he was known but the man was nowhere to be seen. Keeping her ears open, Meryn continued listening to ‘Gretel’ inside the office building.
Gretel scrawled something onto a clipboard as Meryn peeked down into the room at her and the restrained Cheryl. She looked up at Cheryl again and Meryn thought she noticed a slight change in her blank expression. Her face looked almost... happy, in a way.
“Mistress Mary, quite contrary,” she began. “How does your garden grow?” Her eyes slowly drifted upward and she met Meryn’s eyes. “With golden bells and cockle shells. And so my garden grows...”
“Well crap...” Meryn said to herself, stepping back from the skylight. She bumped into someone and whirled around, her fist connecting with the person who had been standing there... and Jonas reeled, reaching up to his face.
“Ah! What was that for?”
“Jonas! What the hell!? I thought you were-”
“You thought I was one of the doctors?”
She noted her was in his usual dark black and brown attire as The Seeker, the self-proclaimed sidekick of The Maiden.
“I didn’t see Hansel down there. And Gretel spotted me.”
“Well that’s not good,” Jonas said.
“I know. You know what else isn’t good? Following me when I told you not to.”
“Came to tell you why Hansel isn’t here. Mac saw him and called me... before her phone went dead.”
Meryn sighed. “This just keeps getting better and better... what happened?”
“She saw him going into this bakery in the old part of downtown. The last thing I heard her say was something about a bunch of life size gingerbread people coming at her.”
“Wait... seriously?”
“You think I’d be joking about that, Meryn?”
“No I just... you must know how that sounds.”
Jonas let out a short breath. “Yeah, I know. But listen. I had to tell you. I would have gone after her but I thought about finding you and getting your help.”
“That redhead PI is trapped in there with Gretel,” Meryn said. “I can’t just leave her. Especially if they’re doing... what you said... to people.”
“Crap...” Jonas said. “Then I guess that’s where your dad was headed.”
“My... Jonas. Did you let him leave?”
“I’m not in charge of him. And we have the resources to split up and I had to tell him, too. So my guess is he’s going after Mac. So that leaves you and me to handle this one.”
Meryn sighed. “All right. But we do things carefully. That woman in there is... unhinged. There’s no telling what she’ll do if she sees us in direct approach. She somehow already knew I was here.”
“How could she have...” Jonas trailed off as he noticed something strange on the edge of the roof. A small bird, with shining golden feathers, had been staring at the two intently. “Meryn...”
Meryn’s eyes found where Jonas was staring and she, too, noticed the odd bird. It took off then, swooping down to the ground below and flew into the building through a window... and then Meryn remembered the bird cage.
“Is it... spying for her?” Meryn asked.
“I guess it must be.”
“Oh, damn it...” Meryn said. She recalled the books Saira had been reading. “It’s a damn Grimm fairy tale.”
“It’s... come again?” Jonas asked.
“The Golden Bird. I don’t really remember the story but I saw it in the titles in a book Saira was reading about all these old fairy tales.”
“Are you telling me they have some kind of fairy tale powers?” Jonas asked. “That’s... well, that’s not out of the ordinary for us, I guess. But still... how could Silver’s blood do that?”
“You remember what Lanala said about Weston. It’s faint but there’s weird magic here. Whatever experiments they did with Silver’s blood must have tapped into that,” Meryn said.
“At any rate, she knows you’re here. So what do we do?” Jonas asked.
“She doesn’t know you’re here. So... I guess I’ll distract her.”
“And then... what?”
“You get the PI and get her out of here. I mean, you are ‘Agent Shadow’ right? You’re more the stealthy one,” Meryn said.
“I mean, I guess... I’ll see what I can do,” Jonas said.
“Just stay away from that damn bird,” Meryn said. “If it sees you, well... run for the PI anyway. To hell with it.”
“Not much other choice, is there?”
“There really isn’t,” Meryn agreed.
“All right. Let’s go then.”
The two parted ways with Jonas grappling himself to the ground and Meryn jumping down through the skylight, landing between Gretel and Cheryl, noting the bird cage now contained the shining bird sitting in it. Gretel gently stroked its head and listened to it sing to her.
“Mmmmppphh!” Cheryl squeaked in surprise at The Maiden’s sudden appearance. Meryn stood with her back to Cheryl, standing tall and clenching her fists.
“Dr. Schultz...” Meryn said. “Give it up. You’re finished here.”
The bird stopped singing and Gretel stood up straight, still with her back to Meryn, and looked down to her clipboard where she began scribbling something yet again. “The moon has been arising. The stars in golden guising, adorn the heavens bright. The woods stand still in shadows, and from the meads and meadows, lift whitish mists into the night.”
When she had finished speaking, sprinklers in the ceiling usually reserved for fire suppression began spraying a slightly white mist into the room around them, directly down onto Meryn and Cheryl. Though she tried to hold her breath, the mist had already entered Meryn’s lungs and she found herself feeling dizzy.
She collapsed to her knees and tried pushing the mist out with careful exhales but the dizziness continued. Gretel finally turned around, seemingly immune to the effects of the mist. She held a thick roll of what appeared to be thick tape like duct tape except it was white and somewhat silky.
“Little Miss Muffet,” Gretel said, approaching Meryn as she fought to stay conscious. “Sat on her tuffet, eating her curds and whey.” Meryn finally fell to the floor, unable to stay awake anymore. Cheryl watched, helpless to stop anything, and began passing out herself. “Along came a spider,” Gretel said, pulling open the roll of tape. “Who sat down beside her and frightened Miss Muffet away...”
Jonas couldn’t see into the room anymore from outside but when he made to climb into the window, a strong arm pulled him back and tossed him to the ground in the alleyway. He tumbled and fell on his back where he saw what he was afraid of. ‘Hansel’ Schultz had returned. And he was far stronger than her looked.
Jonas said nothing and tried to scramble to his feet but Hansel rushed him and picked him up by the throat, pinning him against the wall. All he did was squeeze and cut off Jonas’ breathing. He did whatever he could to break the man’s strong grip but, with his strength fading, Jonas was quick to pass out from the lack of oxygen before he was tossed aside on the floor, with Hansel looming above him. The silent man just stared and pondered what was to be done with him...
...
Mac admitted to herself that she had found herself in better situations than this. Perhaps worse but she was having trouble coming up with exactly one. And her usual black fedora was missing. She couldn’t very well be Detective Sarah MacGinnis without it. Chalk up another point for this being one hell of a bad day.
With her long coat strewn on the floor beside her and duct tape wrapped around her clean, pressed black trousers, Mac was seriously peeved at the gingerbread weirdos who had kidnapped her and were almost certainly ruining her clothes. Even her black blouse and grey vest had tape around them, trapping her arms at her sides, and her wrists behind her back. Worse still, she couldn’t even voice her displeasure with more duct tape wrapped around her mouth and under her long, raven hair to render her silent.
She had struggled against the tape for some time in hopes of freeing herself but they left her in a completely empty room at the back of the bakery. Mac suspected it was once a fridge or a freezer by the heavy, steel door that slid shut, barred from the outside, but it had long since been shut off and was no longer in use. That was one point in her favour, at least. Her makeshift prison wasn’t cold, at the very least.
With no sharp objects in reach, her gun taken from her, and no other way to free herself, Mac just hoped The Maiden would show up for a while. But when she did... she wasn’t exactly pleased to see her.
Meryn and that redhead PI she had heard about were dumped into the room with her by the strange gingerbread thugs, unconscious and completely bound and gagged like her.
Cheryl, the PI’s name as Mac had heard it, was tied up in rope around her ankles and just above her knees, as well as more that framed her chest and kept her arms tied. Her wrists were crossed and bound behind her back and she, too, had duct tape messily wrapped around her mouth. She felt sorry for the girl’s pretty red hair since whoever had gagged her hadn’t taken the time to move her hair out of the way and it was caught underneath the tight wrapping of tape/
The Maiden, on the other hand, was passed out, without her belt, and wrapped up from shoulders to ankles in what looked like strong, yet quite soft and silky, white tape. With her arms trapped behind her and sealed into the white cocoon, Meryn had also been gagged with the stuff wrapped over her mouth and around the back of her head, sealing in something that bulged out of her mouth and held her jaw slightly open. With her mouth stuffed and tape sealing it shut, Meryn would be kept silent when she awoke as well. Now Mac could only wonder where her sidekick had gone and hoped he, at least, would be there to help them out. Or that other mysterious stranger in the black cloak who The Maiden had insisted was trustworthy for some reason.
In any case, Mac decided to was best to try and wake them up. If they stood any chance of escape, the three captive women would have to help each other out.
“Mmmph!” Mac tried, sighing at the tape that silenced her. “Mmmdmm! Wmmk mmp! Hmmm! Gmmt mmp! Cmmm mmmnnn... Plmmph gmmt mmp?”
When neither woman awoke, Mac slumped into her bonds and leaned against the wall. They would have to wake up eventually, she supposed. A loud thump outside their makeshift cell caught Mac’s attention and she tried peering up at the tiny window in the heavy door from her spot on the hard, concrete floor. She couldn’t see anything and started twisting in her bonds, shuffling herself upward with her legs until she could plant her feet flat on the floor. With this accomplished, she pushed herself up until she was standing.
Steadying herself against the wall, Mac hopped forward one step. Then another. Though she was still tightly bound and gagged, Mac would at least be able to peer out the window to see what it was that was happening. After three more successful hops, and just about managing to keep her balance, Mac stopped at the window and looked out into the wide room.
It had been bakery, once. But it had since been cleared out, the windows darkened from the outside, and set up as some kind of secret lab. The dentist office was one place where they carried out their ‘gingerbread’ experiments and lured in unsuspecting people with their shining breadcrumbs. That was how they got so many of these gingerbread thugs. This place, however, was used for something else. Mac hadn’t figured out what, yet, but having already gleaned the info about the dentist office and the strange gingerbread people, she was sure that she could find out more about what they were doing here.
Mac slowly sighed to herself when she saw them wheel two gurneys into the room, each with a man strapped down and unconscious. So much for my hopes of outside rescue... she thought to herself.
Jonas was strapped down to one and Drake, Meryn’s father, was strapped down in the other. It seemed these two doctors had caught everyone trying to take them down. So now it was up to, well, anyone to make an escape. And with Mac being the only one conscious...
She leaned her shoulder into the door, slamming into it and pressing hard. With it barred shut from the outside, and being a sliding door, she stood no chance of opening it. But the sound did attract some attention.
Mac saw Gretel Schultz turn on her heel and approach the old fridge. Hopping back from the door, Mac slumped down onto the floor again and braced herself, hoping she hadn’t incurred the wrath of the crazy woman. Not only that but, in her current state, she was in no position to fight back. Besides, Mac was better with a gun in her hand and her steady words to back it up. She never did well with direct confrontation.
When the door slid open, Mac was surprised to see that the doctor was not alone. She had a woman flanking her on either side. They were very... peculiar. One was dressed in a bright red dress, heels, and a red cape hung down her back. She had dark hair and piercing, unnatural blue eyes. The other was dressed the same, only she wore white, had blonde hair but the same unnatural eyes. The eyes looked... inhuman. Blank. They had once been human but something had... transformed them. That was all Mac could guess, anyway.
With a huff, Gretel let the two women enter and slid the door shut behind them, bolting it closed yet again. The two just stood there, either side of the door, staring at the three captives.
By this time, Meryn and Cheryl were finally starting to come to. Mac noticed and her eyes flitted back and forth between her fellow captives and the two creepy strangers now guarding them.
“Mmmpphh!” she said, nudging Meryn with her bound legs. “Mmddmm! Hmmm!”
Meryn awoke, her vision blurry, and felt quite groggy when she heard the muffled voice. Her entire body felt tightly pressed in and she didn’t even have to look to know about her near-complete mummification in the white tape Gretel had used on her.
“Mmmmppphhh...” she groaned. Of course... she thought to herself. It’s happened again, has it? And I’m gagged this time? Sometimes I hate this damn job...
When her vision cleared, she glared across at the PI, now awake and trying to look apologetic.
“Stmmrrllmmmmgg...” Meryn grumbled into her gag.
Cheryl shrugged. “Smmrmm...”
Growling into her gag, she felt someone nudge her again and looked to her left. Mac sat against the wall, taped up and gagged, earnestly staring at her and eyeing something to Meryn’s right.
Well at least Mac is all right, Meryn thought. But where’s....
Her thoughts trailed off as she looked to her right and saw the two creepy women standing guard over them. Cheryl noticed them too and visibly shrank back, shuffling her bound form backward towards Mac.
“Mmmmppphhh!” Cheryl squealed, keeping her eyes trained on the strange, almost supernatural women.
“Rose-Red...” the woman in white said, eyeing the near-identical woman on the other side of the door. “It appears our guests have awoken.”
Meryn furrowed her brow. Rose-Red? What kind of name was that?
“Snow-White...” the woman in red responded. “You appear to be correct. Though they are not as friendly as our bear friend.”
Meryn groaned into her gag and shook her head. Snow-White... Are you kidding me!? More of these damn stories!? she thought.
“No they are not,” Snow-White responded. “That is why they are being punished, sister.”
“Our bear friend could punish them well. Like he did to that wicked dwarf,” Rose-Red said.
“Indeed he could. Perhaps they are accursed like the dwarf,” Snow-White said.
“Perhaps they afflicted him with his curse,” Rose-Red added.
“That is why we must guard them,” Snow-White continued. “To ensure they do not harm our bear friend.”
Mac listened to them and realized that these two thought they were characters from a fairy tale. And it seemed that either of the Schultz twins had tricked them into thinking that they were this bear they had befriended in the old Grimm fairy tale.
The two women fell silent and stared blankly at the wall, not even paying their captives any heed. So the three of them took the opportunity to struggle on their own. Each of them feared drawing the attention of their captors so they didn’t try to shuffle any closer.
Mac worked on her wrists, though she had been doing do for hours and couldn’t break the thick layers of tape that bound them together. She couldn’t even work them loose. Worse still, they had rolled up the sleeves of her blouse to ensure the tape stuck to her skin so there was no prying the tape loose by any attempt to remove her arms from the sleeves.
She grunted into her gag as she flexed and pulled against the tape but Mac still had made no progress and, even with sweat beginning to drench her body, she couldn’t escape the duct tape that held her.
Cheryl had an even tougher time with the strong ropes that held her captive. There was no way to reach the knot on the rope binding her wrists so she didn’t bother trying to free them just yet. Instead, she tried picking at the ropes around her arms and torso but there was nothing within reach there either. And with her arms tied, she couldn’t reach anything on her legs. She did managed to tuck her legs underneath her and tried picking away at the rope around her ankles but the only knot she found was iron tight and would take possibly hours to finally pick loose. And there weren’t any other knots in reach.
“Mmmmpphh...” Cheryl sighed.
Meryn, however, perhaps stood the least chance of all of escaping. With her tools missing and her entire body sealed away in the tight, white cocoon of tape, she couldn’t do anything but wriggle and writhe and thrash against the tape, doing nothing to loosen its hold on her body.
Mac eyed their two guards and tried nodding toward Cheryl. The PI noticed this and tried to shuffle her way toward the detective. A sharp gaze from both women at the door stopped them in their tracks. When they stood still, the women’s empty gaze fell upon the wall again. When this happened, Meryn had an idea.
“Mmmc...” she said, into her gag, doing her best to struggle and gently nudge Mac’s legs.
“Hmmph?”
“Dmm thmmt mmgmmnn.”
Mac furrowed her brow. “Wmmt?”
Meryn sighed. “Pmmtmmd tmm stmmggll. Mmd hllmmp mm mmt mmf thmmph tmmp.”
Mac just stared at Meryn, trying to parse... anything she had just said. Fortunately for Meryn, Cheryl had some degree of experience escaping from situations like these and was used to picking up on muffled speech. She started shuffling toward Mac again, stopped, and then nodded at Mac.
“Wmmt?” Mac just looked between her fellow captives, utterly confused.
Meryn did what she could to sit up against the wall. The tape seemed to press tighter when she bent her body but she fought its attempts to keep her lying prone. It took her awhile to shuffle around so that her back was facing the detective but the sound drew the attention of the two guards.
“Mmmph!” Cheryl said. “Smm? Mmmk nmmph!”
Cheryl struggled as hard as she could, not trying to escape, but made all kinds of sounds and diverted the attention of the two guards while Meryn pushed herself closer to Mac. Finally, the detective understood.
“Mmmkmmm...” she said, nodding. She struggled as well, grunting and yelping into her gag and pretended to try squirming toward Cheryl, who shuffled closer to her but neither was close enough to help free the other. The effect, however, was working. The two women shifted their eerie gaze upon Mac and Cheryl but didn’t move. They kept their eyes on the captives, struggling and unable to free themselves while taking their eyes off of Meryn who slowly shuffled and crept across the floor toward Mac’s hands. Finally, she was withing reach of the detective, who began picking away at the tape and trying to find a gap for Meryn to break out of.
It would take some time but, with a strong woman like Meryn, it wouldn’t take much of a gap to get her free. Still, though, she feared they wouldn’t have time...
...
The two doctors gathered around the wide surgical table they had set up in the middle of the room. Jonas and Drake were strapped down, side by side, unable to do much of anything to fight back. Drake remained unconscious but Jonas was now wide awake.
Gretel once again scrawled something down and Jonas waited for her to begin reciting some nursery rhyme. He had already heard her droning on and he thought it was the only way she spoke. So he was quite surprised when she said several clear words as she continued writing, not even looking at him.
“Aren’t you going to say something?” she asked.
Jonas didn’t know quite how to react but he composed himself and answered. “What do you expect me to say?”
He caught the traces of a smirk on her lips. “I thought you would have questions. For instance, why am I not speaking in rhyme?”
“Oh, I figured that was all an act. You know. For intimidation.”
Gretel actually chuckled, her first real display of emotion. “Lucky guess. But I can tell that you’re bluffing.” She finally looked him in the eye.
“So what are you then? Some kind of psychoanalyst? I thought you were medical doctors,” Jonas said.
“If you’re stuck in the 1940s maybe,” Gretel said. “Psychoanalyst is an outdated term.”
“You’re one to talk, with all this weird Grimm stuff from, what, the 15th century?”
Gretel ignored his attempt to taunt her. “If you must know... I am a psychologist. My brother is a doctor and a surgeon. We had a joint practice.”
“Yeah, I knew that much,” Jonas said.
“I prepped the psychiatric patients for his treatment.”
“Your weird, Frankenstein creations you mean?”
Gretel chuckled. “We are beyond the modern Prometheus, Seeker.”
Jonas just grunted, bemused, while carefully eyeing the door behind Gretel. He had seen her go in and pretended to be unconscious as he spotted the three captive women within. So he kept a sidelong glance at the door, hoping at least one of the three of them was about to attempt an escape. He decided to try and give them time so he needed to keep the doctor talking...
“So you’re well read then,” Jonas said. “Well, you’ve read more than just fairy tales. Are they just an obsession or you both just out of your damn minds?”
“Trying to get under my skin will get you nowhere,” Gretel said. She continued taking notes on her clipboard. “Besides, humour and insults are often simply coping mechanisms in the face of terror.”
Jonas scoffed. “Terror? Please. If you’ve seen half the stuff I have, a couple spooky doctors aren’t enough to put any kind of scare into me.”
Gretel raised an eyebrow and lifted her eyes, peering at him over the rims of her glasses. “Intriguing,” she said. “Even when said spooky doctors plan on turning you into... this?”
Gretel flipped a page on her clipboard and turned it around to show him an old piece of artwork. It depicted Death, clad fully in his dark cloak and carrying his scythe, standing in a room full of candles of varying lengths with a man kneeling on the ground, pleading with him in front of a very short candle.
“You will be Godfather Death,” Gretel said. “The reaper of souls. Godfather to us, the Physicians, who will not betray Death as in the story. So it will be that you will allow us to decide who shall live and who shall die.”
Jonas just scoffed again. “Yeah? And how would you do that?”
Gretel said nothing and walked to the head of the table. She placed electrodes on either side of Jonas’ head before placing a small scythe next to him and covering him in a black cloth, leaving his head exposed to he could still see.
“You may not wish to have that question answered. Shall we begin your treatment?”
Jonas furrowed his brow. “What treatment?”
“Tell me... about this shadow,” Gretel said, sitting down in the chair beside the table.
“Wait... what?”
“The shadow. The man that haunts you. You have met him, yes?”
“How the hell do you know about that!?”
Gretel adjusted her glasses and wrote something on her clipboard. “I am a psychologist. It is my job to... see into the hearts and minds of my patients. As soon as your friend there awakens, I will do the same to him. But for now... tell me then. Tell me about Mr. Jade.”
...
Meryn almost had it. The gap was getting wider the more Mac picked away at the tape binding her. It wouldn’t be long before she could finally break her hands free and get herself out of this awful, silky, and surprisingly strong tape.
The two women at the doors still watched Mac and Cheryl intently, while the two captives struggled and called for help to keep their attention. Finally, without their captors noticing, Mac pulled away at the tape binding Meryn just enough for The Maiden to push both her hands through and begin ripping at the tape herself.
She flopped down onto the floor and pulled at the tape, ripping it off bit by bit. Mac and Cheryl continued struggling and drawing the attention of the women guarding them. Meryn kept herself quiet while she pulled the tape off her body little by little, eventually freeing her upper body and beginning to work on her lower body. She made short work of the tape binding her legs and leapt to her feet, forgetting about her gag for the time being, to take out the women guarding them.
Neither of them saw her coming and Meryn made short work of them, too. One heavy fist took care of Rose-Red while Snow-White was slammed hard into the wall, knocking her out as well. Finally pulling the tape from her mouth, Meryn set to work untying her fellow captives. She freed Cheryl first and removed her gag just to scold her.
“I’ve told you how many times now?” Meryn said. “And you keep getting yourself into trouble.”
“To be fair... so do you. Seems like you could use the help.”
“But this town is too dangerous for you,” Meryn said. “And maybe it’s because you’re like me that you find this kind of trouble that I want you to stay away.”
“Hey, I can’t help who hires me. It’s part of the job.”
Meryn just shook her head as she helped free Mac and helped her to her feet. “Easy on her, Maiden,” Mac said. “She was helping someone. That’s what we do.”
“She’s been kidnapped a few too many times in this town,” Meryn said. “And it’s my job to prevent that. So I want her to stay away. Maybe then it’ll happen a little less.”
“In my line of work... it won’t,” Cheryl said.
“Okay. I think that’s enough,” Mac said. “Any ideas about how to get that door open.”
Meryn stepped to the door, looking out the window and pulling the handle. The door didn’t budge and she heard the latch on the other side rattle when she tried. “No good. I don’t think even all three of us could get this open.”
“Well... that’s no good,” Mac said. “Maybe we could knock it down?”
“It probably weighs three hundred pounds,” Meryn said. “And it’s steel.”
“I’ll bet we weigh more than that combined,” Mac said. “I mean, even this one must be at least, what, a hundred? One-ten?” Mac said, indicating Cheryl. “And then there’s you, Ms. Muscle. And while I’m no gym freak, I do like myself a good pie. So I’m probably at least an extra one fifty. That’s more than enough.”
“To do what, exactly?” Meryn asked. “Break it?”
“Maybe if we push hard enough we can pop it loose,” Mac said. “Worth a shot. What else are we going to do? Sit here and wait for these two to wake up?”
“Fair enough,” Meryn said. When she turned to the window again, however, she saw Gretel sitting next to the table both Jonas and her father were strapped to. Drake hadn’t yet awoken but she could see... something stirring behind the doctor. A shadow...
“Oh no... Come on! We need to try and take this door down!” Meryn said.
“What’s happening?” Cheryl asked.
“Nothing good. Let’s move!”
While the three women tried to work on the door, Jonas wasn’t listening to what Gretel Schultz was saying to him. Instead, he watched the shadows behind her turn into... something. A human shape at first. Then, slowly, he saw him. The man in the grey, three-piece suit. The bowler hat. The glasses... and his own face staring back at him.
He had refused to talk about Mr. Jade but all her talk about him... was he hallucinating?
Gretel noticed his thousand yard stare at something behind him but when she turned... she didn’t see anything.
“Tell me, Godfather Death,” Gretel said, now referring to him as the character of the fairy tale. “Do you see this shadow right now?”
Mr. Jade casually strolled to one side of the room and leaned against the wall, folding his arms.
“Well, Jonas? You incessant waste of life. The lady asked you a question,” Jade said. “Better give her an answer.”
“W-what? Is this... what’s happening?”
Mr. Jade smirked and stood up tall. “You sound frightened, Jonas. That seems strange. After all...” Mr. Jade then faded and turned into naught but a shadow, save for his fierce red eyes. “It’s just your shadow.”
“What... what are you doing here?”
“Shouldn’t that be obvious?” Jade asked. He pulled a gun from his vest pocket. “I hunt monsters. You know this.”
“No... don’t you dare! We don’t kill!”
“I know you don’t... but I do. Besides... the brother wasn’t much trouble.”
Mr. Jade snapped his fingers and Hansel, the man who had knocked out Jonas, appeared on the floor from the shadows and Gretel stood from her chair and dropped her clipboard. She saw the bullet hole in her twin brother’s head and gasped. “What!? How did you do that!?” she asked, glaring at Jonas.
“I... I didn’t.”
“You’re technically right,” Jade said. “And wrong at the same time...”
“Shut up!” Jonas said. “Speak sense!”
“Who are speaking to!? Answer me!” Gretel said.
“Madam... I believe he is referring to me,” Mr. Jade said, appearing again, finally making himself visible to Gretel.
“Wait... you’re actually here!?”
“You summoned me. Well, you and the girl The Maiden is seeing. One mention of the word ‘monsters’ and, well, I realized my job was not yet complete.”
“What job!?”
“My only purpose. To hunt monsters,” Mr. Jade said. “And you, your brother... you are monsters in the truest sense.”
“You can’t kill me!” Gretel said.
Mr. Jade shrugged. “Why not? Give me a reason.”
“It’s... you just can’t!”
“But you can torture people and turn them into... whatever those things are,” Mr. Jade said, gesturing to the strange people made of gingerbread outside. “Doesn’t sound fair, does it?”
“Fair!? Who are you to decide what’s fair?”
“Me?” Mr. Jade became his shadowy, red-eyed form once more, still gripping his gun and levelling it with Gretel’s head. “I am a monster, too.”
With a single squeeze of the trigger on his revolver, a bullet passed through Gretel’s skull and she collapsed to the floor beside her brother. Mr. Jade lowered his gun and nodded toward the counter behind Jonas.
“They made an antidote to whatever they inflicted on these people,” he said. “In case they were ever turned against them. Those people might need it.”
“You goddamn murderer...” Jonas said. “This isn’t how we do things!”
“I already know that. But this is how I do things. Best get used to it, you feckless waste of existence.”
“Why would you... I don’t understand.”
“You will. In time. When next we meet. But my work in this city... it’s time for me to move on. Watch out for The Devil, Jonas. Because when he comes for you... you’ll have a choice to make.”
Mr. Jade snapped his fingers and the bolt came loose on the fridge door the three women had been rattling and pushing against the entire time. “Just remember that.”
Mr. Jade faded into the shadows again and the three women burst from the fridge and freed the two men from the table. Meryn helped Jonas up while Mac and Cheryl tended to Drake, who was still unconscious. Meryn looked concerned but Mac just nodded to her when she checked his pulse and breathing and she let out a sigh of relief.
“Jonas... I saw him. Are you all right?”
“I’m sorry...” Jonas said. “I couldn’t stop him.”
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. You hear me?”
“Yeah... I just... the antidote. He said-”
“I heard,” Meryn said. “We’ll make sure to cure those people.”
“In the meantime... I think we need an explanation for why there are two dead bodies in here,” Mac said. “I’ll cover that.”
“What do you mean?” Cheryl asked.
“I mean... we can’t have The Maiden potentially implicated in this. And we know these two guys are innocent. You think any police department in the world is interested in putting a warrant out to arrest a shadow?”
“I guess not...”
“So... they kidnapped me. But when The Maiden showed up to rescue me, the spooky pair entered some kind of suicide pact to avoid having to face her.
“But...where’s the gun?” Meryn asked.
“They used mine. They took it from me,” Mac said, showing the empty holster underneath her jacket. “I’m the primary witness. And the shots went straight through. I don’t see a bullet anywhere which means your dark twin there must have taken it with him.”
“You’re probably right,” Jonas said.
“So, I report what I saw. Just two deranged people who decided to take their own lives rather than face The Maiden. And they used my stolen gun, which they stole when I was kidnapped. That’s the story.”
“Seems pretty solid...” Cheryl said. “But man... I gotta say, you’ve got some weird stuff happening in this town.”
“All the more reason to stay away,” Meryn said. “Trust me. It’s only going to get worse. When Silver learns the last of her crazy super beings is down... it’s going to be no holds barred. And you don’t want to deal with Silver.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Cheryl said. “And thanks. For coming for me. Again.”
“It’s my job,” Meryn said. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to make sure these two are okay. You mind if we take off?”
Mac nodded. “Go on. You rescue and run, like you always do. People know that. Just... look after yourself. Silver will be coming.”
“I know. Stay safe, Mac. And you too, Sterling.”
“I can only try,” Cheryl said.
Meryn said nothing more and cradled her unconscious father in her arms while Jonas left the old bakery with her, headed back to Saira and her place within the old Agency headquarters. But neither of them could shake the image of the dark spectre, bearing the image of Jonas, who had killed those two people. It didn’t sit right when he had done it to Mr. Sun. And it wouldn’t sit right this time, either.
But he was something to deal with in the future. All they could deal with now was what was right in front of them. And in that moment, all that stood in front of them... was Silver.
Story Theme Song: Mark Collie- In Time