PATIENCE
By Toby Causon
DEDICATION
To my family, girlfriend, and all other’s who
have supported me through this endeavour.
Acknowledgements
Cover art by Shamsul Arifin
Contents
01. BLOOD, BLOOD EVERYWHERE
02. A SECRET SOCIETY
03. RIPPER STREET
04. FRIENDLY NEIGHBOURHOOD ZOMBIE NECROMANCER
05. THE FEARSOME FIVE
06. THE IMPERIUM
07. A SPARK OF MAGIC
08. THE RED HERRING
09. X MARKS THE SPOT
10. IVIS MONTAGUE
11. THE VAULT
12. CLAIRVOYANT TRICKERY
13. SEA OF SPIRITS
14. A VERY CUNNING RESCUE
15. PLOTTING FOR REVENGE
16. THE MOONLIGHT HOTEL
17. DULL FAMILY PARTIES
18. THERAPY FOR KENSUKE
19. THE JOURNAL
20. A GOOD NIGHT SLEEP
21. THE SCHISM COMPLEX
22. BOSS KILLING
23. SOUNDS OF SCREAMS
24. THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
25. TO SAVE THE WORLD
26. NO MERCY
27. BLOOD OF THE OLD ONES
28. QUIT WHILE YOU’RE A HEAD
29. NO REST FOR THE WICKED
1
BLOOD, BLOOD EVERYWHERE
Patience had never been bothered by blood. Her mum had always been squeamish, not even able to watch those mild surgery programmes, or even the violent action movies. It was just a natural fluid that came from the human body, after all. But as she looked in on her Uncle Bernard’s upstairs hallway, blood everywhere, she realised that this wasn’t natural. Not at all.
Her heart began to race as she looked out across the floor. Oh God. So much blood. She had just come round for one of her regular visits. There had been nothing to suggest that it would be any different to normal. No broken locks, nothing out of place, though as she reached the top of the stairs, she immediately saw signs of a disturbance.
She stepped on past the puddles of crimson liquid, moving into the study. Maybe she would be able to find some kind of clue as to what had happened.
Her eyes scanned the room, which had bookcases running along either side of the walls, and an ornate desk positioned in the centre. On the desk was a creased bit of paper, with a ring resting on top. It was silver with small, circular symbols scratched onto the surface. Patience noticed that the light reflected off it, giving the ring an appearance that it was glowing.
As she looked at the paper, she instantly recognised her uncle’s sloppy handwriting scrawled across it.
She began to read the words, my dearest Patience, and felt tears pricking at her eyes.
I know I am your coolest uncle, well actually, I am your only uncle, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I am so incredibly cool.
If this was a message written in the thick of a break-in, he certainly had no sense of urgency.
But I regret to tell you that I have been keeping a secret from you. A secret that would no doubt have heightened my awesomeness to a level completely off the charts. There is a phenomenon that is only spoken about in fiction, something that exists in people’s minds only as a fantasy. But I am here to tell you that magic is as real as anything else you’ve been brought up to believe.
She stared at the words for a long while, wondering what they meant. Hoping for some kind of hidden message in it all, surely it was code for something. It couldn’t be true, he must be joking.
This magical life I’ve led has been kept a mystery from all of you, for your own protection. But it is no longer possible for me to follow down this course. They are coming, which puts you all in danger.
I’ve left you this ring. Put it on and it will protect you. Trust no one.
A tear dripped onto the page, sinking through the paper and smudging the ink. As it soaked in, she noticed something written on the other side, so she flipped the letter over and read the words that were intricately set on the page.
Bathe this letter in a bask of Moonlight.
What did that even mean? It seemed almost as cryptic as the letter, although in truth, it wasn’t cryptic at all.... just impossible.
She sat there for a while thinking, until she heard a banging sound coming from downstairs. There were footsteps, and then a creak as someone stood on that noisy, old floorboard at the bottom of the stairs. They were making their way up. Patience gripped the letter tightly, screwing it up into a ball and stuffing it into her jeans pocket. Then she snatched up the ring.
The intruder had almost reached the top of the stairs, just out of view. She cursed herself for not shutting the door, it was hanging wide open leaving her in clear sight.
She didn’t know for sure about anything her uncle had written, but one thing was certain, he had been taken by force, and it wasn’t exactly a farfetched assumption to think that whoever had attacked him was now in the house.
Patience dived behind the desk just in time to see a man’s boot walking along the corridor.
She remained still, not daring to make a single noise that could give away her position. But who was she kidding. This was the worst hiding place ever, even under a bed would have been more appropriate, and generic.
Her heart was drumming against her chest at an unnatural rate. His feet stopped at the very edge of the study entrance, the tip of his black boot not making it past the threshold. A sound like a rattling spring echoed through the building as the ground began to shake. The man didn’t step into the room, it was as though there was some kind of invisible wall blocking his path. Whatever it was, she was grateful because it seemed to have saved her the pleasure of seeing her uncle’s attacker up close.
Patience listened to his steady breathing, it seemed to quicken before he grunted and returned the way he came. She traced the sounds of his movement down the stairs, and the sliding shut of the front door. Why hadn’t he come in? It bothered her as the thought lingered in her mind, but not as much as the prospect of the attacker still being downstairs. She was almost certain he was gone, but just to be sure she waited an extra half-hour, crouched behind the desk.
She stood up to leave, though, before doing so she balanced the ring in the centre of her palm. It felt cold, sending a sharp numbing sensation through the area around it, prickling at her skin. There was nothing for it but to obey her uncle, he seemed to have some kind of a bearing on the situation. She slipped it onto her finger, feeling a sense of weight as though it was far heavier than it actually looked.
Lightning erupted from outside like a giant explosion, followed by rain that beat firmly against the nearby glass, like hail.
Patience made her way downstairs without looking around. She went straight for the telephone, dialling nine-nine-nine and waiting for the tone. There was a hoarse beep sounding in her ear to indicate that it wasn’t working. She slammed it down on the charging station and stepped away.
Everything was suddenly overwhelming her. Adrenaline had been enough to carry her this far, but as she looked down at the bloody footprints that she was leaving across the linen floor, she felt the reality of the situation come flooding back.
This is so messed up, she thought, Uncle Bernard was completely normal. He didn’t get mixed up in this kind of thing. Maybe he’d been gambling in illegal casinos made by the mafia, or was a secret agent who had been kidnapped by Russian Terrorists that were planning to hold the country to ransom. There must be a logical explanation. Something other than... that
thing which he said was real.
Patience stopped. Her heart stopped. Her breathing stopped. The ticking clock didn’t stop, and neither did the subtle footsteps that were creeping up behind her.
She made a move to turn but large arms grabbed her from behind, holding her limbs firmly against her body. She tried to escape his grasp, tossing her foot backwards to try and make contact. He slipped a leg through the middle of hers and tripped her onto the ground. She landed hard, falling into an exceedingly ungraceful roll, though it did the job.
There was a knock at the door.
Patience dodged to the side into the kitchen, tearing open the drawers in search of knives, or anything sharp. There was nothing. Out of all the places Bernard meticulously organised, colour coded and alphabetised, his kitchen was not one of them.
She cursed, turning to the door where the man was just stepping through. This was her first good look at him. He had light brown hair like a birds nest draping from his scalp, and facial hair erecting from his chin, more like tiny pins really. His face was thin, only just on the right side of malnourished.
“Nowhere left to run,” he growled, his cruel eyes scanning her up and down as he edged forwards.
There was another knock, a little more impatiently this time.
Patience let her hands wander across the counter behind her. Thin Man, (yes, that’s what she would call him,) walked forwards. He began to reach out his hand towards her in a menacing manor.
Her fingers clasped hold of something, and she hurled the coffee container towards his face, smashing shards against his bare skin. He roared with pain, and Patience dodged past him into the living room as he picked out the pieces. Thin man stormed in after her, slipping slightly on