Feng Shui Assassin

  *

  Harvey watched with horror as Amanda was splashed. He recognised the corrupted source water, and knew that the contents of the bottle would have been reserved for use on him. Nothing happened for the first few moments. Amanda stood up, truncheon in hand, and edged toward Kirkwood who had collapsed on the bed.

  Then the corrupted Ganges water took effect - and Amanda screamed.

  Her arm crumpled. Like a paper bag being roughly scrunched up, the flesh and bones folded in on itself. Amanda collapsed to one side, but the strange effects spread to her limbs and torso.

  Her body bent and snapped sideways, creasing on itself in no shape humanly possible. Amanda's body collapsed like a two dimensional paper doll, paper folds of flesh and bone, laying over and over again as her mass was reduced. She desperately reached out with one hand, grasping at the bed railings, staring in horror at Harvey with what remained of her face.

  Her screams abruptly ended as her head lay neatly flat against her shoulder, her legs doubling up against her back, and with one final, sickening snap, Amanda folded out of existence.

  Harvey fought against the restraints, willing himself to rip the bed frame apart to reach her. The nurse cackled with laughter in the corner of the room, wheezing at the extent of her joy. Harvey yanked one last time at the handcuffs.

  'Now that was fun.' The nurse straightened up, swinging the water bottle from side to side. The contents of the bottle sloshing against the inside. 'Are you ready for your enema?' She giggled, placing the bottle on the side and reaching for a transparent tube.

  The huge figure of Kirkwood rose up, his face bleached and pale. He gripped Harvey by the hand, slipping a cold metal object into his fingers. 'Help her,' he mumbled, and stood up on shaky legs. With deathly effort, he charged toward the nurse, grabbing her by the waist and barrelling her backwards.

  The nurse laughed, 'Still have some fight in you yet, big boy?' But her laugh turned to a scream as Kirkwood lifted her up and smashed through the window, launching them both into the cold air. They plummeted to the ground seven floors below.

  Harvey swore. In the palm of his hand lay a handcuff key, courtesy of Kirkwood. He picked the key up with his mouth and unlocked one cuff and then the other. He rose from the bed and peered through the window. The two figures lay in a broken heap on the ground below, white-clothed figures running to the spot from a nearby entrance to the hospital.

  He knew what had happened to Amanda, and knew she would soon be dead. The brackish Ganges water, suitably cursed, would send a person into the Umbra. And he had to act soon before he forgot her.

  Ganges water also went by another name - potion of Never. The water had not only sent Amanda to a hellish dimension, but also removed the memory of her from every person she had ever met. Friends, relatives, lovers. Anyone who had any contact with her would forget she had ever existed, filling in the blanks of their memories with detritus of their lives. As if she had never been born.

  Already the memory of her was blurring. If he didn't do something quickly, he wouldn't remember to care.