The Hag's Blood Incident

Chapter 9

     In all the time I've known her, Arianna Lopez has always had an opinion about everything. Take the events that happened recently. Take the Hag's Blood deal from mysterious millionaire? That sounds like a terrible idea, it'll cause nothing but trouble. Besides, we don't need his money, who knows where he gets it from. He could be a mobster. Mister Spider murdered Old Lady Hargis? Oh, God, yes, he is a Boogieman. They usually get locked up for less. How has something like that not happened before? Oliver's a warlock who lost control of his own mind and poisoned some rando on the bus? Oh yeah, that definitely sounds like my partner. He's a loser, consistently makes bad decisions. You know what? Maybe I'll even dissolve my friendship with him. He's reckless, dangerous, really, and he should go to jail for his stupid decisions.

     So, to see her stand flabbergasted, stunned, by the ghostly green image of one of her best friends covered in the black blood of her grandmother whose body is lying on the floor, well, it caused my jaw to drop, as well. For a few moments, all either of us could do was stare, gawping, like some chinless, backwoods mouthbreathers.

     Leave it to Tam to interrupt. "Guys, that cop shot me. Can someone do something about that rather than have me lay here on the floor?"

     Ari shook herself out of her reveille and launched herself the rest of the way in through the doorway and down next to Tam in an instant. "What happened? Are you alright? Oliver called and said you'd been shot. I thought I'd lost you." The words tumbled out of her mouth as he ran her hands over Tam's body examining every inch of him in the dim, garish light of the video.

     "It's nice to see you, too." Tam said with a smirk, wincing at Ari's touch every now and again.

     With each flinch, Ari's face darkened. She turned her gaze to me, "Go turn the power on, so we can get some real light in here. I need to look him over. He may need to go to the hospital."

      I stood up immediately and ran down the halls to Jorge's office.

     As I was leaving, I heard Tam say, "I thought about you, right after she..."

     "Don't." Ari replied before I turned a corner and their already soft voices were drowned by the silence of the building.

     When I arrived at the office door, I was panting with exertion and sweating profusely. If I kept this kind of activity level up, I'd really need to consider joining a gym. But for now, I needed to get in the building's office. I grabbed the corroded brass handle, but it turned in neither direction with my prompting. Dammit. Locked.

     My brain was screaming at me to follow Ari's directions. I had already left Tam injured for too long. Magical healing was convenient, but it wasn't anything compared to a good old fashioned surgeon, especially for bullet wounds and other complex surgeries. I knew that if you applied enough magic you could compensate for skill, but Arianna's talismans were designed for minor injures, maybe even the occasional straight fracture, not an injury the magnitude of Tim-tam's.

     I needed in now. Behind me in the hallways I heard the dripping of water from the condensation of the pipes. I looked down at the door knob. It was mostly green, covered in verdigris from the moisture in the air. Maybe the hinges were the same. The pins and screws were iron and not brass, so they'd rust rather than corrode. It was worth a try. I kicked the door and it shuddered at the point where the bolt met the frame, when I looked up I saw some separation at the upper hinge point. It seemed like, maybe this time, luck was on my side. Either that, or more likely, Jorge's cheap nature to not fix things that were in need of repair was on my side. I kicked the door three more times, and on the last one, the rusted metal of the hinges screamed in protest as screws snapped off in their wooden frame and the door fell inward landing on the opposite wall with a dusty crash. The last of the rusty screws were still holding on the bottom hinge, keeping the door at least semi-attached to its casing, so I squeezed in through the gap between the leaning door and the frame and shimmied my way to the back wall.