Magique Part 3

That same night...

I woke up to Christopher’s labored breathing; he was crouched in the corner of the room, naked and shaking. His eyes darted back and forth and he muttered to himself. I stood to see what was wrong with him and he scuttled away towards the dresser.

“Christopher? Are you alright?” I called out to him and his face was void of noticing that I was even in the room. I looked around to see if something else was out of place and hopefully what had made Christopher act so psychotic. I noticed a small pile of shattered glass and metal on the floor near the nightstand. It was covered in a silver shimmer. Like Magique; it was flickering in the dim lamp light. I looked to Christopher and saw his arm. A bruise blossomed on his left arm and he itched at it feverishly. It was the first tell-tale sign of Magique abuse.

People who could not harness Magique would react as though it were a drug, like heroin. They would think that it was a rush and then their bodies would start to crash, to shutdown. They would crave it and do almost anything for it and it usually ended in death. I had seen numerous stupid teenagers and power hungry fiends die from the wrath of the people of the Market and our world. As we were hunted down years earlier; we would hunt those down who threatened to give away our secrets and to expose us to the world for a second Hunt to begin.

Christopher didn’t know what he’d done. I rushed to my bag and looked through it. The three vials that I had stowed away there, were gone, shattered on the floor near the broken needle. I sighed and reached down and swept up the glass in a tissue. Shaking my head, I knew that this was the beginning of something bad. That’s when Christopher’s voice broke the fragile silence.

“Anissa…I want more. The high that you get from that is amazing. I need more. Please…get me more,” he crawled over to the spot in front of me and laid his head in my lap. He was pathetic and I needed to do something about this. My first thought was Trek; he’d probably know what to do. I just needed to get away from Christopher for a few hours. The couple of hours that I had left for the Magique to last me would have to be enough to try and help Christopher sleep and wait out the negative effects of the serum.

I threw my coat on and slid open my phone. I selected Trek’s personal number from my list of contacts and hit send. The phone rang for a few minutes and then went to his voicemail. I pressed one and left a short, terse message.

“Trek, its Anissa. I need to talk to you. It’s important and I need you to call back as soon as you get this. It’s a Trip and it’s going to end poorly,” I hung up the phone after leaving my message and put the phone back into my coat pocket.

I unlocked my car and rubbed my eyes when I sat in the driver’s seat. I noticed someone else leaving the same building. No one I knew; it was 4:30 in the morning; must have been someone heading to work. I started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. I called Trek’s phone again and he finally picked up.

“What the hell Anissa. 4:30 in the morning? What the hell is so important that you needed to wake me up?”

“Christopher got into my stock. He took three full vials full. He’s on a Trip.”

“Wait, wait. Three full vials of Magique? The stuff that I gave you? That’s really concentrated stuff; only seasoned vets like you can handle that shit. Is he dead yet?”

“No, but he will be,” I light up a Black at this, trying to calm my nerves.

“Well, then let’s see what we can do…unless you just want to turn him into the Elders and let them just dispose of him. I can arrange that a lot easier than an antidote for that much Magique,” he seemed like it would be a lot more interesting to do that.

“No Trek. I don’t care about the Elders…Christopher’s still in the apartment and he’ll be safe till I can get him something to help.”

“Alright well come on over, just enter through the 24 hour diner, not the Korean place; it’s too obvious,” he hung up the phone and I drove faster to the diner.

I’d never noticed much about the diner other than the same old lady worked every night. It was like she never slept and she never did anything but pour coffee and wipe the counter. I walked in and she noticed the panicked look on my face.

“Can I help you darling? Would you like some lemon tea?”

I noticed this cue, “No but I’d like a piece of pie, cherries please,” she nodded and led me into the storage room. In here she opened a door and I felt the dank air of the Market waft up from the dark stairwell.

“Just close the door when you’re done,” she said.

“Thank you,” I walked down the stairs quickly.

Making my way down, I could swear that there was another set of feet following me. I shook off the thought of being followed and made my way down deeper into the world that so many people were secretly apart of. It needed to stay that way, and I still wanted to save Christopher.