Downside Ghosts: Unholy Ghosts Part 14

"Aye ... b-but, you ain't say I can't punish him, he going out to the-" The sentence ended in a stifled gurgle as Terrible's fist tightened around his neck.

"Punis.h.i.+ng ain't sending him out on the street. You ain't watching, you ain't doing what you f.u.c.king told. You need reminding?"

His fist connected with Hunchback's face before the man could open his mouth to answer, snapping Hunchback's head sideways. Chess willed herself not to move, not to gasp, not to do anything at all as Terrible started methodically beating the s.h.i.+t out of Hunchback.

She'd seen the results of his anger-of his attention to duty-before, once or twice when someone crossed b.u.mp or owed him money. She'd never seen him in action, the dispa.s.sionate way he moved, as though he were crunching numbers at a desk or watching a not particularly interesting film on television. It terrified her. It took her breath away.

She wasn't the sole onlooker. Several painfully thin young teenagers of indeterminate s.e.x stood near her, their mouths hanging open as Hunchback's shaved head moved with the impact of every blow. Blood arced from his mouth and spattered the cement floor, turning black in the layer of dust. Hunchback's fingers scrabbled feebly at Terrible's s.h.i.+rt, trying to grab hold as if he was afraid he would fall off the earth if he couldn't get that fabric in his grip.

It only lasted a minute or so, but it felt like much longer to Chess-though not, she imagined, as long as it must have felt to Hunchback.

"What say, Hunchback? You gonna listen next time you're told?"

Hunchback gurgled. His head bobbed up and down like a fis.h.i.+ng float.

"So where Brain rest when he ain't here? Where he hang out?"

Hunchback shook his head. "Ainno." The words sounded strained through wet linen. "Ainnever tell me."

One of the teenagers stepped forward, twisting the hem of its T-s.h.i.+rt enough that Chess could barely tell she was a girl. "Um ... Terrible? Sir?"

"Aye?"

"Sometime Brain go up Duck place. You knowing it? Sir?"

"Behind Fifty-third?"

The girl nodded. Her wide eyes and spiky fire-engine red hair made her look like a junkie Raggedy Ann doll.

"Aye, I know it." Terrible dropped Hunchback with an unceremonious thud and straightened up. "Think he there now?"

She took a hasty step back, as if she thought he might hit her too if she was wrong. "Can't say for sure, but he go there a lot. Say it safe for him most times."

Terrible nodded. "Thanks, chickie. You gotta name?"

The girl stepped back again and shook her head, sending her ropes of hair flying, but one of the others poked her.

"Tellim, Loose!"

The girl glared, then spoke. Her voice squeaked. "Lucy, sir."

"Aye, Lucy. Here." Terrible dug into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled ten-dollar bill. "Get yourself some eats, girl."

Lucy hesitated.

"Goan, take it. I ain't hurt you. Lookin all starved. Hunchback, you start feeding yon kids, hear me?"

The bill disappeared from his hand as if by magic as Lucy s.n.a.t.c.hed it away and leapt back, tucking it into her pocket. "Thankee, sir."

Terrible nodded. "He ain't feeding you, you find me. True thing, Lucy girl. Aye?"

Lucy nodded.

"Cool." Terrible gave Hunchback one last nudge with his toe, and turned to Chess. "Let's get us moving."

His bad mood wreathed his face like smoke as he drove through the bright streets without speaking. Chess glanced at him, glanced again, but his eyes stared straight ahead.

"That was a nice thing you did," she said finally. "Telling that girl to come to you."

He shrugged. "Hunchback ask b.u.mp for work, sayin he gotta take care of them kids. So b.u.mp lets Hunch operate, and Hunch letting them kids starve. Ain't right. They need food if they working."

"I didn't know b.u.mp was such a philanthropist."

He glared at her. Oops.

"That's a person who runs charities and-"

"I know the meaning."

"Oh. Sorry."

He turned another corner, heading farther into a part of the city Chess wasn't familiar with. Like most Downside residents she tended to stay in her neighborhood as much as possible. You never knew what you might find on an unfamiliar street.

Here it was apparently a street fair, like the Market but less organized. The Chevelle rumbled past booths selling scarves and silver, clothing and cell phones, past firecans with spits propped over them. The scent of roasting meat floated in through the window, and Chess realized she was a little hungry.

She grew even hungrier at the end of the street, as Terrible pulled up in front of a barbeque stand. It was nothing more than a large black barrel grill and a folding table, but she couldn't remember the last time she'd smelled anything so tempting. The wizened man behind the makes.h.i.+ft counter nodded as Terrible stepped out of the car.

"Aye, T-man," he said, his voice high but smooth as the motion of his arms as he flipped the long row of meat with a rusty metal spatula. "You eating from me today? What you need?"

"Maybe later." Terrible opened Chess's door-another courtesy she didn't expect, she'd simply been so busy watching the barbeque man's sweat-s.h.i.+ny arms move like pistons, she hadn't thought to get out of the car. "You know Brain? One of Hunchback's kids?"

"Aye, I knows him. Seed him earlier, that's what you askin. He powerful scared. Ain't in no trouble with you, hoping?"

"Naw, not with me. Trying to find him though."

The barbeque man shrugged. "Headed down the aisle, guess to Duck." His gaze skittered over Chess's body, then back to her face, but he said nothing.

"Thanks."

For the second time that day Chess followed him down an alley, but where the first one had been wide and sundrenched, this was so dark it felt more like nighttime. She slipped her sweater back on and checked her watch, surprised to see it was almost six. No wonder she was hungry and restless. She dug in her bag for her pillbox.

Terrible waited while she swallowed a Cept and washed it down with a slug of water, then started moving again as soon as she screwed the cap back on the bottle.

"Gonna be dark soon," he said. "Best be back in the car afore then."

"Where are we?"

"Near Chester, but the other side. Docks that way. Ain't nothing good come out of them docks at night."

She s.h.i.+vered. The alley grew darker as they walked down it, like the sun didn't dare s.h.i.+ne there. Terrible turned left at the end, into a s.p.a.ce even more narrow. The walls were lined with chicken wire and damp, moldy rocks, and it smelled like a burned-out urinal.

She couldn't see to the end of it, either. It curved away to the right, giving her the bizarre impression that it pinched shut at the end. Her stomach was empty enough that the sweet peace of her pill started seeping through her blood quickly, but it didn't entirely eliminate her nerves. Nor did having Terrible's huge body right in front of her. Brain came here? That skinny, pale child made his way through this foul-smelling darkness alone?

When she was young she'd often thought kids like Brain had it better than she had. She didn't anymore-two different kinds of misery were still both misery-but when she saw places like this it made her wonder. She seriously doubted Brain had made it to whatever age he was without having his body violated, his bones broken, his spirit crushed. Just like her, but at least she'd known where the threat came from most of the time.

She wished he hadn't left her place.

They took another turn, right this time. Chess started to wonder how long they would be in here, if they would ever get out. If they at least could get out before dark. She had her knife, and she knew Terrible was armed to the teeth, but somehow that didn't rea.s.sure her.

Finally they reached a makes.h.i.+ft door, a sc.r.a.p of warped and broken plywood hung in a ragged hole in the wall by straps of leather. Terrible opened it and they stepped inside.

A single flame gave the only illumination save the fading sun's rays trying desperately to cut through the grime on the windows. Here and there a panel was broken, and light forced its way in, but was defeated by gloom before it could have an effect.

Bodies crowded the s.p.a.ce, hunched together along the walls and slumped across the floor. Some young, some old, all covered in rags and stiff blankets.

"What business you got here?" demanded a voice, and Chess turned to face a small man, holding a candle of his own. The light made him look bigger somehow, making his dark skin gleam as if he'd been carved from mahogany. "Ain't no need for b.u.mp to bring people into my place."

"You know Brain?"

The man-Duck?-didn't even blink. "Can't say I do."

Terrible didn't blink either, but he held his hands out, palm up. "Ain't looking to hurt n.o.body. Young one might be in trouble, me and the lady just wants to help him out. She got a home for him up her place."

"Since when does b.u.mp take an interest?"

"Ain't b.u.mp's interest. The lady's interest. You wanna keep Brain safe, you tell me where I find him. True thing, Duck."

Chess felt like she ought to speak, but the mental p.i.s.sing contest between the men was too fascinating to interrupt.

"Gonna need your word on that, Terrible. And who she is."

Terrible opened his mouth, but Chess was faster. She liked this man, Duck, and she revised her earlier thought as she took in both him and her surroundings. Brain was definitely luckier than she'd been. It might be a scary place to come to, but it was safe once you arrived. "Cesaria Putnam. I'm a Debunker for the Church."

Recognition flared in Duck's eyes. "You b.u.mp's Churchwitch."

"No, I'm Cesaria, and this has nothing to do with b.u.mp." Which was kind of a lie, but not enough to keep her from meeting his eyes clean. Whether b.u.mp had gotten her involved or not, Brain still would have seen what happened at the airport and would still be in danger because of it.

"Brain over there," Duck said after staring at her for a long moment. "In the corner, in the back."

At his words a tiny gasp sounded; a flurry of movement caught her eye, and she saw the back of Brain's head disappear through a dingy flap in the far wall.

Chapter Seventeen.

"From the cemeteries they came, from the battlefields long overgrown, from the forests and the lakes ... the forgotten dead walked again and sought vengeance."

-The Book of Truth, Origins, Article 18 Her heart threatened to pound out of her chest and her legs felt like someone had tied lead weights to them by the time they stopped running. It was impossible. Brain had disappeared into the twisted warren of alleys and buildings, and as darkness set in Chess almost started not to care. It was late, she hadn't slept, the line of Nip had long since worn off, and she was starving and cold. Surely Brain would be safe for one more day.

Terrible shook his head when his breathing slowed. "We keep looking, you want."

"I don't know how we'd find him."

"Neither me, but we keep looking if you want."

"s.h.i.+t, if you don't know where to find him, how would I?"

He smiled. "Ain't you got them witchy skills?"

"Oh, of course. Let me just send some magic dust into the air to find him."

His laugh didn't sound as creaky as it had before. "Aye, you do that one. Like to see it myself."

They stood for another minute, letting their blood cool. Chess had no idea where they actually were. None of the buildings looked familiar and there were no street signs anywhere.

"Do with some eats, Chess? We ain't as away from my car as it seem."

Dinner with Terrible? Well, why not. They'd probably get faster service than she could get on her own, and she didn't feel like being alone again quite yet.

"Okay, sure."

He turned to his left and took a couple of steps, but Chess froze in place. Her skin crawled.

Only one thing could make her feel that way.

"Stop," she murmured, reaching into her bag. After the other night with Lex she'd thrown some spare asafetida into her bag, along with generic graveyard dirt. It wouldn't be as effective as the personalized stuff, but it would do. Where were all these ghosts coming from? Aside from Mr. Dunlop this was her second in three days, and that did not feel right at all.

What was stirring up the ghosts of Downside?

At first she couldn't see it, only feel it, but as she strained her eyes into the shadows at the end of the alley it started to take shape. A hat first, perched jauntily on top of the head. Then features, indistinct but all present and accounted for, and finally shoulders, a torso, and legs.

The ghost wore what looked like a double-breasted jacket, but the cut was tighter than Chess had seen before and flared slightly over the hips. A tiny patch of lighter, more iridescent s.p.a.ce sat just above the chest on the left side, and as she watched a belt formed at the waist.

Lips parted in a grimace and the ghost started toward her, moving slowly and precisely. Another followed him, dressed similarly and with the same solemn expression. Not anger, necessarily, but ... need. It-they-wanted something, and she had no doubt that that something would be her head on a plate if she didn't act fast.

Beside her Terrible moved. She flung her hand out toward him. "Don't!"

But he moved again, and Chess couldn't spare a moment to glance at him because her fingers fumbled with the bag of graveyard dirt as she tried to gather a handful. It slipped over her skin, cool and full of power, but even as she pulled her hand out of the bag the ghosts stopped moving, stopped looking at her.

They looked at Terrible. Their right hands raised in unison. And they disappeared.

"What the f.u.c.k-how did you do that?" Terrible cleared his throat, and lowered his own hand. He'd been saluting.