There is no rest for the magically gifted.
Callum thought as he rubbed his eyes in an effort to stay awake. He must have been too slow for the other passengers and found himself being pushed off the last steps of the bus. He wobbled to get his footing and turned around to see the bus that carried him from the coastal town of Southpost to the metropolitan Verulan City. An eight hour drive that he did not enjoy!
He went through all of his songs, he tried to read, he even gave his guardian a chance to talk and forced himself to listen as she rambled on about … something. He didn't bother remembering. He even nodded off and attempted to imagine himself in an epic battle with an eight headed water serpent. None of it made the drive go any faster. The songs on shuffle annoyed him and he skipped through most of them. The guardian had nothing intelligent to say, like always it was something about jewelry and kicking back on a beach somewhere with a coconut in hand. He almost lost his lunch thanks to the novel he started to read. And even his dream ended up with his head violently bitten off of his shoulders by one of those heads.
He walked off to the exit and watched as groups of girls stood in front of every window adjusting their wind swept hair and fixing their lipsticks without any care about the people they were desperate to get out into the city.
Callum looked around the busy bus station wondering why all these people were so eager to get to a town they spent every day of the week slaving away. His idea of rest involved, staying at home reading a good book about an epic hero, with a coconut in his hand. He shook his head. He spent way too much time with that stupid woman, eight hours is more than he can handle of the redhead called Mia. The twenty three year old guardian that he was stuck with for five more years!
The academy must be playing a cruel joke on him for not coming in first in his class. Callum crossed his arms and his feet tapped impatiently. He was cranky, alright. And a thirteen year old, rebellious boy was dangerous enough without being slightly proficient in magic use.
Finally satisfied with their warpaint for the evening, the giggling lot of women skipped off towards the exit. In the vacant window Callum caught a glimpse of himself. His blue green eyes locked on to the stray strands of hair dancing as the buses whizzed past him. The tub of hair gel he used to tame his mane has dried up and lost its power to keep his longer strands of hair neatly combed to the side. The blond, curly mess on his head looked as if someone glued a used loofah on his head while he nodded off in the bus.
"If you were going to spend all that money on a haircut, you should have shaved everything off." In the window, Callum could see the slender figure of the young woman he was shipped off with when he was let out of the Royal Magic Academy (or RAM) to complete his five year long apprenticeship. Mia was a good five inches taller than the thirteen year old without the addition of the three inch heel she was currently wearing as part of her business casual outfit. It was the only reason why Callum could never literally look down upon her. He couldn't wait to grow taller before the five years are up. The wavy locks of red hair that she had worn loose on the beaches of Southpost were neatly combed into a bun. The rest of the guardian's outfit consisted of a crisp, plain blue blouse that she had tucked into a tight black skirt that stopped an inch before her knees. Callum remembered all the young and not so young men that stopped to flirt with her back in the coastal town. He thought she was beautiful too, before she opened her mouth. For a woman working such a dangerous job as a guardian of a future hero, all she could talk about is meeting a nice rich man in one of these adventures, who falls for her after needing her help (by her of course she meant Callum) and retiring in luxury. Well Callum wasn't going to be anyone's retirement plan. Mia scowled as she inspected Callum's own outfit for the day. Callum remembered her telling repeatedly before they left their hostel, to wear something better than a gray shirt and a denim trouser. Too bad because he only had gray shirts and denim pants. Her face told Callum that she didn't approve of the worn blue jeans, or appreciated the gray shirt that;s currently decorated with ketchup and mustard stain from the hot dog they ate along the way. And she certainly never liked the heavy metal chains Callum always, always wore, wrapped over his shoulders.
Well tough luck cause, they were heirlooms, they were magical, and they made him look badass. They weren't going anywhere.
"Oh atleast zip up your jacket!" She cried out before she grabbed hold of the boy's hand and dragged him towards the exit and onto the sidewalk as she gestured for a taxi to stop.
After giving instructions to the driver of their destination, Mia settled in and scrolled on her tablet. Callum peeked, hoping he would see the familiar blue and white pages of the forum where the official jobs for apprentices were posted. Instead he saw that she was reading a message. He slumped back on his seat, defeated and looked outside, to calm himself down.
"This is one of those jobs, isn't it." His hands tightened into a fist by his side. "An illegal job?"
Mia didn't look up as she tapped away. "Unlisted. Not illegal."
"Well, whatever it is, it's not going to be earning me any points, is it?" Callum couldn't help his voice raise. He was getting tired after three long months of doing the same sort of jobs.
Finally she looked at him, and her smile was illuminated by the screen, the glint in her eye almost looked calculating and evil.
"You have to learn, there is more to life than points. Like money." the sound of her giggle echoed through the silent taxi. Callum on the other hand was not amused.
"My money," he replied.
Mia raised her hands in response. "Never said it wasn't."
"If I do this job, can you promise me it's the last job that you make me do? Promise me that you'll let me pick the next one."
The taxi finally came to a stop. "Fine. Whatever." Mia reached for the door handle. Callum got out of the car silently and surveyed his surroundings. Despite being thirty minutes away from a very busy urban area, wherever they were was isolated and quiet. Other than the faint light of the moon, only the streetlights scattered along the pavements illuminated the road Calllum supposed he should be taking. The short walk up to the main gates was uneventful, except for the groans of protestation by the young boy, not much was said. They stopped before the great black gates that seperated the somewhat rich from the plebians of the city that made them rich.
Callum looked through the black iron bars of the gate but couldn't see much except for the guards carrying batons patrolling the gate. Callum chuckled, and wondered if they had accidently come to a prison. Or if the rich knew that they were criminals and were willingly locked themselves away. But the well trimmed hedges of flowers as well as the elegantly ancient looking statues at either side of the entrance signaled otherwise. Before they could get to the gate, a guard blew a whistle and guestered them to stop. The side gate for pedestrians opened and a man in blue and shirt tucked into a black pair of trousers approached them.
"Remember. Don't be a smartass and let me handle everything." Mia warned before taking a few steps to meet the guard half way. The corners of Callum's mouth lifted. What a shame, his head was running through so many things to say, things that the guardian will never forgive him for. But he wondered how the red head was going to explain their purpose to the guards. She will never give away the true reason. Whoever's expecting his help tonight will die before letting the truth come out. They may be idiots, but they are proud idiots who never like to admit they were wrong.
He could see the guard nodding after he said something to the walkie talkie. Then he gestured for both of them to follow him. The side gate opened once again and another guard came with a metal detector. Mia stood aside after she was scanned and rolled her eyes when the device beeped as soon as it passed Callum's chest. Callum unzipped his jacket and unraveled his chains for their inspections. The guards talked among themselves for a minute before giving them the approvals to proceed through the gate.
"Take them to Geralds. Number 15." someone shouted from behind them to the driver of the golf cart that was waiting for them. It took a couple of minutes for the cart to whiz through to the residential area of the compound. They passed a dimly lit tennis court that was littered with tennis balls, there were so many of them it was as if they were placed there by someone for decoration. Every house had carefully mowed lawns illuminated by little garden lights, right in the middle was a footpath made of slabs of gray rock, leading to a white two storeyed house. All of them looked so similar, that they looked as if some lazy person copied and pasted the same house into all the blocks. Nothing was unique about them although they looked spacious and expensive. No garden gnomes creepily looking at them, their evil little eyes lit up by the garden lights, no patches of grass dug up by kids for their latest art projects, no flowers planted by a bored housewife just because they saw them in a magazine.
Rich people had no imagination,Callum thought as he got off in front of one of those houses. Callum squinted and saw that the black front door had written on it, the number fifteen, in fancy font.
"Now, remember, don't tell anyone in the house why we are here. Don't get snarky and don't piss off our client."
Callum slowed down almost to a halt and grumbled under his breath. He cursed his luck for the millionth time, in the last three months of being stuck with the most obnoxious guardian of them all. At times like these, he would have rather done his apprenticeship with his mother. Like the twenty five other thirteen year olds, he appreciated getting practical exposure (hopefully in the form of butt kicking of mythical proportions), he just didn't like the additional baggage. Although he knew there was no way they were letting out magical thirteen year olds on their own and hoping they wouldn't get killed within six months.
Deep in his thoughts he didn't notice he had walked up to the door. Mia pressed the alarm button and Callum watched as it lit up.
"Who is it?"
"We are here to meet Mr.Gerald. We are here for uh, " Mia paused to look at a message on her phone, " yea um to discuss about the new infrastructure project."
Callum clutched his stomach as he almost fell down laughing. Who in their right mind would believe that excuse, a twenty year old dressed as a secretary is fine but a thirteen year old wearing a large metal chain, doesn't seem to have anything to do with infrastructure. Callum could feel Mia's eyes burning into him. He lifted his eyes just in time to see her shake her head at him before turning to face the camera, again. Only seconds must have passed before the black doors were opened with way too much force than necessary and before them stood a man surveying the area nervously. Callum looked at the man before him, his face was pale and slim, his chin was pointed, his black hair was combed back and styled, his face was clean shaven and he was way too overdressed for Friday night. His white dress shirt was tucked neatly into a pair of trousers. Based on his experience, Callum knew that this wasn't his client. His eyes scanned the strangers face for longer. The man's nose was slightly crooked, but it was in the right place with both his nostrils. His mouth wasn't fused shut and he wasn't oozing pus from anywhere. Anywhere that was visible anyway. Callum shuddered remembering some of his past rescues.
The man stood back and gestured them in. "Hurry up. Mr. Geralds is waiting for you upstairs."
Callum barely had time to admire (or laugh at) the statue right in the middle of the foyer before being dragged away into the staircase. The three ran to the top, Callum and Mia struggling to keep up with the man, before they stopped abruptly at the top of the stairs. Callum almost lost his balance as he struggled to recover from bumping into Mia. They looked up to see what stopped the man right in his tracks.
Before them stood a woman with curly blond hair framing a slightly round face. Her face wasn't pulling any expression but her eyes told them she was not happy to see them in her house. Just like the man, Callum felt she was overdressed for the time of the day. even though she was wearing a cream coloured silk robe, he had for some reason, bright red lipstick on, and in the hand place in her hips was a very large and obnoxious gold band, as if to say look at me I'm rich!
"These are the guests Mr.Geralds was expecting today, Madam. He said it was urgent, something to do with work."
If that explanation was meant to ease the worried mistress of the house and let them pass through to Mr.Gerald. It failed. The woman's eyes narrowed further and the hand on her hips joined the other as she crossed her arms. Her eyes moved from Mia to Callum. Callum knew she would have jumped to conclusions if Mia was on her own, having Callum here was probably driving her brain crazy, as it tries to find a rational explanation but still make her husband guilty of something.
"You said he was sick, after his trip. You said it was contagious. He has been in his study for three days, he didn't even come to bed."
Callum struggled to not pull a face at the poor unsuspecting woman, that would tell her exactly what sickness her husband caught from his "trip".
"He said it was urgent." the man repeated and rushed past the woman before she could ask any more perfectly valid questions.
There was a short corridor from the top of the stairs to where they were going and beside the two doors they passed the walls were decorated with giant portraits of what looked to be old, dead people in colorful clothes. It looked more like a wall of a museum rather than a house.
"Is that what you want to be someday?" Callum whispered to Mia as they speed walked behind the man. Mia turned slightly to where they met the woman even though they couldn't see her anymore.
"No! That robe, with that hair, would totally wash me out."
"And also if you're implying she married rich. She didn't. He did."
Callum couldn't ask anymore as they found themselves in front of another black door. The man hesitated before opening the door.
"Mr.Geralds is a bit sensitive. So …" he didn't finish, but the look he gave them told them what they needed to know.
Inside was as minimalist yet expensive as the rest of the house. Keeping with the theme the only furniture besides an oversized desk and an equally oversized bookshelf, was a black sofa set. The bookshelf was neatly packed with books but all of them looked as if they were placed there for decoration. Behind the desk which took up most of the back of the room was covered with glass providing them with a beautiful view of the lake outside. Only lit by the deck lights.
Mia was practically bursting with excitement. She ran up to the window and plastered herself against it.
"Wish we could have come in the morning. I can just imagine myself in the water"
The man cleared his throat.
"I think you should start now, you're wasting too much of his time." he said nervously looking towards the door they came through, as if expecting another guest.
Callum finally turned to face the thing seated behind the desk that he had tried to ignore until now. Sitting in the chair was a figure of what they could barely make out to be a man. The thing was hunched. The face laid on top of the desk as if the neck could barely hold it straight. No kidding, Callum thought. The head looked twice the size of any other head he had seen. Even bigger than the head of Professor Red, the seven foot tall principal of RAM.
Callum walked closer and saw a trail of drool leaving the man's mouth and dripping down the side of the head. A very swollen tongue hung outside it. The man only made grunts and moans, even though the head never lifted to look at them, his eyes met Callum's as if demanding him to put an end to it.
Mia came and stood behind Callum and bent down to take a better look.
"Oh boy! That must have been one hell of a trip you had! Mr. Gerald."