The Magic Box
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I don’t know what was in this stuff, but the next thing I knew, my eyes were opening on a white ceiling and it took me about fifteen seconds to figure out that I wasn’t actually dead. Not even close.
And not even in Heaven or Hell either because the only light was the blue glow of a single lamp hanging from the vaulted ceiling high above me, casting weird shadows through the walls around me.
The air smelled like wet grass and something else I couldn’t quite place. It felt hot, but the breeze coming up through the window made it feel cool enough that the temperature didn’t bother me at all. But then, I had an angel sitting beside me who looked just as uncomfortable as I did, so maybe my body heat tolerance wasn’t as good as hers.
“How long have you been here?” she asked after a moment, her voice shaking with fear. I could tell she’d never been afraid before. Never scared someone into thinking they might be dead by their hand. I wanted to laugh at how stupid she looked now; but instead, I just shook my head slightly.
I hadn’t been able to move for a few moments, which explained why I had no idea how long we’d both been there. When I opened my mouth to say something though, a wave of dizziness hit me and I almost blacked out again.
“Oh shit,” she said when she saw me go down to one knee, gripping my stomach as if the pain would make me stop breathing. “You okay? Are you going into shock?”
“Yeah…I’m fine.” My voice sounded strange to me as if my tongue was swollen and it hurt when I spoke. She leaned forward quickly and grabbed me under the arms to haul me back into the chair where she’d left me. Her fingers dug into my flesh and I winced, trying desperately to ignore it as I tried to get used to this new body again.
When I finally sat up, the room spun a bit and I closed my eyes for a moment before forcing myself to look around.
There was nothing on the walls except for a couple of framed photographs: one of an older man with gray hair, wearing a leather jacket and a cowboy hat over his thinning brown hair; and another photo of a young blonde woman in a red bikini with a huge smile plastered across her face.
They weren’t exactly art, but each picture made me feel sad for whatever reason. As far as I could see, these two people were the only other things in the house that were alive, besides us. But I was pretty sure I didn’t need to worry about being poisoned or shot.
These old folk weren’t armed, so they must have decided against leaving any weapons behind. That was probably good news. Maybe they thought we’d be less likely to do them harm if we felt safe enough to relax. But it also meant that they had no protection at all.
We had to take care of ourselves because neither one of us could rely on the fact that they wouldn’t hurt us first if we tried to steal everything they had.
There was a wooden cabinet on the right side of the desk, holding a collection of glass bottles with thick plastic tops. One of the bottles had some sort of purple liquid inside, which I figured might be the same type of stuff the witch used to burn us in our car.
But I had no way of knowing for sure until we got outside again and started experimenting. At least my clothes were clean and dry when I pulled them off.
As soon as she let go of me, I jumped up out of the chair, stumbling over a pile of newspapers that I hadn’t noticed sitting on the floor until now. After a quick glance around to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, I ran back toward the bedroom, grabbing up a spare pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt on my way past the closet.
The woman followed closely behind me, watching my every step. I ignored her while I threw off my old clothes, slipping into my new ones easily enough since my skin had already adjusted to my new size. Now that the worst of the dizziness had passed, I felt almost normal again and it was obvious to me that the potion the witch had poured on us had worn off.
The second we stepped through the front door, the woman stopped walking and turned to glare at me. “What are you doing? Why did you run away like that?”
“Because I don’t want to kill anyone anymore,” I said softly, feeling sorry for her because she was so obviously upset. Even now, she still looked ready to cry.
“But—but—” She shook her head vigorously and pointed at me. “We can’t afford to wait around! You know what’s going to happen!”
“No, we don’t, because we haven’t tried it yet. And I’m not going anywhere. It was your plan anyway, wasn’t it?”
She scowled at me, then shrugged and turned back toward the house. “Okay…we’ll try it.”
It seemed the only solution. If it worked, maybe it would mean we’d finally be safe from the demons, and we’d get the hell out of this mess in the meantime. At the very least, we wouldn’t be dying in a hail of gunfire if it went bad.
After we returned to the living room, the old lady took out three small vials of a thick yellow liquid. The liquid inside the bottles glowed with a bright golden light just like when we’d been dosed by the witch in the backseat of the SUV.
Each of those bottles had a little metal tab sticking out of its top. Once the tabs were touched together, the bottles lit up even brighter and began humming slightly, making the woman jump as her hands trembled. Then the bottles burst open, exploding in a cloud of yellow vapor that billowed toward us.
My mouth dropped open as a blast of heat blasted out of the bottles at us. In that instant, I realized how close we’d come to getting burned alive and I couldn’t stop myself from screaming. Both the old lady and I jerked backward, falling to the floor where we lay panting hard as if we’d been hit by the fire.
My body was shaking uncontrollably. This was supposed to be some sort of defense mechanism? What if I was allergic to it? Or worse, what if I had to shit out my insides because I was so weak from the sudden burst of energy?
At last, the shaking stopped, and I managed to sit up on my elbows, staring at the ceiling while I waited to feel better. My skin prickled, hot, and uncomfortable under my fingertips. All at once, sweat sprang out along my hairline, dripping down onto my face. But none of it burned. Instead, as I watched, it melted away until I was left looking like I’d showered in warm saltwater.
A wave of relief washed over me and I exhaled, feeling more comfortable than before, though still exhausted.
“That didn’t hurt?” I asked.
The woman nodded. “No, but you’re too sensitive about fire, kid.” She patted me gently on my shoulder and then stood.
I rubbed my chest absently where the woman had tapped me with one of the vials, trying to decide if I was still having trouble breathing or if that was a normal reaction to such an intense flash of heat. Whatever it was, it seemed to have worked. We’d both been protected from being burned.
When I opened my eyes, the old lady was gone.
***
Once I had gathered up the rest of my clothing, we made our way back to the main road, keeping to the shadows whenever we could and staying close to the buildings for cover. I was relieved to see that neither the police nor the media had yet shown up.
I wondered if they would be waiting for us somewhere else. When I mentioned earlier that we were on foot, we were met with a lot of confused looks. I guess nobody really knew much about vampires anymore, so I had no idea if running away would make us look suspicious or just pitiful. Either way, I preferred not to be questioned.
And yet, as soon as we came within sight of the police cars, I froze where I was and turned to watch as several patrolmen got out. They carried guns and radios and wore their uniforms well; I was surprised by how handsome many of them were.
But when one of the men glanced over at us and noticed the blood staining my shirt, his gaze sharpened and he moved quickly toward me, taking a quick step into the street.
“Police!” he called, pointing toward us. “Stop right there!”
He drew his gun.
I stared blankly at him, trying to work out if it was possible that I’d heard that wrong.
“Get out of here,” said another voice from behind me.
A tall man wearing a dark blue uniform stepped out of the shadows, a silver badge gleaming between two gold chains hanging against his chest. He held up his hands as he approached me, holding himself in a defensive posture while he surveyed us carefully.
“You need to leave now,” he told me calmly, his cool tone giving me no cause to doubt him. “If you don’t run away from us, we’ll do our best to catch up with you later. It’s your choice. But we are authorized to use lethal force if we believe you’ve threatened someone or endangered yourself or others.”
“But…but…” I shook my head. “I think—”
“Don’t talk to anyone except me unless you want them to find your body tonight.” The young cop frowned impatiently and pointed at the ground. “Run.”
His warning echoed in my ears as I took off at top speed, my feet pounding across the pavement and my heart hammering in my chest. We hadn’t made it more than ten yards before I was tackled to the ground again.
“Hey! Watch it.” The man shoved me back into the street and raised his weapon.
This time, there was no mistaking the sound of gunfire. Bullets whizzed past my face as I ducked low beneath the hood of the car where we’d just been standing. For the briefest moment, the muzzle of the pistol was pointed directly at my eye. Then I rolled away and kept running, stumbling as I scrambled to get my footing.
I didn’t dare turn around, afraid that if I did, I might never stop seeing the muzzle blast tearing through the air where I’d been.
It was a long time before I dared look back at what I hoped were empty streets. After a few seconds, I forced myself to peek over my shoulder and take stock of our situation. As far as I could tell, none of the bullets had actually hit us, and the only thing I’d heard go flying from either of our bodies were the remains of the vials the cops had dropped.
A few pieces of glass lay broken near the spot where the woman had thrown her vials, but she wasn’t anywhere nearby.
We’d lost the police cars. And if we weren’t going to be able to follow the trail of dead humans, there was little point in continuing to walk.
So we ran instead.
For hours, we traveled north, following the river toward its terminus at the ocean. We stayed close to the edge of the road, which made me nervous because it meant leaving a lot of open space behind us, but we needed to keep moving.
As we went, I tried not to think about how we’d lost all of our belongings to the police. It was hard enough knowing we didn’t know who these people were that we couldn’t even begin to figure out how to repay them for shelter.
When the night finally grew too dark to see where we were walking, we climbed atop an old abandoned truck parked off the side of the road and huddled together, sharing the warmth of each other’s bodies while we slept.
The sun was rising before I finally managed to wake up.
At first, I couldn’t remember where I was, but once I realized it was a different town and not the same place we’d stopped in last night, I felt myself relax. We were safe. At least, I thought we were until I opened my eyes to look around and saw three men approaching us.
They were dressed differently, in clothes that appeared to have been tailored by hand rather than mass-produced, and they walked with a smooth grace that seemed completely out of place on this cracked and dusty stretch of land.
They also carried guns, and though it seemed impossible to me, judging from the way they moved, one of the weapons looked like it was a lot heavier than any I’d ever seen.
I glanced toward the man who’d spoken to me at the diner, and my blood froze in my veins when I realized his lips were covered with a tattoo. The design was so intricate, and the color of their skin so rich, that it almost blended with his skin perfectly, like it was a permanent part of him.
I didn’t say anything.
“Who are you?” asked the man who’d spoken at the diner as we left. His voice was low and deep, carrying easily over the wind blowing between us. He sounded amused. “And why should we trust you?”
Before I could reply, something happened. One moment, the three guys were standing right beside the truck, staring at me with cold eyes that sent shivers down my spine, and the next moment, they were gone. Like they’d vanished without a trace.
My mouth hung open, unable to form a single word. Had we really just escaped being shot? Or had we fallen asleep and dreamed it? Either way, it wasn’t like it mattered. If they’d been coming to kill us, or if someone else was going to try to kill us now that we were separated, there was nothing we could do.
Still, I turned my head slowly and scanned the horizon as we began walking again. But no matter where I looked, I saw only empty plains stretching into the distance. There wasn’t another human within miles, and it occurred to me suddenly that I’d forgotten to bring my phone with me today. What if my family wanted to reach out to me?
But I knew better than to give them more opportunities.
Instead, I focused on the fact that I was alive. That despite everything, we’d still gotten away. It wasn’t much to celebrate, but it was the best I was capable of feeling right then.
The End