Work Text:
Chapter 51- Beginning A New Search
Part 1- Starting The Search
Liz, Bip, and Alex slowly dragged themselves down the bustling streets, their eyelids darkened and body slouched over. Liz raised her hand to her eyes and began to gently rub before turning and looking to Alex.
“These early morning and late nights are really starting to get the best of me,” Liz said.
Alex’s mouth began to stretch open mimicking Liz’s yawn.
“I get what you mean, I'm exhausted,” Alex mumbled through the yawn.
“You’d be tired no matter what so don’t complain,” Bip replied in a croaky tone.
Alex and Liz bother turned to look at Bip surprised by his aggressive demeanor.
“Where did that come from?” Asked Liz as she met Bip's grumpy, sunken eyes.
“I get grumpy when I’m tired.”
Alex and Liz looked back down the road as they walked, seeing the yellow tape of the cleanup sight getting closer. The sight had been nearly picked entirely bare leaving only a few large chunks of rubble scattered around behind the tape. A group of workers wearing hard hats and high viz gear sat around some of the heavy moving equipment eating their lunch.
The group ducked under the tape and walked towards the workers. One of the workers turned around revealing himself as the man who the group had talked to before.
“Oh god not this lot again,” the man mumbled under his breath.
“Yo old man, you know them?” another one of the workers asked.
“Yeah something like that, just let me do the talking ok.”
The man stood up as the group reached him.
“Ahh there’s my favorite group of Mage’s, what brings you back here today,” the man asked.
Liz let out another yawn as she began to talk, mumbling her words to the point incoherence.
“We wanna find out more about that curse you told us about,” Alex said.
“Oh, sorry but I told you everything I know already.”
“that’s why we wanted to find that guy you were telling us about, the one whose kid you said got taken away,” Bip chimed in.
“you mean Benno? He took some time off to sort out his life,” One of the other workers chimed in.
The man turned around to his coworker with a scolding glare before turning back to face Liz, Bip, and Alex.
“Ahh, you must mean Benno… he’s taken some time off after everything that happened to him. If you wanna find him he lives on Neejns road, number 25 I think. Don’t be surprised if he doesn’t talk too much though, last time I sore him he seemed pretty down in the dumps,”
Alex and Liz look at each other before turning around and walking back the way they had come. Alex raised his hand and waved as they walked off.
“Thanks… that’s all we needed.”
The man turned around to face his companion.
“You idiot, those were mages, you need to be more careful around them,” the man said in a hushed tone.
Liz focused her ears towards the man as she continued to walk away.
“You have no idea how dangerous they can be,” He continued
Part 2- Getting The Inside Scoop
Liz, Alex, and Bip stood in front of a small building that seemed quite and completely devoid of any signs of life. The windows had been covered up with dark sheets from the inside and several pains of glass in the frames had been smashed.
“What a hovel, you really think someone’s Living here?” Asked Liz.
“Guess there’s only one way to find out,” Alex said as he began to walk towards the house.
Liz and Bip followed Alex as he reached the front door of the house. He raised his fist and gently knocked it against the door. After a few moments of waiting Alex's eyebrows narrowed before he once again raised his hand and knocked again, louder and more vigorously. After a few seconds, more of knocking Alex lowered his hand and let out a loud huff.
“Guess no one’s home,” said Bip.
Liz lightly pushed Alex aside and raised her hand to knock.
“I’m coming I'm coming,” came a groggy voice from inside after a few moments.
Liz turned to look smugly at Alex.
“You got lucky.”
There was a slow shuffling from behind the door followed by a loud thud. The sound of locks being unlocked began to sound off one after another. After a few second the door violently pulled open before quickly coming to a stop leaving a small crack in it. An awful odor came pouring out from the crack in the door before a thin man with a sunken expression popped his head up to look at the group.
“Who the hell are you?” the man slurred in a deep, groggy voice.
“You’re Benno right? We’re Mages with the guild of the silver sun… were here to ask you a few questions about your son?” Liz spluttered out, avoiding inhaling the foul air coming from inside.
The man scanned the pair up and down intently before slamming the door in their faces, leaving the group somewhat confused. The sound of more locks being unlocked. The door once again came swinging open revealing the man behind wearing a stained white shirt several sizes too big for him.
“Come in come in make yourselves at home,” the man said, gesturing for the group to follow as he walked deeper into the house.
The group looked to each other with concern before following the man into his house. Liz glanced around the dimly lit room only illuminated by the glinting off of the countless empty bottles strewn across the floor. The man continued to stumble his way towards his lounge before turning around and falling backward onto his couch.
“So… what can I do for you three today,” the man continued as he grabbed a half-finished bottle from between his couch cushions and began sipping on it.
“We need some information on the curse that took your son away.”
“Ha… yeah right,” Benno chuckled as he took a sip of his drink.
Liz eyebrows narrowed in confusion as Benno continued to drink.
“So you’re not the guy who lost his son to the curse?”
“I definitely lost my son, but it wasn’t to some curse.”
“you sound pretty certain about that? How can you be so sure.”
“ha… that easy,” said Benno, looking away and taking another long drink. Once the bottle was empty he lowered it and look back to the group, a more serious expression etching itself onto his face.” I sore who did it.”
Part 3- He Came In The Dead Of Night
“I got off work late that night, it was already ten o'clock by the time I got home. I decided to go straight to bed after my exhausting day. Just as I was crawling into bed with my wife I heard someone walking down the stairs. I grabbed the baseball bat from under my bed and went to go check out the sound.”
Benno slowly pushed his bedroom door open and slipped his way through the doorway, closing the door carefully behind him. He tiptoed his way down the stairs, hiding behind the wall as he listend to the intruder slowly walk around the room behind him. He peaked his head around the corner to look into the other room seeing a small figure standing by the kitchen. He turned the corner and walked into the room towards the figure.
“Troy? What are you doing up so late.”
Troy continued to stand completely motionless looking out into the room.
“You ok buddy? You get hungry or something?”
Troy once again didn’t respond, looking towards the door as if in a trance. Benno reached his son, kneeling down to his level he looked at his son's black expression in confusion. He waved his hand in front of his face once again getting no response.
“What the…”
Benno turned his head to follow Troy’s eye line only to see the dark outline of a figure standing in the front door. Benno jumped up pulling his bat up ready for a fight. He moved to stand in between the strange figure and his son.
“Who the hell are you. Get out of here before I drop you,”
The man continued to stand completely motionless unfazed by his threats. He suddenly felt a pushing against his lower back. Benno turned around and looked down to see his son mindlessly walking into his back trying to get past him
“What the,” He said as his son managed to slip past him and began walking to the strange man's side. “Troy… Troy get away from him,” Benno pleaded, his tone becoming more and more desperate.
He looked back up to the strange man still standing unfazed by Benno's presence. He clenched his fist tightly around the bat as he watched beginning to let out a threatening, low pitched growl.
“You bastard,” He yelled as he launched himself towards the stranger.
Benno raised his bat up over his shoulder as he grew closer to the man. With a loud, vigorous shout he sent the bat flying forwards.
The stranger raised his hand up casually, grabbing the bat in hid air and stop Benno in his tracks. Benno’s eyes filled with terror as they met with the strangers. With a powerful shove, Benno was sent flying backward, slamming into the kitchen bench and falling to the ground. he grabbed his back and let out a pained groan of pain. He looked up to see the man reaching out his to grab his hand as he turned and walk out of the house, leaving Benno still straining his mind to proses what had happened.
Part 4- A New Lead.
“My wife heard all the commotion and ran downstairs, just in time to miss everything that happened. I tried to explain to her what had happened, that our son had been kidnapped by some strange man but no matter what I said she didn’t believe me. She was always superstitious so she blamed the curse for our son's disappearance and by extension me for not taking the whole thing seriously. She left me not long after that and with no real leads to go on the police refused to believe anything I said. And so that’s how all this came to be,” Benno said as he went to take another sip of his drink.
“Hmm… so someone kidnapped him,” Liz said as she rubbed her chin. “You think that it’s the same person taking all the kid?”
“It might just be a coincidence, but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion it's all linked somehow,” replied Alex.
“Damn it, looks like we’re out of leads again, looks like the universe just doesn’t want us to solve this one,” Bip huffed from behind the group.
“I wouldn’t say you’re completely out of leads yet,” Benno interrupted.
The group looked up to see Benno reaching across to a small wooden draw next to the couch. He slid open one of the draws and reached inside pulling out a strange object. It was silver with a metallic finish and looked like a semi-circle with a bar in the middle meeting the two sides together.
“what… is that?” Liz questioned, looking down at the item in confusion.
“Don’t know exactly, I think it might be some kind of weapon but I can't seem to get it to work. I found it after the man left, he must have dropped it at some point.”
“Do you mean that belong to the man we’re looking for? Hold on a second,” Bip said as he floated over to Benno.
Bip reached his paw out and touched the strange object. He closed his eyes and focused intently on the object. The group watched on as a light green glow began to emanate from the object before slowly beginning to dissipate. Bip opened his eyes and looked back around to his companions.
“I think I’ve got him, I should be able to trace his magical residue through the city.”
“Wait really, that’s great, come on let's get moving,” Liz said before turning to face Benno before nodding her head at him. “Thanks for all your help, we promise we'll do all we can to find your son.”
“Huh… yeah good luck,” He slurred uncaringly as he fished around in between the cushions for another drink.
Liz, Bip and Alex looked to each other with concern for the man who appeared to have lost everything. The group turned off and walked towards the door lead by Bip before running off down the street. Benno continued to search for a few moments before stopping and looking down at the ground. He clenched his fist tightly before looking up to the open door letting light stream into the darkened room.
“Good luck,” he said, a fury burning behind his eyes.
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TO BE CONTINUED
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Thanks you for reading Chapter 55 of Mage. If you like what you see please consider dropping a Kudos and maybe checking out the rest of my work. Also for any updates or if you just wanna see my cosplay adventure please consider follwing my tumblr here https://www.tumblr.com/blog/50funny and until next time have a good one.