Pitch Episode 43: Clarity
#56 of Pitch
Magic couldn't solve every problem. It wasn't a perfect thing, but it was a resource. I never wrote a locator spell myself, but I was on better terms with BJ. Her family was sure to have access to one or more spells capable of finding a lost person. The issue was simple. I couldn't ask for such a spell. I couldn't ask for any spell. I swore not to use magic, and that included in emergencies. But at what point would my morals become ignorance? At what point would it be negligent to ignore a resource I had access to. At any given moment, I could have asked BJ's family for help. But I didn't. Days went by, and we still hadn't seen or heard from Riz.
Would I have waited so long to consider using magic if Wes was the one missing? What if my parents suddenly up and vanished? When I was in middle school, it wasn't even a question. Before I learned the proper way to write a spell, I was willing to try for my pet rabbit. Velmer was a good friend to me. He was someone I hoped I wouldn't lose after graduation. In such a short period, he proved to be loyal, caring, and understanding. He gave me a ray gun. I couldn't think of another person on his level of scientific crazy. Avoiding a solution to his problem felt inhumane.
Was that the person I wanted to be? Was I willing to be so cold to the people I wanted to stick around?
Riz wasn't the only person missing. Harmon, Vista, and Danger hadn't been to school since Halloween, either.
Danger hadn't been home at all.
I wasn't worried about him, but the rise in disappearances gave birth to a theory.
"It has to be hunters," Velmer suggested.
In his underground lab, we spent the weekend trying to come up with a solution.
"If it were hunters, wouldn't we all be missing by now," I said.
"That's not their M.O. Hunters pick away at communities, slowly weeding numbers down. They wouldn't attack an entire town all at once," Velmer said.
"But Vista is missing, and she's human," I added.
"She was a creature sympathizer," Velmer argued only to further his point.
"There must be another explanation," I said.
"One that I haven't thought of?"
"Yes," I answered.
Velmer didn't show it on his face, but he was worried. For someone so smart to argue unproven theories the way he did, his head wasn't on straight as usual. Paranoia wasn't his thing.
"Can't you use all this SciFi stuff to find Riz?" I asked.
Despite most of Velmer's bots being destroyed during the Halloween party, there were a few that seemed functional. It was hard to know for sure, but as far as I could tell, the longer it took to find Riz, the harder it was for Velmer to operate. He never lost his casual, confident tone, but I doubt he could work any of his tech at the moment.
"Whatever's happened to the missing people, magic is involved," he informed me.
"So?" I asked.
"So, oil and water don't mix. Magic and science are the same way. I can't find someone with science if magic is cloaking them," he continued.
That's when I knew he was burnt out. Velmer always had a solution. Blaming our lack of success on magic somehow being involved was a cop out. But I couldn't blame him. He was stressed and worried. Regardless of the reason, he wasn't operating at 100%.
It killed me to know there was something I could do. Was it moral conviction to refuse to use magic in an emergency, or immoral hypocrisy to refuse to use magic to potentially save someone? We weren't covering any new ground, and the red in Velmer's eyes suggested he hadn't slept in a while. I decided to leave him for the day. Hanging around only made me feel lower, and he needed rest.
As my morality began to crumble, I thought I'd spend one more day running down a lead before cracking. If I couldn't find Riz and the other missing people, I planned to involve BJ's family. As much as I wanted to hold steady to my promise, I couldn't look my friend in the eye knowing I was holding out.
Danger and I shared plenty of physical traits, but we also shared the same abilities. He didn't like to use his ears or natural invisibility. Still, there was one thing he couldn't avoid. We both had bad luck, and not just any bad luck. Our luck was capable of causing freak accidents with significant collateral damage. Wherever he was, Danger had to trigger some kind of accident eventually. All I had to do was find the collateral damage and follow it. He didn't have control over his luck the way I did. I understood the longer I avoided an accident, the bigger it would explode when I finally slipped up. That's why I started carrying a bunch of small hand mirrors in my backpack. I could periodically break mirrors throughout the day and exhaust my curse without letting it build up to something worth worry. Danger, on the other hand, let his accidents happen whenever they came. There hadn't been any severe incidents in town for almost an entire week, so he had to be close to something category 5.
I needed a spot high enough to look over the city. There were a few places I thought of going, but I settled on one in particular.
The town's theater.
It wasn't the tallest building, but it was high enough. With it basically being the center of town, I'd have a panoramic view of everything. The problem was getting into the building. I hadn't been to the theater ever since I quit working for Beth. I was still embarrassed to see her.
Rather than announcing my arrival, I decided to sneak in and get to the roof without being noticed. Unfortunately, the main entrance was locked. There were a couple of cars in the parking lot, so I knew someone was inside. The only other way in was through one of the fire exits. Thanks to my time spent at Beth's internship, I knew a few secrets. There was a door that needed to be fixed, so the alarm wouldn't sound if I used it. There was still a risk. It was a door that lead backstage to the theater's main stage, very close to Beth's office.
I got inside, and everything was dark. It was pitch black behind the curtains. I stumbled around in the dark looking for a way off the stage. It wasn't until I made it to the curtains that I saw the front stage was lit. I made my head transparent before peaking around the velvet wall.
They finally fixed the hole Santa's body made when I dropped him from the rafters.
Beth was on stage. She was standing, waiting for something. I couldn't get to the roof until she moved, so I waited to see what was going on. A few moments later, more people walked into the theater. They entered through the main entrance, so as they walked down the aisles of seats, the light behind their backs made them look like black silhouettes. It was quite a few people. Each of them eventually joined Beth on stage to form a semicircle with the open end facing the seats. It was odd. I couldn't see everyone, but I'm sure I recognized a few faces from school. They were students and teachers. I started to step out into view until the last arrivals entered the theater.
It was Vista, Harmon, and Danger.
My double was walking in front of the others like they're leader. But the strangest thing was Vista and Harmon. Both of them were carrying a clear canister the size of a locker. Inside the clear pod was a black ink-like liquid I'd only seen once before. They joined everyone else on stage.
Vista and Harmon carried the canister behind the curtains, but it was too dark for them to see me. I tried to stay still. Obviously, something was going on, and I wasn't meant to be a part of it. Danger stood at the circle of townspeople ready to address them. I should have been able to hear every word that came out of his mouth, but I couldn't. Sounds were too muffled to make out from a distance, but I tried.
My mistake was in forgetting the backstage was dark to not only Vista and Harmon, but myself as well. I was caught off guard when they came back around and bumped into me. They weren't carrying the canister anymore, but more importantly, their hands were free. Before I could so much as turn around to acknowledge them behind my back, they pushed me out of hiding.
Immediately a dozen heads turned to stare at me like zombies. My parents were among them. The only person with life in their eyes was Danger.
"You're not supposed to be here yet," he said as he approached me.
"What's going on," I mumbled as I searched for a way out.
"You're not supposed to be here yet," he repeated.
I tried to back away, but Harmon and Vista held my arms while everyone else circled around me.