Chapter 1: Window Shopping

Casters
Act I: The Initiation
Chapter One: Window Shopping

To the well organised mind, death is but the next adventure.
-Albus Dumbledore

“Are you sure that this is the right place?” Fade heard Viridian ask from behind him. Viridian was a tall black girl with black hair falling just past her shoulders. This cool Sunday night, she wore nothing but black. Fade would have liked to think that it was to conceal herself from any passerbys that might spot them, but she usually wore things of this nature. She was what one would call a goth chick; she even had the dark eye shadow, but Viridian would slap him if he ever called her that to her face.

“Fade’s other companion, Six stood about 5’10 if anyone bothered to measure. He had short brown hair except for his bangs which were bright blue from the dye job he had attained earlier in the day. He was borrowing Fade’s black vinyl pants and a random bandolier with bullets tucked inside that he had found, and no shirt. Fade wanted to ask if he was cold walking around shirtless, but at the moment he didn’t have room to talk.

“Viridian repeated her question. Fade rolled his eyes and wrapped his Trogdor T-Shirt around his fist. He braced himself for the task he was about to pursue. It’s not every day that one breaks into an antique jewelry store. He took and deep breath and plunged his fist through the glass window. The glass cracked and shattered. The glass shards fell to the floor with a loud clatter. Fade looked back at his two companions and grinned sheepishly. “Oh, that was subtle,” Viridian said, folding her arms. The other boy, Six, looked up and down the abandoned street. It was 2:30 in the morning and none of them expected anyone to be up at this time, but one could never be too careful.

“Fade reached inside and felt around until he found the cold brass door handle on the other side. He gently pulled down on it and opened the door. He silently prayed that there wasn’t a silent alarm going off at this moment. He retrieved his arm and unwrapped his favourite T-Shirt. Glass shards fell to his feet as he shook them free. He put the T-Shirt back on and opened the door further so that his friends could enter.

“You’re such a gentlemen,” Viridian said, walking past him.

“I know,” Fade said. He smiled at Six as he walked past him. He made one last glimpse at Grand Avenue before he shut the door behind them. Just for shits and giggles, he locked the door.

“So, do you sense anything,” Six asked, looking at some of the pearl necklaces in the glass display cases.

“Nothing yet,” Fade replied. “But I had cased the joint this morning and it was here on the counter. The amulet was here.” He touched the spot on the display case where he had seen the amulet. “I’m sure they moved it to the back just to keep strange characters from thinking about stealing it.”

“Like us?” Six asked with almost a child’s innocence.

“No, not like us, Six,” Fade said. “We’re not strange characters.”

“Lies,” Viridian said, looking back at them with a smirk on her face. “You two are about as strange as it gets.” She bent over to examine the merchandise on the other side of the display case. Not being able so see without the lights on, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She pressed a button and a bright white light partially illuminates the area. She places her hands on the case to filter out some of the light. “What exactly does this amulet look like?”

Fade ran his fingers through his newly dyed blue hair as if touch would somehow trigger an image in his mind. “Umm, it was metallic, long, and really shiny.”

“Fade,” Viridian angrily hissed though her teeth. “You realize that that describes just about everything in here.”

“I know, Vee, I was just playing with ya.” Fade hide his amusement of ruffling her feathers… if she had feathers, of course. “The charm was a thin bronze piece with a crescent moon shape cut out of it. The crescent was point downward in a way that made it look like a rainbow.”

“Wow,” Six said, amazed. “That sounded very vivid. I could almost see it in my mind.”

“Fade was going to be a writer, that is until he dropped out of college,” Viridain said, standing up and looking around the rest of the shop. Three other display cases stood next to each other in the center of the showroom.

“You don’t need a college degree to do what we do, sweet cheeks,” Fade said.
Six felt the air chill as he saw the expression on Viridian’s face, from what he could see in almost utter darkness. “Sweet cheeks is an endearment, is it not?” Six asked.

“Not if people want to get their face FedEx’ed to them in a box,” Viridian said, turning her attention to one of the center displays. “Now, will two quit goofing around and help me look for this thing before Stark gets here.”

Fade looked at the door and saw that one last shard of glass was desperately trying to cling to the frame, but Fade raised his hand its direction and the shard fell to the floor. The sound it made hitting the floor startled Viridian for she let out a sharp gasp. Fade quickly lowered his hand and pretended to be surprised. Viridian continued to inspect the display and whispered something about a jerk under her breathe.

Fade wandered to the display case that was farthest from Viridian and took out a mini flashlight. He shined the light to make the jewels and baubles underneath the glass show up better. He could see his reflection looking back at him. His lanky body and pale face looked like it had been trapped inside, like a greedy pirate who couldn’t resist the treasure and got stuck there, in the place where he’d spend the rest of his life. He chuckled at the thought of someone banging on the glass, screaming to be let out.

He examined each piece of jewelry for tens of seconds before he moved on to the next one. If he wasn’t careful he could overlook the amulet and leave it there for Stark to steal later. Too much was at stake for such a mistake to happen.

“I’m not seeing it here, Fade,” Six said. He stood up from the display case housed in the center of the ones the others were searching and stretched his arms. “Are you sure you saw it here?”

“How many times are you going to ask me that?” Fade said, feigning a bit of irritation. The truth was he was being to ask himself the same thing.
They went back and examined each display case separately, and then together. Each of them had checked every display over and over with as much time they saw fit, but the amulet just wasn’t there.

Fade scratched his head in befuddlement. “I could have swore that I saw it here.”

“Fade Chambers strikes again,” Viridian said.

“Okay, I think you’ve reached your quote of pock shots at me today,” Fade counted, sounding genuinely upset. This took Six and Viridian by surprised, but Viridian didn’t let it phase her for long.

“So, we basically broke in here for nothing? It’s the wrong shop?”
Fade walked over to the cashier’s counter and shook his head. “No, this is the right place. I spoke with the old lady that runs this store and she showed it to me. She took it out of this display case and set it on one of those little ring racks and let it dangle there like some kind of pendulum…”

“You’re not orating a novel, Fade,” Viridian said.

“She told me that it was a very rare amulet and that it once belonged to someone important who did something important and then…” He stopped and stared at the display case as if he could see the events that transpired in the very spot right in front of him. “Someone came in and asked about the senior discount on a pair of earrings in the window. When she came back, I asked her if she could set it aside for me.”

“And did she?” Six asked.

“I don’t remember,” Fade said, scratching his head again.

“You don’t remember?” Viridian took a step toward Fade like she was going to tackle him, but Fade stood his ground, still staring into space.

“I think I left…” Fade looked back at the front door and sighed. He saw himself walking out of the shop that sunny afternoon. He stood outside the shop for a moment and looked at his watch. The vision disappeared when he heard the sound of Viridian sighing loudly. “Yeah, I left after she said she’d set it aside for me.”

“Maybe she did,” Six said. “Maybe it’s in the back… or behind the counter?”

“Six, you’re brilliant!” Fade said. He quickly walked around the front counter and looked at all of the little compartments and drawers underneath the cash register. He shined his flashlight in all of the dark little nooks but couldn’t make out anything that looked like the amulet he described. Nothing but crumpled up pieces of paper, cans of compressed air, and a box of staples. He looked at his companions and shook his head. “It’s not here. I don’t even feel its presence.”

“So now what?” Viridian asked, her voice rising slightly.

“Someone must have bought it,” Fade offered, telling her to calm down with his calm tone.

“Bought it?” Viridian repeated, her voice a little louder than before.

“Hey, she’s a little old lady. She’s probably got the memory retention of a goldfish.” He walked back around and rejoined his friends. “Look, it’s no biggie.”

“Did I just hear the word the words ‘no biggie’ come out of your mouth?” Viridian took a threatening step towards him, but Fade held at bay with a look that read, “Don’t try me.”

“When we get back to the Coffee House, we’ll just bust out with the phone book and see if we can locate the amulet.” Fade turned away from Viridian and headed towards the door like he had done earlier that afternoon. “Come along children.” He stopped and looked back at his two companions. Viridian was reluctant to move, but after aabout ten seconds, she moved. Fade unlocked the door and opened it for her. Viridian stomped out if the shop in a gothy sort of way and grumbled past Fade. Six left the shop and shrugged his shoulders, indicating that he didn’t know what to do about Viridian either.

Fade shut the door and started to walk after Six and Viridian for she had continued towards the Coffee House without them. He felt like he had forgotten to do something. He stopped in mid step and thought about what it was he was missing. He looked back at the door with the glass punched out of the frame. Then it hit him. He walked back to the door, reached his arm inside and felt around for the door handle. Once he was successful in this endeavor, he flicked the lock mechanism and retrieved his arm. The nagging feeling had left him so he jogged so that he could catch up with Six and Viridian.

***

Fade slammed the phone book on the café table and let the dust fly into the air. Viridian and Six scooted their chairs back to avoid the dust getting in their drinks. “Okay, who wants to go first?”

“You’re not seriously thinking about calling every single person in this phone book at 2:30 in the morning,” Six asked, eyes widen in fear and confusion. “That’s not a very nice thing to do.”

“I’m not going to call them, Six,” Fade said, pulling up an extra chair. He sat down and opened the phone book to the white pages. “I’m going to scry for them.” Six gave Viridian a look that was begging for clarification, but Viridian was not into making eye contact with anyone at the present time.

Fade fished around in his pockets for a few seconds before he pulled out a cloudy white crystal with a silver chain attached to it. He dangled it in front of Six and smiled at him. Viridian rolled her eyes at the campyness of it all and took a sip of her chai. “I’m going to find the amulet with this.” He opened it to the first page of the A section of the white pages. He waved the crystal over the page for a minute before he gave up and turned to the second page. Six watched patiently as the white crystal swung back and forth over the Abernethys.

“You’re kidding me, right?” Viridian asked after five minutes of this. “With every passing second we sit here sipping tea and shit, Stark could be out there closing in on the amulet- that is if he doesn’t have it already.”

“Stark, Stark, Stark,” Fade said in a mocking tone. “I swear you’re in love with the man. He’s all you’ve been able to think about all night.”

“With good reason, you dipshit!” Viridian said a bit too loudly. Six looked around the café to find that people were beginning to stare at them. He slumped down in his chair as if hoping that the angry glares would pierce Fade and Viridian instead of him. “If you hadn’t just left the amulet there for someone to grab, we wouldn’t have to worry about this, now would we?”

“You need to see someone about that temper of yours,” Fade said, turning the page. “You know black people tend to suffer from high blood pressure. You don’t want to start that too early do you?”

“Screw that noise, Fade!” Viridian finally noticed that people were looking at her and she sat back in her chair. She didn’t even remember standing up in the first place. “This isn’t going to work.”

“I know,” Fade admitted. He closed the book shut and sighed. He covered his face with his hands and let his finger run down the length of his head. “You’re absolutely right. I should have just bought the amulet while I was there… but I didn’t have the amount she was asking for it. For a dinky little shiny thing, it was quite expensive. Do you think I can pull off 65? I could have gotten the senior discount.”

Viridian shook her head disapprovingly, but she couldn’t help but smile. As much as she’d like to, she couldn’t stay too mad at Fade; he was too charismatic. “So now what do we do?”

“Well, we could start from the back and do the Z’s,” Fade said.

“I’m going to get more tea,” Six said, standing from the table. “Anyone else need anything?” He reached for Fade’s cup of coffee when he suddenly froze in place. His eyes darted to the window outside. He looked for anyone that could be watching them from out there but he saw no one. He looked around the café, but people were too busy chatting amongst themselves now that Viridian and Fade had lowered their voices. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary present, but he felt that something wasn’t right. He looked at Viridian and Fade and found they felt the same way.

Fade and Viridian rose from their seats. “I think it’s time we paid our bill,” Fade said, reaching for his wallet. He picked up his cup and headed for the front counter. Viridian and Six were right behind him. They set their dirty cups on the counter and the barista smiled and thanked them for saving him a trip out to the table. Fade tossed a twenty dollar bill in the barista’s direction and told him to keep the change. Viridian led them to the back door and held it open for the boys to walk through.

“Did you feel that?” Six asked, his childlike voice giving way to the stronger and deeper voice. “The air…”

“Yes, it got colder, didn’t it?” Fade asked.

“I was hoping that I was imagining that,” Viridian said, looking around at the dark parking lot. It was lit by an orange light which sat on top of the post in the center of the lot. Cars sat out in the cold air, not worrying about catching cold. The trio felt the heavy presence of eyes from all directions. Though they searched the lot for them, they were not able to spot them from where they stood. The only thing there was left to do was leave so that the people having a good time inside would not be hurt.

“Where are we going?” Viridian asked.

"Away from here,” Fade said and he began to walk to the corner of Grant and Campbell. “We need to get as far away from here as possible.” Viridian and Six wasted no time in following him.

"Where is it?” Viridian said as she finally caught up with Fade.

"I don’t know, but I don’t care,” Fade replied.

Viridian had never seen Fade walk so fast before in the entire time that they’ve worked together, which wasn’t long. She and Six almost had to jog just to keep up with his brisk pace. Perhaps he felt what she felt, that something was fast approaching. She felt like a dark cloud was forming right above her head and was about to reach down and mess with her head at any moment. The idea that something unseen was following them sent a chill down her spine, but she had to remind herself that she had dealt with many things that went bump in the night before, this was probably no big deal. Just another Monday morning.

Without warning, Fade took off running down the street. Six immediately raced after him. Viridian looked back to see what they were running away from, but nothing but oncoming traffic could be seen. That didn’t mean that something wasn’t there. And if Fade was running, there was no denying that he sensed something she didn’t. Fade was the one with the telepathic powers, not her. Who was she to question him… at this point in time.

“Okay, is it safe to assume that you have a plan now?” Viridian called up to Fade.

“The train station!” she heard him say. She immediately knew the game plan. All she had to do at the moment was concentrate on staying ahead of whatever they were running from.

Fade kept thinking that this wasn’t how he wanted to spend the night, breaking in the jewelry stores and running from something unseen, but it’s just another Monday night. He could tell from the force of the presence that this wasn’t going to be the average run of the mill fight. This fight was going to be one that he will remember for the rest of his life… or in any case it wasn’t going to be easy. He tried to quiet his mind and just keep running. The train station was almost in sight. It was abandoned and wasn’t used for anything else but a shelter for the homeless and the skate kids. There was a less chance that an innocent person would get caught up in the action and get hurt if it all went down at the train station.

He was beginning to get a stitch in his side from all of the running. He was terribly out of shape. Sure, he was skinny and he ate right, but the lack of exercise was seriously taking its toll on him. He can’t run across town, let alone across the street without panting for the next twenty minutes. But life and death situations can so a lot to a person. He pushed himself to keep running. He looked behind him to see that Viridian and Six were right behind him. God, they make this look so easy, Fade thought. The fuckers.

“Are we there yet?” Six asked.

Fade chuckled as the abandoned Amtrak Station came within sight. The stairway to the underground station was almost beckoning to them. Fade gave it his all and sprinted the rest of the way. He hit the stairs hard and jogged down the stairs. He didn’t even stop when he saw that the entrance had been boarded up. He just extended his right hand and aimed it at the boards. With a quick second of concentration, the boards shattered into tiny splinters. He squinted as the dust rose and threatened to obscure what laid ahead.

“Good one,” Viridian said, panting. “Just leave the door wide open.”

“I don’t see you coming up with anything,” Fade joked.

The three of them entered the dark and almost humid train station. There were tile pillars holding the ceiling litter about the station. They didn’t waste any time hiding behind them, waiting, watching and for Six, praying.

Only the sound of their heavy breathe was heard as they sat down on the dirty floor. The dust on the floor had to be at least an inch thick. Viridian hid behind the pillar to Fade’s left. She looked over at him after they had waited for two minutes. “You think it’s coming?”

Fade was too busy trying to suck in all the air he could to answer. He had thought about it. If something was tailing us, it would have been here by now, right? Fade thought. Maybe he was just being paranoid. Maybe this was nothing. But Six and Viridian had felt that something was wrong as well. If he wasn’t mistaken, Six was the first one to feel it. The air temperature had lowered and it felt like Christmas was coming early. But it could have been the air conditioning kicking on. As much as he would have like to believe that he was just being paranoid, he couldn’t ignore the group feeling of wrongness.

Fade turned to look at Six who had his eyes focused on the entrance of the train station. Good man, Six, Fade thought. Always ready to throw down if the situation calls for it. Good man.

They waited for what seemed like an eternity, but nothing was coming or it would have been there already. Fade slowly stood up and looked out from behind the pillar. Nothing stood in the doorway waiting for them. This brought a smile to Fade’s face. They had freaked out for nothing. At least they could look back at this moment as the night Fade freaked the fuck out and sent them all hiding in a train station. The thought of this made him chuckle out loud. Viridian looked at him as if he was going crazy right in front of her eyes.

Fade slowly stepped out from behind the pillar and stared at the door. Viridian quickly stood up and was going to attempt to pull him back behind the pillar, but Fade raised his hand and she stopped. “I think we’re okay,” he said. Viridian opened her mouth to disagree but he turned to her and she quieted. “We’re going to be fine.”

At that moment, the air seemed to thicken and a chill was felt throughout the station. Fade could have swore that he saw the pillars themselves shivered. He looked at Six who had joined him and the look on his face confirmed that maybe he hadn’t freaked out at all; that he was right about this all along. He hated being proved right at the one time he wanted to be proved wrong… They heard the clicking noises that could only mean that whatever was following them was finally coming down the stairs. Fade didn’t know what scared him more: the sound of the footsteps or the fact that the sound of the footsteps indicated that there was more than one.