09 – All is Calm in the Windy City

Erika held fast to the handrail of the subway car, watching the sparse lights outside the windows fly past. People sat around her, occupying the seats and, occasionally, standing off to the sides. They talked among themselves, listened to music with their earbuds, and generally just lived. It had been a week since that ‘gas leak’ shut down the subway, and everyone was already perfectly willing to trust that everything had been taken care of.

To be fair, everything had been taken care of. Erika knew The Eclipse was running around, putting out fires before the regular people could take notice. She had walked through the Pedway tunnels on her way here—though she took a slightly different route than the way that opened straight onto the tracks—and hadn’t noticed anything suspicious. Even back where she had killed that monster and met with The Butler, there was nothing. The entire tunnel system had been thoroughly cleaned out.

It wasn’t just the subway or the tunnels. Erika had been keeping her eyes on the news. There hadn’t been a single ‘gas leak’ since that incident. At first, she thought that The Eclipse was just changing their narrative cover for the incidents, maybe claiming that buildings were closing for refurbishment or bomb threats or something, but asking Rick about it got him delving a little deeper. Thus far, he hadn’t noticed a pattern.

The few secluded websites he visited had been free of people spotting monsters running about.

It was like, overnight, the monsters appearing around Chicago simply stopped.

It made Erika nervous in that calm-before-the-storm sort of way.

She didn’t know what form the storm was going to take. All she really knew for sure was that The Mummy had chains and that she could break those chains. They wanted her. She didn’t know how those maggot monsters helped get to her, aside from drawing her out, but any change in pattern was potentially dangerous.

That said, some research had borne a little fruit. Nothing too helpful, but Erika and Anna had at least a vague idea of the old maggot-worshiping death cult. There was no connection in the books that Erika could find linking maggots to some mummy or mummy-like entity. Through rituals and veneration, the cult brought maggots forth into rotted meat and spoiled food, giving life from death—or some nonsense like that. Reading between the lines and knowing what she knew now, she could guess that they had been opening portals, or that portals opened naturally, bringing the maggots into the world.

It could just be how the Mother of Maggots existed, spawning those monsters at random.

The subway car slowed to a stop at the same station Erika started at—the same one she and The Hunters had first delved into. Announcements played overhead while people around her got to their feet. Sofia, who had been sitting a few steps away, got to her feet and shrugged. Erika followed the shuffle out of the train and, after, out of the station.

She pulled out her phone and dialed one of her contacts.

Rick picked up on the first ring. “Yeah?”

“Nothing,” Erika said as she headed back to the small garage where she parked her truck. “Everything is completely normal. Didn’t sense anything,” she said with a glance at Sofia to confirm.

The other woman didn’t say anything to contradict her words.

“Well, I suppose that’s to be expected. The subway still being closed would surely be on the news. I was hoping for something, but maybe it is better if there isn’t trouble running amok everywhere.”

“Right,” Erika said, unconvinced. “You have anything else for me to look into while I’m out?”

“Not right now. Sorry.”

That was not what Erika wanted to hear. She wanted an investigation. She wanted a definitive solution to the whole Mummy problem. She wanted more distractions keeping her from going home.

Leah and The Fixer were not all that happy with her at the moment. If it were up to them, she would be sitting at home where it was allegedly safe for the next hundred years while The Fixer meandered on, doing the bare minimum to carry out their one purpose in life. It was bad enough that she had been caught by The Eclipse and taken to The Church, but actively seeking The Mummy was making them antsy.

In reverse, Erika was not all that happy with either of them. In addition to the whole not telling her about supernatural dad thing, which Erika was still pissed over, she was just kinda peeved in general over The Fixer’s whole existence; from attitude to lack of action. If she had been alive for three hundred years, she sure as hell wouldn’t have been dicking about. If The Fixer had done their job, The Mummy would already be gone, and she would be free to explore this supernatural world she was in without having to worry that something was after her.

“Call me if you get anything,” Erika said with a sigh.

“Will do.”

With that, Erika ended the call. She glanced over at Sofia. “Sure you didn’t sense anything?” she asked. “Not even just regular ghosts, nothing to do with The Mummy?”

“Sorry,” Sofia said with a small frown. “It isn’t usually like an everyday thing.” She looked around twice before turning back to Erika. “I’ve got a bit of shopping to do, then I’ll Uber home.”

Seeing the dismissal for what it was, Erika couldn’t do much but nod. Sofia was a bit of an odd one. Their first interaction had involved a lot of yelling and loud Spanish, but now, she was mostly subdued. Except for that outburst the other day about her ghost and parent troubles.

Aside from the safety aspect of having one person able to call the others and tell them what happened, Erika wasn’t sure what Sofia would have done if they had come across any trouble. Back in the Pedway, she had run off at the first sign of a monster. Not that Erika minded. As long as she had her bat and as long as the maggots couldn’t use The Banker’s spells, she wasn’t worried.

But that left her with a full day and nothing to occupy herself with. She watched Sofia wander off while she just stood there in the middle of the sidewalk. People bustled past in either direction.

Anna was trying to research more of The Mummy and the maggots through that old library. Rick was scouring online spaces. Erika could go help one or the other, but in both cases, she felt more like she was getting in the way than actually helping. Hence, her outing with Sofia today.

But it wasn’t much help either.

Flicking through her phone, Erika’s thumb hovered over The Stalker’s number. She had tried calling the night before and the night before that, but there had been no answer either time. Erika didn’t know if the somewhat creepy woman was busy or avoiding her.

Next time, it might be good to get one of The Stalker’s cultists to give her a number. Or even The Strategist, even if Erika hadn’t particularly enjoyed her brief encounter with the man.

Erika went ahead and tapped it, fully expecting to be ignored once again.

Shoving a hand in her coat, she pressed the phone up to her ear and leaned against a nearby building. It kept her out of the way of most foot traffic. She watched the people pass by as the other end of the line started ringing. With a McDonald’s just across the way, most of the immediate foot traffic was headed in and out of there. Cars clogged the street to the point where the thought of driving home now sounded even more unpleasant.

All the while, the phone continued to ring.

And something, some odd ringing noise carried on the wind, made her look further down the street.

Erika’s gaze locked onto a pair of furious, bloodshot eyes.

She jolted, startled. Between a blink of her eyes and a man in a business suit moving past, those eyes vanished. It was like in a movie, that cliche where someone went and disappeared right as a bus drove past. Except it was here, real.

And those eyes had been familiar.

Nobody else seemed to notice. None of the other pedestrians stopped and stared at the spot where that woman had disappeared. They just carried on, paying attention solely to their own busy lives.

Erika shoved her phone back into her coat pocket and slipped a hand inside her coat. Her fingers clasped around the haft of a hammer that hadn’t been there before, one stolen from Rick’s toolbox at the arcade.

“Stalker?” she called out, not loud, but not quiet either.

Her call earned her a few strange looks from others around. She doubted she would have gotten looks if The Stalker was named something like The Normal Person, but the whole naming thing was stupid anyway. One woman even approached, looking like she was about to ask if everything was alright. Erika waved her off, focused more on glancing around.

It wasn’t her imagination. She had seen The Stalker there, staring at her. Erika wasn’t prone to delusions like that.

Where had she gone?

Erika peered through the tinted glass of the McDonald’s, scowled at the windows of the athletics store, walked past the Whole Foods market, and finally spotted something. A bare heel at the far end of an alley just around the corner of the athletics store. It was just a heel, but a bare foot in the middle of a grimy alley? That was enough for Erika.

Someone else might think it was foolish to walk down an isolated alley when someone named The Stalker was around, glaring at her, not answering her phone. Erika didn’t even disagree with that assessment. But The Stalker’s primary trait, the one that informed her title, was her ability to find anyone, anywhere. Erika did not doubt that The Stalker could track her down to any isolated spot she wished. Even just the parking garage was probably empty enough to count.

So, best to spring the known trap rather than stumble into one later on while unaware of the potential danger.

Besides, they were allies.

Probably?

“Stalker?” Erika called again as she ventured into the alley. “Is that you?”

If it wasn’t her…

If it were someone taking her face…

Well, Erika had a hammer. There was that old saying about all problems being nails.

Advancing into the alley, boots crunching against some loose gravel, Erika kept her eyes peeled. The Stalker would know where she was regardless of whether or not she tried to stealthily make her way forward, so there wasn’t much point.

Erika stopped at a cross-alley, right where she saw The Stalker’s heel vanish. The new alley just led past a hotel. There was nothing there. Knowing about The Stalker’s ability to teleport, Erika turned around.

She turned and found herself staring down the barrel of a heavy revolver.

The Stalker stood ten steps away, stooped. She breathed heavily, shoulders rising and falling as she seethed. Her outstretched arm wavered back and forth as she glared over the top of her gun’s sights.

Her finger was on the trigger.

Erika winced back. The Stalker’s gun had several esoteric effects, and there wasn’t much she could do about it from this distance.

The gun didn’t go off. The Stalker stood, staring, glaring with those bloodshot eyes of hers. That afforded her an opportunity, however slight. Her mind raced over possibilities. First was her gun. Her hand was already inside the coat, gripping the hammer. It wasn’t far to grasp the grip of her gun. But pulling it out would take time. Erika wasn’t as acutely aware of time as Carter was, but she knew that the difference between her drawing, racking, and firing the gun versus The Stalker merely pulling the trigger was far, far too great. Any motion could set the woman off.

Similarly, trying to throw the hammer, advancing, or even saying something could all get her shot before she could have any effect.

But Time might be the solution anyway.

When Erika and Carter stole time, it didn’t pause the universe for everyone else. If Carter stole an hour, it was more like time bent. There were two tracks. One that went straight ahead, which everyone else followed, then there was the bent track. Time still moved forward at the same rate, but they simply traveled a greater distance, which allowed them to get more done.

It wasn’t a perfect analogy.

It was something of an aura that affected everything around them. That was how the oven could cook a thirty-minute meal in half the time when Carter was at the helm. Anyone who drove past them on the road would find themselves at their destinations a few minutes earlier. Things like that. Normally, the effect was relatively imperceptible to others.

Neither of them had deliberately tried to exclude someone else from the effect.

Erika wasn’t sure it could be done, but she had always been good at breaking the rules.

“You bitch,” The Stalker hissed, finally talking.

Erika hesitated. Talking was good. It would mean she wouldn’t have to try something she had never done before. “What are you talking about, Stalker?” Erika asked, eyes still flicking about as she searched for more solutions.

There was a small chunk of concrete near her foot, broken off from the worn side of one of the buildings.

She took a slow and careful step toward it, watching The Stalker for any sign that the woman was going to attack.

The Stalker ran her fingers through her stringy, black hair, tugging out a small clump. “You know what I’m talking about. You were with him.” She took her eyes off Erika, staring to one side with that odd shimmer alight in her pupils. “I thought we were… I thought we could work together, but you—”

Erika slid her foot forward, kicking the loose chunk of concrete. It missed The Stalker, but struck the ground right next to her left foot.

The street broke, cracking and crumbling right underneath her. The same trick Erika had pulled on The Banker the first time she encountered him. Unlike The Banker, The Stalker wasn’t as quick on her feet. She stumbled with a yelp, leg sliding down into the rapidly opening gouge in the ground. Her gun arm went up and to the side just before she pulled the trigger. A strange warping field erupted from the barrel, but Erika didn’t pay attention to the effects. They weren’t aimed at her, and that was all that mattered.

She stole time, dragging it on as hard as she could. The most time she had ever been able to steal was just under five minutes. Even then, she felt it ran out before it was supposed to.

Adrenaline and desperation lent her focus. The world stretched and bent around her. The air thickened, and the distant sounds of the city warped into a low, syrupy hum. The Stalker was trying to aim her gun again, but she was slower than normal. Not much, but enough.

Erika lunged forward, boots scraping against broken concrete as she closed the distance between herself and The Stalker.

The Stalker turned to static, flickering a few times before winking out of existence. Erika whirled to find The Stalker, unsteady on her feet, standing roughly where Erika had been an instant before. She tried to raise her gun again, but they were much closer together now.

And Erika was much faster.

She brought her hammer up, swinging it against The Stalker’s outstretched arm. The crunch of shattering bone accompanied The Stalker’s shout. A brief violet light erupted from the end of the gun, aimed off toward the hotel from Erika’s strike. A whole sphere of the brickwork simply vanished.

A second strike, aimed at the gun itself, flung fragments of metal through the air. The Stalker’s fingers twisted and bent from the force, breaking in dozens of places.

“We were supposed to be allies, you maniac!”

The Stalker hissed, baring her teeth. She twisted, catching Erika’s hammer arm in a grip that felt far too strong for her wiry frame. Her long nails dug in, drawing blood.

“You don’t get it!” The Stalker snarled, her voice echoing strangely in the stretched time that only affected Erika. “He’s mine. You stay the fuck away from him.”

A twist of Erika’s wrist broke her arm free from The Stalker’s grasp—the nails trailed into her skin, slicing thin cuts around her arm. “I haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about,” she snapped, shoving.

The Stalker turned to static again just before her shove connected. The static version of The Stalker popped like a soap bubble, splattering a bit of gray blood against her face that vanished just as quickly as The Stalker did.

Erika panted, gripping the bloody streaks in her arm as she turned. If The Stalker were smart, she would run off to lick her wounds. Her arm was broken from finger to elbow, and her other hand couldn’t be doing well either.

Seeing The Stalker lunging for her, Erika started to think that The Stalker wasn’t smart at all.

An elbow to her ribs, a knee to her stomach, and a heavy shove to her shoulders sent The Stalker sprawling to the ground. Erika waited a moment, watching, but The Stalker didn’t turn to static again.

“The fuck is wrong with you?” Erika hissed.

“I’m not good enough,” The Stalker slurred, staring up at the gray November sky as she lay flat on her back. She made no effort to try to get up. A good thing, too, or Erika would have had to put her back down again. “Why? The Art and The Adjutant and The Hermit… And you,” she hissed, eyes flicking down.

“The Art? The freaky worm-doll thing?” Erika said with a shudder. She didn’t recognize the other names. “Whatever The Art told you was a lie. I’ve done nothing to… what are you even talking about?”

“You were with The Hanged Man the other night,” she shouted at the sky. The time dilation was wearing off as her voice returned to normal. “Don’t you dare deny it. I saw it. He holds me, he whispers into my ear, and then he goes off with every other woman around. It’s always someone else. Never me…”

Erika stared for a long moment, trying to process exactly what she was hearing. “The Hanged… That’s what you’re flipping out over? He kidnapped me, tried to collect on a bounty. I wasn’t fucking him, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“You weren’t?” The Stalker asked with genuine surprise in her voice. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty fucking sure.”

The Stalker giggled a little. “Of course not. He knows I’d be upset… he wouldn’t do that to me.”

Erika could only stare. She was starting to wonder if The Stalker’s title came from something other than her ability.

“Ah,” The Stalker let out a strangled note. “I broke the gun… The Warrior is going to be pissed. And I attacked you. You’re going to call off that favor over this. The Strategist is going to be pissed. And The Healer…” She trailed off, lifting her arm so she could see it. It flopped at multiple points that arms typically did not bend at. If it caused her pain, she didn’t show it. “The Healer is always pissed, but now she’s going to be more pissed.”

Erika was tempted to shrug her shoulders, say, ‘That sucks,’ in the most sarcastic tone she could imagine, and walk away. She was so very tempted.

But The Stalker still had a useful ability.

Erika groaned. “I can’t do anything about the gun or your arms—” It was good they had someone called The Healer on their team. “I might be willing to work with you still, but you owe me. Understand?”

The Stalker went silent for a long moment before slowly nodding her head. “That’s fair.”

“I don’t think you get it,” Erika said, crouching down. She pressed the end of the hammer against The Stalker’s chest. “I call, you answer. I say jump, you don’t ask how high, you jump. You come after me again, and I shatter you. Get it?”

The Stalker pressed her dry lips together. She started to nod, only to pause. “You keep away from The Hanged Man and I’ll do whatever you want.”

“I don’t think you’re in much of a position to make demands,” Erika snapped. Taking in a breath, she let out a small sigh. “And if you ever see me with The Hanged Man again, know that we’re more likely to kill each other, not fuck.”

“Are you sure? You don’t think he’s hot?”

“Not in the slightest.”

The Stalker opened her mouth. For a brief moment, it looked like she was going to argue. There was a flash of anger in her eyes. A bit of sense must have pierced through the delusions that so obviously plagued her, because she eventually clamped her jaw and simply nodded her head.

“Good. Now get up. We need to get out of here.”

“Just let me wallow—”

“Absolutely not. I’m surprised there aren’t cops swarming over us already from the sound of your gun going off. Even ignoring that, using my abilities attracts attention, and you are in no state to fight right now.” Erika held out her hand—holding it for The Stalker’s less injured hand to take—but kept the hammer at the ready in her other hand… just in case. “So get up. I can drop you off somewhere if your flunkies aren’t around.”

“They wouldn’t have agreed to come…” she muttered, trailing off as she finally reached up and accepted Erika’s hand.

Erika hauled The Stalker to her feet.

She didn’t seem mildly inconvenienced by her mangled arm. Nonetheless, she followed Erika out of the alley like she was some kind of lost puppy. Which Erika viewed as a good thing, for now.

Erika had flipped the tables on that favor. If she could get The Stalker working for her a bit more regularly, that would be the best outcome. They would have an easy way of tracking down agents of The Mummy, even individuals whom The Stalker simply saw and let go, could be tracked later at their leisure.

But first, she needed to get fixed up. Hopefully, her healer could put those bones back together.

And Erika, feeling a stinging in her arm, decided she needed some disinfectant in a hurry.