The Garden of Shadows

I knocked impatiently on the door to Salamander’s room until he finally answered it. He only left the door half-open, with one hand clutching the doorknob and the other keeping his unbuttoned shirt closed. Judging by his damp hair, he had just come out of the shower.

“Yes?” He sounded inconvenienced.

“Are you alone?” I asked.

“At the moment, I am.”

“May I come in?”

He was a little hesitant. “I’m sort of in the middle of changing, but it sounds urgent.”

“It is.”

“Hurry before anyone sees you.” He opened up the door to let me in and immediately closed it. “So, what brings you here?”

“I don’t know where to begin.” I leaned against the wall and sighed.

“Whatever comes to your mind first. Start there.” He awkwardly buttoned his shirt as he waited for me to speak.

“Emma has been sentenced to death.” I decided to start with the biggest piece of news.

“Already?” He was shocked. I guessed that he didn’t even know about the trial that took place earlier. “How? I thought the trial was on Thursday?”

“There was a trial today for the murder of her father.”

“That is unfortunate. Toad was just telling me about a lead they found that could help her. I suppose it’s pointless now.”

“And I found out at the end of the trial that it wasn’t her who killed her father. It was just a false memory.”

“What?” It sounded absurd to him. “What do you mean by a false memory?” I had to explain to him how I discovered the truth.

I shrugged. “I don’t know what to do. There has to be a way to get the truth out.”

“If you show Detective Dufort the memory, you also risk revealing to him your involvement in the museum heist. He is very thorough in his search. We have to think of another way to pass the information indirectly.”

A way to pass information indirectly… Wasn’t that what Ophelia was trying to do?

I snapped my finger. “The Revival Review! I can send an anonymous letter.”

He nodded his head in approval. “You know, that might work. People do love scandals. You’d better hurry though. They’re due to release another issue soon.”

“I’ll write it immediately.” I paused and noticed him struggling with his necktie.

“If you need to borrow a pen, there’s one at the desk over there.” He didn’t look up and busily redid his tie.

“Let me help you with that,” I offered and moved in front of him. He didn’t resist as I carefully tied it for him. As I did, I could feel him staring at me. I looked up to meet his gaze. “What?”

“Nothing,” he replied softly.

“If you’re thinking about biting my neck again, don’t.”

“I wasn’t, but now I am.”

“Salamander…” I frowned.

He shrugged. “What? I can’t help it when you’re standing this close to me.”

I picked up a pillow and slapped him with it. “Control yourself.”

“You’re the one putting the idea into my head, you know.” He smirked and returned my pillow slap with his own. The next thing we knew, we were engaged in a vicious pillow fight. I guess some things never change.

When Elliot entered the room and saw us attacking each other with fluffy hotel pillows, he looked a bit confused. “Are you two fighting again?”

I threw a pillow at Elliot. Salamander and I both laughed when we saw the shocked look on his face.

“You two are like children.” Elliot shook his head in disbelief and joined in the pillow fight.

Sitting on a bench outside the publication office where the next issue of The Revival Review was being put together, I cast a simple spell on the envelope containing the letter I penned about the crime. The envelope folded itself neatly into a bird and flew into the office. I watched as it flapped its wings and gracefully glided towards one of the desks. After seeing that it made its way into the hands of one of the editors, I stood up and walked away before anyone saw me.

I prepared a few more letters stating the same thing, just in case. I repeated the same procedure, going from one publication office to another, hoping that at least one of them would mention it in their next issue. It wasn’t a guarantee, but a gamble.

Upon returning to the antique shop at the end of my break to continue my shift, I noticed the devices I built lined up on the countertop. Most of them were traps and weaponry. The rest were neat little devices that only served to provide minor conveniences such as a mini coffee machine.

“Am I getting evaluated or something?” I guessed.

“No, these are for you,” replied Alistair.

“You mean I can keep them?”

“I intended to let you keep what you made from the beginning.”

“Are you sure these are legal to own though?” I picked up the concentrated magic ejector, which was obviously a weapon that could be considered a gun.

“Some of these aren’t, so please keep them to yourself.”

“Thanks, Alistair.” I smiled. I wanted to hug him, but it seemed inappropriate to do that to my supervisor.

“Just do me a favour and don’t let yourself get arrested.”

“I’ll try.”

“You won’t try. You will avoid it.” It was the first time I really heard him emphasise a point seriously.

“I will,” I corrected myself.

“Good.” He smiled.

The day of the heist finally came. I’ll admit I was nervous about the whole thing. There were so many ways that this could go wrong, but Salamander was determined to free himself from vampirism and I felt compelled to help him. The only thing we could do was to make sure everything went smoothly and hope for the best. Otherwise, we’d be facing time in jail for trespassing and attempted robbery in addition to getting expelled from the academy.

Elliot, Salamander, and I decided to meet after the end of our shifts that day to discuss the final plan before meeting up with Mr. Crowe. We gathered at the two boys’ hotel room with our own copy of the museum’s floor plans on the table.

After we finished reviewing the exits and entrances, Salamander then spoke up, “Alright. Crowe left it up to us to decide how we go about luring the sentries away from the display room. I’d suggest keeping it simple and using basic spells, but I’d like to hear your ideas too.”

“I agree with your suggestion, though I’d just like to add a few things to our arsenal,” I followed while laying out the trap devices I received from Alistair.

Salamander was shocked. “How did you even get these?”

“I made them during my apprenticeship,” I said proudly.

“I’ll admit your apprenticeship is rather useful for situations like this,” he said as he examined one of them. “So how do these work?”

“That one is a paralysis trap. It won’t do much for a sentry, but it might help against humans. Most of the traps work the same way. You deploy them on the floor like mines and they stay invisible until triggered by pressure.”

“Anything here we can use against sentries?”

“I don’t think simple traps will be enough to stop a more complicated machine. These were designed for use against humans.”

“Umm…” Elliot attempted to interject. We both gave him our attention. “I do have an idea.” He placed a pile of tiny bells on the table.

I curiously picked one up. “Bells?”

Elliot then transformed a page of a newspaper into a small kitten using a spell and tied a bell around its neck. “They’ll do the work for us.”

Salamander and I nodded our heads in approval with smiles on our faces.

When night fell in Revival City, we made our way quietly to the museum dressed in the same uniform as the staff to reduce suspicion. Mr. Crowe and his children were entering from the roof through a faster route towards the display room, so they climbed up from the outside. Us students, on the other hand, were to enter quietly through the backroom, pretending to be part of the volunteer staff.

One by one, we discreetly entered the building without alerting anyone. We avoided the sentries and stayed hidden in a dark corner on the same floor as the display room. Once we made sure that nobody else was around, Elliot let loose the paper kittens with bells. I laid traps in strategic places just in case.

“I’ll signal the Crowes,” Elliot said after confirming that the sentries had been led away. He then left us.

Salamander and I waited quietly for Elliot to return. After a few minutes, he began to react to something. I also noticed the sound of footsteps drawing nearer.

“There’s someone coming,” he whispered. “Stay alert.”

As he moved closer to the doorway to take a peek, he was almost hit by a surprise attack. Thankfully, his quick reflex saved him. The person stepped into the room.

“Clementine?” I recognised her.

“Hello, darlings,” she greeted and held up a gun against Salamander’s head. I quickly reacted and held up my own gun towards her. We became locked in a stalemate.

“Look at you. Dufort’s dear apprentice. How do you think he’d feel to find you involved in this museum heist?” she said.

Salamander stayed silent, glaring at her as she spoke.

“Get out now while you still can. Frankly, I don’t want to hurt either of you. I just need you to leave. Why involve yourself in this? It’s not worth the risk.” She looked at me. “If you walk away from this, I will free Ms. Sweetblossom from her fate.”

“How?” I asked while still keeping the gun steadily pointed at her.

“I have contacts in the underworld who can free her from prison. It won’t be legal, but she’ll be alive.”

“Remina, don’t,” Salamander whispered.

“If that won’t change your mind, then how about this? The one who hired the assassins to kill both Ophelia and Cornelia Blackthorn was none other than Mr. Crowe. I have a copy of the correspondence here if you’d like to see it.”

Behind her, I saw a black phantom come into view. I tried not to react. The phantom snuck up behind her and began choking her. She was caught off-guard, struggling to free herself. By chance, she stepped on one of the traps I deployed and became paralyzed.

Elliot let her go and transformed back. “Are you two alright?”

“Thanks,” Salamander said, relieved.

“Remove her weapons. The paralysis won’t last long,” I said and bent down to search her belongings. The others did the same.

Eventually, I came across the letters signed by Mr. Crowe. It was proof that he was indeed behind the assassinations. I quietly handed the letter about Cornelia to Salamander. He read through it and sighed.

“What do you want to do?” I asked him.

“It’s too late to back out now. I say we just grab the flower and leave. It’s really the only thing we’re here for,” he replied. “After this, I just want to forget about ever being involved in this heist.”

“They’re waiting for us on the roof,” Elliot said.

“Let’s go.”

We hurried to the roof of the building where Mr. Crowe and his children stood waiting for us. The old hotel owner already had the book in hand, suggesting that their plan went smoothly. In front of him, a ritual circle drawn out of green chalk was also prepared.

“Good. You’re here. Let’s begin.” Mr. Crowe made Salamander and I stand inside the circle with him. He began to read the story from the book aloud, causing the drawn out circle to glow ominously.

The story was about the same as the version Clementine told me before. Mr. Crowe took his time reading the lines. If we had told him about our encounter with Clementine earlier, maybe he would have read it faster, anticipating what was coming next.

“Crowe!” Out of nowhere, Clementine rushed forward and tackled Mr. Crowe to wrestle the book from him desperately. However, she was too late. The ritual was finished and everyone standing inside the circle began to get sucked into the pages of the Garden of Shadows.