Pretty Boy Psycho

We sit on chairs in a narrow corridor outside Courtney’s office. She’s left us waiting at least an hour. A looming gloomy cloud surrounding the four of us tells me we’re in for a scalding. What we did wrong I don’t know.

Bored I tap against Geordie’s shoulder. He’s quick to swat me away. I tap my knee instead.

“Play us something.” Geordie nudges at his guitar.

“Don’t you dare,” says Charlie in hushed tones. “We’re in a serious situation.”

“Why? I don’t get it. We haven’t done anything.”

“We’re two years too young to be here, haven’t finished our training, meaning we’re a problem. Be careful of what you say in there.”

“Leave the talking to me,” says Geordie.

“Do you think that wise?”

“Yeah. You’re ill. Danny will start mumbling. And Al will end up sounding blond. Bearing in mind the amount a time I’ve been summoned to Clover’s office I’ve had loads a practise with Court’s type.”

Charlie merely sighs; too tired to put up an argument.

Creak. Eeek, the door’s opening. This building’s ever so old. Musty. To say Geordie’s loads of experience being summoned to offices for bad behaviour he’s sinking into the back of his chair now. Danny’s paled. As a finger from Courtney’s assistant beckons us into the office I lean close to Geordie’s shoulder and whisper in his ear. “You’ve heard of Annie Harlington right?” My mum’s had heated arguments with Courtney and won, everyone knows that. “If Courtney knew who I was she’d be the scared one.”

Geordie smirks at me as he gets up. We go into the office together. The other two follow behind us.

Hands clasp together on top of a huge oak desk. Steel eyes watch us un-blinking as we stand in the middle of General Courtney’s office. The assistant steps outside. My eyes wander over books with titles like: World War One; World War Two; The Cold War. That’s not very friendly reading material.

“Master Clover has told me stories about you four. Although it was three to begin with.” Courtney’s voice has a quiet confidence about it. “Which one of you punctured Yuki’s eye?”

I raise my hand.

“Corey West, I assume from the scarf. You should have kept pushing until you finished the job. Thanks to you we have a hopping mad Captain Yuki causing more mayhem than usual.”

Okay I take back what I whispered to Geordie. Courtney’s totes scary.

“He was doing what he could to get trainees away from Yuki during the massacre on Cloud High.” Geordie steps in front of me, in front of all three of us, as though putting himself forward to take the brunt of abuse.

“Geordie Henley you’re almost interesting. Your blue streaks do not impress me. You three are from Hackney yes? No successful Cloud Associate field team has ever crawled out of Hackney. Hotaru must be disappointed to be teamed with Chunk and Grey.”

“It’s Sunshine,” snorts Geordie, “get it right.”

“Perhaps we could salvage your lives. I have a proposition for you. You may choose new teams to work with. An irregular activity for me to allow but your survival chances would be higher if you were put into experienced teams.”

“Split us up?” says Geordie.

Courtney gets up from her chair. “Charlie you’re looking off colour.” She pats her high backed chair. “Please have a seat. Master Clover tells me you were a promising trainee. I am willing to let you join a logistics team. You’re more suited to planning, scheming. Your bright mind would be wasted on swords.”

She really wants to break up our team. Charlie’s eyeing up the chair. Steps forwards. He’d be much safer in logistics. Lead a comfortable life and have everything he ever wanted.

Charlie gives his new left sided smile. “I’m alright standing thank you very much.” Danny stands close to Charlie letting him lean into his shoulder for support. I tap Geordie’s shoulder while he grips round the top half of Charlie’s arm.

“Do we have an assignment or what?” says Geordie.

Courtney walks into a closet. In quick succession blue blazers are thrown in venom at us. “Don’t say I didn’t try to make you safer. There’s a bounty on your heads; there’s nothing I can do about that. You’ll receive no formal training here. Remember your actions have consequences. Someone from logistics will be in touch about your first assignment. There’s an empty cabin in the grounds you may stay in. Unless you manage to impress enough to get an A or B grade assignment I don’t wish to hear your names muttered in corridors.”

I pick up my blazer which I failed to catch. Slip it on. Cool it fits me without being too big. Geordie slings his jacket over a shoulder then motions us out the office. We pick up my luggage and Geordie’s guitar from off the chairs where we left them.

“A cabin great,” says Geordie as we work our way along narrow corridors as we try to navigate ourselves outside.

“Logistics have got it good don’t they?” I peer into a window watching a logistics team scribbling away round a desk, making plans, while gossiping, and sipping hot drinks.

“Yeah. They even have dorm rooms upstairs while we get shoved outside in the cold.”

“Why do field teams put up with that?”

Geordie’s answer is. “What else is there?” Joins me peeking through the window for a moment. “You could be in there drinking coffee, eating biscuits, Charlie boy.”

“Oh I don’t know. Seems rather boring.” Charlie pushes open a whining front door. Plaster showers onto our heads as we go through. We take a cracked path with pot holes, into some creepy grounds full of crumbling down sculptures. I can’t even make out what they’re supposed to be.

That must be our cabin. I run over to the worn wooden abode, go for a skip round the outside of it, inspecting holes and rot. “This is awesome!”

“You’re mad,” says Geordie. “There’s no glass in the windows, the wood is rotting, and what do you wanna bet the roof leaks.”

I make a square with my hands, looking through them at the cabin. “We could do it up easy.”

“You keep daydreaming Al lad.” Geordie chucks my pack to the ground.

I will get us a proper place to live one day, somehow. I have the funds just need to buy somewhere without Cloud Headquarters finding out. “It’s only for now. We can make the best of this cabin.”

“He still thinks we’re on a camping trip,” musters Danny.

“Reality will hit on our first assignment,” says Charlie as he settles against Hotaru. Pulls a book from beneath his cloak. I thought he’d been clutching his chest because he was in pain. Oh no he was hiding a book. Wonder why he was concealing it. I’ll ask later seen as he looks as though he could do with chill out time. We all could.

Danny goes walking round the grounds while Geordie takes off some place with Chunk, ignoring Charlie’s warning to stay put because there’s a bounty on our heads. I grab charcoals and a sheet of paper. I’ve no idea what to sketch. Think, think, thinking. My hand does the thinking by drawing a curve. A curve which bends into a full oval. The oval forms into an eye. A bleeding eye. What have I drawn Yuki’s popping eye for? Scary.

I start shuffling over to Charlie getting to him gradual until I’m practically hovering over his book. “What are you reading?”

“A book on medical history.”

“Why do you wanna read that?”

“It was at the medical centre. Anthony saw me looking and gave it me. I thought it might have a section on the affliction. There’s a lot of wacky cases in here. People born with extra limbs, no fingers, that sort of thing. A medical expert tries to explain the occurrences. They’re more to do with genetics. I’m almost sure the affliction is environmental. Actually it must be.”

“The Cloud Barrier?”

“Yeah clouds. You think Sunshine catches segments of your soul from those clouds.”

“I don’t know what else he could be doing.”

“If we’re thinking logically, souls are getting trapped within those clouds. We need to know why and how. It doesn’t make sense to me how pieces of soul can drift away. However as it happens you’ve nothing to fear with Sunshine around. Did you know grey griffons are the rarest? Some believe they are related to skeletals but that’s just speculation.”

“Like a sub species of griffon?”

“Perhaps.”

“Do you think me being afflicted is why he wanted to be friends, to help me?”

Charlie shakes his head without looking up from his book. “I think Sunshine chose you because you stood up for him against Max’s rocks. You having a condition he can remedy is a coincidence. He’s been turning up at Cloud High for five years. Two years ago a boy in choosing year developed the affliction. Sunshine didn’t pick him. The boy got found out a month later and was kicked out.”

“No one helped him that’s cruel. You’re right I’m fine as long as I have Sunshine meaning you don’t need to trowel through thick boring volumes.”

“I don’t mind. Medical history is proving fascinating. The thicker the book the better for blocking out the pain in my arms. After the err… rituals,” Charlie shudders, “I’d read anything.”

Charlie looks up from his book. Gazes into the air. “The pain seemed worse when I was little. When you expect to get hurt on a regular basis you build up tolerance. As I got older I managed to block out what was happening. My family thought I was full of affliction because my mum was covered in grey when I was born. My chest you bandaged up wasn’t of Grim’s making. Old scars.”

What a haunting revelation. “At least your family wouldn’t have killed you. You’re a step up from me.”

“What they did to me was crueller than death. Like a kind of purgatory. We love you but we’re going to hurt you because you’re full of grey plague. If Cloud Recruitment hadn’t rode by our caravans I dread to think of how I’d be today.”

I nudge closer to Charlie. “Caravans?”

“My family are travelling healers. I say healers Geordie would call them quacks. I got recruitment to take me away thank goodness. They didn’t take much persuading when they saw how keen I was. My dad was against the idea but once recruitment want you, you’re there’s.” Charlie turns a page of his book without reading any words. “That day I quickly made friends with Lee and Tanya. I thought they looked friendlier than the others; especially Geordie.”

“Why? What was he doing?”

“Using curse words I’d never heard before.”

“Tell me the naughty words.”

“I’m not repeating the crude language that comes from Geordie’s mouth.”

Speaking of crude language, “fuck,” Geordie runs over to us with Chunk ambling after him.

“What have you done?” sighs Charlie.

“Tried to go for a fly round. The other teams wouldn’t let us. They banded together. Ganged up on me. Chunk almost turned on them.”

“What did you expect when General Midnight is interested in you? To be left to fly round wherever you liked.”

Geordie shrugs. “Was worth a try.”

I stretch out on crispy grass. “What do we do for food if we’re not allowed out?”

“Starve,” snorts Geordie. “Or we could pillage logistics’ larder.”

Charlie re-opens his book. “Bad idea.”

“Are you in Al lad? I need a look out.”

“Cool, I can do that.”

When we return from successfully snatching biscuits, bread, rice, and cheese from headquarters, we get back to our cabin to find Danny brushing dust from inside. There’s this massive cloud making him cough. I linger well away where Charlie is propped against Hotaru looking dopey. We’ll never get the cabin cleaned out by dark which is bad news for Charlie who could do with a sheltered place to aid him in his recovery.

Showing off his muscles Geordie tosses wrecked scraps of furniture out of the cabin. I gather these scraps in a pile then dig round my packs for a lighter. Takes a few minutes to find it then flick flick flick an inferno.

“Whoa Al how’d you make fire so fast?” Danny stares at the blaze almost dropping his broom.

Flick. Flick. Flick. “Lighter. They are hard to get hold of. Sometimes the Kensington market people have them.” Oops I shouldn’t waste the fluid showing off.

“I should have known you weren’t able to light your stove with kindling alone.” Geordie throws a plank of wood onto the fire. “Why’s he got the easy job?”

I laugh. “I’m too pretty to get dusty.”

Geordie throws a pan at me. “Fetch some water from the well.”

“Eeek!” I jump out the way of the soaring pan. “What well?”

“It’s down that path there.” Danny points at the path he’s talking about.

“Careful, don’t fall in,” snickers Geordie.

“Can’t you go? This pan will be heavy when it’s full of water.” Smiling I tilt my head. “And what if I do fall in?”

“Good riddance. Hurry up I’m hungry.”

“Are you coming?” I turn to Sunshine. He goes from sitting to lying down. I’ll take that as a no. “Meanies making me lug heavy pans around.” I head onto the path hoping this well isn’t too far away. It isn’t. I’m only walking for a couple of minutes until I see a group of Cloudys hanging round by a big old well. Must be a hot spot. Fingers crossed I won’t get picked on, I go over to fetch some water. The group are quick to look in my direction.

“That must be Corey West,” says a young lady with braided hair to one of her comrades as I approach.

“Ask him,” a man, who also has braided hair, whispers.

“You ask him.”

“No you.”

“Ask me what?”

“Did you really kill Sad and pop Yuki’s eye?” says the young lady.

“I was helping my friends.”

“He did! I knew it was true. Amazing.” The young man beams at me. “How’d you do Sad?”

“From behind.”

The whole crowd round the well laugh.

“Oooh not like that!” I hide my face behind my pan. So awkward.

“We’re only teasing. Sneak. Me and those two are on Team Kadie. I’m Kadie herself. That’s Tai and Evan. If you need anything you can ask us.”

Wow so friendly. I hold out my pan. “I need water from the well. Geordie sent me to fetch some all by myself.”

“Don’t you like doing things by yourself?” Kadie pulls up a bucket from within the well.

I shake my head. “The pan will get heavy. I might spill water down my new jacket.”

Water sloshes out the bucket into my pan then Tai is soon to relieve me of the water filled pan. “Be careful around logistics. Peeve them off and they’ll give you dangerous jobs before you’re ready to stop you getting on their nerves. If you want to survive mind your own business.”

“You haven’t met my friend Geordie. He doesn’t know how to keep to himself.” I turn on the spot. “There’s too many paths. Which one leads back to the dilapidated cabin?”

“Follow us,” says Evan. His hair is also braided. Cools they have their own special style to tell everyone they’re a team.

“Has Court decided to box you off in the cabin for safe keeping?” Kadie pulls me over so I’m walking level with them.

“Yeah. It’s going to be awful cold at night.”

“Newbies usually get given a tent. We’re still living in ours and it’s year three for us.”

“Commission’s crappy,” puts in Tai, “because we get put on safe jobs which is what we want really. Not many C-graders get killed.”

“You aim for C grade jobs. What do they involve?”

“Guarding headquarters mostly,” says Kadie.

“I’m guessing some teams are more ambitious than others.”

“We think of it as playing life safe. We’d rather live than risk our lives for money. Top field agents have to get involved with logistics,” says Kadie.

“It’s working out for Team Cain.”

“I don’t think you yet grasp what Cain and Jordan have to go through. That poor girl they’ve dragged onto their team won’t last long. Live bait is my wager.”

My stomach flutters. After sharing a picnic with us I’d like to think he’d never even contemplate hurting a fellow field agent in such a deceptive way.

“Look at him,” Geordie points me out to Danny, “getting gullible saps to carry for him.”

“Hey the pan’s heavy.” I wave at the fire. “Over here will do splendidly ’kay.”

Tai places my pan on the ground then crouches by our fire, warming his hands. “You need a pan stand.”

Fling. Geordie throws an old rusty one right at me.

“Will you be staying for dinner?” I set to work trying to balance the pan on this stand, which is wonky as well as rusty, without burning myself.

Kadie laughs. “Staying for dinner where do you think we are? You grab what you can get. Look after your team.”

I hold out a biscuit barrel. “At least have a biscuit.”

Evan dips his hand in the barrel, pulls out a biscuit, takes a bite. “Where’d you get these?”

“Logistics’ larder.”

Choke. Choke. Choke.

“What?” Geordie smirks. “We grabbed what we could get like you said.”

I pour rice into boiling water. Watch a couple of grains floating around on top. Evan drops a half eaten biscuit into the barrel as he backs away from our fire.

“There’s a rally tonight at midnight in honour of Master Hugo,” says Kadie sounding distant. “Every field agent is going. We’ve abandoned all assignments to be there. If you’re coming wear your blue blazer and bring a lantern.”

Geordie picks up his blazer which has been carelessly dumped on the floor. He throws it directly onto the fire narrowly missing our rice.

“How can you?” gasps Kadie.

“We’ve had a rough few days.” I reach out to pull the jacket off the fire.

“Leave it,” snaps Geordie. “We ain’t going to pay respects to anyone who taught at Cloud High ’cause they didn’t care about us. We’re here because of them. If you had any respect for yourself, you’d burn your uniform too.”

Chunk tries to dash the fire with a front talon. “Watch the rice,” I shriek and put myself in-between Chunk and the fire. “Owwiiiee!” He swipes at me. “Geordie, he struck me.”

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“Calm down mate. They were only inviting us to a rally.”

Geordie shoves through Danny; goes into the cabin where we hear him clattering about with whatever wreckage is left in there. Chunk snorts at me then takes off into the sky.

“I think he might be hormonal,” I whisper out the side of my mouth while stirring rice. “He’ll cool down by the time dinner is ready.”

“I wouldn’t count on it. Has scared off a potential alliance with that team you were making mates with.”

Oh Team Kadie have gone. “Do you think we need outside friends?”

“Round here we need all the friends we can get.”