A Boy, a Dog Girl and the Boy Who Had Everything: Part Four

Zack practically kicked Madam VanVeer’s door in.

“What’s your plan? What are you doing?” He stared her down, his palms flat on her desk.

“Get out of my office, Zack,” she said quietly.

“Come on! You people always have plans! You and Chistos and all the adults in this crazy world! What are you doing?!”

He pounded his fist on her desk.

She raised a hand. Zack floated in the air, his limbs held rigid and stiff.

“Calm. Down.”

“Screw you! This isn’t me helping a sad old man and his daughter feel better! I know you have all these hidden plans! People are actually hurt! Bad stuff is about to happen soon! We…”

“I thought you didn’t even like Baltz,” Madam VanVeer said slowly.

“CHISTA COULD HAVE BEEN ON THE TRAIN!”

He hung in the air, slowly breathing, looking down.

“If…if I had helped her…and she won a spot…it would have been my…”

He dropped to the ground, falling to his knees. Madam VanVeer walked around her desk and knelt next to him.

“Believe it or not, Zack, the world moves on whether you exist in it or not. This would have happened regardless of your actions. Chista is the one who makes her decisions. We all do. You are not God. You are simply a good boy who wants to help.”

He breathed heavily. In and out.

“There’s nothing I can do, is there?”

“Not right now,” Madam VanVeer said, gently patting his shoulder. “However…tell me about this bad stuff you think is about to happen.”

*

Days passed. Chistos spent much of his time at night out, though doing what he would not say. Chista focused on her studies, doubling down on her magic practice.

“Baltz will be back. And I’m going to kick his ass when I see him for making me feel all this complicated crap,” she said as she practiced construct building on the roof, stacking glowing blue bricks in the snow to form a pyramid.

Honey stayed quieter than usual. The intense emotions of her friends were heavy on her dog senses. At night she held Zack closer, and in her sleep he could hear her whisper “No, please…don’t go out alone, Zack…”

He was trying. He was trying so hard.

The day it all broke was a Friday. School had let out. The contest winners had originally been scheduled to come back on this day. The New Dawn dance was the next day. It should have been joyous. Instead, Zack, Honey, Chista and Timbul walked through the snow, heads down, barely talking.

“He’s probably dead,” Timbul said.

“He’s not,” Zack replied quickly.

“How do you know?” Timbul asked.

“Like Baltz would die before staging a comeback he could gloat about,” Chista said bitterly.

Timbul laughed bitterly. “You know, the night we got our suits I told him he was the boy who had everything. Lots of money, his own butler, fancy car, potentially a girlfriend. Baltz looked at me like I grew a second head. I think I’ll always remember what he said next. ‘No, if you want someone who has everything, look to Zack.’

They all stopped walking. Honey’s hand tightened around Zack’s.

“Why the hell would he say I have everything?” Zack asked. “I mean, I lost my entire world. My mom had to bury me, my dad abandoned me, I’ve got…like, a room and some clothes and my pentagrams racket.”

“You’ve got people who care about you. Chista and her dad took you in after you got screwed up. After we lost the pentagrams semifinals everyone congratulated you. Baltz got fourth at his competition and he had nobody but his butler. Hell, he’s popular, but most people respect him. They don’t like him. I think I’m his only actual friend.”

The wind kicked up some snow around them. Timbul’s words felt like a funeral speech. Chista leaned against the wall, shutting her eyes. Zack wanted to say something, anything, to change the mood.

Luckily for him, life intervened.

“Children!” a rough, beaten voice cried out. All four turned to see Jelks hobbling towards them. His face was bruised and he had blood seeping from a wound on his leg.

“What the hell happened to you?!” Zack asked as they rushed toward him. Timbul and Zack held his shoulders up as the large man staggered.

“I’ve been looking…looking for the boy…my fault…failed him…” Jelks said with tired, labored breaths.

“And I thought I felt a weird sense of guilt…” Chista said.

“Listen! I found them! Warehouse in the…dock district…got found…had to escape…”

“You found Baltz?! Come on, we’ve gotta get to the police and…” Timbul said, suddenly energized. Jelks grabbed his shirt in a tight fist.

“No time! Some kind of…cult! They’re draining their magic! You…go get Chistos! He can help! Zack…you and the girls…follow me! No time…to waste!”

“Wait, you want me to follow you into a deranged cults secret warehouse stronghold to try and rescue a group of people on the verge of death?” Zack asked.

“Zack, we need to help, but this seems like a bad idea!” Chista said.

“You’re right. This does seem like a bad idea. The worst.” Zack’s eyes were blazing, his mind working in overdrive. “Honey? What do you think?”

“Where you go, sweetheart, I go,” she said sternly.

“Right. Timbul, get Chistos. Tell him exactly what happened,” Zack said.

“The address…is on this paper…” Jelks said, placing a crumpled up piece of paper in the boy’s hand. “Hurry! Time is precious!”

The boy was off like a shot, his feet blasting through the snow. Zack helped Jelks quickly walk through the snow.

“I have a car parked nearby…stole it…” Jelks said.

“Zack, what exactly are a rookie wizard, a dog girl, a pentagrams runner up and an injured butler supposed to do against a magic cult?” Chista asked as she took up some of Jelk’s weight.

Zack pulled out the charm Jelks gave him.

“Trust me, Chista. I know exactly what I’m doing.”