Back to Part 29
Across the Pitch Black Night
There had been a meeting, right after they lost Amylee, right after Spencer moved in to her old room. They all sat around the common area, while Elliot finished looking over the texts from the other witches. Spencer sat alone, looking distant and tired, just like the rest of them. Oliver sat down next to them, not really chatting, but to show that they weren’t the enemy here. He handed them a cup of coffee. Spencer looked at him, then down at the coffee, and took it, thanking Oliver quietly. Rammy watched Spencer relax, and she relaxed a little, too. One less thing to worry about, at least for now.
Elliot put her phone down and stared into the middle distance, drumming her fingers on the table.
“That doesn’t look like good news,” Aston said.
Elliot gave him a side eye before turning to the group. “The thing about magic is, it’s very literal. It’s why you don’t fuck with wishes. You give magic a gap, and it will fill that gap in.”
“The old teams gave magic a gap,” Razija said. Elliot nodded.
“We’ve been looking over the contract the old teams and the Regents signed. They were very clear that the Regents couldn’t alter the game, couldn’t interfere with the players.”
“So how are they interfering with the players?” Rammy asked, her arms folded over her chest.
“They’re not,” Elliot said. “The fans are.”
“How?” Rammy narrowed her eyes.
Elliot thought a moment. “They’re kind of like spells, the fan polls.”
“The fans set the contract when the votes are finalized,” Mariya said. “The Regents are a disinterested third party.”
Elliot tilted her head at Mariya. “You’re going to need to unpack why you’re so insightful about this stuff.”
Mariya laughed nervously. “Oh, uh… my old boss was really big about contracts. We kind of needed to know about them. It was a whole thing.”
Elliot nodded, working up the hierarchy of Mariya’s old job. “Right, that guy… But yeah, what she said. I think in asshole talk, the Regents are just asking questions. And then they can look innocent.”
“So…” Crasher said, exhausted, their eyes shot, red and tired. “The fans are casting spells on us.”
“And the Regents are reaping that energy.”
“How do we fight it?” Rammy asked.
“Working on it,” Elliot said. “We’re exploring all the angles. Maggie Riddell, one of my coven, she’s in with the Blackhats. We think we can hack their Twitter account and drop a spell or two. But we’re pretty sure we only get one chance at that.”
“Better make it count,” Rammy said.
Elliot just sighed out through her nose.
“You can do it, right?” Rammy asked.
“We can do it, but it’s going to take time. There’s eight of us, but we can only do so much in one day. We also need energy to charge spells.”
Elliot waited a beat, getting only tired, blank stares back. She didn’t blame them at all.
“That’s what we got,” she said. “We’re working on it. Our job is to keep you all safe and we’re trying, but this is a different beast.” She stood from the table. “I’m going home. I have at least six more hours of work tonight. See you next game.”
Elliot and Oliver shared a brief hug before they left, and Mariya got up to do the same. Mariya stared down Rammy until she came over, at least to bump fists with Elliot. Satisfied, Mariya put her arm around Rammy and watched the witch go.
Razija grabbed her coat and caught the elevator, just as the doors were closing. She stood next to Elliot, zipping up, adjusting her headscarf. Elliot just stared at the doors, her ears down in thought.
“I want to help,” Razija said.
Elliot side eyed her. “Just keep playing,” she said. “That’s the best you can do.”
“No,” Razija said. “I want to help with the magic.”
Elliot furrowed her brow, her eyes searching over Razija. “You’re a scientist.”
Razija adjusted the sleeves of her coat. “I went into science because I wanted to know how the world worked. The universe is this incredible thing, it’s vast and massive and it has its own rules and laws about how things happen. I went into science because I’m curious about these things. And you know what happened? I ended up here, in a world with people who are, for the most part, from entirely different worlds. And one of those people shows up, and she flies on a broomstick and casts spells and changes the fabric of the world entirely by intention and will.” She turned to Elliot and smiled. “And now there’s a new thing for me to study, a new thing to learn and understand. And I want in.”
Elliot thought for a moment, just staring at Razija. “Sometimes it’s a case of people having it or not.”
“I learned how to drive stick, I can learn magic,” Razija said, a flash in her eye.
Elliot nodded. “If you want to meet tomorrow-“
“I can start right now.”
“I feel like this is a situation where I can’t stop you.”
Razija smiled proudly. “Good intuition!”
Elliot laughed. “Well, let’s get some nacho fries on the way home and get to work.”
Razija cheered. They descended into the subway, and Elliot began to explain on their way to Belleville.
The next day Elliot walked out to the pitcher’s mound, followed closely by Rammy, being a dutiful captain, Razija, an eager study, and Oliver, who just wanted to see what his cousin was doing. Elliot knelt down on the mound and with her finger she drew a rectangle about a foot wide and a few inches tall. She put her hand on it, mumbled a few words, and lifted a slice of dirt out of the mound. She suspended it in the air, and then put a collection of charms and folded paper and a ball smudged with a drop of blood from every player on the team. She lowered the dirt back down.
“Your job,” she said, grimly, seriously, “is to collect the energy needed to protect this team and to keep these players alive. No energy should go to the Regents. You are greedy, you are protective, you resent and wish to hurt those who would do your charges harm. This is your duty.” She slapped her hand on the dirt, and the pitcher’s mound rumbled. “As above, so below.”
Elliot stood, dusted her knees off, and left the arena.
In six other arenas, six other witches did the same.
The polls continued, as the team more or less expected. Worse, the League insisted on putting the live results up on the giant screen above the scoreboard. All the teams could do while they were expected to play like nothing was wrong was hope the fans were more enthusiastic about other players on other teams, hope that the beast wouldn’t come for them.
For the next week, the League shuffled its teams around. It seemed like players that had already been moved were off the table, so each team had more of a chance to become its own Ship of Theseus. Three days out and the Weathermancers were missing half the players they started with, scattered to other stadiums around the city. The Basement Turtles saw two of their players swapped for players on The Lemp Poltergeists. The Blackhats saw over half the team go elsewhere. Morale on the teams was low, but the fans loved it. Slowly, carefully, other polls began to appear.
“Who needs a break?” finished during a Flood game, when the fans voted for Janet Frans. She stood at the batters box when the poll dropped, and when her name rang out over the stadium, she let out a scream, cut short when she disappeared. Jo Tuning appeared in her place. They found Janet twenty minutes later in the locker room, dressed in her street clothes, sitting on a bench and staring at nothing. She came back to reality quickly, and was reportedly in good spirits afterwards.
“Who is too good?” During a Poltergeist game, the fans voted that Alf Yukon was too good. They struck out ever single time they were at bat that game, and every time after that, until their batting average went from .375 to under .200. Teammates close to Alf reported that they were frustrated, and angry at the fans. When asked by a reporter if this extended to Poltergeist fans, Alf said, “At this point, any of them should make friends with my bat.”
“Who shouldn’t play anymore?” In an instant, Basement Turtle Vanderbilt Kane blinked off the field. A player showed up the next day, Strike Addison. They didn’t know where they were, and Heater made sure to properly orient them. The team had yet to locate Vanderbilt.
“Who should be Out?” Fans voted for this during a United game. Oliver could see his name climbing the poll, and he stopped watching after a while. The game before, he had dropped a catch, losing the game for United. The fans had been all over him on the internet for it. This felt like it was their anger coming into fruition, but the poll result hasn’t made itself clear yet what it actually did. He was Out, but he was still on the team, still on the field. Later that night, his name appeared on a list called “The Fail Stars.” Amylee was up there with him, he imagined from the game when she got traded. He didn’t blame her for a second.
United didn’t start games with a speech anymore. No one blamed Rammy. They were tired, tired of being afraid, tired of being treated like pieces on a game board. They didn’t start games with a cheer. They just went to the field when they were called, stood across the field from their opponents, waited for the Beast to come for them.
Before the next game, hours before, United sat in their clubhouse, most everyone sitting by themselves, except Oliver, who made sure that Spencer had company, and Rammy and Mariya, sitting hip to hip. No one spoke, no one looked at each other, they just waited. They played the Thunderbirds again that night. No one thought about the game.
Aston finally looked up, his arms still crossed over his chest, and scanned the room. “Anyone want to do a feelings check?”
“No,” Razija said, her head back, staring at the ceiling.
Mariya looked up too, her eyes tired, sad. “But is everyone okay?”
“Kind of starting to have doubts about this whole ‘death sport’ thing,” Crasher said. “Witch?”
Elliot sat close to Oliver, slouched in her chair, hat on, its wide brim hiding her eyes. “Present.”
“Great,” Crasher said, rolling their eyes. “Cool and good, thank you.”
“Crasher…” Rammy said.
“What?”
“You’re not helping,” Rammy said.
“Neither is the witch.”
Elliot didn’t look up, didn’t acknowledge them. Oliver watched her out of the corner of his eye, just in case.
“Say something!” Crasher shouted. Elliot flinched. She didn’t look up, but she moved her fingers, which started to glow.
“Hey!” Aston said, standing up. “This sucks for us too. None of us are happy about this.”
Crasher stood, too, not squaring up with Elliot or Aston, just standing, holding back from full-on pacing.
“We’re all hurt,” Mariya said, trying to keep her voice from trembling. “We miss Amy too.”
“Don’t,” Crasher said. “You don’t know.”
“We can guess,” Mariya said.
“I could tell you all about it.”
Crasher froze. Everyone’s attention turned to Spencer. They watched the room, their ears down, as tired and hurt as the rest of them.
“I’m sorry,” Spencer said softly. “I didn’t want this either. I know it’s hard and it hurts and I’m sorry.”
Rammy sat up. “Spencer, none of us-“
“I just-” Crasher stood stunned. They turned away, closing their eyes and scrubbing their face with their hands. “It’s not that- It’s just-“
“Hello?”
The team turned to the door to the clubhouse. Shiny Fitzgerald stood just inside, watching United closely. He carried a bag in his arms.
“I hope I’m not interrupting.”
Rammy got up and half jogged over to him. Spencer followed closely behind.
“Hi,” Rammy said, surprised. “I, uh… what can… hi?”
“I wanted to stop by. It’s been… it’s been a few days, huh?” He looked over at Spencer. “Hey you.”
Spencer smiled and hugged him. And then Shiny gave them the bag he carried. “This is for everyone.” Spencer nodded and put the bag aside on the table.
“It has,” Rammy said. “I don’t think we know how to handle it.” She thought for a moment. “How is Amylee?”
“That’s what I’m here about,” Shiny said. Crasher started forward, but Shiny held a hand out to stop them. “She’s fine, don’t worry. But this is unprecedented. We had trades in the Professional League but they took weeks to negotiate out, and…” He looked back to United, back to nine sets of tired eyes. “It’s been rough, and we all wanted to make sure you all are okay. Even Amylee. Especially Amylee.”
“That’s really nice,” Rammy said. “Yeah, it’s been rough. We’re scared? I think we’re all scared.” She looked back to United, who nodded wearily in one way or another.
“That’s normal, I think. That’s healthy. We are too.”
Rammy hugged herself. “So, what can…”
“The team has been talking about it. The Regents want us to be fighting each other, but we don’t want that. The best thing we can do, I think, is help each other out.”
“That sounds nice,” Rammy said. “I think we can do that.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Shiny said. “We have a connection now. If you ever need anything, you are always welcome in the Hangar.”
“Ah! Thank you,” Rammy said. She reached out and shook his hand. “I think we can do the same.” She looked back to United.
Aston looked around, and stood to join Rammy. “Yeah, we can do that. We can work together.” He shook Shiny’s hand.
Shiny smiled, looking relieved, his shoulders dropping. “Thank you, I’m so glad.”
“Looking forward to it,” Rammy said. “Just tell us what you need.”
“And we promise to take care of Amylee, just like we know you’ll watch after Spencer.”
“Yeah, you bet,” Aston said.
Shiny nodded, satisfied. He motioned over his shoulder. “I’m going to get back to the team. Gil sent some cookies and things. We couldn’t stop him from baking up a storm when I told the team I was coming over here.”
“Oh heck yeah,” Dash said. He and Razija looked up to the bag that Shiny had brought with them.
Shiny took a moment to hug Spencer. And then he said, “Thanks again, United. See you out there.”
-g
Back to Part 29