Under A Spell

It was now daylight out but you couldn't tell that with the curtains closed. The room was eerily still and dark, the only sound was of his hand moving, gently rustling the sheets, a little light coming from the bathroom. He was worried that if someone could see them they might think he was being a little creepy. Sitting on the edge of the bed he held the young woman's hand, gently stroking it. She was tall for a woman, but her hand still looked like a child's when he held it.

He thought she was beautiful but tried not to think about that too much. Best to remain as detached and professional as possible. That's what he told himself.

Urijah had never thought himself a shallow man but he was struck by her. He told himself it wasn't just her beauty. There was something about her, beyond the beauty.

He felt as if she had him under a spell. He felt pulled to her. But he wasn't under any spell. She was however. The spell she was under would keep her asleep, she could be moved around but not woken without the beldame.

Jessel is the name Baba had used and Jessel is what he used when he spoke to her. He hadn't said much. At first. Baba had left her sitting on the edge of the bed and he'd initially meant to leave her just like that. After he'd showered he had a change of heart. Sitting like that overnight would probably cause her some really odd aches and pains when she woke.

Urijah maneuvered her into a lying down position. It didn't feel right moving someone around like they were a piece of furniture so he talked to her as he moved her. As he worked to get her into what he hoped was a comfortable position he whispered reassuring words to her and moved her as gently as one would a baby.

Making her comfortable and protecting her felt important to him. His aunt had given him the chance to live his life as a better person and he intended to make good on that chance.

When he'd awoke in the morning she hadn't moved at all. After he'd gone and spoken to the disembodied voices at the office and returned, she still had not moved.

Over the forty-five minutes that had passed since he'd returned to the room, he'd talked to her and held her hand. He spoke words promising to protect her and keep her safe. She had adopted a smile sometime during that time but nothing else. It felt good to make her smile, even if it was due to a dream she was probably having.

He checked the phone his aunt had given him. No new messages, the same two. The first one Baba Kay had sent last night.

"ill be back.need something form branch.front pocket of backpack.findcamura. protect jessel"

His aunt was great at a lot of things, texting was not one them. When considering her age, it was a miracle she knew her way around a smartphone, survey equipment and could still drive extremely well alone.

He'd never bothered texting or calling her back, she wouldn't pickup or respond. She'd gone back to the branch. It would take several hours to drive there and back and who knows how long to get whatever she went back to get. He hoped she would return soon. Largely because he didn't know what else to do about the second text message he'd received.

"Go to the motel lobby, speak with woman inside. She is waiting for you and will help you keep the package safe."

The package was definitely Jessel. The identity of the person who'd sent that message was a mystery. He had tried calling and texting. The texts alerted him that he'd sent them to an invalid number. The phone calls were answered by a robotic voice informing him that his call could not be completed as dialed.

In the end he thought that if Baba Kay had given him this phone and decided to stay at this place, she knew who was sending the message and he could most likely trust that there was help with the woman in the office. Either that or he was so screwed it wouldn't make much of a difference what he did.

After speaking to what turned out to be a man and a woman in the office, he second guessed his choice to approach them. There were so many moving parts and that it didn't seem like they were expecting him or prepared to talk to him was unsettling.

Things were starting to feel off. Like with any sketchy OP, at a certain point Urijah would get a bad feeling and more often than not the feeling was vindicated.

He loosened his grip on her hand and started to slide off of the bed. As he let go of her hand he felt her squeeze. A reflex he told himself.

He hadn't sensed anyone approaching but maybe he'd missed it. His magic was small but had never failed him, perhaps though there would be a first time though. He decided it'd be better to be safe than sorry and check the parking lot. He walked to the window and moved the curtain to the side, peaking out.

It was just past dawn, still early in the morning. Clear blue sky with very flew clouds looked down on him, the sun somewhere out of sight but lighting the world up. The trees swayed lightly in the breeze, some litter rolled it's way through the parking lot. The creatures that ruled the night would be bedding down and those that lived in the light were up and about. Small birds out hunting small worms. Big birds out hunting small ones.

Outside in the bright new world he saw nothing. Inside he felt a stirring. Someone was nearing. He concentrated in on the feeling. It was warm. It was Baba, she would be back soon.

A second feeling, colder but not so cold as to be an enemy approached. If he had to guess it would be the woman and not the man.

With a last look at Jessel, Urijah moved to the door and stepped out. He now stood on the sidewalk that lined the bank of rooms making up the motel. He hadn't seen or felt anyone enter or exit the hotel. The cars in the parking lot hadn't moved either. He walked towards the office, inspecting some of the parked cars in the sunlight.

Dusty and dirty. Not road dust caked on after a long drive but dust settling on them from lack of use. These cars were parked here to give the appearance of a busy business, or maybe they'd died here and been left by people who knew getting them towed and repaired would cost more than they were worth.

Walking toward the office he glanced to where he'd killed one of the Sarnkany the evening before. Between two cars was a pool of dried blood. He stopped and examined the scene.

There was a piece of that evil critter on the ground, a chunk of fur that he'd torn out in their struggle last night. Ants were now marching to and from that hunk of fur and flesh, their little wavy columns carrying away infinitesimal bit of evidence after infinitesimal bit of evidence.

The sight removed the satisfaction he'd taken from killing them. Had it been a piece of him on the ground, they would be eating it all the same. The world rotated regardless of who died and who didn't. An empty feeling filled him. That doesn't sound quite right but Urijah couldn't describe the feeling better than that. He had moments when it felt as if nothing mattered. When he thought he saw the true world, uncaring and cruel and not worth fighting for or living in. In those moments a void opened inside of him and all the warmth was pushed away. He was left feeling full of emptiness.

He was lucky today. He had often been lucky since beginning to work for his aunt. Her warmth flared against emptiness and he snapped out of it. How long had he been standing there?

Urijah looked at the office. The door was still closed, no man or woman had made their way out to speak to him yet. A red sign announced to the world that at this particular motel there were: No Vacancies! It had been lit up in the night, now the neon brightness was subdued by the sunlight.

He was sure that woman would have been out by now. He felt for it and found it. She was on her way. She would be out of the office and speaking with him before Baba showed up.

Should he go back to the room and wait for Baba? No, that would look weak. Best just to stand tall and talk to her when she gets here. He reminded himself that it was better to let the other side talk and to respond only when necessary.

The sound of a car coming down the highway lured his eyes away from the motel lobby. Urijah looked up and watched it drive by. It didn't slow, it didn't speed up. It sped down the road, totally unaware of what was happening at the Helscion Motel.

The office door opened and out walked a woman. He turned to face her, squaring his shoulders with hers. She was the very definition of petite. If she was under five feet tall, Urijah wouldn't have been surprised. Her dark hair was pulled back into a tight and controlled bun. She wore jeans and a t-shirt, a dark blue blazer over the top of it. He could see the pistol holstered at her hip. He suddenly felt naked without a weapon. She was pretty, stern looking but pretty nonetheless. It did not help him feel any less naked.

He kept his eyes locked on her as she walked towards him. She stopped about six feet away, her right foot slightly back, her hands planted on her hips, one of them above the pistol. He guessed that she thought the distance would be enough to allow to draw and fire. He was confident that she was wrong.

The former LTC Vanguard stood opposite of the HPI agent. They waited in silence for what was maybe ten seconds. It felt like minutes. Hours.

Clearly they were both pretending to appraise the other and waiting for their counterpart to speak, giving up as little as possible. With the fake appraisals over and the silence becoming awkward they both tried to speak at the same time.

"Hel-" Urijah started a greeting then stopped.

"I'm-" Rosa attempted to introduce herself before breaking it off.

Urijah waited a beat to give her a chance to talk then tried to introduce himself.

"I'm-" He got no further than she with her greeting as they both tried to speak at the same time once again. It was worse than trying to walk by someone in a hallway.

"You first." Urijah spit out quickly, forgoing another polite pause in favor of directness.

"I'm field agent Rosa Orza." She spoke clearly and did not offer her hand for shaking.

"Field agent?" He asked, shrewdly not offering his own name.

"A field agent with the HPI. I'm here to help you and your friends get to a safe house of ours." Her face was stone, Urijah got nothing from her aside from the coolness he felt earlier.

He was beginning to think that it might not be related to his magic and instead just an iciness that radiated out of her naturally, freezing small bodies of water and stopping warm weather fronts the world over.

"Never heard of you or the HPI." He made sure that the skepticism he felt was clearly communicated with his tone.

"Good. We wouldn't have been doing our jobs right if you had heard of us."

The sound of another car making its way toward them could be heard in the distance and she looked down the road at the approaching car. She followed it with her gaze. Only when it was clearly not pulling into the motel did she look back at him.

"Urijah," when she said his name, he couldn't hide the surprise on his face, "We can't stand around chatting all day. I don't know why someone like you is here. I don't know why you're with these women or why I've been tasked with getting you all to safety. That's where we are though and I'd like it if we got the hell out of here ASAP."

"The next car to round that corner is going to be Baba Kay. You can talk to her about that." He regretted acting on the text he'd received. He wasn't going to be making decisions on behalf of his aunt. He wished he'd just waited for Kay to return.

"Fine." The little agent woman said as she started to walk around him, "We'll wait for her in your room."

He stuck his arm out to corral her as she made to move past him. She stopped just before his arm would have touched her. She looked at his arm then to his face. Her eyes connected with his and narrowed.

"If you need to get a point across, use your words big fella. We don't want a misunderstanding to get in the way of a friendship." She maintained her stare and tilted her head, indicating that he should move his arm.

"Not in our room. We wait right here. She'll be along in a few minutes." He hadn't moved his arm and was still blocking her way. She stepped back, keeping her eyes on him.

She had very precise fluid movements. Everything about her screamed military and to Urijah military screamed government and government screamed trouble.

"HPI, huh? Whats that then?" Urijah said trying to sound casual. Sounding casual was not his forte and in this situation he could not have sounded more out of his element.

She said nothing and continued to stare at him. He felt like she could see into his soul. No, through his soul. It was unsettling.

The sound of another car speeding down the highway pulled her attention to the road again.

He dropped his arm, "That's her."