The Magic Shop

The Keeper





Arms extended like a plane ready for takeoff, Marcus ground to a halt in his tracks and took in a deep breath. “Shh,” he said, wanting to listen to the sound again, but everything was quiet.

“Did you see something?” Ellie asked, as she followed close behind holding a fistful of his shirt. Marcus shook his head, unsure, and stepped forward carefully.

In a flash, Marcus felt some unseen force jerk him forward, pulling him from Ellie’s grip. His body was thrown against the far wall, his back slammed squarely on the hard surface. He howled in pain. Ellie was flung forward too, connecting with the wall nearby, and she screamed out in pain.

Yet they didn’t fall; they were pinned against the wall.

“I don’t believe it.” Elizabeth dropped down from above, landing directly in front of them. “Huh,” she said, scratching her head. “They were right. They said you might come after the old man.” She chuckled to herself, and started to pace. “No way, I said. There was no way they could get out of those cages.” She paused a moment, seemingly processing something, then spun around to the doorway. “Without help.”

She saw nothing.

“Let us go, you witch.” Marcus tried to wrench free to get at Elizabeth.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Elizabeth leaned in close and wagged her finger, “flattery doesn’t work on me.” She tapped his head with her crystal shard.

“Ow!” Marcus winced.

“How did you find me down here?” Elizabeth asked coyly. “I’m dying to know.”

“Not yet, you’re not,” Marcus mocked. “But soon enough.”

“Careful, pipsqueak,” Elizabeth raised a clenched fist toward his face.

“We had help,” Ellie blurted, earning a curious look from Elizabeth, “from him.”

Elizabeth spun around to find Jason smiling with Tofu at his feet. Without warning he swung a heavy fist and connected with her face, right on the mouth.

Marcus watched Elizabeth fall to the ground, hard. She dropped the crystal shard, which Jason picked up promptly.

Elizabeth scooted backward away from Jason, and felt her lower lip. “You punched me?” she asked then looked at the blood on her fingers. “A little uncivilized for a magic wielder, don’t you think?”

“Now you call me a wielder?” he asked. “Pitiful.”

Jason shook the shard at Marcus and Ellie, and then, as if some unseen force had cut the invisible ropes that held them in place, they slid down the wall to the floor. Marcus stretched his fingers and Ellie rubbed her wrists.

“That was too easy,” Jason shook his head. He flicked the shard and raised Elizabeth up, then flung her against the wall, and held her, pinned and unable to move.

Marcus helped Ellie to her feet. “Look at this place.” He approached the nearest shelf, mesmerized. The shelf contained objects of all kinds, things he could only hope to see in the oldest of books. Ancient boxes with odd symbols and writing, weapons of curious workmanship, and everything else he might have imagined.

“Come on.” Ellie grabbed Marcus by the hand and led him down one of the aisles. “We’ve got to find Winston.”

Marcus broke hands with his sister and looked back. Jason mumbled something and flicked the shard at Elizabeth, as if he were an artist stroking a paintbrush over a blank canvas.

Elizabeth kicked her feet just above the floor. “No…” she whined and placed her hands over her ears, then over her temples, “don’t take my mind.”

“Not your mind, Elizabeth, just your memory.” Jason gazed intently into her eyes, focusing. “See, I knew I was better than you.”

Then Ellie’s voice broke his curiosity.

“Come quick, Marcus,” Ellie said urgently. “I found him.”

Marcus stared off to find where his sister had gone and nearly tripped over Tofu, who had been standing behind him. ”Dumb dog,” he said as he stumbled.

Passing shelves of ornate masks and oddly-shaped lamps, Marcus turned down an aisle laden with rings, bracelets, amulets and medallions.

“Here.” Ellie whimpered.

Rounding the end of the aisle, Marcus halted in his tracks at the sight of his grandpa, as old and frail-looking as he had ever seen him. Granpa sat in an antique chair with a confounded look. No visible chains or manacles held him down and he held a large pulsating crystal ball, much like a brim.

“Winston,” Marcus said, glancing back the way he came, “let’s go. We don’t have much time.”

He didn’t move.

Ellie swallowed hard. “Gramps,” she said quietly and reached out to touch his arm, “Come on, please.” Then Ellie screamed and was tossed back against the wall again.

“What happened?” Marcus asked. His eyes darting around. “Ellie?”

“The ball… I touched him, and it shocked me… threw me back.”

“That must be what’s imprisoning him in that chair,” Marcus said, uncertain what to do. “The ball.” He looked to the aisles behind him. “Jason, a little help over here, man!”

Jason hustled over to them and knelt by Winston. Tofu scurried off behind an aisle out of his way. “Oh,” Jason said with a deep breath. “This isn’t good.”

“No kidding.” Ellie rubbed her arm where she had collided with the wall.

“What?” Marcus asked.

“It’s The Brim,” Elizabeth said with a menacing laugh while hanging from the wall, “the first brim. Winston is a powerful wielder, and we couldn’t take any chances.”

Ellie asked, “What’s it doing to him?”

“It’s paralyzing him and holding him in place,” Jason answered. “It has rendered him a shell of a man.”

“Well, how do we stop it if we can’t even touch it?” Marcus asked.

“You have to kill its master,” Elizabeth laughed wickedly. “And Faustino’s no slouch. Good luck with that.”

“Maybe we can pick up the chair,” Marcus said, racking his brain for some way around their problem, “and carry him out without touching the Brim itself. When we get him home, Elba or Charlotte will know what to do.”

Tofu barked.

“It’s worth a try,” Ellie said, positioning herself on one side of the chair. “Come on.”

Marcus situated himself opposite Ellie, and Jason got behind the chair.

“On the count of three,” Jason said, taking a deep breath. “One, two, three.”

They had barely lifted Winston and the chair off the ground when they heard something, causing them to put him down.

“And where might you be taking the old man?” a low, thunderous voice asked from behind them.

Marcus whirled to see Faustino looking down on them, his hands behind his back, as if he were taking the stage for the first time that night.

“Faustino?” Elizabeth asked incredulously. “What are you doing here? I said I had this situation handled.”

“Yes, I can see that, thank you,” he said without looking at her. He walked around the chair, taking each step slowly.

Faustino clicked his tongue. “Who do we have here? So this is how the rug rats escaped from their cages, then.”

“Wait,” Jason said, shielding his face with his arm, “I can explain everything.”

Before Faustino could say anything else, Elizabeth spoke up, “Aren’t you going to get me down from here?”

Faustino chuckled. “If I’ve learned anything, it’s that I can’t trust an intern.” He spun around to look at Elizabeth. “You were supposed to bring me the whole family, remember? I gave you specific instructions, and all I got was this old bird. You cost me Sol’s confidence, and so, naturally, you lost mine.”

Faustino turned again, and quick as a cobra, snatched Jason up by the neck. “And you,” he spit as he spoke, “you simply betrayed me.”

Tofu peeked from behind the nearest aisle and whimpered at the ugly scene.

“The kids,” started Jason, “they put some kind of spell on me. I didn’t want this.”

Faustino asked, “Elizabeth?”

Elizabeth looked confused as she spoke. “I was putting the final preparations on the room, traps and all, and then doing what you said with the Brim and the old man, then,” she paused, squeezing her eyes tightly for a moment, “then I don’t know. I mean, I don’t remember.”

Marcus didn’t know how they could get out of this situation. While Faustino focused on Jason and Elizabeth, he crab walked back to the corner of the room and pulled out his brim.

Considering Elizabeth for a moment, Faustino sighed. “You never were a good liar, Jason.” he shook the boy by the neck.

In that moment, despite how he might have felt about Jason’s cowardice, Marcus decided he had to do something, or Faustino would kill Jason.

Holding out his brim, Marcus focused his mind. His thoughts, however, weren’t about Faustino’s magic this time, about draining him of that intoxicating energy, or to see those friendly wisps bounce around in his sphere like trapped treasure. No, this time he wanted to be rid of Faustino forever; he wanted to protect Jason.

Faustino must have seen the green glow reflected on the wall, or must have sensed something because in the moment before Marcus’s brim discharged a large green blast of raw power, Marcus witnessed Faustino’s mixed expressions. Anger, fear, even confusion, but most of all, Marcus saw disbelief. How arrogant Faustino was; unable to believe that Marcus was capable of doing this.

In what seemed like an instant, Faustino’s eyes sparked. Tiny bolts of electricity crawled along his face and back into his gaping mouth. His grasp on Jason loosened and Jason fell, collapsing to the floor.

Marcus concentrated and delivered another energy surge that sent Faustino zooming across the room and boring into the wall. He groaned.

“Whoa,” Ellie said, getting to her feet. She stepped over Jason, then turned and gave him one kick in the ribs before returning to Marcus. “Where did you learn to do that?”

“I don’t know.” Marcus felt as confused as she seemed to be. “I just… did. I had these feelings of anger and fear, but not like before. They weren’t consuming. I just wanted to be done. I just wanted Faustino—gone.”

“Unexpected, yes,” Faustino growled angrier than Marcus had ever heard him before. “But not enough to finish The Great Faustino.”

In a flash, Faustino was on his feet. Marcus pushed Ellie to the ground to get her out of the line of fire. Faustino darted toward Winston, and Marcus feared for the worst. But rather than doing something heinous to the old man, he reclaimed his brim from Winston without the same ill effect that it had caused Ellie earlier. As the sphere shrunk to a manageable size in Faustino’s hand, Winston fell out of the chair and onto the floor.

“Now you will see what real magic is!” Faustino extended the Brim, which glowed a bright, hot yellow. The beam connected with Marcus hard and fast. Various streams of light shot out at him like fiery rays from the sun.

The pain was nearly unbearable. Marcus shrieked as he felt each ray of light pierce him to his center. He thought that this is how it must feel to have a tattoo removed, if tattoos covered your body, and you could get them all removed at once by scraping them off with toothpicks. He toppled over straight onto his back, the impact shot agony from his core to his limbs. The worst part was that he didn’t lose consciousness. He suffered through the damage, but the pain was too much. His hands and feet convulsed, and he let his last chance for survival roll out of his hands. His brim was gone.

“Thought you could best the Great Faustino, did you?” Faustino circled over Marcus, breathing heavily like a vulture over carrion. “Thought you could just walk right into my house and take what was—”

Confusion suddenly overrode Marcus’s agony. He watched as Faustino’s body seized up without warning, mid-sentence. Marcus heard a scream, but the scream was not a scream of pain or suffering, nor was the scream Faustino’s; it was shrill.

Faustino collapsed next to Marcus with a thunderous clap. His fingers clawed at the floor. He trembled under a radiant beam of red light, bright blue spheres of energy pulsating along the red ray, zeroing in on the square of his back. Standing just behind where Faustino had been stood a panting, vicious-looking Ellie holding Marcus’s brim. She yelled out again, sending more energy and more pain into Faustino.

Marcus had never seen his sister like this. He thought he knew the look on her face. She relished the power, like the drain, but she was harnessing the magic somehow, not stealing it. She gritted her teeth and drove the beam harder, boring into their enemy; the man who had haunted her dreams for all those nights.

“No, Ellie!” Marcus reached. “You’re better than this.”

“Ha, ha!” Her eyes widened and her hair splayed outward from the energy. “The power feels so good; and it’s not just yours anymore.” The beam grew larger. Ellie towered over Faustino. Marcus crawled backward as the heat of the red ray grew hotter, the blue balls of pulsating light changed to purple, then red.

“You’ll never!” Ellie yelled, now clutching the brim with two hands and pushing it forward like she held the hilt of a broad sword she was skewering Faustino with, “hurt my family again!”

Then Marcus thought he heard a faint whisper. “No,” a voice said from somewhere behind Ellie. “Don’t do it.”

“Do you hear that?” Marcus pointed behind her.

“Almost there.” Ellie bored the beam deep into Faustino who writhed on the ground in pain, but she still looked behind her. Jason propped an ever-weakening Grandpa up into his arms. Jason leaned against the rubble of the far wall where Marcus had launched Faustino. Tofu sat next to them, watching.

“Stop,” their grandpa said again. “Please.”

“Winston?” Ellie said, distracted. For the first time in the last few minutes, Marcus thought she sounded like the Ellie he had always known.

“We’ve got to get the old man some help,” Marcus said, hearing the pleading in his own voice. “We don’t know the extent of his injuries.”

Slowly, the tension in Ellie’s body relaxed and she blinked hard. The light beam faded and she breathed deep. The sphere in her hand went cold and she stared at it for a moment.

“Good girl,” her grandpa said. Relief eased over his face.

Marcus rose slowly to his feet noticing smoke rising from Faustino’s back.

“Here,” Ellie said and handed the brim to Marcus. She hesitated, glancing at the sphere a moment. “Sorry,” she shrugged. “I can’t really explain what came over me.”

Marcus took the brim. “You don’t have to,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I know exactly what you mean.” Although his words were intended to make her feel better, the truth was that he wasn’t so sure.

Marcus smiled tenderly, but he was confused by her response. He wanted her to feel safe, despite what had just happened, but she looked bewildered, like she couldn’t believe it. Maybe she is in shock, he thought.

“You,” a low voice said from behind Marcus and Ellie, “should have finished me when you had the chance.”

Marcus turned to see the Great Faustino, who apparently had been named such because he seemingly couldn’t die. He stood over them again, ready to deal death.

With the brim in hand, Faustino raised his arm and said, “I don’t care what Mirella and Sol say I am done with all of you. Goodbye.” Then he yelled while hot, lava-like red light filled the brim.

Out of the corner of his eye, Marcus caught a strange movement. In a flash, he saw Tofu, that small, hairy little dog he’d known for so many years, leap into the air, higher than he had ever jumped, and pounce on Faustino.

And yet that wasn’t the strangest part; it happened so fast, he couldn’t be sure at first. A moment flickered by, and Marcus saw a tangle of flesh and fur midair, and that small dog, his friend, was no more. An instant later, a large, hairy man soared through the air and collided with Faustino. As they collided, the brim slipped from Faustino’s hand and rolled away.

Bewildered, Marcus stepped back, corralling Ellie behind him. He couldn’t understand what he was seeing. This was not his dog. A full-grown man, hairy like a Sasquatch, swung his arms violently, raining punches and jabbing elbows down at Faustino the Great.

Then, it was done.

The shaggy man stood over his victim looking down with contempt. “How’s that for a ‘dumb dog?’” he said before turning his gaze toward Marcus.

Ellie turned away. “Put some clothes on,” she said, and then she caught a glimpse of the Brim rolling behind her. She bent down and picked it up.

“Are you okay, sir?” Marcus asked Winston. He realized his voice sounded weak after what he’d endured at the hands of Faustino.

Ellie stood back up to face the group, and staggered back when she saw the hairy man. Marcus understood why; he looked like Faustino. Tofu had stripped Faustino down to his underpants and now stood in front of her, wearing his clothes.

“What?” Tofu asked, sincerely surprised. “You told me to get dressed.”

Grandpa groaned.

“Winston?” Ellie asked, rushing over to him. “We’ve got to get you out of here. Can you walk?”

“They tortured me,” he said, barely audible. “My magic is gone. I… I won’t last long now.”

Marcus approached them, looking angry. ”Jason, you almost got us killed!”

Jason looked shocked. He stared at Faustino’s body then at the hairy man a few feet away.

“We’ve got to get Winston help,” Ellie said, “and soon.”

“You killed him?” Elizabeth asked incredulously from the wall, sniffling. She gaped down at her mentor. “I didn’t think it was possible.” She paused to think, and then continued with wide eyes; “Mirella can bring him back. Yes. That’s what we’ll do. She has powerful magic.”

“Magic… to bring him back?” Ellie asked, her eyes searching for something Marcus couldn’t see. “That’s it. Thank you, Elizabeth!”

“Thank you?” Marcus repeated incredulously. “She suggests bringing this killer, your worst nightmare, back to life and you say ‘thank you?’”

“That’s not what I mean.” Ellie reached into her pocket and pulled out the vial that Mirella had given her earlier. “I’m thinking of the old man.”

“Now I’m even more confused,” Marcus said.

Uncorking the small bottle, she poured some of the magic on her grandpa’s head. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back as if he were standing under a peaceful waterfall; relief and tranquility replacing the pain and suffering on his face. He sighed as the glow of the liquid-like substance soaked into his skin and faded.

“Is that,” Winston asked with sigh, “magic?” He breathed deep. Vitality seemed to flow back to his face and to his body. “Where did you get that?”

“Mirella,” Marcus said before Ellie could speak. “Just a little while ag—”

“What?” Grandpa leaped to his feet, suddenly acting years younger than Marcus remembered ever seeing him. “That was pure magic, and she just gave it to you?”

“There was more too,” Ellie said. “They were handing little bottles of it out to people at a closed showing in the shop earlier today.”

“Are you positive?” He shook Ellie slightly by the shoulders. When she nodded, he wiped his hands across his face. “It’s worse than I feared. We’ve really got to get out of here, quickly.”

“What about the girl?” Tofu asked in his new, gruff voice.

“We leave her,” Winston said. “There has been enough death and destruction for one day.”

Ellie cleared her throat. “Here, Winston. I want you to have this.” She handed him the sphere recovered from Faustino. “It’s The Brim. Apparently this is the first brim.”

Grandpa smiled warmly, but pushed her arm away. “No dear. It’s yours. I have my own, and it’s already linked to me.”

“Let’s get going before the others come looking for us,” Jason said, getting to his feet.

Marcus said, “Oh, now you want to team up. Just a few minutes ago you were about to hand us over to Faustino.”

“What was I supposed to do? He would have killed me.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Tofu said. His voice sounded menacing and would take some getting used to, Marcus thought. “Let’s just go.”

“But—”

“Mind your keeper,” grandpa said matter-of-factly.

“What?”

“Your keeper—both of you. Tofusil has been your keeper—” he paused, gathering his thoughts, “your guardian, since you were born. His role is to guide and protect you through what is to come.”

“What do you mean ‘what is to come’?” Ellie asked. “You’re just getting around to telling us this?”

“There is no time,” Tofusil said, scratching his back. “If they have bottled up magic somewhere in this shop, this place is the most volatile place on earth. We leave—now.”

“What about Jason?” Marcus was still unable to hide the spite in his voice.

“Come on,” Jason said. Leading the way out of the room, he beckoned the rest to follow.

The rest of the group, led by Winston, followed Jason from the glowing room and back toward the main shop.

“What about me?” Elizabeth asked, looking down on them from the wall.

Tofusil, who had been walking next to Marcus, swiped the Brim from Marcus’s hand, and whirled around, pointing the brim up at her. A jet of green light flashed across the room and hit Elizabeth squarely on the mouth.

She mumbled and moaned, but her lips didn’t part; as if her mouth had been glued shut.

Handing the sphere back to Marcus, Tofusil said, “Lesson one: protect your brim at all costs.” Then he smacked Marcus lightly on the back of the head. “That was really too easy, Marcus.”

Marcus scowled, “While I appreciate what you did to that big mouth, I liked you better when you were a dog.” Marcus smirked. “How did you do that, anyway?”

“Did you boys want to powder your noses too?” Ellie asked, trailing back from the others. “Let’s get out of here.”

Marcus and Tofusil caught up with the group that waited at the shop doors. Winston held onto Jason’s arm.

“The skull,” Ellie said to Winston. “While we are here, we should go back and—”

“No need,” a frazzled voice said from behind them. “It’s right here.” Mirella chuckled. Marcus watched as Sol and his wife came out of the door that led to the attic. Sol leaned on his cane, looking better but not entirely well. Mirella seemed weary.

Ellie ordered, “Give that back to Winston. It’s not rightfully yours.”

Sol stopped to lift his cane, giving it a quick flick, and Ellie shot up into the air. She screamed. The Brim slipped from her hand and crashed to the ground. Ellie floated above the group.

“Let the adults talk, young lady,” Mirella said. Marcus thought Mirella looked unhappy, and then her eyes narrowed. “Jason, what are you doing with them? Where’s Elizabeth?”

“They,” he paused, looking confused. “They took me and—”

“Winston,” Sol said, stomping his foot, though the effect fell something short of frightening. “Return my apprentice at once.”

Winston sighed, nodded, and shoved Jason toward Mirella and Sol. “There you go.”

Tofusil growled and swiped at Marcus’s brim. Marcus reflexively withdrew his arm just in time for Tofusil’s attempt to steal his sphere to miss. This earned him a nasty look from the creature.

“Just following your orders,” Marcus said quietly, “Keeper.”

Tofusil shook his head and whispered: “Lesson two. Use common sense in obedience.”

“I’ve already got the whole selective-obedience thing down,” Marcus said, “but it’s gotten me mixed results.”

“You want the skull, Winston?” Mirella asked. Her voice quivered as she lifted the box they had seen before. “Then you convince the boy to put his hand in The Magic Box.”

“What boy? Marcus?” Winston asked. “Why?”

“Stop playing dumb,” Sol said. “You know very well why.”

“This conversation is over.” In a flash, Winston dove to the floor and recovered the brim that Ellie dropped. Pointing it at the ground in front of his enemies, he sent a stream of white light that exploded at their feet, launching rubble in all directions. The explosion must have broken Sol’s concentration because Ellie was released by the unseen force, and fell. Marcus barely saw Tofusil dart at Ellie as smoke filled the room.

“Come on,” Winston said. “We leave now.”

“But the skull,” Ellie said from Tofusil’s arms. “We have to—”

“Don’t worry about the skull,” Grandpa said as he opened the door and waved everyone through, one by one. “They can’t use it properly without me.”

“I will have my way,” Sol said from somewhere behind the settling dust and debris. “I will finish what I started.”

Marcus led the group through the random passersby and across the busy street. No sooner had they touched down on the sidewalk on the other side of the street than Mirella, Sol, and Jason stepped out of the entrance to their shop.

“Marcus!” Sol yelled when Jason took his place beside him. “This is your last chance to do this the nice way.”

“You’re evil!” Marcus called, cupping his hands to his mouth, “and I want nothing to do with you.”

Tofusil set Ellie on the ground and scratched behind his ear. “What about Jason?” She asked, grabbing Marcus’s arm and pulling herself closer to him.

“Leave him,” Marcus said, eying Jason’s pitiful expression as he half reached out for them. “He’s nothing but a lying traitor.”

Marcus turned and started down the street, not knowing what they would do next. He waved at Jason and company, like when a referee calls a foul a player doesn’t agree with. Winston and Ellie followed close behind him, and Tofusil brought up the rear.

Marcus didn’t anticipate what happened next. He wouldn’t recollect later what he noticed first—the terrified expressions of the people walking by, or the simultaneous shriek and howl that filled the street.

“Faster,” his grandpa said, pushing him in the back. “We must get to your grandma.”

“Oh no, Marcus!” Ellie gasped, tugging on his shirt. “Look.”

He glanced back over his shoulder. There was Jason, standing alone on the street. A tear ran down the cheek of his hardened face. At his feet was the skull they had fought so hard to recover, left broken and shattered like an accident that needed to be swept up. Confusion well up inside of Marcus. Then he spotted Sol and Mirella, facedown on the ground, each clutching at their chest and stomach. For another moment he felt perplexed. Then Ellie spoke again; her voice barely a whisper.

“The binding.”