The Ghost in Room 404

The Cat Knows Too Much

The hand on my shoulder squeezed tight enough to bruise.

I spun around, throwing my arms up to block a hit. My back banged against the brick wall of the narrow alley. Standing right behind me was a chubby, grumpy orange cat.

Except cats do not stand on their hind legs, and they certainly do not glare at people with an expression that looks like a retired cop who hates rookie mistakes.

"Keep your voice down, kid," the cat rasped, its jaw moving in a way that defied all laws of biology. "If Vane’s enforcers catch the scent of fresh human meat out here in the open, they won't just take your rent. They'll turn you into street lamps."

I blinked, dropping my arms. I looked at Chloe. She didn't look surprised at all. She just crossed her arms inside her bright yellow jacket and stared down at the fat cat.

"Barnaby," Chloe said. "Glad you found us. Where is the safehouse?"

"Two blocks down, past the goblin market," Barnaby said, dropping back down onto all four paws and shaking out his orange fur. He pointed his tail toward a dark opening between two crooked brick buildings. "And you've got half the city's bounty hunters looking for you two right now. Vane put a price on your sister's head the second you broke the vault, boy."

Barnaby looked right at me. I stood there, frozen, my brain refusing to accept that I was getting life advice from an alley cat in a hidden magical city under Chicago.

"Wait," I managed to say, holding up a hand. "Back up. Vane is chasing us because my sister robbed a magical vault? Since when does my sister know how to steal magical things? She spends all day playing video games and coughing!"

Chloe looked away, her jaw tightening. The faint silver light in her eyes flickered out, leaving them their normal dark brown, but the defiant look on her face stayed.

"I was never just sick, Leo," Chloe said, her voice flat and hard. "The doctors in Chicago didn't know what was wrong with me because it wasn't a disease. I'm a anchor. My body holds magical energy together. When Vane started rounding up runaway spirits to harvest their power for the ledger, I had to do something."

"You had to steal from a dangerous monster?" I asked, my voice rising. "Chloe, he walked through our kitchen floor like it was a curtain! If he catches us, he won't just ground us!"

"He wants to drain every ounce of magic out of me to balance his books," Chloe said, turning to face me fully. Her eyes flashed again, bright and dangerous. "And I would rather burn this entire city to the ground than let him touch the kids hiding in the loft."

Barnaby gave a low, rumbling huff. "Save the family drama for the after-party. We have company."

A sudden wave of cold air rolled down the alley. From the shadows at the far end, two large figures stepped into view. They wore heavy iron armor that clicked with every step, and their faces were hidden behind flat, blank metal masks. In their hands, they carried long clubs that sparked with blue electricity.

"Enforcers," Barnaby hissed, his fur standing straight up. "Run."

We did not wait. Barnaby darted ahead, his chubby body moving with surprising speed as he squeezed between stacked wooden crates. Chloe grabbed my hand, her grip surprisingly strong, and pulled me after the cat.

We sprinted through a maze of twisting alleys. Around us, the hidden market was waking up. Shouting merchants packed up glowing trinkets, and strange creatures with multiple arms scrambled up drainpipes to get out of the way. The air smelled of ozone, fried sugar, and wet stone.

Behind us, the heavy clank of metal armor echoed off the brick walls.

"Over here!" Barnaby called out, ducking behind a heavy velvet curtain hanging over a low doorway.

Chloe and I dived through the curtain just as a bolt of blue electricity slammed into the wall where we had been standing a second before. The stone hissed and melted into a bubbling green puddle.

We tumbled into a dark, dusty room filled with shelves stacked high with glass jars, old books, and glowing artifacts. The door slammed shut behind us, and Barnaby threw a heavy iron deadbolt into place.

I leaned against a wooden table, gasping for air, my chest burning. I looked around the messy room, trying to process everything that had happened in the last ten minutes.

"Safe for now," Barnaby muttered, jumping up onto a stack of boxes to groom his paw. "Though how long that lasts depends on how fast Vane's trackers trace the energy signature your sister left behind."

Chloe didn't look scared. She walked over to a small window that looked out over the glowing skyline of the Beneath-City, her fingers tracing the edge of her jacket pocket.

"They won't find us here," Chloe said quietly. "Not yet."

"You sure about that?" a new voice asked from the dark corner of the room.

A figure stepped out from behind a tall bookshelf. It was a girl about our age, wearing a dark leather jacket and a silver ring in her nose. In her hand, she held a heavy iron wrench, tapping it lazily against her leg as she looked us up and down.

"Because the last person who brought Vane's enforcers to my door didn't last five minutes," the girl said, a cold smile spreading across her face. "So you better start talking right now, or I throw you both back out to the wolves."