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NOTE: These stories are
intended for a mature audience.

Shades of Grey
A "Kendrick" Story
By
Jennifer Brozek
Start from the beginning of the Kendrick Series

Tony and Buzz looked at the monumental task before them. The neighborhood block that had been rezoned for a new luxury condominium complex was surrounded on all sides by a ten foot high fence of overgrown hedges. Within its center was supposed to be an empty lot. Not that anyone could actually see inside the hedge fence. Why it was surrounded by these hedges, neither construction worker could fathom but both knew that it was going to be one heck of a task clearing them out.

"Looks like a job for my trusty chainsaw," Tony said.

"Yep." Buzz nodded from his truck. He did not want to mention to his partner but he felt there was something sacrilegious about ripping down such pretty greenery to put up apartments. Too many times in the last two months, they had had the unpleasant task of destroying pretty green areas in the name of real estate progress. "I'm sorry." He whispered in the direction of the hedge as Tony pulled out his chainsaw and began to put it to use.

The noise of the chainsaw abruptly stopped as its wielder stepped back, cussing up a blue streak that ended with "Mother puss bucket! There are blackberry vines all through those things!" Tony mopped at a couple of deep bloody scratches on his arm. "They're totally camouflaged. Got me a good one."

Buzz looked closer at the hedges. Suddenly he could see the thorny vines throughout the hedges. He wondered how he could have missed seeing such wicked barbs. "I guess we're gonna have to use the backhoe on this one."

"Yeah. You're up."

Buzz called on the radio back to home base. "Yo, boss! It's Buzz over at the 12th and White construction site. Over."

"I got ya. Over."

"Dude, we're gonna need the backhoe. This stuff is all hedges and blackberry vines. No way a chainsaw is gonna do it. Over."

"Copy that." The radio squawked. "Abe'll be over with Betsy within the hour. Hang tight. Over."

"Copy. Over and out."  Buzz put the radio down and looked at the hedge again. If he did not know better, he would swear that it had gotten taller since they arrived. It seemed to be at least twelve feet tall now and bristling with thorns. "This is gonna be one hell of a fight." He muttered to himself.

***

Inside the protective hedge, the Lady of the Grey Manor and her seneschal, James, were in the gazebo, watching the side of the hedge under siege. He stood dutifully at her side, waiting for her orders. She had not said anything to him since she arrived and the construction workers had begun their attack on her home. She continued to be silent as she appeared to look at nothing. He knew appearances could be deceiving. "Lady...?" He asked, hoping there was something he could do to help.

"No, James. There's nothing you can do. I don't know if there is anything I can do. Two of my other Sanctuaries have been destroyed. It is not coincidence. I believe we are targeted." Her voice was serene but tired.

He did not like the way her voice sounded or how weary she looked. The loss of her Sanctuaries hurt her - physically and mentally. They both knew it. "What of our allies?"

She nodded. "I hate to admit it, but we need help. I cannot stand alone. Walks-the-Ocean owes me. Seems he will start paying on that debt sooner than either of us thought." She stood with careful poise and paused as the sound of a large vehicle approached. "Prepare the Gray Manor for transport."

"Yes, Lady." He watched her walk up the stone pathway into the manor house. For a moment, he pondered the house, now no bigger than a cottage with the losses to the Lady. Then he made a decision. "Theodore, Theodora, Thomas and Thomasina." He called out to the air.

Almost immediately, two sets of fraternal twins, one set with dark hair and one set with blond hair, appeared. All of them looked to be about eight years old but they were all far older, James knew. They were almost as old as he was and he had seen the beginnings of the rustic town called Kendrick. All of them wore solemn expressions and their eyes told the tale of the decades they had seen.

"We are under attack. Someone is trying to harm the Lady and they are succeeding. I know you all have felt it. We need to find out who and why. Theodore and Theodora, find Karen Wilson and speak to her. Thomas and Thomasina, go to the places of city power and find out what you can about why they are building so much on places that are green. We need information. We need help."

Unlike their usual talkative selves, the two sets of twins merely looked at each other, then at James and nodded before disappearing in the blink of an eye.

***

Karen stood in her living room. Across from her on the pedestal of one of her surround sound speakers was a small bust of Colonel Kendrick. Over the last two months, Karen had taken to talking to the bust when she wanted to talk to Reginald. By agreement, Reginald would speak out of the speaker under the bust. It was stupid, but it made Reginald that much more real to her and allowed her to do other things while speaking with him. Also by agreement, Karen started wearing her blue-tooth cell phone earpiece when she was out of the house and Reginald would speak to her through it. It had been over two years since Reginald had chosen Karen as his representative and though they still had bumps in their relationship, the two of them had learned how to work with each other.

"Wait, so, the Stewart family has always been your, well, babysitters?" Karen asked as she dusted.

"Caretakers. Not babysitters. A city needs a lot of help to run well. Trash doesn't pick itself up. Traffic lights don't decide when to switch on their own. People need to do that stuff. The Stewarts were there with Colonel Kendrick when he broke ground on Kendrick as his manservant, cook and stable master. As a reward for loyally serving the Colonel in life, I gave their family the ability to understand that I was alive and to feel me. Ever since then, they have been a part of the city, and I, a part of them." The speaker said.

"Huh. That's why so many of them have gone into local government but not more."

"Yes. They've been taking care of me."

"What's the problem again?"

"They're not responding to me as they once did. They don't seem to see me or feel me. A lot of them have been sick. The only one who still does is Julie but she's different. She's part of me now."

Karen frowned as she thought about his words. "I'll bet the ritual the Children performed had something to do with it. This has gone on for how long?"

"I noticed it about Thanksgiving time. Then, I started paying more attention to them. Probably sooner than that."

"What made you notice?"

"Around the holidays, I give gifts to my favorites. Homeless people will find blankets and food. Other people will have extra money in their coat pockets. The Stewarts get gifts but they have to find them. I leave them in random places around their homes, work and cars. No one has found a single gift I've left and I've left a lot." He paused. "Either they don't feel me or they're ignoring me."

"Scratch off the ignoring part. You're damn impossible to ignore." Karen said as she walked to the hall closet, whose door opened on its own for her and shut after she put away the dusting spray and cloth. She turned towards the bust. "Ok, what do you want me to do?"

"Find out what's wrong with the Stewarts. Help them if you can. I need them and I fear for them."

Karen nodded. "Ok. I'll figure it out."

***

"Tell me again why we're patrolling the woods in the middle of the day," Sgt Webber, the newest member of the Kendrick Police Special Unit, asked.

"Because, this is where the highest concentration of supernatural activity supposedly is during this time of the year." Sgt. Mueller said as they tromped through the forested area of the Lakes district.

"This time of year?"

"Yeah. Solstice, New Year's, Twelfth Night. That sort of thing. Anything that people can hang a ritual on. As long as we patrol, we can either prevent the rituals from happening or catch them in the act. Every person we find out here is to be questioned and, if there is probable cause, detained."

"I'm not one to question supernatural activity. One encounter with an evil ghost was enough to convince me. But, aren't rituals done around this time of year supposed to be about greeting the sun and welcoming back the warm weather and such?"

Sgt. Mueller shrugged. "I just go where the Doctor tells me to."

"That's another question, why is Doc Mercer running the SU now? I thought we report only to the Mayor."

"Because, Mayor Stewart has me reporting to Doctor Mercer for now while he deals with other things." Detective David Hauberk, the team leader of the Special Unit broke in, startling both men. "If you two gentlemen are done having your little chat, do you think we could move it a bit faster? I don't want to be out here in the dark and I don't want to report to the Doc that we didn't finish our patrol."

"Yes, sir." Both men replied in unison and continued onward.

David watched them go. He stood where he was until they were out of sight.  Then he looked off to his left and waved to someone.  Juliet and Tomas, both from the Bacchanalia Coven stepped forward from their hiding spot. "You two should be fine. Go back the way we came in. You need to put the word out that these woods are not safe for rituals."

"Why are you helping us?" Juliet asked. "Not that we're not grateful."

"Because something's wrong with what we're doing and until I can fix it, this is the only way I can help. If we catch you guys in here, you'll be arrested. I can't stop that. So, go."

Juliet and Tomas looked at each other, hefted their bags of ritual implements over their shoulders and took off the way David pointed them towards.

He sighed. He really needed to talk to the Mayor about Doctor Mercer. Things were getting out of hand. The patrols, the arrests of innocent civilians. Since the Mayor did not have time  enough to even accept an appointment from him, he was just going to have to drop by and make him make time.

***

Karen and John sat next to each other on the couch in his apartment above his shop. He listened as Karen explained Reginald's problem to him, frowning slightly. "This all makes so much more sense now. I didn't understand Mason when he warned me."

She tilted her head. "Warned you about what?"

"He said that a change was coming and unless we saved the Abbot, he wouldn't be able to help us. He kept saying his family and Kendrick would be in danger. He also told me that his family was intimately connected to the land of Kendrick. They can feel when magic has touched a place or person." John put his glass of wine down as he remembered the past conversations with the Mayor.

"So, the ritual the Children of Anu did in October severed this connection?"

"Yes. He likened the possible loss to me losing my Todari collection. I can't imagine the pain they've been in. Now, the Master of the City has noticed that his city is no longer being cared for in the manner in which he is accustomed."

"Yes." Karen let the little lie slip out of her mouth. Essentially, what John said was true. He had still not caught on to the fact that Reginald, the Master of the City, was the city of Kendrick itself. She did not blame him. It took her over a year of working with Reginald to figure it out. Even then, she almost did not believe it. Eventually, she would tell John the truth. Just not now. It would distract from her current mission. After a moment, she added, "I didn't know you spent time with Mayor Stewart."

He shrugged. "Occasionally I consult with him on matters involving antiques and, sometimes, their supposed supernatural powers." He let the little lie of omission go, knowing that he could not adequately explain that he used the Mayor as an information source with information as payment. It would distract from Karen's request for help now.

"Ok." She said, clearly distracted. "Maybe you should talk to him again. See if he knows how to help his family. We can get others to help, too. Maybe." Suddenly, she looked up. "Do you think more than the Stewarts were affected by the ritual?"

John frowned. "I don't know. We'll have to ask around. But, we may not get truthful answers. People don't like to talk about being vulnerable. Especially in the supernatural community."

***

Elsewhere...

"I've done as you asked. I've re-zoned the specific areas from parks and forestland into apartment complexes for low income housing and the vacant lot on 12th and White to luxury condominiums." Mason told the teal-haired teenager sitting on his desk, filing her nails. "Now give me back my family's gift!"

She laughed a sound of pure amusement. "Yes, you've re-zoned and all but until all of those places are torn down and the construction fully underway... no. Your part is not done. 12th and White is giving your crews some trouble."

He was exhausted and still heart sore from having his family's gift so abruptly stripped from him. Every member of his blood kin in Kendrick was hurting. "Vicki, I've done what you've asked. Please."

"You don't seem to understand, Daddy-dearest. I cannot get the power I need from the land until that lot is destroyed. Until I get that power, you don't get your gift back. Neither does any other member of the Stewart family. And, I think you should press the construction crew... your kids aren't looking so good."

"You little bitch!"  He said, but did not move.

"Aww. No punch? No attempt to throttle? I think the fight is going out of you. So sad. I haven't thrown you across the room in over a week now." She put her nail file down and focused on him.

He took a breath and did nothing. Suddenly, he understood that rabbit with the electrified floor experiment he read about in college. Eventually, the rabbit quit jumping to the other side of the line, figuring that, as before, the floor there would still be electrified. It just sat there, shaking in pain, with the electricity running through it. As he looked up at Vicki and the thing possessing the girl he wondered if he had dull, rabbit eyes as well.

Before Vicki could do anything, there were three short hard raps on his office door. The person knocking did not wait for permission to come it. It was Detective David Hauberk. He paused as he saw Vicki sitting on the Mayor's desk. "Sorry to barge in. I have a matter of some importance." He paused, looking at Vicki, "If you have the time."

"Yes, yes. Of course, Detective. I was just speaking with my daughter, Victoria. We were discussing the future but I think we have it all settled now. Don't we, Vicki?" Mason said, looking at the girl.

She hopped down. "Yes, Father. We do." She turned and smiled at David. The smile was not pleasant. Feral and challenging. "Don't keep him too long. He's got to give me a ride home."

"I won't " David said and made a mental note to figure out where he knew her from. He watched her leave and shut the office door before turning to Mason. "Are you all right, sir? You look tired, if you don't mind me saying so."

Mason waved a dismissive hand. "It's fine. Children can be trying at times. What do you need?"

David sat down across from the Mayor and took a breath. "I need to talk to you about Doctor Mercer and how he is running the Special Unit. I have some ... concerns."

Story by Jennifer Brozek, Copyright 2008
Image by Rory Clark, Stopped Motion Photography, Copyright 2008