Previously on Alike Indignity, nursemaid and former Silver Twilight Lodge initiate Olive Sapinska accidentally recruits Zelda Meiger to help her track down Talcott in Junior’s body before the Sheldon gang do. But on their way to the train station, the Sheldon gang catches up with them, first.

Meet the scions of the Meiger and Husserl families in Tim Pratt’s new serial, Alike Indignity, which mixes family rivalry with dangerous magics. The Husserl family’s plight continues in Fantasy Flight Games’ newest scenario pack Traces to Nowhere for Arkham Horror: The Card Game, now available wherever fine games are sold.

Read or listen to to the fifth chapter, “Doubles and Bluffs,” below, and subscribe to the Aconyte Fiction Podcast to make sure you catch the rest of the series. 

Alike Indignity

Chapter 5: Doubles and Bluffs

by Tim Pratt

Talcott had been in worse situations, but not in a long time. Held captive in a riverside shack, tied to a hard wooden chair with rough rope, and while Elias Husserl, Jr.’s body that he’d stolen was far stronger and more flexible than his own dying one back at the Meiger Estate, he couldn’t wriggle his way free. His Sheldon gang captors might be thugs, but they knew their business. The burly one was “off to smooth things with the boss” which wasn’t promising, while the lean one paced behind Talcott, a constant threatening presence.

“Listen.” Talcott drew on his experience dealing with people who wanted to hurt him. “I know things went wrong between us. But my family has real connections. I can do so much for your gang.”

The thug grunted. “You’re singing to the wrong audience, friend. It’s not even my gang. I work for the Sheldons, the O’Bannions, even that Six Nails Mob that sprang up after the flood. I’m a humble bootlegger with unfortunate smarts, but I owed these boys a favor, so I gave them a hand. Delivering you was more trouble than a crate of Canadian Club, though, I’ll tell you that. Oh, what’s this?”

The door to the shack creaked open, and two women stumbled in, shoved along by a bulky stranger.

Talcott schooled his face to blankness, because no good could come of any emotional reaction, but inside he roiled – Zelda was here? And his nurse, Olive? Zelda looked terrified and woozy, but Olive seemed stoically grim, clutching a satchel tight to her chest.

The new man burst out laughing. “Finn! You already caught him?” He walked over, ignoring the women, who huddled together near the splintered wall. He chucked Talcott roughly under the chin.

“Hey, Serge,” Finn, the bootlegger, said. “Me and Clancy got lucky. This idiot went back to his own house! You and Davey went after his dame, huh? Looks like you brought a spare, though.”

“She had a friend.” Serge shrugged. “They weren’t any trouble. Came along as gentle as lambs.”

A hand landed on Talcott’s shoulder and Serge spoke right into his ear. “See, Junior, the idea was we’d kidnap your girl and put the word around town that if you wanted her alive, you’d turn yourself in. But now…” He withdrew his hand and sauntered around to peruse Zelda and Olive. “Looks like we didn’t need you ladies after all.”

“So let us go, then,” Olive said calmly. “Your business is with Junior, not us.”

Serge laughed. Finn shrugged. “That’s not up to me. Or Serge, either. But the boss isn’t coming so maybe–”

“Sadie?” Olive interjected.

“Somebody knows a little something about something, huh?” Finn observed.

“Sadie would never make a deal with a streak of muck like this.” Serge kicked the leg of Talcott’s chair, making the whole structure shudder.

Hmm. It was a hard chair, but it was also an old chair…

“One of her lieutenants got ambitious,” Finn said. “Tried to set up a side deal. He’s the guy I owe, and he’s probably hoping Sadie never hears about this at all.” He cracked his knuckles. “And with that, my work here is done. I was just babysitting while Clancy fetched the boss, but since you’re here, Serge, mind if I head out? I’ve got deliveries.”

“Yeah, yeah, go on. Save a bottle of the good stuff for me.”

“I’ll give you a discount, anyway.” Finn started for the door, then paused. “You know, this one looks like a society gal.” He gestured at Zelda. “When ones like her go missing, it’s more trouble than it’s worth. Think twice before doing anything that will leave a scratch on these two, you hear?”

“Not up to me,” Serge said. “But I’ll pass your advice on to the boss.”

Finn sighed. “You know me, always trying to be helpful. Too smart for my own good.” He departed.

“Please. Let us go.” Zelda stepped toward Serge, holding up her hands. “I’m a Meiger, you must have heard of us. We can pay whatever Junior owes.”

Serge stuck a finger in his ear and wiggled it around, then peered at the tip. “Nah, it’s gone beyond money, now. It’s about respect, and this one hasn’t shown any. Plus, can’t let any birds free that might sing to Sadie.” He kicked the chair again, hard enough to make something on the underside crack.

Talcott was silent. Give nothing away. Wait for the right moment.

Zelda moved closer to Serge, batting her wet eyelashes. “Please, you’re a reasonable man, I can tell–”

“I’ve never been called that before. Shut up, would ya? Don’t make me get rough.”

Zelda burst into sobs, gulping air and wailing, apparently lost in paroxysms of terror, but it was so over the top. Talcott wondered what she was playing at, and then noticed Olive slowly reaching into her satchel and drawing something out.

“I’ll do anything!” Zelda shouted, flinging herself into the man’s arms. “Anything!”

Serge stumbled, trying to shove her away, but she gripped his shirt front. Her sobs echoed in the space. “Get off me!” Serge hollered.

Olive stepped forward, dropping her satchel, and Talcott grinned savagely. She had a lump hammer in her hand, a nasty weight on a wooden handle, and she dodged around the flailing Zelda, looking for her angle.

Serge tore Zelda’s hands free and shoved her toward the wall so hard she knocked her head. The woman crumpled to the ground in a heap, dazed enough to provide no further help.

Serge spun on Olive as she raised the hammer. He growled at her, baring his teeth in anger.

Talcott shouted, “Look out behind you!”

Hardly an inspired gambit, but it distracted Serge for just long enough for his eyes to flicker away, and Olive drove the hammer into his stomach. The big man doubled over, exposing the top of his head for another blow, a tap by comparison, but expertly delivered, if Talcott was any judge. Serge fell to his knees, wavered, and then fell onto his side.

Maybe he’d wake up again. Maybe he wouldn’t. Blows to the head were tricky. Talcott didn’t care a whit.

“Well done, Ol – ah, miss. I’m afraid I don’t know your name, but I’m terribly grateful. If you’d just loosen my bonds, we can escape before the others return.”

“Shut up, Talcott.” Olive sounded infinitely weary. She knelt to check on Zelda, who moaned but didn’t rise, then went to pick up her satchel, rooting through it as she approached Talcott’s chair.

How irritating. “You believed his story?” Talcott said. “After I spent all that time convincing you I was a demented old fool, the real Junior convinced you of his identity?”

“We found your grimoire.” She shrugged. “Your ritual. That was proof enough.”

Was Olive some kind of witch in the guise of a nurse? Who could have foreseen that? “I hardly see why you’ve involved yourself. Surely one patient is much the same?”

“Junior offered me money if I helped him put things right.” She removed a corked glass vial out of the bag and Talcott leaned away. No! If she dosed him with the potion, and loosened his mind from its moorings again, his soul would flow naturally back to its proper body where it belonged, and Junior’s soul would return to its own vessel, too!

The time for desperate gambits had arrived. “What money? Believe me, the boy doesn’t have a pot to piss in. Hell, he probably has to rent the piss! Junior’s family may be well off, but even the mother’s jewels are locked up. He’s destitute, that’s why these hoodlums are after him.”

Olive towered over him. “He has cash set aside to flee town, and once he’s back in his proper body, he’ll hand it over.”

The boy had money hidden all this time? Talcott seethed. “Just let me go, Olive. You’re clearly savvy. You know more about magic than I realized. Ican offer you more than petty cash. I can teach you the secrets of immortality. Why, I have a whole library of grimoires, hidden away in a rented room, yes, power beyond imagining, and it can all be yours.” That was a lie – he had one grimoire, and it was under the floorboards in the Meiger estate – but he just had to buy himself time.

“I’ve seen enough magical tomes to last ten lifetimes, Talcott. Cash is more attractive. You can do just as much with it, and it’s less dangerous. Besides, stealing someone’s body…” She shook her head. “That’s ugly. Too ugly for me to bear. A man who’d do that would never keep his word anyway. Now, be a good patient and take your medicine.”

She stepped toward him, holding the vial, and he turned his face away. She sighed, and seized his nose in a death grip, hard enough to make him gasp and his eyes water. He clamped his mouth shut again, but she squeezed his nostrils together. He’d have to suck in a breath eventually, and when he did, she’d toss the contents of that vial down his gullet, and if he swallowed so much as a drop…

The chair creaked under him. His legs were tied to the chair, but the whole thing felt shaky, so maybe…

Talcott launched himself up and forward, and the chair partially broke apart underneath him. His upper body was still lashed to the back, his arms pinned at his sides, but his legs were free, or anyway, free enough; the bits of snapped wood tied to his calves wouldn’t slow him down much.

Olive squawked when he crashed into her, but he didn’t pause to see if she’d dropped the vial, just shoved past her and ran toward the door. He couldn’t undo the latch without the use of his hands, but the door was flimsy wood. He smashed his shoulder into it. The warped boards popped open. He paused briefly in the open air, sucking in a breath of muddy river-stink. He tried to orient himself, but in the dark, there was just the impression of more shacks, twisted trees, and a dirt track beneath his feet. The only direction that mattered right now was away.

“Don’t make me chase you, Talcott!” Olive shouted as he ran into the night. “I emptied your bedpans and wiped your drool for weeks, and I built up some powerful resentments!”

Talcott reveled in the strength of this body as his legs pumped, carrying him into the darkness. Why had he worried so much about money, anyway? He had a young, strong body with an old and treacherous mind. With that combination, he could go anywhere, do anything; he was unstoppable.

The ropes still wrapped around his legs loosened enough to trip him, and with his arms bound, he couldn’t even put out his hands to break his fall.