Free Reality Hack by Niall Teasdale Page A

and the spell worked over several yards.
    ‘Yes, Nisa,’ the voice came back.
    ‘Do you know a cat called Sparkles?’
    There was silence, and Nisa wondered whether she might have messed up the duration when she bumped up the range. Then Faline padded into the room and bounced onto the arm of the sofa to peer at Nisa.
    ‘He prefers not to be called that,’ the cat said.
    ‘What does he prefer?’
    ‘I believe “Yes, you can have me any way you like” would be his preferred form of address. Toms have only one thing on their mind.’
    ‘Humans are the same, believe me.’
    ‘They are not, believe me . Why do you ask about him?’
    ‘He’s missing. So is a white cat named Duchess.’
    ‘She does like her name, and she acts like it too. Are you thinking of looking for them?’
    ‘Well, I thought maybe you might know the local kitty hangouts, places they might be hiding? Unless they have eloped to a garret in Paris.’
    ‘Paris?’
    ‘Uh… never mind. Do you know where they might be?’
    Faline ducked her head away. It looked a little odd from a cat. ‘I… might, but I don’t want to take you there.’
    ‘What? It’s breaking the cat code of confidentiality or something?’
    ‘No. Cats are generally very gossipy. I’m not sure they’re there and I think… If they are there, all we’ll find is corpses.’
    ‘We’ll find?’
    The cat gave a sound which sounded a bit like a sigh. ‘You’re determined to find them, aren’t you?’
    ‘I’m supposed to be honing my investigative skills.’
    ‘Then I’m not going to let you go there alone,’ Faline said.
    ~~~
    At the far end of Hawgood Street, Gale Street swung back up toward Devons Road. They were busy putting in new builds, flats mostly, but they had not got to the corner quite yet.
    There were signs up outside what looked like an old industrial building indicating that it was dangerous, unstable, and due for demolition. Normally that would not have stopped the local kids from prising open some of the boards on the windows and sneaking inside to smoke or fuck, or something less healthy. Nisa could see no evidence that they had done so with this building. There were gaps big enough for animals to crawl in, but nothing large enough for a human.
    Faline, riding on Nisa’s shoulder, was getting more nervous the closer they got. She hopped down as they arrived and sniffed around the windows. Looking back, she gave a meow, but no words came through.
    ‘Great time for the spell to wear off,’ Nisa muttered and followed the cat over to the window. She grimaced. Even for a human nose, there was a disgusting scent of decay coming through the broken glass and wooden boards. ‘God, what is that?’ All she got was a meow in reply.
    Trying a couple of the boards, she found a loose one which left just enough of a gap for her to squeeze through. Faline gave a very worried-sounding meow and then jumped after her, and Nisa picked her up before moving any further into the building.
    It looked like it had been an office for some sort of industrial site. Nisa knew that there was scrub ground behind it, awaiting redevelopment, and this had been where the admin was done, she guessed. The room they had entered was an old office. There was no furniture, but there were bits of paper with some sort of company letterhead on it scattered around on the dusty, concrete floor. Everything useful in the place had probably been torn out already. Even the office door had been torn off and the hinges removed.
    The smell, and it had to be bad to be detectable just outside the window, was coming from deeper inside. Outside it was still daylight; there was maybe another hour until the sun fell below the horizon, an hour after that until full dark. Light fell in through the opened board, but beyond the doorway it fell into deep shadows and patches of light that were managing to creep in through smaller gaps.
    ‘You know,’ Nisa whispered, ‘this is the bit in the horror movie where