Diggin up crones, p.27
Diggin' Up Crones, page 27
I’d found friends. Sure, one of those friends had turned out to be an evil lamia bent on destroying the world. Nothing was perfect.
My parents had come to this place years before because a prophecy told them I would end up here. Our relationship was still a work in progress, but it wasn’t terrible. Sometimes I wished it was because I was uncomfortable with all the freely given love, but things were chugging along.
Then I’d found Poet again. She was traveling with the Mystic Caravan Circus. Every few days, we had a video chat, and somehow, that ate up the distance between us. Other times, I used my new abilities as the pixie apex to open a plane door and visit her. She could transport herself to me, too.
In a weird way, I had everything I’d ever wanted. I was still braced to lose it all. It had happened before. Why wouldn’t it happen again? Those were the sorts of intrusive thoughts that plagued me. One thing I knew for certain: it wasn’t going to happen today.
A whirring shook me out of my reverie, and I raised my right hand and plucked the arrow that had been fired at my head out of the air. I caught it, marveling at my sudden agility, and then burned the arrow to ash with my magic.
“You were saying?” Rick practically screeched.
Man, he was high strung when he wanted to be. It was weirdly cute, although I couldn’t identify why I felt that way.
“Three of them,” I announced. I knew that because of the direction the arrow had come from. “And they’re not monsters. Well, not monsters like we’re used to facing.”
“What are they?” Andrea asked in a breathless whisper. Her hand was pressed to her chest, telling me that she’d seen the arrow coming at the last second and thought she’d lost me.
“Mutants,” I replied.
Finally, after what felt like a really long time, Rick cleared his throat. “Mutants? Like aliens?”
“Aliens aren’t mutants.” I glanced to the east. That particular mutant was moving. Where was he going? “I guess aliens could be mutants,” I amended as if it was important. “That’s not the sort of mutants we’re dealing with, though.”
“Great.” Rick grimaced. “What sort are we dealing with?’
“The sort that refused to leave when nuclear weapons were dropped during a training exercise in the Nevada desert.”
Rick’s expression was pure confusion. “What?”
“We’re not in Nevada,” Marissa reminded me.
I lifted my left hand and snatched another arrow out of the air as it careened toward my head. I looked at this one a moment before burning it to ash.
“You just said we were fighting mutants from Nevada,” Marissa argued.
“That is not actually what I said,” I countered. “I said they were mutants like the ones you might fight in a nuclear testing zone in Nevada.”
“I’m going to kill her,” Marissa snapped at my parents. “She is on my last nerve.”
“Take it down a notch, Marissa,” Andrea chided. “You’re not helping matters.”
“And she is?” Marissa gestured toward me. “She’s going to get us all killed.”
This time I sensed two arrows at the same time and ducked, watching with interest as the arrows collided before dropping to the ground.
“What’s happening?” Rick demanded. He extended a warning finger. “None of your games. Just come right out with it.”
It amused me that he’d so quickly figured out my schtick. One of my superpowers—I had many—was deranging people to the point of no return. That was on full display on days like this, when I purposely went out of my way to see how many times I could make Marissa screech.
Still, he had a point. I wasn’t the only one playing the game. If Marissa, Rick, or Andrea emerged from the trees, they would be sitting ducks.
“Stay covered,” I ordered them as I shifted to look to the west. I was still low to the ground, and that gave me a better vantage point. “Look there,” I ordered Rick. “Use the binoculars.”
Rick pulled out the binoculars and trained them on the spot I’d indicated.
“What do you see?” I asked.
He searched for several seconds before he found his target. “A man,” he replied, his lips curving down. “Although … he doesn’t look human, Scout. There’s something wrong with him.”
“I already told you he’s a mutant.”
“That could mean anything.”
“Just tell me this.” I broke off and licked my lips. “Is he big?”
“He’s really big. He almost looks as if he has a hunched back or something. It’s difficult to make out.”
“If you had to cast him in a movie, who would play him?”
“I cannot believe this conversation is still going,” Marissa snapped. “Kill them.”
“Shh.” I pressed a finger to my lips. “If you keep talking that loudly you’re going to be the one they eat first.”
Marissa balked. “Eat? What are you talking about?”
“There’s no one I would cast as him, Scout,” Rick said. “I just told you he doesn’t look human.”
“Okay, how about Sloth from The Goonies? Would you cast the same actor?”
“Sloth wore heavy prosthetic makeup.”
I rolled my eyes. “But if Sloth was a real person, could he play that mutant in a movie?”
Rick finally—yes, finally—got it. He cocked his head, considering. “I think he could play him,” he said. “What does that mean?”
“It’s The Hills Have Eyes.”
It wasn’t as if I expected applause for my deduction, but when none of them said a single word, I shot an incredulous look toward the trees. “Oh, come on.”
“What’s The Hills Have Eyes?” Andrea asked.
“A movie.”
“Ah.” Rick bobbed his head. “This is one of those horror movies Gunner is always complaining about you torturing him with.”
“I never torture him.” I totally torture him. That was half the fun of our relationship. I didn’t need him whining about it to my parents, though. “That movie is great. It’s about a family that gets marooned after their RV breaks down, and they get attacked by a bunch of mutants.”
This time when I heard the whirring I pivoted and exploded the arrow before it got anywhere near me. I needed to move this along. They weren’t figuring out quickly enough that the arrows weren’t going to work on me.
“So you’re saying this is like a scene from a movie,” Rick said.
“I think these are the actual mutants.”
As if to prove I was right, the same loony laugh that had erupted minutes before came yet again. This time, it was much closer. That was good. They were giving up on the arrows.
“That laugh,” I explained, “that’s straight from the movie.”
“But movie monsters aren’t the same as real-life monsters,” Andrea argued.
“I’m well aware.” I stood and squared my shoulders. They were coming. “Just hold on a second.”
I’d seen the movie enough times to recognize the mutants heading in my direction. The one with the laugh was Lizard. The one with the hunched back was Pluto. The third one, who was the entire reason I managed to figure out what I was fighting, was Goggle.
The second they burst from the trees, I understood they weren’t real mutants. They were flesh-and-blood creatures, and they were clearly based on those from the movie.
I exploded Lizard first. He’d always given me the creepiest feeling, and it was almost cathartic. Goggle was easy enough to knock down and then out with a burst of magic. They didn’t explode into a pile of ash or magic, which would’ve been preferable, but instead tossed goo and viscera in every direction as they dissolved into nothing.
“That is disgusting,” I muttered as I shifted again, doing my best to ignore the mess I’d made.
Pluto had gotten past me. In the movie, he was the idiot. They were inbred, so a lot of them were idiots. He’d almost been sympathetic. Almost. Now he had his head down and was charging at Marissa like a linebacker on a mission to take off Aaron Rodgers’s head.
I reacted without thinking. In truth, if I’d had time to think about it, I would’ve done the same thing. I threw magic at the creature’s back. Because of his forward momentum, all of his … stuff … flew all over Marissa.
She was covered from head to foot in blood, what looked to be teeth, and even bits of bone and fat.
She stood there, the only part of her not covered in gunk her eyes. Then she started to scream, which also reminded me of the movie.
“Just a quick question,” Rick said as he moved from the tree line to stand next to me. “Was that a happy accident, or did you mean to do that?”
“I’ll sound like a badass if I say it was on purpose, right?” I scratched the side of my nose as Marissa’s screams amped up.
“You’ll sound like a sociopath.”
That didn’t seem bad in my book. Still, I didn’t make things up to brag. “It was already happening when I realized how it was going to play out. I had no intention of letting him get that close to her.”
“Ah.” Rick nodded in understanding. “You know that when she tells Rooster, you’re going to be the bad guy?”
“I’m fine with that.” I left Marissa to her screams and turned back to the remains on the ground. “They were real.” I wasn’t saying it to anybody in particular, but Andrea responded.
“As opposed to what?” she asked.
“I just mean they looked exactly as they did in the movie.” I shrugged. “It’s weird. Where did they come from? Who created them? Why that movie? It’s almost twenty years old.”
“Maybe they weren’t really from the movie,” Rick objected. “It’s possible you convinced yourself of that.”
I was too familiar with the movie to believe that. “We should probably get back.” I let loose a sigh. “Marissa needs a shower.”
“I am going to kill you,” Marissa seethed. The look in her eyes told me she was serious. “This is the last time. I’m going to murder you.”
“Well, that will be fun too.” I grinned at her. “You should probably ride in back. I don’t want to get mutant guts in my hair.”
Marissa stomped her foot and screamed again.
Yup. This afternoon was nowhere near over.
2
TWO
Iwasn’t lying about making Marissa ride in back during the drive back to town. Spring was in full bloom in Hawthorne Hollow, and I didn’t want the smell taking her over to ruin it. Plus, Marissa wasn’t all that great on a motorcycle. I had no idea why she wanted to join a monster-hunting group that required you to have your own motorcycle, but I’d long ago given up trying to figure out what made her tick.
Once we got to the parking lot, she stormed into the Rusty Cauldron, the bar that served as our defacto office.
“She’s already screaming at Rooster,” Rick said as we stared in her wake.
I shrugged. “That makes it no different than any other day.”
He smirked. “Are you sure you didn’t plan for that to happen?”
“Not twenty minutes ago you told me that if I said I planned it, that would make me a sociopath.”
“Yes, well, I’m honestly torn.”
“It really did just happen.” That was the truth. Now, if he asked me if I was sorry that it had happened, I would have to lie. “It just sort of worked out the way it worked out.”
Clearly unconvinced, Rick chuckled. “You have a spark, and I can’t figure out where it came from.”
The statement threw me. “What do you mean?”
“You live life up here.” He raised his hand above his head. “Everybody in our family lives life right around here.” He moved his hand to mid-chest level. “I’m curious where that comes from.”
“Probably from figuring out that I had to be the loudest one in the group home if I ever wanted to get attention.” I hadn’t meant it the way it came out. He looked shocked, and then sad. “It’s fine,” I assured him. “There came a point when I didn’t want attention in the group homes. I figured out pretty quickly that the best way to survive was not to draw attention to myself.”
Now he looked miserable.
“That didn’t make things better, Scout,” Andrea said, her hand landing on her husband’s arm.
I often wondered what they saw in me. Everybody in our family had suffered in one form or another because of the prophecy. I was in the center of that prophecy, standing on the side of victory after a great battle. Pixie witches were already coveted, but even at a young age, I had been identified as something special. Every evil faction that had heard of me wanted to claim my magic. I was a child of the stars, and that was to be revered … and killed if at all possible. Rick and Andrea had done the only thing they could and sent me somewhere they thought I would be safe. Their enemies never found me, but they found my sister, and she was forever changed.
“Sorry,” I offered lamely. I was legitimately sorry. I didn’t want to hurt them. They were good people. I just couldn’t bridge the emotional gap between us. “I don’t want you feeling bad about anything that happened when I was a kid.”
“It’s hard not to,” Andrea argued. “We chose that path for you.”
“No.” I surprised myself. “The path was chosen for all of us.” I wasn’t angry with them, and they needed to realize that. “I don’t blame you for making the choice you did.”
“You should,” Rick argued. “We changed the course of your whole life. You would’ve been raised with us if we hadn’t given you up.”
“Or I would’ve died as a child.”
Rick’s lips curved down. “We told ourselves we were doing the right thing. I just don’t know any longer.”
“You did the one thing you could to keep me alive.” I was firm on that. “You thought you were giving me my best shot. I’m not going to lie, things weren’t always easy when I was growing up. But I wouldn’t change anything.”
“You wouldn’t change fleeing the system and living on your own?” Andrea challenged.
“I was an adult long before my eighteenth birthday.” I shrugged. “Besides, every choice that was made—by you and by me—led us all here. I think this is a pretty good place to be.”
Andrea blinked away tears.
“Oh, don’t do that,” I complained, uncomfortable. “You know I hate that.”
Before I could say anything else, Andrea threw her arms around me.
“Crap,” I moaned, looking at the sky. I was not good with hugs. The only hugs that didn’t bother me came from Gunner and that was for obvious reasons.
Rick chuckled at my discomfort, then offered a helping hand by tugging Andrea back. “Thank you for saying that. I think we both needed to hear it.” He wiped a tear from Andrea’s face. “We’ll always wonder if we made the right decision.”
“Wonder all you want, but it won’t change anything. We are where we are. We should probably look forward and stop looking back.”
“We’ll do our best,” Rick promised.
I nodded, then headed toward the door. I wasn’t at all surprised to find Marissa screeching as she related the tale of our afternoon to Rooster Tremaine, who sat at the bar nursing a beer and looking flummoxed.
“I want her fired!” Marissa jabbed an accusatory finger at me. “I am not putting up with this malicious treatment a second longer. I want her fired right this second!” She stomped her foot.
I waited for Rooster’s response, and smirked when he took another sip of his beer.
“Are you done?” Rooster asked after he set the glass back on the bar.
“It’s her or me. Take your pick.”
“Oh, an ultimatum,” Rooster drawled. “I can’t tell you how much I love a good ultimatum. Well, if you’re going to make me choose—”
“I am.” Marissa sent me a triumphant look.
“Then I’ll say that it was nice working with you,” Rooster continued. “That’s a lie, because you’re terrible to work with, but I’ll say it because it’s expected.”
Marissa’s eyes went wide. “You’re choosing her over me?”
“She does way more work than you and complains half as much.” Rooster sent me a sidelong look. “And she’s a lot more powerful than you and we need her.”
“You say the sweetest things,” I cooed before heading to the pool table. Gunner and Evan were in the middle of a game, and I much preferred being around the two of them.
“What’s up, Buttercup?” Gunner teased when I closed the distance, leaning down to give me a kiss. “How has your day been going?”
“I’m sure you already heard.” I gestured to Marissa, who was stomping toward the bathrooms. I expected her to spend the next two hours in there sulking.
“We heard some,” Evan said. “It was kind of hard to make out given all the screeching.”
“It was a weird setup,” Rick offered as he sat on one of the stools near to Rooster. “I’ve never seen anything like what went down.”
“How so?” Rooster asked.
“There were three creatures out there I’ve never come across,” Rick replied. “They looked human, kind of. They were deformed.”
“Like birth defects?” Rooster’s forehead wrinkled.
“Exactly,” Rick confirmed.
“What were they?” Rooster asked me.
“They were the mutants from The Hills Have Eyes,” I replied without hesitation.
Rooster blinked. Then he sipped his beer. He looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but in this conversation.
“They looked like the mutants from the movie?” Gunner asked on a laugh.
“No, they were the mutants from The Hills Have Eyes. They even used the names.”
Gunner’s mouth fell shut.
Evan appeared amused, but there was concern lurking in his eyes, almost as if he feared I was losing my mind.
“Pull up the images from the film,” I ordered him. “Make sure it’s the 2006 movie, not that terrible first one. This was a case of the remake actually being better than the original, which is unheard of.”
Evan looked dubious, but did as I instructed. “Which one am I looking for?” he asked after a moment.
