Oliver Crum and the Grim Menagerie

by Chris Cooper

  “Oliver!” Izzy parted the crowd, with Anna close behind, and squeezed him as hard as her arthritic grip would allow. “One officer went to radio the police in Amberley.”

  “To tell them what, exactly? ‘A violinist has hypnotized the entire town, and a reanimated corpse is trying to kidnap his own son?’” Oliver asked.

  She raised her eyebrows. “Well, when you say it that way…”

  He turned to Anna, her eyes red and tears streaming.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said as he reached out for a hug.

  “It’s okay—really,” he replied.

  Although Izzy’s hug had been dainty, Anna nearly crushed him with her muscular baker’s forearms.

  “Simon was just the tip of the iceberg. The Siren mentioned someone else has been pulling the strings,” Oliver continued. He looked around the room. “Speaking of, who opened the back door, and where’d the Siren go?”

  Izzy pointed toward the far end of the room.

  Bev stood near the rear of the town hall, wringing her hands next to Eric, who had been tied to a wooden chair.

  “I’ll be back,” he said, leaving Izzy to comfort Anna.

  Oliver approached, but Bev lowered her head and stared at the floor.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

  She looked up at him but immediately jerked her head back toward the ground. “I can’t… I can’t look at you. I’m so embarrassed. I can’t believe how I’ve treated you.”

  “You couldn’t control yourself. No one in the town could.”

  “I nearly lost you today,” she added, tears streaming. “I almost had a hand in killing you. I’m so sorry. I felt as if I was watching a movie, seeing myself act with no ability to control it. When Eric pulled the gun, something in me clicked, but I had to wait for the right time. When that evil man left me with the violin player, I saw my chance. As soon as I pulled the bar from the door, she took off.”

  The back door creaked open once again, and Asher and Ruby appeared in the doorway. As he turned toward the back door, Bev grabbed him by an arm.

  “You saved the town,” she said.

  “No, we all did,” he replied.

  His mom grinned. “I’m proud of the person you’ve become. I love you, Son.” She pulled him into a hug.

  At first, the moment felt awkward and foreign, but as he wrapped his arms around his mom, his body relaxed. For a moment, the chaos and confusion of the night faded into the background, as if the two of them were the only ones in the room.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The sun rose as Oliver pulled the van into Amberley. He parked in front of The Parlor and exhaled as he cut the engine. Izzy and Anna pulled up behind him in the station wagon, ready to take him home, leaving Ruby to return Marv’s precious van in one piece.

  Ruby looked over at the building then stared down at her lap, seemingly unable to move her legs.

  “Do you want us to come in for a minute?” Asher leaned in from the back seat.

  “Just for a minute,” she replied.

  Oliver rounded the van and held the passenger door open for her. Her legs wobbled as he helped her step down to the sidewalk. Between the last night’s illusion and the sucker punch Oliver assumed came from Eric, Ruby must have been exhausted. The sight of The Parlor couldn’t have made things any easier.

  She looked back at the van, hesitant to go inside. “Think I will miss our fair-weather friend. He’s grown on me.”

  Asher put his hands on Ruby’s shoulders and turned her toward the doorway of The Parlor. “We’ll go in together,” he said.

  Oliver pulled back as Ruby and Asher stepped through the doorway and held up a finger to Anna and Izzy, still in the station wagon. Then he turned and stepped inside, remembering just how much damage had been done to the place.

  “We can help you clean this up,” he said. “You should have seen Izzy’s house last year. We’ll get it straightened out.”

  Ruby swallowed hard then strolled into the lounge with Asher and disappeared behind the bar.

  “Thank God,” she said, emerging with a bottle of absinthe and three glasses. “It survived.” The bottle was the same special stuff Caleb had poured for Izzy and Oliver on the night Fred strolled up the aisle with a knife.

  Without saying another word, she walked through the kitchen and out the back door to the courtyard, ignoring the surrounding chaos.

  Oliver and Asher exchanged looks.

  “Should we give her a minute?” Oliver asked.

  “Are you coming, or do I have to drink this all by myself?” Ruby shouted through the back door.

  She sat cross-legged in front of a patch of disturbed earth in the back courtyard. Oliver and Asher crouched next to her, and for a moment, all sat in contemplative silence. Oliver had no reason to ask what lay buried in the pit. He knew the answer.

  Ruby set the glasses in front of them and filled them with the pear-colored liquid, not bothering to dilute it with water.

  She downed the drink in a single gulp and poured a splash over the dirt.

  Asher stared at the dirt patch. “I’m sorry, Ruby. I didn’t know what else to do.”

  “Don’t be dense,” she replied, a slight edge to her voice. “You did what you had to do, and he likely would have killed me if you hadn’t stopped him. Dead is dead, no matter how you get there, so we’re just going to have to learn to live with it.”

  “I’m sure Asher can help you get the show running again,” Oliver chimed in.

  “I don’t want him to come back here,” she said. She looked at Asher square in the eye. “You should stay in Christchurch. It’s for your own good.” She punched the words like keys on a typewriter.

  Asher’s eyes widened. “But what about the show? Aren’t you going to bring back the Menagerie?”

  “The show’s over. It was just as much Caleb’s show as anyone else’s. It doesn’t feel right, going on without him.”

  “But what about The Parlor? You’ll need help to keep it afloat.”

  “The Parlor can sit and rot, for all I care.”

  “What?”

  “I’m leaving, Asher. I can’t go on living here, sleeping in the bed where my husband slept and walking through the hallway where his body lay, pretending that nothing happened. I’m packing a bag and hitting the road for a while. I need to clear my head.”

  “Hitting the road? But this is your home. You love this place, and you and Caleb worked so hard to build it back up from nothing.” Asher voice grew hoarse. “You can’t just leave.”

  “Without Caleb, this place is just a pile of old wood.” She shifted her eyes back to the dirt.

  “But what about me?” Asher asked. “If what the Siren said is true, there’ll be others looking for me. They know where to find me, whether I stay in Amberley or Christchurch. The only way to stay safe is to leave town. Let me come with you.”

  The last sentence caught Oliver by surprise. Asher had been so timid about the outside world, but those fears seemed to have faded.

  “We’ve got the whole town on our side,” Oliver replied. “If anyone comes, you won’t have to fight them alone.”

  Asher ignored Oliver and kept his eyes locked onto Ruby’s.

  “This is something I need to do on my own,” she replied. “Stay in Christchurch and enjoy what time you have.”

  Asher shook his head and seemed angry at first, but his expression softened.

  After they sat in silence for several minutes, she said, “I better get packing.”

  “Promise me you’ll keep in touch, at least. You’ve got our number,” Asher said. “That is, if Izzy lets me stay for now.” He looked at Oliver.

  “Is there any doubt?” Oliver asked. “At least check in every once in a while so we know you’re all right.”

  “I will,” Ruby replied.

  They rose from the makeshift grave and headed through the house to the front door, standing awkwardly for a moment or two, unsure of how to say goo
dbye.

  “Thanks for letting me be a part of your family,” Asher said as he hugged her goodbye.

  “You’ll always be a part of my family. That won’t change,” she said. She looked at Oliver. “You too.”

  As Ruby shut the door behind them, Asher stepped back and took one last look at the large row house. “I will miss this,” he said.

  “We can still come back here,” Oliver said. “Amberley is easy to get to.”

  “It won’t be the same, though, not without Ruby and Caleb.”

  “Come on. Let’s go home,” Oliver said as he turned toward the station wagon.

  Christchurch was quiet for several days as the townspeople recovered from their collective musical hangover. The Siren had been right when she’d said the townspeople needed her music. Although the spell had been broken, those who had been affected seemed to suffer a withdrawal of sorts. Bev lay in her room for several days, and although Anna tried to tough it out and return to work, she, too, had to take a few days to rest.

  Eric was the last in the town to be freed from the Siren’s spell, but an hour alone with Ruby in Izzy’s studio broke the subconscious hold. Oliver wasn’t sure what Ruby had done to the man—she wouldn’t tell—but he imagined it had something to do with the caricatures in Izzy’s paintings.

  Unlike the past year’s events, what had unfolded over the last few days was too big to ignore. The Siren had hypnotized an entire town, and those lucky enough to avoid the spell were chained together in the town hall by their own families.

  But the question of what to do about the situation remained. Simon had been dispatched, and the Siren had fled. If some shadow organization was looking down upon them, who would believe them, and how could they defend themselves against it? Regardless, the townspeople seemed to agree on two key issues: Asher was now a part of Christchurch and was welcome to stay, and the people in the town would stick together, no matter what creepy-crawly thing slid past the town’s borders to claim him.

  Oliver’s mom carried her own suitcase to the train station this time around.

  “You know, you can stay as long as you’d like,” Oliver said.

  “I couldn’t possibly. I have a ton of things to do. I’ve got to get back for a fundraising board meeting, and I may even try painting,” she replied with a smirk. “You’ve inspired me.”

  “Well, you’re welcome back anytime,” he added.

  “Think I’ve imposed on you enough for now.” She let go of her bag as the train sat waiting in the station.

  The two faced each other for an awkward moment, each searching for the right thing to say.

  “I’m very proud of you,” she said as she squeezed him hard. “Promise me you’ll call now and then and maybe even come for a visit sometime soon.”

  “I think I could arrange that.”

  She climbed aboard the train, and he watched as she walked down the aisle to find her seat. He remembered the sense of dread he’d felt when she stepped off the train for the first time.

  She was still Bev—too blunt and somewhat sharp around the edges—but during the past few days at Izzy’s, she’d been markedly different. He hoped that this would be the beginning of a new chapter in their relationship—that they would have a relationship at all—and that her adventure with the Siren had given them common ground to stand on for the first time in his life.

  Oliver strolled back to Izzy’s, taking in the sights and sounds of Christchurch’s square. The townsfolk had finally emerged from their homes and returned to business as usual.

  As he reached Izzy’s house, he heard a conversation coming from the back deck. When he rounded the house, Anna was sitting wrapped in a blanket at the back table with Izzy and Asher.

  “I didn’t know you were stopping by,” Oliver told Anna.

  “Izzy invited me over for dinner,” she replied.

  “Speaking of… Time to check the chili.” Izzy looked at Asher. “Why don’t you come give me a hand?”

  As the two of them went into the kitchen, Oliver took a seat next to Anna. “Good to see you! How are you feeling?”

  “Much better today,” she replied with a smile. “How’d the goodbyes go with Bev?”

  “Unusually pleasant,” Oliver replied. “It’s amazing what a blood-drinking zombie and an evil siren will do for a strained mother-son relationship.”

  “Glad to hear it.” She laughed. “I’m still so mad at myself.”

  “Mad? For what?”

  “For not being strong enough to resist the Siren,” she said.

  “No one in the town could. You couldn’t help it.”

  “I know, but between you, me, Izzy, and Asher, I was the only one dumb enough to fall into the trap. I should have been there for you guys, and instead I helped her.”

  Oliver leaned in. “Don’t tell Mom, but the only reason I wasn’t chanting ‘play, play, play’ along with you was because she called me a sissy. Had I not stormed out, I would have been a drone with the rest of Christchurch. Being strong had nothing to do with it.”

  Anna looked down at the table. “Well, I’m sorry all the same.”

  “You can make it up with another night out on the town in Amberley,” he replied.

  “You’ve got a deal as long as we avoid any undead animal circuses, tarot cards, or psychic readings of any kind.”

  “Done.”

  Izzy and Asher emerged from the kitchen with a set of bowls and a heavy stockpot of chili.

  “Dinner is served,” Izzy said.

  As they dug into the steaming bowls of chili, and Oliver instantly seared his taste buds, Izzy pointed her spoon in Asher’s direction.

  “You know, now Bev is gone, we could move you off of the floor and into the room across the hall,” she said.

  Asher looked up from his bowl, but before he could speak, a loud boom echoed from the forest in the distance.

  The four of them stood and looked out toward the woods.

  “It’s breaking,” Asher said.

  Oliver shielded his eyes from the dusk sun, which sat just beyond the trees. The briars had never recovered after taking Simon, and whatever poison ran through his veins had slowly trickled up the large crack in the invisible barrier and splintered outward, forming a patchwork of putrid green spiderwebs. Pieces fell, much as they had done when the Witch put a temporary hole in the barrier a little over a year before, and as the dome finally shattered, sending a shower of glittering pieces down onto the hidden town, it didn’t repair itself. They stood and waited, but the steady smoke Oliver had glimpsed when Asher grabbed his hand poured over the tops of the trees and into the clear sky. The edges of Briarwood lay in plain sight.

  “What do you think they’ll do when they realize the wall is broken?” Asher asked.

  “Simon trained them to avoid the briars for centuries. I suppose that level of brainwashing can’t be undone in a day—if anyone’s still alive to notice,” Oliver replied.

  “They’ll be able to see Izzy’s house now—the beehives. Don’t you think it’ll pique their curiosity? If someone wants to cross, there’s nothing stopping them.”

  For a moment, they all discussed the scenario, distracting themselves from the larger issue at hand. Although they had rid the town of Simon once and for all, the invisible forces leading to his revival remained. Whoever was behind the plan to bring him back would surely show up on Christchurch’s doorstep eventually, and they would be coming for blood.

  Continue on to book 3.

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  About the Author
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  Chris Cooper is a writer, college professor, novice coffee roaster, and recovering engineer. He lived and worked in Japan, where he developed an obscure obsession for fancy fountain pens and currently lives in Ohio with his partner and Australian Cattle Terrier. Both enjoy going for walks. Chris writes supernatural thrillers full of colorful three-dimensional characters, macabre adventures, and twisty turny plots.