by Alexie Aaron
Murphy pushed his axe through and pulled back, taking a dozen bricks with it. Quickly, Mia was pushed in the opening, falling headfirst into the cell.
Murphy stood guard at the window to keep the ghosts of the building out if they chose to try to enter that way.
Mia got to her feet and rushed to Burt. He was breathing, but it was concerning that he didn’t wake with all the racket she and Murphy caused.
“Come on, Burt,” she said, shaking him, “wake up. I need you to wake up. It’s Mia.”
Burt didn’t know if this was another dream, but he forced his eyes open. Before him was the pale concerned face of a child. If it hadn’t been for those moss-green eyes, he wouldn’t have known her. “Mia?”
“Yes, it’s Mia. Where is the candle?” she asked, pulling his pack towards them. “You have to snap the candle in two. It will take us back to our time. It’s very important.”
Burt forced himself to sit up. “It’s with my lighter,” he said.
Mia searched and found the lighter, but the candle wasn’t there. She emptied the pack, methodically searching for the candle. It wasn’t there.
Murphy moved half in and out of the wall. “Mia, what’s wrong?”
“I can’t find the candle. Burt’s so weak. We don’t have much time.”
“Cid has a candle…”
“Saint Michael’s doghouse! I’m so stupid! Of course, Cid has the candle. He took it to wish us back in time. But he can’t break it because we’ll end up in this cell with Burt dead.”
“Dead? I’m not dead,” Burt protested, getting to his feet.
Mia looked at the battered teen. “We have to get you to the candle or the candle to you,” Mia said. “Murphy, can you cut that window bigger…”
“I don’t think that’s a good way to go. Look,” he warned.
Mia stuck her head out the window and looked down. The deer-woman stood down at the river looking up at her. “Shit, we’ll have to go through the hospital.”
“Tell me, Mia, why do I have to break this candle?” Burt asked, putting his hand on her shoulder to steady himself.
“You made a wish, remember?”
“The birthday party. I didn’t really know I was wishing. I said… Crap, I can’t remember, but I understand that I did something.”
“The candle was a volo candle. There is a caveat to the candle. It will grant your wish, but it affects everyone in the room. You took us all back with you. Murphy and I remembered because I’m a sensitive and he’s a ghost. We retained our memories as you did.”
“I started out early with the intention to get to Mike, but I stopped here… Why did I stop here?” he asked.
“Mia, we don’t have time for this,” Murphy warned. “Listen!”
They heard the fireworks starting.
“We have to get moving. If anything happens to me and Murphy, you get to Cid and tell him Mia says you have to break his candle.”
“Break the candle,” Burt said.
“Snap it in two,” Mia said.
“Snap it in two,” Burt repeated.
Murphy took a swing at the cell door and shattered the hinges. It fell into the room with a clang. On the other side was the ghoulish mushroom-raising ghost. His look of disappointment at Burt still being alive was replaced with the outrage that Murphy, another ghost, was trying to take his planter.
“Mine!” he shouted, advancing on Murphy. He picked up his walking stick and took a swipe at Murphy.
Murphy caught the cane with his axe. Spectral splinters rained down upon them both. Mia pulled Burt through the door during the confusion. She headed towards the only door she could remember which was in the glass-topped lobby. She put a restraining hand on Burt’s arm at the end of the hall. She walked slowly out into the atrium. The sky was rapidly losing the light. The high tree line stopped the setting sun from illuminating the room.
Burt put a hand on her back. “Mia, I can’t see them, but I feel them.”
“Me too. I think they’re at the windows watching Ted and Cid’s roman candles. Let’s try to walk out as if we belong here.”
Burt took her hand, and although his knees were shaking from fatigue and nerves, he managed to walk tall.
“I see a child, but I still can feel the woman inside you,” he said, holding her hand.
“I feel a bit creepy holding the hand of a man young enough to be a child of mine,” Mia said. “Today, a thirteen-year-old Ted kissed me, and all I could think of was yuck.”
This caused Burt to laugh despite the situation they were in. “Not too much different than normal.”
“You are a cruel man, Burt Hicks.”
They had made the center of the lobby by the time Murphy joined them. He guarded their backs as they moved slowly towards a crowd of insane ghosts. The followers of the doctor were pressed against the glass windows and, unfortunately, the glass doors.
“WHAT IS ALL THIS COMMOTION!” bellowed a voice from above them.
Murphy looked up and saw the mad doctor who thought he was king. “Mia, the crazy monarch is here,” he warned.
“Who are you?” he asked. “Why have you taken my prize patient?” he asked.
Mia let go of Burt’s hand and hissed to Burt, “At the first opportunity, get to Cid. He’s a little chubby fella with big glasses.” She turned and looked up at the doctor.
“You with the white hair, you do not belong here,” he said. “Men only.”
“I’ve come to collect what is mine. Thank you for keeping him safe,” she lied. “In your honor, I’ve brought this entertainment for your court.”
The doctor wavered a moment. Murphy could tell he was drawing power from the guard on either side of him. “Mia, he’s recharging,” he warned.
“We need to get Burt out. Whatever it takes,” Mia said, pulling a handful of jacks out of her pocket. She divided them between her two hands. She turned and scattered the jacks. The ghosts were confused by the pops and the smoke. It didn’t affect them as much as it drew their attention away from the glass doors.
Burt ran for it while Murphy hewed anyone who got wise and headed in pursuit.
Mia continued to attract the insane army. They stood in a large circle around her, watching what she would do now. Mia unwound the jump rope and started jumping.
Burt was three yards from the door when a large stag jumped through the glass, knocking Burt aside as it charged towards Mia.
Murphy picked him up and pointed to the door. “Go. Find Cid, and snap that candle in two. Don’t look back.”
Mia turned and looked in alarm as the stag methodically tossed whatever ghosts were in its way to either side. Mia called for her knives. Although she doubted the trick would work twice. This wasn’t a low-class assassin; this was the best. Unfortunately, in this form, it was primal, and it couldn’t be reasoned with.
The doctor saw the stag as more of a threat than Mia, so he ordered his army to attack the deer-woman.
The deer-woman didn’t see the ghosts as a danger, but when Mia started to use the insane battlers as a shield, she became angry. The deer-woman called for assistance.
The air popped around them as the large hands pushed into the realm of the living.
“Murphy, get the fuck out of here!” Mia screamed, “REAPERS!”
“No. I’m with you.”
“I need you out there with Burt. He’s dazed and confused. You can’t save me. I’ll fight as long as I can. The only way I live is by resetting time,” Mia told him.
Murphy knew she was right. He took one last look at the white-haired child who was coiling the jump rope.
He found Burt hiding behind a large tree. He looked and saw the reason for his concern. A reaper was moving slowly around the open space between the building and the wall.
Murphy knew to confront the large hand was a folly. He moved to Burt and said, “I’ll lead him away. You have to get to Cid.”
“Snap the candle in two,” Burt confirmed.
Murphy sent Mia a mental message he
didn’t know if she could receive as young as her talents were, but he had to try. He said, “Stone fruit trees will always be my favorite.”
Murphy gathered as much energy as nature would give him and sped across the path of the reaper. He took his axe and sliced off the thumb of the creature and sped away.
The reaper gave chase.
Burt left his hiding place and went in search of Cid, whom he assumed had taken refuge when the reapers arrived.
Mia faced the stag. It charged her with its deadly antlers. Visions of Father Santos’s body impaled on a future deer-woman’s antler points flashed in Mia’s mind. “That is so not how I want to die,” she said as she managed to jump out of the way. The stag slid on the linoleum floor. It regained its footing and came at Mia again. This time, she tossed half the rope into the points of the beast as she dove to the side and pulled hard.
The rope jerked the head of the stag to the side, not fast enough to crack the neck of the beast, but fast enough to break half the points off as it sliced through the antlers when the stag fought to right itself. Mia ran alongside the creature and sliced it with the knives in her hand. Blood sprayed behind Mia. She hated to destroy this creature, but she had to stay alive as long as she could. She was very aware that the reapers were presently cleaning the hospital of inmates and would soon return to take her.
“Stone fruit trees will always be my favorite.” Murphy’s message filled her mind. Tears filled her eyes, and her nose burned. He knew he wasn’t going to make it. He was telling her in his own way how proud he was of her. She sent back, “I never doubted that you would keep your promise to me.”
The sound of the stag’s front hooves beating the air drew Mia’s attention back to the sad task ahead. She aimed her knives at the spot under the exposed ribcage. When they joined, Mia jumped up and pulled them down hard, splitting open the belly of the creature as gravity took her. The stag fell to the ground. It spasmed and expelled from its stomach a gelatinous bag. Mia sniffed back the snot and tears of horror at what she had just done and used her knife to open the bag.
Out crawled a woman. She was tiny, half the size of Mia. But as she stood, she grew in size until a full-grown Ute woman stood naked before Mia. She lifted her arms, and the hide of the stag became a cloak. She wrapped it around herself. She freed her long black hair and looked down at Mia with her very human brown eyes.
“I’m sorry. It wasn’t my choice to kill you,” Mia said.
“No, it was mine. Thank you for freeing me. I go to my mothers now. The deer-woman will live on through someone else. I’m sorry the reapers will take you, but there is no other way.”
Mia watched the woman change into energy and disappear before she looked around her and contemplated her next move.
Murphy rushed through the forest. The reaper was gaining ground. Murphy reached up for a branch. As he caught it, the momentum brought him up and around the branch, landing him behind the reaper. He watched the beast continue down the trail obliviously hunting Murphy. He turned and rushed back to help Mia.
Burt stumbled past the wall and called out, “Cid! Cid Garrett!”
“Who’s calling?” Ted answered.
“Burt Hicks, Mia sent me.”
Ted popped out of the culvert under the bridge. “Is she okay? Why haven’t you broken the candle?” he asked. “Didn’t it work?”
“Cid has my candle. I have to break it. I must snap it in two. Where’s Cid?”
“Here!” Cid called from deeper in the culvert. “Ted shoved me in here. I’m not sure I can get out.”
“Do you have the candle?” Burt asked.
“Yes, it’s in my pocket. I can’t reach it. Ted, get me out of here!” Cid pleaded.
Murphy stopped when he reached Ted and Burt. “Have you found Cid?”
“He’s stuck inside the culvert under the bridge,” Ted said.
Murphy summoned energy and yanked the corrugated pipe out from under the bridge. He took his axe and chopped at the end of the culvert, splitting the rusted metal. As soon as the flakes of metal hit him, he screamed in pain. “Iron,” he managed before he disappeared.
Mia saw a reaper descending the right stair and another moving out from the dark hallway to the left of her. “They always come in threes,” she reminded herself.
When the third moved through the broken doors behind her, Mia dropped her knives and sighed. There was no way out this time. She knew she was headed for the Dark World. Maybe Ted and Cid would grow up, meet Angelo, and the three would go in search of her. “Hey, it could happen…”
Burt and Ted pulled the culvert apart where Murphy had damaged it. Cid jammed his hand in his pocket, pulled out the candle, and thrust it into Burt’s hands.
Murphy used the last of his energy to reach Mia. She held on to him as the large hand opened and scooped them up. Mia cradled her friend as his energy was sucked out of him. Mia’s heart hurt. She was dying. There would be no one to resurrect her now.
Chapter Twenty-three
SNAP!
Mia opened her eyes. It was dark. She wasn’t surprised. She had expected the black emptiness Father Santos, Angelo, Ted, and Cid had spoken about. She heard a sound. Wait, there’s not supposed to be any noise. Unless you have super hearing like Cid, you’re not supposed to be able to hear anything in the Dark World. She put her hand down and felt a softness.
The clouds moved away from the moon, and the room was bathed in its light. There was a lump beside her. She rolled over, and as her eyes adjusted, the lump became Ted. Ted? Ted!
She got up and flipped on the light. Ted blinked, putting his hand between his eyes and the bright light.
“Thank God! Oh My God!” she said. She jumped on the bed, knocking Ted over, and gave him the biggest longest kiss she had in her. She then squirmed out from his confused arms and ran down the hall, opening up Dieter’s door. He was there. She ducked her head in the nursery where Luke dreamt and Varden snored. Varden gave a small cry as Mia pulled him from the crib. Next, she stumbled into Brian’s room where she climbed into his toddler bed and pulled him to her. Varden ran his hand over Mia’s face, making sure he hadn’t been kidnapped by a madwoman.
“Mom, what the fuzzy bunny?” Brian asked sleepily. “Have you been drinking again?”
Ted stuck his head in. “Mia, we have to have an intervention. You can’t kiss me like that and then hide in the kid’s room.”
Mia looked at him, her eyes full of love. “I’ll make it up to you.”
Orion walked in the room and cleared his throat. “You woke Luke up. Audrey’s pissed.”
Mia got up, handed Varden to Ted, and kissed her grandfather on the cheek. “Thank you for saving me,” she said and squeezed by him and ran down the hall.
Ted heard the front door open. He walked into Dieter’s room and looked out the window.
“Dad, what’s going on?”
“Your mother has lost her last nut. She’s running up the hill barefoot in her pajamas.”
Burt was heading down the hill when Mia launched herself at him. “You did it, you did it!”
Burt picked her up and swung her around. “We did it,” he corrected.
“Did Mike make it?” Mia asked.
“He’s pulling on some decent clothes. Glenda is making coffee. Have you seen Cid?”
“No. Have you seen Murphy?”
“Not yet.”
“Come on,” Mia said, pulling on his hand.
Burt let himself get caught up in her excitement. He had no other choice. It was truly a miracle what had happened.
Mia reached the bell. She unwound the cord and pulled down on it.
The bell tolled. Murphy showed up before the second time the clapper hit the side.
“We made it,” Mia said.
Stephen looked at Mia and at Burt and allowed himself to be pulled into the inevitable hug.
“What’s happening now?” Orion asked, pulling on some sweats.
“Your granddaughter is having a three-wa
y in the driveway with Burt and Murphy,” Ted said. “Oh shit, the bell has woken Cid. He’s headed over there. I better go down and stop the bloodshed.”
“Mia, what the hell is going on?” Cid asked, running over. “What’s the emergency?”
Murphy dissolved out of Burt’s embrace and tried to look cool leaning against the woodpile.
“You’re a G-damn hero,” Mia said, reaching up, pulling him down to her level, and kissing the side of his face again and again.
“Mia!” Ted scolded. “You release the boy before he has a heart attack or worse.”
“Can anyone explain what’s going on?” Mike asked, walking over. “Mom found Altair in the aerie drinking her vodka.”
Mia put her hand to her face. “Of course, this would have affected him too.” She turned to leave, but Ted caught her around the waist.
“Dear, I really must insist, if you’re going to hug an archangel, that you put something decent on.”
Audrey walked down the drive carrying a pink housecoat that Mia thought she’d hidden. “Put this on. What’s going on?”
“You used to keep cigarettes in your gym locker,” Mia blurted out.
“How in the world did you know about that?” Audrey said.
“Mia, settle down. I think you’re having an episode,” Cid said.
“You had a pornographic magazine under your mattress when you were in middle school,” Mia told him.
“I did not.”
“Ted and I saw it when we were hiding under your bed.”
“Oh, that magazine.”
“When were we under Cid’s bed?” Ted asked.
“Twenty years ago,” Murphy answered for her.
“Listen, everybody, you may not know this, but all of us were sent back in time twenty years,” Burt said. “But not as adults. We were all twenty years younger.”
