The crowd threatened to continue shouting, but Artemis raised his voice to quash the outbursts.
“And the Challenge shall decide which position we will all agree upon once the defeated combatant has said uncle.”
Really, RayRay thought, that’s what this is all about? The toilet seat lid going up or down? But he knew this was often the case on The Farm. They had so little to argue about that these minor differences often ended up in the pit. RayRay was almost standing right next to Artemis when the man spoke again.
“BEGIN!”
And the shouting erupted again.
7
Hidden Hollow
Sami had her cruise control locked in at seventy-eight, strategically eight miles an hour over the posted limit. Mikki was snoozing in the passenger’s seat beside her, strapped in with a seatbelt like a tiny human. The squirrel monkey, or whatever she was, was snoring with a Milky Way wrapper in one hand and in the other hand an empty Styrofoam cup with GIANT SLURP printed on the side. Heck, Sami didn’t know if Mikki was a she or not. Empty candy bar wrappers and two liter soda bottles littered the floor of her beetle. The heater rustled the empty papers around and the bottles rolled back and forth with the curves of I-40. In the cup holder closest to her was an empty stainless steel container she had poured a Red Bull into. She could feel it running through her and decided it would be best to stop and pee while Mikki was asleep.
She pulled off the interstate at an exit that looked deserted, but it was too late to get back on, so she looked for any sign of a fast food joint or a gas station with a bathroom. Nothing.
“Dammit,” she muttered and Mikki snorted once and stirred, but she fell back asleep.
As she drove, she began to see signs that seemed to lead to a roadside attraction. The first was a white pyramid with a ball on top behind several spouting fountains of water lit with Christmas lights of every size and color. In the center, were the hand painted words HIDDEN HOLLOW. Okay, that’s a little creepy, but frick’s sake, I gotta go. A few more miles down the road she saw what must’ve been the rusting hulk of a Chevy pickup truck parked on a rocky outcropping above her that was also hand-painted to read: THIS TRUCK BUILT HIDDEN HOLLOW AFTER ITS OWNER HAD A VISION FROM GOD. WASHED ONLY BY RAINWATER.
“What the ever-lovin’ hell is this place, Mikki?”
Mikki brought a paw up to rub her nose as she sniffed, but she never opened her eyes. Sami wondered how the massive amount of Milky Ways and Dr. Pepper didn’t have the creature wired and bouncing around the inside of her car.
She turned down Hidden Hollow Road to find that it did indeed lead to a hillbilly theme park. Sami couldn’t believe she had never heard of this place, as bizarre as it seemed to be on first glance. A massive cross, illuminated by at least three dozen floodlights, towered over the rest of the park which seemed to all have been built with reclaimed junk and rotten wood. From inside her car, she could see a pond (for swimming and fishing a sign told her,) a petting zoo, volleyball courts, playgrounds and picnic areas, and a stuffed deer with a collar that proclaimed its name to be Dee Dee.
Wowza, she thought as she parked her car into one of the spaces outside the ramshackle red barn that appeared to serve as the gift shop and ticket booth. Patting Mikki on the head, she assured herself the monkey…er…creature…was sound asleep and opened her door. Her shoes crunched in the gravel and seemed to echo loudly in the deafening silence. At this point, she realized no one else was around…the place was a ghost town. Sami tucked her hands in her pockets against the cold wind and stepped up on the wooden porch. Above her on the front of the barn another hand-painted, welcoming message Said: HIDDEN HOLLOW IS A WORLD OF FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN.
Six FUNS, eh? That is a ton of fun.
Below it was a message that made Sami shiver: THERE NEVER WAS & PROBABLY NEVER WILL BE ANOTHER HIDDEN HOLLOW.
Did I just get transported into a bad horror movie? I forgot my chainsaw.
She cupped her hands around her eyes to peer into the gift shop’s front door and as she touched it, it creaked open. She imagined the haunting piano theme from the movie Halloween playing in the darkness beyond. Despite being unlocked and apparently open, no one was there.
“Hello? Anyone here? I’m just gonna come inside and use the restroom real quick. Don’t chop me with an axe or a machete or anything like that please. I’ll just do my thing and then be on my way.”
She pushed the door open wide and stepped in. The old pine board floor creaked with every step and as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could make out what she hoped was a bathroom door across the room. Thankfully, it was. She flicked the light switch inside, but nothing happened.
Ugh, are you kidding me? She found the toilet and sat down. Closing the door almost all the way threw her into near total blackness. When she reached up to flush, she heard the footsteps. It was difficult to tell exactly how many, but it was clear there was more than one person that had followed her into the gift shop. She froze.
Her mind played the Friday the Thirteenth refrain over and over in her head as the creaking steps got closer to the bathroom door. Kill, kill, kill, kill…Jason, Jason, Jason, Jason. She fully expected some kind of creature in a hockey mask to slam open the door and slash at her with a machete. Almost without thinking, she began to draw her magic. Blinding flashes of orange and yellow light began as tendrils in her fingertips and vined their way up her arm, circling her forearms and tracing up to her elbows. She wasn’t sure what she planned to do to her attackers, but she was sure they wouldn’t find her to be an easy target. As the magic intensified, the color of the light began to edge from orange to red and then finally to deep purple. Sami smiled as the signature guitar riff from Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water began to jam around in her head.
She flung open the door and let her would-be attackers have it. She didn’t care about the whole never use magic in public thing at this point. The same words she had chanted to throw the children back from harm and smash the falling Sunsphere glass came to her lips.
“Protectas forceras!”
Knowing what effect it would have this time, she said it louder and with more determination. The familiar whump of air blasted out from her arms and the wave of magic flew out from her outstretched arms. The sudden shock of light blinded her, but she sensed that the pulse was bigger than she’d planned. Wood and glass shattered and screeched in the explosion and she thought she might’ve heard two, maybe three voices yelling as they flew backward from her.
Suddenly, she could see the lights from the giant cross and the odd pyramid fountain sign glowing in the night in front of her. As her eyes adjusted, she could see that she’d blown the entire front off the barn-like gift shop.
“Oh, no,” she mumbled.
Her arms still glowed like hot embers and the symbols danced up and down on her fingers and hands. The entire parking lot glowed with ripples of color cascading out in ever-widening rings away from the center of the blast…Sami. Two figures lay on the ground flat on their backs. Both wore long black overcoats. Neither moved, but both of them appeared to be breathing. She crept toward the closest of them and saw it was a man…a pretty tall man.
Under his overcoat, he had on a stark white shirt and a skinny black tie. Over his left ear, he had one of those coiled earpieces like a government agent would wear. She nudged him with her foot. He didn’t react. She kicked him a little harder. Still nothing.
She bent down and reached into one of his coat pockets. Empty. She checked the other and found a large black wallet. She opened it. It had a badge and an I.D. of some kind. The man groaned and she jumped back. He didn’t open his eyes, but he began to cough. She tossed his wallet onto his chest and ran.
Jumping into her car, she found Mikki sitting up, wide-eyed and shivering.
“It’s ok, girl,” Sami stroked her head, “I just had to pee and now we’ll be—”
A muffled shout from outside her car interrupted her.
“Stop right there,
” the voice called.
She saw that the coughing man had sat up and was pointing in her direction.
“Fat chance,” Sami slammed her car in reverse throwing gravel and spraying the smoldering Hidden Hollow barn.
She jerked the wheel and fishtailed out of the parking lot and heard a bang. Mikki shrieked and jumped into her lap. Was that a freakin’ gunshot? Glancing in the rearview mirror she saw the coughing man standing up holding a pistol, but he had it pointed up…not at her car. As she squealed through the turn off of Hidden Hollow Road, she clicked her G.P.S. on and reloaded the address to The Farm. Her mind raced as she tore down the ramp back onto I-40. She sped west on the interstate as fast as she dared and kept her speed up until she was sure the overcoat men hadn’t followed her.
Mikki stayed in her lap, her tiny hands holding onto Sami for dear life. Sami drove with one hand and stroked the creature with the other.
“Don’t worry, Mikki,” she whispered, “the bad men are gone. Mama Sami’s here to protect you.”
Even as she said the words, she wondered if they were true. Who were those men and why were they there? They had followed her. No other reason could explain how they had been at the creepy old amusement park. Were they feds? Or cops? White Cloaks? Sami had no idea.
Mikki looked up at her. Her amber eyes welled with tears.
“Mikway?” she whimpered, “Deepee?”
Sami couldn’t help but smile. “Sure baby, we’ll get you some Milky Ways and Dr. Pepper when we hit Summertown.
As she stroked the squirrel monkey, or, the creature that looked like a squirrel monkey sitting in her lap, she realized why the men were after her. It was obvious Mikki was some kind of Azurian creature, a creature that had some kind of time slowing or speed accelerating effect on the person holding her…or touching her…or something like that. And if people were following her to get to Mikki, she must be something very valuable, or powerful, or both.
Mikki sighed and snuggled her head under Sami’s arm, “Mikway.”
Sami clicked the radio on and drove as a drizzling rain began to smear on her windshield. Mary and Wilmot would know what to do. She’d take Mikki to them and find out what the heck she was and why someone might follow Sami and attack her to get the creature.
An hour later, she saw the familiar exit sign announcing they had arrived in Summertown. A bright red circular sign with the letter W in the middle floated over a Weigel’s gas station just off the ramp. Mikki grinned up at Sami.
“Oh, yeah. They’ve got plenty of junk food in there.”
Mikki grinned in delight and clapped her tiny hands together.
Carter Cross holstered his gun under his black overcoat and helped his colleague up from the splintered pieces of the Hidden Hollow gift shop in the gravel parking lot. He brushed the dirt and debris off the man’s shoulders.
“You good?”
The other man nodded. His sunglasses, the ones he wore twenty-four seven, had a new crack down the middle of the left lens, but he didn’t take them off. Carter wasn’t sure he’d ever seen his partner’s eyes. It was better that way. A not-so-small trickle of blood ran down the man’s cheek from under the glasses.
“You sure you’re okay? You’ve got a little blood running—”
“Right as frickin’ rain,” the man said between gritted teeth interrupting him.
Carter felt a shiver run up his spine, but dismissed it. They had work to do.
“Then, get the car.”
The second man nodded again and jogged toward their solid black Suburban with the black tinted windows. Carter clicked his cellphone and dialed.
“Agent Cross,” he said when the line connected.
“Hold, please.”
The sound of trumpets playing the University of Tennessee’s fight song, “Rocky Top”, blared into his ears. He found himself holding the phone at arm’s length to dampen some of the song’s louder notes.
“Yes?” a female voice came on.
“We lost her.”
“How could you…? You know vat, I don’t care.”
The woman’s accent was foreign, perhaps Swedish, and filled with disdain.
“Find her and bring the object to me.”
“Ma’am, it didn’t appear that she had the—”
“Shut up. I did not ask for excuses. Return with the violin or do not bother to return at all. You will be terminated if you are not successful.”
Carter swallowed hard.
“You mean fired?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Carter waited for her to say more but she didn’t. An awkward minute ticked away in silence.
“Do not worry, Agent Cross,” the woman finally broke the quiet line, “your colleague has ways of tracking her.”
Carter had no idea what the woman was talking about, but the black Suburban crunched up beside him and the passenger door swung open.
“Get in.”
“We’re on it, ma’am,” he disconnected the call before she could say anything else.
“You know where they went?” he asked his partner.
“I have a hunch.”
Carter swung himself up into the SUV and slammed his door.
“Then, let’s get this show on the road.”
The man in the broken sunglasses punched the accelerator so hard that Carter sank back into his seat. When their tires hit the fresh rain on the pavement, they fishtailed and he flew sideways into the door.
“Geez, man! You trying to kill us?”
“If we don’t go now, her trail will dissipate.”
Carter didn’t say anything out loud. What the hell did that mean? He hung on tight as the man tore down the interstate heading west.
8
Farm Brownies
RayRay Proctor could not see what was happening, but he could piece the action together from the shouts of the crowd huddled together in the Challenge dome. The heat was stifling and the smell was choking. Compost, sweat, and patchouli mingled in the air as people bumped around and swayed with the commotion in the pit. Over the din, he heard rain pattering on the dome. He realized he’d been here for several hours and that it must be getting late. RayRay touched the arm of a person nearby.
“Excuse me, do you have the time?”
“Time?”
“Yes, what time is it?”
“It’s high time you misogynistic pigs figured out how to close the toilet seat!”
The woman’s sudden vitriol startled RayRay. Moving on, he found a hairy arm to ask.
“It’s after ten, I think,” a blustery, Sean Connery sound alike said, “but I couldn’t be sure. Gave up my watch a long time ago.”
“Ten? As in p.m.?”
“Yeah.”
RayRay guessed that his parents had been wrestling in the pit for at least six hours. Given that the sounds of smacking and tumbling around had lessened significantly, he thought they had both resigned themselves to outlasting the other.
“How long will this last?”
“Until it’s finished.”
“Got it.”
“It’s good to see you back, RayRay.”
The man’s hand squeezed RayRay’s shoulder and he realized the voice belonged to Artemis Baen.
“Not to worry, son, it looks as if it’s winding down now.”
In fact, RayRay sensed the crowd was getting bored with the lack of action, several calling out encouragement to their chosen champion as they filed out of the dome.
“Why don’t you wait it out back at your folk’s hut? I’ll tell them you’re here when they’ve finished.”
RayRay felt a yawn overtake him. He shuffled the violin case into his left hand and extended his right to shake Baen’s.
“Thank you, sir. That sounds like a good idea.”
“Ah, you’ve got the violin,” Artemis sniffed, “I think maybe your folks knew you had it all along.”
RayRay opened his mouth in shock.
“They weren’t angry. No, they
figured you’d return it eventually when you came to your senses. Have you learned to play it?”
Have I learned to play it? I’m the only one around here who can play it.
“Yes, sir. I’ve made real progress this year.”
“Bring it by tomorrow,” there was a strange quality to the man’s voice, “I’d love to hear what you’ve learned.”
“Oh, um…okay, sure.”
Someone bumped RayRay hard. He almost fell over, but he was able to catch himself before he tumbled all the way down. He took a few deep breaths and shook his head. A strong hand hooked under his arm and hoisted him back to his feet. At the same time, another hand shoved the violin case he hadn’t realized he’d dropped into his other hand.
“You okay?” it was Artemis asking.
“Yes, sir. No harm done, but I think I should be going now.”
“Have a good evening, RayRay.”
“Thank you, sir.”
RayRay shuffled his way out of the dome along with the thinning crowd and jogged to his parent’s home in the rain. To say it was a hut was a bit of an understatement. A three bedroom house made of logs slathered in mud and smoothed to a fine white finish squatted under a thatch roof also covered in a layer of the white stucco-like material. On top of that they had built a raised garden bed and grew tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and a wide assortment of spices. It was small, but functional and had little or no damaging footprint to the environment. The kitchen was a pot-bellied stove sitting in the great room that had one iron skillet and copper kettle sitting on top. A shelf near the stove kept the few staples that they needed to make meals from the garden. RayRay felt along the shelf until he found what he was looking for…tea bags.
“Earl Grey, hot.” He did his best Captain Jean Luc Picard imitation and laughed. “Make it so.”
Spell Song: An Enchanting Urban Fantasy Page 5
