by Bryna Butler
Chapter 14: Questions
Everything went dark.
For a moment, Keira thought that she had blacked out. She then realized that the ride had shut down.
“Are you kids okay?” A hefty man wearing stained overalls and carrying a flashlight huffed up the metal maintenance catwalk affixed to the coaster.
Colby sighed with relief. He was alive. They both were. The other riders cheered. Keira pulled the scarf off her security vest and lifted it to free herself. She wrapped her arms around Colby and embraced him with all that she had. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” she whispered in his ear.
The passengers were assisted off the coaster one by one and led down the surprisingly stable, yet narrow, catwalk. Keira and Colby were the first off the ride. Ann, Brooke, and Jumper could not stand to wait at the exit. Worried for their friends, they moved to the bottom of the catwalk.
As soon as Colby reached the ground, Brooke pounced on him. “Coco Bear, I was so worried. What happened? Did Keira talk you into doing something stupid?” Keira lowered her head. She wasn’t sure which bothered her more, that Brooke was blaming her or that Brooke was holding Colby.
“What? No,” Colby replied. “It just broke.”
“Both of them?” asked a man who appeared to be eavesdropping on their conversation. He stepped to Colby and held out his hand. “I’m Sal Sheppard, the night manager of this amusement park. I need to ask you a few questions. We’ll also need to call your parents and I’ll have someone take a look at that cut on your wrist. Please follow me.”
“Cut?” Colby’s mind was racing so hard that he didn’t even remember the ripping bite of the mogdoc. Keira edged past Brooke, took the remaining bit of scarf and wrapped it around his wrist.
The next couple of hours in Sheppard’s office were nearly unbearable. Colby and Keira separately recounted the ride in great detail. They spoke of how the safety vests broke apart on their own, even though they appeared to be intact at the start of the ride. Surprisingly, it was easy to leave out the part about killing a supernatural creature in the tunnel. After speaking with Nana and Colby’s parents by phone and having the park medic bandage Colby’s wrist, Mr. Sheppard issued each of them a lifetime pass to the park and released them to Pastor Johnson. Leaving the park, they passed the still darkened Screamin’ Demon. It would be closed for many months due to inspections.
The minivan was quiet on the way to Jumper’s house. Pastor Johnson had made it clear that he was there to listen if anyone wanted to talk. However, no one wanted to. They were just glad it was over.
Still, Keira kept reliving the whole incident over and over in her head. Why would a mogdoc attack like that? She wasn’t bestowing a vox. She wasn’t even with her charge. She had never heard of such an incident before. Typically mogdocs only attack the charge; that’s all they care about. They believe that guardians are worthless, human sympathizers. They wouldn’t waste their time going after one, but this one did. And what was she going to do about Colby. He was going to die for her. Die! She had never before realized the peril that she put him in by sharing her secret. Keira was relieved to have the whole night to sort this out before talking to Nana.
When they arrived at the Johnson’s everyone agreed that this was not the right time for horror movies, so Jumper thumbed through his video collection and pulled out Christmas Vacation. This seemed appropriate since Jumper and his father had not yet found time to pack away their Christmas decorations.
Keira immediately plopped down on the recliner nearest the T.V. Ann and Jumper covered the floor in front with pillows and blankets and spread out on their stomachs. Colby sat on the sofa behind them all. Brooke joined him. She snuggled close to him and he felt the same shiver that he did when they first met. He brushed her golden hair away from her face. She turned to look into his deep, blue eyes. “Do you know that you’re perfect?” she asked stroking his bandaged wrist.
“Oh, brother,” Keira mumbled, but they didn’t hear.
As always, the coolness of Brooke’s breath against his skin intoxicated him. “Just because I’m with you,” Colby said.
“I just don’t know what I would have done if…”
“Shhh.” In that instance, he could not think of anywhere else he’d rather be. He took her face in his hands and their lips met softly. Then Brooke nestled her head on his shoulder and drifted to sleep in his arms.
She had pretended not to hear. In fact, she had pretended to fall asleep. However, a single tear escaped down Keira’s cheek as she fought to keep her breathing soft and even. She prayed that sleep would take her quickly.
