by DM Fike
She unloaded all the food into the car before filling the tank. Nobody and Vimp dug in right away. While waiting for the gas to finish, she flipped open her phone and found the battery dangerously low. She had two voicemail messages from James, which surprised her. She hadn’t expected to hear back from him until next month’s appointment. Leaning against the car, she listened to them.
The first one, from mid-afternoon, said, “Avalon, it’s me, James. Can you call me back soon?”
The second one, from 10 o’clock, was more urgent. “Avalon, please. I need to talk to you. I’m going to be traveling soon but call me back.”
Avalon rubbed the sore bruise on her arm, her body running cold. She had hoped the strange pain had nothing to do with Miasmis, but James calling after a clean bill of health probably indicated some sort of follow-up test with irregular results. She didn’t want to deal with her illness now, on top of everything else, but decided she had no choice. She pressed the call back button.
The small screen flickered the messaging “Calling James.” Then the phone died.
Avalon tried to turn her phone back on, but it was no use. It was completely dead, and she didn’t have a charging cord.
Perhaps it’s a sign, she thought as she returned the gas nozzle to the pump. She couldn’t go running back to Saluzyme for more tests now anyway. It would have to wait. Nevertheless, her Miasmis remission haunted her as she pulled back onto the highway, heading north.
* * *
The Idaho sky showed streaks of dawning pastels when Nobody finally told her to pull off the main highway. Avalon had been staring blankly ahead, blinking from time to time and yawning in between. She assumed Nobody was asleep with his right cheek plastered into the window when he suddenly said, “Take Exit 155.”
Avalon jumped, alert and awake. The car shook violently as it hit rumble strips. Vimp woke in a fit of squeals as she peeled the car back onto the freeway.
“Whoa there, Nellie,” Nobody yawned, wiping a drool line from his chin. He stretched out his arms. “I thought you were good to drive.”
“I would have been if you hadn’t spilled my energy drink.”
“You still mad about that?” Nobody asked. “Whatever. Exit 155. That one! That one!”
They were almost past the green highway sign declaring their exit. Avalon cranked the wheel sharply to the right. Tires squealed and slipped on the rocks on the shoulder. She thanked fate that no one else in the world had a reason to be on this lonely highway at five in the morning.
Avalon rolled the car to the stop sign at the top of the off ramp. An endless sea of sagebrush and dry grass spanned out on either side, not a building in sight. “Now what?”
“Take a left. Toward Hagerman.” Nobody pointed toward a city sign that indicated 800 people lived in town.
“Your ‘guy’ is in Hagerman, Idaho?” she asked skeptically.
“Of course not. He hates population centers. He lives way outside Hagerman, Idaho.”
This is how strangers murder people, Avalon thought. Lure you into the middle of nowhere and strangle you in the desert, leaving the wildlife and sun to finish off your corpse. Where had all her common sense gone? She considered steering the car back onto the freeway but caught a glimpse of Kay strapped in the back seat, still unconscious, unmoving.
Sighing, she steered the car as Nobody directed.
Nobody saw her furtive glances in the rearview mirror. “Who is Winged Wonder to you anyway?”
“A friend,” Avalon replied through tight lips.
“A friend?” Nobody repeated, his voice laced with sarcasm. “This—” He pointed to Avalon, back to Kay, finally returning to Avalon. “—seems a bit more, ahem, ‘involved’ than that.” Nobody used air quotes and kissing noises to make his point.
Avalon’s face flushed. “It’s not like that.”
“Then what is it like?”
“It’s…” she faltered. How to describe Kay? He had been her confidant as a statue, then sprung to life out of nothing. It sounded strange even in her head. Were they even friends? Or simply strangers thrown together by circumstance? She didn’t know, and besides, the less Nobody knew, the better. “It’s complicated.”
Nobody chuckled. “It always is.”
The gremlin proceeded to give her a series of dizzying directions for more than twenty minutes. Winding roads cut through farm fields and pale desert plants. Nobody instructed her to drive over a metal grate, and the road lost its pavement. They bounced along the rocks and dust, the only sign of humanity a series of electrical poles pacing them on one side of the road. In her rearview mirror, the sun rose, casting angry light into her eyes.
Finally, a white two-story farmhouse and matching shed came into view. Like most rural houses, it had way too many vehicles. Two pickup trucks—one new and shiny, one old and beat up—flanked each side of the house. A tank-like 80s vehicle lazed among weeds off to the side. Summer flowers hinted at a garden behind the house, next to a ridiculously large stack of corded wood.
The road ended here. A dog barked frantically as she parked behind the new truck.
A light switched on inside the house as they vacated the car. A screen door opened, and the silhouette of a tall, hulking figure loomed in the doorway, a shotgun pointed in their direction.
“Who’s there?” a deep voice called.
“Nobody,” the gremlin replied cheerily.
The silhouette pumped the shotgun and pointed it squarely at Nobody’s body. Avalon squeaked as the voice asked, “Password?”
“The password is…” Nobody drawled out slowly, then threw his hands in the air. “…seriously, I don’t know. C’mon, Helen. I don’t remember these things.”
“Password!” the guttural voice demanded. Helen stepped away from the house, revealing her seven-foot-tall height, all perpendicular angles and muscle despite the nightshirt and sweats she wore. Her tanned skin denoted hours of outdoor work. Tendrils of wiry gray hair fell out from a braid around her thick neck. Her fists made the shotgun look like a toy.
A brown snarling mass jumped out of the house, snapping and barking as it ran toward Avalon.
Avalon was about to flee when Vimp magically appeared in a poof of smoke. “Oh yeah!” he cried, little mitten-like paws thrown wide.
The terrier mutt took a leap and tackled Vimp. They rolled around in a scuffle of blue and brown fur, guttural screeches and snarls.
“Nobody!” Avalon yelled as Vimp’s throat went under the dog’s muzzle. “Do something!” The wind rose out of nowhere.
Helen turned her attention to Avalon, the shotgun following her gaze. “Stop it,” she ordered.
“St-stop what?” Avalon asked.
“Oh, for sobbing out loud,” Nobody interjected. “Helen, you know it’s me. I’ve got a guy who needs Digs’s attention in the back seat.”
Helen continued to point the weapon at Avalon for a few more heartbeats, the wind blowing her hair wildly in all directions.
“She doesn’t know what she’s doing, Helen,” Nobody said.
That gave Helen pause. She lifted her head.
“She’s human, I swear.”
Helen lowered her gun, slowly, as if she didn’t want to.
The shaggy dog, who had first seemed so fierce, now licked Vimp from the top of his pointed ears down to his feet. Vimp giggled in hysterics as the dog’s tongue matted his blue fur in all directions. “Ee! Ee!”
“Everything all right?” someone called from inside.
“Gremlin,” Helen yelled back into the house. “No password, again. Chia, git inside,” she yelled at the dog. Chia reluctantly let go of Vimp and vanished into the house.
“Oh yeah!” Vimp scurried on all fours like a cat and shot into the building, out of sight.
A round man in red long johns with a huge black bushy beard and dark complexion came waddling down the steps. Tufts of hair jutted underneath a flannel checkered hat. He adjusted bottle thick glasses on his bulbous nose. He took Helen’s h
and briefly in his own, giving it an affectionate squeeze, before sauntering over to Nobody. The top of his head barely reached Nobody’s chin.
“Why don’t you ever come down to the store, you slimy gremlin?” The man placed one blunt finger on Nobody’s chest and pushed. “This is my home.”
“Quit your whining, old man. You owe me. Besides, you’re cute in your PJs. Who’d want to miss that?”
“Kiss my arse.”
“No thank you, Digs. I know what you use it for.”
They laughed, heads thrown back to the sky, and Digs pulled Nobody into a bear hug that might have broken him had it lasted much longer.
“You’re getting rusty, Nobody,” the man said, still laughing. “That was pretty bad.”
Avalon couldn’t help herself, staring at this man who would fit in better at Santa’s workshop than a farm. “This is your ‘guy?’”
“Human has magic,” Helen interjected.
Both men stared at Avalon. “You sure you’re not here for this girl?” Digs asked Nobody.
“I’m right in front of you,” Avalon said. “You don’t have to talk around me.”
Nobody ignored Avalon, shaking his head. “I got a fairy in the back seat that needs your help.”
Digs grimaced. “A fairy? What kind of trouble have you gotten into this time?” He motioned Helen to remove Kay from the car.
Despite the oddity of the situation, Avalon felt a sense of relief. These people did not balk at Kay being a fairy, and given their pointed ears, maybe they did know something about healing someone similar to themselves. A glimmer of hope burned in her chest. Kay might be okay.
Nobody and Digs went inside, laughing and chatting. Helen threw Kay over one shoulder like a sack of produce and lugged him inside. Avalon cringed when one of Kay’s wings got caught in the screen door and Helen yanked it loose.
Probably. He would probably be okay.
CHAPTER 12
ALTHOUGH THE EXTERIOR of the farmhouse seemed normal, inside was a different story. On the other side of the screen door lay a small kitchen, which then led to a living room set up like a strange laboratory. A shelf crammed with jars of powders, dried plants, and goo sagged along one wall. Someone had cut bits of newspapers into strange shapes and glued them to another wall. A collection of clear plastic cups, the kind you buy for college parties, sat in a special glass case, each one brimming with various primary colored liquids.
Avalon followed Nobody down a hallway and peeked into a bedroom as they walked past. The floor, ceiling, and walls had all been painted black. The sole window had been boarded up with only the faint streaks of the rising dawn poking in from outside. The only object in the room was a single white candle, melted half down.
To Avalon’s relief, Kay was brought into an ordinary bedroom—cheap curtains, plain dresser, and a few chairs. Helen laid Kay across the cotton bedspread and placed a fleece blanket over him. Digs pulled one of two folding chairs from the wall and placed it next to Kay’s head.
“I don’t need a crowd in here,” he grumbled. “Let me do my work in peace. Helen, take these pests to the kitchen, will you?”
Helen shuffled Avalon and Nobody back to the cramped, overtly yellow kitchen. There was barely enough room for a stove, refrigerator, and a few cabinets along one wall. The countertops were clean where you could see them, but stacks of random papers, pens, and other office supplies lay scattered about. Nobody and Avalon squeezed themselves between the wall and the dining table as Helen put a kettle on the stove for tea.
Nobody whistled a cheery tune while Avalon sat ramrod straight, unsure of how to act. Even after Helen unceremoniously plopped two cups and saucers in front of her, splashed tea into the cups, and left them with sugar and milk, she wasn’t sure she should drink anything.
“How do you know these people?” she asked Nobody as Helen left the room.
“I brought them over here from Llenwald.” Nobody stirred in a spoonful of sugar. “They’re refugees.”
“Refugees?”
“If you haven’t noticed, Helen and Digs are a rather odd pair. One’s a dwarf, the other’s half-giant, half something else she refuses to discuss. That’s a bit—” Nobody paused a moment, searching for the right phrase. “—sneered upon where I come from.”
“Why? Aren’t you all fairy folk?”
“Aossi,” Nobody corrected. “And while that’s true, it’s also not that simple. There are different races of Aossi, and traditionally, they do not mingle. That goes double for Aossi with humans. I mean, it’s getting more relaxed and groovy in certain places, but still, they’re safer here. Less stabby-deathy for being a heretic kind of thing.”
Avalon supposed bigotry and hatred didn’t have to be an Earth-only kind of thing. “Do Digs and Helen farm out here? Live off the land?”
Nobody laughed. “Hahahaha… no. They’d be terrible farmers. Dwarves grow up underground, and giants aren’t known for eating vegetables. Digs has a bait-and-tackle store in town that literally sells two lures a month. His real business is the medicine he sells to other Aossi on Earth.”
“There are even more Aossi here?” Avalon asked incredulously. “How come I’ve never met one before?”
“Because you choose not to see it. Haven’t you ever noticed a little run-down shop in a strip mall and wondered how it ever stays in business? Or a house by the side of the freeway with miles of nothing around it? No one gives those places a second glance, but odds are, those are Aossi.”
Digs came into the kitchen at that moment. “The fairy’s waking.”
Avalon needed no further prodding. She nearly knocked over her tea getting up from the table as she ran down the hallway into Kay’s room. She plopped into the folding chair. Kay lay on his back, eyes closed, a thin sheen of sweat over his forehead. She thought Digs had been mistaken about him being awake at first, but he faced her at last. She held his hand.
“He’ll probably only be coherent for a few minutes, and then he must rest.” Digs shuffled away after his warning.
“Kay?” she whispered. “Can you hear me?”
His fingers squeezed hers.
“It’s Avalon.”
His eyelids slowly drifted open, as if floating away from each other. His pupils were large and black. His mouth cracked open and he managed one word. “Where?”
“Somewhere safe. You used magic to save me, but it took a toll on you.”
He seemed to gaze through her. As the silence stretched, her smile waned. An uncomfortable idea popped into her head. “Do you remember me?”
He paused for several seconds, but he eventually nodded.
She let go of a breath. “Someone is healing you. You’ll be fine soon.”
“And you?” he croaked.
“I’m fine.”
He nodded, his body relaxing as if this was the answer he had been searching for. He closed his eyes and his breath slowed to a rhythm that indicated he had fallen back asleep.
Avalon sat there for some time, fingers intertwined with his. Kay’s steady heartbeat pulsed through his wrist, its rhythm a comforting, tuneless song.
“You’re the only one I can trust,” she told his quiet form. “Please, get better soon.” She bent forward to give him a soft kiss on the cheek.
As Avalon straightened from the kiss, she found Nobody leaning against the doorframe. She had no idea how long he had been there, his usual gleeful expression absent.
“Digs thought you could use some rest yourself. You can sleep in the bedroom next door.” The gremlin left with a strange look on his face.
CHAPTER 13
“HELLO.”
Avalon woke to that unfamiliar voice. Above, the cloudless sky stretched far into the distance. She stood in the familiar grasslands of her reoccurring dream. Purple flowers swayed in erratic patterns, clumps leading toward a forest. The snow-capped mountain loomed overhead.
Someone put a hand on her. Avalon whirled around and found the cloaked girl.
“Are you
talking to me?” she asked the girl. The girl had never spoken before.
“Oh yeah!” someone yelled in the distance, echoing far away.
The girl raised an arm and waved.
Avalon didn’t understand the greeting until the earth beneath her feet crumbled. The cloaked girl continued to wave goodbye as she found herself falling, falling…
…falling off the bed into a heap of clothes on the floor.
As she stared up at the ceiling, blue ears poked out from the top of the bed.
“Oh yeah!”
“Vimp! What are you doing?”
Vimp did a lithe bounce off the bed, landing near the bedroom door. “Ee!” he squealed, fleeing down the hallway.
Avalon lay there, trying to calm her fears about the cloaked girl dream. She didn’t want to admit that Miasmis might be coming back, to deal with the debilitating symptoms nor the equally worse treatments. The bruise on her arm throbbed. At least the dreams and bruise were the symptoms so far. Maybe, it would stay that way.
The smell of something wonderful grabbed her attention. Her stomach growled. The clock indicated early evening around dinnertime. She had slept most of the day to make up for being awake all night. Shuffling into the hallway, she found Vimp waiting for her. He motioned her to follow, tail disappearing into the kitchen.
Avalon paused at Kay’s bedroom first to make sure he was okay. He continued his peaceful sleep, so she entered the kitchen.
Digs, Helen, Nobody, and Vimp were seated at the now cleared dining table. Helen had made a fantastic vegetable soup with fresh homemade bread, the sight alone making Avalon’s mouth water.
“Hiya! Did Vimp bother you?” Nobody asked as she squeezed into the lone empty spot. “He likes to do this uncomfortable stare thing to wake people up.” The gremlin leaned over and popped his eyes out to give her a proper demonstration.
“Oh yeah!” the demon shrieked as Helen tied a bib around his neck, a precaution which proved wise when the creature tossed his fork aside and shoved his entire face into the bowl.
