“I knew you would find a way to get us out.” Mr. Jake put his hand on Tom's shoulder and sat beside him in the grass. “You're a very special child, Tom.”
Tom was glad for the compliment but didn't feel like smiling. “Can't you take the job back, Mr. Jake?”
“There is no one better suited to it than you.” Mr. Jake leaned back and looked up to the stars. “Snoop told me you've even saved the initial victim. No one has ever managed that before.”
“We're not yet sure he'll survive.”
“You got him out. That's all that counts for the moment.” Mr. Jake put his hand on Tom's shoulder.
“But I'm a coward.”
“Are you?” Mr. Jake's eyebrows rose as he looked at Tom. “When the Beast stole your sister, you didn't hesitate to help her. You faced the Beast several times to get her back and to help me. You captured it and even entered the weirdness of the realm inside. Do you truly believe those are the deeds of a coward?”
Tom blushed. It was true; he had done all those things. “But I've been so scared all the time.”
“Who wouldn't be if faced with the Beast?” Mr. Jake smiled. “A hero isn't free from fear. It is someone who does what needs to be done despite fear.”
Tom felt hot. Could Mr. Jake be right? Was courage something he could muster if he needed to? He didn't want to think about it anymore. Obviously he couldn't stop being the Beast Hunter, so he might as well think of his next step.
“We need to get the kids back, so Snoop can take the Beast back to where it belongs.” He stood up.
Chapter Nineteen
Tom: Here and Now
Everybody gathered in the sitting room. It was a tight fit, and Tom had to take a few steps up the stairs so everybody could see him. He swallowed, forcing his knees to stop trembling. The last time, Mr. Jake had spoken to all these people. He cleared his throat.
“Our attack on the Beast didn't work out the way we had hoped,” he said. “But I want to get my sister back, and I'm sure you want your kids too. So we need to think again.”
Mr. Jake spoke next. “We learned that positive feelings like love and sympathy hurt the Beast.”
The old lady with the umbrella frowned. “How can I love the Beast when I know it killed my grandson?”
“It didn't kill him,” Tom said and explained about the statues. “We will get him, my sister, and all the others back out, but I need your help.”
“At least it's securely caged in that ward of yours,” a man said and twirled his moustache.
“I could pretend he's my doggy,” a little girl said. “Then I could pat him and like him.”
“Good idea. We will have to use our imagination to get into the right feeling,” Mr. Jake said.
Tom shook his head. “You can't go closer. We would risk that the Beast sucks you back in.” He bit his lower lip and listened as the others discussed how they might manage to like the Beast and how to get close without danger.
“I'm so dumb.” Tom slapped his forehead. “We need something belonging to the Beast that we can love instead. That way, we won't have to get close.”
“It would need to be something the Beast is bonded to or hooked up with,” Snoop said. “But I snapped all the bonds when you pulled out the prisoners.”
“I got just the right thing.” Tom pulled the piece of hide out of his pocket that had come off when he had stroked the Beast. The thin thread still hung from it. If Tom looked closely, he could see it leading out of the house. The hide's bond to the Beast was unbroken. Tom felt a smile spread over his face. There was nothing he could do to stop it. He lifted the hide with his right hand so everybody could see. “We've got what we need.”
A cheer went through the crowd.
Mr. Jake said, “We need to split it in a way that everybody gets a piece. I think I know the best place to put the pieces. Shall I distribute it?”
Tom nodded and handed the piece of skin to him. He wanted to see how Adalbert was doing.
And he needed a break.
He pushed through the crowd to the sofa. The little boy looked a lot better. The red line on his chest had faded to a pale scar, and his breathing had calmed. Tom yawned. He longed to lie down beside him. Would anyone notice? He looked around. Everybody stood in line waiting for their piece of the hide. The kitchen clock showed ten past nine. With less than three hours left of Halloween, he couldn't afford to sleep. He sat on the chair beside Adalbert and yawned again. If only he weren't so tired…
Tom woke when someone grabbed his shoulder. He blinked away his drowsiness and recognized Mr. Jake.
“We're done, Tom.” He held out a book. It was the journal Tom had written. Mr. Jake had turned it into a neat little book with a cloth cover. The cloth looked very much like kitchen towel.
“Wow, how did you do that?”
“I used to be a bookbinder before I lost my daughter,” Mr. Jake said. “Be careful with it. The glue is not dry yet.”
Tom let his palm glide over the smooth front cover. Where normally the title would be, Mr. Jake had glued a lock of Sally's hair and a piece of the Beast's hide. When Tom squinted, he could see the bond snake along the floor and merge with others. He looked up at Mr. Jake. “This is awesome. Thank you.”
“We're ready to go as soon as you give the sign.”
Tom glanced at the clock again, only a few minutes to midnight. Whoa, he had slept too long. If Mr. Jake was right, they would be at their strongest now—as would be the Beast. But Tom trusted Snoop's promise that the ward would be strong enough to keep it prisoner as long as it held onto the kids.
“Let's go.” He stood up, walked outside, and sat on a step right in front of the Beast. He shivered when he felt its fiery eyes focus on him. The others filed out of the house and sat in a big circle around the Beast's prison. The threads running from their diaries through the ward to the Beast glowed faintly in the dark. Tom wondered if the glowing tendrils would look like a drawing from above. Mr. Jake settled beside him. He had fastened his daughter's ragdoll to his journal with a rubber band and glued the Beast's hide beside it.
He smiled at Tom. “I believe this is the best chance we'll ever have to get our children back. Thank you, Tom.”
Tom averted his gaze. His ears burned. He didn't deserve the praise. After all, they hadn't succeeded yet. Surely the Beast wouldn't let the children go without a fight. He thought of Sally's statue, standing frozen inside the Beast. She must be so lonely. A tear rolled down his cheek and dropped on the diary. This little bit of Sally was all he had left. His fingers touched the lock of her hair gently and glided over it and the piece of hide on his journal.
The Beast roared and stood up tall. Tom ignored it. While he kept stroking, he remembered the way Sally had thrown back her hair, the holidays they had spent with their Nana, even the pain in his parents' eyes when they'd thought her dead. Tears ran into his collar, but he made sure they didn't soak the diary. He didn't want to destroy it.
When the roaring grew weaker, Tom glanced at the Beast. It no longer looked like an animal; it had taken the form of the lava-lady. Her body burned with reddish flames and her eyes were pitch black. The others stroked their Beasthide too, and the lava-lady turned and writhed in agony. Tom noticed bulges on her back. He lowered his gaze to his journal again and hummed a lullaby his Mamá used to sing when he was smaller. The Beast's screams of pain rang in his ears and made it difficult to hear his own voice. A bulge at the back split, and a boy the size of a mouse fell out, a red tendril hooked into his belly.
“It's Robert.” The monk's voice came from the other side of the ward. Snoop shot forward but stopped short when he noticed the boy wasn't growing.
“I can't bite the tendril or the boy will stay this small,” he said. The monk groaned.
Another bulge split open and gave birth to a mouse-sized child, and another one. The Beast screamed so loud that Tom couldn't hear a thing anymore. He saw the people around him speak whenever a child popped from the lava-lady's back but
he heard nothing. He saw tears in Mr. Jake's eyes as a pigtailed blond girl fell out of a bulge. They hadn't won yet. The kids were still the size of mice, and the Beast hadn't taken its tendrils off them. It must be a trick. Maybe it was trying to distract the others. Tom noticed that more and more of his helpers were pointing excitedly to the ward and forgot to keep stroking the hide.
“Keep patting.” He averted his eyes and stroked on. I need to think something nice, something that will make the Beast give up its prey for good. He racked his brain for an idea, when he realized something. Although Snoop and the Beast came from the same place, they were very different. He remembered that Snoop had told him his initial victim was still alive. Maybe that caused the difference. The Beast did what it had been created to do. A greedy witch had dragged it from its home, and turned it into a monster by binding it to a murdered child. The poor creature. It must be scared to death.
He looked up and his gaze met that of the lava-lady, but there was no way to let her know how sorry he felt for her. She wouldn't understand. All he could do was to stroke the piece of hide he had. Maybe she'd feel his sympathy that way. He saw a mouse-sized Sally pop out of a bulge and smiled. She was the last one. He was absolutely sure about that. As soon as the kids were their normal size, Snoop would cut the tendrils and take the lava-lady home.
His gaze held that of the lava-lady and he smiled, but he didn't stop stroking. She opened her mouth. It was full of sharp, pointed teeth the size of his little finger. She clawed the air, and seven fingers on each hand with razor-sharp claws extended toward him. He smiled again. She couldn't harm him. As long as she held onto the kids, the ward would be strong enough to cage her.
The tendrils released the children, who began to grow rapidly. At the same time, the lava-lady jumped and flew through the ward at Tom's throat. He knew she wanted to take out the leader—him. At the last possible moment, he threw himself sideways, and her teeth and claws ripped into his shoulder instead of his throat. Pain shot through him like fire, mirroring the agony he saw in her eyes. All his fears faded into nothing. His pain subsided to a thrumming at the back of his mind as he gazed into her eyes. They seemed frozen in the moment, staring at each other. Tom's vision blurred and shrank as he felt his life drain away.
There was only one more thing he could do.
“Sorry I didn't manage to take you home,” he whispered, and kissed her nose.
Chapter Twenty
Tom: Here and Now
The lava-lady let go of his shoulder, and blood welled from the wound. Piercing pain shot through Tom's body. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see her jaws snap at his throat. Nothing happened, so he struggled to open his eyes again; his eyelids were so heavy. A step of the stair took up most of his vision, but he could see a bit of the garden too. His shoulder throbbed and pain spread everywhere. He found it impossible to lift his head. His cheek was wet, and a sweet, metallic smell clogged his nose. He felt so tired. Why didn't he sleep?
His wandering gaze fell on Snoop. The dog dragged the lava-lady over the lawn to a gap in the ground. Where had that come from? Tom's mind was too slow to answer this question. Flames wafted out from below and engulfed Snoop and the lava-lady as he pulled her inside. Then the gap in the ground was gone. Someone pressed something cold and smooth and blue to his lips.
“Drink this. Hurry!” Mr. Jake's voice. Strong hands held him up, and something blue drove the nasty metallic smell from his nose. Tom swallowed. It even tasted blue.
Blackness seeped in from all sides. He couldn't even feel the pain any more. Surely he was dying.
“Sally?” He fought the weight of his eyelids. He had to know if he'd saved her.
“I'm here.” Her freckled face filled his vision. It was of normal size and although she looked a little pale, she was no longer gray. “I love you, little brother.”
He closed his eyes. Mamá will be proud of me, he thought, and the world went dark.
When he woke, the midday sun shone through the curtains in his room. He heard Mamá rattle with the dishes downstairs, and the house smelled of pancakes and ice cream. He wondered why no one had woken him. Something heavy moved on his feet, and he sat up. Snoop lay curled up on his legs. Snoop? Shouldn't he be somewhere else? Tom recalled flames and a gap in the ground.
The dog opened his eyes and jumped off the bed. “It's about time you recovered. Mr. Jake had a helluva time to explain to your parents why you were so tired.”
“I'm still alive!” Tom's memories came back. His scalp tingled and unknown energy coursed through his body. The pain in his shoulder had gone. If it weren't so embarrassing, Tom would have loved to sing. He gazed at his hands, turning them over again and again. “I'm alive.”
“And your shoulder is healed. I told you the blue stuff is strong.” Snoop stood on his hind legs and put his paws on the cover. “Are we going to eat now? I'm starving.”
But Tom wasn't interested in food right now. “What happened? I remember so little. Did you really pull the Beast into a fire pit?”
“Thanks to you I could.” Snoop laughed his voiceless laugh. “You didn't just surprise the Beast when you kissed it. I didn't believe my eyes. No one—really no one—has ever done that before. And the effect was amazing. It knocked the Beast right out. I had plenty of time to show the kids how to retrieve their memories. They grew back to normal size in no time. When the last tendril evaporated, I took the Beast back home.”
“Is that your home too?”
Snoop nodded and his whole body shook.
“How did you manage to come back?” Tom stared at Snoop, not believing his luck.
“I was free to go since I'm still bound to my initial victim.” Snoop peeked at him. “I guess living with you and Mr. Jake suits me.”
Tom grinned. “You like us. Admit it.”
“So what?” Snoop sat and began to lick the inside of his thigh. Tom could tell he was embarrassed.
The door slammed open and Sally stormed in.
“I heard you talk. Say,” she sat on his bed and took his hands, “promise that you'll never, ever tell anyone anything about the last few days. Promise.”
“They'd put me in a rubber suit in an asylum if I did.” Tom freed his hands and hugged her. Sally felt delightfully solid. “I'm so glad I've got you back.”
Sally returned his hug without a word—and that had never happened before either. Usually it was impossible to shut her up.
When they let go of each other, Sally handed him the journal. It was slightly singed where the Beast's hide had been. “Mamá and Dad believe we've partied a bit too much at Mr. Jake's. They think you've got a hangover, so don't be surprised if they are angry with Mr. Jake for a while.”
“But I don't have a hangover. I don't drink.”
“Try to convince them of that.” Sally grinned. “At least they didn't wonder why I was alive despite the funeral. Must be some sort of magic. They'll probably forget about this soon enough.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of bed. “Come on, the others are waiting for you. They'll be living with Mr. Jake. He promised to help them adjust to our time.”
Tom freed himself, walked to his window, and opened the curtains. On the other side of the road, people were already building an extension to Mr. Jake's house. He spotted Adalbert handing a hammer to Mr. Jake.
“Oh, come on. Don't dawdle.” Sally ran out of the room.
Happiness bubbled up inside Tom. His fingers itched, and he flew down the stairs skipping and jumping. It'd be fun to have so many kids next door.
Snoop caught up. “Can I have something to eat now? A trip to my place and back isn't exactly easy, you know.”
Tom lifted his arms to the ceiling and screamed, “Whoopeee!”
The End
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This Fairy Tale Retelling series combines magic and technology. It recounts well loved and lesser known fairy tales from unusual perspectives. All novellas and short stories take part in the same world, a place where magic is struggling against the growing importance of steam driven machines and gadgets. Readers who love the traditional: “One upon a time” will enjoy these stories thoroughly. They are suitable for all ages.
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Acknowledgments
Without the help of my long-term mentor, Holly Lisle, this book wouldn't have been what it is now, but without my family's support, it would still be part of my Unwritten Library. Thank you. I love you more than I can say.
Also, thank you, dear reader, for buying this book. Your enthusiasm for reading makes it possible for authors like me to live our dream. I hope you enjoyed these stories.
About Katharina Gerlach
Katharina Gerlach was born in Germany in 1968. She and her three younger brothers grew up in the middle of a forest in the heart of the Luneburgian Heather. After romping through the forest with imagination as her guide, the tomboy learned to read and disappeared into magical adventures, past times or eerie fairytale woods.
She didn't stop at reading. During her training as a landscape gardener, she wrote her first novel, a manuscript full of a beginner's mistakes. Fortunately, she found books on Creative Writing, and soon her stories improved. For a while, reality interfered with her writing but after finishing a degree in forestry and a PhD in Science, she returned to her vocation. She likes to write Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Historical Novels for all age groups.
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