Circe continued to stare at her boyfriend in dumbfounded stupor. A question burned in her mind that she wanted to ask him, but the words were stuck at her throat. Even air had a hard time escaping through her open mouth. Morgan didn't have that problem and stepped forward. "What are you doing here, Jackie?"
Jackie Li frowned. "That's what I should be asking you," he said, before rushing over to Circe. "You okay? You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"
Circe numbly shook her head and muttered that she was fine.
Jackie breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good."
That was when Circe recovered her voice fully and asked, "How? How did you know that we'd be here? That I'd be here?"
"From Boney's friend," Jackie replied, jabbing his thumb to the huge skeleton monster.
The monster raised its hand to say, "Hi."
Morgan looked at the space Jackie pointed to with a raised eyebrow. She saw absolutely nothing there. Just empty air. So, returning her gaze to the weirdo, she asked, "Who's Boney?"
But Jackie simply replied, "A friend. According to Boney, Bob told him that Gertrude told him that Linda told her that she saw Circe get attacked by blue people with fangs! I'd find you two a lot faster if SOMEONE hadn't decided to wait until I was done with work to let me know something so important."
While speaking that last part, he threw Boney a reproachful look. The giant skeleton hunched its shoulders and scratched the side of its skull in clear remorse.
"I was scared I was too late to stop the worst from happening, and I guess, in a way, I was," Jackie continued. "By the time me and Boney reached the alley where the vampires attacked you, Circe, you were already gone. I was relieved to hear from a nearby talking cat with antlers and pigeon wings that you trounced the attackers and even made them your gofers. But when I tried calling you, you wouldn't answer your phone, so I tried finding you.
"We went all over the city, asking around for you. That's when I heard from a really hairy guy hanging out at a diner that he saw you and a girl with white hair and green eyes having coffee together. I realized right away what happened.
"That white-haired girl was you, Morgan, right? I figured you must have gone and asked Circe for help finding Roger, and the best place to start was here at the viewpoint since that's where he went missing, at least according to the news. So, I had Boney take me here and now here we are seeing you coming out of the woods looking like you were playing around in mud."
Morgan frowned indigantly. "I was NOT playing around in mud!"
"There are still things I can't wrap my head around though," said Jackie. "Why'd you go to Circe for help, Morgan? It's no secret you two don't like each other, so I'd have thought she was the last person you'd ask. And more importantly, why'd blue people attack you, Circe? You're not mixed up in something like the Gathering again, are you?"
He tried looking Circe square in the eyes, but she turned from his gaze and hesitated to speak. Morgan also kept silent, knowing now was not a time to butt in.
Still, Circe knew that she could not keep silent forever and that lying was pointless at this point. So, she gave Jackie a summary of what she and Morgan had been up to, including why they both got attacked by vampires and how they got out unscathed.
Jackie listened without interrupting. But the more he listened, the deeper his frown got. When Circe finished, he folded his arms despondently and said, "I wish you would have told me. Especially when it's something so dangerous. I wouldn't like you getting mixed up in messed like this, but I could have helped. I would have."
"And that's exactly what I didn't want," said Circe. "If you get involved, there's a chance you could get hurt."
"And you think I'd be happy with you taking that risk? Hell, you both nearly got yourselves killed!"
Jackie was the last person on the planet Circe wanted to hear that from. It was utterly hypocritical of him to give a lecture like that after getting himself into trouble so much a few months back.
Defiant, Circe said, "I handled it just fine on my own. I have magic powers now, remember? I can take care of myself."
Jackie frowned and fired back, "Like you did when you got captured by Putts and locked in a cage?"
Circe's cheeks turned flushed red and she shouted, "At least I wasn't dumb enough to pour strange chemicals in my own eyes!"
Morgan hung back and watched as things got more heated between Circe and Jackie. Some of the things uttered between them were extremely crazy, and it was crazier how those crazy things actually happened. But as their argument dragged on, Morgan quickly lost patience and decided to end it herself.
“HEY!” She shouted at the top of her lungs, loud enough to produce an echo that spread down the hill. “Argue all you want on your own time. I don’t care. All I care about is finding Roger. The witch said you can find him, so hurry up and find him!”
“Find him how?” Circe snapped, fed up with Morgan and her utterly selfish attitude as well. “How does that witch expect me to do that? Just what the hell does that witch even know about me?”
“Well, for one thing,” Jackie cut in, “I’m sure she knows about your special eyes. All witches probably have them.”
“So she knows I can see monsters. I don’t see how that’s going to help.”
“Really?” Jackie blinked. “You don’t?”
“No, I don’t!” Circe answered with a sour frown. She did not like that incredulous look on his face. It made her feel totally dumb. “Do you?”
“Well, yeah,” Jackie replied. “There’s a really basic, obvious way those eyes can help.”
To demonstrate, he walked towards the tree that was scarred many nights before by a car door slamming against it. He looked up at the bare branches of the wounded tree, towards a creature that looked like a red bird but its head was that of a crocodile’s. It was the same creature that Circe had found and commanded to guide her through the wilderness.
Jackie called out to it. “Hey! You live around here?”
Crocodile eyes looked down at him for a couple of seconds before its snout moved up and down in affirmation.
“Great! We’re looking for a friend of ours. He’s kinda tall, with red hair and freckles. Seen anyone like that?”
The crocodile snout moved from side to side, no.
“How about a huge, bipedal wolf in clothes?”
The crocodile head nodded.
Jackie beamed proudly at the girls, only to receive blank stares back. Morgan could not see the crocodile-headed bird. To her, it looked like Jackie was talking to the tree itself. But whether she knew he was speaking to an invisible creature or not, he still looked like his brain had gone cuckoo.
“Do you know where he went or how to find him?”
The invisible monster nodded and then lifted a wing that pointed into the wilderness.
“Would you mind showing us the way?”
On that, the monster gave a coy shrug.
Jackie frowned and pondered. But then his face lit up with an, “Oh!” And he dug into his pocket. What he pulled out was a ziploc bag with toasted bread cut into a triangle.
Dangling the bag by his head, he asked the creature, “Would you do it for a grilled cheese sandwich?”
The crocodile-headed bird gave the sandwich a glance, and then turned away.
But Jackie was undaunted. “Are you sure you don’t want? It’s cheesilicious~.”
One crocodile-bird peeked down at the sandwich. And then it hopped down to the frown and opened its maw wide. Jackie didn’t waste a second to pull the bag open and drop the whole sandwich in.
Morgan stared with wide eyes as the golden-brown bread disappeared before it hit the ground. That was when she realized, “Oh, so Jackie can see them too. Those invisible monsters that Circe is always seeing. No wonder those two are so close. Freaks need to stick together, I guess.” And then she whispered to Circe, “Psst! Did Jackie just bribe a monster with a grilled cheese sandwich?”
Circe nodded without saying anything. She could not believe that bribe actually worked. But she quickly shook the stupor off her head and marched over to Jackie and his new friend.
“Okay, that’s great, Jackie” she said. “You’ve made a new friend. Now let’s go home.”
“What? No way!” Morgan exclaimed. “I can’t see what’s going on, but it’s clear to me that you guys just found a lead to Roger. In that case, forget about going home. I don’t care how late it is, I am not leaving until we find him!”
Circe groaned. “Fine! Then we’ll stay and you can go home, Jackie.”
Jackie frowned, keeping his feet firmly planted where they were. “I’m not going anywhere. You go home.”
Circe frowned back. “No, you go home. Isn’t it almost time for your curfew? You don’t want your stepdad to get mad at you, do you?”
“You also have a curfew,” Jackie pointed out. “You'll get in trouble with Granny Tsing if you don’t make it back in time for dinner. And she’s a lot scarier than Arnold.”
“I don’t care which of you goes home,” Morgan cut in. “But one of you is staying and helping me find Roger.”
Circe scowled and snapped, “Stop making demands like you’re the boss!”
“I’ll go help find Roger,” Jackie volunteered. “You two can just go home and wait for me.”
“You are NOT going into the middle of the freaking wilderness on your own, Jackie Li!”
Jackie folded his arms in front again and said defiantly, “Well, I’m not leaving if you’re not leaving.”
Morgan mimicked him. “I am not leaving without Roger!”
“Ugh!” Circe rubbed her temples. She could feel a headache forming. “Fine! We’ll all go together! Happy?”
“Not really,” said Jackie. “But it’s better than letting you out of my sight to do who knows what sort of dangerous thing.”
So, once more, Circe and Morgan stepped into the wilderness while led by the crocodile-headed bird, this time accompanied by Jackie and a tall skeleton with clownishly big hands and feet. They were not going to come out again until they had finally found their runaway werewolf.
No comments:
Post a Comment