Chapter 3
1280 Words
3
Una and Paul climbed the stairs and found their friends in the entry hall. They turned at their coming, and Al glanced between them. “Well? Do we keep trying?”
“Not tonight,” Paul told him.
Lilly’s eyes widened and she shook her head. “I don’t want to quit. I know I can do this.”
Una slipped up to her and draped an arm over her shoulders. “You know it and we know it, but I don’t think the werewolf in you-” she poked her finger against Lilly’s chest, “-knows it, so why don’t you and I take a break from all this supernatural stuff and go get a bite to eat?”
Lilly bit her lower lip and glanced at Paul. “If Paul doesn’t mind. . .”
He smiled and shook her head. “Not at all, but I do wish to speak with you when you return.” Lilly nodded before Una led her away to the kitchen.
Al sidled up beside Paul and lowered his voice to a whisper. “You sure it’s a good idea to let them go alone? I mean, Lilly’s kind and all, but the beast inside her isn’t some stuffed teddy bear. I would know. If her strength gets out without her being able to control it then things could get hairy. Literally.”
A sly smile slipped onto Paul’s lips as his eyes flickered to Al. “I never said I would allow them to go alone.”
The unknowing pair of women walked into the kitchen and Una found their target: the ghost formerly known as Origa, now Henry. The ghostly gentleman stood in front of the sink. It wasn’t an uncommon sight, but what was uncommon was that he faced them with an upraised butcher knife in one hand and his unblinking eyes staring at them as they entered.
Una yelped and jumped back, crashing into Lilly who caught her. The young woman gathered herself and glared at the ghost. “Do you have to be so weird all the time?”
The corners of Henry’s lips twitched upward, but his tone was even. “I am merely being myself.”
“Well, stop it!” Una scolded him as Lilly righted her.
Lilly suppressed her snort as she looked to Henry. “We were wondering if you could drive us into town.”
Henry’s eyes flickered to the sink. “At this moment?”
“Do you have something better to do?” Una asked him.
“There is dinner,” Henry reminded her.
Lilly craned her neck and saw fresh fish in the sink. Their heads were chopped off and blood stained the walls. She shuddered. “Maybe you can put it in the freezer for tomorrow?”
Henry pursed his lips, but set his knife down in the sink. “Very well. I will take you into town.”
The three walked out into the garage and chose the sedan. Henry drove them out of the garage and down the bumpy driveway to the road. Little did they know that two shadows followed them at a distance.
The bright lights of the city were a happy reminder that the normal world was still around and thriving. Lilly glanced out the window and smiled at the familiar sights.
“You look a little happier,” Una commented as she studied her friend.
Lilly cringed and leaned back against the seat. “Was it that obvious?”
“Only to everyone around you and the legally blind,” Una told her.
Lilly folded her arms over her chest and stared forlornly at her lap. “I guess I was just getting a little overwhelmed back there.”
Una snorted. “Go figure. First you find out your boyfriend is a werewolf, then he bites you and makes you into. . .well, something, then we fight a ghost that tried to kill you a lot. Now he wants you to bend bars. And that’s just in the last few months!” She threw up her arms and slumped in her seat. “Next week he’ll probably ask you to bend spoons with your mind.”
Lilly snorted. “You’ve been watching too many paranormal movies again, haven’t you?”
“It’s research!” Una protested.
“Paul told me most of it is wrong,” she countered.
“Maybe Mr. Movie Star doesn’t know everything there is to know about the paranormal world,” Una argued.
Lilly’s gaze fell on the ghost in the driver’s seat. “Is most of what the movies show right or wrong, Henry?”
“Wrong,” came the reply.
Una stuck her tongue out at their driver. “Traitor.” Lilly jabbed her elbow into Una’s ribs. She rubbed her bruised side. “How about Benedict Arnold?”
“How about you remember that he’s nice enough to drive us into town,” Lilly suggested.
“We can both drive,” Una reminded her.
“Do you have your license on you?”
“Um, no. . .”
“Do I?”
“Maybe?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“Besides-” Lilly added as she jerked her thumb out the window, “-would you want to be driving in rush hour?”
Una followed her friend’s thumb and cringed. The hour was a little past five, meaning that they were navigating through a maze of people desperate to get home and those desperate to get a good seat at their favorite restaurant. It was controlled chaos where every car was at the mercy of fate and the lights. Henry navigated the mess with uncanny timing and an almost supernatural intuition for when to turn onto a side street that was less busy but hardly out of their way.
Una glanced at their driver. “Don’t tell me you’re also psychic.”
“I merely know the streets,” he assured her.
“Are there psychics?” Lilly asked him.
“There are.”
“What about zombies?” Una wondered.
“They do exist.”
Una snorted. “That explains some of my coworkers.”
Henry turned them onto a familiar side street where the shops were small and the streets deserted. Lilly checked her watch. “I don’t remember a lot of businesses closing this early.”
“Maybe they’re having some sort of a business meeting,” Una suggested as she leaned forward to look through the front seats. The comforting glow of lights spread out from the windows of John Baxter’s bakery. “Looks like Mr. Baxter’s still at work.”
Lilly smiled. “He’d have to be dead not to be at work.”
Henry parked the car at the curb. “I will remain here until you return,” he promised.
“This could take a while,” Una warned as Lilly climbed out.
“I have time,” he reminded her.
“And a good book?” she wondered.
Without looking over his shoulder he held up a deck of tarot cards. “These will suffice.”
A little color left Una’s face as she nervously smiled at him. “Uh, yeah. Um, happy reading.” She scooted across the seats and out Lilly’s door.
Lilly stood before the shop and looked up at the quaint building with a soft smile. “You know-” she mused as her friend slammed the door shut and stumbled to her side, “-sometimes I really miss this place.”
Una glanced over her shoulder at the black sedan. “Sometimes I really miss you working at this place, too.”
Lilly grabbed her friend’s hand and pulled her toward the door. “Let’s go see if Mr. Baxter has some of his special raspberry rolls left.”
Una snorted as the bell jingled overhead, heralding their arrival. “Doubtful. Those things were usually gone in five minutes.”
“But he sometimes made extras for himself,” Lilly told her as she looked down the center aisle at the desk. The cash register area was unoccupied. “Mr. Baxter?” The quiet shop echoed with the sound of her voice.
Una nodded at the door between the two halves of the building. “There’s a light under there. He must be cleaning up.”
The hairs on the back of Lilly’s neck stood on end and she shook her head. “No. Something’s wrong.”
She hurried forward with Una on her heels. Together they reached the door and Lilly opened it. The bright lights of the kitchen revealed messy kneading boards and unwashed bowls. In the far corner seated in a chair was Mr. Baxter. He was slumped back against the rear of the chair and his forehead rested against the edge of the counter.
“Mr. Baxter!”
- Writer
