Chương 33: Chapter 32 - Crossroads

I stopped and stared at the faint magic circle as it passed by my feet. It was still slowly constricting around the mansion.

"What do you think will happen when it shrinks to nothing?" I asked.

"You'd have fewer nightmares if you learned to avoid questions like that," Conrad said. He never stopped walking. I ran to catch up to him and fell in step as we headed down the main road toward town.

"I don't think so. I have plenty of nightmare fuel without worrying about the future." Conrad let out a noise that was something between a grunt and one of his chuff-laughs. I was pretty sure that was his token of agreement.

"Do you have bad dreams?" I asked.

"Sometimes," he said.

"Not like you do."

"Conrad Bauer, no one in the world has nightmares like I do." He put his hand on my head. At any other time, he would've roughed me around a little, but he was kind enough to remember my many scrapes and bruises, and merely placed it there.

"How's it feel to be special?"

"Not great." After a pause, I said, "Did you know that Igor's a golem?" Conrad's hand dropped back to his side.

"I knew he wasn't human. The smell was wrong." He eyed me again.

"Why? What did you think he was?" I squirmed through a tremendous shrug.

"I mean, the eyes and the hair were always a little weird, but he looked human enough to me."

"Did you tell him that?" I smiled when I remembered Igor's reaction. It wasn't funny or sweet or anything, but it was unexpected. And oddly touching. He'd looked up at me, his mismatched eyes wide, and said in a voice stripped of every drop of sarcasm and impatience—and when you strip Igor's voice of sarcasm and impatience what you have left is very small—"You —you thought I looked human?" Feeling distinctly silly and red in the face, I had nodded. He said in that same small voice, "Well. Isn't that something."

There were three seconds of silence, then he went back to grumbling. Even the memory made me blush. I tucked my hands in my pockets and said, "I'm pretty slow on the uptake, aren't I?"

"I don't know," Conrad said.

"You always seem to see what's important." I kicked at a twig on the ground without breaking my stride. Comments like that were one of the reasons I liked Conrad so much. He always said them offhand, like they were obvious facts to him. The sky is blue. Water is wet. Emerra sees what's important. I let my gaze follow the curve of the road.

"We better hope so." Somewhere, down there, was the invisible barrier that had us trapped. I had been sent to go look at it. Since the top of the barrier was so close, it was terrifyingly easy for Iset and Mrs. Park to calculate how far away it was from the ground and how fast it might be shrinking, but Iset also wanted to know if the sides were shrinking in. That meant that someone had to go out to the edge of the barrier—however far that might be.

Igor could, technically, limp along on his makeshift splints and braces, but it would've quadrupled the amount of time it took, and no matter how much he protested that it wouldn't matter, I winced every time I saw him move a broken limb. My first aid was good (even if I do say so myself), but it was only first aid! The man needed a hospital! Or an engineer. I wasn't sure which. To stop him from doing it, I offered to go as soon as Iset raised the issue.

When I oh-so casually mentioned that my eyes might come in handy, she nodded. Conrad showed up at the unblocked door while I was putting on my shoes. When I pointed out that he needed to stay to protect Iset and Mrs. Park, he pointed out that they still had Igor—who was liable to club any zombie that came near him with his splints—and the shotgun—cleaned, reloaded, and ready to go. Secretly, I was glad he'd come.

I know a good hero is supposed to protest whenever someone puts their lives on the line to defend them, but I was a sorry hero at best, and having Conrad walking beside me quieted all the jitters that were coursing through my body like an overdose of caffeine. It didn't make them go away, mind you. But they were quieter.

"Do you think we'll have any more zombie hoards?" I asked. We went two more steps before Conrad answered.

"There's not a lot of space between the mansion and that magic circle. I don't know if there's enough room for another row of crypts."

"But that's good right?" Conrad frowned and shook his head. I knew what he was thinking. It was the same thing I was thinking. Maybe there weren't any more crypts, but that magic circle was still moving, a body could be buried on its own, and even if it was only one zombie, given how much they improved between rows, it would probably be a whole new nightmare. I sighed and looked out over the woods.

The sun was high in the sky, but the meager light it gave off made it feel weak and distant, as if it was shining through the clouds on a winter day. I was used to Mays that grew warmer, easing me into summer. This May was fading. The persistent chill from the dawn had lingered, feeling more and more out of place as the morning wore on. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. I shivered despite my hoodie.

I told myself that I was being stupid and nervous—that Conrad had warned me about cold May nights up in the mountains—but it still felt unnatural. Almost spooky. Or maybe I was on edge because, you know—zombies. I looked up as I walked, hoping to see the end of the clouds. I saw something, but it wasn't clouds. It was too low, and it was far enough out that I could tell it only appeared outside the invisible barrier.

At first it looked like a light smudge of white along the fractured skyline, but with each step forward, it seemed to grow thicker. My stomach sank, and I suddenly felt a little bit colder. I walked faster. Conrad matched my pace. The green and brown shadows that were all I could see of the tree tops faded into a swirl of white. I broke into a run and stopped only when I was inches away from the invisible barrier. The world beyond our cage was shrouded by the dense mist.

The black asphalt road was swallowed up by it after only two feet. There was movement in the mist, but the shapes were too indistinct for me to guess what might be moving. Conrad caught up and stopped behind my shoulder. I stared out through the barrier, ignoring the headache that was slicing in from my temples.

"Conrad, what do you see?"

"Not much," he said.

"A lot of fog." I put my palms against the barrier. It wasn't cold. It wasn't warm. It wasn't anything.

"You can see it?"

"It looks like a cloud landed." I tried to feel something other than scared. I should've had some kind of reaction. Conrad could see the mist too. It wasn't magic. Was that good news or bad news? I couldn't tell. My instincts had abandoned me. My stomach felt white and muzzy, like I'd eaten a truckload of the mist. Conrad reached past my shoulder and pushed on the barrier.

"Can you tell if it's moved?" he asked. I let my hands drop.

"It's moved," I muttered, "but it hasn't shrunk."

"How do you know?" Conrad asked. I sniffed and wiped at my eyes. I wasn't crying! Well, obviously I was crying—but I had no reason to cry! My eyes were just watering up. Or it was the headache. It felt like someone had slammed an icepick into each side of my skull.

"The leaf," I said. Conrad looked down. I burbled on, "It used to be shifted by a half inch." The leaf that Mrs. Park and I had found on that first day—seven billion years ago—was still there. Small. Yellow. Plastered to the asphalt. The barrier that had severed it was still there, still right where the leaf had been cut, but now the top half of the leaf was a foot away from the bottom half. The edge of the road was displaced by a foot. Our home was displaced by a foot.

The world outside had been sliding away from us the whole time. Two more tears spilled onto my cheeks before I could catch them. As I furiously brushed them away, a figure stepped out of the mist toward us. My breath seized.

"Jacky." The word escaped me as a whisper—the last of the air that hadn't disappeared from my body. Big Jacky stood on the road on the other side of the barrier. We were face to face, seemingly only inches apart. I lunged and crashed against the barrier. I yelled, right at his skull, "Jacky!" I turned to Conrad.

"You see him! Do you see him?" Without waiting for an answer, I turned back and pounded on the barrier with both fists.

"Jacky! It's me! Can you hear me? Jacky, please!" Big Jacky's empty eye sockets stared past me.

"I'm right here!" I screamed, pounding on the barrier again.

"Look at me! Why can't you—" My voice failed. The next words came out creaky.

"Why can't you see me?" I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder. I ignored it. Darius stepped out of the mist to stand beside Big Jacky. It felt like someone had wrapped my chest with barbed wire and wrenched. The count's suit was rumpled, his tie was loose, his face was worn, haggard, and unshaved—but there was a look in his eyes that reminded me of high-shine steel. I screamed his name so loud that my throat hurt and my ears rang. The icepicks slid in by another inch.

A part of me insisted that Darius—Count Darius Vasil, with his marvelous, perfect, amazing vampire hearing—had to hear me. But most of me knew it was useless. Another hand gently grabbed me by the arm. Conrad was trying to coax me back from the barrier. I tore myself out of his grip and went back to pounding on the barrier. Darius touched Big Jacky's arm. When Big Jacky turned to him, Darius said something—I saw his mouth move—but there was no sound.

The only noise was the beating of my heart and the ringing in my ears fading away. Big Jacky nodded. Darius handed him a phone. Big Jacky put it to his ear, then he and Darius turned, walked into the mist, and disappeared. All I could do was watch them go. When I came back to my senses, my hands and wrists were aching, and I could feel a jumble of emotions, churning through me, filling me up. There were so many of them! I couldn't tell where one ended and another began.

My agitated body did its best to interpret, but my mind could only watch, overwhelmed. Everything! —I felt… everything! I reached into the tangled heap, grabbed onto the brightest, wildest thought I could find, and pulled. Laughter poured out of me.

"Mrs. Park was right!" I wiped my eyes again. The tears were inevitable. They went with the laughter.

"Big Jacky is out there, and he's going to move heaven and earth! You'll see! And Darius is with him!" My smile made all the other emotions in my chest ache. I whirled around to face Conrad. He was watching me with a soft, sad smile on his face.

"Iset is the smartest person in the whole world!" I cried.

"And she loves this place. She's going to save it! And there's Kappa!"

"What about Kappa?" Conrad asked, still smiling that sad smile.

"I don't know! But he goes 'RAWR!' a lot! That has to count for something. And I have you!" I grabbed his arms.

"My fluffy guardian! The world's best packmate!" All at once, the manic energy that had kept me bouncing on my feet vanished. I slumped into my new exhaustion. My hands went to my knees, and I crouched there, braced and huffing, until I could calm my breathing. I brushed away the last of my tears and turned my head to look up at Conrad.

"Do you think this counts as falling apart again?" Conrad's shoulders lifted in a shrug, and I could hear the laughter in his answer: "I don't know." I had enough energy left for a grin. I was so crazy, I could make a wolfman hysterical. I bet not many people could say that. I stood up straight, put my hands on my hips, and stared into the distance.

"I should get a punch card. Fifteen fall-aparts, and then I get an ice cream."

"Sure," Conrad said.

"We can make it when we get back to the mansion."

"Did you see them? Jacky and Darius?" Conrad looked down and shook his head. I stepped closer and leaned so I could look him in the eyes.

"They were there," I insisted.

"I believe you, Mera." I noticed a shine in his yellow eyes that I'd never seen before.

"Conrad," I said, my voice high with disbelief, "are you crying? Can wolves cry?"

"I wouldn't know," Conrad grumbled. He raised his head and used his thumb pads to wipe the shine away.

"I'm not a wolf."

"Are you scared?" Conrad looked right at me.

"I'm more scared than I've ever been in my life." He put his hand around the back of my head and pulled me close enough to rest his forehead on mine.

"Just don't tell anyone." He released me. I smiled again. My chest hurt less this time.

"Well, that's no good! I'll have to fall apart later. Right now I have to comfort you."

"Oh?" Conrad said.

"Who else is going to do it? No one would believe me if I told them you needed it. Lycanthropes don't get scared. Everyone knows that." I stood on my tip-toes and raised my arm high so I could pat the top of his head while mimicking the noise anime characters made to comfort someone—something like "yoshi, yoshi." Conrad was smiling now too, and there was nothing sad about it.

"Looney-tune." I dropped back to my heels.

"Feel better now?"

"Yeah. I do." He pulled me into a hug.

"Thank you, Mera." When he let go of me, I let my arms fly out from my sides as I whirled to face the house.

"We better get back to the mansion and tell Iset what we saw." I started walking. Conrad fell in step beside me.

"We keep going!" I announced to the universe.

"We survive it or we don't, and we'll keep fighting because we'd rather live than die!"

"That sounds like something Igor would say," Conrad said.

"You know what?" I said, "I like being alive."