by Erin Johnson
I grimaced and called, "Sorry," over my shoulder.
Hank and Wiley reached the food stall first, with Maple, Sam, and me right on their heels. I glanced back. Yann and Annie weren't far behind. Francis trailed back there, last, because he was now carrying Rhonda in front of him, his arms looped under hers, floating along so she didn't have to run.
"Hello?" Hank planted his hands on the tall counter and leaned over to see inside the booth. "Genji?"
Wiley frowned. "Doesn't look like he's here."
That was a bit odd. Then again, maybe he'd taken a break to watch the migration himself. I bit my lip. There were still plenty of people milling along the pier though—it seemed strange to close up shop during prime dinnertime.
I looked around. "Should we just go in?" I pointed to the wooden half door on the side of the stall.
"Let me see if I can find him quickly. Maybe he's visiting with a neighbor." Hank jogged down the line of tents.
"Ah, just go in." Iggy waved a fiery hand. "You don't have to listen to Mr. Law-abiding citizen. I mean, it's never stopped you before."
He had a point. And I was sure Genji wouldn't mind if we used his telescope, given the circumstances… probably. I raised my brows at Maple and Wiley. Maple bit her lip, but Wiley raised a hand to the side of his mouth and loudly whispered, "Go for it."
I nodded and tried the half door. It was locked, but I climbed easily over. Once inside, I was struck by how cramped the space was. It must be tough working in such tight quarters day in and day out. I fanned myself. Especially with the heat coming from the boiling water for the soba noodles and the massive griddle.
I frowned. If he'd left the heat still on, he probably hadn't gone far. But then, where was he? I shook my head. I was so used to mysteries, I was making something out of nothing. He was probably just on a bathroom break.
I spun around, getting my bearings, and caught sight of the photograph of him and Sara from thirty years ago. It was sitting on the counter, the drawer he kept it in open. Curiosity getting the best of me, I peered in, then sneezed, and sneezed again.
"Gesundheit!" Iggy chirped.
I sniffled and rubbed my nose, my eyes watering. "Huh." I peered in again, keeping my distance this time, and spotted little dried green flecks littering the drawer… and empty tea bags. "Urg." I rubbed my itchy nose again. "Must be that maho tea I'm allergic to." I frowned as I looked closer. Could these be the ones Dango had lost?
Beside the tea bags, more photographs littered the drawer. I couldn't help myself. I reached out a finger and pushed some photos to the side, revealing even more enchanted moving pictures below it. They were all of Miss Sara.
Some of her front-on, her eyes widening and then her expression turning angry, then wary—as if she'd been surprised to be photographed. Others were of her from far away, through windows in the hotel, or from across the beach.
I grew still, ideas starting to form. Ice flooded my stomach.
"What is it?" Maple leaned over the half door. "Do you see something?"
"The telescope's over there." Wiley pointed to the wood and brass thing to my right.
But I couldn't peel my eyes away from the drawer of photographs. They were strange… at best. Genji's interest in Miss Sara was greater than we'd supposed. I didn't think it'd be an exaggeration to call it an obsession. I watched the magically moving photograph again, the one of the surprised Sara, up close. Something about the anger turning into wariness gave me pause. That was fear in her eyes.
"Hey!" Hank jogged up, slightly out of breath. "Couldn't find him but—oh! Imogen, have you found the guards?"
I looked up, only half registering his words, and shook my head. Was Genji stalking her? Why would a woman with a reputation as a black widow be afraid? If Sara was the jilted lover, why would Genji be the one with a drawer of creepy photos? Facts and little clues began to drop into place. The food wrappers, Genji's dead wife, the tea leaves.
Hank vaulted over the half door. "I'll look for the guards." He squeezed my shoulder as he slid past me toward the telescope.
Panic squeezed my chest.
Hank wrapped a hand around the barrel of the telescope, ready to push it toward the sea, but I shot an arm out and grabbed his wrist. "Wait!"
He turned to me, eyes wide. He frowned when he saw my panicked expression and turned to face me. "Hey. What's wrong?"
Yann and Annie jogged up to the stand. The older woman held her side, chest heaving, and Francis drifted up right behind them, Rhonda standing on his hovering feet.
I looked at Hank, then turned to my friends. "It was him."
Annie gasped. "Who?" Her chest heaved as she caught her breath.
"Genji!" I turned back to Hank and pointed at the telescope. "Look where it’s pointing."
Hank turned and followed its line of sight. The crease between his thick brows deepened. "At the spa…."
I took a shaky breath, then bent over and pressed my eye to the sight. I closed my other eye, and it took a moment before the image came into focus. But when it did, I almost wished I hadn't looked.
The telescope was focused on an upper window that looked into a bedroom. The room was mostly dark, except for a single lantern resting on a table beside the bed. And in the center of the room, wiry Genji grappled with Sara.
He had one hand on her neck and was pushing something into her face with his other while she clawed at his arms. The lantern light cast his gaunt face in frightening shadows.
I shrieked and lurched away from the telescope. I looked up at Hank, my heart racing in my chest, so fast it hurt. "It's Sara—Genji's hurting her."
Hank's eyes widened and before he could speak, Yann launched himself over the half door and squeezed between us.
"Oof!"
As Yann bent over to look through the telescope, his backside bumped me against the back table with its cutting board and knife rack. A big space in the middle of it was empty. My hip ached and I struggled for breath.
I tapped Yann's back. "Bud-dy. Can't. Breathe."
"Oh. Sorry." Yann straightened and turned to me.
I gasped for air.
"Dey are een her room. Let's go!"
Without waiting for an answer, the bear of a man wrapped one arm around my waist, the other around Hank's, kicked open the locked half door, and stepped through, carrying us out with him. He plopped us down on the ground, nodded, and took off at a run, faster than I thought a man that size capable of.
Rhonda clicked her tongue. "Called it! Told y'all to beware of street food stalls."
Iggy rolled his eyes.
Hank looked me over. "You all right?"
"Slightly crushed by Yann's bum, but other than that, I'm fine."
He grinned and nodded, then turned to the rest of my friends. "Francis, can you fly over to the window? Even if you can't get in, maybe you can distract Genji long enough to let the rest of us get there."
Francis nodded, and Rhonda hopped down off his feet onto the boardwalk. "Guess I have to use my legs now."
In a whirl of smoke, Francis transformed into a bat and took off across the beach.
"As for the rest of us, I suppose we should use the speed spell."
"Ugh." I made a face.
Maple patted my shoulder. "At least we're not on a cliff this time."
That got a little smile out of me. I closed my eyes, pulled from the vibrant power of the magical light show out on the water, and cast the spell. I opened my eyes and found the world a blur of lights and shadows as my friends and I sped through the night to save Sara.
47
Obsessed
We careened through the hotel lobby, past flabbergasted employees, and followed Yann through the hallways and up several winding staircases to a landing that led only to a single door. I skidded to a stop and stumbled into Hank, who caught me in his arms. Wiley, Maple, Sam, Annie, and Rhonda arrived moments later.
"How'd… you know… which room… is hers?" I panted.
"Well, Imoge
n." Iggy put on his “I'm talking to a little child” voice. "When a man and a woman love each other very much…"
Yann's faced reddened. "No! I met her here to peek her up for our date."
"Riiiight." Iggy stretched the word out.
"Should we knock or just bust in—"
I didn't even have a chance to finish my question. Yann lifted a beefy leg and kicked the door in. My mouth fell open. Apparently, even if the door had been locked with an enchantment, no spell was a match for Yann's power kick.
Yann yanked his wand out of his back pocket and stormed in. The rest of us followed. Annie and Wiley held their wands aloft, casting light across the huge, darkened room, while Hank and I held our palms out at the ready. My stomach turned at the sight in front of us. Sara lay sprawled on the bed, her eyes closed. I sent up a quick wish that she was unconscious… not dead.
"Get out of here!" Genji stood at the window and whirled to face us, the whites showing around his eyes. A big black bat chittered and flapped at the window. Good. Francis had kept him distracted. I only hoped we'd been fast enough.
"What are you doing here? Get out!" He lunged for the bed and held his wand to Miss Sara's head, the tip of it glowing.
Yann froze midway across the room. His broad shoulders heaved. "Don't hurt her!" His voice cracked with fear.
The light from Genji's wand glinted off something in his other hand. My stomach clenched. It was a butcher knife—from his food stall, no doubt.
Hank's throat bobbed, and he edged forward, palms out. "Stay calm. Is she alive?"
Genji's sunken eyes darted from Yann to Hank to Sara. "Stay back!" He held the knife above her neck, his hand trembling.
Hank glanced at Yann and lowered his voice. "He wouldn't be threatening her like that if she weren't alive. We'll save her."
Yann grunted in reply and took a step forward.
"Stay back!" Genji shrieked, spit flying from his mouth.
We needed to distract him. Maybe we could edge closer, tackle him or spell him, before he could hurt Sara. But he stood so close as it was. In the blink of an eye he could use that knife and…. I shook myself. I couldn't go there.
I cleared my throat and slid forward beside Yann and Hank. "Why are you doing this? I thought you really admired Sara. Why hurt her?"
The skinny man's Adam's apple bobbed and he turned his wild eyes to me. "I don't want to hurt her." He shook his head. "But it's the only way."
"There are lots of ways, Genji." I tried to keep my voice low, calm. I was surprised how assured I sounded, given my knees were trembling.
"No!" He shook his head like a dog shaking itself dry. "I've tried—so many times over the years. We missed our chance."
I gulped. "Because she called off your wedding?" I gambled. I hoped this encouraged him to tell his story, to keep talking. I hoped I hadn't made a mistake and angered him.
He nodded and let out a choked sob. When I'd seen all the pictures in the food stand minutes ago, I'd figured as much. It didn't make sense for his family to have called things off—not with the way he was obsessed with her.
"Our parents had arranged our marriage, but I knew we were destined, even beyond the arrangement. Cosmically! She couldn't see it though, said she didn't want it. I knew that, but I didn't care. I knew I could make her happy." He gulped. "When the monsters crawled up out of the sea and killed her parents and destroyed her home, she grew even more depressed." He chuckled, a maniacal grin on his face. "So when Dango, the fool, came to my food stand soon after, and got drunk and told me his plans for her land once he owned it, I thought I could win her love by telling her. I told her all about the idea for the hot sand spa using the heat of the dragon." He cackled, his eyes clouded and far away.
"So that was how she found out about Dango's plans," Maple, just behind me, murmured.
Wiley scoffed, his voice low. "I can't believe the guy was telling the truth. She really did steal his big idea."
Genji wiped his brow with the back of his wand hand, the knife still hovering over Sara's throat. "But instead of loving me for it, she kept the land for herself, built her spa, and dumped me. With her parents dead, she said she didn't have to fulfill the contract they'd arranged." He shrieked. "How dare she! How dare she!" He shook his head and gazed down at her unconscious face. "But I can't stay mad at you."
"This guy is nuts," Iggy muttered.
I let out a shaky breath. "And you've been obsessed with her ever since." I swallowed. "She pitied you… and maybe feared you a bit. That's why she went along with the story that you and your family had broken off the engagement, right? To appease you."
"To appease her conscience is more like it!" Genji snarled. His face softened the next instant, so many wildly varying emotions flitting across his features, one after the other. "She didn't know what she was missing out on."
Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place for me. "But you couldn't stand to see her with other men, could you?"
His face darkened as he stared at me, distracted. Yann and Hank edged away from me, skirting the edges of the room toward Genji.
"You killed her husbands, her lovers. Anyone she showed interest in. Rumors circulated that she was a black widow. But it was all you."
A devious grin lit up his face.
"It's why you killed Nazo Suzuki, right? You said you saw them together. You thought they were lovers."
"They were lovers!" he spat. "I saw him grab her in the hallway when I was delivering lunch to her workers. He kissed her. She pushed him away, but I knew she was just playing hard to get."
I frowned. I doubted that part, but Genji's deranged mind clearly saw whatever it wanted to see. Hank edged to the right, getting closer to the bed, while Yann went left, sliding up toward the window and Genji's side. If we could just keep him distracted for a little longer, maybe they could save Sara.
Maple stepped up beside me, her cheeks flushed. "How'd you do it? How'd you kill Nazo Suzuki?"
Genji cackled. "He came and ate at my food stand, same time as Dango. The drunkard was always going on about his big ideas and had samples of his special new tea with him. Said a cup would make someone drift into a pleasant sleep. I snagged the bags and dumped a few servings’ worth into the fat man's food. I figured either it'd be enough to kill him, or maybe he'd wander into the water and drown or something. I decided to keep an eye on him, make sure my plan worked."
"So you followed him to the sand baths?" Wiley prompted.
Genji nodded. "Over the years I've nicked some Doragon spa uniforms when I was there delivering food. Comes in handy now and then, being able to sneak around the hotel unnoticed. I put on my sandman uniform and snuck in."
I let out a humorless chuckle. "You were the extra one—with the kerchief over your nose and mouth."
He grinned, his eyes wild. "That was meeee! I broke the fat man's timer so no one would dig him out, and let him cook like the pig he was."
My stomach clenched at how gleefully he was boasting about killing someone. "He overheated, being a bigger guy, and it triggered a heart attack."
Genji nodded. "I couldn't believe she'd gone for that guy over me! All these years, I'd been killing her lovers so she would see me—see we were meant to be together! Why didn't she see it? Then it occurred to me!" He tapped the side of his head. "My wife! Sara probably didn't see me as an option because I was married."
My mouth dropped and Annie made a strangled noise. "Gee. You think?"
"I thought after I'd killed my wife, everything would change."
My stomach flooded with ice at the casual way in which he said this. That poor woman. What could her life with this sociopath have been like?
"I came to Sara and said, we can be together now. And still she rejected me!" He shook his head. "I figured, maybe she's just being coy. Just be patient, Genji. But then she kisses the fat man and then goes on a date with the ginger!" He whirled on Yann, who was sneaking up behind him.
Yann froze as Genji shook his wand at
him. Tears poured down the skinny man's face. "I went to break up your date that night." He choked on a sob. "And she was smiling—really smiling. Not that look she puts on for guests, but a real smile. In all these years, I've never seen her look at a man the way she looked at you. You! A stranger!" Spit flew from Genji's mouth. As he stared at Yann, Hank took the opportunity to close the gap between himself and the bed.
Genji's shoulders slumped and he glared up at Yann. "After that—I knew I'd never have her heart, even if I killed you." The knife trembled in his hand above Sara's throat. "So this—this is the only way! I forced some of the tea down her throat so she wouldn't feel pain, and now I'll kill her and myself so we can finally be together in the afterlife. Together forever—like we were always meant to be." Genji lifted the knife high above his head, its sharp point aimed at Sara's chest.
"No!" Yann shouted.
A crash to my right made me jump and scream. Floor-length curtains ballooned as the french doors to the balcony buckled and snapped. Francis, back in vampire form, dove into the room. As a startled Genji turned toward the crash, Hank fired a spell, knocking the knife from Genji's hand. Yann leapt forward and tackled the man. It took only moments for Yann to smack the wand out of Genji's hand and then pin the skinny man to the floor.
Rhonda skipped up to Francis, who now hovered in the center of the room, and winked at him. "My hero."
Yann, his knees on Genji's shoulders, kneeled tall and looked over at Sara. I rushed to her side, next to Hank. I squeezed his slightly shaky hand.
"Ees she okay?"
Hank held a couple of fingers to her throat. "She has a pulse. But it's weak. She needs medical attention."
The door to the room flew open and I jumped. Several security guards, followed by the concierge, rushed into the room, wands aloft. The man in the green uniform gaped. "What's going on in here?"
"Call the medic. Sara's been hurt." I turned to face him. "And take this man somewhere you can lock him up until we can flag down the guard to take him into custody." I pointed down at Genji, then decided I should clarify, since Yann still pinned him to the ground. "The skinny guy."