Little Apocalypse

by Katherine Sparrow

  “Sure,” Amber said. “But before a Little attacks a kid, they haven’t done anything wrong. And some Littles try to be good. They aren’t that different than us. They—”

  “No.” Ruby interrupted her. “However nice they act, Littles always destroy another kid eventually. They can’t help it. It’s who they are. When we catch a Little, we turn them over to the Council of Elders. They keep them locked up. That’s the only safe thing to do with Littles.”

  “The Elders. They’re your bosses?” Celia drank the last of her hot chocolate.

  “Sort of. They all used to be hunters. The best and brightest get to sit on the council. The Elders recruit us and train all the kids who’ve been hurt by monsters. Being a hunter is not”—Amber looked away—“it’s not a life anyone would want for a kid, so they only train those of us whose lives have already been ruined by them. Kids do the hunting, since we can see them, and the council does everything they can to help us and keep us safe.”

  Something lurched into the café. Celia tensed but then saw it was just a guy wearing a thick down jacket and furry hood.

  “This isn’t a joke, is it?” The word monster repeated over and over in Celia’s head. She felt like throwing up.

  “It’s the opposite of a joke. Bigs hunt people and eat them. Or they drain them of their life forces until they lose their will to live. Or a million other terrible things, because they are super evil. Imagine being hurt or worse by something you can’t even see. Last night they figured out how to make a huge spell that shook all of Youngstown and trapped everyone here. We don’t know why, or what they are planning next, but people will get hurt. People will get killed by invisible things they can’t fight against. We have to figure out how to stop them. We need your help, Celia.”

  “I’m good at writing book reports,” Celia said. “Riding a bike, being bored, making pizza as long as someone else does the dough. But you know what I’m not good at? Fighting anything, ever.” Her voice went higher and higher as she talked.

  “We don’t know what the doom girl will have to do,” Amber said. “Maybe you won’t have to fight. There are other ways you can help. Maybe book reports will save the city.”

  It’s time for me to go home, Celia almost said. But what was at home besides loneliness, broken glass, and being alone with way too many thoughts?

  The world had monsters in it, maybe. And if that impossible thing was true, then maybe for some impossible reason she’d been chosen to stop whatever they were planning. If she did that, she’d have a whole group of intense hunter friends. They’d have secret handshakes, give her a nickname, and tell jokes that only made sense to each other. She’d be Celia the monster hunter. Celia the brave.

  She knew it wouldn’t actually be like that, that real life was never how you imagined it, but then again, if there were monsters, maybe there were heroes too.

  Celia drank the last of her hot chocolate and sat up straight. “You know you’re going to have to prove that monsters are real, right?”

  Ruby grinned. She drummed her knuckles over the wooden table. “We thought you’d never ask.”

  Amber and Ruby followed her as Celia led the way out of the café.

  8

  They Can Smell Fear

  Outside, the world was made of rubble and wet concrete, puddles and gray clouds. Everything looked like a huge bruise. Celia buttoned her coat all the way up to her neck. Fingers of cold slipped in though the gaps.

  Monsters, her mind whispered. She thought about Demetri hiding in her apartment this morning from the thumps along her ceiling. Had that been a . . . ?

  “Keep up!” Ruby barked from a dozen steps in front of her. The hunters scanned the street, like they were nearby.

  Maybe they were. Maybe they always had been.

  Celia ran forward to walk beside them. She took a deep breath and thought about other things that had seemed unbelievable at first. Like how arctic terns flew for three years straight and slept on the wind, or how trees could live a thousand years, or how crocodiles were little dinosaurs. So if monsters were real? Maybe that would seem normal someday too.

  “First rule of the hunt is that we stay together. All we’re going to do tonight is catch a Little, interrogate them, and then turn them over to the Elders. Easy.” Ruby spoke in a low voice as she stomped along the ground in her heavy leather boots.

  “What will the Elders do with the Little?” Celia asked.

  Amber frowned.

  “What they have to, to keep us safe,” Ruby said.

  “But what will they—” Celia started.

  “Cages,” Amber said. “It’s for the best.”

  The hunters kicked puddles and sent dirty water spraying across the concrete. Ruby led them into an alley full of garbage cans and a couple of feral cats. She swung her bike-messenger bag around to the front and pulled out an unmarked spray can.

  “Right now? Do we have to?” Amber frowned. “We might not find any. We haven’t seen any signs of them yet.”

  “Don’t whine. You know how fast things can change in the field,” Ruby said.

  “Fine.” Amber sighed, grabbed the can, and sprayed a white mist over her face, neck, and hands. She passed it to Celia. “It’s an aerosolized protection spell. Once it’s on, Littles will get burned if they try to change you into a monster. We’ll be safe for a couple of hours.”

  Celia looked at the can. “I thought humans couldn’t . . .”

  “We can use magic, we just can’t make the spells. The Elders force them to make spells for us and put it into things we can use,” Amber said.

  “Put it on already,” Ruby grumbled.

  Celia closed her eyes, held her breath, and sprayed herself all over. As soon as the mist touched her skin, it itched, especially on the cheek Demetri had touched. The spray smelled like black licorice and vomit. “I’m pretty sure nothing is going to want to attack me with a ten-foot pole, smelling like this,” Celia said.

  “Yep. It repels rats, bullies, and creepy old men, too.” Ruby grinned.

  Amber giggled. So did Celia, a moment later.

  Ruby sprayed herself, and they walked back to the main road. Dusk had slipped into true night, and the lack of streetlights made every shadow and doorway look like it could be hiding something. Amber and Ruby walked with a predatory grace, scanning everything as they moved. Maybe they were freaking out on the inside, but they didn’t look like it.

  Celia noticed a group of five men on the other side of the street. They were big and talked with deep voices that echoed down the road. One of them carried a baseball bat.

  Celia looked from them to Amber and Ruby. “I wish they were the hunters,” Celia said. “They’re big and tough. Why does it have to be”—she almost said us—“kids?”

  Amber spoke in a tone Celia was beginning to recognize as her lecturing voice. “We’re the only ones who can see them, remember?”

  “I don’t get why,” Celia said. Celia knew there was always a reason for how things worked in the natural world. Maybe the same held true for the unnatural world, too.

  “I have a theory,” Amber said. “When magic disappeared for people, it became hard for humans to notice it.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “And since monsters are made by magic, humans mostly don’t see them. But who believes in magic, even though grown-ups tell them it’s not real?”

  “Kids,” Celia said with a sinking feeling.

  Ruby nodded. “However it works, once you hit fourteen, it’s really hard to see monsters, even if you know they are real. You just look past them or forget about them, unless you are super stubborn. Hunters are the ones who can see them and fight them. Kids are also the only ones who can become Littles. Once you hit fourteen, a Little can touch you all they want, and you won’t change.”

  Fourteen? Celia’s fourteenth birthday was in two and a half months. She pulled her hat lower on her head. Until then, she might get attacked at any time and be turned into a—

  “I have other th
eories,” Amber continued, “like why their hearts are so important and—”

  “That’s enough,” Ruby said, interrupting her. “Look at her, Amber. Our doom girl is ghost white. We can tell her the rest later.”

  “But she needs to know about—” Amber started.

  “Shut up,” Ruby said.

  “But—”

  Ruby pointed across the street. Glowing orange smoke curled along the ground, floating a few inches above the sidewalk.

  They jaywalked across the street. A couple of men, sitting out on concrete steps and holding bottles in paper bags, watched them from a crooked stoop. This part of town looked like it had been falling apart long before the earthquake hit.

  “What is that?” Celia whispered, pointing at the smoke.

  It swirled and danced across the ground, keeping its shape despite the wind and rain.

  “That’s their scent. A monster’s scent is invisible during the day, but it glows in the dark. Littles smell sweet, Bigs smell sour,” Amber said.

  Celia knelt, not too close, and inhaled. She smelled caramel and toffee, with a hint of laughter. How could that be part of a smell? Celia wondered. Then again, how could a scent be visible?

  “Little,” Ruby said. “Just what we’re looking for. You ready for your proof?”

  Celia’s heart thrummed. She stuffed her hands into her pockets, bit her lip, and nodded.

  The smoke grew thicker and brighter as they followed the trail down the sidewalk and around the corner. It clung to her ankles and swirled up her tights. The smell reminded her of going to county fairs and eating deep-fried candy bars on a stick. Pieces of trash littered the ground: paper bags, tin cans, and plastic wrap.

  “There.” Ruby pointed to where orange smoke billowed out from an alley. “We’ll catch the Little and tie it up, and then you can come join us. Hang back for now, doom girl. Watch and learn. It’s Little hunting time.”

  Amber and Ruby ran forward, disappearing around the edge of the alley, where cardboard boxes, soggy newspapers, and Styrofoam littered the ground.

  Celia walked slower and slower as she neared the alley. Now was the moment when her life would change. When she looked around that corner? She was going to see a monster.

  9

  Just a Girl

  At first, all Celia saw was an empty alley with two large dumpsters.

  Then she realized the dumpsters were shaking.

  Celia’s heart pounded. Another earthquake? No: the ground wasn’t moving. Just the two dumpsters.

  Beyond the dumpsters, Amber and Ruby stood back to back. Ruby threw off her coat and unsheathed two thin swords strapped to her back. Amber reached into a leather pouch hanging from her belt and threw a metal marble into the shadows and darkness.

  The marble exploded five seconds later. A howling filled the alley.

  Celia’s eyes slammed shut. When she forced herself to open them again, she watched the lids of both dumpsters open. Deep laughter boomed out from both dumpsters. It faded into the whistling wind that moved down the alley, blowing trash everywhere.

  Every animal instinct told Celia to run. But she widened her stance and planted her feet firmly on the ground.

  Shadows grew out of one of the dumpsters and reached toward the two hunters.

  Celia blinked. She made herself see what her mind did not want to notice.

  Not shadows, but . . . tentacles. Two of them, made out of slimy trash that snaked along the ground. One of the dumpsters sprayed brown liquid at the girls. Ruby and Amber jumped away. It hit right where they’d been standing and splattered the hunters’ pants. Amber turned and threw more marbles toward the dumpsters. The lids slammed shut, and the marbles clattered to the ground. They exploded, harming nothing.

  The garbage tentacles grew longer and thicker, adding more trash to themselves. They stretched toward Ruby and Amber, who moved deeper into the alley. They girls backed up against a brick wall piled high with overflowing garbage bags.

  As Celia’s eyes adjusted to the shadows, she noticed something else. Next to the dumpsters sat a small cage made out of rusted metal pipes, shards of glass, and sludgy snarls of string. A blond boy with green skin that shone in the dim light sat in the cage. Orange smoke pooled around him. He faced away from Celia, watching the hunters. Then he twitched suddenly and whipped his head around to stare right at her.

  The boy waved.

  Celia waved back, not knowing what else to do. This is all real, she thought. Her arms and legs felt numb.

  One of the garbage tentacles was curling along the ground toward Amber. As she lobbed exploding marbles into the dumpster, it struck.

  The tentacle wrapped around her ankle and yanked her to the ground. Amber fell, and the other tentacle rose up from the grime and struck her leg.

  Amber screamed. A black, tar-like liquid stuck to her leg where she’d been hit. It bubbled and began to flow up her thigh. She grabbed the tar and flung it off her. It landed on the ground and stayed still for a second. Then it wiggled and began oozing back toward her.

  Amber scrambled to her feet, and she and Ruby backed deeper into the alley.

  Celia tried to make sense of what she was seeing: a small green monster in a cage, and two dumpsters with tentacles undulating out from them.

  She was looking at a Big with its enslaved Little, she realized with a sinking feeling.

  Ruby cried out as she ran forward. With her thin swords, she tried to slice through one of the monster’s tentacles.

  It danced away from her and then struck back, whip-fast. It hit her in the middle of her back. A black and oozing mass bloomed where she’d been struck. It throbbed and started crawling up her neck. Ruby screamed and ran to Amber. The other girl pulled it off and flung it against the wall. It splattered against the bricks, then slithered to the ground.

  It began crawling back toward Ruby.

  Ruby ran forward again. This time, she sliced through one of the waving tentacles.

  Hundreds of bits of trash fell to the ground.

  Amber threw a handful of exploding marbles at the other tentacle. More trash rained down everywhere.

  Both hunters started to run out of the alley, but the pieces of garbage picked themselves up and reassembled, glomming back together in seconds. Tentacles slashed toward Ruby and Amber, hitting them and driving them back.

  The girls huddled at the far end of the alley as they tore off the leechlike pieces of ooze that climbed up their bodies and got tangled in their hair.

  The tentacles swept back and forth across the width of the alley as eerie laughter erupted from the two dumpsters. More trash flowed out from the dumpster and attached itself to the tentacles. The monster was making itself bigger with rusty nails and broken glass all along its length.

  The tentacles couldn’t reach all the way back to Amber and Ruby yet, but they were getting close.

  A throaty chuckle that sounded like it came from a man who’d been chain-smoking for a thousand years filled the air. The monster spit bile-garbage. It arced across the alley. The hunters dodged away from it.

  “This Big is too strong for us. We need more hunters here, now!” Ruby cried out as she swung her swords through the air at the nearest tentacle.

  Celia knew the words were meant for her, but she had no idea how to find other hunters. She had no way of helping them. All she could do was stand there and watch. The girls pulled off black tar blotches that ran up their legs and hurled them through the air.

  The tentacles swung wide and lengthened. They smashed into the hunters. Ruby flew backward. Amber fell to the ground and rolled away just as the tentacle rose up and smashed into the ground.

  “It’s not going to let us go. We have to find its heart. That’s the only way we get out!” Amber cried to Ruby.

  Heart? What did that mean? Celia had no idea.

  “Control the heart, control the monster,” Ruby yelled, and cast a desperate look to the end of the alley where Celia stood. She ducked beneath a tentacle that
thrashed toward her and vaulted over the other one. She sprinted down the middle of the alley toward the dumpsters, a half step ahead of the tentacles that chased her. She leaped into the air and landed in the middle of one of the open dumpsters.

  A look of triumph crossed her face. Then the dumpster shook, and the leader of the hunters fell into its garbage-filled depths.

  The lid slammed shut above her, as loud as a shotgun.

  The monster made a belching sound and laughed over Ruby’s muffled screams.

  “Ruby!” Amber screamed.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Celia saw a frantic motion. The green boy in the cage shook his head and pointed to the other dumpster. Heart, he mouthed.

  What heart? What did it mean?

  Amber fought off both tentacles by herself. They reached all the way into the back of the alley. She ducked, whirled, and threw exploding marbles everywhere. But as quickly as she could destroy them, the monster rebuilt itself. Black goo climbed up her legs.

  Ruby’s screams grew more desperate from inside the dumpster.

  The Little rattled the bars of his cage to get Celia’s attention again. He gestured to the dumpster without Ruby in it. Heart, he mouthed again.

  A real heart, or something metaphorical? She didn’t know, but Amber and Ruby needed help. Someone had to save them.

  She turned to look down the main road.

  A man in a red jacket was out walking his dog.

  “Please?” Celia cried out. “My friends—”

  He glanced down the alleyway and then looked away.

  Two women walked down the opposite side of the street.

  “My friends need help!” Celia yelled, and pointed toward Amber.

  One of them frowned. The other squinted. They walked on.

  They couldn’t see the monster.

  No one can see this. No one can help them but me.

  A tentacle wrapped around Amber’s arm and threw her against the alley wall. Her thick glasses flew off and hit the concrete.

  I’ve never even been in a fight, Celia thought. I don’t understand about the heart. There’s no way I can fight a big monster.