by Sara Clancy
He chuckled when confronted with her glare, filling her with a flush of victory. While tension still lingered around the corner of his eyes, his breathing evened out and his shoulders loosened. It was a beautiful sight.
“Can I trust these guys?” he asked abruptly.
The question caught her off guard. But it was her lack of instant response that made her stomach drop. Just a few hours before, she wouldn’t have hesitated.
“Of course,” she said at last.
His stormy eyes locked onto her. “Well, that was convincing.”
Pulling herself up to full height, she lifted her chin. “I have full confidence in our combined awesomeness.”
“You always say that.”
“And we’re still alive, right?”
Benton’s response was lost under Daniel’s clipped voice. “What are you two whispering about?”
“The weather,” Benton shot back instantly.
An angry flush crept up the elder’s neck, his mouth twisting down into a snarl.
“We’re cold,” Nicole said quickly, swiftly indicating their bare feet and lack of jumpers. “There wasn’t time for us to get out of our pajamas. So, you know, we were chatting about the cold weather.”
Daniel raked his eyes over Benton. Nicole couldn’t stop herself from cringing back even though she wasn’t on the receiving end of it.
“Your kind feels temperature, then?” he asked at last.
“Yeah,” Benton said slowly. Cautiously.
“I thought you said you didn’t know anything about your species.”
“Obviously I know what I personally experience,” Benton shot back.
Daniel bristled. “That’s how you speak to your elders?”
“This is how you treat minorities?” Benton replied without missing a beat. He shrugged at Nicole. “What? I am. Name one other Banshee you know.”
Her chuckle wasn’t a good idea. She knew it the moment she saw the red flush work its way up Daniel’s neck to splash out onto his face. Quickly, she looked down at her feet, knocking her elbow into Benton until he reluctantly did the same. Wapun used this moment of submission to swiftly swoop in and distract Daniel.
“Why must you provoke people?” Nicole whispered to Benton.
“It’s part of my charm,” he smirked.
She quickly decided that she wasn’t going to push it any further. Benton had this strange sense of world order. If everyone liked him, and were generally nice to him, he would actually get paranoid. Like the cosmos was setting him up for some horrible, cruel twist. With Adam now seeing Benton as his personal hero, he was in desperate need to get things back to their normal state.
A thought hit her like an arctic wind. He only feels safe when he’s hated. He trusts more in rage than friendship. Is that because of his stalker? The fact that he hadn’t told her anything about this part of his past sunk into her brain like a branding iron. She had convinced herself that she knew everything there was to know about him. Now she was faced with the stark reality that there was still so much to him that he had refused to even let her glimpse. It made her stomach churn.
“Nic?” Benton’s chilled hand wrapped around her wrist. He tugged a little to better get her attention. “Are you okay?”
She nodded hurriedly and grinned broadly. “Of course.”
“I’m the one that tunes out, not you.” His voice was laced with concern.
Trying to shrug it off, she noticed that they were already standing back at their teepee, right on the edge of the tree line, waiting for Wapun to finish her blessing. The other elders had gathered in a semi-circle around her, lending their voices to the chanted songs. Scented smoke and soft voices lingered on the morning stillness. Benton’s fingers tightened around her wrist. Nowhere near hard enough to hurt, of course. Just a firm, constant pressure that allowed her warmth to seep from her skin into his.
“You’re as cold as death.”
By the time it occurred to her that it was a pretty callous thing to say, the words were already out. She stammered to form an apology as a small smile crossed his lips.
He rubbed his thumb back and forth over her pulse point, seemingly just savoring the small bit of warmth that was on offer to him. It spoke volumes that he hadn’t complained about the cold once. He’s really trying, she thought.
Always quick to pick isolation over irritation, Benton was swift to cut off contact with anyone that made him uneasy. The only reason he would stick it out with the elders was that he knew it was important to her. That was humbling. She leaned closer to him, positioning herself to break the creeping wind and hopefully keep him a little warmer.
“You’re with me, right?” Benton whispered. “Don’t leave me alone with these freaks.”
Her automatic chastisement died on her tongue when her gaze skirted to Daniel. The elder stood a few feet away, simultaneously aiding Wapun with the blessing and glaring daggers at Benton. It was hard to take the man seriously when he was investing so much time staring down a teenager. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from giggling. Momentarily ridiculous or not, he was still an elder and deserving of respect.
“Yeah, I’ve got you,” she promised. “Oh, wait a second. I almost forgot.”
Benton’s jaw dropped as she ripped her arm free of his grip and bolted the limited distance back to their teepee.
“What the hell? You just said-”
“I’ll be right back,” Nicole cut in, keeping her voice to a harsh whisper.
It didn’t take more than a few seconds for her to retrieve her newest gift for him and return. Still, he wasn’t too happy about the whole situation. His face looked almost as dark and brooding as Daniel’s. It made it impossible to hold back a small burst of laughter. The noise seemed all the louder since Wapun chose that moment to end the song and turn her attention back to the teenagers. Embarrassment flushed through her at the woman’s questioning look. So she focused on pulling her present out of the thin drawstring bag.
Bone beads rattled together as she pulled the choker necklace free. She had never noticed how unnervingly similar that sound was to the clash of owl beaks. Ignoring the chill that ran down her spine, she quickly fixed the pale choker around Benton’s neck. It was hard to tell which one of the witnesses was more confused. Either way, it was Benton that mumbled a ‘thank-you’ as if it were a question.
“It’s held together with iron wire,” she said. “It should keep the ghost from strangling you.”
“That happens often?” Daniel asked.
“Yeah,” Benton replied bitterly.
“And it’s a real shame. You have such a pretty neck.”
Benton’s eyebrows shot up yet again.
“What was that?”
“You have a pretty neck,” she repeated. Finally getting the latch to clasp, she stepped back. “I don’t know why people find it so choke-able.”
Benton stared at her for a long moment. “You’re so weird.”
“You’re in no position to start throwing around those accusations,” she said crisply.
He shrugged one shoulder. “You’re still weird.”
Puffing up her cheeks with a huff, she grabbed his hand and yanked him around to face the gathering elders. Her mother was still nowhere to be found, and that offered her a small amount of relief. None of this was going to be a pleasant experience for Adam. She couldn’t imagine how much worse it would be to take his statement. We can get this done before she even knows it, Nicole reasoned to herself.
Carefully, she kept her mind from creeping towards the other reason why she didn’t want her mother here.
Dorothy knew about what had happened on the highway; that they were attacked. That a serial killer had wrapped his hands around Benton’s neck. And that, without hesitation, Nicole had put a bullet between his eyes. She didn’t, however, know that her daughter didn’t have the slightest slither of guilt over her actions. A part of her was still disgusted with herself. She knew she should care. That it should keep her up at night a
nd churn her stomach until she could barely stand. As much as she knew it, the sensations never came.
And when that man came back as a Baykok to take another shot, she had gone after him again with just as much savage dedication. The guilt of not feeling any remorse had almost ripped her apart.
Then she talked to Benton. She heard how pleased he was that she could face these nightmares that clawed out of his head and not break. Nothing had ever made her as proud as knowing she made him feel safe. Protected. None of that meant that she was ready for her mother to know any of that. Dorothy was startlingly observant. Someday soon, she would see her daughter for exactly who she was.
That doesn’t have to be today, Nicole told herself.
Out loud, she said, “Is everyone ready?”
The elders carefully arranged the items in the possession into a neat pile. They kept their solemn silence, though, each one cautious as to how to proceed even while they were determined to do so. Nicole didn’t hesitate to fill the silence.
“She seems to like the trees,” she said. “Kind of like a cougar. She keeps herself hidden until she’s ready to kill.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Daniel asked skeptically.
“Well,” Nicole subconsciously began to pinch her thumbpad. “Either she’s the one that’s lured me out for two nights, or there’s something else in there with her. I’ve got my fingers crossed for the first.”
“Yeah, we don’t want this to be our whole week,” Benton said with a smirk.
“Exactly! I’ve had this trip planned out for months, and we’re way off schedule.” She noticed the expressions on the faces around her. “And, you know, other more socially appropriate reasoning.”
“Wow, you can’t even think of one example, huh?”
She shushed Benton and picked up the conversation where it had left off.
“She ambushed us from above, so I’m pretty sure she’d keep him in the treetops with her. If she hasn’t already eaten him or something.”
“Eaten him?” Rowtag Smoke asked quickly. The deep lines of his face became canyons as worry settled onto his features. “Are you actually suggesting that this spirit will devour the man?”
“Hopefully,” Benton said before blowing hot air onto his fingertips. “Why is everyone looking at me like that? There’s no non-disturbing reason to keep a corpse. Trust me, having him as a snack is probably the best option we’re looking at.”
“You don’t sound at all disturbed by this,” Daniel said.
Benton shrugged one shoulder and blew on his hands again.
Being so blatantly ignored enraged Daniel. He clenched his jaw, hissing his words out between his teeth. “I’m starting to question your mental health.”
Benton put even less effort into his repeated shrug, more concerned with rubbing his hands together than with the enraged man standing a few feet from him. Nicole jabbed her elbow into Benton’s ribs.
“Why am I in trouble?” he whined. Enduring her glare for a moment, he huffed loudly and turned to face Daniel fully. “I’m terribly sorry if you found me rude. There’s obviously blame on both sides. You’re not creative in your insults, and I’m not particularly excited by your existence.”
Nicole pinched the bridge of her nose. “You suck at apologies.”
“That’s why I don’t do them often,” Benton replied, sounding all too pleased with himself.
Having seen this dance play out with numerous authority figures, Nicole knew that he wasn’t about to let up. Trying to get him back in line now would only have him push back twice as hard. Daniel wasn’t going to be any better at letting this go, either.
Clearing her throat loudly, Nicole regained everyone’s attention. “Benton and I will use the trail to the parking lot.”
‘Trail’ was a generous term to describe the narrow, overgrown path of least resistance. Summertime visitors eager to get to the shady riverbank had trudged through the clustered trees, trampling the undergrowth to sever the forest in two. Getting to the path would be the hardest part. Then it’d be a relatively clear shot to the parking lot.
Sophia, the youngest of the elders, toyed thoughtfully with the tips of her vivid pink hair. “Remember that, while the path will make it easier for you to move, it’ll make things easier for her as well.”
“We’re talking about a ghost.” Hurit’s thick round glasses made her eyes seem unsettlingly large. Despite this, she could still barely see, and ended up glaring at everything with an edge of malice. “I don’t think the trees cause it any problems.”
“Then it could hide the body anywhere,” Sophia argued.
“That’s why we only have to make sure that the path is clear,” Hurit shot back. “Right now, we only need to ensure that a random tourist isn’t going to stumble upon a mangled corpse.”
“Perhaps that’s your goal, but I wish to have this thing removed from the land. And keep us safe while doing so.”
“Which we will do after ensuring that there isn’t going to be a panic,” Hurit snapped.
“Ladies.” Wapun’s sharp tone made them all fall into silence. “There is no perfect scenario here. Let’s focus instead on Nicole’s assumption that she’s going in alone.”
“With Benton,” Nicole blurted out like a child caught in a lie.
Benton waved. Not exactly helpful, Nicole sighed.
“We’ll lose sight of you, and your mother has yet to arrive. I’m not comfortable with this,” Wapun replied.
“Do you have your mobile, Auntie? We can video call. You’ll be able to see everything.”
“And offer no help.”
“Well,” Nicole pursed her lips and forced her brain to crack through an assortment of ideas. She couldn’t give Wapun time to dwell on the idea of waiting for her mom. “Oh! Why don’t we ask Mic to take a look first?” She turned to Benton and smiled as sweetly as possible. “Is she still around?”
“Who’s Mic?” Daniel and Rowtag voiced the question in unison. The first as a demand, the second with curiosity.
“Mictecacihuatl is our friend,” Nicole said. “She’s been very helpful in the past.”
“She’s a Grim Reaper,” Benton added.
Really? Nicole screamed at him with her eyes. He met her gaze with vague amusement. You need to find a better coping mechanism. She didn’t think he’d catch on to the full meaning of the unspoken sentence. However, with just a tip of his head, she understood his reply with utter clarity. Nah, I’m good with this.
“And you can summon this creature?” Daniel asked.
Disgust crossed Benton’s face. He quickly masked it with his usual state of disinterested disdain.
“I don’t summon anyone. She’s an independent embodiment of death with a will of her own.”
“So why does she take such an interest in you?” Daniel challenged.
“Poor taste?” Benton replied.
“Benton.” Nicole gripped his arm until he winced at the pressure. At least it worked to get his attention and stop the spiraling argument. “Can you ask her?”
There was a particular sound Benton made when he agreed to do something that he really didn’t want to. A bitter, breathless scoff that somehow ended with a grunt. Hearing it now almost made her dance with relief. Pushing up onto his toes, Benton stretched out his neck and glanced around, trying to see over everyone’s heads without having to move.
“I can’t see her.”
“Try calling her,” Nicole whispered. “Be polite. She might be busy.”
After sparing a moment to make that sound again, Benton’s voice rose slightly. “Hey Mic. Are you around? Nicole wants to ask you for a favor.”
Silence.
“Sorry,” Benton got the word out right before releasing a startled scream. Cursing with creativity, he threw himself back, only maintaining his position because Nicole refused to release his arm. “Don’t do that!”
Nicole couldn’t help but smile, recalling how utterly terrified Benton had been when he h
ad first spoken of the numerous Deaths that circled around him. Seeing him comfortable around Mic was an incredible leap forward.
“What did she do?” Sophia asked, fingers twisting rapidly around her neon hair.
“They’re all big on jump scares,” Benton replied before he ignored the living to explain the situation to the dead.
Nicole had never been able to catch sight of a Reaper. Still, she searched the air restlessly, trying to spot anything that was out of place.
“So, what do you think?” Benton asked awkwardly. “It was Nic’s idea.”
“Was that necessary to mention?”
“She likes Nic,” Benton replied.
Throwing his arms out, Daniel looked at each elder in turn. “Are we really going to buy this? He’s talking to thin air.”
Rowtag rubbed a thumb over the lines of his forehead. “Perhaps he can see something we can’t.”
“Or he’s playing us for fools.” Whipping back around, he locked a dark glare onto Benton. “Prove it. Make her do something. Move a stone or make a sound.”
For the first time, true rage welled in Benton’s eyes, darkening the color to resemble a gathering monsoon.
“You delusional idiot,” Benton growled. “How the hell do you think you have any right to order us to do anything?”
Daniel bristled. “Remember the position you’re in, son. You need to keep on our good side.”
Benton took a step towards the older man, only stopping when Nicole grabbed his arm with both hands. Not good! Not good! Stop this! For all her frantic orders, she couldn’t get her brain to work.
“Finally, you’re showing the monster you are. Go on, hit me. I’ll have you banished,” Daniel snarled.
The air suddenly plunged into darkness.
It happened so swiftly that everyone present instantly looked up to the sky. Everyone but Benton. He didn’t move an inch as the sky filled once more with a flock of predatory birds. This time, they didn’t land on the ground. They filled the nearby branches, looming over the small group, the ghastly cries shattering the silence. A silent figure swooped over Nicole’s head. With a squeal, she ducked, still too late to prevent the light brush of talons. It was barely enough to be called actual contact, but more than enough to release pearls of hot blood. A stray drop trickled down her forehead as she looked up.