Stripe howled, pointing at us, and the herd once again lurched for us, gashing their bloody gnarly teeth.
“Do what you need to do, Ms. Liddell.” Scrooge ordered as he set Dee down next to Pen, Dum curling up next to her, looking vacant and lost. Scrooge jumped in to protect us from the onslaught of murdering creatures as I got to work.
Gathering up the wooden spears, I poured and rubbed alcohol over the tips, every moment jerky and hurried, the pressure to work fast almost flattening me. I tuned out the fight, the sounds of crunching flesh and wounded cries.
Shuddering, I struck at the rocks over and over, the little sparks not clinging to the fuel.
“Fuck!” I screamed. “All I need is one.”
It seemed to take forever before a flare came to life, sizzling as it licked at the alcohol, wanting more.
Whoosh. A blaze burst to life at the end of the spear.
“Fire!” I whooped, leaping to my feet with exhilaration, using that one to light the rest.
Shrieks of horror tore through the cluster of creatures as they scrambled backward, away from the light.
“Whatever you did, Ms. Liddell, remind me to thank you later.” Scrooge grabbed a torch, his jaw clenched, but his eyes ignited with intensity, reflecting the flames.
I could only nod, not able to hold his gaze.
“Fuck. I really, really like you,” Hare said to me as he nabbed a firestick. He twisted back, chasing after some of the gremlins. “How do you like that, ugly green gummy bears? Come play with me now.”
“Hare!” Scrooge called back his friends. “We need to go while we can.”
“But they’ll just wait until the fire goes out and follow us.” Hare hobbled back. Adrenaline still had us all in denial over how hurt we truly were. “It’s not like we can wait until morning… when it’s safe.”
Shit. He was right.
Scrooge made a deep noise in the back of his throat, rubbing his head.
“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your nose.” Pen hit his beak, rocking side to side with his tune.
“Jesus… I think Pen is smarter than all of us combined,” I muttered, turning around, knowing Scrooge heard me. All of us were zapped of everything, even rationally thinking. Thankfully Penguin’s song slapped me with a big fat duh, letting some sense back in.
Seizing the bottle where I left it, a quarter of alcohol still swishing around the bottom, I darted forward, a torch blazing in my hand.
“Cover me!” I yelled to Scrooge and Hare, and they flanked me, not questioning what I was doing. “Want to chargrill or roast tonight, Hare?”
Hare’s eyes slid to me, his whiskers twitching. “Barbeque.”
“Good choice.” I flicked my wrists, the alcohol spraying over the group. “No wine, olive oil, or salt and pepper, but they’ve been marinated.”
“Perfect.” Hare’s voice was low and cold.
“Have at it, chef.” I nodded to him.
A cruel grin cut over his face as he dipped his torch into the pack of gremlins; their curiosity and need for our flesh kept them here. They were about to regret their decision.
A roar of fire exploded as Hare shoved flames at the group near him.
Shrill screams ricocheted off the snowy mountains; chills slid down my back. Scrooge and I dipped our torches into the cluster, bursting the creatures into fire. Guttural shrieks of pain, fear, and death filled the night sky as the blaze spread, leaping from one to the next.
“Come on. Let’s get far from here.” Scrooge tugged on my arm, knowing this was the time to make a break for it. The ones not on fire had fled in fear, but they might decide to come back.
I nodded, spun around, and headed for Pen, Scrooge for Dee. Again, my brain didn’t accept she might no longer be with us. Scrooge gently picked her up with one arm, the other still holding the torch.
Pen reached up for me, humming and jabbering away. Dum resembled a zombie as he trailed after Scrooge, empty of the light he usually had inside.
“Hare, come on!” I yelled back at the rabbit.
He stared at the lump of crispy bodies burning in front of him before yelling out, “Bon appétit, ugly green fuckers!” He hopped after Scrooge, leaving me to take up the rear.
I glanced back a final time before our group disappeared down the trail. Through the smoky haze back on the rock, Stripe stood there, staring at me, abhorrence cutting into me like a knife. He lifted his top lip in a snarl.
I sucked in a breath, gripped Penguin tighter to me, and I ran.
Chapter 21
We scuttled up the trail for what seemed like hours, when it might have only been one. The basic need to survive pushed us on, but the desperation to find a place to rest and evaluate Dee nipped at our heels even more than the fear of the gremlins tracking us down or falling in an LSS. Staying tight to the trail in single file, Scrooge kept us from plunging into one of those death traps.
I hoped Dee was still alive, but by Scrooge’s demeanor when he glanced back at me, I realized if she was, it was only a matter of time before she’d no longer be with us. Her life was in peril, and by the way Scrooge, Hare, Dum, and I stumbled and drooped with each step, we might not be far behind.
If anything came at us now, we’d be easy pickings. I felt pretty sure we had wounded and cut the gremlins numbers so drastically it would take the small group a while to seek us out, if at all. But I knew there were other things out there, hungry for weakened prey.
My arms ached with Pen’s weight; every step I took, my legs turned into blocks of cement, my arms shaking with fatigue.
Reaching a peak, Scrooge stopped, his head jutting around.
“What?” I gulped, scared to know.
“I recognize this place.” His head kept moving around, taking in the scenery. It looked no different to me, but I was barely taking in anything besides moving my feet one in front of the other. “Yes.” He nodded, pointing his torch toward a cluster of snow-covered boulders. “Nearby, there is an abandoned cave.” Scrooge hiked Dee higher up in his arms, his entire frame sagging each time. “If it’s still there.”
“What do you mean still there?”
“This area likes to change and move around,” he explained. “Let’s hope since I was here last it hasn’t moved.”
That reminded me of the holly maze when I had first arrived. Every time I went around a corner or looked behind me, the course had altered.
“Let me go first. Find it.” He turned to me, holding Dee out toward me. “It’s not on the trail, so there could be LSS.”
“No.” I shook my head. “You aren’t going alone then. What if something happens to you?”
“I’ll go with you.” Hare straightened his slumping body.
“No, my friend. I want you to stay here. Protect them.”
“Scrooge…” My heart pounded in my chest at the thought of anything happening to him.
“Ms. Liddell. Please.” He peered down at Dee. “We don’t have time to argue. I will be careful.”
Biting back the need to fight him, I set Pen down in the snow. He twittered and flicked his fin at the powder with jubilance, the only one unaffected by what had happened.
“Wait here.” Scrooge’s gaze met mine, placing Dee’s sagging body in my arms, making my knees bend with the weight. “I’ll be back.”
“You promise?” I stared up in his eyes. In that moment I realized even the idea of never seeing him again dug a chasm of fear in my soul.
He took a step closer. My head tipped back, but he didn’t touch me, but the intensity of him felt like fingers running over my skin.
“I promise. I’ll come back for you.” His eyes searched mine, tapering the air going through my esophagus. “I’ll be back for all of you.”
With that he circled around and vanished behind the formation of rocks, which ascended into the air. The moment he left, the weight of his absence snaked around my shoulders. My head darted around; I felt something was already moving in on us.
“Ass-holly… he always has this overbearing need to protect and save us all.” Hare wiggled his nose with irritation, slowly moving around our small group with his torch, sniffing the air, examining every inch of darkness around us. Dum worked the circle the opposite way, but he continued to sneak glances at the precious item in my arms.
I stared down at her scratched-up face, blood drying her hair to her skin. Thankfully, she did have a pulse, but it was barely visible against her neck. “Dee told me more about how Scrooge was the one who captured you guys.”
“Yeah. But he’s the one who needs to let it go. We all do things to survive… and he has paid his dues,” Hare replied.
“With Belle and Timmy?”
Hare stopped, jerking his head to me.
“She told me.” I lowered myself on my knees, no longer able to hold her weight in my arms. Her limbs hung loosely, brushing the snow. Dum made a wretched sound, turning his back to the both of us, his frame quivering with sobs.
“He lives with the images of us being tortured and Belle being killed, but Timmy was beyond what any person should have to go through. He’s always held guilt for Timmy’s sickness, but losing him that way? It’s not a surprise he tried to end the pain.”
“What do you mean?”
“Scrooge tried to end his life… a few times.”
“What?” Horror filled my lungs with ice chunks.
“Never worked. Think deep down he really didn’t want to. Plus, knowing him, he’d think it was the easy way out, and he must torture himself with their memory for the rest of his days instead.”
“I can see why he blames himself, but really it’s the Queen. She killed his wife and son.”
“Oh.” Hare looked back at me. “The Queen didn’t kill his son.”
“What? I thought…” I shook my head. “I thought Tim died?”
“He did.” Hare nodded. “But in the end, it wasn’t the Queen. It was Scrooge who killed his own son.”
“Hare!” A deep voice rumbled through the air, jolting my attention to the man standing on the boulders, staring down at us, ire igniting his blue eyes with fire. My mouth parted to speak, but Scrooge cut in before I could come up with a syllable.
“Follow. Me.” Scrooge motioned for us to follow.
There had to be a reason he murdered his own son, right? There had to be. Whatever circumstances brought him to do it, I couldn’t imagine the hell he lived in every moment of every day over his decision.
Silently, we made our way to him. Without even a glance at me, he took Dee, curling her to his chest and taking off. I picked up Pen, who muttered “The Night Before Christmas” in my ear the whole way, which I had hated since I was a child. But it seemed to comfort him even the third time around.
Finally, we reached a large cave that should have been a moment of relief but was anything but. Scrooge laid Dee down on a tattered blanket balled up in the corner of the cave, indicating this place had been used before.
“You sure nothing lives in here?” The torches lit up the space, flickering dark shadows in the corners. It appeared at one time it had been very much inhabited. A few huge carved forks made from wood lay close to a deteriorating blanket, bones sprinkled around, and the smell of carcasses sprang off the walls like wet paint. “An abominable snowman or something?”
“Not anymore.” Scrooge brushed softly at Dee’s face, pushing the encrusted tresses from her skin, examining her wounds.
“You’re saying there had been?” I set Pen on the ground, watching him waddle off like a toddler not completely sure of its footing.
“The Queen has taken possession of a lot of things.” Scrooge’s focus was still completely on Dee, his world almost revolving around her.
“Is-Is she all right?” I asked, moving over to him.
Dum pranced around Scrooge, his gaze on his sister filled with grief.
Scrooge’s mouth turned down. “She’s far from all right. But she’s alive. That’s all we can ask for until when get her help.”
We had nothing—no food, no medication, no supplies, and almost no clothes left on any of us.
“No. No, no, no. There’s no up or down without her.” Dum wrung his hands, turning in circles, chanting frantically. “Dee-Puck-Dee-Puck-Dee-Puck.”
“Hey. She’s strong. Unbelievably so.” Scrooge gripped Dum, trying to calm him down. “The best thing for her is to lie with her. Let her know you’re here. She needs you right now.”
Dum took a breath and nodded, tears streaking down his face. His wounds seemed to look better than before. He crawled down with his sister, draping an arm around his twin with a mournful sigh. Pen climbed onto the blanket on the other side of her and cuddled in, nuzzling his beak into her shoulder like it would give her solace.
Scrooge scoured his face, standing up.
“She needs help now,” I whispered to him, afraid a full night without care might kill her.
“What do you want me to do, Ms. Liddell?” His nose wrinkled up, challenging, his body almost against mine. “You seem to be the one who has strangeness happening around her. Why don’t you get us out of here?”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
“How exactly?”
“I-I don’t know.” I ran my hand through my knotted locks, my eyes not able to meet his, a tiny inkling of fear coiling around my abdomen. It was silly, but the notion he killed his own son, that he was capable of doing that, skittered doubt through me. “It’s been happening since I arrived. When I’m most in dire trouble, it will help me.”
“What. Will. Help. You?” Scrooge’s bitten and lacerated torso, red with blood and injury, bumped against mine. His wounds looked a little better than I first thought, but his skin touching mine completely muddled my head.
“It’s-It’s…” I stepped back.
“What?”
“Magic.” I flung my arms. “I don’t know. These items, the cookies, hot chocolate, those vials, show up saying eat me or drink me… and they seem to protect me. Save me.”
“Like the one I found in your pocket in the dungeon?”
“Exactly.” I nodded. “I can’t tell you anything except it seems to know when I’m really in need and saves my life.”
“The guillotine?”
“Yeah. I ate a little cookie a second before the blade dropped, and it bounced right off me.”
He lifted his chin. “I thought it looked odd but figured it was Rudy who saved you.”
“I think he knows.” I licked my dry broken lip. “About the magic.”
“Rudy knows?” Scrooge’s eyebrows lifted, his nose flaring.
“He acted as if he didn’t when I asked him about it at the cabin, but he was the one who encouraged me to wish for help at the guillotine.” Sorrow at the notion he was no longer with us blinked at my lids. “I thought it was him who was helping me. But I guess not.”
Could he help me if he was dead?
“You care for him.” Scrooge’s gaze moved down me.
“Of course I do. Did…” I flustered. “I care for all of you.”
“Really?” A feral grin ghosted Scrooge’s mouth as he darted in closer to me. It was completely instinct, my gut reacting as my body stepped back, shrinking away with fright.
“Aaaahhh.” Scrooge smirked, his eyes sliding down my body. “Looks more like fear, Ms. Liddell.”
“I-I didn’t mean—” Shame poured down on me, rose up spreading over my body.
“Your subconscious seems to be smarter than you.” He leaned into me, his breath grazing down my neck. “Listen to it, Ms. Liddell. I am the monster you hear about in your fables. Actually, I’m even worse. I am the murderer they say I am.” He rounded back, grabbing the forks off the ground and stomping toward Hare, who stood at the cave entrance on guard.
“Get some sleep.” He nudged Hare. “I’ll take over the watch. We’ll take off in a few hours.”
“You need rest more than I do.” Hare tried to fight back, but his drooping lids gave him away.
>
“Sure, buddy.” Scrooge pointed him back to the blankets, where Pen, Dum, and Dee slept.
“Okay, okay… You get first watch. But wake me up soon, so you can rest too.” He passed Scrooge a torch and dragged himself to the cluster of bodies, collapsing along with them. They looked like a litter of puppies all snuggled around each other for comfort and warmth.
I stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do with myself.
“You too, Ms. Liddell.” He didn’t even look at me as he settled down against the opening, staring out into the night, the crude fork in one hand, the torch in the other. “We have a strenuous hike up to the top tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow.” I snorted. “What is that? How do you know what’s up from down here? Or today from tomorrow?”
“It is whatever we decide. With no day does time exist? If everything changes and moves, what does it matter which way is up or down?” He placed the torch on the ground next to him, the flames licking up like a small campfire. “Stop looking at the world from your fixed standpoint. For all you know, you are walking upside down this whole time.”
I didn’t doubt if I was.
“Go to sleep, Ms. Liddell,” he ordered. “You need rest.”
A heavy sigh dragged me to the other torch set down in the middle of the cave. I was not able to fight him. The blanket was covered with little figures, their little family nestled together, creating the ever-present line between them and me. They had fought, suffered, and stood by each other for a long time. I was only passing through, a flicker in their memory in years to come.
Christmas nettles… The idea stung more than I thought it should. I already felt such a strong attachment to the group. I lowered myself to the hard, lumpy ground, tucking my arm underneath my head, rocks stabbing into my aching side. At least it wasn’t cold. I could be thankful for that.
My hunger had long disappeared; exhaustion ruling over everything. With the soft sounds of snoring near me, the flicker of fire, and the solace of Scrooge watching over us, it didn’t take me long for my lids to close, falling into the arms of sleep.
Chapter 22
DESCENDING INTO MADNESS Page 16