The Yellow-Bellied Scaredy Cat

by Amy Boyles

  I tightened my hands to fists. Never, not ever had I been in this situation before—wondering who my soul mate was. I suppose that was because I had never been faced with the possibility that I was in a relationship with him.

  Now, finally, I had an inkling of understanding of what Kimberly Peterson went through. The idea that I had, at my fingertips, the power to know who the love of my life was, it was inspiring. I wanted to know; I really did. I wanted to know, and I wanted to know right now.

  “Pepper,” I said, “you have made me want to know the truth.”

  Her eyes widened, and I had the feeling she had sobered quite quickly under my own realization. “Really?” she said.

  I nodded. “I want to know.”

  The next thing I knew, Pepper had me by the hand and was dragging me back toward the house. “Me too, I want to know.” She smiled gleefully. “Let’s go find out.”

  Charming

  I steeled myself and headed back toward the house. Pepper stood in front of the door, her lips taut. “Are you ready to find out?”

  I nodded. “I’m ready. I’m more than ready.”

  “Okay, then let’s get inside.”

  She started to open the door when a scream sounded in the air. It was guttural and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

  “It came from the carnival,” I whispered.

  Before I could say another word, the front door flew open and Thorne stood in the entrance, his shirt unbuttoned to the navel.

  Saliva nearly dripped from my lips at the sight of his ribbed abdominals. It was like looking at the holiest of holies—okay, not really, but almost.

  All reasonable words left my mouth as I gaped, open-lipped, at Thorne. “It came from the carnival,” I muttered dumbly, meaning the scream.

  He quickly buttoned his shirt. “That’s what I thought.”

  Suddenly Leopold, Axel and Betty, who was pushing down the sleeves of her shirt, appeared. I said a silent prayer to the Almighty, thanking him that Betty was pulling down her sleeves instead of buttoning up her shirt.

  Rose and Mama appeared last. “Charming,” Mama said, “was it the carnival?”

  “It was.”

  “Then what are we standing around doing?” she said stiffly. “Are we trying to catch flies with our open mouths? Come on, let’s get over there and see what’s happening.”

  “We’ll split up,” Thorne said. “Charming, you’re with me.”

  Pepper went with Axel, Betty with Rose, and Mama with Leopold.

  “We all need to enter from different sides,” Axel explained, “so that we’re not approaching all together.”

  Thorne nodded. “We’ll improvise that when we get there. Let’s go.”

  We headed off into the night. Thorne pulled me toward the side of the carnival. A steel fence-like barricade wrapped around the perimeter. The booths were butted up against the fence, making it almost impossible to find a space to wedge through, but I was with a vampire and vampires were nothing if not resourceful.

  We found a dark patch, a place where the light didn’t hit us. “This will do,” Thorne said.

  “For what?”

  Next thing I knew, Thorne yanked a piece of the fencing up as if it weighed no more than dental floss. “Go on,” he commanded.

  I did as he said. When we were both inside, Thorne dropped the piece of fencing back into place. Another scream sliced the air.

  “Hurry,” I said.

  Thorne grabbed my hand, and we headed in the direction of the sound. We ran out from behind one of the booths. Bright lights splashed all around us. People raced by.

  Thorne grabbed one of them by the hand, a young woman. What’s going on?”

  She took one look at him and screamed. “Stay away from me! Don’t hurt me!”

  Thorne dropped her arm, and she ran away, into the crowd of folks, bumping into a man along the way. He took one look at her and screamed, yelling for her not to hurt him.

  I shot Thorne a concerned look. “Does this remind you of something else?”

  He nodded. “The strong man? Yes, it does.”

  It looked like Arnold had struck again, except this time he had infected half of the carnival goers. “We’ve got to find Arnold and fast, before he turns everyone here into some sort of scaredy-cat.”

  Thorne nodded. “Let’s go.”

  We raced through the crowd. Whereas most of the carnival goers were trying to head out of the place, we were heading in. We searched booths and rings, looking for Arnold but not having any luck.

  We rounded a corner and found Betty and Rose sniffing around the cotton candy machine.

  As we neared, we heard Rose say, “Well, he’s not in here.”

  “Who isn’t?” I asked.

  “Well, Arnold, of course,” she said, exasperated. “Who else would I be looking for?”

  Honestly I had no idea, but from what I knew of Rose, she could be looking for anyone.

  Betty spoke. “When we got inside, we stopped one of the folks and they were so scared, we realized that they had been infected.”

  “What do you think has happened?” Thorne said.

  Betty rubbed her chin. “In the last town we were at, the power of the heart became volatile. It’s possible that Arnold can no longer control the power. The problem is, he’s hurting anyone in his wake. We’ve got to stop this before we turn into scaredy-cats too.”

  Thorne tugged me. “We’ll call you when we find him.”

  Roe nodded. “Be careful.”

  And without another moment we were off again, this time heading into the depths of the carnival, past the tents and booths, to the trailers, where we knew the workers slept. I hadn’t seen Samson, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t around.

  I was about to ask Thorne if we should start searching them when he whisked open one of the trailer’s doors.

  “Knock much?” I said, following him inside.

  “I’m the law. I don’t have to knock.”

  I frowned. “I’m pretty sure that means you actually really do have to knock and possibly get a warrant.”

  He grunted in response. Figuring the subject was closed, I focused my attention on the trailer. It was a simple construct, with eight beds inside, four of them bunks.

  “Do you see anything—a picture or anything that looks like Arnold?” Thorne asked.

  I scanned the shelves and the beds. There was very little in the way of personal mementos, but there were pictures taped above each of the beds. I ran my fingers over them, smoothing the shots, so I could see the figures better.

  “No, no, no,” I murmured, walking farther into the bowels of the trailer. The very last bed I encountered only had one picture on it—one of a young man with his arm around an older woman. She must have been his mother. I peered closer.

  “This is it,” I said, turning toward Thorne. “This is Arnold’s bed.”

  Thorne strode over and started searching. He ran his fingers over the covers and lifted the mattress.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “Anything,” he said, “but especially a piece of rock.”

  “Do you think Arnold would have used the power on those people and then returned back here and deposited the heart?”

  He swept his hand under the bed. “Anything is a possibility.”

  Not one to argue, I helped Thorne look. Granted, I didn’t exactly know what I was searching for.

  In my experience, magical objects had a way of letting themselves be known. They tended to hum or buzz when you held them. It was a rare magical object that didn’t ping with power.

  I checked the closets and the shelves but came up empty-handed. “There’s nothing here.”

  Thorne grunted. “Let’s get back outside.”

  We left the trailer and headed back into the crowd. The carnival was next to empty, and rightly so. Once people start running and screaming from a place, that tended to kill a business—any business.

  Thorne grabbed th
e carnival worker he saw. “Have you seen Arnold? He works here.”

  The man looked confused for a moment and then shook his head. “No, I haven’t seen him.”

  Thorne let him go with a growl. I placed my hand on Thorne. “We’ll find him.”

  “Thorne! Charming!”

  We turned around to see Samson Magnum striding up. “It’s about time the police arrived,” he said to Thorne. “I called about all the commotion going on here.”

  “Have you seen Arnold?” Thorne asked.

  Samson shook his head, his eyes filling with concern. “No, why?”

  “He has something to do with this,” Thorne said. “Do you know where he could be?”

  Samson shook his head. “How could Arnold have something to do with this? It’s like whatever infected Giorgio spread to folks who attended.”

  I placed a hand on his arm. “I know, that’s why we have to find Arnold.”

  Samson nodded. “I’ll start searching.” Samson took a few steps away and yelled loud enough for anyone in the vicinity to hear him. “Everyone, search for Arnold! We must find him.”

  All the carnival workers around nodded before heading off to search.

  Thorne directed his next question to Samson. “What happened here?”

  Samson strode forward, looking very commanding. “Everything was going perfectly. We had hundreds of happy folks enjoying the festivities and the shows. I was doing my magic act when suddenly people started screaming.” He raked his fingers over his tired-looking face. “It was just like today, only worse. This time there wasn’t just one person screaming, there was an entire chorus. So many screams filled the night that I stopped the show and ran out.”

  A look so distraught crossed his face that I rubbed Samson’s shoulder. “Sorry.”

  He shook his head. “As soon as I was outside, I saw it—people running in waves, screaming. I touched a man and asked what had happened. He ran away, told me not to hurt him. It was exactly the same thing that had happened already.” He cocked an eye at me. “And you’re saying Arnold has something to do with this?”

  I exhaled. “Yes, we believe so.”

  He nodded and sadness crossed his face. “Then we must find him before I’m ruined.”

  I wanted to ask Samson about Kimberly and if she had helped him with his magic show tonight, but it was the wrong time. With all the chaos, it didn’t seem right for me to ask about her.

  But she still hadn’t returned my call, and it worried me.

  “This carnival isn’t that big; where could he be?” Thorne growled.

  I didn’t know, and Samson seemed so shaken by what had happened that I didn’t want to press him.

  Thorne glanced at Samson as if he was about to do exactly that, when Pepper stepped out from the shadows.

  A troubled look crossed her face. We all stopped, and cold dread washed down my spine.

  “We found something,” she said.

  Thorne and I exchanged a look. I touched Samson’s shoulder. “Maybe you should stay here.”

  He shook his head. “This is my carnival. Whatever you have found, I want to see it.”

  Thorne nodded. “He comes.”

  We followed Pepper into an open patch of grass. I worried my lip, wondering if Axel would be nearby. He was without his mustache and suit, but did he still look enough like John Brick out of his disguise that Samson would recognize him? I had the feeling that he did, and I worried that we would be discovered for trying to trick the carnival owner.

  At the same time, with all the commotion and screaming, surely Samson would be too distracted to focus on Axel and try to piece that puzzle together.

  I exhaled a sharp breath and decided that if Samson did recognize Axel, we would say he had trimmed his mustache, simple as that.

  All those thoughts filtered into my brain as Pepper led us through the patch of grass to an area behind one of the booths. Betty and Rose were there, standing to one side. Their faces were pinched with worry.

  “Well?” Samson said. “What did you find?”

  Betty moved out of the way. “That’s what we found.”

  When she moved, she revealed that she and Rose were standing in front of a body—Arnold’s body. His lifeless eyes stared up at the night sky, and his jaw hung open.

  Tear pricked my eyes, and I shook my head. “He’s dead?” I whispered.

  Thorne dropped to the body and placed a hand on his throat. “He’s dead.”

  “But how?” I said.

  Betty rubbed her chin. “See that expression on his face—those big eyes and his mouth hanging open?”

  “Yes.”

  “This fellow here,” she said, “was scared to death. I don’t what he saw, but whatever it was, it frightened the life right out of him.”

  Samson knelt beside Arnold and started crying. I shot Pepper a look full of questions, wanting to know if they had found the heart.

  She shook her head sadly and stepped away from the circle. I followed her. Pepper said in a low voice, “We didn’t find it. The heart is still missing.”

  Pepper

  Axel had slipped into the shadows before Samson arrived, looking to see if anyone lurked nearby.

  I had a feeling he wouldn’t find anyone, and when Betty announced that Arnold had died of fright, that sealed my theory.

  Samson, when he finished crying, rose and spoke to Thorne. “We have to find out who did this, who has made everyone afraid.”

  Thorne pulled a phone from his pocket. “I’m calling for backup right now. Okay, y’all, it’s time to seal off the area.”

  Charming crossed to Thorne. “What do you want us to do? Leave?”

  He grunted. “I need you to stand out front, where we found Pepper, and direct my men in when they get here.”

  “We’re already here.” A tall vampire with a smirk on his face approached. “Heard the screaming and I came to investigate.”

  “Thank you, Peek,” Thorne said. “Okay, everybody, let’s make some room.”

  So we left as the police took over. Charming looked like she didn’t want to leave Thorne, and I couldn’t blame her. Samson Magnum had a sneaky look in his eyes. Oh, he’d wept over Arnold’s body, but there was something dramatic about it, as if it was a performance and his tears were no more than the kind that crocodiles shed.

  But we did as Thorne said, and moved away from the scene, letting the police take over. We found Leopold and Glinda in the carnival and told them what was going on.

  “I’ll go help,” Leopold said, and he took off in the direction of the body.

  The rest of us headed out of the carnival. Charming’s face was filled with worry. I crossed to her and rubbed her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded, but her expression didn’t change. “There’s just some strange things going on. Kimberly never called me back, Arnold is now dead, without the heart on him but yet we saw several people running and screaming—it doesn’t make sense.”

  “Where is it?” Rose said. “That’s what I’d like to know.”

  “It has to still be there, inside the carnival somewhere,” Betty added. “It couldn’t have just up and disappeared. Pepper, what were you feeling back there?”

  I frowned, trying to find a way to explain exactly what I had experienced. “Well, I could feel the hum of the heart, but I wasn’t sure exactly where it was coming from. It obviously wasn’t on Arnold’s body. We searched it when we found him,” I said to Charming, “but didn’t find it.”

  “So it must still be in the carnival,” Charming murmured. “Do y’all think someone stole if from him?”

  I cringed. It wasn’t an idea that I wanted to entertain, but it was the most obvious choice. “Probably,” I admitted. “Axel stayed behind to see if he could locate it.”

  “I was worried that Samson would recognize him,” Charming said.

  “Me too,” I murmured. “That’s one reason why he left after we found Arnold’s body.”

  “Well,” Glind
a said cheerfully, “with as many vampires as there are working on the case, surely they’ll dig up something, and hopefully that something will include the heart fire.”

  “I hope so,” I said.

  We reached the house, and everyone went in except for me.

  “What are you doing, kid?” Betty asked.

  I sat on the bench and looked out toward the carnival. “I want to wait for Axel.”

  She patted my shoulder. “Don’t stay out too late.”

  I looked up at her and smiled. “I won’t.”

  Charming opened the front door, and the cat dashed outside. “Here, kitty,” I said.

  The cat ran over and jumped onto the bench. I extended my hand, and she rubbed her nose against it. A purr burst from her and I smiled.

  “Aren’t you the sweetest thing?” I said.

  I am, she replied.

  I laughed, and then I remembered that the cat had come from the carnival. “Did you know Arnold?”

  She blinked at me, her green eyes shining. He fed me. He is nice.

  Was, I nearly corrected, but I kept my mouth shut.

  Did something happen to him?

  I cringed. “Yes, he was hurt tonight, hurt badly.”

  The cat sat back on her haunches and stared up at me. He was my friend. Tell me what happened.

  So I did. I explained about the heart and the fear factor that had hit the carnival, and that Arnold had died from fear.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said.

  The cat jumped on the top of the bench and balanced there, staring out at the carnival. I’m going to find out what happened. You can count on me.

  What a brave little cat. “What’s your name?”

  The cat stared at me and with all seriousness said, Mr. Jingles. That’s what the lady with the pink hair named me.

  The cat must have been referring to Rose. But the cat was no male. It was a female. “And do you like that name?”

  The cat blinked her green eyes at me. Yes, I do.

  I bit back a laugh at the idea of calling a female a male name and said, “Well, Mr. Jingles. If you find out anything, come and get me. My name is Pepper.”