Faery Worlds - Six Complete Novels

by Tara Maya, Elle Casey, J L Bryan, Anthea Sharp, Jenna Elizabeth Johnson, Alexia Purdy (epub)

  "Don't breathe through your nose. You'll get used to it."

  I looked at her in horror. "Used to it? I think not." But I held my breath and went in anyway; I really had to go bad.

  I tried not to touch anything, which was difficult because it was such a small space. I peed faster than I've ever peed before, and jumped out before I had even zipped up my pants. Tony had already done his business around the corner. This was not the first time in my life I wished I could pee standing up.

  "Well, that was an adventure," I said, praying the smell of the craphole wasn't in my clothes or hair.

  Becky smiled. "Life is never boring when you're on Jared's crew."

  "Jared's crew?" I asked.

  "We just call ourselves that, like a joke kind of. Jared is our unofficial leader. He found all of us and the warehouse. He's a good guy; he makes sure we stay safe and somehow get fed every day."

  "How did he find all of you?" asked Tony, apparently as curious as I was about how this particular group of teens had ended up together.

  "Oh, I don't know. He found me panhandling downtown. Samantha was in a fight outside a club one night when Jared found her."

  "Surprise, surprise," I said. She seemed like a scrapper.

  "She's not bad once you get to know her; she's just protective of our space. I think she's had some hard times ... we all have." She looked sideways at me. "Haven't you? Isn't that why you're here? Not many kids end up on the streets of Miami if they have a great life back home."

  Tony opened his mouth to say something, but I didn't want this conversation going too far down confession lane, so I jumped in. "We just needed to get out of town for a few days, no big deal really. We'll be leaving soon."

  Becky shrugged. "Whatever. Jared brought you to the warehouse, so that means you're part of the crew for as long as you want to be ... as long as you follow the rules anyway."

  Okay, here comes the good stuff ... where they tell us we have to sacrifice a chicken or something to be a part of their club. "What rules?" I asked.

  "No fighting, no drugs, no alcohol, no stealing, no bringing in strangers until Jared has checked them out ... and no littering."

  I decided to test her. "What about the chicken sacrifices?" I wasn't sure exactly what the pass/fail on this question was, but it came out of my mouth before I could stop it, so I went with it.

  Becky laughed. "No chicken sacrifices. No animals, actually; we don't want any barking or whatever telling people we're here. We have to lay low so we don't get kicked out."

  "Seems reasonable," said Tony, obviously thinking out loud.

  "Becky, will you excuse us a sec - I want to talk to Tony privately ... no offense."

  "Oh, don't worry, none taken. I'll meet you back at the warehouse; it's just up there on the right." She smiled like a fool and then took off jogging towards the door we could see from where we were standing.

  I stopped, grabbing Tony by the arm. "So, what do you think?" I asked.

  "I don't know; they seem nice. They shared their dinner with us. And they don't sacrifice animals, so that's a point in their favor." Tony smiled at me. "I can't believe you said that ... no wait ... I can believe you said that."

  "Yeah, well, you would have been pretty upset if they were animal sacrificers and they just sprung it on us later."

  Tony laughed. "You're nuts. So are we staying with them or what?"

  I thought about it for about two seconds, but I couldn't come up with any better options. "At least for tonight, since you don't have a friggin' clue what we're doing or where we're going or even how we're going to afford to feed ourselves."

  "Yeah, well, we had to get outta there. And we still haven't really talked about why, Jayne."

  I had to shut him up because I didn't want to talk about this issue we'd been dancing around. "Yeah, you and your Rambo moves with a-hole Flowers ... "

  It was too dark now for me to see Tony's face, but I knew he was giving me one of his parent looks.

  "That's not what I was talking about and you know it."

  I pulled my phone out of my bag. "I have to text my mom. I'm telling her I'm staying at your place."

  "You've never stayed the night at my place before. Think she'll buy it?"

  "She doesn't care, Tony, trust me."

  I sent off the text and a few seconds later I got 'OK' in return from her number. That's it. I shoved the hurt feelings down deep because I was not ready or willing to deal with them right now.

  I showed him my screen. "See?"

  Tony shrugged. "I can't do that with my parents. I'm going to tell them I'm at Robert's house - he'll cover for me." Tony sent off the texts to his parents and his chess club buddy, putting his phone back in his bag once he'd received confirmation that everything was okay. "We're all set."

  I walked towards the warehouse, and Tony followed, saying, "We have to talk about this other issue, Jayne."

  "I'm not talking to you about that crap right now. What I want to know is, first of all, what is with the no littering rule? And second of all, do I have to sleep on one of those gnarly sleeping mats they had? Because I'm already feeling itchy just thinking about it."

  Tony jogged to catch up to me. "I think Jared is a tree-hugger or something so that's why he doesn't litter; and so you know, I brought two ultra-thin sleeping bags from my dad's camping stuff. If you want, we can just grab a cardboard thing for insulation and sleep in the bags on top."

  I threw my arm across Tony's shoulders. "That is why you are my best friend."

  "Because I bring sleeping bags when we run away?"

  "Yes. Because even when you have your head totally up your butt and drag me to Miami with only fifty bucks in your pocket, you still make sure that I have a nice, clean place to sleep."

  "Did I mention that I also brought a blow up mini pillow for your head?"

  "Did I mention that I love you?"

  We reached the door and stood there in the near dark, facing each other.

  "So we're doing this? We're going to sleep with Jared's crew tonight?" I asked.

  "Yep, for tonight. Then we decide what to do in the morning."

  I banged on the door for admittance. "It's us - Tony and Jayne."

  The lock clicked open and the door swung in a few inches to reveal Samantha standing in the opening. "Oh. You're back."

  "Disappointed?" I asked, ready to call her bluff. I knew how this crew operated. Jared called the shots, not her.

  She snorted, stepping aside, opening the door the rest of the way. I thought as I walked by I saw her smile, but I couldn't be sure. Her face was quickly hidden in shadows as she moved to close and lock the door behind us.

  Chapter Five

  "Holy crap, Tones, my back is killing me." I tried to move out of my sleeping bag, but my body didn't want to cooperate. The floor was concrete and the cardboard box that had been my mattress was useless. My teeth felt like they had sweaters on them, and my tongue was covered in some kind of heinous goo. How do homeless people do this every day? I decided then and there that I needed to not be homeless - or at least be homeless for as short a period of time as possible.

  "Mine too," he groaned out. "I think this is what arthritis feels like."

  Everyone around us was waking up. Jared had gone to the door, propping it open with a rock, letting the sunshine in.

  "Another beautiful day in paradise," he said, pulling a cigarette pack out of his pocket.

  I walked up to look out the door. "Those things'll kill ya, you know."

  "We're all going to die sooner or later," he said, lighting the end of it. "Some of us much later."

  "Better later than sooner," was Tony's reply as he walked by both of us and out into the sun. "Where's a good place to get some food for breakfast?"

  The others joined us outside, rubbing faces and heads, trying to wake up the rest of the way. Finn was the first one to respond.

  "There's a 7-11 four blocks thatta way." He gestured off towards the train station.
<
br />   "Chase likes to go to the IHOP which is about a quarter mile that way; but it costs more money," said Becky, smiling already even though it was only eight in the morning.

  Why is she so happy all the time? Sometimes happy people annoy me this early in the morning.

  Chase just stood there saying nothing, swinging his torso left and right to crack his back. Samantha stood apart from the rest of the group, playing with the tip of a blade sticking out of her Swiss army pocketknife. She and Chase made a good couple - a silent, angry couple.

  I looked around and realized someone was missing. "Where's Spike?"

  "He'll be here soon. He's a night owl; he usually sleeps during the day," explained Becky.

  Sure enough, no sooner were the words out of her mouth, when Mr. Dark and Sexy came around the corner, walking towards us.

  "Hey, guys, what's up?"

  "Nothin'," answered Becky. "Anything interesting happen last night?"

  "Only this!" he said excitedly, pulling out a piece of folded-up paper from one of his pockets. He handed it to Jared, who put his cigarette in his mouth and went quiet for a few seconds, reading it.

  "What is it?" asked Finn.

  "A job we can all do, and it pays good too," said Spike.

  "Where'd you find this?" asked Jared.

  "It was hanging in the laundry place we use, the Wash-n-Fold over on fifty-second."

  Jared took the cigarette out of his mouth and rolled it between his fingers, causing the entire end of hot ash to fall off. He put the butt in his pocket.

  Why in the heck does he keep doing that? I was going to have to ask him one of these days.

  Samantha walked over to stand by Jared's side, looking over his shoulder. "What is it?"

  Jared read aloud from the paper.

  "Institutional clinical trial, seeking physically fit test subjects to participate in fitness activities/focus group study. Compensation $500 paid to those who complete the test. Time required: five days. Must be eighteen or over to participate."

  "What kind of fitness activities?" asked Samantha.

  "Five hundred bucks? That's a lotta spendin' cash," said Finn, obviously impressed.

  Jared continued. "Informational meeting and pre-screening to take place on March third at one o'clock p.m., Miami Hyatt, Hacienda Meeting room. Sponsored by One Eleven Group."

  "That's today," said Becky.

  Jared stared at the paper. I watched his eyes go back and forth, re-reading it several times. He sighed, folding it up and putting it in his back pocket.

  "Whaddya think?" asked Finn.

  Everyone waited for Jared's answer. I looked at Tony, and he shrugged his shoulders slightly. I was thinking about the five hundred bucks. Tony and I were pretty physically fit, probably him more than me, and it wasn't like we had anything else to do. Plus, we needed some money if we were going to work on that not-being-homeless thing, which was pretty high on my priority list right now.

  "Let's have a meeting," said Jared, turning to go back into the warehouse. Everyone but Tony and I followed him in.

  "What do you think?" I asked Tony.

  "Might as well go to the informational meeting ... we need some money."

  "Yeah, that's what I was thinking."

  Becky stuck her head out the door. "Are you guys coming?"

  Tony and I shared a look and then went inside. We weren't officially part of the crew, but I wanted to hear what they were going to do.

  "So, show of hands, who thinks we should go check it out?" asked Jared.

  Everyone but Chase raised their hands.

  "Chase, what's up?" asked Jared.

  Everyone stared at the guy who never talked. This should be interesting. Maybe he's one of those guys who only speaks every once in a while, but when he does it's really earth-shattering.

  "Dunno," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

  Or not.

  "Come on, you must be thinking something, otherwise you would've raised your hand."

  "Just seems like a lot of money for a fitness test."

  "That's what I was thinking, too," said Jared, sounding a little bit concerned.

  Becky looked at Tony and me. "What about you guys? Are you going to go?"

  I looked at Tony and he nodded his head, so I said, "We're going to go check it out, see what's what. It's just an informational meeting - can't hurt just to go hear what they have to say."

  Jared looked at his crew to gauge their reactions. Everyone seemed to be in agreement. "Unless anyone has any objections, I say we all go to the meeting, like Jayne and Tony are, see what's going on with this test and if it's something we want to do."

  "Cool!" said Becky excitedly.

  "Awesome," said Finn, also looking happy.

  "Whatever," said Samantha, getting up to go back outside, probably to go sharpen her knife or something.

  Chase nodded his head once.

  Spike smiled with those amazing teeth of his, blazing white, right at me. "See you there. I'm gonna catch some Zs now." He got up off the couch, walked over, and leaped onto a mattress. I heard him snoring less than a minute later.

  Chapter Six

  Tony and I ate a quick breakfast of granola bars and juice boxes from his duffle bag in companionable silence, while we sat on the beach listening to the rhythmic sounds of the waves and the seagulls screeching above. I picked up some thick-grained sand, examining it closely. I'd seen sand lots of times, but never paid much attention to it before. I realized I was holding a million or so tiny pieces of rock and seashell in my hand; it made me wonder how many other little details of life I'd missed along the way. I let the sand filter out through the cracks in my fingers while I scanned the shoreline for evidence of beat-up homeless teens, thankfully not finding any. The sun was already soothingly warm on my skin, and the sand sure felt like a more comfortable place to sleep than that concrete floor. Becky's warnings were getting farther and farther away in my mind.

  Tony sucked the last of his juice from his juice box. "I think we would have been more comfortable out here on the sand last night than on that concrete."

  I just stared at him, a little creeped out by the fact that he'd just read my mind. He really needed to stop doing that.

  Tony noticed my look. "What? What'd I say?"

  I shook my head, unwilling to speak about it.

  "Tell me."

  "It's nothing."

  Tony stared at me for a few seconds, making me wish I could read his mind. He was very busy thinking something that looked important.

  "Spike has a nice smile," he said, looking at me intently.

  I didn't know what to say at first. Yes, Spike did have a nice smile, and really awesome teeth, but why would Tony bring that up now? And why did he say it at all? I'd never mentioned Spike's smile to him, and we weren't talking about Jared's crew at that moment.

  Tony kept staring at me, and it was starting to freak me out a little. I realized he was waiting for an answer.

  "Yeah, he does."

  "See, I already knew that you liked his smile."

  "Am I that transparent?" Shit. I thought I was being all cool when I was checking him out. I hate when people catch me oogling someone.

  "Not to other people, but to me you are."

  "Well, you know me better than anyone else in the world, so that's not surprising."

  Tony remained silent for a minute, as if he were searching for what he wanted to say - I could see it on his face. I waited patiently for what was coming; it seemed important to him.

  "It's more than that."

  "More than that? Like how?" I'm not sure I really wanted to know but I asked anyway. Stupid me.

  Tony drew shapes in the sand with his finger, avoiding my gaze. "Do you want to know why I had that gun in my bag? Why I had this plan to leave town?"

  Uh-oh. We were here now ... talking about stuff I'd rather not be talking about.

  "No, but that's okay. I'm sure you had your reasons and I'm here to support you." Maybe he'd
go for the distractor.

  "Listen, Jayne, we have to talk about this."

  I sighed. He wasn't going to let it go. I was feeling sick again. "Whatever." My usual sarcasm wasn't jumping to my lips. All I had left was helplessness, and that just pissed me off.

  "I want to tell you something that happened to me a couple weeks ago," said Tony, still swirling his fingers around in the sand.

  This sounded safer than talking about me, so I felt a little bit better already. "Okay ... "

  "I was in bed, ready to fall asleep ... maybe I was already a little asleep ... and suddenly I heard you yelling. At first I was thinking it was there in my house, the yelling, but then I realized it was in my dream - but I wasn't dreaming. I was in some sort of sleep state, but not totally asleep ... do you know what I mean?" He looked at me for confirmation.

  I had to be honest. "No, not really."

  "Well, anyway, I couldn't help myself - I fell deeper into this state, whatever it was, and I was suddenly with you. I couldn't see anything, but I could hear you and feel your panic, your anger ... your fear."

  My face was burning. I knew the night he was talking about. It was the first night that my mother's boyfriend had come into my room.

  "I didn't have to see to know what was happening, Jayne. He was there. Your mother's boyfriend."

  "I get it! You don't have to say it!" I yelled, standing up and unintentionally spraying sand all over Tony's lap. "I don't want to re-live it, okay?!"

  I walked towards the water, leaving my bag behind. I just needed to get away from what he was saying. I'd tried to forget that night and the few others that had happened since. Nightmares. His beer-stinking breath, fumbling hands. I learned after the first night to lock my door. When that didn't work, I had weapons ready. Asshole didn't know what hit him.

  Tony was struggling behind me, carrying both of our bags. "Wait! Jayne, wait! I'm sorry!"

  I stopped, giving him a chance to catch up.