Moonset tlom-1

by Scott Tracey

  “Wait, that means I can go?” Bailey squealed, then jumped up and down and grabbed Mal around the waist, squeezing him.

  “I didn’t agree—” Before I could finish, Bailey released Malcolm and then grabbed me, too, hugging the daylights out of me.

  “Oof! We don’t even know that we’re seeing the same movie,” I sighed, already accepting defeat. Too much information was being processed at once. “And wait, group date?”

  “It’s not a date,” Bailey said quickly. “It’s just a bunch of the girls on the freshman cheer squad. Mal keeps calling it a date because there’s going to be a few boys there.”

  I crossed my arms. “How many boys?”

  Jenna slid her arm around Bailey’s shoulder. “Just a couple of guys. It’s nothing to freak out about.”

  “Normally, I’d say Bailey’s too young to date,” Mal said with a grin, “but I’m not the chaperone. So I’ll leave it all up to Justin.”

  “Please, Justin?” Bailey grabbed at my sleeve. She did puppy dog eyes and everything. “I promise, it’s just a movie. You don’t want people to think I’m a freak because I’m never allowed to hang out with them, do you?”

  “You can still go out on your date,” Jenna added in a sweet tone. “I’m sure Ash won’t mind.”

  The three of them had teamed up against me. How was this even fair? “What were you planning to see?”

  Bailey’s smile could have powered all of Carrow Mill. “Santa Claws 2—Bloody Christmas. It’s a sequel to Santa Claws—you know, the one where Santa gets possessed by the demons … ”

  “Yeah,” I said, holding up my hand in the hopes of stopping her. “I remember. You really want to go see that? Wouldn’t you rather go see something … I dunno, a little more appropriate?”

  Bailey went from excited to frosty in an instant. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

  “You think I should go watch some stupid kiddie movie? I’m fifteen, Justin. God!”

  She stormed off, and Mal and Jenna both looked at me with something like glee. “You really stepped in it that time,” Mal offered.

  “Shut up,” I glowered, walking away from the pair of them. Date-ruiners. That’s what they were. Awful, selfish, date-ruiners.

  When I went over to Malcolm’s house later that evening, Cole was perched on the front steps.

  His hair was down in his eyes, and he looked like he’d worked himself up to an intense brood.

  This could last for hours. Cole didn’t get into bad moods often, but when he did, it was always a struggle for the rest of us.

  “Hey buddy, how’s it going?” I sat down next to him.

  Cole snorted, looking at me from underneath his fringe. “Like you care. All you care about is

  Ash now.”

  Okay, wow. “That’s not true. C’mon, you know me better than that.”

  “I thought I did,” he muttered. “All you care about is going out with her tonight.”

  “That’s not all I care about.” How was I supposed to fix this before Cole went haywire and started goth-ing it up again? “Why don’t you come with us tonight? Bailey’s going with a group of friends. We could make a thing of it.”

  Another snort. “Don’t worry, I’ve made actual friends here. You don’t have to pity me.”

  “I don’t pity you,” I said slowly. “Where is all this coming from? This isn’t you, Cole.”

  “How would you know?”

  “Okay,” I said, trying another tactic. “Things have been weird since we got here. I get it. It hasn’t been like any of the other times. But that doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere.” I nudged his side. “You’re kind of stuck with us. We’re a package deal, remember.”

  He leapt to his feet and stomped away without another word.

  “Look at my babies, all grown up,” Mal said with a mock sniffle as we pulled up in front of the theater. It was at the same outdoor mall we’d gone to our first week in town, in the next city over from Carrow Mill. I let Bailey take the front seat, allowing me to lounge in the back and worry. What if I keep talking stupid? What if she thinks I’m boring and that’s why I wanted to go to a movie. What if she decides I’m lame?

  I’d been fine up until this point with Ash. She was strange and bizarre and utterly fascinating, but I’d always thought I liked that. But now, ever since I’d used the D-word, it was like all I could do was panic. I second-guessed every conversation we’d ever had, overanalyzed every laugh and smile. She was friends with Maddy, and Maddy disliked me for obvious reasons.

  What if that rubbed off on her?

  I wiped my palms on my jeans for about the thousandth time, and swallowed my gum. What if my breath is awful? I pulled the pack of gum out of my pocket and slid another stick in my mouth.

  “Is Cole going to be all right?” Bailey asked from the front.

  “He’s going to be fine,” Mal assured her. “You know how he gets.”

  “He hasn’t had much luck making friends,” she said, looking down at her hands. “I mean, Luca’s been cool, but I don’t think people here get Cole’s sense of humor.”

  “He just takes a little bit to warm up to,” I said.

  “Maybe,” she said. “But everyone’s been so busy, so he probably feels like you guys are all moving on, too.”

  “No one’s going anywhere,” Mal insisted. “We’ve just been busy. And things have been a little crazy. They’ll settle down soon.”

  “I hope so.” Bailey glanced back at me. “You can’t walk in with me.”

  Mal reached back and grabbed my hand up in his. “But we want to introduce ourselves to your young gentleman.”

  I snatched my hand back, laughing. “Speak for yourself. Go be someone else’s gay parent.”

  “Just be careful, okay? Weird stuff’s been going on and all,” Mal said. We still hadn’t talked to

  Cole or Bailey about what was going on. They only knew what we’d told them on the first week.

  “We’ll be fine.” Part of the agreement with Quinn had been about an escort. Not just me being there to escort Bailey, but a Witcher escort. There were supposed to be two of them somewhere in the theater, just in case something happened.

  We got out of the car and climbed up onto the sidewalk. It was only six, but the sun had already set. Luckily, the theater believed in a hefty light bill, because there were streetlights and blazing spotlights everywhere.

  The window rolled down. “You have protection, just in case?” Mal called out, peeking his head out the window.

  Bailey looked no more mortified than I did. But only barely.

  She saw her friends and ran off, and I hovered near the doors for a few minutes, wishing I’d been smart enough to pick a better spot to wait at. But I didn’t have to wait long.

  “Hey there, hot stuff. Don’t you look nice?” Ash appeared at my side, wrapped up in a black coat. Her hair was crimped and curled tonight, and the lights brought out all its different shades of red.

  “Oh,” I said, looking down at myself. “Thanks. I mean, it was nothing.” Nothing for me at least. I’d made Mal pick me out something to wear, which he insisted was offensive and playing into stereotypes. But he did it, criticizing my taste as he went along.

  “You had Malcolm dress you, didn’t you?”

  I laughed. “That obvious?”

  She shrugged. “It’s a gift. I admit I have a keen awareness when a boy suddenly develops a radical shift in style.” She linked her arm with mine and started pulling me towards the theater doors. “Plus, I might have texted him while you were, and this is a direct quote, ‘throwing the biggest fit he’s ever seen,’ about ironing your shirt.”

  I … he … oh. Malcolm was so dead! “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to delete his number,” I managed. “Especially since I’m going to break his thumbs to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

  “Oh, it’s all in good fun,” Ash said. “Now open the door for me like a gentleman.” I did so, and she dipped her
head as she swept past me. “Thank you, kind sir.”

  The whole “Mal texting” scenario had me distracted, and I nearly walked straight into Santa

  Claus. “What the—”

  Ash returned to my side, slipping her gloved hand into mine. “Wicked, isn’t it?” she said in a breathless, excited voice.

  “Wicked,” I agreed. This Santa was no ordinary Christmas elf. It was a life-sized mannequin, dressed up like one of the demonic Santas in the movie we were about to go see.

  “I love when theaters do the cool promo stuff like this,” Ash said. “They’ve got Santas all over the place.” She tapped one—boop!—right on the nose.

  I looked around the lobby. “This movie is really that big?”

  “Of course. Christmastime plus horror? Every kid at school has probably gone to see this movie twice. The holidays make us all want to engage in a little patricide, don’t you think?”

  “Wouldn’t know,” I said absently.

  “Oh, shit, I forgot,” Ash said, ducking her head down. “Sorry,” she said quietly, squeezing my hand. Neither one of us said anything for a long moment, and the silence hung between us even in the noisy theater lobby. I didn’t know what to say to hijack the conversation away from my parents, and the dead elephant in the room.

  We passed another pair of Santas on our way to the box office. I paid for our tickets, and we skipped the insane lines at the concession stand to head directly into our theater. It had been awhile since I’d been to a megaplex—the downside to small-town living was that the movie theaters usually only had one screen.

  “Hold up,” I said, trying to pretend my brain hadn’t skipped on account of Moonset. Ash didn’t mean anything by it, I told myself. “I’m not supposed to walk in with her,” I said, nodding to

  Bailey and her friends, who were still in line for the concessions.

  “It’s really sweet that you look out for her,” Ash said, glancing up at me for only a moment before she looked away. She pulled a pink lip balm pot out of her purse, unscrewed the cap, and ran her ring finger over the surface of the balm before transferring it to her lips. It was enough of a distraction that I forgot about my parents entirely.

  “Look,” I said, trying to ease some of the sudden awkwardness between us. “It’s not a big deal. People slip up about my parents all the time. Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to walk on eggshells around me.”

  “Yeah, but it’s tactless,” Ash said. She slipped her hand out of mine, the sudden cold startling me. “Guess I’m just a little nervous.”

  “You, nervous?” I laughed. “I doubt it.”

  “I like you, Justin,” she said quietly. “Maybe at first it was just a game, but you’re sweet.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything. We waited near one of the benches until Bailey and her group of freshmen sauntered past, barely looking at us. I noticed Luca in the group. “I didn’t know he was a freshman,” I said to Ash.

  “He’s not,” she said, watching the group thoughtfully. “But Maddy’s cousin is, and he basically chauffeurs the both of them around whenever they want. Sara’s a lot nicer about it than Maddy is, though.”

  “So he’s just like … on call all the time? That kind of sucks.”

  “He doesn’t seem to mind,” Ash said absently, like she’d never given it much thought. “You ready?”

  I nodded. We headed into the theater and waited near the door, until our eyes adjusted to the change in lighting. The previews had already started. “Come on,” Ash said, grabbing my arm and dragging me up the stairs. She chose seats a few rows up from Bailey’s group, for which I was eternally grateful. I looked them over as we passed, Bailey making every effort to act like she didn’t know me. There were only a couple of guys, and Luca on the end. I nodded to him as we passed.

  “So, since we’re chaperoning, how much trouble are we allowed to get into?” Ash pulled off her jacket, and set it on the seat next to her. The gloves she pulled off a finger at a time.

  “Yeah, you’re not exactly chaperone material, I’m afraid.”

  She gasped. “Are you telling me I’m a bad influence?”

  “I’d give you examples, but you know I’m not supposed to talk about your criminal charges until the jury comes back with a verdict.”

  “Touché, Mr. Daggett,” she laughed, grabbing my hand again. The movie started soon after that, and I was quickly caught up in holiday cheer and dismemberment. The premise was fairly simple: evil Santa. It wasn’t highbrow by any means. About halfway through, just as the heroine and her love interest were finally getting close for the first time, I turned to see Ash watching me, not the movie.

  “What?” I said, dropping my voice so it wouldn’t carry. “Is there something on my face?”

  “You’re not anything like I thought you’d be,” she said, her tongue darting out to lick her lips.

  “Fi-first impressions aren’t what they used to be,” I said, transfixed. I wasn’t sweating now, but my skin was flushed. Hot. I couldn’t stop staring at her lips, and wondering what her lip balm tasted like.

  “Definitely not,” she whispered, leaning in.

  Just before our lips would have touched, our first kiss, I happened to look down past her nose, and pulled up short. “What is he doing?” I demanded.

  Ash pulled back in surprise. “What?” It took her a second to follow my line of sight. There had been some seat changes in the freshman group, and now instead of having a girl on either side, Bailey was on one of the ends, and talking to a blond-haired kid with a bowl cut. He kept leaning in to her, showing her something on his forearm.

  “Relax,” she chuckled. “At least they’re not making out.”

  Making out? I almost jumped out of my seat. But Ash grabbed my hand, stopping me. “Relax, it’s just a movie. They’re just talking.”

  “That’s not the point!”

  “God,” she said softly. “You really do think of her as your little sister.”

  “Of course I do,” I said, suddenly confused.

  But before I could push the issue any further, sirens wailed in our ears.

  Twenty-Four

  “The alliance between Illana Bryer and

  Robert Cooper gave us a fighting chance.

  But for three years, we stayed at a stalemate. Moonset went to ground, and continued to direct the war front from the shadows.

  We thought they’d never be found.”

  Adele Roman

  Moonset Historian, From a college lecture series about Moonset

  The movie kept playing, but the lights rose in the theater. Emergency sirens continued to blare from the hallway—they weren’t the ringing bell of a fire alarm, more the whoop-whoop of a tornado alarm.

  “What’s going on?” a girl cried from behind us.

  “Trying to watch the movie,” someone bellowed from down below.

  Bailey twisted in her seat, her eyes meeting mine for the first time tonight. She looked afraid.

  But more than that, she looked aware. Like she knew something the rest of us didn’t. “Oh no,” I muttered, getting to my feet. Not now.

  Ash looked up at me. “Justin?”

  One by one, like items being checked off a list, each one of the light bulbs exploded with a paff. Darkness was gradual, but by the time the last one popped, the only light was from the projector. People screamed, and there was movement all around me.

  “Justin,” Bailey called warningly.

  I spun around, looking for the source. If this was a Maleficia attack, there would be a feeling.

  A sense in the air where nothing was visible, but something was definitely there. “Please be wrong, please be wrong,” I whispered.

  “What the hell?”

  The shout came from the floor, and I whipped around immediately. Someone had come into the theater while I was distracted. The emergency lights flicked on, spotlights that did little more than create an ominous amber glow.

  “We … w
e … we … we … ” The movie began to skip, cutting the same moment of an earnest blonde dropping a cell phone onto a table. Over and over again, that same two second clip. I took my eyes from the floor, from the new arrival, and that was long enough for chaos to break out.

  Another shout, pained this time, as a body went flying through the air. From beside me, Ash’s shock was palpable. “Santa?”

  She was right. It was Santa. More specifically, one of the zombie Santa mannequins that had been set up all over the megaplex. And he was heading directly for my sister.

  I leapt over the chairs in front of me in an instant, already shouting for her. Bailey took one look at her friends, and then a longer look at the Maleficia-possessed spirit of Christmas, and started backing away down her aisle.

  “Only … only … only … only … ” The movie jerked again, cutting to a totally different scene.

  The man’s voice was hoarse and full of rage.

  More Santas surged into the theater, their movements jerky and awkward. As people tried to run, the Santas grabbed them in mitted hands. Most they pushed aside, but a few they threw.

  Quickly, the crowd of theatergoers realized that running for the door was not an option. The crowd, however, was evenly divided on an alternative route. Half ran down the stairs on the far side, heading for the emergency exit that led outside. The other half ran for the top of the theater … and no route of escape.

  “What’s going on?” Bailey grabbed my arm, squeezing for dear life. “What’s happening?”

  “It’s going to be okay,” I lied. The first row of seats had a pipe railing over it and open space for wheelchairs. Since the stairs were occupied, I pushed Bailey under the railing and climbed up after her.

  One of the Santas lunged for us, but tripped over his own feet and clattered to the ground.

  “Eed … eed … eed … eed … ”

  “We have to get everyone out of here,” I said, trying to think. With a row and a railing between the advancing army of Santas, they couldn’t come directly at us. At Bailey. They were going after her first. It was just a theory, but I wasn’t about to test it out.