[Mystic Caravan Mystery 04.0] Freaky Games

by Amanda M. Lee

  Sadly, given the lack of politeness I’d seen over my years with the circus, I knew Nellie was right. “Yes, well, we don’t want to see it. Save it for the paying customers.”

  “Do not show it to them either,” Max snapped, cuffing the back of Nellie’s head as he paced behind him. “Does someone want to tell me why I’m just now finding out about all of this?”

  I flicked my eyes to Max, my agitation bubbling up as I struggled to rein in my snarky tongue. “Excuse me? You’re the one who has been making yourself scarce for the past few weeks. That’s not on us.”

  Max extended a warning finger. “Don’t take that tone with me, young lady.”

  “And don’t wag that finger at me,” I said, refusing to back down. “No one has kept information from you. Until this morning, we had no idea things were this serious. We thought we had a figment running around. That’s hardly cause for panic.”

  “No, it’s not,” Max agreed, sucking in a breath. I could practically see him tugging on his patience. He didn’t want to fly off the handle in front of Kade and undo all of the goodwill he’d earned with the golf trip earlier in the week.

  Speaking of Kade … where did he go? I craned my neck as I glanced around trailer row. I couldn’t see him. That didn’t mean he didn’t mosey back over to see what the police were doing, but I had my doubts that he’d glean much information while over there. I attempted to force myself to relax. He wasn’t the only one missing. Luke was gone, too.

  Hmm. That was interesting … and a little frightening. Kade said he would have a chat with Luke. If he was doing that now, he picked the absolute worst time. That’s normal operating procedure at Mystic Caravan, though, so I could hardly work myself into a tizzy over it.

  “Poet is right,” Raven interjected. “We thought it was a figment. Those are usually harmless. At best we thought it was hanging around because it was curious. At worst we thought it was accidentally approaching people in storms and leading them out to the desert to die. We had no idea there was a second entity.”

  That wasn’t exactly true from my perspective, and I averted my eyes when Max looked to me for answers. It was obvious he read the guilt on my face, because he heaved one of those long-suffering sighs only parents of tempestuous teenagers can muster. “You suspected, didn’t you?”

  “Not until yesterday morning,” I hedged. “Before then I honestly thought we were dealing with a figment. Then something happened, and … well … I changed my mind.”

  Max knit his eyebrows. “What happened?”

  “Oh, well … .”

  “The figment approached me in the middle of the tents,” Nixie supplied, her attitude blunted as she leaned back in her chair. “I started screaming to draw people to me. As soon as Poet showed up, the figment lost its interest in me and focused on her.”

  “Yeah, speaking of that, you told me that I was about to see something before it shoved me into the past,” I said. “Did it show you what happened back then?”

  “No, but I could pick up wisps of horror from its mind,” Nixie answered. “I saw a few scattered images. That’s all. I knew it was bad. I also knew the odds of you seeing more were pretty good.”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” Max shook his hand to get everyone’s attention. “You went back in time?”

  Hmm. That was an interesting question. “Well … .”

  “If I could go back in time I’d want to see dinosaurs,” Percival announced, sipping his tea and smiling easily as half a dozen people lobbed glares in his direction.

  “Yes, because that went so well in Jurassic Park,” Nellie drawled, making a face. “Word around the fairgrounds is that you want to pretend magic doesn’t exist. That’s the rumor I heard last night, at least. If that’s the case, why are you even part of this conversation?”

  Percival’s eyes flashed. “Because you insist on talking about it in front of me. I can hardly ignore it when you act as if figments … and scarecrow people … and whatever it is that knocked Poet over the head and dragged her into the woods a couple of weeks ago are normal. I’m just going with the flow.”

  “Bollocks.” Nellie mimicked Percival’s voice to perfection. “Drink your tea and shut your hole.”

  “Nellie, that’s hardly helping matters.” Max rubbed his forehead, weary. “Go back to the part where you traveled through time. How did that occur?”

  “I’m not sure I really traveled through time,” I admitted. “The figment merely wanted me to see what happened when the mine collapsed and a bunch of men were trapped. I think the figment used to be one of those men, but I don’t know which one.”

  “It probably doesn’t matter,” Raven mused. “The figment came into being because whatever happened then was bad enough to rip his soul free from his body before he died. He’s been around so long he’s probably forgotten his former life – er, well, except for the death, of course.”

  Wait … . “Is that true? Is that how a figment is created?”

  Raven was incredulous. “How do you think it happens?”

  I pondered the scenario and shrugged. “I haven’t given it much thought. All of my figment knowledge comes from books.”

  “Yes, well, that’s how it happens,” Raven said dryly. “I think the figment was created during the initial horror. It escaped through the same hole the creature did when the mine owner sent down the other worker in the parallel shaft to see if they could reclaim the mine.”

  “You saw the creature,” Max prodded. “What was it?”

  “I have no idea, but it was ugly,” Raven replied. “It’s strong, too. It has no corporeal form, yet it managed to get its hands on me. If I hadn’t managed to get away when I did, I doubt very much I would’ve stood much of a chance against it on my own.”

  I’d almost forgotten about that. “Did you break your arm?”

  “Apparently it just felt that way,” Raven replied. “Nixie rubbed her magic tonic on it. It’s a bit sore, but it doesn’t feel as if I’m being stabbed by a million small needles any longer. I look at that as a win.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. “I’ve never seen anything like the creature before,” I said, turning back to Max. “It was dark, but you could see through it. Almost as if it was Peter Pan’s shadow coming out to play. It was wide through the shoulders and narrow through the hips. It had glowing red eyes … and webbed feet, which explains the tracks we saw when we first arrived. It also had weird ears on the top of its head.”

  The last bit piqued Max’s interest. “Ears? What kind of ears?”

  “Kind of like cat ears.”

  “I thought they looked more like horse ears,” Raven volunteered. “They were longer than cat ears.”

  “Hmm.” Max rubbed his chin as he thought. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard about a creature that even remotely resembles that description. I don’t know what to think.”

  “I tried to poke into its mind, but it’s shielded,” I said. “Raven said she tried the same. I don’t know what that means, but it’s not good news for us. Fighting a creature that’s not corporeal isn’t easy.”

  “No, and we have other issues.” Max cocked his head and stared in the direction of the police officers. “I don’t believe the police in this area are idiots – and Poet mentioned that they’ve been worried about disappearances long before we arrived. We’re going to make tantalizing scapegoats now that there’s a body.”

  “What are you suggesting?”

  “We could leave,” Max said, sending a murmur through the crowd. “I know that’s not our style, but I can’t help but worry about what will come should we stay. This creature will clearly keep attacking. It won’t leave, and we’re drawing people to this area.”

  “I don’t think it’s after normal humans any longer,” Raven said, catching me off guard. “You didn’t see it last night, but it seemed intrigued by me. And it recognized what I was doing when I tried to get in its head. When Percival showed up, it ignored him.”

  “That’s probably
because it realized you were a bigger threat than Percival,” Nellie noted.

  “Yes, well, that makes me feel manly,” Percival muttered.

  Raven absently patted his shoulder in a consoling manner. It was an interesting development, the fact that she was trying to soothe him, but I didn’t know what to make of it and now was hardly the time for idle girl gossip.

  “That’s not what I was saying,” Raven said. “It’s just … it seemed to sense I was different. Then, when Naida and Poet came in, it was equally interested in them. Somehow it knows when the being it’s facing off against is imbued with magic.”

  “That only adds to the confusion,” Max said. “We have a very important decision to make. We can leave, use the death to cancel the rest of our shows, and explain to city officials that we’re too traumatized to continue. It might be a tough sell, but it’s definitely doable.”

  “What’s our other option?” Nellie asked.

  “We can stay and see what happens.”

  “I vote for the second option.” Nellie raised his hand for emphasis. “I’m not the type to run from trouble.”

  “Yes, but this is the kind of trouble that you can’t behead with an ax,” I pointed out. “Max is right about being in a sticky situation. I think leaving runs counter to what we’re supposed to be doing. We’re supposed to be hunting evil beings. This is clearly an evil being.”

  “It is,” Max said. “If it has decided that it wants to switch from feeding on humans to magical beings, though – and I’m not convinced of that as of yet – then it will increase its attacks on us.”

  “I agree with Raven,” I supplied. “Dana Andrews was magical. She might not have been as magical as most of us, but she had the sight. The creature killed her. There has to be a reason for that. It didn’t randomly pick her out of a crowd of thousands. It wasn’t a coincidence.”

  Max’s eyebrows winged up. “You left that out of your retelling.”

  “She was an interesting woman and she knew a bit about the history of this place,” I said, refusing to feel guilty for not keeping Max up to date on everything. If he wanted information he’d have to make his presence known more than once a week. I wasn’t going to go out of my way for him. “She came here for a reason. Now, sadly, we’ll never know what that reason was.”

  “As much as I don’t fancy myself a hero, I agree with Poet,” Raven said. “We can’t leave this thing to hunt. It might stay in the desert now, but when we leave and humans stop coming to this area because the police enact some sort of curfew, it’ll get bored.”

  “It will then head to the city,” I added. “It could massacre people there, and no one would be able to stop it. We have to at least try to figure out a way to kill it.”

  Max licked his lips as he tugged a hand through his white hair, ultimately nodding in agreement. “Okay. We’ll do some research and figure this out. Until we do, absolutely no one is allowed to go anywhere by themselves. You’re always to have someone else with you. Do you understand?”

  Nellie raised his hand again, causing temper to flash on Max’s face.

  “Yes, Nellie?”

  “What if I don’t like anyone enough to partner with them?”

  “Then I’ll use my magic to make you think you’re a cat and you can spend the next eighteen hours sleeping in your trailer,” Max replied, not missing a beat. “I’ll even feed you canned tuna and kibble. Let you scratch your claws on every evening gown you own.”

  Instead of being angry, Nellie nodded. “As far as threats go, that’s a good one.”

  Max smiled. “I thought so.”

  I FOUND KADE loitering between his trailer and mine, a distracted expression on his face. He seemed to sense my approach, and when he turned he forced a smile that wasn’t quite as convincing as he probably hoped. I wasn’t fooled.

  “Where were you?”

  Kade shrugged. “Why? Did something happen?”

  “We had a long discussion on recent events with Max and he floated the idea of leaving early. We shot that down. We’re staying.”

  “Oh, well, I’m kind of sorry I missed it. I would’ve sided with Max.”

  “Bummer, huh?”

  “Yeah.” Kade opened his arms and pulled me in for a hug, pressing his lips to my forehead. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

  “I survived.” I tilted my head back and searched his face. “Where were you?”

  “I was … .”

  “Don’t lie,” I warned when he broke off, clearly searching for an acceptable excuse. “I thought we agreed lying was bad.”

  “I wasn’t going to lie,” Kade countered, smoothing my hair. “I was simply debating the best way to tell you what I have to tell you.”

  I instinctively knew I was right earlier when I thought Kade and Luke were probably together. “You didn’t kill Luke, did you? I won’t take it well if you did. I know Luke and I are fighting, but I still love him.”

  Kade chuckled, the sound low and guttural. “I didn’t kill Luke. I did talk to him, though.”

  “I figured that out myself.”

  “He’s … not easy to be around right now.”

  “I also figured that out myself.”

  “Ugh. You’re so quick with the words.” Kade mock shook me, his face lighting with momentary mirth before sobering. I could tell right away something was wrong.

  “What is it?”

  Kade didn’t hesitate. He didn’t consider prettying things up for my benefit. He simply blurted out the truth, which I was ultimately thankful for. “He made a bad choice last night when no one would loan him money.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that one bit. “And?”

  “He found someone else to loan it to him.”

  “From here? I will kill the crap out of whoever it is. In fact, I’ll kill him or her. Wait … that’s a bad idea. I might go to jail for that. No, I’ll put this person in the hospital and then kick them a second time. Tell me. I’m not joking. Tell me. I’m about to go crazy.”

  “Honey, it wasn’t someone with the circus,” Kade said, tightening his grip on my shoulders. “He found someone at one of the casinos to loan him money.”

  Despite the fact that he was skirting the issue, I knew what Kade was implying. “A loan shark? He borrowed money from a loan shark?”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s not what the guy called himself, but that’s essentially what he is,” Kade conceded. “He loaned Luke two grand, which isn’t a lot when you really consider how much worse it could’ve been, so we got lucky there.”

  “You don’t look as if you’re feeling very lucky.”

  “No, I was feeling lucky this morning,” Kade said. “Luke lost the money. He told the guy he borrowed the money from that he would have to take a few days to pay him. The guy told Luke that each day he waits the amount owed doubles. Then Luke tried to pay with a check, and the guy said he doesn’t accept checks … only cash.”

  I opened my mouth, dumbfounded, but no sound came out. “You can’t be serious. That’s not legal.”

  “It doesn’t matter what’s legal,” Kade countered. “It only matters that Luke is in trouble. This is actually standard operating procedure with these guys.”

  “I just … son of a … .” I ground my molars together so hard I worried I’d crack one. “I’ll kill him!”

  Kade remained calm. “Luke or the guy who loaned him the money?”

  “Will you think I’m bloodthirsty and terrible if I say both?”

  Kade shook his head. “No, but I do think we have more than one problem now.”

  “Okay, I’m definitely going to start with killing Luke. We’ll see how things go after that. How does that sound? Oh, and before you answer, I’ll kill him whether you agree or not.”

  22

  Twenty-Two

  “Can I do readings later?”

  Melissa, youthful vigor rolling off of her, had the look of a caged animal as she paced my tent shortly before we opened for business. It was a full
day at the circus, so we would run from noon until ten without stopping. It was one of our longest days of the week. I didn’t care about that in the least, but Melissa was another story. She was young and eager. Waiting wasn’t one of her strengths.

  I took Melissa on in a mentor relationship – mostly because I saw a sad and lonely girl trying to come to grips with her abilities and I knew what that was like – and then I got caught up in my own drama. It wasn’t fair, especially given the fact that I took her away from everything that she knew and dropped her in a new world with very little guidance. She hadn’t complained a bit, but I’d neglected her since bringing her in, and I felt guilty about it.

  “We need to get you a tent of your own,” I said, avoiding the question until I had time to think it through. “We don’t really need two fortune tellers but we could set up some sort of tarot card swami act or something. In the beginning you might want to sample what everyone else was doing, but you really aren’t interested, are you?”

  Melissa shrugged. “I’m interested in what you do.”

  “But not in helping at the House of Mirrors or with Nixie’s voodoo doll stand?”

  “Nixie’s voodoo stand consists of evil humans she’s shrunk down with that weird powder of hers,” Melissa replied. “Do you ever wonder how she came up with that idea? It’s weird and creepy, yet she looks all sweet and innocent. Something is definitely up there. Why would I want to be part of that?”

  She had a point, still … . “I don’t know. I think it’s fascinating to see them all lined up like that. I like to talk to them when I stop by and remind them how they ended up in that position.” I was talking about the dolls, of course. As much as I liked Nixie I tried to avoid talking to her on long days because she was far too happy and chipper to be tolerated.

  “They’re not still alive, are they?” Melissa was horrified. “I mean … they’re not trapped in there and forced to watch what’s going on around them even though they can’t move, are they?”