“Well, uh, it’s not really a royal house,” Josh stammered.
“Oh,” said Mab, sounding disappointed. She sat looking at Josh for several seconds then said, “Home, James.”
The hazelnut shot into the air and darted toward the door.
“Number fourteen. Fancypants, Larry.”
“Wow, last time I was here for two days,” said Larry as he sprang to his feet. He sprinted to the nearest open desk, saying, “Johnny, baby, let’s get this done.”
* * * *
Larry had invited himself to lunch at the Coopers’ after finishing up at OINC. Aiden agreed, muttering something about keeping Rosemary busy. So, after his parents left for work, Josh led Larry into the dining room, where Rosemary was setting out handmade place cards with misspelled names and drawings of butterflies. She placed the “Lare Fantsypants” card at the seat next to her own. Mrs. F-G was not the least bit thrown by the last-minute lunch guest, quickly grilling a very rare hamburger that she’d had ready in the fridge. The rest of them had grilled cheese sandwiches, which tasted so much better than when anyone else made them.
After lunch, Larry accepted Rosemary’s invitation to go to the park with them. Josh, who would have taken his skateboard or maybe his electric scooter (since he felt he was getting a bit old for playgrounds), decided instead to spend the time talking with Larry. He wondered if Rosemary would let him get a word in edgewise.
This concern evaporated when they got to the park and saw that both Cleona and Delilah, two of Rosemary’s many friends, were already there. “See ya, Larry!” Rosemary yelled, running to the tallest playground tower to hold court with her peeps.
Aiden led the toddling Jackson over to the long swing set and buckled him into a baby swing. He stood there pushing while his eyelids drooped.
“I think he’s going to lull himself to sleep,” Larry observed.
“Yeah, maybe,” Josh answered. “He’s been out on patrol a lot lately.”
Larry raised one eyebrow at this. “Patrol?”
“Yeah,” Josh said with a shrug. “I don’t know any of the details. He’s trying to catch Mr. Midnight.”
“Trying to catch him?” Larry asked sharply. “How does he expect to do that?”
“I don’t know, but he’s been at Staffing Solutions for wraith training, so…”
“So, old Siggy thinks he can turn Aiden into a wraith-catcher, eh? It’s going to take a lot more than one lone wolf to defeat so powerful a creature.” Larry almost smiled as he said this.
For the first time since meeting Larry, Josh felt a prickle of uneasiness.
Chapter Eight
Mashing Monsters
Right after the school year ended, Josh and his best friend Nick had planned an epic sleepover, an all-night party of junk food and video games. It had been delayed due to Nick’s family’s trip to Russia to visit relatives, but the time had finally come.
“Alright, boys,” said Josh’s droopy-eyed mom as she left the great room, “don’t stay up too late.”
“We won’t,” replied Josh, keeping a straight face.
“I’ll make sure to get them to bed at a decent time,” said Aiden. Josh hadn’t told him what the night entailed.
If anything, Aiden looked even more tired than Josh’s mom. This was one of his rare nights off from patrolling, which was the main reason Josh had picked it. Nick was eager to hang out with the dude nanny.
“Wake me up when you’re ready to go to bed.” Aiden closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the plush cushions of his seat.
Nick looked a little unimpressed. Josh didn’t know what he had expected out of the dude nanny, but it wasn’t a narcoleptic. He had been napping in his room when Nick arrived and had only been up for the past ten minutes or so.
“So anyway,” said Nick, smiling wide and reaching into his bag, “I brought this.”
He handed over a slim green video game case. It was Monster Mashers, one of the hottest games out there, which Josh hadn’t been able to convince his mother to buy. A quick scan of the back told him he would play either Jimmy or Kevin van Helsing, descendants of fabled vampire hunter Professor Abraham van Helsing. Jimmy and Kevin travel the world as modern day monster bounty hunters, earning cash for each creature destroyed. This particular game chronicled their trip to New York City, moving from landmark to landmark in their search.
Josh put in the game and turned on the television, going through the complicated series of steps involved to get the display in the correct widescreen format.
Before they could start playing, there was some important business to take care of. “Let’s go load up on food so we don’t have to stop in the middle of anything,” suggested Josh.
“Got the drinks covered.” Nick pulled a large bottle from his bag. It had a black label and the words “сахарный взрыв кофеина!!!” scrawled across in large red letters framed by what looked like an explosion. “I guarantee we won’t sleep tonight,” he added with a grin.
They rummaged through the refrigerator, bypassing the leftover salad up front to get to the plate of almond-crusted chicken that hadn’t been finished at dinner. It was something of a ritual for them. As much as Josh wanted to jump right to the junk food, Nick insisted on starting with Mrs. F-G’s latest masterpiece. The junk food on this particular night would be Josh’s precious stash of remaining Easter candy, one of the bi-annual times (the other being Halloween) that his parents didn’t object to massive amounts of sweets. Neither boy cared that the bag of candy was a few months old; it was still candy.
Settled back in front of the television, Josh watched the game’s intro. Jimmy and Kevin arrived in New York on a dilapidated fishing boat, armed to the teeth. Literally. Each character sported a set of metal fang implants, use of which the player could unlock once you got far enough in the game. None of the animated New Yorkers seemed to pay any attention to the two men walking down the street wearing leather armor covered in wooden stakes, carrying crossbows and shotguns. Their first stop was City Hall, which was infested with goblins. Jimmy and Kevin stopped in front of the building’s steps, struck heroic poses, and the game began.
“Pause it for a second,” said Nick. At least, that’s what he meant to say. With a mouth full of chicken, it came out more like, “Pawdidatedun,” but Josh knew what he meant.
Nick finished chewing, took a drink from his tall glass of “сахарный взрыв кофеина!!!”, and picked up his controller. “The controls are all the same as Raging Commando, so you’ll figure it all out pretty quick. Goblins are weak and not worth much money, so stick to your machete for now. They’re not worth wasting bullets on.”
“You can say that again,” seconded Aiden.
Josh glanced over at Aiden, who still looked like he was sleeping. If he hadn’t just spoken, Josh wouldn’t have known he was awake.
Jimmy and Kevin proceeded to hack and slash their way through the goblin horde. It wasn’t that difficult. The goblins only stood waist high, and their equipment was far from high tech. It was cast off things like hubcaps worn as helmets and phone books taped to their torsos for armor. Their weapons were rusty old metal sporks.
The stairs up to the mayor’s office were, of course, impassible due to a collapsed ceiling that left them piled with rubble. Instead, they were forced to find an alternate route that led them through the basement. Underground, which the game told them was where a goblin felt most at home, was a very dangerous place. Not only were there more goblins below ground than above, but they fought with an additional ferocity that, for a second or two, made Josh think that their characters were about to die. They surrounded the two heroes, forcing them to turn in circles to battle the little goblins. Eventually, they found stairs leading up. The goblins once again were wimps.
They reached the mayor’s office. There, waiting for them, was the goblin king, who was only a little more difficult to beat than his underlings. The mayor thanked them for rescuing him, paid them the money they earned, and
told them about Pappy’s Emporium, the place where they could spend their cash upgrading or buying new weapons.
Pappy and his store were perfect for each other. Both were very old and appeared to be in danger of falling down at any moment. Pappy, who had a habit of calling the main characters things like “knucklehead” and “ratface” rather than their real names, had a huge collection of weapons that were perfect for monster hunting, but most of them were far too expensive for this trip. Josh hoped they’d earn enough cash to buy whatever they wanted.
A few minutes later, Jimmy and Kevin were back on their boat, traveling out to the Statue of Liberty. At Pappy’s, they had learned that it was filled with trolls.
“They’re slow, but powerful,” advised Nick as Jimmy and Kevin snuck toward the base of the statue. “Stay out of their reach. Plug away with your shotgun. Aim for their chest. They have very small brains, so head shots don’t do as much as you’d think.”
“That’s true. Their brains are tiny,” mumbled Aiden.
The trolls looked far more impressive and brutal than the goblins, standing at least eight feet tall and having the big, beefy look of professional wrestlers. Ugly, green, lumpy, crooked-toothed professional wrestlers wearing loincloths. This level was a little easier since the slow-moving trolls gave them plenty of time to blast away with their shotguns before the trolls got close enough to hit back.
Again, Jimmy and Kevin battled through the enemy, walking up what seemed like an endless flight of stairs until they reached the big copper lady’s head. They stood in front of a door.
“It’s about to get good,” said Nick. “You go first.”
Josh had Kevin reload his shotgun and sent him through the door, expecting to find the troll boss waiting for him. What he found waiting for him was an empty room.
Kevin turned in circles, scanning the inside of the head, but found no target to shoot.
“Oh, yeah, this is really good,” said Josh in a deadpan voice. “It’s awesome.”
“Look up.” Nick had a sly grin on his face.
Josh pulled back on his controller’s stick, making Kevin gaze upward. Still, there was nothing.
But then it happened. Something black separated from the top of the head’s structure and zoomed downward. Kevin’s view went in front of him again and, for the second time that summer, Josh saw a living shadow. This time, it was just an electronic one on his television screen.
“A wraith?” Josh asked.
“A wraith?” echoed Aiden, leaping from his seat and looking wide awake.
“Yeah, a wraith,” confirmed Nick.
“On the game,” said Josh to Aiden, who was crouched and looked ready to spring at the first shadow he saw.
“You okay?” Nick asked Aiden. It was, after all, the first thing he had seen Aiden do other than nap.
“Oh, shoot,” said Josh. He had been distracted by Aiden and hadn’t noticed that the wraith had turned its hands into blades and was slashing away at Kevin. He paused the game.
“Equip your flashlight,” advised Nick. “Guns won’t work on him, but light will.”
“No, it won’t,” scoffed Aiden.
“Dude,” argued Nick, “I’ve finished this level. The flashlight works.”
“No, it won’t,” said Aiden again.
“It’s just a game,” Josh said pointedly to Aiden. “The flashlight might work.”
“It will work.” Nick sounded frustrated with the conversation.
Aiden sat back down, looking tired again, not to mention irritated. “Okay. Try the flashlight.”
Kevin put his shotgun over his back and replaced it with his oversized flashlight. Jimmy did the same. The two beams converged on the wraith, who faded a bit, then fled through the crack under the door to the stairs.
“That’s what makes them tough to follow,” explained Nick. “They can’t fly or anything, but they can switch from three-dimensional to two-dimensional and move along any flat surface. Later, he’ll slide under this locked door that we have to break down.”
From the corner of his eye, Josh saw Aiden nod in agreement.
“Luckily, I know that he just went up into the torch,” Nick continued. “So we don’t have to waste a ton of time searching for him.”
Jimmy and Kevin went back to the stairs and followed the wraith upward. They found him trying to hide in a corner with other shadows, the non-living sort. Their lights flooded his hiding spot. Instead of fleeing again, he spoke to them. His voice was a simple whisper. The speakers surrounding the television couldn’t do it quite right. Having heard a real wraith speak, Josh knew it should sound like it came from everywhere at once.
“I yield,” said the game wraith.
A dialogue option came up on the screen. Without a moment of hesitation, Nick chose to have Jimmy say, “Die, monster!”
“Hang on a second,” pleaded Josh. There were other options, questions they could have asked. Given the accuracy of the wraith, a potential to learn more about them had just disappeared.
Jimmy’s flashlight focused on the wraith again. “He doesn’t tell you anything interesting,” said Nick. “Just something about how he works for someone else. The big boss. But I don’t want to give away any spoilers. You’ll have to see what happens when we get farther in the game.”
The wraith’s hands formed short swords again and, instead of striking out at Jimmy or Kevin, hacked at the torch’s wall. A crack formed through which the wraith disappeared.
“There was no way to kill him there,” said Nick. “But we’ll get another chance later.”
“So he’s not the big boss?” Aiden asked. He was once again looking wide awake. “There’s someone else out there controlling him?”
“Yup.” Nick sounded rather pleased that the dude nanny was so interested in his game. “A few levels down the road, we’ll get to meet him.”
“Who is he?” asked Aiden, a note of desperation entering his voice.
“It’s just a game,” Josh reminded him.
“I know, but it’s so incredibly accurate so far.”
“Accurate?” asked a puzzled Nick.
After a very short pause, Aiden said, “Architecturally, I mean. City Hall, the Statue of Liberty. They’re so close to real life.” Josh had to give Aiden credit. He was good at coming up with quick excuses.
At Pappy’s, Kevin traded in his machete for a chainsaw and replaced his standard pump-action shotgun with an automatic model with a 20-round drum. Jimmy kept his old equipment, but added a grenade launcher to his inventory.
“This next level might be my favorite. It’s werewolves,” said Nick.
Josh looked at Aiden, feeling a little guilty about what he was about to have Kevin do. Aiden gave him a little smile and said, “It’s just a game. I’m going to hit the bathroom and get a snack. Just, you know, let me know when you’re on the next level.”
As he left the room, Jimmy and Kevin’s cab rolled up to Central Park. Wolves’ howling filled the air.
His heart wasn’t in it, but Josh made Kevin march through the park, swinging his chainsaw and blasting away with his gun. Next to him, Nick let out a little shout of glee every time a hairy limb was severed or a grenade reduced a wolf to a messy puddle.
Each werewolf, Josh noticed, had the same lean, muscular look he had seen when Aiden transformed. The only differences were subtle shading variations of their fur. While they were all brown, some were darker, some were lighter, and some had mottled or striped fur. The main difference, he noted, was that the Aiden werewolf wore clothing, but the ones on the game didn’t. Suppressing a grin, Josh wondered if, had they all changed back to human, the television screen would show a bunch of naked dudes.
In the middle of the Central Park Zoo, they encountered the alpha she-wolf. Surrounded by a pack of regular wolves, she stood a head taller than any of them. Her shape had subtle differences that looked female, and gray patches on her pelt hinted that she was older than the others. “How dare you slaughter my childr
en,” she said in a calm voice. Her yellow eyes blazed with suppressed fury, impressing Josh with the level of detail to the game’s graphics.
This time, Josh was determined that they speak with her before shouting, “Die, monster!”
“I’ll pick what we say, okay?” he asked Nick, who just shrugged.
Quickly reading through the options, Josh had Kevin say, “Who are you?”
“I am Mira, Mother of All Werewolves,” she replied.
How can she possibly be the mother of all werewolves? Josh thought. This wasn’t one of the dialogue choices. He looked over the other options, trying to decide which one would give him the most insight into werewolves. He must have taken too long, because Jimmy suddenly shouted, “Die, monster!”
“Dude!” Josh said to Nick. “I wasn’t done talking to her.”
“Sorry, but you better stop talking and start fighting or you’re gonna get pwned,” Nick replied. Together, the van Helsings managed to defeat Mira.
“Wow,” said Josh, pausing the game. “I’ll, uh, be right back. I want to get more chicken.”
He went to the kitchen. Aiden was there, sitting at the island with a plate of salad in front of him.
“We finished up the wolf level,” Josh said. “We met someone named Mira.”
Aiden’s fork stopped halfway to his mouth. “You did, huh?”
Josh nodded. “Yup. Listen, I didn’t know—”
“We can talk about it later. You and Nick have some more monster slaying to do.”
“I’m not sure I want to play this game anymore.” In Josh’s mind, each werewolf he had just killed had been named Aiden.
“Well, I want you to. I want to see what else it shows. I want to see who Mr. Midnight works for.”
“It’s not Mr. Midnight. It’s just a game.”
“Maybe,” Aiden said.
Ten minutes and one trip to Pappy’s later, Jimmy and Kevin were once more fighting creatures and making money. They went through dragons at Yankee Stadium, ghouls at Grant’s Tomb, and minotaurs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Josh kept expecting each mission to take him to the Guggenheim. With each new creature they encountered, Aiden made quiet remarks about how accurate they were.
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