Portion Disaster

by Zoe Arden

  When Lizzie pulled away from Sean, his eyes were black.

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  CHAPTER

  THIRTY-NINE

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  It felt like a never-ending battle between us and the trickster. I thought that 'trickster' was a terrible name for it, since it never really seemed to trick on anyone, just possess them. Eleanor and Trixie had spoken of more benign tricksters that only played silly pranks. I wished we could have been stuck with one of those instead.

  Lizzie was closest to me. I grabbed for her necklace, just missing it by an inch. The crystal was glowing fiercely now. I wondered if it would ever stop working whatever magic it was using to control the trickster. Sean knocked me away before I could try for the necklace again. I tripped over the warden, who seemed to be coming to, and felt the breath knocked out of my lungs. I tried to suck in fresh air and failed miserably. The warden's fingers were twitching now. His feet began to move.

  The door to the bakery opened and Colt walked in followed by Sheriff Knoxx and my father. They stood staring at the scene before them just as Sean had done a moment before.

  "Colt, she's using the necklace," I yelled, realizing full well that he could have no idea what I was talking about. I couldn't seem to catch my breath to better explain. It had taken all my energy just to get out those few words. Eleanor lay on the floor, face down, breathing but unconscious. Sheriff Knoxx's face went white when he saw her. He ran to her side and knelt, searching for a pulse, relieved when he found one.

  Despite the warden's movement, his eyes remained closed. I pointed toward Lizzie, trying to send Colt silent signals that she was the guilty party. That they must get her necklace. Sean was holding onto Trixie, his hands cupped around her throat. She was still breathing but her face was going red fast.

  "Thank God you're here," Lizzie said to Colt and the sheriff. My father stood back, searching the space around him. "The trickster is here. It's in Trixie."

  "Liar!" Wilma cried. Sean let go of Trixie and grabbed hold of her next, sending her flying across the room. Trixie gasped for breath.

  "The necklace," I cried, still trying to point. "Get it!"

  It was my father who finally seemed to understand. His eyes fell on the crystal around Lizzie's neck. He made a mad dash for it, actually breaking the chain. Lizzie let out a frustrated scream. The pendant fell to the floor and rolled away from her. She dropped to her knees and hurried after it. Colt yanked her back by her ankle. She kicked him in the face and moved faster away from him.

  Sean stopped chasing everyone around. He stood staring at the ground, his face blank, his eyes still black. It was as if losing the crystal had caused the trickster to lose its hold on him. Finally, the air seemed to fill my lungs again.

  "We need to get the trickster out of Sean," I told Colt, "and send it back."

  Without missing a beat, Colt pulled his superwand from his belt. I grabbed hold of Sean's. He'd dropped it during the scuffle. I held it out then realized I had no idea what I was doing and handed it off to Sheriff Knoxx, who had left Eleanor's side only to help us. She was sitting up now but she looked dazed.

  "Aim it at its eyes," Colt shouted to the sheriff, who nodded. A bright light shot out from both wands. I could feel the heat that emanated from them. It filled the room like a fire in winter. As I watched, something began to climb its way out of Sean's mouth. It was tiny at first, like a fly that had gotten trapped inside him, but the further it got, the larger it became.

  "No!" Lizzie cried and Sean fell to the ground. Lizzie had the crystal in her hand but it was too late. The trickster had shown its corporeal form. It stood two and a half feet tall with large ears like Dumbo, a red, bulbous nose, and big eyes. Its body reminded me of a frog, except it was much slimier. It looked around the room, its mouth open in a snarl. It looked mad. Its eyes stopped on Lizzie.

  "Oh, my roses," I whispered when I realized what was happening. It knew she'd been the one controlling it, and it was not happy about it. I supposed that even if a creature were pure evil, it still wouldn't like being told what to do, and from what I'd learned, tricksters were rarely all evil.

  The trickster ran—no, not ran, glided—toward Lizzie. She let out a scream and held up the crystal pendant she'd managed to reclaim. Out of nowhere, Warden Banks popped up. He grabbed the crystal from her hand.

  Lizzie's eyes popped open. She opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out. The trickster jumped at her. This time, Lizzie did scream. They rolled around together on the ground for a minute before Colt shook his head, as if snapping out of a trance. He held his wand up again and shouted out some incantation I didn't recognize. The trickster disappeared. Vanished into thin air.

  We all stood staring at Lizzie, waiting to see if her eyes would turn black. When they didn't, we let out a collective sigh. It was finally over.

  * * *

  CHAPTER

  FORTY

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  We stood stunned for a moment, searching each other's face for any sign of abnormality.

  "Is everyone all right?" I asked.

  "Is everyone themselves?" Trixie asked.

  Slowly, everyone nodded.

  "So, it's really gone?" I asked, hardly able to believe it.

  "I think so," said Colt, taking my hand. He squeezed it gently then pulled me into his arms.

  Lizzie sat motionless on the floor. She looked as though she could hardly believe what had happened. She was mouthing something silently to herself. I strained to listen and finally caught part of it. "How could things have gone so wrong? How could things have gone so wrong?" She was repeating it over and over again like a mantra.

  Sean gently pulled her to her feet. He removed the cuffs from his hip and clicked them tightly over her wrists. "I'm sorry," he said.

  Her eyes cleared for a moment. "So am I," she replied. She scanned the rest of the room. "I don't suppose any of you will believe this but I never meant for things to get so out of hand."

  "No," I said, somewhat bitterly, "you just wanted Trevor dead.”

  She shrugged. "I just wanted Myron to love me." She looked at the warden, who stood nearby with his arms folded across his chest. His eyes looked sunken. His skin looked tinged with yellow, like the wall in a smoker's bedroom. He looked away from her, disgusted. I actually felt bad for her.

  "Let's go," Sean said. "I'm taking you to Swords and Bones."

  Sheriff Knoxx cleared his throat. "Swords and Bone is a prison. As of now, Miss Rambler has not been convicted of anything. In fact, she hasn't even been officially charged. I think it's best if we take her back to my station. We can contact Dean Lampton and figure out what to do."

  I wondered what Dean would say about all this when Colt called him. He was almost certainly not going to be happy. I couldn't believe that I'd ever suspected him of having anything to do with this, even for just a second. He'd acted strangely at times but I'd probably just been reading too much into it, looking for a reason to blame him for things that weren't going right.

  "I think we'd better all go to the hospital and get checked out," my father said. He was looking worriedly at me. I shot him a smile to let him know I was all right. Things had gotten crazy here tonight but I was fine.

  Colt called ahead to Sweetland hospital and told Dr. Dunne to be expecting us. When we all showed up looking haggard, half of us bloody, all of us covered in cookie crumbs and brownie bits, his initial reaction was to shake his head and say, "What is it with you all and food fights lately? Every time I see you, you're covered in baked goods."

  We laughed lightly as he ushered us quickly into the back. We wanted to stay together but Dr. Dunne insisted on separate rooms. I think he was still afraid that one of us might go berserk and start hurting the others, or at the very least pelting them with snacks from the ve
nding machine.

  Nurse Sadie Bell came by my room a half hour later. I was sitting in a fresh pair of scrubs another nurse had brought me, happy that it wasn't a hospital gown. My own clothes had looked like a missile test site, except in my case the missiles in question would have been made from food. I looked up when Sadie came in. Her lipstick was lightly smeared across her face. She smiled at me.

  "Your dad's doing just fine," she said. "I just came from his room and thought you'd like to know."

  I giggled and told her she'd better check herself in a mirror. She looked questioningly at me then turned to a mirror hanging on the wall and gasped, embarrassed.

  "I, uh," she stammered, "I was just..." Her cheeks were flushed. It looked like she was part raspberry. "Fine," she said, throwing her hands into the air. "I was kissing your father. Happy now?"

  "Actually, yes," I said.

  She looked at me with raised eyebrows.

  "Really?"

  "Really," I told her. "I haven't exactly been sure where you two stood lately. I'm glad to see you're working things out."

  She grinned at me. "Would you like to see Colt?" I nodded and she led me down the hallway to Colt's room. Sheriff Knoxx was in there when she opened the door. "You're supposed to be in bed," she said, scolding him.

  "I'm fine," he said. "I thought this was Eleanor's room. I want to see my wife."

  Sadie sighed. The door opened behind us and my father walked in, Trixie and Elanor behind him. We were all wearing identical light green scrubs. They were the only clean clothes the hospital had on hand. Sadie shot my dad a look but he did no better than Sheriff Knoxx. He shrugged and gave her a wink. She blushed and decided she had better tell Dr. Dunne that we were anxious to get out of here.

  She disappeared out the door and we stood talking. Eleanor seemed just fine, I was relieved to see. Her face was drawn and she sounded tired but, other than that, nothing seemed particularly wrong with her.

  "So, where do you think the trickster went back to?" I asked. "Is it true about the elves? Do tricksters live with them? Where do elves live anyway? Is there really a North Pole?"

  Everyone laughed. "Ava," Colt said, squeezing his arm around my waist, "elves are real, yes, but they're probably not what you're picturing. There's no Santa's workshop. They're just... like little people with pointy ears."

  "They tend to stay hidden during summer," Trixie said.

  "And come out in winter," Eleanor added.

  "Which is probably why they've gotten associated with the North Pole," my father said.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket. I looked down to see a text from Lucy.

  Natalie Vargas is here. She says you've all be possessed by tricksters! Txt me if ur ok.

  I laughed and sent her a quick reply.

  Just fine. Tell Natalie there are no tricksters here, just aliens. They're taking us to Mars.

  I knew it was wrong but I couldn't help myself. Natalie's life was built around gossip. Lucy wasn't as bad but she was getting there.

  My phone buzzed back.

  What? What r u talking about? Ava?!?

  I turned my phone off. I would make them both sweat for a little while. They could go all over town telling people about our alien abduction, and later they'd have to shamefacedly admit how wrong they'd been.

  There was a light knock on the door and a second later Warden Banks poked his head inside.

  "Can I come in?" he asked. We all looked at each other and shrugged.

  "Sure," I finally said, wondering what he could possibly want now. He'd arrested half the people in this room if you counted the couple of hours we'd spent in jail after my birthday party disaster.

  He walked quietly toward us, took a deep breath, and said, "I want to apologize." He waited, looking at each of us as if we were going to tell him off for saying sorry. "I was so focused on getting Polly back behind bars that I never even bothered to look at anyone else." His face was turning red and I knew this was hard for him. "It never even occurred to me that Lizzie Rambler had anything to do with this."

  "It's okay," I told him after a beat. "I don't think it occurred to us, either."

  "Yes, but you're ordinary people. I'm the warden of a maximum-security prison. I should have known better."

  Colt and Sheriff Knoxx exchanged a glance. I tried not to laugh. The warden was a pompous man no matter the situation. At least he could admit when he'd made a mistake.

  "Maybe we're not the ones you should be apologizing to," Eleanor said. "Or at least, not the only ones."

  His voice sounded heavy. "You mean Polly, don't you?"

  Eleanor nodded.

  "In fact, maybe we should all apologize to Polly. Is there anyone here who didn't think she was guilty at one point in time?"

  No one said anything. I sighed as I followed the warden down the hall to Polly's room. He started to open the door, then thought better of it and knocked.

  "Come in," Polly called. We entered the room. Wilma was sitting next to Polly. They were playing cards. I was afraid that Polly might freak out when she saw me. After all, I was the one who'd put her in the hospital in the first place. Instead, she smiled at me.

  "Everyone okay?" she asked. "Aunt Wilma told me what happened." We all nodded.

  Warden Banks cleared his throat. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you when you said you were innocent of Trevor's death," he said. The rest of us echoed his apology.

  "And I'm sorry I tried to kill you," I told her. "I still don't remember it."

  She smiled solemnly. "You're forgiven."

  I looked at Polly in her hospital bed, a smile on her face, and realized that this wasn't the same girl I had met a year ago. She really had changed. I wasn't sure if we'd ever be able to be friends but, from now on, we were no longer enemies.

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  Epilogue

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  A few weeks later...

  Coffee Cove was busy. It was mid-afternoon and Colt had a rare day off from COMHA. Dean Lampton had become even more full of himself since Polly and Calista had been cleared of all charges. His prison work release program was working, at least according to him. He'd held a press conference just the other day and declared it a massive success.

  When a reporter had dared to ask him about the trial that had just ended for Lizzie Rambler, Dean had cleared his throat and, in his best politician's voice, said, "Lizzie Rambler has nothing to do with my prison work release program. She has been remanded to Swords and Bones for ten years, without the possibility of parole."

  "So, you're saying that she won't be a part of your program?" the same reporter had asked.

  Dean had turned red. "Most certainly not," he'd replied.

  "And what about yourself? It's been rumored that you attacked one of your own agents, Detective Colt Hudson." Dean had responded by shooting a look to one of his employees, who then had that reporter escorted from the room. Dean had made it abundantly clear to anyone who cared to listen that he did not care to talk about the "Trickster Incident" as it had come to be called.

  Dean had definitely been the one who attacked Colt, only he had no memory of it, just as I had no memory of attacking Polly. Polly had no memory of attacking Trevor. We were all glad of it. It was the one time in life when amnesia seemed a blessing.

  Warden Banks was no longer with the prison system. He had become so disenchanted with it after Lizzie's arrest and subsequent trial that he had left Heavenly Haven altogether. Sean had considered doing the same, I knew, but ultimately had decided to stay.

  Because Sean been the one to finally bring Lizzie in, he'd gotten national attention. He had taken Warden Banks' place as the warden of Swords and Bones and was currently working on some new plans to improve prison life for the inmates who resided there. He'd already had his people set up craft hours, and soon there would be cooking classes. His thinking was that the better the life for the prisoners inside, the better their lives would be outside once released.

  It sounded like a good plan to me. I hop
ed that it worked out.

  "Have you talked to Polly lately?" Colt asked as Lucy set down some coffees in front of us.

  "Last week," I told him. "I stopped by Sweets n' Treats. Wilma had a new cinnamon cashew crunch cake she wanted me to try."

  "How was it?" Lucy asked.

  I made a face.

  "That bad, huh?" said Colt.

  "That good." I shook my head. "A year ago, that woman didn't know a cup of flour from a spoonful of sugar. Now she's making some of the most delicious cakes I've ever eaten."

  "Better than Mystic's?" Lucy asked, her eyes widening slightly.

  I bit my bottom lip. "No," I said in a small voice. "Not better, just different."

  Lucy nodded and said no more. It wasn't that I was jealous of Wilma and Polly's success exactly—Sweets n' Treats still wasn't making as much money as The Mystic Cupcake, though things had picked up lately for them—it was just that I wished I understood how Wilma had turned into such a good baker overnight. A few tips from me and my aunts, a few baking shows, and that was all she'd needed. Maybe she was just a natural. It made as much sense as anything else. Besides, hadn't I been able to pick up on how to make extracts rather quickly when I'd come to the island? How was this any different?

  The door chimed and Damon walked in. Betsey LaGrange was on his arm. I smiled and waved but felt Colt's hand tighten when Damon started over. Betsey got in line for coffee.

  "Hi," I said.

  "Hey," Damon replied. "Hey, Colt. Good to see you."

  Colt nodded. The two of them had made nice but they were never going to be friends. Colt wasn't normally a jealous man but there was something about Damon that he just couldn't get past. I thought it had to do with the fact that I had been dating Damon when I'd first met Colt. If I had dated Damon long before that, I suspected that things would have been different. They might have actually gotten along.