by Skye, Mav
Tina shook her head and adjusted the cape about her shoulders. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to imagine Aunt May. Aunt Jenn had told plenty of stories about her that winter while they all sat around the fireplace. Tina recalled the warmth of the fire on her face, the soft sound of crackling wood as Aunt Jenn soothed her aching heart with stories about her sister.
Aunt May was beautiful, and most of all brave. She saved Aunt Jenn from the pig man who was going to kill them in a scary house filled with torture chambers.
Aunt Jenn had never said torture chambers, but Tina could imagine them. In fact, she’d seen the devices in real life. The tall man had them in hidden rooms within his house, but Tina chose to forget about those years.
Sometimes, she dreamed about being chained and whipped, needles going through her skin.
But, Aunt Jenn said she didn’t need those memories, that memories like those only make you feel bitter and ugly inside. Tina didn’t want to feel that way. But the truth was, these days; she wasn’t feeling much at all.
Aunt Jenn told about how she and Aunt May had survived their younger years. How they used to play Supergirls when they were kids and kick bad guy asses. How the game helped when they were older and in the pig man’s house. Aunt May had made sure justice was served.
Tina was a Supergirl like Aunt Jenn and Aunt May. She had done whatever it took to protect her brother from the bad men. As a reward, Aunt Jenn had given Tina a Supergirl cape and told her she was secretly inducted into the Supergirls club. She’d told Tina that she looked just like May when she was the same age. Tina could not remember a single time in her life when she’d been prouder.
Often, at night, after Tina finished reading and had blown out her candle, nightmare faces would haunt her in the shadows. She would clutch her Supergirl cape like a blanket. She’d repeat the Supergirl verse over and over in her mind. Supergirls stand together. Supergirls stay together. It made her feel better, and she knew Aunt May was standing near, protecting her
“Pleaaaasssseeeee Tina, let’s wait for Auntie Jenn.” Tony clutched Jenn’s warm hand.
Tina shook her head. “Remember when Aunt Jenn first brought us home, she’d spend evenings out on the rocking chair, talking to herself for hours?”
Tony said, “She was talking to Aunt May.”
Tina rolled her eyes. “Have you ever seen Aunt May?”
“No.”
“Me either.”
Tony puffed up his chest and opened his mouth, but the words didn’t come. Tina realized he felt defensive. She quickly said, “I’m not saying Aunt May doesn’t exist, because she does. Of course, she does. She’s our hero.”
Tony closed his mouth, nodding.
“What I’m saying is that when Aunt Jenn first brought us home, I don’t think she was well.”
Tony nodded again; his chest deflated. He looked at his Auntie, brushing a stray hair from her face.
Tina said, “I think what happened tonight could make her sick again, and I don’t want Aunt Jenn to be sick.”
Tony said, “Me neither.”
“So help me, Tony. Help me get rid of the wolf.”
Tony nodded. “Okay, Tina. I’ll help. I just want to sit with Auntie Jenn for a while.”
“Okay, but just for a few minutes. We got work to do.” Tina walked to the ladder, staring up. Fat, lazy drops of blood plopped to the wooden floor. The oil lamp by the stairs cast shadows about her.
Tina put her hands on the ladder, placed her bare foot on the ladder rung and drew herself up to the next step. She gazed at where the bad man lay. She could see the bottom of his bloody sneakers.
She focused on the soft lamplight and drew herself up one step at a time, ever aware of the red cape draping her shoulders.
Tina preferred candles to oil lamps. In the loft, there were two candles. She and Tony were each responsible for lighting and then blowing out their candles every morning and evening. Jenn had taught them to be careful. She’d said, “Fire can give us light and warmth, but it can also burn the house down.”
Aunt Jenn had said she and May burned down the pig man’s house. Though Aunt May was the one to take down the bad man’s goon—Leroy—all by herself, single-handedly, to protect Jenn.
Supergirls stand together. Supergirls stay together.
Tina once asked Tony whether he felt left out because he wasn’t a Supergirl, but he’d just laughed and said he’d rather be Buzz Lightyear. Tina had tried to weave him a Buzz Lightyear helmet out of long grass and straw, but when he’d put it on his head, it completely fell apart. He had laughed and laughed, and given her a big hug. Aunt Jenn had smiled at them both, mouthing a thank you to Tina. It made her feel good. They took care of each other, all of them, like a real life family.
And right now, Aunt Jenn needed her. Needed them both.
When Tina reached the top of the ladder, she stepped down lightly on the floor and padded over to the dead bad man. The wolf mask twisted slightly to the left, showing scars on his chin. His arms sprawled across the floor in his blood.
Tina examined the Bowie poking out of his chest and bent over him, wrapping her fingers around the hilt.
She pulled on it like Arthur had pulled on Excalibur. It didn’t budge. The bad man’s body had sealed up around the blade like cement. Tina squatted a little, using her leg muscles, when it suddenly gave with a slight POP! She slipped backward in the blood and fell on her butt, her cape draping down into the blood.
“Oh no!” Now Aunt Jenn would see the mess on her pajamas. But that was the least of her worries.
She tossed the Bowie to the wall and stood herself up, wiping her hands on her thighs. She walked over to her mattress on the floor, tossed the blankets off and snatched up the white sheets, then she did the same to Tony’s bed, pausing at the window between their mattresses. She wasn’t convinced the bad man’s body would fit through. She thought if she could wrap the wolf’s body up good and tight like a cocoon that it might squeeze through.
She spread the sheets out beside the wolf, and they immediately began soaking up blood.
Tina leaned down the opening in the loft. “Tony, I need you now.”
She heard Tony rise, and his footsteps tap across the floor to the ladder.
She grabbed the wolf’s arms and tried to lift him. She could get his upper half about an inch off the floor, but he was too heavy. When Tony reached the top of the ladder, she had a new plan.
“Tony get over here.” She squatted over the blood. Tony wrinkled his nose and shook his head.
“Come on, Tony, I don’t have time for you to be grossed out.”
Tony’s eyes lit up. “Wait a sec.” He sprinted across the room to his side of the bed and pulled on his nice shoes, then ran back to Tina.
Tina said, “He’s too heavy to lift, but I think we can roll him into the sheets.”
Tony, stepping into the coagulating blood with his sneakers, squatted next to Tina on the Wolf’s left side.
Tina crossed the man’s arms over his chest like a mummy. She avoided looking at the scars beneath the twisted wolf mask. “I’ll push on his shoulders. You push on his hips there.”
With a team effort, they were able to flip the body over onto the sheets, the plastic nose of the wolf mask twisting off altogether as his face thunked onto the hardwood. Tina yanked it off and handed it to Tony. “Here, do something with this.”
Tony examined the mask carefully. Tina would rather he didn’t. Although only made of plastic, the features were sharp and scary. It reminded her of the big bad wolf from the old Disney cartoons they watched at the bad house.
“What would it be like to slip on this mask?” he asked Tina. “What do you think it feels like to not be the one scared all the time? For once, I want someone to be scared of me.”
Silence filled the room, and Tina glanced over at him. A funny feeling came over her as Tony slipped on the mask. She thought of the teeth and claws in his treasure box. There were far too many in there. He hadn’
t found them just lying around the fields. Tony thrust out his hand, pretending to hold the Bowie, then plunged his pretend knife down as if he were stabbing the dead bad man.
Tina leaned over and snapped the mask on his face. “You’d make a lousy bad man, and no one would ever be scared of a worm.”
“Ow!” Tony shrieked.
Tina said, “Knock it off. Throw that mask away and help me.” She turned back to the body. She wasn’t disturbed by much these days. She knew how to toss her feelings aside, and she did it well, but little Tony pretending to be the predator disturbed her. She folded half of the first sheet around the wolf’s body, quickly covering the bad man’s deformed face. But it wasn’t quick enough. She’d never be able to forget his face. His ears were huge and unlevel with each other. It was as if one eye had slid down his skull to his cheek. One eye was larger than the other, and they were the darkest Tina had ever seen.
“That hurt, Tina. I’m telling Auntie Jenn as soon as she wakes up.” Tony threw the mask aside.
“You aren’t telling Aunt Jenn a damn thing, do you understand me?” Her voice came out harsher than she meant it. Tony immediately quieted and helped her roll the body over again. Tina was happy to cover up that awful demented face once and for all. She knew it wasn’t the deformity that had made the bad man so ugly. It was because of what he tried to do to Aunt Jenn, what he was going to do to her and Tony.
Tony said, “Yeah, well I’m telling her you said a bad word.” He stuck his tongue out at her, as Tina made sure the white—now bloody—sheets were taut around the wolf’s body. “Help me roll him again.”
They pushed, and the wolf was on his back. Tony said, “When he’s all rolled up like this, one could almost forget he’s dead.”
Tina didn’t have a reply for that. “One more time, Tony, then I need your shoe laces.”
He helped her flip the man, and now the bad man was deeply nestled in white sheets: a giant burrito.
Tony went to work on unlacing his shoes and handed one to Tina. She tied it around the sheet at the top of the man’s neck in a tight knot. Tony handed her his other shoelace, and she tied that one around the man’s ankles.
“Good. Okay. Now, we have to twist him around so we can roll him towards the window.” Tina pointed at the window to make her point. “But we have to move the mattresses first.
"Tony grunted and shrugged. “I guess.”
They worked together to stand the mattresses up against the walls, creating a wide bare space in the middle of the floor.
Then, they both tugged at the man’s head and feet until the body was aligned with the window.
“Keep rolling him until we get there, kay?” Tina said.
Tony nodded and squatted and pushed at the man’s hips as Tina rolled his shoulder. It was more time consuming than Tina had thought, and she worried Aunt Jenn may wake up soon.
“Come on, Tony, we’ve got to hurry.” But, they kept moving at the same pace until they finally got the body to the window.
They both sat down on the floor, panting.
“He’s really heavy,” said Tony. “How are we going to get him up there?”
Tina noted the dark circles under Tony’s eyes, his quivering bottom lip and she hated the bad man for doing this to him, to Jenn. But, she supposed it could have been a lot worse. She said, “We’ll just lift him, I guess. We need to get his shoulders out, and the rest will be easy.”
But it wasn’t easy. They struggled with lifting his upper torso, and sometimes they’d start lifting him up the wall towards the window ledge and then he’d flop back down.
Tony said, “Hey, I have an idea. Lets put his legs through first.”
Tina nodded. “Let’s try it.”
They flipped the body around, so the wolf’s legs faced the window. Tony lifted the feet, and Tina lifted at where she guessed the man’s hips were, and finally, they were able to work the man’s feet up and over the window’s ledge.
“Okay, okay, we’re doing good. I want you to help me lift his hips, Tony.” Tony strained on one side while she slid underneath and pushed up on the dead man’s butt. The feet went out the window along with the man’s calves.
“Good, Tina! You’re doing it.”
But, Tina was already tiring, and she felt her bare feet slipping on the red goo clinging to her skin. “I’m about to drop him, Tony. Let’s shove him out!”
Tony grabbed the man’s knees and yanked, and suddenly they were at the window, too, taking most of the weight off Tina shoulders. They both heaved and panted with the effort.
“Okay, get under here with me, and we’ll both shove him out.” Tina held onto the dead man’s butt while Tony gripped his upper back. They both shoved his thighs out the window, leaving his hips to catch on the frame. Tina now held his upper back and Tony the man’s head.
“I think his hips are caught.”
Tina shook her head. “We can’t give up now. Turn him a bit.”
They struggled to twist and turn the body, but it wouldn’t give, stuck inside the small window frame.
Tina said, “We’re just going to have to force him through, Tony. We have to do this. We need to do this.”
They both drew in their breath and heaved as hard as they could. After a minute, the wolf’s hips went through the window, followed by the rest of the body. They heard a THUMP as the body hit the wet ground outside.
“We did it! We did!” screamed Tony. “Wahoo!”
Tina and Tony hugged each other and laughed.
“Shhhhh!” Tina covered Tony’s lips with her finger. “You’ll wake Aunt Jenn. Come on.”
Tina raced across the room, being careful of the blood, and flew down the ladder, checked on a sleeping Aunt Jenn and ran outside into the darkness. The giant white burrito shone with an ethereal brightness. Only it looked less like a burrito than it did a mummified worm. She could see murky liquid seeping through, though she was now unsure whether it was blood, mud, or both. It lay in a twisted heap. Tina cringed just thinking how the bad man must look inside the sheets. She was glad it was dark.
She walked over to the water pump and splashed her face several times before picking up the tin cup, scooping it into the barrel for a cool drink. She thought about where to take the body and how. As the cold water soothed her parched throat, Tina’s achy muscles relaxed. She stared into her tin cup, and she swore she saw Aunt May’s reflection staring back. What would Aunt May do? A plan began to form.
Tina dropped the cup into the water barrel and ran back behind the cabin to find the wheelbarrow.
5
A Box Full of Kittens
Tony picked up the wolf mask before following his sister down the ladder. He could hear Tina swoop down to Auntie Jenn, whisper something to her, and then the pitter-patter of her bare feet as she ran out the door, slamming it closed behind her.
Alone with his thoughts and feelings, he let his fingers wander over the curves and dips in the plastic of the mask. He lingered on the sharp fangs. He imagined what the tall man’s expression would be if he saw Tony in the mask, holding rope in one hand, the Bowie in the other.
Fear.
He didn’t want to scare his sister or Aunt Jenn—they were innocent—but the bad men. He wanted them to beg on their knees for mercy, piss their pants from fear of what Tony could do to them, would do to them.
He hooked the string attached to the back around his arm and climbed down the ladder, making his way to Auntie Jenn. He sat on his knees and watched the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. She seemed at peace, but he didn’t think she would feel that way when she woke up.
He took her hand and placed it on his heart. Tony would make Auntie Jenn a promise. “When you wake up, Auntie Jenn. I’m going to find you a kitten—no, a whole box of kittens. They’ll make you happy, and you’ll laugh. And then you’re going to feel just fine. A whole box of kittens will make you happy again. I know it.” Tony closed his eyes, remembering the cartoon where a little boy found a box
of kittens in an alley. He brought them home and took care of them. And the little boy lived happily with his kittens for the rest of his life.
Tony admitted to himself that he was the one who wanted the kittens, not Auntie Jenn. He’d been working up the courage to ask her all spring, thinking of how and when he might come across a box of kittens.
But this was different, he only wanted a box of kittens, poor Auntie Jenn was going to need them. So she could be happy again.
There was nothing more that Tony wanted to do then make his Auntie happy. Except…he opened his eyes and glanced at the wolf mask, his wolf mask. He swallowed hard and said the truth to himself, grinding his teeth to the point of cracking. The one exception to making his Auntie’s happiness—the first priority was getting the bad guys. Making them pay. Making them feel as scared and small as they made Tony feel.
Tony placed the mask over his face. He felt powerful. He turned away from Aunt Jenn to the closed front door.
He imagined it opening, a tall figure behind the door. It wore glasses and had a long scraggly mustache. It held a knife in one hand, a rope in the other.
“Rawr!” He pounced on the tall man. And the figure fainted to the ground as Tony scratched his eyes out and ripped out his teeth.
Eventually, Tony came to. He was still sitting by Aunt Jenn, holding her hand. The mask was on. He glanced at the front door. There was no bad man hiding behind it because they’d killed him. Or rather, Tina had.
Tony slipped the mask off and gazed at the scariness of it. The powerful emotions it produced were almost as scary as the mask. And he liked it. Reveled in it. His life would never be the same, and he knew it.
Outside, he heard Tina. “Tony! Tony! Help me!”
His heartbeat flew a hundred miles an hour the second he heard her voice. “Oh no! Tina. I’ll protect you!” He slipped the mask on, jumped to his feet. He remembered the big knife upstairs, the one Tina had used on the wolf man and he raced up the ladder, snatched it, and zipped back down and out the door, slamming it behind him.