Getting in Touch with Your Hexed Side

Powerless

Joe’s monster of a vehicle needed a fuel up every four hours, so it was just about the time we were starting to talk about food that we needed to pull into another gas station. In contrast with the last station, this one looked a little sketchy and I wasn’t afraid to point it out.

“Are you sure there’s no where else to stop?” I asked.

“What’s wrong with this?” Joe looked around like the pumps were about to blow up.

“Just a bad feeling,” I sighed. “It’s nothing, I guess. Just seems like the kind of place we should avoid.”

“Relax, Tails. You’ve got three big strong monsters to take care of you now,” Joe laughed.

“That’s what worries me. I know these three monsters and the only reliable one is also a pacifist,” I motioned, ironically, to the demon I shared the back seat with.

“I can fight,” Michael defended himself.

No one dignified that with a response. We all knew the man was a teddy bear.

“It doesn’t matter,” Joe said, killing the engine and pushing his door open. “Nothing is going to happen, so let’s get refilled and find a nice steakhouse.”

“I’m still voting for chinese!” Caesar continued the debate that had been raging for the last fifteen miles.

“Whatever, I’m going to the bathroom,” I announced to no one, pushing my own way out of the massive car and jumping to the ground. The impact itself was enough to shock my new feeble bladder in the most unpleasant manner. I’d officially found the biggest issue with being, well, new me. I could barely go four hours without finding a toilet.

The inside of the station wasn’t any less sketchy than the outside and I had to ask the clerk for the keys to the bathroom. Imagine my surprise to learn that they weren’t even inside. I reluctantly trooped back outside and around to the back of the nearly derelict structure.

The bathroom itself wasn’t as disgusting as it could have been. Outdated and dim, sure, but I didn’t feel like I was going to catch anything just from using the facilities. I’d almost thought my bad feelings were unjustified until I ran into someone on my way out.

“Whoa, what have we here?” the burly man chuckled as he stopped me from tumbling to the concrete.

“Sorry,” I apologized quickly, regaining my feet and trying to redirect myself around them. It was paranoid, sure, but Lizzie’s warning and my own unsureness of my body’s capabilities were fueling a sense of caution I couldn’t shake. My gut sunk when I went to head away and was stopped by another body.

“That didn’t even sound like a proper apology,” the second man scoffed. “At least pretend you mean it.”

I did a quick headcount and found three bodies blocking me from getting back to the guys. Crap and double crap. Did this happen in real life?

“I’m really sorry for running into you,” I did my best to meet the first man’s eyes and sound sincere when I was really just terrified. “I’m just in a hurry to get back to my brothers. They’re not the patient sort.”

“That sounds like a lie to me,” the second man, clearly the ringleader, spoke again. “We was just out front and didn’t see any of the brotherly types milling around.”

“I don’t know what to say other than that you must have missed them.”

“You’ve got quite the lip,” I wasn’t ready for him to move and he grabbed my upper arm in a steel grip before I could think to bolt. 

I instinctively yanked against it, but only succeeded in hurting myself by twisting in his grip and gaining no ground. It was instinct again that drove my next stupidity as I lashed out at the man, landing a solid blow across his face and, once again, hurting my fist far more than him. He laughed, laughed, as he brought his other hand to his jaw.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” I rushed out in a panic. Would the others hear me if I screamed. Would they even recognize it was me?

“Apologizing after hitting a man in the face is a little too late, sweetheart. Why don’t you come with us and try to show how sorry you really are, huh?” He started to pull me into the bathroom I’d just left and my panic shot into overdrive. I could not go in there with him. I didn’t even think people like this existed. I tried to pull against him, resist, something, but he was just so strong.

“Hey! What the f**k is going on back here?!”

I wanted to weep with relief at hearing Joe’s voice. He was an asshole, but he would wipe the floor with these pricks for me.

“None of your business, buddy. Just keep walking,” the one with his hands on me leveled the threat.

Joe, of course, was never one to take kindly to disrespect.

“Kind of looks like you’re hurting my friend there. I think that means I need to hurt you.”

“What the hell? Are you some kind of furry?” the man holding me laughed as Joe came closer and into better visibility.

“I’m an all natural animal, baby,” Joe gave a lethal smile and took another couple steps forward.

In some unspoken command, the other two men went forward to face down my furry friend. They split to surround him, but Joe never gave them the chance, jumping on the nearest one and leveling him out with a single haymaker. Based on the c***k and ferocity with which the man went down I honestly wasn’t sure he wasn’t dead, but Joe was apparently unconcerned. He shoved the limp body unceremoniously out of the way to clear a path to the second adversary.

The second one swung first, clipping Joe’s shoulder with a painful thud as he moved to block. Then it was a tangle of limbs swinging so fast I couldn’t tell who was hitting who. One thing was for sure, though, these guys never stood half a chance. The second man was laid out within ten seconds, disorientatedly nursing a definitely broken arm and shattered pride. 

“Stay the f**k away from me,” the man stumbled backwards, dragging me with him.

Joe just gave a lethal smile and advanced, but stopped as I was blindsided by a staggering pain in my arm. I couldn’t hold back the pained scream that tore from my throat. Why the hell did that hurt so much?

“Let her go, man,” Joe reasoned. “If you want to be able to walk out of this alley you’d best just let her go.”

“Yeah, let me go, assho--,” I was cut off into another pained whimper as he crushed my bicep again. I knew without a doubt my arm was going to be little more than bruises after this. Unbelievable. I’d spent my entire life dishing out orders and being obeyed and now I was utterly powerless.

“How about you just walk away, dog. I’ll send your little girly friend along shortly.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” Joe scoffed.

“I’m not f*****g joking!” he rattled my arm again and I couldn’t stop the tears of pain and frustration from starting to snake out. 

Shit, if I looked too pitiful there was a chance that Joe wouldn’t just lay this asshole out.

“Joe!” I shouted to get his attention, voice coming out wet and weak. “What are you waiting for? I’ll be fine, just cream the dude.”

“You’re alright, Tails,” Joe smirked. “He’s just about to let you go.”

I wasn’t sure what he meant, but there was sudden movement behind me and I was thrown to the ground. Before I even had a chance to stand on my own I was being dragged away by another pair of arms. I started struggling for all of half a second before I realized it was Caesar trying to shush me. Shush me? Oh yeah, I was screaming.

“Christ, you scared the s**t out of me,” I didn’t trust myself to move my right arm, but socked him as best I could with my left before pulling him into a brohug. I quickly realized I wasn’t the only one screaming. Michael was holding my captor to the ground while Joe ground the heel of his boot into the man’s groin. That was going to hurt way more than my arm.

“Joe!” I had to call to him several times before he stopped to look at me. 

“What? Are you okay?”

“Fine,” I nodded even though I wasn’t so sure. “But we should probably get out of here before the cops show up.”

They all shared a look at that before scrambling to get back to the SUV. Nobody had any interest in dealing with the law while we were essentially a freakshow of adult men taking a teenage girl across the country.

Thankfully the car had already been fueled and we were peeling out of the station just as we heard the first sirens in the distance.

“Are we going to talk about that?” Caesar asked. It had been several hours and we still had not. We’d shirked the idea of a steakhouse, no one feeling like fine dining after the confrontation, and settled for some fast food drive through.

“I never gave the bathroom key back,” I offered.

Joe snorted, now in the passenger seat.

“I don’t think that’s the biggest problem.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Not your fault,” Michael said, surprisingly vehement for the usually tepid man. “Don’t even start with that.”

“Okay, sorry, then what is there to say?”

“How did that even happen?” Caesar asked. 

“Just some assholes who needed an attitude adjustment I was happy to provide,” Joe flexed his hands, not even bruised.

“How is your arm?” Michael caught me looking at Joe’s hands and asked.

I turned my right side towards the center of the car and was met with a mixture of whistles and curses. I definitely had five little spots that were vividly bruising up.

“Hurts like a b***h,” I sighed and sat back against the seat. “I keep thinking back, but I’m not sure what I could have done differently.”

“Nothing,” Michael shook his head. “Sometimes bad things just happen, but I think it might be better if you were to stay with one of us from now on.”

“I’m a little old to be doing the bathroom buddy thing. Maybe we could just avoid stopping on the bad side of town?”

“Why not both?” Michael shrugged.

I’d be lying if I said the thought of having one of them around wouldn’t have made me feel more comfortable, but it still felt shameful on some level to ask for it. I may have gotten a new body, but I was still a grown man inside, wasn’t I?

“Fine,” I sighed, feigning even more reluctance than I felt. “But don’t forget that I’m an adult. I’m not afraid to take any of you bastards down if you start treating me with kid gloves just because my particular brand of curse is bizarre.”

“Less bizarre than any of the rest of us, I think,” Caesar laughed. “At least you’re still human.”

“I don’t think he was ever human to begin with,” Joe teased. “Work, work, work all day and night. I think you’ve been a robot this whole time and you’ve just traded out your skin.”

“I’d say you were a party animal, but I think that’s obvious enough.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Michael tapped his lower lip in thought.

“What’s that?”

“About how each of our curses is supposed to be unique. The witch said it was karmatic, right? Like we each deserved what we got. It’s the only explanation to why it’s so different.”

“Does that mean you’ve figured us all out?” Joe asked.

“Other than the obvious that you always acted like an animal?” Michael snorted.

“Wait, you guys are serious about that? You think that’s why I got turned into a wolf-man?”

“Why not?” I shrugged. “It makes about as much sense as getting cursed by a witch in the first place. That wouldn’t explain the rest, though. I don’t think I’ve acted like a little girl or anything.”

“Nope,” Joe laughed. “You were always the big boss man. Climbing the corporate ladder with a yardstick up your ass.”

“So it’s the opposite,” Michael repeated. 

“Something to think about,” Caesar said, shrugging from the driver’s seat.

“It’s nothing to think about,” Joe snorted. “Trying to figure out why a wrathful old lady did what she did is pointless. She just wanted us to suffer and I’d say she’s done a mighty fine job of it. I just hope one day she gets what’s coming to her.”

Somehow I couldn’t help but feel like we were the ones who got what was coming. I wouldn’t say it out loud, but I would rather have been trapped in any of the others’ forms. If I had been anything other than what I was there wouldn’t have been any trouble back at the gas station. If I was anything like what I used to be they wouldn’t have messed with me in the first place and, if they had? I could have beaten their asses myself instead of having to be rescued. 

A sinking feeling hit my gut as I realized I’d been stuck inside the thing I hated or feared the most. I wasn’t sure why yet, but I knew without a doubt that the witch had hit it dead on.