And Ruin Followed Behind Her

Chapter 15-2

I LAID MAMA AT THE entrance to the tea shop while I dug Elka’s keys out of my pocket. When I got the door open, I tossed Mama inside before following her and locking the door behind me. The battle raged outside, but there was an eerie calm inside the shop.

In that quiet, the weight of my task came crashing down upon me. The adrenaline faded and all I was left with was the cold hard truth: Elka wanted me to battle a dragon, and that was impossible. No amount of artillery could take down that dragon. What good could I do?

I slid down length the door and onto the floor, and my eyes fell to the blood stain Chuck Dixon created yesterday, and I bitterly wondered whether he was still alive. God help me, I wished that he wasn’t. I hoped he did not live to see these times. The guilt of that thought overwhelmed me, and I began to cry. I couldn’t protect him. I couldn’t protect one human against a group of cultists. How was I going to beat a dragon?

“I can’t do this...I can’t do it,” I muttered to myself.

“Can’t do what, angel?” Mama asked, crawling toward me.

I looked down at the bloody daggers in my hand. “Mama, I can’t do it. Don’t make me do it. I can’t—”

Mama cupped my face with her hands. “Breathe, baby. Breathe.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Then another. And another. When I finally opened my eyes, tears poured down my face. “Elka, the woman who owned this shop. She told me I had to defeat this dragon, right before she died. I can’t do it, Mama. It’s too much.”

“That’s crazy, baby,” Mama said. “Nobody would ask you to battle these monsters. We have to go home and wait for the police to fix this whole thing up.”

I shook my head. “They are not going to fix this, Mama. Elka said that if I don’t fix it, nobody could.”

“And do you believe her?”

“I do. She never steered me wrong before.”

Mama wrapped me in her bosom. “Then, I think you can do it. You can do anything, baby. You’ve done so much. You got a degree from Northwestern, right?”

I wiped tears from my cheek and sniffed. “Two, actually.”

“That’s something special. You have always been special, way before you could disappear yourself.”

“No. No,” I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. “You’re right. We have to get out of here, Mama. We have to leave now. Get out of Chandler for good.”

Mama pulled back from me. “Oh, baby. You can leave if you want, but I’m not going anywhere.”

“Yes, you are. You have to come with me out of town.”

“Baby, I love you, but I don’t have to do anything.” She took a step away from me.

I grabbed Mama’s arm and pulled her toward me. “This is insane, Mama. There’s a dragon destroying downtown and demons running amok on every street corner. If we stay here, then we’re as good as dead.”

Mama yanked her arm from me. “I’m old, baby. I’m already as good as dead. You can go, but I’m staying.”

“That’s crazy!” I stomped through the store, throwing angry looks at her. “This place killed my father and tried to kill you. How can you still defend it?”

“True. This town did try to kill me,” Mama said. “But it’s also the place I fell in love, and had you, and helped raise hundreds of kids. It’s the place that took us in and fed us after your father died. It’s the only place I’ve ever felt at peace.”

I flung my arm toward the door, pointing at the park. “That’s because of the mystical energy from the mystery spot.”

“I don’t care what it’s from, baby,” Mama said, shaking her head furiously. “It’s where I want to be. I’ve never felt so sure of that.”

I jumped up and down, frantically trying to make Mama see reason. “There is a giant portal to Hell in the middle of town! It doesn’t matter where you want to be, this place is literally going to Hell.”

“Then I’ll go with it.”

“You love this town that much?” I scoffed.

She folded her arms. “Yes.”

“You and I must be living in two different towns, then. Everybody who lives here wants us dead. Some for being black. Others for being pixies, but they all want us dead. The principal at my school, for Christ’s sake. Martha, the only person who served us at Charlotte’s. Two city councilors! This town is full of awful people, mother, people that just brought about the end of times.”

“It’s full of good people, too, sweetheart. Full of children I used to watch, and who could use your help. People that will lose everything if they have to evacuate this place. You think my house is protected from demon attacks?”

“They can build again! They can’t live again.”

“Well, I think that portal to Hell is proof of the opposite, my dear. I think this shows, if anything, that we do live again, and if we do live again, what do you have to fear from death?”

“How about being burned alive in fire and brimstone? Is that enough for you?”

“I survived worse than this,” Mama told me.

“Worse than Hell on Earth?”

“Yes, worse than this. I know you don’t believe this, but losing your father devastated me. It changed everything I knew about the world. I was young, and stupid, and I wasn’t ready to take care of a kid myself, but I did, and I raised you right for twenty-five years.”

“You raised me to keep my head down and survive.”

“And you did that, baby. You survived, and now you could do something great. I don’t know what that is, but I do know that if we run away, well, I’ll never be able to live with myself.”

“So, you’re saying you want me to fight an unstoppable group of demons and a dragon, to save a bunch of ungrateful suckers who couldn’t care less if we live or die?”

Mama shook her head. “No, baby. I’m saying we can’t leave because there are people worth protecting.”

“Name one.”

“How about all those kids at Taft High School, or George Washington? Those kids whose families might’ve done some terrible things, but they didn’t do anything wrong. They don’t deserve to die in a slaughter, do they?”

I grumbled to myself. “No.”

“Or how about that nice man who guarded the mystery spot? What was his name?”

“Chuck Dixon.”

“Yes, that’s it. Is he worth saving?”

I pointed to the blood stain on the floor. “That’s his blood. He’s probably dead.”

Mama looked down at it, then back to me. “Even if he is, what about all the others like him? Isn’t there anybody worth fighting for?”

“Maybe a couple.”

Mama squeezed my hand. Her voice lost its edge. “That’s enough, I think.”

“Is it? You want me to risk my life because one person isn’t a jerk?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because we are better, Julia. We have to be better. It’s the only way things are gonna change—if we are better than everybody else for longer than anybody thinks possible.”

We were having a moment. In a better time, it would have led to a warm embrace. This was not that time, however, because we were rudely interrupted by a spiky-horned demon crashing through the door of the tea shop.

Snarling, razor-sharp teeth chomped together as it rushed toward me, pulling back its curved, black sword, ready to strike. On instinct, I spun Elka’s daggers in my hand. I dodged the demon’s sword, and in one swift motion dug them deep into its throat.

The daggers penetrated to the hilt, and dark green blood oozed out of its mouth as the demon fell to my feet. I stepped on its chest and yanked them out of his body. My hands and clothes were covered in green blood that mixed with Elka’s.

“I’ve never done anything like that before.” I turned to Mama, trying to catch my breath. “How did I do that?”

“I have no idea,” Mama said, visibly shaking. She beamed with pride. “But it was very special.”

The adrenaline coursed through my veins, and I felt different. It was like when I had vanished, except even more amped up. I didn’t just want to fight, I needed to fight. Confidence surged inside of me. For once I wasn’t just reacting. I needed to take action, not for the town, but for me.

I turned to Mama. “Alright, if I’m going to do this, you have to be safe. I can’t keep thinking about your safety every moment while I’m fighting monsters and demons, alright?”

Mama put her hands on her hips and scowled at me. “I’m not leaving town.”

I smiled at her. “I have an idea, but you have to trust me.”

“I have always trusted you,” Mama said softly, and I believed her.

I grabbed the Pixie Dust book from the shelf and stuffed it in a leather satchel I’d found under the register. I placed the daggers inside the satchel as well. Then, I took Mama’s hand. “This is going to feel weird.”

I closed my eyes, focused, and grabbed a pinch of pixie dust. My mind pulled me to where I wanted to go. Confident and calm, I threw the pixie dust and vanished with Mama into the ether.