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“Let me get changed,” Harry shouted to his cousin as he entered the house. “Then we can go get something to eat.”
“Why bother? You’re only going to swap one inane T-shirt for another.”
Harry ignored Matt, who was watching CNN on the widescreen in the living room. He didn’t have time to deal with him. His hands were full coping with Magenta. He’d left her alone long enough to calm down. She got one more night. Then he planned to hunt her down and make her talk to him. Even if it meant tying her to a chair to do it. Or the bed. Mmm, yeah, tying her to the bed was a way better idea.
He swung open his room door and flicked on the light. Darkness prevailed. “Bring me a light bulb, will you?” he shouted to Matt. “The one in my room has blown.”
He heard grumbling, but assumed Matt was digging out a bulb.
His mind on Magenta, Harry strode into the room, reached for the bedside lamp and was about to press the switch when he heard it. Scraping. Gnawing. His hand stilled. His body froze. Slowly, he turned his head towards the bed. Something moved. His heart shot to his mouth. Moving nothing but his finger, Harry switched on the lamp. The blood drained from his body.
Sitting in the middle of his bed was a huge white rat. It stopped nibbling on whatever the hell it was nibbling on, and its beady pink eyes stared at Harry. Evil eyes. Red like the devil. Harry couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. Then he saw movement under his duvet. He sucked in a breath. His eyes shot to his pillow, where yet another tail twitched. His heart stopped beating altogether. He caught sight of something on the floor. His eyes flicked to it. Huge grey rats, under the furniture, peeking out from behind the chair. His heart restarted. His feet shuffled towards the door. He felt something squish under them, and looked down to see a rat’s tail poking out from beside his boot.
And then he did what every man in the same situation would have done. He screamed like a baby, while throwing himself in the direction of the door. A doorway Matt had just appeared in, looking dumbfounded and carrying a light bulb.
“What the hell?” Matt said as Harry pushed him out of the way.
He tripped over his cousin to land on his knees in the hall.
“Rats!” He was beyond caring that he was hysterical, shouting his lungs out. “Rats in my room. Rats!” He stopped shouting and started to rant. “Shut the door. Lock the door. Don’t go in there. I’ll call the rat guy. We’ll kill them all. Hairy little freakoids with their Satan-red eyes and germ-carrying teeth.”
Matt shook his head and stepped into the room.
“Don’t do it.” Harry lunged at him. “They’ll get you.”
It was too late. He’d lost his cousin. He stumbled to his feet, fully intending to lock Matt in there, along with the rats, until the exterminator got there. It was too late to save his cousin now.
“Catch,” Matt shouted, and something came flying at Harry.
He saw the grey hair first and just about passed out. Without thinking, he actually caught the damn thing. A rat. A squishy, soft rat. A velvet rat? A rat with no bones? A rat that didn’t move? He looked down at the creature in his hands and felt his world tilt.
“I’m going to kill her,” he said through gritted teeth.
Matt was laughing too hard to reply. Harry’s heartbeat settled into a normal rhythm, and anger replaced panic.
“You are such a loser.” Matt leaned against the doorframe, his laughter now reduced to an oversized grin. “The twins got you with something almost identical to this when you were a kid.”
Where exactly did his cousin think his fear of rats came from?
He noticed something moving at his mocking cousin’s feet. The white rat. Harry couldn’t speak. He pointed.
“Rat,” Harry said. “Real rat.”
“Yeah, right.” Matt looked down. The laughter stopped. His cousin let out a stream of curses as he paled. With lighting reflexes, Matt kicked the rat back into the room and slammed the door shut.
They stood side by side, shaking as they studied the door.
Harry pointed at the bottom of the door. “Rats can squeeze through spaces smaller than that gap.”
Matt’s face was thunderous when he stomped into the bathroom and came back with two towels. He rolled them up and wedged them under the door. They stared at it. Without talking, Matt left again, disappearing into his room. Harry stared at his bedroom door while listening as Matt dismantled something. A minute later, his cousin appeared with a long shelf and several hand weights. He placed the shelf against the towels and then wedged the weights up against it.
“They won’t get through that.” He didn’t sound pleased. He sounded grim. Matt turned to Harry. “I’m going to kill them.”
Harry nodded. It was obvious Matt wasn’t talking about the rats. “You deal with your sisters. I’ll handle Magenta.”
Matt’s eyes darkened as he nodded. “First I need to call pest control.” He shuddered before stomping down the stairs.
Harry followed, taking the toy rat with him.
In a booth in the pub, the twins and Magenta were laughing so hard that they had to hold each other upright. They weren’t the only ones. Dougal had talked them into plugging Claire’s iPad into the TV over the bar. Everyone got to watch, and listen, to the Harry and Matt show. Magenta had gotten over her anxiety about the plan and thought it was only fair that everyone watched. After all, the whole town had listened in on the mine debacle too.
“That was priceless.” Dougal wiped tears from his eyes.
“I don’t know what they were doing out in the hall,” Josh McInnes said. “Maybe building a barricade. Wish I could have seen it.” He turned to the girls. “Next time, two cameras.”
Considering the American singer was one of Matt’s best friends, Magenta was surprised he’d enjoyed the show so much.
“The way Matt lobbed the rat onto the bed with his boot.” Josh’s manager and best friend said. “Fantastic. The damn rat didn’t even blink; it just turned around and started eating again.”
“You can’t let them kill the pet rats,” one of the ladies of Knit or Die said. “That’s plain wrong.”
Claire shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere near Matt or Harry. Someone else will have to rescue the rats.”
“I second that,” Megan said.
Everyone turned to Magenta. “Don’t look at me. I’d have to be nuts to go near those two right now.”
“I’ll deal with the rats,” Lake said from beside Josh.
The girls beamed at him. “Our hero,” Claire told him, making his lip twitch.
“In the meantime.” Dougal’s booming voice filled the room. “You girls better find a good hiding place. Those boys are going to be out for blood.”
“Like it’s something we aren’t used to.” Megan snorted. “We’ve been at war with them since we were born.” She looked around the bar. “In case anyone is interested, the girls are winning.”
There was a cheer. Once people turned their attention back to their food and each other, Magenta leaned in towards the twins. She kept her voice low so that Lake, Josh and Mitch couldn’t hear them and tell tales to Matt. “I’m taking off for the mine for a few days until this calms down. It’s the one place Harry won’t look for me.”
“Good thinking,” Claire said. “We’re going to spend some time with our parents. Matt won’t do anything there.”
“Well, he can try, but Mum will lecture him for about a year,” Megan said. “He’s ten years older than us; he’s supposed to look out for us.” She beamed. “It’s my favourite lecture. Matt glowers, but he’s immobilised.”
“Okay, let’s head back to the house and pick up our gear before the boys hunt us down.” Magenta stood and tugged down her black leather mini-dress. It had silver studs around the neckline and a silver chain around the waist. With her thigh-high black leather platform boots and fishnet tights, she was going for a dominatrix-like don’t-mess-with-me vibe. So far, so good.
“That was brilliant,” Megan said on a sigh. “It’s been years since we pulled a prank on Harry. I miss this.”
“Me too,” said Claire. “Being mature can really suck sometimes.”
Magenta bit back a laugh. She didn’t think the twins had to worry. They, along with her, were in no danger of being called mature any time soon.