With her morning routine out of whack due to her jaunt to the Feed and Farm store, Summer had completely forgotten the tea concoction at the house for Sully’s cold. With him growing with such gusto, she and Dr. Stuart felt it best to give him smaller meals three times a day than bigger meals two times a day.
Lacking the tea for his mid-day meal, she ran home to pick it up. She went into the bedroom, used the bathroom while she was there and saw something out of the corner of her eye through the sheer curtains. It was a man. He was squatting at the far end of the cemetery, seemingly coming from the woods behind the mansion. He had a black baseball cap on backwards and dark sunglasses. She stepped closer to the window to get a better view of the trespasser.
What is he doing? she thought. He touched the ground to his left, studied it afterwards then brought his hand to his face and seemed to smell it. After a moment he stood and headed towards the cottage. It was then that it dawned on her who it was. There was no mistaking that sinewy build and golden blond hair—Jackson. She turned from the window pressing her back to the wall as if she were hiding, then realizing what she was doing, felt silly for doing so and looked out the window once more. He was at the back corner of the cottage. She turned to her right and watched him walk past the French doors of her bedroom towards the fence.
She tiptoed to the doors and peeked out the sheer curtains. He was bent over a bush, rummaging within it and around it.
What is he doing here? What’s he looking for? She wasn’t sure if she was mad or scared. Was he stalking her? If so, why was he looking in the bushes and inspecting the dirt? The more she thought on it, the bolder she became. It wasn’t like he was in her house rummaging through her stuff, but for some reason she felt violated in a way you might feel if someone burglarized your home.
She headed out the front door to confront the intruder. Jackson was inspecting the fence again as he had the night they had watched movies in the cemetery. “What are you doing?” she said with her arms crossed.
He stiffened and slowly turned to her, squinting as he took off his sunglasses. “I…” was all he could find to say.
He stood for a moment stuttering and looking horribly guilty, then like lightning he was gone. She’d never seen anything move so fast in her life. She was bewildered by his actions and hurt by his need to flee instead of explain. Sure, she felt a little mad about his being in her space but why wouldn’t he shed some light on his odd behavior? And why was he always evading her questions?
She wanted to cry, but refused and instead, took a deep breath, grabbed the tea, her keys and headed back to work. Maybe Tori could make heads or tails of what she’d seen.
*****
A late lunch with Tori had not made Summer feel any better. She had defended Jackson’s actions as she had in the past, but nothing she suggested as the reasons for his odd behavior made any sense to Summer. If anything, her mind seemed to be working overtime and making his actions more suspicious.
She distracted herself with organizing the drug cabinet in the lab, something she often put off, but a menial task was just what she needed to get her mind off Jackson. Dr. Stuart and Tori both knew she saved these projects for times like these when she needed to work through her thoughts. Though they both felt bad that she was struggling with something, it did have its advantages. Last time she was in this mood, she organized and scrubbed each examination room from top to bottom.
Toward the end of the workday, Summer heard a commotion in the front office. She ignored it and finish unpacking boxes from the last delivery, when Tori came running in out of breath. “You’ve got to come out here,” she said with a concerned look upon her face.
Summer set the items in her hand on the nearby workbench and followed Tori to the front patient waiting area. A couple of patients were up and looking out the window. Sully was at the door barking, and Dr. Stuart had just opened the blinds in the front office to see what everyone was looking at. Summer stepped beside Sully trying to tug him away from the door so she could see what all the hubbub was about. There in the parking lot were Jackson and Hunter taking punches at one another.
Tori said, “As far as I can tell, Hunter was bringing you flowers, when Jackson confronted him, giving him a good shove. I couldn’t hear any of the conversation but Jackson looked seriously pissed off.”
Summer said, “Tori, hold Sully,” as she opened the door to the parking lot. It took all of Tori’s strength to keep the pup from running out with Summer. Summer ran to the two men who were hurling insults at one another. There were broken and smashed flowers all over the ground around them and Jackson was about to throw another punch when she yelled at him and jumped between the two, almost receiving a blow from both of the men.
“What is going on?” she yelled.
Jackson and Hunter were both out of breath and sporting some serious bruises and cuts from the little showdown, but neither spoke up. Hunter was trying to cover the black blood oozing from the corner of his mouth by wiping it away and turning from the eyes peering from within the clinic. Jackson’s nose was gushing blood and he was trying to pinch the bridge to stop the bleeding, but it was obviously broken and hurt to do so.
“Well? What’s this about?” she said first to Hunter, who said nothing, and then she angrily turned to Jackson. “Or are you going to run away again?”
The look in his beautiful green eyes told Summer the anger he’d vented on Hunter was still seething and barely under control, when he blurted in disgust, “Do you know what he is?”
“Yes,” she said. Jackson took a step back in disbelief.
“Do you have any idea how dangerous he is?” he finally said, tripping over his words.
“Some could say the same about being involved with you,” she said sharply and impulsively.
This hurt him to the bone. His anger turned immediately to anguish and embarrassment. He didn’t run this time, but he turned slowly and walked off looking broken. She wanted to run to him and make him talk to her, but her anger stopped her. She just watched him until she couldn’t see him anymore.
Summer turned to Hunter once more. “So are you going to explain what happened here?” she said, poking him in the chest with her index finger.
He eyed her as if sizing up the situation then wiped his mouth of blood once more, replying defiantly, “Nope.” He left her standing confused and astonished, then climbed into his delivery van and left.
She watched the van pull out of the parking lot. Destroyed pink, white and purple flowers encircled her as if the heavens poured ruined flowers from a cloud only on her. She crouched and picked up a droopy pink rose. It smelled lovely and she was sure the bouquet it once graced must have been quite beautiful before it had met its demise in the altercation between the arguing vampire and demon.
With both of them gone, Tori came out. She sensed by Summer’s posture that she needed a shoulder to cry on. Summer embraced her and sobbed for a long moment while Tori comforted her but said nothing. Now was not the time for words, now was the time to purge herself of the events of the day and who better with than her very best friend.
*****
Summer felt better after a good cry, not great, but better. She and Sully headed home after finishing with the last of the customers and shutting down the clinic for the night. If Summer had her way, she would have been back to organizing something in the lab, but Dr. Stuart was having none of that. He insisted she go home, relax and get some much needed rest.
A quick glance at the creepy house next door as she opened the gate gave no hint that anyone was home or anything had changed, so she headed in the gate. Sully was feeling better and had some pent up energy that needed to be released. Summer threw the ball for him half a dozen times. Each time he returned with the slimy ball he did so a bit slower until he didn’t return at all and went off to make his usual run around the edge of the property. Sniffing and marking things that caught his attention was apparently a necessary part of his day.
Summer picked up a hoe and headed to the garden to take out frustration on the weeds that never ceased to encroach on the garden beds. This usually made her feel better but it wasn’t doing the trick for her today so she stepped toward the bench and plopped down.
It was then she heard Sully barking. It wasn’t his usual ‘barking at squirrels’ bark. This had a sense of urgency to it and it made her drop the hoe and run in panic toward the sound. She found him at the fence near the bush where she found Jackson rummaging. He was standing on his back feet clawing and barking at the neighbor house as he had once before. There in the window was the very large-bellied cat. His white belly pressed to the window and he was clawing at the glass so fast it looked like he was pedaling a bicycle. His mouth opened and closed in silent mews.
“Can you hear what he’s saying, Sully?” she asked.
He could barely talk between barks but what he did say disturbed her. “Scared. Needs help.”
She pulled out her phone and took a picture of the cat. She wasn’t quite sure why that was her reaction. It certainly didn’t help the poor cat, but perhaps it would validate her story about having seen a cat at the window.
She left Sully at the fence and ran around the cottage through the gate and into the neighbor’s yard. She ran up the unsteady steps to the decaying porch and beat on the door with all her strength. She heard a thump from within, then suddenly the barking stopped. She beat on the door more but there was nothing. No meowing, no creaking or movement whatsoever. She knocked and beat on the door for nearly fifteen minutes until the outer edge of her right fist was red, throbbing and tingling.
She hated giving up yet again, but aside from breaking into the house or camping out on the porch until the resident emerged or came home, she wasn’t sure what else she could do. Getting animal services or the police involved would only add paperwork and more waiting to what she was already doing. She couldn’t tell authorities the cat spoke to her hellhound. All she could tell them was she had seen the terrified cat twice in the window.
She felt defeated. Adding this failure to the unresolved situation with Jackson and Hunter had Summer feeling crappy about life. She sighed with disappointment, shoved her hands in her pockets, and headed back to the garden bench. She pulled her legs to her chest and rested her head on her knees. Sully planted a seat near her on the ground and rested his head on the bench. She felt his eyes upon her and every once in a while he would nudge her with his cold, damp nose, just to remind her he was there.
*****
The sun started to set, turning the sky from a clear light blue to a darker azure painted with long finger-like wisps of orange, yellow, and red clouds. With the sun’s departure went its warmth, however, the long hours of summer heat were stored by the hardscapes and buildings to radiate warmth for hours to come. An hour or two passed, and that heat too dissipated and surrendered to the coolness of the air and the shadows of the night. Still Summer sat on the bench trying to comfort herself with arms holding tightly to her legs. Her butt hurt from the hardness of the bench. Her hands hurt from the beating they endured on the neighbor’s door and her heart ached thinking about the ever retreating Jackson and the sadness she felt towards Hunter giving up on human kindness.
She was about to call it a day when a voice came from behind and a fragile hand met Summer’s shoulder.
“You’re troubled,” Ms. Midnight said.
“Yes.”
“Boy trouble?”
She wanted to smile, but she just couldn’t. “That and then some,” Summer answered, releasing her legs and adjusting her position on the bench as Ms. Midnight made her way around it and sat.
“Aw, yes. I do recall once sitting on this very bench trying to understand the mysteries of the male species,” Ms. Midnight said with a sigh.
“Did you ever figure them out?”
Ms. Midnight laughed. “No, dear. That’s one of the mysteries of life all women share and commiserate over. When all is said and done though, I think the mystery and confusion we feel about how men think is part of what intrigues us and draws us to them. Trust me. They feel the same confusion about women as we do about them—maybe even more so.”
Summer pondered this concept and she thought Ms. Midnight might have a valid point.
“Oh. I was going to show you,” Summer said, pulling her phone from her back pocket and bringing up the photo app. “My friend Tori and I have been collecting information on found cats in the neighborhood. I took pictures of two I looked at, and Tori forwarded me one she saw. I wanted to see if any of them were your Morti.”
Since the last picture she took was of the cat in the window, it was the first to show up in the queue of pictures. She quickly swiped at the screen to the next picture, when Ms. Midnight suddenly said, “Wait. Go back to that first picture?”
“Well, sure, but it’s not the cat I looked at,” Summer said, swiping at the screen again.
“That’s him,” Ms. Midnight said with excitement. “You found him. Oh glory be! The BROOM won’t have my head after all. But wait, he looks…scared. Where is he? Do you have him?”
“No. I…well, he’s actually next door.”
“Next door? What do you mean?”
Summer pointed towards the cottage and the house beyond. “I mean, right over there.”
“But no one lives over there. There hasn’t been anyone there for years.”
“I know. Dr. Stuart knows the owner and called her when I saw the cat the first time a couple of weeks ago.”
“You saw him a couple of weeks ago? Why haven’t you gotten him yet?”
“I can’t seem to catch up with the tenant that lives in the house now. I’ve left messages and notes, but no one returns them or has contacted me,” Summer explained.
“Well, if no one will contact you let’s take matters into our own hands,” Ms. Midnight said, punching her tiny fist into her other hand.
“Ms. Midnight,” Summer said, astonished, “we can’t just go in to someone’s house.”
“Oh, you’d be amazed what an old bat can get away with,” Ms. Midnight said, practically leaping off the bench and shuffling towards the creepy old house next door.
Summer had to run to catch up to her. Obviously when this woman was determined nothing would stand in her way. When she caught up with her, Ms. Midnight mumbled something to the gist of, nobody catnaps a Midnight and gets away with it and I’m the only one who gets to make that crabby old cat miserable—damn it!”
“How do you suppose we are going to get into the house?” Summer asked the determined Ms. Midnight.
“Leave that to me, my dear. I still have a trick or two up my sleeves.” Ms. Midnight climbed the first two porch steps with no problem but the last had a loose board that teetered her backwards, out of balance a smidgen, but Summer caught her by the elbow and forearm, steadying her as if she had done it a thousand times before.
In front of the worn and weathered door, Ms. Midnight looked at Summer and said, “Let’s give them one last chance to come clean before we jump into breaking and entering, shall we?” Summer nodded as Ms. Midnight made a fist and knocked on the door, raining flakes of peeled paint to the threshold.
Same as before, nothing. No sounds from within at all.
“Well, at least we tried, right?” Ms. Midnight said, rolling up her left then right sleeves to her boney elbow. She held both arms out as if she were going to direct an invisible orchestra. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment in concentration and said, “Thy door that doth my entry block, grant thine access, thy bolt unlock.”
A metallic thump was heard and the door slowly opened.
“So the stories about you are true. You are a witch,” Summer said in astonishment and admiration.
“I am,” Ms. Midnight said, stepping over the threshold. Summer followed her. The room was dark and dusty and what light that came in from the window was filtered through tattered curtains. As far as Summer could tell, the room they entered was a living or family room with a small fireplace set into a wall.
Yellowed aging newspapers piled about two inches high by the fireplace, but other than that nothing was in this room but discarded nails on the walls outlined by lighter versions of the wall paper in shapes of picture frames.
Ms. Midnight was on a mission and bulldozed her way into the next room followed closely by Sully, while a more cautious Summer followed. When Ms. Midnight turned a corner, Summer lost sight of her for a moment. A noise behind Summer turned her head as she entered the room, running smack into the back of Ms. Midnight.
In front of her a cloud of green smoke swirled. It oozed out to the sides making a solid form—most noticeable, a pair of golden eyes. The orbs stared at the two women in the dimness. The eyes first appeared at normal a level for a person, but they were moving upward and growing larger with the increasing green smoke.
It took up more and more room, filling what looked like a kitchen and small dining area. Ms. Midnight took a step back trying to avoid the green eerie smoke moving towards them. With lightning fast speed, the eyes suddenly became part of a large, scaly horned head. Hundreds of sharp yellow teeth showed on the jawline of the head and a red light emanated from what Summer could only assume was the throat of the beast. The red light grew to orange, then yellow and then…FIRE! Flames came at the women from a serpentine flame thrower.
In that instant, time slowed to a crawl. Summer watched the flames morph into snake-like tongues, licking and tasting the air and inching closer and closer. Ms. Midnight spoke in the same speed as the fire came. It was deep and distorted by the slowness. Her arms moved sluggishly in front of her and appeared to Summer as if she were reaching out to the oncoming fire. Summer heard herself scream a warning in the same deep, slow, distorted manner.
A low, thunderous noise came from behind Summer. Still in mid-scream she turned to see Sully running towards her in slow motion. Her scream turned to panic. What is he doing? Her scream was interrupted by her own words “NO!”
The flames reached Ms. Midnight. Her hands came together in a loud clap as if an atomic bomb erupted. The sound deafened everyone in the room and it dawned on Summer that this came from Ms. Midnight. Energy radiated from her clasped hands sending out a shockwave in all directions, including Summer’s.
Sully’s front paws landed on Summer’s chest, knocking her out of the path of danger. The dragon was thrown backward through the wall and out of sight, debris raining everywhere, making it hard to see and breathe.
When Sully was sure Summer was out of danger, he went to Ms. Midnight as she sat propped up by the wall. A lick on the cheek opened her eyes and she started to assess the area around her. Summer was quickly at her side making sure she was not hurt. Aside from a conk on the head and being covered with a thick layer of dust and debris, she seemed in good condition. She helped the old woman to a standing position then a large black cat sauntered in from a room to the left as if the commotion had disturbed his nap.
*****
“Well, it’s about time you came to rescue me,” he said in an indignant, disgusted manner. He daintily walked through the debris to Ms. Midnight and sat beside her shaking one paw after another of unwanted rubble. Sully lunged at him in excitement and before Morti could move, Sully had given him a long gooey lick from paw to the tip of one ear leaving his fur sticking straight out.
“Gross. Control your beast. I’m not a lollipop. I’m a—” Morti said in revulsion, but before he finished Sully licked him once again from nose to ear and then grabbed him by the tail and picked him up.
Morti’s arms and legs thrashed and flailed frantically in every direction, claws fully extended and ready to meet anything they could get close to, but they could not penetrate a hellhound’s thick fur and skin. He hissed and spat at Sully as he swung back and forth beneath his jowls, when finally Morti gave up and just hung there, upside down, giving the evil eye to Summer and Ms. Midnight, who were trying hard to hold back their laughter.
“There’s nothing funny going on here,” Morti said, directing his comment to Ms. Midnight. He continued speaking to Sully, “The tail is not a toy. It is not meant to be a leash or a strap for carrying. Now put me down, this instant, you horrid creature.” Morti’s words trailed off as Sully happily trotted out the front door and back to the cottage with his newfound prize.
Summer’s eyes met Ms. Midnight’s and they had a hearty laugh before they remembered there was a dragon to deal with. The hole in the wall rained dust and debris for a long while before settling. Intermittent ceiling chunks falling kicked up the dust again. Carefully, Summer made her way through the rubble helping and guiding Ms. Midnight as she did.