| |
I ignored the crash but I couldn’t ignore Mum’s yelp. They had to be doing something drug-related and I’d catch them in the act. That way, they’d have to admit to their problems and they could get help.
I didn’t want to be all judgey on my parents. If they wanted to smoke a few bongs in their downtime to relax, that was fair enough. But when it’d got to the point where they could both sit there, straight-faced, and tell me about a magic stone, then they’d crossed the line.
Another yelp came from the kitchen. I rushed out.
When I got to the kitchen, I froze. There were these things smashing through the outside door. Giant mutant possum things.
I screamed. I screamed a lot.
Then I blinked and checked again. I had seen right. Those things were like nothing I’d ever seen before.
One had made it into the kitchen while another seemed stuck half in the outside door, it’s freaky teeth trying to bite through the wood.
Their eyes blazed red like creepy demons and their claws scratched on the kitchen tiles. What the hell were they?
Mum stood in the middle of the room like she planned to fight it. She shoved at it with a broom, pushing it back. The possum thing snarled at her, a horrible gurgling sound.
It’d take more than a broom to defeat that monster.
“Barry, help me,” she said. Then turned and saw me. “Oh, Molly.”
“Watch out,” I yelled as the possum thing leapt for her.
She raised the broom, smashing it in the face. It reared back but that wouldn’t last long and the other one had almost made it through the door. Who even knew how many more lurked outside.
“Where’s your father?” she asked.
“Dunno,” I screamed. “Quick, make a run for it.”
Mum shook her head and thumped that monster again. It snarled back at her.
I looked around for a weapon but could only find a chair. That wouldn’t do much to hurt them but it might be some defense.
All our thrashing around only made it angry and more determined. The scratching of its claws on the kitchen tiles turned me cold, like nails on a blackboard. We could hold them back but for how long?
“Why aren’t you running?”
Mum just shook her head. “The pantry,” she yelled. “The blue bottle on the second shelf.”
Possum repellent? I wasn’t going to argue. I rushed into the pantry. Blue bottle? Blue bottle? There was no blue bottle but there was a regular bottle with blue liquid.
“Is this the one?” I called out, thrusting my arm out of the pantry.
“Yes. Yes. Give it here.”
I skidded across the floor to Mum and handed the bottle over. Those beasts weren’t getting any friendlier, that’s for sure. Their red eyes freaked me out. One of them had scored the tiles. If their claws were sharp enough to do that, I didn’t want to think how much danger they could do to my soft, tender body.
Mum opened the bottle and hurled some of the liquid at the first demon possum. It let out a high-pitched squeal, high pitched enough to make my head shatter.
I climbed onto the kitchen table, out of its reach.
The demon possum squirmed on the floor and Mum brought the broom down on its head again. The second one wasn’t deterred, though. It smashed through the door and came at Mum.
I screamed then grabbed the bottle, flinging more of that liquid at the beast.
It reared up on its back legs and I was sure I was a goner. That thing was almost bigger than me and it wasn’t fooling around. The blue liquid had done nothing but irritate it. I tried to throw more but it only pooled on its belly fur.
Damn. Only dregs remained in the bottle. I rushed to the pantry, hoping we had more. Before I reached the pantry door, Dad rushed into the room holding a sword.
Huh?
That sword shone with an iridescent blue glow. Maybe a trick of the light but it seemed to almost be alive. Before the possum could attack, Dad thrust forward, plunging the sword into its belly. The beast rolled to the ground, again with that high-pitched scream. I covered my ears but Dad didn’t falter. He stabbed the beast again, then raised the sword, bringing it down on the creature’s neck. With one final, ear destroying squeal, the beast disappeared, leaving only a pile of dust.
The other beast still lived but had gone down with Mum beating it.
Dad raised his sword again. I covered my ears, ready for the scream this time. Again, it turned to dust.
I leaned against the kitchen table, my body trembling. What had been going on here? Had we actually been attacked by giant demon possums until Dad saved us with a glowing sword or had my parents slipped something into my cup of tea? This couldn’t be real.
I stared at Dad, hoping he’d give me some kind of rational explanation.
“Are we safe now?” I asked.
Dad nodded but my hands still gripped the table, white knuckled.
“This is why you have to go to Tokyo,” Dad said. “We’re susceptible to attack until we find that stone.”
“So why don’t we all go to Tokyo, out of harm’s way until this stone thing gets sorted?”
“We’re needed here. People, well creatures, rely on us. We’re supposed to be the guardians but without the Guardian stone, we’ve made everyone vulnerable. So, we have to fight in whatever way we can. If you go to Tokyo, you can get the information we need and not be a target.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to talk. If it wasn’t for those two dust piles on the floor, I’d swear it’d been a hallucination. Oh, and the gouge marks on the tiles. Those were physical things my mind couldn’t fight against.
“I could just go back to uni,” I said.
Dad shook his head. “That’s not far enough. We want you safe.”
I wanted me safe too but I also wanted my parents safe.
“Are you and Mum going to be okay?”
“Sure, love. We still have some tricks up our sleeves. You saw me with that sword.”
Mum mopped her brow with the back of her hand then opened the cupboard and got out a dust pan and swept up the demon possum dust.
Dad put on the kettle.
“Looks like I’ll have to fix that door, love,” he said to Mum.
“It can wait until tomorrow.”
Just like that, they’d returned to their calm selves. It couldn’t be drugs but, if it wasn’t, what the hell was it?
I picked up the sword Dad had set on the table. The glow had dimmed but it still glimmered.
“Can I take a selfie with this?” I asked.
Dad snatched the sword from my hands. “Some things should be kept secret, not posted all over social media,” he said.
He could say that but I’d get a zillion likes if I had that sword in my hands.
“What is this sword anyway?” I asked him.
“Just a trinket I picked up.”
I screwed up my face. That sword was more than a trinket.
Dad handed me a cup of tea. My mind swam with what had happened. Those things had attacked us. My heart rate still wasn’t back to normal and I’m pretty sure my hair had turned completely white.
Maybe there had been some truth in what Mum and Dad had said, even if it did seem farfetched. After all, giant mutant possums weren’t exactly normal but I’d seen them with my own eyes.
“So, you’ll go to Tokyo?” Dad asked.
“Ah, I guess so,” I said, not really believing what I was saying. “But I don’t really understand why.”
“The stone disappeared last night. Whoever took it left no trace. We had no idea that anyone knew it existed, let alone wanted to steal it. We had powerful protections around it so they had to be strong to break them. With no clues to go on, our best bet to get it back is to go to the expert.”
“Mr. Yamaguchi is the expert,” Mum added. “He trades in special objects. He won’t give us any information over the phone, though. He’s an old-fashioned kind of guy. And we can’t just take off. So that leaves you.”
I sipped my tea, trying to take this in.
“You want me to go to Tokyo and meet with this guy. You know I can’t speak Japanese, right?”
“You took classes in high school,” Dad said.
I scoffed. Yeah, I took classes, and that might get me through the basics like konnichiwa and arigatou and “where is the train station?” but I didn’t think it’d be much use in any kind of serious situation. I hadn’t exactly paid much attention beyond what’d get me through exams.
“He has people working for him who speak English,” Mum said. “That’s one of the reasons he doesn’t want to use the phone, because it’d be difficult to do with a translator.”
“Are you sure you can afford it?” I asked. “It’s not going to be cheap.”
“We can’t afford not to send you,” Dad said. “Anyway, we can get a flight on a budget airline and Yamaguchi said he can put you up for a while. Just don’t go crazy, buying that expensive fruit and things like that.”
I kissed my “Best Year Ever” list goodbye. It looked like I’d be going to Tokyo.