Chapter 6 #3
The hall goes quiet and all eyes are on Wrath and that’s when I see what Lyle is up to.
He’s putting Buffy and Wrath on the spot.
The little shit has a move he’s trying to make.
Hells, I have to do something. The magic I told Sunday wasn’t sparkling around me buzzes in my fingertips.
I don’t know how to use it but I feel like I can.
Maybe I can silence him? Make his throat close right up and steal his voice like that cartoon Buffy and I used to sneak watch on the television.
I start to pull my magic into me and it feels almost solid, like something I could chuck right at Lyle.
I almost do but stop myself. What if this goes wrong and I miss?
I don’t even know if I can actually throw anything, and even if I do, what if they think it’s Sunday and not me?
I can’t do anything to Lyle, not until I know what the hells I am. I let go of the power I was gathering with a sigh and lean back in my chair.
“The demons are being handled,” Wrath says. We all wait for more but when it’s clear that’s all he’s going to say the town hall erupts in voices.
“What do you mean demons?”
“Handled how? Where are they coming from?”
“We never had a problem with demons until you came here!”
The last one has Buffy standing up from where she’s sitting. She doesn’t shout or yell, she just holds up her hand like Mrs. Landry used to when we were kids and she took over lessons for us. Buffy waits for everyone to be quiet before she speaks.
“The demons that we have observed are coming from the woods. We’ve noticed their attacks have increased in frequency since they began three weeks ago.
We suspect the full moon has something to do with it all.
Isn’t that right, Nina?” She looks at Nina and the woman sitting beside me stands with a nod.
“She’s right. From what I’ve studied it looks like there’s a major power spike. It’s affecting all magical items in the area and its zenith should be at the full moon. We’ve identified a pattern after the last attack yesterday.”
Yesterday.
She means Charlie’s house.
My mouth drops open. I had no idea any of this was happening. Not even when it was me that found Charlie’s house blown to smithereens. Why didn’t she tell me? Hurt pierces my heart. I look up to Buffy to see that she’s staring out at the crowd, looking every bit the leader she’s grown into.
“But that’s tonight!” Lyle snaps.
Buffy nods. “It is but we’ve been tracking the demons and I’ll hunt them tonight alongside Wrath, Sunday, and the others. We will not let the demons come into Sweet Tooth. You have my word on that.”
“This is the problem with magic. It always creates more problems,” Annie barks.
Sunday snaps her fingers at Annie. “And yet it is magic that is keeping you safe. I’ve relaid the wards around the town. The wards will hold even if we are attacked again so if I were you, I’d watch your tone because I don’t like it one little bit.”
“And what if I don’t, witch?”
Sunday smiles and I almost cover my eyes. She’s scary when she smiles. “I’ll cut your tongue out and feed it to my familiar, snitch.”
There’s gasps from the crowd and Buffy groans and snaps her fingers at Sunday. “There will be no tongue cutting! Everyone’s tongues are staying right where they belong.”
“What did I miss?” Elijah asks as he hurries up the aisle and into a seat beside Charlie. He’s still got his green flags with him and one hits Charlie in the eye.
“Nothing, just Sunday threatening to cut out Annie’s tongue,” I tell him because that’s easier than saying ‘there’s demons attacking town and my best friend didn’t tell me and I’m hurt.’
Elijah nods and turns, hitting Charlie again with another flag. “Sunday is one to watch when it comes to tongues. She’s fond of them.”
Charlie makes a ‘what the fuck’ face and I just shrug. “Yeah, she sure is,” I agree.
Buffy claps her hands and calls order back to the hall.
“We’ve settled it. Halloween is in two days and that is where Sweet Tooth must focus now.
We only have one shot to make a name for ourselves as a Halloween town, people!
We must make this Halloween the finest anyone has ever seen!
I need every ghost, ghoul, and goblin out front and center.
Get creative with the Autumn Harvest equipment as well.
There’s more than enough there to repurpose if we’re smart.
Elijah will be taking stock of our supplies and organizing the festival and parade for this event.
Everyone report to him at the end of this and before any of you jump to conclusions, I ask you, let Wrath and I handle the demons.
I hope by now you trust us as your friends. We’re in this together.”
Buffy and Wrath have put the cult and town back together in so many ways. Sweet Tooth wouldn’t exist without them. Trust is the least of what the town owes them.
“Trust us with this. Please. I promise you, we will overcome this and we will prosper. Together.”
“All hail the Harbinger!” One of Elijah’s newly converted acolytes yells and that’s all the encouragement the room needs for it to erupt in cheers.
Elijah springs into action, green flags hitting everyone within a five foot radius and Nina strides over to Buffy where she pulls out what looks like a map for them to study.
I join them along with Charlie while the room descends into general chaos with townsfolk visiting one another or being mobilized into different groups by Elijah and Wrath.
“What’s going on?” I ask Buffy.
“We’re planning an attack on the mini-demons,” she tells me, eyes still down on the map. “I’m going to-”
“Remember what I said, I’m not going in there spells ablazing,” Sunday sighs, looking at her nails. “The last time I did that we ended up with twice as many and they blew up Charlie’s house the next day.”
That stops me. It stops Charlie too with how still he goes. “What do you mean the last time?” he asks.
“That we’re not going to go in spells ablazing. We’re taking a more moderate approach this time,” Nina says.
“Again, what do you mean this time?” Charlie waves his arms at them.
Buffy looks up and blinks like she just noticed him. “We’ve had other pushes to get the demons out of our territory.”
“Why did no one tell us about it?” Charlie asks, gesturing between himself and me. I want to defend Buffy but when I open my mouth nothing comes out, so I try again.
“I’m sure she’s just busy,” I tell Charlie. “There’s a lot-”
“When are we heading out for demon duty?” A familiar voice asks and I want to scream.
Fucking Roy.
My ex-fiancé steps into the circle with Lyle at his heels.
I glare at both of them. My smile even wobbles like it might snap but I’m not that lucky.
What the hells are they doing here? What’s next?
Is Annie Bustos going to join us too? I look her way to assure myself she’s staying put before I turn my attention on Roy.
“What are you talking about?” I snap at Roy.
He glances my way and barely gives me a half second of his time before he looks at Buffy again. “You said I could earn my way back into society if I pitched in, so what’s got her shit turnt?”
Charlie crosses his arms and levels a stony look Roy’s way. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe you trying to slit her throat? That ring any bells, you inbred idiot.”
Roy ignores Charlie and keeps his eyes on Buffy.
He sucks his teeth while he waits for her answer, and just like always the urge to punch Roy in the face comes over me.
We were all in the cult before Buffy changed things, we were all made to do things we didn’t want to do, be people we didn’t want to be, but people like Roy relished it.
He was good at it.
There was no reason for the way they bullied people, or threw their weight around for the sake of rank. They did it because they could get away with it. They did it because no one would stop them with who their fathers were or because of the rank they wore.
Men like Roy were evil for evil’s sake. For the fun of it.
Now here he is, standing in front of me like none of it ever happened. Charlie’s right, he did try to kill me. He also did worse than that. He nearly made me marry him.
I take in a deep, calming breath at the memories I have of having to follow Roy around like a well-trained pet, the times that I had to listen to him be mean or brag.
The way he made me feel small and stupid and I had to just swallow it all down, knowing he’d been picked for me and there was no changing it unless I wanted to defy the Founders.
I would have never been brave enough to do that. No matter how much I wished I could run away or vanish into thin air and start over. Cease to exist.
The cult was my world.
My only world. My existence.
How do you leave the only world that you’ve ever known? It’s not like swapping a life or a job, it’s bigger than all of that. It’s the ground you stand on, the air you breathe. It’s the food in your belly, the way the sun hits your face and the smell of rain.
The cult was my everything.
Without Buffy forcing change and tearing it all down I would have been in that world until the bitter end. My bitter end at the edge of Roy’s knife. How could I have existed any other way?
“What is he talking about?” I repeat.
Buffy clears her throat and looks at me before she glances at Roy. “I thought it would be best if we brought on some of the others who are,” she pauses for a second before she says, “trying to rehabilitate themselves. We asked for volunteers for tonight’s patrol and they’re it.”