Chapter 16 #2
Des got to her feet and led him by the hand back out into the living room. They quickly let go of each other before anyone could see them. God, my hand is sweaty, Mal thought to himself. He hoped she wasn’t thinking the same thing.
“Mal,” Walters said, upon seeing him. “My turn. I need a word.”
I hope he’s not gonna kiss me too. Mal followed Walters to the kitchen, where they sat opposite each other at the dining table.
“I need to apologize,” Walters said. He seemed more serious than Mal had expected.
“I dragged you into this when you weren’t ready.
What happened to Des, all of it, none of this is on you.
” Mal went to speak, but Walters raised his finger.
“I got you something.” Walters produced the book Mal had been reading earlier, Necromancy and Other Undead Oddities, and a small, pink, plasticky device that looked like an egg timer had sex with an hourglass.
Mal recognized it, but couldn’t place it.
“One of your better book choices,” Walters said. “You can do some real good here, Mal, if you know what you’re doing …”
“What’s this?” Mal picked up the egg-timer-hourglass- thingy.
“Something to help with your family situation. You put a spell in it, set the time on the dial”—it was currently set to forty-eight hours—“then flip it, and when it fills with sand …”
“The spell goes off,” Mal said, strangely joyful at the prospect.
“Exactly. It’s normally used for simple repeated spells to help with chores, but Kosh modified it. He had a cat he couldn’t let go of, similar situation to you and your parents actually. The thing used to give me the creeps. You ever petted a skeleton? It’s fuckin’ awful.”
“I’ve hugged my parents and they’re nothing but bone. Still creeps me out.”
“The thing used to sit on my lap for hours when I was over. He loved that cat, called it Gremlin. A surprisingly apt name.”
“You miss him?” Mal said. He sensed genuine sadness in Walters. It was like finding out your teachers had a life outside of school; it seemed strange.
“Every day,” Walters said. “I just wish we knew where he was. Half of those bodies from headquarters still haven’t shown up.”
“Are you sure it’s alright if I have it?” Mal said.
“He’s not using it anymore, that’s for sure,” Walters said, a sad laugh crossing his lips. “You’ll still feel the magic when it triggers, but you won’t have to think about it, or be anywhere near when it goes off.”
Mal would finally be free. Mal’s eyes welled up. Tears? Mal thought. He hadn’t quite realized how much anxiety he’d been feeling over his parental situation. This one small gesture would fix all of that. Walters put a hand on Mal’s shoulder as if to say, It’s gonna be alright, kid.
“Put the case out of your mind for now,” Walters said.
“We’ve got a big meeting with the Order tonight.
I want you to come, but maybe once it’s finished.
There will be a lot of very unhappy people there.
I don’t want them blaming everything on you.
Just relax, read the book, be a young person for a bit.
You’re twenty-one for Christ’s sake. I’ve got others on the case; the world isn’t at stake here.
Take it easy and look after Des. Did you get her to change her mind about leaving? ”
“You knew I would convince her to stay?” Mal said, taken aback.
“I had a feeling you’d help her see reason,” Walters said, a sly smile on his face.
“Now I’m off. I’ll see you at the meeting later.
Things start about seven so come about nine-ish.
” Walters smiled, nodded, then patted Mal on the back.
Walters said goodbye to the others before leaving them alone in his safe house once more.
Mal went back into the living room where Hala, Yu, and Des were relaxing.
“Everything okay?” Yu said, giving a cheerier smile than Mal had expected. Mal was really starting to like that shapeshifter.
“All good, just got an Order meeting later. Everything good in here?” Mal said, gesturing toward Des with his eyes.
“As good as we can be,” Yu said. “We were just reminiscing about that frog.”
Mal had forgotten about that. His eyes went wide with interminable horror.
That frog would be haunting his nightmares until he died.
He couldn’t believe a poster had saved his life.
He made a mental note to never, ever again go down into the sewers, then sat down on the sofa next to Des and Yu; Hala had taken the armchair.
“So what do we do now?” Hala said, looking to the group.
“Well,” Mal said, “we could lounge around here for a bit; or we could follow up on some leads if people had ideas? Maybe something a bit more relaxed today though. Some grunt work would be nice.”
“I’d be up for that,” Des said, sounding more excited than anyone had expected.
“Something about Taran still bugs me,” Yu said. “His connections to the first few murders. I wouldn’t mind looking into him some more …”
“You sure you wouldn’t rather be studying?” Mal said, smirking at Yu.
“This is studying, of a sort …” Yu said.
“I hear Avalon is lovely this time of day,” Hala said, getting up.
“We could go for a nice walk, maybe have a picnic in view of Taran’s house?” Mal said, smiling.
“A stakeout sounds harmless enough,” Des said.
“Couldn’t go worse than the last time we followed someone,” Hala said, getting a few chuckles from the group.
Could it? Mal thought. Surely their luck wasn’t that bad.
Either way, getting Des back out there was well worth the risk; sitting around here wasn’t going to get them anywhere. They still had a case to solve.
The group set off, and within thirty minutes they found themselves in a portal queue to Avalon. They popped through the portal door and grabbed a few stakeout snacks from a grubby-looking WHSmith. It wouldn’t be much of a picnic, but he’d enjoy it nonetheless.
The sunny Dunwich weather hadn’t made it to Avalon yet.
For them, it seemed the heavens themselves had parted.
They hurried through the little streets that Avalon considered its grand shopping destination.
They found shelter in a little coffee shop on the coast front named The Tea View where they camped out, drinking tea and going over their files until the rain broke.
An hour or so later the sun came out and cleared the way for the group.
Immediately, Des realized her mistake; the sun was no longer her friend.
The seafront was busier now and the group searched for something to help.
Hala found a clothes shop selling large, brash hats that flopped and fell under their own weight and whose diameter was bigger than your arm.
Des bought a large floppy black hat on the spot.
Somehow she made it work, but she did look a tad ridiculous.
On their way, Mal found a shop selling fancy sandwiches as long as his forearm, and treated the group.
Picnic now complete, they made for the grassy domed hill that housed their target.
Mal couldn’t remember the last time he felt this relaxed.
He thought back to their first trip to Avalon and how stressed he was about Des and Hala finding out about his secret.
He didn’t have to worry about that anymore.
He allowed himself to turn his brain off a bit.
It occurred to him that nearly every time he’d tried to relax in the last week, a zombie had appeared.
He gave a quick glance around to double-check, but happily found only tourists and beachgoers on the tiny Avalon street.
He’d never been amazingly good at making friends; the start had always gone well, but then his secrets would push them away.
Mal found out long ago that there was a limit to how much people can stand being lied to, and it was never very long before he’d reach it.
If this was what acceptance felt like, he was starting to enjoy it.
The group got to the bottom of the grassy, domed hill and started up the path that led to Taran’s house.
Mal was happy that so far everything had gone smoothly.
Last night had been a bit of a disaster, but now he was spending time with people he cared about and who he hoped cared about him.
Things felt right; they felt good. No dead, no murder, just friends and a stakeout.
Mal tried hard to enjoy it while he could.
If recent history was anything to go by something awful would happen any second. Any second …