Banished To Earth Book One (16)

A nervous smile bent her lips, “Come on let’s go have some fun.”

  Chase watched them disappear in the retail jungle. Their fading from view felt like an omen. He slid down in the chair as the word Fall began to echo through his mind. He knew it was coming, just like the Hunters and the monsters. Meat grinders all.

   His eyes darted toward the floor as images of what would surely come played before his mind’s eye like a bloody horror movie he could not turn off. People like Beth and Nikkie would have no chance. And his mother was bedridden just a few miles away, unable to run as the sky blistered open and every horror the universe could hawk up spewed across the face of the planet.

  Distant unseen judges, God-like entities, dispassionate, cruel, aloof, offering no hope of redemption, not counting the Hunters, who were destined to be little more than gladiators, not savior’s. Chase was determined to change that, although he had no idea how…

The Transit Authority was the very antithesis of the Christian God he grew up on, would boil his home world down to its bare essence and extract what they deemed worthy and dispose of the rest. He reasonably assumed people like Beth, Nikki, and his mother would find no mercy there. And that was also assuming they could somehow survive the Monster Hunter free-for-all.

  “No,” he murmured, his mind dark with dread.

  Something suddenly plopped on his head. Laughter exploded around him.

   “Look, Mommie. Chase is already for the beach.

  He jumped up, slinging his head around and sending a floppy straw hat sailing.

  “Are you alright?” Beth’s concern struck like a stone.

 

67

   “No.” He looked up at the girls, “I, we, need to tell you something. You won’t believe us, but you must.”

  Beth backed away. “Chase, we’ve got a shopping cart full of stuff. You can pay for it and we’ll, uh, we’ll just leave.

 “No, Mommie. Pry said we could go to their beach house. You promised.”

  “No, honey, maybe another time, Mr. Gillette needs to be alone with his wife.”

He grabbed Beth’s hand. She snatched it away.

  “Don’t ever grab me again!”

“I, I’m so sorry didn’t mean to scare you,” he pleaded, “But, but you need to be scared.”

“Oh, I’m scared Chase, scared of you.”

“Chase would never hurt you, Beth.” Pry was pleading now. “I promise. But there is something we need to tell you, please, at least let Chase pay for our stuff.”

  She spun around, showing off her new yellow sundress, an obvious attempt to diffuse the situation. “I feel just like an earth girl now, oops, that just slipped out.”

 Nikkie clapped. Beth glanced over at Pry. “What are you doing, Pry?”

She looked back at Beth, tilted her head and smiled, “Being happy, for now. What if now is all we have?”

Beth shook her head. “Let’s just pay for this, and you two, can, can…go.”

Pry’s silliness fell flat. She could see nothing but fear in Beth’s face.

 Chase took the cart, and they all quietly followed him to the checkout…

Chase was putting the last of their stuff in the back of his truck when he heard an odd sigh escape Pry’s mouth. Her hair began to ripple and lift. Blackness filled her eyes.

  “Oh no.” Chase jerked around and saw a bunch of teenage boys ogling her.

 Beth and Nikkie had just taken a bag from Chase when he grabbed Pry and pressed her face into his chest.

“Get out of here!” He yelled at the boys.

“Or what!” A lanky red-headed punk yelled back.

 

68

    Pry broke free and glided toward the boys with predatory grace and power.

  “What’s going on? Nikkie, come here baby.” She took the child up, a half-second before Chase leapt flat-footed over them, landed between Pry and the boys, and traced a large shift portal. A millisecond later, he snatched them up in his arms and leapt into the shimmering ovoid.

    Instantly, they were in his living room. Pry collapsed in his right arm, her blood lust cut so short, her body could not recover properly.

  “Uh, uh, uh,” Beth whimpered. Nikkie clapped with delight. “Again, again,” she squealed.

 “Is everyone good?” he asked, easing Pry down to the floor.

   “Mommie, you’re hurting me.” Beth released the wriggling child from her death grip. “Sa sorry. Where, where are we, how, how are we where we are. What happened. What are you people?!”

  “That’s a big question.” Chase’s words were flat and somber. “Just know you are safe, for now, and we want to keep you and your little girl safe. Please sit down, maybe it’ll help you settle into things a little better.”

  “Things?” Beth herded Nikki away from Chase and Pry until they were standing in front of the couch.”

   “You can sit, please,” Chase’s voice was soft as he could make it.

 “No, I’m going to stand ‘cause I, I might want to run…” Her voice trailed off. Her eyes darted about until they settled on the open sliding glass door.

   “Nikki?” Pry asked, pushing herself up from the floor on wobbly arms. “What did she see, did I…”

    Chase kneeled beside her, “no, no you didn’t, and Nikki loved our little trip.”
“That is good.”

  Beth stared at Pry, “Your eyes were black and your hair, it, moved. No wind.”

  Pry was standing now, fully recovered. Her hair, flaccid. Her eyes, sea blue. “I am from another world. It is dark, dense with forest and threat. Nothing like Earth.” She added naively.

69

    “So, you are an alien?” Beth sat down, still clutching her Walmart bag.

“And a vampire.” Pry mewed.

“A what!” Beth dropped her bag and grabbed Nikkie.

Chase stepped up between Beth and Pry. “She’s good.”

“Let me see your fangs,” begged Nikki.

   Pry tilted her head, her silvery tresses fanned out not unlike peacock feathers. Golden beams of sunlight laced and danced about her silver mane, transforming Pry into a living rainbow.

“Oh my,” Beth sighed.

“See, Mommie Pry is a good vampire, aren’t you, Pry.”