Always You Part 12
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Just catching up? Read the previous installment here.
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3.
You’re suggesting the impossible. No, not even the impossible, because that implies that somebody like Nathan Fillon can succeed and thus make himself mighty.
What you’re suggesting is suicide.
Samantha’s body jumped slightly in a half-assed sneeze, her overall serious demeanor never fading. If anybody else had told me to kill anybody, much less the de facto supervillain of my summer vacation, I’d have laughed in his face.
Unless that person were Carina, in which case I’d either disagree and storm off, or I’d laugh at the idea outright and she’d storm off. Funny how our relationship works, isn’t it?
“It is not impossible,” Sam groaned, probably in response to my canned Luke Skywalker response. “He’s a man. What are you so afraid of? Aren’t you Henry Collins, the self-asserted hero of Miranda Cove?”
Who’s self-asserted?
“Well, I’ve watched some of your recent exploits. Let’s just say we’re not exactly floored over here in the audience.”
Kenneth raised a hand, either to keep Samantha from inciting anger, or to keep me from acting on said incited anger. “Who he is doesn’t have anything to do with your plan,” his voice hung on the word ‘plan’, “Zack Forest has us by the balls. He’s got my crew’s reputation on the line. That’s not something I can ignore.”
Cue the dramatic beat.
“No,” Sam conceded without sounding like she was, “It’s not. That’s why you’re going to listen when I tell you how to do it.”
This is ludicrous.
That wasn’t me thinking, it was a fact. This is ludicrous.
Paloma sat beside us. While this attempt at a climax made no sense in the scheme of things, the answer to Paloma held some legitimacy. So she’s an empty vessel to some otherworldly being, and she tried bonding to me like Evangeline tried with Forest, but because of the lack of said being, it’s going a bit rough.
It sounds a lot better than “Paloma has Asperger’s” or something equally condescending.
“As I said before,” Sam started, “When you go back to Forest, tell him that you know the next Familiar’s location. Forest will run off like a baby to candy. When that happens, you go up his towers. They will be unguarded; Carina will be in the Operator room, but will have minimal protection.”
“What’s minimal protection?” Kenneth seemed to be buying this well enough.
“Four, five men. You boys can handle that.
“Moving on,” probably before I could point out that we’re teenagers fighting trained grown men, “With the four of you out, you’ll be free to restore Paloma’s being.”
Come again?
“I don’t know what the Tides did to her before your friend, the Jack, retrieved her,” thanks for the continuity nod, Sam, “But she was not blank before this crisis occurred. Restoring her will bring about the fourth Familiar. As she has already bonded to dear Henry, things will look significantly easier.”
“How do we—”
“Carina will know when you get her,” Sam answered Kenneth, “She’s such a resourceful girl.”
Except she forgot one thing. “You left out the part on killing Forest,” I said with an intentionally Skywalker-esque whine. “He’ll come back from the third Familiar, probably pissed off, and we won’t have seen her ourselves. That has to count for something in this grand plot you and Evangeline—“
“Evangeline is not my associate,” Sam pointed out so quickly, it was humiliating. I felt like I was back in sixth grade, answering the wrong question and being put on blast by a full-grown woman, who somehow didn’t grasp that kids make mistakes, and shouldn’t be embarrassed thoroughly and then laughed at by her permission.
No, I don’t have issues stemming from my middle-school days. Why, whatever gave you that idea?
When a silence took over the conversation, Samantha clarified. “We Familiars go by the guise of being different creatures, but in reality,” she smirked, “We are the same. I feel Evangeline, just as she understood the former Paloma.”
“What are you trying to say?” Kenneth asked.
“I’m saying that this is not her endgame anymore than it is mine.”
But it is an endgame.
“There are some things larger than you, kids,” she sighed in a motherly tone. “Believe me, if there were any other ways this could turn out besides Animal House being pawns or, well, you know,” Was that her way of suggesting the apocalypse or something?
“But there’s not,” She finished. “And now, I have some work to do. Crack to take care of. You know.”
We got kicked out of an ambiguously otherworldly being’s abode so she could get baked.
Please, college professors, please ask me to write an essay on my summer vacation. Even just a haiku.
“Wait a moment,” I said as Sam showed us the door. “The third Familiar…she knows about this, right?”
“Not exactly. She’s not…in tune with her powers. Works this little café gig downtown. She doesn’t have to. The little putz…”
Hold the phone.
That café wouldn’t happen to be Lucia’s Diner, would it?
“What, you got a date there or something?”
Tell me the Familiar isn’t a teenage girl with blond hair.
She didn’t.
“You heard my advice, Collins. My way or the highway.”
Oh, fuck me.
We piled into Kenneth’s big, red penismobile as he turned the ignition. A gentle purr and the three of us were headed back for the highway. I clenched that handle thing on the door to the point that I could hear the leather contracting.
“Henry, I followed everything up to that last…whatever it was. What’s going on?” It was more of a demand than a question.
“The third Familiar is a friend of mine back at the Diner.”
“What, Lucia’s? We haven’t used that place in years.”
Not since I left, yep. “It doesn’t matter. This plan has us selling out a friend. I’m not doing that.”
A thing I liked about Kenneth? He had a conscience, same as me. “Fine, but then we lose our shot at getting Carina, and that can’t happen.”
“Then we don’t take her plan.” Thanks for that suggestion, Paloma.
“Look,” I used that ‘thinking aloud’ voice House uses, “This whole thing relies on us being in that ominous tower of doom when Forest isn’t around, right?”
“Pretty much. What, you have a plan finally? ”
“I think so. Tell Forest where the third Familiar is, but not until I’m back in Jeanette.”
“Oh, no,” Kenneth almost laughed at me. “That’s insane. If you’re not out of there before Forest gets anywhere near downtown, you’re boned. He’ll kill you.”
“Let him try! I’m tired of that jackass anyway.”
Huh.
Did I just jinx myself by doing that badass boast?
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Read the next installment here.
