Explain It Like I'm Tree

Gearing Up

It's mine, she added, silently.

He hung his head, his shoulders slumped. After a moment, he straightened up and raised his head. His face was still pale, but his jaw was set. "Thank you. I can't... I'll never be able to repay you. I can't even look you up when I'm settled. So, thank you."

Vivi's mouth twitched. "Now you're thinking about it right."

He bit his lip. "I need some practice with all this gear. I'll get into the woods pretty deep, but I'm not going to leave the area just yet."

Her eyes narrowed. "And why is that?"

He met her stare. "I know I can't go back to the house, and I promise I won't, but... I really need to see heavy smoke from the bay before I leave for good."

Her expression softened. "Yeah. Yeah, you do, don't you? We'll finish the job. Probably tonight—actually that's stupid. Sorry, but we need about a week. Just to be sure some random person didn't see us driving away the very day it burns down, y'know?"

He nodded. "By then, I'll have figured a few things out. Probably enough to get a little farther away."

It was her turn to bite her lip. "I'm so sorry this is the answer. You shouldn't have to do this."

His eyes filled up right away, but he blinked the water back. "It's okay. I'm not even the first one to do it. Uncle Milton is out there, somewhere. If he did this, then I can too." Opening the van door, he slipped out, tugging the heavy backpack after him. "Thank you for everything. Please tell Mr. Arthur for me. And tell him I'm sorry."

"I will."

Christopher peeked into the back of the van, eyeing Mystery. "Bye... um... your name?"

"Mystery," the kitsune said, dipping his head. "Safe travels."

"Bye, Mystery. By Ms. Vivi." With that, he shut the door. He kept his head down and his hand on the door for a full minute. Finally, he turned around and made a beeline for the mist-wreathed wild tree growth behind the Walmart lot.

Vivi held her posture straight until he vanished into the greenery, then melted into her seat. Tilting her head back, she stared at the ceiling of the van and let all her feelings leak out the eyes. "I. Am. Such. An. Idiot."

Mystery said nothing.

"Arthur's right. I charge in, and it's all about the frontal assault. Flipping over the rocks. Discovering the strange and unusual. No way we could be taken off guard, we're invincible." She made no move to wipe the tears from her face. "Gramma Yukino was so cool. The stories she told me about the yokai she fought were amazing. It's like she was a real life superhero. I always wanted to be that cool, too. Mystery, your side of reality is amazing, and I'm not half bad at dealing with low-level bugaboos. But..."

"But you're a pup trying to bring down elk," Mystery finished softly. "And your pack got hurt."

"Yeah. Something like that." She scrubbed her arm across her face. "What the flume feathers am I gonna say to Artie when he wakes up? 'I'm sorry' doesn't nearly cover it. And I don't... I'm not ready to..."

Her words faded away. A moment later, she dragged her body upright, viciously twisting the key in the ignition. "I can't think about this right now. You're positive Arthur doesn't need the ER?"

"He is physically well, just exhausted. He may need copious amounts of food when he wakes."

Vivi gave a cracked chuckle. "Ah, so, back to normal. Well, if that's the case, I need to find a different parking lot where I can catch a few hours of sleep." She did a quick search for the nearest mall and set her GPS to guide her there. "I'm too flambéed to drive home, but we'd still better put some distance between us and the lot the kid vanished from." She set the phone down in the change holder, screen-up.

"A sound decision. I will keep watch," Mystery murmured.

Throwing the parking brake, Vivi twisted around and put the van into reverse.

The cellphone rang.

Her foot slammed down on the brake. Facing forward again, she pulled back into the parking spot. With the brake pinned down, she glanced at her phone as a number she didn't recognize scrolled across the screen. Scowling, she picked up the call on the last ring and grumbled, "Mystery Skulls, this is Vivi. How can I help you?"

"Oh, thank Jupiter!" a voice bawled on the other end. "Listen, I don't know which one of you is Mod Skull, but I need to talk to them right now!"

Vivi blinked. "Mod Skull? What do you mean?"

"Mod Skull! The one that runs your blog! Or just writes it? We've been talking and I have to talk to them!"

Not good.

"Who is this? The ID of the guy who runs our blog is private. Do you need our team for something?"

"I need Mod Skull! Mod Skull sent over a ghost that needed some help because I said I might be able to do something for him, and I think I botched the whole thing! It's completely out of control!"

Vivi went cold. If Lewis was on the rampage, she had to shut him down fast. She had to be sure, though. "Slow down. Take a breath. Give me your name and tell me exactly what's going on."

"My name's Dib! I contacted you guys through your blog a while ago and I've been chatting with Mod Skull. You guys have a blog post up about a friendly ghost that causes distortions whenever it speaks, remember? It said you guys hadn't figured out how to fix that yet but that the ghost really wanted help to speak again, and I have contacts who know all about ghost stuff, so I asked if I could meet with your ghost. Mod Skull was unsure, but eventually he sent the ghost out to meet me. I botched it! I'm so sorry, everything is haunted now and this isn't my expertise! Please send help!"

Numbness settled into Vivi's bones. Too many big feelings crowded the same space. On the plus side, it left her voice rock steady when she responded. "I need you to send me your location right now. Stay on the line. Once I'm headed your way, I need you to describe the ghost to me, then lay out what happened step by step."

...............................................

Note: Shorter chapter, but it wraps up one arc and returns us to another, so it does its job. I'm up to 4 story arcs at 38k words in The Remara Phenomenon. It's a lot of struggle and fun, but I'm taking a break to blow off steam with fanfiction and do catching up with friends and house repairs for a month or two. The more I write it, though, the more I begin to sense that maybe my time writing fanfiction really is coming to a close (by that, I mean it's unlikely I'll ever open up a new multi-chapter fanfiction again, even if I finish the open ones and spit out occasional one-shots). My writing feels like it's drifting in that direction at this point. We'll see.