Hope's Ruin

13 | Spirited Away

Swirling smoke and chaotic laughter choked Pepper's dreams. Demonic doll's heads floated against a black sky. Tiny fangs chittered and chattered. Eyes burned like blood moons. Plastic skin became taught like a decomposing cadaver.

She sat up with a scream.

<< nightmare >>

"I wish."

Pepper shuddered beneath the blankets.

<< confess >>

"To Erin and Marshall? Not a chance."

<< sad >>

"We did a bad thing. A really bad thing." Pepper stroked her forearms. "I'll put it right. Put everything back. Just as it was. They'll never know."

<< secrets >>

<< lies >>

<< bad >>

"Look, I know it's bad. But being stranded out in The Great Wastes or returning to Hope's Ruin with our tails between our legs is far worse." Pepper dragged her hands down her face. "So, another of those dark spirits got out. Big deal. It'll probably just scurry back and join the hundreds of others at—"

<< boothill >>

Pepper shuddered again.

Beside the ever-present rumble in the clouds, the farmhouse remained quiet.

No sign of Marshall or Erin yet.

Pepper got dressed and wandered out onto the courtyard.

Streaks of dazzling morning sun edged her vision. She put a hand to her eyes and located her new friends at the farm's perimeter fence.

Pepper called out, but they did not respond.

Shrugging, she ambled through the warm morning light and joined them at the scarecrow crosses that looked out over the undulating landscape.

"Beautiful view," Pepper said, still shielding her eyes. "I can see why you're Ma and Pa decided to live here."

Erin was crying.

"Oh, Erin. Whatever is the matter?"

Marshall, his arm around Erin's shoulders, nodded skyward.

Pepper turned to the crosses.

Number Thirteen hung motionless in his cap and jeans and D&D t-shirt. His hollowed out eyes stared into the beautiful forever. But Number Twelve was a different matter. Her nightmarish black dress, pirate jacket, and bison skull were not where they should be.

Not where they should be at all.

Her cross was completely bare.

Pepper scanned the immediate area.

Wriggling tracks slithered through the mud.

"What in the name of—?"

Erin looked at Pepper. "She's gone," she said after an age. "Number Twelve. Gone."

"How? Did someone take her?" She looked at the tracks again. "Is she...alive again?"

"No. Maybe," Erin said, as her tears came harder. "Do you think it's possible?"

"Anything is possible."

"But if she came back—" Erin struggled, the idea of Number Twelve returning to her was obviously more than she could bear, "—why wouldn't she stay? Why wouldn't she come and talk to me? Why would she leave?"