Freeks(84)
“I’m sure the dead have all sorts of interesting things to say,” Della Jane commented, her warm Southern drawl doing nothing to soften the venom in her voice. “But I thought you came here to talk about us and our little family secret.”
Gabe leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I just feel like what’s happening out in the woods with that thing—it has to be related.”
“Why on earth does it have to be related?” his mom asked. “Maybe it is a dog or just an honest-to-goodness coyote.”
“No, I saw it. It’s…” Gabe’s forehead crinkled as he tried to find the words to describe it. “It’s like a wolf made out of a black hole and mixed with a dragon and the devil.”
Della Jane offered up a shrug of her narrow shoulders. “That doesn’t sound like a werewolf at all.”
“Yeah,” Selena agreed. “The only three wolves we know around here are me, you, and Mom, and you know that none of us would ever do that.”
“I know it’s not you guys, and I’m not even saying it’s a werewolf,” Gabe explained. “When I was fighting it, I felt like it was draining my energy from me. But not in a human sort of way, like it was taking my powers. And with everyone in the carnival having extraordinary abilities, I’m worried it might be hunting them because of their powers.”
“Gabe, don’t you think if I heard of something like that I would’ve told you about it?” Della Jane asked. Her tone had a sense of reasonability and civility to it, but there was a harsh undercurrent of patronization. “Warned you to stay away from it?”
“But you have been warning him to stay away from the carnival, haven’t you?” Selena asked, turning her inquisitive gaze on her mother.
“That’s just because I didn’t want him getting too attached to a girl who’s leaving, but I can see that’s already too late,” Della Jane explained with a sigh.
“So you haven’t heard anything at all? Uncle Beau never said anything?” Gabe pressed.
Della Jane held up her finger toward him and snapped, “Don’t bring your uncle Beau into this nonsense.”
“But it hasn’t even been a year since he killed himself and now—” Gabe began.
“He did not kill himself. It was an accident,” Della Jane insisted.
“—is the time you used to come back for his parties,” he went on, ignoring his mother’s protests. “He always had his big parties in March, and you’d come to visit him, and leave me and Selena at home, because you said they were no place for kids.”
“They weren’t any place for kids,” Julian interjected. “They weren’t even a good place for adults.”
Throughout the exchange so far, Gabe’s father hadn’t said anything really. He’d mostly rubbed his chin and stared off into the yard, as if he wanted to stay out of all of this as much as possible.
“Your uncle has nothing to do with this, so just leave it alone,” Della Jane warned him.
“But Mom, why can’t we just talk about this?” Gabe asked, growing exasperated. “What if you know something and you don’t even realize it?”
“You’re worried about your girlfriend?” Della Jane attempted a new approach and softened her voice. “How about this? She can stay with us tonight. I can make up one of the guest rooms and then you won’t have anything to worry about. We’ve never been attacked here, and we have three wolves to protect her if anything comes.”
Gabe turned to look back at me, placing his hand on my knee exposed below the hem of my dress. “I know that doesn’t fix anything, but it would keep you safe.”
“I…” I faltered. Everyone’s eyes were on me now, and I struggled to choose my words carefully. “I appreciate the offer, but I can’t leave behind my family and friends. Unless they can all stay here, I can’t.”
Della Jane held up her hands, like there was nothing more she could do. “I’m sorry, Gabe, but I can’t extend that offer to a group of traveling strangers.” Then, abruptly, she stood up. “And now I’ve said all that I can. This week has been long, and I think I’m going to lie down.”
She offered me the thinnest of smiles before turning and walking back in the house. The screen door slammed behind her, making me jump.
“Dad, can you talk to her?” Gabe implored him. “She knows the curse better than anyone.”
Julian leaned forward, taking an otherwise untouched glass of soda from the table. “I think you need to let this one alone, Gabe, and it’s best if you ask your friend to leave.”
53. crossed
Gabe offered to give me a ride home, after apologizing profusely for his mom, but I insisted on walking. I needed time to clear my head and make sense of it all. But the long walk didn’t help much. I arrived back at my Winnebago with clothes and hair dampened by the mist, and just as confused as ever.
We didn’t even bother opening up the sideshow part of the carnival. Doug Bennet stuck around, running a few games and rides on the midway, but even he’d lost a good chunk of his workers. Nobody wanted to work around here with an unknown creature stalking us.
Most of the sideshow had left, except for those who literally didn’t have a cent to their name. Gideon worked on arming them, while my mom spent the afternoon with her head buried in books, trying to find incantations to protect us.