Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
“Well?” Batty is barking at us. “Are we going to buy hay, or what?”
I ease the truck forward, crawling up Main Street. Batty flies in front of us, leading the way, his enormous leathery wings flapping the fog away.
Pie’s window is still open so the cold winter air is filling the cab of the truck. But she keeps it down, leaning her head out a little to get a better look. “Wow. It really is abandoned.”
“Not all of it.” I point to my right. “See? That sign in the bar window is lit up.”
“Savage Saints.” Pie whispers the words as she reads the red neon.
Music leaks out of the building as we pass, that same song—the ball and chain one—playing on the jukebox inside. And then I speed up a little because Batty is already at the feed store waiting for us.
I pull up to the barn where they store the hay and then back up to the large garage door. Then Pie and I get out and meet Batty in the parking lot.
He growls, “Who’s going in?”
I volunteer. “I’ll go in. You two—”
“No.” Pie puts up a hand. “I’m going too.”
“Fine.” I’d rather have Pie with me anyway. “You stand guard, Batty. If anyone comes—”
“If anyone comes, I’m flying away.”
“Nice,” I say. “Why are you here if you’re not gonna help?”
“I’m not here to help you. I’m here to make sure you do as you’re told.”
I grab Pie’s hand and pull her away from him, heading for the front doors of the feed store. “Wow. He’s a dick.”
“Yeah.” Pie wilts a little. “I’m disappointed. I kinda liked him too.”
So many things run through my mind as I process her words. Mostly about her impromptu spelling, then the consequences of it. But there’s no time to think about these things because we’re here. And we need to think about this right now. Hay, and the town, and getting out of here as quick as we can before the devil inside that bar comes out to greet me.
I open the door, then look at Pie. “Maybe we can undo the spell. Shut them all up, huh?”
She smiles at me. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
I just grin back and we go inside.
There’s no one there, of course. I didn’t come in here, or check every building in town a couple weeks ago, so I guess there was a possibility that someone was still living here before we came inside. But it’s clear by the dust that covers everything that no one has been in here in… well, a lot longer than two weeks, that’s for sure.
“Wow.” Pie drags her finger through a significant layer of dust on the wooden countertop. An antique cash register sits on one end, and on the other end is a line of glass jars filled with contents unknown, since they are so dusty it’s impossible to tell what’s inside. “This is… not the feed store that used to be here, is it?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What happened? Did the whole place go back in time?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe we just… skipped over into another realm, or something.”
“It’s funny. A couple months ago that would sound crazy. But now that we control doors that lead to new worlds, it’s actually a pretty reasonable assumption. So what should we do?”
“Look for hay, I guess.”
“Won’t it be old and moldy?”
Pie and I look at each other. I just shrug. “What else can we do?”
“We should look, since we’re here. But I’m not hopeful. We’re probably gonna have to venture out to another town to get hay.”
I point to a sliding barn door. “When I was here with Tomas, that door led to the barn where they kept the hay.”
“Let’s check it out.” We walk over to the door and she slides it open. There’s a room on the other side. It does not have hay. It has a cot, and a little stove, and a chair. Like someone lives here. But it’s all pretty dusty, so not recently.
But there is another door. And when we go through that one, we find the barn and the hay.
Pie plants her hands on her hips. “Huh.”
“It looks… fresh.”
“Yeah.” She cocks her head a little, sniffs the air. “It even smells fresh.”
We look at each other again. “That’s good, right?”
Pie nods her head. “It is. It’s just…”
“Concerning?”
She points at me. “That.”
“Because it shouldn’t be fresh? It should be old and moldy?”
“And that too.”
“So it’s… some kind of magic? And we should get the hell out of here and tell the monsters they’re out of luck?”
“Well…” She cringes. “I feel like maybe this hay is meant for us?”
“In a good way? Or a bad way? Because I didn’t even like Granite Springs. And now I’m thinking Savage Falls is a big fucking no.”
“Yeah.” She sighs.
But then, just as this breathy admission of defeat passes her lips, the garage door opens at the far end of the barn and Batty is there, waving his arms and carrying on like an asshole. “Can we get this show on the road? Fuck’s sake. What are you people doing in here, sightseeing?”