Greenhouse Gore

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: POMEGRANATE TEETH

Zachary Chapman was found.

Willie Fletcher told me so the next morning when he caught me looking at the tattered flyer stapled to the power line post where his cows were grazing through dead grass. He smuggled us into the barn, burying us in the haystack with an arsenal of blankets and quilts, after we figured we should lay low for the night after exposing Daphne in front of the whole of BV and sending the entire Halloween party into pandemonium. We couldn't risk returning to our own homes in case the police or our neighbors or worse, Daphne, showed up to interrogate us on how we acquired that footage from the pawn shops. We could have taken refuge at my house since no one knew who was inside Audrey Jr., but I didn't want to explain myself to my mom. The Sids and Axel arrived about forty minutes later and up in the haystack, cozied with quilts and warm apple cider courtesy of the Fletchers who didn't know about the stowaways in their barn, we passed around Micah's leftovers from the party, our nervous adrenaline leading us to bouts of laughter and madness as we recounted what had happened hours before.

"The look on Daphne's face!" Axel howled. "That was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen in my life." He gave Asa an awkward side hug, squeezing a grunt out of her. "Thank you for letting me be a part of this."

Siddo bit into a cold pig in a blanket and swallowed it. "I still can't believe that John Mobley was there. Where did he come from?"

"Pennsylvania," Sid said. He shuddered as the warmth of the apple cider rang down his throat.

"Now that that's over," Sidney said, glancing toward Asa. "I'm assuming that we will have no part in you turning yourself this weekend, so now we need to focus on the skeleton and Mrs. Coffin."

Everyone's eyes turned toward the scarf around Micah's neck.

"Do you think she knows?" Sid asked. He shifted slightly in the hay. "That it was us who broke in."

Sidney was about to respond, but Siddo lifted an arm to stop him. "No. Let's worry about that tomorrow. We need to celebrate the win tonight."

So, we slept. Periodically during the night, I'd awaken from a shiver that slipped in through the cracks in the wood and remember where I was. If it wasn't the cold, then it was the other people beside me. Micah and Sid were loud snorers, and Siddo was a toss-and-turner. Asa kept pulling the quilt we shared off whenever she rolled over. Axel slept like a corpse.

In the morning, I woke up before the rooster. I sat up in the hay and looked around at my sleeping friends, that all familiar thought flickering in my mind. How am I involved in all this? The Sids were laying on top of each other like triplets. Siddo's arm was on top of Sid's face, covering his left eye, and Sidney's head was using Sid's shoulder as a pillow. Micah was sprawled out like a starfish, face up. I nearly laughed when I saw Axel positioned in the same manner as a dead body in a coffin. Eventually, the barn door creaked, and Willie climbed up the ladder, crawling into the haystack with warm boxes of breakfast in his arms.

"Mornin'," he said quietly to me. "I wasn't expecting anyone else to be up so early. You sleep alright?"

Someone inhaled sharply through their nose, awakening. It was Sid and once he too realized where he was, he shook off Siddo's arm and Sidney's head, waking them up. Siddo groaned and spun herself into the quilt until she resembled an egg roll. Sidney kicked Axel in the foot, and I patted Asa on the shoulder. Willie gently woke up his starfish boyfriend.

"Happy birthday," he said when Micah finally awoke. He kissed Micah's cheek. Immediately, the rest of us offered our own happy birthdays to Micah who bashfully accepted them. Siddo gave him a peck on the cheek as well.