Lonely

Chapter 70, Sadie

Welcome to the small town of Lonely the sign read. I don’t think I had ever been so happy to see a road sign. The road was paved and gray, and the sign hung proudly off of one of the moving trees, painted gray with gold lettering and a wizard hat underneath the words. It was completely normal, and I never expected it. I looked at Hanger. His face was tense and closed in. I could tell he didn’t trust the welcoming sign. I put my hand on his arm.

“Nothing bad is going to happen. Relax.” He looked at me and relaxed a little.

“I just don’t think that this is completely normal.” He said. It obviously wasn’t, but I knew what he meant. We drove deeper into the town.

I saw a small booth ahead of us, like what you might see at a border crossing, only there was no gate  stopping us from driving through, and no one in the booth. Jasper stuck his hand out the window of the car and motioned us forward, then he stepped out of the car and came to the window.

"We need the coins to get in." he said, and I felt my eyebrows furrow, but took the small bag out of my pocket and handed it to him.

"There's no one there." I pointed out, and Jasper nodded.

"I know, but if we try and go through without paying, well, we'll pay for it, one way or another." he said, and with that he walked towards the booth. He looked inside of it, a worried expression etched on his face, and he set the coins in a small brass bowl that sat in the window. It was simple with a dull shine, and to me it looked like an ash tray. Then he got back in the car, and just like that, he drove through. I half expected something like flames to shoot out of the ground, or a crack to form in the earth and swallow us whole, but it didn't, and we all drove through easily.

The whole time we drove through it, I never saw any one. It was completely empty. I don’t just mean that no one was outside or something, I mean the town was empty. There was no one in the town, at all, except us. It was a small town, with paved streets lined by houses. Every house was gray, the sky was gray, the sings were gray, and the road was gray. I saw no animals. Nothing moved, not even the branches in the trees. Our cars drove silently down the streets. I imagined that if you had an over head view of the city, it would look like a checker board. All of the houses looked brand new, as if they had been built yesterday, and the grass was neatly trimmed, but yet still seemed colorless. The red of Arianna’s car seemed out of place, as if someone had accidentally spilt a splash of red paint on their black and white painting of a town.

Arianna pulled in to one of the short driveways, in front of one of the gray houses. I got out of the car, thankful that we were finally free of its closeness. Hanger shook his arms out and walked up to Arianna and Jasper. I opened my mouth to say something to them, but the sudden sound of the vans doors flying open startled me. We all turned to look. Dodger launched himself out of the car first, landing on all fours. He let his arms give out and lied with his cheek pressed against the asphalt. Max jumped out and backed away from the car. Liam and Nicco rolled out of the car and onto the ground, then scrambled to their feet and came to stand near Hanger and I.

“Jaysus! Thank the sweet lord! I couldn’t take that much longer.” Nicco complained. Levy rocketed out of the car and dashed fifteen feet away in two seconds flat. I heard shrieks of laughter and giggles, and boomer lumbered out of the van, all seven kids latched onto him. Jett was latched onto one leg, Sophia on the other. Roxi had her legs and arms wrapped around his waist. He was holding Ryder and Sully under each arm like a foot ball, and Ariadne and Libby perched on each shoulder, holding onto his head precariously.

He walked over to us with ease, all of the kids on him, giggling and laughing. The other guys were, for once, were silence. Boomer grinned at us.

“Hey, guys.” He said casually. Sophia grinned at me and turned the color of Boomer’s jeans. He shook his body slightly, and all of the kids crawled off.

“Were you guys good?” I asked, kneeling down. They crowded around me and started talking excitedly.  Sophia and Roxi were babbling about playing with the twins, Sully was talking about some joke he probably shouldn’t have heard but did, Ariadne and Libby were telling me about the awful boys who played fart games the whole ride. Ryder was talking about the tree’s, and how cool that. Jett was hiding partially behind Hanger’s leg. I tried to pay attention to all of them.

“I’m sure you had tons of fun with the boys.” I said, flashing a grin at them. They glared at me. Arianna came over.

“Why don’t you go in the house? There are some snacks in there. Go look around.” She said. They all smiled and ran inside the house. Except Jett. Poor kid was probably traumatized. The guys crowded around us.

“Talk about a car ride from hell. I never thought it would be that bad.” Dodger complained. Boomer nodded.

“Unfortunately, Max’s little sleeping spell wore off and they woke up happier than ever. They never shut up after that. Fighting, using their abilities, playing games, tricks.” Levy said, rubbing his jaw with his thumb like he did when he got stressed.

I smiled at them.

“Welcome to my life. I love them, but they can be a handful. Did you see those trees?” I asked. Liam looked confused.

“I can’t say I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.” He murmured, partially to himself. Arianna came up to us.

“Well, we are going to have to talk later to night, but for now, go get settled in your house. Please don’t ask 'em any questions right now. I have one hell of a head ache, and need to get the kids settled.” She said, rubbing her forehead.

“You want my help?” I asked. She smiled a little but shook her head.

“No, but Max, you could be of use.” He nodded and yawned as he followed Jasper and Arianna into the house.

“Your house is the one next door. Sadie, you’re sharing with the boys.” My draw almost hit the ground. Had it just been Hanger, I would be in heaven, but all of them?

They fist pumped the air as we crossed the yard. Hanger brushed against me.

“It won’t be that bad. Do you want me to play the jealous game?” he teased, wanting me to feel better. I smiled a little and shook my head. We stepped onto the neatly trimmed grass, then onto the stone walk away. I couldn’t see the forest from here, and it reassured me. The town looked normal, despite being completely empty and very gray, but there was something that felt weird. Like a blanket was spread over it, and you would suffocate from it.  I swung open the gray door of the house half expecting some magical creature to attack.

I was right.

Rex jumped out at me, and I had him pinned against the wall in two seconds before I realized it was him. I hadn’t seen him in so long. I had almost forgotten about him. His tongue lolled out of his mouth and he gave me a toothy grin, his black eyes shining. I released my grip and hugged him close to my chest, because in a weird way, he was the only normal thing, other than Hanger, in my life. He licked me like a dog.

"Oh, REx where have you been?" I cooed, kissing his scaly head. He made the weird rumbling noise and nuzzled my neck. The twins rolled their eyes.

“Women and their pets.” They muttered. The rest went into the house. Rex snarled at Hanger as he past. Nothing between them had changed. Inside the house, I was shocked. While everything out side was gray, inside was painted and bright. The hall was bright white, and the wooden floors were shining. It turned at the end and led into a dining room with a long, wooden table with a white table cloth. The room was painted burnt orange, and a hutch stood against one wall with fine crystal glasses inside. Walking through the dining room you went into another room, the kitchen. It had black marble counters, and several stainless steel kitchen appliances.

The boys had already opened all of the glass cupboard doors and several boxes of junk and bags of chips were already strewn around the room. Rex scrambled down my arm and leg and onto the floor, then out the window. I assumed he was going to see Ryder. Hanger came up behind me and put his hand on my waist, just for a moment, then walked over and grabbed a bag of chips form Boomer’s hands. That small gesture relaxed me, and I stopped thinking about why we were here, and where we were, and talked and fooled around with the guys.  Hanger smiled at me with his crooked smile. “Welcome to the lonely town of Lonely.”

Alright, I hope you liked it, and I'd love to see what you guys thought of it:)