The Lemon Meringue Boy

Part 48

Nobody died. I was surprised. If there was anything I knew about Bill was that, even with magical restraints, he would find a way to kill somebody.

My teeth ground into themselves and my toes curled. Bill didn't want to die. That reassured me a bit. Emphasis on "A bit". I was playing chutes and ladders with Mabel while Bill played chess with Ford. I hadn't wanted him to; I'd pulled him aside to accuse him of the bulshittery he'd been attempting with his interrogations of my great uncle.

"You're slowly making them suspicious. You know what that means don't you? You are slowly killing yourself. If you wanted to know about all the havoc your little project caused I'd had have gladly filled you in. You need to think before you speak. It's part of being human. Your first lesson about being a person; you need to think about the consequences of what you say. Humans can't just freaking mic-drop and poof into thin air whenever they're finished talking."

He'd promised to hold back on the questioning if I would allow him one game of chess. He was leaking sarcasm asking my permission, but I had formally allowed him to play anyway.

I watched them play, their foreheads wrinkling with concentration. Mabel kept having to nudge me for my turn.

"What's got you all twitchy? Liam is fine. Ford seems to really like him. Stop being so paranoid. Oh, and by the way you landed on the suicide chute."

I tore my gaze from Bill and Ford and sighed. I slid the plastic piece down the cardboard. For a game strictly based on luck, I seem to always get the suicide chute.

Mabel had discovered her luck in this game and started making me play it more and more. I only went with it because of the whole "Little Dipper" ordeal last summer. Now she had a game she always won.

"Sorry Mabel. I guess I'm just a little worried about Liam. His parents were abusive, so he has some violent habits he can't really seem to shake. I just don't really know how long he'll keep it up with Ford. It's a fluke he's trusted an adult for this long."

I shuddered a bit. I was becoming frighteningly good at coming up with lies on the spot. It was not a talent I was proud of. I certainly didn't care to develop it. It was the type of skill that was not recognized with a trophy.

Mabel won. No surprise there. She did her usual sliding her character back down all the chutes because she quote unquote "want's her piece to have a good time on the slides, wouldn't you?"

What did surprise me was the clatter of pawns on wood, followed by Bill;

"Check and mate!"

Ford was staring at the granite pawns as they rolled spirals and dropped to the floor one by one. He looked back up at Bill with curiosity.

"Odd...is that a normal thing to do then?"

"What, win? Well I don't know about you, but I'd say it's pretty normal for yours truly."

"I meant this."

He pointed to the devastated chessboard.

"I thought only one person I knew knocked down the pawns with the opponent's king when he won... I hadn't realized that it was common gameplay."

"Well realize it now. Nothing says you have power over a civilization then summoning their own leader against them."

"Ah. Same purpose too... I thought that only... never mind. I'm being paranoid."

Ford pushed back from the table.

"Nice win, anyway! You've just beaten a chess team champion!"

"Don't I know it!"