Mythical Link ▸ Link Neal {Book One}

Five

     "How good are you at acting?" Rhett asked, then licked his lips as he threw his hands on his hips. Link couldn't tell if Rhett was being serious or not.

     Link scrunched his eyebrows together as he threw a confused glance at Rhett. Rhett walked around the car, surveying the damage that the animal had done to the top and the hood of Link's car.

     The hood and roof was dented in completely, as if the animal weighed at least 200 pounds. He eyed Link, then the girl on the ground, his eyebrows shooting up his forehead. Link sucked in a breath.

     "What are you thinking," Link asked slowly, apprehension grabbing his vocal chords.

     Rhett finished his lap around the car and stood in front of Link, then looked down at the girl. "We tell them you hit her with the car on accident."

     Link jolted backward, his glasses skewed on his face so that they were lopsided. He fixed them and glared at Rhett.

     "I am not telling them I hit her with my car!"

     Rhett gave Link a pleading look. "How else do we explain the huge dents in the car and the girl on the road," Rhett reasoned as he gestured to the girl. Link weighed the options in his head, then shook his head at Rhett's flawed logic.

     "What about all the blood that came from nowhere?" Link gestured toward her stomach, which once had bite marks that had since disappeared. "They're going to look at the blood and think something happened. They're going to search her body for an open wound and find nothing. How do we explain that?"

      Rhett's face went blank as he thought of an answer. He brought his hand up to his beard and stroked it thoughtfully. After a few moments of silent deliberation, he inhaled sharply and extended his pointer finger. "She had a bloody nose."

     Link opened his mouth to object, then snapped it shut. The trauma from hitting the car could have caused her to have a bloody nose.

    "Can we not talk about me as if I'm not here?"

     The both of them glanced at her. Link brought a hand up to the back of his head. "Sorry about that."

     "Yeah well, I'm not pretending I have a bloody nose. I'm going to tell them what really happened!"

      Rhett and Link's eyes widened like saucers and they leaped toward her. "No!"

     The girl flinched backward, her own eyes widening.

     Rhett coughed. "Look, you can't tell them what happened alright? Not unless you want to end up in a straightjacket."

     She looked at Rhett as if she'd been slapped in the face. "Maybe you need to be the one in a straightjacket. Actually, the both of you should. You seem like a bunch of lunatics."

     She pushed herself off of the ground. She grabbed her shirt by the bottom and pulled it out to examine the blood caked mess all along the front and side.

     "A straightjacket won't do anything for us. We can escape those," Link mumbled under his breath as he shook his head. The girl looked up at him curiously, but her attention was diverted quickly when an ambulance and police cruiser rolled into the parking lot.

     The two of them wheeled around to catch the sound of the sirens. Link's heart sank into his belly as he realized the moment was coming.

     The girl marched right past them toward the vehicles. Rhett and Link quickly looked at each other before they stepped in front of her to bar her off. Rhett threw his arms out to the sides to lengthen their defense.

     The girl looked between the two of them, then shook her head with disgust. Link could swear there was a fire lit in her eyes. "I swear to god, if you two don't get out of my way, I'm going to kick you in an unpleasant place."

     "Well that's enough persuasion for me," Link determined. He teetered to the side to get out of her way. Rhett caught him by the sleeve and pulled him back.

     "Hold on a moment. Think about this. You tell the police that a giant animal dog like thing bit you. They're gonna want to see where it bit you, kid. And from what we witnessed 10 minutes ago, there's no evidence of anything biting you."

     "We're just trying to help you," Link added calmly, even though his outstretched hand had trembled. Her lips were pursed as she leaned back on one leg and folded her arms across her chest.

     "You're meaning to tell me you're willing to get yourself into trouble by saying you hit a girl, all to save me from going to the nut house?"

     "You seem like a nice girl that had something very unfortunate—"

     "And bizarre," Rhett cut him off.

     Link continued. "Happen to her. Just please trust us."

     Her eyes searched the both of theirs for several seconds. "Why should I trust you? I don't know you from the next two guys on the street. Just get out of my way," she moved forward to try to push through Rhett but she realized how strong he was. She stumbled backward, then stamped her foot, her eyebrows knit together. "Come on!"

     "I'm Rhett, and this is my buddy Link. You're standing outside of the set of our daily talk show."

     "Good Mythical Morning," Link said awkwardly.

     The girl tilted her head to the side, the curiosity that Link noticed earlier flash back into her eyes.

     "We would be happy to tell you all about it over lunch if you'd just play along with us and send these people on their way," just as Rhett had said that, the officer walked up to greet them.