Burning Road

Past and Future- Part I

"It has happened again!  Third wife, Third stillborn child... thrice the widower.  This curse is far worse than my father warned me.  By day I slave over the master's crops, and pretend to be a cretin to save my skin.  By night I hunt with Mr. Owens, a white man from up north with an uncommon view of slavery and a knack for hunting that rivals my own.  He expects me to have my wits about me tonight as we hunt the corpse eaters, but how can I when I've buried yet another wife and son?  I almost wish the master would make good on his threats to sell me.  Maybe the curse isn't in the blood, but in the land itself."

Khouri read the passage again, and made two tally marks on a piece of notepaper.  Uncle Moses had made it look easy to keep notes, but Khouri was having trouble merely keeping his notepaper from getting lost in his apartment.  Annoyed he put the book down.  Three wives dead, none were Princes but each fell victim to the family's rotten luck.  Death in childbirth, death in freak accidents.  People that married into the Prince family or just attached themselves to the line were as susceptible to the curse as trueborn Prince's.  The more he read about his family, the more he felt the heavy and oppressive blanket of despair.

The previous set of entries were by a learned slave who'd managed to teach his son and daughter how to hunt before a case of mistaken identity saw him hung and quartered.  The notebook of Khouri's grandfather wasn't just a history of his family, but a glimpse of colonial America and its inhumane practices.  Catastrophe after atrocity seemed to be the pattern.  It soured Khouri's naturally foul mood.

He was waiting in a supermarket parking lot for Cali to do some last minute shopping.  The pair were on the hunt, but for a change there was no need to rush.  His bills were paid, and his bank account was showing black.  He wished she'd hurry but only because he hated being idle.  Cali could get lost in a place with too many things to touch, he'd watched it happen firsthand.

He checked his messages.  Sully wanted an introduction to Khouri's mechanic because his usual guy had swindled him once again.  Prince'd told him repeatedly to be careful who he let touch his ride, but the kid had to learn the hard way. The second message was from Ice.  She'd called to relay an invitation from Jaeger.  Khouri's success had made the guild leaders more eager than ever to recruit him to one of his teams of full time hunters.  Prince had no intentions of tying himself down.  Besides he already had a team.  He texted Sullivan the number to his mechanic, and deleted the other message.

There was a text from Charlie Denver which he ignored.  He hadn't spoken to her since that night at Aunt Maurine's.  It wasn't that he didn't want to talk, it was that he wanted to talk too much.  His feelings for Charlie were a strange knot of confusion.  Though he loved her deeply, he was sure that their moment had come and gone.  Khouri wanted her to be happy, even if it wasn't by his side, but, if what he'd heard was true, her marriage was toxic.  He wanted her as much as he wanted to stay away.  His heart and his mind were at odds, and he wasn't sure he could keep his head clear.

Cali knocked on the door and jumped into the passenger seat.  She was chewing a sour string, and humming a tune from a popular commercial.  She wore a shirt which read Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, and a hat with a pokeball on the front.  Her locks were the same electric purple as her sour string save for one white strand.  In her hands were a bag of candy and her cellphone.  She reached into the bag and handed Khouri two snickers bars.

"Mission success!" she chirped before buckling herself in.

"But what was the mission?  You know what, don't tell me.  Forget I asked."

"It's simple.  I have a plan.  We know from the The Doohickey that it's one of the small fae we're after, like a fairy or a brownie.  Maybe we can catch and convince it to give us all its dust.  I've been practicing their language and look what I found.  Strawberry Twinkies!"