Stranger Stories 2

Questions And A Lack Of Answers

Cody shook himself out of his stupor when the screen door banged open. His door opened, ever so slightly, Seb peeking through. Cody waved, Seb's eyes brightening when he realized his cousin was still among the living.

"Cody! You're awake! I didn't see that coming. Mindy said you would be asleep for way longer."

Cody gave a faint smile, sitting up. "Well. I didn't even expect to be alive, so..."

"You've fought a fifty foot tall sentient plant on your own and lived. I'd say you've definitely seen worse." Seb grinned, leaning against the wall.

Cody rubbed his eyes, exhaustion still tugging at him. "Still feel like crap, though."

"Fair enough. You want me to call Mindy over? She can probably tell you when you'll be back at 100%."

"You can try. She didn't pick up when I called."

Seb frowned. "Oh. well, I'll try again, it's probably better to have tried once than twice." he took Cody's phone and before he could protest, he called Mindy, but less than thirty seconds later he handed it back. "Yeah you're right, it went straight to voicemail."

"I do tend to be right."

"Shut up. You're right until you get yourself killed."

Cody looked down. "Fair enough."

There was a knock on the door. Seb went to get it. Cody could hear Mindy's voice floating down the hall, and suddenly there she was, bursting into the room. "Hi. you okay? I think I know what happened to you. Do you want to know?"

Cody looked up to Mindy's disheveled purple hair. "I'm fine."

"Good! Apparently the Mother reacted with her vaccine in your blood, and got you sick. You'll be fine in about a day." she paused for a minute, eyebrows furrowing. "You wouldn't wake up."

"What?"

"You were supposed to wake up after about an hour. You were out for way longer than that. I had to tell Samuel and Sebastian that you would be out for longer so they wouldn't worry."

"Thanks for that." Mindy nodded. "I do have one, less urgent question. I'll ask the other ones when I'm coherent enough to remember the answer."

Mindy looked up. "Yeah?"

"How'd you get here so fast? Do you live under a rock in my backyard or something?"

Mindy laughed, getting up to leave. "That's close enough to the truth. See ya, Jett." Seb's door shut for a moment, but reopened and Mindy's head popped through. "And Jett?"

"Yeah?"

"You owe me one."