Here's the conclusion of the Christmas story (four days late) and I hope you
enjoyed it. Now I'll get back to Wanderer.
Thanks
Rob
Meg stared at the door for a dozen heartbeats before quietly pulling the boot on. She carefully got to her feet and looked out the window, seeing that she'd have to bust the frame apart to get out. That would be loud and he'd be able to bust in on her in the few seconds it would take. Remembering what had happened with Marie earlier, she picked up the fallen chair and wedged it under the door handle before grabbing the tennis racket and heading back to the window. That should hold him for a few moments, she thought as she cocked back her arm to swing.
"If you swing that racket, I take back my offer."
"How did he-" she started as she peered out, but never finished her sentence. Meg saw a tiny pair of heads sticking out from behind one of the villa's vents and it looked like they had a pair of binoculars and a radio. The fat man wasn't omniscient; he just had scouts and spies everywhere.
"What is your offer? What do you want?" she yelled, trying to buy more time to think. She was surprised at how little fear was in her voice and thought that Shimmer and Cog would be proud of her. Stepping away from the window, she sat down in the bed and was vaguely aware of the dog still circling and barking at her feet.
"Simple," the voice laughed again. From its volume, he was slowly coming down the hall and was near the washstand. "I need a new Mrs. Claws. The other one is all worn out."
Meg stared in horror at the door, hearing laughter echo behind it. Go with that THING? To the North Pole or whatever and be its, its.
"Wife?" she asked, finishing her thoughts aloud in a whisper that seemed to carry. Her eyes darted around the room for some other option and she looked back to the window again. Archibald had gone under the bed and was making noise, but it sounded distant and unreal.
"Of course!" the fat man's voice answered happily. "You'll be MY wife and MY woman! It's not like you really have any other options, do you?"
Her blood turned colder and she trembled, knowing that Claws was right. There was no way she could outrun him and his army for very long and they'd keep trying again and again until they got her. There was no way out and she felt any hope she had been harboring ice over and fade out.
"You'll NEVER get away from me! NEVER!" he bellowed and she shuddered. "So give in!"
Archibald nipped her behind the knee and she looked down, startled when she realized what he was doing. He was a lot smarter than she had given him credit for.
"Give me a minute to think about it, okay?" she asked as she dropped to her knees and pulled Cog's gift out from the bed. Popping the case, she pushed the dog out of the way and dug for instructions.
"Alright, but only a minute," he laughed. His feet crunched on the hall as he paced back and forth.
Meg found the info packet and popped it open, finding the steps labeled in bright numbers for even the stupidest consumer. Carefully unpacking the components, she started putting them together as quietly as possible. It seemed pretty simple and she worked quickly.
"Ooooh, it's been SO long since I've had a woman," he laughed, with a chorus of elves chucking in unison with him. "When I heard that there was a woman at that monitoring station right next door, I knew that SLA-mas had finally come for me!"
Meg weighed the present in her hands carefully, surprised at its mass and balance. Was this for real? Would this actually work? She shoved the last piece together and it clicked into place. Almost ready, she thought to herself.
"I would have had the replacement Mrs. Claws I wanted last year if that asshole Caris hadn't gotten lucky. He couldn't make it this year."
There was a post-it note on the side that she had missed, but she pulled it off and followed the instructions. It was in Cog's handwriting and she had to squint before she could read it.
"Maybe that's not quite true," he said with a laugh that got louder as he came towards her door. "You could say that SLA-mas came early for him this year. Do you happen to see my boots? Made 'em myself!"
Meg leaned on what was left of the desk and watched the door. The sound of heavy boots got closer and she held her breath.
"Time's up!" he called as the door's lock turned and he laughed. "You didn't think that a lock would stop me, did you?"
The door jammed on the chair and Meg heard him growl on the other side. He must not have expected it and got angry as he threw his weight into it. The chair was stout enough to hold and she heard the chainaxe growl on the other side. With a high-pitched whine, the axe snapped through the door and ground a furrow big enough for him to nearly put his head through.
"Here's Santa!" he laughed and kicked the door open. "Merry SLA-mas, Misses Claw-" he started, his voice trailing off. He jerked back in surprise and stared as a red dot climbed up his leg.
"The name is Barker, asshole," Meg said and squeezed the trigger. She had followed the instructions on the KPS Mangler and aimed low, leaning in it to take the recoil. The blue-matte weapon bucked in her hands again and again, punching bloody holes through his stitched red "suede" suit and spraying the walls with chunks and gouts of liquid. Meg's ears and hands were numb from the sound and kick, but she kept firing to blast the scattering elves apart like jingling skeet. Several of them had still been holding Molotovs and exploded, covering themselves and their boss's body in flames.
Meg swapped to the spare clip and walked over to look at what used to be Santa Claws. One of the overpaid therapists that her Mother had sent her to wanted her to visualize destroying the source of her fears and she nodded, feeling this was pretty good therapy after all. Calmly putting the barrel of the weapon to what was left of his face, she fired and splattered the pink snow and what was left of her favorite dress with crimson.
"See you next year asshole, "she said and put the weapon on safe. "Maybe."
Meg heard noise from the front room and pulled on a jacket and picked up her purse. Beckoning for the dog, Archibald meekly came up to her and she picked him up and kissed him on the forehead. With the dog in one hand and the Mangler in the other, she walked into the living room to see what was happening.
The room was lit up and bustling with activity as people worked to put out the fires and get the chandelier off/out of Sour Blood. Several of those had "LAD" stenciled across their armor, but the others could be anyone for all she cared. No one paid any attention to the young woman with the shotgun and she pushed her way through as she headed for the door. Slinging the weapon over her shoulder, she tucked the dog into her jacket and scratched his head.
"He isn't worth bringing back," she said to no one in particular as the distinctly warmer air from outside touched her face. "Unless you're a stupid kid who still needs paper heroes."
As she was halfway to the gate, her Mother rushed up to her from her limo and grabbed her shoulders, a look of horror on her face. She must have intended to surprise her daughter after all, but it looked like she was the one who was amazed. It didn't help that Meg looked like she'd been through hell and her Mother's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. Abruptly, her Mother hugged her so tightly that she nearly squashed the dog. Meg briefly hugged her back with one hand before kissing her on the cheek and pulling away but as she tried to walk past, her Mother grabbed her arm with both hands.
"Honey, where are you going?" she asked, her face showing a mix of shock, concern and a need for answers. "It's SLA-mas!"
"Where do you think?" she answered. "I'm going to Meny."
Meg took advantage of the shock evident on her Mother's face to shrug her hands free and continued past to hail a cab. As one of the blue taxis pulled up, she heard her Mother's voice trailing behind her and ignored it. Ever since she had been little, she had dreamed of becoming a Karma scientist like her Father to support the company, but the past year's events had changed that. Meg finally had the clarity to see past all the false glitter and flash and view the way things really work in the World of Progress.
She thought about what Shimmer had said as the cab wormed its way through the narrow streets away from her Mother's world through the fake snow. The wraith always stripped things down to the simplest terms and he was right when he said that there are two types of people - those that live in fear as Prey and those that master fear and become Hunters. Her parents couldn't see something so simple because it was in probably in their natures to be afraid. The wraith must have known she was different and now, so did she.
As the cab stopped at the tram station, Meg looked down at the Archbald and smiled. "From now on, no more trying to be what they want me to be -something I'm not," she said and the dog licked her face.
There would be no more giving in to fear, no more falling for glitz and flash. For the first time, Megan Barker saw herself for what she really was.
She was a Hunter.
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