Chapter 24: Trade My Soul For A Wish

There was a moment of stillness. August, Cecily, Puddle, Echo, and Amy all stared at each other, then Echo let out a confused hmm. “What are you guys up to?” she asked, and as if a spell had been broken, everyone started moving at once.

Cecily ran to Echo, grabbed her arm that wasn’t holding the basket, and pulled her toward the house, moving so frantically she almost twisted her non-stone ankle. “We need to get this ravioli cooking now!” she called to August as they passed.

The ravioli grants wishes, August realized. It could send us all back to Earth. He looked at the giant robot that was now approaching Puddle. Including Amy.

“Help Echo make it as fast as you can,” he urged Cecily. “I’ll help stall Amy out here.”

Cecily stopped at the threshold of the house, looking back at him. “No, you help with the ravioli and I’ll stay out here. You’ve never fought a day in your life, August.”

August didn’t budge. From now on, he was doing what he wanted, and what he wanted was to protect Glow and get Cecily home. “I’m not going to fight the robot; I’m not stupid,” he told Cecily to try to reassure her. “I’ll find other ways to slow her down.” Besides, he’d spent his whole life letting Cecily fight for him. It was about time he returned the favor.

Cecily nodded, although her face was still equal parts skeptical and worried, then ran to him. “Here,” she said, holding out her hand. “I don’t know if this will work, but take a Favor. I want luck on your side if you’re going to be out here with the robot.” August clasped her hand briefly, but had no idea if it did anything. I guess I’ll find out the hard way whether I’m lucky or not. Cecily gave his hand a final squeeze, then took Echo inside to get the magic ravioli going.

August turned to watch Amy’s contraption. The robot had two arms on its right side and one on its left, and they all started moving: two of them jabbing their knives in Puddle’s direction as they approached him, and the third holding its hammer in the air, ready to come down on his head.

She’s somehow controlling them from the inside, August thought, but I don’t see a way to get in there. Amy must have closed whatever opening she’d climbed in through, and the raccoon was apparently shut back in its locket, so accessing Amy might not be doable at the moment. August couldn’t let Puddle fight the robot on his own, though, not when it was clearly much stronger and more dangerous than the knife Roombas had been.

The large man had taken a few steps back and picked up a large stick to use as a club. August grabbed a stick, too, and ran around the side of the robot, jabbing the stick through the metal spokes of one of the front wheels. He was pretty sure he’d seen that done in movies on motorcycles and it had worked like a charm, but his stick snapped almost immediately as the wheels kept turning.

Damn. August scampered backward as the robot reached Puddle and began swinging its knives at him. New solution, new solution… Puddle was using his club to block the knives, but one of the knives got stuck in the wood and Puddle had to drop the club to dodge another arm swinging at him.

August hadn’t had time to put his shoes on after Amy showed up, and the multiple days of rain had left the whole ground covered in mud, which squelched between the extra toes August had gotten from Puddle’s muffins when they’d first met. He looked from the mud to Amy’s robot and got another idea. She has to have some way to see what’s happening outside, he thought, spotting some small slits in the front of the robot, where its face would be. Picking up a handful of mud and ducking in next to Puddle, August flung the mud at the robot, splattering it all over the front and covering the eye slits.

Puddle jumped to the side as Amy’s voice cried out and the arms started flailing wildly. August realized that blinding someone who was swinging multiple weapons may not have been a good idea, especially as his feet sunk into the mud, slowing him down. He tried to move, but found himself watching in horror as one of the knives plunged right toward him.

— — —

“I already made the dough, so I just need to shape and fill the ravioli then make the sauce,” Ravioli Girl explained as she emptied her basket onto the kitchen table. She pulled out a bowl of dough, which she quickly began rolling flat with a rolling pin.

“What can I do to help?” Cecily asked. She’d never been good at cooking and didn’t really enjoy it either, but if there was ever a time to pick up the hobby, it was now.

“I don’t know if you can help with making the actual food; it might interfere with the magic,” Ravioli Girl said, “but you can at least get some water boiling.”

Cecily nodded and started lighting the stove, then heard a tapping coming from inside the pantry. “Hello out there?” Glow called through the door. “Did I win the game yet?”

“Not yet, just stay in there!” Cecily yelled back. She burned her fingers with the match as she kept trying to light the stove, then burned them again. “This better mean that stupid Favor worked,” she muttered as she got a new match.

Glow teleported out of the pantry, appearing next to her with a frown. “That game is so boring! Can we play a different one?”

“Yes,” Cecily said, holding out the box of matches to her. “Do you know how to light a match?” August would be horrified, but desperate times called for giving fire to children. Glow took a match and Cecily demonstrated the motion of striking it against the matchbox. Glow imitated her and the match instantly flared to life, even though Cecily was pretty sure it hadn’t actually made contact with the rough surface of the matchbox. Cecily quickly guided Glow’s hand to the stove and they successfully lit it.

“Nice one, Glow!” Cecily said, pulling out a pot and checking the large jug of water that August had collected from their well at the beginning of the storm. Naturally, it was completely empty. Cecily rolled her eyes, then held out the pot to Glow. “Okay, our next game is called, How Fast Can You Fill This Pot With Clean Water?”

“Oh! I can do that so fast!” Glow said, grabbing the pot and vanishing. It probably wasn’t a great idea to send her off on her own in the current climate, but Cecily was on a time crunch. About thirty seconds after she’d left, Glow teleported back in with a full pot. “Great job, Glow, you win that game, too!” Cecily announced as she put the pot on the stove and hoped that Glow had paid attention to the “clean water” part.

Glow gave her an enormous smile at the praise, then looked at the living room. “Where’s my raccoon?”

Cecily paused. “Sleeping.” Maybe it wasn’t a lie; she didn’t know what the creature did while it was trapped in its locket.

“What’s the next game?” Glow asked, wandering around the living room. Her gaze moved toward the front door and Cecily quickly moved next to her to squash any curiosity about what was happening outside.

“Next… I’ll teach you how to play Twenty Questions,” Cecily said. “I’ll think of something, and you have to ask me yes-or-no questions to figure out what it is.” She didn’t know many kid-friendly games, so this one would have to do. She felt a stab of shame at how difficult this was for her: August was out there risking his safety to protect Glow, and all Cecily had to do was keep the young god distracted. Why did I let him stay out there? He’s the one better suited for childcare anyway. Of all the times to accidentally conform to gender norms…

A shout sounded from outside, and Glow looked over. “What was that?”

“Oops, just yes-or-no questions, remember?” Cecily said quickly. “Now try to figure out what I’m thinking about!”

Cecily was sweating as she kept one eye on Glow and the other on Ravioli Girl, who was frantically putting the ravioli filling into the dough. Please be safe out there, August, she thought desperately.

“Okay, I’m ready to ask my questions!” Glow declared, and Cecily quickly tried to think of an object for the game. Anything that wasn’t a giant robot.

— — —

August watched the knife falling toward him like it was moving in slow motion. His feet weren’t fast enough to move out of the way, and his hands weren’t fast enough to catch the robotic arm as it swept toward him. All he could do was wait for the pain.

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Instead, the pain came in the form of a dark shape slamming into him from the side, shoving him out of the path of the knife the instant before it struck him. August gasped, the wind knocked out of him, and felt two arms wrap around his torso from behind, then before he could catch his breath, he was airborne. He watched the ground rush away from him, then twisted his head around to see black angel wings and white hair.

“I was right about you being soft and weak,” Bright whispered as he held August in the air. “But you clearly aren’t a coward.” August’s heart was pounding, both from the rush of what had just happened and the effect of hovering thirty feet up with nothing but Bright’s powerful grip keeping him from plunging to the earth. With a flap of his wings, Bright turned them around and landed on top of the house, letting go of August, who immediately collapsed onto the roof.

August took a few deep breaths, trying to stop his body from shaking. “You saved me,” he said, looking up at Bright’s face and waiting to be mocked for stating the obvious.

He could have sworn Bright’s mouth twitched into a smile. “I know,” the winged boy whispered. “Isn’t it awful?” Then he turned around and took flight off the roof, diving toward where Amy’s robot was still thrashing blindly.

“Bright, wait! Don’t leave me on the roof! Bright!” August yelled after him, crawling to the edge of the roof and surveying the chaos below. It looked like Bright was trying to talk to Amy, but she still hadn’t regained visibility and Bright probably couldn’t fly close enough for her to hear his quiet voice without risking being hit by a knife or hammer. Puddle had backed away from the robot’s flailing arms, standing between it and the front door of the house.

I need to get back down there and help, August thought, looking down from the roof. It was only a one-story house, so if he hung off the edge, it wouldn’t be too far of a drop, but he was still barefoot and the impact would not be pleasant. August turned around and gripped the edge of the roof, then slowly lowered one leg. Come on, August, you’re fighting a robot. You can climb down from the roof. He took a deep breath and swung his other leg around to lower his body down. Instead of hanging in midair, though, he felt his bare feet land on something much higher than the ground should have been. Something soft.

“Lavender?” he asked as he looked down to see that he was standing on the back of the giant kitten. Maybe Cecily’s Favor had worked after all.

Lavender mewed at him and August let go of the roof and sat down on the kitten. It seemed completely unaware of the fight happening just a few yards away and was instead looking through the windows of the house. It wandered around the building until it found a window looking into the living room, at which point it sat down to stare through it.

August grabbed handfuls of fur to keep from sliding off the cat’s back in its new upright position. “What are you looking at?” he asked, peering around Lavender’s head to look through the window. He could see Cecily and Glow sitting on the couch talking, and Lavender was staring very intensely at them. “Are you still mad at Cecily for some reason?” August said, but of couse the kitten didn’t answer. Or are you looking at your creator instead? he wondered as Lavender’s gaze followed Glow as the little girl got up and ran in a circle around the room before returning to Cecily’s side.

It was clear the cat wasn’t going to be any help, so August ran back to the front of the house, where the mud had cleared from the grate Amy was using to see. She had regained control of the robot and was barrelling toward the house. Puddle had a hold on one of the knife arms and Bright was sitting on top of the giant box, holding the other knife arm and using his wings to keep balance. August noticed with a sick feeling that both Puddle and Bright appeared to have some cuts on their bodies that weren’t there before. He didn’t have to do this, August thought, looking at a trickle of red on Bright’s arm. Why was he doing this? Was he afraid of what would happen to himself if Glow got hurt, or had he decided to care about someone else for a change?

No time to figure that out. While Puddle and Bright were successfully restraining the knives, the robot still had enough momentum to reach the door, and it still had a free hammer. As August watched Amy start smashing at the door of his home, he felt himself freeze up. He didn’t know what to do–he didn’t even know if there was anything he could do. He could hear his own heartbeat in his head, and breathing became difficult. We need to get out of here, he thought as he watched the door begin to break down. I need to get Silly out of here.

His legs finally started working again and he ran away from Amy, Puddle, and Bright, toward Lavender. “Break it down,” he told the kitten, pointing at the wall. “Please, I need to get my sister out.” Lavender looked at him, then placed both of its front paws on the wall and raked its claws down the bricks, leaving deep gashes. “Keep going,” August urged it, and the kitten continued attacking the wall, gradually loosening the bricks as it tore out the mortar holding them together.

For once, August didn’t care about what anyone else wanted. He didn’t care if the house was destroyed, he didn’t care if the ravioli was finished, he just wanted to get Cecily out safely. They could find another place to live, and whether that was in this world or back on Earth, it didn’t matter, as long as they were safe. As long as they were together.

— — —

Cecily could hear crashing sounds from the front door. “How’s the ravioli coming?” she called to Ravioli Girl, who was quickly stirring a pot of sauce.

“Almost done,” she panted. “It won’t taste as good as it would with more time, but it should still do the trick.”

The horrible scraping sounds coming from the wall were getting louder, too. Cecily could see August’s purple kitten through the window and assumed it was trying to get in. This is why you don’t befriend stray cats, she thought absently. She needed to get out of this world, and more importantly, she needed to get August out of this world, back to Earth where he could be safe and write his books and share his talents with the people who appreciated them, not just Cecily. People like the ones at the university he’d rejected because of her.

A particularly loud crash made Glow jump and cling to Cecily’s arm. “I think it’s time for you to make your escape, kiddo,” Cecily told her, peeling her hand off. “Teleport somewhere else, like Seed’s house. You’ll be safer there.”

“But I don’t want to go,” Cecily said. “I want to be with my dad and you and August. I want to stay with you forever.”

Cecily sucked in a breath. “Oooh, that’s not going to work. You see…” she thought quickly. “Sometimes in life, we have to say goodbye to people. We can’t always stay with them forever.”

“I know,” Glow said with a pout. “I never get to stay with anyone forever, except Da.”

Cecily frowned. For some reason she’d assumed Glow hadn’t noticed or remembered everyone else growing old or leaving her. “Well, that’s true for me and August, too. We’re going to have to go away.”

“I don’t want you to go away,” Glow whimpered, curling into a ball on the couch. “Everyone always goes away, and then I get someone new, and then they go away, too. I don’t like it.”

“I know what you mean,” Cecily said softly, prompting a surprised look from Glow. “Everyone in my life has gone away, too, except August. But you know, missing people is part of life, and it’s a good part because it means you loved them. Sometimes two people that love each other have to be apart for a while, but that doesn’t mean they stop being part of each other’s lives.”

“But it’s better to be together,” Glow said, her face taking a determined look. “That’s what I want.”

Shit. “Well, what if it isn’t what the other person wants?” Cecily asked, hoping Glow would take the hint.

Glow thought for a minute, looking confused. “Why wouldn’t they want it?”

Cecily looked at the ceiling in frustration. She’s just a kid, she’s just a kid. “People have their own lives, Glow. Everyone you know has a life outside of you, and you need to let them live their lives, too. You can be a part of it, but you aren’t the only part of it.” And right now, you are a very difficult part of it.

“I don’t get it,” Glow said.

“That’s because you are what we call ‘selfish.’ You don’t know how to think about other people’s point of view.”

“I’m selfish?” Glow asked, sounding more curious than upset.

“Yep.”

Glow thought for a few seconds, then took Cecily’s hand in both of hers. “Can you teach me how to not be selfish?”

Are you even capable of learning? Cecily wondered. Glow had been five years old for hundreds of years, not growing or changing even as everyone around her did. Even Baby, who didn’t grow physically, had matured emotionally, but Glow hadn’t. Why would anything change now?

Cecily stared at Glow: her neighbor, her captor, her tiny deity. The little girl clasped her hand tighter and looked at her with big purple eyes. “Will you help me?” Glow whispered. Cecily looked at the stack of August’s poetry on the side table, with Glow’s crude drawing of twins resting on top.

Ravioli Girl’s voice rang from the kitchen. “It’s ready!”

“Can I have some?” Glow asked as Ravioli Girl spooned sauce over the pasta in Cecily’s bowl.

“No,” Cecily said bluntly as she dug a fork in and began eating faster than she’d ever eaten before. The hot pasta burned her mouth, but she didn’t care as she chewed an enormous mouthful. She could hear the robot finally break down the door, and she looked down the hall to see the giant metal box try to wheel its way into the house. Something was on top of it that was preventing it from getting inside, but Cecily doubted that delay would last long. She swallowed and stuffed her mouth again, feeling her body revolt at the memory of the last time she’d tried to scarf down a lot of ravioli in a short period of time. The whole humiliating disaster was almost funny in hindsight. Almost.

“As soon as you finish the ravioli, the wish will take effect,” Ravioli Girl told her, sitting down at the kitchen table with her. “So have a clear idea of what you want.” Cecily nodded as she chewed, and Ravioli Girl bit her lip hesitantly. “And if your wish is what I think it will be… well, I just want you to know that I’ll miss you, and I’m really glad I met you.”

Cecily stopped chewing for a moment as she looked into Ravioli Girl’s sincere neon eyes. “I’m glad I met you, too,” she said, her voice sounding absolutely idiotic through the mouthful of pasta. She was surprised by how much she meant the words.

As if to startle her back to reality, or whatever the hell this was, a scraping sound came from behind Cecily and she looked to see a big purple paw thrust itself through the wall, bricks tumbling down from the hole it had just made. It continued clawing until the kitten had enlarged the hole enough to stick its head through, and its big black eyes looked around the inside of the house, narrowing when they landed on Cecily. Cecily could hear a voice talking to it, then the head retreated and August climbed through the hole it had made.

“Silly!” he cried. “Come on, we need to get out now!”

To make his point, Amy finally got her robot into the house and started scraping toward them, tearing up the ceiling and walls as the robot barely fit in the hallway. Another one of its arms had been torn off and there were more dents, but Amy was not giving up.

“Glow!” Puddle’s panicked voice came from behind the robot. “Glow, get out of there, please!”

The house was in ruins and everyone was yelling, but Cecily ignored it all as she put the last forkful of ravioli into her mouth and began to chew. August was across the room, shouting for her to join him, and Glow was standing next to Ravioli Girl, her eyes teary and frightened. The world was insane, it was bizarre, but for this one precious moment, Cecily was powerful, and she could make it right.

Cecily smiled at August, aware that there was a bit of sauce in the corner of her mouth. It didn’t matter: he’d seen her looking a lot worse. “I love you, August,” she said with her mouth full. He looked at her in confusion, then she swallowed.

And then he was gone.