Chapter 30

FISHBOWL… PUNCH!!!

“You can’t be serious,” Stephen said as we both just stood there, staring at the ridiculous sight.

“I know.”

“It happened a second time? That’s just… stupid.”

“I know,” I said, still unbeliving. “But we gotta help her.”

“Should we? I mean, this just feels weird. Maybe this is a sign we should reconsider her help.”

I slapped him and started running. “She’s our partner! Come on!”

I heard him groan behind me but he eventually followed. I cleared the distance and slammed my shoulder into the tree, squatting down beside her for the second day in a row. “We gotta stop meeting like this.”

She was mid scream but stopped when she saw me and almost laughed. “I know, I know, this is ridiculous. I was, I was just minding my own business, trying to find you guys and–” She gestured to the tree. “It was thrown at me, didn’t see it coming at all. Am I cursed?”

Stephen made it and fell in on the other side of her. She looked back at him and smiled. “Thank you both for coming.”

“Darcy, I don’t think we can lift this thing.”

“I told you Stephen, no more negativity. We got this.” I tapped my forehead and gave him a knowing look.

“That won’t be enough. This tree is two or three times bigger than the other one. And we struggled with just two branches from–” I put a finger over his mouth.

“No. More. Negativity. We got this. Come on, help me.”

I got as low as I could and wedged my shoulder against the wood. I got my arm underneath it a tiny bit and pushed up. Yikes. It was way heavier than that other one. My confidence waned, leaking out even further once Stephen started pushing and we barely lifted it at all. Angelia was completely stuck.

I fought my doubts, taking my own advice.

“Okay, dude,” I said through strained teeth, “Let’s get serious.” I hoped he knew what I meant, I couldn’t imagine he wouldn’t catch on. But I waited untl I saw him close his eyes, absolute confirmation.

I closed mine, too. And calmed my breathing. Envisioned what I wanted, repeated it, and put all the will I had into it, none of that slow build up bullshit. I figured we had to give all we had at once and pray it was enough for her to squeeze out.

I felt my mind wrap around the tree, like I’d formed a giant invisible hand to grip around it. And then I pushed up, with body and mind, every ounce of my being willing the tree up.

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And, slowly at first, it started to lift. I almost lost my concentraion with my happiness but I fought it down. There would be time to celebrate later. I kept it up and I could almost feel Stephen’s mind near mine, doing all he could as well.

And, unbelievably we got it up onto our shoulders. Angelia was free. But I kept the lifting going, giving her enough time to crawl out.

I felt her move beside me and get to her feet. “Impressive. I knew you guys could do it. But… let’s give them just a little more…”

She broke my concentraiont and I opened my eyes, just in time to see her lightly tap the tree. When she pulled her hand away the tree shook like mad and then was catapulted into the air. As the tree whized by I felt it leave my mental grasp and my head was jolted painfully up, like I was still attatched to it. A weird as hell sensation, but not as strange as what I’d just seen.

I watched the tree sail off into the distance, where it nailed the monster right in the head. It roared in pain or, at least, surprise.

Stephen reeled around. “We did that! Holy shit!” He rushed forward and hugged me, dancing around in a circle. “We did it!”

I still was bothered by what I saw Angelia do, but Stephen’s joy was infectious and I found myself smiling and hopping around with him.

Stephen let go of me, still grinning like mad. Angelia looked up at us and beamed, “You both saved me, a second time. Thank you.” She gestured around. “Now smile for your audience.”

“Our… audience?” I looked around the clearing, puzzled.

Sure enough, there were people around, watching from the trees and on the far fields surrounding the clearing. Some of them looked uninterested and walked away, Others locked eyes, unmoving. And at least one guy was actually clapping for us.

“What…” I started to ask.

“I’ll explain later! Right now, the show is still on!” She pointed over my shoulder.

The monster had gotten its bearings and figured out where the tree came from. It locked eyes with me and grinned her evil grin. She started for us, the closer she got the ground rumbled with her every footfall.

“Oh, shit.” I ran forward. “She’s obsessed with me, I’ll draw her away and you guys run.”

“No need," Angelia said in a sing-song voice. “We are doomed. But we can put on one final show…”

She darted forward and pressed something onto Stephen’s hand. “Be brave. Meet her blow for blow.”

Stephen looked at his hand, there was some kind of tiny device on it. “Huh? What is this thing?”

The monster made it within attacking range, she jumped forward, knocking us off our feet. She then extended her pointer finger and reached toward us, coming to poke us into oblivion.

Stephen turned and ran but Angelia grabbed him, trying to hold him steady. “Stephen! You need to face the monster! People are watching!”

“What the fuck are you talking about? I can’t do anything against her!”

“Darcy!” She screeched. “Help me!”

I grabbed him by the arm and yanked him back, looking at his hand. “This thing is the secret? That’s how the tree flew?”

She nodded. I went to tear it off of his hand but she stopped me. “No! It has to be him that does it.”

“Does what!?” Stephen yelled.

But I think I got it. I looked between the device on his hand and the giant finger bearing down on us.

“Okay. I got this.” I kept a grip on Stephen’s arm and dragged him toward the finger. “Run with me, Stephen! All you gotta do is hold your hand up!”

He stopped fighting me at least but he still was only coming along because I was dragging him. He didn’t understand anything that was happening. I barely did, had zero clue of the why, but we were here and we were doing this.

I ran us up to meet the monster, Stephen screaming in fright and confusion and me screaming in build up to what I thought and hoped we were about to do. I held Stephen’s hand up and we slammed into the finger, still screaming.