Mort

I knew I couldn't actually cry, but when Selena and the squad had to go, I could’ve sworn I felt heat prickling around my eyes. It was probably just a trick of my mind. My mind knew what I should be feeling, even though this little terra-cotta gnome body didn’t.

I wanted Selena and the girls to stay. If they stayed, we could become a bigger group. We had plenty of other houses along the street for them to choose from. Heck, maybe Selena could get through to the Jesse-minions and get them out of the funk they were in.

That reminded me–I needed to check on them. Something told me that they still were not home yet, though. But I had to hope that they would be there. And that they hadn’t given up hope, or, decided to walk off into the great unknown, or some shit like that.

Selena gave us all big hugs, and each one of us a huge bag of assorted chocolate bars. She really did have an endless supply them.

Ellie was the last to get a hug, and she didn’t let go for a while.

“Don’t worry, little girl,” Selena said. “I’ll be back again someday. Just like Frosty the fucking Snowman.”

I could tell that Ellie was crying. Even though her eyes were downcast, I could tell. Probably anyone that knew her could tell she was gonna cry.

We ended up escorting the group out of town. We just couldn’t let them go. I know I wanted to make this last as long as we could. Selena had been a big part of our past, and it was hard to let her go.

“So where are you guys going next?” Wood asked as we came to the edge of town. “To find this goblin queen?”

“I’ve revieved reports since we’ve been here,” Selena said, staring off into the waning light before sunset. “That she’s gone all the way to Zelienople.”

Teddy asked, “Reports?”

“Yeah,” Selena said, bringing her attention back to us. She really wanted to get back to her goblin queen hunting. “Through the text page.”

“What text page?” I asked before Teddy could say it.

Selena got this oh look on her face. “Well, there’s a text icon on the stats page interface.”

I saw Teddy's eyes turn white for a few seconds as he searched his stats box interphase. “There isn’t anything like that in our stats boxes,” he said.

Selena blinked. “Well, things are different for each group, I guess. But let’s try this–open up your stats box, Ellie.”

I saw Ellie’s eyes turn white. Then Selena reached out and took a hold of her arm, her hand clamping around Ellie’s wrist.

“OK. Tell me if you see anything change.” Selena’s eyes turned white and flickered for a moment or two.

Ellie nodded her head, a smile on her face. “There it is. Text.” Her eyes turned white and flickered, too. Then her eye turned back to normal , and she rolled at Selena.

“Yes, Selena, this color really is my real hair color.”

I heard a smattering of laughter, and then Selena turned around and did the same thing to the rest of us. She ended up doing me last. I opened up the newly formed text page, and found a message from Selena.

I mentally clicked on the message, like I would any other icon in my stats box.

And then I blinked.

What the hell is…

There was a message, but it was in all these weird squiggly characters. Was it Chinese? Some kind of weird ancient language?

And then the characters started to sizzle, turning red, and then sluddenly they were… not English, but I could read them.

There you are.

I felt a full body chill.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I blinked again, and the message changed. Suddenly, it was English, Selena saying, “Everything is gonna be fine.”

I shook off whatever the hell that first message was and looked at Selena. “This is no time to start quoting Doctor Who.”

“It’s always a good time to quote Doctor Who. He’s eternally quotable.” I saw on her face a little twinge of worry. How long had I stared at the message before I’d been able to read her message?

Selena leaned down and took me into her arms, giving me a hug, just like had with everyone else. A few more goodbyes, and Selena and her squad walked the rest of the way out of town, disappearing down the Mars-Evans City Road leading to Zelienople.

We stood there, watching as they slowly disappeared.

Nobody said anything. Once they were gone, we just turned around and headed back toward the pizzeria. It abruptly felt very lonely here in Mars, Pennsylvania. Even with my friends here with me. Selena had been such a big part of our lives. Not having her here felt wrong.

Everything about this world felt wrong now. I tried to shake that thought, those thoughts out of my head. I really didn’t like them. My eyes were pricking with heat again. It made no sense. No sense at all.

I could not cry.

As we passed by the library, Teddy said, “Do you remember when Selena petitioned the library to get more fashion magazines?”

Oz smiled, and nodded. “They denied her request, so she went door-to-door to get signatures from over 500 women, to get the library to change its mind.”

“Or likely, Mrs. Brown to change her mind.” Teddy said.

“Selena had like 100 men’s signatures on that petition, too,”said Ellie.

“Mrs. Brown changed her mind. Started ordering five monthly magazines.” Teddy was smiling. “Before that there were only two. Harper’s Bizarre, and Red Book.”

We turned silent again as we walked further towards the pizzeria. But then we came across Cheney’s Delicatessen. Or, what was left of it. The plate glass window that had Cheney's Delicatessen stenciled across it didn't have a scratch. There was no front door to the place anymore, and there wasn't any roof, either. Just the four walls, and that perfectly intact window.

“Who remembers Travis D getting chased out of Cheney's for stealing… back when we were in seventh grade?”

Everyone Held up their hand.

Back in seventh grade, we all would go to Cheney’s to grab pop and possibly some candy on our way home. Travis was trying to steal some snickers. Old Mr. Cheney had chased him out of his store with a broom, of all things. By the time he was in high school, you couldn’t have chased him out of anywhere with a baseball bat. But when we were in high school, none of the Travai ever tried to mess with Mr. Cheney.

There was a long silence before Ellie said, “I saw Mr. Cheney, give Travis a sandwich, a water and a bag of chips.”

I turned and looked at her as we walked. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. More than once. Mr. Chaney was a super nice man. He figured out Travis was just poor and hungry.”

That almost made me stop walking. The thought of feeling bad for one of the Travai was just… mind blowing.

We walked more, and were just about to turn onto Longfellow Road, where the pizzeria was.

“Remember when Selena dressed up as Lady Gaga for Halloween that one year?” I asked.

“And then she posed for that picture where she was riding the UFO?” Wood added.

We all started laughing. Who wouldn’t remember that? She dressed up just like Lady Gaga circa her Super Bowl performance. Very space aged, with huge shoulder pads. We expected her to strip off that part and soundly have the second outfit she had on, the football uniform thing. But she hadn’t. But the version she had on fit the moment perfectly when she climbed up on the spaceship in the middle of the street, and everyone started taking pictures of her.

She made it on the front page of the Mars Sentinel.

Our small town newspaper had gone 100% digital a year later.

When we were back at the pizzeria, everyone went to bed. Night had fallen, and we were all pretty tired.

I was tired, too.

But sleep didn’t come. Before I knew it, my fellow lost boys were all milling around the inside of the pizzeria, looking for something to do. No one talked. I guess we were all talked out.

Way later, everyone did finally go back to bed.

Except for me. I lay there in my doggy bed, and tried to meditate. I thought if I tried hard enough to meditate I would fall asleep. Maybe have a nice dream. But nothing happened. I just stared at the ceiling, pretending I was breathing.

In the morning, Teddy got up first, pulled the boards off the door and had jogged outside. I felt really sleepy as I tried to extricate myself from the doggy bed.

I Stretched, and then I went outside and started my usual patrol of the neighborhood. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. No new monsters, threats, large or small. If anything, it seemed the sun was shining through the overcast sky just a little bit brighter than usual.

Maybe it was the extra sun that propelled me to walk a little bit further. Who knows what it was. But as I was turning the corner to head on over to the Fifth Street playground when I heard a strange, almost pur-like sound. As I turned the corner, I noticed the giant red maple that had turned into a killing machine a few weeks back was no longer there. Just a big hole where through systems used to be. That was strange.

Then I saw Teddy sitting in one of the swings. There was something in front of him, but I couldn’t make out what it was. But the sound was getting louder and louder as I walked closer.

I entered through the square entrance in the fence, and started to walk over to where Teddy sat. The sound almost sounded like…

A clucking of a chicken?

I started to walk to the left where Teddy was sitting. And then I saw what was in front of him.

He was petting Clyde, the electro chicken.

“What the fuck?” I said.

The chicken’s head swiveled in my direction, and he gave off an angry cackle. Clyde's glowing eyes sighted on me.

Bu-bu-BUCK-AK!

A bolt of lightning shot right out its mouth, and right at me.