Briar Blackwood's Grimmest of Fairytales (3 page)

Chapter 3

Some days simply bite
.

When you're dead, it's different. You don't have to worry any more about Lucky Ones, missed chances, love never realized. Pain seems far
,
far away now. Distant: like some small desert island I can just make out on the horizon. It's funny, ‘cause I expected angels or white light or some happy shit like that when I died. But it's really just a whole lot of nothing
.

Well, that, and a bunch of re-runs of those last days that play themselves out over and over again. I see it now. And it all makes perfect sense
.

I should have stepped up and finally put Megan and Marnie in their place. I should have told Leon how I felt about him that day at the auditions. I should have done a lot of things
.

“One door, one use.” It still rings in my ears
.

One life, one use
.

Boo-friggin'-hoo, right?

Briar stomped home along the most obscure side streets she could find with such fury that she thought she might crack the sidewalk. Striding down rows of tidy vintage houses and predictably manicured lawns, she buried her face, wet now with tears and black mascara streaks, beneath the covering of her hood. She had the volume from her player turned up so loudly that passing cars probably heard it.

My diary. O.M.G. Those deranged pom-pom packers actually handed over my private thoughts for Leon and his buddies to peruse over post-football burgers and fries
. Briar cooled off briefly, remembering that he said he hadn't actually read the diary. Whether or not he didn't was not the point any longer. She had lived under the regime of Megan, Marnie and Matilda, their mother, for ten tongue-chomping years.

It's not like her social worker was any help either. It wasn't exactly her fault. She was busy keeping a roof over Briar's head and wasn't too interested in rocking whatever boat she could find.

Ugh. Briar hated Megan, hated Marnie, hated Leon, and most of all hated herself.

She got several blocks away from the campus before Leon drove up alongside her in his tricked-out vintage American muscle car.

He shouted out the passenger window, the car trailing her at her own pace, its twin tailpipes rumbling. “Hey, where are you going?”

Briar wiped her eyes with her sleeves and flared a nose-ringed nostril. “Nice car. Does it come with alimony payments and a beer gut?” She sped up and Leon followed her.

He pulled up alongside again and said, “Your friend said you dropped this.” He held out her skeleton key necklace.

“Gee, thanks,” she said.

“Look,” Leon shouted. “Would you just stop for a second?”

“Why should I stop?” Briar said. She couldn't even look at him.

“You know what? Everyone back there sucked. I get it. But don't let them ruin what you did today. You were really—I don't know—special at that audition. I didn't know you could light up like that. I was totally blown away.”

Briar stopped and faced him. “So what? Now you suddenly want to get to know me?” she asked.

“Yeah, why not?”

“Oh please,” Briar said. “Like I haven't seen a thousand tacky teen movies where the hot jock was dared by his buddies to talk to the sad, freaky girl.”

“It's not like that, really. Wait. Hot? Did you say I'm hot?”

“What is it like then, Leon?” she asked. She stepped close to the car now and leaned into the window.

Leon sat dumbfounded, his eyebrows raised.

After an awkward silence, Briar continued, “Yeah, well thanks for bringing the necklace,” she said. Her words sounded like someone who had won a battle. But somehow she knew that she had lost one too.

Briar reached in and snapped the necklace away from Leon. “Sorry you wasted your time,” she said and turned away.

Seemingly from nowhere, two looming shadows swooshed behind Briar's back. From the corners of her eyes, they looked like two enormous wolves. Impossible. But they were too swift for her to see for sure.

When she turned all the way around, all she saw were tightly manicured bushes rustling in front of the nearby suburban-blah house. Briar felt the now familiar sensation of heat rushing up from her stomach. Her heart fluttered. She worried she might barf again.

She quickly turned to Leon. He grinned at her with a look she had never seen on a boy's face before. She would have found that comforting under normal circumstances. But right now she wondered if she would hear growling if Leon turned off his chugging, souped-up engine.

“Did you just…? Didn't you see…?” Briar asked. She pointed to the bushes but hesitated.

Leon continued to grin. “Didn't I see what?”

Briar turned back toward the bushes and watched as two enormous, drooling wolves crept out on all fours into plain view. She had never seen creatures like this before. They seemed to be almost the size of humans. They bared their teeth, tucked back their ears, and hunched forward. The gray-brown fur on their backs raised with tense excitement.

Briar's eyes widened, and she wrenched the door handle several times trying to open it in a panic, but it wouldn't open. “Let me in!” she said. She peered over her shoulder with wild eyes.

“Let you in?” Leon cupped his hands to make a fake megaphone. “Paging Dr. Jekyll.”

“Yeah. Cute. Let me in. I forgive you,” Briar said. The wolves were tracking her every move with their narrowed eyes, and they snarled.

“You forgive me? For what?” Leon asked.

“I don't know. I don't care. Just let me in, hurry!” She wrenched the door handle again, and it broke off in her grip. She held it up and Leon looked with wide eyes.

“How did you—? Never mind,” he said. He opened the door. Briar ducked in, slammed the door behind her, and rolled up the window. The two wolves loped forward at full speed and flanked the car.

“What's going on?” Leon asked. He craned his neck trying to look at whatever it was Briar seemed to be watching with dread.

“Are you telling me you don't you see them?”

“See what?”

Briar sank into the seat below window level. Why didn't Leon see what was so obvious and so dangerous? It didn't matter. All she knew was that she needed to get them away from there, and quickly.

“Nothing. I made a mistake,” she said, and bit her lip.

She popped her head up just in time to see one of the wolves scrambling up on top of the car. Her heart thumped into her throat.

“Leon, please do as I say and drive away really fast.”

“Okay—any special reason?”

“You obviously have this car for a reason. Let's see it peel out.” Briar tried to sound calm, but she was dizzy with fear.

With a look of confusion, Leon shrugged. He pressed his foot solidly on the accelerator and screeched away from the curb. Briar sat up and looked out the back window. The wolf on top of the car slid down and tumbled to the asphalt. It rolled back up, but this time it stood erect on its crooked hind legs and extended
its clawed front legs.
What the hell is that?
It loped along awkwardly like a…Briar dared not think it. It was impossible. But if she were ever to describe it, it seemed like it was a werewolf.

“Can you go any faster?”

Leon laughed. “Faster? Do you want me to get a ticket?”

She looked out the back window and the creature was sprinting, clawing at the air, its eyes ferocious and crazed. It had reached the back bumper and crunched its jaws down into it.

“Never mind,” she said. Impulsively, she lifted her leg over Leon's.

“Wow. Okay. You're a fast worker,” he laughed.

Briar rolled her eyes. “Flatter yourself much?” she asked. Then she slammed her foot on the brakes. The car squealed with a cloud smoke and the burn of rubber billowing out from behind. The wolf rolled away, but righted itself, nothing but madness and hunger in its eyes. It lunged at full speed.

Between Briar and Leon together controlling the vehicle, the car fishtailed and spun wildly in a half circle. It came to stop, directly facing the wolf. In its wild chase, the creature did not account for the stalling of the car, and it slammed into the front of it, flipped over the hood and landed in the street. The animal twitched and convulsed for a moment and then dissolved into a thick cloud of black smoke. It trailed along the surface of the street like a low London haze until it eventually found its way to a gutter, and then it slipped down into it with the other street filth.

Briar blinked and stared, eyes wide with disbelief, feeling a deep throb in her throat and stomach. She flipped back in her seat to face the front. She pressed against the dashboard and looked in all directions through the windshield, searching for the second wolf. But the neighborhoods looked empty of any movement whatsoever.

“Damn girl. You're a wild one,” Leon said, letting out a
whoop.

Just then, Briar saw the second wolf stand up on Leon's side of the car. It held its long jagged front claws out to strike, its amber eyes seemed to glow, and it juddered with a deep, dangerous sound.

Briar screamed. She slammed her foot on top of his once more and punched the accelerator to the floor with all her might.

“What the—?” Leon shouted, throwing his head back laughing hysterically.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Briar muttered over and over.

The wolf ran alongside the speeding car and began biting at Leon's door handle.

Briar stomped on the brakes again and the two of them lurched into the dashboard. The wolf tumbled for a moment, but then stood up. Unexpectedly, the car engine sputtered, and conked out.

“Jeez, not again,” Leon said. He shoved his door open and stepped out of the car.

“Leon no! What are you doing?” Briar shouted.

“Relax. This happens all the time. I'll be right back.”

“Are you crazy? Get back in here!” But he heard nothing, as the car door slammed shut.

Briar watched Leon stride up to the hood and pop it open. The wolf loped up from behind, grew to a stand on its back legs, and towered over him with its carnivorous mouth wide open.

A silver comet, the size of a baseball flew up from the south, with a trail of glittering dust. It swooshed over the car, and slammed into the creature's chest. A second later, it emerged from the animal's back. The wolf arched backward and cried in livid agony. It writhed and strained as it crumbled to the pavement.

Briar slid across the front seats, and spilled out onto the street. The animal lay close enough by that she could see the red of its gums, and its long sharp teeth, protruding through its foaming saliva. The monster convulsed and scraped at the ground with its
eyes rolled back.

“You are hilarious!” Leon laughed. He came around to Briar and helped her to her feet. But she was still in shock and unable to stand independently. She wobbled, and slumped. Leon caught her quickly and ushered her to the passenger seat with his arm caught around her waist. “I've never met a girl who liked these kind of stunts. Awesome!”

“No. Leon. You don't understand,” Briar said feebly. She was going in and out of a hazy awareness, and wasn't sure if she was actually saying anything, or if what she wanted to say was still in her head. Leon slammed the passenger door and strode past the creature, which seemed to be regaining its bearings. Briar gasped and clutched the dashboard. “Hurry, get in here,” she shouted.

Leon slid into his seat and closed the door. “Take it easy.” He laughed with his nose crinkled. “What are you so riled up about? Wait. Is this more of your acting?”

Briar's eyes were glued to the wolf that stood again, its ears tucked and its muzzle curled into the most repulsive snarl, seeming more determined than ever to destroy.

She reached over and twisted the key in the ignition. The engine just chugged once and then ticked like a metronome. The wolf caught its claws into the top of Leon's window and started to drag it down. Leon looked amazed by the window that seemed to be opening by itself. “How are you doing that?” He laughed.

“Oh no. This is it!” Briar shouted.

Another silver comet from the same unseen source sailed up to the car like a firework shot from a cannon, striking it from behind and causing it to lurch. The engine turned over and purred. Briar clomped her foot down on the gas pedal again and the car sped away. The wolf bayed angrily and charged down the street behind them. Briar turned around in time to see a third comet strike the wolf in the middle of its back. It arched and then
fell to the asphalt. Then it too dissolved into a cloud of black smoke that dissipated every which way into the shadows of the neighborhood—beneath trees and under cars. It fled wherever it could find a scrap of darkness.

Briar looked in every direction, trying to understand whatever it was that happened. She felt numb and detached.

“You are a lot of fun. I never knew that about you,” Leon said.

“Yeah,” Briar said, looking around for any more creatures. “Fun.” But nothing came after that.

“How did you do all of those stunts?” he asked.

“I—really don't know,” Briar said. She had never acted before with such speed and conviction. “Can you just take me home now?”

Chapter 4

Leon rumbled up to the Saulks, Briar's foster home, with its yellowing, antiqued details. It was truly a paint-chipped disaster with its shutters hanging at a tilt on broken hinges and cracked flowerpots on the door stoop full of ruined stems. Still it had remnants of grand old architecture with its cornices and a spire atop a conical central roof that spiked high into the cloudy sky.

The neighborhood was filled with other turn-of-the-century homes featuring dirt-and-weed lawns, strewn with abandoned shopping carts, jammed between rusty cars on broken weedy curbs. It all stood in stark contrast to the neat rows of scrubbed and clipped prefabs that Leon noticed just across the cement wash.

“Nice…uh…” Leon mumbled. But he stopped himself and tried to change the subject. He gazed up at the low hanging thunderheads. “Looks like a storm coming.”

She didn't hear him at all. She stared out the passenger window replaying the danger that Leon couldn't seem to see. It sent her into a spiral of self-doubt. She touched her legs to test if she was dreaming. It wasn't enough, so she grasped Leon's hand, and felt its strength and the soft hair at his wrist.

Leon responded by smiling his crooked, handsome smile. That snapped Briar back to the moment, to the front seat of the rumbly car, to the dreamy guy in her reach. And, as if suddenly realizing everything, Briar inhaled sharply, but could find nothing to say. She had imagined this very moment so many times before, but it was never under such bizarre circumstances. What do you say after being chased by werewolves?

“So, I'd really like to see you again. That is, if it's okay with you,” he said. He gave Briar a glance that she read as “smoldering.” But since she thought she recently saw werewolves, she wasn't sure what she could trust.

“Huh?” she asked. There was no question that she wanted to see him. But she flashed back to the wolves, their fierce amber eyes and snapping jaws, the danger that they just faced—or the delusion she just dreamed up. Either way it caused Briar to turn away in a dark withdrawal, surveying the area for more of
them
.

“I don't know,” she said. She turned to look out the window at her house, glancing up at Megan and Marnie's second story bedroom windows. This was all a bad idea, she realized. Spending even a few moments in Leon's car parked in front of their house, maybe even seeing him again, it had trouble written all over it. “I kind of thought you were into Megan. I mean, she's so pretty.” Briar could feel herself biting on her last words.

Leon laughed. “Of course I'm into Megan. I mean, who wouldn't be, right?”

Briar turned back to face him, but her stomach lurched and she felt her eyes begin to well up at his confession. The strange adventure they just shared made her feel as though they had somehow connected. But just like the werewolves, it seemed that there was nothing really there. She should have known that anything she imagined to be between them was little more than a moment of pity for the weird girl and a sympathy ride home.

“Oh—oh. Right,” Briar said. She looked down at the floor mats. “Of course. I'm so stupid.” Briar felt a flush of heat in her face. “You're into Megan,” she said. Then, for the first time, she effortlessly smiled at Leon. “Well, thanks for the ride home.” She opened the door and swung her boots out.

“Hey, I didn't know if you knew it, but I auditioned for the play too,” he said. He smiled. And in spite of herself, Briar smiled back. “Anyway,” he said, “I was thinking that if we both get cast, we could hang out and practice our lines together.”

Briar nodded as casually as she could but felt as though a fifty-pound weight had landed on her. She was such an idiot. Of course he was into Megan. Of course he was into featherheaded Lucky Girls. Of course Briar never had a chance with a boy like
Leon, except in her fevered imagination. “Yeah, sure. That sounds cool,” she lied.

Briar ducked out of the car, fitted on her old deadpan like armor, and forced indifference. She stood holding the car door open, silently facing the Saulks' home. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the upstairs curtain in Megan's room stirred and a shadow moved away from the window. Her heart skipped a beat and her breathing halted. She wasn't sure it would ever return.
Freak on a stick! Did one of them see me?

“Check you later,” Leon said.

She turned to face him with a feeling of such heaviness that she wouldn't have been able to explain it. She wanted him to stay, even if that meant the werewolves would come back.
Especially
if they came back. She knew that once she closed that car door, he wouldn't be there anymore. She knew that it was all polite and mannered, but he didn't really mean what he was saying. He wouldn't see her again. It was over. Briar felt it. And then she closed the door.

As he drove away, she hoped this would all be forgotten. She would have to lay low for a while, try to blend in at school, get lost among the shuffle so that she would never have to come face to face with him again.
Okay, well, maybe that's a little melodramatic
, Briar admitted. But the whole episode was better put behind her. She walked up to the front door, planning her next move: sneaking into the house without being noticed.

Very carefully Briar opened the front door, taking care not to open it so far that it would hit the familiar squeaky spots. She took off her boots and padded down the hall to the second door. The Saulks had fixed up a bed, a table, and a small dresser for Briar in their basement so that they could keep all of their discarded belongings in one spot.

Briar never said a word about anything—and neither did her over-worked social worker, Mrs. Poplar. Bouncing from one home to another took an emotional toll, and Briar decided that
she'd trade the risks for quasi-stability, even if it came at a cost. She knew better than to invite trouble, although, in truth, her very existence in this house—including living among the basement of forgotten things—was always a hair's width away from trouble.

So what were Briar's options except to learn how to live with the damp, the cold, the spiders, and the rats? She learned how to keep her mouth shut, move quietly in the dark, come up only when no one was there, and live as invisibly as she could.

It was always strange to Briar that existing in this way didn't seem to bother her as much as she thought it might. The perpetual basement darkness, the musty odor, the silence, the soft rustling of rodents all became a source of solace and familiarity. At least she was away from the Saulks, and that's all that really mattered.

Briar eased onto her mattress and listened carefully for footsteps. Even when the Saulks tried to sneak up on her, to entangle her in one of their paranoid schemes, the basement steps, warped and rotting, complained as soon as someone stepped foot on them. So they made a nice early warning device.

Briar also developed a series of moves that made coming and going from her basement world possible. Holding the drippy wall moldings, stepping on the far left or right of each stair, and finally swinging off an exposed pipe to miss the last several steps altogether, she was as silent as a midnight ghost.

She listened, holding her breath for a moment. Once she was certain that no one was coming, she fished around for a cell phone she hid between some of the exposed wall insolation near the head of her bed. There was simply no way she'd be able to make it through the night without sharing with Dax what had happened. Although Briar was outnumbered in this house, she still had Mrs. Poplar watching out for her the best she could without jeopardizing the situation. She was the one who bought Briar the cell phone some time ago, providing that she keep it
hidden from Megan, Marnie, and Matilda. And Briar fiercely protected the secret, as it was one of her few lifelines to sanity.

Briar dialed and almost immediately she heard the muffled sound of a ring tone from under her bed. She lifted the ragged brown-stained coverlet that hung past the bed frame. There below, amid the crowd of dirty socks and jumbled books, was Dax smiling his goofy I-know-you've-got-a-secret-so-spill-it grin.

“Hey…sorry to scare you like that,” Dax said. He squirmed from beneath the bed, and wiped dust clumps off his clingy khakis. “Hoo boy, you really need to sweep under there. One of those dust bunnies had babies right in front of me.”

“Dax, what are you doing?”

“What?! Are you kidding me? You hitch a ride with Leon Squire and you think you're not giving me details?” He sauntered over to the chair just below the high window that opened out to the scrubby bushes and crumbled, winter-fallen leaves. He climbed on top and then shut it. “By the way, did you know that most robberies are due to windows being left open and unattended?”

“Nice—” Briar said.

“Hey, what were my choices? Get smothered by Megan and Marnie's pom-poms? Have their little Christ-Brigade burn me at the stake? No thanks.”

Briar was only half listening—really bursting inside about the wolves. She had to say something, but wasn't sure how to broach the subject without looking like the cheese in her taco had finally slipped.

Dax flopped backward onto Briar's squeaky mattress. “By the way—do you realize that they called you back for the part of the fairy queen? That's one of the leads! You're gonna have some hallway cred now—well, until they see you in wings and body glitter. Then all bets are off.”

“Dax, listen,” Briar said. “On the way home, I saw something
I can't explain, but I don't want you to think that I've totally come unhinged.”

“Oh you poor little mixed up thing,” Dax said. He stroked Briar's raven hair. “It's called a penis.”

“No! Stop it. I'm being serious.” Briar pulled away and sat up. “I'm not talking about Leon, fool. But what I'm about to tell you—you have to swear that you'll just listen and won't jump to conclusions.”

“Okay, I swear.” Dax held up a hand as though on a witness stand.

“Because the temptation to judge will be there—”

Dax sat up. “I am trying so hard not to submerge your head in a toilet right now. Just spit it out.”

“I saw wolves,” Briar said.

“Okay…” Dax raised one eyebrow. “Is that what you kids are calling it now?”

“No, Dax, you don't understand,” Briar said. She started pacing back and forth at the foot of the bed. “I saw wolves—or something like wolves. They walked on their hind legs, like humans and they tried to attack us in Leon's car.”

Dax had a ridiculous smile on his face. “And what did Leon think…of the wolves?” He burst into laughter and got up from the bed. “What a load of bull crap!” He jumped up and continued to the window. “You will do anything to avoid telling me what happened between you two. Fine. Keep your tawdry tales of vehicular seduction to yourself.”

Then he checked his cell phone. “Oh, my parents are gonna kill me. I was supposed to be home hours ago.” He hopped up onto the chair stationed below the window. He opened it up, clambered outside and then stuck his head back in. “Oh my God, there's wolves out here.” He shook the bushes. “Down boy! Briar, I need a dog-biscuit, stat!”

“Yeah, you got me!” Briar laughed feebly. But it felt like her lungs collapsed. Dax was the only person she could trust, and
even he couldn't believe her.

“See you tomorrow,” he said. Then he scraped by the low, dry branches. “And next time, bring a chew toy for your friends.”

“Yeah, see you,” Briar said.