“Sorry little guy, all I could find was a chair. I think the rest might be boxed up in the storage shed. I don’t have a key.”
“No worries, Sir Giant. Don’t trouble yourself on my account.”
“What if he comes back?”
“It’s fine. He’s got two slugs in him.” Lee blew the dust off the cookie. “Hmm… a little stale.”
“Yeah… but… what if…”
“Ryan, seriously. Why would he come back? Nobody’s here.”
“We’re here!”
“He was just after Ivan. You’re being paranoid.”
“But…we saw his face!”
“Ah, shoot. Micah’s gonna be pissed.” Lee flipped through the pages. “I’ll try and dry it out.”
“What if he comes back and stakes us through the heart?”
“Jillian shot him. Ivan and Foster probably finished him off. We should take this to the hospital for Micah. Do you know where Jillian took him? We ought to pack a bag for him, too.”
“Did you see the hole in his chest? Air was gurgling out of it.”
“Yes, I saw, okay? Will you please call Jillian?”
“He could hardly breathe. Jillian was freaking out. Marines don’t freak out unless it’s super hard core!”
“She was just a little nervous,” Lee said. “She was handling it fine.”
“No… I think he wasn’t gonna make it but Foster did that thing with Ivan’s vampire blood. What if Micah turns into a vampire?”
“He won’t. We’ll go see him in the hospital. It’ll be fine.”
“WHAT IF HE COMES BACK?”
“Call your friends and see if they’ll let us go over to their place for the night.”
“Jim. Yeah. I’ll call Jim. We can crash at his place.” Ryan dialed Jim’s number and put the phone on speaker while it rang.
“But… what do we do about this guy?”
“Don’t worry about me at all,” Kip said. “I’ll stay here and wait for Ina.” The last thing he wanted was to get involved with the affairs of giants.
“Hide under the couch if a crazed runt comes back to kill us all,” Ryan said.
“We can’t leave him here alone,” Lee said. “Especially not with the door busted open. Let’s take him with us.”
Kip said, “I’d really rather stay here in case Ina returns.”
“We’re witnesses to attempted homicide. He’ll come back and kill us so we can’t testify.”
“Ryan? Hello? Hello?” Jim said over the phone. “Did… did you say homicide? Ryan?”
“Will you stop it, Ryan? Seriously.”
“He’s going to wait until it’s late… and we’re asleep…” Ryan’s eyes welled up. “Did you see all that blood? It was everywhere… gargling out of his chest like… oh my God, he was definitely going to die.”
“Is someone dead? HELLO!?” Jim's voice got louder.
“I don’t wanna die like that…”
“DIE? What? Hello? Hello?” Jim bellowed into the phone, “I’m coming over!”
Seven minutes and forty five seconds later….
At Lee’s request, Kip hid in the bedroom
“What’s going on? Is someone hurt? Were you robbed? The door’s busted all to hell.”
“Micah’s in the hospital,” Ryan wailed.
“Are you okay? Do you guys need a ride to the hospital?”
“He’s going to come back and finish us off,” Ryan said.
“What’s with the little book burning?” Patrick asked. He pointed out the empty pan of brownies and Jim nodded, thinking he understood the situation a little more clearly but Lee unloaded the partial story, leaving out the supernatural elements.
“Pack your bags, guys. It’s not smart to stay here until you know for sure the guy’s caught.”
“We’re waiting for Ina,” Lee said. “We’ll have to tell her about Micah.” Kip was waiting for Ina so that sufficed as a half-truth.
“Well, I guess… we’ll wait with you.” He nodded to Patrick who clapped his hands together, forcing a cheerful smile.
“Who’s hungry? Let’s go get some food,” Patrick said. “Lee, how about you come with me? Ryan will be fine with Jim here. Besides, you’ll have to help me carry everything. How’s pizza sound? Or Chinese? Maybe both, huh?”
“Sure,” Lee said. “Whatever.”
“Is Ryan okay?” Patrick whispered. “He’s not back on the green stuff is he?”
Lee rolled his eyes. “Back on? He was never off.”
“I see. Well… let’s go.”
“Giant fleshies… whatta-me-gonna-do? Gate… gate… need a gate out of here!”
TBC
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