Return to Celio (4 page)

“You had me at ‘keeping the monsters away.’ C’mere, Rufus,” I said sans baby talk.

Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Rufus was up and on me. The next thing I knew, I was flat on my back and literally unable to breathe, courtesy of the high-speed, dog-like bath my mouth and nostrils were getting.

“Awww, look he likes you,” Darrios said.

I struggled to get up and finally, just before I suffocated, I’m sure, Rufus retracted his frogish tongue. He trotted back to Darrios, sat down at his feet, and did the gas thing one more time. I wiped my face with my sleeve. Darrios did allow himself to smirk, but wisely didn’t laugh.

We started walking again, Rufus right on Darrios’ heels, panting like an asthmatic basset hound.

“Is he okay?” I asked, concerned about the way he was breathing.

“Yeah, that’s normal. It’s how they all sound. You’ll get used to it.”

“Fantastic. So, how did you two meet?”

Darrios chuckled. “He saved my life.”

I glanced down at the bizarre, gassy, slobbery, sinus-challenged animal and looked back at Darrios skeptically.

“Really,
he
saved your life. Uh huh. How did he do that? Did he render them unconscious with his tongue bath or pass gas at the bad guys and chase them away?” I asked, just as the damn draggle did it again.

“Remember what I said about the draggles keeping the monsters away?”

I nodded.

“They’re natural enemies. Draggles are on our side. They kill the scabras and viocomen. One day, about four years ago, one of the viocomen had me cornered. I thought I was a goner, for sure. Right before he struck, Rufus here came out of nowhere and chomped down on its leg.”

I glanced over at Rufus, who was now chewing his own foot and grunting.

“Before I could even draw my knife, Rufus had that thing down and was quite effectively ripping out its throat.” He patted Rufus on the head affectionately. “He saved me from that viocomen and we’ve been friends ever since.”

“Wow, he doesn’t seem...”

“Vicious?”

“Yeah, I see him as more of the goofy, drooly, roll-over-and-get-you-to-scratch-his-belly type than a top-notch killing machine.”

“Well, I’m living proof that he is. Seriously, Maggie, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Rufus.”

On that note, Rufus stopped. He perked up his ears, sniffing the air to his left then to his right. He let out what I can only describe as a terrifying, high-pitched howl then a feral growl only worthy of a monster-killer, convincing me we were lucky to have Rufus on our team.

“What is it?” I asked, a bit panicky.

“He smells one of them. We’ll know if he gets it.”

We heard a scuffle nearer to us than I was comfortable with, and then a horrible screeching death-wail. I covered my ears, scrunching my eyes shut as tightly as I could. Darrios pulled me close and I welcomed his embrace. While I hadn’t fallen instantly in love with Rufus, I certainly didn’t want him to be killed or to suffer.

When the screaming stopped, I opened one eye. I dropped my hands, my heart racing.

“That was a viocomen, Maggie,” Darrios said soothingly. “Rufus killed it. He’s okay.”

“Are you sure? How do you know?”

He nodded. “Yes, I’m sure. I’m very familiar with what the viocomen and scabras sound like when they die and honestly, I’m quite happy to be able to say that.”

I exhaled heavily, relaxing my muscles. I hadn’t realized every one of them had been tensed. “Why isn’t he back yet?”

Darrios shrugged. “I doubt he will come back. He’s probably eating his kill right now, and then he’ll go find a shady spot and go to sleep.”

“So now we’re in danger again.”

“Technically, but I told you, Maggie, I won’t let them hurt you.”

I found myself scanning the area, silently willing the monsters to stay away and missing the digestive-distressed draggle.

As we walked, Darrios began talking about normal, mundane things again, I’m sure to try to get my mind off of the potential danger we were in until we reached Inland.

“So you said before you gave up your life. Why did you do that if you didn’t want to?”

“I guess I was being a little dramatic, but it’s kind of a sore spot with me. I loved my job. I worked for a medical billing company and I’d been there since the company started. When I was fifteen they hired me as sort of an errand girl. I worked up through the ranks and a lot of opportunities were beginning to open up for me.”

I couldn’t help but smile, wandering back, for a minute, to my memories of my little office, my window with the view of the river, and my coworkers: Sally, with her exaggerated drawl and her flair for the dramatic; Roy, who always acted like such a hard guy, but who was really nothing more than a big soft teddy bear; and Sue, who was positively the nicest person I’d ever known. God, I missed them.

“Yeah,” I said, “I loved it...but I gave it up. I left my job, my home, my Aunt Gin, and my brother behind. Because that’s what you do when you’re in a relationship with someone. You trust them and you make sacrifices, but Gregg misled me. He said the new job would make our lives perfect and we’d be crazy not to go. He painted a picture that turned out to be very different from what he promised.”

“How so?”

“He works all the time. Early in the morning until late into the night, even weekends, and we never see each other. The town is so small, I’ve yet to find a job, and it gets lonely. We haven’t had a meal together in months, not to mention a conversation that didn't end up in a fight.”

“Why do you stay?”

“I still don’t understand why Gregg wanted me to come with him in the first place. I could have stayed with my aunt or my brother in St. Louis until he got settled and still have been working. And now...”

I trailed off. What was I doing whining about my relationship to a perfect stranger when I should be focusing on staying alive? I glanced around at my barren surroundings, which seemed nothing more than a repeating loop of nothingness.

Darrios turned, regarding me like he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure if he should. “What does he say about it?” he finally asked.

I shrugged and sighed again. “That I’m being ridiculous. That I’m unreasonable to bother him with these silly feelings when I should be more supportive, and that I better get used to it because he has a career now.”

“He sounds like he’s a selfish tool to me,” Darrios said, cutting me off.

“You don’t even know him,” I argued, not wanting to defend him and wondering why I was.

“I know how he sounds. Like he pressured you to give up your job that you loved, moved you to place that you obviously hate and have no ties to anyone except him, and he sure doesn’t seem too concerned...silly feelings? Sounds like the only feelings that matter to him are his. How am I doing so far?”

“I...I...it’s not that simple,” I stammered.

I clamped my mouth shut and bit down on my lip when I heard how lame I sounded.

“The people I know in relationships have a balance of give and take. Based on what you just told me, it sounds like you give and he takes. That’s all I’m saying.”

“He gives!”

Darrios looked right at me. “Really? Give me an example.”

I hated having to itemize things on the fly. I searched my brain and came up blank. “Oh, I know. He took me on this trip...well the trip to Hollywood...which is how I ended up here.”

“Why isn’t he with you, then?”

I recalled the fight we’d had after his assistant, Amanda, showed up
in
our hotel room, surprised to see me, proving just how thoughtless Gregg actually was. I mean, how did he think that was going to play out? Like some scene in a bad porno film? Seriously?

Stupidly, I thought he’d planned the trip for the two of us. You know, to reach out to me and try to fix our crumbling relationship. He went along with my assumption and played me like a fiddle. God, how could I have been so stupid?

I thought about Gregg and tried to feel something besides angry with myself for allowing him to play me like he did, but I couldn’t. Strange. Could I be over him this quickly?

I mean, if my boyfriend of over a year was screwing his assistant, shouldn’t I have been devastated? Shouldn’t I have been outraged and crushed? I wasn’t. What did that say about me? That I moved across the state with a man I didn’t care that much about? Who does that? Maybe I was just in shock over my current precarious situation. Gregg had always seemed so together, so stable. I really thought I’d found the security I’d been looking for with him. Talk about wishful thinking.

“Maggie? Are you still with me?” Darrios asked.

“I’m sorry. Yes, of course. What did you say?”

“I said, yeah, you’re right, he sounds like a real thoughtful guy.”

Darrios turned his back to me and continued walking. This guy was really beginning to piss me off. We walked in silence again. I watched him as we walked. His calculated steps gave his stride purpose. His giant fur draped over his one side, so I was able to see his tanned, muscular arms, which made him seem very “outdoorsy.”

I began to wonder about him. What brought him here? Why did it seem like he wasn’t trying very hard to get home? Was he always so surly? Suddenly, I had so many questions I wanted to ask him and talking gave me a welcome distraction from my surroundings.

“You said you’ve been here a long time. When did you get here? Where did you come from?”

“I had just turned twenty. I fell through a door in New York City. Landed right in the Outer Rim, just like you did.” He chuckled. “If it wasn’t for Bernie...”

“Bernie?”

“He saved me from the moltergs. Funny, I haven’t thought about him for years.”

“Did...something happen to him?”

Darrios shook his head. “No, he’s still around. He was born here. Not too many of us, the residents here, are. Apparently, when you’re a native you can come and go as you please, between your world and this one. He took me all the way to Inland and then he left. He shows up every now and then, like some sort of messenger or fairy godmother or something.”

“There’s a disturbing image.”

“Every so often I’ll hear his name. It seems like he shows up when somebody needs something they don’t have a prayer of ever finding...until he arrives. I’m relieved every time I hear he’s been seen. It means he’s okay and somebody’s happier. It’s been so long...”

“How long? How old are you”

“Time is different here. It goes by more slowly. I think I’m about thirty, maybe thirty-one, I’m not exactly sure.”

“Did you ever try to go back to New York?”

He nodded. “Oh yeah, I looked for the door, any door...but I never found one. Finally, I just gave up. I figured destiny led me here. I became sort of a...guardian of the lost, if you will. I started hunting and killing moltergs in the Outer Rim...channeled my anger.” He grinned mischievously. “And I’m very good at it. I guess, maybe...it’s my calling.”

“Well,
I’m
not going to stop looking for a door. I
will
find a way back,” I insisted. “There has to be a way.”

Darrios sort of half-smiled, edging on a smirk. “So tell me, Maggie, what do you have back home that you’re in such a big hurry to get back to, besides the selfish boyfriend?”

“My brother, for one thing, and my aunt. My parents died when my brother and I were kids. We lived with our grandmother, but Aunt Gin was really the one who raised us. My grandmother died four years ago and now it’s just Brendan, Aunt Gin, and me. The three of us? We’ve always been really close.”

“I’ve often wondered what it would be like to have a family.”

I smiled at the thought of my brother and my aunt.

“When Gregg announced we were moving, Brendan wasn’t happy about it, but he kept it to himself. Not Aunt Gin. She threw a fit. Before I knew it, she had rented a house right down the street from us.” I chuckled to myself, remembering Gregg’s reaction when he realized Aunt Gin was our neighbor. “Gregg flipped out. He got so mad, he actually accused her of doing it on purpose just to torture him.”

“Why would he say that? I’m sure she moved to be nearer to you.”

I chuckled again. “True, but tormenting Gregg was sort of a hobby of hers. She thought he was a pompous ass. At least that’s what she told him.”

“I like your aunt already.”

“She moved in and made friends right away. Small town living suits her much better than it did me. I think she even likes the name of the town.”

“Which is?”

I sighed and dropped my chin to my chest. “Peanut Falls.”

Darrios burst out laughing just as I knew he would.

“I’m sorry, Maggie, but that is too perfect, especially with everything else you’ve said.”

I ignored him and continued. “Yeah, well I’m not going to be there long. I never would have gone if it wasn’t for Gregg...”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about
Gregg
.”

Darrios said his name like it left a bad taste in his mouth.

I swallowed hard. I did not want to discuss him with Darrios. For one thing, I was so angry with Gregg, I didn’t like being put in a position where I had to defend him, especially when all I wanted to do was strangle him.

“So, besides being a selfish tool, what’s this guy like?”

“He’s a pharmaceutical salesman. He’s tall, not as tall as you, but still tall. He grew up in St. Louis, but then he got this job offer...”

Darrios stopped walking and stared at me.

“What?” I asked, a bit put out.

“Can you hear yourself? I asked you to tell me about your boyfriend and you gave me his job description and his relative height.”

I glared at Darrios, becoming increasingly annoyed by his criticism.

“Normally, I’d say things must not be too serious, but you moved across the state with this guy. I’m a little confused,” he said in a rather condescending tone, I thought.

“Well, you don’t need to concern yourself with it,” I snapped.

“Don’t worry, I’m not. Just making conversation to try to pass the time.”

He turned abruptly and began walking again. From over his shoulder, he asked, “How would Gregg describe you?”