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“A Muse? Who is it?” Jeff yelled but was talking to Merrick. “It could be anyone. It could be Phillip for all we know!”

Phillip looked aghast as Jeff continued on, not even looking in Phillips direction.

“Jeff, please! If you know something, tell me!” I couldn’t take it anymore, so I yelled.

It was very unlike me and it startled them both back into Keeper mode.

“A Muse. They give you
inspiration
to do a task. To see something, do something, say something. They say the words and touch you, and you have no choice but to do it, or you endure excruciating pain until you do,” Jeff explained.

It dawned on me that I knew who the Muse was.

“Marissa. She told me to...look beyond what I see, and then she touched my arm before we left.”

Phillip jumped forward as he yelled, pointing his finger.

“I knew it! I knew I wasn’t crazy! She kept telling me to leave, go to the stairs, go sit it the kitchen, and then when she touched me, if I didn’t leave, my head would hurt so bad. I thought I was going nuts.”

“Marissa. Great. Now what?” Jeff asked no one.

“Well, let’s just hold on a minute. Why did she lead us here? The kid is there. It might be a hideout. It looks that way to me,” Phillip told Jeff, who was still fuming.

Merrick cut in before Jeff could tear Phillips head off.

“Muses supposedly don’t take sides. They help whoever they want to help, whenever they want, whatever entertains them. We haven’t seen them in a long time either. I guess everyone’s coming out of the woodworks. Jeff’s worried because we don’t know if she’s helping us or hurting us right now. Once she gives you a task, you have to do it. Muses are very dangerous if you can’t trust them,” Merrick explained.

“Well. I’ll go check it out,” Phillip said. “See what’s up with this place.”

“Maybe I should go,” I chimed.

I got a solid angry chorus of three distinct ‘No’s.

“I think you’ve been through enough. I’ve had a Muse’s mojo on me. I know what it feels like, though from the looks of you just now, I only got taste of it,” Phillip said wincing.

“He’s right. You’re done. Let’s go to the van and wait.” Merrick pulled me to my feet as he spoke, and I felt woozy.

No pain but definite drunkenness and weakness.

“I just meant that they wouldn’t hurt me before I could-” I tried, but I could barely walk straight let alone talk.

“We know what you meant, and you’re done. Let’s go. Phillip, you ok for this?” Merrick asked but was already walking me to the van.

“Yeah. I’ll wave if it’s an all clear to head in that way.”

Jeff, Merrick and I went back to the van. Merrick helped me into the middle seat and climbed in next to me, pulling me back onto his lap.

“You are all about trouble aren’t you,” Merrick whispered once we were settled. He tried to laugh but couldn’t fake it.

“I’m sorry,” I said weakly.

“Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault. You’re just...a magnet for it, apparently. I’ll just have to keep an eye on you more closely from now on. Two in fact.”

“Four,” Jeff chimed in from the back, smiling my way.

“Why do I feel so drained?” I asked and noticed how my voice seemed to drag.

“Well...if you don’t fight it, the Muses wrath, then it doesn’t hurt at all. But you didn’t know so, you were fighting it, I can see it clearly now. I should have realized what was happening. She should have warned you, so you knew what to look for. When you fight it, it takes a lot out of you.”

“You’ll be ok, just not as strong as usual for a couple days,” Jeff finished the analysis for Merrick.

He did that a lot lately. They made a good team.

“So, I thought you said you told me everything already,” I asked jokingly.

“Honey, I can’t tell you everything. It would take an eternity. I wouldn’t even know what things to tell you and what not to, to be useful. There’s a lot you don’t know about.”

Hmm, honey. How could I think about things like that at a time like this? A quick glance at Jeff and he was still watching out the window for Phillip.

“So you think everyone in the bunker is ok with her there?” I asked, as Danny was in my mind.

“Muse’s don’t have an agenda...usually. They just entertain themselves. I’m sure they’re fine.”

Merrick pulled my head to his chest, rubbing my upper arm with his hand, warming me. He could always tell when I was cold.

“Why don’t you ever get cold?” I asked, feeling my speech start to slur even more.

“Because, this body doesn’t work like it use to. I won’t ever get cold or hot,” Merrick answered.

“But you feel warm to me.”

“Yes. But I don’t feel it.”

“Do you feel me?”

“Yeah. I feel it if your skin is cold or hot, usually cold,” he chuckled.

“What about weather or showers? How can you feel the water and not feel the temperature?”

“I feel the temperature on my skin, it just doesn’t bother me. My body doesn’t respond to my physical temperature only the temperature of what I can touch.” He laughed. “What’s with the twenty questions?”

“Just curious.”

“Well. Anything else?” he said lightly.

“Yeah. Why are they called Muses? I thought Muses were there to give inspiration.”

“They are inspiration. Supposed to be. Made to be. They can see the future too, in visions and flashes. Not very predictable but very useful. If more than one Muse is together, a human’s brain nerves would fire rapidly from all the motivation with ideas. In the old days, the Muses could make or break a battle. It was when they started playing with their powers to their own uses when they became more nuisance than inspiration.”

“Huh.”

After a minute of sitting and him warming me, Merrick started again, more quietly, in my ear.

“You gotta stop scaring me like that. This heart won’t make it long with you to worry about.” He put my hand over his heart, the body’s heart and I could feel it thump against my fingers.

He was making a joke but his face was serious.

“Aren’t you glad I came now?” I said, raising my eyebrows in jest and even they were tired.

“Yes. I am. If she had done this while we were gone...” He grunted. “You were right, you’re just safer with me,” Merrick said sounding angry again.

I hated that he felt like this. I hated that he worried so much but, looking back at the amount of trouble I’d gotten myself into, I guess I needed his worry.

“There he is!” Jeff yelled. “There’s Phillip, and he’s waving.”

I was sorely regretting the tank top I had worn, thinking I was going to be in a warm van all day, instead I was freezing and tired. So very tired.

I walked with Merrick’s help to the entrance where Phillip stood. No one, including me, was comfortable leaving me in the van to wait and it was already getting much darker.

“You ok? You don’t look so good,” Phillip asked me.

“I’m fine,” I mumbled.

“It’s the Muse. Where are they?” Merrick explained and asked, swiftly looking around.

“The basement door is under here. Come on.”

When we entered the camouflage dome tent on the back side, there was a man inside, waiting for us. Once again, Jeff embraced him. I knew right away this was their Keeper.

He shook Merrick’s hand sensing I needed him for support and muttered the name Patrick. I must have looked pretty bad from his expression.

After introductions he took us down into their bunker, really an old very small basement, that had been covered over from a torn down house. The only sign of that was a still standing old brick chimney off the side.

There were five others waiting to meet us.

The first Keepers name was Ann, an older lady with salt and pepper hair. The second one from upstairs was Patrick. He was older too and had a white beard and mustache. The Specials were Katie, an extremely pregnant and pretty thirty something with brown hair and Laura, exactly the same but not pregnant and her hair was short instead, twin sisters. Their husbands were there as well, Paul, glasses and comb over, total banker looking and Eli, a cute athletic looking Jamaican, I could tell from his very distinct accent as he said hello to us. Eli and Laura had a son, Franklin, who was about twelve and was an in between skin shade of the two parents that would have the girls swooning one day, and the most vivid green eyes ever.

After a few incoherent sentences I thought I understood that Katie’s was an accidental pregnancy. I couldn’t imagine someone would bring a baby into this world as it was, on purpose.

There really was no point in trying to keep track of what Special belonged to what Keeper at this point. Merrick had said they were here for us all now.

The Muse had led us to the right place. I wondered what entertainment could she have gained from this. Even with the events of today, we found six people to add to our band of misfits. The day was not a waste, and I wouldn’t take it back, even if I could.

So unbelievably tired, Merrick took me to the small loveseat, the only sitting furniture in the very tiny place and laid me down. It smelled like lavender.

He threw an afghan that was lying on the back over me and I felt him smooth my hair back. I could hear Jeff telling the other Keepers about the Muse and heard the anger in their voices as they looked at me and protested and conversed about it, understanding now the events that had transpired and the dead-on-my-feet appearance.

They all discussed things I could no longer hear. Mumbling turned into just white noise as I drifted off, unable to fight any longer the sleep that came for me.

When I awoke next, I was in the van again, my head in Merrick’s lap in the middle seat. Phillip was driving and there were headlights behind us, I could see them in the rearview mirror. No one seemed alarmed which meant the others were joining us. I tried to sit up but Merrick held my shoulder down.

“Just rest, honey. We’re almost there.”

“Everything work out alright?”

“Yes, Miss worried about everybody but herself.”

I laughed a tired laugh and I licked my lips. I touched my finger to them, asking. He smiled crookedly and bent down to kiss me, picking my back up just a little bit to reach.

His lips were extremely warm and comforting as he kissed me quickly and softly.

“I love you,” I said before collapsing, laying my head back down on his lap.

“I know,” Merrick said, a smile in his voice.

I fell back asleep with Merrick twirling a curl of my hair in between his fingers.

We made it back and I roused just as we entered the steps to the bunker, being carried in warm arms. Suddenly I was scared, feeling tension in the air.

Merrick’s arms were tense around me and I was afraid of what him and Jeff might do to Marissa, not giving her a chance to explain. I just had a feeling she wouldn’t purposely do this to me to hurt me. I could already hear the yelling as I became more coherent. I lifted my head and looked around.

Merrick saw me and tested my feet down to the floor, making sure I could stand first. Jeff and Marissa were at it and everyone was watching, worried and not knowing what this blow up was for.

“I’m sorry!” she yelled “I thought she needed to find it on her own. I haven’t known I had this gift but just a few years, you know, and my Keeper died before he could really even show me much more about it. I thought that it would be easier for her this way. Usually when I tell people, they don’t listen anyway, they think I’m a freak.”

“She brought you here,” Jeff boomed, “has been nothing but nice to you. You knew what would happen and you let it happen anyway. And Merrick. Merrick had to watch her go through that not knowing what was going on either. You are a selfish girl!” Jeff yelled and made a slow advance inching Marissa’s way.

Everyone glanced at Merrick and I, still not knowing what was going on, but no one would dare interrupt Jeff at this point. I couldn’t remember a time he ever looked so angry. I felt kind of proud he was defending me, but Marissa looked so innocently young and unknowing and utterly frightened by Jeff’s behavior.

Maybe that was part of the Muse disguise.

“I’m. Sorry. Ok. I won’t do it again. I just... I thought you wouldn’t let me be here if you knew I was a Muse and then when ya’ll were leaving, I couldn’t just let you go without telling you. You needed to find
them
.” She pointed at the newcomers behind us, then looking at me. “Sherry, I’m sorry. I should’ve said something but, I was scared. I’m sorry, really sorry. This is why I was so reluctant to come here with you in the first place. Can you forgive me?”

“You don’t have to answer her, Sherry. She knows I won’t hurt her. I wouldn’t anyway but not only is she a Muse, she’s still a Special too. We’re stuck with her,” Jeff said looking more calm but still upset.

He must’ve known how I’d react.

“It’s fine. She’s telling the truth and we did find them.” I pointed to the newcomers. “That’s what’s important.”

Merrick squeezed my hand and shook his head, his jaw clenched. If I could see his eyes I would bet they were rolling. He thought my understanding for others was a weakness. That I was too trusting. He was just a little biased. Besides, they were no different. The Keepers weren’t violent and revengeful. Why would he expect me to be?

“I am sorry. Is there anything I can do to help tonight?” Marissa said, her head hanging down.

“You’ve done enough but...yes. We have a lot of unloading to do. We have some new roommates.” Jeff motioned for her to go upstairs and waved his hand for a few others, apologizing to the newcomers on his way out for yelling.

Danny came up to me and started to ask me something but I held up a hand.

“Tomorrow, Danny. Please, I’m sorry...Merrick...”

I was about to collapse. I’d never been that tired before and now that the excitement was over, it overtook me again like an avalanche.

Merrick grabbed me up in one swift motion. I heard him tell Danny that I was ok, but Danny didn’t sound convinced. He would be angry with the Muse too.

The last thing I remembered was being tucked into bed, under Merrick’s chin. The warmth from his body surrounded me like a blanket, making me feel safe again.