Mundahlia (The Mundahlian Era, #1) (17 page)

I set the dress on the counter while the short cashier scanned the price and removed the security tag. “It will be when I tailor it,” I told Sarah. I’d learned a thing or two from mommy Gloria. She’d sew me and Celeste things all the time. Dresses, hats, sweaters, she even made us our own stuffed dolls when we were younger. I still have mine back home. The tiny plush toy dressed in a gorgeous colorful Mexican-style sun dress.

“Thank you,” the cashier said with a smile, handing me the bag after I’d used my debit card to pay. I rarely carried money, a card just seemed simpler. She leaned in and said, “You’re my hero for telling
her
off.” I smiled and took the bag. “I’ll see
you
later,” the girl called. I thought it was odd how she said it, but when I turned to say something, she was already walking away—disturbed by another task in the back.

Sarah and I passed Vera and her gang of cackling witches, and I heard her say, “Have a nice day.” Her tone all too sarcastic.

“Wish I could say the same for you,
bitch
,” I replied.

“I can’t believe you paid for my dress! Rini, I
have
to pay you back.”

“No you don’t. Think of it as a Christmas present.” Sarah and I entered my cabin, the smell of old pizza from last night filled the whole structure.

“It’s March,” Sarah stated. “And the dress was sixty dollars!”

“An
early
Christmas present. Besides, you paid for our lunch. Don’t sweat it, I have plenty of money left from my summer camp job.”

“
Oh please
, five dollar Chinese food is
not
paying you back!”

“To me it is.” I had found a simple smokey-grey dress that had a black belt cinched around the waist at another store on clearance, after I had returned to the store
the stick
worked at to report her to the manager. Yeah, I reported her—and I will sleep fine tonight. Especially after I heard the words, “...one more slip up and you’re
fired
!” from the manager as I left the store, hearing Vera get scolded but not having the slightest clue that it was me that reported her.

“I really need to work on your dress,” I told Sarah with my hand out for the bag she gripped tightly in her hands. “We only have about three-and-a-half hours until they pick us up.”

“
Coolness
—I’ll be in the shower. I see that
someone’s
attitude toward the date tonight has changed.” She said, before shutting the door behind her.

I retrieved the dress from the bag and tore off the price tag. I then undid the bow on the front and laid it aside. After the dress was turned inside out, I felt around for the seam. Using my scissors, I cut through the stitched lining and began trimming the extra fabric on both sides.

...

“Wow. It fits great, Rini!” Sarah exclaimed about two hours later as she looked at herself in the mirror with her new perfectly fit dress. “Thanks a bunch! Where’d you learn to sew?”

“My grandma, mommy Gloria.” I took the bow from the bed and tied it under Sarah’s bust. “And now for the final touch.”

“
Ah
-mazing!” Sarah squealed. “Now, I just need my make up and hair and I am good to go.”

“Oh,” I paused on my way to the drawer to get some new clothes. “—and before I hop into the shower, do
not
pull this string.” I pointed to a small thread sticking from the bottom of the fabric that if yanked on, cold cause a major wardrobe malfunction. “Just don’t, for whatever reason, pull that string.”

“Uh, okay?”

“Cool.” I pulled some underwear from the drawer.

“
Ooh, sexy
! Men love that type.”

“What type?”

“The black lacy type.”

“Whatever. It’s all I have left. All my other clothes are washing at Celeste’s.”

“
Mhm
.
Sure
, buddy.”

I closed the bathroom door behind me and turned the shower on so the water could be warm by the time I finished undressing. For a long moment, I stared into the mirror and took a deep breath.
Maybe tonight won’t be that bad. I mean, it couldn’t hurt, right?
All I knew is that no matter what, I’d remember whatever happened tonight no matter what happens.
My first real date,
I nearly fainted after saying it in my thoughts.
It’s just a date.
I reassured myself and sighed.

I undressed and entered the shower for the second time today.

Jett

14

“Chingao Ray, quit peeing on the damn seat!” Del yelled from the bathroom.

“Well,
Goddammit
, look before you sit!” Ray shot back. He was in the kitchen, feasting on a bowl of macaroni and cheese that Mark had prepared before joining Martin in scouting the forest for Bane. They were going to have to do him in, like the others before who’d discovered our hiding spots each city we’d lived in before.

I awoke from the couch and looked at my noisy watch, ringing on my hand and telling me the alarm I had set was done. “Crap!” I dashed into the hallway meeting Del in the bathroom. “Move, I need to take shower!” I told her. I was already peeling off my clothes. It was only a few minutes before the date—I had overslept.

I crashed on the couch this morning after keeping a restless eye on Rini and her friend, making sure Bane didn’t try anything last night. At first I had slept, just for a moment. But at the faint sound of the backdoor knob jiggling, my eyes flew up and I let out a growl. The jiggling stopped, but even so, I stayed awake—looking after her. Wasting away the hours by watching her as she slept. Man, was that a sight. Her soft face, still equally as alluring, relaxed and crinkling every so often when she would toss and turn. I smoothed a few strands of hair away and watched as her cheek bunted into my hand the way a cat does when being petted.

“Down boy!” Del said, holding her hands out. “I’m going. Keep your
chones
on until I leave, please.”

“Hurry up!” I stammered. My hands on the band of my briefs, ready to pull them down.

“I’m going,
Cabron! No me grites!
” she yelled, slamming the door behind her.

“Don’t slam doors in
my
house!” Martin noted from his bedroom down the hall.

I exited the shower clutching a towel around my waist as I tiptoed back to the room to dress. Max was by the mirror checking himself. Dressed in a nice button-up shirt and black pants, as though he were headed to Sunday mass or a job interview. “Settle down there,
GQ
,” I whistled before removing the towel to get dressed as well.

Side Chapter

“The night Vera Hill disappeared”

“Ugh!”
Vera spat into her cell phone as she dug through her purse for her car keys. She was out of the mall, walking toward her car—a black Mustang with two hot pink stripes down the hood, at the very end of the vacant parking lot. She’d just lost her job at a dress shop in the mall for trying the last nerve of her manager, who’d already warned her earlier today after someone had complained. “The nerve of that
bitch
! Jenna told me that
girl
was the one who reported me!”

“Yeah, she obviously doesn’t know who she’s dealing with,” Vera’s best friend, Annette said on the other line of the phone. “Don’t even waste your time thinking about her—she’s a nobody.”

“I know, and that’s what pisses me off! She’s nobody. Why doesn’t she get that? She has her place—serving me food, or pumping my gas!”

There was a loud cry at the other end of the phone line. “Hey, my baby is throwing a fit, I’ll text you later, kay?”

“Fine. Bye, Nette!” Vera snapped her phone shut and threw it into her purse. The distant sounds of cars passing by on the highway, and the echoing click of her heels as they stomped on the pavement filled in the ambience of wind and crickets outside. “Dammit!” she stammered as the cold air lifted her short pink skirt. She held it down and sprinted for her car.

Just as she turned the corner, she spotted a young boy sobbing into his knees against the door of her Mustang.

“Can’t you go cry somewhere else? You’re blocking my door!” Vera’s tapped her long acrylic nails on the metal roof of her vehicle.

“Excuse me, ma’am?” he sobbed. Looking up to her with his damp eyes.

Vera sighed. “What do you
want, kid?”

“Can you please help me find my brother?” he wiped away a falling tear. His face was smudged with dirt, and his clothes were tattered as though he’d been dragged by the collar through the parking lot.

“Sorry kid, try bothering somebody else. I’ve got better things to do than help a little kid find his brother. Next time, don’t walk off and you wont be lost. Okay?” Vera pressed the button on her ket to unlock the door. “Now, move!” She pushed him aside with the stiletto on her right foot.

“I guess a more direct approach would suffice,” the little boy said in a deeper voice. Clearly not the voice of a child, but a man—a full grown man.

“What did you say?” Vera turned and found that in the little boy’s place, a statuesque, bare man stood, eyeing her up and down. Shreds of cloth were at his feet.

“—the hell?” Vera backed into her car, slowly trying to reach the handle. “What happened to the l-l-little boy?”

“I ate him.” The entity came at her, pinning her against the car to keep her from moving.

“Get off of me!” Vera scowled, trying to pry his hands from her shoulders. She shoved him off and broke one arm free to strike him flat across the cheek with the
crack!
of a sound as she hit bone. The man whipped his head back and heaved her over his shoulder and onto the black pavement. Vera skid across the sharp, rigid rubble that grated the skin on her legs and thighs. Blood began to pour from the gashes of shredded skin. She watched as he stood, blocking her from the car, inhaling the rust-like scent that was her fresh blood.

“HELP!” She got to her feet and ran limping into the forest digging into her purse for her phone. Tears burst down her cheek and multiple sharp, stinging pains from the scrapes were traveling up and down her body. “HELP!” she tried again, giving a quick glance back. He was hot on her heels, almost within reach. Gliding over the sticks and dirt with ease.

Vera, not watching her step, skid on the sludgy, wet mud beneath her feet.
Gasp!
Her knees gave out, and she was thrust to the ground, rolling down a small hill and crashing, side first into the razored edge of a rock. She let out a shrilling burst of pain that sounded more of a howl as she clenched her side with her hand. “Who are you? I’ll give you anything, just please let me go home!” Vera cried from beneath the man who had climbed on top of her. Setting his full weight on her to keep her from moving from his grip. The man gave a fiendish grin, as the sharp nails of his hand—slowly shifting into a large orange and black striped paw, pressed into Vera’s wrists. A low growl rumbled in the back of his throat.

“Call me,
Bane
.”

Rini

15

Both Sarah and I waited out front by the dirt road. Celeste and George allowed me to go out since Sarah was tagging along. Funny, how they didn’t even ask to meet the guy first. I guess they figured I was smart enough to make wise decisions and steer clear from danger.
Ha!

“This is utter bullshit! Aren’t girls supposed to be the ones that run late?” Sarah said—arms folded in chest from the brisk air. It was probably colder then it really was since we were wearing our dresses.

I laughed and kicked a few pebbles around with my black boots. “I guess they’re different.” That’s for sure. A lot different.

“Well—I, for one, am going to be royally pissed off if they stood us up and we got all dolled up for nothing.”

We both heard the sound of distant tires traveling fast along the road. Within seconds, blinding headlights turned the corner and bounced their way across the dips in the path to us. A squeaky, faded blue pick-up truck came to a halt in front of us.

“Sweet ride,” Sarah sarcastically muttered under her breath. I wanted to laugh, but instead bit my lip.

The door flung open.
Creeeak!
Max sat on the end of the seat in a button up t-shirt with his hair slicked back.

“
Pretty suave, Max,” I complimented. He gave me a smile then returned his gaze to Sarah, who I must say looked stunningly gorgeous in her dress.

I saw Jett at the other end with his hands at the wheel. He leaned over Max’s shoulder, “Well aren’t you two all dressed up nice.” He smiled a sweet smile at me but was cut short when Max reached out of the truck to clasp Sarah’s hand into his.

“Come on
babe
,” he kissed her hand like a gentlemen, and helped her into the truck.

Babe?
I mouthed to myself. I shrugged it off and waited for Sarah to get in. When she did, only a mere inch of the leather seat was left for me. “And where am
I
supposed to sit?”

Sarah tried to shift and make room, then instead, patted her knee. “Come on
babe
,” she joked before pulling me in.