Once outside, I just stood there, numb, unable to think about or do anything.

  Damn, but it was quiet. At some point, who knows when, I must have realized the silence was a little too silent. No birds, no background hum, as though sound had been sucked out of the air. I looked up and to be honest I can't even say I was shocked.

  Hundreds of vampires stood there in the dull morning light, their power so strong combined that they took the joy from the world, scared the birds, made all creatures hide, probably blocked the sunlight too.

  I sighed deeply. Was this it? Would I finally be put out of my misery?

  "Well? Come on then."

  The vampires shifted, then they stepped forward as one. I didn't even bother to summon Essence, let magic surge, do anything but stand there, defiant, my head held high, my body weak, my soul on fire. My last thoughts?

  Why had I killed my father? What had happened? Where did Boris get all the pies? Would Aunty ever get out of the trousers?

  I laughed. Life really was nothing but a joke.

  The vampires closed in. I shut my eyes, not wanting the last thing I saw to be the pleasure in their eyes as they tore at my flesh.

  After a while I got bored and took a peek. They were just standing there, waiting. Waiting for what?

  "What you waiting for?" Figured it was best to ask. I didn't have all day to die. I had stuff to do.

  "It is done," they said in unison. They nodded their heads, almost done with respect, and then they were gone.

  Wind blew through my hair, a chill took the heat out of my body, and I stood there, alone, as birds began to chatter excitedly about life once more.

  A screeching of tires broke my reverie.

  Mimi jumped out of her bus and dashed over to me. "Did you let them eat that vampire?" she shouted, giving me the daggers.

  "Um, maybe a little bit." I thought it best to hedge my bets. She seemed angry for some reason.

  "They aren't allowed. It's not good for them. You don't have to clean up the mess. It's gross." Mimi stormed off into the supermarket, her psychic link so strong she could find them on the other side of the world.

  Minutes later she emerged, dragging the corpse wrapped up in plastic. "Don't just stand there, you dick, give me a hand." The cats padded along beside her, then stopped and stared me like they'd never seen me before. I waved. And smiled.

  I helped Mimi load the body, although he was pretty light now there wasn't that much of him left.

  "Thanks for coming," I told her, slumping into a seat.

  "Figured you'd make a mess, and my girls told me what happened, that you let them have treats." She frowned at the panthers who slunk off to the back of the bus with their heads down.

  "Thanks. I appreciate it. How are things at home?"

  "Trust me, you do not want to know."

  "Oh, okay."

  I leaned back and was asleep instantly.

  And I awoke to joy. As my eyes snapped open in a panic, I looked about nervously only to find I was staring at my own home. What a wondrous sight. Things could almost be normal.

  Mimi parked outside the house and I stumbled from the bus, sore in places I didn't even know were places. I almost collapsed but righted myself and held it together. Couldn't let the team down now, not after everything we'd been through.

  The cats wandered off, Mimi was about to scold them but decided to let them be. They'd need a good rest and we probably wouldn't see them until tomorrow now. Aunty came out of the front door with Boris and Hanna behind her. They rushed to greet me, which was nice.

  "Thank you," said Aunty, looking pleased but as tired as I felt.

  "You are welcome. We make a good team, don't we?"

  "We do," she nodded.

  "I want to say thank you too," I told Team Freaky. "This has been tough. Not the weirdest, but maybe the toughest job we've ever done. We fought for what we felt was right, we took on enemies that could have destroyed us, and we did good. All of us."

  "And got to chop off heads," said Hanna happily.

  "Yeah, that too."

  "And Boris had fun."

  "Sure did, buddy. Good job. So, how's it going here?"

  "Oh, you know." Aunty waved a hand like all was breezy.

  "Um, not really. That's why I asked. Can we go in?" I headed for the front door before she could answer. So dog-tired I just wanted to get inside and rest. Maybe a nice cup of sugary tea.

  "Spencer. Wait!" Aunty shouted after me, but I was already inside. The others crowded in behind me, but nobody shut the door. And it was obvious why.

  "Damn, it stinks in here." I pinched my nose, but it didn't really help.

  "You try dealing with over a hundred unwashed, utterly damaged people who don't know where they are, how to look after themselves, and haven't had a toilet to use for who knows how long," Aunty lectured. "But yes, it stinks."

  People were everywhere. Sitting on the stairs, wandering the hall, and I assumed the rest of the house was the same.

  "What are we going to do with them all?" I asked.

  "We will help them. Get them home. We just need to find out who they are first. And where they live."

  "How do we do that?"

  "We wait. We help them get better, let them heal, and pray they remember who they are. Some are pretty far gone, but I think most will recover given time."

  "Okay," I said warily, not having considered how this would work. "Um, can I have a cup of tea?"

  "Absolutely!" Aunty beamed, then hurried off to the kitchen. I followed her, squeezing past broken souls with vacant eyes.

  The kitchen wasn't too bad actually. There were a few people sitting at the table, nursing drinks, and they even looked up when I entered. I nodded at them, but said nothing. I felt too awkward, too uncomfortable to make small-talk. All in good time, I told myself. Everyone's damaged by this. Everyone.

  We took our drinks in the garden, just Aunty and I. The others knew we needed this time alone, just to sort things out, to get our heads on straight and have a moment's peace before a new chapter of madness began for the Freaky Finders.

  "Well, we did it," I told Aunty, with a weak smile. I just didn't have the energy to make it sparkle. I sipped my tea, the warm, sugary liquid tasteless to my numbed senses.

  "We did. I'm amazed."

  "Me too."

  We drank in silence for a while.

  "Spencer?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Did we make a difference?"

  I put my arm around Aunty and told her, "Just took inside our house. We made a difference. A big one. It isn't just these people we saved, it's all the ones who would have been damaged in the future. And think of the other countries. Yes, we did good. You did good."

  "For once."

  "Hey, you shouldn't be so harsh on yourself. You're a great woman with a big heart. You saved people."

  "Why don't I feel like that then?"

  "Because you're exhausted. You're overwhelmed and it's all been too much. Sleep on it, if you can find a bed, and you'll see, tomorrow will be different. Come on, drink your tea up, we have work to do."

  Aunty nodded then smiled weakly. She was as broken as me.

  Arm in arm, we headed back into the kitchen. The gang were all there, even Hanna, waiting for us. Waiting to be told what to do and how to do it.

  What were we going to do? How were we going to do it?

  I don't know where it came from, what reserves of energy I was calling upon, but I got it together, just for a while. I sent Mimi to buy almost everything they had in the local supermarkets. Hanna was instructed to go get meds from various unofficial sources. All kinds of meds. Boris was instructed to go buy all the pies, and yes, I assured him, I meant all the pies. I'd never seen the guy so happy.

  Aunty made a few phone calls and soon there were piles of blankets and whatnot outside the front door and enough witches in dubious tie-dye, wearing enough jewelry to buy a country if they pawned it, chattering excitedly outside with sufficient dried herbs to burn the town down if set alight.

  I got busy on the phone calling all manner of people. Medics, healers, nurses, people who could deal with trauma, along with numerous bounty hunters, oddball detectives, and the downright strange, to come help their fellow human beings in time of distress.

  Plenty of people told me where to shove it, but most didn't. They'd heard about what was happening, what we were involved in, and it didn't matter that they hadn't come to help. We hadn't asked them, and that wasn't how our world worked. But more Odd Ones came than refused, and by the end of the day, when the Freaky Finders were almost as comatose as their guests, we were on track to get this thing sorted.

  With my head spinning, the world out of focus, my thoughts nonexistent, but my conscience clear for once, I lay down in a quiet corner, curled up, pulled a blanket over my head, and slept like I'd never slept before.

  It Takes Time

  Weeks passed, and gradually the house emptied. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't nice, and it certainly wasn't clean. As people came out of their fugue, many broke down completely. But there were others to help them, to deal with the mental anguish and the torment that haunted them. Names were given, or enough pieces put together that families or friends or addresses could be tracked down and they were returned to if not their old lives then at least to those who could take it from there.

  The place was a madhouse. There was no room. It was a constant battle to get enough food, to supply enough drinks, to get any kind of order. I don't even want to talk about the bathroom situation.

  We were also back to being utterly skint once more.

  And then one day everyone was just gone.

  We were all sitting in the kitchen, just chatting about nothing much, making tea, bickering, staring into space, trying to get the energy to have at it again, when suddenly we all stopped talking.

  There was silence.

  "We've done it," shivered Aunty, her head drooping.

  "We have," I agreed. I put a hand to her shoulder and smiled. A deep, genuine smile. "I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you all. Now, can I please have my bedroom back? Can I go to sleep and not wake up for a year? Can I have a shower in peace?"

  "YES!" Everyone cheered.

  We grinned at each other like the fools we undoubtedly were.

  The doorbell rang, which was weird but not unheard of. We had an intercom at the gate, but recently we'd given up on locking it as people were coming and going too much.

  "I'll get it," I sang, as I heaved myself to my feet and wandered down the hall.

  "I'll be damned," I said to myself. "A happy ending for once."

  Still smiling, I opened the door, and my grin froze. Standing there, wearing dark shades and with long black hair, a little grey in places, was a man of average height. He was good looking, with a cocky look I knew only too well. He wore cheap, faded jeans and an expensive black shirt. It was me, only not me.

  The man smiled nervously. He moved to remove his glasses and I did the same. It felt right, like the most natural thing in the world. The emotional impact was overwhelming. I hadn't looked at another human being like this, without fear of destroying them, for as long as I could remember.

  We made eye contact and I said, "Hello, father."

  "Hello, son. We meet again."

  "I don't remember. I was told I killed you."

  "Haha, you certainly tried, but you weren't yourself, not at all." His features relaxed, the nerves fading away.

  I looked deep into his eyes, seeing myself reflected back through orbs as dark and ungodly as my own.

  "What happened?"

  "You weren't ready. You were still young. And angry. The heat was upon you, we argued, and you smacked me over the head with a frying pan of all things. Haha, so silly. I bled badly, you panicked, and you ran. Sorry, I'm so sorry." He hung his head; he'd said what he wanted to.

  "Fancy a cup of tea?"

  My father looked up, hope in his eyes. He nodded.

  I stepped aside and ushered him in.

  THE END

  Author's Note

  Thank you so much for reading the adventures of Spencer and the Freaky Finders. I still can't believe I do this for a living. It's kind of mad, right?

  Well, that's it for Team Freaky, I'm afraid. My mind is so consumed with ideas for a new series that I just have to get busy straight away for fear of my head exploding. Like if Spencer took off his shades and gave me a long, hard look. Eek!

  In the meantime, why not check out some of my other series? Faz Pound, a.k.a the Dark Magic Enforcer, is a sure winner, and "The Hat" in Wildcat Wizard is one of my all-time favorite blokes, if rather heartless when it comes to the bad guys.

  Now, for the usual bit. Please leave a review. It's how readers find my work, and that means I can continue to sell books and buy loads of helicopters and jet packs. Plus, I'm getting low on chocolate biscuits. Just a line or two would mean a lot, and anyway, you know you want to. Right?

  Keep a lookout for new releases, but better yet, join the team and I'll send you an email when there's a new book released.

  In the meantime, stay jiggy.

  Al

  http://alkline.co.uk

  https://www.facebook.com/authoralkline

 

 

  Al K. Line, Bent Arrow

 

 

  Thank you for reading books on GrayCity.Net
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