Undead 12,Undead and Unsure - MaryJanice Davidson Page 0,1
I could hear her perfect teeth grinding together. The Antichrist had never needed braces and had a cavity-free kisser. They must fluoride the hell out of the water in Dinkytown.
Laura Goodman (yep, you read that right and yep, the irony wasn't lost on... well... anybody...) began to stomp up and down the cement walk just in front of the porch, the dozen helium-filled Mylar balloons trailing behind her. Early December in Minnesota could be awful, but we were enjoying a balmy stretch of low thirties. There'd been snow a few days before but it was melting. Not that it made a difference to Laura: with her feet cocooned in Uggs, she could have been scrambling for Noah's Ark and her feet would have stayed dry. And why was I thinking about her feet? Answer: because they were pretty little feet trapped in huge ugly boots, and I felt sorry for them.
"I don't want to talk to you," she explained. Pace, pace, turn, pace. She turned so fast I couldn't see her for a second until she batted the balloons out of her face. I bit the inside of my cheeks so I wouldn't smirk. "I don't want to see you. Thanks to you, I have to make some major decisions about my life. Thanks to you, not only my life but the lives and/or afterlives of millions might have changed or will change. I've lived with the fact that I am the Desolator since I was thirteen. Now I have to decide if I'll take up my mother's sword and I'm not even legal drinking age. Bad enough that I have to tolerate the situation at all. I won't tolerate you, too."
Don't say anything about how "the Desolator" sounds like some kind of super food processor. Want your veggies pureed in a jiff? Try the Desolator!
When I was pretty sure that wasn't going to come out of my mouth, I began. "Look, I'm sorry-"
"You aren't."
"-about the situation. You're right," I added with what I hoped she saw as a sympathetic shrug. "I'm not sorry I killed the devil. But I'm sorry you had to see it. And I'm sorry you're stuck now. Yeah, it's my fault. I'm owning it. I want to help you."
She barked a laugh. "Help me?" She shook her head, and perfect blond waves obscured her eyes and then the blue headband forced it to fall back into place, framing her perfect face. "You've helped enough."
I must, I must discover what she uses for conditioner... and moisturizer...
She stepped up, stepped close. Her grip on the balloon strings was white-knuckled; when she moved there was the sinister rustle of Mylar rubbing together. I'd come off the porch and was standing in our muddy driveway, cursing my cold feet but far too badass to bitch about my cold clammy wet muddy feet. When I'd heard her drive in I'd sprinted for the front door, which meant the neighborhood was treated to me in my tattered RenFest sweatshirt ("Dragon Bait") and equally shredded purple leggings (it was laundry day, which meant if you thought my clothes looked bad, you did not want to see my underwear). And that was all. Since I'd already died I couldn't freeze to death, but I was cold even when the temps were Texas hot. Standing in the cold with muddy feet was agonizing, but Laura had even bigger problems.
She was wrong to say I'd helped enough. I wasn't done yet.
"Stay away from me," she said evenly, her baby blues glaring into my baby blue-greens. Even though I knew what she was capable of, it was hard to take her seriously in her cream-colored merino wool sweater, jeans that were so faded and comfortable they probably felt like silk, Uggs (but I won't go into that again), and the balloons streaming behind her. Completing the picture of corn-fed angelic innocence and beauty, her shoulder-length buttercup-colored hair was held back from her face with a thin powder blue ribbon. It was a lot like being menaced by a conservatively dressed Victoria's Secret model (holding balloons). She looked gorgeous but it was impossible to fear her (even without balloons).
"Stay away," she said again, "and keep away."
"I think that's redun-"
"I'll be back when I know what I'll do about you."
"Well, don't worry about calling first. Just pop on by anytime. Literally, even." The Antichrist could teleport. But I, who hated the pop-in, was generously letting her know it was okay. See? I was trying, too!