Seal ran onwards. Her left foot repeated a noise over and over. “Ouch. Ouch. Ouch,” with each step.
“Stop it,” Seal said. “You said you can’t feel pain.”
“I don’t, it’s just weird. And this rat. Yuck.” Seal’s had used ripped strips from her clothing to tie the living doll to the bottom of her feet. She tied the desiccated rat to the underside of the other foot. Animal skins were good enough to hide her glowing footsteps and Paintchip was made of deerskin. She had no choice but to use her sister and the rat to help them escape, though she felt bad for using Beth in such a manner.
After a few minutes of running, Seal stopped and looked at her feet. She kicked the nearly disintegrated rat off with disgust. It could not help them anymore. She gently untied her sister.
“Am I okay,” Beth asked.
Seal looked her over. “Other than your short leg, just as mom made you.”
“Mom can’t sew,” her sister reminded her.
“Well, no seams are torn. Thank you, Beth. I wouldn’t be alive without you.” Seal felt guilt as memories came to her. She pushed them down before she started to cry. She needed to stay calm and keep a clear head. They still were not far enough from the three Paleskins that had chased them.
“We should go, Seal” Beth urged.
That reminded her of the time Beth started calling her Seal at the age of three. Cecile was difficult for her tongue to manage, and she started off calling her CC.
Seal didn’t like that, it sounded like sissy. “Don’t say CC. Just call me Seal,” Seal would bark at her sister as the toddler ran around their bedroom and bounced off the beds.
“CC, sis is CC,” Beth yelled and circled some more like a kitten chasing shadows.
“No say just Seal,” she shouted.
“Say Seal, Say Seal, Say Seal, CC,” her sister sang a taunting song.
“I don’t like the name CC. stop it BB!”
Beth didn’t like being called BB. “NO!” Beth screamed back at her.
Seal grabbed Beth around the waist and twisted her so they came face to face.
Beth yelled out a bigger “NOOOOOO!” and Seal let her go. Their mom yelled up at them to play nicely. It would be several more weeks before Beth finally called her sister just Seal. Ironically, the nickname stuck and everyone called her that now.
Of course, Beth left everyone flabbergasted when six months later she had named her doll Paintchip. She couldn’t pronounce Cecile, but Paintchip came with no problem. Beth was an element unto herself, as her father would say.
Seal returned from her memory and held her sister high above her head. “Can you see them?” The doll saw no sign of the telltale black aura the pale skins emitted.
“No. All clear.” Beth saluted her sister.
Seal and Beth eventually hit the road and came across an abandoned gas station. The artifacts of the real world were few and far between: a motel, a missile silo, an abandoned road, and now an old gas station. Seal wondered if only certain memories of a place penetrated the spirit world.
Seal looked around the inside of the station for anything she could use to help them. She found a half buried crowbar and a sharp piece of scrap metal. She had no way to combine them to create a makeshift axe. The crowbar would have to do.
“We’ll rest here. The building will block us from outside eyes.”
Beth yawned.
“Are you tired,” Seal asked.
“No, I’m not tired.” But she yawned again.
Seal held her sister as close to her as she could and closed her eyes. A few hours later Seal felt something soft press on her lips, over and over. She opened her eyes, and the doll held its arm to its own mouth. Seal understood she wanted her to be quiet. Her eyes watered as she heard footsteps outside of the gas station. She recognized the voices.
Seal whispered to Beth. “Hide somewhere, you can escape.” She hoped they wouldn’t come into the abandoned building. Her footsteps would have faded a long time ago.
“I won’t leave you,” Beth said.
“You have no choice. You’re small enough to slip by. Just run when you get the chance.” Seal peered over the counter she hid behind and saw no trace of the Paleskins. She picked Beth up.
“Hide here.” She threw her sister on top of the sill above the door and made sure she stayed before ducking back down.
“Seal, no,” Beth said.
“Shhhh.” Seal said softly. She prayed no one would find her sister.
***
The Paleskins walked up to the gas station side by side. The girl would not fool them this time if she hid here. Len checked the hatch to the underground tanks first. He unscrewed the hatch and peered in. A faint trace of gasoline odor remained, although the tank had been dry for years. He stuck his head all the way into it, his shoulders catching on the lip. “Ehh-hy,” he announced. His companions took that as his word for empty.
Alvy, the shortest of them, stood next to Tork. They peered inside. “No tracks. If she came this way, she has been gone awhile.” Alvy wasn’t convinced.
“Check everything. I smell life was here,” he told Tork.
Alvy went back outside. “I’ll climb to the roof.”
Tork looked in the pit of the garage, feeling around the dried tumbleweeds trapped inside. No girl there. A single metal cabinet sat against the wall. He opened it slowly. Empty. He returned to the attendant’s room. As he peered behind the counter, he saw a built-in cabinet underneath. He opened it.
***
Seal held her breath. She held the straight end of the crowbar outward, perched above her shoulder. One of her pursers had left. One remained. Please don’t find Beth, please don’t find Beth, she thought.
The Paleskin rooted around in the garage for a short while before its footsteps creaked on the rotted floorboards in the attendant’s room. The sound grew closer, then paused. Seal could tell the monster stopped outside of the closed cabinet she hid in. Its long nails made a staccato tapping on the counter above her. It opened the door.
Seal stabbed outward with the crowbar, hitting it in the face. The Paleskins fell backward and let out a scream. He held his face with both hands.
She stabbed it in the face again. It screamed and pushed her away, fleeing into the garage. She hoped she had blinded it fully. There would still be two more to deal with.
As the mop-headed Paleskin struggled through its pain, the short one returned, running at full speed. It saw her and did not stop to check on its friend. She swung at his approaching arms, but her swings were not strong enough. The short one pinned her against the wall. Its teeth were bared; his mouth nearly upon her cheek. Seal fell backward, and it fell on her, before pulling back with a wailing screech. It held its hand in pain, though she had done nothing to it. Smoke emanated from it.
While it stood stunned, Seal kicked out, knocking it over. The other Paleskins she had stabbed with the crowbar reentered. It had only been half blinded and its face twisted in hatred towards her.
Was it fate or luck that allowed her to last this long? What hurt the smaller Paleskins? She looked over her shoulder and under the trash she spotted an oily rag, sitting on top of it was an old leather bag. Old beads were sewn to the outside and it was tied shut. It must be a symbol of power, useful like a cross.
These Paleskins were stronger than her, but they had weaknesses. She grabbed the bag and swung it before her as the half blind one converged on her. She caught him on his cheek. Both injured Paleskins retreated.
“Len, get in here!” one yelled. “We need help.” Seal pressed in on them while holding the crowbar and the bag to ward them off. They tried to flank her, but she slid into the corner. I’m a cornered animal, she thought. And I’m going to fight.
“You’re outnumbered,” the half blind mophead screamed. It approached and Seal swung at him, but she missed.
“Wait,” the smaller Paleskins said. “I smell others. You have friends?”
Others? Two thoughts came to Seal’s head. One good and one bad. The good news was they had smelled Javin. He had been here, and he was alive, and hopefully safe and long gone. The other was that Beth, even as a doll, smelled alive to them. She could not let them catch her sister.
“Go and I won’t hurt you.” She held out the beaded bag in front of her. Her hands trembled. “I am not important. I’m not worth dying for.” She tried to press them backwards through the broken garage door, but they held their ground and forced her back. The smaller one peeled away and went to the attendant’s room. His eyes went directly above the door. Oh no, Seal thought. She felt faint.
“Ahhhh,” he said, in triumph.
“What’d you find?” Tork called out. Seal held on and pushed the bag his way to keep him back. Alvy reentered the garage with Beth. She beat at his enveloping fist with her doll arms, which would have appeared comical in another circumstance.
“What a strange thing. We can’t eat this, but it is full of life. Must be worth a fortune.” the short one said. “Smells like a soul…” he sniffed deeper, “grass… and tobacco.” It held the buckskin doll out in both hands and twisted her doll body. Beth struggled but made no sounds of pain. “If this is precious to you, you will stop fighting us, girl.”
Seal knew giving up meant death, but she had no choice. “Let her go and you can have me. If you let her go, I will not fight.”
“No,” the short vampire hissed. “We are in control.”
“Do it, we can catch her after we eat this one,” the mophead said. He still appeared pained as a dark liquid oozed down his face.
“Shut up,” the short one said and gave his friend a reproachful look. “This little one will make us rich. The Sisters crave magical things. And we can drink the girl dry now.”
Seal did not hesitate longer. She swung the crowbar at the raised arms of the short vampire and then tackled him. She pressed the bag to his face. He screamed and let go of Beth.
“Run,” Seal yelled. “Find a place they cannot reach. Now!”
The mop-headed Paleskin pulled Seal from the top of the short one and pinned her against the wall. The short one recovered himself.
“I’ll find the doll. You hold her here and don’t eat her before Len and I come back.” The crowbar and the bag lay uselessly out of reach. As the short one ran off, a noise came from the back wall of the gas station.
Mop-head called out. “Len, get in here, man. Where have you been? Alvy and I need you.“ A louder thump bounced against the same wall. Seal thought the much bigger Paleskins was throwing itself full force against it to terrify her. It worked.
“Oh, he’s mad now. And Len is the meanest of us. Especially after what you did to him earlier. He knows how to make it hurt real bad when he feeds. Real bad.” He sniffed Seal’s neck.
Footsteps came from behind them and he stopped. “Len, it’s about time. You can have first d…” Seal felt the weight of the Paleskin’s body suddenly ease. Huge hands wrapped around its neck.
“Len dead. You next.” William’s giant hands easily crushed the Paleskin’s throat. Heavy yellowed bandages wrapped around his neck where the formerly living Tork punctured it during their first fight. Seal noticed more bandages wrapped around his midsection. A black substance stained it. “You safe now.”
“But Beth,” Seal limped to the opening. “We have to help her.”
“She okay. Brother with.” As Seal looked out, she saw another creature, bulky in form, but not as large as William. Yellowing bandages wrapped around his entire body, but you could see his dusty face and colorless eyes through a wide opening. The mummy-like creature dragged the short Paleskins behind him. It was tangled in the long strips of the mummy’s cloth. Beth skipped along behind them, now unafraid.
“This brother, Karl,” William Said. Seal greeted the mummy creature.
Now Seal had two companions. A patchwork man and a mummy. This journey was getting stranger.
“Take sister and walk. You not watch.” Beth ran into her sister’s waiting arms. Seal fetched the bag she found and turned from William and Karl. The smaller vampire awoke and saw his captors.
“We did not know you had…” They pounded the life out of him before he could complete his sentence. The two large protectors joined her down the road.
“Which is supposed to be the Scarecrow and which is supposed to be the Tinman,” Beth whispered to Seal.
“Does it matter?” Seal had fallen into her own Wizard of Oz story, and she had a lot to think about.