The first man sighed heavily, and she felt someone settle down in the grass next to her. It might have been Jack, the Rigger. “Great…”
“You gonna sit there with her like an idiot and hope she doesn’t decide to take this out on you? You know she’s going to be pissed as a cat in a bag when she comes around.”
“Better she tries to claw my eyes out than be alone.”
“Suit yourself, kid.”
She pressed her hands to her eyes and took a deep breath. “I really need both of you to shut the fuck up, please.”
Aaron laughed. “Feels like the worst kind o’ hangover, doesn’t it, toots?” He nudged her foot with his. “You’ll come ’round in a few minutes. I’ll tell you what. You sit here with Jackie, and I’ll go get you something stiff that’ll help.”
Silence. She assumed he walked away. She finally lowered her hands and blinked. There was a tree over her. When she turned her head, her vision moved out of sync with the rest of her, and it all felt disjointed and nauseating. As she blinked a few more times, things started to clear up. She was on a little grassy spot between some paths. She could make out the boxcars with the numbered doors nearby. She was back in the “staff area.” Rolling on her side, she fought the urge to retch.
Jack rubbed her back. “Deep breaths’ll help. I didn’t come here willingly either. You’ll be okay in a few minutes.”
She struggled to sit, and Jack helped her until she was leaning back against the tree. But at least she was finally upright. Rubbing her face, she shivered. She felt like she kept breaking out in a sweat like she had a fever. She finally managed to look at him. “Hi.”
He smiled and sat by her thigh. “Hi there, Cora with the nice car and the bad luck.”
“It’s a shit car.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen one.” He shrugged. “I’m sorry about all this. Especially with how it probably went down.”
“What happened? One second I—” She jolted in fear as she remembered Simon. She went wide-eyed as her heart instantly started pounding again. “Oh, God, he’s going to kill me!” She started to scramble to get up, but she failed on two counts. One, because her legs weren’t working, and two, because Jack caught her arms and held her still.
“Hey, hey, simmer down. Calm down. It’s okay. You’re safe. Nobody’s gonna kill you, not anymore. Simon can’t touch you. Well. He could, but I’m pretty sure now that he won’t.” He shook his head and winced. “Sorry. That’s not helping. That’s not the important part. The important part is that you’re safe.”
“I need to get out of here—I need to go home. I need to find Trent and get out of here. I need to convince him never to come back and—” Her head spun. Her body wasn’t ready for the adrenaline she had just pumped through it. She felt dizzy, and she groaned.
“What’d you say to get her all riled up?” Aaron walked back up to them and crouched in the grass net to her. He held a flask toward her. “Take a sip, toots.”
“Nothing. She’s just putting it together.” Jack sighed. “Simon was going to turn her into one of his dolls.”
“No shit.” Aaron rolled his eyes at the other man. “Please excuse Jack. He’s a sweet face but dumb as a brick.”
Jack glared. “Asshole.”
“Yeah. Drink up, toots.” Aaron shook the flask at her when she hesitated. “No cooties, no drugs. Nothing but good, old fashioned moonshine whiskey.”
“I wouldn’t take his word on the cooties bit,” Jack interjected. Aaron snickered and reached out to slap Jack in the arm.
She felt unsteady. She felt dizzy and sick. The moonshine might help. It might make it much worse. It was worth the risk. She took a swig from the flask. She coughed. It burned like rubbing alcohol. “Holy shit,” she coughed. “That’s not whiskey, that’s goddamn paint thinner.”
“Yeah, burns going down, but it’ll straighten you right out.”
Not wanting to try it again, she handed the flask back to him. He took it with a small chuckle and stood back up to his full height. To his credit, she wasn’t shivering as badly. But a second swig of that paint thinner was going to knock her out for a different reason. She wasn’t a lightweight by any means—but neither was the moonshine.
“What…what the actual fuck just happened to me?” She felt fuzzy. “I don’t think I can remember everything. It all went black.”
“We’ll get there. Start at the beginning. Talk us through what happened, toots. It’ll help.” Aaron slipped the flask into his vest pocket.
“No. I need to get out of here. I need to get to my car, and I need to leave.”
“Right, right. As soon as you get your legs under you.” He waved his hand dismissively. “We’ve got a couple minutes before you can speed off into the night.” When Jack furrowed his brow in confusion and opened his mouth to say something, Aaron cut him off with a glare. “Fill us in while we wait. What happened? What did the Faire tell you?”
“I…shouldn’t have come back here.” She put her head in her hands. There was no point in lying anymore. “It showed me Trent, dead. I asked it what I could to stop it. It showed me the hall of mirrors, then Simon’s tent…then one of those boxcars with a zero painted on the door. When I went to the hall of mirrors, it…showed me myself. But I wasn’t me. I was a contortionist. And I was covered in blood.”
Aaron swore a few times. “It picked you, then. Not Mr. Harrow. Shit.”
“I thought Mr. Harrow always picked the new Family members,” Jack said from beside her. “What’s this mean, Aaron?”
“I don’t know yet. What was Simon’s deal in all this, Cora?”
“He wanted me to be one of his dolls. Said he could take away all my pain. I didn’t know what he meant. When I saw…what he was going to do to me, I tried to run. I shouldn’t have listened to him. He’s going to eat me.”
“Never listen to the Puppeteer. But now, you know. It’s always the same story with him. He’s a conman of the highest degree. And trust me, it takes one to know one.” Aaron rubbed his chin. “Then what happened?”
“Turk showed up. Said that…said Mr. Harrow told him I was supposed to ‘take the zero,’ or whatever. It doesn’t make any sense. Simon said he was still going to kill me anyway, but Turk said that if Simon ‘Sponsored’ me, then he wouldn’t dare hurt me. I don’t know what any of this means. Something hurt, like something stabbed into my head, and I must have passed out. Please, I want to go home.”
Aaron and Jack groaned in unison. Aaron followed up with a few more vivid obscenities.
“What? What does it mean?” She looked up at them.
“It’s a long story, toots.” Aaron reached a hand down to her. “Come on, let me show you where you’ll be staying, and you can sleep it off. We can talk to Turk in the morning.”
“I’m not staying here! I’m going home.”
“You aren’t. I’m sorry, but you aren’t going anywhere.” Jack reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but she yanked away. “This is your home now.”