I looked out through the glass doors to see if we had a chance to get any farther before we should find a place to sleep. As I looked out, I remembered I had heard that we were due for a particularly severe blizzard that night and I prayed that it would wait awhile and happen the night, but alas, it wasn't so. We'd have to stow away in one of the stores in the mall. All of a sudden, I felt a tug on my sleeve and turned towards a small girl with dark blue and purple-striped black hair. Her sapphire-blue eyes locked with mine and she asked, "Zahi, can we go see Santa? We aren't going to be able to leave the mall tonight, right?"
Gazing away from her and through the clear glass doors of the mall, I thought over what could go wrong. "Sure," I answered to her hopeful face, "but don't mention anything about the fact that we're runaways." In response to this, she smiled and wrapped her arms around me in a grateful hug.
"I won't. Promise," she assured me as she dropped her hug to drag me over to the line to see the big man in the red suit. We stood in line for about five minutes before I stepped out, told Zyli that I'd be back, and left to get a Coke. By the time I'd returned, there was only one person in front of Zyli, so I sneaked up close enough to "Santa" to hear what Zyli would ask for because, despite the fact that we're runaways, I still have to get something for her for Christmas. The little, blonde-haired boy that was previously in front of Zyli, jumped off of Santa's lap, and ran back to his mother while Zyli ran up and climbed onto the big man's lap.
"Ho ho ho!" the big man laughed, "Aren't you a sweet little girl. What would you like for Christmas, sweetie?" The elf stood by the toy sack and waited for her response so he could pull out the toy that she wanted.
Zyli, however wasted no time in replying, "I want you and my brother to have the best Christmas this year." It was immediately obvious that her response forced the elf and big man to drop their jaws on the floor. "I know that you live alone with Mrs. Claus in the North Pole, so I figured that you didn't get many Merry Christmases, and since you're here, I thought I'd tell you myself," she continued, oblivious to the tasered visages of the elf and big man. Darn, I really shouldn't have believed that she would ask for a material possession. I guess that breed of selflessness came from not receiving much anything for Christmas, or any other reason, for around four years.
"Why thank you little girl," the big man said as he got over his shock, "But would you like anything else?" Apparently he was uncomfortable with the situation, much more so than the green clothed elf, that much was evident by his expression.
"If it's not too much trouble, do you have a crossword puzzle book that I can have?" she asked, once again oblivious to the renewed looks of shock that the request earned her. Yup, that was my little sister. Being about as big as a five year old probably didn't boost the big man's sense of normalcy, either.
"Um, I'm not sure if we have any of those left," the big man said uncertainly, no doubt hoping that she'd believe him and ask for something else, when he was interrupted by the elf. The elf came over carrying a crossword puzzle book, while he said " Here's one boss."
"Thanks, Santa! And you too, Mr. Elf!" she exclaimed cheerfully as she gave the big man an enormous hug and jumped off his lap to come find me. I quickly went back to the end of the line before she arrived there so that she wouldn't suspect me of eavesdropping, not that she'd mind, but it's the thought of it that matters. That also meant that she didn't know I was the one to put the crossword puzzle book in the sack, which was a plus. I'm not, nor was I ever, well known for doing nice things to people. So far, Zyli's the only exception to my unniceness.
"Zahi!" she said as she jumped the last five feet from me to latch onto me with her flying ninja hug, "Look at what I got from Santa!"
Glancing at the object with what I hoped could be taken as curiosity, I spoke, "A new crossword puzzle book? Don't you have like a dozen of those?"
"Yeah, but I told you that I finished all of those already, remember?" she replied matter-of-factly.
"Oh yeah, I do remember you mentioning something like that," I said, feigning a remembering look. "Come on, kiddo. We need to find a store to stow away in for the night. Preferably one with blankets, beds, and pillows, though I won't get my hopes up." Shifting her to my hip and proceeded to find a store that we could sleep in for the night. After a while we found a nice little shop that included a furniture section with beds.
"Okay, Zyli, ready to invisible up?" I asked her after we had climbed underneath a large bed. All I got was a brisk nod before she, the crossword puzzle book, and the pen she was using disappeared. That was one of our unique abilities that stemmed off from a larger group. I could manipulate light and heat, while she could manipulate cold and darkness. We don't actually become invisible though, it's more like we put on extremely awesome camouflage.
"Hey, Zahi," Zyli asked after, according to my silver, generic watch, thirty minutes, "what's a eight-lettered word for a mythical dog beast?"
"I don't know," I replied while interrogating my memory reserves for anything that my history teacher may have told us about mythical dog beasts. "Does it ask for a specific set of myths? If not try Cerberus, that's the only one I can think of."
"It fits!" she exclaimed quietly, "Thanks, Zahi.""No prob," I replied with an unseen smile. "I'm going to hit the hay, okay? If they show up, get me up quick." I needed to get some sleep. I hadn't slept since we stayed out behind that gas station two days ago. After a little tossing and turning, I decided to climb out and onto the bed and coerced Zyli to clamber out and relax in a nice, soft-looking, blue easy chair that was not too far from the black-framed bed. After I laid down, prayed that I wouldn't have any nightmares, and relaxed, I tumbled into the comforting abyss of sleep.
----
"Zahi, why are they chasing us?" Zyli had asked innocently. She had sounded like she was teetering between crying and holding it in until we came to a place we could rest. It had made me so furious I had almost broken my fist on the brick wall that we had been leaning against, which isn't exactly unusual about me, but still, the thought was there.
"I don't know, Zyli, but I do know that... wait I think they're coming again," I had peeked around the corner as I said the last part and had seen them. The pair had been coming from a different direction then the monsters had been, but they couldn't fool me, I knew they were in league with the monsters. They had been walking slowly, probably trying to spot us before we spotted them. We had seen them many times before. Even in the darkness, I had been able to tell that the one on the left had been black haired and olive-skinned and the one on the right had been pale- skinned, but also had black hair. The olive-skinned boy had been wearing an aviator's jacket, like always, but from our recent encounters, I was probably right in assuming that he had been wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans with a skull ring on his finger even though I couldn't make out exact details.
His cohort on the other hand, had probably been wearing that stupid orange t-shirt that proclaimed "Camp Half-Blood." He had also more than likely been wearing blue jeans and holding that stupid little pen in his hand as he had at every one of our previous encounters.
After examining the view, I had pulled my head back around the corner at the same time that I had tilted it to catch the sounds the monsters had made. They had still sounded far-off if the cries of the half-seal dogs and the, larger than they should be, dogs were to be believed, but the shrieks of the part-donkey, part-bronze, part-human freaks had sounded a lot closer than the dog things.
Two things had happened then. The shrieking freaks had jumped out of the bushes at us and the two stalkers had popped their heads around the corner. Out of reflex, I had picked up the silverish looking metal pipe that I had been using to defend myself and my sister from the monsters and lifted it as one of the freaks jumped. Needless to say, it had impaled itself and died, but I had been shocked to see it burst into a cloud of dust. It had taken a tug on my sleeve from Zyli to pull me out of my shock and take note of my surroundings. The two boys had been fighting the freaks (the dog things had yet to catch up) with swords. The olive-skinned boy's had been a dark, impenetrable black color while the the other one's had been a glowing bronze color.
Then I had pulled Zyli up and around the corner of the building to the front where I had been confronted by a fearsome creature that looked to be half-bull and half-man and a weird looking lion. The minotaur (I had remembered what the half-bull thing was called) had been decked out in glowing bronze armor and had had a pair of sickening horns protruding from the greasy mess of fur on his head. The lion, on the other hand, had looked just like a lion, except for his fur, which had looked as though it was stronger then regular fur, ridiculous as that sounds.
Before the minotaur, or lion could have done anything, however, a explosion rocked the ground. I had assumed that the gas tank in the back had exploded and I had quickly got back up on my feet. As I had quickly scanned the ground for the metal pipe that I had dropped, I had seen Zyli laying on the ground. I had tried to get her up, but she wasn't responding and it wasn't until my hand had accidentally touched the blood that had been laying on her forehead that I understood why. A shingle from the roof of the gas station had flown off from the force of the explosion and nailed my little sister in the head.
I had heard a thud, which pulled me out of my shock(again), and had looked up to see the minotaur and lion start to charge us. As if a gift from a divine being, I had seen my pipe laying about three feet from where I had fallen. Almost without thinking, I had thrown said pipe like a javelin as I thanked God for my track and field days, at the gas pumps, which had promptly exploded, turning the lion and minotaur into dust like their freaky friend behind the building. I hadn't seen how the minotaur died, but I had seen the lion get a three foot, red hot, metal spike thrust up through the roof of its mouth. The weird thing, though, was that the lion had left behind its pelt.After having checked to make sure the coast was clear, I had run up and grabbed the pelt and had used it to cover Zyli's wound and to prevent further bleeding. I may have failed my first aid test, but I still remember how to treat a slightly complex cut. It had then taken me two days to steal a wagon and use said wagon to carry Zyli all the way to the nearest town/city despite her protests that she was fine.
----
I was brought out of my sub-conscious flashback when Zyli shook me violently and shouted, "They're here, Zahi! Wake up!"