Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing.
Shadow Puppets
Chapter 25
Stephanie woke knowing that someone else was in the room. She lay in Ranger's big bed listening to the faint sound of breathing and wondered if she was losing her mind.
When she was sure she wasn't wrong, she tensed, ready to turn to Ranger and warn him that they weren't alone. Before she could move, he tightened his arm around her middle and breathed, "Shh," in her ear. So he already knew. She lay there and waited for someone to make a move.
Finally Ranger broke the stillness. "Move," he said, and shoved her towards the edge of the bed as he rolled the other way.
She continued the move and rolled off the side and under the bed. When she got there he was grinning at her from the other side.
He sent his Derringer skating across the floor towards her and disappeared.
She grabbed it and stood, pointing it at the shadow in the corner of the room.
Ranger was already standing at the other side of the bed with a tiny knife in his hand. He switched on the bedside lamp and the old woman from outside the restaurant stepped forward into the light.
"You know," Stephanie said. "I should just pull this trigger right now and be done with it."
"Don't be ridiculous," the witch said. "You aren't going to do anything to me. Do you want to end up half woman half plant? I haven't done that one yet."
"What do you want?" Ranger said.
"Just a social call," she said. "Ask her. She invited me."
Stephanie didn't take her eyes off her as she kept the gun steady. "I have no idea what she's talking about."
"Not buying it," Ranger said to the woman. "Try another."
She smiled. "No? Ask her. She hungers so badly that it calls me. She craves food like poor Bella craved her vengeance. I can taste it like tin in my mouth. How could I ignore an invitation like that?"
"Get out of my head, bitch," Stephanie said. "I'm uninviting you."
The woman shook her head slowly, smiling as though something delighted her. "Oh no. Why would I want to do that? This is wonderful. This is better than I ever dreamed. So many possibilities. The two of you are a work of art. You just need the right setting to be perfect."
"Ranger, I'm just going to shoot her," Stephanie said conversationally. "You have a problem with that?"
"Get in line." Ranger threw the knife at the woman. It embedded itself in her throat with a sickening thunk.
She hissed as she looked down at the blade. "Oh for goodness sake. You two are as bad as the others." She pulled the knife out and the wound closed as she spoke. "But unfortunately for you, you're mine, and I don't put up with that kind of behavior from my creations."
Stephanie screamed with silent fury through a mouth that wouldn't move as her puppet body betrayed her and sagged to the ground like a discarded child's toy.
The witch picked her up and tucked her against a body that smelled of earth and crushed leaves, and walked into a forest that shouldn't have existed in a seventh floor apartment.
* * *
Stephanie sat on the floor of the cage surrounded by cake and candy and glared as the witch opened the cage door and tossed Ranger inside. He landed next to her in a tumble of felt limbs and lay horribly still.
"He'd better be okay," Stephanie said to the witch.
"He will be."
"You are so going to regret this."
"Maybe." The witch's tone was offhand.
"I'm serious."
"Of course you are."
"I will get out of here and I will kick your ass, and then I will personally stuff every crumb of this stupid cottage down your whimsical, wish-granting throat."
"I'll be sure to have one here for you to kick."
"What?"
The witch ignored her and walked out of the cottage, closing the door behind her.
"Bitch," Stephanie said to the door. "I'm getting really sick of old women screwing with my life."
"You don't sound that pissed off," a voice said next to her, and she muttered, "Oh thank God," and threw her arms around Ranger. "Scare me like that again and I'll kick your ass too. My heart would be in my mouth right now if that bitch had left me one."
"Shh," he cautioned. "I'm going to be playing dead for a while. If you hear anything, you think I'm still out. You okay with that?"
"Sure. You know me, a lie for any occasion."
"You're a talented woman. Now tell me, why so happy? You're in here and the cake is out there."
Stephanie smiled. "Because she said back there that we were as bad as the others. Others, plural. So there's a chance that Joe, Lula and my Grandma are okay. And if they are," her smile became a little bit feral, "then it's game on."
Ranger smiled back. "Oh yeah."
"And then we find some clothes and deal with the cottage."