BOMB AND BUST
When Erica returned to school, she walked toward the nearest door via the student parking lot. There she found Sarah scowling at a vintage 60's model car.
This car was painted a metallic blue and black. From any distance, it looked awesome. But peering up close, one realized something was wrong. It had an uneven paintjob; someone had economically scraped and polished off the rust and painted over the deteriorated metal that had remained. Or, in a least two locations, placed sheet metal patches to cover up holes. Looking closely, as little as Erica knew about automotive repair, Erica thought the panels on the side of the car should have been replaced entirely.
It was a real cheap job. The type of do-it-yourself job a teenager might do if he had mechanical ability, a little money, and a lot of spare time.
It soon became obvious who the car belonged to; although Erica had no idea of what the car's make and model was. As each state has its own license plate designs, so does each Canadian province. The white and blue plates, typically, read "Ontario" at the top, and "Yours to Discover" at the bottom. In the middle of the six-letter plate number was a tiny blue crown.
"MOR-GAN" read Erica, "Funny, I wouldn't put Ethan as the type of guy to buy personalized plates."
"Ethan's always been license-plate happy" said Sarah irritably. "He collects them, remember? Or collected them. I don't know if they meet his cool new standards. But being a werewolf's made him supremely self-confident. Enough for personalized plates at least."
"At least I won't have to break it to you that your geeky boyfriend's now a werewolf" Erica observed with some relief. "And a werewolf jock at that."
"So that's what you found out?" said Sarah. "I found it out too, just seeing and talking to Ethan. I might have learned more . . . if Ethan's coach hadn't dragged him off to a last minute pre-game practice."
"I was talking to his bro . . . ."
"Hodges?"
"Yes" said Erica. "Hodges also ran off and left me for practice. Did Ethan mention Jared Vincenzio Hodges?"
"Of course" said Sarah, with a sigh. "Benny's replacement in this twisted reality. Ethan dodged my questions about Benny. "Poor Benny" Ethan called him."
"I guess he would" said Erica, in a non-committal voice.
"I'll break that . . . gently" thought Erica.
"I also met my replacement" Sarah complained. "Trixie."
"Trixie?" said Erica. "What's a Trixie?"
"A 43-25-37 head cheerleader" said Sarah.
"How do you know her measurements?" said Erica, raising an eyebrow.
"One of the side-effects of Ethan being a werewolf and school athletic hero is a swelled head. And a preference for busty cheerleaders with low IQ's. It also explains the personalized plates."
"Ethan and a cheerleader?" said Erica thoughtfully. "The world has turned upside down!"
"As far as I can tell" said Sarah acerbically, "she's a bimbo but not cruel . . . just an airhead. I think she's a little jealous of me."
"Maybe, because as of a few hours ago, Ethan and you were still boyfriend and girlfriend?" asked Erica curiously.
"I'd like to think that" said Sarah, musingly. "You know I'm deep down a romantic. I know Ethan's just a high school boyfriend . . . but you know, it might be true love conquering all."
"I've had enough frustration in one day to have to throw up now" Erica replied sarcastically.
"I know!" said Sarah with a sigh. "It might just be because in this new reality Ethan and me are still friends. And I'm the only one besides Jane to know his secret."
"Of being a werewolf?" asked Erica. "Or everything else?"
"Of being a werewolf" said Sarah. "But, probably, the supernatural in general."
"Then we're going to need to have a long talk, about what we know now and where we go from here" said Erica. "The good news is that I think this world is reversible. Maybe very easily. But I don't know how."
"How do you know it's reversible?" asked Sarah.
"After Hodges left, Tempus Mercator turned up to offer me a sucker deal" said Erica. "He seemed desperate to want me to betray my BFF and help him lock in his screwed reality. Of course I said no."
"Thank you" said Sarah, appreciatively.
The girls shared a brief hug.
"You don't know what he offered me" Erica observed.
"I know it involved you being made a vampire again" said Sarah dryly. "I know you at least as well as he does."
"As I said it, was a sucker deal anyways" said Erica, lowering her voice as some Grade 9 newbs excited about the big game walked across the parking lot.
Erica continued in her kindest, most sympathetic tone.
"And I wouldn't betray you again for any deal. I know that even though this is all Tempus' fault, you're going to . . . unfairly . . . blame yourself for everything's that's gone wrong. But the first thing we should do, is compare notes to see what we've found out about this world. I have an idea as to where Tempus exactly unbolted reality."
"I do too" said Sarah. "But I think we should find some place more private where we can talk."
"And maybe warmer. It is still February! You don't have the key to Ethan's car, do you?"
"Even if I did, I wouldn't get in it" said Sarah. "Don't you recognize the car?"
Erica looked at the car. She couldn't place it. And she looked in vain for an emblem she could recognize.
"It's not some company that's gone under?" said Erica, reminded unpleasantly of Hodges and the "story" of Ace Publishing.
"This is the Brunner car" said Sarah. "Repainted blue."
"Ethan would think blue was cooler than red on a car" said Erica critically. "Maybe it's a werewolf thing?"
"Are you listening?" said Sarah impatiently. "The Brunner car?
"Yes, vampire-possessed" said Erica. "But why would a vampire-possessed car let a werewolf drive it."
"I know why" said Sarah, who still looked at the car distastefully. "Our theory at the time was that Ethan's seer powers activated the ghost of Jacob, Manifred Brunner's vampire mechanic. Now that Ethan's powers only consist of turning into an overgrown man-eating wolf, the vampire ghost is dormant. No seer powers to activate it."
"If Jacob does possess the car still" said Erica. "The outside latch for the hood is loose. Look in that corner. I wonder if Ethan's done any engine work. That might have dislodged him."
Sarah, with some care, released the hood. Erica took a few steps back.
Nothing happened.
"There's some new parts here and there" said Sarah at last. "But I think it's obvious Ethan wasn't feeding it any blood to revive Jacob.
"So, I'm guessing that the Brunners haven't yet been roadkill."
"And Ethan is driving about a $100 vampire-possessed car" observed Erica. "That he fixed up himself . . . with Hodges I bet. Funny. Wasn't it Benny who pretended to be a werewolf mechanic?"
"Well, I'm not going to tell Ethan about the car . . . yet" said Sarah, carefully lowering the hood again. "Jacob is the least of our worries. I just hope this time bomb doesn't go off. Let sleeping bloodsuckers lie."
"And . . . if you weren't listening . . . let's get inside before we freeze!" said Erica.
Atypically, instead of talking outside their lockers or the student lounge, the girls headed to the school library to compare notes. The long low room was very quiet this afternoon. Practically everybody was going to the basketball game . . . or leaving school early.
Seeking the maximum ability to talk without being overheard, Sarah and Erica sat at a short varnished table obscured from view by a few rows of bookshelves. The table was known as the "Caesar" table at Whitechapel, due to a cracked old bust of Julius Caesar on a pedestal in the corner.
In addition to Caesar, and privacy, the library also offered easy access to last years' yearbook. Sarah, despite herself, was pleased to see she had been de-vamped early; so her picture was in with the rest of the Grade 11's. Erica still didn't have a picture.
"Meaning that I was still a vampire last year" she concluded.
"Maybe I still would had been if I been continuously living in this world" Erica added under-her-breath. "Maybe that's what Tempus was getting at?"
Ethan's photo looked similar. And his picture was everywhere when it came to the photos of the sports teams. Usually proudly mugging for the camera at the side of the photo, wearing his letterman's jacket.
Sarah hated these photos. They shouldn't exist! And there was more to it. One of Sarah's deepest secrets was that, since she started dating Ethan, she saw him as a sort of a teenage Mountie. She could see him, in her minds eye, in the familiar red serge and the broad-brimmed Stetson hat. Upholding the right, or "Maintains le Droit" as the official RCMP motto went.
Now? Sarah thought Ethan looked more like a "human sasquatch" than anything else.
Erica looked at Sarah's frowning expression, and decided that it was her duty to cheer Sarah up.
"If Ethan's so good why isn't he captain?" said Erica, interrupting Sarah's brooding. "Of anything?"
"You've dated jocks and you don't realize why?" Sarah snapped. "Usually captain's reserved for seniors at our school. And in football, not only is the captain a senior, it's usually the quarterback. Ethan's running back."
"I thought he was the tailback" said Erica. "A triple-threat tailback."
"The tailback is a type of running back" said Sarah impatiently. "The running back furthest from the line of scrimage. And triple-threat means he can run, pass and kick. Given his size . . . now . . . he's probably what they call a power running back."
"Shouldn't he be used as a full back then?"
"In Canadian football that's a defensive position."
"I forgot" Erica joked, "you always knew your sports. You were always a bit of a daddy's girl."
This was also a remark calculated to make Sarah feel better. She was a bit of a daddy's girl, although not at the expense of the relationship with her mother. Still, only a close friend like Erica could tease Sarah about it . . . and get away with it.
"That's not important now" said Sarah, who flipped away from the sports section of the yearbook.
Which, again, was what Erica had hoped.
Looking further through the yearbook, Sarah noticed that Rory and Benny were entirely missing.
"Ethan did Rory a favour by wearing his mascot suit last year and posing as Rory" Sarah told Erica. "When he was a vampire Rory wouldn't even show up on camera in the mascot suit. But I don't suppose Ethan could or would talk to Rory anymore."
"Because he's too popular" observed Erica.
"No, because Ethan couldn't be physically present in the same room as a vampire without losing it in minutes" said Sarah. "I remember what happened two years ago. When Benny accidentally turned Ethan into a werewolf, the day before we were talking in the student lounge. Something set him off . . . actually something set us off . . . and we were almost at each other's throats. I was just furious with him for no reason . . . it must have been the same with Ethan. Benny ended up standing between us. And when I left, Ethan actually growled at me!"
Erica made a wincing expression, and took a deep breath.
"Do you remember the time you went after the Reversal Potion?" said Erica abruptly. "When Ethan was turned into werewolf for the first time?"
"How can I forget?" said Sarah. "I still have Ethan's summaries saved on my phone."
"Do you think they're still on our phones?"
"My phone seemed immune to whatever time change went on around us" said Sarah. "It still is. I have pictures of the real Ethan. And I have his summaries. Well, his first draft of summaries. I think he's since revised them with Benny and Rory."
"I remember" said Erica. "When he started writing them Ethan was still a bit wacko from Stephanie's curse.
"He wasn't really completely himself again until Musetronics were a hit at the Grade 9 dance" Sarah replied.
Ethan had, a few months before, decided to type summaries out for all of "Team SaBRE's adventures. Ethan's idea was to record, for future reference, how the team (or parts of the team) fought and met with the challenges of facing monsters.
Ethan was only human, however, and the "Blue Moon" adventure didn't really rate high in his memory. And he had written his summary for the adventure after being cured of being a werewolf for the second time. So his description here was particularly terse . . . and very critical of his friends. That is, his friends with the exception of Sarah:
We suspected school jock David Stochowski of being a werewolf. My (Ethan's) vision of Stochowski looking for a cure seemed to confirm suspicions. Bottle of flourescent- blue cure found was in a bottle buried in Ahora. Found by Sarah's intrepid searching in park. Vision was misleading. Stochowski was only a were sheepdog, either through being bitten or means unknown (SEE FOOTNOTE 1). Bottle of cure, fluorescent blue, was much later revealed to have been the "Master Spell" or "Master Reversal Potion". Would be invaluable to find another bottle or the formula.
FOOTNOTE 1: Benny misused, mispronounced, and FRACKED UP the "canis lupis" spell to reveal Stochowski as a werewolf. It ricocheted on me (Ethan) turning me into a werewolf. We only realized this on the actual night of the full moon. Benny's attempt to cure me with his "corvus tricon" spell a total failure due to his lack of power (we think) – did pause things momentarily. Turned into a werewolf in my basement. Subconscious anger with Benny had me nearly kill him as werewolf. Sarah saved the day by bravely forcing cure down my throat. FURTHER NOTES: (1) This SNAFU gave Stephanie the idea to get her revenge by turning me into a werewolf, AGAIN (2) Stochowski chained himself up in my basement; he only turned into a were-dog. (3) Erica thought I was Werewolf Stochowski and rooted for me to attack Benny. (4) Rory spread word I was having a party, putting lots of people in danger. (5) Also Rory went downstairs, and Benny says, screamed like a little girl.
"And Ethan thinks I'm bitter" said Erica, laughing. "But he likes you. He didn't point out you originally wanted to use the cure for yourself. He didn't even mention you were a fledgeling at the time."
"But it explains everything else!" said Sarah. "One of the things that Ethan let slip this afternoon was that he became a werewolf when I was cured of a being a vampire. So obviously I drank the Master Reversal Potion myself. And, for some reason, neither Benny nor his grandmother were able to cure Ethan of being a werewolf. Maybe after he turned into a werewolf it was too late to undo the spell?"
"Things were worse than that" said Erica nervously. "There was nobody to stop Ethan from going after poor Benny and Stochowski.
"What happened to them?" said Sarah with trepidation. "As if I should be asking?"
Erica paused.
"Ethan killed them. In fact, he at least partly ate them."
For a moment the ceiling tiles, the bust and pedestal, the mahogany table, and the books seemed to whirl about Sarah's vision. Meanwhile Erica went on in a forced calm voice. Erica described the planted story about Benny joyriding in Mrs. Weir's Ford, stranded in the country and being attacked by rabid coyotes. That Ethan, back in human form, and Benny's grandmother, who must have rushed back into town upon learning of her grandson's demise, covered up all that happened in the Morgan basement. How, a couple days later, Evelyn Weir passed away in her sleep from the stress of it all. And how, according to Hodges, when he moved in Ethan had still been shaken by the loss of his childhood friend.
"Are you okay?" asked Erica.
"Of course I'm not okay!" Sarah blurted, before continuing in a quieter tone, "But there's no use carping about it now. The only thing to do is erase it. The only other thing I've heard from Ethan is what happened afterwards. I already know about some of lycanthropy's side-effects, it makes him wired and makes him look like a werewolf in human form. Ethan says that helped start him into sports. First doing well in gym class, then hockey, then everything else."
"Ethan's new best friend and next-door neighbour helped develop his new personality" said Erica. "To put it in a few words, Hodges is a guy who camps, fishes, canoes, and plays all sports while caring about his grades and getting into university."
"Now that's Machiavellian " said Sarah begrudgingly. "Ethan was forced to re-balance his interests to keep sane and under control. His new best friend was driven enough academically to relate to Ethan. Ethan was already okay with sports, so not only was he a werewolf but with the help of his new friends he was slowly molded into a jock. I ran into some of Ethan's old friends. Ethan's tries to be a nice guy to them . . . but it isn't just Ethan. Everybody says he has a sharp edge to him, that he tries to hide but it doesn't always work."
"That would be the werewolf in him" said Erica.
"I know" Sarah admitted. "And Ethan's sort of a jerk now. He's jealous, and he really likes to brag about Trixie. But it's not as if he can confide in her.
"And with Trixie, Ethan's not interested in looking back in his geeky past" said Erica.
"Especially because her mother's a bartender and Ethan has an open field with her every night from six pm to one am at her house" said Sarah.
"Don't tell me you're jealous" said Della.
Sarah and Erica started.
"I was going to thank you for taking on collecting the yearbook money yourself" said Della. "And remind you that you that I volunteered to take the photos of the winning team after the game. So you can watch from the stands and cheer on the team without worrying about photos."
"If the team wins" Sarah reminded Della, with a sigh.
"Of course they'll win." Della looked at Erica. "Oh, hi? I don't think we've met."
"Not for a long time" Erica said, a bit annoyed but deciding to be polite about the interruption. "It's Erica."
"Hi Erica" said Della pleasantly. "It's Della. Funny you should take this table. Ever since Julius was removed, no one likes to sit here and look at Mr. Stern."
"Who?" asked Erica.
"The bust of Stern" said Della impatiently. "It's enough to make you lose your lunch. Don't you remember? When he died last year he left instructions to donate a bust of himself in place of Caesar? This thing has been here since September."
Rapidly the girls turned about, and looked at the statue. A new bust of Vice Principal Stern had replaced the old bust of Caesar. Although it was a pale bust of white plaster, the dead eyes seemed to glare at the girls. Sarah and Erica both made faces of disgust, before turning back to Della.
"He didn't leave any money for a bust" Sarah argued. "Not yet. He's still only officially missing"
"What are you talking about Sarah?" asked Della. "He's dead and buried.
"How did he die then?" asked Erica, making a motion to Sarah.
"Oh, a heart attack in his office" said Della. "One night last May. They say it was quick, he didn't suffer. It was sad he died . . . but they shouldn't have let him curse us with this bust because he passed away at school."
"Funny. He died right on schedule . . . but from a different cause" said Erica.
"What are you talking about?" said Della.
"Do you what happened to Stephanie the lunch lady?" asked Sarah abruptly.
Della looked surprised.
"She was a very bitter, very angry old woman" added Erica, by way of explanation.
More confused, Della paused for a moment. Then she finally decided to answer.
"Oh, the one that started work a few months after I started Grade 9. She started as cashier but then the head cook made her work in the kitchen so she wouldn't yell at the students."
"That would be her" said Sarah acerbically.
"Don't you remember? She died when she accidentally burnt her hand on the stove and then backed up, tripped, fell, and hit her head on a garbage can and had a concussion. It was very . . . tragic."
Della was too nice to say funny, but only caught herself at the last moment.
"This happened A couple months ago, at the end of November" said Sarah.
"Right"
Sarah and Erica dodged Della's attempts at small talk, and watched impatiently as she disappeared behind the book stacks.
"No matter what" said Sarah, "everyone who died in the real world, still has to die on time. I wonder that means?"
"Probably that Tempus Mercator Daemonium doesn't have the power to bring souls back to life" said Erica. "Kills people, change the world, but he can't really touch souls."
"He's a demon" said Sarah. "Really, he doesn't have the right to manipulate time and reality either. He's not really a merchant of time, just a thief. That's probably why he was so happy to claim that he could do all this by reaching in and removing a bolt from somewhere in time."
"Tempus Mercator Daemonium offered to turn me into a vampire in exchange for my soul" Erica shrugged, "But that wasn't all he said. He mentioned that, like last time, Ethan becoming a werewolf for any length of time destroyed him as a seer."
"That much is true; I heard that straight from Ethan" said Sarah.
"Well, the end of Ethan the Seer has rewritten most of your team's adventures since Ethan became a werewolf" said Erica.
"Especially since several of the adventures were started by Benny misusing his magic" sighed Sarah, nostalgically.
"Or Ethan and his geek squad messing about in things they should have left along" said Erica, also with a sigh. "But I do know that with Valerie Mudrap and the Mole Scouts, Ethan had something to do with that. Hodges seemed to have been involved somehow, if only because he's an ex-Mole Scout and can't even let the group be insulted. That guy's hair started to grey, it might be the hole-in-the-floor business that shook him to his core. I'm betting Ethan regretted bringing in his pal that one time."
"It all makes senses" said Sarah. "That adventure involved Jane. Ethan couldn't dodge it. Ethan also mentioned to me in passing mentioned that the Jockenstein adventure happened. The part where the gym coach tried to use Ethan for a brain transplant. I just guess . . . I hope . . . Anastasia wasn't accusing me of drinking blood from dead bodies. In this reality, I wasn't even ever a full vampire."
"You weren't a vampire, so Ethan wouldn't have cared what was going on with the vampire council. Or ran into them, unless it was on my behalf. Or Rory's."
"Ethan couldn't have become involved anyway" said Sarah. "Unless Anastasia wanted to bring in Ethan to growl at her. And whatever happened with Rory, I don't think Ethan and him were or are on speaking terms."
"Which reminds me" said Erica. "There may still be a vampire council."
"How?" asked Sarah.
Erica explained that as Ethan has little or no dealings with the Vampire council, the Lucifractor had neither been found nor destroyed, so the vampires hadn't been chased from town. Perhaps Stern had butted heads with then, perhaps not. Perhaps Stern had used his magic to decimate their presence, but perhaps not.
Yet the Lucifractor was still hidden in the abandoned hotel where Jesse had once stashed it. That much Tempus Mercator Daemonium had insisted upon.
"We can't trust him, of course" said Sarah musingly.
Sarah wasn't looking at Erica, but at the bust of Stern.
"What?" asked Erica.
"At least we shouldn't have to worry about Jesse or Anastasia surprising us" said Sarah. "They died, and technically, they died as human beings. So, in their case, we don't have to worry about a vampire exception to the dying-on-schedule rule. That makes us the only two who know the whereabouts of the Lucifractor. We might be able to use it. If we could find it, get past that invisible monster that's guarding it, and . . . and if it isn't a trap . . . ."
"If it is a trap . . . Tempus still seemed very eager to make a deal with me, so I'd seal this reality in place permanently" said Erica.
"His being a demon obviously means we can't believe anything he says. He might just want us to waste our time going after the Lucifractor. But I think there's hope in defeating him because of something Benny said" said Sarah. "It has to do with Coach Ed."
"Oh, that ghost coach who terrorized Ethan?" said Erica still amused by the idea. "I wasn't really involved in that. Wherever he is, he must be loving this. Ethan's exactly what Coach Ed wanted him to be. A score for the forces of evil."
"Ethan said Coach Ed once reached in his chest and squeezed his heart" Sarah replied. "But that's not the point. Coach Ed and Ethan made a bargain. Coach Ed promised to leave if Ethan won him a trophy. When Ethan beat your boyfriend, Coach Ed tried to back off. But Benny said that a magical contract was always binding. Sure enough, Ethan said he watched as Coach Ed was pulled by the souls of the geeks he destroyed into some sort of a phantom locker."
Erica considered.
"It wasn't just a wish Tempus granted you. It's a contract. This reality for your setting him free. It's a tall order to catch him."
"What if I just cancel my wish?" suggested Sarah.
"He won't take it back" said Erica.
"Why do I have the nut and the bolt?" said Sarah, producing them from her jacket and dropping them upon the table. "What if we were to put these back where they belong?"
"Where and when they belong" Erica pointed out. "We'd need magic and unless we're prepared to search for out-of-town spellmasters we're screwed."
"We can get a jewel that blasts away the dark energy that stole the nut and bolt from their rightful . . . and historic . . . place" said Sarah. "The hole in time we saw him make with our own eyes."
"When Tempus reached into thin air and pulled out the nut and bolt" said Erica. "For the want of a nail. He reached into time and space and stole it. We can blast his curse out of existence with that stupid jewel."
Sarah smiled.
"We have a guy with the brains and the muscle to help us get to the Lucifractor . . . and who might just know where the nut and the bolt came from and put them back where they belong."
Sarah and Erica reflected one another's smiles. But only for a moment.
"If Ethan does wants to go back where he came from" Erica observed in an icy tone.