Interlude II

Cory enters the storefront of Dread Romantic and Olive immediately starts shouting, "Where the hell have you been?"   Cory laughs and points to a chair. "Can I at least sit first?"   "Fuck no. Wait…" She sees the burns on his hands and registers the redness in his face. At first she's worried, but then she laughed. "The hell did she do to you?"   Toby speaks up then, already seated and unnoticed despite that fact. "I didn't do anything. Why would I do that?"   Mavis shakes her head. "She's teasing him, Toby. Pay her no mind." She turns to Cory. "What happened, Cory?"   His reply is confident, as if he already worked out the details and merely waited to be asked for them, "Someone burned down the funeral home."

"With you inside?" Olive asks.   He gives Toby a look, then nods. "I took a nap."   "A fucking nap. You made her do all the work?" Toby tried to speak but Olive couldn't hear over her own voice. "You asshole."   "I apologize," he says with a shrug. "I know it wasn't a good idea. She was kind enough to let me sleep though. She's a peach."   Whiskey carries over a glass of water and sets it just outside of his reach, forcing him to stand to actually grab it. He laughs and raises the glass toward her. "Thanks Whiskey."   Mavis interrupts before Whiskey can retort, "Did you learn anything? Did you see who did it?"   Cory shakes his head. "No. But I do know how they felt about it."   A moment passes. Cory takes several long sips of water. They stare at him, each getting more annoyed as time goes on.

It's Olive who breaks first. "Fucking and?"   "I don't think it's safe here for any of us. There wasn't hate behind that fire. No malice, not even fear." His words sat in the air for a moment. "It was meticulous. It was just part of the plan for them, a checkbox on a todo list."   Olive nods then crosses her arms, her hand raised to her chin. "So what do you think? A killer? A psychopath?"   Cory shook his head and tried to muster a response in the second that followed. No words came to mind.   Whiskey beat him to it. "A soldier."   Cory's hand hits the table and then points to whiskey. "Yes!"

Mavis steps behind the counter and retrives a long white cloth and a mason jar full of a thick blue liquid. "The sheriff?"   Cory replies, "No way. He cares too much."   As Mavis sits next to cory, Whiskey adds a theory of her own, "The lawyer you mentioned? Mitchell?"   Again, Cory shakes his head. Mavis rubs the blue liquid on his burns as he speaks, "He doesn't care enough. That poor guy has his own problems, based on what I saw."   Mavis wraps his hands with the cloth. "A resident then, perhaps one of those who called to burn Toby?"   Cory winces at the pain, grunting his reply, "Too angry."   Olive glances at Toby, then her jaw drops then curls into a raging smile, "Little bitch."   Toby stutters, "Ex- excuse me?"

Olive runs her hands through her hair. "The judge. She's touched."   "How do you figure?" Mavis asks. "Wouldn't we have realized that? We're good at spotting our own."   "You didn't spot me till I told you." Olive's words carried a heavy weight. If she was right, the situation just became much more complicated.   "You think she's one of the first touched, like you?" Whiskey asks.   Olive shrugs. "Maybe, but how and why she ended up the mayor of bumfuck, Iowa is beyond me."   Cory lets out a single word in a moan, a drawn out and mildly inappropriate sound, "Yes." He unwraps his hands and they're good as new. His leg is similarly unscathed. "You did good, Mavis. Thank you." She nods in reply, and Cory finally speaks with a level of seriousness, "We should leave town. We don't know what this person's capable of and clearly they don't give a shit who they hurt."

"And Toby?" Whiskey asks.   Cory cocks his head. "What do you mean, 'and Toby?'"   "Where will she go?"   Cory narrows his eyes. "Jesus, Whiskey. Obviously we'd take her with us."   Olive laughs, "And where would she stay?"   "Well, there is this church…"   "Assuming she'd even want to go in the first place." Mavis cuts him off, nodding in Toby's direction.

Cory pondered this for a mere three seconds before replying, "Maybe we should make a call to the man downstairs."   "I can't just call it up," Olive says, suddenly shaken by fear. "It doesn't work that way."   Cory gives her a smirk. "It does, you're just terrified of it."   She sighs then lets out a groan. "Toby?"   "Yes?"   Her words spill out in a whine, "Would you like to come with us?"   "I don't really want to be a nuisance." Toby couldn't look anyone in the eye save for Cory. He nodded to her. More than an invitation, he seemed genuinely excited. "I don't really have anywhere else to go. I'm not sure how useful I'll be."   "Useful?" Whiskey scoffs. "We kept Cory."

The only one who didn't laugh was Mavis. "We can't leave." Silence lingered for a time, each looked at the other. None knew what to say. Mavis spoke again, "I'm surprised at you, Cory. You know better."   Cory nodded, "I do. I'm Just thinking of me and mine."   "And miss Olive."   "Yes ma'am?" Olive waits for a response.   Mavis replies, "Remember covid? Do you remember what you said about lockdown?"   "That I'd never felt so free? It was the happiest time of my life. Why?"   "It wasn't for most. Some people need normalcy." Mavis sighed. "It's why they fought change so damn hard back then. Even now they cling to a world that just doesn't exist anymore." Mavis looks Cory dead in the eye. "These people need a trial. Without it, well…" she shrugged. "It's just another trauma."

Cory nods and actually considers her words before responding, "And what about Toby's trauma? This could be dangerous."   Mavis chuckles. "You know how magic works. What can they do that we can't handle?"   "That's what I'm worried about." Cory leans back in his chair, stares at the ceiling, and finally looks at Toby. "Maybe let her choose how we handle this."   They each turn to Toby, who suddenly goes pale. "What?"   Cory replies. "We can go pick up your church and leave tonight, or we can stay and go along with the trial."   Olive stutters, "Now what a second, I'd have to see this church first and make the call. Don't make promises we can't keep."   "Im willing to do it, but what happens if we lose?" Toby asks.   Mavis smiles. "There is a plan B. Don't worry. You'll be fine either way. Olive?"   "Yes ma'am."   Mavis stands and places a hand on Olive's shoulder. "Make the call."   Olive sighs and turns away, her head held low. "Fuck."