Chapter Twenty

“I thought you guys had forgotten us.” Quinn greeted them.

“Never. We stopped to pick up a necklace for Jabari.”

“Nice. You look like an enforcer. All those big muscles and that necklace.”

“You think? I was going for goth with the necklace.”

His brothers turned around, but they couldn’t hide their laughter.

“I think we had better get in line before Jabari decides to start a fight.”

“They deserve the beat down.” She followed Quinn up the ramp with the others falling in line behind them.

“I’ve room for one more rider.”

They looked behind them, but no one else was in line.

“We’ll take the next ride.”

He nodded and went to check that everyone was buckled up.

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” She gave Quinn a hug. The closer she got to death the more touchy-feely she became. “I’m thinking of Piper. I knew she would be busy, but I thought she’d have time to talk. I mean at night. Maybe she met someone who is keeping her busy. I don’t think she’ll make it back in time.”

“She could be having a hard time dealing with it.”

“I know she is, but I miss her.”

“She wants to be here I know she does.” She reached out and hugged Brandi tight. “Losing you is like losing the sister I just discovered.” Tears slipped from behind her closed eyes. She turned so Brandi wouldn’t see.

The sound of feet getting off the ride cheered them up. The operator took the chain off holding them back.

“Since there are only eight of you, you’ll have to sit in the middle. Four on each side.

They nodded. Slade sat beside Brandi and Thrice sat on the other side of Jabari. Phoenix sat next to Quinn while Akron sat next to Mekhi. The operator made sure their harnesses were secure before going back to the controls.

“Enjoy the ride.”

The carpet started to move slowly in a circle before it went up. When it reached its maximum height, it went around faster until it became unhinged falling towards the ground.

She was sitting on the bed in her old room at the orphanage. A magazine on her lap, turning the pages, looking at the clothes. The door slammed opened, and Linda walked into her room.

“What do you want?”

“To see what you were up to. I thought I heard a boy in here.”

“You wish.”

“I don’t know why you’re always looking at those stupid magazines. You’ll never be a model, and you can’t sew for shit.” She flounced her hair over her shoulder.

Linda made her life miserable when she was younger. She was so sure that Brandi would never make anything of herself. Maybe she was right to a point. Linda became a model, a famous one. She was living the life to hear her tell it. Fast cars and even faster men. Brandi was dying. Maybe she should have listened to her after all and spent her life in pursuit of fun.

The carpet spun faster making her dizzy. When she opened her eyes, she was in her dorm room with Piper.

“I thought you were going to the party tonight?”

“Nope, this is girl’s night. We’re staying in drinking and watching movies.”

“You know I don’t drink.” She was afraid of ending up like her mother. All she could think of was drinking too much alcohol and becoming horny. God only knew what she would do, who she would throw herself at. What if like some of the other girls, she decided to party with more than one guy?

She shook her head that was unthinkable. She’d never live the name ‘whore’ down. Her skin crawled at the thought.

“That’s why I’m here. I brought wine coolers. Hey, they have hardly any alcohol in them. When you have to pee, I’ll be your designated walker.” They giggled. “You have to try something, so you know how you feel about it. I got movies.”

“Oh my god, Piper!”

“They’re porns, but I understand they’re better when you're drunk.”

Piper stuck to her like glue that night. She woke up the next morning with a headache and a harsh dislike for certain fetishes. But her virtue was intact, and their friendship was sealed forever.

The carpet took her through a blue light.

“Defender.”

She looked around to see Slade and Thrice by her side.

“You know you can call me Brandi, right?”

“We know. But you’re a defender, and it’s nice to know we have one in the house.” Thrice told her.

“Where are we?”

“No idea.” Slade shrugged his shoulders. She always thought Jabari was huge until she got a look at Slade.

She joined them on the floor. “What are you doing?”

“Playing war games.”

“That field looks too real.”

“It is and isn’t.” Thrice put his hand through the field and the players.

“You can control them with your mind.”

She looked over to see a field full of defenders.

“Those are your players. The first one to seize control of the tower wins.” Slade pointed to the tower.

“What are we playing for?”

“The two losers do the winner's kitchen chores for a week each,” Thrice told her.

“I’m in. Let’s play.”

Slade and Thrice moved out headed directly to the tower. They were fighting each other to get there first.

She laughed silently as she watched them. They called her defender, but they treated her like she was human. Maybe under ordinary circumstances they would be right to. She didn’t have a military background, but she had something better. She was trained in urban warfare. Not the combat. She’d be stupid to think she could take on a field of men and win.

No, she had trained herself how to outsmart men, boys really, who thought they would catch her in the hallways or alleyways and take what she wasn’t offering. She knew the advantages of a look out. Of having sentries and breaking into small groups. Getting from home to school and back again took a mental genius on some days. All of that made her eventual failure, epic. There were times she thought she’d never be whole again. Those were memories for a different time. Now, she grinned and made a plan.

Brandi took her defenders and split them into three groups. The first group she sent to higher ground. She commanded the second group to go around Slade and Thrice's warriors. She wanted them behind the tower. The third and smallest group were chasing after their warriors but were told not to catch up.

She reached out to see if she could control the horses that looked like Pegasus. They responded, and she sent them to her third group of defenders.

When they were close enough to draw fire from the tower. The defenders who never caught up with the others mounted the winged horses. Her Archers climbed trees and began returning fire. The defenders behind the tower began to climb it. Soon the attack was happening on three sides. The tower fell to the defenders.

She screamed as the board reset itself with a different playing field.

“I won!”

“I want to say we let you win, but we underestimated you.”

“No worries we can play for kitchen duty anytime.”

They looked at her with such pride. She realized that in the end, she was the winner, not Linda.

The world around her spun out of control again. The thrum of a vein in her head was pounding so loud she couldn’t think.

When it settled down, Phoenix and Akron were looking at her. She was lying peacefully in a casket. Dead, the word beat inside her brain.

“I’m going to miss her,” Akron said.

She walked around, the horror of dying so young was becoming normal. Leaving Jabari, on the other hand, tore her up on the inside. He was on his knees. Could he cry? She didn’t know, but she knew from the red eyes, he would never be the same.

She knelt beside him. “You have to love again, please. I can’t bear for you to be all alone forever.”

The spinning started again, and soon she was back on the fairgrounds.

“I don’t think that was supposed to happen.” Quinn did a quick look around as if she was scared to meet her brother’s eyes.

“Something strange happened to you too?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Thank god.” Brandi breathed a sigh of relief. “I thought it was all me. Is anyone else ready to go home?”

They all chimed in with a yes.