The wind whipped past Maggie’s ears as they fell towards the trees below, so loud that she barely heard what Alejandra was saying. "Come again?" she shouted.

Alejandra took a deep breath, and bellowed into Maggie’s ear, "What are we going to do about landing!"

"Ow," said Maggie. "Jesus Christ. Uh...let’s say, there will be a trampoline wherever we land." The trees rushed up towards them. "Which is coming up fast! Everybody get ready."

Maria grunted. "You could just give us parachutes."

"We have to get into the trees immediately," said Maggie. "Los Ojos are probably watching us right now."

"I want wings!" shouted Mojito.

"Wings you can’t get rid of until we find Rafael?"

"Wings forever!"

"Only after you’ve eaten your vegetables. Alright, people, brace for impact."

"How?" shouted Alejandra.

"I mean emotionally," said Maggie, as they fell past thick branches and into shadow. So it was in near-total darkness that they came to a lurching halt on a surface that yielded beneath them, though it scraped their skins – and then another great lurch as they flew upward through scratching branches on another parabolic arc, over the treetops but not half as high as before. Once more they fell through scratching branches, and again they came to a lurching halt, and again they were flung upward, this time – THONK – right into a great branch overhead. Maggie’s skull exploded with pain as Alejandra and Mojito fell from her arms, and Maria, clinging to Maggie’s back, rose a little past her, still hanging on – now they all fell, down through the black shadows, and landed upon a yielding surface that tossed them a few feet high, then a foot high, then half a foot, before they came to rest without rising. And all was still.

All was total darkness, yet Maggie could swear she saw stars. Then again, they winked out a lot faster than regular stars. "Ohhhhh," she groaned, "I can make my skin bulletproof but I don't know how to make it branch-proof."

She felt familiar firm arms wrapping around her from behind, and the press of a familiar body. "I would have preferred the wings next time," whispered Alejandra.

"Just glad we’re all alive," muttered Maggie. "Wait. Who’s not dead? Sound off."

"Ow," said Maria.

"Whee!" said Mojito. The trampoline surface jounced up and down a bit, as if someone very light was jumping upon it. "Let’s do that again!"

"Hello," said a low contralto.

Two eyes gleamed out of the pitch darkness, right in Maggie’s face. She screamed, and tried to scramble backwards, though Alejandra was a firm wall at her back. "You!"

The voice laughed. "Me."

"Madame Balam," said Alejandra. "You never told me how you do that with your eyes, especially when there’s no light at all."

"Please," purred Madame Balam. "Look behind you."

Maggie turned, spying a green light in the distance. "Damn, you’ve really got cat’s eyes. This whole forest must be as bright as day to you. I assume you’re here to lead us to the light once more?"

"Well now," said Madame Balam, "I think that is a priest’s responsibility, is it not?"

"You’re funny as you ever were," said Mojito.

"And you are...in possession of a familiar scent," murmured Madame Balam. She sniffed. Then she narrowed her gleaming eyes at Maggie. "I assume this is your doing."

"Madame!" barked Maria. "Focus!"

The eyes blinked out of existence for a few seconds, then reappeared. "You know that’s hard when I’m not hunting, Maria. But, fine, spoil my fun. There are things for you all to be doing anyway. Follow me."

Maggie felt her hand being grabbed by someone, and all of a sudden she was being dragged towards the green light. She only just managed to catch Alejandra’s hand. And so a train of people was led on a path towards the light – once again the winding, twisting path of sharp turns and switchbacks, where any step out of place could lead one to be swallowed by despair. "You know," grumbled Maggie, "I’m tempted to just make a straight path over this nonsense."

"You have demonstrated a remarkable willingness to bring your enemies into the heart of this sanctuary," said Madame Balam. "Creating a straight path over our remaining defenses would be about the same."

"Oh yeah?" said Maggie. "What about getting our own people into this place? How many of them have fallen into the bog?"

"You speak as though you are inherently one of them," said Madame Balam. "Instead of simply being the one to decide things for them."

"Don’t get picky," said Mojito. "Mother, it’s fine. You’re fine. You’ll see when we get there. Although I won’t be fine, because dealing with the whole religious scene there is super boring."

"You were once a patient woman," growled Madame Balam. "Even in your early years."

"And now I’m a six-year-old boy," retorted Mojito. "Are you not familiar with children? No, you certainly are. I watched you raising Benigno. He was more of a brat than me."

"You’re calling yourself a brat, then?"

"Peace be with you both," said Maria. "I am impatient to reach the flame. It keeps Benigno’s forces at something of a remove."

A chill wind blew through the forest, rustling the leaves and rattling the branches. Maggie shivered, glad for the warmth of Alejandra’s hand. "We can all step more lively, if you please. Wait, did I just –"

"You did," said Maria, and all at once Maggie was swinging dangerously wide at every turn, saved only by the strong grip of Madame Balam before her and Alejandra after her, as everyone’s pace quickened considerably. Well, a word uttered was impossible to take back, for anyone except Rafael, and where was he anyway?

"Probably with his boyfriend," muttered Maggie.

"Who are you talking to?" said Madame Balam.

"Don’t ask," said Alejandra. "You don’t want to know. I don’t want to know. I’m sorry I know."

"Finally figured it out then?" said Maggie. "You’re finally admitting what we all are?"

Alejandra let go of Maggie’s hand. Then she appeared to think better of it, for she clapped a hand on Maggie’s shoulder. Her grip was not especially gentle. Maggie could not help but giggle. "Save that for later, mademoiselle."

Alejandra growled, but said nothing further.

Presently they approached a long patch of green light extending into the forest. The vast trunks of tall trees stood illuminated, casting long shadows. The light shone through a gap in a tall yew hedge, through which Madame Balam and Maggie and company marched –

And there was a vast gathering of people surrounding the great statue of the lady, in the light of the great green flame. Chatting, arguing, playing poker, playing dice, arm wrestling, sitting and saying nothing. Maggie could recognize familiar faces among them. The children who had hoped for candy, the man with the wheelbarrow, the patrons of the bar, and everyone else Maggie had seen in and around Los Hijos – every single one of them, not one lost. And there at the statue was Benigno, chatting with seven of the nuns.

"Does everyone have a secret entrance into this place?" whispered Maggie.

"They don’t need one if everyone gets taught how to get here," whispered Mojito.

All conversation stopped when Madame Balam stepped through. "Greetings all – I see we have quite a bit more than a quorum."

"We have everyone," said Sister Margarita. "Everyone who hasn’t joined Benigno’s forces already."

"And everyone seems to be saying the same thing," said a child. "So we don’t need a formal meeting, do we? We’re gonna get those guys."

"Excuse me?" said Maria, as she strode into the clearing. "What exactly have we seemingly decided before I arrived?"

"To fight," said the man who had escaped death. "To strike against the Sons of The Sea while they sleep, and then when they are all dead, we move against –"

"Wait wait wait wait," said Maggie, stepping up beside Maria. "Ah, this all seems like a bad idea."

"Revenge!" shouted a child.

"Revenge!" shouted more people, raising a fist in defiant salute. Including some of the nuns. Soon much of the crowd was calling for revenge. Even Mojito stood at their forefront and called for blood with them. Maggie gave him her best Mom Glare, and he seemed to waver for a moment. But then he continued.

"ENOUGH!" shouted Maria. The crowd fell silent. "What all has become of you? Have I taught you nothing? Have I not done my best to teach you to endure patiently, instead of strike in hot anger? And this is what you greet me with? Your restraint crumbles the moment I turn my back! You would thirst for blood so much that you fail to even put your course to a formal vote! Was there even any debate among you, or was it simply the angriest among you who strongarmed everyone else into going along with them? ANSWER ME!"

Everyone in the crowd sheepishly looked at the ground, at their feet, anywhere except at Maria. Save one man, standing tall and proud near the statue. "I did not strongarm anyone," said Benigno. "All I said was that if everyone was willing, I and my own forces would be ready to strike."

A cold wind fanned the green flames, briefly raising a brighter glow over the clearing. Maggie saw a few metallic glints in the darkness beyond. She shivered. "This is getting out of hand fast."

"I should say so," muttered Maria.

"You’re not even being fair," said Mojito. "You already allowed –"

But Maggie made frantic "cut it out" gestures, and Mojito fell silent, giving Maggie a curious look. Maggie winked. Then she addressed the crowd. "Maria told me the plan was to get the heck out of here and find better digs somewhere far away. But now the plan is bloody revenge? Which one is it? Benigno, I thought you agreed with me that we all had to get out of here."

"I thought you meant ‘here’ as in Los Hijos," said Benigno. "This is where we’re all regrouping. Now we can plan revenge if we're willing."

Maggie looked over the crowd once more. While many of them did seem to have a hard look in their eyes, the rest seemed apprehensive, ashamed, nervous – quite the opposite of people who were fired by righteous wrath. "Are we willing though? Tell me, how many people did Los Hijos used to have?"

An old woman near the front of the crowd shrugged. "What census would be taken to Los Hijos? It must have been oh, tens of thousands."

"And how many do you have now? Only enough to fit in this clearing. You all tried revenge once. It failed. Are you all intending to do a suicide charge now? You want to lose the last thousand?"

"What else can we do?" said a young man near the old woman.

"We can go somewhere the hell else," said a lady beside him.

"And find what food on the way?" said a preteen girl near her. "We’re stuck in this dumb city, getting paid only enough to buy tomorrow’s food. And somehow we’re just supposed to just waltz off like Maria wants?"

"We could certainly raid the city food stores," said Benigno.

"You seem to be ignoring your resident cheat code," said Alejandra. She nodded to Maggie. "My friend, if you would?"

"I have here a taco in my hand!" said Maggie, holding a palm up. A hamburger appeared within it. "I said taco you wiseguy," muttered Maggie. The burger turned into a taco. "Thank you." She bit into the taco. "Real food," she said with her mouth full. "I can make tacos rain from the –" Alejandra elbowed her. "I mean, from the shiny new taco cart." A two-wheeled wooden cart appeared before her, painted in deep green and bold red and bright white, with a little roof over the spot where the vendor stood.

Everyone stared in stunned silence.

Alejandra knocked twice on the interior of the roof. A taco fell out of it and landed in her palm. She bit into it. "Yep, this is real alright."

The crowd began to murmur excitedly. Some people hesitantly approached the cart. Maggie grabbed some plates from the shelving below her and slid them onto the serving area. Then she knocked a few times on the interior of the cart roof and a few tacos fell onto the plates. A few people eagerly grabbed the plates, and were about to bite into the tacos when Benigno shouted, "Hold it!"

Everyone fell silent and looked to Benigno, who wore an expression of deep annoyance. "Maggie," he said, putting his hands on his hips, "are you trying to bribe everyone with food so they support Maria’s plan?"

"Yes," said Maggie. "To be clear, everyone, I’m offering free food forever if you join my crusade northward, and Benigno is allowing you to go and kill people and probably get killed in return. Who votes for free food?"

"Crusade?" said a teenager.

"Against Los Ojos," said Maggie. "You all follow me to wherever they are and help me out against them, and I’ll feed and shelter you the whole way."

Once more the crowd murmured. Maggie caught snatches of conversation about how striking a blow against Los Ojos would be even better than fighting against La Ciudad. Some people were on the fence until other people emphasized the "free food" part of the deal.

"Who votes for Maggie?" said Mojito, raising his hand.

Everyone in the crowd raised their hand – even Maria, even Alejandra, even Madame Balam, whose face was split into a wide grin full of sharp teeth. Even the nuns.

But Benigno did not have his hand raised.

"All opposed?"

None raised their hand, not even Beningo.

"Abstentions?"

"I shall abstain," said Benigno. "Courteously." He bowed, and backed away from the light, into the shadows.

There were a few seconds of silence as everyone processed this unexpected development. Then Maggie scoffed. "Yeah, sure, great, big help, big guy. Look at me, I’m mister mysterious brooding loner, I have an army of ghosts but no friends, I’m so mysterious, woooooooooo."

"He does that a lot," muttered Madame Balam.

"Yeah?" Maggie crossed her arms. "You’re one to talk, miss pops-out-of-the-shadows."

"Focus," said Alejandra. "You just convinced everyone to join your weird crusade. You’re in charge now, get it? We need details. How are we supposed to go about this? What do we need to start doing?"

Maggie bit her lip. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. She rarely thought very far ahead. "Well will you let me think far ahead?" she muttered.

"Please tell me you’re not talking to who I think you’re talking to," murmured Alejandra.

The primary issue Maggie could see was that she had no earthly idea where Los Ojos actually were. She had never seen a single one of them; she wasn’t entirely certain anyone ever had. The too-bright sky and the vanishings and the like made a strong case for the existence of something lording over them, but how exactly anyone had ever come to call this unseen operator Los Ojos was beyond Maggie’s severely limited experience.

"Will you let me have enough experience?" muttered Maggie.

I hadn’t thought of that. I did imply that you had some kind of fictitious backstory, didn’t I? But Rafael said you were finally back, as if you’d been gone since you were a kid. Oh dear, I’ve created another plot hole, haven’t I.

"One more plot hole for me, thank you very much, I’ll keep it in my back pocket." Maggie winked.

You got a hole in your back pocket?

"In a manner of speaking."

Fine, uh...let’s say you were super-studious and crammed as much of every encyclopedia you could find into your head –

"Yay!"

But it was all, like, reality-based and stuff, so it didn’t have anything about Los Ojos.

"Oh, boo." Maggie stuck her tongue out.

And also you reappeared three days before you technically came into existence the first time, so let’s say you tried to find anything in any library about The Aunts for 2.5 days and then gave up and went clubbing where you met Alejandra.

"I’ll take what I can get," muttered Maggie. "And I’ll have you know, I did do a lot of fictional reading beyond my age when I was very young, and one thing I know about things like Los Ojos is that they’re the Big Evil Guy at the end of the story, and they’re so often far far away so the heroes have to go on an epic journey. This is a literary matter, not a supernatural one."

Alejandra elbowed her. "You are appearing very odd before everyone," she muttered.

Maggie snapped back to reality. Everyone in the crowd was looking at her like she was nuts. Especially the nuns. Sister Sangria crossed herself. Maggie chuckled nervously. "Ah, ha ha, ha, sorry about that, people, I was...having a bit of a consultation with an annoying friend."

One of the nuns took out a book and handbell from behind her back.

Maggie grinned sheepishly. "I mean, um, yay team, let’s go and kick some butt?"

"But how?" said Mojito. "Where are we going?"

"Uh…" Maggie looked around at the crowd. "Hey, does anyone know where Los Ojos actually are?" Many people shook their heads. Some of them simply looked nervous and suspicious. Ah ha. They did know. "Alright, let’s say we head towards the docks, get some boats, and set sail, and we’ll see what information we can find in any port. And if we never find any info, we can still be far away from this city. We’ll make it work."

"Great," said Mojito, "Can we start now? I want to get moving."

"Oh please," said Maggie. "Who on earth begins a grand journey at night, from a spot like this? We leave at dawn!" She thumped her fist on the countertop of the taco cart, causing a couple tacos to fall onto her head. "That’s how heroes do it! In the meantime, who wants to party? Can I hear a woo hoo!"

Crickets, and the crackle of flames. Everyone looked confused. Maggie supposed that she looked quite odd, doing this all while she stood at a taco cart.

A teenage boy cleared his throat. "Here? I don’t know, it’s, uh…" He glanced at the green flames. "Kind of spooky." He jerked at the Sisters standing at the statue. "And there’s nuns."

"It’s gonna be spookier in a second!" said Maggie. "Lights out, please." The green fire went out, plunging the entire clearing into pitch darkness, followed by gasps and screams. "Before we spill our blood upon the earth, let’s feel it pound in our veins! Lights!" A swathe of glowing five-pointed stars appeared on the branches, casting soft blue and purple lights down onto the crowd. "Music!" A set of tall hand-drums and a few stringed instruments appeared off to the side. "Party time!"

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.