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“You have to be careful when picking up broken glass,” the doctor said while bandaging Peg’s hand.
She nodded and smiled. Peg was lucky to find a clinic closeby in the shopping district but she knew explaining what actually had happened would make her seem insane. A shard of glass appearing from a piece of paper and stabbing her? No one would believe that. She dug into her pockets, ready to pay, until the doctor stopped her.
“You’re in the derby, yes? No charge!”
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, she accepted the hospitality and went on about her day. The sunny morning had been replaced with an overcast afternoon. More competitors had filled the area since she first began shopping and she decided to worry about a meal later. Walking down the street to head back to Midnite Cruiser and Josie, Peg’s eye was drawn to children playing outside near the road. They were using little human and animal shaped pieces of paper as toys. Peg smiled watching them play, reminded of her own childhood.
“Watch out! The tiger is gonna’ get you!” the one kid yelled.
The child bounced her tiger over to the other paper toy, pretending to nibble the arm. At the same moment, Peg felt a sharp pain in her arm. She dropped her bags and rolled up her sleeve to find bitemarks. She rushed over to the kids, grabbed the arm of the one holding the paper tiger and stared at it. The children screamed, yelling for their parents, but the voices fell on deaf ears. Slowly Peg’s eyes focused on a name scribbled on the doll. Hers.
“Where did you get this!?” Peg asked, scaring the children even more. “The doll! Who gave it to you!?”
Both children broke out into sobbing, dropping their toys and running away. Their words were barely recognizable between their wailing, but Peg was able to piece together ‘Some lady gave them to us.’ As the children scurried off, Peg noticed the eyes focusing on her from all directions and decided to make herself scarce with the doll in hand. She had to focus on regrouping with Josie but her mind was racing.
Was she attacked because she refused to drop out of the race? Probably. Was this what happened to the loud red haired man, Tony Zepps? Most likely. While she could fit the pieces of the puzzle together, there was just something that didn’t make any sense. What kind of technology would allow paper to attack her like this? The thoughts bounced around her head, distracting her from the folded paper she stepped on. She looked down as the paper popped open. Instead of a shard of glass in her palm, a large hound emerged from this paper. It squared its shoulders, staring her dead in the eyes, and gave chase.
“Damn it!” She yelled, doing her best to out run the beast. She ducked around to try and lose him but the dog kept up the pace.
Nearly at her heels, Peg swiftly slipped away into an alley to shake the dog, but it ended up being a dead end. The dog was only a few feet away from reaching her and ripping her open like a chew toy. As she turned to watch him approach she began digging into her pocket.
“I was hoping to save these for dinner…” Peg whispered to herself before pulling out a small handful of plump brown beans. With perfect timing she flicked them into the dog’s hungry mouth. Once they hit his tongue, the animal grinded to a halt. Losing all interest in Peg, he focused instead on the robust flavor.
Peg sighed, taking a brief moment to relax before carefully sneaking past the dog enjoying his meal. Mixing back into the crowd, Peg returned her focus on getting back to Josie. If someone was attacking her it would be easier to handle if the two of them were together. Her mind wandered to what the two of them could do to take down this paper assassin and without realizing, she found herself outside of town and in a clearing surrounded by trees. Not recognizing her surroundings she turned to head back towards the town but out of nowhere she felt intense pain in her legs. It was so sharp and sudden she dropped to her knees. Looking up, squinting from the pain, she saw a familiar face standing above her. The waitress from the restaurant who had tried buying her out of the competition, Babs.
“You drop something?” The woman asked, her jagged teeth chewing her gum loudly.
Peg was no longer holding the paper doll she had snatched from the children. She hadn’t noticed dropping it while running away from the dog. She didn’t have time to curse at herself for not realizing it before Babs crumpled the doll, causing Peg to writhe in agony.
“I’d really hoped you’d be an easy one. Pay you and then go spend the rest of my day relaxing. You’re even more of a hassle than that old fart Drake.”
Hearing Francisco’s name caused Peg’s blood to boil. Even with the waves of pain hitting her body she thought back to how Francisco looked at their final meeting. Covered in cuts and bruises like he attended a bar room brawl. Was this chipped tooth waitress the reason why Francisco dropped out?
“Either way,” Babs continued, “You dying saves my boss a lot of time and money so I’m sure I’ll get a little bonus for taking care of ya.”
“If you want me to give up,” Peg spat through the blood trickling from her mouth, “You’re going to have to crumple me and Josie and toss us in the trash.”
The woman rolled the paper doll in her palm, looking down and spitting her stale gum in Peg’s direction, narrowly missing her face. She popped in a new piece of gum and chuckled to herself.
“Don’t worry, your little sister or whoever the hell that freak is to you is being taken care of as we speak.”
Without a moment for Peg to react, the waitress tightened her hand around the doll causing Peg to scream bloody murder. It felt like every bone and organ in her body was pressing into one another but somehow nothing snapped or punctured. Regardless, the pain was very real. Her eyesight grew blurry and she felt herself drifting into unconsciousness.
Once her body stopped wriggling, Babs tossed the paper doll at her feet and walked over to Peg’s body. She was motionless, but Babs was intrigued to see Peg’s hands digging tightly into her pants pocket. She reached to pull out the hand and found its tight grip around a small group of beans. She pried her hand open to inspect further, but the moment she opened Peg’s hand they leapt from her palm and into Babs mouth. Babs stumbled backwards, coughing so hard that she nearly fell to her knees. Deep in her coughing fit she didn’t realize that Peg, still in pain, had risen to her feet.
“I don’t know what voodoo magic you just did to me.” Peg spoke softly, gripping one of her ribs. “But you’re not the only one with a few tricks.”
Babs, coughing and unable to speak, looked for the paper doll she had dropped on the ground. It was nowhere to be found. Peg whistled causing Babs to see that she had picked it up during her coughing fit.
“Not so tough now, are ya Babs?”
Babs tried to scream and curse at Peg but no sound came out. She tried to move forward but her movements were sluggish, and eventually she couldn’t move at all. Babs stood there frozen, gasping for air with her hands outreached in Peg’s direction. Not out of fear or shock but from the roots and vines that have wrapped themselves around her body, extending out from her mouth where the jumping bean entered. In minutes her entire body was encased in plant life, blending in with the trees and bushes around her.
Peg reached down, grabbing the stale gum that was spat out next to her and walked towards Babs. At this point most of her body had turned into a tree with her face being the last recognizable part of her.
“What…magic…?” Babs barely spat out.
“Everything this stalk produces has amazing qualities,” Peg replied, “to me it’s a tool to help heal the world but to you well, I guess it’s just magic.”
At this point most of Babs’ body had transformed into a tree. The glimpse of humanity, her face, had nearly faded away but there was still an opening for Babs’ vine filled mouth. She picked the dirt covered piece of stale gum she spat out earlier and popped it into Babs’ mouth before it disappeared into the bark. Once the wood completely encased her she sighed, looking up into the sky.
“I guess things won’t be getting any easier.” she said to herself before walking back towards the town to meet up with Josie. She worried about Josie and her potential assassin but Peg’s fight drained her and her sluggish pace was as fast as her body would allow.
🌱🌱🌱
Josie woke up from her nap, wiping sleep from her eyes. She looked around the fueling area where Midnite Cruiser was parked. Many other vehicles were around but no one else seemed to be. She checked the clock and realized it was mid day and everyone must be in town. She heard someone outside the train and figured she woke up just in time to meet Peg.
“Did ya’ find any Peanut Butter Taffy? Please tell me ya’ did-”
But when she stepped outside the person she’d heard wasn’t Peg. It was a skinny man, with white hair in a blown out coif. He wore a heavily worn black suit and a cigarette hung from his lips. He didn’t seem ancient but the white hair didn’t make him seem young either. He stood focusing intently on Midnite Cruiser while puffing away at the cigarette. The man realized Josie was watching him and gave her a wry smile.
“Hey kid, you wanna see a magic trick?”
To Be Continued