The Nightmare Returns

Leena’s arrival was followed by a heated discussion on what genre of movie to watch. The two ladies were fighting over their favorite sorts of films. By their tone and gestures, this had been a feud that’s been going on for years. The ladies’ bickering made it impossible for Quincy and Edmund to voice their opinions on the matter, but neither of them cared to be caught in the crossfire anyways.

          “I don’t want to see another kung fu movie, we watched one last time,” Leena stated dismissively. “Let’s see ‘Blood Nurses 7.’ They shot it in 3-D, and I can’t wait to see the blood splatters popping out of the screen.” She wiggled in her seat with enthusiasm.

          “We are definitely not watching one of those gross horror movies,” Raven shot back with a wag of her finger. “I don’t know how you can stand to have so many horror cassettes at home. Give me a classic, subtitled, cheesy, karate movie any day.”

          “How can you even say that? They’re not gross, they’re artistic, unlike kung fu movies. Every kung fu movie is the same. They always end in a one-on-one with the hero and the villain surrounded by a crowd of people, or on a mountain top in a storm or something.”

          “That’s not... entirely true. Besides, every horror movie is the same too, Leena.”

          “Bah, horror has a ton of different subgenres. There’s supernatural, there’s zombie, there’s monster�"”

          “�"Last time we watched a horror movie poor Edmund couldn’t get a wink of sleep.”

          “Don’t go telling her that I am the one who can’t handle horror movies,” Edmund drove his index finger toward Raven, “I would’ve slept just fine if she wasn’t clinging to me all night. I could have suffocated. She’s as strong as an ox.”

          Raven reddened and opened her mouth for a rebuttal but after a few moments, she hung her head, playing with her fingers and mumbling. Leena took a mental step back and realized that their argument may have gone a bit too far.

          “I’m-I’m sorry, Raven. I don’t hate kung fu movies, at least when I watch them with you. Why don’t we let Quincy decide?” Leena said with an expectant smile aimed at the giant. “He’s never had a chance to watch anything on the big screen.”

          “Ah, yes,” Ed sneered. “Well, what movie would you like to see, Quincy? How about one with lots of guns and flexing. Or maybe a colorful, animated child’s movie is more up to your standards.”

          As usual, Edmund’s ridicule was overlooked by Quincy. Those emerald eyes peered once again at the posters and the dark-skinned woman that made home to a majority of them.

          “That actress seems to be pretty popular. How about one of the movies she’s in. I’m honestly not picky,” Quincy chuckled.

          “That actress?” Leena responded, her eyes wide and her head tilted in confusion. “You mean Myla?”

          “Yes, her. She seems to be pretty famous, she’s in almost every current and upcoming movie. I’m not one to keep up with pop culture.”

          “Famous!?” Raven squealed. “She’s the greatest actress of our generation. Best actress ever!” Edmund and Leena nodded. “And she’s so beautiful too, despite her age. I hope I have a rockin’ body like hers in ten years.”

          She nudged Edmund with her foot, reaching for confirmation that this would be so. When he gave her a puzzled expression, she crossed her arms and huffed away.

          “What did I do? How am I supposed to know what you’ll look like when you’re in your forties?”

          “You’ve met my mother,” Raven said under her breath and through her teeth. “Perhaps you could start with that comparison.”

          Quincy and Leena exchanged glances and had a good laugh between them.

          “They’re still showing ‘The War Between Us’ until the end of the day. We’ve watched it already but I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing it again,” Leena stated cheerfully.

          “What’s it about?” Quincy asked with raised brows.

          “Let me break it down for you,” Raven interjected with vigor and a lot of hand motions. “A middle-aged vet gets pulled back onto the battlefield to train a group of misfit soldiers for a specialized squad to help win a war. While training them he exchanges letters with his wife at home who is raising two kids with a third on the way.”

          “It’s so sweet, I cried so much,” Leena said. She wiped her left eye with a pale, thin finger while picturing a moving moment in her head. “Myla played the housewife; she was incredible.”

          Their journey to the projection room where “The War Between Us” was showing had been delayed by a speed bump known as Leena. She was a hopeless pushover and was easily charmed by Onya at the snack bar. Thankfully, before Leena spent over a hundred dollars on extremely overpriced snacks, Edmund lectured her about needless spending and investing in her future. She didn’t learn anything from his lecture, she just gave in because she wanted him to stop talking.

          The dimly lit projection room had a few scattered groups of people here and there. Quincy didn’t expect many more seats would be filled past their party since this movie had been out for a couple of weeks already and according to Leena, almost everybody had already seen it.

          As he lumbered up the stairs to the backmost seats, he stole a few glances to determine if history was repeating itself and he had become the center of attention. To his surprise, the whispering glares were aimed behind him. Out of curiosity, he peeked over his mountainous shoulder to meet a pair of shining red eyes piercing through a veil of darkness. Raven wasn’t lying when she said that Edmund would draw attention away from the giant; his eyes really did glow in the dark. If they were watching a horror movie, he imagined the room would have cleared quickly at the first creak of a floorboard.

           Raven slyly continued to play cupid and made sure that Leena and Quincy were placed next to each other. She came up with several odd excuses for the seating arrangement which nobody bothered questioning.

          Almond Bay Movie Theater was a well-off enough establishment to have large, comfortable seats for the average movie-goer, but for Quincy, they were still a bit too small. His furry arms were twice as wide as the armrests and his gorilla mitts dangled past the cupholders. His hips were trapped in a snug vice. If he were to suddenly stand up, the likelihood of the seat coming with him was fairly high.

          At the opening credits, Quincy glanced at Leena whose complexion radiated a soft glow from the screen light. She had a carefree grin stretched across her lips as she threw popcorn down her gullet. Her sky-blue hair exuded a sweet scent that caught Quincy’s nostrils. It reminded him of a field of flowers�"the kind of flowers that don’t talk about how stinky his feet are. He experienced bliss and comfort during the opening act.

          The longer he watched the movie, the further his lids drooped. The roaring surround sound dulled until it was no more than a muffled hum in the distance. The uncomfortably tight seat dissolved into a warm hug around his waist.

 

***

         

          Quincy plunged his thumbs into the sockets of the man kneeling before him. The man screamed in agony as a red sprinkler sprayed Quincy’s torso and shoulders. The man dressed in Russian military clothing struggled to push Quincy’s arms away. The strength of the soldier faded away in a matter of seconds and his arms dropped and swayed limply as the gurgling screams became mute. Quincy tossed the body aside and proceeded forward, determination commanded his stride.

          The field in which the battle took place was open and at the center of a smoldering, decimated town. The grass that once thrived in the town’s park was brown, patched, and dead. The overcast sky would drizzle for short periods, filling the holes dug by mortar fire with smokey water. All that could be smelt was gunpowder and iron. All that could be heard was the consistently beating drums of mortar and rifle fire.

          The heavy leather boots wrapped around his feet slightly sank while pacing for the edge of the park where he knew shortly beyond that the enemy was hidden in the ruins of a school. He tore through every straggler in his way, alternating between his rifle and his fists as mortar shells erupted the earth at his backside.

          He stopped short of the staircase that led to the school’s front entrance, drawing the foul air deeply and slowly, scanning left to right to note the boarded-up, broken windows and the heavily barricaded double doors. At least a dozen rifles slid out between the gaps of the boarded-up windows and aimed at his direction.

          Quincy closed his eyes and guarded himself as a wall of lead stung every inch of his body. The pain was immense, but the giant’s dense skin, bones, and muscles saved his inner organs from any harm. When the rifles withdrew back into the fortified school, he plucked out the hot, shredded metal lodged in his arms and legs and gathered them tightly in his fist. He dropped them to the cracked stone beneath his toes as his wounds began to slowly trickle blood.

          A rectangular strip of unfaded brick hung above the oak double doors. The plate with the school’s name had been stripped off and discarded. Behind those barricaded double doors Quincy could hear a man swearing and spitting in Russian. The giant reeled back and punched a hole through the door where the whispers were most audible. The tips of his fingers made contact with the would-be ambusher’s neck. There was utter helplessness in the man’s yelp as Quincy gripped tightly and retracted his bulging arm swiftly. He ripped a man-sized hole through the doors by using the soldier’s body like a reverse battering ram. For a few seconds, the smokey air around Quincy was accompanied by splinters and blood. The soldier watched the overcast sky and the torn earth waltz while he tumbled down the stone steps to his end.

          The insides of the school were otherworldly. The light bleeding through the boarded-up windows was a cold, soulless lavender. The ceaseless noise from the battle outside was replaced with a vacuum of silence. The interior walls were absent, and dusty, broken toys were shoved aside leaving the tiled floor bare. The doors that Quincy had just breached vanished behind him and were replaced by dull, grey brick.

          The room was occupied by several dozen elite armored soldiers. All of their faces were hidden behind gas masks. The masks seemed ineffective and oxymoronic. Smoke would curl out of the hairline cracks of these masks every few moments as if all these soldiers suffered endlessly smoldering lungs.

          In the center of the room was a girl with auburn hair wearing a dirty, baby-blue dress with egg-white frills. She was kneeling on the floor with her back to Quincy and the smoking soldiers that were wedged between them. The silence of the room was pushed away by the cheery, out-of-tune song the girl sang as she played with a stuffed rabbit missing one of his ears.

          “Andria,” Quincy whispered. After not getting a response out of the girl his whisper rose to a roar, “Andria! Andria, please be quiet. They’ll hear you.”

          The inhuman soldiers intercepted Quincy when he attempted to sprint for the singing girl. They huddled to block his way, bearing serrated bowie knives and black submachine guns, silently threatening to attack if he got any closer. Their means to intimidate were ineffective; Quincy had no fear of these men.

          “Andria, please, shut up,” Quincy commanded as the girl’s singing ascended until the whole room echoed Andria’s song.

          A warning shot hit the stone floor inches away from Quincy’s toe upon his second attempt to approach the girl.

          “Fine,” he mumbled threateningly, “have it your way.” Quincy took a fistful of the cloth on his chest and tore it clean off his torso. It ripped to ribbons and fell like confetti to the tiled floor. Aside from the fresh bullet wounds stinging his arms and legs, Quincy’s body was flawless and youthful.

          The death cries of soldiers were the only momentary break from Andria’s song. Quincy discarded his adversaries in so many ways: disembowelment, neck-breaking, snapping bones, crushing spines, his blood bath began as a necessity, but when only ten men remained he found himself enjoying the adrenaline rush. Once the floor was littered with bodies, and only he and Andria remained, Quincy came back to his senses.

          Andria’s song ended.

          With the rush that fueled Quincy now absent, the pain being suppressed rose to his skin. Quincy’s fight was not without injury. He had long cuts all over his chest, back, upper arms, and legs. Droplets of blood pooled into the shallow crevices of the tiled floor.

          “An-Andria,” Quincy studdered in an anemic daze.

          Andria got to her feet and rotated slowly toward Quincy. Punched above her nose were two black voids where her eyes should have been. Andria gave the bleeding, injured giant a goofy smile and pointed up at the ceiling.

          There was a deafening boom and the ceiling ripped off the top of the school like it was a tin can. Quincy gazed upward to witness that the sky had been replaced by a calm, reflective pool of unknown liquid. It mirrored the room from above but was slightly murkier, and the walls and floor were replaced by a blank, grey space.

          Quincy found where he should have been in the reflection, but he didn’t meet his own gaze. It was someone else, someone that shared his emerald eyes but didn’t copy Quincy’s position or his movements as a normal mirror should have worked.

          The boy frowned downward at Quincy with a trembling lower lip. He was wearing an old khaki Russian uniform. Held by a wide strap over his shoulder was a large, empty pouch resting at the front of his hip. Dark auburn hair peeked out from the army-green newsboy hat secured around the boy’s head. The boy looked to be in his teens, but Quincy knew that his appearance was deceiving; he was much younger.

          “Quincy.” Andria’s abrupt, high-pitch voice startled the giant and drew his attention back to the bottomless voids taking home on her face, “I saw a sable today. It hopped with a hare. Hop hop hop.” Andria brought her hands to her chest and curled them to imitate paws. She jumped up and down and laughed at the floor. “They played for a while then the rabbit got sleepy. The sable took her away. Where do you think they live? I want to visit tomorrow. I bet the river would tell us.”

          Quincy crept closer to her, not saying a word as if a sudden noise would cause her to flee. He just wanted to reach out, grab her, take her out of this weird room, this darkened world.

          “Quincy, I heard the daisies talking. They say it’s going to rain. Rain for a while and make the river bigger. Do the sables like the rain? I like the rain. I like the snow. I saw a sable and a hare today. I have to keep practicing. We can’t go back home unless I practice.”

          The closer he crept, the slower and heavier his actions became. He outstretched his bleeding arm and wiggled his fingers once they were inches away from grabbing her grubby dress and seizing her.

          “Quincy,” Andria frowned, her chest rose and fell rapidly as she clenched it in pain, “it’s getting hard to sing. I can’t sing.”

          The brick wall cracked under the force of the giant’s weight after he was blasted away from Andria by an unseen explosion. The voids doubled in size and from them emerged numerous black three-fingered hands followed by stretching, thin arms. They zigzagged around the room, erupting the air around them. Instead of looking smooth like skin, they were porous and brittle like charcoal, crude to the touch. Whenever a hand jumped in a new direction, it left behind a jagged elbow, adding another segment to the zigzag. Some of the arms anchored their claws into the floor and walls, and some snatched up toys that were discarded at the room’s edges. Andria pushed her small body into the air, her human arms and legs dangled like a doll.

          Wide-eyed and trembling from helplessness, Quincy shrank as Andria’s song wound back up. From a fresh crack of lavender light behind him, another hand emerged, but this hand was different. It was a humanlike hand, a woman’s hand, white as ash and radiant. It lightly grasped his shoulder, a warm, tingling sensation fluttered through his veins.

          “It’s time to wake up, Quincy,” spoke a childlike voice in a motherly tone. “Time to go home.”

 

***

 

          An orchestra of crickets fiercely competed with the hissing and rumbling of the occasional passing truck beneath the twinkling onyx sky. Quincy’s back felt cool against the theater’s brick wall. Whether it was from the nightmare or his frantic departure of the theater�"or the combination of the two�"Quincy was out of breath and his heart was drumming.

          Quincy sniffed, cleared his throat, and said out loud, “Joy, it’s time for us to leave. I’ll end my contract early and we’ll be on our way.”

          The flower named Joy swayed to one side. “I should’ve woken you earlier. It’s my fault, I didn’t even notice you had fallen asleep. Your friends were right, Myla is an incredible actress. She had me nearly shaking and bawling.”

          “The nightmares have started, and they’re only going to get worse. It’s time for us to leave Almond Bay.”

          “Nah, cmon, Quincy. It was just a fluke. It was probably because you were watching a military movie.”

          “It wasn’t a fluke. I’ve been here too long...” Quincy vacantly peered out into the parking lot and saw a frog hop out from underneath a car and jump into some bushes.

          “I can make them go away. All you have to do is ask,” Joy spoke with concern.

          Quincy was silent. It was a silence that suggested they’d had this conversation over and over again, but the outcome was always the same. The answer was always no.

          “I know I know, just thought I would give it another try,” she sighed. “Anyone else in the world would use my powers to fix their problems. If you asked me to turn the sun into a bouncy ball, I would ask you what color. Maybe that’s why I’ve liked you since we first met. You’re different than the rest, always giving never taking. Despite that, you frustrate me to no end, you know that right?”

          Quincy chuckled, “I know I do. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t entertain me to some degree.”

          Joy crossed her leaves and scoffed. “I think you should start showing a little more respect from now on. All the things I do�"and don’t do for you. I was using the universe as a toy box long before your species ever existed. I feel like an exotic pet.”

          “All that power,” Quincy smirked, “and yet you cling to my bald head and experience the world as a flower. Ohhoho.”

          “Eh, that’s true. Your chromedome is just too shiny for your own good. Smells nice too. Your feet on the other hand...”

          “Who are you talking to?”

          Quincy looked to his left to meet the fair face of a crouched Leena. Her head was tilted, and a good portion of her long, blue hair was tucked behind her ear. She had bit her lip and her yellow eyes were wide with curiosity.

          Quincy’s rapidly beating heart stopped and fell into his liver. He usually spoke to Joy through his mind but would slip up here and there. Normally, he was unconcerned about what others’ opinions of him were, but Leena was different. In a short time, Leena became special to Quincy. Special in a way he was still uncertain about for now.

          “I’m just talking to myself,” Quincy lied. He shied away and returned his attention to the parking lot stonefaced.

          “Oh, is that all? I do that all the time,” Leena giggled. “It drives Raven up the wall. I was just worried. During the movie, I-I just happened to look over and saw you were asleep. I didn’t want to wake you, figured you were tired from all that running today. Then, at the end of the movie, you suddenly got up and ran out of the theater looking incredibly upset. I decided to find you and see if you were alright.”

          Leena was half lying. She indeed wanted to see if Quincy was okay, but was afraid of being too nosey, furthering Quincy’s distress. Raven gave Leena the shove she needed to pursue the giant.

          “Just an unpleasant dream. No worries,” Quincy grinned. It was a hollow smile, a smile that Quincy felt guilty for.

          “That’s good. I’m glad.” She sat beside Quincy and joined in his mock interest in the view of scattered parked cars.

          “Leena,” Quincy started. He wanted to tell her that he would be leaving Almond Bay very shortly but just didn’t have the courage nor strength to do so.

          “Hmm?” She hummed, still absently staring straight ahead. “What is it?”

          “Your shirt... It’s completely soaked.”

          Leena drew her grey turtleneck like a hammock, displaying the rustic stain like an art piece. “Just got a little soda spilled on me. It’s not a big deal.”

          Quincy then remembered when he lurched up from his seat that it had lifted a bit and knocked over a full cup of fountain drink. It must have poured all over Leena’s lap.

          “I’m sorry,” he apologized frantically, “here.” He ran over to his car and grabbed some napkins out of the glove box. “Use these. Dab, don’t wipe, it will prevent stains.”

          Leena paused before holding her sides and roaring with laughter at the image of Quincy on his knees presenting a napkin to her like she was royalty. In her fit of giggles, she flung her head too far back and bumped it on the brick wall. She stopped, rubbed her head, then continued her laughter. It became a duet of goofiness once Quincy joined her. Leena rose back to her toes thanks to his giant helping hand.

          “I’ll just�"hnggg, there.” Leena’s turtleneck was stuck temporarily while yanking it off up and over her noggin. She combed her disheveled hair with her thin, pale fingers and tied the arms of her sweater around her waist to hide the stain. “I’ll wash it when I get home. It’s a hot night anyways and I’ve done enough sweating for the next few months.”

          It was the hardest Quincy ever tried to keep his gaze above Leena’s neck, this challenge was made even more difficult due to the fact he had to look downward at everyone to even meet their eyes. Modest clothing is all Quincy ever saw Leena wear, so he was caught off guard. Even the workout clothing she wore during their run around the lake veiled Leena’s sizeable bosom. The green V-neck shirt that was once hidden threatened to tear into a lowcut if she drew too much breath. A sparkling, silver necklace helplessly dangled over a deep chasm of fat and flesh. Quincy dug his fingers into the back of his upper leg, hoping the pain would grant a distraction for his wandering mind.

          “I have a ton of these at home. They’re very comfortable and super cute. Raven’s tried so many times to get me to wear more revealing clothing. I’ve tried but... everyone stares at me when I do, even if Raven is right beside me. She shows off more skin than I do regularly, so I never understood why I’m singled out.”

          “Your b***s are huge, girl. Never figured that out since the day you went through puberty? Don’t tell me that you’re actually that oblivious. Joy twitched a few of her petals and let off invisible energy that made Quincy’s fingertips tingle. “I’ve just watched her entire life from birth until this moment and can confirm; she’s that oblivious. And I thought you were bad, Quincy.”

          “It’s time for me to call it a night,” Leena said with a satisfying stretch. “Raven and Edmund took off already, about time I did as well. Glad you’re alright, I’ll see you on Monday, Quincy.”

          “Yeah, see you,” He said with a cheerful tone. He watched Leena stride toward her vehicle and shortly after he went to his own.

          Quincy sat for a minute peering out at the star-filled sky from behind his windshield. He had left many places behind in the past with little to no unnecessary words when announcing his departure. This was the first time he was second-guessing himself. The nightmares always intensified when he stayed in one place too long and always left when he hit the road. When Leena chased him down and showed genuine concern, just for a moment he got a surge of courage that would help him fight back against the nightmares, but when he closed the door to his vehicle, cowardice returned to the wheel.

          A light rapping on the driver-side window yanked Quincy away from the infinite blackness of space. He rolled down his creaking window to reunite with Leena’s moonlit mug which had embarrassment slapped across it.

          “Sorry to bother you but... my car is not starting. You wouldn’t happen to know much about cars, do you? Think you could take a look?”

          “If I can get my mobile wreckage working,” Quincy smirked while analyzing the front of Leena’s car, “then I can get yours going no problem. Pop the hood for me and I’ll take a gander,” he chuckled hardily.

          Leena sat in her car with the door wide open and pulled the lever that had a picture of a car with its hood toward the sky. Once Quincy heard the click, he swiped a fat digit through the crack and hit a second lever that fully freed the hood from its binding.

          It wasn’t what Quincy saw that shocked him, it was what he didn’t see. The inside of Leena’s car was nothing more than an empty metal box. No battery, no engine, even the tank for windshield wiper fluid had just disappeared.

          “How very strange. Yes... very strange indeed,” Joy whispered to Quincy in a posh, deductive tone. “It seems that some master thief has stolen the contents of this woman’s vehicle.”

          Joy, you didn’t.

          “Hmm, yes, I see,” Joy said, ignoring Quincy’s accusatory thoughts. “And if my deduction is correct�"and let’s face it, of course it is�"your junker is missing its parts as well.” With a leaf, Joy mimed smoking a pipe. “Shame you can’t call the police or a taxi at this time as all the phone lines are oddly busy. Guess you’ll both have to walk home. I wouldn’t let a young, cute woman like Leena walk by herself this time of night. A lot of creeps out there.”

          Joy, return our cars to normal this instant. It’s not funny.

          “I’m sure those thieves will have a change of heart in the morning and return your cars to normal. They’ll even be kind enough to leave them outside your places of residents.”

          Joy, Quincy pleaded in his mind, please don’t do this.

          “Anyways, I’m tired. Goodnight, Quincy.” The lilac known as Joy closed her petals and never made a peep until the following day leaving Quincy undoubtedly stranded, both physically and socially.

          It all went according to Joy’s plan. Quincy told Leena that he couldn’t get her car started and offered to take her home in his car. When his vehicle wouldn’t start either�"which he knew it wouldn’t�"Leena went for a nearby payphone to call for a taxi, but shortly after she picked up the receiver she glanced at Quincy, whispered to herself, and returned the receiver to its slot with a click. She never even got to hear that all lines were busy.

          “My house isn’t that far away, thirty-minute walk at most. I’ll call a tow truck in the morning to get both of our vehicles out of the lot.”

          “I’ll,” Quincy mumbled shyly, “I’ll walk you home. Where do you live?”

          “Aww, I’d appreciate that,” Leena beamed, “my place is on the north end of Almond Bay.” She pointed in the general direction of her home. “I hope that’s not too out of your way.”

          “No, not at all,” Quincy lied. His apartment in the Almond Pit was in the opposite direction. He preferred Leena to remain ignorant to that fact to save her from any bit of guilt. Although he was upset with Joy for meddling, Quincy was more than happy to walk Leena back home, and unbeknownst to him, so was Leena.

          Leena’s delicate footsteps were followed by less subtle stomps a few inches behind her. A gentle breeze danced through the streetlamp-lit streets and sidewalks. Any night-goers who were traveling toward them on the same path swayed to the other side of the street when they noticed Quincy. Leena would grin at the ridiculousness of such a reaction now that she knew Quincy personally. It’s odd to think that she was like that not too long ago.

          Leena dropped pace so she was beside Quincy and peered up at him with inquisitiveness bouncing in her yellow eyes. “Have you ever been to Grand City, Quincy?”

          “Just once and it wasn’t for longer than a couple of days. Did a lecture at a college.”

          “You attended a lecture there? What was it about?”

          “No, I didn’t attend. I gave the lecture,” He said casually while he side-eyed a dark alleyway. “I discussed the theory of general relativity and how it could lead to interdimensional travel if we could... uh...” The dumbfounded yet intrigued expression Leena was giving him pinked his cheeks. He coughed into his fist and cleared his throat of a lump that didn’t exist. “Well, needless to say, I wasn’t there long.”

          “I grew up there; born and raised in Grand City. A spoiled, ignorant girl who was heir to the White Corporation. My parents are at the very top of computer technology. They own pretty much half of Grand City alone. It wasn’t until I was ten when my father started to show me the ropes. The way business is conducted is all so sterile, cold. A lot of fake smiles and handshakes, I never cared for it even though my father keeps insisting I will take his place one day. When I was thirteen I was feeling a bit rebellious and snuck past the gates and the guards of my parents’ isolated mansion. I wanted to explore the other side of Grand City, the side I hadn’t seen. I didn’t talk, I just listened to people. Listened to how White Corporation had destroyed their lives in one way or another. My heart sank when I learned how much my family was hated, and I couldn’t blame them.”

          “You were still a young girl, I doubt anyone hated you,” Quincy spoke in a tone that made Leena feel like she was being wrapped in a soft, comfortable blanket. “Going out on your own looking for trouble at the age of thirteen was pretty bold of you.”

          “I wasn’t entirely unprepared,” Leena grinned. She leaned forward a bit and clasped her hands together at her lower back. “I had my butler come with me and he made some pretty convincing disguises.”

          “That’s good. So, what happened after?”

          “From then on I had decided to stay as far away from the family business as possible. I never wanted to be in a position of power that could end up ruining people’s lives. Don’t get me wrong, I love my parents and I would never say they are evil or heartless, but for them, the bottom line came first. That left me stuck though, what was I going to do about my future if it didn’t involve business. At fifteen my father took me along on one of his trips. He was selling a vast number of computers to public schools in the midwest. While he was talking with a superintendent at an elementary school in a humble town, I strolled off on my own. I walked the halls, listened to laughter, screaming, and crying from the classrooms. I never heard such sounds at my stuffy private school. Curiosity finally broke me, and I peeked into a kindergarten class. Never had I seen anything more opposite of what my parents had been pushing me to do. It was chaotic, messy, smelly, but also warm. A room of kids just being kids, completely carefree. That’s when I knew what I wanted to do.”

          “You wanted to be a child again?” Quincy chuckled.

          Leena halted her pace and giggled. “Well, I did try to do that, but I didn’t get very far. So I settled for my second choice and entered the field of academia.”

          Several minutes of calm silence felt like a blissful hour. They listened to the hooting of owls hidden behind houses and trees. A slow pulse of twinkling lightning bugs hovered above the lawns of black-windowed houses.

          “I love Almond Bay,” Leena announced dreamily, “it’s a place where your problems seem so distant. It draws people in and gives them a home, even a person with trivial problems like myself. Deckles, Hailey, Raven, Edmund... they all have far more painful histories than I could ever imagine. Especially Edmund, but that’s not my story to tell. I know he can come off a bit rude, but he’s just very defensive of his close friends, a bit of the untrusting sort.”

          “I can understand that. He hasn’t bothered me personally,” Quincy replied while watching a star streak across the sky, “and I don’t think your problems are trivial. Every person has a scar from their past that helped shape who they are today, but it never defines them.” His mouth went dry after those words escaped the back of his tongue.”

          “I’ve known him for a while. Raven even longer. She knows him better than he knows himself. We girls think that you two will be the best of friends in no time.”

          “You think so?” Quincy raised a thick brow.

          “Of course. We women know these things,” she said with a tap of her temple. “He’s like... well he’s kind of like a cactus: sharp on the outside but filled with life-saving water on the inside. That make sense to you?”

          “Absolutely,” Quincy chuckled.

          A fragrance of sweets fumed from the crack of Leena’s front door. If Quincy didn’t know better he could have compared her to that child story of the witch in the woods who lured children into her candy house. An inviting, warm, yellow light accompanied the smell.

          Leena asked Quincy to wait a few moments before diving into her home. What she came back with was a flurry of “thank yous” and a sealed container of fudge she had left over from today’s venture at the park.

          An echo of Leena’s departing words tickled Quincy’s inner ear. “We may have just met but were not strangers. Keep that in mind.” Those glossy, curved lips were a brush that painted a masterpiece that Quincy would fondly look back on in his much later years.

          Joy never pressed Quincy further after he told her that they would stick with it and finish the year.