Lovecraft and the Brothers Grimm

"Yes, but in some ways she's older than you or me," Vivian told her. "She's always been like that. If she doesn't want you to be part of her life, that's her decision."

"No, it's not," Mira said.

"What are you talking about?" I said.

"I want you," she said.

"I don't give a damn what you want," I said. "I don't want you."

"We'll see," she said. She had a look in her eyes that made me shiver. I thought about those human rights violations.

"Are you threatening her?" Vivian asked. She looked fierce. "Because if you are, it's going to get very ugly, very fast."

"I never threaten," Mira said.

"I think you should leave now," I told her.

She got out her phone and started to make a call.

"You can make that call outside," I told her.

She looked daggers at me, but she went outside. I locked the door behind her.

"Jesus," Vivian said. "That's a scary woman. What the hell, Collins? Why does she want you?"

"I have no idea," I told her. "I think she's a psychopath. I don't want to see her again, Aunt Vivian."

"No, baby; we won't. This was a mistake."

There was a thud on the door and Vivian grabbed her purse. I had a strong door and it took five of those thuds before the lock broke. Two huge black men came in, followed by Mira.

"Collins, you're coming with me," she said.

"Like hell she is," Aunt Vivian pulled her 9mm out of her purse. She had a permit for concealed carry and she knew how to use that gun. "Collins, call the police," she said.

All three of them raised their hands. "We'll leave," Mira said.

"If you move one step I'm going to shoot," Vivian said.

I dialed 911 and told them the address. "Some men and a woman just broke into our house," I told the dispatcher. "My aunt is holding them at gunpoint."

One of the men made a mistake. He took a step toward Aunt Vivian and she just shot him. It hit him high in the shoulder and he went down. The other guy and Mira froze. The police came screaming up and they took us all downtown. It turned out that Mira had diplomatic immunity, and they wouldn't let Aunt Vivian go until they investigated. They called child services to come and get me and I slipped out while they were questioning everyone. I caught a cab home and found our emergency box. Dad kept it in the wall of our bathroom in a trap door that looked like a plumbing hatch. It had a .22 magnum automatic, our passports and $20,000 in cash in it. I took it all and went and got Dad's truck. I loaded it with everything I thought I would need. I looked regretfully at my Audi R8 LMX, but it was too conspicuous. I took our cards and got cash advances from the ATM around the corner. I took all the money out of our accounts I could get. I would get more tomorrow when I could.

I drove to a warehouse Vivian owned and pulled the truck inside. There was an office in there with a cot and it had a bathroom with a small shower. I would be fine there for a while. I plugged in the microwave and my cooler. I had to do something about my phone. I went to Walmart and bought four of those prepaid phones. I used my iPhone to call both houses and left messages for Vivian. I told her I'd call her at ten, noon and four every day, but I was getting rid of my iPhone. I plugged it into my laptop and started a jailbreak on it. Halfway through I turned it off and drove down to the docks. I threw it in the water and went back to the warehouse. With the jailbreak halfway done, even if it was recovered, no one could retrieve the information. I microwaved my dinner, played games on my laptop and listened to music until I was sleepy.

The next day I called at all the times I said I would. At noon, when I called her house, someone from child services answered the phone. "Collins, we just want to help you," they started. I hung up. I called Vivian's cell phone and she answered.

"Don't tell me where you are, Collins," was the first thing she said. "Are you okay, baby?"

"Yes, what do you want me to do?" I asked her.

"Just stay safe and out of sight," she said. "I'm afraid Mira will try to kidnap you. Can you get out of town?"

"Yes, I'm already out," I lied. "I'll call you in a couple of days when I get settled."

"Collins, I love you so much, baby," I could tell she was crying. "Me too," I choked out.

I was afraid to stay too long at the warehouse. They might eventually check her properties, and I didn't want any part of child services. Dad and Aunt Vivian had been in that, and they told me horror stories. I stayed in that warehouse a week until I figured they wouldn't be looking for me with the same urgency. I hoped the blowback from Vivian shooting that guy would go away and we could just get back to normal. I was still hurting pretty badly about Dad and I cried myself to sleep every night. My father was gone, I was seventeen, I had just over 20,000 dollars, I couldn't reach the only person in the world who loved me, I was a fugitive and a crazy woman wanted to kidnap me. I couldn't imagine a month ago that I wouldn't be a wreck. I surprised myself that I wasn't

I needed to get out of Miami; hell, I needed to get out of Florida. I loaded up my stuff and headed north. I stayed off the freeways and used maps. No GPS for me! I was afraid they could track me by the cell towers I accessed. I stopped for the night in Atmore, Alabama. I got a room at the motel and paid cash. It was a mom and pop outfit with a kitchen, and I settled in. I talked to Vivian a couple of times and it looked like she was going to get out of her legal problems. They were dropping the charges and they had started the process to deport Mira and her boys. She didn't want me to come home.

"I'm still afraid, Collins. I think we need to disappear. The woman is a nut job. I think someone is following me everywhere I go. What do you want to do, baby?"

"I just need you," I told her. "I'm scared and lonely, Aunt Vivian. I think the people who own this place don't like me. I think they're a bunch of racists and they don't like a black girl staying here. I don't like the way they look at me; like I'm a piece of meat and they're hungry."

"Go somewhere else. Do it today," she told me. "Collins, will you disappear with me? We can start over somewhere Mira will never find us."

"I don't want to do that," I told her. "I don't know what else to do, though. I'll do whatever you want."

"Then I'm going to cash out," she said. "I'm going to sell everything we have; I'm going to move it all offshore and we'll vanish. It's going to take a while. Do you have enough money?"

"I can probably live six months," I told her. "The problem is, where? I'm underage and no one will rent to me."

"I'll think of something," she said.

Two weeks later I was in Washington State. It turned out Vivian knew a retired security contractor Dad had known who had bought an apple farm in the Okanogan Valley, and he had some small cabins on his place that he let migrant workers stay in during the harvest. He agreed to rent me one and keep it on low key after Vivian told him what was going on. I moved in, and he and his wife were a wonderful couple. They were in their early seventies and they treated me like I was their grandkid. I posed as that, and when school started up, I enrolled. I was one of two black kids in the whole school. Joseph was an exchange student from Zimbabwe, and we were sort of celebrities, so we got along pretty well. The kids all treated me well and the teachers seemed to like me, too. I wanted to run track, but I didn't need my name in the paper. I had been counting on that to get me a scholarship to college, but Vivian told me not to worry about it. We'd pay whatever it took. I had my eighteenth birthday alone in a cabin with two feet of snow falling. It was the loneliest I'd ever been. I didn't remember the starving time before Dad found me, but this was bad.

Vivian sold our houses and that made me very sad. She sold my car and it was even worse. Dad got me that car for my sixteenth birthday, and I cried for a week when she sold it. She cashed everything we had out, and by the time I graduated she had been with me for two weeks. We moved to Spokane and she bought a house. I enrolled at Gonzaga and we kind of settled in.

I was walking across the campus one morning between the science building and the gym and I noticed a couple of guys walking behind me.

"Hey, Collins," one of them called. "Wait up."

He was a guy from my lifetime activities class who had been my bowling partner the week before. I stopped and they caught up.

"We're having a party tonight and we want you to come," he said. "I'm Mike, remember, and this is Cal."

"I remember," I told him. "What kind of a party?"

"Just have a few beers, dance a little, swim in my parent's pool and listen to some music," he said.

"I'm not much of a party girl, Mike," I told him. "I wouldn't want to step on your vibe."

"It's not like that," he said. "Some people might get wasted, but most of us won't."

"I'll think about it," I told him.

He gave me the address and I went to the gym. They had a nice indoor track and I changed and started running. I ran three miles and walked a quarter. When I started again, I kicked the whole quarter and stopped. I walked a quarter, blowing pretty good.

"Hey," I heard somebody call from down in the gym. "Who the hell are you?"

I saw a guy walking across the floor. "Are you talking to me?" I called.

"Hell yes, I'm talking to you," he said. "Wait right there, I need to talk to you for a minute."

He climbed the stairs and I kept walking. He ran after me and stopped, walking beside me.

"I'm a student here," I told him. "I can use the track."

"I'm not worried about that; I saw you running," he said. "I watched that three miles you ran. You were moving! I put a clock on that last 400. You ran that in 57 seconds after running three miles. What's your best time?"

"Why do you want to know?" I asked him.

"I'm the track coach here," he said. "Who do you run for?"

"Collins Drake," I said.

"Is he a coach?" he asked.

"That's me," I said. "I run for me."

"Oh, sorry," he said. "You don't belong to a club or run on a team?"

"No, I just run for fun," I said.

"You're kidding, right?"

"No. Listen, I've got to be going. See you around."

"Wait a God-damned minute, please," he said. "Jesus, Collins, you look just like Paula Patton," he said.

"Thanks, but I really need to go," I told him.

"I want you to run for me," he said.

"I can't," I told him. "I'm sorry, but I can't."

"Why not? You're faster than anyone I have on my team. You're faster than most of the guys. I know you could get down in the low fifties."

I couldn't resist. "53.3," I told him.

"Jesus, girl; you do that without anyone to train you? I think I could shave that down."

"I had someone to train me," I said. "My father. He was my track coach."

"Why won't you talk to me about it?" he asked.

"I can't tell you that either," I said. "Just let me go."

"Okay," he said. "I won't pressure you. My name is Mason Knoll. If you change your mind, give me a call."

"I will," I said. I hadn't really looked at him, but I did then. He had the most amazing eyes I had ever seen. They were a really light grey color and I thought he was very good looking. He almost reminded me of Dad in a way. Maybe it was a coach thing. I went and picked up my bag. When I got home, I told Vivian about my day. I asked her if she minded if I went to the party.

"No, I don't mind," she said. "I got a job today, Collins. I'm going to be a public defender."

I jumped on her. "That's so cool, Aunt Vivian. Those poor people are going to get a surprise. They're going to be defended by the best lawyer any of them have ever seen. The prosecutors are in for a surprise, too." I hugged her so hard her feet came off the ground.

"Put me down," she scolded. "Jesus, Collins; you don't know your own strength. You nearly made me pee my pants."

I laughed and got in the shower. The party was kind of fun. I missed not having friends around. I hung out for quite a while. I wasn't old enough to drink, but neither were a lot of other people that were. I stuck with soda and Mike introduced me to a lot of people. He sat beside me and we talked for a while. He sparked up a blunt and we shared it.

"I've noticed you don't hang out a lot on campus, Collins," he said.

"I don't live on campus," I told him, "and when I get done with school I usually just go home."

"Do you have a boyfriend?" he asked.

"Um, no, not really," I told him. "I don't really know anyone here. My aunt and I just moved here a couple of months ago."

"Well, I know a bunch of guys that are dying to ask you out," he said. "They're just afraid you'll shoot them down. A girl who looks like you is just sort of scary."

I pretended to be shocked. "I didn't know I looked so bad people thought I was scary," I told him."

"No... that's not... I didn't mean..." he stammered.

I laughed, "I was just kidding you, Mike. Jesus, relax, dude; I'm really nice if people just talk to me. I may not go out with them, but I'll decline nicely if I don't. I'll go out with nearly anyone once. They might turn out to be the love of my life."

I noticed a girl I had recognized from biology class had walked up and overheard my last remark. She was a kind of short blonde with really large breasts and a really plush ass.

"Will you go out with me, Collins?" she asked.

"I'm not a lesbian, but I might," I told her. "I'd like to get to know you before I say yes or no. In fact, if anyone wants to go out with me, they should try just talking to me first. I'll go out with you, Mike, if you decide to ask me. You were nice enough and brave enough to talk to me and ask me to this party."

"Really? I'll do it!" he seemed pretty excited. "I'll take you somewhere as soon as I get my first check."

"I'll be waiting," I told him. "I'm going home now. Thanks for asking me to the party."

He and Cal walked me to my truck and I went home happier than I had been in a long time. Vivian wasn't home when I got there, and when she came home, she looked happier, too.

"Where ya been?" I asked her.

"I had a date, Collins. I met a really nice guy."

"Good," I hugged her. "Tell me all about it." We talked for a long time before we went to bed, and I think for the first time in a long time we felt like the future was something other than a big black hole.

I went out with Mike a couple of weeks later and he was a really nice guy. I liked having him for a friend, but he wasn't going to be more than that. I just didn't feel what I was hoping to feel. I think he sensed it, too, because after that we hung out a lot but he never asked me out again. We went places together and with a group, but it wasn't romantic. We went to a party with Beth, the girl that asked me out, and Cal. A guy I hadn't seen before came up and asked Mike to introduce us. I could tell Mike didn't like him, but he was very good looking. His name was Gary Morse and he played football. I knew a lot about football, and he told me he was a fullback. He was impressed that I knew what that was. He was tall and well built, blue eyes and dark hair. I thought he was probably kind of big deal on campus.

He made it a point to find me on campus over the next few weeks, and after a month he asked me out. We went to a movie and met a friend of his and his girlfriend there. We went to Taco Bell after the movie and I liked him pretty well when he dropped me off that night. I gave him a peck on the cheek and he seemed happy with that.

The next day I saw Mike in class and he pulled me aside after we got out. "Collins, I'm just telling you this because you're my friend. You know I'm not trying to get in your pants or anything, so here goes. Gary isn't a very good guy. He got a girl pregnant last semester and just dumped her when he found out. You do what you want to, but you're too good for him. You're not wild enough. He parties hard and so do all his friends. Everyone knows he's a horndog."

I was a little angry, but I knew he was probably telling me the truth. Well, I was a big girl and I didn't plan to marry him or anything. Gary started showing up at the track when I was running and he ran with me some. He wasn't in the kind of shape to keep up, but he tried. We went out a couple of more times and he grew octopus arms. He put his hands all over me until he pissed me off. I left the club we were at and called a cab. I waited on the sidewalk and he came out and tried to get me to go back inside. I had enough when he tried to drag me back in by my arm and I grabbed him by the nuts and squeezed. He went as white as a sheet and crumpled to his knees. I kept him there until the cab pulled up. I gave him a last squeeze and he made a little shrieking sound. I let him go and got in the cab. I told Vivian about it and she laughed hysterically. I guess it was kind of funny, but I'll let a guy know when I want to go forward. I didn't want to with Gary, and he just wouldn't back off.

I had just got through running the next afternoon, and when I walked down the stairs, Gary and two of the guys on the football team were waiting at the bottom of the stairs. I stopped.

"You need something?" I asked them.

"I think it's time you learned what's going on around here," Gary said. "It's time you learned that when I want a bitch, I just take her."

"Is that what they're here for?" I asked him, nodding toward his buddies. "You too much of a pussy to 'just take' me by yourself?"

"Naw, they want a piece of that ass, too," he laughed. "You're going to enjoy this."

I ran back up the stairs and started around the track across the building where there was a stairway that went outside. I knew they could never catch me. I left them in the dust, but I could see one of his buddies heading across the floor to cut me off at the stair up to the track over there. I came out of the turn and they were chasing me. The guy coming up reached the top of the stairs, just as I reached them and stepped out in front of me. I didn't even slow down. I jumped and caught him with a front kick in the chest. He went down and hit his head on the floor with a crack. I kept running. A door opened ahead, and I saw Mason Knoll come out of his office. I ran to him and stopped. Gary and his conscious buddy came puffing up and I saw the other guy shaking off his cobwebs.

"Collins, what's going on?" Mason asked me.

"Gary and his friends decided to 'just take' me," I told him. "He doesn't know what 'no' means."

"Stay out of this," Gary told him. "You don't want any trouble with Coach Hawk."

"No, you're right," Mason said. "I don't think I'll have any trouble with him. I don't think you want any trouble with me, do you?"

"No, we'll just go," his buddy said.

Gary protested and his buddy grabbed his arm. "Knolls fights MMA," he told Gary. "He'll kick our asses and we'll get kicked out of school, too. He's the nephew of the president of the school."

"If Collins tells me that you've bothered her again, that's exactly what's going to happen," Mason told them. "You assholes better leave. Come on Collins, I'll take you home."

I held his hand and we walked past them and down the stairs. He was parked outside the building and he had a 1969 GTO! He opened my door and made me buckle up. He drove me home and I invited him in for a soda. When I opened the door Aunt Vivian made a little squeal. "Mason, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I have no idea," he said. "Why am I here, Collins?"

"He ran off some assholes who were going to attack me," I told her. "How do you know him, Aunt Vivian?"

"He was my date I told you about," Vivian said.

"Jesus, how come you get the nice guy and I wind up with the tools?" I complained.

"You're Collins' aunt?" He asked; a confused look on his face.