Fable laughed. "See? That's what you get when you piss off Loki's car."
Carmen wriggled once, forcing Axel to get out.
"I was just trying to park it in a safe place," Axel said, holding back from kicking Carmen in the trunk. "Now that Loki's dead."
Pickwick squealed.
"Don't say that in front of Pickwick," Fable demanded. "Loki was supposed to be his new master."
Axel stopped to look at her to see if she were real for a moment. He stared at Pickwick again and looked like he wanted to scream. Fable watched him sigh, pulled a few breadcrumbs from her hand, and swallowed them. "Don't go nibbling on my Bluebeard Bread," he warned her.
"It's called Bluebeard Bread?" Fable asked.
"It's a new brand I found at Belly and the Beast," he said, cleaning his face with his sleeve. "It's a play on Bluebeard's Beard."
"At least it sounds better than that Dead Bread you bought last week."
"At least admit it's delicious." Axel pursed his lips. "Besides, how could you pick the breadcrumbs from the ground and eat them? I just spilled them on my way to the car. I have the whole bag here with me."
"I like the breadcrumbs," Fable said. Pickwick nodded.
"And what's with the outfit?" Axel said. "You look like a boy."
"A tomboy, you mean. I like it."
"As long as it makes boys not approach you, I am happy," he said.
"Can I try?" Fable slid past him and entered the car. She wasn't about to have this conversation with Axel again, him insisting she was too young to date.
"As if you're gonna be able to drive it yourself," Axel mocked her. "You know Carmen doesn't work with keys, right?"
"I know, Axel. You have to kick it to get it started," Fable said, still munching on the breadcrumbs. "But I don't have the heart to kick you, my little red coochie-boochie car." Fable snuggled the wheel.
Pickwick and Axel looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Fable was aware of that, and tried not to laugh. But then that feeling inside her rose again. She felt she was too mature to say these things anymore. She felt she was more manly. She was supposed to be badass, and more heartless. What was she doing eating breadcrumbs and chatting with Axel after all the hardships Shew had been through after Loki died? How could she be so irresponsible and childish?
As much as she liked her thoughts, it was as if someone else was speaking inside her. Should she tell Axel about her calling herself Gretel this morning?
"So where is Shew?" Fable felt the responsibility to ask.
"In the cellar," Axel said, as his phone rang.
"What is she doing in the cellar?"
"What do you think?" Axel pulled the phone from his back pocket. "Mourning Loki's corpse."
"Oh." Fable stopped nibbling. Pickwick's face knotted.
Axel read the name of the caller. His face changed. Fable couldn't read it, but was sure he was excited.
"I have to take this," he said, walking away. "Don't even start to use Carmen's radio. The whole car shakes violently if you do. Talk to ya later, sis!" He took off to answer the call in the fields.
"In the cellar?" Fable whispered. "You think we should be with her or leave her alone with her True Love?" she asked Pickwick.
Instead of Pickwick answering, the radio did. A song started to play from the speakers, leaving Fable's mouth agape and eyes widened. The radio only played in the presence of Loki. How was that possible?
When the song finished, the host announced a special thanks to Fable Crumblewood and Pickwick the Parrot for listening. The host announced the next track was going to be a special farewell song for the one and only Loki Blackstar, performed by the one and only Pumpkinheads. As the song played, something happened to Fable's eyes. They weren't itching this time. These were tears. A lot of tears, from finally realizing that Loki was gone, probably for good.
4
Fable trotted toward the cellar's door, noticing she'd dropped a few breadcrumbs behind her. She dismissed her unusual clumsiness, and decided to forget about what was happening to her for a moment. She stepped forward, took a deep breath, and then opened the door to the cellar.
Carefully stepping down on the creaking wood of the stairs, she glimpsed the rusty oven at the bottom, which had been here since long ago. Only Fable knew it was the same oven Cerené had used to get fire for her art in the Dreamworld. Every time Fable thought about their house originally being Baba Yaga's dungeon in the past, her pigtails rather prickled—totally absurd, she knew; it felt like she had two Pinocchio noses in her hair. It was such an unsettling thought that she and Axel lived in a house where thousands of girls had been kidnapped and sent to the Queen of Sorrow two centuries ago—plus thousands of boys who had been eaten and cooked in that oven by Baba Yaga.
Candy House, although it looked enchanting, was simply a horror house.
"Shew?" Fable called. She was a bit uncomfortable with the dimly lit cellar. "Are you there?"