An imaginary slap from Babushka’s hand landed on Loki’s face, but it didn’t faze him and he turned around to open the door to his Cadillac.
“I have problems of my own,” Loki said to himself. “I’m not a hero. I’m just a 15 and 3/4 year old, looking for a way back home and a comfy bed to sleep on,” Loki climbed into his car, and rolled the squeaky window up so he wouldn’t hear the voice calling his name. Still, each squeak pierced guilt into his conscience.
Before kick-starting Carmen, Loki felt something in his back pocket. It was the notebook Charmwill had given to him. Holding it in his hand, he suddenly doubted Dreamhunters gave up on people who needed help. It was true that Dreamhunters killed Demortals in their sleep, but something told him that they were heroic people that helped those in need. His thought was interrupted by Carmen’s radio singing back to life. It was the Pumpkin Warriors again, and one of them was playing a simple acoustic song on a guitar. It went like this:
Loki, Loki is such a big lie,
Left the boy and let him cry.
When the boy called out his name,
Loki said I’m not to blame.
Loki, Loki is such a big lie,
Left the boy and said goodbye.
“OK,” Loki smacked the dashboard. “I get it!”
He opened the window and took one last look at the two big beastly teens, which were twice his size. He shrugged and opened the door, walking toward them.
“What are you doing?” the two girls with books to their chests hissed at Loki. “No one messes with Big Bad and Paw Paw.”
“Who are Big Bad and Paw Paw?” Loki stopped.
“Paw Paw is the stud with earrings, Big Bad is the one with the huge chest,” one of the girls said. “They call themselves the Bullyvards. No one messes with them.”
“They’re playing ’Pig and Sheep’ with the poor boy,” the other girl elaborated. “They’ll keep bullying him until he confesses he’s either a pig or a sheep. If he confesses to being a pig they’ll put him in garbage can and huff and puff it away. If he confesses to being a sheep, they’ll hunt him down and bite him as punishment.”
“Loki! Help!” the boy screamed as he stretched an arm out from under Paw Paw’s armpit, looking his direction. Big Bad and Paw Paw turned their heads towards Loki. It was too late to chicken out.
“Who do you think I should sack down first?” Loki said to the girls, his eyes fixed on Big Bad’s titanic chest. It looked like it had someone else stuffed inside it, “the Big or the Bad?”
The girls giggled as Loki reluctantly approached the Bullyvards who were staring at him disdainfully. The closer he got to them, the shorter and skinnier he felt; in contrast the brute’s smirks widened. He’d never seen a meaner expression on someone’s face, not even Donnie Cricketkiller’s.
“Hi,” Loki waved his hand casually, pretending he was taking a walk in the park. He was about to offer them his fake smile, but then he remembered Charmwill telling him that he could be whoever he wanted to be in Sorrow. Images of Donnie Cricketkiller and the other vampire hunters stealing his vampires flashed before his eyes. For a boy who’d been prohibited from fighting with bullies who picked on him and others, this was going to be a great opportunity to change—if Charmwill was right about what he’d said.
The Bullyvards were only feet away, but the walk felt like miles.
Closer now, Loki saw the boy, and figured out he was the one with the purple hoodie and the Donkeyskin Burger. His purple hoodie lay crumbled on the ground, covered in dirt and footprints.
“Looking for something?” Paw Paw growled, squeezing the boy’s neck with his giant Popeye-arm. He looked almost twenty, heavily tattooed and too old for school.
“Actually, it’s that funny smell that brought me here,” Loki covered his nose with his hand, hiding some of his Magic Dust in it. “Phew, what did you guys eat today?”
The onlookers laughed then stopped immediately when Paw Paw looked back at them.
“Are you making fun of me,” Paw Paw grinned, squeezing harder on the boy’s neck whose face was turning blue as his tongue dangled from his open mouth.
“God forbid,” Loki said. “I was making fun of him,” Loki pointed at Big Bad.
Everyone in the parking lot held their breath. Loki doubted his attitude for a second, but hell, it felt so good to make fun of the bullies, even if it meant he’d end up a Pig or Sheep—he’d been bullied enough by Donnie’s friends in Snoring and it never stopped him from making fun of them. They used to hang him like dirty laundry from his jacket on the classroom’s door, and he couldn’t do anything about it.
Instantly, Big Bad reached for Loki’s shirt with one hand and lifted him up from the ground, reminding him of the dirty laundry days.
“Are you even old enough to think about insulting us?” Big Bad chuckled. He was about eighteen with long seventies side burns and a ridiculous Elvis style haircut.
“Young enough to do it and old enough to do it right,” Loki said choking in the air.