Man, this couch feels so much better than Carmen’s backseat.
“We have a foster parent who picked us up two years ago from the Orphanage of Sorrow,” Axel said. Loki thought this explained why Axel and Fable didn’t have friends. “Her name is Mircalla. Strange name, I know, but she is a fantastic woman. She pays for everything and takes care of us although she doesn’t spend much time with us. She’s kind of like our fairy godmother, and she is awesome.”
“Why she isn’t here now?”
“She visits every week or so. She has other orphans to take care of all around the world, so we practically have the house to ourselves.”
“Interesting,” Loki thought Mircalla reminded him of the way Charmwill took care of him, only Charmwill never paid the bill or bought him a house. “I would love to meet her,” Loki said, although he didn’t mean it. By the time Mircalla came to visit again, he should have killed the vampire princess and left.
“She’ll be back in a couple of days, which means we’ll have to clean the house before that.”
Loki thought he clicked with Axel and Fable because they were orphans like him. Aside from his lost memories, Loki hadn’t had the chance to even know his father’s name, and his mother refused to tell him. All he knew from Charmwill was that he was a great Dreamhunter who’d been shadowed after falling in love with his mother who gave birth to Loki.
Loki touched his pocket where he kept the Dreamhunter’s notebook. He hadn’t had time to read it to figure out how he’d kill Snow White in her dreams. He planned to stake her first, and take her somewhere safe where he could learn the process of killing a demon in her sleep. That was if he managed to get over his fear of demons girls. Loki suddenly realized he was wasting time. He needed Axel to tell him about the obstacles he had to pass to get to the castle.
“I’m logging into the Snow White forum, Harum Scarum, so we can acquire all the info we need,” Axel brought his laptop over to where Loki sat. He picked up Bitsy, the silent tarantula, from the floor and threw him at the window. The spider stuck on the glass without complaint as if it were a big hairy magnet. “Useless dead spider,” Axel mumbled. “If only Fable didn’t love you so much.”
“What about this forum?” Loki asked.
“I know you won’t believe me, but teens are secretly infatuated with the Snow White vampire princess,” Axel said. “Here, you’ll find all the secrets, speculations, and conspiracy theories about Snow White, and what really happened to her.”
“Assuming she is the real Snow White,” Loki rolled his eyes.
“Well, that’s what the boys and girls say,” Axel said. “On this forum, you’ll find the names of the teens she killed, those who’ve tried to visit the castle recently, and those who claim they have seen her and came back. They are liars by the way.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t I tell you back in school that whoever lays eyes on her, never lives long enough to tell about it,” Axel faked an evil laugh. “Mua, ha, ha.”
“So enough with all that; get the info we need and let’s go to the Black Forest.”
“Easy, Loki, if we eat, wash, and rest for a while, we’ll be ready to go out a little before midnight. That’s when the boys and girls go there.”
“Why do we have to wait until midnight?”
“Because she’s a vampire, and wouldn’t come out in the sun? Gosh. What kind of vampire hunter are you?”
Loki tapped his fingers impatiently, not commenting about Axel still wanting to eat again. If Axel were a demon, he’d have eaten him and Fable already.
“But first,” Axel flopped back on the couch next to Loki, licking jelly off his fingers. “We kill us some Zombies,” he said with a fiendish grin.
“Kill Zombies?” Loki wondered, noticing Bitsy had disappeared from the window, leaving a web with one word written into it behind. It read: ‘dork’, probably addressing Axel.
Axel turned on the TV and started a game. Hordes of ugly Zombies walked toward them on the screen. Axel threw a wireless controller into Loki’s lap. “No one leaves Candy House without brain-blasting some Zombies. It’ll be a good adrenalin rush before killing your princess.”
Loki sighed, picked up the device, and started hitting buttons. It was much easier killing zombies than killing vampires in real life. The game controller was more of a magic weapon that did the job easily. Loki wondered if his Alicorn would turn out to as effective, and help him kill the pale princess.
8
Buried Moon Cemetery
A little before midnight, Loki drove with Axel toward the Black Forest. Axel insisted on stopping at The Belly and the Beast, which he described as the best hangout for teens in Sorrow.