Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters (26 page)

She stares at the floor like she expects a bag of treasure to pop out of it. “I don't really believe in fate.”

“You don't believe in fate. But you believe in all this?” I sweep my hand around the room. “Come on.”

Jinx looks up at me. “Are we friends?”

Weird question. I try to answer it honestly. “I saved you from the kappa. You saved me from the giant. You saved my dog. Yes, I would say we're friends. Why?”

She shrugs and her gaze falls to the floor. She seems exhausted all of a sudden.

“Where
are
your parents, anyway?” I ask, still curious. Do they know Jinx is roaming oni backcountry in filthy clothes and a ton of eyeliner? Did she run away from home? Does anybody at all care about her? “You never answered before. Are they back on Kauai? I want to know.” My fingers and legs tingle in a nice, warm way.

Jinx doesn't answer, just sips at her drink. Peyton returns and sits on the floor, stretching out next to Inu and putting one hand on his ribs. “He's doing better,” he reports.

“Good.” Jinx eats some more dried fish. She sniffles. “Good.”

The umbrella comes around with the plastic pitcher and refills my mug. Suddenly I'm really thirsty, and I swallow almost the whole thing in three big gulps. I set the mug on the floor. “So answer my question. Tell us about Jinx.”

Jinx sips her drink slowly, keeping her eyes averted. Her shoulders slump forward. “It's a boring story.”

“Tell me.” My words sound all squishy, like my tongue has stopped working. “I wanna know the whole thing.” I nudge her leg with my foot.

Now she looks up at me, straight into my eyes. “I'm a princess. My parents are the fabulously wealthy emperors of a small Asian kingdom. They wanted me to marry some gross weirdo to unite two kingdoms, so I ran away.”

I blink at her. Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure she's making this up. “Jinx, you don't have to be, like, ashamed or anything. I don't care about your background. My mother ran off and left us when I was little.” I shrug. “Her loss. We don't know if she's dead or alive. She never even sent a postcard.” A wave of self-pity sweeps over me. My mother doesn't know if I'm dead or alive, either. Doesn't she care?

“My dad wants to make me into his mini-me,” Peyton says from where he's now prone on the floor. “I don't want to go to military school.” His words sound like fruit in a blender, all whirred together. “He's not gonna make me!”

“That's right! He can't make you! You tell him so!” I raise my fist at Peyton, but his eyes are closed now.

“Parents can make you do anything,” Jinx says, shifting uncomfortably on her pile of hay. “We're just kids.”

“We're not just kids,” I scoff. I point at Peyton, then myself. “Wings! Momotaro!”

A sound like a small train going by comes from the floor. Peyton has passed out like he just finished Thanksgiving dinner. He's stretched out next to Inu, and both are snoring loudly.

“That was mighty harsh of your mother to leave like that.” Jinx shifts her eyes away again, as if looking at me is physically painful. She takes a big gulp of the drink. Wetness appears at the outer corners of her eyes, but it's gone almost as soon as it appears.

“Your parents don't want you, either, do they?” I ask softly. “That's how you ended up with that snow monster.”

She shrugs. “I haven't exactly been Princess Sunshine. I can't blame them.” She waves at the air. “Hey, doesn't matter now, right?”

But clearly it
does
matter to her. Jinx is all broken inside. The way she acts, like she doesn't care, is just a mask. I wish I could make her feel better. Something tells me Jinx is a lot worse off than I am. “You can't be that bad,” I say. “You're a kid. Parents are supposed to stick with their kids. It's their fault, not yours.”

She doesn't glance at me. Just bites down on her lower lip until she draws blood that trickles down her chin.

“Jinx, stop it.” I put my hand on her arm. This is the part where I'm probably supposed to hug her, since we're friends and all, but the thought makes me feel even weirder than this drink does. Instead, I take the bracelet off and nudge her arm with it. “Hey. This kappa bracelet.” I swallow. Now my words sound fuzzy. I poke her harder. “Have it.”

She glances down at the solid-gold cuff. “You don't want to give me that.”

“Yesshhhh. Yessssh, I do.” I push her with it. “Takes it.” My ability to speak English has apparently vanished.

“I said I don't want it.” She smacks the bracelet out of my hand, sending it clattering across the floor. The room goes still. The creatures stop chattering and stare. Jinx stands up, upsetting my mug, spilling the drink. Her breathing comes hard as she leans in toward me. “Listen, you little speck of dirt, I'm not taking your stinking butt-ugly bracelet, and I am not your stinking monkey. Got that?” Jinx's hands ball into fists.

“What's your problema? I'm just being nice. Something you are highly unfamiliar with.” I put the mug upright. Tanuki scrambles forward with a cloth to sop up the liquid. “Calm down.”

“I
am
calm!” Jinx's face wrinkles into a scowl. “I don't need your charity, you weak little half-breed.”

My head gets so hot my earwax melts. “No wonder your parents didn't want you!”

Jinx's face goes still; she's as expressionless as a statue again. “That's right,” she says quietly. “You're exactly right, for once.” She walks away, disappearing into the cave's darkness.

I feel bad. Maybe I went too far. But I wasn't the one who spilled a drink and threw a bracelet. I was just trying to be nice. What did she think was going to happen? I inhale deeply. Dad never would have said something as hurtful as that, no matter how nasty somebody acted to him. He would have been all Zen and said something like, “Jinx, I'm sorry you're having a rough day.” But he's a forty-five-year-old professor. I'm just a twelve-year-old boy. It's her fault, not mine.

I help Tanuki clean up, mopping up the drink with rags that I hope aren't actually living creatures. “Sorry, Tanuki.”

“No worries.” He stands upright again. “I am glad you are helping her, Momotaro-san. That girl has been through a lot.”

I straighten, feeling sick to my stomach. “I doubt I'm helping her much.”

Kitsune turns back into fox form and curls up in a C-shape, settling his tail over his paws. The umbrella sets a shallow bowl of matcha in front of him. “So he's it?” the fox says, his voice sounding exactly like a fox's should. Wily. “The Momotaro without magical powers? Ha. Tanuki, all the animals from far and wide will be coming to your house to see this spectacle.”

All the creatures laugh heartily.

“I will lock the door when I run out of matcha.” Tanuki smiles—or
seems
to smile with his snout. “Rest now, while you can, little hero.”

I burrow into my pile of hay. The umbrella refills my drink, and I empty it again. I feel so sad all of a sudden. Yes, I'm nothing special. Yes, I'm not a Momotaro. Yes, I'm just a big garden-variety jerk who made an orphan girl cry.

Tanuki pulls hay over me like a blanket.

I try to sit up, but my head spins. I feel numb all over, kind of like I'm not even in my body. “Doesthismatchahavealcoholinit?” My words slur. I manage, “Myobāchanwillnotbehappywithyou.”

“I'm sorry,” Jinx whispers from somewhere in the cave. “I'm sorry.”

But my eyes are closed, and I could just be dreaming it.

OjÄ«chan stands over me, shaking me with both hands. I open my eyes a little wider. I can see straight through him. It's not the buff, young version. It's the pale old man from the bus stop, here in the cave. If I were at home, I'd be a little freaked out. But here I just say, “Hey! What's up?”

“Wake up!” OjÄ«chan says, his voice like a far-off echo. “Get up, Xander. Hurry!”

I try to rouse myself, but I can't move. I'm too deep asleep. Too comfortable.

“Later,” I mumble, and everything goes dark again.

W
hen I do wake up, it's to the worst smell ever. Worse than a pail of dirty diapers left for three weeks in the sun. Worse than the Easter eggs I didn't find behind the couch for a month. Worse than a garbage dump in a sewer full of cow waste.

I half wish I could stay asleep so I wouldn't have to smell this awfulness anymore. Daylight hits my face, and, reluctantly, I wake up one hundred percent. I'm moving. But my legs aren't moving.

My face is banging against something slimy.

I open my eyes all the way.

The ground is above my head. Then I see two moving humanoid legs. They're red and black and blue-gray—and raw-looking. Not exactly like raw meat you'd find at the grocery store. More like somebody's wearing a costume made out of old random carcasses they found on the side of the road.

This carrion thing is carrying me over its shoulder.

“STOP!” I yell. I have to take a big breath to do it, and I almost pass out because the smell enters my lungs. My stomach retches and I'm sick all over the thing's back and legs. But the creature doesn't even pause, or say “Ew,” or anything.

You know it's bad when barf improves the smell.

“He needs a rest,” a girl's voice says. I recognize it as Jinx's.

The thing grunts, but stops and lowers me to the ground.

I splay out on my back, looking up. The monster makes a low, guttural sound and stares back at me with beady red-black bird eyes set into its rotting flesh. Zombie? I try to wiggle away, but I can't. The ground's too hard, too sharp under me.

“The best thing you can do is relax.” Jinx kneels over me, but I can't see her face because the sun's behind her. Her hair hides her expression. The sky is full of black smoke. I'd rather inhale smoke than the monster smell.

“Jinx, what is this thing?” It looks like a swamp monster. A dead one. “What happened?”

“Shush.” She smooths the hair back out of my face. “We were hoping you'd stay asleep during this part.”

I don't understand. Not a bit. I scoot backward again, and the monster grunts and grabs me around my ankle, his long bony fingers closing slimily over me. I'm covered in disgusting, rotten warm green goo. “Where are Peyton and Inu?”

She doesn't answer. I look around. A second monster stands behind us.

On his back, like a crazy Santa, he's carrying a mesh bag containing my dog and my best friend. They are unconscious, but alive—I see their sides moving. “Peyton! Inu!” I try to yell, but my voice is barely a whisper. I clear my throat and try again. “You guys okay?” My head is pounding with the worst headache ever. Ow.

“Don't fight it, Xander.” Jinx stands up and gestures to the creature. My sword's strung around her waist, along with both my netsuke.

The beast picks me up and throws me over its shoulder like a sack of potatoes, continuing on its galumphing up-and-down walk. Oof. That did not make my stomach feel good. What's going on?

Then I know.

Jinx.

Jinx betrayed me.

I turn my head and try to breathe shallowly through my nose so I don't gag again. “Are you one of them?”

She doesn't answer.

“What are you?” I shout.

“This is my real shape.” Her voice is as dry and hopeless as that desert we crossed.

“I trusted you!” Angry tears spring to my eyes and I don't care. Actually, the tears help my eyes feel better—they're stinging from the goop. “I
saved
you.”

“I know it doesn't seem like it, but I'm helping you.” Her voice sounds determined.

“How?” I pound on the beast's back, but it's useless.

“We're taking you back to your ship, Xander.”

“What? What about my father?” I try to look at her, but all I can see is a blur.

She doesn't answer.

“My father!” I flail around again, sending bits of slime all over the place. “Take me to him. Not to the ship.”

“Xander.” Her voice is quiet. “You're no match for those oni. You need to grow up some more. If your father had to choose between his life and yours, whose do you think he'd pick?”

A terrible scream starts in the soles of my feet and travels up through the top of my head. I scream without words, louder than an ambulance siren. The thing carrying me grunts and lets me slide to the ground so it can double over and put its hands to its ears. Good.

I push myself up and stand in front of Jinx, whose mouth hangs open. Rage makes me shake uncontrollably and I have to concentrate to still myself. “That's not your choice to make, Jinx.”

“It is.” She grabs me by the shoulders. “Having one Momotaro alive is better than having two dead ones. He's sparing you. Don't you get that?”

“Who?” I break free of her grip. The slimy dead-meat creature grabs me yet again and throws me over its shoulder. This time, it ties me down with something even slimier. “Jinx, this isn't right!”