The Long Weekend Ch. 2

…and Benni Makes Three

“Wait!” Benni shouted.

Terry was running as fast as she could, just to be away from this thing that was chasing her. This was it. This was the clincher. She was crazy. She had to be crazy. Why else would this thing be chasing her through the park at night? She was fine when it was just Dodie, but now this monstrosity was following her! What was it, what did it want, and why was it wearing a scarf in the summer? Terry decided to ignore that last question as she rounded a corner and ducked behind a park bench.

“Okay…” Terry whispered as Dodie struggled to release herself from the tight grip. “…okay, let’s not panic.”

“Who’s panicking?” Dodie asked, fluttering just at eye level to Terry. “We only saw some kind of mutant hell beast and returned its ugly scarf. No reason to panic.”

Terry shook her head and put her hands to her ears. “No, no, no, NO!” she chanted, shaking her head. “This isn’t happening! I’m not being chased by some kind of mutant centipede!” she fought back terrified tears and peeked from behind the bench. Terry took in a long gasp of air and tried to calm down. She leaned against the bench and grabbed some grass in her hand. “What’s worse, it has an accent! I didn’t think my hallucinations could be so diverse!”

Terry held her hands over her mouth when she heard hurried scurrying. Dodie, perched on Terry’s shoulder, stayed quiet as well. Terry was obviously scared and Dodie didn’t need to make it worse. When they heard footsteps, Terry grabbed Dodie again and kept her close. The footsteps got closer, making Terry hold her breath. She was visibly shaken and held Dodie close. Terry slowly made her way to the small wooded area and jumped into the bushes, still holding Dodie.

“Let go of me!” Dodie whispered loudly, struggling to get away from Terry. Finally escaping Terry’s tight grip, Dodie fluttered to a tree branch and sighed. “It is gone.” Dodie shouted down to Terry. She made her way back to her frightened friend, who was leaning against a tree. “It’s gone now, Terry. Can we go home?”

Terry shook her head and held her hands over her ears. “No, no, no, NO!” she mumbled over and over. “No, I’m not seeing things! I’m not crazy! I’m not!” she repeated over and over again. Dodie groaned and bumped herself against Terry’s head. That was usually a sign that she wanted Terry to stop her self-loathing paranoid episode and get them home so they can eat dinner. Terry leaned against the tree and shook her head like a child arguing with her parents. Then she started hearing the voices of her parents asking if anything was wrong.

“Thérèse, come out here at once!” her mother shouted, stomping outside the bedroom. The peach pastels of the bedroom seemed to clash with the black of Terry’s wardrobe as of late. Her mother, Céline, was a fashion-forward woman and always looked her best. She wished she had passed that on to her daughter. Terry wore blue jeans and t-shirts and had to be forced into a dress to attend a cousin’s wedding. But this wasn’t about what to wear to a relative’s function. Terry was having another mood.

“What’s wrong, dear?” a masculine voice asked just outside the closed door. Terry’s father, Franklin, didn’t speak as much French as his wife though he was fluent, as was Terry. It came with being from a prominently French family and marrying a French woman. “Is Terry having another mood?”

“It is not ‘another mood’! Thérèse has been in her room for three hours just sitting on her bed!” Terry’s mother had an accent that had slightly dulled from her time living in the states. Terry found it comforting when it wasn’t screaming at her to pick up her room. It was when her mother lapsed into speaking only French that Terry knew she was in trouble. “Mon cher, Thérèse is in the dumps!”

“I think you mean ‘down in the dumps’, honey.” Terry’s father corrected.

“Je ne comprends pas.” Terry’s mother whispered.

“It means she’s sad. Just leave her alone, she’ll be fine.” Franklin started to direct his wife away from their daughter’s door but Céline stayed put.

“This is becoming too much! I can’t sit and do nothing while mon petite-chou just wastes away in her room!” Terry’s mother sounded like she was almost in tears.

“Céline, she’s just growing up. Let her be. She’ll sort this out on her own.” Franklin finally goaded his wife away from Terry’s door.

Terry often wished her parents would tear down her bedroom door and ask her what was wrong. It’d probably have saved Terry trouble in later years. The current moment, for example, would be different. Terry probably wouldn’t be crouched over in the bushes telling herself that what she just saw wasn’t real. But now was not the time to blame her parents. She had plenty of time before insanity took her to do that. But first, she had to escape the thing that was following her.

“I think it’s gone.” Dodie whispered as Terry sat up.

“You think so?” Terry asked.

Dodie made a nodding motion. “Yeah, we’re the only ones crouched in the bushes. Let’s get out of here before some hobo yells at us for trespassing.” Dodie watched as Terry stood up, propping herself against the tree and letting out a puff of air. Terry brushed herself off and looked around again. Dodie bumped herself against Terry’s head once indicating that all was well.

“So, now what?”

“We go home and have dinner.” Terry laughed, feeling somewhat reassured. “What else?”

“I didn’t say anything.” Dodie corrected as Terry tightened the strap on her purse.

“You just asked ‘so now what’ a second ago.” Terry pointed to Dodie. Dodie shook herself, indicating that she, in fact, did not.

Terry and Dodie turned around slowly at the same moment and saw a figure in the brush behind them. Terry started to scream but felt a hand go over her mouth. Another hand from the same side as the first hand grabbed her while the opposite hand grabbed Dodie. Terry struggled and screamed into the hand covering her mouth. The creature had found them and had captured them. He stood tall, his body segments sweaty from all the running he did.

His eyes glowed in the darkness and pierced through Terry’s. Terry was too scared to do anything but scream. “Oi, stay still!” the monster shouted, pulling the two deeper into the wooded area. “I don’t want to hurt you but you’re making it hard by struggling!” He had a soft German accent, though Terry still understood him. Terry shook in his hands and glanced over at Dodie, who did the same. “Now, I’m going to put you both down but if you run again, I will grab you. You will hear me out and NO SCREAMING this time. Hast Du das verstanden?” he asked. The two stared at him. He sighed. “Do I make myself clear?”

Frightened for herself and Dodie, Terry nodded as the monster slowly put them down. Terry felt the monster place her down gently in front of him while slowly letting her go. He let go of Dodie but she fell like a rock to the ground with a soft thud. Sitting up on his hind legs, the monster sighed softly and looked at the two. He watched as Terry bent over and picked up Dodie.

“That will have to be good enough. I’m sorry I had to get rough. I don’t like to, but I had to talk to you. As I’ve said, my name is Benni and we need to talk.” The monster, “Benni”, sat up straight and looked down at Terry. He seemed relieved that she wasn’t running away from him. “I’m sorry if I hurt you or scared you. But I need help and you seem like someone I can trust.”

Terry swallowed hard and held Dodie like a rag doll. “I’m Terry.” She dusted herself off and looked up at Benni. “Why me?” she asked softly. “I know I found your scarf, but it’s not anything big. I mean, you can’t be real. You’re like Dodie…” Terry held up Dodie and looked around at the area. “You can’t be real. You’re just a figment of my imagination. I know I’m a little off mentally, but I didn’t think I was completely psychotic enough to dream you up!” Terry raised her hand up and down, signifying Benni’s stature.

With a sight, Benni motioned with his upper right hand for her to hold on a moment. Terry watched as he left the wooded area, approached a passing old lady, and watched as the old lady ran away screaming. Benni returned to Terry at that moment. Benni crossed his top pair of arms and sat on his hind legs. “Now, may I continue?” he asked. Terry nodded and sat down on the ground. He was real. Unless the Old Lady was also a figment of her imagination, but Terry didn’t think she was that imaginative.

Benni looked down at Terry, a sad look on his face. He understood how it felt to be in her shoes: wandering around lonely in a world that didn’t understand filled with people who didn’t bother to. He had been there and sometimes felt he was still there. But Benni put on a smile, hoping to make Terry more comfortable. What he was about to say didn’t help.

“I’ve only been in the states for a short while, but I must say so far it’s been…terrifying.” Benni began. “I’m not quite sure how I got here; all I know is that I’m in the United States now when I should be back in London where I’m much safer. But that’s not why I went through the trouble of finding you. Well, it’s part of the reason, but not the whole reason. Something tells me you can keep me safe from the people who are after me. I don’t know who they are or what they want with me. All I know is that I don’t have the energy to run from them anymore or to do anything else. I’ve been in this park for three days trying to gather up strength but it’s become exhausting trying to hide from everyone.”

Terry nodded. “So, what made me so special?” she asked, looking down at Dodie. Benni pointed to Dodie at that point. “Dodie? What about her?”

“Well, not so much her but both of you. I can see her and so can you. Didn’t you think it was odd that I acknowledged her when everyone else clearly doesn’t?” Benni asked. Terry shrugged and brought Dodie closer, almost cuddling her. “You have odd taste in friends, to say the least. Of course, I’m not one to talk. You should see the crazies I’m shacked up with in London. But there is a reason we can see her and others can’t. I know fairies can make it so only certain people acknowledge them, but I’m not an expert.”

“I always figured she was a manifestation of my own crippling self-doubt.” Terry mumbled. “That’s even how she introduced herself to me.”

Benni chuckled. “Fairies are unconventional. I’d have to get to know Dodie before I can determine the reason she chose you. But people who can see fairies are special. People who have a personal fairy following them are, how do you say, ‘double-special’?” Benni shrugged his top shoulders.

Terry giggled and stood up. “Well, ‘special’ isn’t what I’d call what I have. Psychotic would be a good term, but lately I’ve been called many things.”

“Like what?” Benni asked.

“Crazy, loony, weirdo, nuttier than squirrel crap…” Terry listed off the various insults. “…my grandpa used to say ‘un peu malade’ when referring to me when he thought I wasn’t listening.”

“What does that mean?” Benni asked.

“A little unwell.” Terry sighed. “My mom’s side of the family isn’t too fluent in English. Or at all, actually. My last family reunion tested my own skills in French.”

“You have family in France?” Benni asked.

Terry nodded. “France and in Canada, too; Quebec, mostly. I have two cousins that visit from there a lot. Can’t stand either of them, but if it means I can talk to someone in English, I don’t care. They aren’t bad people, just annoyingly happy all the time and I don’t just think it’s because they’re Canadian.”

Benni nodded and took on a sad look. “I haven’t seen my family in years.” Benni looked at his tail and sighed solemnly at the pink bow tied to the end. “Sometimes, I find it hard to remember them, so I keep various objects in my room back home in London that remind me of them. Even if the things didn’t belong to them, it reminds me of my family, so I don’t miss them as much. My friends tell me I should throw that ‘junk’ away, but it helps me remember my family.”

“What happened to your family?” Terry asked.

Benni shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve been on my own since the ‘experiment’ and now I’m really lost. I’m an entire ocean away from home and I don’t have the energy to keep running from the people in this park.” Benni held his tail tightly, trying not to squeeze too hard. “If I can find a place to rest and get my energy back up, I’ll be fine. At least until I need to figure out how to get home. But sleeping in this bloody park isn’t good for me. I’m constantly using my strength to dodge the people here and I haven’t had anything proper to eat in days.”

Terry sighed and thought about it for a moment. Benni may have been a monster, but he was friendly. He was also the only other person who could see Dodie. Terry wanted to know why. She looked down at the glowing ball with wings resting in her arms. Terry could never touch Dodie’s body, only the light around it. She wasn’t sure why that was. It felt fuzzy, like some kind of fur, but at the same time it didn’t have a true feeling at all, like trying to touch rays of sunlight. It was also warm, like the sunshine on a spring day.

Standing up, Terry looked at Benni and nodded, making her decision. “Alright, I’ve made my decision. You scare the living daylights out of me and on any other occasion I would have kept running.” Terry sighed again and held Dodie close. “But you’re also the only other person that says they can see Dodie and I know it feels to be lost in a new place. So, you can stay with me until your strength comes back. But that doesn’t mean you can just lie around. You’ll be pulling your weight once you’re feeling better, understand?”

Benni nodded excitedly and did a little happy stomp. “I promise I won’t be a burden. I just need a few days to get my strength up and contact my friends. I’ll be out of your hair by the end of the weekend!” Benni stood up straight and looked at Terry excitedly. “So, where do you live, anyway?”

“I live just a few blocks from here, in the Happy Trails Apartment Complex. It’s nothing fancy, but I can see the ocean from the front of my apartment and I don’t have to worry too much about being mugged. We had a bit of a bat infestation in the ceiling last year but they’re mostly gone now.” Terry looked down when she felt Dodie regain consciousness. “You missed the good parts.” Terry mentioned as Dodie took flight again.

“Don’t squeeze me…” Dodie murmured. “…I don’t like being squeezed.” Dodie looked up at Benni, who waved to her. “So, we’re friends now?” she asked, looking at Terry. Terry promised to explain things on the way home as soon as she figured out how they were going to get home without being noticed.

The run home wasn’t an easy one. While the streets were almost bare this time of night, Terry knew the night clubs and seaside amusement park would be bustling soon, so she had to get Benni to her apartment as soon as possible. As many times as Terry had played a stealth based character in video games, she felt she had a good grasp of the situation. But playing a scantily clad thief had nothing on actually getting a tall centipede-human-monster to her apartment without being noticed.

After an hour of taking back ways, dodging behind trash cans, and avoiding overly lit areas, Terry, Dodie, and Benni finally made it to Terry’s apartment complex. Her building didn’t have an elevator, so Terry found herself rushing Benni up three flights of stairs before the neighbors saw anything. Fumbling with her keys, Terry didn’t hear her neighbor’s door open. She also didn’t see Benni grab Dodie and hide in the shadows.

“Terry!” her neighbor shouted. Terry dropped her keys and looked up. “You’re getting in pretty late.” Terry didn’t know her neighbors too well. She knew this guy, Garth, was a college student who took night classes due to his busy daytime schedule. She would talk to him every now and then and they backed each other when they went to the complex management about the bat infestation in their building’s ceiling. Garth was a tall man at about six feet even, and had a shaggy head of brown hair. He had invited Terry over a few times to play video games, but knew Terry wasn’t very social. He remained friendly nonetheless.

“OH! Hi, Garth. Yeah, long day at work. Training the seasonals and all that, but I got an entire weekend off starting tomorrow so…yeah...” Terry bent down to pick up her keys, trying not to wave her behind too much in the air. Garth liked Terry and hoped that once his schedule cleared up, he could ask her out. But again, he reminded himself that Terry wasn’t very social. He figured with patience, he could get her to come around.

Garth looked behind Terry, which made her panic and drop her keys again. “Oh, the stairway light must be out again.” He mumbled. “I’ll have to tell the maintenance guy next time I see him. Well, night class waits for no one. I have to get going.” Garth locked his apartment up and started for the stairs. He stopped for a moment and looked at Terry. “Hey, umm, if you’re not doing anything tomorrow, I have some free time and I wanted to check out that new ride they’ve been boasting about at the seaside park. You want to come with me?”

Terry picked up her keys and finally found her door key. “I…well, maybe, Garth. I got some stuff going on that you wouldn’t believe. Trust me on that. I’ll let you know if anything changes.” Terry didn’t realize she had opened her door and fell through, almost fitting her head on the knob.

Garth ran and grabbed her real quick and helped her up. “Well, if change your mind, I’m right next door.” Garth finally left, running down the stairs and out of sight.

Looking around, Terry noticed the dark spot near her door. Benni appeared from that spot, holding Dodie. Terry glared at him with a look of malaise. “So, you can phase into walls?” she asked, wondering why they took the long way home if that was the case. Dodie looked panicked and fluttered into the apartment almost immediately.

“I know, I should have said something before, but that’s the reason I don’t have a lot of strength. It takes a lot out of me just to do that for a few seconds. I was hoping that guy would leave, I couldn’t hold onto that phase for much longer.” Benni rubbed his head, as if he had a headache. Terry shushed him and looked around to make sure no one was around. She then pushed Benni into her apartment and locked the door.

Benni made his way into the apartment and looked around. Terry’s apartment was small, but he liked it. “Nice place.” He gleamed as Terry put her purse on the table near the couch. Dodie had perched herself on the arm of the couch near the remote and watched as Benni attempted to navigate the small apartment with his extra appendages. After almost knocking over a lamp, a table, and his tail getting caught in the hook of a ceiling fixture, Benni decided to join Dodie in the living area, just so he wouldn’t cause any damage.

“You might be too big for this apartment, Bucky.” Dodie murmured, hovering just over the remote. Benni had a thin face and wild light brown, almost orange, hair which reminded Dodie of Terry’s. Benni also had two protruding front teeth that looked like beaver teeth when he didn’t close his mouth all the way. Benni was very sensitive about it.

“It’s Benni.” Benni remarked, attempted to sit on the couch. In his current state, he found that sitting on the couch like a regular person would be hard. He decided to lie down, taking up most of the couch with his legs hanging over the end and propped up by the end table.

“My point still stands.” Dodie retorted.

Terry’s apartment was pretty small compared to what Benni was used to. The front door led right into the living room, which was separated from the kitchen by a counter. Next to the kitchen was a table, signifying that if not for the old junk mail piled on top of it, this would be the dining nook. A foot or so away was a small hallway which housed an unused linen closet that also held the water heater and the entrance to the bedroom and only bathroom in the apartment. It was still a nice apartment, seeing as the only occupants were a young woman and her freeloading fairy companion.

Terry was in the kitchen going through the pantry, trying to find something to cook for dinner. She had planned on just opening a can of ravioli and having that, but seeing as she had a guest, she decided something a little less sad would do.

“Hey, the guy that lives next door…” Benni started as a commercial came on.

“What about him?” Dodie asked.

“He seemed like a nice bloke. Why didn’t Terry say yes?” Benni wringed his top hands while his middle hands lay listless in front of him.

“Terry doesn’t do the ‘dating’ thing.” Dodie remarked, barely paying attention. “She’s not very social. Besides, she doesn’t need to date. She’s been out with a long string of losers, trust me. That last guy, wow! I didn’t think she could top the guy before, but that last one…” Dodie laughed a bit, but Benni didn’t find it funny. “The point is Terry doesn’t need that kind of companionship. She has me.”

“And I’m sure you’re wonderful company.” Benni was a pretty good liar when he wanted to be. “But shouldn’t you be encouraging her to go out instead of keeping her in?”

Dodie turned in Benni’s direction and sighed. “Look, Bucky; I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but Terry and I have a good thing going. We’re kind of all the other has. Besides, she’s not ready to date seriously. It’s been mostly just free dinners lately. I appreciate the leftovers, though. The fancier, the better in my opinion. Beats eating the cat chow she used to feed me. Though I can’t fault her for that, not knowing what fairies eat and all.”

Benni sighed. “So, Terry is all you have?” Benni asked.

Dodie paused and fluttered for a bit. He couldn’t see anything beyond the blue light she was covered in, but he could sense that he hit something. “Terry and I…we’re lone wolves, you know? We look out for each other and it’s a good deal. I look out for her and she looks out for me. I wish she’d stop treating me like a teddy bear sometimes.”

Benni sniffed the air and smiled. “What are you making?” Benni asked, turning himself to face the kitchen.

Terry was at the counter chopping something. “I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow, so I don’t have much in my kitchen. But I have plenty of vegetables, so I’m making a big salad for us to share.”

“When she goes grocery shopping, she’s actually a pretty good cook.” Dodie whispered. “She makes the vegetable sushi sometimes that is awesome.” Dodie went back to the television.

Benni leaned over the couch and smiled. Terry was a nice girl and it had been a while since he’d seen a friendly face. He had to find a way to pay her back once he had gotten into contact with his friends and found a way home safely. He watched as Terry washed the veggies in the sink and mixed it around in the strainer. He smiled and watched her as she prepared the big bowl and took out a few salad dressings from the fridge.

Dinner was mostly silent, with the television on and everyone chewing on dinner. Dodie had two croutons and seemed happy. “She can eat a lot more than that, but she’s on a ‘diet’.” Terry whispered to Benni.

“I didn’t know fairies could get fat. I was always told they instantly metabolize everything they eat into energy.” Benni remarked. Terry looked at Dodie, as if expecting her to explain herself. “I’ve heard they have veracious appetites and some have been known to eat an entire turkey whole!”

Terry giggled. “I’ve seen Dodie eat an entire family sized bucket of chicken by herself. I ate mashed potatoes and gravy that night.”

Dodie stopped eating her crouton and turned in their direction. “Just because I can eat all that doesn’t mean I should.” Dodie retorted.

Terry and Benni chuckled softly and continued watching television. Terry was enjoying this. It had been a long time since Terry had a friend besides Dodie. The last real friends she had were back in high school and they had since gone their separate ways. Terry lamented this for a moment and looked at Benni again. He seemed like a decent guy and Terry was happy to have someone else to talk to. She didn’t make friends easily and this was a nice change.

A few hours of watching television and Terry realized how late it was. “OH!” she shouted, looking at the cable box clock. “We’d better get to bed. The farmer’s market opens on the weekends and I want to be there early so I don’t have to fight someone over the seedless watermelons again.” Terry stretched her arms out and walked toward bedroom. She came back after a while with a big blanket. “I don’t think I have anything big enough to cover all of you, so here’s my bed comforter. It’s a queen size, so you should be good.”

Benni graciously took the comforter and nodded. “What about you?” he asked as Terry gave him a pillow.

“I have some spare blankets in my closet. Will you be okay out here by yourself?” Terry asked. Benni nodded and started to make himself comfortable on the couch. “Alright, then. There is a nightlight in one of the kitchen outlets in case it gets too dark. It should come on automatically when I shut the lights off.”

“Terry is scared of total darkness.” Dodie laughed.

“I will put you in the mason jar again!” Terry growled, glaring at Dodie.

As the two argued toward Terry’s room, Benni felt safe. It almost felt like home, hearing two people argue over something trivial. He missed his home in London where he was sure his friends were worried about to death about him. He missed the constant debates and conversations and the safe feeling it gave him. As he thought about this on Terry’s soft couch, Benni drifted into a peaceful sleep. The apartment was quiet with only the sounds of cars passing by on the streets below.

In her bedroom, as Terry watched Dodie get comfortable in her little bed, Terry did the same with her spare blankets. The lights outside her window and the light coming from Dodie comforted her as the sounds of the nighttime traffic to the beach amusement areas lulled her. She had an entire weekend off and she made a new friend. He was a weird human centipede monster, but a friend was a friend nonetheless. She fell asleep wondering if he’d be okay by himself while she and Dodie went shopping tomorrow. She didn’t find the answer as she drifted into sleep.

Meanwhile, in the park

He was a tall, ominous figure standing in the light of the street lamps but the passersby could have sworn he wasn’t there a moment ago. He was impeccably dressed and had an air of refinement to him. Women passing giggled and waved to him but he paid them no mind. When Oraix was on a mission, not even beautiful women could distract him.

“He was here…” Oraix mumbled, looking around. “His aura was weak, but he was here.” Oraix followed the “aura” trail to a wooded area and stopped cold. “…and he wasn’t alone. Either they found him or he found someone that could help him. His aura mixed with another…two others, actually. One mortal and one…” Oraix sniffed the air and grumbled. “I should have known. That’s why I can’t detect him. He’s in the company of a fairy. He could be anywhere.”

Oraix snapped a branch off a nearby sapling and tossed it toward a nearby bench. “Both aura signatures are blurred now. Wonderful, just wonderful. Well, at least they didn’t recapture him but now I have to track him, a mortal, and a fairy all over this damn city.”

Sighing, Oraix decided to pick up his search in the morning, when he wasn’t so tired. He had used a lot of energy tracking Benni to this city, but now his trail had run cold. He had a schedule to keep and things to do and he didn’t have a lot of time for either. Oraix walked in the direction of his hotel and glared up at the moon.