80. Mayzie Grobe

The StrangerVille Gang, as they liked to call themselves, had been doing great… at first. Then they got distracted. In their defense, though, they felt like they could be. Today, at least—since it was Harvestfest. Today was the day that they allowed themselves a little peace of mind. Or, well… they allowed their minds to become occupied by other things, mostly.

“Hey, Lawson. I’ve been doing some thinking, and I’m realizing now that I should’ve filled you in from the start. The thing is, it’s such a long story… I don’t even know where to start. But I figure I should try, and so… I want to ask you to come to StrangerVille for Harvestfest. If you want to, I mean. If you do… don’t be startled by the way it looks. That’s all part of the story I owe you. Don’t take Seven, either. It’s not safe for her here, I don’t think. If you want to celebrate with her, though… I’d understand. I just thought I’d invite you, to let you know I’m still thinking of you… and I miss you.”

In the meantime, Calder stood and looked at his old room. One thing in particular kept capturing his gaze. He had lived here for years without once thinking about that dog bed, but now… as he stared at it, he found himself overcome by a sudden desire to actually put it to use. He remembered wanting a puppy, back when he was just a child. Remembered begging both his mom and his dad for one, but neither agreed. They weren’t dog people, his parents… and gradually, he himself was starting to forget about them. But now, with his own house, his fiancée, the white picket fence… he was starting to think that, since he already knew, deep down, that Reyna would never consent to the next logical step just yet, he might as well settle for the other one. There was the house, the wife, the picket fence… and the dog. The least he could do was give it a try; she had to give him something, didn’t she?

“Bon appetit,” said Tehani as she brought the coconut in her hands to her lips; at the same time, Romeo bit into his. It was the reminder of Sulani that Tehani had found in her suitcase that they were desperately starting to need, by now. It wasn’t that they missed Sulani, per se…

“Hey…” she then started, her gaze moving to whatever had caught her interest on her side. Slowly, she moved towards it. “Have those gnomes always had those weird red flames above them?”

Curiously, Romeo followed her. “Maybe it’s another trick of this town’s….”

The gnomes left him no time to finish his sentence.

Some two hours later, a freshly showered Tehani, wearing a big, nonchalant grin, stood leaning over the counter as she stirred the contents of the bowl she was preoccupied with. Romeo was watching her.

“Are you sure you should be the one to make our Harvestfest dinner?” he finally dared ask.

Tehani looked sharply at him as she placed her turkey in the oven. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well… in all the two plus years we’ve spent together, I’ve honestly never seen you actually cook…”

“It’ll be fine, Romeo. I mean, how hard could it really be?”

No less than forty minutes had passed when Tehani hurried over to the oven she had completely forgot about, Romeo hot on her heels. She tried to season it only to drop almost the entire contents onto the turkey.

“Oh, no…”

🦃

Mobe mebzi grobe
Mee fazu dwombe zybro
Gwoam jepsi dobe
Mepsifru zygrom bygro
Dom gazai (domy)
Ko bazai

🎶

“You know, if there’s one thing I learned from my own relationship… it’s to never bottle things up. To never suppress your worries or your concerns or your desires. So, honestly, Calder, if you want a dog, go and tell her you want a dog. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Mayzie grobe craybal
Mayzie grobe craybal
Wepsa gon chu pray
Gon zebanay

🎶

“So, while I get your not wanting children just yet…”

“Or ever…”

Calder ignored her. “I would really like just this one thing. Just this one… dog.”

“A dog, huh?”

“…Please?”

Reyna smiled. “You don’t have to beg, you know. I was gonna say yes.”

Calder’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Of course. It’s only fair.”

Mayzi grobe craybal
Mayzi grobe craybal

🎶

Reyna squinted her eyes at the clouds before her. “So this is the world you managed to save. […] Was it really this bad the last time around, too?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“And you still saved it. Wow.”

“Well, I mean, Emil did most of the w…”

“Oh, stop it. If it weren’t for you, he never would’ve managed.”

She leaned in closer. “Hero,” she whispered in his ear with a chuckle.

“Oh, please. I’m hardly a…”

“Hero.” She shot him a playful look.

Meeb menzineeb
Nee fazu bonzi zyngo
Bean zebzibean
Stobizy tombay prybon

🎶

Tomgazai (domy)
Ko bazai

🎶

“Dinner is ready!” Tehani called out exuberantly. It was the first big meal she had ever made; she was more than excited for her family to taste it.

[…]

“And?” she called expectantly.

“It’s…” Romeo suppressed another gagging episode. “…very good.”

Mayzie grobe craybal
Mayzie grobe craybal
Wepsa gon chu pray
Gon zebanay

🎶

“To the first of what has to become a new Harvestfest tradition!”

Mayzie grobe craybal
Mayzie grobe craybal
Dom gazai (domy)
Ko bazai

🎶

“Hey, Lawson. I’m starting to realize that you probably aren’t reading these. I’m suspecting you accidentally drowned your phone in toilet water after forgetting you kept it in your back pocket yet again… especially now that you don’t have me there to remind you not to put it there. I guess I’ll find out soon enough. I hope you’re having a great Harvestfest. Mine has been really good, too. I do miss you and Seven, though. I can’t wait to see you again. I love you.”

Mayzie grobe craybal
Mayzie grobe craybal
Wepsa gon chu pray
Gon zebanay

🎶

“You know, you may be the worst cook that ever lived…”

“…Says the guy who almost burnt down our kitchen the first time he tried to cook…”

“…But I still love you.”

Tehani smiled. “I still love you too… jerk.”

🦃

“Hey, Landgraab.”

Glory turned her head, recognizing the voice. As much as she wanted to still be angry at Sergeant Revame, she found her lips pulling themselves into the shadow of a smile regardless.

“About the other day…” Revame started. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah… thanks.”

“The thing is,” she went on. “I do need your help. The reason why I… responded that way, is because, you know, it’s hard to admit you need it. I’ve always been so proud… but I need your help, Landgraab. I do.”

Glory wanted nothing more than to give in right there and then, but figured she should play the hard-to-get game at least for a little while. “And you’re expecting me to still help you?”

“Well, yeah…”

Glory shrugged, then. She’d never been good at that game anyway. “What do you need me for?”

“The key card. I’m sure you’ve heard of it by now.”

“If you can’t get it, how could I?”

“I know you’ve been getting help of late, Landgraab. I also know you’ve been snooping around more than you ought to.”

Glory swallowed hard… but to her surprise, Revame didn’t seem angry about it at all.

“That’s why you can do it and I can’t. My position won’t allow me to. But you… you and your friends, or whatever they are… you can sneak in together.”

“Sneak in where?”

“Into the secret base.”

“Isn’t that what we need the key card for?”

“You’ll need the key card to get down into the lab, but the base itself… you can sneak into it. Collect evidence. Create a secret dossier. Then you take it to that curio shop next to the bar and you hand it over to them. They’ll give you a key card.”

“Really? Them?”

“God may know how they’d even get them in the first place, but… yeah. They’ll give you one.”

“If it’s that easy, why haven’t you done so yourself?”

“Because they’d know.”

Glory remained skeptical. “How?”

“Because! I’m a Sergeant in their military. You don’t think they’ve been following us around? Just do it, alright? Do it and then once I’ve given it… meet me at the bar that night.”

“And then what?”

Revame’s lips curled into what to Glory looked a little too unnerving to be a pleasant smile. “And then we’ll go visit that lab. Do we have a deal?”

Glory thought for a moment… if she were entirely rational, she should place her fair share of question marks behind this all. But she wasn’t. “Deal.”

***

They got to work… for the most part, that was. Or maybe just for some part. They also spent a lot of time connecting with each other at home. Couldn’t really blame them for that, they found, since most of them hadn’t seen each other in years. It had been much too long since they got to spend some quality time together.

Occasionally, though, they did manage to place that quality time in the context of ‘work.’

“Okay, gang,” Calder started. Finally, they were standing in the secret base. “We have one mission today: we collect stuff. That sound like something we can manage?”

It did.

As they spent their afternoon collecting stuff, Tehani felt yet another wave of nausea coming on. She had been having a lot of those lately… it was probably the food. She had gotten too used to Sulani’s kitchen.

It was that same evening that they went to the curio shop on Glory’s insistence, and managed to gain the key card—just like that. And although none of them wanted to say it, it all seemed… a little too easy.

They let go of that fairly easily, though. Part I of their mission had been completed; now it was time to celebrate.

But not before Calder, who was the one to attain the card, gave Glory a gift.

“Really? For me?”

Calder nodded, offering the present to her.

“You know my birthday’s not for another four months, right?”

Calder laughed. “Just open the damn thing.”

When she did, her smile immediately brightened. “Why me?”

“Because. You deserve it.”

“Don’t you?”

He shrugged. “I honestly don’t think I care nearly as much for it as you do.”

It was true—as Glory safely tugged the key card away in her pocket, she felt a happiness soar through her. This was…. convenient. She was glad she wasn’t going to have to go behind her own family’s back to get the key card for herself.

As soon as Calder left, Glory’s new friend Philip rushed in and gave her the biggest bear hug she’d ever received. She hadn’t seen him coming, and couldn’t quite hide her surprise…

Or her suspicion. She hadn’t forgotten the words she’d heard him speak on his tape recording. She didn’t show any of it, though—she pretended to be as happy to see him as she had been before. She wasn’t about to blow her cover just yet. No, she was going to wait until he’d screw things up himself. She was learning more and more how she couldn’t risk trusting anyone… not in this town, in this state.

That night, Glory settled at the bar, yawning loudly. Next to her, Revame’s smile grew.

“You came.”

“Of course I did,” Glory shrugged. “Promised, didn’t I?”

“So… are you ready to finally face the truth?”

Glory puffed up her chest. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Good. Let’s go then.”

“It’s time to fix this mess.”

***

But the moment Glory finally set foot on the base—though she’d been there before, she’d never been there with the intentions she now had—she couldn’t quite stop her nerves from slowing the pace of her feet. Finally, she came to a complete halt and turned to the Sergeant behind her.

“Uh…” she started, feeling sheepish. She wanted to be brave, but she also wanted more than anything to be reassured. “This is good, right? I mean… we won’t get, like, shot down or killed or anything?”

Revame waved her hand dismissively. “None of that. Believe me,” she then added, “if we were in any real danger, I wouldn’t have brought you along.”

Glory’s heart warmed; even more so when Revame continued. “The last thing I’d want is to endanger you.”

Inside the base, Revame kept watch as Glory figured out the door’s security system. Within no-time, it opened, and Glory and Revame were met with hundreds of spores filling the air around them, making them cough. Before Glory went in she shot one last look at Revame… whose encouraging look gave her the courage to walk further into the secret lab, ignoring the butterflies in her stomach as she did.

There were two ways to go once they were down the first flight of stairs. Looking around, Glory decided that the right entrance looked definitively more inviting and so asked Revame, her voice hopeful, that “this is the way to go, right?”

But to her dismay, Revame pointed into the other direction. “There.”

Glory swallowed hard… and walked on.

Finally, they got down to what Glory figured was the main lab. It looked… “Wow.” It was all Glory managed to utter as she looked around her.

“I know. Impressive, right?” Revame responded.

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly say impressive in that sense, but…” She suddenly stopped in her tracks, then. “Wait. You’ve been here before?”

Revame shrugged.

“I thought you said…”

The smile Revame was now sporting looked more sinister than anything. It did nothing but unnerve Glory. “You really are just a naive little girl aren’t you?” she finally spoke.

Glory’s smile was wiped clean off her face immediately. “What do you mean?” She could feel her heartbeat in her throat.

“You really thought I was gonna betray my military for this? For you?” Revame snickered. “And you just fell into my trap… just like that. Like a fly caught in the spider’s web. Well, this web is bigger than you could possibly imagine, Landgraab. And you just made a huge mistake thinking you could defy it.”

“You…” Glory struggled to process what was happening. “You’re evil… You’re…”

“You’re evil,” Revame sung, mimicking Glory’s movements childishly. “Oh, please. Like you’re such a saint. You willingly joined us.”

“I didn’t know you were doing… this!” Glory looked around her yet again. By now, what she saw only horrified her.

“Why else would the source of all of it be here, in this military base?”

“I just… I thought… I thought that whoever started this in the first place would’ve been fired long ago!”

“Oh, you naive girl. I guess it’s a good thing we caught you now. You would never have been able to survive in this world anyway.”

“These people are innocent! You’re… you’re using innocent people! This whole town will be destroyed! People are going to die!”

Revame feigned a yawn. “See if I care.”

Glory stared at her in disbelief. She tried for another approach. “I know you weren’t the ones to bring Her back. I know you…”

“You don’t know anything,” Revame sneered venomously.

“You know, it’s honestly a shame. You could’ve been a real asset, hadn’t you gone and snuck behind our backs. I hope at least She will have some final use for you left. It’s been a while since She had a human.”

With that, she walked off—leaving behind an increasingly angry Glory.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t until Sergeant Revame had already walked out the door that Glory finally managed to bring herself out of her state of shock and came after her, feeling a rage come up in her that felt stronger than anything she had ever felt before.

“Screw you! You…”

Glory was stopped in her tracks again, this time quite literally, when she ran into the glass door. Annoyed, she tried to pry open the doors. They wouldn’t budge. It was only then that she realized she was stuck.

Well, shit.

***

But Glory was not one to admit defeat easily… or at all, really. Figuring that she wasn’t named Glory for no reason, she refused to give up. Instead, she just walked into the other direction, following the vines until they were so many that she could barely still walk over them.

She came to another door and without much hesitation, she reached into her pocket to take out the key card and open it… only to find it wasn’t there anymore.

Revame.

Glory was just about to let out another string of curse words when suddenly, the door opened regardless. She didn’t have much time to be puzzled about that, for the sight she was met with—after the wave of spores almost managed to incapacitate her—took over her entire mind immediately.

She brought her hand to her mouth in shock.

So this was it—or this was She. This was what they were fighting.

She was absolutely enormous.

But Glory was a fighter… and she wasn’t going down without a fight. No matter how big or seemingly invincible the enemy before her may be. This was what she had fought for. She couldn’t turn around now—well, she actually really couldn’t. But she also didn’t want to. She was a fighter… and she was going to give this Mother the fight of her life.

Of course, she didn’t win. She had expected it. There was a part of her that had known from the moment she walked into this room, that she wouldn’t come out of it alive.

It was nothing short of a miracle that she did.

And that, about five days later, Fenne—who had been outside enjoying a secret cigarette—found her, stumbling towards their place of residence, dirty and dazed.

“What the hell happened to you?!” the latter called as she took in her little sister’s appearance.

“I tried to fight Her…” Glory started. Her gaze was unfocused, her speech incoherent. “I really did, but…”

Fenne grabbed her shoulders. “Shh,” she hushed. “It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not,” Glory returned. “It’s not okay. It’ll never be okay again. I saw Her, Fenne. And She… She will defeat us all. She’ll destroy us.”

“Shh,” Fenne echoed. “Hey, why don’t you go inside? You look like you could use a bath. Don’t you worry, OK? We’ll fix it. Just like they did before.”

“But…”

Fenne smiled confidently at Glory. “Believe me. We’ll fix it. You don’t worry about anything. Have a bath, have a good night’s rest, and then tomorrow we’ll fix it all.”

She kept the smile plastered firmly on her face as she watched Glory walk off. It was when she was sure that the latter wasn’t looking at her anymore that she finally allowed it to fall. A few moments later, when Glory was outside her earshot entirely, she took out her phone.

“Emil… hi. I’m sorry, I realize it’s late. But we… God, we need your help.”

---

A/N: All credits for the Mayzie song go to Google, who, surprisingly, actually has those lyrics up at https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=mayzie+sims+lyrics&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8, and also here:

Amazing.

So Sergeant Revame turned out to be evil, and with Personality Please and constant meanness, I felt forced to go this route instead… the Glory and the Mother part, I only found out much later that Sims can actually die from fighting her alone… guess I was lucky.

Also, a safe & merry Christmas in advance to everyone. I hope that despite everything that’s going on, you guys can still find some joy in these much-needed holidays. ❤