The Return: Midnight Chapter 37

Then Meredith cut something that was not smoke or combust.Just a glimpse of a entry frame and a tiny breath of cool air.With this hope to sustain her, she scuttled straight for the door to the backyard, dragging Isobel behind her.As she passed the threshold, she felt blessedly cold water somehow showering down onto her body. When she pul ed Isobel into the spray, the younger young lady made the first voluntary sound she had during the entire journey a wordless sob of thanks. categoricals hands were aid her along, were taking away the tear of Isobel. Meredith got up to her feet and staggered in a circle, then dropped to her knees. Her whiskers-breadth was on send packingShe was beneficial recal ing her childhood rehearsal of stop, drop, and rol , when she felt the cold water off-key on it. The hose water went up and down her body and she sullen around, basking in the feeling of coolness, until she comprehend insipids voice say, The flames are pop. Youre good seriou s off. convey you, lusterlessness. Thank you.Her voice was hoarse.Hey, you were the one who had to go al the way to the sleeping accommodations and back. acquire Mrs. Saitou out was pretty easy there was the kitchen sink ful of water, so as soon as I cut her free from the kitchen chair we just got al wet and dashed out fount.Meredith smiled and carriageed around quickly. Isobel had be aim her responsibility now. To her relief, she saw that the girl was organism hugged by her mother.And al it had taken was the nonsense plectrum between a thing however precious it was and a life. Meredith gazed at the mother and daughter and was glad. She could have another faculty made. scarcely nada could replace Isobel.Isobel said to give this to you,Matt was saying.Meredith turned toward him, the fiery flicker making the world crazy, and for one atomic number 42 didnt believe her eye. Matt was prop the fighting stave out to her.She must have dragged it with her free hand oh, Matt, an d she was almost dead before we startedMatt said, Shes stubborn. Like individual else I know.Meredith wasnt quite sure what he meant by that, but she knew one thing. Wed al better get to the front yard. I doubt the volunteer fire de partiallyment is going to come. Besides Theo Il get them moving. You scout the gate side,Matt said.Meredith plunged into the backyard, which was hideously il uminated by the house, now ful y engulfed in flames.Fortunately, the side yard was not. Meredith flicked the gate open with the stave. Matt was right behind her, back uping Mrs.Saitou and Isobel along.Meredith quickly ran by the flaming garage and then stopped. From behind her she perceive a cry of horror. There was no time to try to ease whoever had cried, no time to think.The two fighting women were too busy to eyeshade her and Theo was in need of help. Inari was truly like a fiery Medusa, with her hair writhing around her in flaming, smoking ophidians.Only the crimson part burned, and it was that part that she was using like a whip, using one snake to wrest away the atomic number 47 bul whip from Theos hand, and then another to cover around Theos throat and choke her. Theo was desperately trying to pul the blazing snare drum from her neck.Inari was laughing. Are you suffering, petty witch? It wil al be over in seconds for you and for your entire runty town The Last Midnight has final y comeMeredith glanced back at Matt and that was al it took. He ran transport, passing her, al the way up to the space below the fighting women. Then he bent slightly, cupping his hands.And then Meredith sprinted, putting everything she had left into the short run, departure her just tolerable energy to leap and place one buttocks into Matts cupped hands, and then she felt herself soaring aloft, just within distance for the stave to slice cleanly through the snake of hair that was choking Theo. by and by that Meredith was in free fal , with Matt trying to catch her from below . She landed more(prenominal) or less on top of him and they two saw what happened next.Theo, who was bruised and bleeding, slapped out a part of her gown that was smoldering. She held out a hand for the silver bul whip and it flew to meet her outstretched fingers.But Inari wasnt attacking. She was waving her arms wildly, as if in terror, and then suddenly she shrieked a sound so anguished that Meredith drew in her breath sharply. It was a death-scream.Before their eyes she was turning back into Obaasan, into the shrunken, helpless, dol -like cleaning lady Matt and Meredith knew. But by the time this shriveled body hit the ground it was already besotted and dead, her expression one of such unrepentant malice that it was frightening.It was Isobel and Mrs. Saitou then who came forward to stand over the body, sobbing with relief. Meredith looked at them and then up at Theo, who slowly floated to the ground. Thank you,Theo said with the faintest of smiles. You have bear ond me yet again.But what do you think happened to her?Matt asked. And why didnt Shinichi or Misao come to help her?I think they al must be dead, dont you?Theos voice was modest over the roar of the flames. As for Inari I think that perhaps someone destroyed her star bal . Im afraid I was not strong enough to defeat her myself.What time is it?Meredith abruptly cried, remembering. She ran to the old SUV, which was Stillrunning. Its clock showed 1200 midnight exactly.Did we save the people?Matt asked desperately.Theo turned her face outward toward the center of the town.For more or less a minute she was Still, as if listening for something. At last, when Meredith felt that she dexterity shatter from tension, she turned back and said quietly, Dear Ma ma, heroic mama, and I are one, now. I sense children who are finding themselves prop knives and some with guns. I sense them standing in their sleeping parentsrooms, otiose to remember how they got there. And I sense parents, hiding in close ts, a moment ago frightened for their very lives, who are seeing weapons dropped and children fal ing onto master bedroom floors, sobbing and bewildered.We did it, then. You did it. You held her off,Matt panted.Stillgentle and sober, Theo said, Someone else far away did much more. I know that the town needs healing. But Grand mama and Ma ma agree. Because of them, no child has kil ed a parent this night, and no parent has kil ed a child.The long nightmare of Inari and her Last Midnight is over.Meredith, sorry and bedraggled as she was, felt something rise and swell inside her, bigger and bigger, until, for al her training, she couldnt contain herself any longer. It exploded out of her in a yel of exultation.She found that Matt was shouting too. He was as grubby and unkempt as she was, but he seized her by the hands and whirled her around in a barbarian victory dance.And it was fun, whirling around and yel ing like a kid. Maybe maybe in trying to be calm, in perpetually being th e most grown-up, she had missed out on the essence of fun, which unceasingly felt as if it had some childlike quality to it.Matt had no trouble in expressing his feelings, whatever they were childlike, mature, stubborn, happy. Meredith found herself admiring this, and also thinking that it had been a long time since shed satisfying y looked at Matt. But now she felt a sudden wave of feeling for him. And she could see that Matt felt the same way about her. As if hed never real y looked at her properly before.This was the momentwhen they were meant to kiss.Meredith had seen it so often in movies, and read about it in books, that it was almost a given.But this was life, it wasnt a story. And when the moment came, Meredith found herself holding Matts shoulders while he held hers, and she could see that he was thinking exactly the same thing about the kiss.The moment stretchedThen, with a grin, Matts face showed that he knew what to do. Meredith did too. They both moved in, and hugged each other. When they drew back, they were both grinning. They knew who they were. They were very different, very close friends. Meredith hoped that they always would be.They both turned to look at Theo, and Meredith felt a pang in her heart, the first since she had heard theyd saved the town. Theo was changing. It was the look on her face as she watched them that gave Meredith the pang.After being young, and while watching youth at its peak, she was once again aging, wrinkling, her hair going white instead of moonlit silver. At last, she was an old woman wearing a raincoat covered with bits of paper.Mrs. Flowers This person, it was perfectly safe and right to kiss. Meredith flung her arms about the frail old woman, lifting her off her feet in excitement. Matt joined them, and they boosted her above their heads. They carried her like this to the Saitous, mother and daughter, who were watching the fire.There, sobered, they put her down.Isobel,Meredith said. matinee idol Im so sorry your homeThank you,Isobel said in her soft, deep voice. Then she turned away.Meredith felt chil ed. She was even beginning to regret the celebration, when Mrs. Saitou said, Do you know, this is the greatest moment in the history of our family? For hundreds of years, that ancient kitsune oh, yes, Ive always cognise what she was has been forcing herself upon innocent humans.And for the last three centuries it has been my family line of samurai mikos that she has terrorized. Now my husband throw out come home at last.Meredith looked at her, startled. Mrs. Saitou nodded.He tried to give her and she banished him from the house.Ever since Isobel was born, I have feared for her. And now, please forgive her. She has trouble expressing what she feels.I know about that,Meredith said quietly. Il go have a little talk with her, if its All right.If ever in her life she could explain to a fel ow traveler what fun having fun was, she thought, it was now.