CHAPTER 5: TAKEN FOR A RIDE

I did manage to delete the message, moments before my world was tossed upside down yet again as the handbag I was in was snatched from the floor.  This ride was even worse than the sandal, with random purse articles smashing into me.  Why do they carry so much crap in these things?  I heard a car door open.  Jayne shuffled into the vehicle as it started.  The handbag stopped flopping around.  My damage was minimal, it seemed.  At least I would get to rest and think for a bit; Angel did say it was a long ride.

BUZZ!

Ouch.  Jayne’s phone went off.  Even though it was on the opposite side of the handbag, my head throbbed.  The red light flashed again.  Light suddenly poured onto me.  I threw myself backwards and motionless as my eyes tried to adjust to the light.  An enormous hand reached near me, searching for the phone.  Her “little” finger was probably twice as long as I was.  Her hand clamped around the phone like a giant squid and pulled it out from sight.  There wasn’t much I could do at this point but wait. 

Jayne laughed as she read another text message.

“Leila wants to know if we got him,” she shouted towards the front seat.

“Him?  We got all of them.  Tell her,” Nicole called back.

“I did,” said Jayne, sending a reply text message.  “That little bitch has been kissing my ass ever since the Kyle thing.  Angel, are you going to do anything about that?”

“I’m working on it, love,” Angel casually replied from the driver’s seat.

The phone dropped into the purse again with a loud thud.  Any one of these casual movements and shifts could result in my death or my discovery, which, I concluded, were essentially the same thing.  The bag remained slightly open, so I took the opportunity to study Jayne’s face some more, since it was the only thing I could see.  Her green eyes were the most electrifying features on her beautiful face.  They did not look artificial, as far as I could tell.  Every time her eyes flickered in a new direction, my heart leapt a little.  She probably couldn’t even notice me here, but it was terrifying nonetheless.

“May I examine them?” Jayne leaned in near Angel.

Angel handed the clutch bad to her.  Jayne tugged on it, but Angel held on firmly.

“Jayne.  You know the rules.  Do not injure them.  Not yet,” Angel warned, then let go.

Not yet?

I shuffled to get a better view of what Jayne was doing.  I could see her eager face as she rummaged through Angel’s purse.  Her green eyes sparked with predatory joy.  She was disturbing, that one.

“Well, hi again, boys,” she cooed into the bag.  I wondered if any of them were hurt.  “Do you still think we need to call more friends?  No?  Don’t worry, you’ll meet the rest of us soon.”

Rest of us?

I could hear them now.  Yelling, screaming, demanding, cursing.  She seemed amused by this.  She poked her finger into the bag.  I couldn’t tell if she was petting them or prodding them.  She smiled and giggled with delight.  I imagined she played with magnifying glasses and ants as a child.  They continued to yell.  I could actually hear Hotshot’s voice apart from the others’.  He shouted something, something that made her smile vanish rather suddenly.

“No… I don’t like THAT word,” her voice had changed to a whisper.  I can only imagine what Hotshot had just called her.  But I have an idea.  She reached into the bag.  I found myself leaned forward, standing on my toes, to get a good look.  She plucked one of the boys out, the back of his hooded sweatshirt pinched between her gargantuan forefinger and thumb.  Sure, enough, it was Mr. Classy himself, Hotshot.  “You should really be more respectful.  The respectful ones tend to last longer.”

She brought him to within inches of her face.  He wasn’t talking back anymore, as far as I could tell.  He might as well have been made of stone.

“Oh, dear.  You look nervous,” she pouted with mock concern.  “Maybe because my little hand can close and end you in an instant?”

Angel was right; he was a screamer.

“Or maybe because I could swallow you whole and your last thought would be to wonder what would kill you first, the lack of oxygen or the acids in my stomach?”

Hotshot pleaded, his miniscule hands clamped together in front of his goddess.

“You SHOULD be nervous,” she said, all traces of amusement now gone.  “As much as I’d like to do those things to you, what I have planned is going to be much, much worse.  You better hope you don’t end up with me, you little shit.”

“That’s enough, Jayne,” Nicole called from the front passenger seat.

“Don’t tell me you’re feeling sorry for these insects.  Did you see how this one was staring at your chest?  They’re filthy little pigs.  They’re nothing at all.  That’s the code,” Jayne barked.

“If you make him soil himself, you’re cleaning it up,” Nicole replied matter-of-factly.

It was all surreal.  Jayne put Hotshot back into the purse and set it aside.  I had nowhere to go, so I sat and waited.  Once I got my hands on the amulet, I needed to know how to operate it.  I replayed the bar scene in my mind, over and over.  Angel had held the amulet up, and it flashed.  She uttered something.  Magic words?  Seriously?  But it was reversible.  I heard her say it.  That was the only hope I had to cling onto.  So I did.

The drive continued for a long while.  I began to get very tired.  The physical exertion.  The adrenaline crash.  The high pitched hum from the car shaking my entire body like an enormous massage chair.  I wanted to stay alert.  I wanted to stay awake.  But I couldn’t.  Leaning against the chapstick canister, I slowly drifted off into sleep.