Behind the magnification of his glasses, his eyes were wide and bloodshot, jittering around in the sockets, scanning all over Marin’s body in a perverse sort of fascination.“Can you hear her?Can you tell me what she says?Maybe you can hear her because you’re one ofthose thingstoo, aren’t you?I can tell, the way you look a little too perfect, a little too beautiful—a little too…”
Before he recognized that he had even moved, Blake’s fist was buried in Paul’s stomach.Mr.Aberley hung on his last word, surging against Blake once more before going limp, pressing out a final word between gritted teeth in a low, eerie hiss: “Much.”
“Okay bye!”Celeste shouted, sprinting over to where Marin was frozen in fear and seizing his hand.They began to drag him out of the orchard.Marin tripped as he was pulled along, eyes wide and unseeing.“Thanks so much for the cider, sir, but we really super have to go now!”
Blake stepped back from Paul, who wavered in place, blinking as if he weren’t quite sure what had come over him.
“Oh, so soon?”he asked, his voice returning to its previous, dreamy quality.Blake began to back out of the orchard, his eyes locked on Paul’s still form as he drew closer and closer to the car.“Well, thanks for stopping by…”
Blake backed around the large tree that separated the clearing from the rest of the orchard.From there he broke into a dead sprint, following the bright flash of Celeste’s outfit and the ripple of Marin’s hair out of the dark grove and into the golden afternoon sunlight.
24
“What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck,what the fuck?!”Celeste hissed in rapid succession as Blake pulled to a screeching halt in front of the Aberley estate’s gate.
Blake threw open the door, took a half-step out of the car, and repeatedly smashed the ‘open’ button on the little keypad on the side of the driveway.Behind him, Celeste muttered: “Come on, come on, come on…”
With a groan of relief from the driver, the gate began to open and Blake all but charged for the main road, Celeste’s chants of “Go!Go!Go!”spurring him onwards.
Marin—still struggling with his seatbelt in the back—slammed against the passenger door as the car whipped out onto the street.
“Shit!”Blake shouted, righting the car.“Sorry!”
In the passenger seat, Celeste began bouncing up and down in place, one hand gripping the grab handle, the other scanning through a selection of hyperpop music that started blasting through the speakers.
“Celeste!What the hell?!”Blake scolded them, throwing a hand up off of the wheel in concern.Celeste smacked the radio’s power button with an open palm, doubling over and all but burying their head between their knees.
“I’m sorry!”they shouted, sitting ram-rod straight and slamming their hands down onto their knees.“I’ve never felt such—suchrankenergies before.Pull—pull over, pull over!”
Celeste flapped their hands at a huge red barn with cheerful sunflowers painted over the side.Trying his best to slow down, Blake took a sharp turn into the sparsely-populated parking lot.As soon as the car came to a stop, Celeste slid down deeper into their seat, covering their face with both of their hands.
Blake scrubbed a palm over his mouth before looking into the rearview mirror, watching Marin in the backseat.He was uncharacteristically quiet, mouth pulled into a line and eyes blown wide.
“Are you okay?”Blake asked, turning around in his seat to face Marin.He extended a hand towards him, settling it across his knee.
Marin nodded, reaching out and covering Blake’s hand with his own, expression still blank.
The three were silent for a moment, the car full of the sound of heavy breathing.After a while, Celeste opened the passenger door, stepping outside and marching towards the barn.
“Why did you need me to pull ov—where are you evengoing?”Blake called after them, pushing the driver’s door open a crack.Celeste threw up their hands, shaking their head.
“There’s a sign that says ‘apple cider donuts’,” they said by way of explanation.Blake assumed that they needed an excuse to get out their nervous energy and take in some fresh air.It had started to feel horribly cramped in the little Camry.
Not knowing what else to say to Celeste, Blake stepped out and rounded the car, slipping into the backseat alongside Marin.He was still almost unnaturally motionless.His only movement came from the slightest back-and-forth bob, which Blake suspected was a natural tremor from his pulse alone.Still, Blake proceeded to check in on him.
“Hey.How are you doing?”he asked, settling a hand on Marin’s shoulder.Marin stared straight ahead, hands limp between his knees, picking at a cuticle.He shrugged in reply.
“I…” he started.He pursed his lips, shaking his head.“Sorry.I think I’m a lot more shaken than I let on.”
“That was… alotback there,” Blake said, squeezing Marin’s shoulder.“It… must have been a lot for you, especially.”
“I feel bad for him, I guess,” Marin said, reaching up to cross his arm over his chest and rest his fingertips over Blake’s.“He must be incredibly unwell.”
“I… I don’t think that was mental illness,” Blake murmured in reply.He recalled the pale figure he’d seen twisting through the trees, the little hand wrapped around the tree trunk.“I think something…elsewas happening there.I… couldn’t tell you what, though.”
“What a miserable way to live.”Marin pressed his palm into his forehead, leaning his weight there.
“Areyou okay?”Blake triple-checked.There was now a slight tremble to Marin’s shoulder, a certain stiffness to his body beneath Blake’s touch that he had only ever seen the night that he had transformed into an octopus.
