07

“My god, what did she do to you?” Edgar approached Banshee slowly, torn between helping her and helping Johnny.

“I don’t think it was her,” Banshee said, watching her fingernails finally come to a stop.

“What was she doing? What were you doing?”

“We were just outside. She said she had met you and that she was going home.”

Johnny muttered something about Jell-O but nothing about Tess.

Edgar managed to get close enough to Banshee to touch her shoulder, confirming that she really was as tall as she seemed.  She looked to be about twelve or thirteen years old now, and had left the house looking like a nine-year-old. 

“Can I borrow a shirt?” Banshee asked.  “These are really tight.”

“Sure, sure,” Edgar nodded, though his voice sounded disconnected.  “Johnny, will you be all right for a few minutes?”

Johnny responded by burrowing his head into the arm of the pink recliner.

“Come on, hurry up,” Edgar said, pushing her toward the stairs with a hand between her shoulders. “I’ll find you something.”

Edgar led Banshee into the bathroom and handed her a pair of scissors.  She didn’t need them to wriggle out of jeans she’d been wearing, but a few snips were required to get her arms out of the sleeves of her sweater.  While Edgar looked for a shirt long enough to double as a dress until they could get a hold of Devi, Banshee hacked away at the extra lengths of hair and fingernails she’d accumulated while in the yard.  

In one of Johnny’s old long shirts, she somehow looked rattier than she had when naked.  Her nails were uneven and ragged, resulting in itchy spots becoming bloody spots. Her hair was back to its natural dark shade while the faded green sat in a pile at her feet.  The style had been executed the same way she had seen Johnny do it, but it looked terrible. It was too long on one side and she had a few small bald patches on the other.  Edgar told her that when Johnny was feeling better, he’d fix the disaster on her head and they’d find the nail file, but for now she’d have to deal with looking ratty the best she could.  He scuffled back down to living room to brave the hardships that were likely to come with prying Johnny out of rose-colored upholstery and left Banshee staring at her horrid reflection.

She wondered what Tess was doing in their yard and why she lied about visiting Edgar. Opening the cabinet behind the mirror, she found extra Homicides make-up. 

Black and blue eyes.

She looked more like him when she wore make-up.  Without the glasses, when she got close to the cold surface of the mirror, she might have been looking at a younger Johnny. 

She wet her hair and spiked it in directions that seemed contrary to gravity.  Even more. Tried to see the spikes in blue. She entertained the thought of insulting her reflection or smirking or even swearing loudly for the complete effect, but she felt Edgar would somehow notice even the smirk from downstairs and be angry with her for the gentle mocking.

Instead, she hummed and closed her eyes, floating along to the soft buzz of her throat and the small bursts of Johnny’s voice from downstairs. She vocalized something as she listened to Johnny, most of it disjointed ‘la’s’. Firework bursts that sprung from the shapes of the bathroom lights danced in front of her eyes. She saw Tess behind her eyelids and sang a song for the both of them – or maybe all three of them.  She wanted to think she made up the words, but she might have been drawing them from somewhere else. 

‘you give it, we take it
you build it, we break it
you sign and we erase it
you feel it, we fake it’

Banshee was older, wearing her star and singing loudly to a crowd. She, Tess, and Johnny did some kind of dance with instruments that could not have been making the noises they were (it should have been impossible to rock out with a triangle) and all smiling broadly. 

Tess belonged to the group in some way. Maybe should have been there since the beginning.

In Banshee’s head, Tess wore a red star on stage.

Edgar was standing in the door way.  Banshee stared at him and felt rooted in place. Her hands, preparing to make some grand gesture on stage with Tess, took on the flexibility of concrete.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” Banshee answered.

“Is that make-up?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re singing.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And it’s nothing?”

“Yeah.”

“Johnny’s okay. Thought I should let you know. And, you know, check on you.”

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

“I guess the black is a little overdone.”

“Do want some help getting that off?”

“I think I can handle it,” Banshee said, finally able to look back in the mirror.  The raccoon-eyed pre-teen in the mirror scared her a little. “I think I’m old enough.”

“I was a little afraid of that,” Edgar replied, glancing at the hair bunched at Banshee’s ankles. “Can I give you something that will make it easier?”  He reached into the cabinet and handed Banshee a small bottle. 

“What is it?”

“It’s just some remover solution that works a little better than soap. Devi gave it to us. Johnny never uses it since he likes looking like a zombie all the time, so there should still be a lot in there.”

“Thanks.” She smeared the liquid on her face with little hesitation.  Edgar twitched, but seemed to relax when he saw that she didn’t splash any in her eyes.

“Can I ask you something?” he asked.

“I guess so,” she answered, pressing a washcloth under her eye.

“What do you want to do about going to shows with us?”

“Am I too old now?”

“I don’t know; I’m asking you.”

“People are gonna notice that I was like, five or something last time I was up there, don’t you think?”

“They did well with attending Johnny’s funeral and then his next show. I’m sure they won’t mind.”

“I’d like to do it.  Do I get a new outfit?”

“I’m thinking it’ll be necessary. We could give you another star or something. You could be red.”

“No, that one’s not for me. I like the white one.”

“I don’t think we really meant it to be your color, it just matched the outfit.”

“I like it,” she repeated, cleaning the last of the black from her eyelids. “And, like I said, the red isn’t for me.”

“All right, we’ll do that. In the meantime, did Tess tell you anything while she was out there?”

“Just that I looked older than she thought I would.”

“I don’t know what to do about her now. I’m a little leery of visiting someone who stalks around my house and messes with Johnny’s brain and says weird things to my…” He coughed awkwardly.  “…well, you. I thought she could help before, but now I wonder if she ever will.”

“Go give her a chance to explain,” Banshee said, picking up the discarded hair. “I think I want to know what she was doing too.”

“We’ll see.”

Banshee decided then that if Edgar didn’t go to see Tess, she would do it herself.

****

Johnny made good on Edgar's promise that he would fix Banshee's hair when he came back around to being himself. He cut it shorter than it had been before on all sides but left the front and they decided together to dye it several colors.  Johnny had a stash of a few different colors that he suspected were no longer good anymore since he only ever used blue, but he and Banshee took the risk anyway.  When they were done she looked like a disheveled snow cone.

Her nails managed to be tamed and Banshee later painted them with a combination of marker and polish. Devi provided some of her old clothes, which Banshee quickly customized just to avoid looking like a rerun of Devi, age thirteen.

She was still going to be the band's noisemaking mascot, and no one was going to notice. Or at least, that was the plan.

Edgar avoided all talk of Tess and most talk of Banshee.  He looked almost embarrassed about everything and seemed to have a hard time with the change of a friend into something he had to be wary of and Banshee into some kind of pre-adult.

In a way, things looked different to her as well.  She saw things from a very rational point of view that layered itself over a viewpoint that saw every detail of everything it looked at, but never the whole.  Before her sudden growth in the yard, she had perceived so much black and white.  Now she was staring at the dot matrix in a newspaper photograph.

Edgar, either in poor judgment or unwillingness to bother, let Banshee wander the streets when she wanted to.  She used the new freedom to walk blocks away and talk to people, to buy things from small shops and to visit the places that had always held such a mythical level of intrigue to her.

All the way to the strip of buildings down town. Under that bridge that Johnny used to say was made with poison and had the corpse of a little kid in it. The unfortunate child, Johnny had told her, has been walled in alive as a sacrifice to prevent the bridge from collapsing. Banshee found when she went to look closer that there was no kid and there was no poison, unless the high school kid who kept asking Banshee what she wanted to buy from him counted.

The library wasn't a hidden nest of lies and secrets and women who wanted to break into her house. She was honestly surprised.

The building with the spine picture in the window had a scary growth on its outer wall. It was cracked and yellowed and looked to be growing hair.  Johnny had told Banshee when they first walked this way together than he and Jimmy had smashed a mayonnaise packet against that wall and the people who owned the building let it fester. It had been there, he reported, for years. Banshee was just as wary of touching it now as she had been the first time she saw it.

A block or so away from the yellow mayo growth, on the corner of her own block, a splash of silver decorated the sidewalk. Banshee had been told that years before Johnny and the others met, someone had thrown up there and no one cleaned it up.  It had become this shining silver blob after a particularly cold winter.  Banshee hadn’t asked why no one in town seemed keen on cleaning up after anyone or anything.

The school was amazing. There were people in it. Johnny and Edgar had so rarely mentioned the other students in a context beyond, 'people who couldn't see us.' Some of them couldn't see her, but other people noticed her and stared with some familiarity. There was a class in Johnny’s choir room, but it wasn’t a choir class.  His office looked untouched.  A kid in the class was scolded for staring at Banshee, but only because the teacher couldn’t see her.  Banshee slipped out and made a note to steal Johnny’s keys and come back at night.

She imagined bean bag chairs and stolen cafeteria food and torn up old playgrounds.  All the places she’d been told about, all the stories of how Uncle Jimmy had sustained one injury or another, stories of who had broken and torn what when jumping over a fence. Even though she was now part of their tribe, their circle, she felt that she had missed everything good.

Pepito’s house wasn’t scary, just old and weathered.  When Banshee poked a mechanical probe in his yard a voice from inside it sounded startled. A man who didn’t look like the Anti-Christ at all stood on the porch of the house, holding a steaming mug.

“Um, hi,” he said. “Do you need something?”

“Oh, no,” Banshee said quickly. “I just wanted to see what this was.”

“We try to pretend it isn’t there, but destroying it never does any good.”

“There’s a guy in there.”

“Yeah, that’s Dib. He doesn’t know we know he’s there. Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh. Okay. Um, I’m Banshee.” This man would never know she’d been called ‘Stephanie’ once.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Really?”

“We know your family.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess you would.”

“The resemblance is pretty strong.”

“I get that a lot,” Banshee grumbled.

“Are you theirs? I mean, Pepito says that kind of stuff can happen, but I never know what stuff about Hell he just makes up.”

“Theirs? You mean, biological or something?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know. I haven’t really had time to think about why I look like this. I only just got this big. It’s the first time I’ve been able to see it.”

“I hope Pepito didn’t lie to them.”

“Who are you?”

“Todd. I live with Pepito. We went to school together.”

“Oh, like Edgar and Johnny.”

“Something like that, yeah. I guess so.”

“What don’t you want Pepito to lie about?” They remained separated by the entire yard. Banshee was sure it was a way of keeping the relationship casual. She may as well have been asking him about fertilizer or the weather or his sick aunt. She could have gone to the stairs  - Todd didn’t scare her – but she had a feeling she’d never talk to him like this again.

“About not being responsible for you. It’d be a pretty sick joke to play on that poor Edgar guy.”

“What about Johnny?”

“Nothing bothers him,” Todd said, his knuckles going white as he gripped the handle of his mug.  “Though,” he added, fingers loosening, “I guess I did feel a little bad for him too, in the end. Pepito put them through a lot.”

“So I’m not from Pepito?”

“Not that I know of. He hasn’t said anything about it. Did you think you were?”

“No,” she said cheerfully, “but everyone else seems to.”

“Where do you come from, then?”

“I don’t know.  I think I knew once, but I forgot.”

“That doesn’t bother you?”

“It didn’t until right now.”

“Oh.”

Banshee became very sure she would never speak to Todd again.

****

She didn't want to be wrong.

It wasn't that Tess wanted Edgar to be suffering abuse, or that she wanted the little girl to be unhappy. It wasn't even that she wanted confirmation that Johnny was evil, it was just that she didn't want to have to take back weeks of adamant fighting.

She'd given Edgar lectures and stories about why she was right. She'd argued with herself and the world that couldn't see her that she was right. She argued with the news anchors on the monitors in the window of the shitty computer store.

She dialed the number most of the way through three times. Tess didn't know why the prospect of talking to Devi worried her so much, but it definitely made her uneasy. Once, she turned from the phone and poked the keypad at random, getting a person who was very much not Devi and very much not pleased to hear from Tess. Tess tried to say to herself, "Edgar gave you the wrong number," but she knew that there was no way she'd hit even close to the right buttons on her wild flailing, and resolved to actually dial.

There was only a single ring before someone picked up.

"Thanks for calling, what the hell do you want?"

"Devi?"

"Who is this?"

"Edgar said he'd-"

"Oh, you're the secret date girl."

"He said that?" Tess asked, trying to sound casual.

"Nah, it just sounds like you guys are having some kind of affair. Nny would skin him alive, though. You wanted to talk to me?"

"I think so." She hadn't, actually, but it was better to assume a position of confidence. "I just thought maybe someone with another look at what's going on could help me."

"Oh, right, he did say you think Nny beats him or something."

"It's more emotional, I think."

Devi sighed, and the noise of her breath against the receiver buzzed in Tess' ear. "I suppose if you wanted to call it that, but it's all pretty willing on Edgar's part. He knew what he was getting into."

"You don't think that sounds like brainwashing? Or dodgy or anything?"

"No, it just sounds like a high school crush that never left the 'likes the bad ones' stage. You sort of have to know Johnny to understand, though."

"Everyone keeps rationalizing this. It's fine, you just have to know him."

"It's true. Hang on a sec, okay?"

"Sure."

Devi made no attempt at all to cover the receiver when she screamed to someone in the background, "KNOCK IT THE FUCK OFF!"

"Hang on, Devi, it's-"

"No! Shut it the hell up!"

"Why do I live with you?!"

"Just die, Tenna. Anyway. Tess, is it? Back now."

"Is everything okay?" Tess asked slowly.

"Yeah, it's just Tenna being obnoxious. She bought like four of those damn toys that light up and freak out when you press a button and she has them performing a round."

"Oh. I see."

"Yeah, so. Edgar."

"Right."

"He's not dying or anything."

"Do you think he's being manipulated?" Getting to the point.

"Oh, we probably all are."

Tess leaned back in her chair. Maybe this was going to go somewhere.

"How so?"

"It's Johnny. That's really all there is to it. You met him before, didn't you?"

"When his house collapsed the universe around me, yeah."

"Eh, that's not quite the same. I mean have you met him recently?"

"No, I... we seem to have compatibility issues."

“You’re doing all this bitching and you’ve never even met him?”

“It’s sort of hard for us to talk.”

“I say you should try to.”

“Oh, really?”

“You’ve really got no business telling Edgar he’s done something horrible when you haven’t even met Johnny.  And, to be truth – thanks, Tenna. Yeah, in a sec - to be truthful, it’s not like I’m that unbiased; we’re all attached to Johnny whether we want to be or not.”

“Attached?”

“I don’t think any of us ever got over our high school feelings,” Devi said with a small laugh. “Edgar just got lucky with his.  I have to go, okay?  My show’s on.  Call me back next time you feel like Edgar’s had a meltdown.”

Devi hung up and Tess listened to the dial tone for much longer than she’d been on the phone.

****

They could do whatever they wanted, and they knew it.  Even if entire tours consisted of nothing but warped cover versions of the songs their audience already carried in their minds, the people who watched Johnny and his collection of dead people inhaled the music and tried to keep it in.  The trick to the Homicides was that everyone needed to exhale sooner or later and once a song was breathed out, it was gone.

Banshee didn’t remember them practicing these songs and wondered if they did so telepathically while she slept.  It was possible the songs were old - just things they used to play before she came along - but she had never heard them before. Still, she shrieked along the way she had when she was smaller and did her best to keep up with what was happening.

Her effect on the crowd was different now.  There was no longer a cute aspect to Banshee, and so people were less willing to listen to her scream.  People asked what had happened to the little girl and why they had replaced her with a preteen sporting clown hair.  Even her not-family seemed to grow tired of her wailing or dancing.  Edgar gave her sympathetic smiles, though he was preoccupied with too much else to pay her as much attention as he used to.  Devi told her they’d just have to work out the kinks and Johnny told her she could just tell everyone who didn’t approve to fuck off.

In her head, she, Johnny, and Tess did just fine, wailing or not. 

Fans that had come to watch the shows carried posters and photos hoping that someone would sign them.  Others had T-shirts and hats and one girl nearly flung herself onto Johnny’s boots after a song in an effort to get the band to sign her bra.  Johnny had backed away as though the woman was covered in slime and not just mostly naked, but Jimmy was more than willing to indulge the half-dressed woman and signed her chest while he was at it.   Edgar had buried his forehead into his keys and Devi stared open-mouthed at the whole affair.  It was Banshee who had to chase the woman off the side of the stage, though she was only allowed to do so by screaming like the damned at her, lest she break the demon image.

A certain level of appeal had been lost now that she was more than a few feet tall.  Johnny and the others no longer floated above her, and the atmosphere was more clearly a bunch of sweaty, dirty, heavily-made-up people in black than it was a religious experience. She missed the way it used to look, but appreciated what her less-innocent eyes could now see.

Unfortunately, there were still things she could not see.

Tess came to the show on a Saturday. She waved to Banshee from the back of the room and sent the Homicides’ demon into a panic. Flailing fit well with her demon persona, so it served her well as a thinking response before she realized she just wanted to get the attention of the band.  She twirled in front of them and tried to send them telepathic distress signals, but all were too absorbed in the song to notice.  There was a certain danger in passing in front of Johnny, but she decided it was worth the risk and he’d appreciate keeping his brain cells.

When Banshee managed eye-contact with Johnny, he crumpled to the floor. 

Terrified she’d somehow caused Johnny’s collapse and only partly thinking, she recoiled from the spot on stage and tore into the audience, Edgar and Jimmy’s voices drowning in the sudden and growing upset.

Tess remained in the back, which was somehow obvious, though Banshee couldn’t see her.  What she could see were rows of black leather and bare stomachs. Sparking navels and glowsticks. Glitter and glowing nail polish. People surged toward her, attempting to see what had happened to Johnny for themselves. Only a few of them seemed to notice the Homicides’ personal demon clawing her way through the crowd, and even the ones who didn’t tore the trailing white sleeves of her costume as she squeezed by.

She fumbled on the shreds of her quickly deteriorating outfit and crashed into the ribs of a man who smelled strongly of smoke.  He tried to ask her something, but was cut off when she was dragged to the floor.  For a moment, Banshee heard her name being called over the microphone, but she was so driven to get through the crowd now that she didn’t consider turning back.  Inside herself somewhere, she wanted to put herself into a little danger. Not big danger, but the kind that was filmed with high contrast and thumping bass and felt dramatic and meaningful. She wanted to be in just a little fake peril to balance out the glance that had apparently knocked Johnny unconscious. 

Devi’s voice on the microphone tried to explain what had happened to Johnny as exhaustion and a side effect of having been dead once and asked everyone to remain calm and security would be taking over soon.  Banshee heard her name several more times and dove deeper into the crowd.  Tess was still in the back and Banshee’s new goal, or maybe her goal all along, was to get to her.

Feet shuffled close to her head, pinning her long sleeves to concrete floor and tearing most of Tenna’s embellishing from it. There was no longer an identifiable flow to the crowd, just a mass of shifting neon.  Banshee herself was covered in glowing paint for the show and no one seemed to think twice about stepping over her or pushing her out of the way.  Still hearing her name, she crawled away from the sound, every shred of the costume lost making her progress easier.  

When she emerged from the back of the crowd and pulled herself from the floor she could no longer see the stage.  Tess stood in the back, just where Banshee had seen her from the stage. Though she was tattered, smeared and likely going to be bruised in a day or so, Banshee felt free and as though no time had passed at all. She stood with some pride at her fake movie scene.

“They’re worried about you,” Tess said. “What are you doing back here?”

“What are you doing back here?”

“Watching the show.”

“You’re here to do something to Johnny.”

“No,” Tess answered, glancing at the stage, “I’m not.”

“Do you follow us?”

“No.”

“I think you should be up there too,” Banshee said quickly, recalling her prior day dreaming.

“On stage?” Tess asked.  “Falling unconscious, or…?”

“Just up there. With us.  You can be red. I just feel like you should be.”

“Edgar is going to be worried about you out here.”

Banshee turned to look at the stage, but again was limited by her height.

“He hasn’t called,” she said. 

“He’s the one with Johnny.”

“Of course he is.”  She hadn’t meant to sound so bitter.

“You too, huh?” Tess asked, gazing above the crowd.

“Me too?”

“Thing for Edgar?”

“A ‘thing’?”  Part of her costume fell from her shoulders and she struggled to keep the right side of it on her body. She was sure she tasted the neon paint on her face. She knew Tess was probably dangerous, and was likely standing in front of Banshee only because she had come to do harm, but Banshee wanted to stop hearing her own name over the speakers and just talk.

“You know what I mean. He’s told me how smart you are.”

“He’s not- he’s supposed to be my father, not my-”

“You don’t look anything like him.”

“Not like that!” Banshee shrieked, the familiar ‘looks like Johnny’ burrowing under her skin again.

After her outburst, stragglers from the crowd clustered around her and began yelling that they’d found her. Banshee overheard Tess try to tell them to put Banshee down, and even felt Tess’ hand latch onto her wrist, but it had no effect on the small herd and they carried Banshee, struggling and clawing at their faces, to the front of the mass and to Devi, who showed obvious relief at the sight of her.

More souvenir shreds of Banshee’s costume had disappeared in the trip to the front of the room. Devi swore at the crowd that had dragged Banshee to her, but it seemed to be cursing delivered in gratitude.

“What happened to you?” Devi asked, surveying the damage to Banshee’s outfit.

“I got a little stuck.”

“But why the hell do you just dive in? Come on, we have to get in the back.  Jimmy and Tenna have some security people ready to take care of the people out here.”

“I just did,” Banshee answered blandly.  “Tess is out there.”

“Tess? The mystery date woman?”

“Yeah.”

“Did she say anything? Did you see anything?  She might be what happened to Johnny. He was so upset to see her the last time she came to a show…”

She’d been afraid to ask, but now seemed the time.

“What did happen to Johnny?”

“We don’t know. He looked at you and then he just hit the floor.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Banshee said quickly, trying not to flail her arms, “I was trying to tell him about Tess!”

“I’m sure, hun, really. We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.”

In the back, Edgar sat with Johnny lying beside him on a torn old couch.  Tenna stood uncomfortably nearby and brightened considerably when Banshee and Devi walked in. 

“Hey, you made it out of crowd surfing! There’s one to check of the list of life experiences, yeah?”

Edgar looked up when he heard Tenna. 

“Oh good,” he said, letting out a long breath, “you’re okay.  I was worried someone would kidnap you or something. Are you all right?”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry we lost track of you.” He glanced at Johnny lying apparently unconscious on the cushion beside him. “It was all kind of sudden.”

“It’s okay.”

“Edgar,” Devi broke in, “Banshee says that Tess is here.”

“Tess? God, no wonder Johnny just fell over. Where was she? What did she do?”

“Nothing,” Banshee said softly. “We just talked.”

“Did she say anything? See anything?”

Banshee shook her head while Tenna tied some torn parts of her costume back together.

“Nothing.  Just that she wasn’t here to hurt Johnny and she wasn’t following us.”

“That sounds like a load of crap to me,” Tenna said, cinching the waist of Banshee’s robe with what used to be part of her sleeve.

“Sounds like some half-truth,” Devi replied, scratching at her face paint.  “She’s probably just here to stare at Edgar.”

Edgar looked offended.

“Are you kidding?  I know she’s fond of me an’ all, but it’s not like I’m up there like Jimmy flashing my chest and most of my pelvis at people. I didn’t sign any bras or trade nipple marker drawings!”

“Some of us like the more reserved type, Edgar,” Tenna said, grinning.  She patted Banshee on the head as she finished outfit repairs and went to sit on a stool near Edgar and the couch.

“I feel like I need to wear a paper bag now,” Edgar grumbled.

“It’s okay to be pretty,” Tenna cooed.

“Tenna, if she comes just to see me look pretty, she fries Johnny’s brain!” Edgar gestured dramatically at Johnny to hammer his point home.  Johnny rolled his head to the side.

“Hey, I think he’s waking up!” Devi rushed forward, crowding into Johnny’s space. Banshee followed her, though she was afraid to get too close. If Johnny woke up remembering that Banshee had caused his collapse, she wanted a head start on her flee from the room.

The others shook Johnny and poked at him, calling his name as they watched his head nod.  He eventually came around and started swatting at the people around him.

“Shut up, shut up. Go away,” he mumbled.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. My head hurts. Leave me alone.”

“Johnny, please,” Edgar persisted. “Just tell us what happened. We were worried.”

“I fell over and my head hurts. Fuck off.” Johnny attempted to roll over into the cushions, but Edgar had a hold on his shoulders.

“You just hit the ground when Banshee looked at you. Did you see something?”

“That Tess woman is here,” Johnny growled, “and I just want you to leave me the fuck alone.”

While the others tensed up, Banshee felt a wave of relief that Johnny was blaming the incident on Tess and audibly sighed.   She saw Edgar sigh too, though his was out of frustration.  He released Johnny’s shoulders and watched Johnny curl into a ball against the old couch.

When Jimmy returned to the back he was angry that he hadn’t been able to talk to Johnny. Through all his rants and raves, Banshee could only think that Tess belonged back there too. 

Holding contradictory ideas in her head at once was not as difficult as she thought it should have been. Tess was going to hurt Johnny and take Edgar from them.  Tess also belonged and should be given a chance.  Banshee hadn’t any proof of this, really, but she felt it. She was sure.  How much of a betrayal would it be to bring Tess back there?  How could she play it as an accident?  How much could she play the dumb child?

She didn’t answer herself, but instead turned on her heel and said something about a bathroom to the others.  They were arguing about Johnny and didn’t hear her.  Beyond the curtain, Banshee watched the Homicides’ fans leak out the rear door, escorted by a few security people.

Tess remained by the back corner, the men in black ‘staff’ shirts ignoring her entirely.  She smiled at Banshee and waved cheerily. When she approached, Banshee wanted to run, but found herself firmly affixed to the stage curtain.

“How are things?” Tess asked when she was reasonably in range.

“Fine,” Banshee answered quietly. “But Johnny knows you’re here.”

“He always does.”

“Why did you come?” Banshee asked.

“To watch,” Tess said with a shrug.

“Then why are you still here?” She pulled the stage curtain around herself protectively.

“I just am.”

“Have you ever talked to Johnny?”

“Once,” Tess said, kicking a dull glowstick across the floor. “In a place like this, before he apparently died.”

“You didn’t…” Banshee pulled the curtain tighter as she took a step back.

“No,” Tess said, laughing. “I didn’t kill him. I only heard ‘heart failure’ like the rest of the media did.”

“Why doesn’t he like you?”

“We met each other once before, and I suppose that I must,” she paused to look dramatically annoyed and make air quotes, “cause him some discomfort.”

“On purpose?”

“No, actually. I think he just remembers when he sees me, which is fine with me.”

“So you’re not trying to do it, but you like doing it.”

“Maybe.”

“He’s scared of you.” She regretted saying it the moment she heard it in the air.

“I thought he might be.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Whatever I have to, I guess.”

“I like Johnny,” Banshee defended. “I think you might too.”

“He used to kill people,” Tess said, pulling herself up onto the stage. “Did they tell you that?”

“No.” Her voice wavered both with Tess’ new proximity and the accusation Tess had just made.

“I was there when he did it. I saw him kill people, I saw people he was going to kill later.”

“It wasn’t him,” Banshee said quickly. “You had someone else.”

“It was definitely him. I wouldn’t forget him for anything in the world.” Tess remained seated on the edge of the stage. Banshee thought she actually felt Tess trying to keep her distance and establish trust.

“What makes you sure?”

“I looked at him, I talked to him.” She stopped for a moment to clean a lens on her glasses. “He killed my asshole boyfriend and his house devoured everything soon after. You don’t just forget people like that.”

“I don’t think I believe you.”

“Is my mythology so much harder for you to swallow? Zeus can have babies and I can’t have seen the monster Johnny kept under his floorboards?”

“Zeus… is a god.” The worn velvet curtain felt like it was shedding in her grasp and yet Banshee continued to twist it in her hands. “Nny… is just Nny.”

“Man, he’s got you all saying that,” Tess laughed. “Did he sit you all down for a single brainwashing or what?”

“Brainwashing?!”

“I know, I know,” Tess said, waving her hand. “‘You just have to know him.’”

“You do,” Banshee insisted.  “You should talk to him and just see – he doesn’t kill people.”

“Are you inviting me?”

“I … don’t think I can.  Johnny would be angry.”

“It’s all about Johnny, still, huh?”

“If I invite you… then you can come in.”

“What?”

“You have to invite demons in before they can touch you.  Are you a demon? Is that why you’re way out here with us?”

“Jeez, they really do feed you only mythology, don’t they?”

“You didn’t answer me.”

“Even if I tell you I’m not a demon, you’re not going to let me talk to them.”

Banshee didn’t have anything to say.  This had all seemed like such a good idea a few minutes ago and now she was clutching the curtain closed around her in the feeble attempt to have Tess think it was impassable. She turned to look over her shoulder, but no one was coming to find her.  Tess was so close and yet Johnny wasn’t doing anything; she didn’t hear any screaming or complaining or any of the smashing things that usually accompanied Johnny’s Tess-related fits.

“They’re going to wonder where you went.”

“I know, but-”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“I don’t really know if I can trust you.”  She realized that she was stuck there – stay at the curtain and keep Tess from entering or go back to the others and risk being followed.

“That’s okay.”

The problem was that it wasn’t okay.  Banshee felt sure that she should be able to trust part of Tess. There was nothing innately scary about the woman who should have been wearing the red star – the very fact that Banshee imagined the star meant a fragment of her trusted Tess and regretted the circumstances. 

She was grabbed from behind. 

“What are you doing out here, Kleine?”

“Nothing, Uncle Jimmy.”  She clasped the curtain tightly behind her and tried to breathe evenly.

“Is everybody gone?” he asked, attempting to move beyond the curtain.

“No one’s there,” Banshee said quickly, stepping in front of him.

“You’re acting weird. Someone hit you in the head? You know, after a while, if you get enough of those, the recovery time drops like…” He made a downward crashing motion with his hand.

Banshee nodded, and Jimmy flung the curtain open behind her, despite her attempts to clamp it closed.

“It’s like a glowstick graveyard out here,” he said, his voice echoing in the empty hall. When Banshee looked out, Tess was gone and Jimmy was examining the floor of the stage.

“Did you lose something?”

“Yeah, my earring.”

“Oh. What did it look like?” 

“Just a loop-y thing.”

Banshee crawled onto the floor with him in hopes of focusing on something and not blipping anything about Tess.

“What were you looking for out here?” Jimmy asked her, patting the floor in front of him.

“Nothing, just watching them get rid of everyone.”

“We’re staying here for a while, in case they didn’t tell you.  Apparently there are some angry people in the parking lot, so we’re just going to wait them out.”

“Angry people?”  A red star flashed across her mind.

“People who came a long way to see us, mostly.”

“Tess came a long way,” she said.

“Dammit, I didn’t even see this crazy woman,” Jimmy griped. “I’m even left out of the drama. So far I get that she stalks Edgar and Nny killed her once or something.”

“He really did kill people?”

“Um.”  Jimmy turned away from her, feeling along the floor as he went.  “I thought you knew.”

“No. I thought Tess was lying.”

“You talked to her about that?”

“Not really about it. It was just mentioned in passing. It’s not a big deal.” Really. Yes.

“We’ll have to let Edgar know that you know now, I guess. I’m sure he’ll get all ‘oh god, you’ve corrupted my baby’ on us.”

“You don’t need to tell him.”

“Yeah, I sorta do. I thought he had told you already and you were pleasantly dealing with it, but this is kinda different.”

“I’m fine. I don’t mind.  It was before now, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And they probably deserved it or something, right?” She didn’t want to think that way, but it would be easier if she knew that the people Johnny had killed were just bad people.  Tess was with some bad people when she saw what she did, that was all.

Jimmy stopped searching the floor and rose from his knees.  His expression hardened into one she’d never seen on his face before.

“I think that depends on if you’re talking about me or Edgar,” he said, vanishing behind the curtain.

Banshee watched the bottom of the curtain flutter in slow motion.  When her hand slipped on the stage floor, a small metal loop brushed her finger.  

“Edgar?” she thought. “No. No, that doesn’t make sense.”

“Edgar, Jimmy, and almost Devi,” Tess’ voice said softly.

“No.”  

“Brutally.”

“No!” Banshee jumped to her feet, clutching the earring so tightly it pinched her palm. “NO! How would you even know?!”  Her voice echoed violently in the empty room. Where Tess was, in Banshee’s head or not, made little difference.

“best of cruel intentions
finding what they failed to mention
no truth, all pretension
raise your hand to get attention”

Tess didn’t answer her, but Edgar did.

“I think yelling helps,” he said. He stood behind her, against the curtain.

“She talks to me! Uncle Jimmy said she isn’t lying!”

Edgar shook his head.  “She’s not.”

“But- you?” 

“Once, yes. That was two lives ago.”

“You said you love him! You live with him!”

“Yes.”

“But he wouldn’t…”

“Not now, no.”

Banshee swore loudly into the blank room. Edgar was silent for a moment before he asked her what she had said.

“You heard me,” Banshee answered bitterly.

“Yes, but I didn’t understand it.”

“Oh.  I guess it’s Greek.”

“Greek now? From what?”

“I made it up from the Iliad.”

“I see. Listen, this whole killing business-”

“It’s real, right?”

“Yes.”

“But Johnny isn’t like that now.”

“No.”

“Okay. That’s fine.”

Edgar took a few steps toward her.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’ll just… I’ll be fine.”

“We’re leaving soon,” Edgar said.  “The little party in the parking lot didn’t get as big as we thought it would.”

“Okay. I’m just going to look for Uncle Jimmy’s earring again, and I’ll be back.”

“Sure. We’ll talk about this more later.”

Another flutter of the curtain later and Banshee wished that she had decided she was too old for howling at strangers. She pressed the earring into her hand again and watched as a man with a long broom shuffled his way into the back of the room to start clearing out the glowsticks and glitter.

****

The van was quiet but for the crackling of a faint radio station and Johnny softly recounting the events of the evening over and over to Edgar, who kept trying to get him to slow down. 

Banshee watched them under cover of ‘Goddesses and You’. Edgar was curled around Johnny, probably not even noticing he was doing it.  Johnny looked entirely comfortable where he sat, just less comfortable in his own head. She saw Edgar trying to make Johnny laugh, and Johnny weakly attempting to respond. He was visibly shaken – a far cry from the impression he had given back stage.  Banshee was afraid to look him in the eye for fear she’d break him in half, but she still stole glances at him and Edgar when she turned the pages all too often in her book. 

Tess had said she had a ‘thing’ for Edgar.  For whatever reason, Banshee could only think of Tess wanting to be where Johnny was at that very moment and aching for her. Tess’ probable threat to the occupants of the van aside. Tess had accused Banshee of having a thing as well, but she was sure hers was different, whatever it was.

Johnny said her name, and she tried not to flinch. She turned a page as loudly as she possibly could, accidentally ripping the bottom corner of it.

He asked for her again.

“Yes?” she said, hiding behind the façade of fixing the page.

“Did you see her?” Johnny asked.  He was still lounged against Edgar, and he sounded exhausted.

“A little. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Fair enough.”  She was surprised enough to pick her head up and stare at him, but he’d already turned over, apparently settling in to rest on Edgar.

Jimmy said something she didn’t understand and when she turned to ask what it was, he stared oddly at her.

“What?” she asked.

“Devi,” he said, not taking his eyes from Banshee, “can you and Tenna stop the van?”

“Jimmy, if this is – oh, Banshee, what are you-? Tenna, pull us over.”

“Wha-at?” Banshee shrieked, clamping her book closed.

“You’re growing,” Jimmy said quietly.  Despite that he’d tried to keep it quiet, Edgar jolted upward when he heard. Johnny made some unhappy moans.

“Again?” She watched as her hands lengthened slightly and felt her scalp tingle. “But I just-!”

Jimmy looked disgusted and Banshee heard Edgar prying Johnny from his side.  She felt him drop next to her as she tried to cram all her limbs inward to prevent their growth.  She hurt down to her bones. Skin stretched and hair and nails grew.  She felt her heart rate increase and felt sure her legs were growing at different speeds. No matter how much she curled her fingers into her hands, the nails wouldn’t stay in her fingers.

She lurched sideways as Tenna slammed the van into a small ditch and one of her still-growing fingernails cut into her hand.

Then she heard Johnny say something and it all stopped.  Her bones and muscles still ached, but it was a different pain that it had been a moment ago – not active pain, but aftermath pain.

He stared at her, but there was nothing malicious in his gaze. He hadn’t started the growth, nor stopped it.

“What the fuck just happened?” Tenna asked, still half-belted into the driver’s seat.

Edgar kept asking if she was all right, but Banshee had no way of knowing how to respond to him.

“Jimmy, what was she doing?” Devi asked, poking Jimmy’s shoulder rapidly. “Did you see anything?”

“She was reading!” Jimmy blurted as though Devi had accused him of personally stretching Banshee’s skeleton.

“This is what, three times now?” Tenna waved at Edgar in hopes of pulling answers from him.

“Yeah,” Edgar said, looking lost. “Johnny was angry once when she got in the bathtub, and then once outside with Tess, and just now. The first two could have water in common if there was dew or something, but this…”

“Were you reading in the tub and outside?” Jimmy tried.

Banshee shook her head slowly, her temples throbbing.

“Okay, so she’s not a sponge-girl, or growing with her brain,” Devi said. “Is it just stress? She did get dragged under a crowd, and you said Nny was yelling the first time.”

“The yard was really relaxing,” Banshee said. “I changed before I saw Tess.”

“It doesn’t even seem like even intervals,” Edgar muttered, mostly to himself. Banshee’s chest tightened seeing him look so worried. “These two were so close together…”

“Are we sure it’s not Tess?” Johnny offered.

“Nny, not everything is Tess,” Edgar said.

“We know she was around for two of them, maybe she was around for the first one.”

“Wouldn’t you have felt her?”

“I don’t know.”

“Maybe it’s an allergy,” Tenna said cheerily.

“What, allergic to childhood?” Devi rolled her eyes.

“At least it’s a small growth,” Jimmy said, trying to smile. “You still fit in your clothes, yeah?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Banshee answered miserably.

“It’s a bright side, Kleine.”

“Klein?! Siest du ‘klein’? Ich bin nicht mehr klein, Unkel Jimmy!”

She seethed while Jimmy looked as though he’d been kicked.

“So…,” Devi began, clearly uncomfortable, “do we think it was Johnny? She did stop when he spoke up.”

Attention turned to Johnny and Banshee felt both resentment and relief.

“Fuck you,” Johnny responded. “I didn’t do anything to her.”

For no reason that she could pinpoint, Banshee became acutely aware that her growth was only increasing her resemblance to Johnny.

“We’re not saying you did, but maybe there’s a connection with you guys looking alike,” Devi said.

And there, weirdly enough, was her reason.

“Stop saying that!” Banshee yelled suddenly. 

Jimmy took a sharp breath while the others just blinked at her.

“I’m not Nny!” she continued. “No one has stopped saying it since I got here!”

“We didn’t mean-” Tenna tried.

“It doesn’t matter! Just stop it!”

They sat in silence for several moments before Johnny retreated to his place in the back of the van.

“Man, the hell is wrong with him lately?” Devi asked. She clearly meant it to be honest, but it sounded as though she only wanted to change the subject.

Edgar shook his head.

“He’s been sort of weird since he woke up.”

“He was weird before that, Edgar.”

“I know, I know, but this feels a little different. After he just collapsed I don’t know what to do with him.”

“And we still don’t know what did that,” Tenna observed.

Banshee felt stares on her skin. 

“I don’t know what happened,” she said, still hugging herself. “I just looked at him, tried to tell him Tess was out there, and he just fell apart.”

“He doesn’t do well with Tess,” Edgar said quietly.

“I know, but she was in the room and he didn’t know until he looked at me.”

Edgar glanced over his shoulder at Johnny, who was curled up on the back seat, his back facing the other occupants of the van.  Banshee thought she heard Johnny muttering to himself.

“Banshee, do you think maybe you had some kind of link to him?” Tenna asked, snapping Banshee’s attention from Edgar.

“Like what, reading his mind?”

“Or him reading yours, wouldn’t it be?”

“He can’t do that,” Banshee answered, looking down at her ankles. It hurt to have to admit that parts of Johnny were not magical out loud. She knew inside that he wasn’t, but saying it just confirmed it; even if Johnny was telepathic, the moment she said otherwise the ability vanished. 

“Maybe you can,” Jimmy said excitedly. “Try to send me something with your brain.”

“Are you kidding?”

“No, no, come on, try.”

Banshee looked at the others. Devi and Tenna’s faces betrayed an ashamed interest in seeing Banshee attempt to send messages to Jimmy, but Edgar was still distracted by Johnny.

Angrily screwing up her face, she concentrated on sending ‘fuck this’ to Jimmy’s skull. His expression nearly mirrored hers and for several minutes they stared intensely at each other. She tried to visualize sending the words along a highway, and then through wires. She tried seeing them written on his skull and she tried aiming them at his temples, but Jimmy’s expression never changed from the equivalent of an anticipatory dial tone.

Eventually Banshee turned from Jimmy angrily; effectively tearing any link there may have been between them.

“I don’t have mind powers,” she muttered. “I didn’t try to do anything on stage. I was just worried.”

“I think Banshee is Johnny’s sister from the future,” Tenna said bluntly.

“That’s retarded,” Jimmy said. “He doesn’t have any parents.”

“Maybe someone adopted him.”

“As an adult?” Devi asked.

“Weirder things have happened,” Tenna said, crossing her arms and reclining in the driver’s seat.

“So someone adopts him,” Jimmy said, “and then they have a kid that looks just like him?”

“I’m right here,” Banshee growled.

Devi sighed and flopped over in her seat to try to explain more clearly.

“Look, hun, I’m sorry this bugs you, but it might be related to what’s going on with Johnny. When we figure it out, we’ll let it go, promise.”  She looked at Jimmy and Tenna who both nodded in agreement.

“Can’t you talk about it when I’m not here?”

“You want to step outside?” Devi asked.

Banshee glanced outside and saw the first drops of oncoming rain tapping the window. “Not really.”

“Then you’ll have to tolerate it.”

Tenna looked surprised at Devi’s tone and Jimmy moved as though he was going to try to soften what she said, but stopped short of actually saying anything.

“Fine,” Banshee spat after a moment.

She glanced at Edgar, who she hoped for some help from, but felt immediately that he was pained and conflicted. 

“More concerned for Johnny than me,” she thought, watching Edgar’s expressions flicker between his concern for Johnny and his worry about Banshee’s brain.  “Do I have to pass out before I’m more important?” She found herself suddenly very glad that they’d just proved she wasn’t projecting thoughts at anyone.

Jimmy and Devi argued about what they thought Banshee was while Tenna looked on, tired of the entire thing.  Banshee was also tired of worrying about who she was, what she was, and what she could do, but didn’t have the luxury of closing her eyes and escaping it like Tenna did.

Banshee watched as Edgar’s conflict resolved itself on the side of Johnny and he climbed to the back of the van to check on the boney form curled into the seat.  Johnny hadn’t ever looked so small to her. Edgar spoke quietly enough to not be noticed by the others engaged in argument. He said nothing out of the ordinary and nothing that he had any reason to conceal, but he was obviously trying. 

Sometimes, Banshee forgot that somewhere underneath her cheerful Uncle Jimmy was still a man who resented that Edgar had Johnny.  Very rarely did the others make exceptions or adjustments for Jimmy, but unless Devi had some outstanding issues with Edgar and Johnny, this quiet was all out of some kind of respect for Jimmy.  It felt somewhat backwards, but at that moment, Banshee understood Tess’ ‘thing’ for Edgar entirely and felt warm at the thought of it.

Johnny seemed unresponsive to anything Edgar said for several minutes. The others pretended not to be watching or paying attention, but their conversation was so disjointed that Banshee had no doubts that they were all acutely tuned to the back of the van.  

Banshee knew very little of everyone else’s feelings regarding Johnny and Edgar, aside from Jimmy’s desire to take Edgar’s place. Were Devi and Tenna holding some kind of resentment too?  From how long ago?

“It’s never us anymore,” Jimmy muttered, as though answering her thoughts.

“What?” Banshee looked up at him, though she wasn’t even sure he was speaking to her.

“When we were kids – when we were still in highschool – if something went wrong, it was all of us who fixed it.”

“Yeah, we even fixed you,” Devi said, nodding toward Jimmy.

“When Johnny lost that string, you know?” Jimmy returned Devi’s nod knowingly. “We went everywhere for it. Anything that happened to one of us happened to all of us.”

“People grow up, Jimmy,” Tenna said to the windshield. She was slumped in her seat and batting at the squeaky skeleton toy she’d hung from the rearview mirror.

Jimmy’s shoulders dropped as he let out a long breath.  The vest he’d worn for the show that night slid to one side and he scratched at the giant suture Tenna had sculpted onto his torso. 

“But we weren’t even asked,” he said, glancing back at Edgar and Johnny.

“I think maybe Edgar knows him better than we do by now,” Devi said.

“Or he just thinks he does.”

“Maybe.”

“What would you do, Uncle Jimmy?”

Jimmy turned to Banshee as though he’d forgotten she was there.

“What?”

“What would you be doing back there, if Edgar was you?”

Devi and Tenna looked uncomfortable, and Banshee thought Jimmy would cry before he answered.

“I’d like to think I’d be doing exactly what he’s doing.”

“Only ‘like’ to think?” Banshee asked slowly.

“He can’t say he wouldn’t be trying to rape Nny into feeling better,” Devi said, fishing through the glove compartment.

“Fuck you! That’s not true!” Jimmy yelled, startling Edgar, who had no idea he was being even indirectly discussed.

“Jeez, what are you screaming about?” Edgar asked.

“I’m not going to rape him!” Jimmy blurted.

“What?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t if I were you!”

Edgar glared in Jimmy’s direction.  “Is that a threat?”

“Gah, NO! I know you’re not raping him!”

“What the hell did I miss?”

“Nothing, Edgar,” Devi said, tossing a shooing motion in his direction. “Go back to whispering sweet nothings or whatever you were up to.”

Edgar scowled in disgust but turned back to Johnny with out a word.

Banshee was almost afraid to bring Jimmy’s original statement up again, but curiosity proved stronger than tact.

“Only ‘like’ to think?” she asked again.

She saw Jimmy mentally get back on track with the prior conversation and then he nodded slightly. 

“I don’t know if I’m any good at whatever he’s doing, but damn if I wouldn’t try.” He watched Edgar yet again, though there was no glare where Banshee expected to see one.  “He’s not a bad guy, you know? I don’t hate him or anything.  Hell,” he laughed, “Edgar is better to me than Johnny ever was.  But still.”

“Why don’t you like Edgar instead?” 

“That would make more sense, wouldn’t it?” Jimmy answered as though the idea wasn’t new to him.  “But I don’t. It’s just Johnny.”

“Even though Edgar is a nicer person, and doesn’t hate you,” Banshee counted reasons on her fingers, “isn’t scary looking, and likes being around people?”

Jimmy laughed.

“You’ve spent too much time with him, Kleine.  You’ve got an Edgar bias.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“I detect a crush,” Tenna chimed in.

“Ten, that’s gross,” Devi said.

“What about it? Edgar’s kinda cute,” Tenna defended.

“He’s like family, Tenna, you can’t do crushes on family.”

“Mythology thinks otherwise,” Tenna said smugly.

Banshee suddenly wondered if her mind projected itself without her knowledge. It would explain this horrific exchange and why Johnny had known about Tess the moment she looked at him.  

“It’s not…,” Banshee tried.

“Hey Edgar!” Tenna called to the back, “ I think now that Banshee’s old enough, we need to take her to the vet and get her fixed!”

“What?! Why?!”

Banshee was horrified for a moment that it wasn’t an outright protest, but a question of why it should be done.

“She’s got a cruuuuush,” Tenna sang.

Edgar looked alarmed, but mostly confused.

“Um, what?”

“It’s not just Tess that likes ‘em with glasses, apparently,” Devi said casually.

Banshee attempted to bury herself in her costume, but with growing and tearing it apart, there was hardly a billowy sleeve left to hide her face in. Jimmy told her that they were teasing and tried to tell Tenna to shut up.  She shot back something about Jimmy raping Johnny and then Edgar while he was in the neighborhood.  Edgar demanded to know why the conversation was always rape when he came to the front of the van, and was promptly labeled ‘rape-able’, to the dismay of all but Devi and Tenna.

In the meantime, Banshee felt Johnny growing unsettled and wondered when she had been able to feel things like that at all.

“Do you have to do things like this? Really? She’s a little – well, she’s a girl anyway. Tess is a different story, but this is a totally inappropriate thing to-”

“Rape-able.”

“Tenna, I can’t believe you! You were the one trying to shelter her from the beginning!”

“And look how well she turned out - she swears in dead languages now.”

“Greek isn’t dead,” Jimmy pointed out.

“Ancient Greek, Uncle Jimmy,” Banshee said wearily.

“Oh.”

Edgar continued to bicker with Tenna and Devi about rape before someone, Banshee didn’t catch who, played the incest card and Edgar let out a frustrated noise followed by an angry tirade that got everyone involved; Johnny even slinked to the front to add in his two cents on the matter.  Edgar’s song overpowered all of the others when he was angry enough.

Edgar kept saying the same few phrases over and over, but whatever they were, Banshee seemed to forget them until the second he said them again.  Her brain kept resetting itself and it worried her a little.

Several minutes later, she forgot what she had been worried about.

While the group bickered with its internal issues, the Homicides’ van had been sitting on the side of the road for some time and it finally attracted its inevitable visitors.  Banshee actually felt them approach and Tenna seemed to catch them out of her window.

“Guys?” Tenna looked worried, but no one noticed that she had stopped arguing.

Soon, voices that Banshee didn’t recognize grew louder and a pair of teenaged strangers appeared at the driver’s side window.

“Oh man, it’s really you guys,” the first kid said nearly breathlessly.  His friend stood beside him and appeared to be shaking.

“Yeah,” Tenna said. The others had gotten quiet and gave their full attention to the outsiders.

“Um, we just came from the show, you know, where Nny fell over an’ all, and, then – well, we just thought we’d make sure you were okay out here an’ all.”

“We’re fine,” Devi said.

“Um, you all in there?” The second kid asked.

Devi glared at them.

“Go the fuck home. We’re fine.”

“You don’t think you could sign these programs for us, do you?” The first guy, a red head, stepped closer to the door and Tenna’s joints seemed to lock up.  Banshee felt sudden panic and guessed Johnny felt the same.   When Tenna didn’t answer, Devi snapped that they needed to leave.

“Maybe just Nny’s?” Second guy asked. “You could let us in the back real quick.”

Johnny made a panicked skittering motion when the voices mentioned his name again.

“Get them the fuck out of here,” he told Edgar, mercilessly gripping the collar of Edgar’s shirt.

“Um,” Devi managed, stunned by how forward the visitors were, “I…”

“Come on, just let us in.”

Tenna was still unable to move, even when Jimmy kicked the back of her seat. Devi slowly became unresponsive, and the guys leaned nearer to Tenna, almost pressing their faces against the glass of the partially-open window.

“Get the hell out!” Edgar yelled to them. “We’ll call the police!”

“What, the ‘invisible people’ police?” Jimmy asked, sending mocking looks in Edgar’s direction.

“Fuck you,” Edgar replied.

“You guys sure you’re okay?” The teens outside asked. “Maybe you should let us in so we can help.”

Johnny stood from his place on the van floor and projected an aura of control over himself that Banshee hadn’t seen in what felt like weeks.  He crawled over Devi’s lap and pulled a long knife from the glove compartment.  Devi made no sound at all while Johnny supported his weight on her thigh.

“Johnny, sit down! Just roll up the window and sit down!” Edgar tried to reach to the front to pull Johnny down to the floor, but even Johnny’s clothes seemed to have taken on his talent for eluding capture. 

“Nny! Stop, sit down!” Banshee tried after Edgar. When Johnny failed her, she changed her plea. “Aunt Tenna, come on, get us out of here!”

Tenna gave no indication that she’d even heard Banshee speak. Johnny climbed over Tenna and rolled down the window, holding the knife at nose level for the pair outside. 

“Get out,” he threatened.

“Oh, glad to see you’re okay,” one of them said cheerily. “You want to let us in now to sign this? It’s getting cold.”

Johnny's reaction slowed, but Banshee's did not. Over the sound of Edgar's protests, she leaped into the front seat and sat in Tenna's lap, though she was unable to see much past Johnny. In a well-rehearsed motion, she pulled the van out of 'park' and rammed her heel onto the accelerator at the same moment that Johnny stabbed one of the visitors in the eye.

As she tore away from them she caught in the back of her mind that everything in the boys' eyes, from the pupils to what should have been white, was black, and as Johnny's weapon dragged out of the red-head's face, black seeped down his cheek.

Panic swept over the van. Johnny fell into Banshee, who squashed Tenna, who finally seemed to realize that the world was happening around her.  Devi swore loudly and clamped onto the dashboard while Jimmy tumbled around in the back.  Edgar clung to the back of the driver’s seat grasping wildly at Johnny, trying to tear him off of Tenna and Banshee.

Banshee felt her hands on the wheel and the scenery whizzing by her on all sides. She felt the panic of the people around her and heard Edgar crying out about the knife in Johnny’s hand. Tenna shrieked from under her, but the shock of the last few moments left Banshee with a tight grip on the wheel.  Drops of rain hit her face and glasses, though she would have sworn they were small stones.

The van bounded over rocks and pipes in the ditch and Banshee heard the scrape of the van against the occasional bit of pavement as her total lack of control of the vehicle left the van swerving wildly.  Edgar managed to pry Johnny off of the pile in the driver’s seat and was thrown onto the floor with Jimmy when Banshee hit another drainage pipe.  

Tenna reached over Banshee and twisted the wheel from her grasp, steering the van onto pavement and then slamming it in park before nearly collapsing into the wheel.

Even in the almost dark, Banshee could make out Tess’ silhouette just beyond the hood of the van.

Banshee forced the door open and spilled out of the van when the door swung outward, adding another collection of filth and tears to her costume. When Banshee regained her balance, Tess was still standing there as though she was just waiting her turn at the DMV.

“Are you trying to get us killed?!” Banshee screamed.

Tess looked surprised.

“Says the fourteen-year old who was just behind the wheel.”

“What are you doing?! If you keep doing this stuff, Edgar is never going to-”

Tenna stumbled out of the van then and was taken aback at the sight of Tess.

“What the fuck is this?” she asked.

“Hi,” Tess said, waving weakly.

Johnny shrieked something from inside the van and moments later, the side door flew open. Edgar emerged, slammed the door behind him, shoved both Banshee and Tenna aside and demanded to know what Tess was doing.

“Nothing,” she said coolly.

“Like Hell, it’s nothing!” he said, grabbing her sleeve.  “You know exactly what you do to him and you’re somehow able to stalk us even when our van is out of control?! What is this about?!”  He shook her angrily, startling her more than the yelling had.  Banshee felt like crawling in a hole.

“I thought I would tell you about what’s after him,” she said, her voice suddenly shaking and far less confident.   While Tess spoke, Devi stepped out of the van, but kept herself behind the open door. 

“it’s my red star”

“Unless what you have to tell me fixes him the moment you utter it, I promise you I’m throwing you in that ditch and letting Banshee drive.”

Tess looked frightened, but not of Edgar, or his threat to have Banshee crush her under the van’s tires.

“I don’t know if I can – I mean, I don’t know what it will do. It really wants to – but you’re right there and-” 

“it’s my red star”

She fell against Edgar then, as though she was used to snuggling against his ribs.  He backed away sharply, losing his hold on her sleeve. Tess almost dropped to the pavement, though she caught herself, one hand on her knee.

She adjusted her glasses and her posture after a moment near the ground, sent a glance in Banshee’s direction with an expression in between fondness and disdain, and then looked back to Edgar. Banshee felt sure that something had reached for her when she and Tess made eye contact.

“It’s-” 

“it’s my red star”

Her expression fell from calm into horror as she looked over Edgar’s shoulder.  Edgar and Banshee both turned to see Johnny standing beside the van.

“It’s you,” he said, bracing himself against the van’s frame. He pointed vaguely with the black-coated knife and shook it at Tess.  Banshee hoped it was for emphasis, but she couldn’t rule out that his muscles were exhausted.

Tess looked scared yet again, but just as before, it was not of the threat in front of her.

“No…,” she managed, slowly shaking her head.

Edgar seemed torn between restraining Tess and helping Johnny and consequently remained frozen where he stood. Tenna tried to suggest that everyone to just get back in the van and run over the nice crazy woman, but no one but Banshee seemed to hear her.

“It’s got you,” Johnny said, his voice struggling with words. “And it wants me instead.”

Tess’ panicked expression disappeared that moment and she smiled sweetly at Edgar. 

“Maybe we’ll tell you later,” she cooed, looking over the rim of her glasses.

Johnny made a noise and raked the knife in his hand against the metal of the van as though trying to use it to pull himself forward. When Edgar turned from Tess, she vanished.

“it’s my red star”