Page 26 of Hex You

Hunter’s chest swelled. She didn’t have to extrapolate, didn’t have to explain the whats or whos or whys. He trusted her. Jax was mad at her, and he loved her, and he believed in her, and he regretted parts of their friendship. Their relationship wasn’t black-and-white.Lifewasn’t black-and-white but shades of gray.

He pushed her, a playful grin plumping his cheeks.

And she was getting comfortable with gray.

“Hey.” She returned his smile with one of her own. “You might need me. You never know what made that mess.” She motioned tothe thick layer of slime that hadn’t even begun to crust under the harsh burn of the sun.

“Next time,” he began as he followed Hunter to the backside of the tree, “remind me to bring some salt.”

Slick goo slid between her mucous-covered toes as she cautiously wound around the base of the tree to the side that faced Sugar Creek. She stopped, her toes clenching against her sticky wet sandals. A hole no bigger than a softball stared up at her from where the trunk met the earth. Thick globs dripped from its black maw, as squishy and putrid as rotted fruit, splatting against the gelatinous film that oozed around the base of the tree.

“This is where it came out,” Hunter said, her gaze never leaving the black circle pressed into the tree like a Looney Tunes tunnel entrance.

Jax plucked a stick from the splintering tree debris surrounding them and squatted next to the trail. “Do you think whatever it is has poisoned the water?” He stabbed the slime. The stick sank a few inches, the mucous squelching, enveloping the thin branch.

Hunter’s ponytail slipped off her shoulder as she shook her head. “The creek runs into Goode Lake, and they’re always testing the lake water. We would have heard if there was something wrong with it.”

Jax pulled the stick from the trail, studying the threads of slime that quivered in the wind. “Whatever’s coming out can’t be that big.”

Hunter tilted her head, grimacing at the otherworldly ooze. “Polyphemus literally stuffed his body inside Sheriff Dearborn’s skin.” She squatted down next to Jax and peered into the slick black hole—a conduit between this realm and the Japanese Underworld spilling out from the cracks in the crumbling gate. “We can’t use this to judge the creature’s size.”

Jax tightened his hold on the stick and stretched out his arm. “You’ll come save me if I get sucked into the Upside Down?”’

Hunter clapped her hand on his thick shoulder. “It’ll have to pull us both in.”

With a sharp inhale, he plunged the stick into the dark.

Every muscle in Hunter’s body tensed, and she forced her eyes to stay open, unblinking, fixed on the portal to the Underworld. Her chest ached as she held her breath, determined not to move, to hear and see and be ready for anything.

They waited.

Jax flicked his wrist, wiggling the stick back and forth, baiting whatever creature lurked inside.

Still they waited.

Hunter’s heartbeat roared and her lungs burned.

Jax pulled out the stick. Another string of goo, but no chomped-off tip, no evidence that anything was home.

“I definitely thought that would go down differently,” he said, dropping the stick and brushing his hands on his shorts as he stood.

Hunter peered into the darkness, steeling herself for the horror movie moment when the creature emerged just as the main characters thought it was safe.

A glob of mucous splatted against the steadily rising puddle that dripped from the entrance.

Hunter frowned. She didn’t want to get attacked, but she did want to know what had gained entry into her town.

“I’m doing a spell.” She pushed herself to her feet and ignored her sticky toes as she straddled the slime trail.

“Now?” Jax shoved his hands back into his pockets.

“Yes, now.” Hunter clutched her pendant and squatted over the ichor. “Something escaped from the Japanese Underworld and killed Julie Stoll. It’ll kill again. Just like Polyphemus. We need to figure out what it is before it hurts someone I care about.”

Jax nodded as if settling an argument with himself. “This is the kind of magic I can get behind.” He knelt back down beside her and gripped her shoulders.

“Ready?” She was asking herself, but Jax’s confidentyes!chased away any doubts that sheltered in the shadowed corners of her mind.

She plunged her hands into the moist pocket between this realmand beyond. The air was hot and damp and rolled across her hands and out of the hole in fetid gusts. Jax coughed, a sudden burst of air that exploded against her back. “It smells like the zoo.”