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She pulls her hand away, then moves it toward my mouth again while making train whistle noises. "Open up."
I tickle her belly, making her laugh so hard her eyes water. She tosses the fish finger into the sink.
"Are you surrendering?" I ask as I pause in my tickling.
She raises her hands. "Yes, I surrender. That fish stick was my white flag."
"I'm not sure a fish flag is a proper way of surrendering, but I will accept it."
Allison bows deeply. "Thank you, Lord Fallenmouth."
She rises and smiles at me, looking so beautiful that I want to kiss her. But we are not alone.
Willow is grinning at us.
By the time we finish cooking and eating our meal, our guest seems much more relaxed than when we first met her. We all retreat into the sitting room to drink hot cocoa. I would've preferred vodka, but we do have a minor in the house. I feel odd about drinking in front of a teenage girl. Instead, I sit in a large armchair while sipping cocoa.
Allison takes a few sips of her drink, then sets her mug down on the end table. "Willow, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"
The girl stares down into her cocoa mug. "Okay."
"How did you end up in England? You sound American."
"My parents always wanted to see the UK, so we came over on vacation." She clutches her mug with both hands. "We would've been flying home today."
I assume Allison started with an easy question before she gently prods the girl about other matters.
"You said the people you were with weren't nice," Allison says. "Did they hurt you?"
Willow says nothing, though I can see the movements in her throat every time she swallows hard.
"I should leave so you two can discuss this," I say, half rising from my chair.
"No," Willow says, her head popping up. "You can stay."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. You're okay."
I've passed muster with a fifteen-year-old girl. Not sure if that means she trusts me, or if she simply trusts Allison's opinion of me. Maybe my ridiculous behavior in the kitchen convinced the girl I'm not a monster after all. I sit back down.
"They said mean things to me," Willow tells us. "Called me bad names, told me I was dragging them down. When I cried, they would slap me hard. They didn't give me much food, even when they found a big box of granola bars. They decided we should head out this way because other people were saying there's a place in the country where everything is still pretty and nice."
"How did you get here?" Allison asks. "You couldn't have walked the whole way."
"The people I was with found a car that still had gas in it. That got us most of the way here. We walked after that."
Allison nibbles on her lower lip as if she's considering what to say next. "How did you get away from those people?"
"When I saw the woods, I just ran. Not sure why, but I felt like I needed to be here." The girl stares down into her cocoa mug again. "Then those creatures came after me. They didn't hurt me, just made a lot of noise and chased me."
"You're safe now, sweetie." Allison chews her lip again, glancing at me as if she wants my approval. For what, I have no idea. She looks at the girl again. "Willow, do you, um, have any idea how you got here when nobody else has been able to cross into the woods?"
Willow takes a big gulp of cocoa, then sets her mug on the table. "You mean how did I get through the magic barrier or whatever. Don't know. I heard people talking about that, but I have no idea how it works. My parents never believed in supernatural stuff, but now everybody knows it's real. I mean, that's how all of this happened, right? Magic made the world crazy."
Yes, that's exactly what my brother has done. He made the world as crazy as he is.
The girl yawns.
