Tooth and Nail
Sera opened the door to the Tooth and Nail with her keys, hoping to sneak in while her brother was counting the inventory in the back. “Jesus Sera, I’ve been calling your cell all afternoon.” No such luck.
“Shit. My cell battery must’ve died last night and I haven’t had time to charge it.” Sera pursed her lips.
“We open in an hour” Brogan said “and you saunter in here with a smile on your face like somebody just gave you a saucer of milk. What the fuck?!”
“Back off Brogan. “ Sera threw her purse down on the bar. “I’ve been out all night, had a very weird breakfast and just narrowly avoided getting into a cat fight with a total fucking stranger. I’m sorry I made you worry but I’m your sister, not your servant.”
Brogan took a couple of deep breaths like they taught him in the anger management class his wife had made him go to. “I really needed your help today. They delivered too much Bluestone rum and totally forgot three varieties of premium vodka. I didn’t realize it until after they had left and they can’t come back until tomorrow.”
Sera waved off his worries “Just put a special on Mojitos and bump up the price of the vodka. Most of these wankers are so cheap they’ll happily stick to domestic vodka martinis.” She slid over the top of the bar and stood beside him. “Besides, I killed like 15 Zombies this morning.”
“Don’t start up with that Zombies & monsters crap again Sera.” Brogan threw his hands into the air out of frustration “I get worried that you still believe in that shit like when we were kids”
Sera swallowed hard and laughed “Of course, I’m just kidding little brother” She slapped him on the back “So, what’s left to do?”
Brogan gave her his to-do list and headed up to the office to finish yesterday’s receipts. Sera was left alone to catalog and count beer cases in the back. She finished the first 100 before sitting down to wonder whether it was possible for one fifth of a city to go crazy and start seeing Zombies, succubi, minotaurs, and the rest of the monsters while everybody else just went about as if nothing was wrong. She’d always seen weird shit, ever since she was 12. The first time she got her period was the scariest week of her life.
She remembered sitting in the bathroom staring at the spots of blood on her underwear and then realizing that a mound of spiders was forming in the bathtub. Millions of red eyes and black glistening bodies piled up on one another staring at her while they crawled over and over each other. She had screamed and screamed until her mother came and found her. Her mother saw the spiders and showed her how to kill them with special words and a little baking soda. “The power of Earth has given you the Sight” her mother had said and then made Sera promise to never tell anyone about the spiders or the special words.
From that day on until her mother’s death, they would have a special field trip once a month to different parts of Seattle. Her mother would show her all the scary monsters, like the gryphons at the airport, the moss monsters in the marshlands, and the flesh eating Zombies in the downtown districts. And then show her how to deal with them. But, just as she was starting to explain why Sera could see these things and everybody else couldn’t, she was gone. The fire… The fire… Sera’s memory faltered and she felt tears fall down her cheeks. She didn’t want to remember the fire right now. Today had been bad enough.
But Marcus saw all the Zombies and knew how to fight them. He didn’t hesitate or question that Sera saw them. Sera had met others that saw them too, but it had always been in passing. Like the cab driver. She didn’t talk about it with them, because it was hard to tell what they could SEE. Sera thought that maybe Marie had the sign too. That didn’t make her like Marie, but it’s always good to know how powerful your enemies are so you can use their strength against them. Sera’s mother taught her that.
“Sera, are you almost done” Brogan called from the front “We’ve got to restock the JB and Cooks too”
“I’m on it” she called and grabbed the hand-truck. She pulled four boxes out of stock and started to roll them out the door. The Zombies could wait until later.
***
Sera handed Brogan the catalog list “We need to move more Bourbon or stop buying so much of it. Other than that, just the vodka problem we talked about earlier” They started unloading the boxes into each bartender’s station.
“So how did the date go?” He winked “Ted’s quite a cowboy isn’t he.”
“He’s a cowboy all right, a dickhead cowboy” She switched to resupplying the condiments to keep from breaking bottles. Instead she took her anger out on the unsuspecting jars of cherries, pickled onions, and green olives. “The jerk tried to force his way into my apartment this morning.”
Brogan looked concerned “But you said you had a late night?” Sera actually blushed.
“Well, I sort of ditched him at the gallery. He was so into his own magnificence that I thought he’d rather spend the night with himself than with me. I, ah” Sera knew it was too late to not tell the truth “I found some something more interesting to do.”
“Shit, you picked up a stranger while you were on a date with one of my friends?”
“No, I mean, yes, I mean no. He picked up me.” It didn’t sound any better to Sera that way either.
“You can’t DO that in this city.” Brogan stopped shifting bottles “One day you’re going to find somebody crazier than you and get into serious trouble.”
Sera tried to reason with him “Bro, you don’t have to be Dad okay. I’m not going to explain my love life to you. Deal with it.”
“First you talk about Zombies and now you’re proud to be fucking total strangers.” He whirled on Sera and grabbed her by the shoulders “Sera, we’re worried about you. Your friends, Josie and me. You haven’t been the same since Dad died last year. You’ve been talking all crazy again, like when we were 17.” Brogan shook her gently, “I don’t want to have to force you to the doctor like Dad did before, but I will if you don’t get a grip.” He hugged her close but looked at her with eyes full of intent.
Sera knew he meant it. The Winters family was nothing if not earnest even when they were angry. Since her father died and only her brother, his wife Josie, and Sera were left, they were just less drunk when it happened. Her grandmother was still alive but everybody though she was loony tunes too. She didn’t want to lose her family, but she wasn’t going to go back to the Institute. It almost killed her to get out of there and if she had to disappear for a while to avoid that place she would. She wouldn’t go back. She couldn’t.