Page 109 of How To Take Down A Cult At The End Of The World

“What are you going to do with my tuba?”

“This.”

I launch the tuba into the town square after Eri. I don’t care if anyone else gets in the way. If they can’t dodge a tuba, then that’s a skill issue. The brass instrument sails through the crowd and crashes to the ground. The band stops playing. Everyone freezes. They aren’t sure where to look. The band does though and they start pointing at me.

“She threw the tuba!”

“Someone stop her.”

“Help! My tuba was a rental!”

I ignore them and walk forward because there’s only one person that’s not staring at me. Eri. She’s standing facing away. Her dumb gold dress is bloody and torn, her perfect hair matted. When she does slowly turn to look at me it’s nice to see that she hasn’t healed from the damage I did to her.

Eri and I stare at each other in silence until a man approaches me. He’s a sheriff and holds his hands up to me in a lame attempt to calm me down.

“Now, missy, you can’t just be causing a ruckus. That’s destruction of property and at least two counts of public endangerment.” I glance at the sheriff before I look back at Eri. I don’t care what this man thinks he’s going to do. I know what I’m going to do.

“Now, you’re going to have to come-”

I ignore the sheriff and point at Eri. “You took him from me!”

The god puts up her hands and shakes her head. “We can work something out. Power? I can give you riches beyond your wildest dreams. I can give a world of your own, one to make in your image. Let’s be reasonable about this. It’s just a guy. He was only-”

“He was my everything and you took him,” I interrupt and give her a mean smile, “and now I’m going to takeeverythingfrom you.”

The sheriff goes quiet and looks at Eri and then around to the crowd. Some people have dropped down into low crouches and covered their ears. Mothers hold their children while fathers look unsure of what to do. I know what they should do. They should run. Take their loved ones home where they’re safe and protected. Where monsters like Eri can’t get to them.

“If this is a public dispute, you’re going to have file a civil-”

“Shut up,” I tell him, my voice rising. “I’m not doing any of that. I’m going to kill her. Now, officer, if you want me to go anywhere, you’ll clear out this square andleave her to me!”I end on a shout, my voice echoes, the words bounce off the buildings and back to me.

“Now,” I tell the sheriff.

Because he’s a man, he doesn’t listen. He grabs his walkie talkie and calls for back up. “I’m going to need-”

I tune him out and start walking towards Eri. Whatever the sheriff thinks he’s doing, he’s not. He’s got bigger fish to fry with an entire cult running out of the Chamber of Commerce. No doubt they'll be making their way out into all of this soon.

The crowd scrambles to get away from me when I get close and a path to Eri appears like magic. Neat. Eri backs up but she stops after a step, like she’s finally realized running won’t do her any good. When she drops into a fighting stance I’m glad. I thought she’d given up. I’m about to charge at her when my world stops.

“Meadow!”

I freeze and over Eri’s shoulder see the last person I expected to see. “Buffy?”

“Sorry I’m late, I got held up.” She has a bruise on her cheek but there’s nothing else to show that she was attacked. She looksaround the town square and then from Eri to me. “Meadow, what’s going on?”

My hands shake when she asks me that. “She killed him.” I whisper, even though I want to scream.

“Who?”

“My husband.”

Buffy comes closer. She moves slowly, whether that’s because of me or Eri, I’m not sure. “I missed your wedding like an asshole?”

That makes me laugh. Tears prick my eyes and I blink to force them back. I sniffle. “Yeah, you did.”

“I’m fucking sorry, Meadow.”

“I know, Buffy.”