She let out an evil laugh and Clarence sprayed her with his holy water. Right in the face.
“Ungodly,” he said.
Milo’s phone screamed in his pocket. He was late for work.
“Come on in!” Glenn said cheerfully.
“We’re outside, dear,” Shelly told him.
“Get to work,” Ethel said. “I’ll give this some more thought and come up with a plan. I will have a detailed outline when you get back tonight.”
“I can’t leave!” Milo said, looking around at the empty site around their building. “What if they come back?”
“We’ll call you. We’ll deflect until you can reattach yourself to the tree.”
“But—”
“I doubt they’ll be coming back today, anyway,” Clarence said. “I will pray they don’t.”
“I’ll put a protective circle around the place.” Shelly pulled out a bag of salt.
“Again,” Milo said, “he is a dragon. Not a demon.”
“I see no difference.” She started the salt circle. “He’s trying to take our home.”
“Get to it, boy.” Ethel helped him unlock the padlock and lower the chains. “I’ve got it covered here.”
“Glenn’s pills—” Milo said.
“Are in the nightstand, to be taken at four.” She nodded.
“And Shelly—”
“Needs to be reminded of her ultrasound appointment in two hours.”
“I left—”
“Money for Glenn’s bus fare to the library in his jacket pocket,” she recited, pushing him away from the tree. “You do a lot, Milo, and we love you. But we can handle it for a little while. I promise.”
“Okay.” He nodded, handing her the blanket. “Can you put that on my bed?”
“You like it?” she asked, and he nodded, leaning down to kiss her cheek.
“Love it!” he called as he rushed off to catch the bus to work.
“DID WE WIN?” Conrad shouted behind him, and Milo couldn’t help but chuckle as he pushed down the worry and jogged to the bus stop. He gave a hip-level middle finger to the billboard advertising a new scale-care product to “dragons who have lost their shine” and glared at the tail rest next to the seats at the station.
Fuck dragons, man.
Notes:
Literally.
Too soon? Okay, okay.
3
Rowan