Bobby the Butcher's Arc

Chapter 8 of 10

Bobby locked the shop door with the marble in his apron pocket. He needed to warn the people he loved before Desmond struck. But no one in town would believe a word about magic. He couldn't lead with glowing rings and hidden markers. He had to give them a reason to move without naming the reason. He drove to his mother's house. Iris was on the porch shelling peas into a bowl. She looked up and read his face before he reached the steps. "Sit down," she said. "You've gone white." Bobby sat. He tried to speak plainly and failed. He tried again. "Mom. I need you to leave the house for a while. A week, maybe more. Pack tonight." Iris set the bowl aside. "Because of Jessica." "Because of Desmond." She didn't ask what he meant. She had grown up with her sister. She had watched Jessica change after the man in the black cape moved into her life. Iris folded her hands in her lap and waited. "I can't explain all of it," Bobby said. "You wouldn't believe the half. But something is coming and it's coming at someone I care about. I'd rather it be nobody it can reach." "Grandfather's cabin," Iris said. Bobby stared at her. "He built it away from town on purpose. He told me once the shop was his and the cabin was ours. I never knew what he meant." She stood. "I'll pack a bag." Bobby drove her out that afternoon. The cabin sat at the end of a dirt road, timber dark with age, chimney built from river stone. Bobby carried her suitcase inside. The air felt still in a way the shop no longer did. He set the marble on the mantel, wrapped in its cloth, and it stayed dim. Whatever Desmond had planted in it could not find purchase here. "Stay off the phone," Bobby said. "Don't call Jessica. Don't call anyone." "And you?" "I go back. If I run, he picks someone at random." Iris took his hand. "You believe all this." "I've seen it." "Then I believe you." Bobby drove back to town before dark. The shop bell rang as he opened the door. Desmond stood at the counter, arms folded, cape settled around him like it had always been there. "You moved her," Desmond said. Bobby stopped in the doorway. "Clever. The cabin is old ground. I can't touch it." Desmond tilted his head. "But you have other people." "Name one and I'll move them too." "You can't move a whole town, nephew." Desmond stepped past him toward the door. "I'll choose. You'll find out who." The bell rang once and he was gone. Bobby stood alone in his shop with the knife dark on the counter. His mother was safe. Someone else in town was not.