CHAPTER#164

Beth stepped through the front door in just a long shirt and flip-flops. She placed her hands on the recently repaired railing and took a deep sniff through her nose.

"The new garden smells so nice," she said, gesturing at the wall of vegetation that now separated them from the sundial. "Has Zel identified all the flowers yet?"

"Nope." The garden in the front of the house was new. On the day Zel had slowly ushered the exiled centaurs into the greenhouse, the front yard had expanded like a balloon with a hedge maze that sprouted overnight, the sundial sitting at its center. His front yard was now larger than an acre.

The backyard was now several acres of garden starting at the fountain and ending at the wrought-iron gate at the back. He had looked up a satellite image of the place and saw that the picture from almost seven years ago somehow agreed, a perfect example of the Mandela Effect in action. The inside of the house was still the same, to the best of his knowledge, and Tink bemoaned how much work it was going to take to fix everything until the centaurs had offered to lend a hand.

He set his book down on the swing and stood, casting a wistful glance at the empty seat beside him. Cecilia had yet to return, but as of two days ago, he had been able to produce his own version of the banshee scream. Wherever she was, she was still alive, so he would just have to wait until she came back. He stood next to Beth and leaned forward. "How did it go with the centaurs at the tower?"

She turned around and leaned her back against the rail, a mischievous grin on her face. "They weren't super eager to speak with me, but Abella and Ratu got Zel's dad to relent. When I told them we had defeated the snow queen and wanted to return their missing tribesmen, they were all ears. By the way, that Orion guy? Smoking hot and a huge dick."

"Yeah, he is definitely a huge dick."

"No, literally. His dick is huge." She held her hands apart for emphasis. "I was kind of tempted until I saw it. Damn thing would rip me in two."

He laughed, but stopped when he saw that she was serious. "Well, he is also a huge dick. Zel's former fiance. Too much drama. So what were the terms?"

"Yeah, that. Did you know centaurs have way too many laws? In a way, I feel bad for them. They live by all these weird codes and traditions. Anyway, the island is theirs, the tower is ours, but they are supposed to keep guarding the tower from outsiders just in case. They won't shoot you on sight, but Orion might. Something about cheating at a test of worth or something like that."

"Fair." He walked to the table and picked up his coffee. "And?"

"Zel is exiled, permanently. I tried to fight that, but they weren't hearing it. I know she'll say that she doesn't mind, but I don't know, I kind of get the impression that she still wanted a relationship with her dad. Anybody they exile can take a message to the rats in the tower and try to come and live in the greenhouse. They also will stop killing their young for minor birth defects, but that's the choice of the parents. Those children will come and live with the exiles. And... I think that's about it. In exchange, we returned their missing people and promised not to harass them anymore."

"I'm glad we got that sorted." He thought for several seconds. "Anything else?"

"Not that I can think of, no. It was a long night, but a good one. How about you?"

Mike sipped his coffee, fighting the grin that threatened to cross his face. He gave in, a sadistic laugh escaping him.

"It's all over the news. Someone set off an enormous bomb at the local historical society's building. The whole building is completely gone, and, from what I've heard, there isn't even enough left to identify the survivors by." He chuckled to himself, then took another sip of his coffee.

"Oh god." Beth put her hands to her mouth. "Did... did we get them?"

"Don't know. Abella did a fly by this morning with a camera, and we looked at the pictures. It's simply gone, a giant crater in the ground. According to eyewitness reports, somebody thought they were in the middle of a big meeting or something, because the parking lot was full of cars. The explosion itself sent a fireball a hundred feet into the sky, and then vanished." Mike chuckled. "I'm guessing they went to go check on their resident demon and had no idea they were essentially opening a doorway directly to the sun."

"And then Oliver's world caved in on itself and... what, blipped out of existence?"

"Don't know for sure, but Reggie was certain that would be the case. One more opening would cause the whole place to cave in on itself. Oliver couldn't leave his world, but it's now been annihilated. So, either Oliver ceased to exist, or he's stuck... somewhere bad, I guess. But if he ever shows his ugly face to you again, you tell us right away."

"Of course. But... was anybody hurt?" she asked. "Around the building."

"Minimal injuries, but nothing serious. It was late at night. Some people now suspect that they may have secretly been a terrorist organization, cause when they started digging into its members to notify next of kin, a ton of red flags came up. Some of them were living with stolen identities, can you imagine?"

This got a laugh from Beth. "You did it. You got rid of the Society."

"Maybe." He sipped his coffee, his eyes passing over the dark figure by the hedges. Death was sitting on the grass, wiggling his bony toes in between the thick, green blades while watching a pair of centaurs carry a stack of lumber between them. As of now, only Mike and Yuki could see him. He had hoped that Death would simply disappear after news of the explosion reached Mike, but the spirit still lingered.