Page 105 of Bad Seed
Aubry pulls the hammer back. He places me on the ground and gives me a warning to stay back before diving into the shadows. I give him a second before I follow.
What?For all I know the creepy guy could be behind us.
Clinging to his biceps like a comfort teddy, I shuffle beside him. There, silhouetted against the window! A figure moves in the lights of Las Vegas. Aubry lifts the gun, his finger sliding against the trigger.
The silhouette is huge to the point of being inhuman with a spherical head. But I just saw a man turn into a vegetable so anything is on the table.
A jerk. Aubry steadies the gun.
“One, two, three!” A red face leaps out of the shadows.
I blink.
Then I look behind me.
And I blink again.
Nope. There is still a five foot tall tomato talking to me.
“Son of a…” Aubry uncocks the gun and aims it skyward. “I hate these fucking things.”
“What the hell is that?” I ask as if there’s an explanation for a tomato with blinking eyes and teeth. Each tooth is the size of my hand. Oh, that is not right. Its flesh is stained and tattered in places, revealing a metal skeleton clacking below.
Aubry slams the gun down on the head of the tomato. The rotating eyes close and his arms drop. “Captain Roma and the Nightshade band.” He full on shivers and looks about to cross himself. “These things are haunted, I swear.”
These?
Peering past the tomato, I can make out a hot pepper holding a guitar, a bell pepper on bass and…an eggplant on drums. Of course.
“When the casino was built they had to find a way to appeal to the kids. Ya know, like the old pirate ship or the dragon. So Mr. Ato thought to put together an animatronic band of singing vegetables.”
“Do kids like singing vegetables?”
Aubry shrugs like that’s the least of his concerns. “They were in mothballs by the time I showed up. I keep telling him to get rid of them. Kept telling him.” He stares at the withering vegetable band like it’s the summation of all of his problems.
I have some of my own.
“You, uh…you turned into an eggplant.”
“I did.” He turns away from the tomato that could bite my leg off in order to stare at me. “I do.”
“Like a curse?”
“If so, it’s the kind I’m born with. In the blood…so to speak.”
“Do you have blood?” I squeal out as if that’s the most pressing issue right now.
“Eh…kind of. It’s complicated. I’m as much man as I am…talong.”
That’s his name, and his name means eggplant. Because he’s an eggplant.
Holy shit, my boyfriend is an eggplant.
“You didn’t leave me because of the mafia. You did it because—”
“Because I nearly killed you.” His jaw twitches as if he’s fighting back tears, but he swings away before any can fall in order to inspect the creepy band. “And if we don’t get out of here soon, my oldfamilywill finish the job.”
“How do we get out of here? You said they have all the doors covered.”
