A bit is an understatement.
“What happened?” I ask.
She bites her lip and looks around the restaurant before she bursts into tears again. “T-they destroyed it!”
“Who are they?” I don’t have time for a side quest right now, I really freaking don’t but Dina’s husband, whether he was bad or not, is probably cremated in a clearing and it’s because of me.I might seem like a lunatic prying into her business the way I am when she really doesn’t know me, but I know enough about her to care. I have to try and help her. I walk up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “You can tell me. It’s going to be okay.”
“It’s not. They ruined everything. I have nothing now!”
I weigh the pros and cons of using my magic to set Dina’s restaurant back to rights. I could do it but…the crowd. I look over my shoulder and frown. There’s too many people just a few feet away. I think they would notice if the restaurant suddenly poofed itself back into one piece.
“That’s not true. Listen, I can help you. I’ll fix this.”
“You can’t fix this. No one can!” Dina wails.
“I know it looks bad but you give us till night when this parade is over and we can fix this place,” I say. Night would be good. Whatever we have to do will be done by then and we’ll be free. If not, the world will be gone and eaten so it’s not like I’m breaking a promise to help her. We’ll just all be eaten so I won’t be able to.
“Nightfall? That will be too late to save him. I told him not to go with them, not even when they threatened me, but he didn't listen.” Dina covers her head with her hands and shakes it. “My beautiful Clyde,whyyyy?” she sobs.
That stops me short. “Clyde?”
She stops mid-wail and looks at me. “Of course, Clyde. The man that I love and am finally free to be with after my husband is d-” she stops short and clears her throat before she continues on like she didn’t just almost say her husband is dead. Holy hells. She knows. How does she know? If he were dead there’s not enough of him to identify. “After my husband ran off, and left everything to me, I thought I could start over, finally be free. That was until they came in here for Clyde.”
“Who’s they?” I ask.
“The cult trying to end the world.”
Chapter Thirty Five
For a second no one says anything until someone throws a toy pumpkin candy bucket through the windows with a laugh. The stupid candy bucket hits the floor and candy shoots out of it and across the floor.
Dina jumps and shakes her head. “I shouldn’t be talking to you about this. Forget I said anything. I-I’m just tired from this mess. Please don’t listen to anything I’m saying right now. I have to clean this up.”
I grab her arm. “Dina, wait. What do you know about the cult and their doomsday shit? We’re trying to help.”
Dina waves me off and grabs a broom. “I’m not in my right mind. Don’t mind me,” she says, sweeping glass.
“Have you heard anything about a World Eater?” I ask.
Dina stops sweeping the glass and looks up at me. “What did you say?”
“A World Eater. It’s going to end the world today by making one happy freaking halloween treat out of this town and this world if we don’t stop it. If you know anything, now's the time to tell us or we’re all going to be on the menu.”
Dina’s eyes dart to the windows. I follow where she’s looking and see a group of men across the street. They’re easy to spotwith how focused they are on Dina’s busted up restaurant. They don’t look at anyone or anything else, not even when a man on stilts walks by.
“Are they watching you?”
Dina nods. “Yeah, follow me to the back. Quick.”
“Come on, we’re following her. We’ve got eyes on us out here,” I tell Jaak and Charlie. Charlie moves to turn to look over his shoulder but Jaak snags his cloak and forces him to walk in front of him.
“Be discreet, Gamemaster.”
“Right, right.”
Dina leads us through the swinging door of the kitchen and straight on back. The kitchen looks neat and orderly. Whatever happened only happened out there, not here. When we come to the back of the room she points at a big metal shelf that has cans of tomato sauce and mustard stacked on it.
“Help me move this?” She goes to grab one end of it but a flick of my wrist has the shelf sliding across the floor. Once it’s out of the way I see there’s a trap door in the floor. Interesting. Dina looks at me with big eyes and then nods like she’s confirming something to herself. “I knew you were a witch.”
