June Inside Ghoul Flint's Spaceship

*

Zill's legs spilled over the plastic mattress that lined the titanium wall. Rainbows reflected in her eyes, covering the dimness.

Chase jimmied the door open, but Yoleta glared back.

"I need to check on my daughter."

"Honey, the babysitter doesn't even know that you're gone. It's a time travel perk." Yoleta and five guards entered the room and dragged Zill and Chase into a dining area, complete with neon orange picnic tables and fake trees. Lights above them mimicked stars and planets.

Colonel Ghoul Flint removed his sunglasses, adjusted his eye patch, and sat down. He guided Zill and Chase into their seats and slid papers over to them.

A memory formed in Yoleta's brain. "Take this deal instead of prison or death."

Zill discarded the paperwork on the table. "I'm not signing this."

"Reborn elementals adore Grew-Ella and her husband," Yoleta said.

"I didn't think the stories were real," Zill said.

Colonel Ghoul Flint opened a bag of kale chips and offered everyone bits and pieces. "What you've done and plan to do is monstrous. I've been forced into many marriages and divorces by the dictator of my home planet. Two of those women I loved. I'll protect Grew-Ella the way I wasn't." Flint's hands shook.

"How could you attend Quig's wedding when you were on your ship?" Zill kicked the table.

"I'm in dozens of places at once, like Yoleta. She isn't coming with us, and I can't fight, but I'll illuminate and guide you." Flint tapped his temporal watch on his wrist. He touched Zill and Chase, and they vanished together.

*

The Future:

Ghoul Flint brought them to the beach, and they watched frozen and blurred figures.

"I set my temporal watch, so they can't see us," Flint said.

"Why are we at a party?" Chase asked.

Figures moved, and bodies came into focus.

Paparazzi ran from behind the public restrooms, taking photographs. Yoleta and Madd-Ox ran them off and hurried back to Karen, Dot, and Quig.

Karen carried a shell filled with ash and sprinkled it onto the sand. Waves crashed into the ashes, taking them into the sea. "Grew-Ella loved swimming." She sobbed as she hugged Quig, a wail leaving her lips.

Dot carried a bundle swaddled in a blanket. "Junior located the workhouse Zill sold Toby to. He'll be back home soon."

"Yes, but without his mother. Help me care for my children," Quig said.

Dot nodded, 'yes.'

Karen pressed her hand on his shoulder. "Zill murdered my little girl. Her mother is disappointed and grieving. Paul still needs to be sedated, or he'd be here."

Madd-Ox broke out into sobs, a fresh scar across his cheek. "I can't do this."

Junior hugged him. "I'll take him home." He guided Madd-Ox off the beach and toward the parking lot.

Tiny cries came from the bundle Dot held. She slid a bottle into the baby's mouth. "Hold your grandson." She handed him to Karen. "I know loss and will be here for you. Not just Quig's loss, but ours."

She grinned. "Sean-Mack asked me to kill my sister, so I did.  She was born flawed..." Zill paused. "What did I do to my sister? Ugly women are evil, and I learned that in school. But Grew-Ella didn't hurt me and neither did..." Her smile faded. "Karen didn't hurt me." 

"It hasn't happened yet," Flint said. "If you don't stop yourself, Rodrick and Yoleta will hunt you down to rescue Madd-Ox. They'll slaughter you with the strength of wild bears."

Chase's eyes focused on Flint and the world around him. "I don't want a memory of an event that didn't happen." He yanked himself away from Flint. "I should have turned Zill in earlier."

Ghoul Flint walked closer to them. "Chase, you weren't noble."

"Alright! I wanted to play hero and pretend I was a nice guy, at least to myself." Chase tried to reach for the baby as well. "Why do you and the reborn elemental care? My ex-sister-in-law isn't a magical force with powers to bring down the kingdom. Grew-Ella isn't a princess or a model. I didn't want her dead, and I tried to rescue her during the snowstorm from her sister, didn't I?"

Flint could not hide the disgust on his face. "You've developed a twisted sense of who is important. Every person is a potential light. Grew-Ella's acts of extreme charity are as special as any magical power."

Time and space shifted.

The Past:

*

Chase stood beside Zill inside the icy workhouse, and he shivered.

"Your cleanliness depends on your actions from this point," Flint said.

Guards laughed at the desperate workhouse laborers when they ripped through boxes in the donation room.

The unpainted cement walls stunk from disinfectant.

Posters of Vex standing with past kings and queens plastered on the windows, blocking out all-natural light.

Grew-Ella took a blanket, a letter, candy, and dried fruit from Quig's box.

She gave a handful of peppermint drops into the hands of prisoners. Her reddish dress differed from the other prisoners' warmer and thicker uniforms, to single her out.

Colonel Flint and the others followed Grew-Ella unseen, but Chase trudged behind him, his eyes fixated on the women there. Zill dragged him onward.

Grew-Ella trudged to the dorm room. Hundreds of rusted cots lined the walls, but there weren't enough, so Grew-Ella and thirty other women slept on the floor. She wrapped her blankets and her wings around her body.

A bony woman tried to grab her blankets.

"Not my blanket." Grew-Ella gave the woman her candy.

The woman placed the sweet into her mouth. "But you have two, and I'm freezing."

Grew-Ella tossed her the thinner one. "This one is mine. No matter how little my best friend has, he always finds a way to donate boxes." She handed the woman another peppermint drop and fell asleep.

Flint narrowed his eyes. "And you both lie that he uses her. When have either of you donated to the workhouses when cameras weren't rolling?"

"I thought they deserved it." Zill covered her ears with her hands.

The Past:

*

Time itself shifted, and the past Grew-Ella sat hunched over a desk in the workhouse office. The warden turned off the heater and left her alone.

Past Chase entered, and he handed her a tiny plum. "I come here every day, and you still won't behave." He appeared as gray as she did under the harsh lights.

Vex walked in from behind.

Grew-Ella bit into the plum as her wings twitched.

Chase gave her a brief pat on the head and straightened her fake crown. "Don't run again, and I'll allow you to attend Quig's wedding."

She flinched. "Thank you. I'd like to see Quig one last time before he starts his new life without me." Grew-Ella used her wings to cover her face.

"I don't see why not," Chase said.

"No." Vex yanked her from her chair, and the half-eaten plum rolled on the cement floor. He pinched her chin. "Grew-Ella, you aren't allowed to date anyone, and Quig is marrying a woman who is a lot more attractive than you are. Ann is older, but she is elite, and you shouldn't be acceptable. Zill is badged when it should be you."

"I know it should be me." She struggled against him.

"You'll have me forever." He shoved Grew-Ella into her chair. "If you inform Quig that Ann is cheating on him, I'll destroy you."

"Shouldn't Quig marry a woman who loves him, even if it isn't me?" Grew-Ella fell over the chair and onto the ground.

"Be careful." Vex's hands formed into claws. He picked up the plum off the floor and smashed it in her face. "Imagine what I'd do to Quig if you betrayed Zill by telling Quig you love him. I'll alter his status to reject, and it'll be your fault. He'll be sent here while you're on the outside." Vex raised his hand toward her, but he didn't hit her. "I don't find you ugly, but the standards give me access to power you don't understand."

Grew-Ella flinched, and her wings spasmed. "Please! Don't hurt him. Quig is my buddy."

Chase from the past yanked her toward him and gave her a hug. "It better stay that way because Zill and I need you, and you don't know what I've done to keep you alive."