Bad News (Coprolalia Part Three)

Chapter Thirty Five

Rose Holt pushed the door to her house open with a loud creak.

Everything that she could see was covered with at least a centimeter of dust, and she coughed as just a single step inside caused a plume of dust to fly into the air.

"I guess nobody's been here in a while, huh?" Darcy asked curiously.

"Not in eight months." Rose replied as Darcy closed the front door. She pawed across the space next to the door and found the light switch. She tried to flick it on, but was met with no result. "The master switch is in the basement. Can you go get that while I try to get into contact with someone?"

Darcy nodded and walked over to the stairs that led to the basement. "This is the right way, right?"

"Yeah."

Her friend disappeared down the stairs.

Rose sighed as she made her way towards the office, the only room that would still have power if the master switch was off. It, the fridge, and the security system were all hooked up to a backup generator. Coincidentally, it was also the only room that she needed to use immediately.

Things had been awkward between them since earlier that day when they'd kissed. The plane had arrived nearly twelve hours early, and after a brief good bye to Wanda and a promise to return if they survived and prove her neutrality to the others, they'd left and not spoken the whole way.

The mind reader put her hand over the lump in her new jacket's pocket. Wearing a black jacket that used to belong to Talia Young was more than strange, but she had to accept it and she did. She was back in her house anyways, within the hour she could be back in clothes that actually belonged to her for the first time in months.

Within the hour her country would no longer believe that she was dead. Within the hour she would be able to get her name removed from the memorial, but would no doubt be adding more names. Within an hour she'd be working towards getting Melody back.

She pulled the bundle of vials wrapped in worn brown leather out of the jacket's chest pocket.

While at Wanda's, she hadn't just learned about Kitsunes and the extent of Darcy's ability, she'd also learned that Wanda had a passion for gardening. Specifically of poisonous plants. The Kitsune had assured Rose that she used them maybe two or three times a century, and that the only time she'd used since the '80s was two years ago, when she'd attempted and failed to give Delilah a lethal dose of death cap mushrooms.

There were two buildings on Wanda's property: her house, and her greenhouse where she grew most of her poisons, since most of them couldn't grow in the desert. Even though the greenhouse was smaller than the main house it was still far bigger than Rose's entire home, and featured multiple floors and artificially created climates, both above ground and below, to accommodate for the different needs of so many drastically different plants.

Rose had only been inside the greenhouse once, and only for about an hour. She'd seen the purple-veined yellow flours of the two foot tall henbane plant. The star shaped pink, yellow, and white flowers of Death Camas. The three foot tall plant with oval shaped leaves and shiny black berries that was deadly nightshade. Rose had even had the surprise of seeing Lily-of-the-Valley there as well. She'd seen so many other plants capable of delivering anything from a quick and painless death to months of agony.

So, of course, Wanda hadn't sent her away without a present. Three vials. One containing the black berries of a deadly nightshade. Another holding the chopped up root of a water hemlock. The third vial contained seeds of a suicide tree.

Without even noticing it, Rose had entered the office and sat down in the desk's chair. The lights weren't even on, but she saw the two glowing blue lights that reassured her that her computer and backup phone were on.