My Crazy Godmother

Chapter 3: A New Life

{Brie's POV}

I sat in the moving, old truck staring out of the window. As the breeze rushed past my face, my thoughts surrounded the realization that what happened ten minutes ago would probably affect my entire life, my entire routine. One moment I was sitting in a diner eating a late breakfast and another moment I was under a blood stained table, shaking at the sound of gunshots and dead men or aliens.  My mind was trying to grab all that had just happened. Gunshots, aliens and this crazy lady sitting next to me.

"Gum?" The lady offered, pushing a wrap of mint bubble gum towards my direction.

"No, thanks" I declined with a polite, uncomfortable smile.

"So how far are you in Calvert?" She asked.

"My first year" I quickly replied, hoping for this conversation to end soon.

"Ahh... I see" she said before blowing a bubble from her gum.

I turned my head to the other side, staring out the road. I wondered to myself why I follow this lady. This was the last place I wanted to be. I didn't even know it existed. I didn't even know she existed.

"So how's your Mom?" She asked again.

I ignored her question. I certainly didn't know this lady and I wasn't going to narrate my family history to her.

"Hello, Earth to Brie" she called out, nudging me on my arm.

"How do you even know me?" I questioned, agitated by how she knew about me.

She chuckled. "I was a good friend of your father"

I frowned. No one has ever spoken about my father. The only thing I knew about him was that he died.

"You knew my father?" I asked

"Yeah, it's a long story" she replied.

Long story.

I have never heard anything about my father and now this lady was about to prevent me from actually knowing something about him. If I was going to follow her to God knows where, then I deserve to know what she knows.

"Tell me about my father"

"Not the time, girl" she quickly answered, annoying me with her reply.

"What do you mean by not—" I yelled in anger.

"Exactly what I said. Now shut the fuck up and let me drive!" She retorted.

Normally I wasn't going to give up that easily but I didn't know the lady or what she was capable of.

"At least can I know your name?" I asked weakly.

"Elaine" she replied in a calm tone.

*******************

The truck finally halted in front of a small grey house. I alighted the truck and followed her the front door. She fumbled with her keys and finally opened the door. I walked in and she locked the door behind me.

I stared in horror at the living room. It was a hot mess. Clothes were scattered all over the place. Bottles and pizza boxes littered the room. The house reeked of alcohol and rotten food. I cringed at the sight, covering my nostrils to block off the foul stench.

"Welcome to my homely abode" she announced.

"So much for homely" I murmured to myself.

"Watch your tongue, young lady" she barked.

I pushed some clothes and a pizza box off a couch before sitting. I felt so uncomfortable in this house. All I wanted right then was to run out of that unkempt, stinking house. Elaine came out of her kitchen, holding a bottle of beer in her hand.

"I bet you don't drink" she said, as she fell into a couch opposite to mine.

I rolled my eyes as she gulped the content of the bottle. I silently studied the house until my eyes fell on a picture hanging on the wall. It was a picture of a group of people all dressed in a white lab coat as they grinned at the camera. In the front of the group, a man whom I recognized as my father sat next a woman. The woman in the picture was a much younger version of Elaine. She had a glowing smile in the picture, a complete opposite of the woman sitting next to me.

"Tell me about my dad" I said, my eyes glued to the picture.

"Ask your momma" she replied before taking a long swig from her bottle.

"She keeps telling me that he's gone" I replied.

"You have your answer"

Provoked by her indifference towards my plea, I yelled. "I know there's more to that!"

She smirked. "Just as inquisitive as your father"

"Then tell me about him"

She shook her head in disapproval and took another swig.

"You hungry?" She asked.

"No!" I bluntly uttered.

"I could order pizza" she suggested as she drew out her phone.

"Of course you can. What else do you eat?" I said, throwing my head towards the picture.

She chuckled and left the living room. She still ordered pizza. After she paid off the delivery man, she sat in the living room munching a slice of her pizza while gazing at me.

"You care for a slice?" She asked.

I heaved a sigh. This was not what I expected. I didn't want to be in a dirty, unkempt house watching an alcoholic woman eating pizza. I wanted to understand why those creatures were after me. Why no one spoke about my father or the events surrounding his death.

"What do we do now?" I asked, ignoring her offer.

"You hide while I figure out what the Phantoms want with you and how they even got through their dimension" she replied.

"Phantoms? Dimensions? What are talking about?" I asked, completely confused.

She took a deep breath before speaking. "Those creatures that came for you are called Phantoms and they come from another dimension which your father and I discovered. We were doing a research on their dimension when things fell apart and we had to end the research"

I nodded, signaling for her to continue.

"What I don't understand is why they are after you and how they came through from the dimension"

"So how exactly can they come here from their dimension, whatever that is?" I inquired.

"Portal gates. We created a machine that connects to a certain frequency to produce portal gates which provides passage to the Phantom Dimension"

I closed my eyes trying to grasp and understand all that she had said. She was obviously smart and I wondered how such a smart scientist ended up as a bad ass, alcoholic, gun fighter leaving in a dump.

"So am I gonna be living here now?" I asked, scared of the reply.

"Hell no! Fuck no!" She yelled. "I know someone who can help us but we are gonna need a good vehicle and provision for the journey"

"A journey?!" I screamed before I could stop myself.

"Yeah... We are leaving town, girl" she said in an excited tone.

"No! No! No!.... I've got lectures, projects and exams. I can't just throw my life away and go on some stupid journey" I objected.

Elaine laughed. "You can because those creatures don't give a fuck if you've got school"

I couldn't believe how fast my life had changed. All I wanted was to go for lectures and take my exams and make my mother proud. All I ever wanted was a normal life. Now I was stuck in something I didn't I know anything about. I was so tired, so exhausted of the life I was about to venture into. Things couldn't get any worse than this.

I sat on the couch, thinking about how things were drastically changing until I gradually shut my eyes in sleep, momentarily blocking off all my worries.