Dog Tales by freedomwriter
Story Notes:
*Somehow I accidentally deleted this story for no reason*
In Which Jason and Baylee dump their Bodyguard and Start a Fire by freedomwriter
1.

As he and Jason tried to ignore the large, not to say giant, bodyguard shadowing them, they walked in silence. Mostly. The edge of Atlanta was not far now and it had to happen quick. Baylee and Jason were masters in ‘quick’. They were both small for their age and sometimes very hard to spot in huge crowds, so ‘quick’ came almost as a second nature to the two friends.

“Now?” Jason whispered, his eyes straining to look at his companion a few feet behind him.

“Now!” Baylee confirmed and they ducked, swirling agilely through the mass of everyday grocery people and running as fast as they could towards the darker alleys of the city. Ha! Like he was scared here! Not a chance!

He and Jason both had taken karate lessons, it was actually how they’d met, so basically, they were prepared for anything. Of course with a giant bodyguard like Richard near, karate seemed kind of wasted money, so what harm was there in a little escape plan?

“Hey, you think we’ll run in to some alligators in that swamp?” Jason questioned.

“That’d be awesome,” his friend answered with a sadistic grin. “I’mma feed you to them first, so I can run,” he added grimly.

Jason rolled his eyes, knowing his friend wouldn’t even be able to hurt a fly, much less an alligator, so the real question was who was going to feed who. “Just try, see what happens,” he challenged and Baylee raised his eyebrows, mockingly accepting the bet.

“My pleasure.”

“So where are we going exactly?” Jason demanded not for the first time that evening.

“I told you, to the swamp,” Baylee replied.

“I know that, dipshit, anything specific you wanna do out there, besides feeding the crocs?”

Baylee decided not to answer that question directly, instead he looked over his shoulder hurriedly, “You think we lost him?”

“I don’t… hey, you didn’t answer me!” Jason exclaimed, standing still.

“It’s about the plan, asshole! Remember the plan, Jase? Stick to the plan!”

Jason didn’t know much about the plan, but Baylee figured he knew enough. He’d told his friend, and only his friend about how he felt about his life lately, and Jason had wonderfully understood most of it. It must have had something to do with knowing the kid for most of his life. It had been the only constancy in his life, accept for his parents and the band. Also, Baylee was fairly sure that someday, Jason would make one hell of a shrink.

They didn’t say much for the rest of the walk through the city. Baylee was sure now they’d dumped Richard somewhere in the centre and his confidence about this whole thing peaked once more as they came nearer and nearer to the edge. At this point, they could already kind of smell the stinking swamp that began directly after the high building to their right. He felt his phone vibrate vigorously in his jeans pocket, but knew better than to pick it up. He’d dare to bet all his money on it being Richard that was calling. The bodyguard could wait. Baylee would give him a call once they were done with the plan. Nobody had to know where they were going exactly, as far as he was concerned.

As long as they didn’t get lost. That would be one hell of a stunt. He could already read the newspapers titles. People got lost in these swamps every week and not a word about them. But no, Baylee was already guaranteed the front page, of course. Just one more reason why this needed to be done.

At the edge of the humid swamps, he turned on his heels and looked up at Jason, who was only just one inch taller than him. It was time, he decided.

“Jase?” he began, looking his friend questioningly and importantly in the eye, ”you ever heard ‘bout the Valdir swamps’ truth?”

“Course, it’s where you go when you want things to be done… certain things… but… no… you don’t really believe that, do you? It’s just a myth, Bay!” Jason exclaimed laughing, throwing his hands in the air for effect.

“Dude! I know! But… wouldn’t it be fun to try?” Baylee questioned challengingly.

“And then what? What are you gonna ask them?”

Baylee didn’t answer, just stared at his friend, a small grin forming.

“No!” Jason said, “No man, that’s just… wrong…”

“Who cares? He started it!” Baylee replied heatedly, “I mean, if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have to be like this!”

“We talked about this! If it wasn’t for him, you wouldn’t ‘be’ at all!”

“Arrgh, you don’t know what it’s like, Jase! Always that ‘oh, aren’t you that kid of the Backstreet Boy?’ or ‘oh my Goodness, he looks just like him, how cute!’ I wanna be my own man, damn it! Is it really that hard to understand?”

“I just think you’re taking this a little too far, just chill out man.”

“Look, if you don’t wanna come, don’t!” Baylee yelled, confidently stamping into the swamp.

“And leave your sorry-ass all by itself?” Jason replied, hurrying to catch up with his friend.

Their destination lay almost in the middle of the swamps. It wasn’t hard to reach, all they had to do was making sure they didn’t get stuck in the sopping ground and walk straight ahead. But if Mom could see him like this, she’d freak out, that much was for certain. He’d never hear the end of it. That’s why they had to be fast. Before Richard would call his mother, or God forbid, his father. Dad would surely tear him a new one, he’d be mad as hell, but Baylee thought that was just hypocritical. Like Dad had never run away, in fact, lately it was all that he was doing, so what harm was there in taking a trip with Jason into the swamps?

They’d be back before dinner.

The wide open space in the swamp was remarkable, even if there hadn’t been the tallest tree he’d ever seen in the middle of the area. The ground here was more solid than it had been at the edge and for a moment they stood still, just taking it all in. The place had something, something sanctuary and it was hard to take the few steps towards the tree, as if they were invading some kind of holy land. For a place this legendary, not many tourist came here, almost none.

Probably had to do with the ‘curse’. Baylee still had to laugh whenever he read or even thought about that.

Curse. Right. There was no curse, it was just a swamp with a really tall tree in the middle.

Curse… ha!

And just to prove his point, Baylee and Jason were now here. Or that was what he kept telling himself. Because somewhere, in some hidden, dark teenager part of him, he wanted this to work.

Afraid to break the solemn silence, Jason first looked nervously at him for a while before speaking. “So, what are we supposed to do now?”

The real answer to that was that Baylee had no idea, but Jason wasn’t supposed to know that. “It’s about transformation, Jase,” he whispered patiently.

“So?”

“So? Transform something!”

“How?”

Baylee thought about that for a minute, then a sudden, rather brilliant if he said so himself, idea sprang to mind, “We burn something!”

“What?”

“Look, if you burn something, it becomes a different element, right?” he waited for Jason to nod before continuing, “so burning is transformation! See, that’s why I’m the brains and you’re just the muscle.”

Jason didn’t necessarily agree with that, but decided to let it go for now, “What do ya wanna burn, Einstein?”

“We’re in the woods, right? How hard can it be?”

They went to find a handful of rotten branches, and some moss while they were at it. It had to be done perfectly. Solemnly, Baylee held up the lighter he carried with him secretly. Just another thing Mom and Dad would freak out about. The branches burnt like they had been destined to.

“Now what?” Jason whispered.

“Ssh!” Baylee hushed him, more than a little caught up in the fire. Mesmerized, he stared into the small flames, knowing the words by heart now, but still a little afraid that he’d do it wrong. His heart had picked up speed and was beating insanely fast now, to the point he thought he might faint if he moved one more inch. Swallowing thickly, he cleared his throat.

“Behold, great Valdir, we ask you for the truth!” he spoke in a voice that sounded much more grown up than he had thought possible. His voice had been on the verge of changing this year and the grown up voice sounded way too much like his Dad’s for his liking.

Especially Nick teased him about that fact. “We ask for transformation!” he said loudly as he scattered a few of his father’s greying hairs he’d brought with him into the fire. This was going to work, he could almost feel it.

He’d show his Dad what it was like to be in someone’s shadow.

Or so he thought.


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