Montana Falls (Red Diamonds #5)

Chapter Eleven

M y new room was quiet today. Really quiet. There were no birds outside. No stuff on a TV. No toys or games that made booms and bangs and whistles. Even the kittens were quiet. They slept in little balls, heads touching their toes, having dreams about kitten things. Like mice and milk and ribbons.

I liked ribbons. I had a collection of them. Pink, blue, green and yellow. Ones with lines or dots or stripes. They went in my hair, on my arms, and wherever else I felt like tying them. I’d put a pink one on Kiko and then a green and dotted one on Maui earlier. And right now, I was putting more and more on Yeva’s arm, as she slept just like the kittens did, in a ball.

She had come into my room in the dark, stumbling and sniffling and sad. I’d let her stay on my bed, sharing my blankets like how we’d shared everything in the bad place. She had said all her words in that funny language I didn’t understand before she patted my head and passed out.

It was the same as it used to be, except my mama wasn’t here and we weren’t in the dark anymore. We were in a house now, and we were something called a Montana which was important.

She hadn’t moved since she’d got into my bed except for her breathing, so I’d tried to wake her up when it got to morning, to make sure she wasn’t dead like my other friends were. But each time she had groaned and grumbled, so I’d decided to play instead and leave her for longer. Now she had almost her whole arm covered in ribbons to make her extra fun when she woke up and maybe I could have a reason to stop the water on my cheeks from coming, too.

Nothing else seemed to work. Not good thoughts or my games. Not even Angel when he bought me breakfast that had lots of nice berries on top of the things called oats that Lincoln had got me to try, and I now loved.

“Hey.” Angel slid down the wall next to me, staring at my face and all the wetness on it as I grabbed my bowl from him and said thank you. “Why are you sad? What happened?”

“ We’re leaving the house, and I like the house .” I sniffed. “ I don’t want to go back to the bad place .”

“ Why do you think you are going to the bad place ?” He frowned as I ate spoonfuls of yumminess that my tummy liked. “ You are never going back there again .”

“ But I have to leave here? I was told I must do something called pack so I can leave .” My eyebrows frowned.

“ We are all leaving here. This is not… this is a house for vacations. Not forever. We are going to go back to a place where we can live forever. Or at least a place we can live until we find a forever house .”

“Oh.” My eyebrows stopped frowning, and I wiped my wet cheeks with the back of my hand. “I am staying with everyone forever?”

He nodded and stayed quiet until I finished my food and leaned back against my bedframe, full and less sad already. I liked knowing I was going to be kept. I must have made the lady happy because she wasn’t getting rid of me, just like I wasn’t getting rid of my things because I liked them all and they made me happy.

“ Do you know what a bodyguard is? Do you remember what Sapphire explained to you the other day before she went to England? ” Angel suddenly asked.

My head bobbed. “ A person who keeps me safe. A friend who makes sure I am happy and not dead like my other friends .”

“ Exactly. And do you remember Sapphire asking you to think about who you would like to look after you? ”

“I said you and if I couldn’t have you, then I would want Mr Kody because he gives me snacks all the time and he isn’t scary.” I replied, as I had the best idea ever to give Angel a ribbon, too, to make him happy so that he would not get rid of me, either. “Well, I could have Lincoln as well. He is a little scary, but I think other monsters won’t come if he is with me because they won’t want to meet him.”

Now that I thought about it, Beau would be even better. He was bigger and scarier than Lincoln. If there were ever anymore monsters, then Beau could get rid of them even easier. I just had to make him happy so he would fight monsters for me. Because he didn’t seem happy a lot. His face was always upside down and he often had the nasty drink that Yeva drank sometimes that made her sleepy and clumsy.

“Do you know what it means now that I have agreed to be your bodyguard?” Angel asked as I got to my feet and searched the pile I’d been using on Yeva for the best ribbon for him.

“ No, I don’t know what it means .”

“ I am going to keep you safe and happy. When we leave here, even if it does feel sad, I will make it better. I can find whatever you need to make you happy in whatever house we end up in. And I won’t be going anywhere, even when you grow up and get bigger. I’m still going to be your friend .” His voice was soft, so we didn’t wake up Yeva. “ I won’t ever let anyone take you to a bad place again. I promise .”

I believed him and it made the last of my wetness in my eyes disappear, knowing that he would do as he said, because I was not going back to the dark. I was going to stay with other people and friends that weren’t dead.

“ Well, I want everyone to come with us; I enjoy living with all my friends .” Not happy with what was left of my pile, I hunted through one of my bigger boxes of ribbons. “ And I like you being my friend. I think when I am bigger like you, it would be fun to be best friends. I saw it in a movie, and the people said they were best friends, and I would like to be yours .”

“ We can be best friends if you want. That is okay with me .” He came to my side, holding the box lid open for me so I could search easier. “ Also, everyone is coming with us. Nobody will be left behind .”

A moment later, I found the perfect ribbon. One made of the same shade of purple as the streaks in his black hair, but without glitter or dots or stripes. It was plain, but it was perfect, so I shoved it into my pocket until I got the nerve to ask him if he wanted it. I didn’t know if he liked ribbons, so I would wait until he smiled more before I offered it to him.

But as I put my hand in my pocket, my fingers felt my newest weapon. The one that had replaced my zapper the last few weeks because I liked it more, and the feel of it gave me an idea.

“ That movie did something else as best friends .” I told Angel as I pulled out my thing called a knife. “ They used this to cut lines in their hand and become something called blood brothers. Do you want to be brothers with me? I can be a good brother; I do it for Yeva already by giving her snacks and water and blankets when she has wet cheeks and is not happy .”

Ever so gently, Angel pulled the knife from my hand. “ Blood brothers are for big kids. We don’t need to do that. We can just use our words instead, and it means just as much .” He frowned. “ Where did you get this ?”

My knife was rainbow when I held it into the light, and if I pressed a button on it, the sharp part came out, just like Angel did to see how fun my new possession was. It hadn’t been my knife at first. It had been one of Widow’s. But he had gifted it to me when Henley was gone and he had been drinking the funny juice that made him all wobbly and tired, just like Yeva had been last night. He’d said I needed to keep myself safe, and that I was big enough for a knife, so he had gifted it to me before he fell asleep in the garden, on the floor next to the horrible water.

Angel nodded his head when I told him, and he nodded even more when I said, “ Beau’s best friend Aiden told me how to use it. He said we must be careful and not touch the stabby part. It’s just for enemies .” I grinned as I remembered how Aiden had seen me playing with my knife by drawing lines on the floor outside with it, and he had told me if I was going to play, I had to learn how to do it safely. “ I like Aiden. He has lines on him like Henley does, which means he fought off monsters. And I hate monsters .”

Yumi had lines on her too, but they were secret ones that she’d told me not to tell anyone about. I’d seen her putting some on her thighs herself when I’d been doing my spying and stalking around the house again. When she found me, she had told me through her robot voice on the phone that I could not tell anyone because they were just for her to know about. And that as we were now sisters, I had to promise not to share. So I did.

I liked having a sister. I didn’t know what it was, but I liked the sound of having stuff.

Angel pushed his fingertip on the end of the knife. A second later, there was a single drop of blood on his skin, slowly rolling down his hand.

He sighed. “ This is sharp. You might hurt yourself .”

Even though I didn’t want to be hurt, I didn’t want to lose my new thing even more. So I nodded my head hard and fast. “ I will be careful .”

“ Promise? ” He asked.

“ Promise .”

He handed it back with a tiny frown. “ Okay then. I trust you. But if you end up hurting yourself, you make sure you tell someone straight away. We won’t be mad at you. We will just need to make sure you’re okay .” He moved towards the hallway a moment, grabbing the boxes that someone had put out there earlier on. “ We need to pack, anyway. Everyone else is doing it, so we have to make sure we can be ready to leave .”

I grabbed one of the boxes, bringing it to my floor.

“ You said everyone comes, but Delilah isn’t here .” I said. “ Neither is Widow, or the others. Kellan told me he was off on a secret mission when I stalked him and saw him and Darius leaving .”

Angel’s face went funny for a second and he ran his hand through his hair. “ Delilah is with Widow. They had to do a mission together and she’ll be back soon. The others are helping them .”

“ I heard Beau say they were missing, and missing means they’re not here at all .” I didn’t know what kind of mission a missing was, but I was sure it was dangerous. Sapphire had been on a missing for ages before and had come back sad.

Plus, Henley had been worrying about Widow and she didn’t seem to worry a lot. At least she hadn’t until she had been gone for a while, then came back all different and sad, too. I thought she had been somewhere exciting because she had lots of lines on her skin. I thought they had been from her having fun and fighting monsters. But she didn’t seem to feel the same way for some reason.

She seemed more sad when she stared at her lines, especially the one on her face and the one on her tummy.

“ Yeah, they’re somewhere else doing super secret stuff. But don’t worry, they’re going to be back soon – they will meet us in Diamond Grove .” Angel said.

Bending over a bit, I laughed. “ I am not a grove. I’m just a Diamond .”

The lady had said I had another name too – Montana. Now I had two of them, not just one, and I was rather happy with it. I wanted to get a collection of names to go with my collection of stuff. I thought the name Lasagne sounded fun because I enjoyed eating it, but when I’d told Beau, he’d said that maybe I should wait until I was bigger before changing my name, as I had to be sure that Lasagne was something I really badly wanted. He had been laughing a bit too when he said it, but I wasn’t sure why it was funny. Maybe he also wanted to change his name to Lasagne, and he found it fun that we had the same thought?

Angel laughed too. “ It’s a place – it’s where Sapphire and her men are from. Where Beau and his friends live, too. You share a name with it the same way you share the name with the pretty gems Sapphire likes to wear .”

I watched him bring more boxes into my room and asked, “ Do all my stuffs get to come with me? I like all of them .”

“ Yeah .” He put a box down in front of me, opening the top. “ That’s why I’m here. We have to pack, and I can help lift things that are too heavy for you .”

“ What is pack? Beau said it, but he did not tell me what it was and I didn’t want to ask him .” My voice got quieter. “ He is scary sometimes. Not to me, but with all of his skin drawings and his face. He looks mad all the time. And I want to make him happy and not mad, so I just said yes to the packing .”

“ Packing is when we put everything into boxes, so that we can bring it with us in the cars to the new house .” Angel replied. “ And Beau is not mad. He just looks that way. But he is nice; you don’t need to worry about him, and he would always be kind to you too.”

If Angel said Beau was not mad, then I trusted him and would be nicer to Beau. I would let him have a ribbon, too. Maybe a blue one like his eyes. Or a big red one because he stared at Ruby a lot and she was red. Her hair, sometimes her clothes, and the paint she wore on her mouth. She liked red lots and Beau enjoyed staring at her red, too. So yeah. I would give him a red ribbon so he could be happy.

Looking around my room and all my stuff, I tried to work out where to start with my new task and still be quiet enough that Yeva could stay sleeping.

“ Can we pack the kittens first? They’re my favorite .” The lady had let me get loads of stuff for the kittens. Before I’d put ribbons on them, Maui had a bow on his head made of green fluffy stuff, and Kiko had one around her neck that was purple. They had toys, and clothes, and more bows. Plus, they had lots of bigger stuff, like a thing that Angel said was called a cat tree. It didn’t look like the trees outside, but I guessed that it was a special kind of tree, grown just for cats.

He grinned at me as he picked his own box. “ They don’t go in boxes. Boxes are just for stuff that isn’t breathing .”

“ Like the barbies and clothes?”

“Yeah. The kittens have to go in special bags that are made for them. It lets them be safe and breathe right .”

“ They like breathing .” I grabbed a bunch of dolls from a pile on the floor, picking up as many as I could as Angel did the same. “ The kittens do it all the time, and I know when I don’t breathe, it hurts my chest.”

He paused his packing, but I carried on, seeing how fast I could go.

“ Why don’t you breathe sometimes? ” He asked.

“ Yumi told me through the robot lady on the phone, that she did it when she got sad, so I tried to see if I could. But I didn’t last very long. I only counted to five before I had to breathe again .” I sighed. “ Do you think when I’m bigger like Yumi is, I can stop breathing for longer? She did it last night for almost a minute before she had to stop .”

She hadn’t told me not to tell anyone about the breathing, so I was fine to tell Angel. He would probably know how to not breathe for ages too; he was about as big as Yumi was. When we had watched a movie together, they had both been talking. And Yumi said that Angel was okay for a boy child. Then Angel had insisted he was older than her, and not a child. I hadn’t listened to much after that, but I did remember them agreeing to being the same amount of numbers old.

Angel didn’t get a chance to tell me about his breathing before I had more questions.

“ Will this new house have a room for me ?” I wondered, as I finished with my barbies and started with my ribbons next, only stopping for a second to grab one of the red ones for Beau and putting it in my pocket, too.

“ It has enough rooms for everybody. But we might not have one that’s just yours yet. Sapphire said she needs to get stuff built soon, so you can have what you want. So for now we are staying at Henley’s house .” Angel picked up some more toys, placing them inside his box. “ I think we should figure out what you want in your forever room, and then we can tell Sapphire .”

“ I want you and Yeva. Then Yumi, and the other girls. And I want the kittens and barbies .” I dropped more stuff into the box. “ Then maybe I can have a dinosaur. A big one with a red bow on his head .”

He laughed a little. “ I was thinking, more like the colours. What color do you want the walls? Or your bed? Sapphire said you can pick everything out. Plus, dinosaurs are not real now, unfortunately. So you can only think of animals that are real now .”

I thought long and hard about it as I finished filling my box and got another one, eventually deciding what I wanted the most. The walls were going to be blue like the sky. The floor green like grass. Then I wanted a rainbow, and a sun, and some birds on the wall. Real ones that made noises and had soft feathers. After that, I needed cat trees everywhere, so the kittens would stay with me even more than they already did.

Though they would have to share. There was one other thing I wanted if I could not have a dinosaur.

“ Can I have a pony? Ruby told me she rode ponies when she was little like me and that she fed them sugar cubes and they were cute .” I would call my pony Chicken Nugget because I liked chicken nuggets. They tasted good, especially when I put them into the red sauce. The one that the lady liked to put on her eggs to make Lincoln pull funny faces.

Angel chuckled again. “ Probably. I can ask .”

“ What about an elephant, too? Yumi said she had a pet elephant called Dumbo, and he had massive ears that could let him fly .” She also said she had a bunch of pet mice who made her clothes and took her to parties, but I didn’t know how that worked. Mice were too small to make clothes. The material would be too big for their tiny hands to hold. Plus, in the bad place there had been lots of mice, and they had never offered to make me clothes.

“ I think Sapphire would say yes. But it isn’t smart. Elephants don’t like to be kept in bedrooms .” Angel filled his box and picked up another. “ And I think Yumi was joking; elephants can’t fly. At least not when people are watching them. They might be able to do it when nobody else is around. ”

I sighed, sad about the elephants not flying when I watched them. “ But they could go in the garden? Beau said the Montana house has a bigger garden than this one when he asked if I would like stuff to go in it. He asked about something called a swing and a slide and when he showed me pictures, I liked them. So maybe the elephant will like them, too .”

When Beau had been drinking his funny juice, he’d told me I could swing on the swing and go to space. I didn’t want to go to space because it was dark, but I did want to fly. It seemed like it could be fun, and I couldn’t wait to do it on my swing.

“ Elephants like more space – bigger gardens with different weather. It’s not the happiest place for them to be in someone’s house .” Angel grinned. “ But we could get you a toy elephant – one that doesn’t breathe .”

“ Can I have one as big as my bunny? I think he needs a friend.”

“Sure. We can get one ,” he promised. “ But we have to pack as fast as we can first – like a race .”

I instantly wanted to win.

The hours went by faster and faster and faster. By the time all my stuff was in boxes, my tummy was grumbling again, and Yeva had woken up. She’d given me a hug, stared at Angel with only a bit of badness as she said words in her funny language. Then gone for a shower so she could smell like fruit and not the funny juice. When she left, Angel offered to take me for a snack, and I wasn’t sad this time. I didn’t mind leaving my new room, or even my new house.

I didn’t mind leaving the place at all. Not when I knew I was not alone. I was not going back to the bad place and I never would. I was staying with my friends and the lady who had saved me, and I was not going to end up like my mama. Where one minute I was there, then the next I was gone.

So no, I wasn’t sad anymore. I felt…. I felt different. Less bad and sad and there was no wetness on my cheeks.

My face was smiling, and I liked smiling.