There's a Monster Pony Outside My Window

by Halira

Chapter 26: Return to Wreckage

It was nearly two in the morning when they pulled back up to their house. Charles felt relief to see it was still standing and no one had attempted to burn it down. The girls were all asleep, as was Miss Newman. Wendy woke, but looked absolutely exhausted as he turned the car off.

He looked up and down the street. "It doesn't look like anyone is sitting around, waiting for us to come back. That's a good sign."

Wendy nodded. "Let's get the kids up. You're too tired to be trying to carry each of them to bed."

Charles let off a half-hearted chuckle. "Maybe we should have Miss Newman do it. It might make up for some of her doom and gloom monologues."

"I heard that," Miss Newman said, even though she didn't open her eyes. "You should hear my eldest—the grandmaster of monologues. Then again, she might get it from me. I'm not carrying anyone. I'm exhausted. I need a full day's sleep to recover."

"We'll happily let you," Wendy replied. "You're welcome to your old bed. Charlotte will sleep with us tonight. I feel better keeping her close. Can you rouse the girls? The quicker we get inside, the quicker we can all sleep."

"I'll get to sleep after I check the wards I left," Miss Newman replied. She then turned and shook the children gently. "Wake up; you're home."

Charles turned fully to look at her. "What wards?"

Miss Newman pointed vaguely towards the roof. "I left a bunch of wards in your ceiling the other day during my first visit. Pain in the ass, teleporting blindly from the bathroom and trying to avoid spiders. I hate spiders."

"What do they do?" Charles asked, wishing she had mentioned them earlier. He knew he had heard something moving around up there that day.

Miss Newman waved it off. "Oh, not much. It alerts me if anything magical other than me comes through the house. I look at them, see if anything is disturbed; it is like spreading sand to see who leaves footprints. You might want to have Kristin wait a moment before going into the house. I don't think she'd set off anything, weak as she is, but I don't want any false readings."

Charles sighed. It was always something with Miss Newman. Did it matter whether they'd been here if they weren't here now? He didn't know, but he passed her the keys. "Go ahead of us and check. I need to get the girls and the pets anyway."

She took the keys and headed to the front door. The girls were groaning and stretching, and moaning that they wanted to go back to sleep.

"What are we going to do about the girl's school?" Wendy asked. "I don't see them going back tomorrow, but do we keep them home all week? I don't like the idea of them being out of our sight with those ponies hunting Charlotte. What about your work?"

He shook his head. "I should go in like normal; we need the income. As for the girls… we'll keep them at home tomorrow and figure out something after that. I don't know yet, and we're too tired to think straight right now."

They were getting the girls out of the car when Miss Newman returned.

She handed him the keys. "You've had visitors, but not the magical kind. They're gone, but they left a mess. Brace yourself when you walk into the house. It will be a shock."

That didn't sound good. He looked at Wendy. "Stay here with the kids. I'm going to have a look."

Wendy nodded and pulled Kristin close to her. Andrea was at the car's rear, being helpful by unloading Cinnamon's cat carrier. Charlotte hadn't gotten out yet. Miss Newman began looking up and down the street for potential threats.

Miss Newman had turned on the lights and left them on. When he stepped into the house, he found it had been ransacked. All the couch cushions had been pulled out. Papers and mail had been gone through and tossed on the floor. Books had been pulled from shelves and also tossed to the floor. As he advanced further in, he saw that the hall closet had everything pulled out and heaped in a pile on the floor, and boxes within it had been opened and their contents overturned.

He decided to check the bedrooms. First was his and Wendy's. It was in the same state as the living room. The mattress on the bed had been flipped over, everything from. The closet had been pulled out and rifled through, as had the dresser's contents, even having the drawers pulled out of it. He advanced to the girls' rooms and found the same had happened in each of those rooms. Even pictures hanging on the walls had been pulled down.

When he made it to the kitchen, he saw the backdoor had been forced open, and the doorframe and lock were now busted. Every cabinet had been opened, and contents had been thrown about as the invaders had searched the house. Nothing seemed to have been stolen. Whoever had broken in hadn't been there to rob them. They'd been searching for something.

So much for getting sleep.

He went back out to the car. "You might want to take the kids and go down to the Westoffs' house for the night. I know it will frighten them to have someone knocking on their door at this hour, but we can't sleep here tonight. I'm going to call the police and report the break-in. Once I'm done with them, I'll join you. I guess I will be calling out from work in the morning."

Miss Newman had walked to the edge of the yard and returned. "Keep your gun close."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You notice something?"

She shook her head. "No, but I still prefer safe over sorry if you're going to be waiting here by yourself for the cops. I'll help you bring the pets in and then join the others. I prefer to be out of sight when the police arrive."

"I'll let the Westoffs know you two are coming," Wendy said as she began shepherding the kids in the right direction.

He took the car carrier inside, and Miss Newman followed with Pretty's cage. Once they were inside and the front door was closed, he released Cinnamon. The cat didn't take off for a hiding place this time, but walked around sniffing things with his tail bristled.

Miss Newman put Pretty's cage in place then removed its covering. The bird didn't seem to know her like Cinnamon did and kept quiet as she opened the cage door to remove his water bowl and food bowl. She refilled the water, and Charles was about to tell her where the birdseed was kept when she went to it without needing to be informed. With both filled, she started picking through the debris.

Charles took that as a reminder that he needed to feed the cat and went to the kitchen to do so. He pushed the backdoor closed and propped a chair against it to keep it from swinging open. He found the cat food, and Cinnamon came running in like a bat out of hell at the sound of his bowl being refilled.

When he returned to the living room to make the call, he found Miss Newman was sitting on the ground, leafing through a Doctor Suess book, face nostalgic. He noted which one and grimaced.

"I have a grudge against that book," he said. "Charlotte sent me to the hospital because of that thing."

Miss Newman smiled. "I don't remember the incident, but I remember being told about it. Hop on Pop, you can't blame a child for taking instructions literally. I don't think I ever properly apologized for that. I'm sorry I did that."

"Charlotte did that, not you," he reminded her.

She carefully set the book down and stood up. "Any action she took before this past week was my action as well. Therefore, I can apologize for it." She looked around and sighed. "It hurts, seeing one of my childhood homes in this state. I'm glad she and the other girls aren't seeing this."

That reminded him of something. "You implied we did move to Florida in your version of events. How'd the move go?"

She shrugged. "Well enough, I suppose. I don't recall anything bad about it, other than we lived in a pretty crummy mobile home. We were there for four years and moved on to South Carolina. I believe you got a better job offer or something. You were certainly making more money. The house in South Carolina was nice, two stories, four bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, and a big two car garage. Even in the ninties, something like that was really pricey. You and Mom stayed in South Carolina until a little after I married and had my child, then you returned to Colorado. Andrea and Kristin had moved to different places by that time, Kristin was finishing her law degree at Yale, and Andrea was in DC. I lost track of everyone for many years after that, so I'm sorry I can't give more details. One of these days, I'll get around to asking them what all happened in those intervening years."

The older woman walked to the front door and glanced back. "Enough of me monologuing, make that call. I'm going to go join the rest of your family."

She left, and he took a deep breath before calling the police. It took several minutes for them to take down the details over the phone. He almost shouted at them when they told him they would send someone by in the morning to come check it out. The intruders weren't there, and no one seemed to be in immediate danger, so they didn't think it worth the time to come out in the dead of night. Useless police officers, they didn't give a damn about this neighborhood.

He hung up the phone and looked around at the wreckage on the floor, wondering if he should start to clean up. No, it was late, he was tired, and Wendy would worry if he took too long. He made one more trip to the backdoor to make sure the chair was jammed against it well enough the cat couldn't wedge it open, and then he walked back out front and excited, locking the door behind him.

The burnt remains of Miss Newman's house caught his eye, and he stood looking at them for a minute. They weren't out of danger yet, and that could still be them. He wasn't sure it would be over even when the ponies, including Miss Newman, returned to their time.

He grunted. Good job in South Carolina that had his family living comfortably? He would need to start looking into that.