Piranhas, “The Bermuda Triangle” Part 1

Grief was a captor unlike any other.

Spade was empathetic, too, and gave Ivory his brown plaid vest over his button-sleeved shirt to black out her pain and dam the tears that stained her face. Ivory appreciated that, but more his silence.

Ivory wondered if it was Bill who killed her brother. But The Boss was just as likely to remove Mouse, Ace, and Spade with the same ease as taking out a house spider. Ivory wasn’t sure whether the hit-and-run driver was either of them. But she still looked suspiciously at Spade in the backseat with his bare handgun grasped beside him. 

Was it possible that Spade betrayed his best friend? Ivory wondered.

The Mountain Gorillas wouldn’t hurt their own, would they? No, no, no! Perhaps Silverback was right; they had suddenly become a severe threat. There were too many members, and all spent a considerable amount of time as prisoners locked up, except for the higher-ranking Gorillas like Ace, Spade, and Silverback.

Ivory sank low in the car’s tan cloth seat. Her mind cleared as daylight dropped, changed into pure darkness, lifting the grief and panic back up. 

Few of the Mountain Gorillas can be trusted anymore. She worried for Silverback more and more. Since she had gotten him fully involved with the Mountain Gorillas as his best promoter, he was then voted the leader. Silverback learned so well how to direct. The Gorilla’s show of loyalty was watery. Ivory is responsible for her brother Mouse being gone, just as she was for turning Silverback into a killer. The Gray Wolf wasn’t to blame for its wild nature.

“I think we’re going the wrong way, ” Ivory said.

“No, the blue, purple, and pink colors of the wildflowers have turned,” Silverback said as he turned on the high beams.

“Silverback, it has to be Bill. Not the Gorrilas,” Ivory replied. She needed him to confirm with a whisper or a slight shift of his brows. She waited, and the denial didn’t come.” 

“The Gorillas had a hand in it.

“I can’t believe that it was Ace’s own family!” Ivory turned her face to the window. Yellow wildflowers fanned the desert ground.

“I don’t know. Recheck the route, Spade. Why would Bill, the Boss, or the Gorrilias want Mouse dead? The only other witness to the Scarlet Owl Ring’s extraordinary power. Ace and Mouse said the Owl ring and its scarlet medallion are buried deep within the Bermuda Triangle.” Silverback blew his nose, took out a flask from the side pocket of the driver’s door, and passed it to Ivory. Ivory drank until he pushed it away. “Hey, a bit will calm you. Anymore will do the opposite, right?”

“I give up. I can’t summon the Gray Wolf. Only you, of course, can do that, remember?” She grabbed the flask and the vest, wet with sobs, and tossed them above her uninjured shoulder. The flask landed on Spade’s lap, and he jumped. Spade searched for a quicker route, but suddenly came to the old shut-down motel.

“You won’t believe this, Spade said. “We’re being guided to the same fucking motel. The realtor scammed us; there isn’t a wooden cabin or anything nearby on the map site locations.”

“We are going right. There’s a place close by, and the Red Surreal Forces can’t access it, ” Silverback answered.

“If not, the Canyon Beast won’t let them breathe underneath our desert night sky whenever he finds them.” Spade pushed his head back like a dog in a tug of war.

“Fuck call the realtor team right now, though. There’s not a single damn haven elsewhere for Ivory.” 

“Okay.”

“I won’t consider your mother’s place as a choice.” Silverback turned his head from Ivory to stare ahead. “There’s no time left anyway. How can I beat the Surreal Forces by fishing out the Owl Ring, the key to the scarlet Medallion, the key to the Spacecraft, the machine that mines all those precious metals in outer space?”

“Besides, the realtor agent wouldn’t lie to us. He was too fucking afraid. He has got to have a real place out here. Check the other canyons, the lesser-known ones, and the areas where a canyon should be. Okay?”

Silverback struck the engine and continued into the desert. 

Silverback, Ivory, and Spade, the Mountain Gorillas, needed to familiarize themselves with the strange desert landscape surrounding their boundary. Ivory recalled Nelson saying that the Desert had fantastic weapons—lost isolation—which brought hallucinations. So great was the fear that reality peeled. The simple comforts of identity, possessions, and human feeling and belonging were no longer granted. 

There was a specific place where the Mountain Gorillas rarely risked riding with their motorcycles. The moonlight never penetrated; darkness multiplied, divided, and rolled until it blasted the last stars, and all was total darkness. 

Silverback instinctively hit the gas pedal and the high beams. The road twisted like a bolt until it differed little from the wildflowers. They never wanted to enter it but were desperate to hide Ivory from the beast and not be found by Bill, who likely murdered Mouse.

“Yes. The darkness is like a hard turtle shell, crushing like dark space patterns; nothing is seen or heard but the white tremble of the Desert hands. Ivory tasted the blank marble sky’s boiling the moon and closed her eyes. 

“The canyons are awful but iron-clad, safe from almost everything. There’s nothing vulnerable or weak that lives out here.” Spade, you are packed, right? I mean, guns and propane stoves.”

“Yes. Beef jerky, trail mix, and bottled water galore. Until you and Nelson ride back up in two weeks. No temptation for Ivory’s pet piranhas. Ironclad is safe except for a serial killer working part-time in the canyons. “You think he’s a trucker like one of his victims?”

“Possible, I guess.”

After an hour, they finally came upon a strange canyon and saw a small building against its rim. The cabin was unfenced, and the tall door opened with a short shove of Spade’s hiking boot. There was a stove chimney, a long red couch, and a glass coffee table. There were two bedrooms with full beds, a corner kitchen and shelves, a rug, and tiles; it was the same rich tile as the old motel lavatory.

“Get my piranhas out from the trunk, Spade.”

“Right away,” Spade blended into the black pearl of night. 

“Silverback, promise you’ll return soon.”

“By the scarlet wings of the Diamond Owl?

Ivory stared at him; possessing it again meant rescuing them from the Gorillas. Indeed, it had ultra power. Did it also have the capacity to restore Silverback’s love?

Spade wrapped Ivory in his leather coat, and he carried their bags, as well as the propane stove and electric bikes, in case Silverback and Nelson failed and drowned somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. Or the Gorrilas had them on their end list to mark off next, like Mouse.

“I know how to get out. You keep the compass. I lost internet service thirty minutes ago. Take the bikes if you need to get help. Silverback turned to Ivory. “I’ll have someone watch over your mother. And she’s no threat to anybody. A precaution.” Silverback kissed Ivory, but his passion had already moved and settled. Was it the cause or effect of the owl ring? He didn’t know. 

Ivory felt the coldness; it was more than just the dessert fan spinning, and she shivered. She heard the Goddess of the Basin. Nelson’s voice, a ghostly song in the deep windows of the Desert. Ivory regretted her selfishness with Ace, and it would never command her. Shadows washed in the reflection of her silver thermos. 

There were stunning cries of Ace’s revving motorcycles, wheels crossing on that infinite line of existence. The song had changed.

Spade would be acceptable if she were extremely kind, but women would close their eyes and pray until he left. It is a loving mercy to be seen fresh in the hollow shelter of the canyon. This leftover canyon has no beauty or logic, and people like Spade understand it. 

No matter. The piranhas favored all climates, and they, like Ivory, would rather survive. Spade was the nocturnal lizard beneath the mess of rocks.

“I am sorry.”

“He cared for you, too.”

“Mouse was a good man. He enjoyed your Piranhas.”

“Compared to what? These black canyons or you…”