Banes (3 page)

"Oh I have a few talents," Aimee walked back into the kitchen clicking her heels on the old wood floor, "One of which you don’t want to know about." Her grey blue eyes sparkled with mystery.

"Anyway girls, neither of you should use what you have on each other, until we know exactly what Ari does with those magical hands of hers."

Ari looked down at her hands fighting the tears that threatened her eyes, "My uncle…" She whispered into the small kitchen, "He just left, like mist." The gold ring on her finger glistened in the kitchen light making the lump in her throat larger.

She felt her new self fighting to rage about the kitchen and run from the house but she quashed her thoughts before she could act. As odd as the old lady was, she seemed to have some clue as to what was going on.

Her legs gave out slumping her onto the floor with her back against the cupboards. She looked at her dirty hands, she didn't know them anymore, her skin was filthy but that was the least of her worries, "I'm not me anymore."

Aimee sat beside her on the floor of the kitchen, "I know how it feels."

Ari looked at her confused, "You do?"

She nodded, "Yeah." Her gray eyes misted almost, "My hands made someone disappear once too."

Ari watched as Aimee relived horrors inside herself. She wondered what had happened to Aimee to make her look so hollow.

Lydia sat on the old metal kitchen chair in front of them, "Ari you will need to control not only your new self but also the hunger."

Ari frowned, "The hunger?" She looked at her hands recalling the feeling when she had touched her uncle, it had been a hunger.

"We need you to be able to control it before we can let you out of the house again, we don’t know exactly what you do just yet."

Ari felt her rage building suddenly, she didn’t like to be trapped.

Aimee put a hand on her shoulder, "Not like a prison Ari, like a shelter. You're safe here."

Ari nodded, she needed to run. Her body needed to release the energy she had built up inside herself, "Can I run?"

Lydia laughed, "Where would you go?"

"I ran in the desert, eight miles a day."

Lydia laughed again, "Oh for sport, well you could run the back trail. It's protected as well, the trail is about five miles. It's a loop around the lake out back."

Ari looked at Aimee's' hand still on her shoulder, "You aren’t hurting me by touching me?"

Aimee shook her head, "I learned how to control it, took me a while but I've got it now." Aimee looked closer at Ari's face, "Besides something about those black eyes tells me I might not be able to hurt you."

Ari watched as Aimee frowned looking back at Lydia. The older woman smiled like a grandma about to pass you a muffin and tell you everything would work out.

Ari wanted to smile, she wanted to think about going back to her normal life but it was all so confusing. How would she ever get back to the desert? How would she find her uncle if her new mind had memories of him that didn’t make any sense?

Lydia put a hand out for Ari, "You need a shower and some sleep love, it's probably been the longest day of your life."

"Depends on which me you ask, new me has lived through some things I can't make myself think about." New her laughed like a crazy woman inside her head scaring her.

Ari took her hand without thinking but as the skin made contact she pulled it back quickly.

Lydia laughed, "You can't hurt me Ari."

Ari took her hand again and stood up. Lydia's' skin was warm and fleshy. She enjoyed the feeling of touching another person.

The upstairs of the house was grandeur to the extreme, the bathroom was fit for a princess. Her bedroom was massive with a huge four-post bed and giant windows.

She stood in her towel looking out at the night, her shower had taken considerably less time than she was accustomed to what with not having two feet of thick hair anymore. She crumpled onto the floor hugging her knees into herself and sobbed rubbing her hands over her baldhead. In the mirror it had been the least offensive thing about her appearance. Piercings and tattoos were livable but the unbelievable amount of scars was what scared her. Each one came with a flash of a memory before the other her shut down her mind.

More than the clean feeling she never realized she had or the unmarked skin Ari wanted her hair back, which seemed shallow but it was truly the only feature she had of her mother.
"I can make it come back Ari."

She jumped looking back at the dark doorway leading into her dark bedroom.

"What?" She sputtered ashamed Lydia was seeing her cry like a baby.

"Your hair, I can bring it back."

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

Ari pulled the towel around her and stood on her wobbly legs as if she were a newborn dear, "How?"

"You're not the only one with talents." Lydia walked toward her, "Sit on the chair and close your eyes."

Ari looked at the chair next to the window. She walked to it shivering from fear and the cool night air on her bare skin.

She sat down and closed her eyes. She was terrified inside, her new self trusted no one. Ari tried to reason with herself about nice old ladies but her new self had memories of nice old nuns that shocked her. She had to fight the memories to maintain her eyes being closed.

She heard Lydia take several steps, she felt the warmth of the old woman's hands brush against her head. The warmth became relaxing and tingly. Her whole body grew warm and comfortable as the feeling spread over her, through her.

Even with her eyes closed she could see the glow of whatever was happening through her eyelids. She wanted so badly to open her eyes but she fought the urge terrified she would be blinded.

"Why did you shave your head Ari?"

Tears rolled out of her eyes, "Juvie, they shaved my head. It would also seem that a shaved head is a safety feature on the streets. Men don’t find a bald girl attractive." The memories of the disgusting man who ran his hands through her hair several times, pulling it slightly gave her chills. A slight smile crept upon her lips as she remembered beating him unconscious. Her memories scared her but worse they made her feel happy. She could feel the rage building inside her again, she knew she would need a run before she interacted with anyone else.

The heat stopped, "You're safe now Ari, no one can hurt you. Sleep tonight and we will start on solving your little problem tomorrow."

Ari gulped as Lydia walked from the room as eerily as she had entered, "Thank you Lydia."

"Your hair will start to come back in tomorrow, every morning when you wake it will grow more and more. A few weeks and it should look like hers again love."

Ari sat in the chair confused and exhausted, how did Lydia know what her mother looked like?

Chapter Three- Little Bald Boy Blue?

She woke feeling rested in a way she had never before, she had slept without dreaming as far as she could tell. The room in the daylight was more beautiful than she could have imagined. The walls were a pale blue, the furniture was dark walnut and the bedding and curtains were white eyelet lace. The dark hardwood floor glistened in the morning light.

A woman's voice broke the silence, "Good morning mister."

Ari looked around but no one was in the room.

"I have laid out a change of clothes for you for this morning. It's in the washroom."

Ari closed her eyes squeezing tight and then opened her eyes again to the beautiful room, still empty.

"Who are you?" She asked into the air.

"Why I be Annabelle, Mrs. Crane's head staff. Your washroom has fresh water for you to clean and ready yourself, do you need assistance? I can send up Frederick."

"I can't see you." Ari felt a cool breeze fill the room,

"Why I be right here mister."

Ari squinted seeing a young girl in a white dress, she was definitely a ghost. She was completely see through.

Ari screamed clutching her bedding to her naked body.

The girl screamed matching Ari in volume and length of her scream. Ari finished still watching the girl and screamed again. The girl again copied her.

The bedroom door opened as Aimee came flying into the room, "Annabelle stop screaming."

Annabelle stuttered, "Well-well-well he be screaming at me for no god reason and I be just tryin to help tis all."

Aimee laughed, "Ari this is Annabelle. She died during, well a witch hunt a while ago. She was Lydia's maid at the time. She still works here instead of moving on despite all of Lydia's attempts at helping her on."

Ari tried to get her breath under control as she nodded frowning, "Nice to meet you." She didn’t know what else to say, the house was growing more and more unbelievable.

"Annabelle this is Ari, she is a girl firstly, she is also our new family member."

Ari cocked her head at the word family, Aimee seemed to notice nothing in the word family but Ari hadn’t heard it except as a prayer on the lips of orphans.

"I be sorry Miss Ari, your head was all that was poking out and it seemed to be a boys head what with no hair being there. You gots all that stuff in ya face I couldn’t see ya as a girl." She curtsied, "I will change the clothes to a dress."

Ari put a hand out of the covers trying not to be completely offended, "No thanks, dude clothes are probably better at this point."

She gave a frightened look at Aimee who nodded and smiled, "Yeah she tried the whole ancient frilly dress crap on me too."

Annabelle vanished, not with a poof but just gone in an instant.

"Did you sleep well?"

Ari nodded, "Creepy well, it was weird I never dreamt. I always dream."

Aimee smiled, "No dreams at Lydia's is a good thing. She probably helped you out with that."

"What is she?"

Aimee shrugged, "A witch. What are you?"

Ari shook her head, "I don’t know." She tilted her head, "What are you?"

Aimee pressed her lips together, "Death."

Ari frowned, "Huh?"

"Death Ari, I am death. Grim reaper, death deity, black angel of doom, death."

"How?"

Aimee raised an eyebrow, "Never trust a demon Ari, no matter what." She walked out of the room leaving Ari confused.

"Lydia I know you don’t want to hear it but she's trouble, I know who she is."

Ari stopped on the stairs panicked by the voice she heard, it was a mans' voice talking about her. She had gone through it before, foster homes and attempts at jobs, she'd heard it many different ways. She sighed quietly knowing it was the end. At least she'd gotten a good meal and a night of sleep out of it. She turned to go back up the stairs to put on as many clothes as she could find. She would need the warmth with it being October.

"No Ronald you don’t know who she is, you know what she is. Who she is hasn’t even been decided yet by her. She needs time and space from the Roses until she decides it."

Lydia's' words rolled around in her stunned head for a second, she had defended her. She sat on the stairs listening.

"Ari just come down here and meet Mr. Halter before he leaves." She sat frozen but a smile crept along her face. Of course Lydia would have known she was there. She stood and walked down the stairs fighting the urge to attack the man before she even met him.

Lydia sat in an oversized old burgundy chair. Across the room from her sat a man with steel grey hair and a weathered tanned face. He reminded her of a very old version of Cookie making her miss home for a second.

"Ronald this is Ari, Ari this is Mr. Halter, he's involved in our lives from time to time."

Ari frowned at the man who stood and looked at her hand. She smiled and offered it to him. He made no move. She laughed and sat on the chaise lounge next to Lydia's' chair.

"You're very young." He commented at her distastefully.

She knew what she looked like, she looked like a mess. Her arms had tattoos and her face had piercings. She had scars on her arms and one on her cheek. Her dark hair was still incredibly short even though just as Lydia had promised her hair had grown at least an inch over night making her look more like a hedgehog than a girl. She had a tattoo running up her neck, it really was the one she hated the most. A bull ring through her nose and bars through her lip and eyebrow seemed like the frosting on the freak cake. She wore the jeans Annabelle had put out for her and a t-shirt. She was slight from not having eaten often enough and wiry from fighting for everything she had, which was nearly nothing. She could have been the definition of angst if one was able to capture the word in a photo.

"I'm eighteen." She hated him, he was the same as all the rest of them. He was a suit, she hated suits. Suits made decisions for people based on numbers and budgets not what was best for people. They made their decisions and then went home to their comfy beds at night not worrying about where they sent other people to live.

Aimee came into the room in skinny jeans and over the knee brown leather boots with large buckles. She wore a sweater and her blond hair in a ponytail. She was so pretty. Everything about her screamed feminine and delicate except her eyes, which warned you not to trust everything else you saw about her.