Cursefell (3 page)

     "Walt," I spun him around as he passed.  "I need a favor."

CURSEFELL
CHAPTER FOUR

     Liquid tears gently fell from the cloud shielded heavens as Ryan Galead picked his way around the quickly forming puddles and coming towards me.  Blowing on my gloved hand and stomping my feet to get the blood flowing, I worried that he would see me shivering and take it the wrong way.
     "I didn't think you would show up," I called out as he got closer.
     "I told Walt I would.  I keep my word."
     We stood at the back of the school's parking lot next to my car.  Galead wore his lightweight blue jacket.  The hood lay behind his back, ignored despite the rain splattering the top of his head.  The wetness stole the red undertones from his hair to leave it a matted rich brown crown.
     "Is this yours?" he asked, gesturing to the car.
     "Yep."
     "Nice cars.  Mustangs.  You can't go wrong with a pony," he answered as he walked around it.
     "A bit old.  A 1969.  But it runs."
     "You like green."
     The statement took me by surprise.  It was so random and off the topic I had intended us to talk about that it took me a moment to understand how he knew.  I was wearing a forest green sweater, driving a car with a peeling dark green paint job.  Of course he would draw the obvious conclusion.
     I ignored his observation, feeling relieved that he couldn't read my mind in addition to compelling me despite myself through that tone he used.
     "You like the rain," I said.
     His grin spread across his face to lift it as if to say well played.
     "Tis a fine soft day, sure enough," he answered with an overdone accent to his normal soft lilt.
     "And water.  You swam like you were born in the sea.  I've never seen anyone swim like that."
     "Like you said.  I like the water."
     "Then you know it was no shark that attacked me.  What was it?  What did you see?" I regretted, not for the first time lately, that I was lacking tact and even had no ability at persuasion.  This was the best I could do and even I knew it was an awful attempt to get him to tell me the truth.
     "There was nothing, Thera.  Just you struggling to reach the surface.  Maybe a fin in the distant darkness, I think it might have been a young shark, but I didn't see anything else."
     "Then what about those cuts on your shoulder?  Are you going to deny those too?"
     "They were but a scratch.  Only that.  You must have done it while you struggled when I went to grab you."
     I was getting angry now with his casual dismissals.  So I did what I found myself doing too often recently.  I acted without thinking.  Rushing up to Galead, my hands reached up and yanked his collar down his shoulder as far as it would go.  Nothing but smooth skin and the hint of earthen fragrance greeted me.  I had never been this close to him except for the day he had saved my life, never noticed the details before.  Damn, I was getting off track, distracted by the heat radiating from his bare shoulder and the hint of lean muscle straining under his skin.
     "Satisfied?" Smug.
     "I saw them on the boat.  They were bleeding."
     "Maybe I heal quickly.  Maybe it was only a scratch." He pulled the collar up again, staring at me the way he did since I deemed to really notice him.  "What do you think you saw?"
     There it was.  The question I had been asking Galead, yes, but also the question I had been asking myself for the past week.  I knew the answer.  I had seen something unnatural, a creature that could not exist.  At least I thought I had.  But the doctor and now Galead were both offering explanations that conflicted with my own.  They offered sane, rational reasons.  I could only throw out a bit of lunacy.  Doubt was creeping over me, clawing at me inch by inch.
     It would sound crazy to say it aloud.  I didn't want to be that girl, the odd one, at school.  Would he tell anyone my secret though?  It would only take a word, one person to spread the story, and I would be the girl who lived in a fantasy.  But no, he would not say a word.  At least that was how I read him, although I didn't know him well enough to know for sure.
     Galead gave in and tugged the hood over his head as I described to him the details of what had happened.  I left nothing out.  The hand.  The eyes.  Clawed nails grasping from within the cloaked depths.  The nightmares I still suffered.  My supposition that it had been, in fact, a Mermaid.
     The hood shaded his eyes so that the only reaction I could see was the slight tense set to his jawline.
     "Have you told your mother?" he asked after a pause.
     "Yes.  She is like everyone else.  She doesn't believe me."
     "Really?  Doesn't she run the new age shop downtown?  I thought she was a witch or something."
     "Just because she owns a new age shop?  Nice," I scolded him, although to be fair I had heard her claim as much once.
     "No, I didn't mean...it's just um, well, just forget I said that."
     "Fine." My voice was snappy.
     "Okay.  But maybe you should talk with her again."
     "Look, you don't know her!" I regretted raising my voice as soon as it happened.  I felt bad.  He hadn't deserved that.  "Sorry.  You didn't deserve that."
     He nodded, but I could tell I had crossed some invisible line.  We stood silently as the puddles kept expanding beneath our feet.  Galead spoke, apologetic and emphatic that he had not seen anything.
     "Bit of advice, Galead.  If you are going to convince someone to believe a lie you had better convince yourself of its truth first."
     "I will keep that in mind," he mumbled.
     "Well thanks for saving my life anyway," I told him, sliding into my car.
     "Lets not make a habit of it," he said, leaning in so close I could see the early growth of a rusty stubble dusting his face.
     I gunned the engine and sped for home knowing that he had lied.

*

     Sleep that night was an elusive affair.  My anger with Galead just kept growing.  Not telling the doctor or anyone else for that matter was understandable.  Rational even.  But we had shared the experience, the secret knowledge that a creature existed.  He had no reason to lie to me.  I knew it was not a hallucination.  I still bore its proof etched in my skin.
     The leg was a constant reminder of that secret.  The red scratches a lingering mark that proved experience.  The pain still flared up a few times a day, slightly most often, but always searching me out.  The itch from those wounds, however, was as constant as the stars, sometimes faint and distant, other times pulsing bright.  I left it bare most nights now, neither creams nor gels helped heal it, though the cool night air seemed to have some soothing property.
     Switching off the light, sheets pulled up under my chin, exhaustion, mixed with frustration, rocked me to sleep.  The nightmares began when I finally fell into sleep's embrace.

*

     As I trudged down the narrow staircase I noted the heavy fog billowing in through the swaying front door.  The house lay swaddled in a pitched darkness, the lights dormant and unused.  Only the fog, thick and undulating and glowing softly, allowed me to see.  My bare feet laid momentary tracks with each unsure step, only to be erased by cold clingy mist mere seconds later.
     A chill settled over my entire body.  Blood flowed like crystalline ice chips in my veins and I could imagine it being sucked into a cold heart to be circulated again.  Like one of those flavored slushy drinks I secretly loved so much siphoned through a straw.
     Reaching the bottom step, I plunged into the cavernous darkness of our tiled entryway.  As cool as the stone was underneath my feet it was warmer than my skin.  It gave some degree of comfort to feel it so solidly.  The sense of blindness lifted even as the dark remained.  The barest hint of moisture pebbled exposed skin.  The breeze carried a soft rasping sound made loud in the still night.  I tasted the fresh mushrooms my mother had used the day before in making dinner just from the smell falling upon my tongue.
     The sweet scent of smoldering incense wafted on the wind.  The living room held many jars stuffed with stalks of incense, none of which anyone but my mother was allowed to burn.  Only she would use those sticks.
     It felt as though my feet were no longer attached to the floor as I glided deftly between a maze of lifelike stone statues.  Men and women and beasts in various poses sprung up beside me.  I did not remember them being there before, although the figures felt so naturally belonging here it did not cause me pause.  Passing beyond a stone set wolf in weathered white, I crossed into our seldom used living room.
     A soft pink glow cast shadows along walls shedding tears of ancient paint.  An open jar of jasmine and honeysuckle sat atop the smoldering remains of what had once been a tarot card, releasing its oily scent throughout the room.  A woman breathed heavily, suspending them between rosy hands of glowing ember as she sat deep pressed against the velveteen loveseat.  Fading straw colored hair spilled around the face, a cave of living vines to hide the truth behind their veil.  But I recognized the form, the living follicles surrounding her face, this shape of flesh wrapped bone.
     Mother.
     She watched the dark beyond the window.  Under the moonless night there were figures moving amongst the tall trees that fenced our home in a semi-circle.  Somehow I could sense them.  Somehow we both did.
     Sudden crippling pain arched through my leg, collapsing both in the process.  The agony returned once more from those old wounds, like poison circulating throughout my body.  My eyes fought to remain open despite the involuntary spasms in my muscles.  The world was contracting, glittering pale green through a diminishing vision, rippling with change.
     My legs thrashed in unison beneath the sea of fog, bound together in some hard sudden bonding.  I heard it scrape along the floor and I briefly wondered if I was gouging ruts in the tiles.  Whipping my head around, I saw a broad built man adorned in old Spartan armor lurking in a corner.  He could have walked right out of Homer's stories, or torn himself free from one of my school's banners, with his leather strapped sandals and bristled Mohawk helmet.  He moved as if he were walking in a muted green soup to my newly distorted sight.  But he marched in place, stuck in the corner.  His face seemed fleetingly familiar.
     But as I struggled to understand how I knew him, glass shards exploded inward, disrupting any further study.  The shower of jagged tempered daggers cut fog, fabric, and fortune.  My mother leapt to her feet just as strong hands pulled me away.  I could see her dart towards the hapless forms pouring in through the ruined bay window in the living room.  I fought to go to her, to help her, but the pull of those hands was too strong to break as they continued to carry me away.  Twisting, my hair flailing about in a hiss of what must have been a gust of wind, I saw his face.  Those blue eyes were blazing with emotions too confusing to read.
     "Hold on.  I have you."
     In that moment, with the tips of my hair licking at the soft slope of his face and his eyes charged electrifyingly white hot blue, something passed between us.  I didn't know what it was, but we both felt its surge.  Definitely trouble.  Maybe even something dangerous, I thought.

CURSEFELL
CHAPTER FIVE

     The dream left me exhausted and running late for class.  Dark circles ringed my eyes, puffy patches more like a mask from late night raccoonery than just unpleasant dreams.  The pain in my leg was more pronounced as well.  The scratches were deeper red and the skin beside it had gone all dry and scaled.  I did what I could with a quick application of make-up and moisturizers before grabbing a day old cinnamon role and speeding off to school.
     By the time I walked in, the morning had become overcast and a light rain was falling.  Good weather they claim so close to the holidays.  Local lore says the winter semester ends in wet torrents, real heavy rain, or just a drop in the bucket.  Whichever it was predicted the harshness of the winter.  So far so good for everyone.  The heavy rains would have put a real damper on the semester end solstice celebration.  Evony didn't attend the dance very often and told us she wouldn't go again this year.  Lily was coy and dodged answering of course.  Anna always attended, a new dress adorning the shoulders of our little groups budding fashionista.  I was noncommittal despite Anna's pestering.  At least the weather would maker her happy.
     When I reached my locker first period had just ended.  As usual the lock gave me all sorts of problems.  It took a good two minutes to get it open.  Hastily grabbing the bulky World Lit and Art History books and shoving them in my backpack, I stopped short to stare as Walt rounded a corner.
     A girl walked beside him, their arms entwined at the elbows.  A girl?  Heck, she carried herself before all the world like a young woman.  Walt had that wool headed look on his face he got whenever a pretty girl batted an eyelash his way.  She was pretty.  Actually, I would call her beautiful.  And surprise surprise, it wasn't Sally.
     Walt strode the hall as the girl swayed, yes she actually swayed, besides him.  Hair cascaded like smelted magma spilling down from atop a heart shaped head.  Some strands shone so light they must have been dipped in sunlight.  Her silver top fit loosely enough to ripple with each swaying step.  The tight fitting black leather look leggings were grafted over flared hips.  They moved like a second skin before dipping below into a pair of knee high black boots.
     We all stood watching as they made their way towards Administration.  Not one person breathed it seemed to me.  We were watching the new queen visit the common hall in the courts of Classical Europe.  Adulation and awe were required.  I'm surprised no one knelt, myself included.
     As they neared where I stood, I almost did drop to a knee.  Not in fealty however.  That patch of skin on my thigh flared with sudden heat.  I stifled the painful gasp before it moved all the way up my throat, holding onto the corner of the old metal locker just to keep upright.  The only person to notice, thankfully, was Walt's new companion.  Her lips pursed slightly and the bronzed skin crinkled on the bridge of her nose.  When they passed, she cast another quick glance my way.  It was more attention than she gave to any other person.  Her green eyes, very nearly the same shade as mine, swept over me.
     I managed to keep my composure until they disappeared from sight beyond the office door.  A collective gasp escaped the crowded hall as everyone felt it desirable to inhale once again.  It helped mask the painful gasp I could finally expel as groups of students began chattering very loudly.  I'm pretty sure my arrival here had created nothing nearly as dramatic.  Not that it should have.
     "Hey."
     Lily had snuck up on me.  She was good at making me jump out of my skin, I realized.
     "You okay?" she asked, her gentle hand falling over my shoulder.
     "Yeah.  My leg is just hurting again."
     "You need to get that looked at, Thera." I made a face to show her what I thought of that idea.  That impish grin shuffled to the top, her pixie face now fully playful.  "Speaking of checking out..."
     Following her nod, I saw Galead lurking in the stairwell across the hall.  The light flickered behind him, drawing his form in and out of shadow.  There was no doubt he stared intently at us.  At me.
     My breathing became laborious again.  A constrictive weight, that had nothing to do with the pain in my leg, settled heavily atop my lungs.  It had everything to do with the cold trill playing up and down my spinal cord.  I couldn't tear my eyes from him.  I did not want to look away.  Maybe it was recalling that final moment in the nightmare, but there was something different this time.  A cold, hard look that cut out all the humanity from his eyes.  That was the best way I could put it, for I saw it clearly in those familiar blues.
     Turning his back after another final fatal flicker from the light above, Galead faded down the stairs, letting darkness devour him.
     "Jeez, get a room already," Lily teased.
     I started, forgetting Lily stood right beside me, realizing my eyes had not left the spot where Galead had stood for more than a few long heartbeats.  Lily cracked a little wicked grin from behind her phone.  The little imp had even taken a picture.
     "That's going online for sure," she laughed.

*

     The girls ushered me over to a table in the corner.  Food was sitting by and large untouched in their metal containers along the nearly empty cafeteria line.  Anna, Evony, and Lily wanted a good view of the new girl who was causing rumors to be whispered down the hallways.
     "Anybody know who she is?" I asked, trying to ignore the itch that had returned to spread out from the week old scratches clear down my leg.
     Once again Walt and the mystery girl were the subject of subtle and not so subtle attention.  We fell into the subtle category, except for Evony.  She was blatantly staring.
     "Well," Anna leaned forward, drawing the rest of us in like some conspiratorial coven.  "I heard she will be the newest student starting after Christmas."
     "Really?  Then what is she doing here now?" Lily asked.  She didn't like her if her tone was telling us true.
     "Looking around.  Checking out the school I guess."
     As if on cue, we all cast hooded looks at the girl and then came back to leaning our heads halfway over the table, almost touching foreheads together.  It would have been comical if anyone had been paying attention.
     "What's her name?" I asked them with a whisper.
     "Isabel.  She seems nice," Evony mumbled, once again gazing the newcomer's way.
     "You talked to her?"
     Evony nodded.  Her eyes had a glazed look that had me worried.  Focusing on her I realized she smelled like the salted sea.  No, smell was wrong.  I could taste it on my tongue as if it were a perfume that had been sprayed in a large clogging cloud and I had walked into it with my mouth gaping open.  I was reminded of the fumes inspiring the phantom taste of food I had experienced in last night's dream, and the similarity was uncomfortably close.
     "You met her, Evony?" Anna prodded our friend.
     "Yes.  Walt introduced us." Her eyes had become fixed on Isabel.  Something very odd was happening with her.  And with my ex I thought.
     "What is Walt doing with her?" I mused to no one in particular.
     "Jealous?" Anna teased, although she knew I wasn't.  Mostly.  I stuck my tongue out at her.  Big mistake.  The taste of sea water overwhelmed me and I had to fight the impulse to gag in front of everyone.  It stayed in my mouth as I desperately wished for a soda to wash the taste away.
     "Not Thera.  She's already got herself a new boyfriend," Lily stated.
     "What?" Anna and I said in unison, loudly enough to draw some momentary attention away from Isabel.
     "Spill," Anna demanded.
     "Well, our friend here was making pie eyes at Ryan Galead."
     "Lily!  I was not.  I have never made pie eyes at anyone.  No, Anna, we are not dating.  We have barely spoken."
     "Even though he saved your life?"
     "Even though."
     "Too bad.  He's a hottie." Anna twirled a finger in her thick hair as a playful smile split her lips.  "So he's available then?"
     We all laughed.
     "Don't tell me you two weren't staring at each other this morning.  And you weren't just staring and neither was he.  It was like a scene from Romeo and Juliet.  Or one of those romance books you read.  I'm surprised he didn't run right over and plant a big sloppy kiss right here." Lily pressed a finger to my lips.  "It looked like you were going to faint, not that I blame you.  I would have if someone was looking at me the way he looks at you."
     "A, those are not romance novels.  They are Fantasy books.  And B, what do you mean the way he looks at me?"
     Anna jumped in as our resident socialite.  She was also our self proclaimed romantic expert too.  She was really relishing this.  I wasn't.
     "Even before the field trip, Thera, he has been watching you.  Why do you think he sits behind you in Bio?  Why does he take a seat in here at lunch where we can see him and he can watch you?  We've all seen him look your way, right ladies?"
     Lily and even Evony nodded their heads, but Evony's response was mechanical I noted.  She was hearing us, but not listening really.
     "Sometimes it's just a glance.  Sometimes I see him staring like he's in a daydream."
     "Or a psycho," Evony spoke up, momentarily refocused.
     "We've noticed he watches you pretty often."
     "That is crazy, Anna.  I have never seen him looking at me.  Like I said, we had barely spoken before this week."
     Ryan Galead kept to himself most of the time.  He would talk if someone initiated the conversation of if there was a sports competition he was participating in, but he didn't go out of his way to make friends or stand out like some star quarterback.  We spotted him around town sometimes.  Most of the time he was headed to the docks or sitting at Leary's.  He never attended school events that I had seen, not that I had gone to more than a play or two really.  Actually, that sounded a lot like me since we had moved here.
     It was creepy.  Why would he watch me?  The more I thought about it, the more I realized I didn't know anything about him.  That had to change if I wanted to make sense of this.  A plan began to form in my mind.  That didn't mean I bought into the love sick boy watching from afar theory that my circle of friends apparently believed.  Still...
     "Lily, how do you feel about doing a little detective work and finding out a little more about Galead?"
     My friend's eyes narrowed to small slits twinkling with mischief.
     "You bet."