Tora (The Tora Trilogy Book 1) (2 page)

~

Daniel stared out over the cliff edge. His eyes were as grey as the obscure waters that filled the river basin below. The water reflected bleak clouds swirling in the black sky overhead. Nature in overhaul, had ditched Daniel’s hopes for a dismal and dire future. His state of conscience chopped and changed like a bar of frequency. Indifferent thoughts clumped together like the pulling of a magnetic force. 

Daniel turned back to Alex – to see him vanish in the thin air before him. It was enough time to glimpse a wild look in his eyes, but he was unable to read between them. Instead the spinning of tires and the crunch of cracked twigs replaced his absence.  They were here. Back up had arrived. The faint shape of a superior vehicle pulled in to the curb.

Their conversation had bothered him. Daniel didn’t try push the thought away.

Daniel knew he was going to have to lift his game if he was to protect innocent people. It was only a matter of time before Milaquile would find her. And if that meant risking his life to save them, he would do anything in his power to pull the girl to safety.

Eva.

Two

~†~

As daylight broke, Eva knew she had a long day ahead. Soft delicate beams of light shone through her thin blinds. She swung her feet over the edge of the bed. The softness of the carpet cushioned her feet as she padded to the bathroom.

Eva wasn’t due for her appointment in Boca Raton until ten which meant she could go to THE GROUNDS café beforehand to have crêpes and a strawberry shake.

Gleaning from her appearance in the mirror, Eva noticed that her eyes were still swollen, red and puffy from the night before. Yesterday, after a meeting with the school principal and her foster carer Michelle they’d come to the conclusion to terminate Eva’s enrolment at Margate College. Apparently, learning from her mother’s conversation on the phone within Eva’s earshot, she wasn’t living up to the values of the school or cooperating with her teachers and peers. 

Eva was
always
shifting between schools and homes and hardly had enough time to be buried in friendships. But this time, she had lasted longer at Margate High than her mother had expected. Eva had invested all she had and made an effort to connect with people. She was finally investing hope for a future here. But her hopes had been dashed yesterday by her Principal, someone who she once thought she could trust when he icily delivered the news that she wasn’t conforming to the school rules.

To say she was shocked and disappointed was an
understatement.
Eva wasn’t able to brush it off and simply move on. Hell no. She’d been through this a dozen times before. She heard variations of the same devastating news that crushed her deeper every time.

Eva had stopped counting how many friendships she had lost. She’d never fit in.

She remembered the expression that lingered on her mother’s worn face that day. A slight timid smile crept up on the crevices on her painted pink lips as she said in a calm voice to Eva, “next time honey, why don’t you start a fresh leaf.” But beneath the mask that she wore, she could read the disappointment and fear in her sad blue eyes. It made Eva feel guilty and manipulative when she reflected on the pain and suffering she had caused. She had promised her every time that she would try to fit in, but she was always getting into trouble for things she couldn’t avoid and couldn’t begin to explain herself.

Through the relatively short course of her life so far, Eva had faced situations that no other ordinary kid had experienced. She’d gone the full mile. Her parents had died in a car accident when she was a small child. Although Michelle, her foster career had loved her like she was her own daughter, she longed for the genetic bond that any other child and their parents had. She’d lost them when she was too young to understand who they were and what they were like. Too young to remember their faces clearly enough to paint a portrait. Her vague memory of her parents reminded her of a thick fog that lasted an eternity, where you could never see to the other side.

Eva had cried like there was no end to her pain. A waterfall of salty tears cascaded down her face. Her tears summed up her life, punctured with sadness.

After she showered, she threw on her paisley cotton dress and slipped on her beige sandals. As she reached for her satchel, Eva noticed a red light blinking on her answering machine. Eva hesitated.  She knew it would be her mother wanting to check in on her. But right now, she couldn’t talk to her. She needed time alone, to figure herself out. Break free from her raging emotions.

In a hasty rush, she combed the locks of her dark silky conditioned hair into a twist, picked up the mail from the mat and threw it on the hall table. When Eva stepped out into the bright sunshine, the sweet scent of spring flooded her lungs as she slammed the door behind her.

~

In reality, Eva wasn’t looking forward to her appointment with Dr J.R Smith. It had taken her the first hour to feel comfortable about talking to her.

The brown stone building was well kept. She pressed the intercom and the buzzer allowed her to gain entry. Apprehensively, Eva climbed the stairs to the third floor.

Seated on a large sunken uncomfortable reception couch, Eva noted the stillness of the small vacant waiting room. A pile of used magazines scattered the retro table competing for attention. Eva reached for latest celebrity goss mag in an attempt to distract herself from what she was here for, the unbearably quiet lobby room, the bare stark white walls that made her feel nauseous and empty.

Across the room, a doorknob turned. A lanky woman with a white blouse, an olive green skirt and a mop of blonde tinged silvery wire hair appeared in the lamp lit space.

“Evangeline?” Her low voice was dull, like the white washed walls of misery that reminded Eva of a mental institution. The woman’s beady eyes panned around the waiting room inquisitively even though the lobby room was empty.

Eva looked around the vacant lobby, wishing to invoke some other, invisible Eva to take her place for the hour.

“
Eva
.” She corrected as she got up, feeling a slight pang of annoyance stab at her. No one ever called her by her full name. It sounded foreign to her now. The name brought up memories she wanted forget. No one had called her that since she was an infant. No one other than her mother.

The woman who looked middle aged, frowned briefly, then nodded in acknowledgement before returning a compassionate smile to Eva that made her feel guilty for sounding so hostile. Her deep oceanic eyes reminded Eva of the kind of woman with wisdom beyond her years.

“I’m Dr Smith. Please come in.” The woman held the door open and gestured for her to sit on one of the two upholstered armchairs inside.

Eva hesitated, wanting to avoid the commitment of sitting on one of the two chairs. She was nervous. Eva paused and drew in a long breath.

The woman, smiled knowingly as she closed the door behind her.

“People like you who take a while to adjust to the formality of the environment sit themselves on that wicker lounge over there, if that is what makes you feel comfortable.” She said.

Eva had survived an armada of therapists over the years that were all paid to misunderstand her. Since her parents’ death, Eva was placed into the care of Michelle, who had become overly concerned and protective. Eva wondered if Michelle thought she would become mentally deranged even though she was too young to remember her parents. But that wasn’t the only reason that kept her here. Shadows had haunted Eva for as long as she could remember. They lurched for her, like they were trying to grab her. But Eva couldn’t push them away. They would come and go as they please. The shadows would reconfigure themselves into all sorts of shapes. Sometimes they fanned out like branches on an oak tree, or spilled into the wiry hairs of ink on a page. There were few days that Eva went without seeing them now. As they became more frequent, the migraines started to protrude. Eva wasn’t fearful of the shadows, for they dominated her life, but the fear of her going mad was firmly drilled into the back of her mind. When she’d been taken to the doctor, even they couldn’t find out what was wrong with her, but dosed her with medication and advised her to take therapy.

Eva hated going to therapy. She’d been through enough therapists to realise that she wasn’t insane, but a girl with strange peripheral visions. She’d tried to downplay the shadows and her migraines, but even that wasn’t enough for Michelle to preclude her from therapy sessions. Even now, she wasn’t comfortable with the idea of spilling every last detail about her life to a complete utter stranger.

Soon enough, Eva found herself treading to the comfy looking wicker lounge in the corner of the small room sprawled with bright, colourful cushions.

Everything in the room was purposefully calm. Except for the splash of blue paint on the walls that contradicted the purpose of the meeting. It was ironic that Eva was sitting in a room painted in blue, the colour of depression and mentality. But everything else detracted Eva’s focus away from the walls. On the oak shelf behind where the woman sat, an iPod was hitched up to a stereo, a tank of bottled water bubbled and gurgled and an assortment of therapist for dummies books leant against one of the flimsy wall panels. An air freshener clung to the wall spilling a fragrance that made the whole room smell like honeydew which Eva did not mind. A large box of tissues were placed on the table in front of her, a bowl of apples and some candy tucked into the corner. But when Eva tilted her head towards the smaller bookcase, she became suddenly amused by the careful arrangement of some plastic dinosaurs. Which made Eva wonder, was she really in an adult clinic?

As the woman sat herself down, she breathed heavily as if walking proved to be great a challenge for her.

“Now, what brings you here Eva?” the woman asked.

“Mum.” Eva replied quickly, slipping more words than she intended to speak in the whole hour. She fumbled with her hands nervously.

“Are you having issues with your mum?”

“No!” Eva blurted out. “My mum makes the appointments. That’s why I’m here.”

Eva ignored the woman and with bored interest, watched a group of goldfish fish swimming around in the large fish tank.

“Do you wish to explain yourself a little bit more?” Dr Smith tried. The woman tapped her pointy fake red finger nails against the table.

No. Isn’t it obvious? 
Eva thought, but realised the meeting would probably end quicker if she got on with it.

That’s what all the therapists had said to Eva. They always asked you to be more explicit even though they knew exactly what you were talking about. It was one of their little tricks to get you talking.

Eva propped her back against a cushion. “There really isn’t much to it apart from my mother makes the appointments – for a reason I am not familiar with.” She half lied.

The woman frowned as she scrutinised the print of a document on her lap.

“Really?” She gave Eva a puzzled look and her eyes flitted a number of times between the sheet and Eva as if she was studying a passport profile photo.

“Are you sure you don’t know how you ended up here?” She raised a pencilled in eyebrow. Dr Smith didn’t look convinced.

“Never said that–.” Eva rolled her eyes.

“Never mind.” Dr Smith sighed and reached for the water jug. The woman appeared as though she was trying not to be too agitated. But if Eva was her, she would have lost her cool much earlier.

“Your record says you’ve had a long history with SHADOWS. Does that ring true?” she asked.

Eva doubted very much that the woman knew what
shadows
actually were. She’d think that she was hallucinating and had schizophrenia and would send her off to a psychiatric ward somewhere in Boca Raton. Her shadows were
real
, not something Eva had dreamed about. She didn’t have a phobia of shadows – well normal shadows. These shadows were dark, they’d creep up to her like a cat ready to pounce, grab her with such a bounding force that she once thought they would never loosen their grip. She’d never imagined it. She’d felt the touch of their movement; the chilly air they carried with them made her skin crawl and, sometimes she heard screams; brutal and paralysing that thrummed inside her head and kept her in shock for a while.

Dr Smith cleared her throat loudly.

Eva almost felt relieved the cruel thought drifted from her mind for a moment.

“Yep.” She nodded. “The reason I landed here in the first place a few years ago was that I was seeing shadows. That’s all, otherwise this meeting seems a waste of time.”

She glared at the clock hanging over the far wall, ticking at an impossibly slow rate, wishing she could crank forward the time.

Dr. Smith didn’t appear the least bit surprised that she’d talked about the shadows. In fact she seemed entertained by the idea. She quickly jotted words down on her notepad.

Dr Smith looked up. “Eva, all these things contribute to the state of your wellbeing” She said. “The whole point of this meeting is to collect your thoughts, express them and collaborate so we can work together to reach a solution. You need to open up, not bury your head in this tragedy.” Dr. Smith meant:
the death of her parents. “
Too often, others make the mistake of bottling up their thoughts.”