Unfaded (21 page)

I went
upstairs to bed and managed to get a few hours in before waking up in sheer panic from a nightmare that I couldn’t remember.

                                                        *              *              *

              I helped Marley make dinner and afterwards we sat down to eat. Dad was preoccupied with work, he’d spread out insurance forms and contractor proposals, determined to make sure he was doing everything properly. Marley got stuck cutting up Granny’s chicken and I stared blankly into space, trying to pretend I was eating a dinner when I had zero appetite. 

             
Was I really losing my mind?

             
Back in my bedroom I stood in the middle of the room for a few seconds until I got an idea. I went over to the garbage can where I'd shoved the remains of the broken sand globe.

             
My mind was swirling. Up until then I’d been toying with the idea that I had some sort of tumour and that was why I was having the fainting spells. I even went as far to think that Kian might have spiked my drink with some sort of mind altering drug. But none of that could explain how I'd been able to crush the glass without really trying.

             
To be absolutely sure, I reached down and picked up one of the jagged pieces and deliberately cut myself again. I watched my body heal itself again.

             
I decided it was time to go back and talk to Kian.

             
I waited an hour after Dad and Marley went to bed before I removed the screen from my window and snuck out. I probably could have walked out the front door but then I would have needed to explain why I was going out after midnight on a school night and I couldn’t exactly tell them the truth. So I left my car parked in the driveway, pulled my hat down over my ears to avoid frostbite, and headed off to the motel.

             
It was a little after two and the streets were empty. Downtown was like a ghost town, there weren’t even any parked cars. The shops were dark and only the traffic lights gave any indication that time hadn’t stopped. I didn’t even bother to stop and wait for the light to turn green. I cut across the street and past City Hall and straight up the road that led towards Route Seven. Even as I grew close to the motel, I couldn’t even hear traffic coming off the highway. The truckers seemed to have taken the night off.

Thelma’s motel was dark and the No Vacancy sign was bright against my eyes. I walked around to the back where I knew Kian and Micah were staying. I
spotted their room immediately, it was the only one with the lights still on.

I stood in front of the door for a few minutes before I finally got up the nerve to knock.
              I could hear the television through the door. Someone was watching a movie with a terrible soundtrack. I wasn’t exactly sure why I was there. I wanted answers but I didn’t know if Kian was the right person to be asking. His story was still too crazy to be believable, even if some of what he said was true.

No matter how much I wanted to ignore the craziness, there were too many things happening that coincided with his story.

I was stronger. Breaking the globe proved that. My body felt stronger too. I was having visions. Kian knew the girl I’d described. He even gave her a name. Dialexa.

My body was healing before my very eyes.
He’d told me that it was very hard to kill our kind.

I knew things about him. Things I shouldn’t know.

And I was drawn to him. There was no denying that. No matter how much my logical brain told me I was talking to an insane person, another quieter voice pushed me to go back to him for more.

I banged on the door a second time.
Harder. Over the sound of the television someone moved towards the door. But it wasn’t Kian. It was Micah. He took one look at my face and glanced over my head to see if there was anyone else behind me.

“You’d better come in,” he said. “Kian’s not here but I’m sure he’s not too far behind.”

I stepped into the room and Micah closed the door behind us. Inside it was nice and warm, I hadn’t really been aware of how cold I was until I felt the heat. Pulling off my hat, I stayed as close to the door as possible. I didn’t quite know what to do.

“You can come inside,” Micah said. “It’s not paradise but it’s comfy. Better than what I would have expected for such a small town. Not that I’m an expert or anything. I’ve slept in much worse, believe me.”

I nodded and sat down at the small table beside the door. Leaving my coat on, I placed my hands on the table.

“Where’s Kian?” I asked.

“At your house,” Micah said with a bit of a smile. “He went out to keep watch. He’s concerned about your safety. Apparently he’s not as good of a protector as he thinks he is. You certainly had no trouble giving him the slip.”

“He’s been watching me?”

“We both have. Every night since we got here.”

I was a little put off by this. “So you know what he told me? You believe it’s true?
Does that mean you’re just like Kian?”

Micah sat down on the bed and picked up the remote for the television. “I think that’s something you need to discuss with him.”

Micah turned up the volume so there was nothing to do but stare at the television for the next several minutes. It didn’t take Kian long to show up. He was panting and his face was bright red, he must have run all the way from my house. I had to wait while he tried to catch his breath. Micah found the entire event amusing. He slapped Kian on the back.

“You’ve grown soft.” He winked at me. “I’ll let you two talk. I think I’m going to walk down to the store and get me something to drink.”

Once he left, Kian sat down on the bed until his breathing slowed. At one point he looked at me and the fear in his eyes was so intense that my feet grew cold and a trickling bit of cold ice shot down my back.

“When
I got to your house and realised you were gone, I thought I’d lost you again,” he finally said. His voice cracked and trembled.

I was going to give him a smart remark back, something along the lines of giving him my schedule for the next week but when I opened my mouth I couldn’t say the words. His breathing was still heavy, his eyes wide and watery
, the colour of a dark bruise. The veins on his arms stood out against his pale skin and his hands were red and shaking. I wanted to reach out and touch his fingers, hold them close to my body and warm them.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“What were you thinking? Sneaking around in the middle of the night after what happened today?” He began to pace around the room, his feet thumping on the carpet as he walked. “Can’t you see how much danger you’re putting yourself in?”

“I didn’t think...”

“You need to start thinking. A single foolish mistake can get you killed.”

I was speechless. I wanted to argue
that it hadn’t been a big deal. I’d walked from our house to the motel thousands of times. But the panic in his voice scared me. He was terrified.

“I’m sorry,” I said again. How many more times would it take before he forgave me? I still wasn’t exactly sure of what my crimes were. “Isn’t this a bit excessive? Nothing happened.”

“I thought you were dead. I was coming back to get Micah,” he said. Pausing, he looked at me, suddenly realising I was actually in front of him. “Why
are
you here? I thought you hated me.”

“I don’t hate you. I just don’t know what to think anymore.”

I got up off the chair and went over to the bed. Unzipping my jacket, I sat down beside him, close enough to talk but far enough to keep a distance. I wanted to be looking directly at his eyes when I asked my next question.

“What am I?”

He didn’t even blink. “You’re cursed.”

“You told me that,” I said. “
I need a bit more explanation. I removed a piece of glass from my hand and watched myself heal before my eyes.” I held up my hand to show him the place where my skin looked smooth and soft. “Explain to me how that’s even remotely possible.”

“We heal fast.”

“Just like that?”

He sighed as if I were just being an impatient child. “There’s more. But in order to understand, you need to hear that you’re different.”

“One of a kind, huh?” The sarcasm was back.

“For our race, yes.” Kian pulled off his jacket and left it crumpled on the bed. “You’re
Unfaded.”

"And what exactly is that?"

"We've been called many things throughout history. Immortals. Demons. Gods. Amata. None of that is true. We're simply a subspecies. But we've always preferred Unfaded."

“If I’m
Unfaded, then why do I keep dying?”

“Because you’re cursed.”

“
Yes, I got that.”

“Five thousand years ago, twin
s were born,” he said. “Dialexa and Apani. It was a rare occurrence because the mother was human. It would be the equivalence of breeding a house cat with a lion. Up until then it was almost completely unheard of. It's still very rare.”

“I have a sister? That girl in my visions?”

“Yes,” he said. “I don’t know the entire history because it was before my time. Most of what I know is story tale legend. But I can tell you if you'd like."

I nodded
.

"It  starts with an Unfaded named Rafferty," Kian began. "Your father
."

Kian took a deep breath and then began to talk

Rafferty seduced a mortal girl for fun. When he found out she was pregnant, he developed a plan over what to do with the unborn child. A half-human, half-unfaded child would have special powers. Not only would they have eternal life and their own share of magic, they would have the ability and understanding to live amongst the humans. Back then, there was a terrible rift between Human and Unfaded. Now there was only resentment. There were too many differences and wars had been fought. Both sides harboured intense feelings for each other. Rafferty was one of the Unfaded who hated everything Human. He felt a half breed baby would be a great benefit in his determination to destroy the human race.

Not all Unfaded dislike the human race. Many of them preferred to live amongst them and still do today. But Rafferty wasn’t one of them. Playing with the humans was one thing, being equal was another. He
felt the humans were too stupid to survive and was more than happy to consider wiping them off the slate. By having this child, he figured this was a good way to enslave mankind. He decided he would raise the child. It would give him the perfect weapon to destroy humanity.

             
But the other Unfaded feared this idea and decided they’d have to do something. They knew the power would be too great. But at the same time, they never considered the option of destroying the child for their own greed was apparent. If they could raise this human to be good, then there was a possibility that the world could be a better place. Because Unfaded, although greedy themselves, are not really terrible beings. They just exist differently than humans do. They liked the idea of having a link to the human world. They were becoming extinct through wars of their own and there was a great fear that the Unfaded might die out. It was getting harder for them to breed with each other, so if this possibility worked, if this human child could be born and still be eternal, it would open up doors to the decline of their race.

             
Both sides waited for the birth, neither of them taking into consideration the thoughts and feelings of the mother who was very much aware of what was going on. She didn’t want either side to take possession of the child. It was her child.

             
Just before the baby was born, she entrusted the help of a lower maid to fool the Unfaded. It wasn’t the best arrangement but time was running out and she didn’t have a lot to work with. She summoned the head of the Unfaded, Aelin, and discussed her fears about Rafferty. Aelin agreed to help her and made plans for fifty carriages to be present the day of the birth. New born babies would be placed inside each and every one and sent off to all corners of the earth. With some plotting of the mother and her maid, only they would know which carriage held her real child. When she was stronger, she would go and collect the child to be raised by her alone. She allowed Aelin to place a spell upon her unborn baby, a great and terrible magic that would allow the child to remain human until its eighteenth birthday. This way the baby would be raised in the real world without intervention. Aelin hoped that Rafferty would lose interest once he realised he’d been tricked and that the child was gone.

             
The day of the birth brought about a battle between the Unfaded that would last for a thousand days. The commotion was so great that the majority of them almost forgot about the baby. To the family’s delight, shortly before dawn, the girl gave birth to not one child but two identical girls with thick heads of shiny black hair and pure green eyes. The mother passed her babies onto her maid who dutifully placed each one in a basket of their own and sent all fifty carriages out into the world.