The Red to My Grey

by William Dudley Berridge Tuckey

  “Huh? Meet me?”

  “One second, I’ll go get her,” Angel said before she dived beneath the water. She came back a moment later with Nami by her side. Unaware of what she was in for, she greeted the young girl politely. Nami stayed quiet and was too nervous to speak; she put out her trembling hand for a handshake instead.

  “Nami, don’t be so shy, you said you wanted to meet her one day, didn’t you?” Sophia scolded her while pinching at her cheeks.

  “Yeah, a day where I thought I was ready…” she said softly, and Angel pinched at the other cheek until the pain had tears welling up in the young girl’s eyes.

  “Don’t be such a wuss, she’s our neighbour. You would have met her eventually.”

  “Um, I don’t mean to interrupt, but what’s this all about?” Sabrina asked curiously. Sophia and Angel stared at Nami expectantly while she rubbed her knees together as she sat on the edge of the pool.

  “Well you see…I guess I really admire you. Because um, because you have his heart and that’s something I really, really want for myself.”

  “What’s that…? I couldn’t quite hear you. Is a high-schooler saying that they’re in love with my boyfriend?” Sabrina asked as everything about her was cold at that point.

  “Well, actually she’s ten. Because of how old she looks, it’s hard to get her to act her own age.”

  “Really? Stupid kid!” she yelled and grabbed her by the back of her swimsuit and shirt only to throw her across most of the length of the pool.

  “Wow, you’re scary when you’re mad,” Sophia said in a carefree tone.

  “Tell me about it,” Angel whispered into her ear. Nami came bursting out of the water and yelled across the pool to her.

  “It’s on now!”

  “I can tell you what isn’t?” Sabrina yelled back as she held the top half of Nami’s swimsuit, which left the young girl screaming.

  “Give it back!” she cried as she reached and grabbed at her as she tried to snatch it back.

  “Pfft. Flat, it’s not like it’s covering anything,” she said after looking down at her chest. Then suddenly Sophia put Nami in a headlock all while staring down Sabrina with her blood red eyes.

  “Behave, alright?” she said sternly, and the two girls froze up.

  “Okay…” they responded simultaneously and fixed each other up.

  “Giggle. You’re scarier, Mama,” Angel said trying to hide her smile.

  All of this went on as Johnson and I spoke with each other at the edge of the kitchen. We watched the food while keeping an eye on the girls. Dad was relaxing at the other end of the pool, so we could speak freely between us. We were discussing the encounter with Anne from last night.

  “She didn’t cause too much trouble for you, did she?”

  “That woman is nothing but trouble. She’s nice, beautiful and she cares a lot more than she lets on. But she’s insecure, lonely and lets her feelings drive her wherever they desire. I’m glad I reunited her with Angel even though I’ll have to be careful with how I act around them when they’re together from now on.”

  “So, she’s that bad. I wonder what caused her to start acting in this way. Regardless, you’ll need to be cautious around her if she truly holds affection for you,” Johnson pondered at yet another mystery that was presented to him from my night with Anne. We decided to put the talk of investigations and theories on hold as we set the table. I was slightly confused when Johnson set out an extra three plates, one of them was different from the others and was made from plastic.

  “Uh Johnny, who’s the extra plates for?”

  “Sorry, where are my manners. I forget to tell you that Dan and Em will be here soon. They said they would be here around lunch time because that’s when Dan’s shift at the café ends and Em said it was the earliest she could close up the shop.”

  “The third plate then…? Don’t tell me it’s for their baby,” I answered bitterly.

  “Is that a problem?”

  “Well no, it’s just that Angel gets a little, I don’t know…a little much when it comes to kids and stuff like that.”

  “Ah she wants the experience for herself, so she becomes consumed in the thought of it,” he stated maturely.

  “Yeah, that’s one way to look at it; you’ll get what I mean.”

  “This time I must disagree. I feel she’s matured a lot over the short time we’ve known her. I think she’ll surprise you.”

  “I think you’re right, she has matured a fair bit when I come to think of it.” We left off with that and by the time we had everything ready to go on the table outside, Dan and Em had arrived and were already mingling with the others by the pool. Dan wasted no time in challenging Dad to a race across the pool and next thing we saw from them was explosive waves of water coming from behind them as they were neck and neck rushing towards the end of the pool. Dad’s pride and determination won him the race while Dan was just happy to have some fun. We called everyone to the table under the awning and I helped Johnson serve out the stir-fry he and Sabrina had prepared. I sat down next to Angel and she rested herself against me as she spoke with Sabrina, Nami and Sophia.

  “You two really are close, aren’t you?” Sabrina said as she helped herself to another serving.

  “It really is quite cute,” Sophia chuckled; the way she said it made me feel like I wasn’t even a part of the conversation.

  “Mama, you’re embarrassing us.”

  Then suddenly a loud excited scream rung in our ears and a pair of arms wrapped themselves around each side of us.

  “You’re both so adorable!” It was Em with Dan standing behind her holding their daughter Chloe.

  “You’re a mum?” Nami yelled abruptly as she noticed the child. Em nodded casually and turned around to hold Chloe.

  “Wanna hold her?” she asked and Nami’s heart melted on the spot. Angel had a similar look in her eyes, but they weren’t all that different from the first time she saw her. Dan sat down next to me; his hair was still damp from the pool and he had a carefree smile on his face like always.

  “Those eyes of hers, they’re really something. You can tell exactly what she wants just by looking at them. Careful, man, or it’ll be you holding a kid this time next year.”

  “Sigh. I know.”

  “Giggle. Now that would be adorable,” Sophia said to us after listening in on our conversation.

  “Oh, uh nice to meet you, my name’s Daniel, but my friends just call me Dan.”

  “No need to be so formal, Dan. My name’s Sophia, it’s nice to meet you too. Don’t let my appearance fool you. I try to be as gentle of a person as I can be.”

  “Really? Sorry, I just get this vibe that you’ll stab me if I say one wrong word to you.”

  “Dude!” I chipped him for speaking senselessly.

  “My, aren’t you the funny one.” The tone in her voice made what he said a bit more believable.

  “Oh sorry, that was pretty rude of me,” he apologised nervously as she stared at us with frustration revealed from underneath a feign of forced kindness.

  “Hmm what’s wrong, Mama? Are they teasing you? Hey, what did you say?” Angel asked innocently while rubbing her cheeks against her mother’s face.

  “It’s fine sweetheart. I could just really use a drink, that’s all…Jason, do you mind if I get a little wild tonight?” she called across the table. He shrugged his shoulders and told her it would probably be fine. Sabrina stared her down with excitement in her eyes and I could see where this was going.

  “You want to have it here?” she said nervously and Johnson’s eyes opened wide after hearing what she was implying.

  “Hmm you want to drink with me, little girl?” she asked as she turned around to face her while standing under her umbrella in the sunlight.

  “I-I’m going to drink you under the table!” she yelled and Nami applauded her for the display of confidence.

  “I look forward to it.” She closed the umbrella and dived backwards
into the pool.

  As rowdy as the day was, it was quiet in comparison to the night when Em and Dan came back from leaving baby Chloe with Em’s parents. Nami refused to miss out on the fun and clung to Celia as she sipped at her drink.

  “Let me have some please. Just half a can?”

  “Again, no. Stop asking,” she shut her down before she could start any trouble, but then Catherine climbed over the fence, completely unnoticed by everyone in the pool. Johnson and I were drinking casually under the awning; we could over hear the argument between the girls near the fence.

  “I’m telling Dad she’s here,” Celia covered her mouth with her hand and got up in her face.

  “You wanted my drink, right? You won’t say anything if I give it to you?”

  She nodded happily and went to take the drink from her, but instead was told to close her eyes. Celia forced her to down the entire can in one big gulp and Nami fell to the ground gasping for air. Kitten helped her back to her feet and patted her on the back.

  “Is she going to be okay, Celia? That was sort of mean.”

  “She’ll be fine, if she’s anything like Dad that is. Come on, let’s go inside. I wanna hook up on their bed.”

  Sigh. Why does my sister know how to torment people so well? I thought to myself as we went over to check on Nami. We stood over her as she leant against the fence; she was drooling up a storm and her breath felt hot as she breathed in our direction. Johnson tried to check on her as she struggled to stand.

  “I feel…”

  “Yes? Are you feeling alright? Look at me, don’t close your eyes.”

  “I feel hot, really hot all over…excuse me for a second,” she said completely overwhelmed. She pulled Johnson by the neck towards her and kissed him. For me having to stand there and awkwardly watch, felt like an eternity. Johnson was at a loss for words while I wasn’t really sure what to say either. “What, you don’t like me? You don’t like this? Is it because I’m young? Or because of the way I look?” she asked, getting progressively louder.

  “No, I don’t like this,” Johnson said bluntly while staring at the ground away from her eyes. There was so much I wanted to say, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the words. I wanted to call her an idiot. I wanted to tell her to act her age and I wanted to tell her to stop this. My mouth refused to move as I watched the intoxicated young girl bare her soul.

  “Why? I don’t think any of that matters. I-I love you, isn’t that enough?” she whispered in his ear with tears running down her face.

  “It wouldn’t matter if we were the same age, whether you’re the most beautiful woman on earth, or you had stolen my heart. It doesn’t belong to you or me, it belongs to her, Sabrina. The woman I intend to marry in the near future. There’s nothing wrong with you, it’s just you never had a chance from the start.”

  I knew he was trying to let her down easy, but that was the harshest thing he ever could have said to her. She looked up at him with despair flowing from her. He went to rest his hand on her head, but as he moved it closer, her despair quickly turned to hatred and she glanced at him scornfully. He withdrew his hand to his side, unsure on how to deal with her and her tears. Swoosh. Suddenly the three of us felt the rush of water fall over us and we looked up to see Angel and the others holding an empty basin.

  “That’s enough cries, we’re having fun okay?” she grabbed Nami by her swimsuit and tossed her into the pool and everyone dived in with her.

  “Hey, that’s dangerous…whatever. Care to join them?” Johnny asked me while hiding his stress.

  “I guess that’s that. Yeah, sure let’s go.”

  It was a wild night and I had a lot of fun. I wasn’t really all that drunk by the end of it. Everyone went home around ten to defuse a bit before going about getting ready for tomorrow, although it would have just been an average day. I arrived home with Angel in my arms and Dad had Nami in his while flirting with Sophia as she was linked to them. Angel was completely out of it, so I let her sleep on my bed while I rested against it. I received a phone call from an unknown number and I went to my window to take it.

  “Hello? This is Wade speaking.”

  “Good evening,” the voice echoed, and I looked down to see the caller leaning against the house outside the window. It was Sinclair Natsuki with the red of his eyes glowing in the dark of night.

  “What do you want?” I asked as fear gripped my lungs, he kept facing ahead with his arms folded after he hung up the phone.

  “Nothing of physical substance for the moment. Would you care to talk?”

  “I suppose that’s fine. You don’t have a problem staying out here do you?” I asked as I calmed down a bit. He shook his head and made it clear he was fine where he was.

  “Now, what are your intentions with my daughter? What could the son of Jason Naem want with a Natsuki, one that’s declared dead at that?”

  “I’m in love with Angel, Natsuki or not. I’d still be in love with her. She’s the first person to make me feel this way…I want to marry her someday.”

  “Have you grown accustomed to monsters? It would take a great deal of resolve to feel anything, ‘Love’ especially for one. Are you not just entranced by lust for her body?”

  I put my hand to my forehead as I leant out the window to look up at the stars.

  “Sigh. Of course, I’m not just using her for sex. What is it with the whole monster thing? It’s monster this and monster that. What do you mean?”

  He remained silent for a few minutes and then laughed hysterically for a moment before also looking to the stars, obscured by the city lights.

  “Surely you’ve seen it by now. The state when she loses all control, one that can only be satisfied by blood.” He laughed on as I grabbed my shoulder, trying not to think back on the experience.

  “I have,” I answered in a cold tone, just wanting to forget about it.

  “Being that we’re having this conversation right now, means she’s had a taste of you.”

  “What do you want?” I asked in a frustrated tone and then my phone began to ring.

  “Go on take it, I can wait,” he said calmly, but it felt like he was prodding at me more than anything. I answered my phone and there was no one on the other side of the call.

  “Hello…it’s Wade,” I talked aimlessly until I got a loud breath wisp its way into my ear.

  “It’s Anne, come to my penthouse for the night…hurry.” The call ended, and I got a text entailing the directions to the penthouse.

  “My, my. She’s being quite bold, talking in a way that leaves you no other choice,” he taunted me. I was amazed he could hear my phone well enough to understand the situation.

  “I still have a choice. I’m not going. I know exactly what will happen. It sounds as if you’re familiar with Anne too. She’s not like how she is now because of you, is she?”

  “I know her, but her affliction is of her own making. As for myself, I may be no less inhuman than Sophia or our daughter, but I pride myself on my integrity. Then again, you are a Naem, integrity isn’t one of your strong points.”

  I gritted my teeth and clenched my fist as he insulted me and my family.

  “What the hell do you know about me or my family? Dad may have done some dirty stuff in the past. However, you don’t know a thing about me or Celia. So, I can’t let you stand there and badmouth us,” I was pissed off by this point, despite knowing if he wanted to, he could have killed me right then and there.

  “That wasn’t my intention. It’s your family’s lack of integrity that binds the relationship between the Naem’s and the Natsuki’s. We do horrible things to retain our pride and strength. While you go through much sacrifice, anguish and torment for the sake of others, it’s a one-sided relationship and it’s been this way ever since I first encountered your father.”

  “Huh?” I didn’t know how to respond to something as cryptic as that.

  “With all that being said, you want to see Anne, now don’t you? Regardless of what
will happen, it will eat away at you less.”

  I nodded, and he simply laughed until he brought himself from the side of the house.

  “I suppose she has waited long enough. Very well, follow me. I will take you to her.”

  I stepped out of the window and stood beside him, he was tall and the black garbs he wore were covered in scratches, his face was no longer covered by cloth though. His skin was extremely pale and apart from the scars it was completely flawless. He had black spikey hair that reached the end of his neck. I followed him only to notice my surroundings shift and blur, faces of people we passed were without features and I looked down at my hands to see them trace behind themselves as I waved them. Then another thought occurred inside my head: this penthouse was in the middle of the city and by foot it would take hours to reach it, by the time I looked up we were standing in front of a gigantic skyscraper and at its peak was the penthouse. It felt like only a matter of minutes and the reason for that was, it really was only a few minutes for the time it took to arrive.

  “What the fuck? How’d we…”

  “It’s the ‘teleporting’. I’m sure you’ve seen my daughter do it a number of times. It was me who created the technique, so you could say I’m quite the master at it.”

  “So, that’s why you can never be tracked by the police,” I said in awe.

  He followed me to the elevator and wished me luck from there before disappearing into thin air. The thought of him moving around like that gave me the impression that he already knew a lot about me and my family’s situation, but also the fact that it was even more frightening to think about what he had planned for us. The elevator door opened and I arrived on the floor outside the penthouse. I stood in a hallway facing a door. I went to knock, but Anne opened it and looked at me with nervous eyes. She hid behind the door and she was breathing erratically.

  “Hey, are you okay?” I asked as I peeked around the door at her and then without warning she pulled me inside. The door slammed shut behind us and I was pressed against it as Anne leant on me with only a red silk blanket wrapped around her. She kissed me unrelentingly and her breath felt hot on my neck, but her lips were so cold. I managed to distance myself from her, just enough to ask her why she was doing this, although I knew why.