by Giger, S. L.
So, one evening, when I was coming home from Sam’s, I noticed a red car in front of Mr. Thompson’s house. Lights on, driver’s door open as well as the door of the house. That was the most action I had ever seen in front of this house. Actually, the house next to the shed looked so dusty that I couldn’t believe that anyone had entered it lately. That’s why I stopped. I thought something must have happened. A burglary didn’t make sense. Any burglars should assume that there was nothing valuable in this house. And they wouldn’t have left the car for everyone to see. Nevertheless, I wanted to make sure everything was okay. Slowly, I approached the entrance. I knocked on the doorframe, but nobody answered.
“Hello?” I called out. There was still no answer, but I now could make out noises. As if someone was wrestling with someone on the floor. This was odd since I could only make out one heartbeat. I grabbed an umbrella that was standing next to the entrance. It could be used as a weapon if worst came to worst. I tiptoed toward the noise trying to reach that room unnoticed. I expected a monster to jump out from behind every shadow. When I turned around the corner, I saw Mr. Thompson in the middle of books strewn all over the room. He was reaching for one on the shelf, quickly glanced at it and then threw it to the floor. The whole time mumbling something. He was completely oblivious to the fact that I was standing in the door. I felt pretty dumb with the umbrella in my hand and placed it on the wall outside of what might have been a living room. The couch was covered with plastic, dust settling on it. I could only see patches of the wood where the books he’d thrown to the floor had landed. This room must have been uninhabited for a long while. While I was pondering what to do, another book flew down. I cleared my throat. For a moment, Mr. Thompson held on to the book that was currently in his hands and turned around. A strong feeling of uneasiness washed over me, now that I saw the scar on his neck up close. It looked like a big patch of dead skin which was spreading from his right ear, over the side of his neck. But afterward, I also noticed the wrinkly face with a few sweat beats rolling out from under the white hair. His watery eyes that were filled with a glimpse of frenzy. He stared at me in reproach, figured that I wasn’t any sort of threat and then started mumbling again.
“She remembered. I have to...” and he turned around again, continuing his tantrum. “No, no, no, no,” another book flew to the ground.
“Can I help you find anything?” I offered.
“Dickens,” he said in a raspy voice.
“Charles Dickens?” Because of all the books, I was thinking of the author.
“Yes, she remembered. Oliver Twist. I have to bring it.” He said without turning around.
“You’re looking for Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens?” I carefully approached the shelves, trying not to step on any of the books. I took his silence as a yes and started to look at the books on the opposite end of the shelf. Mr. Thompson didn’t pay any attention to me. Instead of throwing them to the floor, I read the inscriptions on the backs. Soon, I spotted a blue leather book with old silver writing Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
“Here it is.” I took it out and handed it to Mr. Thompson. He examined it for a moment and then grabbed it from me with a resolute movement.
“Thank you.” He said with a shaky voice. His gray-blue eyes looked so wet now that if they filled up anymore, he’d start crying. With that, he marched out of the room. I heard a car door slam, an engine start and then he took off, leaving me standing in his house. I raced to the kitchen window to see whether he was still somewhere to be seen, but no, he had disappeared. I shook my head somewhat perplexed. Suddenly, I found myself alone in the house of someone who seemed to be slightly bonkers. I remembered Melissa’s warning to stay away from him. But it surely wouldn’t hurt anybody if I cleaned up a little and perhaps, I’d find a clue, why he acted so weird. I called Melissa on my new cell phone and told her that I’d be back later. Then, I started putting the books back onto the shelves. Then, I looked for the kitchen to find something to clean the dust. The kitchen was also sparsely equipped but clean compared to the living room. I found a broom and also took the cloth from the sink, which I wet and brought with me. I carried the dirt outside, brought the things back where they belonged and then took a final look at a now more welcoming living room. At that moment, Mr. Thompson returned. When he noticed that I hadn’t left yet, he stared at me, furiously.
“What are you still doing here?” He demanded to know. His glance wandered past me to the living room and his eyes narrowed. “Why did you have to touch everything? Leave an old man in peace.”
“Uh, I just wanted to...” I didn’t know what to respond.
“Get out!” he yelled.
The way he said it he didn’t need to repeat it; I hurried past him and left the house. At home, I didn’t tell Melissa or Luke about my encounter.
Chapter 13
Since we didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Switzerland, I didn’t know what it was all about. From what my friends at school had been mentioning, I learned that it involved a turkey and plenty of other food. Well, neither was very appealing to Sirens. Roisin came over for a game day, leaving our house free of anything edible. We played Rummy, Yatzy and I taught them Jassen, a typical Swiss card game. I wondered why Cathy wasn’t present. After all, she was family, too. I had thought that she was close to Roisin and Melissa.
In mid-afternoon, we took an extended walk on the beach. The sky was a mixture of gray and black, and the clouds looked heavy as if they were announcing a downpour. The wilderness of the sky blended in perfectly with the now rather gray waves, which were thrown around by the wind. It was beautiful to witness this fierce side of the ocean for once and not the calm, picture perfect, crystal-like beach.
As we walked through the sand, Roisin and I somewhat ahead of Melissa and Luke, I asked her whether she had seen Cathy lately.
“Not since you have last seen her. Why?”
“I find it a little odd that she was there when I did my baby steps. She clearly was against me existing. And since then she has disappeared completely.”
Roisin was quiet for a moment and looked ahead into the distance. When she spoke, she seemed to choose her words carefully. “She can’t see eye to eye with Luke.”
“What’s not to like about Luke?” I raised an eyebrow.
“It’s not something she doesn’t like about him; it’s more the idea of Luke as one of us, which she finds hard to accept. But we’re all family, and I’m sure that eventually, she will come around. It might just take a few decades.” She rolled her eyes. Then Roisin continued. “Before Cathy came to New York, she lived close to Vancouver with another group. She was studying medicine. Plus, she was in love with a human guy. It was going great; they were very happy. He was extremely sporty and could keep up with her energy. But one day, during a basketball game, he just collapsed; sudden cardiac arrest. There was nothing anyone could do. Medical help was too far away, AED’s weren’t hanging in every public facility then. So the only thing she knew could help him, was jamming a needle into his heart.” Roisin shut her mouth tightly.
“He didn’t survive?” I asked.
“No, he did. But when he woke up, he ripped himself free and took off to go hunting. He killed the first guy that crossed his way. Dug his teeth into the guy’s chest, after pushing Cathy out of his way. He would have attacked more if there weren’t the others from the group in Vancouver who stopped him. And by stopping, I mean they killed him. Cut his head off and the rest into pieces and then burned him.”
“Omg,” I gulped.
“And all that with a wailing Cathy next to them. Her pain must have been bigger than anything we can imagine. Most Sirens would have killed themselves, I think. The reason why Cathy didn’t was probably her stubbornness.” Roisin breathed. “She was restless for a while and moved from place to place until she ended up in New York. That city seems to have healing powers in some ways. She tried to get back to a normal routine and started getting into heart surgery. We ran into he
r a couple of times in the city. You feel the presence of another Siren in a crowd full of people. But she still prefers being on her own.”
I shuddered. That story explained a lot. I hadn’t really been in contact with the brutal side of us until now. Hearing her recount, I hoped it would stay with just hearing stories about it.
“But why was she in the cave then? If you actually have nothing to do with each other.” I had to ask again. It didn’t make sense.
“You ask too many questions, girl,” Roisin said. “But to answer it, we were all at a festival, and it’s a Siren’s duty to take care of a new one in the beginning.”
Annoying Roisin was the last thing I wanted, so to change the subject, I asked when she had started to dye her hair. I’ve debated a few times, whether I should go blonde for a while.
“A few years ago,” she pursed her lips. “Having the same style of short hair got a little boring after a while. I used to have nice long hair. I should have noticed that after my transformation, I never had to go to the hairdresser. First, it always looked good and second, it didn’t grow longer. But I wanted a change, and so I cut it. And guess what? My hair never grew back. Or so slowly, that I haven’t noticed it yet.”
“Well, good that you told me about this before I decided to cut my hair.” I couldn’t believe that they wouldn’t warn me of something like that.
“Oops, sorry.” She shrugged her shoulders apologetically. “I guess there are things that become so normal after a while that we forget to mention them. And it’s not like we wouldn’t have warned you if you came and said that you were going to the hairdresser.”
At that moment, the first raindrops started falling, and we hurried back to the cottage. By the time we arrived, we were soaked. We put on dry clothes. Roisin borrowed some from Melissa.
“So, who is up for another game?” Melissa asked.
“No, you have definitely won enough for today,” Roisin protested; “you haven’t lost once.”
“You’ve won, too.”
“Only because I was teamed with you during Jassen.”
“Beginner’s luck,” I said.
We retired in front of the TV. Choices were The Notebook, Jumanji or CSI. Luke didn’t have a fair chance against three women, and so our choice was settled. We were watching The Notebook, while the rain pattered against the windows.
Since it rained the entire night, we had a TV marathon. On the next day, however, the others decided that I had to see the craziness of Black Friday sales. At first, I was a bit nervous about all the people, but I didn’t have to be. I had my last shot a few days ago, and I felt completely relaxed.
“You’re not coming, Luke?” I asked.
“First of all, I already didn’t like shopping as a human guy and now, being around people is pure torture for me. So, if you don’t want for me to get discovered by the Orbiters because I kill one or two humans, it’s better I stay home.”
“You really can’t get used to the heartbeats?”
“It’s like screeching on a blackboard. I just want to kill the noise,” he said, his face in agony by the mere thought of it.
“I guess I won’t throw any parties soon then.”
Winter slowly reached the Cape. The days turned from cold to freezing. This destroyed my illusion that at a beautiful beach I’d be able to walk around in my bikini all year long. What I surely couldn’t imagine happened on the sixth of December. It was the first time that year that snowflakes started falling out of the sky like thick cotton balls. Of course, I had seen snow in Switzerland every year since I could remember. Nevertheless, here at the beach I somehow expected that we would spend Christmas BBQ-ing under a palm tree rather than in front of a fireplace. Then, I remembered something about the equator and how I am still on the northern side of the earth.
I’ve always loved the first real snow of the year. But it was indeed something special to watch how the sand dunes got covered by the white flakes.
In this weather, I quit riding the bicycle and started running everywhere.
I enjoyed being with other people whenever I went to school or work. Not that Melissa and Luke were boring, but we were living like hermits, and it didn’t get any better now in winter. The cape was pretty much abandoned.
Christmas approached, and my thoughts wandered to my family more frequently. We always celebrated Christmas with the cousins and grandparents. Our house used to be filled with a wonderful atmosphere. I wondered whether this year, they would also have happy smiles on their faces, illuminated by candlelight. It would be my first Christmas away from home, and at the moment I missed my family terribly. So, I did something rather unhealthy and created a Facebook profile after all. I typed in my parents’ names and simply stared at their profile picture. I tried to mentally make them come to life as if we were in a video chat. But, of course, nothing happened. I did the same thing with my sister; whose profile was slightly less private. The first thing I saw was a post of a picture of her and me riding a camel at the zoo. I underestimated the impact a picture of a shared memory would have on me. I sucked in some air and held my breath, trying not to start crying right away. I miss you sissy <3 hope you are well wherever you are! This was too much. Tears started streaming down my face. I missed her, too! I wanted to write her then and there but knew that I couldn’t. I was different now, neither the same person nor the same body they used to know. I believed the Sirens now when they said it was best if I stayed dead to them.
Back at school, Phe was the first who noticed my silver charm bracelet, which Melissa and Luke had given to me for Christmas. It came with two charms: a small bicycle for my American life and a little chocolate bar for my old life.
“Well, I get the bicycle but what about the chocolate bar? You don’t eat chocolate.”
“I eat European chocolate. Real Swiss and Belgian chocolate, not the imported kind. It’s so good.” I raved.
“Sorry if American chocolate isn’t good enough for you.” Sam mocked me.
“On the other hand, Europeans can’t make donuts with holes. They always tasted like plastic.” Which was true but didn’t really matter to me anymore now.
Chapter 14
Life continued, and a sense of normality began to settle over me. I went to school and work, I started taking driver’s ed classes, I spent time with my friends, and I got my monthly shots. On a few occasions, I expanded my running radius and escaped to the southern part of the US to profit from a milder winter. One night, after the closing shift, I didn’t feel like going home straight away. So, I randomly strolled through the city. Most streets were deserted, as it was early in the morning and so it was a bit odd to feel the presence of a heart in an alley. When I got closer, I realized that it was someone in a car that had crashed into a street light. The hood looked pretty squished, and there were fumes rising from it. I approached the driver’s side to see whether the person was hurt and saw that a guy was sitting in there. And that’s all he did. Sit there and stare at the steering wheel, his hands still on the wheel. I guess he was in a state of shock.
“Hey, are you ok?” I knocked on the window.
No reaction, so I opened the door, which worked surprisingly well.
“Are you ok?” I asked again. As I was having a closer look at him, my heart skipped a few beats, and I rested immobile for a few seconds. It was the cute guy from the university with eyelashes with a length that women would kill for. Just as I had managed to forget about him, he had to show up again. His lips were full, and half opened, and for a moment, I felt a burning urge to kiss him. This was rather confusing. I shook my head and then tried to take in more of the scene. I realized that the whole leg room was squashed in and one of his legs got caught in it. Blood was streaming down in big rivers.
“Oh God, we have to call an ambulance,” I said.
Still no reaction from his part. I wondered how long he had been sitting here already. I took out my phone and called 911. Then, he awakened out of his trance. He stared at his le
g, and all of a sudden violently started pulling on it. It only looked as if he would jam the broken car parts further into his leg.
“I have to get out of here!” He yelled over and over.
“Okay, okay, calm down.” I touched his shoulder.
For a moment, he looked at me, as if, for the first time, he had realized that somebody was here. He stared at me with his shiny eyes for a moment too long, which made me feel a bit uneasy. However, he didn’t show any sign of recognition because an instant later, he went back to pulling on his leg.
“Wait, I’ll help you,” I insisted. I was afraid he would amputate his leg otherwise.
And then, the really most embarrassing thing of my life happened. I mean, in my clumsy way, I’ve caused a lot of embarrassing moments for myself. Yet, this one definitely made it to the top of the list. I bent down, to get better access to his foot and leg and as I was trying to feel my way around the car wreck. I tried to push the metal back, but it wasn’t possible. Then, I wanted to pull my arm back, but to my horror, my arm got stuck too. I couldn’t move because I felt how with every move, the metal would cut into my skin. Ouch, it hurt. It hurt, and I saw the metal cut deeply into my flesh. I should have been prepared for this, but I was irritated because there was no blood. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the guy hadn’t noticed it as well. But out of all the moments he could have paid attention before that, he picked this one. His eyes narrowed because he tried to get a closer look, so I moved my other arm to cover up the one that was stuck. There was some blood on it now, but that came from his leg. Luckily, then the ambulance arrived, and they found me stuck with my arm bent down to the legroom of some guy’s car. I was glad I was at least wearing decent work clothes. I didn’t want to give a wrong impression. Of course, when they came closer, they saw what was going on and called the firemen. One of the paramedics tried to move around me as much as possible to have a look at the bloody mess of the guy’s leg and my arm. I explained to him, what had happened since the guy fell back into his state of shock. Then, a small firefighter car arrived. A few minutes later, they managed to bend the metal back, so that I could pull my arm out. Shortly after that, they freed the guy’s legs as well. I tried to hide my arm from the paramedics by wrapping it in my shirt. Of course, they wanted to have a look at it.
