by Giger, S. L.
“I guess I have been too awestruck by Dr. Palmer being in front of us in flesh and blood.” Then, I threw my arms around Sam and hugged him tightly. “I’m so glad we are okay.”
He returned the hug. “It’s so good to see you. I wondered about you often.”
“Same.” I smiled and looped my arm into his to walk toward the exit gate with him. “It’s good to have a friend like you. Even though we couldn’t speak in so long and so much has happened it still feels great to talk to you.”
He nodded. “I’ll stay around a while and see that my family is getting settled again. I expect you to hang out with me daily.”
I chuckled. “I’ll make room in my busy agenda.” But he was right, it would take a while until the places we lived in would feel as homey again as before. “But speaking of family, I have to go now and see how my boyfriend is doing.”
“I should see where all my little trouble making brothers went as well.” Sam nodded and squeezed my shoulder. I strode into the firehouse toward the exit. Indeed, the gate was open, and people were walking out with packages of personal belongings below their arms. I filed into the queue and could thankfully leave the shelter again after only a couple of nights. People were happily chatting with each other and the mood was relaxed. All the tension from the square gone – as if it had never been there in the first place. Similar to having the first day of sunshine in a long, long time on which people could finally go outdoors. Some of the people streamed to their cars, which had been parked for probably the longest stretch of time in the streets surrounding the shelter. Many people were walking home as well since they had been brought here by the vans of the VCP.
Once I was in an unseen spot, I took off at Siren speed to head home as well. That was the only place which made sense where Roisin would bring Alex.
Chapter 21
The closer I got to our house, the more the tension inside me loosened up. I felt Alex’s heart, and he was alright. I strode into the living room, finding Luke, Roisin and Alex engrossed in a conversation. My plan had been to get to Alex as quickly as possible to finally be able to fall into his arms. However, now that I saw him and Roisin together, the tension that had lifted was replaced with an exhausted emptiness. I had been so worried about them and they both had entered the center of the danger zone out of their own free will. These thoughts combined with the exhaustion from the pretense game in the shelter and the singing were too much for me to take. Instead of happily falling around Alex’s neck, I surprised myself with doing the opposite. I attacked him screaming and shouting, hitting his chest and his face. His eyes widened in shock and he tried to catch my arms to pin them down. He caught my wrists and with a bit of force was able to push them away, leaving me standing there with tears flooding down my face. Roisin had touched my shoulder in this fight with an unsuccessful attempt to pull me back and Luke had watched with a cringed expression.
“What were you thinking?” I yelled at Alex once more. “And you!” I turned to Roisin with a frenzied look, “We were looking for you for months. Then, we find you working with the enemy herself and you don’t even try to explain any of it.” I ripped my arms free from Alex’s grip and took a step back.
Roisin pressed her lips together for a moment until all the redness had vanished. “I couldn’t. I never even meant to join those vicious people. Don’t you think I wanted to return to you or at least let you know I was alright? I was trapped in there,” she said through gritted teeth, her Irish accent breaking through a little.
“But what happened?” I wiped across my face with the back of my hand.
“I went to look for the Minotaurs and I found Tarik’s cave. Only, that was still surveilled and so, before I knew it, I was surrounded by an army of VCP men. Luckily, I can be quite convincing and probably my Siren aura helped me a bit as well. I persuaded them that I worked for the same team as them and was there to look for something. They were skeptical but, in the end, they believed me that I had a secret mission about which they weren’t allowed to know. Then, three of them escorted me to London.” Her eyes widened. “They never left me alone for a second. There is so much security and so many people watching you but somehow, I was accepted into the VCP as if I had been working there for a long time. They even put me among the closest trustees of Dr. Palmer. Believe me, it was not fun to have to look at this gross dirtbag every day. In the beginning, it was incredibly hard to suppress the urge to kill him.” The words flowed out of Roisin like a waterfall. “At some point, I realized it was Monica who was influencing him and had all the strings in her hand. Then, I strongly hoped you would somehow find out about this as well and find a way to stop her from the outside. Because once you are in the inner circle, you couldn’t do anything about it. Every day I was walking through a minefield. I wouldn’t have stood a chance against them. One wrong move and I’d have been dead.” She exhaled.
I swallowed, softening a little. “How did you survive then?” It had been hard enough to find suitable hearts for us out here. How could she get to her adrenaline?
Roisin rubbed her temples. “I think I’ll need a shrink to forget those images.” She frowned. “Do you really want to know?” She looked me directly in the eyes and I nodded, my own eyes widening.
“Sometimes, with the more private executions, they didn’t even care about doing a proper job. I took it upon myself to clean up after the shootings. If they weren’t dead right away, I could steal some of the remaining adrenaline from them. It didn’t fill my needs, but it kept me alive. So, that’s the next thing on my agenda.”
“Oh man.” I sighed. “I’m glad you are back.” I took a step toward her.
“It’s great to finally be out of there. To be able to take a breath without thinking it could accidentally be some poisonous gas. Plus, that singing of yours,” she shook her head, “looks like I have missed quite a lot!” One corner of her mouth lifted into a weary smile and we stepped into a tight embrace. Only now it dawned on me, that the old Roisin I knew always had a huge smile spread across her face, but now smiling seemed like an effort for her. The past months had managed to leave their mark on her too.
“There are some other things you missed as well.” Once Melissa was back, Roisin would surely wonder why Cathy hadn’t shown up yet. I threw a glance at Luke who slightly shook his head. “But it will take a while to fill you in on those.”
“About you, Mister,” I focused on Alex again, “you were reckless. Did you believe you’d somehow magically get out of that situation yourself or did you think we’d come to save you? That was so close!” I held my thumb and index finger a millimeter apart. I didn’t care that the others were present and were hearing our argument.
“I know. I was there,” he said drily. “I had faith. In you and everyone, and in myself that it would turn out alright.”
“But you didn’t have to do that. We were creating a plan.”
“Nathalie,” he said softly and took a step toward me. I let him take my hand and he rubbed my skin. “While you were out and about talking to people and making plans, I had a lot of time to think here. I had so much time to worry about you. I mean, you at least always had a clear idea of where I was but for me, it was pretty similar to the situation with Roisin. I never knew where you were, whether you were safe and if you’d even come back.”
I sucked in my lower lip. “But I always came back.”
He laughed in a frenzy, “But I never knew that. So, by going to the shelter, I could kill two birds with one stone,” he continued. “First, nobody had to waste time finding something to eat for me anymore. Second, I could have some kind of influence as well. I wanted to contribute.” He grimaced. “To be honest, I wasn’t expecting they’d kill me but luckily, nothing happened.” He smiled at me with his jaw clenched.
I pulled my hand out of his and crossed my arms in front of me. “Yeah, luckily the whistle worked. I stood there watching you being shot and it was so petrifying, that I couldn’t help you.”
; He puffed his cheeks. “It was a bit close, but Roisin told me when to blow the whistle. On my own, I probably couldn’t have timed it correctly.” He sent a gratifying look at Roisin. Then he looked at me again. “Come on, Nat, it’s over now and we can be together. I love you and you love me and that’s all that matters, isn’t it?”
I sighed, closing my eyes, some more tears escaping out of them.
“So, let’s not waste more time in a bad mood.” He reached below my chin and made me look into his eyes. “We should celebrate that we are all united again and the curse of Dr. Palmer is over.”
I gave a short laugh. “We should. And I do love you but how can I know you won’t do something irresponsible again at the first chance you get because you want to prove something to yourself?”
“The past few months were an exceptional time for humanity. In the normal daily life, I don’t have to make such choices. I’m fine with finding a job in a lab, researching things which you find boring and spending all my money on the things you can buy in the shops which I had to forego in the past months.” He rolled his eyes while thinking about some delicacies.
“You’re already thinking about normality. It might take a while until we get back to that.”
“Perhaps it was your singing. It was magical. It made me forget everything that was bad. I don’t even remember how I got to this house.”
“That’s how we Sirens are,” Roisin said. “Making people lose their heads. I want to learn that.”
“Maybe, I should open up a school,” I said and took Alex’s cheek in my hand. His face was warm and his eyes shining with optimism. Relief flooded me again that the bullet hadn’t hit him. Then, he pulled me closer and we kissed as if we hadn’t seen each other in a year and we had to make up for all the lost kisses during that time.
Luke cleared his throat. “Let’s leave them alone and see how the others are progressing in the meantime.”
I didn’t notice as they left the room but at some later point, when my lips were tingling from all the contact, I realized we were alone in the room. We relocated into my bedroom, never letting go of each other. Each caress pushed the worries and bad feelings further away and each touch and kiss filled my body with more joy. I wouldn’t have thought it possible but almost having lost him, intensified my feelings for Alex even more. I loved feeling his pressure on me, I loved the soft scratching of his beard stubbles on my skin. I loved every little piece of him to the extent that every cell in my body wanted to declare my love to him.
Even after making love, we lay entangled into each other. Neither of us wanted to move one inch away from the other. Like that, Alex finally dozed off into a relaxed sleep, giving me the opportunity to fully indulge in the familiar thudding of his heart.
“Have you talked to your dad?” I asked Alex at some point during the night. My head was lying on his chest and my hand across his stomach, his warm arm around my bare shoulders.
“I didn’t have time yet in between the shelter and when you attacked me.” He squeezed me a bit tighter against his chest. “But Luke said we should wait before doing anything further until Samantha could give us an update. When will you go to your family, now that you've completed the task of the Orbiters?”
I rolled onto my back, pulling the cover up to my neck and stared at the ceiling. “Somehow, I don’t think I should go back.”
“Why?” He leaned onto his elbow. “If my mom would magically be alive again now, I’d want her to come back right away too.”
“What if she’d been hiding with a new family all those years? If she had new kids and only got in touch again to talk to you from time to time?”
He lightly flicked my forehead. “You are being idiotic. I was at her funeral. She didn’t mean to die and be taken away from us.”
“Neither did I, but still I haven’t talked to them in all this time. So much has happened. I feel at home here with you now. I wouldn’t want to go back and live with them. On top of that, I couldn’t because someone else might notice I’m not human anymore. And Dr. Palmer has taught me one thing; If people can already be made to believe magic is evil, if they aren’t even sure it exists, they would be very skeptical if they met someone like me. I do have special powers which I could demonstrate to them, but how could they accept that I need to kill people to stay alive?”
“Perhaps you wouldn’t have to tell them everything. However, with the serum new Sirens won’t have to look for dying people.”
“That’s great, yes.” I rolled onto my side to face him. “We’ll have to spread the word across the Siren world, so they start using the serum as well. You know how isolated Sirens are. It won’t be easy to find them all and convince them of a new method.”
“I’m sure you’ll think of a way.” He kissed the tip of my nose.
“You’ll be busy making it and writing down how it works so others can create it.” We were both quiet, thinking about our own thoughts.
“So, will the Orbiters throw you a thank you dinner?” Alex asked after a while.
“They are too embarrassed to thank me,” I said a bit dismissive.
“About what?”
I rolled on top of Alex and told him what I had heard in the parallel universe.
“Maybe, they shouldn’t be ruling your world then.” Alex narrowed his eyes.
“They aren’t ruling it. They don’t expect us to treat them like kings. I do believe they above all want to make sure nothing bad is happening. And I’m glad I don’t have this responsibility all the time. The past few months were enough by far.”
Alex frowned.
“Are you still tired?” I asked. It was around three in the morning.
“No.” He chuckled. “I guess I don’t have to ask you this question back.”
“Then, let’s get up and see what the others have to tell us.”
“Yeah, because I should call my dad. I, on the other hand, still want to be in touch with them.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I’m someone else now. Someone I’m not sure my family would understand or like.” I got up from the bed, placing the right foot down on the ground first. An old habit. Not everything about my human self was dead.
“That’s ridiculous. Family is family.” I heard Alex say.
If I was honest, I liked the person who I was now better than the human I was before. I reached out for Alex’s hands and pulled him up, enclosing him in a hug. He and his kindness and optimism had contributed a lot to me not breaking down and giving up in the past months. I wanted to continue learning from Alex. He who was a simple human without any special powers and yet would risk his life or honor again and again to make the world a better place. I kissed him on the mouth a bit more passionate than before.
“What was that for?” he asked.
“Why? Am I not allowed to kiss my boyfriend when I want to?” I lead him toward the door. In this house, it was no question that the others would be awake at this time at night.
Chapter 22
Melissa and Roisin were talking on the couch like two sisters who hadn’t seen each other in ages. They both sat with their legs pulled up as it was a bit chilly at this time of night and the living room was lit by only a candle. I guess the power hadn’t fully come back on yet. We joined them, pulling the stools closer.
“So, what’s the situation?” I asked Melissa.
“It looks like Gregory has full control over Dr. Palmer. All his next TV appearances will be dedicated to spreading the wonderful message that they have found a cure against the night flu. Then, the ministry of the wizarding world will make some propaganda to make magic mystical and dreamy again.” Melissa puffed invisible fireworks in the air with her fingers.
“So, can I call my dad now?” Alex asked.
“Wait a moment.” I jumped in. “What about people’s memories? How much have they forgotten about Alex’s conviction and execution? And who?” I was talking about the people who watched it on TV as well.
Me
lissa’s face broke into a smile. “When Samantha awoke from her trance from your singing, she quickly got her head together and started her spell. She replaced everyone’s memory from the Orleans shelter with a different one. Since the TV cameras were still on, she could also teleport the charm through the TV across to the people who were watching. I imagine it to be quite difficult. We stood there for two hours while she planted those seeds into the heads of the people. Now, more wizards joined her. The magic ban is officially over. They are making sure across the world that everybody forgets about your execution,” she looked at Alex. “And your singing of course.” She winked at me.
“What was it like?” I bit my lower lip. “I was too distracted to notice.”
“Well, you did an excellent job,” Melissa replied. “It was as if you were chanting a slow-motion spell. Nobody moved anymore but gawked at you. Even Samantha. Luke and I were a bit worried they wouldn’t be able to fulfill the second part of the plan. Luckily, they then woke up like everyone else once you stopped singing but then, I lost you in the crowd.”
“And then? Were the people confused or did Samantha’s spell hit right away?” I asked. “How come we remember?”
“Samantha didn’t include us into her spell.” Melissa wet her lips. “I only saw how a mob of people moved into your direction but hoped you’d get out of there yourself. They were more walking like remotely-controlled people than as if they were thinking straight.”
“So, my family won’t remember a thing about me being on TV and so on?” Alex exhaled, and his shoulders sank down. I squeezed his knee with my hand.
Melissa shook her head. “They shouldn’t. But why don’t you wait until Samantha is back? So, you don’t need to have the same conversation twice.”
“Ah, I wouldn’t care. The main thing is to make sure they are okay.” He got up taking his phone out of his pocket and disappeared into our bedroom.
