Wild Keepers

by Dee Bridgnorth

  He kept running. She was fast. He was just managing to keep track of her. He filled his lungs with air and sprinted faster. If he wanted to he could outrun her, of course. He could channel the pace of the wolf. But in such a crowded street he didn’t want people to remember the man with superhuman pace. People were already noticing and would probably talk about the pursuit.

  She veered down another alleyway. He quickly turned left.

  It was empty.

  He stopped, abruptly, panting hand. How had she disappeared? Then he saw a flash of blue, from up high. Her coat. She was climbing an outside ladder attached to a building. He leapt onto it, scrambling up quickly.

  She peered down at him briefly. He stared up at her. What was she going to do?

  And then, he knew. She crouched, and leapt onto a ledge to the right, landing like a cat on all fours. She hesitated briefly, then tumbled through a broken window, into the building.

  He leapt onto the ledge and flew through the window, blinking. It was dark. An abandoned warehouse, much like his home before they had fixed it up. This one was decrepit, covered in broken debris. Long trails of dusty cobwebs fell from the roof.

  There was a loud thump. She was jumping over the debris scattered across the floorboards. He took a deep breath and followed her, weaving amongst it.

  Suddenly, she misjudged a jump, and tripped, sprawling onto her stomach. She tried to rise and keep going but couldn’t suppress a squeal of pain. She had hurt herself.

  He approached her, panting heavily. She raised fearful eyes towards him.

  He crouched down next to her, staring at her.

  “Well?” she whispered bitterly. Her brown eyes seemed to swallow her whole face. “You’ve done it. Congratulations.”

  He kept staring at her, his eyes almost drinking her in. She was even more beautiful than the photograph he had of her. But she was also pale and scared. Frightened almost out of her mind. She winced as he leaned closer towards her, trying to back away.

  “Sienna Carter?” he asked gently. “I’m sorry you’ve been hurt. I didn’t want to run after you like that and make you panic.”

  She drew in a quick breath. “Sure. What do you care if I’m injured? As long as you can drag me back to him.”

  Zach shook his head, quickly. “You’ve got it all wrong. I’m not here to drag you back to anyone.”

  She sat up, slowly, wincing again as pain tore through her. She warily stared at him. “Then why have you been asking questions about me? And why did you run after me?”

  Zach sighed. “A friend of yours is worried about you. She hired me to try to find you.”

  She kept staring at him. “What friend?”

  “Julia,” he said. “Julia Ford. You used to live with her, apparently. And she’s almost out of her mind with worry about where you are, and if you are safe.”

  Sienna’s eyes filled briefly with tears. But she blinked them away quickly. She was silent, watching him.

  Zach hesitated. “You do know Julia, don’t you?”

  Sienna nodded slowly. “Yeah, I know her.”

  He sat down, gazing at her. “Sienna, you can trust me. I’m here to help you. I’m not a part of whatever it is you are hiding from.”

  Sienna’s face twisted. Then she laughed, bitterly. The sound of it filled the empty warehouse, bouncing around the walls. She stopped abruptly.

  “You are good,” she said, gazing at him. Her large brown eyes were unfathomable. “To use Julia. Oh, you people are clever. But you see, you can’t use Julia and expect me to roll over for you.”

  Zach frowned, staring at her.

  Sienna took a deep breath. “I once loved Julia. But I am very much aware that Julia isn’t my friend, and probably never was.”

  Chapter Four

  Sienna watched him walk across the cheap motel room before finally sitting down on a threadbare chair near a mirror. He ran his hands through his black hair, staring at her. She assumed her neutral default expression, gazing out the window at the street below. She wasn’t about to give away anything.

  She had shut down, refusing to talk to him. A sense of complete hopelessness overwhelmed her, and she was suddenly very tired. She had put up a fight; she had tried to outrun him. If it wasn’t for tripping over that rubbish on the ground and twisting her ankle she may have succeeded. As it was, she couldn’t do a damn thing anymore. Betrayed by her body, yet again.

  He had picked her up and carried her to this motel, at the end of the alleyway. He had placed her on the bed, propping up her injured ankle with pillows. He had even applied an ice pack of sorts. Already it was starting to throb less.

  He had kept asking her questions, of course. But she had refused to answer anymore. Whatever story he was spinning about why he had been following her was all a pack of lies. Although why he had taken her here rather than straight back to him was strange.

  Maybe he wanted her in full working order. Maybe he feared what the man would say when he realised that his precious pet had been brought back injured. Maybe.

  Zach was his name. Zach Byrnes. He had told her as he carried her to the motel, as if he was introducing himself to her at a party. As if he hadn’t been running after her like a predator stalking its prey. It probably wasn’t his real name, but that was no concern of hers. Aliases abounded in this neck of the woods, and she was used to people assuming other identities. Jenny had become Lola. A lot of the girls at the house took on more exotic names. She knew it was to separate themselves, just a little, from what they did. Keep some part of themselves private, and sacrosanct.

  Sienna sighed, still staring out the window. This Zach had asked her if he could take her back to where she was staying, but she had pressed her lips firmly shut, refusing to answer him. As if she would tell him where she had been staying. It would put one of her only dear friends in danger, and she would never do that. She knew that as soon as she was returned the man would destroy him for harbouring her if he knew.

  And so, here they were. In a cheap motel room. He was interrogating her, as if he didn’t already know the answers to everything. Why he was playing this game was beyond her, but she knew that he would soon tire of it. And return her. The thought of it twisted in her stomach like a knot.

  She slid her eyes over to him. He was leaning back in the chair, obviously frustrated. She felt a stab of pleasure at the thought. She wasn’t going to make it easy for him. Why should she? Let him sweat it out. She didn’t owe him a damn thing. So, he had rescued her. So what? If it hadn’t been for him she wouldn’t have needed to be rescued in the first place.

  And he was only doing this to milk information from her. About who had been helping her. Pretend that he was on her side, so that she would talk. The supposed rescue was a trap, and she knew it.

  He turned to stare at her suddenly. A bolt of awareness shot through her. He was a handsome son of a bitch, she would give him that.

  “Why do you claim Julia isn’t your friend?” he asked slowly. She felt like those intense brown eyes were pinning her to the bedpost.

  Sienna tightened her lips. She gazed at him insolently.

  But behind the surly expression her mind was spinning. The thought of Julia and that time in her life. Suddenly, it was as if it had only happened yesterday, and she was once again the girl that she had been before it had all gone spiralling out of control…

  ***

  She had been sixteen when she had decided she’d had enough of the last foster home she’d been placed in. One dull fall morning she had gazed out onto the street and known that she couldn’t do it anymore. She had broken the ceramic piggy bank on the dressing table that she had been feeding with money for over six months and took it all. Stuffing a small backpack full of as many clothes that she could fit, she climbed calmly out the window. She didn’t look back once.

  At first, she had wandered aimlessly. Drifted around the city, until she had found herself on Mission Street. People didn’t ask questions there. If you paid them what yo
u owed, they left you alone. She knew that the streets here were filled with teenage runaways like her. Looking for a place to sleep for a night or two. Maybe something more, if they got lucky.

  Her money lasted for exactly two weeks. One day she had reached into her purse and found it empty. She had been staying in a cheap hostel, but it still cost, and she had to fork out another weeks’ rent if she intended to stay. That wasn’t possible, now.

  What she needed was a job. Maybe she could waitress or clean dishes. Anything. For two days she walked into every rundown diner and restaurant that she saw, but nobody was hiring. At the end of the two days she had sat down on a park bench and cried. She was so hungry it was gnawing at her like a mouse on a wheel of cheese.

  And that was when Julia had come into her life. Sweeping into it like a fairy godmother.

  Sienna had been dazzled by the beautiful woman smiling down at her, asking her gently if she was alright. She had never seen anyone quite like her before. She was dressed in an almost theatrical way, as if she was about to step onto a stage and perform. All she could focus on at first was the luxurious velvet coat she wore, with a high-necked fur collar. Her exotic perfume had wafted towards her, an overpowering scent of roses. Her eyelids were heavily painted in blue with heavy black eyeliner sweeping upwards, like Cleopatra, or some other famous person.

  Sienna had stared up at her, spellbound. Who was she?

  Julia had sat down beside her and started chatting. Sienna had found herself telling her the whole sorry story of her life. How she had never known her parents. How she had been brought up in foster homes, one worse than the next. But she had hesitated to tell this smiling stranger about the darkest secret of her life. About the visions that tormented her. They had only recently started, and she was still coming to terms with the fact that she was probably crazy.

  Julia had taken her back to her house, telling her that she was welcome to stay as long as she wanted. It was a huge two-storey house. Several other women lived there, all dressed as exotically as Julia. But they were friendly to her, and Sienna had relaxed. Julia had given her a meal, and then led her to a small room. She was so exhausted she had slept for an entire day.

  It was only after a week of being there that she had realised what it was. That this house was not just a home but a business. She had wondered idly about the constant stream of male visitors coming in and out, but hadn’t questioned it, at first. She had been so innocent it was laughable.

  Julia hadn’t pressured her, to start with. She had insisted that Sienna was welcome to stay, with no strings attached. But then it had all started to change, of course. Subtle hints, then downright demands. But she had resisted it all. She couldn’t possibly do what the other girls did. She just couldn’t.

  Not that she blamed them. She knew they were just like her, or once had been. Scared. Out of options. The lure of easy money and a safe place to sleep. Food on the table. She never judged them. They were just girls like her, making the best out of what the world had decided to dish out to them. And some of them had become her friends. Like Lola.

  She had stayed in that place for four years. As the cleaner. She would make the beds and scrub the floors. But Julia never stopped pressuring her to do what the other girls did. Especially when some of the clients commented how pretty she was.

  It was Lola who told her to stand by her decision. Lola, who fought like a tigress for her. Lola, who stood up to Julia, telling her to leave Sienna alone. Lola was one of the reasons that she had never left. And besides, it was better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.

  But the visions had increased until it was impossible to hide them. They would come on her anytime of the day or night. When Lola had first witnessed one, she had told Sienna afterwards that she had been raving during it. Talking about what was going to happen. That was when she realised that the visions weren’t random.

  She was seeing the future—or a version of it.

  And then other things had started happening. She would brush past someone and know something about them. Or something that was going to happen to them. And it would always prove correct. Once she had playfully punched one of the girls then was overwhelmed by the sense that Sara was sick in her stomach. Sure enough, that very night the girl had to be rushed to the hospital with an acute case of appendicitis.

  And then there were the constant dreams. That she was some kind of a bird, soaring through the sky. After a while it had started appearing in the visions. She would be observing what was happening not as herself. She would be watching from above, circling around. Sometimes she would stretch out a wing and flap or open her mouth and hear a shrill chirp emerge.

  She hated it. As soon as she would feel it coming on her, she would fight it. She was obviously crazy; a desperate freak. She despised herself. Another reason she decided to never leave the house. How could she survive in the real world? She would be committed to an asylum. Forced to spend the rest of her life in a strait jacket, thinking she was a bird. And while Julia and the girls were often scared and concerned about what she endured, they tolerated it. Sometimes Julia would advise her that she should see a doctor, but that was all.

  She was coping. Hanging on by the skin of her teeth. And she probably would have stayed there, if it wasn’t for him.

  He was a client of the house, of course. Just another rich and powerful man who frequented the parlour before choosing his girl for the night as if he was reaching his hand into a lucky dip. She took as much notice of him as she did of the others, which was simply none. Who the clients were held no interest for her. As long as she was left alone she was happy. Well, as happy as she had ever imagined she could be. It was dangerous to have too high expectations of life, after all.

  He had witnessed a vision come upon her one day, and he had realised that she saw the future. At first, he had left her alone. But then he had started asking Julia about her, and the other girls. Lola told her about it. How he had asked her who the cleaning girl was, how often she had her visions, and what she saw. Lola had been guarded, but Julia wasn’t.

  Julia was a Judas. She had sold her for thirty pieces of silver without even batting one of her false eyelashes.

  They had bundled her up one day. Dragged her kicking and screaming from the house. Lola had tried to stop them, fighting them tooth and nail, but they had thrown her across the room as if she was a rag doll. They had taken her to his huge home and set her up in her own room. The first night she had cried herself to sleep. What did he want from her?

  But it turned out it wasn’t what he wanted from the other girls, like Lola; or not only that. She had made sure he would never touch her that way from the beginning, feeding him lies that he had swallowed like honey to protect herself. What he wanted was his own personal fortune teller. He asked her questions about something and then wait for her to have a vision. He realised that everything she told him proved correct. And so, she became his pet soothsayer. More valuable to him than anything. It had gotten to the stage that he rarely made a decision without consulting her first.

  She was his slave. She would never be free of him. For she knew what he was now. How he was not only rich and powerful but evil, as well. He would never let her go.

  And she hated herself even more. If only she wasn’t like this. If only she were a regular woman, with no power to see the future. Then she would be left alone. Free, to live her life as she wanted.

  But she had never had a chance. Just like Lola and the other girls, her fate had been decided long ago. She was a freak. A woman who could see the future through a bird’s eye. Maybe that was why her real parents had abandoned her when she was born. Maybe they had sensed what she was, or would become, and wanted no part of it.

  No one could ever truly love her. That was why she had been moved from foster home to foster home, never able to sustain a relationship. Why they wanted her out of their homes. They had all sensed it, too.

  And now, Lola was gone. One of her only friends in this wo
rld. She knew the man’s secret, as well. Why he had done what he did to Lola. Was that another reason he was searching for her so avidly? Because he realised that she had overheard and had seen what he did to Lola?

  ***

  Sienna stirred on the bed. She had to get out of here. If it wasn’t for her damn ankle she could wait until this Zach character had to go to the bathroom and flee.

  She sighed. She was sick of running and hiding, but what choice did she have? For the first time, she realised that the man might kill her. He might decide that having his pet psychic was less important than keeping her mouth shut. Permanently.

  A frission of fear shuddered through her. She had to leave this forsaken city entirely. She should never have sought refuge in its streets. Not only was she putting the person who had harboured her at risk, but she was a sitting duck here. Look how easily this Zach had found her. She kicked herself for following him. If she had kept her distance, she wouldn’t be lying on this stinking motel bed with a busted ankle.

  Crazy, stupid, weak. She hauled herself over the coals, calling herself every name under the sun. A freak with a limp now. What else could go wrong?

  He was still talking, but she no longer heard him or even had the strength to look at him. She closed her eyes. Why didn’t he just take her back, and be done with it? Why was he insisting on putting on this act?

  Her thoughts started to melt away. She was so very tired. She would nap just for a little while. She couldn’t go anywhere, anyway. And it might refresh her for the storm that was surely to come.

  As sleep blessedly swept her away, she switched dimensions, as swiftly as a camera changing focus. She was the bird again. For a little while, there was nothing but the open air, and she was soaring through it, staring down at the earth below.

  ***

  Zach watched her close her eyes, trying to stifle the impulse to go over to the bed and shake her. Had she really fallen asleep, or was she pretending?