by Jada Cox
“Stop pacing. You’re making me nervous,” he mumbles through a mouth full of food. “Besides, checking the fridge every three minutes isn’t going to magically cook some bacon.”
Kalino laughs, but I can’t shake the weird feeling in my stomach.
“If you’re looking for Rosana,” says Vittorio, coming down the stairs, “her car isn’t in the driveway.” I frown.
“She probably needed to get something from town,” says Kalino, shrugging and chugging a glass of water. “Don’t worry, G, she’ll turn up eventually.”
“I don’t know,” Adelmo, who’s just entering the kitchen, says, pouring himself a bowl of milk.
“What do you mean?” I ask, feeling my stomach sink a little.
He shrugs and takes a moment to gather his words. “I felt a … shift … in the energy around the house this morning … I’m not sure what it was. I wonder whether perhaps it has something to do with her absence.”
I rub my chin and wonder whether I should be worried. Perhaps Rosana just needed some time alone and went for a drive. In that case, I should probably just wait until she gets back. I wouldn’t want to be a stalking boyfriend, just like her ex. I’m shaken out of my thoughts as Yelena comes downstairs.
“Morning, Papá,” she says, rubbing her eyes.
“Morning, love. Are you hungry?” I ask.
She nods, and I pour her a bowl of milk, adding one of the sweet cereals that she’s come to enjoy. She smiles up at me, hops up into one of the stools, and starts munching on her cereal. Kalino and Faustino finish their breakfast, setting their bowls in the sink.
“I’m off to work; I’ll be back around lunchtime. I’ll let you know if I see her in town,” says Faustino as he grabs the keys from Kalino and heads out the door.
“I’m going to get Emiliano and Ella’s room ready,” says Kalino, and he jogs upstairs, towards the largest room.
“Uncle Milio will love it!” squeaks Yelena as she slurps up the milk from the bottom of her bowl. When she’s done, she holds the bowl out to Vittorio, who takes it and puts it in the sink. “So will Aunty Ella and Cousin Casmir,” she adds, smiling.
Adelmo and I look at each other in wonder. “What do you mean by that, Lena?” I ask curiously.
But Yelena just smiles at me and hums. “Let’s play with the kitties, Papá,” she says, grabbing my finger and dragging me toward the gated-off den. We play with the kittens until lunchtime. Playing with my daughter distracts me a little, but the gnawing feeling in my stomach won’t go away.
“I’m hungry, Papá,” Yelena says, her little stomach rumbling with need. I pick her up and carry her to the kitchen, where I set her down on the counter and begin preparing a sandwich.
“I’m sorry that it’s nothing fancy, Lena.”
She laughs, a tinkling sound that fills me with happiness. “It’s OK, Papá. Momma Rosie will be back soon,” she says, taking a big bite.
I smile in relief. Maybe Rosana spoke to Yelena before leaving. I pat her head affectionately before making myself a sandwich and eating beside her. After she finishes eating, Yelena yawns and stretches, looking at me sleepily. I smile at her and pick her up to carry her upstairs and tuck her into bed for a nap.
We go through the motions of our routine, and still, Rosana hasn’t returned. The house feels empty, and so does my head. No delicious smells of cooking food waft up the stairs. There’s no excited giggling as Rosana and Yelena play hide and seek around the house or with the kittens. There are no stolen moments in the kitchen before my brothers come in for dinner.
Worry fills me, and my anxiety is definitely getting the better of me now. It doesn’t make sense that she would just leave like that. If she needed some time alone, she’d have come back by now.
I’m sitting on her bed when I hear it. A light beep beep beep. I follow the sound, searching until I find a little rectangular box on the floor under the edge of her bed, lying with its glass screen facing down. I frown, recalling Rosana playing games and listening to music on the little device. I take it downstairs in search of Kalino, who I find in the kitchen, drinking a glass of water.
“Hey, G, what’s up?” he asks, looking at the small device in my hand.
“Rosana calls it a phone. I found it under her bed. Do you know how to use it?” I ask.
He holds his hand out for the device, and I place it in his palm.
“It’s dead,” he says as he flips it around and inspects it. I frown at him. “I can charge it up, and we can see if it gives us any clues as to where she might be … If she left this, she was probably in a hurry. All of the humans I’ve seen are practically glued to their phones.”
I swallow hard, worry eating at my stomach. Suddenly, I can hear Yelena running down the stairs. She’s panting by the time she reaches the kitchen.
“Whoa there, slow down, Lena. What’s wrong?” I ask, staring into her expressive, emerald eyes.
“Momma Rosie, Papá,” she gasps.
My chest tightens with her words. “What about her, Lena?”
“Help. She needs help. We have to help her,” she sobs.
“Did you see something, sweetling?” I ask cautiously, rubbing her back to soothe her.
“She needs help!” she shouts, her eyes wide with fear. Her eyes start to go blank, shadows flashing in their shimmering depths. She screams, the sound chilling my blood. Her fangs grow, and her face begins to elongate into a draconic snout. I frame her face with my hands, looking into her eyes.
“Lena … Lena … YELENA!” I shout.
She blinks twice and reverts back to a more human visage as tears fall down her face. She collapses into my arms and begins sobbing uncontrollably. I look at Kalino’s frowning face.
“She probably had a vision. We need to find Rosana,” he says, standing up and grabbing a cord from a nearby drawer and plugging in the phone.
Adelmo comes rushing in from outside, looking around frantically. His eyes rest on Yelena, whose sobs have quieted by now. She sniffles and looks up at him in anguish, and his face crumbles.
“She had a vision,” he says plainly. “I felt the backlash. Whatever it is, it’s strong.”
“Rosana left her phone,” says Kalino, pointing at the now-charging device.
“Then she’s in trouble,” Adelmo says, frowning. “I’ll find Vittorio.” He turns and leaves the house in search of our elder brother. I frown down at Yelena’s angelic face, who has fallen asleep in my arms, and carry her to one of the couches in the sitting room, tucking a blanket around her shoulders.
Just as Vittorio, Adelmo, and Faustino walk into the house, the phone beeps, its screen lighting up. Kalino picks up the device and flicks between screens. He stops on one screen and presses a few icons before setting the phone down. A crackling sound plays from the speaker before the sound of heavy breathing fills the air, fading out as someone laughs in the background. I look at my brothers in worry. Finally, a voice fills the air.
“I told you that you couldn’t hide, little star. I suggest you leave before someone you care about gets hurt,” says a menacing voice. Chills race up and down my spine at the words. The voice laughs ominously just before the recording ends.
I look at my brothers grimly, anger filling my entire body.
“She must’ve run,” says Kalino quietly.
“Why the fuck would she run? We can protect her!” shouts Faustino, punching a hole in one of the kitchen walls.
“Yes, but she doesn’t know that, does she?” whispers Vittorio.
I start pacing, trying to get a clear head, but the thoughts are tumbling in my mind. Where the hell could she be?
“We have to find her,” says Adelmo, looking through the entryway at Yelena, who is sleeping on the sitting room couch, then at me. “Did she say anything?”
I shake my head. “Let’s go and check her room. Maybe she dropped something that can give us an idea of where she went,” I say.
I pound up the stairs, Vittorio, Adelmo, Faustino, and Kalin
o on my heels. We look under the furniture, move the pillows on her bed, shift the sheets, and check the drawers and the corner chair, but everything comes up empty. She’s taken everything with her. I walk dejectedly to my room, my brothers following behind me.
“What’s this?” asks Faustino, bending to pick a piece of paper off the floor. He frowns as he reads the flowing script lining the paper before shaking his head and handing it to me.
Dear Gino, I’m sorry to say this, but I have to go. I love you, and I love little Yelena. That’s why I must go. There are people who are hunting me, and I fear that they could use you or Yelena to hurt me. Please, don’t look for me. I love you more than anything. ~Forever yours, Rosana
Tears fill my eyes as I read the note. I clench it in my fist and fall back onto the bed. “She left.”
“We have to find her, G,” says Kalino. “You saw how inconsolable Yelena was. Something bad is going to happen if we don’t get to her before whoever this,” he waves the phone in the air, “is finds her.”
I nod and stand back up. “I just don’t know where she could possibly be. She’s been gone for hours; she could be anywhere!” I run a frustrated hand through my hair and start pacing the room in agitation.
Adelmo stands before me and places his hands on my shoulders. “You need to breathe, Gino,” he murmurs calmly.
I nod, taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out. He removes his hands from my shoulders before he speaks again. “Good. Now you need to think. You and Rosana were close. Most nights, you stayed up talking after the rest of us went to bed. She must have said something, mentioned a place where she felt safe. Something.”
I try to focus, thinking back to the night when we spoke about our families. “Yeah, wait. She—she mentioned a town that she lived in prior to her parents’ deaths.” I close my eyes and recall the mental image of that night. I remember the feel of her breath on my face and the taste of wine on her lips as she kissed me teasingly. “Sparr, Florida,” I say surely, my eyes popping open with the recollection.
Adelmo nods. “That’s where she went,” he says with certainty. I look at him, frowning, but he just smiles at me. “I got some echoes from Yelena’s vision, and the name, Sparr, feels right.”
Relief spreads through me. At least we have a plan now. I turn to face Kalino. “We can’t all go,” I say.
He nods before I finish speaking. “Faustino and I will stay here. We’ll look after Yelena and keep things running here.”
“We should fly there. We’ll have to wait until sunset so that we can use the cover of darkness,” Vittorio says.
I groan. I don’t like waiting at all; I want to take action now, but I know that Vittorio is making a good point, so I nod.
“How long will it take us?” I ask Kalino, who pulls up our destination using something that he refers to as GPS on Rosana’s phone.
“It says that it’s a little over 1,000 miles. Our maximum safe flight speed is approximately two to three hundred miles per hour. So, by that logic,” he pauses, “it should take you guys between three and five hours.”
“OK. It’s dark enough, let’s leave now,” I say.
But Kalino frowns, shaking his head. “No, it’s still too light out. Besides, you should take her phone, just in case you get blown off course.”
I frown in frustration, knowing he’s right. “Alright. How long will it take to charge fully?”
“About an hour. Which is enough time for you three to eat and for full darkness to settle in.”
I nod, settling down for an agonizing hour.
Chapter 15 - Rosana
I drive through the remainder of the night and the larger part of the next day, only stopping once to pee and grab a bite to eat and three times for gas. I drive on autopilot, retracting familiar roads once I find myself in the southern states. Every loud rumble of motorcycles makes me jump fearfully. After fifteen grueling hours of highway hustles, I find myself passing recognizable signs.
GAINESVILLE 50 MILES
I sigh in relief as I pass the sign. I’ll be home soon. From there, I can figure out how I’m going to deal with my Samael problem. The thought brings me a small sense of comfort.
A little while later, I pull into the familiar drive of my parents’ farmhouse. The sight of the building elicits happy memories of swinging on the tire hanging from the pecan tree out front. Despite the events of the past day, I can’t help but smile as I exit my car, swing my bag up on my shoulder, and traverse the overgrown driveway, pecans crunching under my feet. I stick my key—which for some reason, I have always kept on my keychain—in the lock, wiggling the stiff knob of the door to get it to open.
I don’t know why I came back here. It’s been a long time since I have set foot in this place, since I used to live here with my parents. For some reason, it was the only place that came to my mind when I thought of a new safe hiding place. A place where Samael will never find me.
I finally manage to unlock the door and lean against the heavy wooden beast to open it. I groan as I push against it, the effort straining my back. Memories of the door swinging open easily under my tiny hands assault my memory. I’ll have to grease the door; the hinges are probably just old. The thought brings me some comfort, even if it’s an uneasy truce with my memories. I switch on the lights hopefully, shocked to find the power still active. They reveal my childhood home as a nearly pristine time capsule. I run my fingers along the banister, frowning when I find no dust. I’m too exhausted to think too much about it and shake the worry from my mind as I head upstairs towards the attic bedroom. I collapse onto the full-sized bed of my childhood memories and look up at the gauzy curtains and pink castle peaks painted onto the railings that rise up from the base of the bed.
I recall begging my father for months to have a bed like a princess. I smile at the memory of coming home one day to find the white and pink rails painted like a fairytale castle, with lacy curtains trailing down. I sigh contentedly before drifting off to sleep.
I wake after only a couple of hours. The sun is setting outside, and I stretch my back and dig in my bag for toiletries and a change of clothes. I make my way to the bathroom perched in the corner of my attic room, stepping carefully into the claw-foot tub. I wash with Gino’s soap, the smell bringing both happy and sad feelings to me. He must have realized by now that I’m not coming back, that I’ve left him. I shake my head to get rid of the thought. At least Yelena is safe now.
I step out of the tub, dry, and get dressed before heading downstairs to assess the condition of my inheritance. I run my fingers along the banister as I enter the kitchen of our tiny farmhouse, frowning again at the lack of dust.
Even though it’s getting dark now, I decide to venture outside and check out the land by the moonlight. Beside a large pond sits a willow tree with a bench below it. I cock my head, certain that I’ve never seen that bench before. I walk on toward the stables and look on in amazement at the well-groomed horses inhabiting the newly painted stable. I’m a little shocked at the obvious upkeep. My parents must have designated a caretaker … it’s the only explanation. I worry my lip as I walk back towards the house, pecans crunching underneath my feet.
Back at the farmhouse, I jokingly open the fridge, only to have my jaw drop in amazement. The fridge is stocked with the essentials: eggs, milk, bacon, butter. I shake my head in astonishment, checking the dates to find everything fresh. What the hell is going on here? How is it possible that this house is in such excellent condition? Has somebody been waiting for me?
There’s a knock at the door, and I carefully creep towards it, a cast-iron skillet in my hand. I peek out of the small hole in the center of the door and frown, barely making out a small woman with a familiar-looking face. I open the door cautiously, holding the skillet behind my back.
“Hello?” I ask, keeping my face carefully neutral.
The woman’s face breaks out into a grin. “They were right!” she exclaims.
I frown at her as she pushe
s her way in. “Ehm—who was right?” I ask carefully.
“The seers, of course! They said that our star would return to us this week! I didn’t believe them, the loons can sometimes get their timing messed up, but it’s better to prepare and have no one show up than to not prepare and have someone stay hungry!” she babbles happily.
My jaw drops open again. What is she on about? The woman looks at me carefully before letting out a laugh.
“I don’t mean to be rude or anything … but who are you?” I ask.
She laughs harder. “Of course, of course, my child. I forgot that you’ve been gone so long. It’s me! Your Momma Yari. Your mother is my niece,” she says, smiling kindly. My mind spins at her words. I collapse into one of the kitchen chairs as she chuckles. “I’ve been waiting for you to come home, love. I’ve missed you so. We all have.” She nods towards the door as if there’s a kingdom of people waiting outside.
“Wait a minute. Y-you used to watch me,” I say as the memories come rushing back to me. A pounding starts in the back of my head.
The woman nods and watches me with worried eyes. “Are you alright, dear?” she asks warily. I nod, clutching my head, and she reaches out a hand to steady me. “Don’t fight it, love. Fighting it will only make it hurt more,” she says as I whimper, trying to hold back the memories that are now barraging my mind. The things I see make no sense, the visions in my mind clash with my reality. After years, or maybe just moments, of agony, I succumb to the darkness of oblivion.
I groan as I open my eyes, realizing that I must have fallen to the floor. Yari helps me up, smiling gently at me.
“How are you feeling, dear?” she asks kindly. I groan again in response. She chuckles lightly, helping me into a chair. “Yes, I thought that might be your response. Here,” she says, holding a cup out to me, “drink. It will help.”
