by Kate Harre
Most of the boys clapped him on the shoulder as they headed back to the dance floor with their partners. The song playing was a fast one and he decided to throw Laney a bone. With a jerk of his head he instructed her to join him and sauntered onto the dance floor, leaving her to follow. She wrapped her arms possessively around his neck and nestled into his shoulder, welding her body to his. Immediately he felt suffocated, her warm breath on his neck making his skin crawl. His gritted his teeth, deciding to endure it for one song out of the goodness of his heart. They shuffled around the floor, Alex’s steely eyes fixed on the wall clock.
As soon as the song was over he peeled Laney off him, ignoring her mew of distress. His buzz had well and truly died and he couldn’t be bothered getting it back again. Even the music was irritating him. He signalled Brad over. ‘Can you make sure Laney gets home okay?’
‘Sure, mate,’ Brad responded, his tone puzzled.
‘Why would Brad take me home?’ Laney gripped Alex’s arm, preventing him from walking away unless he wanted to drag her with him. ‘Why aren’t you taking me home?’
‘Because I’ve had enough,’ he said evenly. ‘I’m leaving now.’
‘Then take me with you,’ she pleaded.
‘I don’t want company tonight. Can’t you just give me some space for ten seconds?’ he snarled, flinging her hand off his arm and stalking towards the door.
‘Alex! You can’t do this to me!’ Laney wailed furiously. But he didn’t look back.
Cool air hit him in the face as soon as he exited the gym, its freshness lifting his mood slightly. He strode swiftly to his sleek black sports car, surprised to discover he was having difficulty walking in a straight line. Frowning, he tried to recall how much he’d actually drunk.
Since he wasn’t planning on hanging around for the town’s one and only taxi to make an appearance, he threw himself into his car. Tugging undone his bowtie, he tossed it on the leather passenger seat and popped open the top two buttons of his shirt. Relief at last, he thought as he fired up the engine. He was an excellent driver - had to be with this kind of horsepower under the hood. But just in case, he decided to take the long route home, avoiding the centre of town. It probably wasn’t wise to drive right past the Sherriff’s house either. And because he could reason that out, he figured he wasn’t too drunk after all.
He steered the car down the back roads, squinting in concentration. The road lines were blurring together into a white mess and he pressed his foot down on the accelerator, eager to get home and rest his suddenly aching head. The corner seemed to come out of the blue at him and his dulled reactions were a little too slow. Wrenching on the steering wheel, he took the corner far too wide. The car slewed through the off-road gravel, barely missing a mile marker.
It was almost funny how detached Alex felt as he lost control of the vehicle. His hands were still on the wheel, but he felt like he was watching what was happening from a distance. Until he saw Sydney. The car was sliding along the side of the road and she was standing directly in its path, her shocked gaze locked to his.
In the few seconds before impact, his vision suddenly clear, he could see every minute detail of her – her ruined dress clinging to her body, the streaks of mascara running down her cheeks, her dishevelled hair. Suddenly frantic, he tried and failed to steer the car away from her.
There was a sickening crunch as her body connected with the fender before she was thrown over the top of the car. A little further down the road the car finally skidded to a stop.
The knuckles of Alex’s hands were white as he futilely gripped the steering wheel, staring dazedly at the path his headlights cut through the darkness. Dropping his forehead down on the wheel, he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. For the first time in his life he didn’t know what to do. Should he go and get Sydney? Call for an ambulance? She’d be dead – she had to be after that kind of impact. So there wasn’t much point getting into trouble when there was nothing he could do.
Sitting back in his seat, he squared his shoulders and started the car again with shaking fingers. He didn’t look back. He just drove, slowly this time, until he made it home. In the garage, he pulled the cover over his car so he didn’t have to look at it and stumbled upstairs to bed. Closing his eyes, he fell into a deep sleep, still dressed in his tuxedo.
At some point he woke, groggy and disorientated. Sydney was standing over him, covered in blood, but miraculously uninjured. He opened his mouth to ask if he was dreaming, but before he could speak Sydney pointed at him and a strange blue light shot out of her finger tip, engulfing him completely. He expected to feel pain, but there was nothing. It must be a nightmare, he concluded numbly.
‘Henceforth you shall appear as you truly are,’ Sydney intoned solemnly.
The last thing Alex thought before he drifted back to sleep was that she was sort of pretty in an ethereal kind of way, even with all the dried blood.
*
Alex turned away from the window, his expression ravaged with pain for all that he’d done and not done. ‘When I woke the next morning, this is what I looked like – a monster. A true reflection of the horror inside me.’
It was said simply, with complete acceptance of his fate. Annie couldn’t help but wonder how long it had taken him to come to such a place of acceptance. ‘I’m so sorry, Alex. So very sorry for everything you’ve gone through.’
A strange look crossed his face. ‘You’re sorry? Why aren’t you condemning me? How can you sit there and not hate the person I am?’
‘Because that’s not who you are now.’
‘Of course it is. The only thing that’s changed about me is my face,’ he said heatedly, one hand flying out to emphasise his point.
‘That’s not true. Would the old you have watched over me in the forest so I wasn’t the next target of our psycho killer? Would the old you have taken the time to teach me self-defence? Or held my hand while I told him what a freak I am?’
‘You’re not a freak.’
‘But you wouldn’t have, would you?’ she pressed, needing him to see how much he’d changed. ‘The old you wouldn’t have been struggling to hold back tears when talking about what he did to Sydney.’
‘No, I guess not.’ Alex slumped back against the bench, the tension draining from his body so that he looked almost limp. ‘How do you see me in such a good light?’
‘Probably because I never knew the old you, so I don’t have biased memories of what you were like before.’ Going to take a sip of her coffee, she realised it had gone cold and set the cup back on the bench. She cleared her throat before asking a slightly awkward question. ‘What happened to Sydney?’
‘She’s fine. Before I accepted I deserved this, I went to find her to demand she fix me. She’s some kind of immortal witch, hundreds of years old – a small fact which would have been handy to know in advance!’ he said with a crooked smile. ‘I think she wanted to try a normal life and since she doesn’t age it was easy to pretend to be a teenager. The crush I thought she had on me was all in my own head. She’d seen how I was treating the people around me and decided to teach me a lesson. I guess asking me to dance was her way of giving me a chance to redeem myself, prove I wasn’t beyond saving… but I failed, quite miserably really.’
‘Can she change you back?’
‘No,’ he said softly, his eyes sad.
‘I’m sorry.’
He shrugged. ‘Don’t be. I brought it upon myself and now I have to live with it. If it had been anyone else standing on the side of the road, my actions would have killed them,’ he pointed out. He studied her speculatively, his eyes puzzled, like he couldn’t quite figure her out. ‘I’m just grateful you haven’t high-tailed it out of here!’
‘I’m not that easy to get rid of,’ Annie said with a cheeky grin. She glanced at her watch. ‘However, it is time I got going before Mum sends out a search party.’ Even if Karen was locked away in her studio for days on end, Annie still stuck her head through the d
oor when she got home every day so her mother would know she was home safely.
Alex nodded and walked her to the door. ‘So I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon?’
‘Yep. Just promise me you’ll take it easy on me, okay.’
Smiling, he shook his head. ‘I can’t make you a promise I might not be able to keep.’
Annie punched him lightly in the arm and enjoyed the look of surprise that crossed his face. ‘Sadist!’
Chapter 7
‘Tragedy sells!’ Adrian announced as he burst dramatically through the paper’s office door. ‘I actually had to do a second print of the News.’
‘You do know we don’t actually sell the paper, right?’ Chelsea drawled disparagingly.
‘That’s hardly the point…’
Annie tuned out. The bickering between Chelsea and Adrian was something she generally tried to ignore. Personally, she thought it would be better if they simply admitted they liked each other and did something about it. Instead, it seemed to irk both of them that the other was not quite perfect. Chelsea’s outrageous fashion choices annoyed Adrian because he thought she was deliberately trying to draw attention to herself. While Adrian’s priggish uptightness and attention to the most minor of details drove Chelsea crazy and she couldn’t help but needle him whenever she got the opportunity. Annie wished Adrian would man up and just ask Chelsea out. She’d be a fantastic girlfriend if she could find a good guy who treated her well and Annie figured Adrian would treat her like a queen.
Speaking of girlfriends… she was wildly curious about Laney. Annie knew her, loosely, and had actually interviewed her earlier in the week, since she was the head cheerleader. Annie hadn’t exactly warmed to her – she was a bit haughty and constantly tossed her hair to draw attention to the thick blonde mass. But she couldn’t deny the other girl was stunning. Tall and slim, with ridiculously long legs, olive toned skin and blue eyes, she could have graced the cover of a fashion magazine and, since her aspirations led that way, probably would.
Laney was currently dating Daniel, Brad’s vice-captain, who in Annie’s opinion was actually better looking than Brad. Considering her superficiality, Annie figured she only dated the best looking guys, which meant Alex had probably been quite something before his disfigurement. With his tall, lean physique and thickly lashed emerald green eyes, she could see hints of what Laney would have been drawn to, but beyond that it was impossible to tell. Sydney had done a good job of ensuring Alex was virtually unrecognisable. She wondered if Laney missed him, if she ever…
‘Annabelle!’ Chelsea almost shouted.
Annie jerked back to the present. ‘Sorry. I drifted off while you two were doing your usual dance. What were you saying?’
Chelsea smirked but Adrian looked embarrassed, his face turning a dull red. ‘In celebration of our best issue ever, Mr Miserly over here is willing to loosen the purse strings and take us out for coffee and cake tonight.’
‘Are you free, Annie?’ Adrian asked, glaring resentfully at Chelsea.
‘Sure,’ Annie said quickly, before he could start another argument by telling Chelsea what he thought of her pithy little speech. ‘As long as it’s after seven.’
‘How about we meet at Sip at seven thirty?’
Annie and Chelsea both agreed. Satisfied, Adrian began outlining his ideas for the next issue, due out in a fortnight.
*
‘Promise me you’ll try not to be shocked.’ Annie squeezed Karen’s hand urgently, trying to impress upon her the importance of her request.
Karen pulled her fingers free, flexing them to restore the blood flow they’d briefly been deprived of. ‘I’ll do my best, honey. But I’m sure it can’t be as bad as you’ve got me imagining.’
‘It is,’ Annie muttered. She pressed the doorbell and a few moments later the door was swept open. Expecting to see Alex, Annie was startled to find herself face to face with a short, round, friendly faced woman with light brown hair liberally streaked with grey. This could only be the housekeeper, Maria.
‘You must be Annie,’ Maria said with a wide grin. Stepping back, she swept her arms enthusiastically. ‘Come in. Please come in. I’m Maria.’
Stepping through the door, Annie turned slightly to introduce Karen. ‘This is my Mum, Karen.’
Maria shook both their hands vigorously, her eyes dancing with excitement. ‘It’s so wonderful to have visitors. So wonderful.’ She turned and hustled down the foyer towards a room Annie hadn’t been in yet. It was a formal sitting room, with a huge open fireplace taking up a significant portion of one wall. Three large couches were arranged in a U shape facing the fireplace and in a corner near the windows was a gorgeous mahogany grand piano. While not exactly a musical genius, Annie’s fingers still itched to try it out.
‘Please make yourselves at home. Would you like coffee?’ Maria asked.
‘Yes, please,’ Annie responded immediately, going to stand in front of the roaring fire. It might help calm her nerves. She wasn’t worried so much about Karen liking Alex, but more so about how Alex was feeling right now at the prospect of having to show himself to her mother. For almost a year he’d kept himself hidden away from everyone and now, in the space of a couple of weeks, he’d been forced to reveal his disfigurement to two new people.
‘I won’t, but thank you for the offer, Maria,’ Karen replied calmly, seating herself on the edge of one of the couches. ‘I can’t stay long.’
Maria nodded and started to head for the door. ‘Alex will be down shortly. He will have heard the doorbell.’
‘I’m here,’ his voice came from the hallway. ‘Would you mind bringing through some of your lemon cake with the coffee, Maria?’
‘Of course.’
Maria disappeared from sight and a second later Alex came through the doorway, stopping just inside the room. His gaze went straight to Annie, giving Karen a moment to get used to his damaged face. Annie heard a stifled gasp, but kept her eyes pinned to Alex. He was tense, tiny lines at the corners of his eyes showing the strain. Annie gave him a smile of encouragement and crossed the room to stand in front of him.
‘Are you okay?’ she whispered.
He nodded curtly. Annie determinedly reached for his hand, linking her fingers through his – now was not the time to worry if her touch was welcome. She didn’t want him to feel like he was standing alone. He jerked in surprise at the contact, his eyes flying to their joined hands, but he didn’t let go. She pulled him towards Karen, whose expression was calm and composed, not a trace of her earlier shock showing. Annie let out a small sigh of relief.
‘Mum, I’d like you to meet Alex. Alex, this is my Mum, Karen.’
‘It’s nice to meet you, Mrs Archer,’ Alex said formally, holding out his free hand for Karen to shake.
‘Oh, please call me Karen. Mrs Archer makes be feel ancient!’ Launching to her feet, Karen threw her arms around Alex, enfolding him in a tight hug. ‘Oh you poor boy. You poor boy!’
Alex stiffened, his grip on Annie’s hand tightening. His eyes looked a little wild and Annie had to bite down on her lip to keep from laughing. He obviously hadn’t been hugged in a long time and one part of Annie was a bit resentful Karen had just gone ahead and done it, while she was trying so hard to respect Alex’s boundaries and let him get used to her slowly. But then he relaxed ever so slightly in her mother’s hold and Annie was more than willing to lend him her mother’s easy affection, since he lacked a mother of his own.
When Karen pulled back, Annie noticed that both of his arms hadn’t moved, one was still in her grasp and the other rested against his side. He had allowed Karen to hug him, but he hadn’t hugged her back. Maybe he didn’t feel he deserved it or maybe he’d just never been a touchy feely person.
Karen sat back down on the couch and Alex followed suit, releasing Annie’s hand and sitting opposite Karen. Annie hovered briefly, trying to decide where to sit and in the end opted for the spot beside Alex, lending him her silent support while Karen interrogate
d him. Not that it was much of an interrogation. She simply asked him a few quiet questions about himself and how he lived.
Maria entered the room, silently handing out coffee and departed just as quietly, leaving behind a plate of delicious looking cake. As promised, Karen didn’t stay long. Satisfied she could trust Alex with her daughter, she departed for home, her thoughts already on the current project waiting for her in her studio.
Having seen Karen out, Alex returned to the sitting room, flopping down on the couch and collapsing back against the cushions with a loud, heartfelt sigh.
‘Was it that bad?’ Annie asked tentatively, turning on the couch to face him and crossing her legs underneath her.
‘No. I’m just glad it’s over.’ He rolled his head on the cushion so he could see her and smiled shyly. ‘Your Mum is nice… and also much younger than I was expecting.’
‘Ah. Yes, well, Dad knocked Mum up while they were still in high school and she was only eighteen when she had me.’
‘Is that why they’re no longer together?’
‘Kind of and not really.’ She propped her elbows on her knees and rested her chin on her hands. ‘Dad did the honourable thing and asked Mum to marry him. They were crazy in love… still are, I think, though neither of them will admit it. Back then they both thought they could make it work.’
‘So what happened?’
‘Fame,’ Annie said succinctly with a wry twist to her mouth. ‘Blizzard started making it big and Dad was swamped with adoring, scantily-clad groupies, all too eager to make his every dream come true and then some.’
‘So you are the daughter of the legendary Jake Archer. I’d wondered,’ Alex murmured.
Annie nodded and continued on with her story. ‘At first it didn’t bother Mum. She was often shut away in her studio for days so it’s not like she was possessive of him. But then maybe that was the problem. Dad adores being the centre of attention and he was getting if from everyone except his wife. Eventually the temptation got too much for him and he cheated.’
