Soul Fire

by Legacy, Aprille

  in front of him.

  “Did I fail?” I asked apprehensively. My mother did not

  take kindly to poor grades.

  Mr Burgess had been staring out of the window and

  didn’t answer.

  “Mr Burgess?”

  “No, Rose, you didn’t fail,” he slid the exam towards

  me. “In fact, you were in the top five percent of the class.” I rearranged my bag strap on my shoulder, frowning. “Is that bad?”

  “No, it’s not bad. It’s just...” Mr Burgess ran a hand

  through his thinning hair. “I don’t understand why you

  could do so well on the exam and not the in class

  assignments.”

  “Well, sir, I was under the impression that the in class

  assignments didn’t count towards our GPA, but the exams

  did.”

  Silence fell between us and students chattered outside

  the classroom.

  “Technically you’re not wrong, Rose, but I would

  appreciate a little more effort in class. Otherwise I’m not

  going to be able to write you a very good recommendation

  once you leave school.”

  “Oh, um, actually, I’m starting a traineeship down at

  the hospital soon,” I told him, trying to look proud of

  myself. “So I’ll only be doing school part time.”

  “Oh, well, excellent,” he stood up to go to his next class.

  “I should also mention that you were in the top three

  percent of the state.”

  I barely heard him. I’d noticed my stalker standing in

  the trees again.

  “Uh huh, yeah that’s great, Mr B.”

  He sighed and shouldered his bag.

  “Good luck, Miss Evermore.”

  I followed him out and then headed straight to the tree

  line.

  “You were in my dream.” I said loudly, knowing he

  could hear me.

  “I know,” he replied, leaning against a trunk. “And you

  didn’t hit me with a saucepan this time.”

  “Can you blame me?” I stood well away from him, close

  enough to the open that I could run if he tried any funny

  business.

  He sighed and muttered something like, “They always

  give me the difficult ones.”

  “Excuse me?” I folded my arms. “You’re stalking me,

  not the other way around. Also, I’m rather curious as to

  whom, ‘they’ are?”

  “If you come with me, you’ll find out,” he replied,

  raising an eyebrow.

  “Oh sure,” I said sarcastically. “I’m just going to follow

  the guy who’s been stalking me, into the woods away from

  people.”

  “Students.”

  “Witnesses.” I shot back.

  He laughed in spite of himself.

  “I guess I can’t blame you, can I?”

  The bell rang behind me, signalling next class. Without

  another word, I marched through the tree litter and left

  him behind.

  School ended, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I loved

  Fridays, and the two days that came after. Despite my

  stack of homework that my teachers had insisted on

  setting, I planned on spending my weekend sleeping,

  eating and reading.

  As though sensing an opportunity to ruin my weekend,

  my mother rang just as I was climbing into my car in the

  school car park.

  “Hello?” I was apprehensive; when Mum rang, it was

  because she wanted me to do something.

  “Have you finished school?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “Head down to the hospital now. Jacqui is there until

  four, she wants to interview you.”

  “Oh,” my heart fell. “I’m not dressed very neat.” “Well tidy yourself up and head over there. I’ll see you

  for dinner.”

  She was gone before I could protest. I scowled at my

  phone. She always did that so I couldn’t argue.

  Reluctantly, I started up my car and pulled out of the

  car park, noticing the conspicuous lack of school jerks

  around. I saw them climbing onto the school bus a little

  ways down the road and waved at them happily. I must’ve

  done more damage to their car than my own.

  The hospital was in the very centre of town, and I

  dodged Ar Cena’s pathetic excuse for peak hour traffic by

  taking the back roads. I pulled into the hospital car park

  and sat in my car for a moment, looking up at the hospital

  that I’d been born in - born in eighteen years ago, and was

  now trying to get a job in. I was suddenly hit with the

  reality of it all. I almost pulled out of the car park, but

  instead forced myself out of the car, retying my long

  ponytail and ditching my leather jacket at the last minute. Though I hated it, the white polo shirt (the only uniform

  my school insisted on) was a lot neater than the jacket. “Respectable,” I muttered under my breath, locking my

  car. “Be respectable.”

  I walked up the slight incline to the glass sliding doors,

  waiting for them to register me (one of the hazards of

  being short was that sometimes automatic doors didn’t see

  me). When they did, I was assaulted by the smell of

  disinfectant and steam cleaned carpets. I inched anxiously

  across the lobby, suddenly feeling very dirty and grimy.

  The woman at reception looked up at me, stretching a

  smile across her lip sticked mouth.

  “How can I help?”

  “I’m looking for Jacqui,” I said, gingerly placing my

  fingertips on the top of the desk. It was so quiet that you

  could hear the clock on the wall ticking off the seconds. “I

  was meant to have an interview with her this afternoon.” “One moment,” another lip stick smile, and she

  disappeared into a back room. She came back towing

  another woman who I recognized.

  “Hi, Rose,” Jacqui said, smiling at me. “Come on

  through.”

  I followed her into the backroom which turned out to

  be a small kitchenette, sitting down in the plastic chair she

  pointed me at.

  “Tea or coffee?” she asked, pointing to a battered old

  kettle.

  “No, thank you,” I replied.

  “So, Rose, you want to be our new trainee?”

  “Yes,” I said, tacking a smile onto my mouth like Lip

  Stick out the front.

  “Have you worked before?”

  “No, I haven’t. I’ve always done school full time.” “But now that you’ve finished your mid years, you

  want to get into the work force?”

  “Yes,” I said firmly, trying to convince myself and

  deciding it was just easier to agree with her.

  “Alrighty, I’ll just get you to fill this out, and I’ll be

  right back.”

  I took the pen she offered me, beginning to fill out the

  form in front of me. I’d guessed that this interview was

  just a formality, and I was right; the form was asking for

  bank details so they could pay me. Jacqui came back just as

  I finished.

  “When your Mum said that you were looking for a job,

  I thought of you straight away,” she said, sitting opposite

  me with a folder. “I’m glad you’re going to be joining us

  here, Rose.”

  “Me too,” I replied, though m
y stomach seemed to fill

  with lead as I said it.

  “Last time I saw you, you were only this big,” she said

  grinning, holding her hand about a metre off of the floor. “That wasn’t that long ago,” I replied, disgruntled.

  “Hey, Jacqui, when would I start?”

  “Well, you could come in for half of tomorrow, just to

  get you used to the way we run things here.”

  “Sure,” I agreed, though I groaned internally. A sleep in

  had been sounding so good.

  I finished chatting with Jacqui just before four o’clock,

  and we agreed that I’d be there at nine the next morning

  to learn the ropes.

  Well, I thought to myself as I climbed into my car,

  Mum will be pleased.

  She was. She made spaghetti bolognaise for dinner,

  which was my favourite. Take away was all very well and

  good, but home cooked meals were always my favourite. “You got the oven working again then?” I asked,

  winding pasta around my fork.

  She launched into a story about the man who’d come to

  fix the gas. She’d had the day off work to clean up the

  kitchen, and it was almost back to how it was before I set

  it on fire.

  After dinner, I crawled up onto the roof with a book,

  but I left it face down with its pages splayed over the tiles.

  Instead I hugged my knees close to my chest and watched the sun sink beneath the hills that surrounded Ar Cena. I tried to feel happy about the fact I now had a job, but at the same time, I struggled with staying in the same town. Suddenly I understood why the students in the year above

  me had fled for the city as soon as they’d finished. I lay back on the roof, staring up at the clouds which

  were turning pink and orange. Who knows how long I’d

  be stuck here now?

  Stop it, I chided myself angrily. You have a job, be

  happy. It’s better than the great void of nothingness you

  were facing at the end of year twelve.

  But, as I pulled my book over my face and began to

  read by the light of the streetlight, I knew how I really

  felt.

  ~ My alarm dragged me from the warm depths of sleep the next morning, and I nearly hit snooze until I remembered the hospital job. Groaning, I heaved myself from the blankets and staggered downstairs, making myself a very strong coffee with half of the contents of the sugar bowl mixed in.

  A little bit before nine, I pulled out of the drive way, dressed in neat black pants and a white shirt. When I got to the hospital admin, Jacqui met me at the doors and steered me down a corridor.

  “We’ll pop you in Dental today,” she said, walking so quickly along the hall that I had to hurry to keep up. “Stick with Jess, she’ll show you what you have to do for the day. You can go at twelve, don’t worry about finding me before you leave, but just remember to sign off.”

  She bustled off down another hall after pointing me at the two double doors that led to the dental clinic incorporated within the hospital’s facilities. I tentatively poked one door open and stuck my head through.

  “I’m looking for Jessica?” I said nervously to the woman at the desk.

  “That’s me,” she stood up and reached over to shake my hand as I approached the desk. “You must be Rose; Jacqui said you’d be with me today.”

  I shook her hand as patients began filing through the door. Jess showed me where I’d be sitting for the day and began taking phone calls with me watching on in silence.

  A few hours later and I’d learnt all about the phone, and as a result, feared and hated it. I’d managed to hang up on a few people because they weren’t done talking. Jess had stifled laughter as they’d called her back in a rage.

  “How about waiting for them to hang up first?” she suggested.

  This ended in several stand offs, as the person on the other end of the line waited for me to hang up first. I stubbornly stood adamant on the other end of the line. Just as I’d decided to cut off the connection, the person on the end said tentatively, “hello?”

  My finger was too far gone and I cut them off anyway. Jess had tears of laughter in her eyes when she realised what had happened.

  “I’m sorry, Rose, you’ll get used to it after a while, I promise.”

  I signed the little sign off sheet hanging in the kitchenette where I’d had my interview with Jacqui the previous day. As I drove home, I was unusually buoyant, and I stopped by the grocery store to get dinner. Despite what could only be described as an atrocious first day, I’d still spent the day being productive. I’d earned a whole twenty four dollars, thanks to my trainee wage.

  I managed to spend twenty five on dinner, but I was too eager to get home to care. I stuffed everything in our tiny fridge and headed for the shower. I was just getting out as Mum got home.

  “How did you go?” she asked, hanging her work bag up.

  I recounted the day’s events to her, and she laughed harder than Jess when I told her about my antics on the phone.

  “Did you enjoy it though, after all that?” she asked as I cooked lamb chops on the barbeque.

  “I did,” I admitted. “I hope it gets better than today though.”

  Over the next few weeks, I settled into the routine of school for three days, and then working over the next three. Having Sunday as my only day off turned out to be a blessing; I was so busy that I forgot how much I’d used to hate that day.

  It was a Sunday night that I had the dream. It was my stalker, who I hadn’t even noticed had stopped stalking me over the past couple of weeks. He was sitting beside a river, the very same spot I’d go after school to read my book in silence. Except, in my dream, there was no car park, no board walk, no ‘No Swimming’ signs.

  “You’re getting better at stalking,” I told him. “I haven’t seen you these past weeks.”

  “I’ve been collecting the others,” he told me, standing up and staring into the depths of the murky water. “You and I are running out of time.”

  I woke with a start, my head still foggy from the dream. What was I running out of time for?

  I was suddenly filled with a desire to head to the river, just to reassure myself that it hadn’t changed to fit my dream. When school finished, I didn’t head home like usual; instead, I drove in the direction of the river, to my usual spot. I had a new book in my bag and I was eager to start reading.

  I pulled into the car park, facing the river. Instead of taking my bag with me, I locked the car door and walked down to the water. It was glassy, reflecting the sky; just like it had in my dream last night.

  Hang on. Today was cloudy. Why was the river reflecting the sun?

  I peered into the water, hanging onto a nearby paperbark tree for support, and frowned as I realised I had no reflection.

  I tried to reel back from the steep bank, but my hand slipped from the trunk of the tree. I yelled, just once, and tried to grab something, anything.

  But my flailing hands didn’t catch anything. I plunged into the shining river and went under.

  ~Chapter Three~

  I burst through the surface of the water, gasping. My feet found the muddy river floor and sank into it, holding me upright. I coughed and hacked, and then swept my long brown hair out of my eyes.

  “Welcome home,” my stalker told me, leaning on the trunk of the tree I’d been holding.

  I floundered around in the muddy water, which was no longer shining and clear.

  “Help me out,” I told him angrily. I wasn’t impressed with his level of familiarity.

  He held out a hand and I grabbed it, deliberately getting river muck on his sleeve. Only after he hauled me out of the water did I notice something.

  “Hey, where’s my car?” I rounded on him, sloshing water everywhere. “What did you do with it?”

  He wiped his hand
on his clothes, which I noticed for the first time were not normal garb.

  “Remember what I told you when I put the fire in your kitchen out?”

  I scowled at him, beginning to shiver in the mild valley air.

  “You told me to listen to my dreams,” I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. “I’m sorry, but it sounds a little like what a Care Bear would say.”

  He studied me with a puzzled expression.

  “What is a ‘Care Bear’?”

  I raised my eyebrow at him.

  “A Care Bear? You know soft, cuddly, gives advice?”

  “I am not a Care Bear.”

  “Stop avoiding the subject. Dude, where’s my car?”

  “What else did I tell you in the dream?”

  “You said the river was a portal, or something,” I paused in the act of searching for any sign of my car. “Wait... no.”

  He nodded.

  “When you fell into the river, you crossed through the portal. You’re in an alternate reality now.”

  I shivered violently, and not just because I was cold. “Prove it,” I forced through my chattering teeth.

  He reached towards me and I jumped back. He sighed, exasperated.

  “You need to trust me, Rose.”

  “Excuse me? Why do I needto?” I hugged myself and stamped my feet, trying to keep warm.

  “Because I’m trying to help you, not harm you,” he reached towards me, and I saw he was holding a little fire in his hand.

  “Um, what? What is that?” I asked, my eyes wide.

  “It’s the fire from your kitchen. I thought it might come in handy, so I kept it.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched my arm, hard. When I opened them, he was still standing in front of me with the fire in his hand. He offered it to me.

  “Ok,” I heard myself say, not sure what I was agreeing to.

  He stood in front of me and transferred the flames to both hands, which he held over my shoulders. The fabric of my hoodie immediately began to steam and dry. It was the nicest feeling in the world.

  I jumped back when he knelt down and reached for my foot. Despite what he had said, I wasn’t ready to trust him at all.

  “Relax, I just thought you might like dry feet. I know it’s annoying to have wet socks.”

  I let him pick up my shoe, moving the little fire over the surface. My shoes and socks dried, and I felt a lot more comfortable.

  Suddenly, a bell tolled off in the distance. I racked my brains, trying to remember if any building in Ar Cena had bells. The man drying my feet with fire looked up.