by K. G. Wilkie
“Well, there you go. You have them to support you, so now you are ready to get to the party!” Alyss blinked, realizing that amidst all her memories she hadn`t noticed they`d finished shopping and makeovers, they were now in the car, zooming along again.
“Wait! I have to go back to my house to get my purse,” she objected. Her friend grumbled, but they swung around into the other direction of traffic. “You really are a terrifying driver,” Alyss murmered.
Alyss was jogging up to her front door when she almost ran headfirst into Darien. He claimed the right to drive them all to the party, citing his need to show up with some pretty girls. They giggled, and the group moved outside to the driveway. He begged to use Ruby, but Jackie refused point blank to let another soul even touch her baby`s steering wheel, so they were forced to use the beat up Volkswagen van. Both girls complained and laughed, and Alyss suggested they don flower child outfits and dreadlocks to match their vehicle, but Darien stayed good natured even while his baby was being blasted.
Jackie leaned over to whisper to Darien, “What trouble are you getting into little bird?”He knows what you are up to. Even Richard is starting to get angry.”
He scowled at her. “Little bird,” he snarled. “We may not live as long as you monsters, but that doesn’t make my position any less important than yours, little miss courier. I’ve heard about your promotion. You’ve become their gofer, haven’t you? Are you happy being a mere servant? Were you happy to serve the monarch most likely to be deposed?”
“Bah,” she rejected the idea. “I have my own greatness, and my job has little connection to it. I?m playing in the top ranks, whether you know it or not.” He rolled his eyes. “Either way, your opinions have no bearing on me. I’m more interested in you, and so are my employers. They suspect you, and you have no squeaky clean past to back you up. I’d be more likely to cover my fur and dull my feathers if I were you.”
He leaned forward, whispering quickly., “What they think isn`t my problem. I`m not under their control!”
Alyss tapped them both on the shoulder. “What’s the problem,” she said, leaned forward, teasing them for the tense atmosphere. “Has it become cloudy in the middle of the lover`s paradise?” she was grinning ear to ear, somehow supposing their stress to be some lover`s quarrel.
“Eck, him?” Jackie joked.
He just laughed. “We have known each other for one week, and we are already supposed to be dating?” All three of them laughed at the idea as they spilled onto the party house’s drive.
A bustling herd of giggling girls came by them, calling on Darien to join them. He gave a deep laugh of his own, linking arms with two of the closest girls and giving a two fingered salute to the two he had come with.
“Now it`s time to catch our own arm candy!” Jackie giggled. Seeing that both girls were free from Aeron, their classmates converged upon them. Somehow through the chaos and chatter the girls were pulled off in two different directions. Both tried to pull out of the crowd, but were absorbed into the mass and dragged in opposite directions.
Darien appeared at Jackie’s side, girls hanging on him like a ripe fruit tree. He walked up and grabbed Jackie`s hand, towing her away as he shed the fawning girls like raindrops on a windshield. He towed her through the crowd, pinning her against the garden shed. “I feel a definite sense of déjà vu here, but I must say the fire breathing monster was a bit scarier,” she said flippantly.
“I`m probably talking about something pretty different. I`m sure your little boss wanted to scold you to finish your work or whatever. I just want you to get lost, and stop messing around with Alyss,” he rumbled. Looking thoughtful, he quietly added, “She obviously doesn`t know anything, so it wouldn’t do you any good to stick so close anyways.”
“You`re a hot one to talk,” she scoffed, flipping her hair to the side. “It`s obvious you had some kind of reasons for ‘joining the family,’” she air quoted each syllable.
“It was completely innocent,” he protested. “She just happened to see me, and just happened to decide to invite me to join her clan,” he added.
“That sure is a lot of ‘just happened’ you`re talking about there,” she retorted. “I think that may be why they allowed an expendable like you so far away from home base like this,” she sneered, “To do some reconnaissance on such a famous figure. Too bad for you she doesn`t remember a thing.”
“It wasn`t for any spying. Merely some personal interest. And, like I said, she invited me into the household, I didn`t push her for it,” he repeated smugly.
“Sure. I heard the story. You just happened to be sitting around with some pathetic kitty,” she scoffed. “Let me just say, I think that`s a pretty suspicious set up there.”
“I`ll do my job,” he growled, “and I`ll thank you to not but in,” he puffed. “I might be under someone else’s directions, but at least I`m still a free person accomplishing my job,” he added snidely. Ignoring her once more, he swanned off into the crowd, instantly enveloped in perfume and laughter once more.
Her indignant huff went unnoticed. “At least I haven`t dated half the population in my first week,” she muttered, turning away to chase after her friend`s earlier footsteps. The path led through winding boxwood and lavender and stone plaques stood as reminders of a distant past.
Two figures stood holding hands in the middle of the maze, murmuring in each other`s ears. Then the boy dived in, stealing a kiss, only a tinkle of laughter announcing to the world an audible keep out sign. Jackie determinedly ignored it, jogging headlong among them. She skillfully extracted her friend, dragging her away despite her friend`s protests and breathless promises of return.
“What on earth are you doing with a worm like that, anyways?” she brusquely demanded, ignoring the pleas for returning to the area.
Alyss stopped waving, setting herself up to quickly reassure her friend. “He`s not a worm, really, he`s kind of sweet! The things he does to take care of his family, it`s so tragically heroic,” she gushed. She continued to spin a tale of woe. Abusive father died young, leaving an overworked single mother without any money and an excess of mouths to feed. He was the eldest son, working hard to bring home leftover from the diner he worked at on the table and his wages into the mortgage. Despite it all, he still had lofty career dreams and tried his best in school, even though everything he was doing was just so hard.
Jackie listened to it all in silence, and laughed hysterically at the final tearful phrase. “He said he`s been doing all of that?” She giggled some more. “I guess this explains the ridiculous number of new girls who have been fawning over him,” she laughed again, though she quickly sobered. “Listen here honey, this guy has been spinning you a yarn. Yeah, the stuff about Warren’s dad and mom is true, but he doesn`t do anything to help the family out. That`s all his sister Marina, a year below us. You know he does pot, right?” Alyss muttered that the ever present smell could easily by from his parent`s smoke, though a hint of doubt colored the seemingly sure words. The girl ignored her feeble protest and leaned in closer, confidentially whispering, “He even deals the stuff.” Jackie spoke over the weak gasp, “He practically single handedly responsible for his little brother`s friends getting hooked on the stuff. They might be in Middle School now, but he got them started when they were sixth graders.”
Her friend stopped, as if pausing on the edge of an irrecoverable precipice. It was clear that the information she was about to share was potentially heartbreaking, but the other girl egged her to continue to spill and she obliged. “He`s in this gang, and I hear he`s known as the ‘Hammer’, because whenever they sack a place he likes to mess up the bystanders. And,” she hesitated, “He`s known for messing with nice girls.”
“So he’s a real ass,” Alyss said.
The other girl protested at the use of the word but was willing to be convinced to continue the tale. “Build them up, make them fall in love, and then he blows hot and cold, making her feel guilty for not being a good girl friend. H
e just likes screwing with people`s heads, Alyss.”
Alyssa was silent, face white in shock. “He`s that ghastly,” she asked, staring at her friend as a woman begs for a lifeline in stormy waters. It seemed there was no encouragement there, for she whispered, “He lives in my neighborhood. We’ve been talking even before my first day at school. He was one of my first friends here. I thought he was really ni-ni-nice,” she hiccupped. A tear trailed down her face, black as her makeup streaked in its wake. Swallowing hard, she ran off into the crowd.
So it was in that state of mind that she then ran into Aeron, bouncing off of him and left sprawling. He gave her a hand to get up, and she numbly accepted. He stood her back up, and asked her, “What`s wrong,” in a surprisingly concerned voice.
“Why would you care,” she demanded, fat angry tears now rolling down her face in great numbers. “You`re just an uncivilized egoistic jerk,” she sniffed, “So just,” she bit off, “Go back to the mistake that made you!” Her tears were now streaming behind her as she ran off into the crowd, somewhat blindly sticking her key into the van`s ignition. She began driving herself home, so upset she didn`t remember the other two would now be stranded at the party.
Alyss spent a sleepless night, restlessly tossing and turning. Dreams came to her in fragments and pieces. Aeron`s words tumbled through her mind over and over. “I should have remembered, should have remembered her.”? She tossed and turned.
Legs desperately pumping, throat burning, lungs huffing in and out. He glanced across at her as she twiddled her fingers, speeding up so that all he could see was her hair swishing in the back. He looked at his goal so desperately and thirstily, the gnarled hand reaching up for his foot went unnoticed. With one great gasp he fell into the leaves, struck by the heady mixture of decay and the clarity the rain had brought to the scent of the forest.
She ran back to him, more anger than worry on her features. He tried to get up and brush off, but his cheeks darkened when he fell again. She started growling.
“I swear, I didn`t mean to, but I just can`t seem to get up. It`s really not my fault! I-“ She whirled around to face him and put a finger to her lips, then rotated so she again faced the tree. Her growl grew stronger, a haze of pink mist surrounding the tree. She spoke in the tongue of her people, and blue spots sparked around the tree. Its leaves rustled, and ne creaking branch came down to his level. He stared at it with wildly, eyes darting from it to her.
She smiled. “It is going to apologize properly. You need to shake hands.” He looked at her in complete bewilderment, then smirked with doubt. He casually held his own hand out, and jumped when the tree shook it. She looked at it more strongly, and it shuffled out of the clearing.
Catching his gaze still on the tree, she smiled and caught his hand. Laughing, she pulled him forward, and they both ran off under the trees.
Alyss mumbled in her sleep. Two noses were pressed at her bedroom window. “She has awoken,” the left one said. “The binding is losing its grip of her” They both looked at her expectantly. A sparkling purple aura surrounded her, slowly dieing down again.
“It has begun,” the voice on the right said with authority. Both disappeared into the night.
The week moved too slowly, the excitement of the party making everyone restless in their classes. The day finally came, though the sun had barely swallowed the stars when Jackie showed up on Alyss`s stoop. There was barely a cursory “Hi,” as she was unceremoniously pulled out of the house and dragged to the car. “What are you doing!?” Alyssa demanded.
“Fixing your look. You`ve only got the whole ladylike thing going on in your wardrobe, if the last week is anything to judge by, so we need to get you something more suitable for the party today. I`m thinking clothes, hair, and especially nails would be good.”
“You are never going to let me live down the first day, are you?” Alyss grimly clutched the handle bar above her door as the car sped far beyond the speed limit. “You really have no right to say anything, going twenty above the limit is much worse than some chipped nails,” she responded dryly.
“Meh, I`m a car kind of girl,” Jackie responded, eyes shining. This is one of my favorite models out there. I saved up forever to get this thing!” She patted the dashboard fondly, cooing, “Aren`t you a nice girl, Ruby?” Alyss choked with laughter in the passenger seat. “The car has a name! A name! You`d think she was talking to a baby,” she laughed, wiping away in imaginary tear.
“Yeah, well,” Jackie replied, stung. Their speed slowed down to the limit. “Hey, why did you come here so late in the year?”? Jackie asked.
Alyss was silent for a moment, staring out the window. The scene came back to her so clearly. The doctor said I would get better if I weren`t in such a damp climate, he said we have to move to a drier area. Ugh, I don`t get why you never care about anything. I`ve almost died a few times from my asthma attacks, and all you care about is going to work and keeping the house shiny clean. Why don`t you care about your daughter at all? Why didn`t you care when I brought a boy into the house? Why don`t you care about anything that matters?
“Alyss, are you okay?” Darien asked, coming into the room. “Yeah, sure, why not,”? she blew him off, stomping away. “Hey, this is serious! I want to know what`s wrong with you right now,” he said, smiling.
“They aren`t doing anything, but the doctor said we have to move. He said I`d probably die the next time it happened.” The aching pains, the constant lethargy. He`d seemed to feel that the moisture and heat of beautiful Florida didn`t agree with her, and if the marked improvement she`d experienced since coming here was anything to judge by, he`d certainly been right.
“Well, my parents just aren`t good at arranging things like that, so I had to step in to move my records to the school they picked out and hiring the movers and truck,” Alyss replied, still lost in her thoughts. Rather than them lacking the skills necessary to have set things up, though, they simply didn`t seem to care. They never asked how her day was, or thought of buying presents without several strong reminders and a shopping list. Rather than being terribly forgetful or selfish, though, they really seemed to not notice that their daughter even existed.
“What, so you moved your family practically by yourself?” Jacqueline asked, obviously shocked.
“Well, in a word, yes. I mean, Darien would have if I`d asked him, but he works so hard to stay near the top of his grade, so I figured he should be free during his free time. Besides, my family matters don`t really concern him,”Alyss tried to brush off her friend`s concerns.
“What do you mean?” Jackie seemed eager for a potentially juicy bit of gossip. “Is he your live in boyfriend, instead of your brother?”?
The other girl blushed furiously. “It`s not like that,” she said earnestly. “He really is like a brother to me. We just adopted him into the family a year or two ago, is all.” Jackie let it drop, clearly disappointed.
In fact, she was the one who brought Darien into the family. Her parent were so uncaring, she`d never really felt she had a family until she met him. All she`d seen was his shivering form in an alley near her house, as he clutched an equally cold cat with battle scars and a missing eye. She`d felt so lonely that day, aimlessly walking through the streets. But seeing him do something so small, but so kind, she knew she had to take him home then. Her parents hadn`t complained or even mentioned the change, though the table gained an extra place setting at dinner that night. The boy and that cat had become her true family since then, and she had never regretted their addition.
“Well, there you go. You have them to support you, so now you are ready to get to the party!” Alyss blinked, realizing that amidst all her memories she hadn`t noticed they`d finished
CHAPTER TEN
Missing Minions
He just stood looking after her, simmering. It was rather unfortunate that Jackie was walking by right then, clearly looking for her erstwhile friend. He reached out and grabbed her arm then, pulling her along. They went around a cor
ner, running into people all along the path and arranged besides the pool. Each person and step seemed to increase his anger tenfold. He doggedly pulled her along, finally pulling her in the midst of a small copse of trees in the backyard. He spoke then, unheeding of her weak protests and defense of her earnest efforts to help his relationship with Alyss in anticipation of the obvious topic at hand. “I was just trying to…”
He cut her off ruthlessly, thundering “Not yet!” Black fire punctuated by tiny white specks sprang forth from his hands with a muttered phrase, and it quickly enveloped their whole bodies. Neither of them seemed in the least bit concerned about the hungry flames, though Jackie still looked at Aeron in fear of his retribution. In an instant, they were gone from the spot. Warren, who had followed them intent on giving retribution to the girl who had apparently ruined his fun for the day, was already walking away at the sight of Aeron, when the flicker of lights had caught his eye. He was left mouth agape at the sudden and strange flames, then the sudden disappearance of two very substantial beings. He walked into the crowd once again, muttering about soothing drinks and lack of sleep.
Jackie gasped as their bodies snapped into focus in the minor receiving room of the palace better known as the prince’s office. “Look, it was really just awful timing that you talked to her right then, I can fix it, just give me a sec-,” she rushed out the words in a continuous dialog, stopping the second he lifted his pointer finger. “Don`t.” One curt word, and she was silent, seemingly shrinking in fear. But her shrinking continued as he spoke more, and her body seemed to truly be losing size and height even as he increased slowly to the true full size of his natural form which caused him to more than fill the room though he still was in his humanoid aspect. “You`ve turned her, my only Alyssandra, against me. The one member of my kingdom who has been lost for fifteen years, and after my staff and myself have put all of our efforts into those years to finally find her and reunite us you have managed to turn her against me in mere weeks. Do you intend to make me fall as well, like your dear friend Darien?” his tone was icy. She shivered, wringing her hands in a desperate plea for forgiveness. She continued to change, her face now screwed in a grimace of pain as she was now contorted into the rough size of a chihuahua.
