The Other World: Book One

by Tracey Tobin

  “We know,” Krista whispered. Clearly a little tentative, she stepped forward and enveloped Tori in a very gentle hug. “We saw him afterward. Jared punched him in the nose.”

  A little cry - half pain, half laughter - escaped Tori. “I wish I could have seen that.”

  Jared shrugged like it was no big thing, but you could tell that he was very proud of his moment of glory. “I always said he didn’t deserve you,” he grumbled.

  Tori buried her face into Krista’s shoulder and groaned. “Yeah, so did my father, and half the school. Everyone knew but me, I guess.”

  Jared had the good sense to look suitably abashed.

  “Can we come in?” Krista asked, to change the subject. “I’ll make supper. How does that sound?”

  Tori had to admit that it sounded great, and her stomach grumbled in agreement. Krista was a whiz in the kitchen and Tori hadn’t had anything decent to eat since the leftovers from the funeral catering had run out. She bit her lip and nodded to her friend’s suggestion.

  Inside the house, Tori flopped down at the kitchen table while Krista and Jared gazed around the room disapprovingly. This time she couldn’t really find a logical reason to be annoyed with them. Of all the rooms in the house, the kitchen looked the absolute worst at the moment. Tori hadn’t taken out the trash or even tidied up in almost three weeks, and the result was a portrait of how she’d been spending her time alone. The counter-tops were littered with the cardboard boxes and cellophane packaging of frozen food products. The sink was piled high with dishes covered in pizza sauce and the dredges of canned soup. And the table was the worst: a testament to how much liquor a teenage girl could consume if given the proper motivation.

  To their credit, Tori’s friends kept their mouths shut as they got to work on the mess. Jared shed his jacket and moved in on the pile of dishes while Krista began stuffing a blue bag with cardboard. At first Tori left them to it, but after a few minutes she began to feel guilty and sheepishly rose from her seat to fill a second blue bag with beer cans and wine bottles. When they’d managed to get the kitchen under some kind of control, Jared began hauling the bags out to the garbage box while Krista shuffled through the fridge and cupboards in search of anything that resembled real food. She extracted a package of ground beef from the freezer and stuck it in the microwave on defrost while she chopped up some veggies from the fridge that were hanging onto their last thread of edibility.

  “Do you have any spaghetti? Or macaroni?” the master chef inquired from the cutting board.

  Tori thought, made a sound of agreement, and poked her head into the pantry cupboard. She tossed a mostly-full box of dry pasta on the counter and looked up to find that Krista had paused chopping in order to look back at her.

  “You chose today because you knew that Brad wouldn’t be there,” she said in a tone that broached no argument. “Didn’t you?”

  Tori cringed and turned away at the sound of the name, but she nodded nonetheless. She couldn’t deny it. She’d known that the football team was going to be away from school for a tournament that had been planned months prior, and that it was an opportunity for her to attempt reintegration. She wouldn’t have risked approaching the school otherwise. Not a chance.

  Krista saw the look that must have been on Tori’s face, and when she spoke again her voice was soft, but insistent. “You can’t avoid him forever.”

  Tori lifted a hand to rub at the ache that had arisen in her chest. “I know,” she replied. “But I just can’t stand the thought of facing him. Not after… Well, not after everything.”

  While they’d been talking Jared had quietly reappeared at the door. “He should be the one worried about facing you,” he growled. “Not the other way around.” There was real anger in his voice, but at the sight of Tori clutching her chest his tone relaxed. “By the way,” he broached instead, “How are you doing?”

  It was a huge question, one that she couldn’t have answered if she’d been given a hundred years to think about it. Subconsciously, her hand fell to her abdomen and hovered there. Although she knew that Jacob’s inquiry came from genuine kindness and concern, she felt suddenly too ashamed to even glance in his direction. “I’m fine,” she lied while staring intently at the floral tiles on the floor.

  The room remained mostly quiet then. Krista chopped, and fried, and stirred while Tori leaned against the fridge and avoided Jared’s silent gaze. Soon the house was filled with delicious smells and despite herself Tori’s stomach began to growl. Jared pulled some dishes from the cupboards to set the table and poured them each a tall glass of water, and Krista portioned everything out, making sure that Tori got the largest serving. Soon the three friends were sitting down to a beautiful, hot spaghetti dinner, complete with garlic toast and Parmesan cheese.

  “Thanks, Krista,” Tori managed to murmur through the food in her mouth. “This is delicious.”

  The other girl gave her a warm smile between bites. “If you’d pick up some more groceries I could teach you some good, easy recipes.”

  It was such a strange, normal thing to be talking about that it actually caught Tori off guard. “I… I’ve been avoiding going out for anything,” she admitted, “because I need the bank to transfer my parents’ accounts before I can get any money out.” The unspoken addendum was that she didn’t relish the looks she would be the on the receiving end of when she handed over the paperwork and explained the situation.

  Jared seemed to sense what she was thinking. “I’ll come with you,” he suggested. Then he added a caveat: “If you promise to try and come back to school again tomorrow, I’ll take you to the bank after class and we’ll get everything sorted.”

  Tori stared at him for a while before finally nodding. Why not? she thought. Br- That guy won’t be back in school for a few more days anyway.

  By the time they’d finished their meal and Jared had washed the last of the dishes, Tori felt not quite better, but cared-for, at least. As her friends were saying their good-byes she almost asked them to stay with her, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak the words. Part of her still felt like she didn’t deserve to be taken care of, to be looked after and loved. Part of her still felt like she deserved to be alone. Part of her would probably always feel that way.

  “So we’ll see you tomorrow, right?” Krista asked as she slipped on her little pink ballet flats.

  Tori swallowed hard, and found her hand in her hoodie pocket, fiddling anxiously with the lid on the prescription bottle. Why not?

  Tori nodded. “I’ll be there. I promise.”

  That evening Tori lounged in pajama pants in her parents’ bed - where she’d been sleeping since the accident - and sorted through a humongous pile of mail that had been getting rather out of control. Much of it was junk in the form of advertisements and fast food coupons. Much more of it was bills that she honestly had no idea how to go about paying. There were more than a few that were late notices with big, glaring fees pasted across them and warnings that her service would be cut off if she didn’t pay soon. She was aghast at how pushy and heartless some of the offending companies and services could be. Certainly there were any number of good reasons besides her own as to why a person might miss their bill for a month or two. Did they have to be so cold and callous about the situation without even knowing what the situation was?

  Just when she was starting to seriously consider just tossing the entire pile into the trash, there was a soft knock at the front door that startled her and made her gaze flick toward the alarm clock. Who the hell would come here at ten o’clock at night?

  She almost ignored the knock and dove under the protection of the covers like a small child, but when she thought that it could have been Jared or Krista returning for some reason, she decided she’d better drag herself downstairs and check it out.

  The woman on the other side of the door was just turning to leave when Tori pulled it open, but she immediately turned back with a little, “Oh!” on her lips. Taking in Tori’s paj
amas she immediately looked contrite and bowed her head. “I’m very sorry to call on you so late at night. I hope I didn’t wake you?”

  Tori took in the stranger with tired, disinterested eyes. She looked to be about forty, with a few early streaks of gray marring her dark brown hair and crows feet forming in the corners of her eyes. She was wearing a sweater, but the clothes underneath seemed to be hospital scrubs, and she was protectively clutching a small parcel with both hands, holding it close to her chest. “No,” Tori finally responded. “I wasn’t asleep yet.”

  The woman fidgeted, seeming unsure of how to proceed. “You are Victoria MacKinnon?” She phrased it as a question, but Tori could tell that she already knew the answer, which made her more than a little uncomfortable. She had been about to invite the woman into the house, but now she stepped outside instead, and pulled the door shut behind her.

  “I’m sorry, who are you?” Tori tried her best to sound polite, though she knew it was quite a stretch.

  The woman took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, appearing to gather herself. “My name is Marianne Hunter,” she spoke slowly, choosing her words carefully. “I’m a nurse at the General, and I was on shift the night you were born.” She gave Tori an odd look then, and seemed a little embarrassed. “I’m very sorry, I know this is a horrible time to be confronted by a total stranger, but I have to ask: did your parents ever tell you about the night that you were born?”

  The question caught Tori completely by surprise. Honestly, she admitted, “They never really said much about it, except that it was an emergency c-section.”

  Marianne was nodding, though her lips were turned down in a frown. “Yes, that’s what I thought. They never did believe a word I said.”

  By now Tori was feeling that the conversation was going to a strange place and she wasn’t sure she liked it. The hairs on the back of her neck were quivering. “I don’t understand,” she said with a firm tone. “What is this about?”

  “The doctors couldn’t explain it,” Marianne continued as though the teenager had never spoken. “You were stillborn, there was no doubt about it. You weren’t breathing, they said, and your color had already begun to change. But then, all of a sudden, you’re perfectly healthy, sleeping quietly and happily, all swaddled and cleaned as though you’d been taken care of hours prior.” Here she seemed to realize that Tori was staring at her like she was crazy. “But I saw!” she cried, and before Tori could react she’d reached out with one shaking hand and snatched up the teen’s wrist, clutching it tight.

  Tori’s heart was in her throat, but she didn’t know what to do because she didn’t understand what was happening. “What the hell, lady?” she found herself shouting.

  “I saw,” Marianne practically sobbed. “No one believed me, but there were two people in the hospital that night, and somehow they brought you back to life! They brought you back to life!”

  Having heard plenty enough, and starting to actually feel quite frightened of this crazy woman, Tori snatched her arm back with a snarl. “Lady, you’ve totally lost it. Get out of here, or I’m calling the police!” She reached for the door, but the nurse pressed her body against it to keep her from escaping.

  “Please,” the woman begged. “I know it sounds insane, but it’s the truth! I tried so hard to convince myself that it hadn’t really happened, but I know it did because they left evidence behind!” Here she took her little parcel - a small white box wrapped in a pink ribbon - and thrust it into Tori’s hands. “Your parents wouldn’t take it because they thought I was pulling some kind of stunt. I almost got fired over the whole incident. But I kept it all these years because I thought… I just felt that it was important somehow.” Here she finally seemed to calm down, and an air of embarrassment washed over her. She pulled back from the door and lowered her head in apology. “I know you must think I’m an absolute lunatic - everyone did - but I’m sure that this is important, so I just felt like I had to return it to you.” Without standing up straight she glanced back up into Tori’s eyes. “Please promise me that you’ll at least take a look at it.”

  Tori wanted to scream at the lady, to tell her that she had clearly lost her mind and that the last thing Tori needed in her life right now was wild speculation about something that had happened more than seventeen years ago. Part of her wanted to haul back and kick the woman in the shins for freaking her the hell out. But as she squeezed the little box between her hands she found herself saying, “Fine, I will, as long as you go away right now.”

  The relief that appeared in Marianne’s eyes was palpable. “Of course, of course,” she said, and immediately took off for the SUV that she’d left running on the side of the road. “Thank you, Victoria!” she called back. “Thank you!” She was in the car and down the road before Tori could formulate any further response.

  Back in the house, Tori sat on her parents’ bed with the little box in front of her. With Marianne’s strange, half-told story fresh in her mind, she considered simply tossing the box away. She didn’t need this crap. She didn’t need any of it. Eventually, however, her curiosity got the best of her. Carefully, treating it like a bomb, she pulled at the pink ribbon. As if tormenting her for being a wuss, the edge of the stiff ribbon slid across the ball of her thumb and drew a small line of blood. “Shit,” she hissed, and angrily batted aside the top of the box to peer inside.

  Within lay a shining crystal pendant on a delicate white gold chain. It was quite possibly the last thing in the world Tori would have expected. Entranced, she lifted the crystal from the box and peered at the tiny design that seemed to be carved into the center of it: roses entwined around the blade of a longsword. It was beautiful and, staring at it here, like this, Tori would have sworn that the carving was actually glowing from within the gem. They left evidence behind, Marianne’s voice seemed to say in the back of her mind.

  The next thing Tori knew, she had the necklace unclasped and stretched out between her hands. It was so lovely, she thought, so enticing, and somehow so familiar. She suddenly wanted very much to have it around her neck. She leaned her head forward, connected the clasp behind her hairline, and straightened back up to let it fall to her skin. It felt warm and welcoming against her breast, like an old friend returning home. Unknowingly, as she ran her hand down the chain to stroke the jewel, a smudge of blood from her small wound rubbed across the crystal and vanished within it.

  What happened next happened so quickly that she wasn’t even sure it had happened at all. The moment that tiny drop of blood disappeared, an image appeared before Tori’s eyes. For just a moment her house melted away and she was in a green meadow, beneath a sky that was peppered in twinkling stars of numerous different colors.

  She let out a yelp, fell back against the pile of pillows at the head of the bed, and the image was gone. She was in her parents’ room, pressed up against the headboard as far as she could go, with a pile of half-opened mail scattered all around her.

  “What the hell?” she cried aloud. Her heart was making a desperate bid to escape her chest.

  Instinctively, she reached for the necklace to pull it off, but as soon as she touched the crystal she seemed to realize how foolish she was being. It was just a piece of jewelry, after all. Completely harmless.

  “You’re tired,” she told herself with a shaky kind of confidence. “You’re tired and your head is messed up and you need-” She stopped and bit her lip, and in the next moment she’d snatched her hoodie from the floor and pulled the prescription bottle from the pocket. The label had a word on it that she couldn’t even pronounce, but she knew what it meant: antidepressant. And a strong one at that. She popped three, even though the instructions only called for two, and grimly wished she had something strong to wash them down. “You’re tired,” she repeated to herself.

  With a sweeping kick she knocked the mail off the bed and crawled like a lost child under the sheets to bathe in the last remnants of her parents’ scents.

  “Lord knows y
ou have every reason to be.”

  Chapter Two

  The next morning Tori woke with a start and a gasp, and a heart that was threatening to beat its way right out of her chest. Sweat was pouring down her neck and forehead, and she felt breathless from the shock of the nightmare, but it was dissipating so quickly that she could barely recall what it was about it that had frightened her so much. There had been something about a cliff, stormy waters, and an enormous shadowy blackness rushing down on top of her. Just trying to envision it the way she’d dreamed it made a shudder go down her spine.

  Then she glanced at the alarm clock’s hateful neon glare and shuddered for a different reason: it was time to get up and get ready for school. For a few minutes she stayed under the blankets, clutching her mother’s hand-knit quilt to her face. She tried to convince herself to just stay in bed, stay here where it was warm and safe. But she’d promised Jared and Krista, and she really did want Jared’s company when facing the bank later. So it was with a loud growl at the world that she forced her legs over the side of the bed and marched herself down the hall to the bathroom.

  As she let the hot water pour over her and the shampoo wash the last remnants of the nightmare away, Tori considered how lucky she should consider herself to have two friends who cared more about her wellbeing than the latest horrible gossip options. She and Krista had known each other since junior high school; they’d become cheerleaders together and had been close friends ever since, so she supposed it wasn’t really a surprise that the other girl would stick by her in her time of need. Jared was actually another story all together. In truth, they hadn’t been friends for all that long. They had actually met through Br- that guy, and Tori hadn’t originally been Jared’s biggest fan. Right from the start he’d seemed to have some mysterious issue with her and that guy being together, and had often tried to convince her that she could “do so much better”. She’d assumed him to be a jerk who was hot on his buddy’s girl and had no shame in trying to break them up, so she ignored him and thought very poorly of him behind his back. Then, one day at a big party, Jared had too much to drink and started hanging off her, begging that she break up with that guy because he was “a creep who’s gonna break your heart”. Tori had slapped him across the face that night and very nearly done worse. As far as she was concerned, Jared was the creep. She knew that what she was involved in was true love and that they were going to be together forever.