The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves

by Richard Heredia

  Derek froze in mid-chew.

  You stupid bitch! thought Hyun when she suddenly figured it out, her mind in an uproar at the other girl’s imbecilic behavior. “Oh my god, Kimberly, have you been drinking?!?”

  “Hell yeah, sista, there is some ‘long island’ in this iced tea,” she replied holding up the aluminum can before her.

  Before the girl could react, Hyun sprang to her feet and snagged the beverage out of her hand.

  “Hey, you douche bag, that’s my drink!” complained Kimberly as Hyun bent down to sniff and blinked rapidly when she the smelled the sharp scent of whiskey.

  “Jesus Christ, Kim, how much alcohol did you put in this?” inquired the Korean girl, pointing at the can.

  “It’s my usual blend whenever I feel I need a little somethin’, somethin’ to chill me out. I call it a half and half.” Kimberly smiled hugely, her eyes squinting in an unusual manner.

  “You mean she’s drunk?” asked Derek, catching on late, though it didn’t stop him from eating. He merely sat up straighter, peering over at Kimberly as if she’d gone insane.

  “Yeah, she’s drunk, look at her.” Hyun motioned toward the Emo-girl as she took a wolf-like bite of her sandwich, growling and snarling as she did so, as if she were imagining she was a feral canine. “Aargh, Kim, why are you always doing such stupid shit?” demanded Hyun, walking over the trashcan they had found underneath one of the check-out counters and tossed the drink into it.

  “What’re you talking about?” mouthed Kimberly, around all the food she had in her mouth.

  “I’m talking about shit like this. I’m talking about getting drunk for no reason, for being a bitch all the time, for being self-destructive, for always so eager to hide from reality. Should I go on?” Hyun walked to where they piled some other supplies and ripped open the plastic around a twenty-four pack of individual water bottles, snatched one angrily, and stepped over to Kimberly, extending it toward her. “Drink this!”

  “I don’t want to, wanna keep this buzz for a little while,” was the girl’s response as she pushed the bottle away. Her head was cast downward, gazing at what was left of her food in her lap.

  “Take it!” insisted Hyun.

  “No,” mumbled Kimberly.

  Derek just looked on not sure what to do, but still didn’t stop eating. It was like he was watching a movie or something, mesmerized by what he saw, unable to stop the basic motor function of bringing food to his mouth and chomping on it.

  “Kimberly!”

  “I don’t fucking want it!” she raged at Hyun, standing and dropping everything in her lap onto the floor, swiping at the water bottle and knocking it from her grasp. It bounced along the floor and out of sight. “Why do you always have to try to control everyone, huh?” She kept coming forward. “Who the fuck cares if I get drunk? Who the fuck is going to stop me? Who the hell is fucking here to even care about me or you, or him!” She stepped closer toward Hyun, putting a finger in her chest. “No one, you stupid cow, got it! Did you hear what I said? Huh? HUH??? I said, NO ONE!!!”

  “Calm down! Get the hell away from me,” said Hyun, irritated, pushing the other girl away when she moved even closer and into her personal space.

  “No, Hyun, I’m not going to get away from you. I’m gonna get all up in your shit just like you like to get into everyone else’s - real nice and close, the way you like it.” Kimberly came forward again, her eyes stretched wide, trying to get nose to nose with her.

  “I said step the hell back,” Hyun pushed her back a second time, at both shoulders, harder, firmer.

  “Why, little miss rich girl? You don’t like it when other people get in your face, get into your business, asking all kinds of stupid, fucking questions all the time? Huh, what’s the matter? Why get all squirmy and icky all of a sudden, I thought you liked getting close up to the shit.” Again, Kimberly came close.

  This time Hyun didn’t hesitate. She shoved the other girl back as hard as she could, making Kimberly stumble and lose her footing as she tripped and fell over the chair she had been sitting in moments before. She fell to the floor, making a long series of crashing noises, sending everything in the immediate area in all directions.

  Derek came to his feet.

  “I don’t like people with nasty ass alcoholic breath getting in my face, dumb bitch,” replied Hyun seething through clenched teeth.

  From the ground, Kimberly spun around onto her butt and glared at her with unadulterated fury.

  This chick has lost it…

  “I’m gonna rip your fucking tits off!” A moment later, Kimberly scrambled to her feet and lunged at Hyun, a low-pitched guttural growl rasping from the bottom of her throat.

  Alright, bitch, you wanna fight, let’s go!

  Hyun changed her footing, one foot behind the other, balled up her fists and was about to lung for the other teenager, when Derek shot in between the both of them, using his body to shield one from the other.

  “You guys, stop!” he shouted as Kimberly slammed into his back, clearing intent on getting around him at Hyun.

  Her hands were curled into claws, her teeth bared, her eyes wild with a kind of malice far deeper than the situation warranted. “I’m gonna kick the shit out of you, Hyun!” she rasped, spittle drooping from the corner of her mouth.

  Hyun felt Derek’s hand resting on her chest just under her neck. She flung his arm away, but didn’t move any closer.

  It took all that Derek had to keep Kimberly from getting around him until finally he spun on the balls of his feet, grabbed her by both of her shoulders and shook her violently. “Kimberly, stop! Stop it now!” He was staring directly into her eyes.

  She glanced up into his for a split second. Her face twisted into an ugly grimace as tears began to fall from her face profusely.

  “Calm down, Kim, calm down, ok.” He lowered his voice, but still held onto her firmly.

  She looked at him for a second time, her eyes less clouded with rage. “Uuurrgh!” she screamed and twisted out of his grasp, ripping his hands from her body with every ounce of strength she could muster.

  He instantly stepped before Hyun, blocking access to her, but Kimberly wasn’t advancing in their direction.

  “You both can go and suck each other’s cocks!!!” she wailed through her tears and ran off, away from their small ‘home’, out of the fish market and into the mall proper. Even as she farther strode away, they could still hear her cries and explosive sobbing for quite some time.

  “What the hell was that all about?” asked Derek after Kimberly’s howls had diminished to almost nothing, rubbing his hands together, the force she had applied on them must have made them ache.

  “I’m not sure,” sighed Hyun, relaxing the tension in her shoulders, a tightness she hadn’t even realized she had sustained. “There’s a lot my old friend hasn’t told me. She hides everything now, you know, as if she can’t bring herself to tell anyone, not even me.”

  Derek mulled on this as if he tasted something exotic for the first time. “She’s a nice girl, under all of the bullshit she’s hiding behind,” he uttered quietly, his tone devoid of inflection as if he’d verbalized a thought.

  “She is much more than that, Derek,” retorted Hyun, her eyes sliding over toward the fourteen-year-old boy.

  He didn’t turn to stare back. He kept his gazing toward the last place they’d both of them had seen Kimberly. “Do you have any idea what happened to her?”

  It was the concern in his voice that made her frown and stare at him more intently. “No, I wish I did. And yet, at the same time, I wish I didn’t have to know. But, if it would bring just a little bit of the girl I used to know back, I guess I would listen to the worst of the worst. If it meant I could have back my childhood friend, then I would.” She spoke woodenly, though inside her heart was clenching. She knew she was on the verge of understanding the truth. It would take no more than a clue or two more and she would unearth what had happened. She knew even then, it wouldn’t
be pleasant.

  Derek’s brow furled bit by bit as time passed. His dark eyes filled with emotion as well.

  Hyun watched, breathed. She let his expression slowly reveal itself, knowing if she spoke, inadvertently, he’d change it. Her own orbs locked on the teenage boy standing next to her. The realization hit her so hard, she gasped. He likes her! She tried as quickly as she could to stifle it with a fake cough.

  Derek looked at her, half expecting her to throw-up on his shoes or something.

  Holy shit, all this time, since day one! It all clicked into place and made sense. That was why Kimberly was so mean to him. That was why Sonny had been so jealous of him. It wall made perfect sense now. Holy shit, this has been a twisted triangle since Derek had first asked Kimberly for directions. He had liked her all the way back then… and ever since! The little bastard never said a god damned thing to me!

  “You think she’ll be ok out there. I mean, it’s getting awfully cold in here?” he said totally unaware he had just let the proverbial cat out of the bag.

  “She’ll be ok, it’s cold, but it’s not so cold that it’s deadly,” assured Hyun, patting him on the shoulder. There was a gleam in her eye he didn’t see, because he never looked her way. His attention was only for the tipsy girl who had run away in despair.

  This just gets weirder and weirder with every passing hour.

  *****

  It was hours later, after Hyun and Derek had talked for a while. They had cleaned up the mess, the consequence of their little scuffle. After, they’d talked about home, family, everyone and everything they missed. They wrapped themselves in robes and then blankets as the temperature plummeted even more with absence of the day. They lay there, playing a game of “Guess the Movie”, each of them saying a line from a well-known flick, while the other had to guess where it originated. It was after they’d eaten some snacks and joked in the dim light of the battery-operated lanterns they had placed around their living space. After they had grown tired and decided to turn in for the night. They had turned off all the lights and finally said good night to one another.

  It was after Derek had fallen into a deep sleep, that Hyun heard her return, walking on the balls of her feet, trying to hide the fact she was still crying after all of this time. Hyun heard her sit down upon her designated sleeping area, and struggle for a bit, trying to take off her shoes. A few minutes later, she scooted back and crawled deep into her bedding.

  Time seemed to stretch for the Korean teen as she waited for something else to happen, but nothing did. Hyun wanted so much to get up and climb under the covers with her, wanted to put an arm about her and tell her everything was ok. She wanted so bad to whisper in her ear that she cared, that everyone cared, that together they could make it through anything. She wanted to remind her they had once been best friends, almost sisters, and would be forever. She wanted to let her cry on her shoulder, so it could all come out, so she could begin to heal, to grow beyond what had happened to her, whatever it might’ve been.

  This was what she would have done three or four years ago. She would’ve crawled into her friend’s bed and she would’ve had all the answers. But, that wasn’t the case now. She didn’t know how this Kimberly would react. Too much had gone between them, too much of the world had touched Kimberly. For the first time in her life, Hyun felt sheltered, pampered, and naive. I am a spoiled bitch! I’m the one who had sufficient insulation and thrived. I was the one who had the right conditions to succeed. For some reason, it pissed her off, because Kimberly had been right. She was a rich girl on a pedestal. She was one of the privileged few who didn’t have to get her hands dirty from the ubiquitous residue of humankind. Her parents had taken care of that, but had Kimberly’s parents done the same? What disaffected form of existence had led to their child to be harmed in such a way it had somehow marred her for life?

  What happened to you, Kim, my friend, my playmate, my schoolyard buddy?

  She heard her sobbing just above human hearing, long wracking sucks of air. They were quiet, drawn-out whimpers of loss.

  “You just don’t understand. You just don’t understand. You just don’t understand…”

  Hyun had never wished for anything more. If she could, she wished, above all else, that she understood.

  Kimberly’s private litany drove her to sleep after a time, but she would awake later on and remember everything like it had happened only seconds before.

  We will find the way, Kimmy, you and me. We will find a way, because I won’t rest until I find the real you.

  Her dreams took her once again.

  ~~~~~~~~<<<<<<{ ☼ }>>>>>>~~~~~~~~

  ~ 77 ~

  No, Definitely Not Him

  Day Four, Sunday, 3:38 am…

  It was here…

  I’VE COME FOR YOU!

  She attained the pathway, her legs aching now as the lactic acid in her muscles began to work against her. It was the inevitable pain all runners felt when they’d over-exerted themselves. Though, she was sweating profusely, as if she had been sprinting for hours, something had changed and she could feel it now – around her, in nearly all places, even within – cold: stark, lifeless cold, a chill unlike anything she had ever felt before. It was iciness, full with malice, overflowing with hate. So intense, it almost made her cry out in fear.

  {No, not this again, she felt herself think, though she knew not why.}

  She rocketed up the second set of stairs and almost staggered into the doors and banging her head, instead of opening them. She knew this cold; this ever-growing absence of warmth was directing all of its deep, black emotions at her. It loathed her. It despised her very existence. It wanted nothing more than to smear her like a bud across the surface of the world, scrub her existence clean from space and time.

  “RICARDO!!!” she shrieked as she wrenched open the right hand side door. The same the teenage boy had gone through only moments before. She plunged headlong into the structure. Darkness surrounded her at once. She slammed the door shut, trying to figure out what to do next, where to go, where to hide. It was just outside the doors now, she was certain of it!

  {Stop, you have been here before, don’t go in. It is all wrong in there!}

  “Ricardo?” she implored, listening intently for a reply, but nothing followed, only silence and darkness.

  She turned to the left, knowing the building went furthest in that direction, taking no more than half a step when she bumped into him, her forehead rapping against his chest. From above, she heard him grunt slightly.

  {But it’s not Him!}

  “Oh my god, Ricardo, I’m so glad I found you,” she said, not moving away from him. Instead, she brought her arms up to hug him around the midsection.

  The boy didn’t reply, but brought his own arms to hug her back, giving her a firm squeeze at first, that settled into a warmth embrace a moment later. He sustained it. She returned the gesture. Almost immediately, she felt safe, felt It retreat, pull back, hesitate, as if It were suddenly wary, as if Ricardo made It unsure, doubtful.

  She stood there, immobile, letting the tainted cold seep from her body. She listened to the steady thump of the boy’s strong heartbeat resound in her ears, continuous, almost lulling, something she could count on, rely upon. She could feel his large hands stroking her back, massaging various muscles, caressing her curves and contours as if he were memorizing every part of her. Like he wanted to know the way she liked to be touched. He was searching for a response. She melted against him, warm now, safe again. Her hands rubbed along his spine, then to the long, stringy muscles of his back.

  {It is wrong! It is not right, he is too tall. How many times do I have to say it, he’s too goddamn tall! Why can’t you tell, why can’t you remember? It has not been that long since the last time, Marianna, you should know better! It is not him!}

  She noticed, she could see a little. Her eyes were beginning to adjust to the refracted light within the building. She saw she was standing in a library. Books and shelving s
urrounded them in all directions. Tables and chairs, with small desk lamps as well. She could make out color of Ricardo’s flannel shirt. It was mostly dark blue, but had crisscrossed stripes of black and green on it, her cheek still resting upon the soft material. She could see he was wearing black jeans and black high top sneakers.

  A strange thought suddenly flittered about her consciousness.

  Had Ricardo grown since she had seen him last?

  {No, you idiot, it’s not him. It’s someone else. Get away from him! You don’t know him. You don’t know what he is like!}

  This made her go stiff in the boy’s embrace. She pulled back abruptly, expecting to see the dark, broad features of the boy she had left behind in Arizona. She was stunned to find nothing of the sort!

  The boy in front of her was at least six inches taller than Ricardo. He was lanky and long limbed. His face was much narrower than she recalled. His hair was dark and short. His eyes matched those of her lost boyfriend, because he was Hispanic in heritage, but still, he looked nothing like Ricardo.

  “Who…who are you?” she mumbled, taking a half-step back. Her left hand had somehow remained clasped within his.

  He smiled knowingly at her, as if he had known she would ask that question and was being patient, waiting for her to get over her discomfort, her confusion.

  “Who are you?” she asked again with a little more force. “Have I met you before?”

  He said nothing, but shook his head in the negative.

  She thought for a moment, the fact she still held onto his hand forgotten, lost in her befuddlement. She let the silence stretch, her mind racing over the possibilities. One actuality stood out more than all the rest. I feel like I should know him, as if I do already, and yet… I’m sure I’ve never laid eyes upon him before.

  {Oh god, why do you have to like him so much? Why does he make your heart jump in your throat every time you lay eyes on him? You are not supposed to feel this way about a complete stranger! Crap, you’re acting like a slut!!!}