by Sharon Sant
Ellen rolled her eyes. ‘And you’re going to be a doctor?’
‘That’s different,’ he excused. ‘Those people have normal illnesses, things that medicine can do something about. He’s just…. just lying there, not dead, not alive… not anything.’
Ellen leaned across the table. ‘I don’t think he will be for much longer.’
Luca paused. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘Something’s changing. I can feel it.’
Luca glanced around the room, anxiety and doubt in his expression. ‘You don’t think we annoyed him, do you?’
‘What…’
‘How your painting fell off the wall… you don’t think he was annoyed with us?’
Ellen laughed, the tension draining from her. ‘Jacob? He wouldn’t dare throw my painting off the wall no matter how annoyed he was with me.’
Luca grinned in return, but it quickly faded. ‘So, what do you think did happen?’
‘I have no idea.’ A tempered excitement lit her features. ‘But first there’s the lamp and now this. Maybe we’re about to find out.’
Luca glanced across to the counter, where an assistant had started to take the coffee machine apart to clean it. ‘I think we’ll have to be quick if we still want that drink.’
‘We can get one at Jake’s house.’ She stood and pulled him by the hand. ‘Come on.’
‘Luca!’ Maggie cried as she opened the front door. ‘What brings you over?’
Luca grinned sheepishly. ‘I know, Mrs L, it’s been a while.’
‘Oh, I didn’t mean that…’ Maggie ushered him and Ellen in and closed the door.
‘Yes, she did,’ Ellen shot a sideways glance at Luca.
‘Ellen, behave,’ Maggie smiled. ‘Cup of tea?’ she asked, leaving for the kitchen without waiting for a reply. They followed her. ‘We had a power cut earlier,’ she called as she went. ‘You’ll have to excuse the mess; I was just checking everything in the freezer.’
Luca shot Ellen a significant look. ‘Did anything else happen?’ he asked carefully.
‘Like what?’ Maggie asked, gesturing them to sit down and crossing the room to fill the kettle.
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Luca replied taking a seat. ‘No damage… or anything?’
Maggie stood before them, hands on her hips, and narrowed her eyes. ‘What is this about?’
‘It’s just that there was power cut at the café in the park,’ Ellen broke in quickly, glaring at Luca. ‘And a fuse there blew; it was a terrible bang…’ Luca threw her a questioning look, one that she ignored. ‘We just wondered if there had been some sort of power surge through the grid or something,’ she concluded brightly.
‘No, everything else is fine. And it wasn’t off for long.’
‘So why are you checking the frozen food?’ Ellen asked.
Maggie returned to the freezer and scooped the remaining items back in. ‘Habit.’ She smiled sadly as she closed the door. Ellen returned it. She understood the need to find any small distraction from the vigil at Jacob’s bedside.
The kettle clicked off and Maggie reached into a cupboard for mugs. ‘Are you going up to see him, Luca?’ she asked.
Luca shot Ellen an uncertain glance.
‘Yes, he is,’ Ellen answered for him. ‘We were talking about it at the café, weren’t we, Luca?’
‘Um… yes, we were.’
‘He’ll like that…’ Maggie said as she poured the tea.
Luca frowned at Ellen. ‘What?’ he mouthed. She gave her head a tiny warning shake.
‘Drink your tea first, though,’ Maggie said, setting the mugs in front of them.
‘Can you feel anything now?’ Luca asked Ellen as he stared at Jacob’s motionless form.
‘Nothing,’ she returned doubtfully. ‘Whatever happened earlier, perhaps it wasn’t him after all.’
They lapsed into silence. Luca exhaled loudly and turned his attention to the room, his eyes roving the familiar surroundings. ‘This is so weird,’ he said finally. ‘I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here.’
‘You can just sit.’
‘Just sit and look at him? That’s weird in itself.’
‘I don’t know, then,’ Ellen replied irritably. ‘Talk to him or something.’
‘It gets better and better,’ Luca returned.
‘Go then,’ she snapped.
‘I didn’t want to come in the first place,’ Luca shot back. ‘I told you, I can’t do all this sitting around next to him like you do. It’s not right…. it’s not him, it’s not how you’re meant to see him.’ He drew a breath and rubbed a hand across the fine stubble on his chin, trying to rein in his fraying temper. ‘Remember when he was in the hospital in that coma? That was bad, but somehow this feels so much weirder.’
‘He’ll come round, I just know he will,’ Ellen insisted.
‘But how? This time he has no Dae to help him.’
Ellen chewed at her nail, staring down at Jacob. ‘He will. It just might take a little longer, that’s all.’
Luca rose from his chair and began to pace the room, picking up objects for inspection before putting them down again, more for something to alleviate the tension than genuine interest.
With a yelp, he dropped a pencil sharpener. ‘That’s red hot!’
Ellen got up from her chair and went over to him. The sharpener lay on the floor. She nudged it gingerly. ‘What are you talking about?’ she said, picking it up and handing it to Luca. ‘It’s cold.’
He took it from her, a confused frown furrowing his brow. ‘But it was boiling hot… I couldn’t touch it.’
As one, they turned to look at Jacob, whose appearance was unchanged; his breathing still regular, his face a mask of nothingness.
‘I have to go,’ Luca decided. ‘This is just too freaky.’
‘Don’t be silly,’ Ellen chided. ‘You’re making it into a bigger deal by being such a baby.’
‘I just can’t do this. Call me a bad person, call me a coward, call me what you want, but this…’ he pointed to the bed, ‘is not my friend. This is… a body. Dead bodies I can cope with, but… I’m sorry, I don’t want to sit here and stare at it.’
He grabbed his coat from the back of a chair and marched out, Ellen following with the beginnings of an argument on her lips. The door ricocheted closed behind her.
Jacob’s pencil sharpener flirted across the room and slammed into the opposite wall with a loud crack.
Alex woke with a start. A small flick of her hand lit the room and she sat up. Her breaths were ragged and a fine sheen of sweat slicked her brow. Swinging from the bed, she crossed to the vast windows, beyond which the mountains lay in foreboding darkness, and gazed out, hugging herself. She had dreamt of Jacob again. Once again, she had hesitated, unable to finish the job, and then the dream had ended.
Why did he have this hold over her, even now? A sudden flash of temper took hold and she screamed, shattering every pane of glass in the room. With the windows destroyed, the cold night wind blew through her chambers, whipping her nightclothes around her and showering her with debris from both outside and in. Quickly, she lifted each shard and splinter of glass, reforming the gigantic panes, and the room was quiet and still once more.
A noise from behind made her spin around.
‘Did I startle you?’ Makash asked quietly.
‘Yes. You’re sneaking around again.’
His eyes travelled the room. ‘What is this theme, pray tell?’
Her expression darkened. ‘It’s Disney Princess,’ she replied defensively. The inside of her bedroom had been decorated in white and pink glitter, ornate scrolls and flourishes at every corner.
Makash closed his eyes, his expression contorted into one of utter disdain. ‘Why this?’
She shrugged. ‘I was bored.’
‘If you were bored, Kya, then perhaps you should have turned to your training,’ he replied, his fierce gaze once more boring into her.
‘I was sick of tha
t too.’
‘So you decided to spend your time creating this tasteless monstrosity?’
‘If you don’t like it, uncle,’ she pouted, ‘perhaps something more gothic?’ She flicked her wrist and the room became a negative of its previous incarnation - everything that had been white turned black, baroque furniture replaced the candy white fittings, and cobwebs hung from the ceiling. ‘Something more fitting for you, Prince of Darkness,’ she sneered.
Suddenly, Makash’s hands were at her throat, his face close to hers. ‘You may be powerful,’ he growled, ‘but you are not Watcher yet. I would point out how precarious your situation is at the moment, but even you are not that stupid.’
She wrenched him away. ‘I could take you down, just like that.’ She clicked her fingers and jutted her chin in a defiant gesture, but the fear in her eyes told a different story. Makash stepped back and swept into a mocking bow.
‘No doubt, Kya. But you won’t.’
‘That’s what you think.’
He turned and began leave the room. ‘Save your energy and focus on the task in hand instead of acting like a child. The longer you resist, the longer you will remain here.’
She watched him leave, her pale face stuck in a scowl. Part of her imagined following him, killing him stone dead there and then. Another part of her longed to curl up in a ball and cry herself back to sleep. She wanted what he had promised, but did she want it enough to go through with the demands he made of her? Jacob returned to her thoughts. She was more powerful than him, Makash never tired of reminding her, and she was blocking all aid from Astrae, yet she continued to sense the life still in his body. What was it that kept him hanging on? If he would just fade quietly like he was supposed to, it would save the meeting that she dreaded, the one that haunted her dreams. The meeting that she knew, with fatal certainty, would come to pass.
Ellen picked up the pencil sharpener and turned it over in her fingers, her stomach lurching. She cast a glance in Jacob’s direction.
‘What is going on with you?’
She returned the sharpener to its home and crossed to the window, her absent gaze on the now darkening sky and the streetlamps just flickering on in their first weak light. She couldn’t sustain her anger with Luca for long and now recalled, with regret, the spiteful words they had exchanged before he headed home. If she was honest with herself, a small part of her shared his reluctance to be around Jacob right now. Perhaps he had a point. What was lying in that bed was a shell, an empty copy of the original. Maybe Jacob was never coming back.
She pulled the curtains closed and flicked on the lamp that Maggie had brought in from the spare room. Then, she took one of the seats that waited, always, by the bed. For a long time, she sat in silent contemplation, watching the steady rise and fall of Jacob’s chest as the lamplight cast uncertain shadows across the room. Underneath his t-shirt, the engravings of his amulet showed in subtle relief. Ellen had insisted that Maggie and Phil leave it on, despite the coldness of the metal telling her that its power had died with his.
From down in the kitchen, Ellen could hear the faint rattle of pots and the echo of a knife on a chopping board as Maggie prepared dinner. The smell of frying onions drifted up. Finally, Ellen shook herself, reminded that her own brothers would probably be waiting for a meal that their mother was unlikely to be in a state to cook. Whatever was going on in this room, she couldn’t forget that there were others who needed her too.
‘You need to give me a sign, Jake,’ she whispered, ‘something… anything to show me you’re still in there.’ She glanced around the room, not sure whether she wanted something to happen or not. All remained silent and still. ‘Please, Jacob…’ she said, rubbing the tears from her eyes. ‘I can’t spend my life sitting here waiting for you.’
Through her mind poured memories - some left by Ioh, some she and Jacob had shared during their too few and too brief times together - all now bittersweet. They were all she had left. She leaned across the bed to kiss him.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I can’t do this anymore.’
She lingered a moment longer, unable to bring herself to leave this time, knowing that she would never return. Finally, she drew a weary breath and rose from the seat.
As she reached the door, something made her look back. Something made her return to the bed. An unnameable instinct told her to gently pull the amulet from beneath Jacob’s top for one last look. She gasped and let it drop again.
The amulet was blood-warm.
Seven: Trapped
Ellen’s mouth fell open. She stepped back and gripped the door frame, her mind refusing to process the revelation. After a few uncertain moments, she approached the bed again.
‘Jake?’ she whispered. There was no response. ‘Jacob?’ she said more forcefully. He didn’t move; his breathing retaining the same steady pattern, eyes still beneath their lids. Warily, she reached for the amulet again. There was no mistaking the heat now radiating from it. Ellen stroked a thumb across it while her stomach wriggled. Did it mean he was coming back? It was more than she dared hope and she tried, desperately, to contain the excitement building in her. It would be foolish not to consider the very real possibility that it could be a meaningless coincidence, a side-effect, some residue of Ioh that refused to die - it didn’t mean anything until he actually woke. But she had asked for a sign and what clearer message could he have sent her? Yet, the realisation that his consciousness might still be in there, trapped in a lifeless shell, pulled at her already fraught emotions. The idea was abhorrent; she imagined it as something like being buried alive, Jacob screaming to get out from a place where no one could hear him.
Maggie’s voice came from behind her. ‘Are you staying for something to eat?’
Ellen let go of the amulet and spun round, almost losing her balance. ‘Maggie… you startled me.’
Maggie glanced from Ellen to Jacob and back again, a shrewd look colouring her neat features. ‘Has there been a change?’ she asked.
‘I… I’m not sure.’
‘But you think there might be?’
‘It’s a silly thing…’ Ellen excused. ‘Just a feeling, that’s all.’
Maggie went over to the bed and smoothed a hand across Jacob’s forehead. ‘I wish you’d share some of your positive feelings with me,’ she murmured, not looking at Ellen. ‘God knows I could do with some faith right now.’
Ellen backed away and wavered at the door, watching her. It felt like she was witnessing an intensely private moment, one that she had no right to see. She wondered whether she ought to leave the room.
Maggie seemed to shiver and then turned to her. ‘I need something to cling on to, Ellen. Whatever it is that you feel; whatever you think has changed… please…’
Ellen hesitated. How could she tell her about the amulet without telling her what it meant? And doing that would mean telling her the whole story. Even though Phil and Maggie had been open-minded to a point, was this a step too far, even for them?
‘I thought, maybe, I saw his finger move.’ Maggie’s eyes widened. ‘But I could have been mistaken,’ Ellen added quickly.
Maggie’s gaze turned back to Jacob. ‘I’ll keep an eye on that,’ she decided, trying to keep her joy in check. ‘Are you staying?’ she asked Ellen, noting her proximity to the door.
‘I should get back. Mum’s not well again.’
Maggie nodded. ‘You mum is so lucky to have you.’ Ellen looked down at her hands without reply. ‘You know, if I can ever help, I will,’ Maggie continued carefully, ‘you don’t always have to cope alone…’
Ellen looked up to find Maggie regarding her steadily, her expression one of fondness. For the first time, Ellen had a startling insight into how close they had become over the past few years without even realising it. The notion made her want to break down and weep. A small display of a fraction of that love from her own mother was something she yearned for daily yet never seemed to find. But Maggie was wrong. She did have to cope
alone, because to breathe even a word of the reality of her life at home to anyone would be to risk ruining the lives of her brothers for ever.
‘I know that,’ she replied, forcing herself to smile. ‘And I don’t. I might get in and Mum’s already sorted the boys. She’s not ill every day, you know.’
Maggie returned the smile, hers tinged with sadness. ‘If you’re sure…’
‘I’ll probably go and see Luca tonight, anyway,’ Ellen continued airily.
‘Ah, yes. Did you two have a bit of a fall-out today?’ Maggie asked, now returned to her usual brisk self.
Ellen shrugged. ‘It’s just Luca, you know how he is. Sometimes he needs a plank of wood across his head to knock some sense in.’
Maggie raised her eyebrows. ‘I hope that’s a metaphorical plank of wood.’
Ellen laughed. ‘I can stay for a bit longer if you need me to wait until Phil is home.’
‘Would you?’ she glanced at Jacob. ‘In light of what you’ve told me, I’d really appreciate him not being left alone and I need to finish dinner.’
‘Of course.’ Ellen returned to her chair. Maggie patted her on the arm gently as she left the room. ‘Thank you.’
Ellen let out a long breath as she was left alone. She stared down at Jacob again and reached for his hand to stroke it. Her gaze was drawn to the disc of metal bearing its runic symbols, now showing above his t-shirt. She touched it and found it still warm.
‘Come on, Jacob,’ she whispered. ‘Come back to me.’
Luca’s mum opened the front door with a look of faint surprise. From within the warm aroma of tomato and fragrant basil drifted out into the night air.
‘Ellen! How lovely to see you.’
‘Am I interrupting dinner?’ Ellen asked. ‘I just called on the off chance he’d be in but I can come back.’
‘Of course not, we have all but finished. When I say we…’ she continued, pulling Ellen towards her and kissing her on both cheeks, ‘I mean the people in this family who eat normally. Gianluca finished his hours before everybody else and went to his room, rapidamente…’ She led Ellen into the hallway and closed the door. ‘I think he is sulking about something,’ she said in a carrying whisper, the ticking of the giant old grandfather clock that always stood in the hall a timely accompaniment to her words. ‘Gianluca!’ she called upstairs. There was a muffled, monosyllabic reply that neither of them could understand. ‘Gianluca!’ his mum called again.
