“Liz?” He shouted as I went out. I went back and stood in the doorway staring at him.
"Yes?"
"Are you sure you don’t want me to walk with you to your house? It's too late to be alone on the streets.”
"Like the last times you asked me, no, Joe, "I said, smiling. "You know the walk from here to my house is quite short. Don’t worry, I'll be fine. Good night.”
"Good night," Joe said, nodding with a serious face. He clearly didn’t like the idea. Nor had hidden his aversion when I decided to start leave work late. He worried too much. Grandma does the same. Sometimes I think these two talk about me behind my back.
My bike had broken a few days ago and I still hadn’t had it fixed, so I was coming and going from work on foot. What really didn’t bother me, I like to walk since it’s pretty much the only exercise I do. I grabbed my things, closed the door behind me, and started walking.
While walking home there was only one thought in my head. Why didn’t he show up today after so many days in this routine? With all this I sort of stopped thinking why he kept coming back to the diner every day. It couldn’t be for me. Could it? The weirdest thing was that I realized that, deep down, I wanted it to be. A noise behind me took me out from my reverie. I turned to see what, or who it was, and I was startled. It was him. He had a different look on his face. The charming smile that was always there was gone.
"What the hell are you doing?" I asked, holding my hand to my chest, still panting from the scare.
"What are you doing? Walking alone at this hour?” He countered, suddenly looking annoyed.
Now I was irritated. I looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"What kind of stalker are you? I changed my shift days ago. I thought you noticed.
"I'm not stalking you, Liz."
"Then could you please tell me what you're doing? Why do you come to my work every day? Why do you keep staring at me as if hoping to find some answer on my face?” I asked with a serious expression and at that moment I really wanted to know. He became more serious, too, and I saw from the look on his face that it wasn’t random. He didn’t have a crush on me or anything. It was really something. Something bigger and more important. And he was struggling if he should tell me. I could tell.
“The coffee there is very good, but the service not so much. There's a waitress that keeps staring at me,” he replied, grinning, clearly choosing not to tell me and trying to evade the subject.
“Okay. If you don’t want to tell me, I'm not doing this anymore," I said, turning around, determined to leave.
I was tired of it all. How I felt when he showed up, and even more how I felt when he didn’t show up. Of everything. I would leave and not think about him any more. Never again.
Until he shouted, “All right!"
I turned slowly and for a few seconds just looked at him, analyzing. He looked back at me looking defeated, but it wasn’t just that. The raised corner of his mouth gave me the impression that he was also relieved. Like he really wanted this to end. As if he wanted to blur it all out. But if he wanted to tell me everything, why hadn’t he already told me?
"All right, what is it?"
“I'll tell you everything," he said, letting his shoulders drop as a sign of defeat.
"Everything?"
"Everything."
"Okay, start talking."
"Liz, I can assure you that it a long history. And it looks like it's going to rain. Can we go to your house? Is your Grandmother going to be awake? "
"I’m not even going to ask how you know that I live with my Grandmother. But no, we can’t go to my house. How do I know if you're not a murderer or something?"
He laughed so loudly that echoed in the empty street. He crossed his arms and looked at me as if the thought was an absolute absurdity. It wasn’t, I thought.
"Look around, Liz. There’s no one else on the street. If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead," he said, still smiling.
It made sense. And as much as logic tried to dissuade me, I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. I didn’t doubt that for a second.
"Okay, but I still want to know what it's about.”
"Your parents, Liz. It has to do with your parents," he said slowly, waiting to see my reaction.
It felt like the floor was swallowing me. I never knew much about my parents, since Grandma was always so closed about it. She just told me how they were, or a story here and there. This was my opportunity to learn more about them. I didn’t have to think twice.
"Grandma will be asleep by now. Come on, it's going to rain.”
We walk quietly to my house. I opened my mouth countless times to ask questions, but I held back. I felt that he was really going to tell me everything. As I walked I wiped my sweaty hand on my pants; I was nervous. Maybe Grandma wouldn’t talk about my parents for a good reason. I’d certainly asked questions, until I gave up when I realized that she wouldn’t give me any answers. I grew accustomed to the fact that my parents died in an accident — Grandma never specified which— and that I wouldn’t know much more than that. Despite feeling, for some reason, that I was betraying Grandma, my curiosity about my family was bigger. When we arrived, I thought we'd better go through the back door.
"Didn’t you say your Grandmother would be asleep?” He said in a whisper as we tiptoed into the dark house.
I looked back and in the dark I could see his gray eyes staring at me.
"What if she is not?" What am I going to say? That I brought my favorite stalker to see our house?
“Well thought.”
We go up to my room silently on tiptoe. When we arrived, he studied the place for a few seconds and sat in the chair in the corner of the room. I took off my coat and sat on the edge of the bed, ready to hear everything.
“All right. Spit it.”
"Okay,” he said, sitting on the edge of the chair. He looked around again as if expecting to see something that would stop him from saying anything. It didn’t take long for him to give up and start talking. "I haven’t been following you, Liz. I’ve been watching over you"
"Why? "
“Our people are being hunted, so I have done my best to protect you," he said slowly, as if waiting for me to lose it.
Until now it didn’t seem like this was about my parents. In fact, it didn’t seem to make any sense. I decided to listen to the rest before kicking him out.
"What do you mean ‘our people’?"
He opened his mouth once, but said nothing. He took a deep breath before actually answering my question.
"Liz, you're not human. I'm not either. And…" He stopped for a few seconds and stared at me. "Your parents weren’t either.”
First I didn’t react, I just stood there with him looking at me. Then I just laughed. I laughed until I ran out of breath. He didn’t say anything else. He waited patiently for me to finish my fit of laughter. I'm pretty sure he wondered if I it wasn’t crazy.
"You don’t expect me to believe this nonsense, do you?"
"You said you wanted to know the whole truth, didn’t you? That's the truth.”
John was serious now, he seemed determined to go on with this story.
“So, if we’re not human, what are we?" I said in a tone of mockery.
“We came from another realm, Liz. Pacem. Someone's hunting us, so I've been watching you for a few months now."
“No, that’s impossible. I'm from Heaven Valley, and my parents, too. You're mistaken.”
“Really? As far as I know, your parents left Pacem when you were only a month old.”
“Can you see me? I’m the most normal person that there is, I‘m not from another realm. And what do you mean you've been watching me for months? I saw you only a few weeks ago."
"Because that's when I decided to watch you more closely, but I've been watching you for a few months. Right after your 18th birthday.”
His serious expression made me feel scared, and even more so with every word. He didn’t seem to be joking
, and in fact, what scared me the most was that the more he spoke, the more it made sense. I had never heard such words before in my life, but I couldn’t help noticing that I still thought they were familiar. Was this the piece of me that I never knew was missing, but now it fit perfectly?
“Okay, so why are you watching me?"
"Because this hunter is killing Chosen Ones. It’s possible that you’re one of us.”
“What do you mean, Chosen Ones?”
“The Chosen Ones are special beings. When we are 18 years old, we receive gifts, powers. Some take some time to appear, which may be your case, if you’re really one.”
As he spoke, curiosity replaced fear. My mind began to absorb the words and in that second the bad feeling passed and I completely accepted what had been said. Now I had a million questions in my head.
“What about you? What can you do?” I asked, making myself comfortable in bed.
He smiled at me, as if anticipating how I would react, and disappeared in front of my eyes. Only a black smoke remained where he was, hovering over the chair before dissipating. I didn’t even have time to wonder what was happening because a second later he appeared again, sitting next to me in bed. I couldn’t help but let out a shrill cry; not of fear, but of pure excitement. This wasn’t something that one sees every day.
My face must’ve been extremely funny based on the huge smile that was in his.
"Did this really just happen or did I completely lose my mind? I'm going crazy, aren’t I? I knew this would happen someday!”
“No, you're not going crazy," John said, laughing at my expression. "It's always funny to see people's reaction when they first see it. I can’t show my powers to humans, and our people are already more than accustomed," he said, sitting back down and leaning back in his chair.
“You know, it would’ve been easier to convince me of this whole madness if you’d just done that" I said, laughing.
“Well thought, again." he replied with a crooked smile on his face.
And we stayed there for a long time, John sitting in the chair in the corner of the room with one foot on his knee telling me the history of our people. When he finished, the idea ofcalling them "my people" no longer seemed strange to me. I've always been confused about my future. It never seemed like there was anything in store for me, I was just the little town girl who would still be there, serving others for the rest of her life. Knowing the truth about myself was like breathing fresh air, it gave me the feeling of belonging. To have a purpose. And isn’t that one of the things we all want? Do something important; be remembered?
“So they came here after the war?” I asked, curling up as the rain began to fall.
"Yes. After the Orcus War began, the Council thought it was best to close the portal to this land to make sure no creature would come here. And some of our people came here before the portal was closed. They were afraid of the outcome of the war.”
“But what happened there? What happened to Pacem?”
“No one knows. The portal is still closed after all this time.”
“And this hunter? Why is he hunting Chosen Ones?”
“We don’t know, but we're trying to track him down. That's why I didn’t show up at the diner today. From the appearance of the bodies, we think he is with the Cadere Dagger.”
I swallowed hard. John seemed to talk about the "bodies" too easily. Could I ever handle it so easily?
“And what’s that?” I asked, forcing my mind not to focus on the bad side of the story.
"It's a dagger that was specially made to kill us. It was made by the Council in our world when a Chosen One began to use their powers improperly. We don’t know how he got it, the dagger was supposed to be in Pacem.”
John stood on the edge of the chair again and looked me in the eyes, making me keep his gaze with mine.
"Liz, in Pacem we're guardians. Only a few have the privilege of receiving these gifts. This hunter is using this to hunt us down. Our priority is to keep everyone safe.”
John sighed and I realized how tired he looked. I remembered that he said he was trying to track down the hunter. That must be tiring — and scary.
"You look exhausted," I said, and started looking for the clock on the nightstand next to my bed. I jumped off the bed when I saw the time. 5 a.m. “Oh My God, it's almost dawn. I didn’t even notice it.”
“Liz, you know you need to talk to her about all this, don’t you?” He said, standing up.
I was definitely trying not to think about it. I was still processing the idea that Grandma knew everything — there's no way she didn’t know — an never told me. I’m sure she had a good reason, but still, that’s a big part of me. Despite her motives, she should’ve told me.
"I know, and don’t worry, it'll be the first thing I'll do when she wakes up. You know, it's Saturday, she wakes up later. You can rest a little before you go."
I sat back on the bed, suddenly feeling the accumulated sleep affect me.
“I shouldn’t. The others must be wondering where I am.”
“Come on. Your means of transportation is, like, the fastest of them all," I said, smiling. "And I still have a million questions. Please?”
He looked at me with half-closed eyes and then sighed, giving up.
“All right."
I picked up a mattress and placed it on the foot of my bed. I went to the closet to get some blankets and a pillow. He started to take off his shirt and I turned around, trying to look like I hadn’t seen anything and went to put on my pajamas in the bathroom. I looked in the mirror, realizing I looked horrible. My skin looked even whiter. My hair was a mess and dark circles made it look like I hadn’t slept in days. But I think finding out you're not human can do that to a girl.
I brushed my teeth quickly and washed my face. I went back to the bedroom and he was already lying down. I turned off the light, closed the door, and lay down on the bed, picking up my phone and setting the alarm for three hours from now, at 8 a.m. I closed my eyes and listened to the heavy raindrops hitting the tiles. I had no time to begin to pass on the events of today in my mind or ask any more questions. I just blacked out.
I slept like I hadn’t slept in days. I dreamed of green fields. I ran, feeling the wind on my face. My hair, flying, shone under the sun, which made it look like it was on fire. I ran my hands over the flowers as I ran. I felt freer than ever. I felt the petals of a tiny white flower as I began to hear my name being called from afar. I woke up stunned, with the faces of Grandma and John staring at me.
Grandma left the room, obviously angry, practically flying, leaving an embarrassed John behind. I laughed at his expression, which made him seem even more lost. I hadn’t slept enough, but I certainly felt lighter. As if a huge weight that was on my back my whole life had been lifted. But not all of it. The conversation with Grandma was still waiting for me.
"What time is it?" I asked, getting up.
"11 in the morning," he said, pacing back and forth. He bit his lower lip lightly and gave me looks that could only be of fear. He wasn’t afraid of the hunter but was afraid of Grandma?
“I think we were so tired that we didn’t hear the alarm.” I looked in the mirror on the dresser and I was scared. The situation had only gotten worse. The hair was even more rebellious and the dark circles were wild. It would take a whole cucumber to make them disappear. "My God, it looks like I didn’t sleep at all. I look horrible," I said to myself.
“That's simply impossible," John said, stopping for the first time and looking at me, making me turn to look at him.
I smiled shyly as if to say ‘no way that that’s true.’ We watched each other for a few seconds in a kind of trance until I said:
"You can calm down. I'll get dressed and go downstairs to talk to her.”
"She looked very angry."
“I’m the one that should be angry. I still can’t believe she knew something so important and never told me. At least now I know why she didn’t like to talk about my
parents.” I said, taking my necessaire and a few pieces of clothing.
“I'm sure she had reasons.”
“We’ll see. Are you going to do that thing you do or are you going downstairs with me and use the door?” I smiled. "You can meet her officially."
John was strongly considering to run away and not face Grandma's fury by the look on his face. But he seemed to be too scared to just leave.
"I'll wait for you here," he said, falling back into his chair.
"All right," I said.
I went straight to the bathroom and took a quick shower. I brushed my teeth, combed my hair, and tried to look alive — failing terribly — with a little make-up. I put my clothes on and went back to the bedroom. John was sitting on the edge of my bed and got up quickly as I entered.
"Let's go?"
"Let's go."
We went down the stairs, looking at each other from time to time and sharing the same fear of coming down. John seemed to notice how nervous I was and smiled in an attempt to calm me down. Grandma was in the kitchen drinking coffee. She was sitting there, quietly waiting for us. We stopped in front of her and I stared at her, suddenly not knowing how to begin. John noticed and filled the silence quickly.
"Hello, ma'am. I'm John Hunter," he said, holding out his hand. The smile on his face wasn’t the one he showed me. It was a serious smile, going along with his expression.
"Mary Wyght. And just Mary, no ma’am" Grandma replied, shaking his hand.
Grandma was contained. It didn’t look like she’d just seen a boy sleeping in my room. She knew what it was about. She was preparing for the conversation as much as I was.
"Mary, then," John said, now opening one of his charming smiles.
"John, are you having breakfast?" I asked, praying that he would say yes. I still wasn’t ready to know.
“I think you have a lot to talk about," he said, frowning slightly. He wouldn’t let me get away from what had to happen. Damn it.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I'll be home quickly, don’t worry," he said, smiling.
John gave me a clumsy hug, patting my back, squeezed Grandma's hand again, and left. His long, hurried steps showed exactly how eager he was to get the hell out of here. I stood there, thinking about how would I start this conversation. After a few minutes of staring, Grandma filled the silence.
The Chosen Ones: Red Smoke Page 2
