“You in tomorrow?” Katherine asked, facing the calendar by the back door. “Damn,” she clicked her fingers, “you’re off.”
Natalia didn’t have plans but sometimes days without them were the best. They offered endless possibilities and time.
Katherine let them out the back door and locked it. As they moved around the building, coming around to the front, bright car-lights illuminated them. Natalia grinned.
“Want a lift?” Natalia’s father called out of the car window.
Katherine twisted her keys around their chain. “If it’s not too much trouble?”
“You live down the same street,” Natalia told her, beginning to drag her boss by her sleeve.
They climbed into the rusting blue Ford Escort. Her dad never minded offering a lift to Katherine.
The car took off, a little jittery at first. Natalia caught a fleeting glance at Opal House as they passed. A few lights seemed to be on inside. But too soon it was gone and they were stopping down their road.
Once her dad had turned off the engine, she climbed out, the adults following. Katherine turned to Natalia’s father, clutching her keys. “Thank you, Tony,” she said, not looking directly at him.
“You know it’s never a problem,” he said lightly.
“Yes, well, I don’t expect it.”
“I’m always willing to offer.”
The streetlights highlighted the smile Katherine gave. They awkwardly nodded together and then Katherine dashed off across the road, scurrying inside her house. Natalia spotted the pink tint to her father’s cheeks as she looked at him but remained quiet.
She’d wondered before if her father would ever find someone else. Even without having known her mother, she knew she’d want it for him. Who wouldn’t want the one they loved to be happy if they themselves could no longer occupy those spaces?
There had always been tension between her father and Katherine, a lingering pressure that built every time they were close. But neither of them made a move or even acknowledged that there was anything. Was Natalia the only one who sensed it? Or were they too scared to admit it was there?
Natalia unlocked the front door and stepped inside, her father close behind. The hallway was cold. So much so that Natalia shook off her coat and shoes, and raced up the stairs at the end of the hall to get her blood pumping. She dashed into her bedroom and threw on the biggest jumper she could find. The longer the day had gone on for, the icier the air had become; winter was lingering.
Ready to shut her blinds for the night, she turned to her window.
The sky ignited.
Natalia swayed. Her heart pounded inside her head, bad enough that she had to put her hands to her chest to quieten it.
She stepped forwards, lifted the latch on the window, hoisted it up, and climbed out. The breeze immediately hit her cheeks. She climbed out and onto the balcony, touching the wooden railing. Her breathing grew short and her legs shook. Jitters ran along her spine, tiny sparks jolting the space between her shoulder blades.
What’s happening?
She searched for an answer.
Out of nowhere giant white paw swung towards her and black nails savagely clawed her right leg. Natalia screamed as the nails tore her skin. Gasping for breath, she reached towards the two deep bleeding gashes in her right calf. The throbbing pain sent an unsettling heavy pulse up her body to her temple, blurring her vision.
The paw swung for her for the second time and she was swiped sideways into the railings like a cannonball. The wooden railings snapped and she tumbled.
Her body smacked against the sodden ground. Red hot pain seared through her. She tried to roll away but couldn’t. A scream lodged in her throat, her chest telling her to stop as pain bled along her lungs.
Lying motionless on the ground, her attacker came into focus.
Whatever it really was, Natalia didn’t know, but it resembled a massive polar bear. Though this was evidently deadlier. It had giant paws with claws the length of knives, one perilously closer to Natalia’s fallen body.
The beast rolled its head back and roared. Natalia’s stomach recoiled. Her body ran cold, halting her more than the pain had. Then it roared again, but at the end of its display, fire spewed from inside its mouth. Though the beast towered above her, the heat warmed her skin all the same.
I need to get away, she thought. This can’t be real, can it? A giant polar bear?
If anyone had said those things to her face, trying to convince her of their existence, she would’ve called them crazy. But she remembered the storm and the mark it had left inside her head. First, a giant scorpion in the street. Now, she was beside a beast the size of a house with pain shooting through her leg as a result of meeting it.
“Stay down,” whispered an unfamiliar voice.
Natalia was in too much distress and pain to argue. So she bit her lip to subdue the building scream.
“Close your eyes,” whispered the same voice, this time deeper.
I will not, she thought. She wanted her eyes on the beast at all times. While it didn’t seem to notice she was there, that could change at any moment.
“You might want too,” the voice said, making Natalia realise she’d spoke aloud.
A face suddenly appeared above Natalia, peering down at her. Then another. One had dark wavy hair and green eyes. The other had brown eyes and short black hair.
The two people moved, coming into focus. Natalia realised the one with brown eyes, as they came to rest on her left, was female. The one with green eyes moved to Natalia’s right. They appeared to be male and Natalia realised he’d been the one that’d spoken to her first.
The girl took Natalia’s hand. “This might sting,” she said, keeping her voice low.
“I- I- I—” Natalia took a breath. “I- I hurt already.”
“Even a little more pain will affect you.”
“You’d be surprised,” the boy added as if Natalia was about to argue.
Natalia glanced at the girl. She squeezed Natalia’s hand, making her suck in air sharply and wince as a stabbing pain zapped along her ribs. “Mi dispiace, amore,” the girl said. “Feel free to squeeze my hand if anything hurts.”
The boy shuffled closer to Natalia’s throbbing leg. How bad was the damage? How deep were the cuts? How much blood was she losing?
Natalia could almost forget she was beneath the thing. Until it reared up on its hind legs.
Fire oozed from its mouth. Natalia gaped as her body shook. Yesterday, she’d wanted to know if what she’d seen had been real or her imagination. Today, she wanted no such answers. Today, she wanted everything to stop.
Agony ripped through her leg and she whimpered, squeezing the girl’s given hand as hard as she could, nails digging in like claws.
The next thing Natalia was aware of, something tight was being secured around her leg and the throbbing returned. It could’ve only taken mere minutes between the start of the incident and now, but Natalia was exhausted as if it’d been an entire day. Mentally and physically she was in two different places at two different times.
The boy leant back and Natalia saw him open his mouth to talk. But the beast caging them in reared up again. Then its head flopped down. Pure black eyes stared straight into Natalia’s soul.
Jolts of adrenaline soared through her body.
Her arms struggled but they started to carry her backwards, making her look like a faulty crab. The beast’s mouth gaped at her desperate movements. But her heart completely sank when her shoulders hit something solid; the familiar wobbling noise said she’d hit the garden fence. There was nowhere for her to go now.
The thing stomped its feet and the ground shook, toppling the nearby stone bird-bath. Natalia thought of her father as the beast continued to flatten the earth. How had he not noticed this happening in their back garden? How had no one on the Island seen this beast?
Natalia’s heart pounded heavily as her eyes searched for something to defend herself with but there wa
s nothing.
The beast’s mouth opened again, this time at Natalia. An overwhelming calm washed over her, like this was the end and she was at peace with knowing she was about to be cremated alive. Still, she managed to lift her arms, to shield her eyes. Not that it mattered. Soon she’d be a puddle of bones, flesh, and blood – if anything at all.
She focused on the distant sounds of seagulls. A single tear rolled out of her eye.
Mother? She called out. I’ll be with you soon.
She willed her mother to respond, to say that she was waiting for her daughter. Not even a roar came from the beast. Was this what the end became? She wondered if the world had been silenced and her heart had stopped, her soul now well on its way, without ever feeling a tinge of pain.
Then she smelt the salt of the sea.
Natalia took a ragged breath, the salty sea air flooding her senses. She dared for move her arms from her face, confused.
She wasn’t dead.
Paralysed with pain and fear, she still couldn’t move, but she was alive. There was to be no afterlife, no wanderings after death. She still belonged to the side of the living.
Realisation hit her and she looked around for an explanation.
The two who had patched her leg were throwing things at the polar bear that was now further away in the garden and partly into next door’s. The beast kept trying to burn them, the fire edging closer to licking their skin but they continued to dodge.
Another pair of bodies had joined them at some point. They all danced together, in a way, around the beast while stabbing at it. One of the four – it was unclear exactly who as they were all moving so fast – landed a solid hit on the beast’s front leg.
All four attackers stopped.
One crouched, letting out a noise like a howl. Two others moved around the beast as a distraction. The last one, the boy with wavy hair, was stood still and waving his hands. He said nothing, or at least Natalia couldn’t hear him if he did.
The beast didn’t roar as it thrashed its head from side to side.
Out of nowhere, a riptide of wind tore at Natalia. Her eyes watered but she kept her gaze focused on the waving boy.
Pink sparks ignited from his hands.
The beast roared, though sounded strangled. Smoke rose from its nostrils and, with another roar, it crashed onto its back. It didn’t seem to be using its fire anymore and Natalia saw that it also couldn’t reach anyone to even bite. It was as if something was stopping it from the inside.
When it tried to snap its jaws, it choked more; smoke leaked through its bared teeth and flared nostrils.
“Natalia?”
Her head lolled to the side to see her father in the kitchen doorway. He’d finally seen.
More than ever, she wanted him. She wanted him at her side, singing a childhood lullaby, keeping her tight.
At once, a tearing pain split through her body.
She slumped to the side, desperately grabbing for her leg where the pain was most intense. Her eyes blurred but she could still make out the blood soaked bandages.
I’m dying after all.
Her body was heaved into warm arms and she hung limply in them. Her father’s face appeared, his eyes scanning her pale face. The burning tore through her. Sweat broke across her forehead and down her back. Invisible fire was ripping her apart, her body encapsulated by it.
“Don’t you dare,” her father ordered, his voice audible but distant. “We’ll get you help.”
Natalia tried to speak but her body went lax; her head sank, her eyes stuck half-open and unseeing as she faded into the black pool that awaited.
3
Upside-Down
There was fire and burning.
There was Heaven and Hell.
There was death.
There was life.
Unbelievably Natalia’s eyes opened. They were crusty and sore but blinking and awake. Blood rushed to her face and her heart thudded consistently, beating like a drum on her ribs as she took steady breaths.
She tried to shift, but the effort sent sharp needle-like stabs along her sides. She flopped back, her head hitting the pillow.
What happened?
Something wasn’t right. She tried to move her eyes without twisting her neck or rolling her head, and failed. Besides the white ceiling, there wasn’t much else she could discern.
Holding her breath, her heart whispered not to try. She ignored it. Her neck cracked as she turned it. Thankfully, no other pain came. Success, she thought, and believed it when she noticed the lit candle on the wooden cabinet beside her.
A cabinet and candle that weren’t hers.
Where am I?
Then her mind fractured, offering the memories it had suppressed.
Images flashed like fireworks in her subconscious. The sky ignited in orange and she stepped towards it. Suddenly she was on the ground, a gigantic polar bear looming over her. Her forehead broke out in a sweat as she remembered her damaged leg and the burning. She could picture two faces working around her, but then they were gone as Natalia died.
“Look who’s awake.”
Natalia half managed to swallow the thick lump in her throat and rolled her head to the other side. The girl from the garden was there, her black hair cut neatly to frame her round face, showing off her blue painted lips.
The girl edged closer, stopping next to the bed. “How’d you feel?” She asked keeping her voice minimal.
“What happen—” Natalia couldn’t finish, it was like she’d swallowed sand.
“Things will be explained, amore.”
“My dad?” Natalia croaked.
The girl offered a smile. “He’s here. D’you want him?”
What did she want? She wanted to know what had happened, how she’d lived, and where she was now. She wanted to know what was going on around her.
Though she could no longer feel the fire’s kiss, she had the memory of it scorching her veins which was bad enough. She didn’t know whether to throw up or to stay very still. Like her body knew the best thing for her, it moved; her hands flipped back the duvet as she strained to sit.
She did feel better for it, like some pressure had been released.
And then her eyes wandered.
Her right leg, from ankle to knee, was hidden beneath white bandaging with white gauze underneath it. There was something against her skin too, something slick like cream. The wound must’ve been bad or she wouldn’t be as patched as she was. Were there stitches? What muscles had been exposed or torn? Did things run deeper than that? Her bones? Was she going to lose her leg?
Her breathing became ragged and sharp. Panic was all she had.
“You won’t lose it,” the girl assured.
Natalia bit her lip, realising she’d spoken aloud. The girl kept smiling the way nurses did when they were trying to be comforting. Natalia didn’t feel the pressure inside her chest release, but nor did she feel it grow.
“I’d know a thing or two about lost limbs,” the girl continued. She waved her right arm, showing a missing hand, the arm ending at a stump where her wrist would be. “Yours will be fine.”
Natalia gulped anyway. “How bad is it now?”
“My hand or your foot?” she teased lightly. Natalia gave her a weak look. “Bad enough. It might take days or up to a week to completely heal. Possibly longer? But it will heal. Though, for a while after, you could have a limp.”
Natalia could see the open skin and blood in her mind. Quickly, she averted her gaze. “Where am I? What happened?” She looked back to the girl. “Who are you?”
“I’m Peri. Peri De Costanzi.”
“And the rest of my questions?”
Peri’s expression turned uneasy. “That depends.”
“On?”
Natalia didn’t fancy waiting any longer than she already had. She was hanging over a pit, looking into bottomless darkness. Too many things rattled inside her head. She needed to know what was happening. No matter how crazy it seeme
d, she’d seen too much to attempt convincing herself that it was all unreal and just her imagination any longer.
“It depends on how you feel,” Peri answered. “Do you think you can walk down some stairs?”
“If I say yes, will things be explained?” Natalia knew she sounded rude, and she would apologise later, but there was no place for niceties now.
Peri nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear. “They will.”
Natalia eyed her leg. “I might need some help.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
Peri stepped to Natalia’s side. Natalia swung her arm over Peri’s shoulder and a tearing pain spread from her ribcage to hip. Natalia winced, but Peri didn’t draw attention to it.
Slowly, Natalia twisted her hips and touched her toes to the floor. Her leg came alive with heat and searing pain as her weight pressed it to the ground.
Natalia whimpered, but Peri didn’t stop. They hobbled across the room and then down the wooden steps. She bit her lip the entire time. Peri didn’t free her once, nor did she seem to struggle under the strain of Natalia causing resistance. For an ex-ballet dancer, Natalia had become rather graceless.
The guilt finally bubbled over. “I’m sorry I snapped,” Natalia mumbled.
“No need.” Peri made them rest on the bottom step. The girls stood nearly two inches apart, Natalia being taller at five eight. “I understand you’re frustrated.”
An ache burrowed into Natalia’s chest. She pushed it away and turned her head, spotting a long mirror.
Dirt smeared her face. Her jumper was frayed and her trousers had been torn or cut up to her thigh. Blood had crusted in patches around the main bandage on her leg and there was more dried blood on what was left of her trousers.
Upon closer inspection, she also noted blood on her right palm from where she’d grabbed for her wound. Her stomach rolled. She tried scratching her palms on her hips; the blood drew lines on her clothes but some remained on her skin.
“Once this is done, I promise you can have a bath,” whispered Peri. Peri tucked some hair behind Natalia’s ear. Her fingers lingered on the star earrings Natalia thankfully hadn’t lost. “These are pretty.”
Starlight Page 4
