Authors: Alexandra Hope
“I didn't mean to disturb you,” she said quietly. Inside her head, she was cursing herself up and down for not just stabbing in the neck or any other tactical thing that would have disabled him when his attention wasn't on her.
“Oh, you weren't bothering me,” he waved her apology away and smiled.
Olivia didn't notice his perfect smile, his golden strands teasing his eyes as they blew in the wind or the blueish green color of them when he pushed the wandering strands away. She only noticed the age he wore on his face, or lack thereof.
He politely engaged her in trivial conversation and sounded far older than he looked. He appeared ageless to her, as if he had grown old and acquired all of the world's knowledge and was reborn with it instilled in him. She nodded along without a care to his friendly conversation as he made remarks about the sea but underneath each breath he took, the sound his heart made as it pumped blood throughout his body hypnotized her.
“Do you come to the beach often? I've never seen you around here,” he commented.
“Huh?” She blinked several times.
“Oh, I just asked if you come to the beach often?”
“My apologies. I was a little distracted but no, I don't actually. This is my first time, and I just kind of found my way here by walking.”
The scent of his blood was killing Olivia on the inside as she swallowed hard. What was it about his scent that rendered her thoughtless? She had never lacked so much composure and had to fold her legs and slam herself against the rocks to keep from charging head on, reckless. He was definitely not something to be wrecked with, his arms bulging underneath his short sleeves. She didn't have to think about the many ways he could disable her if she even thought about attacking him, especially since she neglected to bring a larger weapon. A pocket knife was great for concealing and taking smaller people out but Olivia knew she couldn't put a dent anywhere on the boy with it and definitely couldn't force to make him lose consciousness with her bony arms.
“What are you doing out here so late?” she asked him, regaining her bearing.
“It's not that late,” he said, humor in his voice, “But I got off the ship early, we dock at Port Culligan not too far from here. I'm a fisherman...well...a deckhand actually, it's an inglorious job but whatever. I got off the ship because my girlfriend is pregnant. I came here because this is my place of thought; I like to contemplate my existence in the vast space called the universe.”
He turned back at Olivia whose face read nothing, an unexpected reaction. “I'm kidding, my thoughts aren't that complex but it seemed like you didn't even care.” He let out a brief laugh.
“It's not that. It's just...how old are you?” Her face contorted into something of confusion, still reeling from the fact that he announced his girlfriend was pregnant. He just looked ageless to her as if he had been suspended in infinity but there was a youthful glimmer in his eyes that made it hard for her to believe that he was old enough to make a child.
“Eighteen. I guess I look young for my age.”
The more he spoke, the older he began to look as if his youth was just a façade that could be torn away just by hearing him speak. With every word he spoke, he aged before her and finally his face met his figure and he truly looked like an eighteen year old guy. When she studied him some more, she found there was something about him that felt not right or rather, too familiar. Just as she was trying to figure out what about him seemed off besides his scent an irritating growl broke the silence between them. She tried to ignore it but he had already noticed, a single dimple sinking into his cheek as he smiled then let out another laugh.
“You hungry? I know of a place open now that I can show you to.”
Just very thirsty
, she thought and clasped at her neck.
Shaking her head at him, she replied, “No.”
“Well, you look like you could use something to eat. I just...I don't mind showing you to a place.”
She shook her head again and said more forcefully, “No. I am alright.”
He shrugged his shoulders, giving up. A faint buzzing went off in his pocket and he turned away from her and answered his phone. “Hello? Oh yeah, I'm at the beach...” His words faded as Olivia focused on his scent and the throbbing in his chest. After a few minutes he was off the phone and had it back in his pocket but when he turned back to her she had disappeared.
That was odd
, he thought. He saw headlights flashing and heard the soft hum of a car sitting idly in a parking spot by the boardwalk. He started towards it but he was momentarily distracted by something glinting in the light. Right where the girl had been sitting was a pocket knife wedged between the jagged edges of the rocks and letters inscribed on it but he couldn't make them out. He put it into his pocket and walked toward the car. Slipping into the passenger's seat, he thanked the man behind the wheel but the man waved him off, “Stop thanking me, it's getting on my nerves.”
He grinned, “Sorry Vic.”
“So you headed home, right?”
“Yeah,” he said, stretching his arms upward. “I'm tired.”
The man's mouth had only faintly been veiled in gray stubble and he didn't look as old as the gray color suggested. His hair was dark brown, speckled with bits of gray and shaped into a buzz cut and his stomach rolled over into a tire belly. “You still want to buy this car off me?”
“Uh, yeah,” he replied, and his voice fell into a whisper, “As soon as I get the money.”
“You don't have to pay me all of it.”
“I'm going to pay you all of it.”
“Troy the Honest...” the man snorted, his voice scruffy. He shook his head as they turned onto another street. “What is Alexa going to do with you?”
It was a rhetorical question, Troy knew that, so he kept his mouth shut. The street they had pulled into was empty, except for one house. It was situated on two acres of land and a moderate size that held three bedrooms and had a wooded area across from it. Vic pulled into the driveway and Troy bid him goodnight with thanks and pushed the door open. He stumbled into the darkness and cursed at whatever he tripped over then pulled out his cellphone to illuminate the darkness. He kicked his shoes off before truly stepping into the house and then went further into it. He went upstairs and walked down the hall, shutting another door before making it to his own room. The cellphone light fell onto the bed where his girlfriend lay tightly under the comforter. He took a quick shower and dressed in sweatpants, then he slid in beside her and turned to clasp her from behind. He nestled his head in the crevice of her neck taking in the sweet scent of her peppermint body wash and drifted to sleep with it dancing in his nose.
****
Olivia groaned under her breath as she approached the gates of the colony. Her throat burned from all the cold air she drew in as she ran without rest and her heart crashed against her chest. She pulled the keys out of her pocket, her hands shaking in the cold as she tried to stick the key in the lock's hole. Once she got it unlocked she pulled the iron gates open and rushed into the colony, ignoring the boy who stood there with a quizzical expression on his face, his arms thrown up in the air. He called her name and chased after her but she continued to walk toward a burgundy house.
It wasn't customary to knock in the colony but Olivia couldn't help herself as she tapped on the door and waited for it to open. An older blonde woman looked at her with bright blue eyes, “Olivia. How was hunting?”
“It was fine. May I come in for pain killers?”
“Absolutely,” the woman said as she invited her in. “I heard my daughter did quite a number on you.”
Olivia nodded as she sat on a bench in the room. Felicity's mother, Anne, although not a doctor was in charge of dispensing medicine to the students and offering treatment for non-emergencies. She looked over Olivia's body and gave her medicine before sending her off. When she stepped outside, she noticed Noah had gone away and quietly walked back to her home. She slipped through the front and shut it as she saw her mother coming down the hall. Red was splattered across the white lab coat she wore and one hand was dripping blood.
“Are you alright Olivia?”
“Yes, mother,” she said as she eyed the blood on her hand.
“Are you truly alright Olivia? Did you feed?” asked her mother, snapping her out of her briefly entranced state.
“Yes, I am alright...and I did feed.”
“Was it as great as Natalie led you to believe?”
“I guess so; as long as I get fed I don't really complain.”
Her mother nodded her head, “I see.” She placed her clean hand on Olivia's shoulder and tightened it briefly. When she saw her daughter looking at the blood, she smiled, embarrassed. “I spilled a blood bag all over myself.”
Four
Light crept into the room and teasingly followed Troy as he tossed and turned. Unable to deal with the bright light, he pulled the cover over his head and stretched out his arm to grab onto Alexa but felt nothing. He pushed the covers off of him and groggily peeled his eyelids back, resetting his crossed eyes and focused them on his watch that read one forty five. He rolled his eyes and let out a long and exaggerated groan before getting out of the bed. Grabbing a shirt from the closet and throwing it over his shoulders, he went into the bathroom and looked on in amazement as he brushed his teeth. The tiles beneath his feet were rough and sandy, not like how he remembered them and when he looked down he noticed they had been changed to a terracotta clay design. He shook his head in amazement and disappointment as he looked at the walls that had been painted from white to tan.
She acts like she isn't even pregnant
, he thought to himself.
As he walked downstairs and turned toward the kitchen he heard the sounds of slippers shuffling across the floor and peered into the kitchen. Her body was halfway into the refrigerator and her long espresso hair fell down her back to the base of her spine as the girl canvassed it for food. She stood upright with a plate in hand, and her hair fell further down to her butt. When she closed the refrigerator and turned she was met with two hands at the curve of her waist, his face just inches from hers. Her green eyes were staring into his blues, amusement behind them as she awaited Troy's next move. He placed a soft kiss on her forehead and then her lips before stealing the plate away. “Good morning.”
“Good afternoon,” she corrected.
“Yeah, you didn't wake me,” said Troy, as he stuffed the plate in the microwave. “I wanted to go to the appointment with you.”
“You had just gotten off the ship, I didn't want to bother you...besides you looked so peaceful, you always do.”
“How'd it go?”
“Just like any other; blood drawn, weight check, the usual,” she said as she pulled a tumbler out of the refrigerator and took a few sips.
“Did he say anything about your belly?”
“Uh, yeah...he said its still because of all the morning sickness. I'm going to look small in the beginning but once we're past the first trimester I'll be a bloated whale.”
He laughed once. “So no worries?”
“None at all.”
Troy finished his food while Alexa watched on quietly. She was dressed in a pink blouse, flowers embellished along the neckline and wore light blue jeans stuffed into brown boots. She stood about a half a foot shorter than Troy and her skin was a light olive color. Her lips curved into a smile, half of it hidden behind the mouth of her tumbler as she took another sip.
“What?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Can't I just enjoy looking at you?”
“Oh.” His voice was small when he spoke. “Just make sure you're looking at my good side.”
Alexa rolled her eyes, an even wider smile on her face. “So what do you have planned for your first day back?”
“Thought I'd lie back, eat some food and enjoy the company of the most beautiful girl in the world.”
Alexa poked her bottom lip out as she nodded along, “Not bad.”
“Well at least until about five thirty...”
“What's up? What do you have to do at five?”
“Just wanted to go to the rec center. Did you wanna come with me?”
“Oh no, it's alright. I'll be fine here. I was going to ask your dad for a ride to the store later anyway.”
“Well, maybe tomorrow then,” he suggested.
Troy felt his gut fall at the mention of his father and tried hard to keep the expression of distaste off of his face. Alexa didn't fault him and Troy knew that he shouldn't either but when his only thoughts of his father were of him packing their bags and kicking them out just before he was due to go off to college, it was hard not to see him as anything less than cold. Sure, Troy had messed up. He got his nineteen year old girlfriend pregnant and the life he had begun to carve out for himself was already fading into oblivion. No university, no shot at studying overseas and becoming something great—or at least that's how he saw it. Alexa tried to convince Troy that it wasn't the end of the world, but for the boy who had prided himself on studying hard and becoming something that his mother would be proud of, it was like his life had been rewritten from a story of hope to one of tragedy. There he was, standing next to his pregnant girlfriend at the door of a motel as his father drove away, leaving him to wallow in his own self-pity.