The Hybrid (8 page)

Instantly, she felt her hand tingle. It was a sensation
that could not be forgotten. He held Tru’s hand in the air,
palm up, as he traced the lines in it with his index finger.
And as he began to speak again, he stared intently at her
hand.

“If my brother knew I was talking to you again,” he
raised Tru’s hand to his chest and looked down into her
eyes “I,” he paused. Tru knew what he was thinking. She
probably would have paused too.

Then, Tru sighed. “Your brother sounds, interesting.”
She hoped Edyn wouldn’t continue his sentence any further.

“He’s a good man. He’s just protecting the veil.”

“The veil?” Tru had no idea what he was talking about.
She knew that he couldn’t have meant the piece of fabric
that a woman would wear on her head on her wedding
day, but what else could that word mean?

“The veil is where I live. It is where my colony lives,
deep in the forest. It’s a shielded and cloaked village, protected by the magic of The Fey. There are other veils, too.
Some live near the river, some live farther up in the
mountains.” He released Tru’s hand from his grasp. She
lowered it calmly to her side, though it still felt as though
it was wrapped tightly in his own.

“Can I see it someday?” Tru was curious. He didn’t
have to say yes. He didn’t even have to say anything if he
didn’t want to. Tru just wanted to know how much he
would let her into his world.

“Someday. But not until it is safe.” He grabbed Tru’s
chin between his thumb and index finger again, and tilted
her head back until her eyes were staring directly into his.
“Promise me you will not go looking for me, whatever
happens. Come here, to the meadow, if you need me. I
will be here shortly after.” He turned his head towards the
forest behind him with Tru’s chin still in his grasp. He
could hear something that she obviously couldn’t.

“What’s wrong?” she asked when he looked back at
her.

 

“I have to go. But you must promise me.” He placed his
other hand on her shoulder, stroking at it with his thumb.
“I promise.”

He released Tru’s chin as he turned and began running
across the field. When he reached the boundary of the
trees on the opposite side of the meadow, he turned
around to look at her. She could see the moon glistening
off of his face, casting a shadow on his neck and chest.
Tru smiled as he waved, before he quickly turned back
around and disappeared behind the pines.

Things were quiet now, too quiet.
7
Artensia

Tru walked slowly out of the meadow, back towards
the house, taking as much time as she possibly could. As
she pushed through the trees, the air became surprisingly
colder, almost like it were the dead of winter, but it was
only the second week of November, still fall by her standards.

How had I managed to stay so warm in the meadow?
The air was open there. How did I not freeze to death?
Tru took a deep breath and watched the steam circling
in the air as it flowed from her mouth and nose as she
exhaled. She walked slowly, wrapping her arms around
her chest, tucking her hands under her armpits, trying to
stay warm.
When she reached the edge of the backyard again, Tru
could see that the porch light had been left on, leaving a
small halo of light on the ground. As she grew closer to
the house, she could see a small figure, leaning back
against the wall next to the door. Squinting as she walked
forward, Tru could see that the lump was the shape of her
grandfather, sitting in a small lawn chair. His eyes were
closed and his arms were casually folded over his chest⎯
his snores echoing out across the open yard.
Tru remembered, in that second, that she had been
gone all day. Being responsible and protective grandparents, they must have worried that something had happened to her. She had snuck out of the house. Of course
they were worried. Ben must have stayed behind and
waited for her to come home while Maggie went out looking for her.
Tru wondered what time it was. It looked late, and she
hoped that her grandma wasn’t panicking the way Tru
was currently picturing in her mind.
Cautiously, Tru walked to her grandfather’s side and
tapped him gently on the left shoulder.
“Grandpa? I’m home. You can wake up now.”
He quickly opened his eyes, jumping slightly in his
seat, apparently startled by the sound of his granddaughter’s voice. He looked around quickly, and slightly disoriented, to see where the noise had come from. When his
eyes rested on Tru’s face, he began to speak ⎯ though it
seemed more like shouting.
He rose from his chair. “Where have you been? We’ve
been worried sick about you!” His arms were flailing in
the air as he spoke.
Tru looked up at the tall man before her, solemnly,
knowing how much trouble she was soon to be in. “I’m
fine grandpa. My walk just lasted a little longer than I
thought it would.”

He threw his thumb over his shoulder, gesturing towards the small house behind him. “Well, let’s get inside
where it’s warm, and call Maggie. She’s been driving all
over the neighborhood, going door to door, asking about
you. She even called the sheriff.” Tru watched him as he
turned around and headed toward the sliding door.

“Really? Oh my god, Grandpa. I’m so sorry I made you
guys worry so much!” Tru gave him a big hug as he
turned around to look at her. When she let go of him, he
looked
down
at
her,
slightly
taken
aback,
and
then
opened the sliding glass door.

Tru pushed past him quickly, running inside the house
and into the kitchen, grabbing the bright yellow phone off
the wall. When she had returned to the living room where
her grandfather stood, Tru dialed Maggie’s cell phone
number. Ben watched her carefully, with his arms crossed
over his chest once again.

“Grandma? It’s Tru,” she said after the fourth ring.

“When I get home, you have some serious explaining
to do.” Tru could hear the heavy breathing in her voice.
She was mad. She was madder than mad.

“Yes, ma’am,” Tru replied. She would accept any punishment Maggie could come up with. She knew she deserved it for all the worry and panic she had more than
likely put her grandmother through.

The other end went dead, leaving only the dial tone
buzzing in Tru’s ear.

Tru wasn’t used to having someone care so much about
her. She had to admit, even though she was in trouble, it
felt nice.

Tru put the receiver back in its cradle on the wall and
walked back to her bedroom at the foot of the stairs. Upon entering the room, she glanced over at her disheveled
reflection in the floor length mirror, and then sat down on
her warm bed. As she sat there, she looked over at the
black alarm clock sitting on the nightstand.

11:00P.M
. Did I really stay out that long? Seriously?
Eleven?
Tru fell back against her mattress and pulled a pillow
under her head, letting her legs dangle off of the side of
the bed.
Almost
ten
minutes
later,
Maggie
walked
into
the
house. Tru could hear the front door closing in the distance, but all she wanted to do was lie down. She was so
tired, and the last thing she wanted to hear was yelling.
She had come to Woodcrest Hills to get away from the
yelling. Tru would accept her punishment, but the yelling
was the one thing she was not looking forward to,
at all.
“Gertrude?” her grandmother said quietly as she stood
in the doorway to Tru’s room.
Tru stood from the bed, walked over to her grandmother, and thrust herself upon her, squeezing the woman gently in her arms. “I’m sorry,” Tru whispered into her
chest.
“It’s okay,” Maggie whispered back. “Just promise me
that you
won’t go
and
do
something
like
this
again,
okay?” She hugged Tru softly before she pulled the young
girl’s body away from her own and looked down at her.
“You have your mother’s eyes,” Maggie said. But she
was only partially right. Tru had bright blue eyes ⎯ the
only part of them that bared any resemblance to Gail. But
their
shape
held
no
similarities whatsoever. Gail was
blonde, and tall, and had very angular features. She was
everything Gertrude wasn’t. Tru was the spitting image of
her father. She had his smile, his dimples, his wavy auburn locks of hair, his soft bone structure, and his pure
heart.
Tru smiled up at her grandmother.

She really didn’t hate her mother. She just felt that Gail
wasn’t as well adapted to parenthood as most women
usually were. She never seemed to care how well Tru did
in school. She never seemed to care who Tru was friends
with. The two of them rarely ever spent any quality time
together. Gail rarely ever liked to be the one to start a
conversation.

“Well, I better let you get into bed,” Maggie said, releasing Tru’s shoulders from her hold.

 

“Yeah,” Tru replied, faking a yawn.

Tru watched her grandma as she left the room and
walked up the stairs to her own room. Tru’s grandfather
had already quietly made his way up to bed when her
grandma had first walked through the front door.

Tru shut her door and walked leisurely to the edge of
the bed. Slowly, she unbuttoned her pants, and let them
fall to the floor, stopping just above her ankles. She pulled
one foot out at a time, and then delicately pulled on a pair
of
basketball
shorts
that
had previously
been strewn
across the tan carpeted floor that morning. Tru watched
herself in the mirror as she removed her sweatshirt, leaving the loose fitted t-shirt underneath it untouched.

But now that she was ready for bed, Tru realized that
she didn’t feel tired anymore. So, she sat down on the
warm mattress, leaned against the headboard, and looked
at the blank wall on the opposite side of the room. Out of
the corner of her eye, Tru could see the digital clock on
the nightstand advance itself by one minute.

Eleven thirty,
she thought to herself as she closed her
eyes.
Do you enjoy sitting alone?
Edyn’s voice pounded in
her ears. His voice was so smooth and clear. She had a
feeling that it was going to take years for her to forget it.

Tru shuddered slightly as she opened her eyes to look
around, even though she knew the room was still empty.
Slowly, she rose from the bed and walked over to the
window. But he wasn’t there either ⎯ it was much too
dark to tell if
anything
was out there.

You intrigue me.
His voice sounded close. But was Tru
just remembering the things Edyn had said to her earlier
that day? Tru quickly shook her head, throwing his voice
out of it.

Come outside.
It wasn’t going away easily. But this
time, Tru was a bit startled. She knew that she couldn’t
possibly
be
remembering
their
conversation because
Edyn had never spoken those words to her before. Tru
looked back out of the window. She knew she wasn’t going to be able to see anything new, but she looked anyway
⎯ one final glance⎯ and then headed for the bedroom
door.

Tru had no idea what made her go to the door. Was it
the smooth and enticing sound of his voice or the curiosity and mystery of what could possibly happen that compelled her? Tru’s feet moved forward beneath her ⎯
right, left, right, left
. The carpet shuffled with each step.

When she reached the sliding door, Tru thought momentarily about turning back.
He’s not out there. You’re hearing things. Ask yourself
Gertrude. Why would he be out there? Because I want
him to be there
.
Because what I want, more than anything else right now, is to see him again.
Come outside,
Edyn’s voice repeated.
Tru looked out of the clear glass door and into the dark
abyss that held a hidden backyard. For a moment, Tru
thought she saw his face, emerging from the darkness,
like a ghost, pale and opaque enough to see the faint, but
dark, outline of trees behind it. The face flickered against
the black night, and then quickly faded away as if it were
retreating into the shadows.
Tru stood there in the silence, squinting into the darkness.
What am I thinking? If I leave again, and my grandmother wakes up before I manage to make it back, I will
be in even greater trouble than I was today.
She knew she would possibly be grounded. Tru would
have to be driven to school every day, and picked up afterwards. She would come home each day and sit in her
room until dinner was ready. It would be like prison. Except for the fact that in prison they were allowed to socialize with the other inmates, and get outside every once in a
while.
But she didn’t care. It was worth seeing Edyn again.
Tru placed her palm on the door’s handle, ready to
push it quietly open.
Wait. Do not move.
A light from upstairs flicked on, illuminating most of
the stairs, and a small slice of the family room behind her.
Tru looked over her shoulder, listening carefully, remaining as still and as quiet as possible. She could hear Maggie’s slippers shuffling across the carpet, down the second
floor hallway to her bathroom. She could hear Maggie as
she turned on the faucet, filled a glass full of water, and
then walked back down the hall to her bedroom. Tru
watched carefully as the light from the stairs disappeared.
She then waited for a moment longer, making sure Maggie was back in her room, and then cautiously turned
back to the sliding glass door.
Tru unlatched the small brass lock on the handle and
pushed the door open, watching as it slid effortlessly in its
casing. The cold air hit her skin like a wall of ice, prickling
her skin, causing the hairs on her arms and the back of
her neck to spike up. Leaving the door open behind her,
Tru turned around and walked into the entryway to grab
her heavy rain jacket and black Ugg boots. When she was
finished dressing herself, Tru turned around and looked
back at the stairs, checking for the slightest sign of more
movement.
But
instead
of
seeing
a
dark
stairwell ⎯
something she had been expecting⎯ she saw something
that had never been there before.
“Hello,” Edyn said, rising up from his seat at the bottom of the steps. “You were taking much too long, so I
decided to come inside and retrieve you myself.”
Tru’s mouth instantly fell open. It seemed to be doing
that a lot lately, but no matter how open it was, her
mouth still wouldn’t formulate a word for her to speak.
“You look as though you have seen a ghost,” he whispered, looking at her with a quirky smile on his face. Tru
could see the faint lines of a dimple beside each of the
corners of his lips. With the way things had been turning
out so far, Tru wouldn’t have been surprised if ghosts existed too.
“It’s just⎯ How did you⎯? Where did you⎯?” Tru
couldn’t finish any of the questions she wanted to ask. He
was talking to her, the entire time, but how long had he
been sitting there? Tru immediately felt stupid for not
being able to figure it out sooner. But how did he know
that she wanted to see him?
“I know what you mean,” he chuckled, walking closer
to me. “I can do a few
extra
things. Things humans can
only dream about.”
“I can see that,” Tru whispered. “The wings kind of give
you away.” She placed a hand under her chin as she
spoke. She tried desperately to sound sarcastic, but it was
a talent Tru had never truly mastered.
He chuckled casually. “There is more to it than that.”
Tru thought for a moment. The voice that she had been
hearing in her head all night must have been an
extra
thing
, as he so casually called it. Tru looked at Edyn for a
second.
Can you read my mind if you’re able to talk to me
through it? What exactly can you hear? What else can
you do?
Many things,
Edyn answered without moving his lips.
The clouds that had completely blanketed the sky within the last thirty minutes, began dissipating once again,
and the moonlight began to shine through the glass door,
illuminating most of the living room, and almost the entire backyard. Edyn turned to face Tru, his back pointing
toward
the open door. And as the moonlight hit his
tanned
skin,
a
strangely
glowing
halo
of white
light
bounced off of him. He looked mystical. Tru looked up at
his darkened face, unable to read his expression in the
dim light.