The Mortal Fringe (12 page)

"I will make sure you don't fail, Mr.
Stills" She says, grabbing my face again with both hands with too
much strength. She is not euphoric anymore, she is more like
furious. "My Elizabeth is not going to fail this, young man. If you
try something, something that could put her in the danger of
becoming a Tartar. I will have you both killed."

The words hit me like nothing has ever
hit me before. Kill us both?

I force myself away from her. I'm
sweating again, and I can feel my body full of rage.

"Kill us both you say?" I am
screaming. Suddenly all the windows in the class shut down, so does
the door. We are completely isolated. I ignore it "You would kill
her?"

"Yes" she says with no trace of
hesitation “she is like a daughter to me. I love her. I will not
let her go awry."

"A daughter! I see you know nothing
about loving nor being a mother. You and your disgusting kind. You
may think we mortals are worthless, but we will always have people
to fight for, people we love."

"Did your stupid mother tell you
that?" she jokes

Then my fury explodes. I jump right on
her.

"Never insult my mother again, never!
You have no idea of what she has gone through" I have both my hands
around her neck.

And she is still smiling.

"Oh, but I do" she gasps.

I let go. And my body starts trembling
again.

"I don't think you have been back on a
car ever since, have you? Oh wait, yes, your mortal friend drove
you to the airport. If you can call that a friend, of
course."

I can't move.

"Who was it, Alexander? Do you
remember what happened?"

"Stop" I whisper, but I am not asking,
I am begging.

"Oh, but are you sure you don't
remember?"

"Please" I shut my eyes again and try
to breathe slowly.

I can hear her walking around
me.

"You are no better than me" she
whispers.

"Shut up!" I hit her as hard as I can
and when she hits the floor I leave the classroom. I am not
sorry.

I can't see clearly, I'm shaking,
there's tears coming down my face, and the fury I feel inside me is
beyond imaginable. I know now that she will stop at
nothing.

I know now that she has condemned
me.

The worst day is back, and with it are
the memories of what turned my life into hell. I remember
everything I was hiding from.

I can't get away, not this
time.

CHAPTER 17

Hello mom,

I need to tell you that you were
right about this, about all this, as always. I wasn't ready for
it.

What I thought was going to be
tough just turned out to be hell. Everything I tried to keep away
from my mind is back. I should not have come here, running away is
not as easy as I thought it was.

Officially, I am not going back,
not for long at least. Whatever happens, I only wish I had been
brave enough to stay back home and face what happened that day. But
I didn't, I was too scared of it.

I hate myself for not trying
harder. I keep thinking 'what would David tell me if he saw me
right now?’ I still think he is here. Everything is back now, mom.
I remember, and I will not forget this time, I can't.

I love you so much, and I need you
to know that. If you ever understand what happened to me, I want
you to know I did it for you.

I am sorry.

Alex. Possibly writing for the last
time.

I write this on my notebook, because I
know that once I'm dead, she will read it. Saying goodbye to my
mother is possible the hardest thing I will ever have to
do.

I have been in my room for days, ever
since my last encounter with Constance. There's nothing for me out
there, not right now. I am sure both Jay and Elizabeth know what
happened, but none of them talk about it. Elizabeth talks to me
from time to time, I'm not sure I want to see her, but I know she
is keeping an eye on me.

I put my notebook down, and I turn to
Jay. He is looking at me.

"Hey" he rises his hand as
well.

I look at him and I can't stop the
smile on my face.

"I think you had enough
resting."

After a long while I manage to get out
of my bed. I can't pretend I'm feeling better, but he is
right.

"
It's nice to see you up"
Elizabeth's voice
is in my head, she has not said much these days. I like hearing the
softness of her voice.

"Elizabeth, this is a boys
conversation" Jay is looking at me, but it feels weird, because he
is not talking to me at all, he knows Elizabeth said something.
"That's better".

Then I remember what I read on the
book, about the Immortal and the Keeper, and it feels like a good
idea to ask him, and get away from my thoughts for a couple of
minutes.

"How did you know she talked to
me?"

"Seriously, not only you read that
instead of talking to me, but you don't read at all, do you?" he is
faking an offended voice tone. "Elizabeth and I are basically
brothers, as you would call it."

"But…"

"Yes, just like you, I am another part
of her. There's nothing else to it."

"Are you ok with that?" I am more
surprised than curious, it's obvious he hasn't given much thought
to it.

"How couldn't I? She is my sister, she
is the one chosen to be a God. I am the one that complements her.
It's not that complicated."

Not that complicated? I really think
that he has no clue of how hard it is for a mortal to process all
that information.

"So it takes three souls to make
one?"

"Yes, I guess you could say that", he
says "are you up for a coffee?"

By the way he talks, I know that I
should not try again to express my opinion about their society, he
is so sure about it that I would most likely offend him.

"Well, but try to stay away from my
mind, I want to be able to talk to her if I want to."

"
Thanks
” Elizabeth adds in my head

"Ok. But not today" he shakes my hand
as if we had just signed a deal. He then gets up and puts on his
clothes. "Come on, change up, you are leaving this room
today."

But I don't want to, I want to stay
in, I can't face open spaces today.

"
Do what he says Alex, it will be good for
you."

"She is right, hurry up, I'll be
waiting outside" he vanishes before I can fight for my right to
stay in.

"
He is as stubborn as you are.”

"
So I can see
" For a moment I think I can feel
Elizabeth's reaction, it's the first time I answer her thoughts
with my own rather than talking.

I shower in a matter of minutes and
before putting on my clothes I realize that Jay and Elizabeth
managed to take my thoughts away, even if only for a couple of
minutes, they did do it. I feel better, not much, but it's
something. I go outside and Jay is waiting for me at the usual
spot.

"You took your time."

"I guess that I would say that too, if
I hadn't taken a shower and could simply disappear and go anywhere
I liked."

"Touché."

He leads the way. We have been walking
for about twenty minutes when I start to think that he has no idea
of where we are going. Finally, he stops in front of a hidden bar
that, unless you know it's there, you would totally walk by and
miss it. We walk in.

I don't think I have ever been to a
darker place in my whole life. All the tables are wooden made and I
wouldn't be at all surprised if they were older than Jay himself.
He sits down in a table next to the door, and so do I.

"Here we are" he says.

"This place is weird."

He laughs, then looks around and
nods.

"There's a place like this in every
city in the world. Our community is not particularly fond of
spending hours surrounded by mortals."

"Well, you are not following tradition
to the letter too well" I joke.

"Well, you are not just a mortal, are
you? Besides, I've always enjoyed the company of the living.
"

"So everyone in here is like
you.”

He nods again and points at someone on
a table nearby.

"That girl over there, she is mortal,
she is in your situation."

"How can you tell? She looks exactly
as everyone else."

"Well, see how uncomfortable she is?
Her hands are shaking, and her eyes tell me she has not yet
bounded" he looks at me "Oh, and I think that green looks good on
you.”

It seems that he finally understood
that he has to deal with all this in a very different way if he
wants me to be comfortable enough with it. He had noticed about my
eyes, of course, we live together. But not pointing it out, has
been something difficult for him, I'm sure.

"It's ok, you are the same
person."

"I'm not sure about that. But thank
you." actually, I'm not sure at all. Much has changed lately, I
can't be the same.

"I know what happened with Constance.
Do you want to talk about it?" He still needs to work out how to
change the topic of conversation.

"No, I don't. And I'd appreciate it if
you don't bring that up again. "

He nods. Someone comes by and presents
us with some drinks, although we haven't ordered
anything.

"In here you only get this, it's like
beer, although much stronger, it keeps us warm, so to speak" Jay
takes a glass and drinks from it. "Go on.”

I take mine and I can smell something
sweet. Suddenly, I feel a terrible need to drink it. When the
liquid touches my lips, all my fears and worries are gone. I don't
know what this is, but I want more.

"What is this thing?" I ask after
drinking my whole glass.

"We joke about it, we call it
ambrosia. You know, like the thing you say Gods used to drink. We
usually call stuff after what you named them, it is strangely funny
to us. "

There's a lack of imagination amongst
the Immortal community, but I won't say that. I only want to go on
drinking. This thing is keeping me from thinking about …about
whatever it was that I had thought about for almost a week. I
really can't remember.

"I'm sorry I had to do this" he says.
"I hope you can forgive me". He stands up and suddenly, he is
gone.

I start laughing, like if I didn't
care about him leaving me here. But it's actually funny, or at
least it seems funny. Having conflict with my own thoughts is quite
interesting, I will have to drink some more to figure out what's
going on. Wait, no, I shouldn't, why am I alone here?

"Jay?" I feel as stupid as ever, I
know he is gone, I have been staring to the empty sit in front of
me for over ten minutes.

"Hello Alex" the sweet, warm voice
comes from behind me.

I turn and there she is, smiling, as
she always is.

"Elizabeth! Good to see
you!"

She sits in front of me, and examines
the empty glasses on the table.

"Jay made you drink ambrosia so you
wouldn't run away, did he?"

"Why would I run away, I was aching to
see you!" I didn't mean to say that, I know I didn't.

She reaches for my hand.

"Alex, you are drunk. Let me take care
of it, but don't go afterwards, you promise?"

"I do" I do sound drunk. This feels
excitingly weird. But I like it.

She touches my hand and all the warmth
of her body comes to my own. I can feel this euphoria leaving me.
In no time I know that I will be remembering everything all over
again. I let go, I don't want to remember.

"Don't" I say "Please?"

She looks at me, surprised. She gasps
and finally, she lets my hand go. I still feel somewhat euphoric,
but not as much as I did a few minutes ago. I feel well enough to
stare at her and notice how beautiful she is. I don't care about
the stupid look on my face, it's just the way I feel, and I've
never felt like this before.

"I want to apologize for what happened
the other night. I should not have joked about…" she means it. I
know it because she has her eyes fixed on mine, and the smile on
her face is gone.

"It was too unfortunate you said that,
yes" maybe I am still quite drunk "sorry, I meant to say that it's
ok, I know you didn't mean to say it like that."

We both remain silent for a couple of
minutes. The tables around us are motionless to me, for all I care
about is being here with her, and I'm not sure if the drinking had
anything to do with that.

"Take my hand" she says "Trust me. I
need to ask too much from you now, that's why we will do it
together."