The Mortal Fringe (20 page)

I walk out the shower and dress up
with my black shirt and trousers, I am not used to wearing this
kind of clothes so, out of curiosity, I look into the mirror to
make sure I am not making a fool of myself. What I see is not a
fool, but disturbs me even more. I get closer to the looking glass,
as closer as I can.

My eyes.

They are not green anymore.

The long silence of horror is
destroyed when the hard and repetitive knock in my door begins. I
come back to myself with an undeniable shudder. I turn away, but my
eyes remain in my memory, my no longer green eyes. I remember what
Constance said the day they turned green. She said that I had
bounded with Elizabeth, and that everything would go according to
plan. Is that bounding over? Will Constance haunt me down as she
said she would?

I can't think about anything right
now, the knocking on my door is starting to irritate me so I quit
thinking, I fake a smile and after grabbing the blue roses I open
the door. Jessica is on the other side, wearing a long blue dress,
it has no back and it looks really light and soft. She smiles at me
and takes my flowers with a ridiculously beautiful smile. I can't
say much, I'm speechless before her. She grabs my hand and kisses
me in both chicks.

"They are lovely, Alex. Thank you" she
says grabbing them harder.

"That's nothing" I answer, mocking
thousands of film dialogues.

"Shall we get moving?"

That's a good question, I was nervous
all afternoon, and now I can hardly stand on my feet. If we stay
here for much longer, I will probably have to sit down, and if we
leave, it is likely I will run away. I just need to breathe, make
all my thoughts disappear, I've done it before, and I know I will
do it again.

"Whenever you want" I offer her the
lead, which she clearly enjoys.

I take a quick look to make sure that
I don't leave anything important behind, like my keys. I would not
want to spend the night outside the room. Out of the corner of my
eye, I can see the ripped cover of the book, looking at me from my
suitcase, as if it was a touch of destiny.

"
Not today
" I think to myself, I've had enough of
that crazy stuff. This night I'm just me, I'm just a mortal who
hopefully will not regret having accepted an invitation to a
perhaps too crowded party.

"Thank you for going with me" I feel
Jessica's arm grabbing mine strongly, as if she was making sure I
am not going to leave her.

I smile, whatever I could answer would
hurt me for not being true, or would hurt her, for being
so.

I close the door behind my back, and
walk the long corridor, and towards the other side of the road,
where the pub is.

I don't look back. But deep inside my
mind, I know that those green eyes will still stare at me, waiting
for the right moment to attack, I know I am not free from
danger.

CHAPTER 29

I can hardly recognize the streets I
walk through. The place where we are going is close to the
residence and for what I can see everyone is going. Half of the
people I see walk by my side at the university are walking by my
side right now, wearing night dresses or nice suits. I know I
should not be here, I don't mix well with this environment, but
Jessica looks so relieved and happy to be here that it would be too
rude for me to simply walk away now. I made a commitment and I will
honor it, after all, I would have nothing else to do, other than
contemplate the now empty place I live in.

Jessica keeps getting closer and
closer, she grabs my arm as if we were a couple, like if she wanted
everyone to look at us. She used to be the most popular girl in the
residence, at least out of the ones that came from abroad, and
after her date bumped her she's been so lonely that it looked as if
she was pretending to be me

Suddenly, the loud music invades my
body. I can't hear the people murmuring as we pass them, not even
can I hear them scream to the rhythm of the weird song playing
inside the building. The neon lights make it impossible to
distinguish any other color that has not been designed by some
technological maniac that thinks that those lights are either nice,
sophisticated or interesting.

"How do you like the place?" Jessica
asks me with the proudest smile I have ever seen in someone's face.
For a moment, I forgot that after all that is hers, and that she
probably had something to do with the design.

"I will have to get used to the
lighting" I answer politely "I'm not a regular at
discos."

She smiles and cuddles my arm once
more. She leads me to the main entrance and the huge man standing
in front of the door –now covered by his body– makes us go through
without even waiting or making sure we have a ticket with
us.

"Advantages of being the owner's
daughter" Jessica says loudly enough so that those waiting to enter
hear her.

"Alex!" someone jumps on me as I enter
the place.

"Ingrid!" I am glad to see her here, I
am not that alone, after all.

"You came with the owner's daughter?
Way to go!"

I smile at her, she is wearing a
beautiful yellow dress that makes her look incredibly different,
like a totally different person. Someone grabs her arm, the mocking
boy from class, Constance's puppet. There's nothing else for me
here. Jessica pulls my arm, and I wave goodbye to my much missed
friend.

I must admit that they have achieved
quite a remarkable place to entertain people with the loud music
and the stupid moving lights. There are so many bar tenders that I
don't even know who is a guest or who is working in
here.

"Everyone wearing the white shirt with
the red string in the middle is working here, so if you want
something, just look for them. It's on the house" Jessica blinks
after the quick introduction of the scenario. "The least I could
do, I guess."

"Oh you shouldn't worry about that” I
look around, scared as I used to be when I was around Elizabeth at
the beginning, not feeling comfortable. "I did not come with you to
get free drinks."

She seems surprised.

"Why did you, then?"

There's an awkward moment of silence
between us. Why have I come, after all? Whatever the real reason
is, I don't think I know, or better yet, I don't think I want to
know. However, she is expecting an answer, I can tell from the look
in her eyes, and another lie would clearly make me show
discomfort.

"To have fun, sweetheart" the imposing
voice of a woman makes me turn. "I'm glad to see you here, young
man." Jessica's mother looks as nice and beautiful as she did both
times I met her. She stands in front of us, still wearing her
shades "Won't you formally introduce me, darling?"

Jessica smiles with the embarrassment
any daughter would show in the situation and raises both her hands,
which are suddenly pointed at me.

"Mom, this is Alex, from
class."

"University" I say "We don't really go
to class together." Jessica gives me a killer look and I know that
I am not required to speak again.

"Well Alex, it's a pleasure. You can
call me Alma."

Jessica smiles, as if she was happy
that the introductions were done and we would be moving on to
somewhere else.

"Be seeing you, mother. We are meeting
some friends over there" she pulls me with her. "Bye."

"What friends?" I whisper to her
ear.

"I just wanted to lose
her.”

Oh I see. I am not sure I am enjoying
myself. So far, Jessica has shown everyone that she is in charge,
and she has dismissed her mother as if she was an employee. That
makes me realize that I would have probably stuck around with my
mother, and my date… I'm hopeless. Again, I know that I should have
not agreed to come.

Partying is not my strong suit, nor is
dancing, and Jessica is doing her best to make me hit the right
moves at the right time, but I keep failing. Why not just play a
real song, like those our parents used to have back in the day?
Where's Janis Joplin when you need her? In moments like this, I
thank my mom for the cultural education she gave me. There's hardly
a record in my house produced in the 2000s, unless it is by a band
or singer from the 70s or 80s, of course. Whatever the case, what
is being played here right now makes me want to leave even more, if
that's possible.

"I'll be right back" Jessica kisses me
softly before I realize she was talking. Something moves inside me,
this is not right at all, I know I shouldn't have come. I need
Elizabeth, what have I done? "Don't go anywhere, you are mine" she
says smiling.

I stand alone, watching the people
move around me in slow motion, I should not be here. I sit on one
of the benches, next to a couple making out in the middle of the
crowd. I focus on a particular spot on the wall in front of me and
wait for the time to speed up. But that doesn't happen. Instead,
the slow motion effect goes on and on, only distinguishing Ingrid's
yellow dress from the crowd. After some minutes, and emerging from
the crowd, I can see Jessica holding two drinks. She hands one to
me.

"I don't drink. Thanks" I say as
politely as I can.

"Come one, please? Just one tiny sip,
to celebrate Christmas. "

I take the drink, and slowly rise it
to my mouth. Its fresh content makes me shiver. It's sweet, and it
certainly does have some alcohol. I think I have already had that
before.

"Cheers" we say at once.

Jessica looks at me, smiling, she puts
both drinks on one of the tables around us and pulls me from the
coach. When I stand up, the dizziness begins. And that's not the
only thing that begins.

I feel it as far as my hometown is. At
the other end of the bar, a new song has begun to play. A song I
know too well to fail to recognize.

The river.

My whole body starts to tremble. It's
happening again, as it happened the day I listened to it coming
back home, but that day I had Jay to pick me up and help me. Now, I
am alone.

I block my mind again, and with it, my
body and senses.

"Alex! Hey Alex!" Jessica keeps
shouting my name while shaking me. I listen to her, but I can't
talk, and hardly move.

I feel her hands grabbing me and
walking me out of the room.

"I need some air" I can finally make
the words out.

We keep moving, but we miss the front
door.

"Don't worry, you are going to be
alright" she keeps telling me.

She opens an almost hidden door in
front of us and in we walk. She makes me hold myself against the
wall. Her hands are touching my face, my forehead and finally my
neck. I can feel her cold skin on top of mine. She looks at me,
smiling.

"You'll be ok. I'll go and look for
help" She leaves the room, and I am left here. All by myself.
Unable to move, to scream, or to clearly think.

I try to remember what happened last
time, how Jay and Elizabeth helped me, now I can't handle it on my
own. I should have taken that thorn out of me when I had the
chance, that's why I came here, and I failed to do so.

Jessica is finally back and she is
joined by her mother. Alma comes straight to me and holds my face,
smiling as her daughter did minutes before her.

"He is ready."

"Are you sure?" Jessica asks in the
most terrifying voice I've ever heard.

Alma takes her shades off.

The purest green I have ever seen
shines in front of me.

"Yes."

CHAPTER 30

The green terror from her eyes is
pointed directly at me. With her eyes comes a strong force that
keeps me trapped, unable to move or scream, leaving me with just my
eyes to stare at the door that would grant me my freedom, but
instead, tells me I'm nothing but the reward of a long and silent
hunt.

"You did beautifully well, Jessica. I
must admit that it took me a while to finally trust you would
succeed."

Jessica looks to the woman in front of
me with a smile that shows nothing but how proud she is of herself.
Now she looks at me, as if she could rip me off with her sight, I
feel naked and vulnerable as a newborn. I have never been so
exposed, so trapped, so lost.

The two women begin a conversation in
front of me, one I can't hear because my ears are blocked, although
I can't say if it is their doing or that I just don't want to know
what they are talking about. However, the untiring eyes from both
of them keep staring at me, they could be discussing how to finish
me off, and end this ongoing nightmare.

End it. Finish my life with just a
quick move, perhaps a more ceremonial death scene, but free me from
this prison. The words sound so beautiful in my head right now that
if I could speak I would nicely ask them to do it, right
now.

"Now we only have to wait" I hear Alma
say as if she was underwater, for the sound of her voice is so
distant that I don't know if I understood what she said.
"Constance's protégée will pay for what her leader did.”