The Amaryllis

by Alyssa Adamson

  Silence. “Grow flowers?”

  “Yes.”

  “And who are you going to talk to while you grow your flowers?”

  “My parents. Zach.” I debated it, wondering whether I meant the words as they tumbled over my lips. “You?”

  His eyes softened. “You are not able to bring anyone back from the dead, Eden. You will lose us all eventually.”

  I narrowed my eyes. How dare he make this miracle a bad thing? And how dare he force me to think down this dark path. “It would happen anyway.”

  “And you are deluding yourself with this ideal future.” He leaned in closer, ignoring the fact that I leaned away. “When you are a demon, you lose these familial ties. This kind is not meant to feel emotion. If you choose to continue feeding, you will see them as food and you will leave them. Or worse.”

  I scoffed, “I would never leave them.”

  He scowled down at me, arms reaching out to pin me between him and the wall. “You will learn. Gregory will teach you.” Then he shoved himself away, stalking down the hall with such anger that I heard his feet rebound off the tile well after he was out of sight.

  I struggled for breath. My heart beat like crazy against my ribs.

  Why can’t he leave me alone?

  Before anyone else could discover me in all my hyperventilating glory, I ducked into the bathroom, grasping at my hair until it hurt more than the frayed edges of my heart. It seemed almost worse that he…cared so much. It meant confusing thoughts stirred in my head. If he couldn’t love me, then be done with me. Why did he insist on prolonging the hurt?

  I leaned my head through the window, feeling the winter chill like a comforting hand on my face. I tried to focus on that, rather than the rush of feeling in my mind. The smell of smoke wafted up to me, then the crash of metal hitting the sidewalk.

  Jolting back to reality, I looked around for the disturbance but all I could see beneath the shadow of the bleachers were the backs of greasy-haired disciples with arms raised in praise. I barely heard their cries of, “Again! Again!”

  From somewhere among the crowd, I sensed the taste of Zach’s excitement, then his fierce pride. My stomach sank.

  Collecting my bag, I ran from the bathroom and down the hall. By the time I reached the exit, the crowd under the bleachers had grown, the mass echoing with noise. “The bottle! The microwave! The car!”

  Another crash, like glass shattering, reverberated through the air. I strode a little bit faster, elbowing Zach’s followers out of the way until I could see his red hair glimmering in the meager light of the winter sun. The boy laughed amid a graveyard of broken bottles and the stainless-steel corpse of a toaster.

  “You want another one?” he demanded, doing a victory lap before them like some kind of gladiator.

  Surveying the crowd, I noticed that their hands weren’t raised in praise, they were raised to hold their cell phones over their heads. The many screens recorded identical images of Zach, wandering either way.

  “Zach!”

  His attention flickered begrudgingly from his fans. “Ed!”

  Shoving the rest of the them aside, I stepped into the space Zach had allotted himself, a space of glass shards and a tree stump, atop which sat a vintage microwave. The blue contact lenses he’d opted for turned his eyes a familiar shade of violet. I thought I’d been ahead of the curve by going with a more natural, chocolate tone. “What are you doing?”

  “Showing off my miracles.”

  My jaw dropped. “You can’t do that.”

  “What? Why not?”

  “It’s dangerous. You can’t use…” I dropped my voice to a whisper. “You can’t use powers in front of mortals. They’re supposed to be a secret.”

  He rolled his eyes. “What are they going to do? It’s just for fun.”

  “They’re recording you.”

  Zach shrugged. “So it’ll reach more people? I’m not seeing the downside here, Edy. Did you see the Mercedes in my driveway? They bought me a Mercedes.”

  I didn’t dwell on the logistics of a bunch of hippies affording a brand-new Mercedes. Rather, I tried to alleviate the feel of dread building in my gut. That word surfaced in my mind like a slap in the face, snapping me from my own reverie. Exposure. An uncomfortable chuckle bubbled over my tongue. “You’re right. I’m being a real stick in the mud, aren’t I?”

  Just like Phil.

  Zach clapped a hand down on my shoulder. “It’s okay, I forgive you. Did you want to take a crack at it?”

  “No. No thanks.”

  “Suit yourself.” Looking back to the crowd for approval, he faced the microwave. With a flail of his fingers, the appliance erupted, sprouting flames from its roof and spitting embers onto the ground. Around me, the crowd cheered.

  I cheered, too.

  19. Loss

  I walked the hallways with a smile, despite the fact that I’d succumbed to cowardice and hidden from the bottom half of my classes so I wouldn’t have to see Phil. Wouldn’t have to wonder…

  A familiar sight stared back at me through the uniform tiles of the wall. My legs stilled, forcing the small collection of students behind me to walk into my back. I ignored them, just like I ignored the stream of irritation that washed through me at the touch of their skin.

  Plenty of pictures lined the corridor of elective classrooms. My rose, for one, although Mrs. Brown had done her damnedest to hide it behind two larger portraits. It was easy to tell which cluster of papers were of the rejects. Those that she presented simply because she had to. They hung in a mass of overlapping construction paper, shadowing each other in an effort to hide them.

  The good ones had a chunk of the wall all to themselves, spaced out a few inches for the best possible visibility.

  The great ones had been showcased behind the glass. One: Lily’s painting of the boy, asleep, and, in color, so much more real. If not for the window between me and it, I swore I could’ve reached into the paper and swept his blonde hair away from his eyes.

  The other was a primrose.

  I didn’t have to look down at the signature scrawled across the bottom of the page to know who’d done it. Only one hand could’ve replicated the shape of a flower down to a T, and then shadowed it to perfection: Phil.

  It put the rose drawing I kept on my nightstand to shame. The outermost petals shone the most pristine white, contrasting starkly against the yellow of the center. Looking closer, the flower he’d focused on wasn’t the only one he’d done, although the ones in the background were obscured into a haze of white and yellow.

  I can’t live without you.

  A hand, much larger than the flower, reached down as if to pluck the primrose from the mass of its kin. It was clearly a female hand, fingers long and slender and tipped with fingernails caked with dirt. The edge of the paper reflected a set of pale knuckles, spotted with freckles. Against my will, I looked down at my own hand to see that same spattering of dark brown marks.

  “What’re you looking at?”

  I shrieked, spinning on my heel with hand stretched over my heart. Zach. “Don’t scare me like that!”

  His smile quirked higher with mirth. “Whoops, sorry. What’s that?” He squinted through the glass. “There’s no way you drew that.”

  I shook my head. Looping my arm through his, I dragged him down the hall before he could look any closer at the portrait. “No. Just admiring.”

  “Cool,” he launched into his torrent without taking a breath. “So my crew has been asking me to blow up a car today. You think I could do it?”

  “Could and should are two different things.”

  “It’ll be perfectly safe, Edy. If we get cut up, we can just suck on whoever’s there. What’s the problem?”

  “I’m going to have to make some appearance at home. My parents are getting nervous. I’ll sneak out tonight and we’ll do it after dark.”

  He threw his head back in mock-devastation. “Fine. I guess I could get them to get me another round of wi
ngs in the meantime. Want a doggy bag?”

  “I am chicken-winged out.”

  Rushing out into the cold, my eye wandered of its own accord toward the black Mustang. It stung to see that head of blonde hair hidden behind the windshield.

  Then one of the repaired cafeteria windows shattered on my left, spraying glass into my hair anew. Despite the inconvenience, I couldn’t help but smile. “You are a menace.”

  “I know it,” Zach giggled. Throwing an arm over my shoulder, he directed me to the car. I paid no mind in shaking splinters into the upholstery—there were plenty there from our excursions the other night—and flicked them at him while he drove.

  “I’m going to need a bigger drain to wash all this glass out of the bathtub.”

  “Oh wah, wah, wah. Just imagine the looks on their faces when they see their brand-new window is exploded.” A little white Subaru darted ahead of Zach. He laid both hands down on the horn. “Hey! What the hell is wrong with you?”

  An unfamiliar spark lit up his eyes. Fixing me under a startlingly Phil-like grin, he silenced the horn.

  Stomping on the gas, he crept up to the bumper. “Hey, Ed, check it out.”

  I gripped the seat in both hands. I couldn’t die, but old habits died hard. “What are you doing?” He didn’t reply. With engine snarling, he sped up. “You’re going to hit it!”

  He rolled down the window and thrust his hand out into the cold air. I noted the flail of his fingers about a second too late.

  “No!”

  The driver’s side brake light went dim as the corner of the car exploded. A good chunk of their tire flew back into our windshield, shadowing us in the complete blackness until Zach cast it away with a sweep of the wipers, laughing all the while. I only heard the shriek of tires on pavement, then the unholy crash of metal against a tree as the Subaru veered off the road.

  “What are you doing?!” I screamed, slapping Zach’s arm with both hands.

  Zach never stopped smiling. “Hey, he started it.”

  “Oh my God,” I muttered. “Oh my God! Let me out. Please, I want to get out!”

  His laughter trailed off. “What’s your issue?”

  “I have to see if they’re okay! Pull over.”

  “No way. If anyone sees us near them, they’ll think we were involved.”

  I glimpsed smoke in the rearview mirror. My mind raced with the memory of near-death. When that was us reaping the benefits of otherworldly interference. “We were involved! Stop the car!”

  He stared at me like I’d gone insane and I scowled back. For the first time, I didn’t see my friend. I saw a demon.

  “Stop. The. Car.”

  After a moment’s deliberation, he stomped on the brake and I threw myself out the door. Then he was gone, peeling down the road with tires squealing like human screams. I stamped down any thoughts in my head that wanted to care. I didn’t want to care.

  I had other things to worry about.

  Sprinting back in the way we’d come, I tripped through ice and fallen sticks toward the Subaru protruding backside up from a ditch. The haze emanating from the seams of the hood turned ever-darker, ever-grayer. But the scene inside was so much worse.

  A mother in the driver’s seat. Father in the passenger’s seat. Crying child, fresh from class, in the back beside a screaming toddler. Mommy and Daddy had taken the brunt of the impact, heads bleeding from similar gashes resulted from blows to the windshield, and unconscious. The kid was minorly bruised around the collar of her shirt. The toddler was…hungry. Tired. Scared.

  I threw the door open, setting the kid to shrieks.

  “It’s okay…it’s okay!” Unbuckling her seatbelt proved more difficult than I’d envisioned. The damn thing must’ve broken in the accident. “I’m going to get you out. Just…just close your eyes.”

  She blinked up at me through damp eyes until I forcibly covered them with her hands. As soon as I could assure myself that she couldn’t peak through her fingers, I ripped the belt and the clip from the car’s interior, casting them aside in the grass. She flung herself into my arms, little hands wrapped around the back of my neck.

  “Eden. Fancy seeing you here.”

  I almost dropped the kid as I suddenly came face to face…or face to Gregory Bronwyn’s chest. The shock came so suddenly I thought I had to have felt it come from someone else. “Gregory? Never thought I’d be so happy to see you.”

  I tried to hand him the kid but his arms remained at his sides. The quirk of his lip turned up like a Glasgow smile.

  “What are you doing? Help!”

  “I’m more of the silent observer types. Not really an active player.”

  My jaw dropped. It didn’t take long to reconcile what he said—I didn’t have any time anyway—so I simply shoved his shoulder aside. “If you’re not going to help, then get out of my way.”

  With hands held up in mock surrender, he took a small step backward. “You look awfully cute as a caped crusader.”

  I ignored him, looking from side to side for some hint of help. There was none. Finding a patch of living grass far enough away from the wreck to place the girl down, I returned to the car. By then, Gregory had moved from his perch, leaning in through the window to stare at the toddler still singing its protests.

  “Detestable sort, don’t you think?”

  I pushed hard against his chest but he didn’t so much as budge. “Get out of the way, Greg.”

  “Just making pleasant conversation, Eden. It never occurred to me why mortals reproduce. It only results in screaming liabilities. Not so aesthetically pleasing, not productive, just noise pollution.” He looked me over with narrowed eyes while I collected the car seat into my arms. “Are you hungry? It’s always been my experience that people are at their grumpiest when they’re hungry.”

  “It couldn’t be further from my mind.”

  His smile assured me that he saw through the lie. “I remember those days. The young ones. Constantly hungry. Have you not fed yet today, Eden?”

  The toddler went beside his sister. As I straightened up, Gregory already stood behind me. I flinched. “I’ve fed plenty.”

  Circling back to the car, I tried for the driver next, but her entanglement with the remnants of the steering wheel and the broken console meant the heat stemming from the hood had begun to permeate the cabin of the car before I could drag her away. “This seems like a pretty good opportunity.”

  “Opportunity for what?”

  Turning on my heel, I met the sight of inhumanly tall Gregory bent over the children. If their kind could salivate, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he would be dripping from the mouth.

  My heart stopped. “Get away from them.”

  He cast his smiling face over his shoulder. “Don’t ruin the fun.”

  Dropping the stranger, I rushed ahead, pushing at him again in vain. “Is that what you came for? To pick at survivors? Why don’t you keep moving then, you buzzard! There’s nothing for you here.”

  “As if you could stop me.” He rolled his eyes. “No, I’m afraid I came to see you for other reasons. The delicious spread came as a mere bonus.”

  “Leave them alone.”

  “You can’t pretend they don’t look appetizing,” he accused. “And the young ones…all the years they could give.”

  “Don’t you have enough?”

  “And if they were discovered as husks, the car accident would be blamed. It’s the perfect setup, Eden!” he pleaded.

  “Get away!”

  Smile still in place and hands raised in that mock surrender he enjoyed so much, he moved infinitesimally aside. “Anything for you. Is that not what we’re all expected to do? Bow down for Miss Graves! First Philly. Now me. Do I at least get the benefit of one of those soul-eating kisses?”

  My face flamed red. “Why won’t you leave? You and your brother. What will it take to make you leave me alone?”

  He rolled his eyes. “I told you. I had an ulterior motive. When it’s th
rough, you’ll be rid of me, I promise.”

  “Your promises mean nothing to me.”

  “Oh good. I’m lying.”

  “Shocking.”

  “I just couldn’t stand to be without you, Eden. I do so enjoy our talks.”

  Behind us, the smoke came thicker. The smell came harsher. I flitted to the car, arms crossed over my face to ward off the cloud of grey and propelled myself through the open window.

  All movement, all breath, all thought stopped there. The patriarch of their little family slumped back with head fallen to one shoulder, eyes wide open and unseeing. I didn’t have to look very closely to make out the crevice bashed into the dashboard from the impact with his face.

  “Oh.”

  I’d never seen death in the flesh before. Even Grandma’s funeral had been closed-casket. A cold breeze of dread tingled down my spine.

  “Oh no.” Reaching out with twitching fingers, I stopped myself before I could touch dead skin. As I swallowed back my…my disgust, I reached out again, thumb sweeping over the bloodied curve of his cheek. The cooling purple rings beneath his eyes.

  The tall presence prickled at my side. “Oh dear. Your work, Eden?”

  I might’ve folded under his taunts if this had been any other day. Today, I shook my head, breathless. “It was just…fun. No one gets hurt. Just fun.”

  He leaned in around me, slapping the corpse’s face between his hands. “Still looks like fun to me.”

  Traffic slowed as people took notice of the family lining the grass. As the first car stopped, I took an uneasy step toward the thicker outcropping of trees.

  “Ah yes, run, run, little one. If they catch you, they might make you into a deity. What horror!”

  Another car slowed to a stop. I gave up on pushing Gregory and punched him instead. “Move. Move!”

  I didn’t wait for him, tearing through the woods as fast as my legs would carry me. Sounds of civilization faded until the cries for help and the screaming of children no longer reached me. Only then did I stop. Only then did I throw myself to my knees, stomach heaving into the grass.

  My unfortunate companion skipped through dead and dying greenery as a young girl would, coming to rest just before me. He kept his hands folded behind his back. “A much better choice of scenery. I approve.”