TWINED

by A. L. Collins

  “Why does it matter?”

  “It matters to me.”

  I looked at him, but his eyes stayed on the road. Seeing him open up like this was almost as rare as me reciprocating his emotional honesty.

  “Sorry. I was rambling. I just had something on my chest, that’s all.”

  At the mention of his chest, I looked at it. And I shamefully looked away, having promised myself not to be entranced by his charm or his looks. But that was hard to do when someone who was, I admit, a better looking man than I ever fathomed possible was sitting right next to you.

  I looked out the window. And then familiar words came to me. “Nobody’s holding a gun to my head and making me Join with you, Albert.”

  He shrugged a bit. “True. Jessica uses claws.”

  “That’s not what I meant.” I sighed. “Sometimes… sometimes good people in life just need a helping hand. And I guess for once I just want to be the person who helps them, not the other way around. That’s all.”

  I felt him glance at me. “That’s… wow. I mean don’t get offended when I say this but that just sounds so… unlike you.”

  Yeah. Unfortunately I believed him on that one.

  “I’m sorry,” I said softly.

  He blinked. “Okay I lied. That sounded really unlike you.”

  “No, I mean it.” I finally looked back at him. “For that day when… when you picked me up in town. I yelled and I said… I said horrible things to you. And… well it’s just not like me. I mean it’s like me, but it’s not like what I want to be.” I noticed how stupid I was sounding. “I’m going to shut up now.”

  “No, no.” He said. “That was good. That was… that was nice.”

  “I really do butcher apologies like you would not believe.”

  He laughed. “I believe it. Lucky for you I still accept butchered ones.” He rotated the wheel of the car and I experienced the pull associated with a slightly too speedy turn. “And in truth I should apologize too. I admit I’m not the best at interacting with humans, at least not a human that I planned on Joining with. I never got good at explaining what a Twined is or how a Joining works. And I was sort of thrown into this situation; I didn’t get time to plan. So I’m sorry as well. I know that if you wanted you could go out and find someone who was much better at this.”

  “Well Jessica inserting herself into the equation doesn’t really make things easier.” I said to him. “So considering the circumstances I think you’re doing okay.”

  He seemed to approve of that. “Okay is a good start.”

  “A good start is okay, rather.”

  “Noted.” He took one last look at me and finally our eyes connected. And that thrilling feeling I felt whenever he was around started flooding back into me. He made my skin feel tingly again.

  “Either way it’s appreciated Avalin.”

  I smiled. “Thanks.”

  He gave me one back and then looked out at the road. “We’re here.”

  He pulled the car into a parking lot that was relatively empty. A small building with a neon sign half lit glowed barely to life in front of us. I got out of the car and walked next to Albert as we stood before the sign.

  “What is this place exactly?”

  “Jaspit’s hangout,” he said.

  I started to notice what this building was. “Jaspit works at a bar, huh?”

  Albert gawked at me. “It’s not just a bar, Avalin,” he corrected me with a grin. “It’s the Freak Among Freaks.”

  CHAPTER 12: WHERE AND WHEN, MEET AGAIN

  “The Freak Among Freaks? Cute name. I like it.” I mused as I looked the small bar over. I had to admit it did have a gruff, run down charm I was attracted to.

  “It’s a Twined hangout. Not many humans come here,” Albert informed.

  “So it’s a Twined place? Sounds appropriate.”

  “Hey.”

  “Oh no, I mean an appropriate place to find Jaspit. Not the freak thing.”

  “Oh. Yeah.”

  I looked to him as I brought the hood of my black sweatshirt over my head. “Lead the way Albert.”

  “What’s the hood for?”

  I shrugged. “We’re going into a supernatural bar. Need to look badass as possible.”

  We entered the place with a swing of the door. It felt kind of like one of those older western movies because when we did, the music from the jukebox in the far corner of the bar stopped. Albert and I looked at each other. I think that was a bit eerie for the both of us. I think it just skipped because we opened the door. At least I hope that’s what happened.

  It was a run down place, almost all wooden. Wooden bar counters, tables, chairs, hardwood flooring, the works. It was weird for a bar. It looked more like an old house than anything else. A few televisions decorated the walls and a large cabinet of booze and liquor overlooked the counter.

  “This is it?” I said in what must have sounded like an unimpressed tone. “It looks very… normal.”

  It really wasn’t what I was expecting. Then again what was I expecting? Bubbling cauldrons, I suppose. That would be much too cliché though.

  “Hey, Twined make with what they’ve got. Just like everyone else.” He went over to the counter where several glasses were strewn about. A small service bell sat there in the middle of it all.

  “It’s so empty,” I said.

  “It’s the middle of the day, Avalin.” Albert looked at the bell and sighed, rubbing his chin. “I can’t remember what it was…”

  “What?”

  He nodded. “Oh right.” He rang the bell three times quickly and then two times slowly. I didn’t know what that was supposed to be.

  “Secret code?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  “What’s it for?”

  He glanced at me. “It’s to make sure they know I’m a friend.”

  The way he said that didn’t make me feel reassured at this being a good idea. I mean if Albert needed to identify being a friend, then Jaspit must have enemies. But I needed to trust Albert or this partnership wasn’t going to work out. And he hasn’t steered me wrong yet. I just reminded myself to stay on guard, for what little use that would do me.

  “I’m coming!” A female voice rang out from the back room.

  “Hmm,” Albert mused. “I didn’t think that was the right bell code.”

  The female voice called out again, “I’m a little busy, can you tell me who you are or what you need?”

  Albert grinned. “It’s Albert, Vikki.”

  Suddenly I heard something like a drill go off, a sort of whizzing noise. It sounded painful, actually, like someone was enduring a trip to the dentist’s office.

  “Albert? Seriously? No way. Like Albert, Albert?” the mystery girl said in what sounded like pure shock and excitement.

  “Yes! Come out and say hello you nutty bastard!” he yelled back.

  “All right give me a minute! I’ve got a needle in my hand!”

  I looked to Albert. “A needle?” I whispered.

  “You’ll see,” he said back. “You’ll like Vikki. She’s a lot like you.”

  I grinned and said, “Oh God. For your sake I hope she’s nothing like me.” He laughed at that.

  Finally we got a face to the name. A girl only slightly shorter than me came out of the back room. She pulled down her long sleeves, wearing a thin black sweater and a pair of holed jeans. She was slightly pale like yours truly and sported beautiful brown wavy hair that flowed to her shoulders. I also noticed, being somewhat girlish, that her makeup was done to perfection. Not too much and not too little, just simply perfect.

  She smiled and actually side slid over the counter and bounced in front of Albert. He laughed and wrapped her in a huge hug which she reciprocated generously. I�
��ve never seen Albert interact with anyone other than me. After all I’ve never met any of his friends or family. He seemed so genuinely happy to see this girl, especially compared to how he was usually so frustrated around me. Then again I did give him more than enough crap so I couldn’t blame him in the least. I wondered on the side why I was thinking about any of this.

  He picked her up and she squealed. “Stop, stop! You know I hate that!” she yelled. He put her down and she gave him a playful thump on the chest.

  Her eyes grew wide. “Whoa.” She pinched his firm, muscled chest and he laughed at her. “What happened to these?” She felt his arms. “And these? Since when is wittle baby Albert a full blown Huntington man?”

  “Uh, it has been three years Vikki,” he reminded her.

  “I can see that,” she joked. “Someone’s been eating their Wheaties.”

  He looked at her with a warm expression that just about made me melt a little inside. “It’s so good to see you again. It’s been way too long.”

  “Well I mean yeah. I never get to see you, not since Olivander took you to Trinidad to train you on his own,” Vikki said. “The nut practically called eternal dibs on your time. How is he by the way? I miss that old man.”

  Albert’s voice lowered and his expression changed. “Olivander uh… died. A few months ago, actually.”

  Vikki’s voice and expression matched Albert’s. “Oh… I’m sorry to hear that. Al, I’m sorry. If I’d have known I’d have said something.”

  “Don’t worry, I appreciate it. It’s not your fault you didn’t know. You’ve been kept out of the loop for a while now.”

  “Well yeah. Thanks for that by the way. And before you go any further with the ‘it was for your own good’ speech, I get it,” Vikki said. “Now I know you’re here with someone and I feel ultra rude but it was just so good to see you that I had to draw out the greeting.” She said that all in one breath and then turned to me, breaking away from Albert. “You’re a lovely thing.” She looked me over for a moment. Her eyes sparked with a hint of intrigue. “And you’re human! Well the surprises. Hi, I’m sorry, I’m Vikki Manson. You must be Albert’s partner.”

  “I was getting to that…” Albert said.

  I blinked, trying to keep up with her. “I’m Avalin, nice to meet you. Let’s shake hands.” We shook hands.

  “Avalin?” she repeated. “I like that.”

  “Any relation to Marilyn Manson?” I asked her in general curiosity over her last name.

  She pointed at me. “No, but an avid fan.” She grinned and looked over the both of us. “So it looks like you finally found a partner huh Al? And a cute one. Good. I was worried you were going to Join with that awful Emily chick your parents were always trying to set you up with. She wore too much powder for my taste. Girl was like an overused chalkboard eraser. And every time she walked she left so much dust you’d think someone clapped two of her together.”

  That little statement got a really good laugh out of me. Albert scratched the back of his head. For the first time since we got here he truly looked uncomfortable. But it didn’t last long. “She’s actually not my partner Vikki. Well not yet. I’m still unbound.”

  She blinked, confused. “Really? Wow.” She leaned against the bar counter. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s taking so long?”

  I could feel Albert thought that was a little direct. But I also felt that since he knew Vikki so well, he was used to it and didn’t mind.

  He shrugged. “We tried Joining before, Avalin and I. And we sort of ran into a… problem.”

  “What do you mean a problem?”

  “We couldn’t make a Marker and we couldn’t Join. I did all the steps and carried out everything that I was taught. It should have worked.” He seemed a little embarrassed.

  “Are you all right?” I asked him. He actually began turning a little red despite how much he tried to hide it.

  “It’s okay,” Vikki told me. “A Twined having Joining problems is akin to a man having erectile dysfunction. He’s just embarrassed because I’m like his little sister and he’s asking me for advice.”

  I felt a flood of relief when she said she was like his little sister. I noticed that relief. For some reason I was happy to know Albert wasn’t romantically involved with Vikki. On that note, why do I give a damn? God I hope he wasn’t reading my mind.

  “But Joinings aren’t romantic.”

  She shrugged. “That’s what I’ve been telling him for years. It’s a guy Twined thing.”

  “Can we please just move onto a solution now?” he moaned.

  “You should ask Jaspit. Then again I sense that’s why you came here to begin with. He’s really more the expert on these things. I just tend the bar and draw the tattoos,” Vikki clarified.

  “That might be good. And it’s been a bit since I’ve seen Jaspit, although not nearly as long as I’ve had to go without seeing you.”

  Vikki beamed at that. She seemed so flattered by everything he said. It was cute, really. He seemed to make her so happy. Reminded me of how thrilled I was to see Reggie again.

  “Wait here, I’ll go get him.” She motioned for us to sit down somewhere as she dashed back into the room in the bar’s corner and disappeared from sight. I heard her shuffling in the back accompanied by a lot of banging noises and yelling. Albert and I glanced at each other.

  “You okay?” I heard his voice echo in my mind.

  I looked at him as he spoke to me. I focused my mind and tried to speak back to him. “Yeah, I told you. I’m fine. You can hear me right?”

  He smiled. “Yeah. You’re good at this.”

  “My teachers always did say I knew how to speak my mind. I guess this counts too.”

  “Lucky me.”

  I squinted. “Sarcasm?”

  “Not at all. Clear telepathic communication will really come in handy down the road.”

  I remembered the ordeal with the clone just a few hours ago. “Good point.” I said aloud.

  A man walked out from where Vikki had exited. We looked over and I was amazed to see someone who, I thought, looked slightly like Reggie walk out into the bar. He was a little gruff. He wore a plaid open up shirt and a simple white undershirt underneath with a pair of jeans. His hair was longer and blonde, coming down to his shoulders. That’s I think what reminded me of Reggie the most. Face wise he was kind of handsome in that “just woke up” kind of way. He had a five o’clock shadow and these piercing dark brown eyes. He was just a bit pale, like yours truly.

  Vikki came out and stood next to him. “Here he is. The true freak among the freaks.”

  “Thanks for that,” the man said towards Vikki’s introduction. I couldn’t tell if he liked that title or if he was being sarcastic.

  Albert grinned and stood up. “Jaspit.”

  Jaspit returned the smile and shook his hand. “Hey there Al. Damn it looks like the family is back together, huh? I guess you’re settling in all right.”

  “Not as much as you would think,” he said. I felt kind of bad. I knew that I was a good chunk of his problems.

  “We have a little issue…” Albert said. “This is Avalin. She’s my partner to be.”

  Jaspit’s face suddenly twisted into a shocked expression. “Avalin?”

  He looked at me differently this time, Jaspit did. I felt a shiver as his eyes stared deeply into mine. He turned his body fully towards me. I had his attention right away, as soon as he heard my name it seemed like no one else in the room mattered. He had so much emotion in his face. His eyebrows had furrowed and worry lines had appeared on his forehead. I’d never made anyone besides Albert feel so much emotion simply by looking at them.

  Albert noticed the way Jaspit looked at me, as did Vikki. I could almost hear everyone breathing against the silence that filled the bar ev
er so suddenly.

  “Are you alright?” I asked the man.

  He seemed to snap out of a daze. “Yes. Sorry. You just look remarkably similar to someone I knew.” He sounded amazed.

  I nodded. “Oh. I see.”

  “Don’t worry. That’s a compliment.” He tried to shrug off the awkward air with a laugh as he turned his attention back to Albert. “So what brings you to my bar? You didn’t come in for a drink, did you…?”

  “They’re here about a Joining,” Vikki interjected.

  Jaspit looked confused. “What about it?”

  “Avalin and I, we can’t seem to Join. We’re here to ask you why.”

  Jaspit seemed intrigued by this information. “That’s interesting.”

  “It’s not interesting, it’s a problem,” Albert replied with his blush returning.

  Jaspit walked forward and looked the two of us over. “Oh get over it Albert there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Let me get a good look at you two.”

  Vikki watched with a tiny smile as Jaspit walked circles around us. He stared like a hawk at every single inch of my body which was, at first, just plain strange. But I decided to ignore it. It was just like a physical. No need to get worked up over anything.

  Jaspit shook his head with the most perplexed look. “Have you two taken any hardcore drugs?”

  “No,” we both answered.

  “Good. That kind of shit is what messes with the Joining process. Can you show me exactly what you did when you tried your Joining?”

  Albert and I looked at each other.

  “Uh… well I kissed her.”

  “No, no.” He waved his hand. “Show me.”

  I nodded. I turned to him and prepared for a kiss. But he looked at me strangely.

  “What, just like that?” he said.

  I shrugged. “Yeah. I’m not a prude; I know what this is for.”