by Tim O'Rourke
“I’m good,” she tried to assure me.
I followed Pen into the living room and could see that her jeans were hanging loosely about her hips due to so much weight loss.
“Have you been dieting?” I asked casually.
Pen looked herself up and down then back at me. “Aw, no I haven’t. I think it’s the long hours I’ve been doing. It’s hard work running the café. I always seem to be rushing about and I’m on my feet from morning ‘til night.”
“Where’s your bar manager, doesn’t he help out?” I asked, trying not to sound resentful or jealous.
“Yeah, he does…he’s at the café at the moment with his brother getting everything ready for opening tonight. Anyway, can I get you a Coke or anything?” Pen said, trying to steer me away from the topic of Marc.
“That would be great, thanks.”
Pen disappeared into the kitchen and returned within moments and handed me my drink.
“I’ve got something to show you. Come with me,” she said excitedly. I followed Pen upstairs to her bedroom, the place she slept with Marc, I guessed. She swung open the door and said, “Well, what do you think?”
I stepped into the bedroom and in the far corner was a tall glass cabinet. I walked towards it and could see it contained statues and memorabilia from ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ I took a closer look. There were porcelain models of Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow and the Lion, displayed neatly on glass shelves. There were pictures, but the jewel of this collection was a pair of sequined ruby slippers.
“Do you like it?” Pen whispered.
“Well, yeah…you certainly love Oz, there’s no doubt about that,” I smiled at her.
“Are you mocking me?” she smiled back.
“Would I mock you, Pen?” I laughed, although I was a little curious as to why she had collected all this stuff.
As if reading my mind, Pen looked at me and said, “I’ve never been able to forget that night you took me down into The Hollows and we watched those magical moving pictures.”
“I haven’t been able to forget it either,” I whispered, looking into her eyes. “I couldn’t forget how you left that night.”
“I didn’t want to go,” she said. “I wish we had grown up together for longer. Perhaps...” Pen trailed off.
“Perhaps what?” I pushed.
“We would be together now,” she breathed.
“We are together now,” I said.
“You know what I mean,” she came back at me, her eyes looking haunted somehow.
“And you know that it would’ve never worked out between us, however much we might have wanted it to. It is forbidden for us to mix,” I reminded her.
Pen stood silently for a moment, staring at the red ruby slippers in the glass case. “Do you remember the kiss?” she finally asked, without looking at me.
“How could I forget it?” I whispered.
Then, turning to face me, she whispered, “Do you want to kiss me like that now?”
“Yes,” I nodded slowly.
“Why don’t you then?” she whispered back, taking a step forward so she brushed up against me.
“Because it’s not allowed,” I told her, trying to keep a grip of myself.
“That’s the cop talking,” she said softly.
“What is the real reason?”
Breaking her stare, I said, “I love Chloe. I don’t want to hurt her.”
“I love Marc,” she said.
“Do you?” I whispered. “Do you really love him?”
“I love you,” she said.
To hear those words made me want to wrap her in my arms and never let go. I wanted to lay her down on the bed and undress her. I wanted to know what it would be like to feel Pen naked beneath me as I made love to her over and over. But I couldn’t. I loved Chloe, and Pen was right – I was a cop who hunted down Lycanthrope. Being a cop meant something to me.
It wasn’t just a job anymore. My brother had discovered his vocation early on in his life and I had now found mine. I couldn’t uphold the law and track down Lycanthrope if I was prepared to break the law as well.
So with every piece of resolve and strength I could muster, I looked at Pen and said, “I love you, too, but I can’t...”
“I understand,” she said, turning way.
“Are you happy?” I asked.
With her back facing me, I heard her say, “Yeah, I’m fine. Why shouldn’t I be?”
“Dunno, you just seem…well, not yourself. You don’t look good, Pen,” I told her.
“Gee thanks! You certainly know how to make a girl feel good about herself,” she groaned.
“You look like a bag of bones, Pen,” I continued. “I’m worried about you.”
“I promise you there’s nothing wrong,”
she tried to assure me.
“You would tell me if there was something up, wouldn’t you?” I asked.
“I promise,” she smiled, then left the room.
We sat on the porch and drank lemonade and talked until the sun had faded. Pen asked if I would ever tell Chloe what I truly was, and I said that I had come close to telling her several times.
I’d heard of other relationships between Vampyrus and humans that seemingly worked out okay. These relationships, although frowned upon by the Elders, were allowed. I wanted to ask Pen if she knew the real reason why the mixing between Lycanthrope and Vampyrus was totally forbidden, but I didn’t. When we ran out of things to say, we listened to the insects that hummed in the woodland which surrounded Pen’s house.
When the evening started to cool, Pen disappeared inside. Whilst she was gone, I lit the pipe I had come accustomed to smoking. Most of my colleagues laughed at me, saying that it was an old man’s habit, but I enjoyed the warm sensation that the smoke gave in the back of my throat. It relaxed me somehow and took the edge off my cravings for the red stuff.
Pen reappeared with a couple of blankets and a tray, which was loaded with bottles of Coke and popcorn.
“Sorry it’s not Bree seeds and Inferno Berry Juice,” she smiled, setting the tray down. I took one of the blankets and tossed it around my shoulders to block out the chill. I reached into the huge bowl of popcorn and it was warm to the touch. I chucked a handful into my mouth.
“It’s been a long time since we did anything like this together,” Pen said, taking her seat again.
“It must be about nine or ten years!”
“That long, huh?”
“Who would have thought, all those years ago that you would have turned out owning a cafe from Oz and me a cop,” I mused.
“Yeah, you a cop…amazing,” she said with a big smirk on her face.
“What do you mean by that?”
Pen clutched her face in her hands and in a scared little voice, she cried, “Jim Murphy, the great werewolf hunter!”
“Oh my, what big claws you have,” I laughed, taking a handful of popcorn from the bowl and throwing it all over her.
We spent the rest of the evening chucking popcorn at one another and singing songs from those magical moving pictures, The Wizard of Oz.
Over that weekend I hadn’t seen Marc once. He was up and gone before I rose in the morning and didn’t come home until I had gone to bed. When I broached this subject with Pen, she told me that Marc had been working long hours at the café, as Easter was one of their busiest times with tourists. I lied and told Pen it would have been nice to have caught up with Marc before I left. Pen finally relented and on my last morning with her, we drove down to ‘The Ooze Bar.’
The bar hadn’t opened yet for the day, and when we walked in, Annie was cleaning behind the bar and the jukebox was playing quietly in the corner.
“Hello again,” I said.
“Hi, Jim. How are you?” she beamed.
This was the first time I had seen her without the lion’s make-up and she had an impish little face that was unusually pretty.
“I’m okay,” I said.
“Where’s Marc?” Pen asked
her.
“He’s down in the basement changing over the barrels,” Annie explained.
“No I’m not, I’m here,” a voice said from behind us.
We all turned to find Marc standing in the doorway that led down to the basement.
“Hi!” I called out to him.
“Hello, Jim,” he said briskly. Then, turning to look at Pen, he added, “Can I have a word in private?” He then turned and disappeared back down the stairs and into the basement.
Pen looked at Annie and me and said, “Sorry about this, I’ll be back in a minute.”
I watched Pen disappear, then, said to Annie, “I’d sure like to know what fitness program Pen’s been keeping to. I could sure do with losing some weight like her.”
Annie eyed me suspiciously, then said in a hushed tone, “Hasn’t Pen told you?”
“Told me what?” I asked.
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter,” she sighed as if she’d said something she really shouldn’t have.
I reached across the bar and took hold of her hand. “Look, if there’s something wrong with Pen, I want to know!”
“Look, I can’t…It’s none of my business.
I shouldn’t have said anything.” Annie tried to remove her hand from mine but I tightened my grip so she couldn’t get away.
“Look, sweetheart, as far as I understand it, Pen’s been pretty good to you…” I started.
“I can’t, Jim. I’m scared!” Annie had a desperate, almost haunted look in her young eyes.
“Scared of what?” I persisted.
Before she had a chance to say anything more, we could hear footfalls on the basement staircase. Annie wrenched her hand free and went back to cleaning behind the bar. I looked in the direction of the door and saw Pen appear at the top of the stairs alone. She looked pale and shaken.
“Pen, are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, I just don’t feel too good.” She made her way to the exit.
I started to follow, when Annie said, “See ya around, Jim.”
I turned to face her and she had her hand outstretched towards me. I stepped towards her and shook her hand. She pulled me close as if to kiss my cheek.
“Call me,” she whispered in my ear.
I pulled away, letting go of her hand. As I walked towards the door and the street outside, I opened my hand and found a small piece of paper.
I unfolded it to find Annie had scribbled her phone number across it.
What was going on? I wondered, placing the piece of paper into my pocket.
Chapter Fourteen
Murphy
All the way from ‘The Ooze Bar’ until I dropped Pen back at her house, I tried to find out from her what had happened down in the basement. Pen kept persisting that nothing had happened and she had started to feel ill, that was all. Although I didn’t believe her, I didn’t push the issue and I never mentioned to her about the scrap of paper Annie had given to me.
I collected my bags and placed them in the boot of my car.
“Pen, I don’t know what’s going on down here, maybe one day you’ll tell me. If you need anything, you know how to get in touch.” I pulled her close and kissed her gently on the cheek. Pen didn’t say a word. She just stood there looking tired and frail.
I climbed into my car and drove away with a feeling of dread gnawing away at my insides.
On my return home, I didn’t hesitate in calling Annie. The phone rang at her end several times, then there was a click on the line, followed by the sound of her voice.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Annie, it’s Jim,” I said.
“Hiya, Jim,” she came back hesitantly.
“Is this a good time for you, or do you…”
I started.
“No, it’s okay, I’ve just got Katie off to sleep.”
“So what’s going on with Pen?” I asked her.
There was a short silence before she said anything. “If I tell you, Jim, you’ve got to promise me you won’t say anything to Pen. If you let her know I’ve spoken to you then Marc might find out…and that would mean trouble…real trouble.”
“What do you mean?”
“Promise me, Jim. I have Katie to think of. I don’t want any trouble. I’m scared,” she whispered.
“Scared of what?”
“Promise me!” she demanded.
“Okay. Okay. I promise I won’t let on that we’ve spoken. Now what’s going on?” I insisted.
“It’s Marc…he’s a bully…no it’s more than that…he’s violent towards Pen.”
“What do you mean by violent?” I questioned, those interrogation skills coming to the fore.
“He beats Pen. You know…punches her…kicks her…he’s even thrown Pen down the stairs,” she said, her voice sounding shaky.
I could feel my stomach begin to twist into angry knots inside me. “How do you know this?”
“Pen has turned up at my house in the early hours of the morning, scared and shaking.
I’ve seen the bruises all over her body. There have been scratches and cuts, too. She’s hidden here with me for days on end, trying to keep out of Marc’s way.”
“Pen’s got to get rid of him…throw him out…sack him…whatever it takes,” I said, fighting to keep my anger in check.
“Pen’s tried, Jim, but she’s frightened of Marc and his brother.”
“Pen mentioned that Marc had a brother…Steve I think she said his name was. He works as a chef at the bar,” I said into the phone.
“Steve’s no chef. They’re criminals, both of them. Marc’s giving his brother money every week out of the cash register, but he’s not actually doing any work. They are running up credit card bills in Pen’s name. They’re taking huge amounts of money out of the accounts, bills aren’t being paid, and they’re running the café into the ground.
The two of them are ripping Pen off and when she tries to do anything, they hurt her.”
“Why hasn’t Pen told me any of this?” I asked, shocked and angry at what I had learnt.
“Marc hates you. I think it’s because you’re a cop. He’s also really paranoid and jealous of you,” Annie explained, and I knew why Marc hated me – I was a Vampyrus and cop who hunted his kind down. “Pen told me that Marc accuses her of having sex with you.”
“What!” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Pen and I love each other like a brother and sister would. We could never mix...I mean, be anything more than that.”
“Marc has told Pen that if she so much as says anything to you about what’s going on then they’ll kill her,” Annie said, and I could hear her voice waver.
“But that’s just a threat. They wouldn’t really kill Pen,” but I didn’t really believe that – although I knew it was unlikely a Lycanthrope would kill another. They would usually get someone else to do their dirty work. I just had to believe that was true.
“Wanna bet? They’ve both been to jail.
Steve’s been in jail for various thefts and robberies, and Marc’s been down for violence and fraud. These two guys are assholes, Jim,” Annie said.
I was seething and I had every intention of getting back into my car and driving straight back there and arresting the two of them myself.
“Look, Annie, when I promised I wouldn’t say anything, I didn’t realize it would be something as serious as this. I don’t think I can keep what you have told me a secret,” I told her.
“You promised, Jim!” she cried, and I could hear the fear in her voice. “Please, I beg you! Don’t say anything. If they find out it was me…God knows what they would do. I live here on my own with Katie…I don’t want any trouble.”
She began to sob.
“Okay, okay. You have my word, but I’m gonna have to think about this. Maybe I could contact the local police down there and let them know what’s going on,” I said, desperately racking my own brains to find a way in which I could help Pen.
“Pen doesn’t want the cops getting involved. She s
aid they wouldn’t understand,”
Annie said. I knew why Pen thought that – she knew that if the Vampyrus cops got a whiff of what was going on, they would come quickly and in numbers to Pen’s café and sort out the problems there in their own unique way. That could cause problems for Pen if she were trying to make a life for herself amongst the humans.
“Okay, I promise I won’t go to the local cops, but I need to do something and I promise whatever I decide upon, no one will ever know that it was you who told me, Annie,” I whispered into the phone.
Before we said goodbye, Annie promised that she would be there for Pen and that she could always stay with her if she needed to do so. I was grateful to her for looking after Pen for me. Annie also said she would secretly keep me informed of what was going on down there.
When Chloe got home that night, she immediately knew I was upset, as I was pacing back and forth across the living room floor. While she got changed out of her uniform, I made us both supper. As I sat and watched her fork the hash brown casserole into her mouth, I told her about my trip to see Pen and what I had found out from Annie.
Chloe’s first reaction was to tell me I had to do something about it. I told her I needed to think about what I was going to do. She looked curiously at me, as she didn’t truly understand the dilemma I faced. How I wished I could tell her the truth about what Pen and me really were – where we’d really come from.
As we lay next to each other in bed that night, I listened to the soft sound of Chloe’s breathing. I went over and over in my head what Annie had told me. I swung from deep anger towards Marc and his brother to sadness and fear for Pen. As I rolled onto my side and closed my eyes, I could picture Pen and me sitting together in those vast caves, the light from those moving magical pictures flickering in our young eyes.
Everything had seemed so much simpler back then.
Over the next few days I agonised over what I should do to help Pen. I thought about calling her, but I knew once I heard her voice, I wouldn’t be able to conceal my feelings and I would have to tell Pen that I knew. Therefore, I didn’t want to speak to her until I had formulated a plan. A plan that would reassure her and make her feel safe in the knowledge I knew what was going on, and a way to rescue her.