Until We Meet Again

by S. E. Campbell

  "Help me," she begged, showing them her shackled hands. "Help me. Get me out of here. Please."

  But nobody helped. She grew desperate.

  "Why isn't anybody listening to me?"

  Once again, her pleas went ignored.

  "No one can save you now," came a raspy voice, and she twisted her head.

  She saw a sinister grin on a pale face. The man was surprisingly average. He had chestnut hair, brown eyes, and a medium frame. His grin, however, chilled her to the bone. There was something different about this man.

  And I'm trapped here. With him. She shouted and began to fight her bindings. She wasn't sure why she was so afraid, only that she was.

  More of his kind, whatever his kind was exactly, appeared then. Men, women, even a child. They all came from nowhere and stood above her. She shivered in her prison.

  A blonde-haired woman with blue eyes stepped forward. A cruel, cold beauty.

  "Did you think that you could get away?" she asked. "Your boyfriend won't be able to save you now."

  Before Eden could open her mouth to ask whom she spoke of, the woman drew back her hand and slapped Eden across the face with inhuman power. Her jaw burned, and she shrieked loud enough that her voice echoed across the great valley. When she recovered, she expected there to be a residual ache, but there wasn't.

  She wasn't as scared as she should have been. She had found something within herself, something so bright it glowed.

  She had the answer to an unknown question. She hadn't even known that was possible.

  "You and your friends can bite me," she said. She couldn't believe she said that. Had she said that?

  "As you wish," said the first man who had appeared. "You are going to think what you saw in the other world was playtime."

  His eyes glowed, and he opened his mouth wide. Seconds before he sank his teeth into her shoulder a glowing flash of white light appeared and everything froze. It was as if somebody had taken a picture, and she was the only thing that could move.

  Until she saw someone heading toward her.

  A woman walked down the valley of darkness and appeared before her. She had a pale face, porcelain skin, and cherry-red lips. She was truly the most beautiful woman Eden had ever seen. There was also a glow about her. An inhuman glow. These monsters were not human, but this woman was not either.

  The woman grew close and stood before Eden, and Eden smelled flowers and the soft scent of a morning rain. She shut her eyes and inhaled. Those are my favorite smells. How is it that she smells like my favorite things? She opened her eyes again, and the woman beamed at her.

  "Who are you?" Eden asked.

  The woman's grin widened. Eden felt momentarily dazed. A word hadn't been invented to capture this woman's essence. Eden was not wavered by her lack of answer, either.

  "Where am I?" Eden asked. "What is this horrible place?"

  "That does not matter," the woman said. "The question is, do you choose this?"

  Choose this? This horrible inferno? She glanced to her right and saw the fearsome faces around her. Taunting her. Torturing her. She didn't doubt that when she arrived here, she would be here for all eternity.

  "This?" Eden asked.

  "Yes, all of this," the woman said. "The road will be a hard one. You will have to carry the burden of many things that no person should ever be asked to carry. You will not understand the meaning behind your journey for some time, and for that, I am sorry."

  "What would you need me to do?" Eden asked.

  The woman extended her hand and brushed Eden's cheek. The smell of flowers increased. She shut her eyes and inhaled, feeling as if she was being sucked into paradise. Marvelous.

  "You would need to be a light in a world of darkness," the woman said. "Be love in a world filled with hate. The task sounds simple, but this place… Too long has darkness resided here."

  "Wouldn't it be easier if you told me where here was?" Eden asked.

  "You do not need to know where here is to give me the answer," the woman said. "All you have to do is close your eyes and search your heart. I think a big part of you already knows where you are, whether you admit it to yourself or not."

  Shutting her eyes, Eden focused on what she felt. There was pain, yes. A great deal of it, in fact, but deep down she felt something she had not felt in a long time. Serenity. Peace. She knew who she was. That was new, and it was worth suffering for. Being half a person was worse torture than any slap or heat.

  "Yes, I will do it," Eden said, opening her eyes.

  The woman beamed at her as if she had known what Eden's answer was going to be the entire time. She stroked Eden's cheek again, and Eden came to recognize this woman from another time and place.

  I think that I don't just know where I am deep down, Eden thought, but that I know who she is, as well. But how could anyone forget a woman as beautiful as this? Just as she tried to wrack her brain, she felt a jolt in her heart, and then something in her head burned.

  "Remember the day May 26th," the woman said.

  And then instead of falling into darkness, Eden fell into light.

  ****

  When Eden fell into the light, she awoke outside in the back yard with her math book in her lap and a half completed homework assignment at her side. She struggled to her feet and peered around. There weren't any strange men about and there was no dark valley.

  What an abnormal dream. She ran a hand through her hair. I hope I don't have a fever or something.

  Shrugging it off, Eden frowned and headed for the house, aiming for a glass of water.

  When Eden arrived inside the kitchen, she was all alone. She reached for her glass of water and heard an odd sound to her right, by the table. She whirled around just in time to watch the glass vase filled with flowers topple sideways of its own accord and spill water everywhere. Eden gasped. First my dream and now this. What is this world coming to?

  Chapter Four

  The next evening, Eden sat by her mom and dad while poking her chicken with her fork. She had spent all evening making the meal, but she couldn't work up enough of an appetite to eat it. She took a gulp of water and tried to tune out her parents. She failed.

  "I have to go on a business trip this week," her dad said. "Why can't you just deal with it? Go have an affair like you always do. I don't care."

  Rebecca slammed her hand down on the table. "You are so arrogant. You don't have a business trip. You just don't want to spend any time with the family."

  "And who would want to spend time with you?"

  Flinching, Eden stood up and retreated before her parents started hurling china again. She cleared her plate, washed it, and then headed upstairs to do her homework. Once she reached the upstairs hallway, she got a strange feeling in her stomach and then gazed up. The attic was right above her. There was a symbol on the door that appeared to be a hand painted rose.

  Why do I have the urge to touch it? As she examined the symbol, she heard the sound of thudding on the stairs behind her. She spun around to see who was coming. She saw it was her father and was startled he had come upstairs already. Normally the fights lasted at least another hour once her parents got started. Maybe it was because he was tired. He did have black eclipses underneath his eyes.

  "What are you doing?" her dad asked, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "You making trouble, girl?"

  She hadn't made an ounce of trouble her whole sixteen years of life. She sure wasn't going to start now.

  "No, Dad," she said.

  With lips tight, he stared at her.

  "Dad," she said, "where are you going this time?"

  "Going?" His eyes widened in confusion.

  "Yeah, on your business trip," she said.

  "Oh." His face reddened. "That. Yeah, to Pennsylvania this time."

  Pennsylvania. She frowned. "Be careful, okay?"

  "Just go do your homework," her dad said, his forehead wrinkling.

  He blew out a sigh, went into his bedroom, and slammed
the door shut behind him so hard the wall vibrated.

  ****

  Her mom didn't come down when it was time for her dad to leave. If her dad was going there at all, which she doubted. Eden stood in the kitchen watching him eat a snack before leaving. Her dad didn't say anything. Like usual, she thought she made him uncomfortable.

  "Are you going to see any sights while you're there, or—"

  "Eden, it's a business trip," her dad snapped. "Why don't you just go upstairs and finish your homework?"

  Hurt hit her heart before she could stop it.

  "I don't have any," she said, deliberately being stubborn.

  "Then do your chores."

  "I did them too."

  His brow furrowed. "And you're down here pestering me because…?"

  Because you're going to be gone for who knows how long, and I wanted to say goodbye. But she didn't say that. Instead she just left the kitchen. She felt a lonely, sick feeling in her stomach as she went into her room and shut the door behind her.

  Chapter Five

  It was quiet in the house. Too quiet. Rebecca sat at the table painting her fingernails, and Eden sat with her hands tucked underneath her butt on the chair. Rebecca finally glanced up from her task and raised an eyebrow at her. Her mom appeared antsy for some reason. Maybe she had a lover coming over or something.

  "It's Friday," Rebecca said, as if Eden didn't know that already.

  "Yes," Eden said, "it is."

  "Don't you have any friends to go out with?"

  Eden thought about it. She had made two friends the first day of school — Arnica and Hope — but she knew her mom was more likely to have wild affairs on the weekends. Maybe it wasn't her job to stop it, but the idea of Rebecca cheating on her dad made Eden sick, even if he was possibly doing the same thing.

  "I think that they're busy," Eden said. At a party that I was invited to. But family is more important than my social life.

  "Busy," her mom said. "That's too bad. I had a couple of tickets."

  "Tickets?" Eden asked. "To what?"

  Rebecca slid slips of paper across the table. Eden picked them up and studied them. They were tickets for a concert. Why would she have these if she thought that I wasn't going to be home? Was this a backup idea to get rid of me, if I had nothing to do? She frowned and felt her stomach sink. Her mom had never concocted a plan this elaborate to get rid of her before, even when she wanted to have a lover over. The possibility Rebecca was trying to be nice was there, but Eden doubted it. There was something fishy going on.

  "Since my friends are busy, why don't we go together?" Eden asked.

  Her mom laughed. "I'm not a teenager, Eden. I wouldn't fit in. You go by yourself, then, okay? Maybe you'll meet someone. It's about time you got a boyfriend."

  "You want me to go by myself to a crowded concert?" Eden asked. "Aren't parents normally supposed to frown upon that kind of thing?"

  "I trust you, Eden," Rebecca said.

  Yeah, but I don't trust you. Eden narrowed her eyes but said nothing. If her mom was going to have another affair, she was going to stop it. Maybe then her dad would finally notice her.

  ****

  Pretending to go to the concert was easy. Eden got dressed in a black halter top that cut across her small chest and then fluffed up her waist-length golden hair to the maximum. She applied far too much brown eye shadow to create a smoky effect and put on two silver earrings. She observed herself in the mirror and frowned. No matter how much makeup she put on, she was never going to look as pretty as Rebecca, even though she was eighteen years younger.

  For one thing, she had mismatched eyes. One was a bright green and the other was a deep grey. Arnica had told her looking at her was unnerving in a good way. Eden preferred not to have the word "unnerving" used while describing her at all, but there it was. Like her mom, she was thin and tall, but she did not have the curves Rebecca did. She also had too many freckles and fair skin that sunburned too easily.

  This is not the time for this. You're smart. You're capable. You're going to stop your mom from committing another mistake. She frowned into the mirror in determination and came up with a plan.

  She would stay by the window, and when she saw a man enter the house, she would burst in too and say, "Oh, they cancelled the concert. Technical difficulties."

  It would be easy. She ran her hand through her blonde hair. Even with the amount of gel she put in, it fell straight and flat like usual. Or maybe not. It would be easy for someone that isn't inhibited like me. I'm no good at telling lies, especially to Mom.

  Behind her, a picture fell off her wall without prompting, and she jumped and spun around.

  ****

  She skulked outside of the yard and waited. The night was quiet except for the crickets chirping, and Eden was bored stiff and shivering from cold. She tightened her jacket further and continued to peer through the living room window.

  Something is wrong. A guy would be here by now. She paced by the window and frowned. If this wasn't another wild affair with a random guy, then what was it? What would her mom hide from her? Rebecca didn't keep many secrets from her, as far as she knew. In fact, Eden thought her mom shared too much sometimes. Not knowing what was going on was driving her crazy.

  She scrutinized the house and still saw nothing. That's it. I'm going inside. No more lying. Straightening her back, she grit her teeth and marched around the house to the front door. She opened and shut it and went inside. A light was on upstairs, and there was loud music playing and a lot of thudding.

  Shakily, she climbed up the stairs and stopped at the top landing. The door to her parents' bedroom was open, and Eden peered inside and saw there was a suitcase on the bed stuffed full of clothes. There was also a briefcase open at Rebecca's side that held a faded notebook and a tacky wooden cross.

  Then things clicked.

  A suitcase. A full suitcase. Before, her mom had always packed small and light. Not like this. Rebecca was leaving and hadn't planned to bring her along. She felt sick to her stomach and felt the balloon of anger inside her fill to the point of almost bursting.

  Eden stepped into the bedroom and her mom jumped when she saw her, knocking the briefcase with the wooden cross and journal off of the bed. The case shut on itself.

  "Eden," Rebecca said, stuttering, "what are you doing? You are supposed to be at the concert."

  "I didn't go to the concert. I was outside the whole time." Eden gritted her teeth.

  "You were?" Her mother’s face grew pale. "Why would you do that? Everything is fine."

  She's trying to play innocent on me. She's not even going to admit that she was going to leave. The pressure in her chest built so much she wanted to yell profanities at the top of her lungs. She never thought mental pressure could cause her heart to physically ache, but it did.

  "Why are you packing, Mom, if everything is fine?" Eden demanded.

  "I was… I…" Her mom opened and shut her mouth several times.

  Something in Eden snapped then. Rebecca had taken a pin and popped the anger balloon inside of her that had been building and building. She took a deep, shuddering breath and balled her fists.

  "You were going to abandon me," Eden yelled. "You were going to leave me here."

  Rebecca stared at her with wide eyes. "You would be much better off with your father. He can take care of you."

  "You are so full of it!" Eden grabbed a fistful of bedsheets in her hand and balled it up. "Admit it. You are just too selfish—"

  "Eden, come on."

  "—and too immature to bring me along." Eden's eyes narrowed. "You were always like that. You've always made it perfectly clear that you've never wanted me. Well, guess what? Maybe I don't want you either."

  The air in the room grew cold. Her mom snatched the suitcase on the bed and forced the top down with a loud thud. Eden was still too angry and couldn't contain her emotions. Her mom, the selfish witch, was abandoning her. She followed Rebecca as she made her trip for the stai
rs.

  As her mom began her journey down the flight, Eden watched. Her mom seized the handle of the front door and opened it, and Eden felt more of her angry mutant feelings bubble inside of her.

  "I hate you!" Eden yelled. "I hope you die!"

  Rebecca shut the door with a click, and Eden fell to her knees and began to weep.

  Chapter Six

  Eden stared out the window of the house as her dad's car drove up. More tears threatened to fall, but she fought them down. It would be harder to tell her dad that her mom was gone if she was hysterical.

  She'll come back. She has to. Eden bit her bottom lip and peered downward. I have to tell her how sorry I am. I don't hate her. I love her. I was just so mad.

  The door of the garage clacked, and she heard the sound of her dad's familiar footsteps. Trembling, she headed toward the kitchen. I wonder how he's going to react. He was probably going to be angry. She questioned whether he'd throw things at her the way he used to throw things at Rebecca.

  "Dad?" Eden squeaked, winding around the corner.

  When her dad saw her, he did a double-take. She knew then she must be a mess. She had not washed off the makeup from the night before and had not slept a wink.

  "Eden?" Her dad raised an eyebrow.

  "Mom's gone," Eden blurted out. She shut her eyes, expecting to hear her father boom in rage or at least cry.

  Instead she heard nothing, not even a change in her dad's loud breathing. She opened her eyes and gazed at him. Her dad's face remained steady.

  "Gone," he repeated. "Gone, gone?"

  "Yes." Eden nodded. "I'm sorry. It's my fault."

  Her dad didn't say anything. He just continued to study her. Finally, he began to move again.

  "Well, good riddance, I say," he finally said, bending down to pick up his travel suitcase. "Have you finished your chores?"

  Eden's mouth dropped open. Did he even care? She shook her head, whirled around and fled the room, and then went upstairs to cry.

  ****