Dark Heart Surrender

by Lee Monroe

  ‘Well, it didn’t work, did it?’ I said, my heart in my mouth. ‘If it had worked then Nissilum would be a very different place today.’

  ‘It didn’t work. But the Vulpecula didn’t disappear as everyone thought or hoped. Or at least, I don’t think they did.’

  We looked at each other. We were both of thinking the same thing. I remembered the flash of an animal I had seen only minutes before. It seemed ridiculous that these deadly foxes were here and—

  ‘Hey.’ A hand was rapping on the car window. Luca and I jerked, startled. Tentatively Luca wound it down and a head of tousled red curls appeared at eye level.

  ‘Ade?’ Luca was trying hard not to appear freaked out, which he was – we both were. ‘What are you doing up here?’

  ‘I came walking.’ Ade’s grin was broad and it seemed genuine enough. ‘I think I got a little lost.’ He looked over at me in the passenger seat and his expression was guileless, innocent almost. ‘That’ll teach me to be adventurous.’

  I glanced at Luca. ‘Well … we can give you a lift back home.’

  ‘No,’ Ade said too quickly, but then the smile returned to his face. ‘I mean, I can walk back. It’s not too late, and I can take care of myself.’

  ‘OK then.’ There was a few seconds of awkward silence, before I found myself speaking again. ‘I live up that track. Would you like to come in for some tea or something?’ I had no idea why I had suggested that; the words had come out of my mouth before I could stop them. Luca was frowning at me, I could see it out of the corner of my eye.

  ‘I don’t want to bother you,’ Ade said. ‘But I did want to apologize. To both of you, for my behaviour the other night.’

  ‘It’s not us you should be apologizing to,’ said Luca in a low voice.

  ‘Yes. I have tried calling Ashley several times. But she won’t take my calls.’ He shrugged. ‘I guess I’ve blown it there.’

  ‘Uh huh.’ Luca’s hands were gripping the steering wheel tightly.

  I bit my lip. I knew I should be hostile too. Hadn’t I been cursing Ade all the way home? But somehow my brain was erasing all my anger. And the way he was looking at me, so eager to be friends, no trace of arrogance … I was starting to feel sorry for him.

  ‘I’ll only stay a bit,’ he told us. ‘If your offer is still open.’

  My mother was gazing at Ade as though he were the prodigal son. She seemed entranced by his Titian looks.

  ‘Extraordinary colouring,’ she cooed. ‘People are so weird about red hair. I think it’s beautiful.’

  Luca and I exchanged a look. It was hard not to be amused by Mum’s fawning. It was so unlike her. Even Dot was sitting with her chin in her hands, staring intently at the stranger in our kitchen.

  ‘I’ll shave it off one day,’ he said, smiling at her. ‘It’s been more trouble than it’s worth. People seem to think that it defines me somehow.’

  ‘People are so ignorant.’ She poured out some tea and handed Ade a mug. ‘Did you get teased at school?’

  Ade’s face went blank for a moment. ‘At school?’

  ‘Yes. Kids are the worst.’ She sat down. ‘Jane knows all about that.’

  ‘Mum!’ I glared at her, before rapidly composing myself and turning to Ade. ‘I had a bit of trouble at school. But then I was home—’

  ‘What kind of trouble?’ Ade’s eyes seemed softer than usual, almost dewy with concern.

  I shook my head, not wanting to pursue the subject, but again, finding myself talking.

  ‘They didn’t like me because they thought I was different. They don’t like anyone different.’

  ‘That’s certainly true.’ Ade drank some tea. ‘I’m sorry you had a hard time.’

  ‘It’s over now.’ I glanced sideways at Luca who looked unmoved. ‘And now I am happy.’ I put out my hand and took Luca’s, but it felt limp.

  ‘Yes,’ my mother said briskly. ‘All in the past.’ I saw her eyes flick up to the clock on the wall. ‘Would you like to stay for dinner, Ade? It’s getting late; I’m sure you must be hungry. You boys always are.’

  There was tension in the air. I saw Ade considering, hesitating, before clocking Luca’s distinctly unfriendly expression.

  ‘That’s kind.’ He stood up and drained the rest of his tea. ‘But I have to be getting back. My grandparents always have food on the table at the same time.’

  ‘You live with your grandparents?’ Mum raised an eyebrow. ‘I didn’t realize …’

  ‘No, just visiting, while my parents sort things out.’ Ade’s face darkened a little; all of a sudden he looked smaller, like a little boy. ‘They’re getting on a bit, my grandparents, and they don’t like their routine disrupted.’ He shrugged. ‘I don’t want to upset them.’

  ‘That’s considerate.’ Mum looked approving. ‘Your grandparents live in Bale? I’m sure Luca or Jack will give you a lift back.’

  ‘That’s kind, but I’ll walk. I like walking.’ Ade told her. ‘Grandpa Pete will come and get me if I get lost.’

  ‘Pete?’ Luca leaned forward. ‘Did you say Pete?’

  ‘Yeah. Pete Henshaw?’ Ade said. ‘You know him?’

  ‘I work for him.’ Luca answered slowly. ‘For his construction company.’

  ‘Oh yeah. He mentioned that.’ Ade grinned. ‘Well, that he had help. I used to help him. A couple of years back, before I decided on my vocation.’

  ‘Right.’ Luca’s face had drained of colour. ‘Well, he’s a good man.’

  ‘The best,’ said Ade. ‘He’s practically the only person I really trust. He’s been like a father to me.’

  ‘Oh, that’s nice,’ Mum said soothingly, her heartstrings well and truly pulled. ‘Everyone needs someone they trust completely.’

  Luca and I looked at each other.

  ‘Well, I’d better be going.’ Ade went over to the sink and washed up his cup. Turning back to us he pushed his sleeves up his arms, drying his hands on a tea towel. There was a mark, just above his wrist, a wound of some kind, scarring now, but still faintly bloody.

  ‘You cut yourself ?’ Luca asked, his voice all of a sudden like granite.

  Ade looked blank for a few seconds before looking down at his arm. ‘I did it the other day.’ He tugged his sleeve back down over the cut. ‘Thanks for the tea, Mrs Jonas. I hope I’ll be seeing you around.’ He didn’t look at me or Luca and now seemed in a hurry to get out of the house. Before we knew it the back door was banging shut.

  ‘Well, he seems nice,’ my mother said obliviously.

  ‘He’s odd,’ I said. ‘Very odd.’

  ‘Well, he might make a good friend for you, Luca – a boy not far off your own age. I know it’s a little female heavy in this house.’

  Luca’s face was a picture. It was lucky Mum’s back was turned. He hadn’t been convinced by the Ade we’d seen today and, now that Ade had left, neither was I. I thought of what Luca had been telling me just before Ade had appeared by the car. The spell that the Vulpecula can cast. I shook my head.

  It was just too unbelievable that Ade and Polly belonged to that deadly species. They were messed up, for certain, but that didn’t mean they were evil.

  I was pretty sure about that.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The girl levered herself up on one elbow, wincing at the pain that shot through her arm. She concentrated on the sliver of light through the stone, the birds cheeping outside, the greeny-brown leaves on a tree-top. It must be dawn.

  Or was it a dream? Was she dead? She could be dead.

  She had stopped feeling anything – any emotion, that is – a long time ago. How long she couldn’t be sure. She had woken up, not knowing where she was – who she was, even. The first thing she’d done was touch her neck. It was bare. She had a faint feeling that something had gone.

  The tears had come for a while, but she didn’t know what she was crying for. They were the numb kind of tears. The most frightening thing was that she didn’t know what she was doing here, how she had got he
re. Maybe it would come back?

  She sat up, holding her knees, noticing how bony they were. She was so thin. And her hair was all matted. It bothered her. She realized, with a kind of bleary triumph, that she was proud of her hair. Pulling her fingers robotically through it she encountered a mass, something sticking to her hair, knotting it. In the semi-darkness it was difficult to see what it was, but as she pulled it out her heartbeat picked up and she was glad that there was not enough light to see properly. She had a hunch that it was blood.

  The sound of a dog barking got her up and on her feet. She pressed her face against the cold stone, one eye fixed on the outside.

  ‘Hello?’ she whimpered, strength draining from her. ‘Hello?’

  Only the sound of the birds. She lay back, her hand still on that sticky mass.

  ‘Please.’ She felt her breaths coming short. ‘Please. Help me.’

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  ‘Like I said, the guys were all a little older.’ Polly put on her sunglasses, even though it was cloudy and grey. She smiled broadly at me. ‘You should come. It’s fun.’

  ‘I’ll think about it.’ I hugged my bag to my chest. ‘I’m a bit busy these days.’

  ‘Oh yeah.’ She smirked. ‘You have me to look after. It would be like taking a chaperone. Kind of uncool really. Hey!’ She stuck her hand out at a guy walking past her. ‘See you in class.’

  He smiled shyly at her, barely glancing at me, as though Polly was the only person he could see. I suppressed the shudder that ran through me.

  Polly was looking around her, though I didn’t know how she could actually see anything through her black lenses. She was annoying me more and more these days.

  ‘So,’ I said, ‘your brother was round at our place the other night. Ingratiating himself with my mother.’ I watched as she removed her glasses.

  ‘Really?’ she said, her lips widening. ‘Well, that’s Ade. Every mother’s favourite.’

  ‘Yeah. He’s got that charm thing down all right,’ I said casually. ‘He almost had me thinking he was decent.’

  The smile disappeared from her face. ‘He is decent. I told you that.’

  ‘I know what you told me.’ It was difficult to keep the ice out of my tone. ‘But you’re not the most reliable of sources, are you, Polly?’

  She studied me, her eyes cold and unforgiving, before that supercilious expression returned.

  ‘You think you’re happy, Jane. You think you can hold on to this little relationship of yours. That everything will work out. But things change. People come into your life and they change things.’ She cocked her head almost sympathetically. ‘You have so much to learn.’

  I opened my mouth to respond but she had already turned away, waving at some other hapless guy.

  ‘Gotta go now.’ She turned to give me one last fake smile. ‘But I’ll see you later. We’re stuck with each other now – whether you like it or not.’

  She flicked her red hair over her shoulder as I watched her walk away, self-entitled and confident beyond her years.

  Something about Polly and Ade seemed to hold me in their spell and made me feel powerless to fight it. The moment Polly was out of sight the anger came, but more than that, cold fear.

  Why was Polly so vicious and scathing about my relationship with Luca? She had never even met him. How could she know so much about us? It had to be from Ade.

  I sank down on to a chair and grappled in my bag for some aspirin. I had another headache coming. I hadn’t been able to focus on college work lately, as though there was a fog between me and my coursework. Between everything.

  ‘Jane?’ A pair of stockinged feet in sensible footwear stood in my line of vision. I looked up to see Mrs Connelly peering at me. ‘Is everything all right?’

  I closed my bag, mustering up the biggest fake smile I could manage.

  ‘Everything’s fine,’ I told her. ‘I was just looking for something in my …’ I trailed off, noticing that Mrs C had removed her glasses. She had beautiful eyes, a golden-brown colour I had never seen before.

  ‘Jane?’ she said again, softly. ‘Are you sure you’re all right? You don’t look—’

  ‘I do feel a little woozy,’ I said, realizing it was true. Everything seemed to be slipping out of focus. I tried to get up, but couldn’t seem to find my footing, as though the floor was moving.

  The last thing I felt was Mrs Connelly’s hand gripping my arm before everything disappeared.

  ‘… under severe stress,’ a voice was saying, faded in the background. I opened my eyes, taking in a set of scales and an empty bookshelf. A light without a shade, a harsh bulb only, hung from the ceiling. I was lying on my back on a bed in the nurse’s office. I sat up quickly.

  ‘What happened?’ I said. Mrs Connelly had her back to me, in front of her was my mother – and Polly.

  My mother looked over at me, smiling but concerned.

  ‘Darling.’ She moved beyond Mrs Connelly. ‘You fainted.’

  ‘Oh.’ I swung my legs over the bed. ‘I feel fine now. I must have picked up a virus or something …’

  ‘But you haven’t been yourself for a while.’ This time Polly spoke. Her usual stinging tone was replaced by something much softer and more friendly. ‘I’ve been really worried about you.’

  ‘Really?’ I was trying to sound sarcastic but it came out as something much more submissive. ‘You never said.’

  ‘We’ve both been worried,’ Polly went on. ‘Ade and I.’

  My mother looked at her, then back at me. ‘I’m glad someone is looking out for you.’ She didn’t add, ‘At last you have friends,’ but it was what she meant.

  ‘I don’t need you to worry about me,’ I said, regaining my strength. Now my tone was more defiant. I looked around and spotted my bag on the floor by the trolley. I got up and opened it to take out my brush. Pulling it through my hair, I was careful not to look at anyone. I just wanted to get out of there, out of the suffocating atmosphere.

  ‘I’ve got the car,’ said my mum. ‘I’ll take you home.’ She turned to Polly. ‘Thank you, dear.’

  Thank you, dear?

  Mum picked up my jacket and started trying to put it on me.

  ‘It’s OK,’ I said gruffly. ‘I can put my own jacket on.’ I caught Polly’s eye. Now she looked triumphant.

  ‘Feel better soon,’ she said. ‘Ade is really worried about you.’

  ‘Why?’ I said sharply. ‘He hardly—’

  ‘We both are,’ she cut in quickly. ‘You’re a friend.’

  Both Mrs Connelly and my mother were smiling now, oblivious to my bewilderment.

  ‘Come on then,’ said Mum, as though she was talking to a six-year-old. ‘Let’s get you back home.’

  I allowed myself to be led out of the room but my eyes were rooted on Polly’s, which were unblinking. She was pulling her long red hair into a single plait.

  ‘I’ll call you later,’ she said sweetly. ‘See how you’re feeling.’

  Once again I was rendered speechless.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  It was only a small, faint noise, but Luca heard it just the same. He twitched, trying to locate the source, but he couldn’t see anything.

  Probably a mouse, he thought, though not convinced. It was raining again and the hut was damp and misty, the smell of rotting wood getting under his skin. He was sick of this job, which seemed never-ending. Every time they removed another lot of rusting metal, a new lot seemed to appear. Luca had avoided looking too closely at anything, fearful that he would find something else bloody and sinister, like the necklace.

  Luca had come ahead of Pete, who had some family emergency to deal with. He’d driven to the training ground at the crack of dawn, through the pot-holed lanes, ashamed of himself for feeling scared. The truth was that he was beginning to feel there was more danger on Mortal Earth than there was on Nissilum. Back home there were firm rules and a hefty price to pay for stepping out of line. And there was a spirit of cooperation, an ir
on-fast moral code that everyone who lived there had chosen in return for sanctuary. On Mortal Earth people lived by a different code: as long as they were not found out, they did as they pleased. Or so it seemed.

  Through the hut’s entrance Luca saw the headlights of Pete’s van as it pulled into the grounds. He felt relieved. Pete’s pragmatism was reassuring. And despite the fact that his grandchildren were downright odd – if not dangerous – Luca felt an affinity with the old man.

  And through Pete, maybe Luca could find out more about Polly and Ade, something that would put his mind at rest. He couldn’t believe that evil was related to Pete. He hoped that his fears were only the result of a lifetime spent distrusting alien species.

  Pete shone his torch as he approached and Luca squinted in its glare.

  ‘Be light soon.’ Pete entered the hut and switched off his torch. ‘This place never seems to get any cleaner.’

  ‘Everything OK?’ Luca asked.

  Pete scratched his head. ‘Yeah. My wife was anxious – our grandchildren didn’t come home all night.’ He shrugged. ‘I told her they’re teenagers. They’re probably out at some party somewhere and lost track of time. But she worries …’

  ‘Ade and Polly, right?’

  Pete blinked, looking surprised. ‘That’s right. You know them?’

  ‘I’ve met Ade through Jane. Polly’s at her college.’

  ‘Uh huh.’ Pete yawned. ‘She’s a handful.’

  So is her brother, Luca thought, but did not say.

  ‘You know they’re adopted?’ Pete said, stretching. ‘Poor kids. Had a terrible start in life.’

  ‘Do you know what happened to their biological parents?’

  ‘Not sure.’ Pete looked away, too quickly. ‘A bad lot, I heard. Those kids were in a bad way when my son and his wife took them on.’

  ‘I see.’ Luca kept his voice level, though he didn’t like what he was hearing. He waited for Pete to continue.

  ‘But they’re good now. All good …’ Pete’s voice trailed off and he turned his attention to some rubble at his foot. ‘It’s all in the past.’