Poison Heart

by S. B. Hayes

I dreamed about her again that night. This time she was supine across Merlin’s battered sofa, languishing, luxuriating in her own beauty. I couldn’t escape her eyes as she gracefully rose to her feet, sashayed across the room and turned the easel towards me, forcing me to watch. The painting wasn’t of me, it was of her, her crimson lips curled up with a secret smile of triumph. I woke with a start and sat bolt upright in bed. The green pendant was still on my dressing table and it almost seemed to glow in the dark. I jumped up and stuffed it away in my handbag.

  CHAPTER

  FOUR

  ‘I have my own stalker.’

  Hannah stopped yawning long enough to express surprise. ‘You have Merlin – best-looking guy in college – and now your own stalker. How unfair is that? Who is he?’

  ‘It isn’t funny,’ I insisted, wishing Nat’s dad would slow down going over the speed humps because my head kept hitting the roof of his car. ‘And it isn’t a guy … it’s a girl. I saw her from the bus, in the street, in the cafe, and she called at my house selling jewellery.’

  I delved into my bag and handed the pendant to Nat.

  She turned it over and then held it up to the light. ‘It’s pretty cool. What’s it made of?’

  ‘I think it’s sea glass,’ I grunted. ‘Emerald sea glass … just like her eyes. It might be cool, but I think it’s a warning.’

  ‘What’s sea glass?’

  ‘Ordinary glass, but it’s been in the sea for ages until all the edges are smooth and the glass is opaque.’

  Hannah glanced at her watch. ‘Why would she be warning you? Sure you’re properly awake? It is only six thirty a.m.’

  I lowered my voice, making sure that Nat’s dad couldn’t hear. ‘I think she’s used some sort of … magic on me so she always knows where I am.’

  The laughter was so loud that I had to cover my ears. ‘You’re priceless,’ Nat chided.

  I stared out of the window, biting my lip. ‘She’s everywhere I go, watching, listening, and she knows where I live.’

  ‘You really believe in this … witchcraft then?’

  ‘I wouldn’t exactly call it that,’ I answered, taken aback. ‘But there’s something unnatural about her. That day on the bus … something passed between us, and I haven’t felt the same since.’

  They were both looking at me oddly. ‘So … why did you buy the pendant?’ Hannah asked.

  ‘I didn’t. Mum got it for me.’

  ‘And what did your mum say about her?’

  ‘That she was nice, talented and very persuasive, but – how weird is this? – when Mum went to fetch her purse, she … the girl … disappeared and didn’t take any money for it.’

  Hannah shook her head. ‘I just don’t get it. An unknown girl calls at your house and leaves a gorgeous pendant, almost like a present?’

  ‘It doesn’t feel like a present,’ I muttered.

  ‘We’re here, girls,’ Nat’s dad called as he drove through the huge gates of the country park. A feeling of excitement ran through me when I saw all the cars and vans spread out on the grass and most of the stalls already set up. This was the biggest car-boot sale and craft fair around, and the three of us could wander for hours, searching for bargains. It was definitely worth getting up at five in the morning for. We were in such a rush that we tumbled out of the doors and Nat screeched as she almost landed in a cowpat.

  Hannah made a beeline for the table closest to us and immediately picked up a wide pot decorated with a design of blue and white flowers. ‘It looks quite old,’ she announced importantly, ‘probably Edwardian. This would look really pretty with a plant in. I’ll buy it for Mum.’

  ‘It’s a chamber pot,’ Nat giggled in my ear. ‘For weeing in. Don’t tell her until we get back home.’

  My mood lifted as we walked around. The grass was wet with dew and the bottoms of my jeans were soon saturated and heavy, my canvas pumps sodden. Hannah was no better, as she gingerly picked her way across the field in a smock dress with bare legs, the grass chafing her skin. Nat was the only one who had dressed sensibly, in pink and green fluorescent wellies over black tights and denim shorts. Once the early morning mist lifted, the sky was startlingly blue and we all stripped off our jackets and cardigans. None of us had bothered with breakfast, and the smells of coffee, doughnuts and croissants wafted through the air. My feet began walking towards the food stall, but two pairs of hands tugged my arm. ‘We can’t stop yet – we’ll miss all the good stuff.’

  They were right – within ten minutes of frantic rummaging I’d spotted a pinstripe trilby that I knew Merlin would love and a 1950s-style dress with a flared skirt decorated with cabbage roses. I knew it wasn’t proper vintage and managed to beat the lady down from eight pounds to five. Nat pounced on a stuffed cat because she collected them and a beaded evening bag from the 1920s, which cost her a cool fifteen pounds. Breakfast couldn’t wait any longer and all the plastic seats had been taken so we sat on the grass sipping hot coffee and eating sugared doughnuts, so sweet they made our teeth ache.

  It felt great being here with Nat and Hannah, taking in the early-morning rays and watching the crowd swell. Far from deterring us, this made it more of a challenge, and we enjoyed people-watching too. Every now and then Nat would sigh about Merlin’s friend Adam, with whom she was hopelessly in love since meeting him at a party. Hannah stood up to put her rubbish in a bin and I leaned towards Nat. ‘Why don’t you use the power of your mind to captivate him?’ I whispered.

  Nat’s eyes widened mischievously. ‘So you dabble in magic as well?’

  ‘No … not magic,’ I tried to explain, ‘just positive energy to help something along. Anyone can practise it, but some people have a … head start.’

  ‘What sort of people?’

  ‘Well … your mind has to be open, but if you want something really, really badly, I think you can kind of … manifest it.’

  ‘Sounds like a love spell,’ Nat teased. ‘Maybe I should try one. Is that how you enticed Merlin?’

  I folded my lips together and refused to divulge the answer. Hannah reappeared and looked at us both quizzically, but I tapped the side of my nose and told her it was a private joke. She pulled a wry face but didn’t appear bothered. I uprooted a few daisies from the ground and scattered the petals around.

  ‘Hannah? You’ve known Merlin the longest,’ I began casually. ‘Has he had lots of girlfriends?’

  ‘Weirdly not,’ she replied slowly. ‘Although plenty of girls have tried, but he’s so … intense and wrapped up in his work. I think he’s been saving himself for you.’

  I stood up, trying to hide my pleasure at her words, and brushed sugar from my jeans. It was then I saw her, cool as anything, arranging a collection of jewellery on a rickety wooden table and smirking at me. The doughnut stuck in my throat and my stomach felt instantly queasy. The cardboard cup fell out of my hand on to the ground.

  ‘She’s over there right now,’ I growled. ‘I’ve had enough of this, I’m going to confront her.’

  Without waiting for Nat or Hannah to reply, I marched towards the stall, keeping my eyes fixed on her. A man rudely pushed past and distracted me. It was only for a second, but in that time she vanished. An older woman was now standing in her place looking peeved.

  ‘Where did the girl go?’ I demanded.

  ‘I’ve never seen her before,’ a voice grumbled. ‘She asked me to keep an eye on her stall, but I’ve got my own to worry about.’

  Something flickered in my field of vision. It was nothing more than a glimpse of material disappearing into the crowd, but I knew it was her and I had to follow. But there were people everywhere as I tried to push my way through. I was slow and clumsy, whereas she was as light as gossamer, a feather floating and dancing in the air, an escaped balloon, a pirouetting ballerina. Each time I lost her, a fragment of something would resurface, a glimpse of her earring, her hair or just the corners of her mouth as she turned around – I could almost hear laughter around me.

  The s
ensible thing would be to stop and go back to my friends, but I couldn’t do that and she knew that I couldn’t. It was growing harder to force my way through the people, and I no longer cared if I stood on someone’s foot or elbowed them in the ribs. Once I sent a stall flying, and books and dishes tumbled on to the grass. The outraged cries didn’t make me stop. There was a clearing where the crowd thinned and I could see patches of tarmac, which signalled the beginning of the car park. I speeded up, and when I reached the edge of the field it was possible to breathe again. For a few seconds I looked up at the clouds and panted, disorientated by the wide open space. A glance to my left and right revealed nothing – it was as if she’d been swallowed up into the atmosphere. She couldn’t be real – the way she moved, her speed and the fact that she kept disappearing in front of my eyes.

  A noise suddenly made me start. Someone clearing their throat. I turned around slowly and froze. The girl was less than two metres away, filling a jug from an outdoor tap. I was rooted to the spot. She was definitely flesh and blood, not some phantom of my mind. I stared for about thirty seconds and she finally looked up and watched me without blinking.

  I came to my senses. With my hand outstretched, the pendant sitting squarely in the middle of my palm, I walked towards her. ‘I think this is yours.’

  ‘Is it?’ she asked playfully. ‘I didn’t drop anything.’

  ‘You called at my house, but you didn’t wait for the money …’

  Her oval eyes half closed. ‘Did we speak?’

  This was stupid. I felt as tongue-tied as if she was an adult and me a child. ‘I wasn’t … no, we didn’t speak. My mum answered the door. You talked to her.’

  The water overflowed from the jug and splashed her feet, but she didn’t turn off the tap. ‘Then how do you know it was me?’

  ‘The st … stall,’ I faltered. ‘I recognized the pendant from your jewellery stall.’

  Her lips curled in a slight smile. ‘I don’t have any pieces like that.’

  My face turned brick red. ‘Well … my mum described you, and then I saw you here and put two and two together and …’

  ‘Followed me,’ she finished.

  This was crazy. I was beginning to look like the stalker instead of her. And it was impossible to gauge her tone, whether there was an edge to it or not. ‘So it isn’t yours then?’ I challenged.

  ‘Let me look.’

  As she took the pendant her fingers touched mine and it felt as if an electric shock had passed through me. I actually took a step back, my heart racing, but she appeared completely unmoved. She frowned and threw it back at me. ‘I’m not sure.’

  This was going nowhere, but I refused to crawl back to Nat and Hannah in defeat. I tried to stop my voice from wavering and resolutely faced her.

  ‘Were you in Hillside Street last week?’

  She finally turned off the flow of water, kicked off both her ballet pumps and gracefully brushed the grass with her toes. ‘I don’t remember.’

  ‘You must remember.’

  She shrugged her shoulders. ‘What’s the problem anyway? You should keep the pendant.’

  ‘I don’t want to keep it,’ I fumed, and tried to pass it to her again, but this time she refused to take it.

  I stared at her mutinously, but her expression softened and she began to laugh gently. After another minute of confusion I started to laugh too, suddenly realizing how ridiculous I must appear, charging after her with all kinds of strange accusations.

  ‘Sorry we got off to a bad start,’ I apologized. ‘I didn’t want you to lose out on a sale, that’s all.’

  ‘Do you like the pendant?’

  ‘It’s lovely,’ I admitted.

  She tilted her head to one side and looked at me from underneath her lashes. ‘You should keep it then, Katy.’

  ‘You know my name?’

  She still seemed to be laughing. ‘I know lots about you.’

  I frowned. ‘But I don’t know anything about you.’

  She was closer now and I could feel her breath on my face. Her lips parted and moved inaudibly. There was no sound, and yet I could hear her. She was saying the same phrase over and over again and I couldn’t tear myself away.

  A hand on my shoulder made me flinch. ‘Katy!’ Nat exclaimed. ‘We’ve been looking all over for you.’

  Hannah jumped in. ‘Why did you disappear?’

  I could see them both looking at me and then back at the girl. She smiled, batted her eyelids and gave me a friendly wave.

  ‘Everything OK?’ Hannah asked.

  I nodded and, linking arms with Hannah and Nat, headed back towards the stalls. I turned around only once, to see the girl looking back at me, strangely transfixed. I shook my head, cross with myself because my imagination must have been running riot. But no matter how hard I tried to forget, I could still hear her voice resounding in my head over and over again: ‘I’m your worst nightmare.’

  CHAPTER

  FIVE

  The new cafe in the high street was decorated in Neapolitan colours – vanilla, mocha and strawberry. There were giant photographs of coffee beans on the wall and attractive people with perfect teeth laughing together in leather club chairs, clutching outsize cups. Nat, Hannah and I had decided to try it out before going to college for the first student exhibition of the year. I was nervous about my work, but this anxiety stopped me focusing on the real thing that was troubling me.

  Hannah sipped a banana smoothie, her forehead creased with concern. ‘We’re the three musketeers, remember? All for one and one for all. What’s bothering you, Katy?’

  Nat guiltily tucked into a slice of carrot cake and spoke with her mouth full. ‘Is it Merlin?’

  ‘No, everything’s great with him.’

  ‘Your mum?’

  ‘It’s not her either,’ I answered, tipping the pepper pot and making patterns on the table with my finger.

  ‘You’ve been quiet all week,’ Hannah persisted.

  I looked from one face to the other. They were right; I had to get this thing off my chest. ‘Look, I know this will sound stupid, but it’s … the girl we saw at the craft fair.’

  ‘Ah … your stalker.’ Nat winked.

  ‘Thing is … I thought she said something to me, something I can’t stop thinking about.’

  Two pairs of eyes fixed on me expectantly, but my mouth felt dry and there were butterflies in my stomach. I went back to blowing on my coffee. ‘It doesn’t matter …’

  ‘Spit it out,’ Nat urged, and pulled a stupid face which made me smile.

  I studied the hexagon shapes on the floor, not wanting to look at them both. I chewed my lip, adjusted my position in my chair and took a deep breath. ‘She said, “I’m your worst nightmare.”’

  The silence seemed to go on forever. Hannah eventually broke it. ‘Just like that. She said, “I’m your worst nightmare,” just like that.’

  I squirmed a little. It felt horrible having to justify myself like this. ‘She called me Katy, and I asked how she knew my name, and she told me she knew lots about me and then she said—’

  ‘I’m your worst nightmare,’ Nat interrupted. ‘You’re absolutely certain that’s what she said?’

  ‘I thought it was my imagination,’ I answered defensively, ‘but now I’m not so sure. Her lips opened, but she didn’t seem to speak …’

  ‘She didn’t speak?’ Hannah echoed.

  My fists clenched under the table and I tried to keep my voice measured. ‘I’m not sure … it’s all a bit of a blur.’

  There was another uncomfortable silence and I almost began to regret confiding in them.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell us at the time?’ Nat asked.

  ‘It didn’t seem real,’ I mumbled.

  Hannah’s voice was apologetic. ‘But you did chase her that day. She didn’t come after you.’

  ‘She wanted me to,’ I answered, realizing how bizarre this sounded. I didn’t even understand it myself. ‘I mean … I went after her bec
ause she’d left that pendant at my house.’

  Nat took a sip of her drink and licked her lips. ‘It’s not something a sane person would say,’ she commented archly. ‘Did she appear sane?’

  ‘Perfectly.’ I groaned, my previous doubt returning in one hot embarrassing wave. ‘And you’re right, of course. My mind was all over the place that day … I was probably a bit … wound up.’

  Nat yawned. ‘It’s silly to get upset about this anyway. I mean, how much damage could one girl do?’

  I didn’t answer and stared down at the floor. A brand-new penny gleamed at me and I remembered the rhyme, ‘See a penny pick it up and all day long you’ll have good luck.’ But I was too ashamed to scramble about on the floor to retrieve it.

  ‘This is the best time of our lives,’ Hannah reminded me. ‘Nothing should be so serious.’

  I managed a watery smile. ‘OK, I’ll try to lighten up. You’re right. How much damage could one girl do?’

  We finished our drinks and left the cafe, all three of us trying to shelter under a single umbrella. Rain didn’t usually bother me, but Hannah was terrified she’d have an attack of the frizzies and huddled further beneath the umbrella, pushing me off the kerb in the process. The sky darkened and thunder sounded in the distance so we quickened our pace.

  ‘She’s in my dreams as well,’ I announced distractedly, as if there’d never been a break in conversation.

  Hannah shrieked as she walked into a puddle. ‘Forget all about … whatsherface … spooky girl with the cat’s eyes. She’s probably given up on you and decided to stalk a celebrity instead.’

  I was about to answer when the rain grew stronger. Within seconds it was bouncing off the pavement, pouring like crazy into the gutters and grilles. We made a run for it and arrived at college out of breath, shaking drops from our clothes and hair.

  ‘Thanks for coming,’ I whispered. ‘I didn’t want to be alone.’

  Most students had brought along their parents, who stood by their displays, beaming with pride. I felt a pang of regret thinking about Mum, but Nat and Hannah were here for me. The exhibition was to raise the profile of the art and design department, and the local paper had been invited to do a feature. Neither Nat nor Hannah were the least bit creative and they made a big thing about my designs as if they were the greatest thing on earth. They moved closer to my display and marvelled at my embroidery and appliqué, plus the piece of fabric that I’d printed by hand with a leaf design. I could see Merlin standing head and shoulders above everyone and waited for the chance to go over and talk to him. I felt a surge of pride again, remembering how he kind of belonged to me now.