by Aurora Smith
“I’m just tired. I’ve been busy and distracted and, honestly the last few months are a blur. Once I get back on track I will feel back to normal.” I reasoned with the girl whom I didn’t know and who seemed to know me better than anyone else in the world.
“Maybe. Hopefully.” She nodded and looked around the room. “How’s Ashley?” she asked me. Now I was really ready for her to go.
“I don’t have any idea,” I said and hunched my blanket farther up my face.
“Come with me,” she said and stood up.
“I’m having a hard time walking.”
“No you’re not. Come walk with me.” She looked me right in the eye and I stood up immediately. It hurt but she told me I could do it so I knew I could.
We walked together down the hall in the boys’ cabin. Nicholas passed us in the hall with a towel around his body and winked at us. “If there’s a tie on the door knob when you get back, find another bed to crash in, buddy.”
“Poor guy is going to be waiting a long time,” Christina snickered when we got out of ear shot. I laughed along with her, although it seemed unnatural.
“Hey, are you making me do this?” I asked and she turned her face to me.
“You’re very logical aren’t you? Those people are always the hardest to siren.”
“Obviously not. I’m here walking although I couldn’t a few minutes ago and I’m laughing even though I feel like throwing up.”
“I didn’t say you couldn’t be sirened, I’m saying it’s harder.” She rolled her eyes. She obviously knew what she was doing and it looked effortless. I was two seconds away from becoming a feminist, I was so impressed with these girls.
“Where are we going?” I asked, suddenly wishing I had clothes on. “I’ve only got underwear on under this blanket.”
“Then let’s keep that blanket on.” She didn’t answer my real question and I didn’t feel like asking her again. I mean, I really wanted to know but I also really didn’t want to ask her.
Sirens!
As I rounded the corner, I saw the girls’ dorms and I wanted to turn back but kept pushing forward through the rocks and sticks.
“You couldn’t have put shoes on my feet?”
“Why? It doesn’t hurt you.” That was true. It should have hurt, but it didn’t. I rolled my eyes and she laughed at me again. Making people do whatever she wanted put her in a good mood.
“So, if I’m being sirened then shouldn’t you look like something else?”
“Why, you don’t want to look at me?” She flipped her hair, pretending to be one of the populars at camp.
“I’m just curious,” I said, shrugging.
“Isn’t everyone?” she said, and as I looked up to respond I tripped over my own feet, lying sprawled out on the rocks with my blanket out like a cape. She told me to get up and I listened, of course, and tried to cover myself up while I stared at myself with a scarred face standing where Christina stood a moment ago. My heart started beating fast, almost longing for this person.
“What is wrong with me!?” I screamed at myself and then shook my head and apologized to Christina. Of course that was Christina, what was I thinking?
“Why do you see yourself?” Christina-Liam asked me. I stared at the face, the face that I hated but for some reason desired. I shook my head in response.
“I don’t know,” I said and took a deep breath. “Can I go to sleep?”
“Not yet. After you see something.” Christina, still looking like me, walked forward and continued to the girls’ cabin. I followed reluctantly.
We entered the cabin and the first thing I thought was that it was warmer than the guys’ cabin, and smelled better too. A lot better. We made our way toward room six, wishing again that I had at least pants on. How hard would it have been to let me get dressed? But we went past room six and stopped in front of room nine. There was movement behind Christina and I froze, sure that I was going to be in trouble by some female camp counselor for wandering into the girls’ cabin. The figure wasn’t walking normally but kind of jerking its way over toward us like a Zombie. Zombies weren’t real and I wasn’t in the mood to be proven wrong right now. Fighting Zombies in my underwear would be an excellent up to the downer of a day. But it wasn’t a Zombie, it was a girl I recognized, but I had no clue who she was.
“Gladys. Glad you are here.” The witch’s eyes were glazed over and I was certain that she didn’t want to be here. Christina turned to the door with the number nine on it and softly knocked. The response was a “Go away!”
“Ashley, it’s me, Christina!”
Ashley? Oh heck no. I turned around to walk away but my body wouldn’t move. So she could just control every single move I made? This was hardly fair and I see why people didn’t like Sirens. Unfair little creatures who had no respect for your feelings. Gladys was next to me trying to escape. Both of us with looks of justified frustration.
“Stop pouting and come in here with me and then I’ll let you two go,” she said, putting her hand on our shoulders and steering us around.
“Fine!” Ashley said through the door, so Christina opened it and we shuffled gloomily after her.
In the corner of the room in a rocking chair was a creature that looked nothing like Ashley or the creature I had once become with the long elbows and hairy feet. Her hairy feet had turned into something that resembled a hoof that belonged to a dog. The legs were full of muscles that looked like a mules but formed uncharacteristically into a sitting position. Her elbows were long and every time she moved, even just an inch, they hit the wall behind her chair. Her hands were so old looking that the fingers went forward like she had extreme arthritis and the wrinkling was worse than when my hands were scarred from being burnt.
“What are they doing here?” she said, her words muffled from the fangs that were growing from her bottom gums.
“I think the three of you need to talk,” Christina said calmly, like this was the most normal thing in the world.
“Freaky Gladys and Justin?” Ashley sneered.
“No, Gladys and Liam. Liam recently figured out how to regrow his skin.”
“You!” Ashley tried to stand up but her legs wouldn’t allow her to and her elbows instantly got skinned on the floor and tangled up with each other. “This is what you’ve done with my antidote? You used it on yourself?” I was so shocked by how she was looking that I only realized she was speaking to me when Christina poked me in the back so that I would respond.
“Ahh, no. No. This is something different,” I said, feeling sick to my stomach. Would this have happened to me if I hadn’t taken the antidote as soon as I had? Or was there a reason Gladys was here?
“What is she doing here?” The venom in Ashley’s voice was toxic.
“Why don’t I let you three talk. I’m going to be right here,” Christina pointed to a bed and then sat on it. “I’ll just stay here and make sure no one kills anyone else.”
Gladys and I looked from one another to Ashley, both of us with guilty looks on our faces.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“What is going on?” Ashley managed to slur.
I had already admitted that I had done what I had done, but Gladys looked angrily from Christina to Ashley then raised her hands, but she dropped them quickly.
“No no, there will be no magic,” Christina said and Gladys growled.
“I’m sorry but what is going on?” This was way outside of my comfort zone, I needed out. “I’ll make you the antidote and give it to you tomorrow; I didn’t realize this would happen to you,” I said quickly, hoping this would earn me a ticket back to the boys’ cabin and into my own bed.
Christina raised her eyes at me and gave me a sour look.
“I really didn’t mean for this happen,” I continued, looking to the warden for approval. She wasn’t budging.
“What did you mean to happen?” Ashley looked furious but her words sounded drained.
“Honestly, Maya and I just wanted to t
each you a lesson.”
“A lesson for what?” She still had no idea. Even after Maya had screamed it at her while we were with Mr. Torricelli in his office. Abby had told me all I had done was make her feel more justified and I was beginning to believe her.
“For being cruel to people. To Abby,” I answered.
“I am no more cruel than everyone else here. Certainly less cruel than you’ve been to me!” It was true.
“I will have an antidote before the morning,” I said, feeling ashamed and was too exhausted to even try and hide it or push my point to her.
“I’m not sure that would help, not completely. Would it, Gladys?” Christina took her eyes off of me and locked them onto the witch next to me.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve!” Gladys said through locked, bared teeth. Her words were vicious but I was surprised by how high and almost musical they were.
“You won’t be hurting me,” Christina paused and put a finger up in the air. “Or any of my friends.”
“You did something to her too?” I knew I hadn’t done all of that. I began to feel a little bit better about myself. A very little.
“Yes,” she said, hands on her hips, and she even brushed some of her oily hair from her eyes. “I cast a spell on you so that you’d look like how you acted on the inside. I’m assuming that’s why you look like an ass!”
Ashley tried to stand up and jerk towards Gladys but she only got tangled up again a second time. Witch girl didn’t even flinch back from the sudden movement. In fact I was the only guy in the room as well as the only person fiercely apologizing and jumping around like a cornered cricket. But I had always felt out of league with these people. I was able to manipulate chemicals, that was about the extent to how extraordinary I was. I was just a really smart mortal. At least I was until Carl did what he had done to my great great great grandfather. Now I was stuck here, but there was no point dwelling now.
“Who do you think you are?” Ashley slurred as she gave up on somehow reaching Gladys by dropping her mule shaped butt onto the chair.
“I know exactly who I am. The question is who do you think I am? Because you treat me like someone who can’t feel, or see, or understand what’s going on around me. You treat me like nothing because I’m not beautiful like you…or like you were.”
Ashley didn’t say anything; the two girls just glared at each other.
“Wait ‘til Mr. Torricelli hears about this!” Ashley hissed, apparently not hearing a word Gladys had said. I heard it though and it cut deep.
Christina actually chuckled from the bed she was sitting on and then stood up.
“You know, I think that I may have made a mistake. Sitting here in your room for the last two months, I would have thought that you were ready to get out of this situation but apparently I was wrong.” She walked toward the door and I was thrilled that we were getting out, but Ashley started stuttering incoherencies so I was sirened to stop when Christina did. So close.
“Please, Christina, don’t leave me like this!” Ashley was begging.
“I am not leaving you looking any way; you are doing this to yourself,” Christina said, then led us out of the room. Ashley was screaming for her to come back but Christina ignored her as we walked to the big common room in the girl’s cabin.
“Are we going to just let her yell like that? Is she going to wake everyone up?” I asked.
“Oh, she does that all the time, the camp in general has started ignoring her. I was hoping that she would be a little bit more reasonable but I guess she isn’t ready.”
“Well don’t expect me to lift any curses; she deserves everything she gets.” Gladys folded her arms over her chest and planted her feet with a stomp.
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Christina winked at her then turned to me. “I’m assuming you know the way back to camp, underwear boy?”
“Ahh, yes,” I said and actually laughed.
“Well, before you go, you should really get to know Gladys, she’s actually pretty cool.” She smiled kindly, then nodded to Gladys who scowled back, despite the odd compliment.
“Talk,” Christina said to Gladys, who rolled her eyes but of course didn’t move.
This was getting ridiculous. Maybe talking to this girl would get me out of here. I was willing to do anything.
“Sooooo, Gladys is it?” I said but she just sneered. What a charming girl. I couldn’t help but think that maybe she brought on a fair amount of the bullying she had so obviously received by her attitude more than her looks. I knew first hand that if I was picking on someone and they took it with stride then they gained some respect and I eased up on them, but if they egged me on by being pouty about it then I just had to give them more. It was a terrible, bully mentality for me to have but it was my mentality all the same.
“Justin is it?” she asked.
“It’s Liam, actually,” I said and her eyes widened and a deep scarlet color rose to her cheeks.
“Liam? Oh!” I didn’t realize she knew who I was. “What happened and why are you in a blanket?”
“Well it’s a long story but the short version is I figured out how to regrow my skin and I’m basically naked under here.” She blushed again while I continued, just wanting the day to be over—and the seemingly pointless trip over here into the forbidden forest that was the girls’ cabin.
“But why did you think it was a curse?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I guess it looked like one. I didn’t realize you had really just burned yourself.”
“Oh, yeah. I burned myself. I was burned real good.” I laughed from the ridiculousness of what was going on and was surprised that Gladys also laughed.
She was pale but it didn’t look like it was from lack of sun; her skin was creamy and the contrast of her black hair added to it. When she smiled her gloomy face didn’t look as unattractive as it did when she was scowling. I’d bet that if she washed her hair and smiled she would actually be quite pretty. I had no idea what her body looked like because it had an armor of black leather, chains and large pointy things. But her demeanor had suddenly changed and she no longer looked like she wanted to rip my throat out. That was unexpected. Then I had a thought, a crazy thought, but you never knew.
“Hey, speaking of curses. Do you know how to get rid of curses cast by other witches?” I asked her.
“Possibly. Why?” She looked weary again.
“I have a friend, Abby, and she had a curse put on her…wait, where are you going?” She turned around and started walking back towards the girls’ rooms in the middle of my sentence.
“I’m not here to break any curses put on people who deserved what they got.”
“Wait, what? Do you know Abby?” I grabbed the top of her arm and nearly lost my blanket.
“Yes. My mom is the one who put that curse on Abby’s mother and let me tell you, from what I’ve heard our Ashley is a peach compared to that woman.”
“Your mom? Really?” I couldn’t believe it. Christina was like a crazy, silently-helping-everyone-out-by-being-totally-bossy type, I thought.
“Don’t try to get me to reverse anything my mother did to anyone before I was born! What about what was done to her? Can your precious Abby reverse that?”
“Abby is a cool girl though, she is nothing like her mother was.” I tried to reason with her. I thought of Abby, asleep in bed right now because Christina told her to be and the way she had been trying to strangle a cure out of me. The desperation in her eyes hurt; I was there not too long ago and in a weird way I felt like I still was.
“And why is that?” Gladys got right in my face and growled. “Is it because my mother took matters into her own hands? Beauty is skin deep and Abby has been fortunate enough to learn that.”
“I know what you mean!” I said way too loudly but I was desperate for her to not turn around and walk away. “I was always someone who looked good and then I got burned and I realized what really matters but…”
“But what?” she aske
d, looking hurt, and I felt something stir inside of me. Something that I hadn’t felt in a long time. I had influence right now. I knew that if I really wanted to get something from this girl that I could probably get it. I recalled her blushing and the way she brushed the hair out of her face when she knew it was me. I had seen that so many times before and I was desperate to find a way to fulfill my promise without hurting Abby.
“But, don’t you want to be known as more than someone who just gives out punishments?” I asked softly and brushed a stray hair out of her face, the rosy color in her cheeks appeared again. “Do you want to be known as someone to fear, or someone who is loved?” I gave her my most winning smile, happy for the first time that my face was back to the way it should be. The way it was meant to be.
“I-A.” She stuttered and stared with wide eyes at me. That was a good sign.
“You are obviously very powerful; I can’t believe what you did to Ashley. You have the ability to be so much more than this.” As I spoke I stepped forward again, getting closer to her body and brushing more hair out of her face. This was so easy; I could see her melting in front of me.
“Abby does seem different than her mom is…” Gladys breathed and I matched her mood.
“Hey, I have an idea! Do you have a partner for the talent show tomorrow?” I asked with the perfect amount of excitement.
“No, I usually skip out and pretend that everyone here doesn’t exist.”
“I’m with you!” I bumped her chin. A small regret rose through my ribs but I pushed it down. Maya didn’t really have feelings for me, we had established this, and I wasn’t doing anything to hurt her. “Well, Abby and I are doing some kind of disappearing trick, it’s really dumb and we need some spice! What if you joined us and we could really wow those losers!”
“Join your group? I think I would rather choke on one of Ashley’s chicken wings!” I laughed like she was the funniest person in the world.