Nightmare's Daughter

by Aurora Smith

“Come on, please? This could be a show that they talk about for years! You would gain mad respect too.” I was beginning to talk like the clone teenagers in this place. How quickly one adapts to their surroundings when they want to.

  “You’re serious?”

  “I’m so serious!”

  “Prove it!” This girl was flirting with me and I knew what I had to do.

  “Prove it? Prove it how?” I got even closer to her and excitement filled her eyes.

  “How about a kiss?”

  “A kiss?” I said it quietly and put my hand on her oily face. I really didn’t want to kiss this girl but I had an end result in mind. I had done much worse for less before in my life and I knew it would be over quickly. We were leaving this dreadful place in a few days anyway.

  I put my new, soft hand on her cheek and put my lips softly on hers. Her reaction was unexpected though and I regretted what I was trying to do instantly. I had expected a small kiss and to get whatever I wanted but here I was with a strange girls arms flung around my sore neck and her tongue down my throat. I reacted like I was into this girl, this strange, very unattractive girl.

  Finally she broke away from me, letting me breathe and giving my neck and face a break from being mauled. My skin feeling even worse than it already had been. In fact it was starting to downright sting.

  “I know you’re just doing this so that I do what you want!” she said.

  “Oh don’t you just know everything about me!” I teased.

  “Fine, I’ll help you, what did you have in mind?” She crossed her arms, looking angry again. This wasn’t as open and shut as I had originally thought. Perhaps I was just rusty.

  “I’m thinking something that will blow everyone away and get you to the top of the food chain around here. It’s time people saw how powerful you are.” I almost said ‘instead of a freak’ but I was a genius and I knew that was a dumb move. Gladys apparently responded to flattery rather than physical attention.

  “Fine, but remember, I do have the power to change anything I want and to change things back as well.” She looked me up and down and real fear rose in me. Was she talking about my face? She had thought it was a curse—I wondered if she could do something like that to me. There was nothing else to do but keep up this charade; the power was now in her court and I didn’t like it.

  “How about we get together tomorrow morning, you me and Abby?” I said, keeping my voice calm and adoring.

  “After breakfast. You can do whatever it is you do with Maya and then once you ditch her come and find me at the lake.” She smiled and it looked wicked.

  “Sure, whatever you say, boss.” I bumped her chin again and winked before turning around, finally finding my out and taking it.

  “See you tomorrow,” she said in a sweet voice.

  “See you tomorrow,” I answered, the pit in my stomach filling with regrets and fears.

  Twenty-five

  Everyone let me sleep in, which I appreciated immensely. When my eyes finally stuttered open, a part of me wanted to believe that last night was a dream. That I hadn’t gotten rid of my scars and I hadn’t kissed the strange witch girl at camp. But I knew it must have really happened because I was lying in bed with pajama pants and a wife-beater style tank top on. I was now forever terrified and would never sleep in just my underwear again.

  I raised my hands, feeling the smooth skin; the bumps and raw aching was almost gone too. I took in a bottomless breath, steadying myself before I fully committed to the day and what it had in store for me. I was thirsty, so thirsty it hurt. My mouth felt uncomfortable; I brushed my tongue across my teeth and tried to swallow spit to ease the uncomfortable desire for a drink. I opened my eyes and gave a surprised yelp, feeling my face go hot. It was definitely not back to normal yet; the heat burned my cheeks a little too much.

  “What are you doing, creeper?” I said and I heard Mayas beautiful laugh.

  “Hey!” She was smiling. Smiling the way she always smiled at me.

  I opened my blanket and with a giggle, she crawled next to me and hugged me as I threw the blanket back down over us. It felt amazing to hold this girl. Just hold her and pretend that what she was feeling for me was real and happy, that I had a real chance of it becoming really real now that my face was back to normal. It reminded me of what Christina said though and I felt my heart thump with grief.

  “Christina told me that you had been in my dreams last night.” I said quietly, trying not to sound accusing as I played with her lavender locks. We had both agreed that she was going to stop poking around to see if her feelings left or not.

  “She did huh.” Maya sounded irritated.

  “I thought you said that you had stopped.”

  “I did, and I had, but you were so distant yesterday, the last month really, and I stayed away every night but, it was like you were a shell, completely unresponsive to anything I said or did so I just gave in and peeked. It was the first time, I promise.” She put her whole, amazingly adorable face in front of mine and I felt sick. I had no recollection of even seeing her yesterday. In fact, stumbling into the boys’ restroom and my face basically melting away was a blur. A shell was the perfect way to describe the way I had been for most of the summer.

  “And, how do you feel?” I whispered.

  “Well, I’m lying in your bed so, obviously I find you completely disgusting.” I felt a kiss on my forehead and a new pain filled me. A pain, a frustration, a confusion, a lack of control.

  Was Maya real? Gladys was more real than I wanted her to be. Abby was depending on me and now I had to get that antidote to Ashley.

  Girls, man.

  “Only a few days left of camp,” I said because I really didn’t know what to say.

  “I know. Kind of sad, really. I mean, it’s been the craziest, most unrelaxing time I’ve ever had at camp, but I’m still going to miss it. Makes me feel better knowing that you live in my town.”

  “You plan on keeping in touch, huh?” I put my lips on hers before she answered and felt the fear in my mind numb from being so close to her. Once I let her breathe she looked me straight in the eyes and for the first time looked serious.

  “How did you do it? I mean, is this why you were so distant?” Her fingers were going over my smooth skin and I relished in the way her fingers felt.

  “I’ve been distracted,” was all I said and I held her tighter to me.

  “That’s an understatement. Did you forget to eat?” She sounded a little more serious now and I loosened my grip. I recalled the way I looked last night when I stood with Justin, looking in the full length mirror. I didn’t want to talk about how I welcomed death yesterday afternoon, that I had given up much more than she could ever have imagined. That I still felt that sick feeling of being unaccomplished even though I was lying in bed with a girl I couldn’t get my mind off of and my face was a beautiful as ever.

  The silence welcomed more questions though.

  “What’s going on with you and Abby?”

  “I told you we are doing the talent show together.”

  “You did.” She was still sliding fingers across my cheeks, it was causing me to close my eyes and I wanted desperately to fall back to sleep like this.

  “Alright, Mr. One Word Answer, I think it’s time to get up and be productive. Mr. Torricelli is waiting for you; the whole camp knows by now what you’ve done. Expect to be the new coolest kid!” She got out of my bed and left the room, winking at me before she closed the door.

  Why was that girl so cool? How many other cool girls had I missed out on in my life because I didn’t get past their initial look? I wanted her back in my bed and I wanted to just hang out and talk to her. Just her. Forget these other, less cool, a little crazier, girls who were all waiting for me, probably standing like a wall right outside of that door.

  I slinked out of bed and threw wrinkled clothes on from the floor then caught my reflection.

  WOW.

  My skin looked perfect but my physical b
ody had suffered tremendously. Even standing felt awkward and my muscles already ached to rest. I looked awful in these clothes, too. They were creased and stained, how long had I actually been wearing them, anyway?

  I took them off and went to my drawer and pulled out a tight, black V-Neck shirt and a pair of jeans. They were both loose on me, the shirt not fitting across my muscular chest like it had before. I irritably clicked my tongue at my reflection and stuffed my feet into my shoes.

  Right before I left the room a small glimmer inside my dresser caught my eye. I went to inspect and saw a tiny vile, one I had forgotten about. An antidote. The very one that would help Ashley.

  I grasped the palm sized bottle in my hand and felt hopeful for the first time today that these last few days at camp might go smoothly.

  I opened the door and saw Maya waiting for me like she said she would. Her round, smiling face and complete modge podge of odd clothing (that consisted of a rock and roll t-shirt that did nothing for what little figure that she did have, short ripped jeans and flip flops) lifted my spirits and I forgot about my loose, hanging clothes and my peach fuzz head. A pain deep in my gut burned as I reached out for her hand and I doubled over in pain.

  “Liam!” Maya bent her knees so she could get on my new level.

  “It’s okay, I must be hungry.” On cue my stomach growled which made her laugh.

  “The kitchen is going to be closing soon so we should hurry.” She helped me straighten up and let me lean on her. I felt so weak and helpless and I wondered how someone could let themselves get like this without realizing they were doing it. A numbness rose again inside of me. It blocked out any real feeling, it was just there. It just existed and I along with it. Perhaps giving Ashley this antidote would bring feeling and life back into these bones.

  The main hall where my solitary table was had a few stragglers, all talking with empty plates. My own little table had pancakes and eggs that I wolfed down, not caring that they were cold and the eggs smelled like burnt dog food. My stomach cramped and wanted more.

  “I’m still really hungry,” I said to Maya, who was allowed to be with me because Mr. Torricelli was nowhere in sight. At this point I didn’t really care. Maybe I could give Ashley the antidote, get expelled and not have to do the talent show. The idea of dragging it out was so that I could spend time with Maya and I had messed that up on my own.

  “I’ll see if I can dig something up in the cafeteria,” Maya said. As she walked away I noticed everyone looking at me, which was to be expected. The looks of respect and admiration were there but confusion seemed to be the winning emotion. I put my hand up in a kind of salute and the few people in the room chuckled nervously then looked away one by one, giving me a few seconds of rest before the multitude of campers saw me and I became a freak show in a whole different way than I was before.

  At least I was a beautiful freak show.

  Maya came back with a few muffins she managed to find and the biggest glass of orange juice I’d ever seen. My dry mouth cried out for it and I gulped it down without breathing. It eased the desert dry tongue for a moment but I wanted more.

  “Whoa, cowboy.” She looked concerned. “Are you sick?”

  “I don’t know, maybe.” I said as I looked into the glass, wishing it would fill magically on its own. And it did.

  “What the…” I held it out and thought for a moment that I had somehow gotten some kind of strange wishing power.

  “You looked like you wanted more.” A high, girlish voice that I recognized was in front of me and Gladys came into focus. Bring on the crazy. But she didn’t look crazy; she actually looked kind of pretty.

  Her normally greasy face looked soft and her hair was washed, even though it still hung a little on the sides of her cheeks. Her normally bulky clothes were less so and I could see a fair amount of curves. Maya seemed to also notice.

  “Gladys?”

  “Maya.” Gladys greeted her coldly, keeping her eyes on me. She looked nice but I didn’t like the way she was looking at me. “Drink up; we have some rehearsing to do.”

  “Rehearsing?” Maya looked confused and I wanted to press pause for a moment. My stomach started burning again and I wondered if I had managed to give myself an ulcer by the way I had mistreated my body the last few weeks.

  “Yeah, Abby, Gladys and I are going to do the talent show this evening,” I said between sips of the orange juice. It was sweeter than the cup Maya had given me. I was cautious about drinking it but didn’t want to make anyone mad. When I say anyone I meant Gladys.

  “Looking good, Liam. You’re face looks like it healed a bit while you slept.” I nodded and felt Maya’s eyes on me even though I wasn’t looking at her. This was not good. This was really, really not good.

  “Wait.” Not good. “What do you mean?” She was speaking to Gladys and I didn’t know how to stop it. If I hushed Gladys she would know why, if I hushed Maya then she would know why. There was nothing I could do but slowly watch this train wreck and sip on my delicious juice.

  “Last night, after Liam and I visited Ashley in her room we decided that I was going to join the talent show. Didn’t he tell you? We had a nice, long talk. Didn’t we?” She looked me in the eyes and her eyes narrowed for a fraction of a second. The way parent’s do to a child when they are telling them they mean business.

  “I wouldn’t say it was long,” is all I could come up with.

  “Maybe not long, but it was intense.” Gladys leaned in and smiled, her face becoming prettier and more awful at the same time.

  “There you are!” Abby came walking up and I felt cornered like I had the night before. Where was Christina? I needed that Siren thing again where she shuts everyone up and makes them walk away. I just kept sipping.

  “Okay, wait.” Mayas hands were up in the air and I let myself feel flattered for a moment that her voice carried possessive tones in them. I knew it would come crashing down in seconds so I soaked it up.

  “You were alone last night?”

  “Oh, you know it.” Gladys winked, my heart sinking, and Maya stuttered something I didn’t understand. Abby’s eyes were orbs of confusion as she looked from Gladys to Maya, then to me.

  “Is she saying what I think she’s saying?” Maya asked me. I put my cup down on the table and realized that this was my opportunity to deal with the ‘does she like me, doesn’t she like me’ ordeal. It was time to stop pretending. I had a life to live and I needed to live it.

  “She is.”

  “But, you kissed me this morning.”

  “Oh, he did?” I could tell Gladys’s horror was intentionally fake, so I glared at her.

  “But…” Maya looked more than mad, she looked confused and I didn’t blame her one bit. It didn’t make any sense, even to me and I was there.

  “Get over it, man girl,” Gladys sneered.

  “Hey now, there’s no reason for that,” I said but Maya gave me a dirty look so I shut my mouth.

  “No, she’s right,” Maya said and turned around and left—not in a huff, and she didn’t threaten me, but her shoulders were sad and my heart was following after her like a lost poppy. I tried to pull the leash but it fought me.

  “Well now that we’re down one, I think we can decide what we’re doing for the show,” Gladys said happily.

  “She’s in the show with us?” Here we go. Take a number, the let’s get pissed at Liam number.

  “You, betcha,” Witch said and Abby turned to smile at her.

  “Excuse me, Gladys but do you minds if Liam answers his own questions? In fact could you, maybe, go somewhere else while I have a world with Liam?”

  “Sure, have all the words you want, but we need to start practicing soon,” she sang the last few words as she was walking into the cafeteria.

  “What. Is. Going. ON?” Abby was speaking slowly and clearly. She looked like she was trying to control her temper.

  “I found out last night, from Christina, that her mom is the lady that put the curs
e on your mom. I tried to get her to take the curse off of you…one thing led to another and she was kissing me and now I have convinced her to take the curse away while in the show tonight.” The silence rang and Abby didn’t move even after I was done talking. She just stared at me.

  “Hello! I just lost probably the coolest girl in the world for you, could you say something?” My mouth was dry again and the pain returned to my abdomen. Probably freaking out that it had gotten food.

  “I don’t know what to say. How is she going to take it away during the show?”

  “I don’t know, she had something in mind,” I admitted.

  “You think it wise to trust her?” Abby asked and I shrugged.

  “What other option did you have in mind?”

  “Well, like what you did to yourself.”

  “Abby, if I gave you that potion then your face would come off and you would just have a new face underneath, it is a solution for a problem you don’t have. I think that should be obvious.”

  “Alright. So I just trust her after what her horrible mother did to mine?”

  “Like I said, I don’t think we have much of a choice.”

  “There’s always another choice.” Her words made my temper ripple so I stood up before I did something more that I regretted.

  “Be my guest and find it,” I hissed, then walked past her toward Cupid’s cabin. The man of love, who had less than most humans, was the only person I wanted to see right now.

  The antidote was heavy in my pocket, and my heart was heavy in my chest.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The evening was hot and you could cut the humid air with a knife, or in my case the tension between the three girls who had all dropped in my lap this summer. I only wanted one of them, but she was now the farthest away from me. Especially since I never really had her. The mind is a curious thing; the things it wants vs. the things it thinks it wants. How does one ever know the difference between the two? Where does your heart fit in?

  Maya had apparently lost her desire to do anything special for the talent show, which seemed apparent when her audience (besides me) woke up from nightmares. Mr. Torricelli was screaming obscenities while kicking Christina, the vampire Vanessa, and an unapologetic looking Maya off of the stage. The fat headed counselor looked livid and ashen from whatever he had seen in his mind. I had been the only one, beside the two girls on stage, who hadn’t been subjected to Maya’s nightmares. She couldn’t even bother to give me enough of her time to scare me. This is how I knew that dropping everyone in camp wasn’t a part of the show; the way Vanessa had gotten on her was clue enough. Christina looked like she could have cared less, rolling her eyes and looking to her best friend with a “really?” face. Once I had made eye contact with her while sitting in a sea of crumpled forms all snoozing restlessly around me, she let everyone up so that she didn’t have to interact with me.