I zoned out. She was mumbling nonsense again. I looked at the movie monsters around me, the video game monsters, the novel monsters. So many monsters. None of them looked like Erinyes. She basically looked like a really pissed of lady, thin, her cheekbones poking out. She was always wearing an Ancient Greek style white cloth on her, a toga, but not the sexy kind we were used to seeing at masquerade. More like the theatre kind. The normalcy ended there, cause she was moving like in thick water, and she had floaty constricting purple hair.
I was feeling claustrophobic.
I stood up and opened the window, and leaned out for fresh air.
Deppy frowned and looked at me with worry. “So how do you handle it?”
I shrugged. “Prodromos said, mind the clock. Stay in open spaces. Avoid crowds, mass transit. Just run away from it for a minute, and then you are fine.”
There was a pause. “How can I help?”
“You already are,” I said and leaned down to hug her. I couldn’t see her expression, but she remained still and didn’t break it off.
I leaned back, towering over her as she sat, her dark eyes on me with worry.
Huh. This is how Billy is experiencing the world, I thought. Overhead.
She jumped up and she startled me. “Oh! I know, wait.” She began shuffling through stuff in the closet, opening boxes and looking into bags.
I turned back to the window and just stared outside.
A lot of shuffling later, she presented me with an old style sports watch, “waterproof up to 30 meters,” it read. She gave it to me and then pulled it back out of my hand, made sure the time was right, set up a countdown alarm, and gave it back again.
“Here. It’s an old gift, and smartphones can be a bother sometimes, batterywise. This is heavy duty. Hope it helps.”
“Thank you,” I said and put it on my wrist. It was bulky and entirely not fitting with my wardrobe, but who cares about that anymore?
Chapter 26
“I told her you kissed me,” I said, teasing him, as I was throwing stuff in my schoolbag.
“What?” Billy yelped. “I-I didn’t kiss you Mahi, I was onl- I’d never kiss you! No, sorry, didn’t mean that. Of course I would, if you were to… You’re gorgeous. But not like that!”
I let him babble on for a while and then shushed him. “Relax, I didn’t tell her anything about that. Just the rest of the facts.”
I heard a chair squeak from weight, and a sigh. After a while, he said, “Mahi? Do you need me to come with you?”
I thought about it. “Ohi. No, I’ll be fine. I ran away from her the first couple of times, I’ll just do it again. I’m prepping my bag now, got my clothes, my sneakers, all I need. Don’t worry titan boy.”
“Hope your plan works. Tell me where you’ll be in case something happens. I need to know.”
I sighed. “At that little forest at the border with Kifisia. I’m telling my parents I’ll sleep over at Deppy’s, so if they happen to ask, cover for me.”
“Of course.”
My overnight bag was ready. A light sports jacket, comfy pants, running shoes, water, a snack, a torch, the watch Deppy gave me. What else? I had looked around for my sleeping bag, but it was nowhere to be found. I decided I could manage a single night with just an old blanket, after all it was warm even late at night. After that I’d either look for it in the house’s closet or go buy a new one.
I was clutching my nécessaire and was deciding if I needed it or not. If someone would see me, I’d be an unattractive mess. Then again, the point was to avoid everyone. I put it back to the rest of my makeup stuff, and just took a jersey hat with me for the morning. I threw in my toothpaste and my toothbrush though. We can’t ignore basic hygiene.
I looked outside, and then at the countdown. It was almost nightfall.
The clock was ticking down.
I lifted my schoolbag on my shoulder, made my excuses, ignored mama’s complaints and hurried out.
Twelve minutes to go.
Chapter 27
It was the longest night of my life.
Chapter 28
In the morning, I was feral.
There is a reason people chop down trees and go live in frickin houses.
It’s cause forests are scary.
Even though I was in a narrow ribbon of leftover forest, a tiny part of what had been there decades ago, and without animals and such inside it, I was terrified. The strip of land was so thin that you could see houses across it through the trees, so there was a modicum of safety, in that you were near civilisation. They were all pine trees, not that I knew how to recognise any other ones but I’d been living there all my life, yeah, I could make out one type of tree. The pine cones pretty much gave it away. They were tall and their branches were spaced out. Pine cones and pine needles made a thick layer on the ground. A row of lamp posts were at one side, lighting a path around a school.
At night, it was still scary as shit.
Allow me to recap.
The first attack came at once, but I was already buzzed out about it so I think I handled it pretty well. I ran and screamed like a girl, which I am, so no shame there. The Erinyes chased me between the trees into the twilight, her arms always stretched towards me. My flashlight did the trick but it was harder than I had imagined to run into the night with so little a light source. I didn’t really know the lay of the land. It was a place were we had played years ago as children, but I overestimated my knowledge. As I said, I’m the worst kind of navigator you could possibly find, but come on, this was practically a city park, a tiny part of the wild, smack dab in the middle of the place I lived. How hard could it be to find my way around in the dark?
Pretty hard, as it seems.
I ran from her, the minute was up. My adrenaline went down, I breathed in again normally. I was lost. I spent almost a full hour trying to find my backpack again, and that left me with not much time to rest.
I tried to doze off but it was impossible. So I just waited.
Forests are scary. Did I say that? Well I’m saying it again.
Even though I had a perfect timepiece that was ticking away the precise minutes till the predator attacks, I couldn’t make myself calm. Every distant noise, every sway of the branches, made me stand up and get ready to bolt. It was ridiculous, I knew, my logical self knew, that there was no attack yet, but my hypothalamicus or whatchacallit was screaming at me, making me wanna run away.
In retrospect, choosing the forest was a bad idea. I know. We haven’t gone to the second attack yet.
The second attack found me running even as the watch beeped.
Sure, reason said that a running start wouldn’t hurt, but this wasn’t coming from any logical part of my brain. She found me running and chased after me, flowing in the air as if through something thick, just as she did every time.
Thick, thick kariola. Never giving up, always chasing me. Always following me. Thick, thickety-thick.
My running brought me towards the houses, a plain road separating them from the forest. I ran a wide arc and got back towards the forest. My feet slapped on the pavement and made a lot of noise, but nobody seemed to get rattled. Even if they had, I didn’t even look back. I jumped over a bench and dove between the trees. There was nothing to throw at her, and I would have tried to, even though she didn’t seem to mind any obstacles in her path.
I was so scared.
Sixty seconds is an eternity when something is chasing you in the dark forest.
I panted, my foot giving out and I fell to the side as I cursed. Pine needles pricked my hands, not that sharp so as to make me bleed, but enough to feel it and decide not to do it again. The Erinyes came at me around a tree, smiled, so I threw a handful of brown pine needles at her and dashed away.
I had made it.
The third attack found me facing her head on. I stood myself high, my feet wide in a stance of projected power. She came at me, leaning down as she closed the distance, her hand sweeping the dirt floor with purple sparks.
>
My armour of confidence shattered and I fell back, stumbled on a small crevasse on the dirt, probably carved by a small winter stream that was now dry, and sharp rocks scratched my hands. I fussed, kicking dirt and ran away in a straight line more or less, zig zagging through the forest.
The minute must have been up, well, minutes ago but I still ran till I found the far end of the forest. It came to a wide road, after that were condos. I looked back, panting, but not that much, checked the time, confirmed that I was running away from my shadow for a good six minutes and turned to walk back.
Then the adrenaline left me and the pain kicked in. Cramps, scratched arms, a pounding head, a wheezing chest. Boy, was I out of practice. I promised myself I’d hit the gym tomorrow.
I was calm, body aching, walking slowly back at my ‘camp.’
Then a bat flew over my head, scared me shitless and I ran the rest of the way.
The fourth attack found me up a tree.
I know, I know. She floats. Yeah, you can say that, sitting in your cozy bed, hugging your pillow tight, safe and sound. It was impossible at that point for me to think properly. It was around two o’clock, I hadn’t slept all night even though I thought I’d manage to sneak in a nap, and I was aching and tired and terrified.
It seemed like a good idea at the time, climbing up a tree to avoid something that followed me. When she came, she lifted her head straight at me and began climbing the trunk of the tree as if lifting herself from her fingers. But it felt wrong somehow, you know, not… realistic.
Who cares, as soon as she got up to me I leapt down in a soft patch of shrubbery and ran away. At least I tried, cause my leg hurt like hell and I couldn’t move.
The Erinyes stayed above me for a few seconds, still holding on to the tree. I looked up, a tiny ray of hope in me, that she maybe was too dumb to get down, that I had found an Achilles Heel. I rubbed my leg and looked at her.
Then she dove down, falling, her toga rippling on the air, but impossibly slow, as if a different sort of gravity applied to her. I twisted my body to the side and barely missed her nails coming down on my leg, but her hair caught up to me. They billowed and spun, grabbing my throat. A flashback of the previous encounter where she had choked me came to me, and I decided not to let her do it again. I thrashed, kicked, yelled, threw dirt. I’m not sure how but I did manage to get out of her hair (pun alert!), and I stood up in pain and ran away.
The fifth attack was at daybreak.
I was out of my mind at that point. Exhausted, terrified. She appeared in a circle of streetlight. I did a u-turn, fell on my old school’s metal railings and tried to climb up. She approached, and I let go of that plan and simply ran up some wide steps, paved with rocks at a side of the forest. She followed. I ran to the adjoining street, between cars. She followed. I ran to a house, trying to find a spot to climb a fence, looking frantically around. She followed. I ducked behind a car, tried to hold my breath so as to not give me away. She appeared over the hood of the car, following me. I ran back into the forest, fumbled, scraped my knee for the tenth time on the uneven ground and lost my flashlight. She followed. I ran into the dark forest, jumped over a rock, found a large, old tree with a wide trunk and hid behind it, my back to it. She followed.
I cried. I just cried. I couldn’t take it anymore.
I couldn’t move.
I just sat there, on the ground, my back to the tree. Waiting for her to get me. Her seconds were up, she never came.
Chapter 29
“You look like skata,” Billy said as soon as he saw me.
“Jee thanks Romeo. Tell me more of those compliments of yours,” I said and rubbed my eyes. I hadn’t slept a peep. He was staring at me, worried. His eyes fell on the my scraped knees, the cuts on my arms. He couldn’t see the bruises I had acquired on my belly, but I felt them just fine. My hair was a mess, my eyes sunken and dark. I was brushing my snot on my sleeve.
Selfie time!
No way.
My tall friend had come by himself, being worried all night about me. I was sure he had lost a bit of sleep over me, but he sure had had a better rest than me. He had called me from the outskirts of the small forest, looking around for me.
“I’m gonna sneak in home, I need a shower,” I said, pulling my schoolbag in one strap over my shoulder.
“Let me walk you there. What else can I do to help?”
I shrugged and led the way. “Get me a flashlight. I lost mine.”
We walked back to my house. The light of the dawn washed over me. I was feeling tired, sleepy, hurting in places I didn’t know I could. But there’s something about the light of a new day that washes the worries away. And some of the fear. Physically, I was still feeling horrible. Emotionally, I wasn’t that bad.
I opened the front door as quietly as I could. I had done it so many times, that I knew the places I needed to apply pressure to avoid all noise.
I snuck in the hall, carefully placing my steps on the wooden floor. It creaked all right, and in the silence it sounded dangerously loud. But I had tested the noise, and was fairly confident that it didn’t get through the room walls.
I took a few steps, exhaling as I neared my room, where I could drop off my dirty clothes which would give me away in an instant. I was just in time to avoid dad, and mom should be avoided anyway cause she would assume the worst. That I was doing excessive physical activity in the forest, more likely.
Just a few more steps.
And then I heard a massive yawn and I froze midstep.
“Mahi?” My dad said and clinked his coffee mug.
Chapter 30
It was still an hour till my dad’s normal wake up routine, but he must have had another sleepless night. He was drinking a cup of warm coffee in the kitchen. The door was at an angle so he couldn’t really see me, but I had to get past him to go to my room and put on a bathrobe or something.
“Yeah?” I asked feigning innocence.
“Weren’t you at Deppy’s?” my father asked, not really accusing me of anything, simply asking.
“Yeah…” I replied. Oh man, did my comebacks get monosyllabic when I was tired or what?
“Well? Why are you walking around so early? It was dark outside a few minutes ago.”
“I had my period,” I said, coming up with an excuse. “Deppy gave me a pad but it doesn’t fit right. She is too short. There is blood everywhere. You gotta see the carnage!” I added, stepping into the kitchen, full into his view.
I gambled on men’s instinctual reaction to avoid anything menstrual related, and I was spot on. My dad put up his hand to block his eyes and pulled away. “Uh, OK honey, I believe you. The bathroom is all yours,” he said trying not to show how uneasy he was.
I went back to my room and said, “I won’t be long, you’ll be on time for work.” I took off my dirty pants, my scraped t-shirt, the blanket that I had used outdoors, and threw them all under the bed for now. I put on my bathrobe and went to take a shower.
As the water washed away the dirt and the sweat, I felt marginally better. But my thoughts were troubled. Was this how I was going to live from now on? Chased by my very own personal furies? Living life in segments of 109 minutes, having to do all the stuff people normally do around that schedule? Eating, resting, studying, all inside that time-gap?
Would I be able to keep on studying? Going to school? I’d need to leave class without notice, every day for at least four times per day. It would make every single day a chore. Not that it already wasn’t, but time flew by sometimes. My Erinyes would make sure I’d never be relaxed again.
If my parents were in on this with me, maybe we could come up with a medical condition to explain away my “episodes” to the teachers. But how could I explain this to them? Dad would simply die of sorrow if he found out that the new veil phone he gave me was somehow linked to this.
Plus, it was a practical matter. Going to the small forest to spend the night had been a rather bad idea. The mere thought of having
to spend another night, let alone another attack in a dark scary forest got me shivering despite the warm running water on me. I’d have to find another way, someplace where I could escape the Erinyes attack without people gawking at me. Taking video of me, laughing at my condition.
I shivered again.
The comfort of my home was the only thing that was keeping me from bursting into tears. I leaned out the shower and grabbed my watch. Being waterproof was handy, it turns out. I have less than an hour till the next attack. If I hadn’t gathered myself, my thoughts, calmed myself with a shower, I’d have gone mad when it came.
I thought about it.
Be on the run. Someplace open, not too crowded. It didn’t really matter where, I just needed to avoid dangerous stuff like train-tracks and busy roads. Hiding didn’t seem work.
Only running.
Chapter 31
I was at a roadside, in an open place. It was a big open piece of land next to a highway, that had stacked ceramics and statues for sale. I was going past it daily on the bus, and I’d never noticed anyone actually manning the place. The ground was full of white rounded gravel, noisy but it didn’t matter at morning. I didn’t know if anyone actually sold anything here, it could have been one of those businesses that had closed down and never been resold.
I was sitting on a brown smokestack. It had some shade from the tiny shack that they used to have as an office there. It had been easy to jump over the fence, but my aching muscles had made it a small torture.
I was checking my phone every two seconds.
Now, that fact wasn’t unusual for me, the social media addict that I was with narcissistic tendencies, as Billy would put it. The unusual part was that I was waiting for Prodromos to call me back, or at least reply with a message or something.
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