Hadrian's Wall

by Felicia Jensen

  “But you’d be close to Rodeo Drive and other famous addresses in the fashion world and fashion is extremely expensive!” I teased her.

  “Yeah, but I wouldn’t have quick and direct access to the famous fashion designers’ homes. Aunt Adele runs a group of shops that sells a popular line of clothing. It’s not high fashion.” She grimaced. “Here the classes are very small because only the best students stay. Those who complete this program will train with the masters!” she replied confidently. “After the traineeship, yes, the next step is to get my outfits parading in Los Angeles and attracting the attention of some movie star. Just imagine...Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, or Charlize Theron wearing a legitimate ‘Delilah Key’ at the Oscars...it will be sheer glory!”

  I shook my head. I could see that she had considered the pros and cons before making her decision and she was confident that she would succeed.

  “I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t let me come to the UWall. My father attended college here! He even has a bracelet from when he was student here. He says it’s his ‘lucky charm, but he never told me that he had attended UWall. I found his diploma stored in his old office that he’d turned into a bric-a-brac room. The bracelet was in a box along with trophies and other trinkets.

  “Isn’t that weird?” Most people are proud to hang their diplomas on the wall, especially when they graduated from one of the most respectable universities in the country. I never saw someone from Harvard, Oxford, Yale, or Johns Hopkins hide their diploma in a box.

  “I also found some pictures of him from his college days.” She frowned as if something she’d seen in the photos left her puzzled.

  The hair on my neck bristling, but I dared not ask her to describe what she saw in the photos. I wanted to know all the facts, uncover all the mysteries, but I still was afraid to go deeper. Coward! Yeah, yeah, I know...

  “In any case,” she went on, oblivious to my panic. “Seeing that I was not persuaded to change my mind, Dad made some contacts and off we went. When I realized that we were on the road headed here, I was upset because I wanted to bring all my stuff—my drawing board, the mannequins, sewing machine, my templates, but they thought it best that I get to know the area first. If I was willing to keep going and not turn back, my mother promised to send my things in a van from the factory later.”

  I looked around and saw nothing except a drawing board which was being used as a desk and, of course, Abby’s silkscreen and knitting materials.

  “At that time, we still didn’t know if I’d get a room here in McPherson House. The student support personnel informed me that all the accommodations were occupied by freshmen and I’d have to put my name on a long waiting list, so I came prepared to rent a studio, a furnished room, or something in Saint Paul, like so many others have done who come to UWall.

  “Dad flatly refused to let me come here by airplane. He and Mom wanted to be with me as long as possible and see for themselves the place where I would stay, so we came by car. The trip was a sort of family holiday. No one expected to happen what happened...”

  Delilah opened the desk drawer and pulled out a clipping from the UWallpaper’s Today. There was a picture of a wrecked car, suspended by a winch-truck. In silence she waited for me to read the story.

  I finally understood what Sally Benson meant when she said “after the accident.” The text spoke briefly about how the driver of a vehicle with Michigan plates lost control on a tight curve. Luckily, there weren’t fatalities.

  “We were calmly following the road from Saint Paul to Hadrian’s Wall when I saw...” She took a deep breath. “Please don’t judge me before I tell you everything.”

  “Saw what?” I asked impatiently.

  “I saw a huge shadow flying in our direction. The closer it got the more I realized that it wasn’t a helicopter or a big bird. It had huge wings! The deformed body...” Delilah swiped a trembling hand across her forehead and then she turned away from the desk. “I should have screamed! I should have alerted my parents, but I couldn’t speak. I think I was in shock or something. I just watched while this thing came closer and closer.” She broke off, staring into emptiness.

  She wrapped her arms protectively around her body before proceeding in a whisper. “I remember my mother was dozing and my father was focused on the road. They couldn’t see what I saw because it happened so fast. That thing had eyes...” She couldn’t say it out loud.

  There was a long silence.

  “Eyes glowing red like two balls,” I completed her sentence without thinking.

  She looked at me, astonished.

  “I’ve seen the same creature—in my dreams.” I forced myself to explain. “But it’s a long story. Go on.”

  She took a deep breath, apparently feeling a little more comfortable. After all, I hadn’t rejected her version of the events.

  “When I finally found my voice to scream, the thing did a flyby and hit our car, but something unexpected was coming from the opposite direction and smashed into it It was black. He clung to the creature in a way that both became just a blur.

  “I didn’t see what happened between the two creatures because the impact caused my father to hit his head on the steering wheel and pass out. Our car went off the road, flipped a few times, and spun away. I thought I it was going to fall down the hill, but when all seemed lost, it stopped with the front wheels spinning in the air.”

  “I remember my body was thrown forward on impact. Because we were wearing our seatbelts, we sustained no major injuries, only some minor cuts caused by shards of glass. The airbag covered the dashboard where my parents were lying unconscious, but I could see everything that was going on from where I was sitting in the back. The car began to right itself. I looked through the rear window and that’s when I first saw him.” Recalling the memory made her smile. “Tall, strong...he was holding our car by the bumper, preventing it from plunging down the hill... using only one hand!"

  “Stephen,” I guessed.

  She nodded. “I’d never had seen such a spectacular man before! I know that the word is out of fashion, but there’s only one that fits. Stephen cannot be described with words as banal as cute, sexy or awesome. Oh, he really is sexy...

  “Though it seemed like an eternity...for a very small moment while he lowered the rear of the car on the roadside, our eyes met. My eyes were shocked. His eyes were...yellow. He looked at me surprised and upset at same time—like someone caught in the act of committing a crime. I think he wasn’t counting on my presence in the back seat when he saw my parents ‘drowned’ by the air bag.”

  “He didn’t look at me again while he was moving around the car. He grabbed the driver’s door which was totally demolished. With his jaw tight, more because he was angry than from physical exertion, he tore the airbag and then my dad’s seatbelt as if they were paper. He pulled my father from his seat so fast that I only saw the blur of him leaving and coming back in a heartbeat. He then walked around the car, pulled open the passenger door and pulled my mother from her seat and did the same maneuver.

  “I had no time to think about what I was seeing. Half a second later he was back. This time his face appeared at my window. I was cringing in the opposite corner, ready to give him a good kick in his face if he tried to get me. I was terrified.

  “Stephen gave me a stern look. It goes without saying that anyone who could lift a car with one hand, tear doors open and shred airbags and seatbelts would have no trouble grabbing me, but he made an effort to soften his approach. I heard him take a deep breath and try to smile. It occurred to me at that moment he didn’t do that often—smile, I mean.

  “Extending his hand, he said gently ‘I’m sorry this happened to you.’

  “Intuition told me that Stephen didn’t mean to hurt me, so I held tight to his hand. That was scary too because it vibrated in a weird way, but it wasn’t a bad feeling. It was nice.” She smiled mischievously.” I think he felt it too because his eyes were black and he suddenly looked...wel
l, hungry!”

  “So Stephen tore my seatbelt and carefully pulled me onto his lap. I almost cry just thinking about it. In a flash, he was climbing the hill beyond the road as if he had super springs in his feet. It was impossible for any machine, much less a mere human being! So I was sure that he couldn’t be human.

  “Stephen was jumping from rock to rock. He looked like a battering ram. Everything around us became a green blur. When he finally put me on the ground, we were in another area of the same road, only much higher up the hill. He pulled out his phone and called the rescue squad.

  “Suddenly, I saw my parents lying on a blanket on the shoulder of road. I immediately recognized that blanket! He’d gotten it from the trunk of our car. Do you have any idea how fast he moved?”

  “I didn’t know what to do or to say. Below us the car was smoking or steaming, I couldn’t tell which. My parents still were unconscious and I feared that something more serious had happened to them. I felt so lost, but then Stephen put his hand on my shoulder. He assured me that they had suffered no fractures or internal injuries. Something told me that he knew exactly what he was talking about, so I trusted his word without hesitation. I still had not assimilated how someone could carry two unconscious adults up a steep hill wrapped in a blanket, make a detailed examination of their physical condition, and return to find whoever might still be in the car, all within seconds.

  “While these questions swirled inside my head, I noticed that Stephen was talking on the phone again. His tone ranged between angry and worried, so I concluded that he wasn’t talking to ‘rescue workers.’ When he hung up the phone, he turned and stared at me in a strange way. He also stared at my parents lying on the asphalt, in the same strange way. The only sign that there was life behind the mask of his face was his tight jaw. I had the feeling that his mind was working frantically. Suddenly, his eyes fell upon a certain point and his face relaxed a bit.

  “Even though I was in shock, I could see his mood change. I followed his gaze and saw that he was looking at the bracelet on my father’s wrist; however, before I could examine his reaction, I saw shadows moving through the trees. I was so scared that I stumbled and fell on my butt on the pavement.

  “‘It’s okay, girl. They’re with me,’ Stephen tried to reassure me.”

  “And that thing?” I was referring to the creature that caused the accident.

  “He shook his head. ‘It’s over, forget it!’

  “Forget it? I was almost hysterical. How could he suggest such a thing? He acted as if he was talking about some little, insignificant thing.

  “All I could do was try to control myself because people tend to slap hysterical people and I didn’t want to get slapped by someone as strong as he obviously was.

  “I remember at one point, I asked him, ‘Who are you?’ I don’t remember if it was before or after he called the rescue squad. The events of that day are so jumbled in my memory, like a lot of newspaper clippings that overlap, when I try to remember them.”

  “I remember that I pressed him for some explanation and that’s when his eyes took on a dark blue tone and I found myself totally subdued.

  “‘I’m just a friend. That’s all you need to know.’

  “That’s all you need know, he said using a quiet, monotonous tone as if he wanted to hypnotize me. Just before I felt I was going under, I averted my eyes and blinked, struggling to keep myself in control.

  “Then we heard the sound of propellers. The rescue helicopter was approaching, circling the treetops. When I looked around, I realized that Stephen and the other shadows were gone. The rest of my memories are very confused. I vaguely remember that the rescue squad took us to the hospital in Hadrian’s Wall where we were examined. My parents woke up when we were in the helicopter. It was difficult for me explain what happened. I had to edit much of the story. I replaced the flying beast with a rock rolling down the embankment and hitting the windshield. Thank God, they believed me.

  “Dr. Talbot forced my parents to spend the night in the hospital under observation. He said that a blow to the head could be very serious and that in such cases, we must err on the side of caution.

  “A friendly nurse offered to provide an extra bed for me. Meanwhile I was sitting at the front desk, without knowing what to think about everything that had happened to us until l received a note saying there was a call for me.”

  “I walked to the payphones, still feeling like I was in a state of shock. I couldn’t imagine who would want to talk to me. I thought it was probably my mother’s personal assistant, but at the time, I didn’t even wonder.

  “When I said hello, I heard someone on the other end of the line ask me, ‘Are you Delilah Regina Key?’

  “Yes. Who...?

  ‘And your parents are Reginald Key and Francine Alexander-Key?’

  “They are, but...

  ‘You were admitted to the University of the Wall...’ A male voice recited my data in a monotone, as if reading the contents of a form.”

  “That’s right. I gave up trying to ask who I speaking with.

  Go to the McPherson House,” said the voice. There’s a room reserved for you. I’m sure your parents will be alright. Then he hung up. I was sure it was Stephen. Since then, he’s kept his distance from me... or rather, he tries to keep his distance. However, he avoids talking to me. I saw him a few times on campus when Adrian was there. I was so intrigued by the aura that surrounds the powerful Cahill clan, I decided to do my own investigations.

  “I know that Stephen is Adrian’s foster brother and also his private bodyguard. Wherever he goes, Stephen goes too. While working, he seems like a ghost. Nobody can see him if he doesn’t want to be seen...so I began to follow Adrian and some family members, hoping to see Stephen again.

  “Meantime, I observed the way they act and I realized that there are more strange people like them in town. The more I investigated, the more confused and dissatisfied I felt. I resorted to the Internet hoping to find details. It wasn’t easy because what’s there are interpretations about other interpretations. Many of those texts are so contradictory that I only managed to extract something here and there to build an explanatory framework that satisfied me.”

  I wanted to ask her what her hypothesis is, but she kept talking.

  “On one occasion when I spied Adrian entering the hospital, Stephen finally came to me. He was very rude.

  ‘What do you want? Why you are following Adrian all the time?’

  “It was naïve of me to suppose that he would realize that I wasn’t stalking his family, I was stalking him. All I wanted was a chance to meet him casually...you know, like a girl who just happens to be walking some place where her target is also going. Eventually, her target says: ‘Oh, you’re here!’ The girl then replies, ‘What a coincidence!’ The target says, ‘Do you want to get a cup of coffee?’ The girl casually looks at her watch and casually says: ‘I don’t know if I have time...well, why not?’”

  “Well, I should imagine that with Stephen’s powers, nothing would be casual,” Delilah observed. “It is not him, I’m following, it’s you!’ I told him.

  “Stephen was visibly stunned. I think ‘shocked’ is the more appropriate term to define the look on his face. If you want to know, Mel, he looked at me as if he was standing in front of a crazy girl.”

  “‘Why?’ he asked, dryly.

  “I... I just wanted to thank you for saving our lives. I’m still not sure about what the thing is that you saved us from...I’m not able to understand how you did all that, but I know that we owe you our lives.”

  “‘I didn’t do anything special.’ He suddenly seemed to get angry. ‘Anyone would have done the same.’

  “Oh, yeah!’ After all that had happened, I still had the strength to make an ironic comment. “You’re absolutely right. Anyone would have lifted a car with just one hand and then climbed a steep hill carrying three people. Piece of cake!

  “‘I didn’t do anything like that. You’re
delusional. I just took you from there and...’ He shrugged, indifferent.

  “Jumping over rocks faster than a bullet...like Superman. That’s it, just like that?

  “Rather than play the game, Stephen frowned and looked around, worried.

  “‘You’re crazy. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ He started to walk away, but stopped with his back to me.

  “I had hopes that he’d changed his mind and would tell me everything, but he turned to me and said, ‘Stop following me!’

  “But I haven’t stopped and I began to realize that someone else was following me...’til he came to me again. He pleaded for me not to investigate his family, but by then I had some theories and a lot of information about what he could be and what he could do.

  “I started to dress myself in black, I got a coffin, and I changed my makeup, hoping to ‘speak his language, if you know what I mean. Like Close Encounters of the Third Kind when they’re trying code as communication between humans and aliens.

  “I thought that if I looked like them, Stephen would take me into his group. I wish that Stephen could appreciate me. Now I realize how much of the information I collected is wrong—the myths and everything else. They don’t live like the people think.”

  “What I saw in Stephen’s eyes was anguish and disapproval. He told me that the uninitiated humans couldn’t give these demonstrations or something bad could happen to them. He also said that I should keep the things I thought I knew in secret.”

  Delilah was silent for a long minute and I took the opportunity to reflect on everything she’d told me.

  “Have you told someone else about it?” I asked.

  “No. Not Abby either.”

  “Now tell me about your theory.

  She stood up hesitantly, not at all like the same funky girl who introduced me to her friends on my first day at McPherson House. I think her mask has slipped and now I was meeting the real Delilah—if it’s possible to know really someone. However, to be honest, I liked her much more now.