by Tim O'Rourke
“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve caught you creeping about…” I stopped before I’d finished. I took a deep sigh, and said, “Look, Calix, I don’t want to stand here trading childish remarks and comments with you. Can’t we just be friends?”
“That’s all I’ve tried to be over the last few weeks,” Calix said with a deep sigh. “I didn’t come here each day, Julia, to antagonise you. I was concerned about you.”
“I know, I know,” I said, my sigh as heavy and as deep as Calix’s had been. Crossing the kitchen, I sat down at the table opposite him. I knew in my heart that Calix had tried to be a good friend to me over the last few weeks, and I felt bad about that. If it hadn’t have been for his kindness, I would’ve starved to death. I knew I owed him some kind of explanation but I didn’t want to tell him the truth about Trent and me, either. “I’m sorry I didn’t open the door to you, Calix. I’m sorry that I shut myself away, but I was feeling ill, just not myself,” I tried to explain.
“Has it got something to do with the magic thing, you know, not being able to use it?” Calix asked me, any sign of arrogance gone from his voice. “How does the whole magic thing work, anyhow?”
The fly that I had earlier swatted away landed on the table before me. I looked at it and said, “It works like this.” I reached out and slowly cupped one hand over it. Then closing my eyes, I pictured the fly as a statue – something made of stone and not living tissue. It was a simple spell and one that didn’t leave me feeling drained and weakened. Opening my eyes, I slowly lifted my hand away to reveal the fly once more. But it was no longer black and its wings no longer buzzed fretfully up and down. It was now grey in colour and, in fact, didn’t move at all. I had turned the fly into stone.
Keeping his injured hand close to his chest, Calix sat forward in his seat, and with his nose just inches from the table, he inspected the fly. “Some pacifist,” he smirked to himself more than me. “You just killed it.”
“I haven’t killed it,” I smiled. “The stone is nothing more than a shell, a cocoon around it. It’s like a protective coating, that’s all.” To prove what I said was true, I held my hand over the fly. The shell simply fell away in small chunks of dust. The fly launched itself off the table and began to circle in the air above our heads once more.
With his head tilted back watching the fly, Calix said, “So is that why the spell book was so important to you because it has all the spells written down – like a recipe book – so you can remember them all?”
“Something like that,” I said thoughtfully, remembering how I suspected Rea of stealing the spell book and how Calix had caught me snooping about her room. Looking at him, I added, “Why didn’t you tell Rea that you caught me in her room that day?”
Calix looked across the table at me. Continuing to nurse his injured hand, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “I just thought better of it, that’s all. And besides, I like the idea of you owing me a favour, Julia.”
“If you think I’m gonna return the favour by sleeping with you, Calix, you’d better think again,” I half smiled at him.
“Stop blowing smoke up your own arse,” Calix grinned back at me.
“So, how do you want me to repay you for keeping quiet?” I asked.
With his good hand, Calix patted his firm looking stomach and said, “You can cook me dinner, for starters.”
Pushing my luck, I said, “And if I cook you dinner, will you do me a favour?”
“Then that will be two favours you owe me,” he said.
“It’s not so much a favour I want from you, Calix,” I started to explain. “It’s your help I need.”
Calix eyed me. “Help to do what, exactly?”
“I want you to teach me how to shoot a gun,” I said.
Chapter Six
While I kept my side of the bargain and cooked Calix supper, he went upstairs and took a shower, washing the bloodstains from his chest, arms and hands. I cooked some of the meat he had brought me during my self-imposed prison sentence. I emptied some canned vegetables into a pan and boiled them. By the time Calix entered the kitchen, bare-chested and towelling his hair dry, I was setting the food down onto the table. He eyed the food with delight and wasted no time in placing the towel to one side and sitting down before the meal I had prepared for us. While cooking the food, my appetite had returned, and once I’d served the meal, I wasted no time in forking some of the meat and vegetables into my mouth.
We sat and ate in silence for a short time, both of us desperate to sedate the hunger pangs which gnawed away at our insides. Once the initial need for food had passed, Calix sat back in his chair and looked at me. Swallowing the mouthful of food that he had been chewing, he said, “Why do you want me to teach you how to shoot a gun? I thought you were opposed to such things?”
I set down my knife and fork, and said, “It will be a last resort.”
“A last resort for what?”
“I still intend to find a truce between the vampires and werewolves,” I said. “I still intend to head to Maze.”
“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Calix asked, pushing the plate of half eaten food to one side.
“No,” I said, fearing I would have to justify my reasoning to Calix if I was to convince him to teach me how to fire a gun.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we waited for Trent and the others to return?” Calix asked.
“I’m not prepared to wait for the others to return,” I said. “And besides, there is no we in any of this.”
Calix cocked an eyebrow at me. “And what does that mean?”
“I’m going to Maze alone,” I told him.
“Now I know you really have lost your mind,” Calix said. “If you’re going to Maze, then I’m coming, too.”
“No,” I insisted. “If they see you, any chance of a truce will be lost.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Julia,” Calix sneered.
“That’s not what I mean,” I said. “I’m not a werewolf nor a vampire. I’m completely neutral in all of this. Unlike you, I’m not the enemy. If I stand any chance of finding a truce – a chance at peace – between the Beautiful Immortals, I should go alone.”
“But they will kill you, Julia,” Calix said. “Make no mistake about that.”
“And that is the reason I want you to teach me how to shoot,” I said. “Just in case my magic fails me…”
“Fails you!” Calix said, pushing his chair back from the table and standing up. “You were only telling me a few moments ago how your magic has weakened – how it’s not as strong as it used to be…”
“It’s coming back, I can feel it,” I tried to reassure him.
“Look, Julia, these vampires aren’t flies. They can’t just be turned to stone or whatever it is you do,” Calix tried to warn me. “These vampires are killers and they won’t think twice about killing you.”
“I’m not going into Maze to fight,” I said, now standing myself. I carried my plate over to the sink. With my back to him, I scraped the remains of my uneaten food away.
“Whether you fight or not won’t be your choice,” Calix said, coming to stand next to me at the sink. “Do you really think you will be able to stroll into Maze and get them to listen to you?”
“There is no other way,” I said, turning to face him. “When the vampires find out that Trent and the others are bringing more werewolves to England, they will come here…”
“But we’re safe behind the wall of magic that you’ve created,” Calix reminded me.
“That magic won’t last forever, Calix,” I tried to explain to him. “Over time, that magic will fade – it will weaken – close in on itself, and what then? If we are ever to find peace then now is the time.”
“Okay, say you go into Maze and I’m right and you’re wrong and the vampires kill you. What then? What happens when the magic fades and disappears like you say it will one day? We will all be dead because you won’t be around to save us,” Calix said.
“Do you really want to spend the rest of your life imprisoned behind the wall I’ve created?” I shot back at him. “Being a prisoner is no way to live.”
“It’s better than being dead,” Calix shot back at me.
“I’d rather be dead than be a prisoner for the rest of my life – unable to be free – to go where I want – to be the person I want to be,” I said to him.
“And who is the person you want to be?” Calix asked, jutting his chin toward me.
“I want to be the person who puts everything right,” I tried to explain to him. “I want to be the person who brings peace to this world.”
Calix looked at me somewhat bewildered. “Why does it have to be you?”
“Because finding a truce between the vampires and werewolves was what I was pushed into this world to do,” I said almost in a half whisper.
“You’re just talking in riddles,” Calix said. “None of what you say makes any sense.”
Reaching out, I placed my hand over his uninjured one and said, “Please, Calix, just trust me. My reasons for wanting to find peace may not be clear to you, but one day they will be.”
“See, there you go again,” Calix sighed. “Speaking in riddles – talking bullshit only you understand.”
Squeezing his hand with mine, I looked at him and said, “Please, Calix, if we are true friends, like you say we are, trust me.”
“It’s not a matter of trust…” Calix said with a shake of his head.
“Then teach me how to shoot, because if what you say is true and the vampires will try and kill me if my magic fails, I will need to be able to protect myself somehow,” I said.
Calix looked down at my hand that held his. Very gently, he squeezed my hand with his and looked back at me. “Okay, I’ll teach you how to shoot, but only if you let me come to Maze with you.”
“I can’t,” I whispered.
Calix slid his hand from mine and turned away. “Then there’s no deal,” he said.
I watched him take his coat from the back of the chair. He headed down the hallway and toward the front door.
“Okay, you can come with me to Maze,” I called after him.
Standing in the open doorway, Calix looked back at me. “Is that a promise?”
And even though I knew it was a promise I could not keep, I slowly nodded my head back at him and said, “Yes, that’s a promise.”
Chapter Seven
Although I had tried to push thoughts of Trent to the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but wake the following morning feeling bitter and disgruntled about him all over again. Like a nagging itch, he was constantly at the back of my mind, and in the dream I’d just woken from, I’d been searching for him but unable to find him. But as I sat on the edge of my bed in the morning light, there was a part of me now that really didn’t care if I never saw him again. I had gone way past the hurt, self-pity, and feeling used stage and I now just felt angry. I wasn’t so sure that I wanted Trent to return from his homeland.
I took some clean clothes from the drawer and headed along the landing to the bathroom. Standing beneath the warm running water which sputtered from the showerhead, I tried to wash away any remaining feelings of anger and frustration I had about Trent lying and breaking his promise to me. Turning off the running water, I stepped out of the shower and began to towel myself dry. And just like I did every morning, I couldn’t stop myself from peering into the mirror and inspecting the bite-mark left behind by Calix. I still felt a little paranoid that, despite the fact that the wound had healed, I still feared I’d wake one morning to find black hairs sprouting from the fading puncture marks. Seeing that none had grown back, I put on some fresh underwear, my jeans, and hooded sweater.
I’d arranged to meet Calix at the derelict brickhouse on the other side of the hill and not wanting to be late or to give him time to reflect on the fact that he was going to teach me how to shoot a gun, I gulped down a mug of tea, smeared some peanut butter onto a couple of stale crackers, and left the house.
I munched my paltry breakfast as I crossed the park and headed in the direction of the hill. The wind was gusting hard, making the branches of the nearby trees sway back and forth. The noise of the many leaves rustling sounded like waves breaking against a distant shore. Smacking my lips together and licking the last of the peanut butter from my fingers, I pulled up the hood of my sweater to stop my hair from blowing into my eyes and obstructing my view. I made my way along the narrow path as it twisted and turned ahead of me in the direction of the church. As I drew near, I couldn’t hear the sound of Morten’s spade being dragged across earth. I peered over the graveyard wall. There was no sign of the old gravedigger.
Darting across the road, I scrambled over the wall and into the field beyond it. I made my way up the hill and down the other side. Through one of the broken windows of the brickhouse I could see Calix inside. As I stepped through the broken doorway, Calix got up from where he had been sitting on the floor, taking bullets from the boxes and sliding them into the chamber of the gun he held in his hand. The makeshift bandage I had wound about it the night before was stained with blotches of blood.
I looked at it then at him and said, “How is it feeling today?”
“It’s still hurting like a bitch but I’m sure I’ll survive,” he said, opening and closing his fist as if to prove the point. “Besides, we werewolves heal-up pretty quick.”
“So shall we get started?” I said, pulling back my hood now that I was out of the wind, although it continued to screech around the dilapidated eaves of the outhouse.
Holding the gun in his hand, Calix looked at me and said, “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
“I’m sure,” I said, taking a step closer toward him, holding out my hand for the gun.
Calix offered me the gun, but before I’d a chance to take it, he pulled it away again and said, “And you promise that if I teach you how to use this thing you will let me travel into Maze with you?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes.”
Calix then handed me the gun.
Over the next couple of hours, Calix kept his promise and indeed taught me how to load, fire, and reload the gun again. He taught me how to take aim at the drawings of the vampires that he had sketched onto the brick walls. At first, I was frightened of the gun and screwed my eyes shut as my finger pulled down on the trigger. I stifled the urge to scream every time a bullet thundered from the pistol that roared in my fist. But Calix was patient with me, and to my relief, he didn’t sneer, mock, or make me feel inadequate in anyway. In fact, I was surprised by his patience and skilful tutorship. It seemed that the longer I spent with Calix, the more of his tough veneer seemed to fall away. I couldn’t help but wonder whether his cockiness wasn’t some kind of mask that he wore when he was around Trent and the others. Was there a reason why he felt he had to do such a thing? Did he feel inferior to them in some way? Or was it all an act for his older brother, Rush? And if that was true, what history did the two brothers have that would make Calix feel that he couldn’t be himself? I could remember how, a few weeks before, Calix had got up and left my house when I’d asked about his parents.
“Want to take a break?” Calix asked, watching me reload the gun.
“Sure,” I shrugged, before handing back the gun to him.
He took it from me, sliding it into one of the holsters strapped to his thigh. I followed Calix from the outhouse where we headed toward the treeline of the nearby woods. The wind had eased a little but the branches of the trees continued to whip back and forth above our heads as we sat on the ground beneath one of them.
We sat in silence beneath the tree, our backs resting against the trunk. From the corner of my eye, I could see that Calix was staring at me.
I turned to look at him and said, “What?”
“What I don’t understand is why you would risk going into Maze alone?” Calix asked.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s a suicide mission, th
at’s why,” Calix said.
I looked back toward the hill and said, “I know werewolves like you don’t believe me, but the vampires aren’t all bad. I know that some of them can be loving and kind if they want to be. And it’s those vampires that I need to reach out to so we can find a truce.”
“How can you be so sure that the vampires have it in their hearts to love? Because I’ve only ever known them to be sadistic fuckers,” Calix reminded me.
Turning to face him once more, I said, “I know the vampires have the ability to love, because in a past life, I was loved by one of them.”
Chapter Eight
I saw the look of disgust on Calix’s face as I confessed to him that I had once been in love with a vampire. But my confession had started and I couldn’t stop now. Besides, I wasn’t so sure that I wanted to.
“His name was Theo,” I started, breaking Calix’s stare and looking back toward the Hill. “We met way before the war, when there was a fragile peace between the humans, the werewolves, and the vampires. As you are probably aware, mixing between the Wicce and the Beautiful Immortals was forbidden. It was feared that if a child was born out of such a mixing it would be an abomination. Although supernatural, the Wicce are more humanlike than either a vampire or werewolf. Both female vampires and werewolves only carry their young for six weeks before the infant is born. But a Wicce will gestate for a full nine months like a human. It was feared that should a mixing occur between a Wicce and a Beautiful Immortal, the child would not go full term, as the species were so very different.
“My life had been pretty much planned out for me by my parents, and I think it was this that I kicked against and the reason why I went looking for love in places that were forbidden to me. My parents were high up on the Wicce council and they had plans and visions that one day I would marry some noble warlock or wizard. But I had other plans. I was barely sixteen when I strayed too far from home one day and crossed the border into the vampires’ domain. My straying into their territory was no accident. I’d gone deliberately, driven by my curiosity about the Beautiful Immortals that I’d heard so much about. In those days, the vampires, the werewolves, and the humans lived separately but in peace. This peace, however, was fragile and a deep mistrust still blighted any relationships forged between the different species. It was the Wicce who had negotiated, years before, the peace that existed between humans, vampires, and werewolves. But the humans still believed the world belonged to them and they tolerated the supernatural creatures, which had been living in secret amongst them for time unknown. Over centuries, the werewolves and vampires had grown in number until it was impossible for them to live amongst the humans in secret anymore. As the realisation that the humans shared the Earth with supernatural creatures became widespread, the humans began to fear them. After all, don’t we all fear what we don’t truly understand? The humans feared that the towns, villages, and cities would soon be overrun by the vampires and werewolves that had decided to reveal themselves and who no longer wished to live in secret.