Tabitha

by Hall, Andrew

  ‘I’m sorry, who’s we?’ said Liv.

  ‘The gang,’ the woman replied with a smile. ‘I’d better introduce you. I’m Sylvia, by the way,’ she said, shaking Will’s hand. A girl screamed upstairs. There were sounds of a struggle.

  ‘Tabitha?’ Liv called upstairs.

  ‘That’ll be the gang,’ said Sylvia, rushing past them up the creaking staircase.

  ‘She’s breaking my hand!’ said a middle-aged man, who’d grabbed at Tabitha’s gun and was paying the price for it. A young woman had her hands wrapped around Tabitha’s other arm. A little boy and girl stood terrified in the corner.

  ‘Stop this!’ said Sylvia, running into the bedroom. ‘She’s here to help us! They all are!’ but as Paul and Natalie let go of the woman, Sylvia felt a doubt crawl down her spine. The strange woman looked wild. Tense and angry, like a cornered animal. A tangle of red hair hung over half her face, brighter than the paint on a post box. Her eyes were unnatural; not brown or green but a stark, vivid gold.

  ‘Who are you people?’ Sylvia demanded, edging away towards Paul and the children.

  ‘What do you mean?’ said Will, coming to stand by Tabitha.

  ‘There’s something… weird about her,’ said Sylvia, glancing at Tabitha. The old woman stood between the strangers and her family, barring the way.

  ‘Hey, I’m right here,’ said Tabitha, rubbing the redness on her arm where the girl had gripped her. ‘I know, I look a bit strange. But I promise, I didn’t mean you any harm.’

  ‘You had your gun pointed at my kids!’ the man growled, pushing past Sylvia to square up to her.

  ‘You just shocked me when I saw you! I’m sorry!’ said Tabitha, throwing her hands up. ‘We thought this place was full of spiders when we got here, didn’t we?’ she said, looking to Liv and Will.

  ‘That’s right,’ Will added. Liv was nodding.

  ‘You just spooked me,’ Tabitha told the family. ‘I didn’t know what to expect when I came in here. I’m sorry.’

  ‘Daddy, she’s got funny eyes,’ said the little boy. Tabitha looked at him and saw how frightened he was, clinging on to his big sister’s coat. Watching him stare only made it worse, though. When he hid away from her completely, it broke Tabitha’s heart. The man and the old woman still stared at her like she was dangerous.

  ‘We should get you guys b-back to the castle,’ said Liv, stepping in. ‘It’ll probably take two trips. We won’t fit you all in the car at once.’

  ‘You’ve got a car?’ said the man, turning from Tabitha to Liv. ‘How? How is it working?’

  ‘Well, we’ve got Tabitha to thank for that actually,’ said Will, smiling and putting a hand around her shoulder. Liv glanced at them together. ‘You know what, I want to straighten this out right now,’ said Will. ‘This here is the nicest woman you’ll ever meet. She’s had it hard. And yeah, she’s gone through a few changes, so she looks different. But trust me when I say that she’d never want to harm anyone. Never.’ Tabitha looked up at him and smiled. Liv’s heart sank. If there was some small part of her still holding out for Will, that smile between them was all the proof she needed.

  ‘I think we all need to get to know each other a bit better,’ Will told the family. Sylvia and the man still looked defensive though. The kids still looked afraid. Tabitha couldn’t stand their staring. Like she was a monster. She had to do something.

  ‘Here,’ she said, offering the man her assault rifle. Will wanted to stop her, but thought better of it. Tabitha looked into the man’s weary eyes. He wouldn’t take it. She watched the surprise on his thin weathered face as she pushed the gun into his hands.

  ‘I know you attacked me to protect your kids,’ she told him. ‘And I defended myself because I was being attacked. Now if you don’t like me, or you still don’t trust me, all you have to do is pull the trigger. Any time.’ She stood there and looked into his tired eyes, wide with uncertainty. But the rifle stayed where it was, cradled in his hands where she’d put it.

  ‘…I don’t want to,’ he said awkwardly, handing the rifle back. ‘I don’t like holding this.’

  ‘Neither do I,’ said Tabitha, taking it from his hands.

  ‘Let’s g-get out of here,’ said Liv, looking around at the gloomy bedroom with its old damp wallpaper. ‘No offense, but this p-place is really depressing.’

  ‘I couldn’t agree more,’ said Sylvia, leading them out of the bedroom. She threw Tabitha a cautious glance on her way out.

  Will and Liv tore off down the road back towards town, with the man and his three children in the back of the car. Despite Liv’s offers, Sylvia had insisted on staying back to wait for the second trip. She and Tabitha hung around in the farm house in the pale milky light, waiting for Liv and Will to come back and pick them up.

  ‘You’re new around here too,’ Sylvia observed, watching Tabitha from the kitchen. There wasn’t any warmth in her tone towards her. She eyed Tabitha with a cold hard look, arms folded defensively.

  ‘What makes you say that?’ Tabitha replied, picking up a handful of red embers from the fireplace.

  ‘You look like you’ve seen more than they have,’ said Sylvia.

  ‘You mean I look old?’

  ‘No. This is what old looks like, dear,’ she said, pointing at her own face. ‘You look wary.’

  ‘Weary, you mean?’ said Tabitha.

  ‘I meant what I said,’ Sylvia replied shortly. ‘Wary. Like an animal. Doesn’t that hurt?’ she nodded at the embers, glowing red hot in Tabitha’s hands.

  ‘They just feel warm,’ she replied, dropping them back down in the fireplace. ‘I don’t have much feeling left in my hands any more. It feels nice.’

  ‘What happened to you?’ said Sylvia, looking her up and down with morbid curiosity.

  ‘They did. The spiders,’ Tabitha replied. ‘By rights I should be an empty skin, but I’m not.’

  ‘So you changed when they stung you, is that it?’ said Sylvia. Tabitha nodded. She stood up from the fire, and went to look out of the window for any sign of the car on the country road.

  ‘Sometimes I wonder if I’ve got more changes to come,’ Tabitha admitted, watching the clouds in the pale blue sky. ‘I mean, I haven’t eaten in weeks.’

  ‘You can’t stomach food any more?’ said Sylvia, watching her with fresh concern. Tabitha glanced at her; shook her head. ‘Perhaps you’re turning into one of those things then, since they stung you,’ Sylvia said coldly. ‘In that case you’ll need to eat what they eat. And you and I both know what that means.’

  ‘I’m not turning into one of them,’ Tabitha replied, pissed off with Sylvia already. ‘Whatever I’m changing into, I’m still human.’

  ‘Nevertheless, let me make one thing clear from the start,’ said Sylvia, fixing Tabitha with a stare. ‘I saw the way you looked when I found you upstairs. Unnatural. Now I haven’t brought my family through hell the past few weeks only to have them threatened in our new home by a strange woman with a strange appetite. People have threatened my family before, and they’ve lost.’

  ‘You killed them?’ said Tabitha.

  ‘I killed them,’ Sylvia echoed. ‘And if anything else changes in you that puts my family in danger, I’ll kill you too.’

  ‘I don’t doubt it,’ Tabitha said grimly, watching the car appear on the road in the distance. ‘But if you do, I’ll be taking you with me.’ Sylvia looked into those stark gold eyes across the room, catching the daylight like a cat’s. There was something about the girl that she couldn’t put her finger on; something wild and unsettling.

  ‘I’m sure you will,’ Sylvia replied.

  25

  ‘Welcome to your new home,’ Will told Sylvia happily, as they walked through the iron gate into the castle courtyard. Tabitha trailed behind them and closed the gate, and turned to see Jim in full conversation with the newcomers in the garden. Chris hovered around on the wall, watching the strangers carefully. Especially the sad blonde girl.

  ‘Now w
e’re all here,’ said Will, ‘Guys, this is Sylvia. This is her son Paul, and his kids –

  ‘Natalie, Robert and Grace,’ Sylvia interrupted. ‘But Paul isn’t my son. We’re a family by necessity, and I’m afraid I’m not at all related. More’s the pity.’

  ‘Well, we know what you mean,’ Will replied. ‘We’re a family too.’

  ‘A dysfunctional one, sometimes,’ Liv said with a smile, tipping her head in Chris’s direction.

  ‘No such thing,’ Sylvia said dismissively. ‘A family is, by definition, functional.’

  ‘Well, I suppose it is,’ Will replied brightly. Behind him, Liv and Jim caught one another’s looks.

  ‘I think there’s someone the kids might like to meet,’ said Tabitha, opening the door of the keep.

  ‘Oh god, it’s a dog,’ said Sylvia, grabbing Paul’s arm in fear as Laika came padding out. They both looked terrified. ‘Is it diseased?’ Sylvia demanded. ‘Has it bitten anyone?’

  ‘No!’ said Tabitha, fussing over Laika as she tried to lick at her face. ‘Well, I mean she’s bitten some people, but only to protect me.’

  ‘Are you bad with d-dogs?’ said Liv.

  ‘Just the packs that have been trying to kill us for weeks,’ Sylvia snapped. ‘Paul, keep the children away from it!’ Paul shrugged and smiled while his kids met their new favourite interest.

  ‘Have you ever tried to separate kids and dogs?’ he said, grinning while his kids gave Laika the fussing of a lifetime. His sad sandblasted face changed completely when he smiled.

  ‘She’s a good dog,’ said Jim, trying to stop Sylvia looking so worried. ‘Anyway, you all look like you could do with some food in you. I’ll bring out some fried eggs and beans for you, if that sounds alright. And a pot of tea.’

  ‘Raw potatoes and dirty water would sound good to me about now, actually,’ said Sylvia, with an unexpected smile. ‘Anything more would be heaven.’ Jim smiled, and led Paul and Sylvia off to the keep.

  ‘Yeah, why don’t we just use up all our food in one go?’ Chris mumbled to himself up on the wall, turning to look out at the world beyond the castle.

  ‘It’s good having some kids about,’ said Jim, slurping his mug of tea in the sunny courtyard.

  ‘They don’t know whether to eat their food or play with the dog,’ Paul told the others, watching his kids on the grass with a broad grin. ‘I don’t know how to thank you,’ he said, turning to them with tears in his eyes. ‘I thought we were going to die out there.’ His tears rolled down and cut through the grime on his sunken cheeks. Liv took his hand in hers.

  ‘There’s nothing to thank us for mate,’ Will said gently, putting a hand on Paul’s shoulder. ‘You were the ones who made it this far. You found us. What’s it been, a hundred miles? Two hundred?’ Paul nodded. ‘And you brought your kids all the way here.’ Sylvia wiped away her own tears, and took Will’s hand and thanked him.

  ‘How touching,’ Chris muttered up on the wall, handing his empty cup to Tabitha when she made the rounds to collect. He turned his back on the scene. ‘I wonder what’ll happen to all this happy families shit when we run out of food.’

  ‘They were starving, Chris,’ said Tabitha, pouring the dregs of his tea over the wall. She wished she could have thrown him over with them.

  ‘Well, they might as well get used to the feeling,’ he replied. ‘We all should. Oh sorry, I forgot. You’re already there. How’s that going for you, starving?’ Tabitha clenched her jaw.

  ‘You know, you’re one of the most vile people I’ve ever met,’ she replied.

  ‘I don’t give a shit,’ he said bluntly. ‘I think it’s funny.’

  ‘I know what your problem is,’ said Tabitha, studying his stare. ‘The world’s a scary place now, so you’ve closed off to everyone in case you suffer any more.’

  ‘Or maybe I’m just a cold heartless bastard,’ he said simply. ‘And now with the end of the world and everything, maybe I’m just more of a cold heartless bastard. Now you will let me know when you’re on death’s door, won’t you, so I can get the champagne out?’

  ‘Isn’t there anything human left in you?’ said Tabitha, trying to understand him.

  ‘No. What about you? Is there anything human left in you?’ he glanced at her grey hands then, and stared into her stark eyes. Looking down on the freak. Tabitha felt a rage burn inside her, and cracked the cup to pieces in her hand. It was so tempting to just hit him. She had to rise above it.

  ‘Oh nice, and now we’re a cup down too,’ he said, looking at the broken pieces in her hand. ‘Good work, Anger Management.’

  ‘Piss off Chris,’ said Tabitha, walking away. ‘Right out of the gate, if you wouldn’t mind.’ She tried to avoid the others as she walked across the courtyard towards the keep. Liv was coming over though. Tabitha quickly wiped her eyes on the back of her wrists.

  ‘Tabitha? Are y-you ok?’ said Liv, coming over to walk beside her. ‘I saw you talking to Chris. That never ends well, for any of us,’ she said. Tabitha laughed a little, sniffling.

  ‘What did he say to you? I’ll kill him,’ said Liv.

  ‘No,’ Tabitha said quietly. ‘It’s ok. It’s better just… left alone. It’s not worth a fight. I don’t need any more reasons for him to hate me.’

  ‘Chris hates e-everyone,’ Liv said soothingly, putting an arm around Tabitha’s shoulders as they walked back towards the keep. ‘And don’t worry about Sylvia either. She’ll have to get through me first. And you know Will and Jim are on your side.’

  ‘I know,’ Tabitha replied quietly, smiling.

  ‘Oh god, your hand!’ said Liv, looking down at the broken cup between her fingers.

  ‘Yeah, I kind of hoped you wouldn’t see that,’ Tabitha replied. ‘I got angry. Sorry about the cup.’

  ‘Never mind the bloody c-cup!’ said Liv, pulling Tabitha’s hand up to see. ‘Are you hurt?’

  ‘No, I’m fine,’ Tabitha said gently. ‘Weird metal hands and such.’

  ‘Come on,’ said Liv, walking with her to the keep door. ‘As of n-now, Chris has a restraining order on him. If he comes within f-fifty feet of you, I’ll officially beat the crap out of him.’

  ‘Fifty feet? But that’s like the far side of the castle,’ Tabitha chuckled.

  ‘Good,’ said Liv. ‘Best p-place for him. And as for you,’ she said, holding the keep door open for her, ‘I order you to go and sit with Laika and the kids. Relax.’

  ‘But I should probably –

  ‘Orders,’ Liv cut in, fetching a carrier bag. ‘Now give us that b-broken cup, and I’ll bag it up and chuck it over the wall.’

  ‘I think it was Jim’s favourite though,’ said Tabitha, feeling bad.

  ‘Tabitha, it’s a bloody cup. Now go and say hi to the kids, will you?’

  Natalie brushed her blonde hair aside and looked up at Tabitha cautiously as she walked over to them. She was sitting with the twins in the garden, making a daisy chain with Grace. Robert was busy inspecting an ant’s nest in the soil.

  ‘Do you mind if I come and sit with you for a while?’ said Tabitha. Grace looked up warily at her, and moved closer to her big sister. Natalie watched Tabitha and nodded silently, rubbing her palms together nervously. The girl had a strange ghostly quality about her, Tabitha thought. She looked grubby and tired, buried away in a jumper and jeans; cold and pretty as winter.

  ‘We’ve not had the best introduction, before,’ Tabitha began. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘Me too,’ Natalie said quietly. ‘I think we got off on the wrong foot.’

  ‘Completely,’ Tabitha agreed, smiling. ‘It was all in self defense. I promise.’ Natalie didn’t look completely convinced; Tabitha could tell. But at least she was willing to hear her out. It’d take a little time, that was all. She just needed an icebreaker. And she already had the best one around.

  ‘Laika,’ Tabitha called across the garden. Her collie looked up from where she was resting, and padded over to sit and smile beside her.

 
‘So, this is Laika,’ said Tabitha. ‘I think you guys have already met.’

  ‘Is it your dog?’ Robert asked her. Tabitha nodded with a smile.

  ‘Where did you find him?’ said Grace, shaking Laika’s paw.

  ‘She’s a girl,’ Tabitha replied, stroking Laika’s head. ‘She was locked in a big building with no one to look after her.’

  ‘Did you rescue her?’ said Robert, sitting apart from them. He was still giving Tabitha some distance.

  ‘I suppose I did,’ she replied, smiling.

  ‘Robert, come closer,’ said Natalie, reaching out her hand towards him. ‘Tabitha’s our friend.’ Tabitha had never seen such a haunted look in a little boy. In both of them. They’d probably witnessed things that they never should have seen. Not so young. Robert studied her and shuffled closer on the grass, and sat down next to Laika and his twin sister. Right off the bat Laika came closer and licked his face. Robert flinched and giggled, and he and his sister were suddenly busy fussing over Laika again.

  ‘How old are they?’ said Tabitha, watching them chatter to her dog.

  ‘Six,’ Natalie replied, brushing the grass off Grace’s tattered dress. Laika loved the attention from the twins. She looked regal and sleepy between them, sat there in a calm flurry of stroking.

  ‘Why don’t you take Laika and play on the grass?’ Natalie suggested.

  ‘Can we?’ said Robert, looking to Tabitha.

  ‘Course you can,’ she replied with a smile, pleasantly surprised to be asked her permission.

  ‘Come on Laika!’ said Robert, running off down the garden with the dog following behind. Grace shouted and ran after them.

  ‘They turned six just before all this happened,’ said Natalie, once the twins had run off down the garden. ‘At least mum got to give them one last birthday party, before…’ Natalie rubbed her palms together hard, and burst into tears. Tabitha put her arms around her. ‘Dad never wants to talk about it,’ Natalie sobbed. ‘And Sylvia’s always saying I shouldn’t cry in front of the kids. Is it just me, or is that really weird? We argue a lot about it. She’s always saying that I need to be strong. How though? How are you supposed to just not cry when your mum dies?’