by Tina Smith
“Should we meet?”
“Yes, come to town.”
“Is he dead?”
“No, I don’t believe so, I’m sorry L, and I did it because I had no choice.”
“Did you want me to escape?”
“Yes.”
A voice interrupted. “Cres who is this…I’m sorry, Cresida isn’t allowed conversations with people whom I have not approved of – Hang up now Cresida!” Tabetha ordered. She was enjoying making Cresida’s life a hassle when she could.
“Sorry.”
“Cresida!” Tabetha crowed.
Clunk. The line went dead.
I looked at Tis.
“What?”
“Shit, she wants me to meet her where she is. I believe she is trapped,” I said, hoping it was true and that I wasn’t walking into one, myself.
Tisane read my expression.
“Are you going to go?”
“I don’t know, do you think it’s a trap?”
“You’d be a better judge than me,” Tisane replied.
“She said he was alive and she knew about the Cult.” I stared ahead at nothing, unable to compute the admission of his existence.
“Why did she hang up?”
“Her aunt… apparently she doesn’t let her associate with friends she hasn’t approved of.” I stated the obvious and laughed. “She said the same to me once when I went to the house.”
“Oh.”
“So what now?”
I was determined.
“Now I go. To Shade.”
36. Forgotten
I felt strange tracking down Cres. It could have been a trick. I could have been walking right back into my cage. I worried the police might pull me over. I could be instantly recognized. I glanced in the rear vision mirror of Tisane’s car. My new haircut might have been enough to confuse anyone who saw me. Tisane agreed the best disguise was none at all. No one would have expected me to be just strolling around the town. We both agreed that I looked like a tourist in Tormey’s clothes. When I tried her dress clothes of dark pants and shoes, a tailored blazer and a pair of sunglasses, I was shocked to see that I easily looked much older. All the clothes fitted, even the shoes. Coupled with my sleek dark hair and new mature haircut, I could easily have passed for a young businesswoman. I checked my reflection in the rear vision mirror again. I was Elle Knight.
The rumours were that I was dead. My mother held out hope that I had simply run away to the city and was hiding out where no one would recognize me. I’d read it in the paper. But like all the rest I was forgotten - just a face on the missing notice board, another statistic.
It had taken less than an hour to travel back. As fate would have it the roads were clear from trouble for me. I left the car some distance away and hid it, by the river just in case. Under fog, I trekked via foot the rest of the way, using mostly instinct to guide me back to the town I had fled nearly a month before. Like a ghost approaching the river that ran through the valley town, I climbed the hill in the dark to the lifeless square white house in the early hours.
I crouched outside and watched the windows in the upper storey; the light was on in her window. I had the only gun on me, the waterlogged rifle was left with Tisane, and it looked good even if it didn’t work. From across the lawn something caught my eye. I made out two figures, they embraced, and I ducked to hide myself. I saw that it was Cres on the edge of the clearing and a man was hugging her. I decided instantly that he must have been a human. A feeling of sadness came over me thinking how promiscuous Cres had been rumoured to be. When they let each other go however, I felt a stab in my chest as I realized it was Reid. He placed a green feather gently behind her ear and let his fingers linger there, before he backed away and waved a friendly hand at Cres as they parted company. I saw his tail flick as he jumped away into the fog-shrouded scrub and my mouth fell open in disbelief at what I had seen in the dim light.
Cres jogged over to the house and with skill clambered up the outside by getting a footing on a nail. I watched her as she heaved herself up and through the lit open window, because it would be my turn next.
When I was sure the coast was clear I dashed across the lawn and tried to scale the wooden slats, which clad the house. Cres had made the feat look easy. I struggled, being slightly shorter than Cresida which worked against me. Cres would have heard my clumsy effort had she not jumped straight into a hot shower. I fell back and landed on the sandy ground with a thump. Quickly I got up, not bothering to dust the dry lawn from my clothes and with gusto, attempted the climb again. Shaking with effort, I heaved myself over the window ledge and crawled onto Cres’s bed, which was directly below the window. I had scraped the buttons over my stomach; I pulled my wrinkled shirt down. Now I was inside, I took advantage of Cres’s absence in the bathroom to search her drawers. On top of her bedside table was a novel, open page down entitled Flowers In The Attic. To my surprise, in the top bedside drawer under some musty Agatha Christie books, I found a familiar item. I touched the silver chain. It was the charm bracelet she had given me and which I had left in the toilet cistern at the hall. I hadn’t picked Cres as sentimental. I stood up straight and brushed the feathers off my head as a mobile tickled my neck. I looked up to see the many coloured feathers floating in the breeze from the window. I quietly slid open the other drawers, running my hands over the clothes and under them. Knowing I wouldn’t find anything; Cres was used to the scent of her Aunt Tabetha lingering on the folded clothes, evidence of her rummaging. I rifled in the bedside drawer, one ear on the shower, which was still running.
Cresida had heard the gentle thump and mysterious muffled noise in her room. She could hear her aunt snoring and her brother stir in his bed – but something wasn’t right. It wasn’t Reid. She panicked then. Was it a wolf from the Cult keeping tabs on her? But then why hadn’t they snooped when she was out? She left the shower running. Dripping water cascaded from her sopping wet body; she stealthily crept toward her door and lifted her weapon from under the faded painting of Jesus in the hall. She was both shocked and pleased to see, not a werewolf but Lila in her room. She knew her scent.
I rummaged through some lower drawers. I felt the ache in my hip where I had fallen and the trapizius muscle I had pulled, scaling up the clad weatherboard house.
I was alerted to something odd and as I stood up and turned. Cres was there dripping wet with a gun aimed at my forehead. She smiled.
“I knew you’d make it.” She dropped the hand which held the gun. I hoped it wasn’t cocked.
I couldn’t help but smile widely, despite myself and the confusion over what I had just witnessed out in the dark. I let myself have an elated moment, a feeling that I hadn’t expected.
“Did you want to finish your shower?” I whispered.
Cres shook her head. I made out a curl twisting her lips.
“What a situation we’re in.”
She turned and snuck across to the shower and I listened as she turned off the taps. In the moment she left me, I thought how surreal it was to see her. I tried not to smile too widely at her as she returned, raising a finger to her lips, carefully shutting the door; obviously not wanting to wake her brother or aunt, who had hopefully dosed herself with painkillers, which helped her rest all the more soundly. I regained my composure as she returned, stifling the grin on my lips. Her back was to me as she went over to her drawers, pulling them open. For all I knew I was a fool and that she had sold me down the river. I wanted to forgive her but I knew it wasn’t wise.
We didn’t know what to say to each other for a few moments as her shiny elfin face met mine for the first time in weeks. She threw a nightdress over her wet skin. The cloth clung to the moisture.
I didn’t divulge what I had seen out on the lawn, unsure if Cres was on my side any longer. But in her presence something inside me doubted Cres would try to play me into their hands, unless she had to. I felt joy to see her pixie face - when I might have shot it. She looked equally as thrilled to see me as she flashed
her gums. But this meeting would have to be short, just in case, and hopefully it would be informative. I wondered if I was happy to see her because she was my kind, or if it was because I loved her and missed my dear friend more than I knew. Or was I foolish to give her the benefit of the doubt?
She didn’t ask me any questions.
I cut to the chase. “Are you on their side now?” I croaked in a hushed voice.
“No,” Cres replied, whispering quickly and calmly.
“Are you still willing to take them down?” I asked, feeling the nervous adrenaline buzz through my blood.
“Yes.” Her tongue hissed below steady eyes.
“Why should I believe you after you kept me here away from them?” I scowled towards her almond shaped eyes.
“Do you want to feel my pulse?” She offered a wrist with honest eyes.
I nodded my head in agreement of the offer, avoiding her stare.
Cres gestured. “Hold on.” She bent down and placed the gun with a gentle clack to the floor under her damp bare foot. I took her wrists, first one and then the other. Cres obviously felt vulnerable when she needn’t have, as she was far stronger than me. She could see I was armed as a bulge in my hip protruded through my thin button-up shirt.
I looked deep up into her bottomless eyes. “Will you help our side?”
“Yes.” She was thoughtful before she replied, “As much as I can.”
“Am I safe here?” I felt I was for now but I needed to hear her say it.
“Yes.”
I dropped my eyes and, despite my list of important questions, asked what I really wanted to know. “Are you with Reid?” I uttered as though it were one word.
Cresida looked terrified. “Yes.”
I knew it wasn’t part of a plan to destroy him. I knew from the way she admitted it that they shared his affections and I knew by the sinking feeling in my gut, that it beyond complicated things. Cresida’s pulse was steady. And then it beat, unsure of my reaction. I knew that devastated expression about her normally expressionless features.
I hardly knew what to say. “Won’t that give the game away a bit?” I hissed in a monotone.
“He’s on our side,” she offered almost as though she regretted it.
“What? Are you sure about that?” I couldn’t believe Cres. Perhaps he had tricked her?
“He will do what I ask him to,” she replied, resigned to the fact. Though I hadn’t asked.
“Why? Because he loves you?” I scowled unable to hide my emotion.
“Yes.” Her eyes teamed with tears and my first reaction was disbelief as the moisture glistened, as I had never seen her cry before, not from pain. The rim of her eyes were red and I saw a weakness I didn’t know her capable of. She had told me it was there inside her, but I thought, like myself, that vulnerable pain was buried too deep to be able to be recovered. And I knew if Reid had excavated this pain, she had allowed him to do it.
I couldn’t believe it. It pinched me.
“He got you good,” I whispered coldly into her face. I waved my head about in thought, all the time remaining with my hands gripping the soft flesh around her wrists. There was no time to have any lengthy discussion. This wasn’t what I had wanted to talk about; maybe I hadn’t believed it when I saw it. Even now with her admission, I needed to think it over and the wolves may discover me. This could become a trap.
“You inviting me here, is this a trap?”
“No,” Cresida said with certainty, her gaze solid and red-rimmed.
“When did this happen?” I hissed.
“A while ago.”
“When?” I had to know.
Cres shook her head.
“Truthfully, after you left,” she said. It was as though she had only allowed it after I had run away. I felt it was my fault for leaving and at the same time I knew it was stupid to even think it was my fault.
There was a certain sting to the fact that I knew that this meant they had felt something for each other before I left. I knew why, then, he had helped Sky protect me from Sam. Why he defended me even from the beginning, why he let her of all people drive his jeep.
“Was that why he came back here?” I asked her.
Cres pressed her lips together “I don’t know. Maybe that and his family. He pursued me, I tried to stop it.” I noticed she jutted her bottom lip.
“You know it could be a manipulation, it’s so obvious.” I squinted.
“No, he wouldn’t have done it,” she said forlornly.
“Are you listening to yourself?” I accused in whisper.
“Lila, listen to me, he wouldn’t hurt me…but that’s not to say I wouldn’t hurt him.”
The moment after she said it I noticed she looked drawn as though she had had this conversation before with herself but that it hurt to say it. I understood better than anyone, but I didn’t want to understand. She was now like me, as I had been. As though a mirror was pressed up to my nose. We had both been eaten up by the same affliction.
I was conflicted.
“Is this serious?”
“Yes, I suppose so,” she admitted, bending down to rest on her knees before me like a child in prayer.
“For both of you?”
She nodded.
“I believe you.” I let go of her wrists and walked about the room. “Cres, I have to know - are you on their side now?” Even if she said yes, I might not have put her out of her misery.
“Lila, I’ve always been on your side, the Cult pack is manipulating everything, and they basically have a gun pointed at my brother’s head. I won’t let them harm him.” Her voice deepened as she said it.
I was disgusted to hear yet more guttural emotion coat her voice. I looked her up and down and turned my face away. I noted the black and blue feathers hanging from the mobile, floating on the breeze.
I wanted to hate her more than I did right then, but my lips parted to mumble, “I know.” I knew it was the only reason she would have agreed to keep me away from the Cult and stopped her being a thorn in their side. I was like her and the realization seared me.
Cres looked at me.
“They agreed they wouldn’t harm me or you if we stayed here and didn’t cause any problems for them.” She moved to sit on the floor against the bed. Shifting one foot casually to rest against an outstretched knee, she placed her stubby fingers around her bent shin.
“So that’s why you did it, lied to me?” My voice was hard, covering the hurt.
“No, it kept you safe for the time being and it kept my little brother safe…for now.” She bit her lip.
“I figured it out,” I admitted.
“So you believe me.” Cres looked sympathetic.
“I have no choice.” I wasn’t sure if I truly did completely trust her. I could tell the love she felt for Reid had already softened her. It was a pitiful thing to find her here, so placid and soft.
“What is our plan?” Cres asked, ignoring my disgusted glare.
I half smiled, but it was more of as a grimace and I pulled my hands through my short hair.
“Our plan?”
“Yes.”
I could tell she wanted to ask where I’d been as she looked at me, expectantly. “Paws has spies out,” she warned.
“Like Narine?” I looked at her.
Cres looked taken aback “Yes, she does all his ground work. Where have you been, Lila?” Cres asked amazed. “No,” she quickly interjected raising her palm limply, “don’t even attempt to answer that.” Seriousness settled on her normally smooth features. She rubbed her eyes with her stubbed fingers and I saw there were sores on them still.
“I wasn’t planning on it.”
Cres seemed intrigued then and she stood up, sliding the gun back into her hand as though it were a piece of Lego she didn’t wish to leave on the floor. Her eyes flickered over me as if she hadn’t actually seen me until then. She marvelled at how well I looked. I felt insecure about my uncharacteristic attire.
“However
you’ve survived, you’ve done better than I had hoped,” she breathed, parting her lips as if to smile. “We need to take them down.”
“That’s why I’m here,” I stated. “Did they hurt you when I went?’” I said it as though I didn’t care, as though it were an afterthought.
Cres replied quietly, “No, I think Reid took the blame. He told them you were probably dead. They’re not too concerned; they know one poorly trained hunter girl can’t do much to a huge pack.”
In fact they were all amazed I had remained uncaptured by the police, the wolves or turned in by whomever housed me, though she didn’t say it.
“Poorly trained?” I raised a brow.
“You never needed training,” Cres admitted, her lips pressed in an effort to smile as her eyes appraised me again. As though it were evident. “Tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it,” she offered solemnly.
The tables had turned; it appeared I was the leader now. Not only were we the mirror image of one another, but it appeared we had traded places. I was surprised she seemed to instantly surrender to my new authority, so easily that I was suspicious of it. But there wasn’t time to question her true thoughts or her motives. I believed her and I knew she was simply saving time by handing me the role.
And I accepted it. “We have to act soon; the Cult is growing, gaining more power everyday.”
She looked bemused. I had done my research.
“How many now?” she asked and I thought she looked tired, the first time I had ever seen her look that way and I knew it was emotional exhaustion. She no longer knew true human vulnerabilities like physical tiredness, not when her veins coursed with wolf.
“Nine or ten, maybe more,” I offered.
“I’m sorry I lied to you.”
“Why did you do it?” I frowned.
Cres looked to me, searching my eyes sorrowfully “So you would do what you were meant to.”
“Do as I say, not as I do?”
She laughed silently, casually turning a little to place the gun on the bed. She smiled thinly. “You had the power. I had to tell you I saw him dead, or you would be dead right now.” I could tell by her eyes she was sorry now. For a second I wondered if Reid was her Sky, if his death would kill her. It seemed to me he had already started to.