Unafraid aa-3

by Michael Griffo

  It looked as if the doctor’s body had shrunk and gotten thicker. His shoulders, no longer bony, curved forward, hunkered down by newly acquired muscle. His neck was like the trunk of a small tree, and the increased bulk threatened to pop open the top button of his shirt. The rest of his body strained at his suit’s threadbare material, and Michael couldn’t believe it wasn’t ripping at the seams. Most horrific, however, was his skin.

  Oliver’s veins pulsated. They were filled with so much blood that they had grown almost an inch in height to create rippled lines all over his flesh. The excessive quantity of blood also discolored his skin, darkened it, so it looked like he was streaked in charcoal. As the fluid raced throughout his body, his veins trembled and spasmed, making it look as if leeches were crawling between flesh and bone.

  The man looked sinful.

  As expected his eyes were now completely black, but his fangs were stained yellow and chipped.

  Michael assumed they were the jagged, tarnished remains of centuries of battle. A continuous stream of blood fell from one fang to the gym floor, creating the sound that had caught Michael’s attention in the first place. The sound that he wished would stop reverberating in his ears. The sound that drew him into a private conversation with this vile creature.

  “Michael.” Oliver’s voice was now unrecognizable, almost unidentifiable; it was like a gravelly hiss, like nothing Michael had ever heard before. “Isn’t it time that you forgave your father?”

  The words seeped into Michael’s brain, contaminated his blood as quickly and stealthily as if Oliver’s fangs had pierced his flesh. The seed was planted, a command was given, and Michael shook as the words pulsed through his body. He wanted the connection to end; he wanted whatever power this thing had over him to recede; he wanted to be free. And in an instant he was.

  The applause was tepid and perfunctory, but at least it signaled the end of Dr. Sutton’s turn as public speaker. Michael couldn’t believe that the frail-looking doctor’s true image was something so intimidating, so formidable. But Michael was just as formidable. He knew Sutton had tried to control his mind, brainwash him into making peace with his father. It wouldn’t work. Whatever mind-bending powers Sutton had, they weren’t going to force Michael to act against his will. Michael was so proud of himself he laughed out loud and he hoped the doctor understood he was laughing right at him.

  “What’s so funny?” Ronan asked.

  “The new doc’s a vamp,” Michael told Ronan silently. “Ugliest one yet! Looks more like a demon if you ask me.”

  “Brilliant!” Ronan cried. “I see somebody’s trying for an A in vampire skills 101.”

  Michael pressed his knee into the side of Ronan’s thigh and replied, “I expect to collect my gold star later on tonight.”

  Before the flirting could escalate any further, Fritz and Ciaran surrounded Michael and Ronan on either side, and they descended the rest of the bleachers like a four-person barricade with Nakano taking up the rear. When they got to the bottom, Fritz pointed at something across the gym. “Check out the ginger bird.”

  Michael did a quick translation in his head of British to American slang. Ginger equaled red and bird meant girl. He looked over and saw Saoirse approaching them, walking arm-in-arm with a very pretty, red-haired girl.

  “That’s Penry’s twin sister Ruby,” Ciaran announced, unable to take his eyes off of the girl.

  The mere mention of Penry’s name made them all become silent for a moment as they remembered their friend. He was dead barely a year. Sometimes it seemed like the tragedy had just happened; other times it was as if he had been gone for years. For Nakano, however, it was an event that replayed in his mind at least once a day.

  Question after question invaded his mind. Why was Penry’s sister here? Had she come for him? Did she know that he was responsible for her brother’s death? She has to know that I lost control! Nakano wanted to scream, he wanted to tell Ruby that he was sorry. But what good would that do? It would be a waste of time. Just like it was a waste of time to feel anything for a lowly human, but he did. He knew his actions had been wrong; he knew he should ask for forgiveness, but ask whom? Who in the world would listen to him and who could ever make him feel like anything more than a murderer? I’m a vampire! Nakano reminded himself as he did every day. I’m above humans! They mean nothing to me!

  Michael didn’t hear Nakano’s internal shouting, but he knew Ruby’s presence and bringing up Penry’s name would be upsetting to him. At least he hoped it would. When he turned around to see how Kano was taking the news he caught a glimpse of him running out the back door. Good, Michael thought. At least he felt something.

  “Doesn’t she go to some swanky boarding school in Switzerland?” Fritz asked, breaking the silence.

  “She did, until the boating accident,” Ciaran explained.

  “What boating accident?” Michael asked.

  As Ciaran relayed the details, he continued to stare directly at Ruby. “She was with her family on a small boat in the Atlantic Ocean. Weather turned out of nowhere, and they capsized,” Ciaran explained.

  “How do you know so much about her?” Fritz demanded.

  “Maybe if you read the newspapers instead of comic books all the time, you’d be better informed,” Ciaran shot back.

  “Eh, newspapers are depressing,” Fritz said.

  “What happened to the rest of her family?” Michael asked.

  “Nobody was hurt except for Ruby,” Ciaran replied.

  “That’s strange,” Ronan remarked.

  “Hurt badly too,” Ciaran explained. “She was actually in a coma for a while.”

  As the girls got closer, Ruby’s resemblance to Penry became startling. Same hair color, same facial features. It was like looking at a softened, more petite version of Penry with longer hair. “Looks no worse for wear, if you ask me,” Fritz said.

  “Look closer,” Ciaran instructed. “She woke up from her coma blind.”

  The three other boys looked at Ruby to see beyond her physical beauty and the similarities to Penry and realized Ciaran was right. As she walked, her gaze was unfocused; her eyes weren’t distracted by the kids cutting in front of her or any other activity that was taking place throughout the gym. She kept her arm firmly entwined with Saoirse’s, and it was clear that she was being guided across the floor.

  What wasn’t clear was what she was doing here in the first place. “Why isn’t she at some sort of school for the blind?” Michael asked. “Or at least back at her old school where she knows the layout better?”

  They all agreed that either of those solutions would have been smarter choices than to come to a brand new school she had presumably only visited a few times before. Ciaran explained that her parents had wanted to send her to a topnotch school for the visually impaired, but Ruby had refused and insisted that she enroll in Penry’s old school. “That’s potty, don’t you think?” Fritz asked. “She won’t know her way around the place.”

  “True, but Saoirse told me she can be quite stubborn,” Ciaran added.

  Ronan peered into the girl and examined her with a vampire’s eyes. He didn’t uncover much of anything except that physically she was a carbon copy of his friend. Turning around to face Ciaran, who was standing behind him, he asked, “And just how does our sister know so much about her?”

  Tapping Ronan on the shoulder, Saoirse declared, “Because your sister is Ruby’s dorm mate.”

  Ronan turned around and was so surprised to see that his sister and her friend had caught up with them so quickly that he was momentarily speechless. The others couldn’t find their voices either, but for different reasons entirely. Saoirse didn’t have that problem, and now that she had the group’s full attention, she presented Ruby as if she were a prize that she had just won at a state fair. “Boys, may I introduce you to Miss Ruby Poltke.”

  Examining Penry’s sister up close they saw that despite the physical similarities she shared with her late brother, she really wasn
’t his identical twin. While her hair was the same vibrant red, it was parted at the side and fell in thick waves just past her shoulders, the color almost matching that of her full, curvy lips. Her skin color was lighter than Penry’s, like creamy milk, and her cheeks, prominent but softly rounded, were dotted with constellations of delicate freckles. While Penry looked younger than his age and fresh-faced, Ruby appeared older, and even without a stitch of makeup on, she had the glamorous look of an old-time movie star. But it was her eyes that commanded the boys’ attention.

  They were the color of a tranquil lake illuminated by the sun’s rays, a collection of blues that shimmered and twinkled. The loss of their function only made her eyes more alluring, more compelling, more difficult to resist. They drew the boys in, each one of them, and they found it impossible not to stare. Ruby’s expression was mostly blank, but her lips were pressed together as if smiling, satisfied, as if she knew she was commanding their attention and, even though she couldn’t see their admiration, she approved of it. She may have been Penry’s sister, but she was definitely the more complex twin.

  “Hello.”

  One word from Ruby triggered a cacophony of sound. Michael, Ronan, Ciaran, and Fritz all spoke at once. “Hi.” “Pleased to meet you.” “Welcome to Double A.” “Blimey! Penry never said you were such a dish!” Luckily the last comment spoken by Fritz blended into the crowd’s vocal onslaught so Ruby couldn’t hear it properly. Her smile just grew even more satisfied at hearing the flurry of verbal activity her simple greeting provoked. As did Saoirse’s. Proudly, the younger girl explained how she had become Ruby’s first and, so far, only friend at Double A.

  “Now that Phaedra left us like the wind, you know, so to speak,” Saoirse explained, “Sister Mary put Ruby in with me.”

  Now everything made sense to Ronan. “So this is why we haven’t seen that much of you,” he said.

  “You’ve been getting Ruby acclimated to her new surroundings.”

  “That’s my brother Ronan,” Saoirse clarified. “You’ll notice that his accent’s a little less refined than mine.”

  “Shut up, Seersh!” Ronan exclaimed.

  “As is his demeanor,” his sister added.

  When Ruby laughed her eyes seemed to sparkle even more. “Hello, Ronan,” Ruby said. She thrust out her hand, and Ronan noticed that it wasn’t the awkward movement of someone who couldn’t see, but rather graceful, confident. “My brother told me that you’re quite the swimmer,” she continued.

  “And the best captain the team could hope for.”

  Ronan took Ruby’s hand, and, while it was feminine and soft, her grip was strong. Clearly, this was a girl who was not going to let her unfortunate condition weaken her. “Thank you,” Ronan replied, moved by her remark. “Penry was a right fine mate.”

  Eager to keep the introductions moving and maintain her role as impromptu hostess, Saoirse gently turned to the left to draw Ruby’s attention away from one brother to the other. “And this is Ciaran,” Saoirse announced. “My other brother.”

  “How do you do?” Ciaran asked, regretting the formality of his tone and his choice of words the second they were uttered.

  “I told you he was a lot more like me,” Saoirse commented, then pulled Ruby in closer as she whispered, “We’re the sophisticated ones in the family.”

  When Ciaran took Ruby’s hand in his all feelings of embarrassment evaporated. He didn’t hear the good-natured laughter that filled the air around him; he only felt Ruby’s gentle touch. It was exciting and familiar at the same time, and he was filled with an odd thought: he was glad that she was blind so she couldn’t see how he stared into her eyes. He couldn’t believe eyes that looked so beautiful, so perfect could be flawed. The scientist in him wanted to make them right; the teenager in him simply wanted to make her his. Unfortunately, he had competition.

  “I’m Fritz. You sent me Penry’s comic books last year.”

  Abruptly, Fritz took hold of Ruby’s hand, but even though the force of the interruption made her body shift toward him, her gaze didn’t move, she continued to stare in Ciaran’s direction. Everyone, except Fritz, noticed that the connection wasn’t severed. The only thing Fritz noticed was that Ruby’s hand felt very much like Phaedra’s, soft, inviting, and was a touch he wanted to get to know much better. “I’ve actually picked up where me and Penry left off and wrote a bunch of new comics,” Fritz prattled. “I’d love to show them to you sometime so you can see how I turned Penry into Double P, this kind of superhero. I think you’d really like them.”

  “Fritz, if you haven’t noticed, Ruby’s blind,” Saoirse corrected. “The girl can’t see anything.”

  This time it was only Fritz who became speechless. Thinking quickly, Ciaran decided to use the rare pocket of silence to his advantage. “Just a figure of speech,” he said. “The comics are quite fine actually. Penry would be proud.”

  “I’m sure he would be; he loved to make up stories,” Ruby replied, smiling. “Perhaps you can read them to me.”

  “I’d fancy that!” Fritz shouted, reclaiming his power of speech and the romantic reins from Ciaran.

  “We can start with the zombie invasion, most popular issue yet.”

  “I’m sure that’ll be the highlight of her day,” Saoirse mocked. She glanced at Ciaran and saw that he was trying not to show his disappointment at being upstaged by Fritz’s more aggressive behavior.

  She wished she could think of something to say that would give him the lead over Fritz, but all she could think of doing was to change the subject and make the final introduction. “And this is Michael,” Saoirse declared. “He’s Ronan’s homme de l’amour. ”

  “Which is French for ‘his boyfriend,’ ” Michael translated.

  “Thanks a lot, Michael!” Saoirse chastised. “I was trying to be subtle.”

  Laughing, Michael joked, “You wouldn’t know subtle if it whacked you across the side of your head!”

  Hints of red colored Ruby’s plump cheeks as she laughed heartily. She gripped Saoirse’s arm tighter and pulled her close to her body. Michael wasn’t sure if she was always so physical, so carefree with her movements, or if the loss of her sight made her react without the usual self-consciousness he found apparent in most girls he met. Whatever the reason, he sensed that she possessed the same joy and playfulness that he had come to admire in Penry. He thought it would be a lot of fun to become friends with this girl.

  He was wrong.

  The second their hands touched Michael went blind. However, instead of his eyes being covered with a veil of impenetrable blackness, all he could see was white. He held on to Ruby’s hand tighter as he felt himself grow dizzy and his knees buckle. It was as if he was back in The Well when it was consumed with a bright white light, but it wasn’t a comforting memory. Originally, he had thought the white light was a godsend, some sort of message of hope that The Well was trying to convey, until the light revealed itself to be a vastly different form of communication. It had been an unwelcome warning. It was The Well’s way of advising Michael that he was changing, and if he wasn’t careful, if he wasn’t true to his real self, he could evolve into something deplorable and unwanted. Holding onto Ruby, seeing nothing but dense, thick white, he knew that he was being given another message; he just didn’t know if it was good or bad.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Michael,” Ruby said quietly. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

  When Ruby spoke, Michael’s sight returned. Gone was the absence of everything and filling the void was Ruby’s face, her lips smiling slightly, her dead eyes seemingly alive. He was relieved that things were back to normal, but he wasn’t naïve. He wasn’t always happy to admit it, but he had learned that everything—every dream, every vision, every bizarre coincidence—happened for a reason. Ruby was connected to the same white light that had emanated from The Well; how and why he didn’t know. But at least he was aware of the connection; that was a start. “Pleasure’s all mine Ruby,” Michael lied. �
��I think we’re going to be great friends.”

  Even though Fritz knew that Michael’s heart belonged to Ronan and he couldn’t possibly be a rival for Ruby’s romantic affection, he also knew that gay boys and straight girls could develop powerful friendships that were incredibly difficult to break. Might as well make a preemptive strike and declare his intention before anyone else had the chance. “I know a great way to show you around campus, Ruby. Let’s go on a double date,” Fritz suggested, though his tone sounded more like an order. “Me and you and Saoirse and her new boyfriend.”

  Three heads snapped in Saoirse’s direction. Michael, Ciaran, and especially Ronan were surprised by this pronouncement, and their shock was so palpable even Ruby could sense it. “Lawks!” she cried.

  “Something tells me Saoirse’s kept news of her new boyfriend under lock and key.”

  “That’s because I don’t have a new boyfriend!” Saoirse protested.

  The three boys studied Saoirse’s face for signs that she was lying, but unfortunately Saoirse had become such a good liar that they couldn’t tell if her protestation was based on truth or a ploy to cover up a revelation she preferred remain undisclosed. Ronan hoped it was the former, because even though Saoirse was sixteen, he felt that she was too young to have a boyfriend. In contrast, Michael thought she was lying. It now made perfect sense to him that the reason she ran off into the woods when he saw her while he was driving was because he had caught her rendezvousing with her secret boyfriend.

  And all Ciaran could think about was the fact that his little sister might already be in a relationship and, thanks to Fritz’s intrusion, it looked like he might never be.

  “You do too have a boyfriend!” Fritz griped. “That blond bloke I saw you with.”

  Once again Saoirse’s response was inscrutable. “Him?” she replied. “I was helping him with his French.”