Alfred gave his big sloppy grin. "Thanks!" he said, digging in.
***
Mr. Giroux delighted in Alfred's company, and also in petrifying his daughter by forcing her to spend time with them all evening. Dinner seemed to drag on endlessly. When they returned home, she tried to excuse herself to go to bed, but her father informed her that the three of them would enjoy a movie together in the living room. Mr. Giroux and Alfred both sat on the couch laughing obnoxiously and cracking jokes. With each of their outbursts, Clementine rolled her eyes and sneered from the dark spot where she roosted in a corner reclining chair. She thought certainly her father was doing all this just to torture her mercilessly.
It was past midnight when Mr. Giroux finally called it a night. He showed Alfred to a ground floor guest bedroom and finally dismissed Clementine to angrily stomp up the stairs and to her room. Exhausted from the day's events, she quickly changed into night clothes, extinguished her lights, and climbed into bed.
Clementine was in that quiet, still place just before the eyes drift firmly shut and sleep comes when her bedroom door clicked.
The noise didn't fully register as her mind tried to put her to sleep. But her eyes fluttered open one last time and she caught sight of Alfred standing next to her bed. Instantly awake, Clementine scrambled upright in her bed, pulled her covers up to her chin, and scurried backwards to vacate the bed from the opposite side from where he stood.
"What are you doing in here?" Clementine said in a terrified whisper.
Alfred gave his curious smile. It was so slow and casual, it might have given her a sense of peace if it weren't pitch dark and she weren't alone in a bedroom with the veritable stranger. Thoughts of psychopaths once again crossed her mind.
"I just wanted to see if you'd like to chat with me."
"No I don't want to chat with you, are you crazy? What is wrong with you, Alfred? You need to get out of here before I scream for my dad!"
Alfred's face fell so quickly from relaxed smile, to heartbroken frown, that it gave Clementine pause. Her hard exterior experienced a sudden hairline fracture. In that instant, Alfred looked less weird, and more sad to her. "Uh," Clementine said awkwardly. "I'm sorry, Alfred. I didn't mean to be so harsh."
Again, he smiled. His emotions seemed to change as swiftly as a child. Easy to hurt, even easier to please. He took a seat on the edge of her bed and patted the spot next to him.
Her anxiety returned immediately. What was it about this boy? It was as though he had the ability to cast spells on people around him. Had she really just felt sorry for him? She never felt sorry for anybody, let alone and ugly boy sitting on her bed in the middle of the night. She shook her head. "No, Alfred. Don't sit on my bed. I think you should go." She tried to keep her tone polite.
Alfred sighed and stood up abruptly. "Alright, Clementine," he said, beginning to walk slowly around the bed. "Let me just be honest. Frankly, I'm as tired of this game as you are." He strode directly in front of her until they stood face to face. "All I need from you is just one kiss. That's all."
Clementine grimaced and moved to brush past him but he grabbed her arm. Alarmed, Clementine shoved Alfred with every bit of terrified strength she could muster. Caught off guard, he reeled backwards and crashed into the wall. The sound of his head connecting against the hard surface was brutal. She watched in horror as his eyes rolled backwards and he slid down the wall to crumble in a pile on the floor.
She clapped a hand over her mouth as she stared down at the unconscious boy. Emotions careened inside her. She hadn't meant to hurt him and she was sorry and afraid of what she may have done. Seeing him limp and defenseless on the floor banished all ill suspicions she'd had about the poor lonely fellow. He was an outcast, and so was she. He'd only wanted someone to love him, she was suddenly certain of it. Under a veil of nighttime, stress, and fatigue, Clementine forgot everything rational, and everything she had once been. She just felt sorry. Sorry for so many things. She fell to her knees and placed her hands on Alfred.
She gently rolled him onto his back. "Alfred, Alfred! Are you OK?" she whispered, shaking him gently.
His face remained placid, his eyes closed. She lowered her ear to his chest. She heard his heart and could feel a slow rise and fall. "Oh, thank God," she murmured. She gave him another gentle shake. Tears began to slip down her face. One of them fell from her jaw and splashed down upon one of his closed eyelids. The small crack in her demeanor splintered and all her hardness shattered into smithereens just then. Without a coherent thought, she leaned down and placed a delicate kiss on top of the spot where her tear drop had just landed. Then she sat back up, resting on her haunches and watching him sadly.
She squeezed shut her eyes to try and stop the flow of her tears. When she opened them and unexplainable thing had transpired.
All the disfiguring marks all over Alfred Green had simply vanished. His brown skin was perfectly smooth and glowing healthy. The strange suit he'd worn was gone, and he was wearing a normal looking t-shirt and blue jeans. The arms and legs which had been abnormally lanky were muscular and attractive. Alfred's eyes fluttered and he smiled. Gone was the hideous smile. It was replaced by a beaming handsome smile and rows of sparkling teeth.
Clementine gasped. "Alfred! What… What happened?"
Still grinning, Alfred hauled himself into a seated position on Clementine's bedroom floor. "I think you broke the spell," he said happily, in a voice that sounded like a summer day.
Wide eyed, she stared at the devilishly charming creature before her. "What on earth are you talking about?"
"You, Clem," he said mischievously. "I'm talking about you falling in love with me."
Clementine blushed. Crazy as he sounded, she couldn't deny what he said. The Clementine Giroux she'd been five minutes before was gone forever, and a crazy in love girl had taken her place.
She helped him off the floor. He promised to explain everything to her the following day. He informed her he was leaving for the moment, but to meet him at noon at Java Enchantica. Without a second thought, Clementine agreed and let Alfred Green steal a kiss just before he slipped soundlessly out her front door into the night. She watched him stroll down the driveway with a new found swagger, accompanied by a chorus of tree frogs singing to the summer night.
Chapter 10
There seemed to be an extra brilliance to the sun.
Clementine wandered onto the patio of Java Enchantica in a daze. She spotted Alfred and her heart raced. She'd felt tired and a little dizzy all morning. She couldn't seem to latch onto any one coherent thought, yet everything made some sort of strange sense. She felt like a completely different person. And when Alfred offered her that disarming smile, her heart melted.
She walked shyly up to the table where he sat with an older gentleman. Alfred stood and pulled out a seat for her.
"Clementine Giroux, this is my friend Henry."
Clementine gave the man a small polite smile as she took the seat that Alfred offered. Henry was dressed in old fashioned garb, as Alfred had been the previous day. But Clementine failed to wonder why, or even notice. It no longer occurred to her to wonder who these strange people were who were so out of place in Enchantica. When she joined them, Alfred offered no explanation as he'd promised to do the night before in her room. And Clementine had forgotten altogether that such a promise had been made.
It was as though she'd known Alfred all her life and she simply believed in him without question. His dazzling smile and twinkling eyes were all she needed.
He ordered them all tea and small cakes. She hadn't even been aware Java Enchantica served such a thing. Additionally, the tea was bitter and the cakes stale. All the same, she took the snack without complaint. While they ate, nobody spoke. Somehow, Clementine failed to find any of it strange.
After the quiet meal, Alfred cheerily suggested a hike in the woods. Clementine looked around at what each of them wore, including her own flimsy sundress and flip flop sandals. None of them w
ere appropriately attired for hiking in a swamp, nor did she ever desire any activity that required getting dirty or physical exertion. Yet, despite the preposterous nature of the suggestion, Clementine smiled serenely and agreed.
Soon, the trio left Java Enchantica behind. Flanked by her strange companions, Clementine stepped into the shadowy woods.
***
Inside the towering tent of tree limbs and leaves, the temperature dropped instantly by fifteen degrees or more. The sudden coolness sent a violent chill to wrack Clementine's body. Alfred put an arm protectively around her which made her shiver again.
Maintaining the intense silence, the trio made their way into the woods without a word. In the absence of conversation, Clementine heard every sound around her as though her sense of hearing had been profoundly enhanced. Every crack of limb, every rustle of moving branch, every cry of whippoorwill and every swoop of winged creature, sent a spark of anxiety shooting through her. All her life spent in Enchantica, and she'd never once set foot in the woods.
She began to ponder exactly what it had been that kept her from exploring there. Outside of a prissy, lazy nature, there had been something else. It had been a sort of urban legend that went around Enchantica; a tale told to children to keep them from wandering into the woods. She supposed Enchanticans still repeated the stories to that day.
Clementine glanced left and right at Alfred and Henry as she struggled to recall. It had been told that a magical and wicked land lay deep in the swamps beyond the dark forest. How to reach the mysterious place, no one could say.
But, it was rumored that people from the swamp land ventured out of their world into Enchantica. These people were said to act and dress strangely. And it was believed they came to steal away children and teens from Enchantica to do their evil bidding.
In fact, in instances over the years when an Enchantica youth unfortunately disappeared, as sometimes happens in communities across the globe, some town kook inevitably claimed that the legends were real.
Anytime Clementine had heard the stories, she'd laugh and ridiculed the story teller for being gullible. But thinking of it just then, as Alfred and Henry led her further into the forest, she realized something.
Those legends were the reason she'd stayed out of the woods.
She may have made fun of others for believing, but underneath her rude attitude, she'd believed too. However as she grew older, she forgot the stories little by little. Until just then. When she found herself with mud splattering up her legs, walking with an oddly dressed man, and a boy who'd undergone an amazing transformation right before her eyes.
Clementine stopped abruptly.
"Alfred?" she said, her voice shaking slightly.
Alfred and Henry stopped, turning to look back at her. Shadows fell across their frowning faces.
"Yes?" he replied softly. She caught a glimpse of something in his sparkling eyes. Perhaps a hint of pleading.
"Last night," she began, barely above a whisper. "You said you'd explain what's going on. But, you must've forgotten, because you haven't explained anything."
She barely noticed as Henry stepped off the path and walked away a few feet as though to give them some privacy.
It was pleading in Alfred's eyes, she saw it clearly then. As though he silently begged her not to ask questions. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
She cocked her head to the side staring at him. She began to tremble, having become fully aware how strange her circumstances had become. As though waking from a dream, Clementine realized how dangerous the situation was that she'd voluntarily put herself in.
"Alfred," she said fearfully. "You transformed right in front of me. You were… Ugly. And sounded like a… Like a… Frog. And then, just like that, you looked like a… Handsome prince!"
He shook his head and gave her a perplexed smile. "What? Clementine, are you OK?"
She began taking the tiniest of steps backwards. She glanced over her shoulder at the path that disappeared into thick brush. She hadn't realized how far they'd traveled. There wasn't a trace of Enchantica to be found.
"Alfred, you're scaring me," Clementine admitted. "What's wrong with you?"
"Listen," he said, stepping toward her, reaching out his hand. "You're probably overheated."
She jerked away from him, stumbling backwards a little quicker. "Yeah, maybe. So let's get back to town now."
It was when she turned with the intention of bolting back the way they'd come, that Henry slammed the rock down on the back of her head. She dropped dead to the world onto the muddy forest floor.
Alfred strolled up next to Henry and they both stared down at her lifeless body.
"Damn it, Henry," Alfred snarled. "It won't work if she's dead!"
Henry looked Alfred up and down. "Well, you haven't changed back, so she must not be dead. I didn't hit her hard enough to kill her. Just shut her up!"
Alfred gave a sigh of utter consternation. "Alright, but still! How are we supposed to get her back to Wondernever? She has to eat the candy and drink the juice!"
Henry smiled wickedly. "Simple, man! We'll just cram it down her throat!"
Alfred rolled his eyes. He didn't delight quite as much as Henry did in the work they had to do.
Henry stooped down and hauled Clementine up from beneath her arm pits. "Come on," he demanded. "Get her feet. We're almost there."
Part III
Restless
Chapter 11
"Hey, Alice," Julienne Peabody said, greeting her friend as she took a seat on the patio of Java Enchantica.
"Hello, Julienne," Alice answered.
Julienne had seen Alice coming and fetched her a cup of tea. She set the cup in front of her as Alice sat.
"Thanks," Alice said.
"Of course!"
It was a particularly slow evening at Java Enchantica. Though Julienne was there to work, her boss didn't mind if she visited with friends during slow times as long as her side work was caught up. Julienne was a dedicated and diligent worker, so side work was never a problem. However, she didn't have a multitude of friends coming to visit her, so she rarely sat down. A soon to be senior at Enchantica High, Julienne was simply too busy for a social life, working and studying to improve her chances of escaping her miserable existence as soon as graduation came the following spring. But, in recent months she had grown close with Alice, who'd become a regular at the coffee shop.
So, she rested her weary feet by filling the seat next to Alice after making sure that she wasn't hungry for any supper.
"So, how are you today?" she asked the pretty blonde haired girl. She knew Alice likely wouldn't reveal anything personal about herself, but she wanted to be polite by inquiring. In fact, she knew next to nothing about Alice. In appearance, the girl seemed close in age to Julienne, though that was the only similarity. Next to Alice's pale, drawn appearance, Julienne looked exotic with her caramel skin and close cropped black hair. Julienne enjoyed dressing in bright colors with a style that was sophisticated for her age, and in outfits she occasionally splurged on by purchasing fabric and making them herself. While Alice always wore the same blue pinafore and white lacy collared blouse. It seemed like a school uniform. In the school library, Julienne had used the Internet to see if there was some sort of private school nearby that she wasn't aware of, but she found none. Anytime she had asked Alice personal questions, such as where she lived and came from, the girl cleverly avoided the topics. But, because she was so nice, Julienne just respected Alice's privacy and they eventually settled into an easy rapport.
"Good," Alice reported with a smile. "And you?"
Julienne nodded. "Good. Tired. It's dead in here tonight. I think it's because of that girl Clementine disappearing. Have you heard about it?"
Alice stared into her tea cup. "No."
"She's a girl from my school. Actually, no one liked her; she's kind of a rip. But, she disappeared yesterday. People are saying she was having problems with her dad and ran away. But h
er dad's this mega rich and powerful guy, and he's claiming a strange boy kidnapped Clementine."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. But here's the thing. He's claiming the guy was with him and his daughter at a local restaurant the night before she disappeared, but witnesses who were questioned all agree there was no boy with them. So, it's this big scandal and everyone is just kind of freaked out."
"Hmmm," Alice said. "So they're all just staying in?"
Julienne shrugged. "Looks like. Hey! I have a question," she said with a mischievous grin.
Alice met Julienne's contagious smile with her own. "Yes? What's that?"
"Who was that guy you were talking to the other day out here?"
Alice drew a quick startled breath and her smile faded, but Julienne didn't notice.
"I saw him walk up to you while I was inside putting in an order, then when I came back out here to wait on you, you guys were all gone! I never even got to say hi to you, and he just left money on the table for his bill. He was cute!"
"I um, I'm not sure who you mean?" Alice stammered.
Julienne wrinkled her nose. "What? Of course you do! I saw you talking to him!"
"Oh, yeah, uh… He thought he knew me, it was just a misunderstanding."
Julienne frowned looking disappointed. "Really? So you don't know him but you left with him?"
Alice's cheeks reddened. "Oh no, no, I didn't leave with him. I just remembered somewhere I had to be. He must've just left at the same time."
"Ah, OK. Darn, I hoped to get his phone number or something."
Alice shrugged, taking big awkward gulps off the tea cup. Julienne remained oblivious to her friend's discomfort.
***
It only took a matter of minutes for Julienne to finish up at closing time. By law, as a minor, she was only allowed to work until ten p.m. even though it was summer time and school wasn't in session. But it was a few minutes past when she shut out the lights and let herself out the front door, locking it behind her. She could hear lively noise coming from the direction of downtown just up the street and around the corner. She knew she could walk that way and find something fun going on. But she also knew she could easily run into her father, stumbling drunkenly out of one of the local pubs. She opted as she always did; to walk home and get to sleep long before he found his way home for the night.
Wonder Never (The Fairytale Diaries #2) Page 5