She worked on the strap on Sky’s right arm, so his only able hand could undo the rest of the straps. Within a minute, Sky was free.
“What happened to your arm and hand?” Tremaine asked.
“Ski lift accident.” He struggled to stand up properly. He supported himself with one arm. He noticed Tremaine’s unsure stare and said in a murmured voice, “I’m fine.”
“Alright, let’s go,” she took his right arm and led him through the basement. Tremaine looked down at the ground outside. The snow had started to fall again. I’m going to leave tracks. Damn it.
“Come on, Sky!” Tremaine encouraged, and she shut the door silently.
He held his head forward and swayed, “I’m so tired.”
“Well,” Tremaine frowned, “suck it up and let’s go!”
She led Skyler through the woods, and they stopped when the St. Charles mansion was no longer visible. Sky went down on a huge boulder engrossed in the ground. He breathed heavily, and then took his sleeve and pulled it over his bandaged arm. Tremaine looked back to where the house was and then bent down to Sky. She took out the blanket she packed in her bag and put it on his shoulders. He pulled tighter to it and wore it like a coat. He lowered himself some more and laid his forehead on the rock. He muttered, “I can’t feel my hand. I can’t feel it.”
Tremaine pulled at his shoulder and flicked him on the back of the neck. He struggled to get up, even with Tremaine’s help, and could barely walk once he did so. Tremaine took his arm and hoisted it on her shoulder. She grabbed his waist, and he did the same with her. She knew each step they took was becoming heavier and heavier for him.
When they reached the top of a hill, he finally collapsed. Tremaine buckled under the weight, unwilling to let go of him and let him fall carelessly. Tremaine helped Sky sit up against a tree, letting him regain his strength.
“If they catch me again,” Sky said, “Let me tell you, thank you.”
“Save your cliché lines for someone who cares,” Tremaine said. “Besides, I am not doing this for anyone but myself. This is all for immortality.”
“Yeah… sure…” Sky said, managing a smirk.
Tremaine looked down at Sky’s hand, the one he mentioned he couldn’t move. The end of his hand was wrapped in bandages. His pinky finger was shorter. Her eyes widened in horror, and she saw Sky’s eyes drifting down to where she was gazing.
“Don’t look,” Tremaine said.
Sky raised his bandaged hand and looked at it, and he laughed. “Oh my God, that’s crazy.” He lowered himself to the ground, “My finger is gone. So crazy.”
She shook him multiple times, trying to get him to stay awake. He managed to bring his chest off of the ground by pushing against the snow, and then he shook his head. He covered his eyes and then finally went still. For a moment, Tremaine thought he was dead.
She frowned and then turned him over and onto his back. She wrapped her blanket around him again, and then hooked her arm under his back and then under his legs. She grunted and tried to pick him up. She fell on her knees, partially falling over him. She cursed and tried again.
Tremaine spread her legs and tightened her grip on Sky’s back and legs. Slowly, she lifted him up to carry him. It was hard, considering he weighed a bit more than her. She nonetheless carried him up the hill, struggling all of the way. She put him down and looked up at the forest. The snow started to fall even faster. In the distance, she heard shouting. She heard Skyler’s name called.
She cursed, and looked around. There was nothing to hide behind except trees and large rocks. Tremaine bent down and called out Sky’s name. She yelled, “Wake up, damn it!” She cried when he didn’t respond, “This isn’t fair! Now I’m going to get in trouble! All because I decided to help you.” She sat next to him, resting herself and looked all around. By a fallen tree, she saw a small cave-like structure. She dragged Sky over to it and pushed him and the blanket into the cave. She sat squished against him and brought the fallen tree’s branch down to hide her body.
Within five minutes, the hunters were near. She heard Zac’s angered voice, along with René and Vargas. Miss Vargas gasped, and said, “Over there! See that?”
“What?” René said.
“I saw them go south! Don’t you see it?” There was the sound of running. Tremaine lowered her vision and looked through the branches. Vargas was the only one she could see, “You can come out, Tremaine. They’re gone.”
Tremaine sighed in relief.
Hannah sat on the window seat in her mother’s study. It was rare that anyone ever came in here, but it was the only room downstairs that exhibited a good view of the forest without a porch or a shrub in the way. She kept checking her phone, even when it didn’t notify her. She was left alone in the house as her brothers went out to find the escaped prisoner.
She was so distracted that she almost didn’t hear the house phone ringing. She snickered to herself as she hurriedly went to the kitchen, who could be calling the house phone? What year is this?
She answered it, “St. Charles residence.”
“St. Charles? Yeah, yeah, hold on,” the voice, the girl recognized it as Josey, said. She was talking to someone else in the background. “Hannah. Right, this is Hannah?”
“Yes,” Hannah cupped the end of the phone. “Is… is everything okay?”
“Yeah!” Josey said, “I’m sorry to interrupt you guys with your studying, but I need Tremaine home. We’re super busy in the store, and Tremaine didn’t answer her cell phone.”
“Studying?” Hannah said.
“Mmhm,” Josey said, “That’s what you guys are doing, right? Not just sitting around painting each other’s nails, I hope not.”
“Tremaine… she isn’t here,” Hannah said slowly.
“But she said she was going to be over there, studying for a test tomorrow.”
“She’s not here,” Hannah said, and then thought back to what she wrote down in her homework assignment book, “And we don’t have a test or a quiz tomorrow for that matter.”
“What?” Josey barked, undirected at Hannah, “Then… where the hell is she? Do you know?”
Hannah bitterly thought of Tremaine. Her blood was still boiling when she remembered Tremaine telling her off. When she seriously thought about where Tremaine could be, especially after what happened earlier, her eyes widened, and she gave a small gasp. She gulped, and told Josey, “I don’t, sorry.”
After parting, she ran to her room. She dressed up in her salmon duffel coat and grabbed her phone in the study. She ran out of the back porch door and followed her brother’s trail.
Tremaine looked all around the forest, making sure Vargas was right. She also brought a bag with her. She pulled out a black jacket with a hood. She slid it on before going over to Sky. Tremaine assumed the wardrobe change was to make sure if the hunters saw her, she wouldn’t be caught.
She held him in her arms effortlessly. She looked down at Tremaine, “You better get out of here. You don’t want to be here when the hunters double back.”
Tremaine nodded and started to go back to the street in which she came from. Vargas headed north through the snowy woods. Tremaine stopped and turned back. “Wait, wait a second!” Tremaine caught up with her. Vargas turned and looked at her. The woman said nothing. Tremaine said, “Sky promised if I saved him, he would grant me immortality. Where can I find him?”
“I understand he promised you that, but it was… foolish on his part to even mention it,” Vargas said, and then turned around completely. She cleared her throat, and said, “It is wise for a human of your age to forget about what happened. I know you want to hang onto whatever you’ve seen that’s extraordinary, but you do not want to be involved in our affairs,” she looked in the direction of the St. Charles estate, “or the affairs of hunters. I’ve been around them enough to know how they really are. You should cut ties with the St. Charles and find companions who think of us as silly stories and nothing more.”
Tre
maine laughed out of frustration, “A-Are you kidding me? Sky and I made a deal. We-”
“I am finished here. Thank you for your help,” Vargas interrupted. “I’ll see you in school.” She walked briskly through the forest until her dark figure disappeared.
Tremaine’s lungs burned from the constant exercise. She sat down on the fallen tree for a moment and watched Vargas disappear. She regained her breath and then walked to where the road started so she could get home.
She heard a branch snap, and then a voice, “Tremaine?”
Tremaine turned around. Hannah was standing by a tree, partially hiding herself, “Why are you in my backyard?”
“Your backyard?” Tremaine made her voice sound high, “I guess I walked really far, didn’t I?”
Hannah remained silent.
“I-I was just taking a walk; I have no clue how I ended up here.”
Hannah frowned, “Tremaine, come on.” I am such a horrible liar, Tremaine thought. Hannah looked back to the direction of her house and then she looked north, in the same direction Vargas went, “I-I saw you with some cloaked figure, and… you were talking to it. Your mom called, too. You said you were here, at my place.”
“I just went on a walk,” Tremaine swallowed down a lump in her throat.
“Stop lying!” Tears built up in Hannah’s eyes.
It was Tremaine’s turn to be silent.
“I knew it,” Hannah said, wiping at her cheek, “Why did you… you let him free?”
Tremaine looked down to the ground.
“You went against me,” Hannah put a hand to her chest, “I thought we were friends.”
“I thought we were friends, too,” Tremaine curled her fists, “until I figured out the only reason you approached me in the first place was to get into that tower.”
“That’s not-” Hannah paused. Both girls looked to hear a noise. With Hannah distracted, Tremaine took off. Hannah called after her and stopped when she realized that Tremaine wasn’t going to come back.
She couldn’t handle Hannah right now. She walked down the road in the twilight, thinking what she had done was all for nothing. Well, I saved Sky, right? Tremaine thought on a positive note. But how am I supposed to be strong, stronger than everyone else, if I don’t have immortality? This isn’t fair. Tremaine breathed heavily and went straight back to her home.
Chapter Eleven
Tremaine walked through the door to her apartment. She sat down on the floor and took off her wet boots. She started to take off her parka, and stopped when she realized a presence in the room. She looked up to see her parents. Josey’s arms were crossed, and Danny’s face was emotionless. She widened her eyes and held out her arms, “What? Did I forget to do the dishes?”
“Over Hannah’s house, studying?” Josey said, expressive with her hands, “Are you kidding me?”
“Even on Samhain Island, an island so far away from all those fights and thugs,” Danny said, refusing to look at his daughter, “and you still lie to us?”
“I-I… I didn’t-"
“Bullcrap, Tremaine!” Josey raised her hand, “I called the St. Charles’s. Hannah said you weren’t there.” Well, that ain’t true at all, Tremaine thought. Josey continued, “Where the hell were you then?”
“I was at the St. Charles’s. Really.”
“Tremaine…” Danny shook his head.
“They captured that thing that was in our tower,” Tremaine admitted. “I went to go free him. We talked a little. Not too bad of a guy, turns out.”
Josey marched over to the spiral stairs that led to Tremaine’s room. She gave an elaborate show of pointing to them, “We’re done for right now. We’ll discuss this at dinner. For now, go up to your room.”
Tremaine laughed in exasperation. She turned to her father, “I’m telling you the truth! I swear on Grandy’s grave. And Gram’s.”
“You can swear on every goddamn tombstone in the United-freakin’-States,” Josey put her hands on her hips, “but it still doesn’t change the fact that you’re going to be grounded for at least two weeks minimum. Get to steppin’.”
“But, Ma, I-"
She pointed to the stairs again, “Move it!”
Sky woke up facing a white wall. The first thing he experienced was the pain in his hand. For a moment he thought he was still situated in the makeshift lab of the St. Charles’s. When he realized he could sit up without anything restricting him, he realized he was safe. His hand stung like it had been burned, and his back felt like there were needles poking at him.
He looked at the bed he was in. It was a simplistic glass headboard, with a beige comforter. There was a surreal and colorful picture hanging above a wide dresser and a glass desk by the opened door. A small television sat by the end of the bed. Sky sighed, realizing he was in the house of Omokah Weiss.
Sky didn’t want to see the damage done to his hand, even though he knew it must have been serious from the amount of throbbing he was feeling. He sat at the side of the bed, and called, “Omokah?”
Seconds later, the real estate agent entered the room. He had a hand to his face, and looked down at Sky’s hand and then to his eyes. “So, how are you feeling?”
“I’m just peachy,” his voice was shaky. “How about you?”
“Me? Oh, just the usual,” Omokah came and sat down by Sky, “Working on real estate. Going to settlements. Showing houses. Completely killing myself over the fact that I thought it was a good idea to let a thirteen-year-old Krampus go live by himself.”
“Well, hey, it is Krampus tradition. My kind leaves the nest after we turn ten.”
“Maybe in Europe, but not on this island. There are these… predators… everywhere.” Omokah looked down at his knees, “What a fool I was.”
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up about it. Zac was scary, sure, but René… no, actually he was pretty frightening too,” Sky said.
Omokah gave a shaky laugh.
“Omo?”
“Don’t try to make light of this. You always do this,” the adult stood and held his hand to his forehead, “Vanessa Vargas came to me the night after the hunters broke in. She told me how you had just narrowly escaped those two mindless brutes, and you were meandering around in the forest.” He clutched his fists, “She told me that you told her that you hid out in a barn. Why didn’t you just come here first? I went out looking for you!”
“I… I just didn’t want to lead the hunters here,” Sky brought a hand to his chest. “That would be dangerous for you, right? They’d find all the pictures in your cellar, and not to mention your blood hoard.”
“I… no, well, I…” Omokah folded his hands, “Yes, you’re right.” Omokah went down on one knee in front of Sky. He looked down at his bandaged hand, “I can’t even fathom what you went through. How is the…?” He gestured to the hand.
Sky finally looked down at the hand. His eyes shifted over to his pinky finger. He blinked a couple of times, unwilling to believe that most of his pinky was absent. He didn’t breathe for a couple seconds. Omokah asked if he was okay, and he nodded as his eyes began to water, “Oh, right. My finger is missing. Jeez, that’s disturbing.” He did a quick swipe at his eyes, “those pesky hunters.”
“I promise you, Sky,” Omokah took Sky’s intact hand, “If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll find a way to fix this.”
“It’s okay. I’ll just teepee their house or something,” Sky shrugged. “Was it the skeleton lady who…?”
“Vanessa carried you here,” Omokah said, “She, uh, mentioned something about Tremaine Boppel. The girl of the family I sold the building to. She helped as well.”
“She did?” Sky wiped his cheeks, “H-How?”
“Vanessa didn’t go into specifics. She was pretty stressed herself,” Omokah looked out of the picture window. The snowed stopped the night before when Miss Vargas came to his house with Sky in tow. It covered the ground. Omokah shook his head, “Poor thing. I know you being a Krampus, you have a high tolerance for the co
ld, but still. You must have been freezing when you were running from the-”
“Never mind that,” Sky shook his head. “Vanessa didn’t tell you anything that Tremaine did?”
“No,” Omokah said. “This is another thing we need to talk about when you get better, Sky. I don’t know how much Tremaine caused, but I’m sure you scared her enough or did something reckless to get on her bad side to cause this whole fiasco.”
“But, according to Vanessa, she helped in some sort of way?”
Omokah rolled his eyes, “Sure.”
There was a pause between them. Sky leaned back into his pillows and brought his knees up to his body. “Can I have something to eat?”
“Is a sandwich alright?” Omokah stood. “I fixed Blanquette de Veau when my cousin was over a couple of nights ago, but I doubt it’s any good.”
“That’s fine,” Sky said. Omokah left.
Sky hid his pinky-less hand under the comforter, disturbed at the thought of what the wound looked like under the bandage. He swallowed and tried not to think of it. He thought of Tremaine instead. His last thought of her was a blurry image of the human in the snow and dressed in a parka. He couldn’t remember anything solid, except for the fact that she was dead set on immortality.
Omokah came back and set the plate of food and a glass of water on the nightstand. “Hey, Omo?”
“What is it?”
“How do you grant immortality to a human?”
Omokah turned his head and rose an eyebrow, “Why?”
“Just wondering.”
“It’s too complicated to explain right now,” Omokah started to walk to the door, “I’d rather you just rest and watch television or something.”
“Can I do it?” Sky said, leaning forward, “Can I grant a human immortality?”
Samhain Island (Episode One) Page 11