by R Corona
“It's like you're hiding something. You can't even stand to look at me. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember you taking an interest in my appearance before? Don't I look handsome enough for you, today?”
“What? No. You’re wrong.” Quickly, I snapped back. How dared he? Gilcome was wrong! I had taken no interest in anything of his—maybe only his cooking, which wasn't even very good. How could he suggest… My overreaction was out of place. He had been pointing out what was obvious to him even if it hadn't been obvious to me. It was an outrage not to know about yourself what others scoffed in midair.
Gilcome sighed, “So my appearance is pleasing you.” He breathed a sneering smile. “I was beginning to worry.”
“What? No. Yes. No, no. I mean no. What? — First, I did not take an interest in your looks or anything.”
“Now you're blushing.” Gilcome laughed, it was a sweet laugh. He enjoyed the reaction the comments were getting from me.
“I am not, most definitely not. Must be the tart.”
“Relax, it was a joke. It’s so easy to push your buttons, June.” His teasing laugh became more obvious. “Now, will you tell me why you've been distracted?”
Who wouldn’t be distracted? No, not because of Gilcome but because of my parents and the House, the box and the seed and the wound…now that message! The message Kostas handed me read that my presence was needed at the House, yet there seemed to be nothing of importance requiring my attention. “Two of your cherry desserts are missing. What will Chef Zorga have to say about that?”
Gilcome scoffed. “Don’t you dare change the subject. I won’t let you get away with it.”
Before I could reply he continued. “Now you care about my fate in Mr. Zorga’s kitchen?” His head shook, acting somewhat annoyed, he said: “Besides, after what you’re doing for us all, I doubt Zorga will have anything to say about a simple tart.” Grant was right, Zorga had greeted me in a weird way today. “By the look in your face I would swear you had no idea?” His eyes focused on my face as I ate what was left of the pastry. “Unbelievable! They haven’t told you, have they?—Wait.” Gilcome’s anger intensified. “Is that how you injured your hand?” He could not fathom his own thoughts, and so he didn’t express them. “This is serious. Go talk to Ms. Baynes right away. She’s in the living room, go!” The tone of Gilcome’s voice worried me. Was I supposed to know? Had I forgotten?
“How could they have done this?” His murmurs poked my curiosity, instigating fear.
My brain replayed Gilcome’s words over and over while walking towards the living room. Ms. Baynes was sitting, holding a large book bound and covered by metal plates. She looked up at me when I stepped in front of her. “June, you’ve come!”
“Yes, you sent for me…didn’t you?”
“Of course, yes.” She placed the book on the coffee table facing her chair. “Take a seat. The time has come for this conversation to take place. I pray you will understand.”
“Let’s hope so, because Mr. Zorga and Gilcome have already been thanking me for…something. Ms. Baynes, I haven’t done anything special and this smells like trouble.”
“Breathe,” Ms. Baynes interrupted.
“No, I need someone to listen.” Everyone’s problems always found a tricky way of becoming my problems, and mine were only mine. “It's time someone listens.”
“Precisely, but you must listen first. Your aunt is the topic of our chat.” Why would she want to speak about Aunt Marcelle? My aunt wanted nothing to do with Ms. Baynes, unless she had a way of finding my mother. “Netania, your aunt,” Ms. Baynes explained.
“Netania? But.”
“Yes, June. She’s asked for you.”
“You told her?” Rage flowed through my body and warmed my blood. Ms. Baynes had no right to tell her. We weren’t even sure Netania was my aunt.
“No, it wouldn’t have been my place, June. Don’t you know me?” Her eyes searched for an answer, one which I couldn’t find. The way she had asked bothered me. It was a manipulating question. Repeating the right answers long enough would overtake my doubts and convince me that I knew her and her motives. However as the argument came to an end, it was doubtful Ms. Baynes wanted to harm me; I already knew her.
“No one told me, June.” Netania herself, walked from behind and stood close to me. “I’ve always known.”
I couldn’t look at her, so I stared at her yellow dress, stained with a grassy color and mud tracks that ran across its bottom. Listening to her was making me sick. Who were these people?
“June. Listen,” She sat beside me. “Look at me, June. As hard as this is, what is coming is harder to face. Be strong.”
“How’s it possible? You knew I was your niece since I stepped foot here? Why, how?” Netania had never seen me before, her name had never been mentioned at home. Aunt Marcelle didn’t even know her well enough.
“There’s no time for that story now. June, we–”
“I’m sorry Netania, but you owe me at least that!” Time? There was all the time in the world. I wasn’t leaving until I had heard everything.
Her face stiffened “I don’t make the rules, but you have to learn them…now.” Netania, the Gardener, was humble and nicer than Netania my supposed aunt.
–“Rules?”
“Yes, rules. It is understandable that you are in shock and confused but I would appreciate if you would stop interrupting me.” Interrupting her? Who did she think she was? I didn’t have to listen to her or anyone else in that House. Ms. Baynes sitting in a corner of the room with a blank expression, hadn’t moved a finger to support or defend me.
“You have to be strong,” Netania touched my shoulder. “We need you to be, for us and the House. You must help us.”
“Help you? After all this, the lies and the games. What makes you think I’ll ever come here again?”
“As a member of the House of Dez, you are required to serve here.”
“A what?” It sounded like a joke, but her face didn’t show it.
“June, you planted the last Member’s Tree, it grew with your blood. The tree made you a member. Members serve the House.”
“No, I didn’t. What tree?”
“We saw you, June. That night, the seed was released and a drop of your blood fell on it. The tree grew. As a member of the House you must help. June, we have been waiting for you to come to us; finally we can help Dez and move on with our lives. Time is running out and Dez needs us.”
“Got it.”
“Yeah?” Netania smiled, “Great June, I knew it.”
“You’ve all lost your mind. This is a mad House.” I stood up and walked towards the front door. “Thank you for your membership or whatever, but I’m canceling. There’s enough weirdness in my life at the moment. If I run out I’ll be sure to contact you.”
“June,” Ms. Baynes interrupted. “You can mock us because we are part of the House, but you can’t abandon us because you are part of it too. Maybe Netania wasn’t clear enough, but you have to agree to help us.”
“Then, Ms. Baynes, just to be clear, what if I don’t want to?” I turned to face her and stressed my words loudly.
“Oh you’ll want to,” Ms. Baynes sneered. “Dez is the only person able to help Edda, but if he isn’t here, he can’t help her. I imagine you would want to help your mother, right?”
“Oh my mother needs your help now?”
“The Patrol didn’t just come for them. It's here to take us all but mostly to take you.” Ms. Baynes’ face became hardened by her words. She was the dictator's right hand, the one brainwashing them into believing that a world of lies existed outside this realm. Since becoming a member, my brain had been, also, sunk in foul water. Their disappearance was my fault but Ms. Baynes could not dare to say the words. Why did the House want me, why did the Patrol?
“What is she saying?” I walked closer to Netania.
“June, if you want to see my sister and Len again, you need to help us.”
***
She knew where my mother was, Netania would take us to her.
It was surprising to hear Netania speak of my mother, how much she knew of her. Netania’s warming glance studied me. She was an open book, there was love in her eyes, pure love, but it was tainted by fear, maybe sadness. I reminded her of Edda.
As the conversation intensified, she and I walked to the gardens where we could have more privacy. Her expressions were harder to read as the sun began to set under the side trees. An extra tree now stood over the empty space where I had tried to plant the seed. It had grown incredibly quick, reaching the same height as the others. With my blood it had grown, the blood escaping from the cut in my hand. The House was made up of the members’ blood; they were bound by blood and so was I.
That afternoon my world collapsed into Netania's as I learned the truth, her truth. They had been taken, five years ago, by the Prymm Patrol of Fexorrous. Netania didn’t explain why they had been taken or who the Patrol was, but I had already known. She emphasized the only way to get them back. Dez, the man who had created the House, needed to be contacted and brought back to the House. He was the only one who could bring them back. I possessed something he needed, which possibly the Patrol wanted as well. Netania mentioned that most likely, Dez, would be at a place called Sine Venefeicus, in between worlds, a place without energy, without magic.
Nothing made sense that night, but there was no other choice, I couldn’t see one if there was. My best option was to stick with Netania’s plan, because at least I was part of it; surely I had some control…well, until that Dez guy took over. My parents’ lives were on his hands for all I knew, that’s if I succeeded in bringing him back.
Chapter Seven
Leev waited for me outside Aunt Marcelle’s house. “My mom needs to talk to you. It’s about your parents.”
“My parents?” A glimmer of hope. They hadn’t been taken; my aunt had found out where they were. But every last drop of hope was sucked by Leev’s depressing tone.
“Granny came by about two hours ago,” she said. Her eyes were half opened and red.
Grandma Rose would make everything alright again, she always did. I needed her to tell me all would be fine. “Granny’s home?” Leev’s grandmother lived a few miles from town. She didn’t visit often but when she did, it was an event. During the wintertime, while Aunt Marcelle slept, the three of us would camp out in the living room, treating ourselves to Granny’s baked cookies. Just before bedtime we listened to her tales. Always stories of a land far away, different from ours. It was special, and magical. Late at night, it was tempting to picture what Granny’s land looked like, but every time sleep would win over. “Leev, we have so many questions for her. Everything she said about Fexorrous, everything is true. Let’s–”
“No, June,” Leev stopped me. “Granny’s gone already.”
“Why didn’t she wait to see me?”
“She didn’t come to visit. Granny came to tell my mother she had to carry out with the next step. The one where you move in with them.” We entered and walked to the living room, Granny’s perfume lingered in the air. Leev threw her arms around me and sobbed. “I won’t let them do this to you, it’s not fair.” She managed to say in between breaths.
Aunt Marcelle walked inside from the backyard. “Leev! I cannot believe you. We had agreed to do this the right way. Don't start this again.”
“What way is the right way? How could you do this to June, we’re her family.” Leev had been possessed by anger. More than anger, it was disappointment. She seemed wounded and desperate.
“June, sit down.” Aunt Marcelle guided me to the sofa. “Our house's barrier has been exhausted. If we continue to keep you here...they'll find us.”
–“And now you have to go live in that House. The way it came into our life was creepy and unnatural. ” Leev interrupted again. “The one with all those weirdoes and Ms. Baynes—Oh and your new aunt–Did you hear that mom? The aunt we just met two seconds ago.”
“Stop it! Why are you making this so difficult? Didn’t you hear your grandmother?”
“Oh please, Granny can say whatever she wants. She’s crazy too. How ‘bout she goes to live there herself?”
“I’m sorry, June.” Aunt Marcelle covered her face. “This is the only way. Granny has done things I do not agree with, but our interests have always come first to her. Their House will keep you protected and there might be a way to reach your parents through it... I'm sorry.” She was sorry, sorry because she had not been part of Granny's plan, because Granny had betrayed her. All this time Leev's grandmother had been calling the shots and Aunt Marcelle was only a piece of the puzzle, just like I was. But to what ends?
“The House needs me. Leev, as much as I would like to agree with you, I can't. The members are the only hope for me and my parents. There is a man, a powerful man, he can bring my parents back. I have to go. Netania’s already told me most of it.”
“No, she hasn’t.” Aunt Marcelle revealed. “Not all of it and Leev doesn’t understand the importance of that House and those people. June, your parents were taken a long time ago. That’s why you came to live with me, because Granny created a barrier for us to be protected from the Patrol. As you probably know the barrier is a container for power and energy. Our family is from a place where people are powerful, very powerful, June, in ways you couldn’t understand. Edda and I moved here to live a better life, free from persecution and energy-sucking leeches whom called themselves lawmen. If the Patrol takes me back, I will be killed, or worst. We can't go back there.” A place called Fexorrous.
“Mom?” Leev now spoke in a serious tone, “What do you mean by power?”
“Magic,” I answered. We all had it, and as I said the word, it sped through my veins. Its flow was light and fresh, yet as strong as the anger felt towards everything I had ever contacted. Anger because Granny’s efforts to protect our family had caused me to hate my parents. Knowing that I had never shown any concern for them revolted me and it was too late to mourn their disappearance because they had been gone for most of my life. The Patrol had always been looking for me, for me, not for my parents. That twisted my insides.
“Something like Magic, yes.” Aunt Marcelle confirmed, “All in the family contain some of this energy. The energy can grow overtime and this is what is happening to June. Our barrier broke because it couldn’t contain the increase in energy of our house. That’s why she has to move to Dez’ House, their barrier is expandable.”
“Then I’m going with her,” Leev stated. “We can’t leave her alone.”
“It doesn’t work like that, Leev. Only people with June’s capacity can live there. Otherwise their combined energies will crush you overtime. You must come with Granny and me, until she can come up with a better plan. Leev, your cousin is in grave danger and the House is her only hope.”
“What danger?” Leev stood up. “How come you know so much about that House?”
“Hasn’t it crossed your mind that this was hard for me too? But unlike you, I cannot take time to process and protest, because what’s coming, is coming and soon. Your grandmother has connections with them; the members of the House are of our kind. They will help us; they’re the only ones that can.”
The conversation soon died down and the three of us moved to my room to pack my belongings. I was leaving in the morning.
***
“Good morning, June.” Ms. Baynes answered the door while the rest of the members stood behind her and watched while I said goodbye to Aunt Marcelle and Leev.
“You can come in as well, if you wish,” Ms. Baynes encouraged them. “Our powers won’t hurt you, not unless you stay here forever.”
“We know. It is just better this way–June, we promise to visit whenever there’s time.” They walked back. I watched as they reached the road and drove away.
“Everyone, off to your stations, we have a long day today!” The members dispersed while Ms. Baynes and I remained alone.
“June, it is my duty to inform you that from now on, the House will not allow you to exit its grounds, do you understand?” After a nod from my head, Ms. Baynes continued, “Follow me.” The Housekeeper directed me to the living room. Once there, she entered the obscure hall.
“Where are we going Ms. Baynes?” The sound of the dangling keys around her neck guided my steps once again.
“Just follow me, and don’t get distracted.” She answered.
“Ms. Baynes?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Do you think this will work, bringing back Dez?” It was the first time I had questioned the plan, because now I was part of it, and more than anything it had to work. All my life, I had been a zombie; following every given rule even if it went against me. How had I ended up here, imprisoned by a house, when all I wanted was to run freely on the Plains?
“It has to. Dez is our only hope. For the members this House is a prison too, this whole world is. To be where I belong is my heart's wish, to be with the ones left behind. But those times were destroyed, along with many of the ones who stayed. Dez must return to the House, not only to save your parents, but to save our land from the evil that is killing it.” Ms. Baynes sighed while still leading me further into the Dark Hall.
“That man, Lord Seb Creat?”
“Not necessarily, there's plenty of evil plaguing Fexorrous. Creat is but one battle standing in our way—and June, please don't call him a man, he isn't. Creat is a monstrous leech whose unquenchable hunger for power will, one day, become his demise. That will be our advantage, Dez' advantage.” The lack of light impeded my eyes from noticing it, but the hopeful vibe of her tone, signaled a triumphant smile.
From speaking with Netania I knew little facts about this man called Dez. He was important to the members not only because he had created this House but because Dez was powerful. The members were part of the House but it was hard to tell if they were like Dez, or more human-like. These thoughts blew away all remaining notions of humanity and about my family. Aunt Marcelle had explained that the members were of her kind. If the members did not belong here, neither did my family. How could the members not be from this world when they appeared as the basic example of a human being? Ms. Baynes was strange and, at times unreasonably happy. Mr. Zorga was prideful and Netania caring. Jacknell was mysterious, quiet and possibly carried a silent burden. Gilcome...he was just Gilcome; a little self-absorbed but, he was pleasant and helpful. The members and I were not all that different, I was still a human and they…well if they weren't human, they were close to being so. I wondered if asking would be an insult so I didn’t.